Mufassir08

Yeah I also think fatigue is a bigger factor than him being lazy or complacent. WB is the most exhausting position to play, they need rest and have good cover. We've seen this many times before, he plays consecutive games really well and then falls off... it's a sign of fatigue more than anything else imo.

Kounde for me is the most future center-back in world football. He is only 22 years old and has been playing in the elite since he was 17. He started as a right-back but went on to play as a center-back in the second year at Girondins. Sevilla FC bet on him with 20 years paying € 25M (most expensive transfer in our history).
Jules Koundé is 1'78 tall but reaches unexpected places. Seeing him jump is a real spectacle. The taller the striker, the bigger he becomes in the passing game. The secret is in his lower body and an explosive physique. His height is not a problem for his game. But he is also very good with his feet. For Tuchel's scheme of 3 centrals it is ideal due to that versatility to play as a winger. Koundé is a player who trusts in his speed, able to wait for the striker, and react immediately.
The team that signed Kounde signs a center-back for 10 years. For me if he is worth € 70M. For its age and quality it is worth it. For us it would be a great loss.

This narrative that seems to be aimed at Kovacic and Jorginho in particular, that they don’t pass forwards or find his runs is baffling for me is incredibly suspect.
Theres numerous times every game players look for him running in behind. Just because its not putting him in direftly one on one with the GK doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen. How many times did we look for him in behind yesterday? How many times did he do anything meaningful with those passes he did get?
 

Take out The Drog's 29 goals in 32 games during 2009/10 and his record becomes 75 goals in 222 games. Just under 1 in 3. This underlines the truth about Didier which gets disguised in our memories by his habit of performing in the big games and his penchant for the spectacular. This truth is that he had notable technical shortcomings of his own. As I regularly admit, when I watched DD at Marseilles I was against signing him. In fact I did a post saying that his touch was hit and miss, his control on the run can be clumsy and he likes a dive.
What I did not see at Marseilles was Didier's character and his character was one of, if not absolutely, his major contribution to the team. There were days when, even with JT & SFL in the side, Didier was the true leader on the pitch. Cast your minds back to the number of times the lads were in a huddle and DD was the one doing that talking. His personality is how The Drog compensated for his technical issues. This personality is the only thing which stops me being certain that we would have won more had we signed a technically better player instead of DD. Even so I do believe that. I can't be certain of it but I do believe it.
Anyway, The Drog is history and Rom is the future. It's on people like me to get behind Rom and flood him with positivity in the stadium(s). Most importantly don't get on his back if he has a slow start either in terms of goal involvements or general play. We have nothing to gain, and everything to lose by turning our doubts into a self-fulfilling prophecy. 

So we are to take he’s not a good signing off of a video that is 1 minute 52 seconds long when he played over 3000 minutes in Serie A, 474 minutes in the CL and 473 minutes in the EL last season? Aye ok then. 
People are looking too much into it though. Hes an elite goalscorer first and foremost. 

That game can be played in all angles, what does it say about La Liga when CR7's best goal scoring season in Italy is still behind his six best scoring season's his Spain?
What does it say about The PL that Salah's best tally in Italy is still four behind his worst tally at Liverpool?
I can't believe as someone who doesn't actually want him that I've been resorted to defend him but that is such a selective take.

I think it's really arrogant for people to think a player like Lukaku is somehow beneath the level of Chelsea as a club, and that the club should be entitled to have a Haaland, Lewandowski or whoever of that caliber.
Lukaku these days is a really good player and I know I'm quite alone with my opinion but I'd really like to see him back if/when Haaland is out of reach. Aside from the very top few strikers in the world Lukaku is about as quaranteed as can be to score +20 goals a season in the PL. Yes he's not a perfect player and yes he has his flaws, but the fact still remains the club desperately need a top class striker and Lukaku fits the bill. I for one am not confident at all about landing Haaland even next year when every top club on Earth will have a go at him.
I've said before that I'm willing to see out the coming season with the current set of players and hope they (especially Werner) can improve in front of goal enough to stay competitive, but that was always assuming Lukaku is off the table as well. If Haaland, Lewandowski etc. are out of the question but Lukaku is within reach, I say go for it.

