Vesper

Aleksandar Mitrovic scored a hat-trick as Serbia thrashed Sweden 4-1 in Belgrade in the Nations League. https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/63023757 highlights https://sblanh.com/h56dkat1jf48.html

Kasper Hjulmand is a hell of a manager, Denmark just thrashing France atm 2 nil at HT and could have easily been 4 nil https://livestreams.totalsportek.com/game/denmark-vs-france/2074/

that's on Tuchel, to a point what I hope is that CHO is chatting up Diaby (left-footed RWer, a real force) to come to Chels, lolol

Chelsea lack Jose Mourinho’s ‘untouchables’ of old – this squad needs to step up https://theathletic.com/3622357/2022/09/24/Chelsea-lack-untouchable-performances/ Lost amid his last press conference as Chelsea manager earlier this month, Thomas Tuchel was asked how many of the senior players are playing at their best level. “Not a lot at the moment,” he replied. “Obviously they are underperforming individually. A lack of determination, a lack of hunger and a lack of intensity to actually do the things that we need at the highest level. We are clearly not where we want to be.” Like all the Chelsea coaches before him, Tuchel paid the price for the disappointing displays on the pitch by losing his job, although there were many factors behind that decision. It is up to Graham Potter to spark a quick improvement, a task not made easier by an international break leaving him with a small number of players to work with at the club’s training ground. Tuchel’s answer brought back memories of Jose Mourinho when he talked about the number of untouchables in his first team at Stamford Bridge. He named nine during a press conference in December 2006. On that esteemed list were John Terry, Frank Lampard, Didier Drogba, Claude Makelele, Michael Ballack, Michael Essien, Ashley Cole, Ricardo Carvalho and Petr Cech. The only positions the Portuguese manager said he wouldn’t include were right-back (the role was shared) and, notably, striker, despite the £30.8million ($34.1m) signing of Andriy Shevchenko. It got one thinking. Based on Chelsea’s start to the 2022-23 campaign, how many of this squad could be granted the same status as its predecessors? This is a more challenging task than it seems because it is hard to ignore the performances and contributions people have made for the club in previous years. But it is a struggle to pick more than four names right now. It is remarkable just how reliant Chelsea have become on Thiago Silva in defence, albeit he did make a rare mistake in the 1-1 draw with Red Bull Salzburg in the build-up to the equaliser. But the centre-back, who turned 38 on Thursday, has started every Premier League game so far and for good reason. Similarly, Reece James, who was recently rewarded with a long-term deal, has played at a very high level. His crosses from right wing-back have been one of the main reasons Chelsea have carried any attacking threat. Perhaps it’s silly to add N’Golo Kante to the shortlist. He has played just two matches due to a hamstring injury. But look at what happened in those fixtures. Chelsea controlled the opening game at Everton to secure a 1-0 win. A week later, they put in what was their only impressive display, against Tottenham Hotspur, though they were unfortunate to draw 2-2. The France international was superb and Potter has to be hoping he will be available again soon. And finally Raheem Sterling. He joined from Manchester City this summer for £47.5million under a lot of scrutiny and even though there is more to come from the England international, he has got off to a good start with four goals from eight appearances. It is very early days and there is plenty of time for others to be included. For example, Mason Mount is clearly an untouchable in normal circumstances. Every manager he has played under has made him a regular in their team — even when it took him some time to impress Henk Fraser on loan at Vitesse Arnhem as a teenager, he eventually won their player of the year award in 2018. Mount will be the first to admit his form hasn’t been at the usual standard, but it is surely temporary. The same could be said for Mateo Kovacic, who hasn’t reached full fitness yet due to a knee problem sustained in pre-season, and Ben Chilwell, who was always going to have to take things slowly following the knee ligament injury that kept him out for six months. Other new signings should be given the benefit of the doubt as they settle in. Marc Cucurella has shown some positive glimpses of what he can do. Since making a bright start, Kalidou Koulibaly has struggled a little. Wesley Fofana and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang have made just a couple of appearances each. Carney Chukwuemeka and Denis Zakaria are still waiting to make their debuts. That still leaves 11 players to talk about, many of whom have been underwhelming. Take goalkeeper Edouard Mendy. A minor knee injury hasn’t helped but his confidence levels have dipped, especially with the ball at his feet. Backup Kepa Arrizabalaga has put in two good displays in a row but clearly can’t be considered undroppable. Captain Cesar Azpilicueta has been useful in his leadership role but has yet to find his consistency defensively. Trevoh Chalobah will hope a change of coach will lead to a change of fortune given that Tuchel started him just 10 times since the turn of the year and only one of those came this season. Ruben Loftus-Cheek should be encouraged that he has played in every Premier League game this season. Is he doing enough, though, to be a permanent feature? He needs to reach a higher level of consistency if he wants to be considered more than just a handy squad player. Another academy graduate, Armando Broja, is also a source of positivity. He has shown enough in six substitute appearances to warrant a start. Yet you can’t say the 21-year-old is a must to lead the line every week. That would be unfair pressure to put him under anyway. Conor Gallagher is an example of what impact too much expectation can have on a youth product. After returning from a great loan at Crystal Palace, it has been a tough seven weeks for the midfielder, including being sent off against Leicester. However, he is so talented that it would be foolish to write him off. If anything, he’s been guilty of trying too hard to make an impact. That leaves more than £200million of talent in Jorginho, Kai Havertz, Christian Pulisic and Hakim Ziyech. Pulisic and Ziyech might complain that a lack of minutes hasn’t helped their cause but they’ve hardly made a statement in the time they’ve been on the pitch. Jorginho has looked slow in midfield and opponents are finding it too easy to play around him, as we saw in defeats at Leeds United and Southampton. Apart from his late winner against West Ham, Havertz has provided little end product up front. As the second-most expensive player in Chelsea’s history, the fans should expect a lot more. The decisive strike in the 2021 Champions League final is not enough to live off. This appraisal reflects a return of three wins in eight games. A run of 13 fixtures in six weeks before the World Cup will give others the chance to become untouchable. Potter will be hoping they do just that.

