Bring Back Eva Carneiro - The Chelsea Injury Thread

Oh, I yield. I yield. I've yielded in many posts that I personally don't think Kepa is an incredible goalkeeper.

But did he have a terrible season? No worse than the rest of our team that deserves equal amounts of blame they don't receive.

Emerson out of position in every game.
Jorg can't head a ball.
Rudiger can't clear a ball.
Christensen and James beat with relative ease by mid-table players.
Jorg losing the ball in midfield all day long
Azpi getting beat more often than is desirable

And as a team, defending as a group, it's just terrible. Balls are crossed through the 6 yard box with ease. Give-aways are frequent. Blocks of Chelsea defenders in the box can't prevent two opposing players from linking up for an easy goal. We saw it last season and we've seen it again against West Brom and Spurs like nothing's changed.

Again, how much better would Allison or Ederson have looked with this team? Not very much you can do against point blank shots so when a long range effort from Keita or Zaha does go in, it's magnifed and classified as a howler. (Not the blatant Willian give-away or lack of pressure that led to the chance, though.)

 

Cech explains it perfectly, perhaps if we need to listen to anybody then Cech is that somebody.

 

Hey look I agree, he was poor but he was certainly not the only one! Defensively all round we were poor that's for sure!

 

I think that's what Matt Law said. I dont think he played in the first two matches, so what's the point of keeping him there.

But don't be surprised if Alonso pops up v. Soton. We've got CL matches right around the corner.

 

Cech is a legend, I agree. But to me, it doesn't sound like he watched the tape of Jorginho not knowing how to clear a header. And you don't hear any reporters asking why our defenders can't defend by using specific examples from the match.

 

You're right on this: the media attention on Kepa is disproportionate to the amount of blame he should get for our failings.

But since when did we use the media as a guide for how we, the fans, really think about the problem? GK is a much easier problem to solve than bad defensive structure/personnel, so the talking heads naturally latch onto it, but seems to me that fans and people within the club know the deal.

 

I don't - and that's the whole point. I'm going against that narrative but there are many posters here who just say "ALL THE PUNDITS SAY HE'S SHIT SO IT MUST BE TRUE."

I try to just go by the evidence. And upon rewatching the evidence, Kepa has helped us win more games than lost. I'll do the same for Mendy.

 

Kepa is one of OUR most expensive signings ever and he is the most expensive goalkeeper of all time. Let that sink in. This puts him under the spotlight in terms of the media. He is realistically worth about half of what we paid for him. Which is still a tidy sum of money. He is under the spotlight because he is the most expensive goalkeeper in the world EVER. He is under pressure. He has already been compensated for this. Is it fair? Is it harsh? Does it matter? With the big money comes the big weight. I don't dislike him, I want him to do well for us, but I don't feel sorry for him either. The Kepa pity party is getting boring.

 

I can only speak for myself, but for me its a lot more about Frank, Cech and others who have said he's been bad, not so much what the media have said.

But the media's error is one of degrees, not direction. They put entirely too much blame on Kepa, but broadly, I think they are correct that he's been bad. Dismissing that as a mere 'narrative' rather than what it is, an exaggeration of a true fact, is wrong imo.

As is your right, of course. It's worth noting though that you're quite literally the only person I know of (fans, club officials, coaches, or media) that has reached that conclusion.

Don't imagine that you're the only person using evidence to come to their conclusions. To say things like "Cech must not have seen the video where Jorginho did X" is just silly, and suggesting that Kepa has "nothing to bounce back from" is just a denial of reality. He was benched and a replacement was brought in. Whether you agree with the move or not (and again, worth noting that it was almost unanimously greeted as a good move), that's a setback for him.

No hard feelings though, like I said before, we're on here to argue about dumb sh*t and get caught up in minutiae and semantics, or we wouldn't be here

 

He WAS poor though! In fact he WAS sh*t last season, that doesn't mean that everyone is simply blaming him for the poor defensive displays though! He was god awful but he wasn't the only culprit! The (literally) dozens of ex players, football journalists, fans of all clubs including EVERY Chelsea fan I know (and I know a few,) Cech himself are not 'all' wrong, they're not all 'idiots' that know nothing about football PARTICULARLY ex pros, coaches and football journalists that have been reporting first hand on the beautiful game for years! You seriously think we should believe they don't know what they/we are talking about but you do!? Kepa had the worst stats in the league (fact), EVERY performance report I've read has stated he had a 'disappointing' season at best! If he want to continue between the sticks he's gotta improve - by quite a lot too.

 

Havertz didnt train today nor does it look like he's in the squad for tomorrow.

 

Bollox f*ck internationals!

 

Christ.. these international games man..

With Kante playing his natural position again and Silva bringing us a lot of calm, I do think we’ll be fine.

 

I can grudgingly accept that qualifiers and such, games that actually matter, should be played to keep the calendar of international tournaments from collapsing. Don't love it, but I'll buy it.

But the friendlies man, what a dumb mess. Anyone with two brain cells to rub together can see that those are just idiotic

 

I thought the nation's league was somehow involved in tournament qualification? That it wasn't just a made-up new competition to grub for more cash?

If I'm wrong then it of course belongs right there with the friendlies.

EDIT: so yeah, just looked this up, and I guess the four group winners do get an automatic qualification for EUROs. So I guessssss it has some fig leaf of legitimacy in that some qualifying matches are replaced by Nation's League. Very, very thin though

 

Good Lord

 

But how will we know if he isn't up to snuff in a meaningless friendly?

Seriously, I hate internationals. After what happened with Essien, I'd rather the clubs flex their muscle from time to time.