King Kante

Lets be honest here, Cech is not GK4. If this was the case and he is there only for injury emergencies i.e. two out of Kepa, Mendy and Willy going down, we could've registered him anyway due to the GK emergency rules. Hence, the club must've done this for him to be GK3 at the very least. In my opinion, Kepa/Willy will continue to ride the bench but if Mendy goes down, but expect some non-specified injuries to afflict Kepa and Willy that same week if it does happen. As for Kepa, it is hard not to feel a bit sorry for him, as I do not think he actually has a attitude problem. However, at the same time he is absolute garbage and deserves to be GK4 on form. That is the reality and one that was being pointed out a while ago by a few of us on here. As for Cech, his last season at Le Arse made him a better GK than Willy and Kepa, so I am not really worried about using him as that was only 17 months ago. Plenty of GK2's go similar amounts of time without playing or only playing a game or two. Fitness is the only issue here but GK's do not exactly need to get through hard yards and from the looks of it he has been training since the start of the season anyway.

Personally, I really do not know why we are playing 4231. That formation requires the players in the pivot to be tactically disciplined and strong in the tackle to work well. Jorgi and Kante aren't that. For me, just go with 433 as that formation allows Mount and Harvetz to play as No.8's or Mount even to move to a No.6 role which is probably where he will be effective as his best quality is pressing the ball and getting through the yards (or even James who I still maintain will become a CM before he is 24). Obviously, the No.4 position is a bit of an issue against sides that press high, but I really cannot handle Kante and Jorgi allow teams to run through them so much. As for the rest of the team, meh performance but happy to see some good defensive performances for Thiago, Mendy, James and Chilwell. As for Zouma he proved again he really isn't the right quality as again his lack of ability on the ball, clearance skills and reading of the game got him into trouble a couple of times. Personally, I rather AC as with Mendy in goal the need for Zouma's aerial ability isn't needed as much as when Kepa is there. This is not saying AC is great, but I rather him as he can actually pass the ball under pressure and has better positional sense.

Sad times.

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣. Kepa now 4th choice. And there were people on here telling me last season that I needed to watch/have more faith in Kepa and then he would prove his quality. As I said at the time, Kepa is thee worst buy in Chelsea history, bar none. Karius level GK at best.

Thanks, do not need to write a long reply now. Further, another thing with Mount is that he appears to have an incredible work ethic like SFL had. Therefore, whereas other players at a similar age may be better, like SFL I can see him improving his game beyond his natural ability. Like SFL this will also take time. People seem to forget that SFL didn't become an elite player until he was around 24-25, Mount is still 3-4 years off that.

The Mount criticism around here is crazy, I truly am unable to comprehend it. However, it should be remembered that half of those doing it are probably the same lot that thought selling KdB for £18m was a good idea due to him having an attitude problem and being lazy.

I agree. I think, apart from the Dipper game where he got himself sent off (and even then, Mane getting the jump on him is hardly criminal considering he is probably the best attacker in the league and once past him Kepa had waited too long to come out) AC has been performing pretty well. As you say, WBA mistakes everywhere, none on him. Soton the same, Brighton another decent, if not great, individual performance. Further, if people where actually watching him without bias they would see he has actually improved his interception rate and is winning more duels. The two key things people criticise him for. I am not saying he is great and there are a lot of things he can still improve. However, the fact is, out of him, Tomori, Zouma and Rudiger he has the best reading of the game, tactical discipline and passing under pressure. For this reason, when Thiago is fit I want him as CB2 as he the one that is currently playing the best. Only problem with this will be set pieces but if Mendy is back soon, I'd rather live with AC's aerial ability over Zouma's lacking of positional sense and awful passing under the press.

I do not really see why AC is getting any heat here. Sure, he hasn't been great but on Saturday he played ok, none of the goals where on him and he actually won most of his duals. Reason for the goals where due to structural issues with the set up and individual mistakes from Harvetz, Zouma and Kepa.

This has p*ssed me off even more. If this was his instruction why the feck did he not bring on Giroud, who is, you know, our best CF at holding up the ball.

