Mhsc

Haven't even started to think about what we need to do in summer. How to make sense of a squad like ours, where in almost every position we have good options if only they would be fit? Could make an argument for GK, CB, LB, CM (somewhat amazingly), LW, ST...

It is funny before the incident even happened at the end I had already posted my thoughts about VAR: needs to be abolished, imo. I've honestly not enjoyed the game in the same way since it was introduced. I just feel numb, watching goals go in and wondering if it is really a goal, waiting at least a minute after (often several) to understand if it is a real goal. And by then the high has mostly gone. I really wish we would eradicate it or heavily limit its usage. I am in favour of perhaps using it for reviewing incidents of reckless / dangerous foul play. Other than that I don't really want it in our game. Even the offside stuff takes too long and kills the enjoyment. Just leave it to the people on the ground, yes they'll make mistakes, but we can actually enjoy the game moment by moment again.

I'm going to say it. I miss Rafa Benitez.

We are just a fraudulent team, pretending to be good by keeping possession for no reason, each player taking 2 to 4 touches on the ball, passing it to another player who does the same, going around a triangle a few times before going back to midfield to repeat it all over again. Every once in a while someone gets naughty and ignores the "system" and decides to speed up the play and suddenly we get an opportunity, but instead of battering them with them all game we like to spend about 15 minutes of slow passing in triangles to create one. I don't know for sure it is Poch's fault (who knows what he teaches them or what the instructions are) but I am so done with it.

We are also never picking up a Cole Palmer without the club trusting these recruiters, but it seems like Joe Shields is basically the man we need and the rest can fuck off.

Why did I even tune in?

Are we? We're just passing it around where they want us to.

I'd use it to get red cards out for serious serious foul play not spotted by ref, just to protect the players so everyone knows you can't get away with anything (your Suarez's biting incidents etc). Other than that no interest in it at all.

Said it before I'll say it again, football is ruined with VAR, rather not have any of it. Can't celebrate a goal or experience any highs in football anymore. Correct decision got to there in the end but just not an enjoyable game to watch anymore. Wish we could go back to the old days and have real games of football.

World class finish but gut says it was offside slightly

And they did indeed. The race for 1st, 4th and 6th along with the battle for 17th still keeping the league pretty interesting all the way to the end.

Man Utd potentially bottling it

An 8pm kickoff on a saturday...what the fuck

I am still not worried about NJ. Great buy at £32m. Imagine how our year would have been if he wasn't in the squad. 22 years old, first season in the premier league, in tough circumstances. Seems like we are quick to give up on players around here. I for one am thrilled we have this guy, he's only going to get better and the worst case scenario for him is he ends up being a rotation option or moved to play out wide as and when someone emerges getting 20+ a season as a main striker, which if it happened would put us in a phenomenal position. NJ, Cole Palmer, Enzo, and Malo Gusto are some of the signings I have a lot of long term faith in. Lavia and Nkunku I would if they were not seriously injured all year. Other than that I feel like we have burnt a lot of money on pretty average players (or worse), but I hope to be proven wrong.

I do wonder if we are just setting up whoever the next manager is for failure. The squad situation is shocking and unbelievable, maybe even unprecedented - so many very, very expensive players who have long term fitness problems that may never go away. We have burnt all of the money. We don't have a squad designed to play in a particular way or suit some style. Honestly, is there a manager in the world that can take this situation and turn it around in short order? Maybe we can get someone who is a bit less controversial, which you could maybe argue has been Potter and Poch's weakness: they both strongly stuck to their own ideas, doing (seemingly) odd things that frustrated us fans. Results did not follow, and we ended up being sick of both of them. But in truth a manager could go with team selections we prefer, make subs more to our liking, and whatever, and the results could be the same or worse. Maybe the only thing that would be different is we'd blame the owners and the directors more and the manager less.

Agreed he has had a dreadful season, compared to the standard we were expecting at least. It is said though that he has a hernia problem and has been having injections before the games because the pain is so bad, and has been contemplating having surgery to get it sorted properly. If that is true then I would tell the lad at this point to just get it done and be ready for next year, and hope that was a large part of his decline from the player we bought. I also think he has been misused and that ended up impacting his confidence, but that was partly his own fault as he actually asked to be used like that and said he could play further forward and contribute goals.

I imagine the players have a similar sentiment about people like you to be fair

I feel blessed that I totally forgot there was football last night (it being a random Tuesday evening). Not going to look into what happened too much. All I can think of is the Battle of the Bridge when Spurs were going for the title and how we stepped up to do the right thing, and how far we have fallen since then. As I have said before, I don't think there is any easy fix here, sacking Poch makes sense but I do think it is fair to say another manager will also massively struggle with the squad in the state it is in now (largely because of injuries) and you could argue its better to let Poch take the reputation hit until end of season and get a new manager in only then, hoping that by the start of next season we have a fit-ish squad and a better medical department for next year... but it does feel somewhat inevitable that the injured players will just stay injured and are basically close to write-offs and it will be a massive slice of luck if any of them end up having a proper Chelsea career playing as high level footballers. The owners have burnt their way through all the money and even if we had more we cannot spend much without breaking all of the financial rules, not that we'd spend it well if we did have ability to spend a lot more. So now our best hope is to spend smaller amounts in a few positions for just solid experiences players, get a good manager in, and hope all of this youth we've bought grow into top players. Don't really see any other option at this point, aside from if there are some new owners with deep pockets that want to try the rebuild v3.

I think you are being excessively harsh on our squad. I guess you don't consider Colwill a good passer either?

That is all true but it doesn't change anything that I said...

I don't think Caicedo or Enzo suit Poch's system at all, albeit it is not really an excuse for the level of Caicedo at the moment, who needs to adapt better and at least concentrate for the full 90. He probably wants a pure DM next to a very strong, powerful, ball carrying CM. Imo it would have been better to play Caicedo as an inverted fullback and run with a Gallagher/Enzo midfield against Sheffield United, not a perfect setup (because injuries) but De Zerbi used Caicedo like that sometimes and if we're going to go with very defensive fullbacks vs a bottom of the league team it surely makes sense to put in someone who can drop into midfield to help with numbers there to try to out play them through the middle.

1-2 years and a few transfer windows is about right, but during the journey you expect to see a progression as the players learn a system, a clear philosophy of the manager, and you just have that feeling that over time you're just going to get better and better after a few targeted signings. My main beef with Poch's quote is that he is washing his hands of ALL responsibility and accountability and fobbing us off that we have to wait a totally unrealistic amount of time to be able to outscore Sheffield United, who are on -52 GD.

Poch now saying it is a 3 to 5 year process to build a team, omg

Feel like the last time I enjoyed the way our team played strategically under Poch was in preseason when we had Andrey Santos playing and Poch went with a 3-2-5 setup in possession, that team looked like it had so much potential. The only huge positive we've had from this year is Cole Palmer, thank god we've got him on a 7-8 year contract. It is really hard to engage with the team when there is no signs we are building towards anything, there's no clear system the squad are learning and most players are stagnating or getting worse as time goes on.

Don't think we've ever had a manager turn it around from this level of failure and this level of loss of trust with the fans, have we? Poch would have to come out with an entirely new strategic setup and really adjust to the players he has all of a sudden, which just doesn't seem likely.