Once Kounde is a success here, at least the bubble of Vesper and her lists of players will burst at last 😈

That is simply not true

What about the others who also played the FA cup final this season, last season or the UEFA Super Cup etc? Or the rest of the Derby team who lost the playoff final also when he was there? Or the rest of the England team who lost the Euros final? You calling them all not capable of being part of trophy winning teams too?
Or are you just going after our player of the year for the sakes of being controversial or edgy over a forum which I think the Mount critics are more than anything now because even when he was playing well last season, it was still reoccurring. Same with Jorginho. Its kinda embarrassing.
And “privilege of featuring in”, honestly what the fuck are you on about haha. I mean you saying he shouldn’t have made 5 finals? And even more ironic, wouldn’t playing in 5 finals in 2 years for club and country not indicate he’s doing something right no???? Theres a reason he’s playing in all these big finals. No doubt he has a quiet Euros but jesus christ, you’d think it was a criminal offence
(and its not because he has dirt on all these managers or are their sons etc, despite the conspiracy theories)

Every club is looking to always strengthen, I don't believe in the idea of the board being content.
But give us some insight then into who we should buy to strengthen and why/how they could strengthen us. It's boring hearing this statement on here constantly and across social media without people providing realistic suggestions.
Take Haaland out of the equation, name me a realistically attainable striker who will strengthen us?
Is there a specialist wing back out there that can significantly improve on Chilwell and James?
Is there a midfielder who can improve on Kante and Jorginho?
If we want to strengthen our "strongest XI" then the pool of players shrinks significantly. Or by strengthen are you happy with a couple of squad players so long as we've been seen to spend some money, back the manager and appease a fan base who have become too accustomed to having it all now?

Personally I think there's a lot more to come from our attacking players, in particular those we brought last season.
Werner and Havertz have already put up very impressive numbers in Germany, and the hope is this can be reflected given time. If anybody wants to question the quality of the Bundesliga then what is the point of going after Haaland.
Ziyech too I think there is more to come from him. People will question his stats have come in the Dutch league but he's also done pretty well in Europe before joining. I actually think he could be someone who has the potential to unlock these type of teams with his passing and offers a different skillset to others. When he did have a purple patch earlier in the season it was against teams of this ilk (Burnley, Sheffield United, etc) where his passing was cutting them apart. His arrival against Villa on the last day I also think made us look a lot stronger and it was his pass that opened up the opportunity for our goal.
Ultimately I think we have a number of different options in our attack and all have the potential to be very good. It's putting it together. Another year older, a season playing together, fans back in stadiums, the confidence of winning a massive trophy, performing under our expected goals stats. I do think we should realistically expect improvement in our attack next season even if we don't add to it.

I agree there is risk attached to it, but beyond Haaland what striker's are out there we could buy that we're all going to be confident will bang in goals consistently?
The striker depth on the market is extremely poor in my opinion. We'd be taking potentially a bigger risk buying a player that isn't one of our top targets and hoping it pays off.

damn, I typed all that shit out for nothing, ffs
😿
 

Then doesn't that bring the argument that we should simply do a Klopp/us in 2020 and wait it out if genuine upgrades aren't attainable?
For example, if we can't get Haaland is any of our realistic striker options at present less of a risk than playing Broja let alone Havertz? Who knows who will have a breakthrough in the next 12 months, the former himself could be one.
Likewise since Hakimi has gone my preference has shifted to promote Livramento.

It's always "interesting" to see how people react to pre-season outcomes. 

This lad has over 125,000 subscribers. He seems a nice bloke and I'm pleased for him that hIs channel is a success but I really don't see why. There is no news value in what he says because it is all published elsewhere first. Yes, he has opinions but so does everyone.
Still, good luck to him with the channel. I wish him well.

Thank fuck, Bakayoko has done us a favour by rejecting a contract offer. I wouldn't let him play for my sons team if he paid me. 

The adding the right players or quality instead of quantity is promising to see.
Too many people getting really panicky because we havent signed Haaland/Lukaku, Locatelli/Rice or whoever yet but these things don’t always happen overnight. Even more so with the Euros still on going, its more difficult to so deals as nobody wants to discuss anything to they are done as some of these guys are still involved and for clubs if players impress at the Euros, their value goes up. 
Even the talk of Adama Traore as a squad/impact player, I don’t mind it, imagine bringing him on for 20-25 minutes in a game when people are tired to stretch a game? His end product has improved although still isn’t amazing but how many times does he get doubled up on or sometimes tripled up on? Think of the space he could create for others. How many fouls does he win also? I get it, Hakimi would of been better but at the same time Traore certainly isnt the worst player out there. RWBs a difficult role to find specialists who play there in and you’d probably have to say Traore is probably now in that mould.

