Better 60 mins late than never Michy with 2 simple goals Pretty easy going outside of a couple saves from Willy
two great things about this game: 1. Ampadu came on for Kante and looked more than comfortable 2. Hudson-Odai looked very composed Drinkwater and Barkley? Not so much
He did fine. He makes excellent runs in behind the defense, almost had a really brilliant 3rd goal that was just saved. Not at all someone who will do well when asked to be Diego Costa but is quite capable when his strengths are played to. ^Agreed... our youth players came on and looked completely comfortable.. all this bitching about squad depth is laughable sometimes. Use our youth players more please!
No surprise there. He's got the make of a very good player. And I love that we can play him in midfield or anywhere across the back 3.
“If the club decides to add another player, I don’t know if Michy wants to stay or wants to go on loan. In this case it will be the player’s decision, not my decision, because I am ready to continue working with these players because I am very happy with them.” - Conte Says we NEED three recognized strikers, then says its the clubs choice to add a new one and that its totally up to Michy to stay or go. Uhhh Conte, more and more, is someone who tries to cover every angle as to never be held fully accountable for certain things. I have a very hard time believing its Roman going ape shit behind the scenes trying to overspend on a 31 year old Dzeko. Its quite simple.. Michy isn't to Conte's liking and Conte wants to replace him. Meh, whatever tbh.. I hope he stays and continues to feature for us.
Went to today's game, I know its a bit of a cliche but it really was a game of two halves, first half very ordinary (yet 2 goals up), second half in complete control (yet only 1 further goal), as they say (sorry another cliche) but its a 'funny ole game'.
I take a lot of Conte's comments with a grain of salt because his english is still a work in progress and I'm not sure he is ever able to 100% get his opinion across His english has actually progressed pretty well tbh. One of his favorite terms is to say something is "a pity"
It's amazing how different his body language is, though. Much fewer smiles, no cake eating. All very serious. Very few sideline celebrations.
Bats was still inconsistent with his play. the kid can score when given chances, but still leaves something to be desired when linking up or, you know, passing. he tries one touch layoffs TOO much. sometimes he needs to just keep things simple, trap the ball then move it. his movement on both his goals was great though, especially the second, he fainted to go across hazards path and the defender bit, and then he widened out enough to give hazard a passing lane.
I was encouraged with some of his driving runs in the second half too when hunting for his hat-trick. Whilst his final shot wasn't excellent he was threatening and is a good sign for what he is capable of. Of course none of these facets match up with Conte's current desire for a big target man.....
All you can ask for at this point is a home draw, and we have that against Hull. Not a bad draw but still have to focus as these games take on ever larger importance for the 'smaller' clubs. FA Cup fifth-round draw Sheffield Wednesday v Notts County/Swansea West Brom v Southampton Chelsea v Hull Leicester v Sheffield United Huddersfield/Birmingham v Manchester United Millwall/Rochdale v Newport County or Tottenham Brighton v Coventry Wigan v Manchester City
I think the match again showed that Michy would be great in a 2-striker system. Solid positioning in the box and good finishing, but passing and hold up play leave a lot to be desired. In addition to the unsuccessful layoffs and flicks, there have been countless times when he successfully collects the ball only to needlessly turn into a defender rather than playing a simple pass. One of our biggest problems in scoring when we aren’t on a counter attack is slow movement of the ball, and Michy is a fairly big contributor to that when he’s on as the lone striker imo. The more I’ve thought about it, I can see where Conte sees his problem - in a 3-5-2, playing off of Morata is the only position he sees Hazard as being able to play. Having Hazard in the midfield three with Bats and Morata up top would leave us without enough defensive cover or a lack of connection between the defense and attack. A target man is great for the system as he can come on for either Hazard or Morata to change the dynamic of the game, and the formation is still balanced. Michy could come on for Hazard as long as there is someone like Fabregas playing to link the midfield to the attack (honestly not sure why that hasn’t been tried before, I feel like we haven’t seen it), but when he comes on for Morata we lose something in the attack. Now whether or not you agree that we should be utilizing a 3-5-2 is a different story, but Michy still needs to be relied on as a lone striker in the 3-4-3 where similar problems can occur
I think a lot of media and fans think he's unhappy at the club. I'm not sure that's the case. I think he's pissed we're not in first place. Which is good. Because if you watch this, it's awesome and he's not unhappy. https://www.instagram.com/p/BekqN3MB9hD