you can see why Clarke only used him in the second half. he needs to improve his fitness to last the whole match. he does so much tho..
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Sir Robben
Player Valuation: £25k
And now some of the reasoning why he was given another loan is a bit clearer. We played 69 competitive games last season, with Torres featuring in 64 of them. I thought Lukaku had a great first half for you today, but he clearly doesn't have the stamina to last 90 minutes yet.
Everton had a good go of it but I think that rapid equaliser deflated you a bit. I also thought you were screwed a bit by the officials. But after City got mauled by Bayern it was always going to be hard to go to theirs and win. They had a point to prove.
Baines' left foot
Player Valuation: £90m
To be fair, the expectation on him playing as Chelsea's lone striker as opposed to at Everton would be different. We're crying out for a 15-20 goal a season striker and we'll take them in whatever shape or form. He's a young lad and maybe the pressure of leading Chelsea's line would be a bit much for him at the moment. Mourinho certainly thinks that way.
I'm sure that he would have featured in Mourinho's plans in some way, but I suspect Lukaku told Mourinho he wanted to be playing every week and so he's been allowed to go out on loan again.
Sir Robben
Player Valuation: £25k
Yes which is what I've been saying whenever this decision has been criticised. We tried to get rid of Ba, but couldn't since only Spurs and Arsenal were interested. The choice was to rely on Lukaku or bring in somebody experienced and give Lukaku a loan to iron out his game. We couldn't justify having 4 strikers on the books, nobody would be getting enough games so we couldn't do both.
The question has never been whether Mourinho or Chelsea thinks he's ready. The question was whether he was ready to be our main striker. And he would have struggled to do that considering how long our seasons typically get, especially in the second half when you're involved in high pressure two legged knockouts with the best in Europe. If we had risked it and he struggled it could knock his confidence and set him back enormously. The ideal situation would have been having an established striker to rely on and Lukaku as backup so they each got enough minutes and Lukaku wasn't under the pressure of carrying a CL team - but unfortunately we're stuck with a bit of a striker mess and Mourinho didn't trust Torres.
when he is fit to run for 90 mins I think we are in real business. We came up against a City side that had a point to prove and the gulf in class became evident. I'm not too alarmed at getting beat especially as we gave them a good game in the first half. Just need to rebound against Hull and keep in touch with the top 4
I'm smitten, TBH...it's unhealthy and is going to lead to heartbreak. It's as much about his off the field stuff as on, just like Leighton.
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Zatara
Player Valuation: £100m
Go on, tell us what woild chelsea sell him for?
You're not speaking to Roman Abramovich mate, he's just a fan on the internet.
billycopper
Player Valuation: £40m
It's becoming obvious why Clarke used him frequently as an impact sub. I don't think he's going to get too much fitter. He had a full pre-season and he's played 4 matches for us now. I think that rather than playing at 100% for 45 minutes he'll have to take it down to 70% to give himself something left for the second half of matches. He might have to start picking when to run and when to let himself have a breather.
Personally, I think the general play in the second half of our last couple matches isn't helping things. Play through the midfield has been breaking down constantly...maybe because we're trying to counter too hard, I dunno. Not going to put it all down to his fitness, though...not even.
ah11984
Player Valuation: £30m
He has been blowing out of his arse in the second half of both the games he has played.... hope that's plain enough.
snipellis11
Player Valuation: £15m
He's scoring goals for us, which is a good thing.
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