Vesper

Barca's? Leed's?

dont forget Bukayo Saka, the lad is a baller and Gabriel Martinelli too

Chelsea close in on deal for 'the next Virgil van Dijk' with 18-year-old Xavier Mbuyamba, who trained with the Blues last season and is now a free agent after leaving Barcelona https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-8591995/Chelsea-close-deal-Virgil-van-Dijk-Xavier-Mbuyamba.html Chelsea are closing in on a deal to sign 18-year-old defender Xavier Mbuyamba, who has been dubbed 'the next Virgil van Dijk'. The highly-rated Dutchman joined Barcelona from MVV Maastricht last summer but has now left the Nou Camp and will look to continue his development elsewhere. Mbuyamba trained with Chelsea last year but they couldn't follow up on their interest because he was contracted to Barcelona.

(Video): Forgotten Chelsea winger finally back in ball training for Chelsea https://www.chelsea-news.co/2020/08/video-forgotten-chelsea-winger-finally-back-ball-training-chelsea/ A refreshing video surfaced yesterday, one that at one point we didn’t think we would see again. Chelsea winger Charly Musonda was back in ball training again yesterday after another lengthy spell on the sidelines with a career threatening injury. Musonda has been at Chelsea since 2012 and is still just 23-years old, and with age on his side, it looks like he is pushing hard for another comeback and another shot at making it as a professional footballer. He will still have a little way to go with his rehabilitation, but this is promising. He posted the video on his Instagram account.