Hudson-Odoi in Germany: Catching the eye in the Champions League and as a No 10 https://theathletic.com/3614637/2022/09/22/callum-hudson-odoi-leverkusen/ It took all of five minutes for Callum Hudson-Odoi to produce a first flash of the quality that Chelsea supporters are hoping catches fire at Bayer Leverkusen this season. Picking up the ball by the left touchline midway through the second half against Freiburg, the substitute cuts infield and digs out a cross that loops invitingly towards a pocket of space just outside the six-yard box. Patrik Schick backtracks to meet it, then powers a header back across goalkeeper Mark Flekken to make it 2-2. Freiburg went on to win that game at the start of the month, compounding Leverkusen’s awful start to the Bundesliga season, but Hudson-Odoi’s contribution off the bench served notice that their embattled Swiss coach Gerardo Seoane does at least have a potent new attacking weapon at his disposal as he attempts to turn around his team’s fortunes. Four days later, Hudson-Odoi was rewarded with his first Leverkusen start, away to Club Bruges in the Champions League, and only a VAR offside decision prevented him from conjuring a similar goal: another high, arcing cross with his right foot, this time hit from closer to the touchline, floats deep into the penalty area… …over a sea of jostling bodies and touches down just inside the six-yard box, before bouncing back up and nestling into the far corner of the net. What’s the German for “corridor of uncertainty“? Hudson-Odoi may not be able to say it in the native tongue of his temporary home but he certainly knows how to find it. Seoane did not keep Hudson-Odoi on the left against Bruges, however. The Cobham graduate spent much of the evening operating more centrally as Leverkusen’s No 10. Part of his job was to take up intelligent positions behind the Bruges midfield to receive the ball (as in the move shown below), drive into the space ahead of him… …and make the right decision when he got into the final third. Here, he looks up, recognises that Jeremie Frimpong is the open man in a crossing position on the right, and finds him. That is a relatively straightforward sequence but Hudson-Odoi’s No 10 contributions in the next Champions League fixture against Atletico Madrid had a considerably higher degree of difficulty. In the 84th minute, he drifts over to the right touchline to receive a pass from Frimpong and, having drawn four Atletico players towards him, immediately clips a return pass into the right channel for the Dutchman to chase. Frimpong gets there and ultimately cuts the ball back to the edge of the box, where Robert Andrich fires into the far corner of the net. Three minutes later, with Atletico pushing up in search of an equaliser, Hudson-Odoi receives the ball in his own half, well aware that Mario Hermoso is coming to pressure him, which vacates space to his right. He quickly jinks away into it, leaving the Spaniard trailing in his wake. Leading the Leverkusen break, he once again picks the right moment to shift the ball into the path of Frimpong on his right… …and the low cross that follows gives Moussa Diaby the chance to apply a clinical finish to Leverkusen’s rapid counter-attack, sealing a huge upset. Hudson-Odoi’s ability to create danger from central areas and cutting in from the left has given Leverkusen’s attack fresh impetus in recent weeks. “He helps us with his technique and agility, also that he can change his position during the game,” Seoane said of his new loan addition. “That is very valuable for us as a team.” Hudson-Odoi’s positional versatility should not come as a surprise. For much of his Chelsea youth career, the now 21-year-old considered himself primarily a No 10 and only moved out to the left flank for England’s Under-17 World Cup-winning campaign in 2017 once Jadon Sancho departed the tournament to return to Borussia Dortmund duties at the end of the group stage. Neither role ever seemed particularly attainable for Hudson-Odoi at Chelsea, partly due to fierce competition from expensive attacking signings and partly due to the fact that previous head coach Thomas Tuchel quickly concluded that his value was limited to providing cover at right wing-back. By the end of this summer, Hudson-Odoi felt as if he had gone stale at Chelsea — a feeling cemented by Tuchel’s decision to leave him out of the matchday squad for the Premier League opener against Everton without explanation. Hudson-Odoi was proactive in canvassing other options and Leverkusen, boasting an impressive track record of developing young attacking talent sourced from their academy and elsewhere, immediately stood out among them. Germany was always likely to be the destination, too. Among those close to Hudson-Odoi, there is still the nagging question of how much closer to fulfilling his potential he would be now if he had joined Bayern Munich when they were keen three years ago, influenced by Sancho’s rapid rise to superstardom at Dortmund and also by the spectacular emergence of fellow Chelsea academy graduate Jamal Musiala at Bayern as the new golden boy of German football. Leverkusen offered him the chance to make up for lost time in a league that has provided fertile ground for dynamic young attackers to blossom. Hudson-Odoi’s early performances have underlined that he is well and truly over the bizarre nerve issue that curtailed last season, as well as reflecting just how seamlessly he has adapted to life in western Germany off the pitch. Chelsea colleague Kai Havertz helped beyond giving previous club Leverkusen his seal of approval, making some initial dressing-room introductions. Hudson-Odoi has found a squad full of English speakers as well as natural friends in the forms of Frimpong and Timothy Fosu-Mensah, two other graduates of Premier League academies (Manchester’s City and United respectively) who share his Ghanaian family heritage. He is still taking German lessons, though, and is determined to assimilate as fully as he can. Hudson-Odoi’s first five appearances in a struggling Leverkusen side have yielded only that one assist to Schick and zero goals, but the examples detailed above give a fuller picture of the threat he has carried in these early weeks. The more significant statistic is that, since coming off the bench to make his debut in that loss to Freiburg, he has started four matches in a row across all competitions — a feat he only managed twice in five seasons back at Chelsea. That, ultimately, is the point of joining Leverkusen on a season-long loan. “Regular football gives you consistency and the more games you play, the more consistent you become, the more form starts to kick in,” Hudson-Odoi said in an interview with the Mail on Sunday last week. “You feel fresher, you feel better, you feel like… not that you’re getting treated fairly, but that you’ve got the trust from the manager to push you, and kick you on. You don’t want to be on the bench thinking, ‘Why am I not playing?’, and then it becomes weeks and weeks, and the legs are rusty when you do play. “The most important thing is consistent football. That’s what I’m getting here and it’s making me feel better.”

