So who is our 3rd midfielder going to be?

Bakayoko is someone I've thought hard about over the last few months and whether he still has a future with us.

Now my thought process, if you'll indulge me for a few minutes, has been on the lines of; God forbid we should lose Kante to PSG/Barca etc, but could he be more suited to playing the role in front of the defence rather than the more advanced role he's been playing for us so far?

I have my doubts that he could even do that, as he's seems to be easily dispossessed but it's a little food for thought!

comment by Sideshow (U11809)
posted 6 minutes ago
He was never the star of that academy team, however you could tell he was a talented player. Unfortunately for him, he was fast-tracked into the first-team by Jose and was made the poster-boy of the academy, which raised expectations among fans that he hasn't been able to reach. If his development was handled differently, I would bet that there opinions on him wouldn't be as divisive. First impressions last though.

Not all young players hit the ground running, when they are handed first-team experience.
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I agree he was fasttracked too early. He should have been loaned in 2015.

comment by BrummieBlue! (U3487)
posted 1 minute ago
Bakayoko is someone I've thought hard about over the last few months and whether he still has a future with us.

Now my thought process, if you'll indulge me for a few minutes, has been on the lines of; God forbid we should lose Kante to PSG/Barca etc, but could he be more suited to playing the role in front of the defence rather than the more advanced role he's been playing for us so far?

I have my doubts that he could even do that, as he's seems to be easily dispossessed but it's a little food for thought!
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The part that annoys me with him is early last season he looked the business and was giving us what we were missing from Matic, his fall from grace since Leti away has been bizarre.

As for DM you may be onto something there, one thing i'd say is he will need to improve his workrate for it to work though, times last season he was walzing around like a typical number 10

Sarri'll have to get him pounding the country lanes round Cobham for a few weeks to build his stamina and plenty of gym work to build him up.

After that we can give him a ball to play with!

The only problem with that is, for Sarri's favoured formation relies on three midfielders, meaning we need at least five capable ones.

I think most of us agree Fabregas, Bakayoko, Barkley and Drinkwater aren't the answer, leaving only Kante and now Jorginho.

We're not going to buy another three of four mids - so why not try Cheek?
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The transfer window is still open and your original argument stated we should try RLC rather than spend another 35mil on an unknown quantity (paraphrasing, too lazy to go back and actually check lol).

My point is with Sarri spending that 35mil, lets say on Golovin for the sake of argument, would be worth it rather than giving RLC a chance and seeing how it goes. If we did that with Barkley, although I wouldn't be happy with it I'd understand it more cos he does have the natural game to fit into that free roaming 3rd CM role Sarri used with Hamsik.

The only way I could see RLC fitting into a Sarri team right now would be as a spare man in a four man midfield (4312 or a diamond). But we don't have the FB's/WB's to keep the width, we'd need another CM anyway, and quite frankly RLC isn't good enough to cater the system around him like that yet.

My point is with Sarri spending that 35mil, lets say on Golovin for the sake of argument, would be worth it
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Now I rate Golovkin too, don't get me wrong, he is a good boxer but there's no way he'd be able to cope with the pace of the PL.

comment by The Devil's Advocate's Advocate - I Represent Him (U6522)
posted 3 minutes ago
The only problem with that is, for Sarri's favoured formation relies on three midfielders, meaning we need at least five capable ones.

I think most of us agree Fabregas, Bakayoko, Barkley and Drinkwater aren't the answer, leaving only Kante and now Jorginho.

We're not going to buy another three of four mids - so why not try Cheek?
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The transfer window is still open and your original argument stated we should try RLC rather than spend another 35mil on an unknown quantity (paraphrasing, too lazy to go back and actually check lol).

My point is with Sarri spending that 35mil, lets say on Golovin for the sake of argument, would be worth it rather than giving RLC a chance and seeing how it goes. If we did that with Barkley, although I wouldn't be happy with it I'd understand it more cos he does have the natural game to fit into that free roaming 3rd CM role Sarri used with Hamsik.

The only way I could see RLC fitting into a Sarri team right now would be as a spare man in a four man midfield (4312 or a diamond). But we don't have the FB's/WB's to keep the width, we'd need another CM anyway, and quite frankly RLC isn't good enough to cater the system around him like that yet.
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We still need more than the three mids to cope with the season, even if he's not a regular starter he should get enough game time to satisfy him.

Surely having him under those circumstances, assuming he'd accept it, would be better than forking out another small fortune for a squad player?

We still need more than the three mids to cope with the season, even if he's not a regular starter he should get enough game time to satisfy him.

Surely having him under those circumstances, assuming he'd accept it, would be better than forking out another small fortune for a squad player?
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You're eliminating Fabregas & Barkley by saying we need more than three CM's. I know he's not your flavor but Fabregas does have a future with Sarri - he likes his teams to play those killer diagonal passes to the flanks and that's Fabregas' specialty. It's Sarri biggest distinction from Pep's brand of tiki taka that should see Fabregas succeed in it where he failed at Barcelona.

I see your point but on the evidence of the player we've seen last year at Palace (which is all we can accurately judge on tbh), I can't see what his role is. But Sarri has been known to do incredible things with players (look at Jorginho & Mertens) so who knows, might be able to get something out of him I haven't seen

Time will tell

comment by Mr Chelsea. (U3579)
posted 3 hours, 17 minutes ago
My point is with Sarri spending that 35mil, lets say on Golovin for the sake of argument, would be worth it
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Now I rate Golovkin too, don't get me wrong, he is a good boxer but there's no way he'd be able to cope with the pace of the PL.
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Is he ? Could he resist Fellaini's jabs ?