around £306K PW gross

smdh I predict Pep turns him into a monster

Arteta out-thought Lampard with tactical masterclass down the left https://theathletic.com/1968627/2020/08/03/mikel-arteta-lampard-chelsea-arsenal-maitland-niles-azpilicueta-james-reece-aubameyang/ In basic terms, Arsenal won this weekend’s FA Cup final because they had the only established world-class attacker on the pitch. Just as he did in the semi-final victory over Manchester City, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang struck twice to hand Arsenal their 14th FA Cup, giving Mikel Arteta his first trophy after just half a season in management. Aubameyang’s starring role, however, owed much to Arteta’s tactical approach. There was much talk before the game about how both sides were lining up in a 3-4-3 formation, just as they did in the FA Cup final of three years ago — also a 2-1 Arsenal victory. But the two shapes were actually very different. Frank Lampard used more of a 3-4-2-1, with Mason Mount and Christian Pulisic roaming centrally behind Olivier Giroud, which worked well in the opening stages and resulted in Pulisic’s opener. However, Arteta’s attackers offered more width in an unconventional system. Arsenal effectively used three centre-backs in the defensive phase of play, before Kieran Tierney shuffled across to left-back when the ball was won, allowing Ainsley Maitland-Niles to take up a variety of positions. This was the same approach Arteta used in the semi-final victory over Manchester City, so shouldn’t have come as a huge surprise to Lampard. Finding a solution, however, appeared beyond him. Arsenal’s main tactic throughout this game was hitting long balls from their left-back zone down the line for either Maitland-Niles or Aubameyang to chase. Arsenal’s first entry into the final third was a good example: Tierney had the ball on the far touchline and Maitland-Niles made a run off the back of his opposing wing-back, Reece James. Tierney thumped the ball down the line… …and Maitland-Niles crossed towards Aubameyang. Nothing too complex there. But things became slightly more interesting once it became clear that Aubameyang and Maitland-Niles’ movement was helping to drag Chelsea out of position, with the other exploiting the space created on that side of the pitch. Here’s another example of a similar pass, this time from David Luiz. As the Brazilian thumps the ball down the line and the camera pans forward, you can see that Chelsea’s defence has become disorganised because of Arsenal’s movement. Cesar Azpilicueta, the right-sided centre-back, has pushed up into the opposition half to stick tight to Aubameyang and wing-back James is now Chelsea’s deepest defender, trying to match the run of Maitland-Niles. James’ speed and strength usually meant he was capable of covering effectively. Here, he held up Maitland-Niles rather than letting him run through on goal. But Maitland-Niles still caused problems. Here, he again runs in behind from a narrower position. It’s worth noting that, over on the far side, James is now tracking Aubameyang. Maitland-Niles is, therefore, running beyond Azpilicueta… …and, evidently, has enough to speed to get on the end of Nicolas Pepe’s pass easily. He could perhaps have made more of this situation. The same thing happened throughout the first half. Here’s another example of a Tierney chip behind James… …which results in Maitland-Niles being Arsenal’s most advanced player, and in a good crossing situation. It was also notable that Azpilicueta wanted to stick very tight to Aubameyang, which sometimes resulted in James being asked to cover a large amount of space in behind him. The interesting thing about Maitland-Niles’ role is that he wasn’t simply becoming an advanced left-sided attacker when Tierney had possession. The nature of his movement caused James problems: here’s an example of Maitland-Niles starting in a more central midfield position, then suddenly sprinting over to the far side when Tierney takes possession. The change of direction catches out James and causes him to slip. James’ confusion was because Maitland-Niles had often made the reverse movement, drifting inside to become an extra central midfielder. Here, as David Luiz chips the ball over the top, Maitland-Niles is bringing James infield. David Luiz’s chip is played straight to Azpilicueta, who intercepts, but a better-placed pass would have put Aubameyang in behind the Chelsea captain. Here’s a similar situation two minutes later, with Chelsea’s right-sided wing-back (James) following Arsenal’s left-sided wing-back (Maitland-Niles) into a very central position. And another example from later in the game. This time, James gets a foot in and tackles Maitland-Niles. This was obviously a tactical ploy from Arsenal, seeking to bring James out of position and increase the space available to Aubameyang higher up the pitch. After 20 minutes there was an interesting example, from another David Luiz chip forward, with Maitland-Niles in a central role… …but this time James didn’t follow, and his recovery speed — and the curl on the pass — allows him to sweep on the outside of Azpilicueta and collect David Luiz’s chip before Aubameyang can reach it. Midway through the first half, despite being behind, Arsenal were rallying. Here’s the move that led to Pepe’s disallowed goal and shows Arsenal further causing Chelsea issues down the far side. This time, Tierney is (unusually) in the role of a typical overlapping left-back on the far touchline, which occupies James. Maitland-Niles is up against Azpilicueta, which leaves Aubameyang free in an inside-left position. A ball from Dani Ceballos into Maitland-Niles allows him to knock the ball back for Aubameyang, who then feeds the ball across to Pepe on the near side to sweep the ball home. It’s notable that the move originated from this flank, however — and telling that the player caught offside, meaning the goal was disallowed, was the left-wing-back Maitland-Niles, rather than one of the conventional forwards. By this point, Arsenal’s favoured move was clear, and their equaliser followed a familiar pattern. Tierney on the far touchline, knocking the ball long into the channel, and James closely following Maitland-Niles, who this time remained in a deep position. And this meant Azpilicueta was forced to cover a large amount of space. Aubameyang ran in behind him on to Tierney’s pass and Azpilicueta felt compelled to haul him down for a penalty, which Aubameyang converted. It wasn’t long afterwards that Azpilicueta pulled his hamstring when chasing yet another long ball from Arsenal. Lampard summoned Andreas Christensen in his place, using him in the middle of the Chelsea back three, with Kurt Zouma moving into the right-centre role Azpilicueta had previously been playing. Maybe this actually helped Chelsea. In the example below, Tierney again plays the ball down the line, with James defending high against Maitland-Niles… …but Chelsea now had the speedier Zouma up against Aubameyang. This pass ran through to goalkeeper Willy Caballero but Zouma was probably more suited to tracking these runs than Azpilicueta. Nevertheless, in the second half, Arsenal still caused problems, with Aubameyang attacking the space on the outside of Zouma and behind James. Here’s a promising counter-attack that starts with Pepe on the far side. On paper, there’s nothing inherently wrong with James’ positioning. But, given the problems Chelsea had faced throughout the first half, Lampard perhaps could have instructed James to play 10 yards deeper, concerning himself primarily with Aubameyang rather than Maitland-Niles. Here, Zouma closes down Alexandre Lacazette well, blocking off the ideal angle for the pass. The eventual ball is behind Aubameyang and the shot is blocked. But this was another warning sign for Chelsea. Ten minutes later, Arsenal scored their winner from a similar situation. James was pressing high up the pitch, this time closing down Tierney in Arsenal’s left-back zone. Tierney pops the ball over James’ head first-time. As Arsenal’s attack builds, the situation is similar to the above chance, with Zouma forced to cover half the pitch himself, and no sign of James. Zouma is able to shift his position and get goal-side of Aubameyang… …but Aubameyang goes past him on the outside and dinks home Arsenal’s winner. Lampard was critical of his players at full-time, accusing them of complacency and taking too long on the ball. But on reviewing the tape of this match, Lampard might feel he could have intervened to stop Arsenal repeatedly causing so many problems in the same position. Lampard’s switch from 3-4-3 to a four-man defence turned the game at the Emirates shortly after Christmas, allowing Chelsea to come back from 1-0 down to win 2-1, and perhaps Azpilicueta’s early injury was an opportunity to change the system. Alternatively, simply moving James deeper to help Chelsea cope against Aubameyang might have done the trick. Instead, Chelsea allowed Arsenal’s best player far too much space and were punished twice.

