Hazard was brilliant today. Hazard is a player vastly superior to Salah (despite Salah having a great season). Chelsea and Conte took their foot off the gas in the last 20 mins - We could have brought on Pedro and Willian earlier and really beaten these scousers. Real Madrid will destroy Liverpool in the final. I love Brighton. I really do love Brighton.
All around good performance to defeat the eventual Champs League runners-up. Baka was better, but that's not difficult. He looked like he was playing the right sport at least.
he wasn't terrible. that's good. this next part is not a dig at your assessment either, more a general comment that i've seen in some media. Baka got a lot of props for being "back" or having some outstanding game and showing his worth etc. but man, i think we've set a pretty low bar. he had a not bad game. that's about it. granted it was against a team that likes to move the ball pretty quickly and that's impressive, and his cross field pass to moses to set up the goal was an exceptional ball, but for me the jury is still very much out. he was decent, but that display tells me he can keep a place in the squad, not that he should be an elite level starting 11 player just yet. he still just has kind of a base level of panic to his play, and his passing stats were good for this game, but he never looks in complete control of himself. now, hopefully he can gain some real confidence from the last few games and kick on etc. we're just not there yet.
Of course the jury is still out! I was just remarking that this was progress. But also, let’s be honest - if he was a youth product, some would be screaming for him to be given more chances to come good.
that's exactly why i specifically called out that my comment had nothing to do with critiquing yours. i didn't assume you meant anything, just using it as a moment to start the discussion on his performance. anyway, yea it was certainly an improvement, but he didn't need to do much to improve you know? so i'm just not wanting to do the knee jerk reaction of "oh hey this was awesome and why we paid so much for him etc!" cause honestly it was just a competent performance, nothing outstanding. though who knows, maybe if Giroud didn't get in his way he'd have knocked one in and we'd all be talking about that instead. or in other words, all he needed to do to look better was NOT consistently pass to the other team.
Fake News! If he were a youth product he would never have even seen the pitch this year, outside of the league cup
1. My comment about the youth wasn’t directed at you. 2. I agree - Baka has a long way to go. But performances like this one are a good start.
More performances like the one he had against Pool with improvement please. I think the talent is there honestly.