What? Ziyech gave the ball away about five times. If Mount had done that then the TalkChelsea lynch mob would have been going for their pitchforks and torches. I am not trying to beat up on Ziyech as he has been out but he was poor when he came on and couldn't pick up the pace of the game. As for the game overall, good 1st 40 minutes then fell apart once Soton figured out that they need to step up on our FB's and not give them too much space to run into. This is what happened against Spurs. As for the 2nd goal, as much as I have been anti-Kepa, Zouma is at least equally at fault if not more. That was a prime example of why I have always been against him being one of our starting CB's. Poor under pressure and has sub-par passing. This said, there are still seriously systemic problems with the team. The double pivot isn't working as teams just run past it and the defence is still an absolute shambles. As for the substitutions, I am yet again asking why Giroud wasn't put on. We needed an outlet and someone to help with defending set pieces. This was clear from 70 mins and yet again he is left to rot on the bench. Further, Ziyech should never have been put on, Soton are possibly the fittest team in the league and he is lightweight and hasn't played a competitive match since March. James should've been the first sub, followed by Giroud and then maybe Ziyech if you want to give him five minutes or just leave it at the two. Really poor game management. Further, the anti-Mount stuff around here needs to stop, it is getting beyond ridiculous now.

Kepa be like:

Law saying that we would've gone for Partey if we had managed to sell Rudiger and loaned some of the dregs. Shame it didn't happen. Would've been a great fit.

Tbf, a lot of the deadwood and a couplw of those listed can go to domestic teams. We still have another week to clear decks. Obviously not going to recoup much, and probably have to pay a lot of wages still, but it is what it is atm. We had to buy the caliber of players we did in the positions we did as we weren't good enough. Luckily for us we have Roman. If we had been a Spud type organisation the squad pre-2020-21 could've sunk us.

Yeah, until we play a team who have a lot of hard runners and are big. Then they will run straight through us unless Kante gets back to 2015-18 level and stays fit.

AC is the only one of the five that has passing to any level near that required of a DMF. Zouma would be an absolute nightmare.

Indeed. I have been on the Harvetz hype train for about 2 years now. Tbh, I thought he would take a while to settle as he isn't the most robust but he is already impressing me with his off the ball work which has been the poorest area of his game and something that he will need to continue to work on. As for his forward play, he already seems to be nearly there in regard to timing his runs and weighting his passes. His ability to play the right weight on his passes is excellent, KDB is probably the only one ahead of him in the league on that. The assit to CHO against WBA and the one he played into Werner against Palace at full speed are incredibly difficult passes to weight correctly. If we can get Ziyech in and he finds his feet quickly, then I can see Havertz getting 15-20 goals this season as he just needs someone to pick him up in space as there have been a few times in the league already were he has got the run/lost his marker, only for the ball to be late/over hit to him.

Played well today and offered more going forward than I thought he would. However, my biggest concern with him wasn't his forward play but rather his defensive play. Today I saw about four times he allowed his marker to run off of him. This may have been due to him settling in but he cannot allow that against better teams.

I do not want to sell but if it is true that it is €77m then I could understand the club taking it. However, it needs to be obligation to buy or Bayern can f*ck off.

This is very true. Rice is pretty much a tough buy for the next 2-3 years owing to his contract and the fact he Wet Spams best player. Even if we wait to next Summer we aren't certain we would get him. Further, whilst I have warmed to Rice a lot since the start of last season, the figures being mentioned are slightly crazy. For me, Partey still has another good 5 years in him and he is reasonable value. All in all, Partey is the one that makes most sense.

If we manage to get Partey, then it will be time to have a Party.

I do not understand this CHO rumour. We are a winger short as it is, the kid is only 20 (and coming off a bad injury) and we have kept hold of youth players without as much talent for a long time. Not liking the feel of this one at all.

I imagine the club have irons in the fire, Rice does seem first choice but it seems to me that there is an acknowledgement that DMF is needed. Further, the club are pretty good at keeping their cards close to their chest on certain deals. Ziyech, Sarr and Werner both went under the rader until done. My money is on one more signing as a minimum.

I really hope we do not persist with 4231 if those are our options for the pivot. They offer about as much resistance as a wet paper bag without the ball. If Kova/Kante/Jorgi/Billy are indeed our pivot options then just move to 433 and have Kante try and play side to side rather than up and down and Jorgi to sit in there against defensive/low block teams.

No, we do not and that has more to do with the manager. However, that aside we all know Kova/Jorgi as a combo is cupcake soft and will allow teams to run straight through us and that Zouma and Tomori are still tactically poorer than AC (although he has a problem with physicality and mentality.)

Yes, but they still had their starting back four and GK on, so it wasn't exactly as if they just rolled over/had the kids out. Further, our team wasn't great, which I admitted. The biggest problem at the moment lies with the manager and the lack of tactical cohesion for sure. My point was that the team tonight wasn't near our first XI, whixh is true.