It's looking like this Norwich move is on the cusp of being completed.
I'd much rather keep him here next season. Jorginho can't play every game, and we don't have another player in the squad besides Gilmour who plays his role in an effective manner. I think Gilmour had a couple of good performances at the end of the season when Tuchel needed to rotate the troops and hopefully will have given Tuchel confidence to trust him more regularly next season.
I saw Souness' interview about him staying at Chelsea and I would agree. I think working alongside Jorginho daily and learning from him could be just as effective, if not more so, than playing week in week out. As long as he's playing games on a semi regular basis (given the likely number of games next season he could easily end up playing 20 - 25 games across all competitions as backup). For me, Jorginho is one of the best players around for that role in midfield and Gilmour currently is primed for the long term replacement for him, much like Foden was at City with David Silva. I'd worry if the loan doesn't work out like is hoped that could be lost.

I wouldn't say it would be a miracle turn-around to see improvements in the likes of Werner and Ziyech next season.
In both cases they have produced in other leagues previously, and for a sustained period of time (i.e. not a one season wonder) which would give me some hope that such form can be replicated to some degree. Granted in Ziyech's case the Dutch league isn't the strongest, but he does have some good form in Europe over the same time.
I think that both can benefit from the previous season they've just experienced and I believe both should be afforded this coming season to judge them. Particularly with the return of fans into the stadium. 
Ziyech in particular has been almost completely written off by a lot of Chelsea fans but I do think he offers something completely different from the rest of our attacking options which is the ability and preference to drop a little deeper and find the pass. We question what we need to unlock some of the deeper defences of the 'lesser' sides in the league but I think Ziyech's skill set could help with that. He also isn't afraid to have a shot around the edge of the box which has been a source of irritation for me (the lack of players prepared to do so in our squad). 
Beyond players like Haaland and Mbappe, the other attacking options being suggested mostly have lesser numbers than the likes of Werner, Havertz and Ziyech were producing before they joined us, and who's to say that such players wouldn't need a similar time period to adjust to a new club, league, culture, etc. That's why for me it just seems to make sense to hold faith with what we already have rather than taking a punt on a new signing coming in and hitting the ground running, unless they are in that real top category of attacker.

Unless someone has a bloody proof that is the case, I really can't fathom why people are choosing to stick with a conspiracy theory. Is it because Ziyech is an easy target due to his situation at the club?
Just because we just won the Champions League, it doesn't give us a god's given right to expect players should be choosing us over other clubs, regardless of whether it's PSG or not. 
If the reports are true - in that the club only tried to offer cash + player and didn't push hard for the deal compared to PSG - then is it any wonder why Hakimi chose them over us? Only one club have made him feel wanted and that club ain't us. It never looked like we got into an advanced negotiation stage with Inter because of our offer. It didn't seem like we were willing to pay up straight cash but wanted to low ball by paying smaller amount of money and offering a deadwood to them. Also, Hakimi's decision could be linked to his wife, who apparently is an actress and often goes to Paris and stays there for an extended period of time. Joining PSG would allow them to be together more often etc.

Spend no more than a couple of hours off the forum to see two new pages of comments in here, expecting something interesting only to see some baseless conspiracy theories about Ziyech and Hakimi being talked about as if they're true, and the window being written off already with the usual witch-hunt of Marina because we haven't brought anyone yet.
I enjoy this forum but it is bloody hard work at times.

Fair enough, i mostly watched when they played the back three. Regarding Christensen question still remain about his performance in back four at PL.

really?
your credibility is on thin ice m8
you should know better than to just make up shite with someone like me around
AC played 53 games as a back 4 CB pairing in 20015/17
far more than any other position, and he was better as a pair than in a back 3 CB set-up
AC was a DMF a few times, a RB once, injured in a few, and on the bench in the very beginning of 2015/16 3 times
Gladbach played a back four 65 times
far more than any other setup
and far better as a record, including some great results in the CL