What Chelsea need to do now https://theathletic.com/1967670/2020/08/02/chelsea-summer-chilwell-kante-defence-werner-havertz/ There is one positive Frank Lampard can take from losing his first FA Cup final as Chelsea manager: it has strengthened his case for the club to get even busier in the transfer market. A disappointing 2-1 loss to London rivals Arsenal at Wembley should not take away from what has been a positive campaign overall. Few gave them a chance of qualifying for the Champions League but the Cup final defeat did highlight just how much work there is still to be done. There are a few notable managers from Chelsea’s recent past who would have looked to deflect from their team’s problems after that final, focusing on some controversial decisions by referee Anthony Taylor or the injuries sustained before and during the game. Lampard naturally gave his opinion on those issues when asked, but the main message he wanted to get across to the team, as well as the viewing public, is that there were no excuses. Chelsea had simply not been good enough. “That sums up where we are at,” he said afterwards. “People are getting excited that we got top four. Yes, we are happy because that was a big challenge for us. We have places to go. But we weren’t ourselves, we weren’t at our best. Inconsistency has been a problem. Many things went against us, but we just have to be brutally honest. We weren’t at our best to win the game.” Lampard has been the voice of reason at Stamford Bridge all season. He has never got too carried away when Chelsea have been winning games or too negative after a setback. Perhaps Lampard can see similarities between the side he now manages and the one which lost to Arsenal in what was his first FA Cup final as a player in 2002. That group had a lot of talent too but also struggled to sustain their form throughout the year and weren’t ready to challenge for a Premier League title. It took another year and Roman Abramovich’s arrival as owner to build on that potential by spending heavily in the market. The Russian is still prepared to invest and this summer could end up being as significant as 2003 and 2004 proved to be. For all the excitement the acquisitions of Hakim Ziyech and Timo Werner have generated, plus the strong possibility of Kai Havertz joining them, some key areas need to be addressed. Chelsea won’t be able to fulfil Lampard’s ambition of taking on Liverpool and Manchester City for first spot in the Premier League until they do. The goalkeeper No title-winning team has an average goalkeeper. Alisson, Ederson, Thibaut Courtois, Edwin van der Sar, Petr Cech and Jens Lehmann are just some who have lifted the trophy over the last 20 years. Some may suggest Joe Hart or Kasper Schmeichel weren’t quite at their level, but both were very important for Manchester City and Leicester City in their title-winning seasons. Everyone knows Chelsea can’t afford to go into 2020-21 with Kepa Arrizabalaga and Willy Caballero as their main choices for the position. Every opponent will go into a match against Chelsea thinking they can score. Lampard has sent a very strong message to the hierarchy by leaving Kepa out of the final Premier League match against Wolverhampton Wanderers, when Champions League qualification was on the line, and then the FA Cup final. He is not the only one to lose faith in the 25-year-old. An insider has told The Athletic that some of the players don’t have confidence in the Spain international either, not that anyone would say such a thing publicly. However, there are no easy solutions. Former Chelsea left-back Ashley Cole, who now coaches the club’s under-15s, covered Saturday’s contest as a pundit for the BBC and was asked if a replacement is going to be signed: “It’s tough. There is that price tag on him (Kepa). He came in for £70-odd million (£71.6 million). It’s very high, so what do you do? I can’t see there being too many buyers, not for his quality but in terms of that price. It’s going to be difficult.” His comments are noteworthy. While Cole may not work with the first team, one can imagine he has the occasional conversation with his old team-mates Lampard and Cech, now Chelsea’s technical and performance adviser. Kepa has five years left on his contract and a loan is most likely. Valencia have been mentioned as one of the clubs interested, but they are not thought to be in a position to fund a deal, even if Chelsea pay some of the £170,000-a-week wages. Sevilla, who qualified for the Champions League, are more of a possibility. Caballero has already signed a one-year contract extension so the Argentinian seems certain to continue his role as a back-up. But he turns 39 in September and Chelsea can’t put themselves in a position when they’re relying