Originally Posted by carefree_blue:
“Chalobah joining Nottm Forest on loan 'til January.”
Hopefully Josh can get a loan too.
Originally Posted by RichmondBlue:
“Exactly. The only ray of light I can see is that we shouldn't be any worse than last season. We have an extra striker, a few extra attacking midfield players, and decent cover for Cech In goal. But how different it could have been if we had strengthened in the key areas.
I do find it hard to understand Jose's thinking during the summer. Against United he started without a recognised striker, which shows he had little confidence in Torres or Ba from the start. It wasn't a great surprise to see Rooney stay at Utd, so did he believe Eto'o will solve the problem ? It seem a massive gamble to me, there weren't many other top clubs chasing after Eto'o and his agent was touting around for offers.
I like Ramires, I think we missed him last night. But he's a workhorse, someone who will run all day and occasionally come up with an important goal. He would be fine playing alongside an experienced holding player. Mikel should have been that player, but it's just not worked out for him.
Lampard does his best, but he's a square peg in a round hole playing in front of the back four. We don't know about Essien yet, but his injuries looked to have taken their toll last time he appeared for us.
Van Ginkel looked out of his depth, he appears more of a candidate to go on loan than some of the others who have been shipped out.
Our best bet might be to move Luiz up as we have been saying for years. It worked on a few occasions last season, but would he want to play in that role. He's established in the Brazilian team as a CB now, wouldn't it jeopardise his chances in a World Cup year ?
Oh well, it should be interesting.”
Yeah, I don't really know what Jose was thinking either at our game away to Man U. Eto'o is marginally better than Torres but he was only ever going to be a short term fix.
I like Ramires too. He's always a big game player but his first touch cost us a goal at Goodison Park. I just don't understand how a Brazilian CM can have such a poor first touch at this level? But yeah, aside from that you can't fault his commitment to the club. Even when he's having an off day he still contributes to the team any way he can. In the EL final, he was having a really bad game; fouls everywhere. But I think it was him who won the corner by pressing the opposition. (Can't remember who it was exactly - my memory is awful

)
Originally Posted by carefree_blue:
“How long are you prepared to give Luiz to fulfill that potential though? He turns 27 next april. The likes of Terry, Carvalho, and Gallas were much better CB's at that age. Luiz is a great player, but just not in that position.”
I'm in the camp where I think Luiz is a great CB. It's true, Luiz was leaving gaps in defence on Wednesday night but can you blame him? Our CM pair don't create enough. More often than not, the ball goes out to Cole or Ivan and they whip in a cross which no-one receives because we only have one of Ba/Torres/Eto'o to attack the ball. That's why we always see Luiz charging forward because there is still a tenuous link from midfield to attack.When we needed to find a equaliser, he seemed like the only one who displayed a sense of emergency. He's always looking to move the ball forward (something our CM pair should be doing), especially when we're a goal down. Although, I thought Lamps had one of his better games and Mikel was suprisingly more adventurous in his passing but we still lack that edge in midfield. Luiz can be a disciplined player - he just wants to see us win and he'll do anything to achieve that. The more I seem him, the more I love him - he's definitely future captain material.