Mhsc

Conor worked hard as fuck and was a servant for the club, humble, played in whatever position you asked him to without complaint, would be a squad player without complaint, ran all day at max intensity, stayed fit, saved our season last year. Happy he got a good move to a top club that will suit him and that he chose to go to Spain and play in the CL regularly to have a real career for himself. Top lad. Don't think he's one we will ever regret losing but I for one am thankful for what he did for us and proud that he came through at Chels and in the end we could find a good solution for everybody.

Pep in his first season when the media were starting to turn against him for insisting to stick to his method and let the team learn how to play out from the back

Mudryk doesn't look fit to be more than an impact sub against tired legs - if he's lucky. Very poor in 1v1s and totally failing at playing on the wing tbh. I wonder if he fancies himself playing behind the striker, given the shirt number he's taken? Bizarre.

It was the pitch last year that did Nkunku's knee while we were in US wasn't it? These USA preseason tours are terrible prep for the season...good commercially, but a USA tour travelling around every couple of days, playing/training in hot conditions they wont get in the UK, and playing on terrible pitches that again they'll never see in the UK, is just purely for money and not to actually setup the team for success. Fmpov it is one of the uglier aspects of modern football, everyone would rather make some millions in preseason than actually be well prepared for the season to start.

One of the things about losses is that suddenly everyone splurges all of their biases out and says "I told you so" using it to affirm whatever objection they have, whether it be that certain players are shit, the owners are shit, Maresca is shit, or the directors are shit, passing it out from the back is shit, not letting our fullbacks bomb forward is shit, or whatever... to some it will be final proof we should never have sold Mason Mount. Find it all quite exhausting tbh, toxic and kind of sad. Apparently, neither manager nor players are allowed to make mistakes (even in preseason): straight to the gallows for em. A bunch of people are even now after Caicedo, saying because he made a mistake and didn't play at his best in his first pre season game that he is finished, was never good enough, and of course they've been saying it all along: "I TOLD YOU HE'S SHIT". Also, everyone who screams we should not play it out from the back, what exactly do you want us to do instead?

Been a bit like a Pochettino game tbh that's all I'll say homie. Don't tune in

Sterling looks good tbf

Lots of failed experiments in that first 60 mins and some huge individual errors. We look a lot better now that Maresca has reverted to the usual system with players playing in normal positions. Hopefully we'll never see that shit again. Weird af attempt to squeeze that group of players onto the field. Reminded me of the Chilwell LW experiment by Poch tbh. Hopefully Maresca bins that forever and sticks with playing proper wingers in their natural positions.

Was wondering if anyone was going to say it... Very, very poor.

That was literally in the first few minutes of preseason for Caicedo... Remember he was a key player in De Zerbi's system and phenomenal for us last year when we had inverted fullback playing next to him. I think he and Lavia will both play better as a pivot with a player like Malo next to them though. I don't really see that we can get Enzo, Lavia and Caicedo in teh same XI and this was a WEIRD attempt at it.

This is definitely the most bizarre line up we've seen so far. Mudryk RW, Malo LW, Nkunku up top. Bit bizarre, Malo and Mudryk both look awkward playing on these sides, I wonder what the point is?

That's not true though is it. This game has had nothign to do with the system so far and everything to do with players making embarrassing school boy errors

Is that Malo LW?

Is kick off delayed or streams behind?

Not yet but you don't rush making a signing purely based on a short term fitness problem in one guy. The squad is mostly fit and we do have options: Guiu, Nkunku, and even Cole Palmer could play there as a false 9.

I don't think so, I like Marc but we are already stacked there and he is similar tier to players we already have imo

As in part of a box midfield, not in the pivot but one of the two midfielders behind the striker. I dunno whether to call it a double 10 or call them left and right 8s... It is not exactly a traditional system where the numbers make complete sense.

It is interesting Maresca has mentioned he considers Nkunku as someone who can play as a 9, a winger or an 8 but hasn't tried him anywhere other than as an 8 all preseason. I guess he considers that more of an emergency option than a serious one.

I am thrilled tbh - my main ask for the new manager was just get someone who wants to play positional football and will coach them in patterns. I think it is even more important when you have an inexperienced group. I do think a group of top, talented 25-30 year olds could still compete and maybe win PL playing non-positional football, where they just decide in every situation based on their experience and creativity what to do - but that's just not our situation. When you've got a bunch of young, inexperienced lads that are very talented but still learning the game, the only chance you have to win in the short term is via coaching good patterns of play into them to bridge the experience gap.

Osimhen rumours seem to have gone quiet. Julian Alvarez ones quiet too. Beier was the latest rumour I saw with Villa and us both interested as he has a 30m clause and out performed his xG in a great year last year and only 21 years old...very Clearlake type signing, if that goes anywhere. Certainly seems like the club think NJ+Guiu is not the answer at the mo. I wonder if they have in mind that NJ could sort out the winger problem if we had a good no. 9?

https://www.fullreplays.com/friendly/club-friendlies/Chelsea-vs-club-america-31-jul-2024/ This is where I watched it. Personally I watch on 1.5x or 2x speed when its not live...

Ha, finally watched the game (in 2x speed) its funny how the result makes everything feel different. Not really sure we leapt forward that much from previous games but we ended up winning this one 3-0. They were woeful and conceded two stupid pens, we are still looking pretty raw imo - VERY wasteful of the opportunities we create, but in general we still need to improve with and without the ball a lot. Bright sides for me were Sanchez really showing something this game, he was much better with his feet and played with supreme confidence. Another amazing save. A few lads like Lavia and Nkunku also look great - imo we totally would have got top 4 last season if they were both fit. Madueke is so far a very frustrating player, almost unplayable in some situations but then fails to take advantage of his own brilliance. Playing with swagger is great but you've got to be a team player and humble at the same time, only people like Ronaldo can get away with a lot of the selfish decisions he's making, because they're that good. I imagine he will be starting on the bench in PL if everyone is fit and available based on what we've seen so far.

I would imagine he would be looking at it as "I can break into this team and play this year" which is exactly the mentality you've got to have as a top player. If he chooses to leave then I'm happy for him, if he chooses to stay then I'm happy for him. He seems like a good guy and we lose a bit of our identity when guys like this leave the club. It is not his fault the style of play has moved away from the one he excels in.

Haven't watched the replay yet, but it looks like an interesting example of how this kind of system really thrives when you have a lead and need to convert it, given we basically went ahead 1 minute in. We had a lot of trouble last year converting when we were ahead and I think Maresca ball will be 10x better at doing that honestly.

I don't blame him tbh. If the club don't value or respect you why should you do them any favours? I'd 100% do the same. He can get a HUGE signing fee in a years time and go onto huge wages that will set him up for life, or force the club to make him a proper contract offer that will do similar and keep him at the club he fundamentally wants to be at. Feels very different to the Mason Mount situation given he was offered a very long deal on tonnes of money and it wasn't enough for him and he thought he was literally the dogs bollocks and had no real interest in staying at Chelsea except for money and couldn't wait to get out. Gallagher's stance has been exactly correct (whether it is true or not who knows): this is the club I love and I just want to stay and be part of it, offer me a long term deal on par with my peers and you'll have my loyalty forever. Honestly Chelsea boys like Gallagher and Chalobah I just wish the best for them personally man they've done nothing but be servants for the club and represented us with pride since they were kids, living the dream that lots of us had growing up following Chels. Neither of them out there trying to build some kind of brand for themselves or think they're bigger than the club. They just want what is fair.