on him to win big games (not that there was much he could do with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s two goals). The Athletic discussed some of the goalkeeping options Chelsea are considering in a piece on the eve of the Arsenal fixture but one has to question if they can bring someone else in before Kepa’s future is resolved. Left-back It was no surprise Marcos Alonso was in the first XI against Mikel Arteta’s side, but it wasn’t much of a compliment either. The other left-back at Chelsea — Emerson Palmieri — has played just 287 minutes of football in 2020, making only five appearances. Emerson will be allowed to leave, meaning Alonso should remain, yet that is as good as it gets. Lampard has changed to a back three for the past four games, which allows Alonso to get forward as a wing-back. Chelsea’s head coach prefers 4-3-3 for the long-term, though, and needs someone who has the pace and drive to cover both ends of the pitch. This is why Ben Chilwell is top of the wish list. Against Arsenal, Opta’s average position map demonstrated just how reliant Chelsea were on their wing-backs to provide width. The starting front three of Christian Pulisic, Olivier Giroud and Mason Mount were all very central. But Alonso provided just two crosses in the entire match and, from a defensive point of view, made only one tackle. Generally, Chelsea haven’t looked balanced over the past year and the left-back position is a major reason for that. Centre-back The issue won’t go away. Lampard is probably fed up of answering all the questions about Chelsea’s problems at the back and inability to keep clean sheets. It’s not as if he isn’t working on things and advising players what to do. The 42-year-old spoke with great frustration about how he’d prepared his men to face Arsenal’s threat from long balls over the top but, with the way they dealt with the danger, you’d never have known. Only Fikayo Tomori was blameless and that’s because he was watching from the sidelines again — a common occurrence over the last seven months after a bright start to his senior Chelsea career. The four that did feature in the back three — Antonio Rudiger, Kurt Zouma, Andreas Christensen and Cesar Azpilicueta, who went off with a hamstring injury — struggled. Chelsea need a domineering presence, a leader. A move for Declan Rice looks even more appealing. Central midfield As Hector Bellerin charged forward in the build-up to Arsenal’s winning goal, Chelsea’s midfield was nowhere to be seen. The right-back sprinted clear of Mateo Kovacic, while replays did not make good viewing for Jorginho as he jogged back in slow motion and made a half-hearted attempt to help Zouma with Aubameyang. Had unused substitute N’Golo Kante been fully fit, it may have been a different story. But that’s the point. Kante hasn’t been there as much as Lampard would have liked. He has been involved in exactly half of their games (27 out of 54). By taking the cautious approach and not playing him in the final, unlike Maurizio Sarri in the Europa League final, perhaps the hopes of next season were given priority. Chelsea need Kante at his best. Even if that happens, Lampard has some thinking to do. What is the France international’s best position now? For the best part of the last two seasons, he has been picked on the right of a three-man midfield. However, after the restart, he was playing as the holding midfielder instead of Jorginho, who will be sold if a suitable bid comes in. Kante did offer the backline more protection, but does he have the passing game to be a springboard for Chelsea’s attacks? Is it a role more suited to Kovacic? Two goals and three assists suggest that Kovacic does not contribute enough when fielded further forward but Lampard rates him and wants him in the line-up. It’s all very well having attackers like Werner, Ziyech and Pulisic up front, but someone has to get them the ball, while also providing a shield to ensure teams struggle to penetrate. And finally… Some of the fringe players need to move on. It’s no good having frustrated individuals around the place. Some are obvious, such as Michy Batshuayi, then there are players like Ross Barkley. He has been at Chelsea for two and a half years and is not showing the development required. Lampard also needs to find a way to get Callum Hudson-Odoi to express himself on the pitch and Tammy Abraham to rise to the challenge of Werner’s arrival. In saying all this, it is important to stress that optimism should be high. Losing to Arsenal will leave a bitter aftertaste, but Chelsea wouldn’t swap places with them. They have the owner and the lure of the Champions League to attract more talent to the club. Perfectionist Lampard will do his utmost to make sure that happens.

