Werder Bremen 2-4 Chelsea

[xPetrCechx 13,546]

Conte:

" There were some bad situations to concede two goals which I didn’t like, we must improve a lot"

‘We are working very hard to be ready. It will be difficult. We know we have some problems but we are trying to solve them"

‘I saw positive things and many situations that we can improve. We are working on this"

[MefiX19 1,092]

1 hour ago, Sovieticus said:

Strong German side? Weren't they in a relegation battle last season?

Djilobodji scored a winner that helped them to escape religation

[quickpassnmove 924]

2 hours ago, Styles said:

People saying our attack looks so much better lol, we're one Hazard injury away from disaster.

Could say the same thing with a Kante injury.

[Blue Colored Sky 1,807]

2 hours ago, Styles said:

People saying our attack looks so much better lol, we're one Hazard injury away from disaster.

Good thing that our season is so light now without European football that he can actually play every game (40-45 games).

[Pizy 17,860]

Don't know how I feel right now with the preseason over and the PL looming.

On one hand, several of our most important players look great. Hazard, Costa, and Kante looked awesome. Even Oscar has looked much improved as the summer went on. The players look like they're buying into Conte's methods. We actually press teams now. The attack looks like it has some patterns and neat interplay.

But then I think of all the issues we still have and it makes me very worried about us. Every defender we have bar Azpi is shit. In every single match we played in preseason (even those against terrible or average opposition) we gift teams with ridiculous chances and look like a pub team trying to defend. Matic and Cesc are so extremely slow and unathletic which means we don't have a true, top class partner for Kante.

All that talk and hype about Conte playing with two strikers and we didn't once see Costa and Batshuayi paired together. Bats didn't even start one game. 

Honestly, if we start the season with this exact team and don't make significant additions I think our ceiling will be around 5th-6th. And that's only if Hazard and Costa are at their best all season. The club have to wake up and fix this God awful defense or Conte doesn't stand a chance.

[Unionjack 7,531]

 

Antonio Conte was pleased with the attitude of his players after we brought the curtain down on our pre-season campaign with a 4-2 win over Werder Bremen in Germany this afternoon.

‘It was a good victory,’ said Conte. ‘We’ve finished our pre-season, it was very tough and hard in all aspects and we must be pleased to finish with a win.

‘It’s important to win for confidence ahead of the start of the season. The team started the game in the right way and with the right intensity. There were some bad situations to concede two goals which I didn’t like, we must improve a lot, but we were tired after our pre-season.

‘We are working very hard to be ready. It will be difficult. We know we have some problems but we are trying to solve them.

‘I am pleased with the attitude and behaviour of my players. It’s been good and now all of the players need a rest.’

In just over a week Conte will take charge of his first competitive Chelsea match. He assessed what must be done on the training pitches at Cobham in the intervening time.

‘Today I saw some situations that we are trying during the training session. I want to play with high intensity, to win the ball back very soon after we lose it, to attack with the right balance.

‘I saw positive things and many situations that we can improve. We are working on this. Now remains one week of work before the season starts.’

 

[Fulham Broadway 16,392]

I just don't see us keeping a clean sheet against anyone, so will always need to score at least two. We don't need one, we need three defenders to replace Ivanovic, Cahill and Terry. They are just not good enough at this level when two or all three are in the team.

If you want to make some money this season do ''both teams to score''' every match

[Ryan Fong 2,776]

I just don't see us keeping a clean sheet against anyone, so will always need to score at least two. We don't need one, we need three defenders to replace Ivanovic, Cahill and Terry. They are just not good enough at this level when two or all three are in the team.

If you want to make some money this season do ''both teams to score''' every match

Two plus a healthy Happy.

[Pizy 17,860]

17 minutes ago, Fulham Broadway said:

I just don't see us keeping a clean sheet against anyone, so will always need to score at least two. We don't need one, we need three defenders to replace Ivanovic, Cahill and Terry. They are just not good enough at this level when two or all three are in the team.

If you want to make some money this season do ''both teams to score''' every match

This is true. Even the likes of the newly promoted sides will fancy their chances against our defense. 

