i can't speak for everyone, and i was working while watching, but he definitely improved from his last appearance of any length. ran with some confidence, moved well, provided a wide outlet, but he was noticeably lacking the final ball/cutting edge at that last crucial moment. i have to say that i didn't think he played bad at all, just lacked that sharpness in the final 3rd. anyone else think differently?
What a stupid ball by Bertrand. HOLD POSSESSION. We have a 1-0 lead and are barely holding on in extra time, with a minute to go FFS. BTW, Marin got even less help from his fullback, very little overlap or linkup between them.
Thank you for the responses. Appreciate it. Sounds like he did okay. Gotta admit, though, Chelsea ain't exactly the best place for him to develop with around five class AMs ahead of him in the pecking order.
If someone were to watch Chelsea without knowing Torres' history, they would probably think that the club has in desperation taken a flyer on some 40 year old ex-pro. He just hasn't adjusted at all to his physical decline, it's genuinely painful watching him at times.
summed up well mate he is probably guilty of overthinking/overplaying too often and at times just needs to use the simple option I thought his movement was quite good in spells and he makes the runs through the channels which really opens teams up. I would say that his movement off the ball is better than that of Hazard but Hazard is able to do more on the ball. If he can just add a final product and some more direct play he could end up being a very good addition. I do not think this puts him ahead of Moses by any means.
The movement off the ball is terrible. The pressing is disjointed and lacks intensity and when we're in possession the back four is left to or chooses to his low percentage silly balls forward. The two sitting players don't provide outlets and the attacking mids are so far forward and don't come back to provide another passing outlet. That's how goals are created. You look at Oscar and his most basic of skills is movement and providing and outlet to pass the ball two, it's little wonder that he contributed to Chelsea's most incisive move of the match. The other players have silly movement that is to instinctual and not planed at all. Watching the linkup of fullbacks and wingers in all of the matches yesterday and comparing it to Chelsea's is like night and day. No late running overlaps will fullbacks whipping in crosses. Next to zero one-twos played (until the goal). BTW: I loathe that 30 yard curled pass down the line from the fullback position. That's Bertrand's favorite play. It's is a lazy man's ball and completely kills attacks. How many crosses does he even attempt a game? He never gets to the byline.
seeing the goal again the blind, reverse pass from Lampard really helped make the goal but it was a lovely turn from Oscar which opened the space for the ball into Hazard
the first good match Oscar ever played in a Chelsea shirt guys, let's make a deal. You can get Benzema for free if you give us Mata and Azpilicueta, deal ?
What are you talking about? He played all of 10 minutes and scored a goal. He scored better against Juventus and Shakthar.
His goal against Shakhtar was kinda lucky. He is invisible in most matches, total garbage compared to Mata
First? He has been sporadic but by no means was this his first good performance. We will trade you Torres for Ronaldo though
i think this doens't totally do justice to the system, you can play the 4-2-3-1 with two DMs but that's not the only way to play it. look at Real Madrid, Khedira gets forward with quite a bit of frequency and Alonso sits. one of the more common uses of the double pivot is a ball winner and a ball player, so i THAT sense, i have no problem with using two DM's or in my mind, really just two deeper CM's. essentially the formation compared to the 4-3-3 just inverts the midfield triangle, but in doing that one little thing, the change flows into the formation in many different ways. now, if we had a Mikel, AND Romeu, playing as the two sitters, and we were chasing a game, then yea, what the hell is the point. and i'm sorry to get into the semantics, but the players on the field in lamps and Ram should be able to be adventurous enough to know when to get forward and help the attack. we weren't really playing with two DM's, but two players who's base positions are similar to DM's. now, to come full circle and agree with you, how those players are playing the role, and what they're being told to do, comes to a large extent, back to management............. and there it is.....why do we keep playing AS IF WE HAD two DM's when we don't. in the end though, i agree, while chasing a game, we should be getting one of those two holders foward more. then again, lamps has been on a scoring tear lately, so essentially, there are many times in the game, that we've only got one sitter. now i'm just talking myself in circles. sorry.
Well, if you change Juan Mata's name in Fernando Mata, why not? +Azpilicueta,, Ramires, Hazard and 200m dollars