I am with you on this and he may come back to haunt us if he goes to Spuds or Arse or even Manure he is a prick for not taking the 2 years

hell, on his pay he could buy his own microbrewery and drink away any cares he might have for free DrinkAle Ltd.

doom move

Lol, can you imagine him as a GK (provided he was trained from a young age) I had never heard of him before. Thanks for the video.

he is a prick eos

Davies is otherwordly (or soon will be IMHO) his pace is damn near Mbappeian and he has that winger attack mode mentality to pull out when needed, plus is a brutal tackler but Theo is the best of who is REMOTELY (it will be hard as hell to pull him, probably impossible I fear) available, plus he is damn near a perfect size (1.84m, as when fullbacks get 1.90m or taller, they almost always lose some burst pace or some dribbling skills (the athletes that size who are WC athletes enough to truly play it never play real football, they end up in the yanks' NFL and NBA and those blokes almost never had a footie culture from birth like the rest of the planet does. If the USA completely switched sports emphasis to real football first, then in 10 or 15 years the world would be FUCKED, imagine Michael Jordan or Lebron James, taught from birth to only play footie, as a CF or a DMF, or Giannis Antetokounmpo as a GK (eeeeeeeeeek, if he had legwork skills, how the fuck would you score if he even is remotely near a longer shot Height: 2.11 m Wingspan: 2.21 m, vertical leap well over 1m ), or the best NFL safeties/corner backs or outside linebackers as CB's and fullbacks) a football crossbar is 2.44 metres a basketball rim is 3.05 metres this is just some rando NBAer (Gerald Green, who is 1.98 m, so basically Cuntois height) corner/cross problem solved, lololol

Jorginho Juve as Sarri is wetting the bed for him Rudiger stays Zouma Everton AC a German club Kepa whomever we plant a bomb in their HQ for blackmail

No LB in Serie A won more defensive duels (per 90) than Hernández this season. Hernández's true tackle win-rate. was 75.0% again the highest of any LB in Serie A https://www.whoscored.com/Players/303115/Show/Theo-Hernández true tackle win-rate is challenges lost and fouls conceded when attempting a tackle. the equation of total tackles/(total tackles+challenges lost+fouls when attempting a tackle here are EPL fullbacks TTWR as of March 23, 2020 https://theathletic.co.uk/1692489/2020/03/23/the-10-commandments-of-football-analytics/ Theo

lolol

probably still not fit I looked for a sec earlier but did not see any updates

ahhh, yes, I forgot that I was looking at the final table and remembered it

absolutely disagree, he has been a beast defensively in almost every game I have seen him play I have no clue what games you watched also, he has so so much more pace than Alonso

CS Wins (4, 3 in the modern era, 2 under Roman, none in 11 years and counting) Losses (9, 8 in the modern era, 7 under Roman, have lost the last 5 we played in) FA Cup Finals Wins (8 wins, 7 in the modern era, 5 under Roman) Loses (6, 4 in the modern era, 2 under Roman, but we have lost 2 of the last 3 times we have played, both versus Arsenal, and we have never beaten Arse in an FA Cup final) League Cup Finals Wins (5 wins, 4 in the modern era, 3 under Roman) Losses (3, 2 in the modern era, both under Roman, including to Spuds, grrrrrr) Super Cup Wins (1, 1 in the modern era, zero under Roman) Loses (3, all under Roman, all in the last 8 years, the last 2 in pens) FWCC Lost the only time we played, and since the first 3, (all 3 won by Brasilian clubs) we are the only Euro club to be in it and lose, every other FWCC, after the first 3, except ours, was won by the UEFA club, SMDH Europa League Finals 2 wins, no loses, both under Roman Champions League Finals 1 win, 1 loss, we all know the years, lolol so under Roman, all cups 13 wins 16 losses at least we are 3 and 1 in euro finals (and would be 4 wins no loses except for Terry's slip in Moscow, although there was other shit there as well) We also won the only 2 Full Members' Cup finals we were in and finally We also won both the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup Finals we were in (only Barca have won more, with 4 wins, but they lost twice too)

we are starting t be jinxed in the FA Cup like we are in the Super Cup and the CS fucking sucks those are easy trophies once you qualify to pay for them, almost always decent teams you face but they are one game for glory's

make it a 6 goal swing Genoa up 2 nil now