Chelsea 0 Liverpool 0

[xceleryx]

1 minute ago, chrisb said:

I think Felix is getting an easier ride because he actually appears to be trying where as Havertz looks disinterested and lazy. I’m not one for statistics I judge my opinions on what I see on the pitch. Felix is like an over exuberant spaniel against Havertz who looks like an old tired Labrador.

Felix also looks like he can make something happen, and he does to a degree. That buys him additional grace over an inept Havertz that does very little to impact general play.

[Bert19]

13 minutes ago, Mark Kelly said:

Chilwell is a great player but he is absolutely brainless , in the last game he kept beating his man , crossing into an area where nobody was and ceding possession because of it , never looks up , never changes his approach regardless of the outcome , great athlete , excellent footballer , no brains 

The moment Kante went off , Liverpool started to look more threatening , Kante had loads left in the tank , every game , Potter brings on Gallaher at about 65 minutes regardless , that was what also happened under Bruno last night , hence the comment 

I still say that if he'd introduced Sterling and Mount with about 25-30 left, we win that game last night.  Mudryk similar.  These lads need a bit of time on the pitch in positions they can make a difference in, not 12 minutes at left wing-back or 8 minutes overall. 

Draw not the end of the world as I suspect Potter would probably have conjured a way to lose that game at 0-0, but good grief we need to start dropping players for playing so badly.  Havertz and Felix should be firmly benched for Saturday with the caveat that if Mudryk & Sterling start and play well, they'll be doing the same at the Bernabeu next week.  Enough really is enough sometimes.

[Mark Kelly]

4 minutes ago, paulw66 said:

Ok, agree to disagree. It would help if there was a CF to cross to, mind.

But do you not think it was the right thing to do (taking Kante off)?

You think risking another injury at this stage of his recovery is sensible, when we have nothing to play for?

Kante was always coming off 2/3 of the wat through the game, irrespective of who the coach was.

Paul , it's all very well , watching the game , going home and going to bed , getting up , having breakfast and trawling through comments made in the heat of the moment out of frustration twelve hours earlier but when I made the comment about Kante I was more concerned with letting a piss poor Liverpool side back into the game by making the same clueless substitution that Bruno's predecessor made very single bloody week for the last ten weeks at the same time with the same player.

Of course in hindsight it was the right decision but Kante was absolutely bossing that midfield.

[kev61]

2 hours ago, Mark Kelly said:

Paul , it's all very well , watching the game , going home and going to bed , getting up , having breakfast and trawling through comments made in the heat of the moment out of frustration twelve hours earlier but when I made the comment about Kante I was more concerned with letting a piss poor Liverpool side back into the game by making the same clueless substitution that Bruno's predecessor made very single bloody week for the last ten weeks at the same time with the same player.

Of course in hindsight it was the right decision but Kante was absolutely bossing that midfield.

 

[RDCW]

32 minutes ago, paulw66 said:

Keep seeing this word in Felix conversations.

Havertz is just one of those players who has a languid running style, and appears lazy. I don't think there is actually any issue with his work rate at all. Perception.

That's definitely true. There is nothing wrong with his work rate.

[paulw66]

2 hours ago, Mark Kelly said:

I think for a fair comparison Felix has to have played the same amount of games as Havertz and It can't even be close given he got sent off in his first game and Havertz plays every week.

 

Yeah and I did say in another post, that Havertz has obviously had a lot more opportunity. 

If Felix was to score one more goal, his average goal per minute would plummet, due to the smaller sample size.

2 hours ago, xceleryx said:

Felix also looks like he can make something happen, and he does to a degree. That buys him additional grace over an inept Havertz that does very little to impact general play.

Looks........ zero assists so far.

2 hours ago, Mark Kelly said:

Paul , it's all very well , watching the game , going home and going to bed , getting up , having breakfast and trawling through comments made in the heat of the moment out of frustration twelve hours earlier but when I made the comment about Kante I was more concerned with letting a piss poor Liverpool side back into the game by making the same clueless substitution that Bruno's predecessor made very single bloody week for the last ten weeks at the same time with the same player.

Of course in hindsight it was the right decision but Kante was absolutely bossing that midfield.

Agree, but I am not sure what the beef is...... before the game we all knew Kante wasn't playing 90. He didn't.

1 hour ago, kev61 said:

 

Is this really necessary, even without context?

As for the discussion, I was defending the decision to take him. I wasn't the one being negative.