yes, much better

Of course we all want him and every Chels player to come good and play their best and not get inured, but many of us are flat out of patience with Captain Murica. I was against the buy from the beginning (my long ago 'marketing buy' comment for which I got a bit of stick, plus a post showing his lack of production at Dortmund), so at least I have consistency on my side. I was even more against Ziyech, as (other than GKers and some superior CMF types like De Jong and Gravenberch) I simply do not trust most Dutch league players unless they are youth prospects on the cheap, plus we bought him at a bad age (he is 30yo in a few months and his value will drop even more). I would much rather go happy hunting in the Belgian league, as the prices are cheaper and the clubs are easier to deal with on balance, and tbh, they grab a tonne of French and African youngsters, etc, who seem to pan out more in the Big 5 leagues.

I cannot believe he is starting slabhead and bringing on Luke Shaw when we need 2 goals neither should even be on the team at all, they are both shit

Fraudgate special

wow Attila Szalai was a beast

If Italy had their full team healthy, thsi would be 4 nil or so

they just said (I think) 519 minutes and no open play goal

he is a baller, already close to the best CMF on the planet

when England plays Sweden I am for England, but not gutted if Sweden wins or draws not happy Sweden choked and blew the WC qualification I do not get nearly as invested in international football as I do Chels (I go mental over chels all the time, lolol) I just want to see good matches in terms of international footie

it's the hope that kills you

Born and raised in west London (South Kensington mostly) Swedish father, Bajan mum, and I have lived in Sweden for last 4 plus years dual citizenship

Kyle Walker has been shit poor, same for Slabhead Rice has been poor as well Saka has been invisible the whole game

it's been like 450 minutes since we have scored a goal from open play wtf

Fraudgate exposed again and his answer? bring on Luke Shaw, ffs

1 nil Italy Giacomo Raspadori we have been SHIT, other than Bellingham

ffs so sick of this shit he is made of glass

Yes, Zakharyan is more of a creative AMF than a winger (where he rarely plays), which is why I am very much in want of him. Plus he is right footed, so not a natural RW (I really want a lefty at RW).

almost 1 nil Italy, slabby burnt for a header

I cannot believe slabhead is starting

2022-23 UEFA Nations League, Group Stage Italy England https://livestreams.totalsportek.com/game/italy-vs-england/1946/