Tomo

The lack of pre season is starting to bite now, since September we have not had a free midweek which has equated to no time to really work on the training ground with patterns and shapes, which is a killer when learning a new system. In many ways Bournemouth dumping us out of the cup and freeing up our midweeks in January could turn out to be a good thing for us.

What i am loving the most so far with Sarri is how open he is about the need to improve on the defensive phase and how much work still needs to be done on it. How many times down the years have we seen a manager with an attacking philosophy arrogantly look down their nose at defense play like it was beneath them and bang on about their principles or whatever bolax after a defensive horror show? To say im relieved Sarri isn't of that mould is a massively misguided understatement.

Every time i see a post about Willian it's either people going too far with praise or too far with criticism, it's ridiculous that no one can seem to find the correct middle ground with him.

Kante best position doesn't exist in Sarri'tactics, he's not a lone DM and never will be.

We will have to wait and see on that one, but so far with Jorginho and Kepa it's so far so good.

And to add further, Klopp and Pep took over from managers who had similar ideas and philosophys to them, they weren't as effective as they were inferior managers but the base was there for them. Sarri has took over a squad trained in a completely different style of football to his.

That type of logic works both ways, you say we have won games because opponents missing sitters, well apart from Spurs all our dropped points was a large chunk down to us missing sitters. Also with the rotation they shouldn't be run into the ground already, they are all apart from Kepa and Willian mainly playing once a week at the minute with the odd midweek game so if they are burnt out already Sarri needs to look at his fitness regime not rotation policy. I am however with you on Hazard, he should be on the bench until he's 100% fit again.

I agree to an extent, little things like the fullbacks staying back and Kante and/or Kova sticking closer to Jorginho should happen, but he shouldn't waver from his base tactics and philosophy even if it means a few thrashing in the short term. Everyone thought Pep was mental not going more pragmatic in his first season but he stuck to his guns and got his rewards, we need to do the same.

That formation doesn't work for non counter attack teams, reverting to that formation would render Sarri's appointment and especially what we want him to build null and void. We commited to this new direction so we have to see it through, no comprises!

When was that?

If there's ever a player that represents everything Sarri's philosophy isn't, it's Lukaku!!!

If he's got a solid idea on what he's trying to build i would rather he sticks to it than adapts to get a few short term results (especially given it would 99% not be good enough for the title) even if it means a few humblings. If Sarri reverts to the type we have been use to the players subconsciously would revert to a comfort zone and stop fully listening to him and it would be the beginning of thd end of his time here. Everyone thought Pep was mental not adapting more defensive tactics in his first season, but he stuck to his guns and has arguably created the best PL team ever, we need to stop this reverting to type for short term results as it ultimately ends us back into square one, it's time to build something sustainable. If Sarri ultimately fails results wise here he could still end up creating a style and way of playing someone say Lamps could seemlessly continue on from.

While Giroud is far from the answer he has only really played the two games vs Bate in Europa (ten minutes in Greece aswell) and was pretty decent in both.

I really can't understand why Sarri is persisting with Morata and Willian over Giroud and Pedro and it was the starting block towards what went wrong today, ignoring the difference the latter two bring to the attack they press intelligently allowing us to cut passing lanes and win the ball back high up, Morata can't be arsed to press and Willian while he tries doesn't have the positional sense Pedro does and ends up chasing like a dog running after a tennis ball (there's a reason Conte played anyone but him at WB whenever Moses was out). Until we get better options those Pedro and Olivier must be the starters alongside Hazard.

I don't think anyone underestimated his achievements in the title season, don't get that confused with the deserved critics he got for last season.

He was pretty good i felt in his first year back here, he was often pressing and intercepting high up (6-0 Arsenal a key example) and anticipating danger, i remember being at The Bridge for his second debut vs Stoke and what stuck in my mind was he anticipated Cole getting skinned by Arnautovic so when that did happen he was ready to sweep up. Then in 2015 his form, like the rest of the squad bar Hazard's who followed suit in the summer, nosedived, but unlike his teammates he never really got back on it again.

Sheva

Im not to sure they do, with the exception of Torres we have never stuck with flops for very long, even Roman's mate was frozen out after a season anc dumped after two.

It will be pointless keeping him because Sarri would never play him in competitive circumstances.

Tbf pundits and opposition fans make out like he's not far behind Hazard, whenever i say i prefer Pedro starting to a non Chelsea fan they look at me like im saying Morata is better than Aguero.

Yes he was, this rewrritting of history with Torres is getting ridiculous.

It's easy to say in hindsight that they fitted Conte's system, i bet if i told you after the 3-0 loss at Arsenal we would win the title with Moses as a wing back, Alonso, Cahill, Pedro playing key roles and even Matic resembling something of a footballer again you would have laughed. Out of all those players you listed (as not good enough) only 1 is a bonafide starter. Im not making out per se, just saying we have been here before. And why are you cherry picking the rubbish games to peddle your side? I could counter that by saying remember Cardiff, Burnley and Bate (home)?

Pointless comparison, totally different periods of time those thing happened.

This past week has been a massive reality check for anyone who thinks we shouldn't sign Kova full time, Barkley and RLC are assests when on it especially the former but total liability's when not.

And i bet at the start of that season you gave every reason under the sun as to why we couldn't challenge either. And while we may have been better off up front back then, we are light years better than that team (personel wise) currently in both defence and especially midfield. I don't actually think we will win the league, but this squad isn't as bad as you/Conte make out.