As for the childish insults, please behave online in a manner that you would face to face.

[kev61]

9 minutes ago, paulw66 said:

Yeah and I did say in another post, that Havertz has obviously had a lot more opportunity. 

If Felix was to score one more goal, his average goal per minute would plummet, due to the smaller sample size.

Looks........ zero assists so far.

Agree, but I am not sure what the beef is...... before the game we all knew Kante wasn't playing 90. He didn't.

Is this really necessary, even without context?

As for the discussion, I was defending the decision to take him. I wasn't the one being negative.

As for the childish insults, please behave online in a manner that you would face to face.

Sorry Paul on the old site tou accused me of racism - I need an apology.

[Willian Dollar Baby]

We certainly deserved a win this time, our blunt attacking threat costing us again.

I like to watch Felix, he always plays with flare and has constantly looked close to being a great player. He does however still massively lack that cutting edge.

Felix is better than Havertz and probably better than most of what we have, but something that's becoming clearer is he is a complete luxury player. He's an old fashioned number 10, not quite a wide player and not quite a centre forward. If we spend any money on him, let alone £90million, we are bonkers. Particularly when we have Havertz and Nkunku who will want to operate in the same space. 

Not sure about the complaints for Kante's sub. His first start in 6 months in an ultimately pointless game. Should be treated very carefully until the Madrid games. 

Edited April 5, 2023 by Willian Dollar Baby

[paulw66]

16 minutes ago, kev61 said:

Sorry Paul on the old site tou accused me of racism - I need an apology.

Give over. I did no such thing.

[Bison]

1 hour ago, paulw66 said:

He has managed to contribute 277 minutes so far this season. Completed 90 minutes once. In August. 

I think most people accept that Kante is a wonderful player, but his use to us from the end of August to the end of March was..............  Let's see how his fitness goes, because if he breaks down again before the end of the season, there should be no new contract IMO 

Sure, let's see how he manages for the rest of the season. All the reports suggest he wants to stay, loves the club, and life in London so we should have every intention of wanting to keep him if his fitness allows.

I will always call out the utter nonsense that getting rid of Kante and keeping a worse player like Kovacic is somehow a smart or good thing to do. Give me a half-fit Kante every day of the week.

[paulw66]

1 minute ago, Bison said:

Sure, let's see how he manages for the rest of the season. All the reports suggest he wants to stay, loves the club, and life in London so we should have every intention of wanting to keep him if his fitness allows.

I will always call out the utter nonsense that getting rid of Kante and keeping a worse player like Kovacic is somehow a smart or good thing to do. Give me a half-fit Kante every day of the week.

It IS a smart thing to do if Kante doesn't / can't maintain his fitness. 

Don't get me wrong, if he can, great, let's keep him. He was excellent last night, which was remarkable in itself considering how long he has been out. 

[kev61]

2 minutes ago, paulw66 said:

It IS a smart thing to do if Kante doesn't / can't maintain his fitness. 

Don't get me wrong, if he can, great, let's keep him. He was excellent last night, which was remarkable in itself considering how long he has been out. 

What is your point of reference? For gods sake.

[Bison]

1 minute ago, paulw66 said:

It IS a smart thing to do if Kante doesn't / can't maintain his fitness. 

Don't get me wrong, if he can, great, let's keep him. He was excellent last night, which was remarkable in itself considering how long he has been out. 

Getting rid of Koavcic this summer whilst he still has some value is by far the smartest thing to do.

He has one year left on his deal so losing him for nothing next summer would be bad business. Offering him a new 3-4 year deal would be significantly worse.

Kovacic's role in the team is completely redundant now we have Enzo.

[flllerywhereru2]

Dont know about everyone else but i was pretty relieved not to have lost as much as disappointed not to have won yesterday, despite two disallowed goals and many good chances Liverpool did also at times look capable of a goal. If you think in both games v them we have had goals disallowed by the finest of margins-same with the league  Cup final the season before with Havertz and Lukakus. Those chaps on VAR make damn sure that every milimeter counts-you dont score easy goals against Liverpool

[Mark Kelly]

4 minutes ago, paulw66 said:

It IS a smart thing to do if Kante doesn't / can't maintain his fitness. 

Don't get me wrong, if he can, great, let's keep him. He was excellent last night, which was remarkable in itself considering how long he has been out. 

I'm hoping the long rest was to aid in a complete recovery and he really looked to be back to his best last night he was splendid.