Incisive ball thought the middle against us you'll get joy against us, simple ball over the top you'll find joy against us, run at pace and our CB's will back off into their own box and invite shots. When a player gets the ball on the die of our area they'll just stand their like statues staring at the ball instead of reacting.

[Fulham Broadway 16,392]

29 minutes ago, Pizy said:

This is true. Even the likes of the newly promoted sides will fancy their chances against our defense. 

Incisive ball thought the middle against us you'll get joy against us, simple ball over the top you'll find joy against us, run at pace and our CB's will back off into their own box and invite shots. When a player gets the ball on the die of our area they'll just stand their like statues staring at the ball instead of reacting.

Absolutely. Any more backing off by Terry and Cahill today and they would have been in England. They will be done for pace so many times. Last season the board failed to get Stones, this season no attempt to get anyone decent. We don't know when Zouma will return, and Hector was only acquired on the cheap because we agreed a deal with a Thai energy drink

[Barbara 15,149]

Our board needs to do their work better. We didn't get the signings we bid for last season, it's been over a month and we still couldn't sign ONE FRIGGING DEFENDER.

Come on, if we want to be competitive again, there's no other way but spending... have them look at Arsenal if they think anything else is possible.

I know this is real life and no FIFA - I don't even play that shit (or any shit) - but just break the fucking bank and bring some defenders. It can't be that difficult. If the big names aren't possible, keep looking, try to find guys like we did with Zouma. My dead grandma has more quality than any of our defenders now - bar Azpili - so even if we don't bring the big names, just bring anyone who is solid and they'll leave Iva, Cahill and JT behind.

This is how bad our defense is and even a blind, moron and mentally challenged person can see... so that also says A FUCKING LOT about our board. Now that Mourinho isn't here anymore and the fucking signings are still not happening, can we address our board has been lame for years? Just fire all the fucking morons and yeah,I'm this pissed if I'm cursing this much. 

This defense is literally making me turn off my TV when watching Chelsea... they take away any pleasure I have watching us because it makes me so pissed that we are still dependable on those shitty players.

/rant

[OhForAGreavsie 5,774]

11 hours ago, Blue Colored Sky said:

Good thing that our season is so light now without European football that he can actually play every game (40-45 games).

The maximum number of competitive games Chelsea can play this season is 54. Plus Belgian National games for Edenof course.

Whether Eden would actually be selected for all Capital One and FA Cup games is another matter.

[WNDS 502]

I thought Hazard, Oscar, and Kante were mostly excellent, with Costa and Azpi also playing very well. Willian put in his first decent(ish) performance over the last 3 matches, creating more genuine openings and doing a great job of winning the ball back in the middle-third; he clearly benefited from the use of a 4-3-3 rather than the ultra-defensive 4-4-2 that we have been starting games with. Additionally, most of the subs did well enough when they were on, with Pedro probably being the least impressive of the lot despite his goal.

Fabregas did his usual thing of playing well when we were in possession and doing the opposite when we were out of it; it's unlikely that this will change any time soon, and it's very much a take-it-or-leave-it deal at this point. I was disappointed with Matic, however, as he'd played very well in our previous game, but fell right back into bad habits against Bremen; with Kante buzzing around and winning possession effectively, I had hoped to see Matic play with more positional discipline, but he was frequently in no-man's-land when Bremen attacked. I think that Matic and Fabregas are competing against each other for a single place in the starting line-up if we use the 4-3-3 formation, and I'm really not sure which of them I favour; Matic is generally more solid defensively and should be able to give Kante a better platform to do his thing, but our possession game is just so much better with Fabregas. We can possibly get away with using Fabregas if we sign a higher quality, more proactive CB, but otherwise we should probably go with Matic (one-footedness, slow decision-making, and all).

Oh, and on that subject: we NEED a new starting CB. Urgently. It really shouldn't be a matter of 'if' we sign one; almost all Chelsea (and many non-Chelsea) fans know this; opposing managers will know this; Conte must have realised this as well. The club has to act, even if we are unable to acquire the desired big-name player that we have (hopefully) been targeting.