Pizy

I just don’t think height alone makes a huge difference in how teams attack you. Look at Leicester this season who I think conceded by far the most goals from corners and set pieces. Their team has several really tall CB’s and it didn’t matter. It’s more about how you set up and mark opponents.

I just don’t see his height as that big of a deal. If he had that lack of height AND was also very sleight and skinny I’d be cautious. But he’s built like a tank and has a great leap on him. I don’t really ever hear about his height being a weakness when I read about him. Him taking chances on the ball is definitely something that needs to be taken out of his game and cleaned up. But l’d take someone who is slightly risky with the ball than someone who is totally passive and soft like Christensen was in that right CB position. As for the back 4 vs back 3 thing, he is well capable of playing as a RB if necessary. He has done it numerous times. Not worried about that.

Just saw someone point out on Twitter that Koundé is in the La Liga team of the season (for the 2nd straight year) and that Gvardiol is in the Bundesliga team of the season at just 19/20 years old. We’d be setting ourselves up for the very long term if we can get both. They can lock down those left and right CB spots and give us such a different dimension than what we’ve been used to. And if both can get a season under their belts it’ll make getting Silva’s long term replacement in the middle spot easier next summer.

Well at least it’s not Liverpool. I guess now unless we get creative we’ll be sticking with Kante and J5 again next season. Should we try for Bissouma? He’s a beast and maybe the closest thing to Kante out there in terms of playing style. Premier League ready and wouldn’t cost mega money.

Gvardiol has probably the most impressive YouTube highlights I’ve seen of any CB in recent years. He’s got the exact same sort of aggression and force that Rüdiger has but then has ridiculous skills on the ball as well. He looks as good as an attacking midfielder in possession. He’s picture perfect as a Toni replacement. Really hope we get him. He’s the sort of profile that Pep or Klopp would sign for sure, so we need to move this summer while those sides don’t need another CB.

This article mentions Raheem Sterling as a potential option for us. Don’t know quite how I’d feel about signing him. He almost reminds of of Willian in that he’ll have long spells during the season where he looks amazing and then long spells where he is painfully average. As a fallback option if Dembele isn’t possible I’d probably be happy with Sterling. So long as he isn’t the only attacker we sign…

You’re now the second person to misinterpret what I said about Auba at Arse. What I meant was (and thought it was bloody obvious) referring to what he was like when he left Arse, not his overall time there. He was absolutely dreadful for months before he forced himself out. He was shockingly bad on the pitch and some Arse supporters had turned on him.

Not really the profile of midfielder we need.

Really don’t understand why Liverpool need him and especially not for 80m. They’ve got one of the best DM’s around in Fabinho who is only 28 and Thiago who also plays deep in midfield. Add He Derwin and Keita. Where does Tchouameni even fit?

Love him as a player but think he would potentially struggle in this league at his size. Lots of thuggish CB’s who would smack him around.

Good shout for Atleti, I forgot about them. Think Rom would do well there actually.

Unless an Italian club comes in with a loan offer, where could Rom even possibly go otherwise? Don’t know where some of you expect him to be moved to. The only destination that really makes sense would be Milan since Zlatan and Giroud are ancient. But would he go there with his Inter history and professing his undying love for that club? Our best chance of any kind of dramatic move went out the window with Spuds securing 4th today. I could’ve seen a Kane for Rom swap since Conte loves him and Kane would’ve been itching to leave without CL footy. Think we have to accept that Lukaku will be a Chelsea player next season. Just have to hope that we build a strong enough team that our whole season doesn’t depend on him scoring 20+ like it did this one.

James, Chilly, and Silva benefit massively. Allows the former two to spend most of their time attacking (which had us top of the league at one point) and Silva gets to have the protection of two CB’s beside him with legs so he can be the boss in the middle. Probably also helps Mendy a lot to have 3 CB’s and 2 midfielders in front of him as options and security. If we want to switch to a back 4 it surely means Silva has to drop to the bench. Unless we sign a monster like Koulibaly to play beside him.

If our #9 spot was totally vacant like it was last summer I think we’d have a legit chance at Lewa. We’d probably offer Bayern €50m and he’d come here. But it seems he has a genuine desire to go to Barca and with Lukaku being virtually unmovable any time soon we aren’t in any position to move for Lewandowski. If we sign any strikers this summer I think it’s going to have to be more of a hybrid type like Nkunku. No more traditional #9’s.

I’m fine sticking with the 3-4-3 again next season if we actually sign a couple of killers to replace Werner/Pulisic/CHO/Lukaku and have suitable backups/alternatives to Reece and Chilly if they get injured again. A club like Chelsea shouldn’t fall off a cliff in quality with injuries to one area of the team like we did when our wingbacks went out. It’ll be suicidal to enter next season without a massive refresh in the attacking positions. The club cannot possibly be thinking this summer that if we simply replace Rüdiger with Koundé, have Reece & Chilly fit, and recall Gallagher and Broja that we’re competing next season. We need a radical rebuild in the same way United will have this summer. They’ll likely have 6-8 players going and 6-8 coming in. And that’s exactly what we need. Rudiger, AC, Azpi, Alonso, Ziyech, Sarr, Kenedy, Barkley, Werner all need to go. Some like CHO and Lukaku should go but will likely be impossible to move due to their wages. And then one of J5 or Kante should go as well. Likely Jorginho after Tuchel’s comments about Kante the other day. If we want to challenge the top 2 and make it late into the CL we’ll need 2 new CB’s, 2 new wingbacks, a DM, and 2 attackers of some sort that reliably score goals.

Pretty much every quote form Tuchel about this summer makes him seem genuinely scared and worried. Hopefully Boehly makes funds available as soon as possible after everything is sorted so we can get a couple of signings in early to ease Tuchel’s concern. I pray that the football people at the club (be it Marina, Cech, the scouts etc) are ready to hit the ground running immediately.

Mentioned this a week or so ago, but if we aren’t spot on this summer with our business I think Spuds will go into next season clearly favored to finish above us. Conte will build an extremely formidable squad if given the funds and with Kane and Son they always have ridiculous goal return unlike us.

Yep. If Real Madrid do the entire football world a favor now Liverpool’s “historic, legendary” season may end up barely better than ours.

Thank goodness that season is over. What started off as such a promising season ends with us limping meekly over the finish line. Hard to pick out too many positives. Mount continuing to become more decisive in the final third is one. Reece and Chilly ending the season fit is another couple. Thiago Silva still not losing a step at age 38. Just about everyone else was a huge disappointment. We’ll really be entering this summer massively on the back foot because so many incomings and outgoing will need to happen.

And in typical Chelsea fashion. Sarr ball watching like a clown again.

Liverpool about to win the treble, ffs. Then the quad.

Great, one donkey off for another. 😬

We look dogshit here. I know the game is meaningless and the burning intensity isn’t there, but our quality is shockingly poor.

City in the brink of the worst PL title choke and worst CL bottle job ever in the same season.

Went 1-0 up and stopped playing.