Match Day Thread FA CUP Chelsea V Newcastle

Chelsea will be without goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois (ankle) and striker Alvaro Morata (back) for their FA Cup fourth-round meeting with Newcastle. Midfielder Willian is out with a hamstring injury, but Cesc Fabregas may return from a similar problem.

Can see Conte starting with Batshuiyi as Willan is injured so this could be the most disappointing player ever to wear a Chelsea shirt last chance to show what he can do.

 

Well bugger me with a fish fork! Batshit with two goals.

 

Amazing , when we don't try to make him into a "target man", which he isn't, he hits the target twice. Could it be that Conte is actually going to use his players and play to their strengths, rather than to a "system" that he likes, but doesn't have the players to execute it? There is better to come once Musonda and Luiz feature more and we get some attack going. Hazard and Willian can't and shouldn't have to do it all. Morata will also benefit when he is freed from the dopey 'target man" role which he can't play, and becomes part of a front 3 attack.God forbid we might even see Morata and Michy as a front 2 !!!!!!

 

Musonda won't be getting anymore game time, he's meant to be joining Celtic on loan until the summer.

 

Wouldn't it make you want to rip up your ration book !!!
Total bloody madness from the total bloody madmen and women who run this Club. Musonda is ready NOW to play as a regular rotation player and will learn nothing at Celtic that he wouldn't learn quicker and better right home at the Bridge.
Shame on whoever made this idiotic decision.

 

Whether ready or not, he won't get games with Hazard, Barkley, Pedro, Willian and Fabregas ahead of him. I don't think it's a bad move for the lad and we can re-assess in the summer.

 

Yeah agree, decent move. Seems like it's an 18 months loan so will even get 6 champions league games next season. He'll be winning 90% of the games he plays too so could work out well.

 

Yes, I like the looks of him.

But with Carling Cup, Group Stage of CL and early rounds of FA Cup all finished, how many games would he get from Feb-May.

Especially if we play 3 5 2 in some of them

 

I'd take Musonda before Barkley every day and can't see Hazard at Chelsea next season, nor I suspect, Fabregas if Conte buggers off and a clearer thinker is appointed. Musondas' deal is for 18 months meaning he'll be 23 on return IF they are stupid enough to have signed a deal as per Tammy Abrahams, who we can't recall early. My guess is you won't see Musonda in a Chelsea shirt again. It's being reported that Willian, Luiz and Courtois will only consider staying because Conte is being replaced. Between Contes' petulance and truculance and Marinas hopeless transfer dealings we are again losing out on every player we chase.
"Dumb and Dumber" is a good nickname for the Chelsea transfer policy.

 

Bit of an overreaction CP.

We've bought some great players and lots of bad ones.

Sold some players for megabucks, Oscar Rambo Costa and let some go that have become great players KDB, etc.

We've also got a pretty good farm at the academy that makes us lots of cash, produces excellent players but our coaches won't put them in the first XI

Marina and Emenaldo have done good work and bad. Getting Fab Costa etc in early doors in summer of 2015 was their finest hour and we hit the ground running to win the title. Since then their work has been poor and Emenaldo has gone.

The thing I dont like is signing injured players: Drink Baka Ross late in the day with no preseason and then expecting them to perform

 

All true Champions, but we've also shot our selves in the foot by letting Contes' lack of personnel skills allow Costa to leave, Luiz to become invisible and Willian to be reluctant to stay if Conte does.
We spent almost 70 mill on Morata and try to make him play a style he can't play, spent far too much on Bakayoko, brought the pretty ordinary Drinkwater, failed to get Conte his first choice left back, and now we loan a 21 year old, primed and ready for 1st team football, to a team far below our standards, for a year and a half.
Meanwhile Utd get a fabulous player, City pick up 2 players who will seriously improve them and we chase our tails trying to sign Dzeko, a City reject who's almost 31 years old, Peter Crouch and Andy Carroll, and all because they're tall !!!!!!!
The disconnect between Manager and Transfer personnel and the ability of those personnel, has widened the gap between our 2 main opponents and us. Yet we still spent 150 mill odd with nothing to show for it.
With better planning and the addition of only 2 great players, for the same money we could have significantly improved both the team and the hope of keeping Hazard and maybe Courtois.
Utterly hopeless short termism at its' worst.
In the meantime, we have a game to win, so let's hope Conte picks the right team and uses his subs more creatively !

 

Whilst I agree that Conte is sometimes leaves a lot to be desired tactically, and his man management skills are shocking (especially regarding Costa and Luiz), the conditions which he has been given to manage this club are completely untenable, and I would have said "**** it!" long before now and walked out.
For a manager to have zero input in transfers?! For ****s like Emenalo to fight Conte tooth and nail every time he wants to sign a player?
Like I said, we are the Anti-Arsenal.
Arsenal is what happens when too much is placed on the shoulders of one stubborn old **** of a manager
Chelsea is what happens when the manager is treated like a second class citizen and is given NO power and is just expected to take the players he is given and make them win.

 

Give Morata a chance.

So would you pick Musonda over Hazard, Pedro and Willian on the basis of one good cameo?

 

Morata's form and fitness is very worrying but, he was very good earlier in the season and has shown enough that he is potentially a very good player. It's easy to forget how often Costa went through dry spells as well because he always troubled the opposition with his style of play. .

 

Yes, he can't cope with multiple fixtures atm.

Anyway, fifth round of the Cup to look forward to, Barca in the CL.

What a brilliant time to be a Chelsea fan