[My Blood Is Blue]

1 hour ago, thevelourfog said:

I'm glad it's not just me seeing it. For the money he would cost us, he is just not worth it. I can watch showy highlights reels at home to be entertained, I want to see some actual end product when I'm at the game. We would be crazy to have been able to see him up close and still go for it.

I haven’t watched the highlights, but I agree entirely, in fact I said it weeks ago. Unless he improves his output in the final third, then he’s a luxury we just can’t afford. We have enough players in attack who are unable to put the ball in the net. If he were a compliment to an already goal scoring attack then in consider it, but we need players who can score!

[paulw66]

3 minutes ago, kev61 said:

What is your point of reference? For gods sake.

I have no idea what you are talking about now.

3 minutes ago, Bison said:

Getting rid of Koavcic this summer whilst he still has some value is by far the smartest thing to do.

He has one year left on his deal so losing him for nothing next summer would be bad business. Offering him a new 3-4 year deal would be significantly worse.

Kovacic's role in the team is completely redundant now we have Enzo.

I think what happens with him will be entirely conditional on what happens with Kante. 

1 minute ago, Mark Kelly said:

I'm hoping the long rest was to aid in a complete recovery and he really looked to be back to his best last night he was splendid.

Yup. Great to see.

[Bison]

6 minutes ago, paulw66 said:

I think what happens with him will be entirely conditional on what happens with Kante.

Perhaps but that really shouldn't be the case. A player having one year on his deal should always be considered on an isolated basis.

We need a defensive minded, holding midfielder a lot more than whatever it is that Kovacic is meant to offer us.

[My Blood Is Blue]

Just watched some highlights, can’t comment too much as it was only highlights, but from what I saw we should have won last night, but for the fact we don’t have anyone that can finish… Havertz in particular is so wasteful.

Liverpool didn’t seem to ever threaten, which is a good thing and I do think, as someone said earlier, the defensive side of this team is coming along well, it’s just further ahead we need sorting out.

[Mark Kelly]

7 minutes ago, My Blood Is Blue said:

Just watched some highlights, can’t comment too much as it was only highlights, but from what I saw we should have won last night, but for the fact we don’t have anyone that can finish… Havertz in particular is so wasteful.

Liverpool didn’t seem to ever threaten, which is a good thing and I do think, as someone said earlier, the defensive side of this team is coming along well, it’s just further ahead we need sorting out.

A bit of muscle in midfield to facilitate Enzo playing further up the pitch and a decently mobile finisher and we should be good to go I reckon 

Havertz god love him, runs about a lot, finds himself in excellent positions but is hapless in front of goal and without being unkind looks horribly malnourished and feeble to me. 

Maybe Lukaku can come back and take him under his bingo wings? 

[RDCW]

34 minutes ago, My Blood Is Blue said:

Just watched some highlights, can’t comment too much as it was only highlights, but from what I saw we should have won last night, but for the fact we don’t have anyone that can finish… Havertz in particular is so wasteful.

Liverpool didn’t seem to ever threaten, which is a good thing and I do think, as someone said earlier, the defensive side of this team is coming along well, it’s just further ahead we need sorting out.

They were the poorest Liverpool side I can ever remember seeing at The Bridge.

[Mark Kelly]

6 minutes ago, RDCW said:

They were the poorest Liverpool side I can ever remember seeing at The Bridge.

They were truly awful and we couldn't beat them.

Mind you we can't beat Southampton so it shouldn't be a surprise.

[My Blood Is Blue]

10 minutes ago, RDCW said:

They were the poorest Liverpool side I can ever remember seeing at The Bridge.

I maintain Klopp won’t be around for too much longer. I originally said he won’t be there next season, which I’m going to stick with, but he may end up starting the season but not finishing it.

I just don’t see him having the energy to rebuild that Liverpool side and it really does need a big rebuild. 

[Mark Kelly]

I've just seen Auba was on Twitch playing Fortnite whilst the game was on . Can't say I blame him but it's funny/awful all the same. 

 

[My Blood Is Blue]

8 minutes ago, Mark Kelly said:

I've just seen Auba was on Twitch playing Fortnite whilst the game was on . Can't say I blame him but it's funny/awful all the same. 

 

Terrible signing, it was obvious it was the wrong player at the wrong time. He must be laughing though, one last big pay day to sit around doing not a lot. The modern day Winston Bogarde.