OneMoSalah

Good game but as Ruud Guillit has just gone and said on MOTD there were times he could have been high and wide to stretch the pitch. We played alright but perhaps too central at times, little bit of width at times would change it up. It’s obviously a work in progress still but just something I noticed earlier particularly with Azpi and Pedro on the right.

Yeah its something that Willian gets slated for a lot but Eden has done it in the games. Still think hes maybe getting used to how Sarri wants us to play. Pedro knows the score, he just gets it pops it off at the right time and moves, Eden needs to incorporate this into his game at times but think this will come, other than that good to see hes opened his account for the season, heres hoping he can get 20+ this year.

Poor again. This will be a recurring theme. One good season under Conte does not change the fact for his entire career he is continuously caught out ball watching and that is a weakness that teams can exploit, especially if we have 75% of the ball and are constantly on the front foot (makes him even more dangerous). Just waiting for the oh but he can play out from the back shit to justify selecting him.

Its a classic case of Chelsea fans looking to shoot down their own players for nothing but the fact they want to. The guy has done nothing wrong and even if he has or does, look how long it took De Gea to show how good he was, a year maybe just a bit less. David Luiz is the main issue for me in that back 4. Hes 30 or 31 year old, no excuses for him because hes vastly experienced but gets caught out ball watching almost every game. But this is repeatedly ignored because he can pass the ball a bit better than our other defenders. Defenders who cannot defend are about as much use as a fucking chocolate ashtray.

I think he could be a much more technically proficient version of Ramires. I know maybe not the greatest compliment to the guy as hes world class but I still remember how Ramires excelled in a 3 man MF under AVB (although the team struggled severely) and got a lot of goals in that season. Heres hoping Kante keeps it up, I was very impressed with him today, hes getting more and more tuned to that role hes in.

Pele is a different era. Mbappe can still grow, anybody who thinks he is the finished article, get real. The guy has so much football in him still and he will become an absolute phenomenal footballer, somebody who along with Neymar can challenge Messi and Ronaldo for Ballon D'Or, Hazard as well if he gets that ruthlessness in his game. He is very very good but I wouldn't go as far as saying hes the real deal because he still had his inconsistencies for PSG last season and I wouldn't be surprised if he still does. A good WC doesn't necessarily change that.

He should be convincing Chelsea and Sarri he can be important and has something to offer. Not the other way around. If he hasn't noticed we aren't short of MF players. Not just MF players but decent midfield players.

Asensio is a special talent. Cannot dispute that. Nobody is the real deal at 20 or 21 years old. Not even Messi or Ronaldo were. The reason hes so well regarded is because he has huge potential and even right now he is more than good enough to play for a lot of teams. Isco Asensio Bale is the future at Madrid now Ronaldo has gone.

The idiots are out in force then writing stupid articles it seems. If the chance to get Kovacic comes up and the club doesn't take it to use RLC then we will have lost the plot. Its not even close. Ruben has to go on loan this season. 10000000% This graphic is very stupid. - Yes he has a robust frame but we've seen for years smaller players, the majority of the best PL players are below 6 ft and aren't as bulky, can do just as good as anybody if not better. - Being homegrown doesn't mean your a good player. Ask Gary Cahill, Danny Drinkwater or Victor Moses. - Room to improve yes but not at the expense of the chance to have such a talented player such as Kovacic who can contribute much more quicker? - Excellent technical ability? Again, not 100% sold on that. Hes a good dribbler, takes the easy pass too often though, hes technically sound enough but I think again under pressure he panics and isn't adventurous enough to play between the lines or cut defences open. - His work rate needs improved ten fold. - He needs to get fitter so he doesn't fade out of games come the 65th minute. If anybody and I mean anybody, in the world, think that Ruben should be prioritised next season over the chance of signing somebody as talented as Kovacic, who in that wee cameo probably looked better than RLC ever has in the PL, then I am sorry but get your head checked out.

Would have been an interesting move. Definitely a talented player in there but I think getting Kovacic will prove dividends.

I think like been mentioned its maybe for experience. Moses has it and CHO still needs to develop and get a bit more but hes shown in pre-season he can operate at a high enough level. Moses is not gonna be a starter but hes going to make a decent squad player for cup games and Europa games in all honesty. Hes hardly outstanding but again, the likes of him, Cahill, Zappacosta, all these guys who are perhaps average or worse will get adequate minutes and will deliver against lower opposition or the Europa Games so its not exactly a bad use of the squad. We all want to see Hudson-Odoi play and I think he will but Sarri is probably banking on experience to get him through the first 6 or 7 games and for his methods to settle in, he said he needed time so lets give him the chance to build something up and then maybe integrate some other guys like Callum who I think will feature regularly under him in the cup/europa games along with Moses and Cahill. I also expect Ampadu to get the same sort of chance in these games. Also Sarri isn't exactly known for rotating. So to keep somebody like CHO or Ampadu on the bench every week when they could be playing u23s as well as training with the first team is a bit of a risky move, youngsters need game time, I know u23 isnt a good standard but its sensible to have Cahill/Moses on the bench who will 9 times out of 10 never come on than those 2 young guys, perhaps disheartening them by using them so sparingly off the bench and not letting them play regularly with the u23s.

If true bad move. He should go out and play. Its going to be hard for him unless we get injuries to feature every week. Barkley, Kovacic, Cesc will all be head of him in that third role which is undoubtedly the only one that will be up for shares until Kovacic gets fully fit. Maybe not, I'm still not 100% convinced hes got the final picture to be a big feature here, he can dribble but end product isn't amazing.

Hopefully see this... Kepa; Azpi Rudiger Luiz Alonso; Kante Jorginho Kovacic (don't think he'll start but heres hoping); Pedro Morata Hazard (still don't think he'll start maybe one more wek but again heres hoping). I think Newcastle will offer a stern test and yes our record isn't brilliant but I think if we can sort the things that went wrong in that 15-20 mins v Arsenal and go out and play with the same sort of tempo and intensity we did that game, as well as getting a similar amount of shots as we did, we should be able to get a few goals.

I think Jorginho is still maybe not 100% sure of the speed of the PL compared to Italy in defensive situations. Maybe not. Hes not very quick but he should be able to read those things and get in positions to prevent them. Maybe it was just individual errors but it happened a lot. I'm more concerned with Luiz in that back line more than anything but thats a different story altogether because as a player he has got a tendency to doze off a lot, which at 31 for a guy whos played for Chelsea, Brazil, PSG, Benfica... shouldn't be happening a lot but it has in his career.

I think United seriously have lost their tradition. They aren't a bad side but in a few years or few months were to change coaches and revert to more traditional ways do you think they'd reckon it was worth it? I doubt Conte would go because I think hes too similar and although he showed in his first year here he can get entertaining football out of players, with that defence it could be a disaster regardless although you'd definitely see Sanchez and Pogba improve similarly to the ways some of our guys did. As a coach Mourinho can do more but he has this way of working, its his way or the high way, its probably cost him a lot, at Madrid, when he was back here and now at United. He seriously needs to evolve as a manager, he still probably in terms of football intelligence is one of the smartest guys out there but again his methods are constantly falling behind with the likes of Klopp, Pep, Pochettino in terms of how to play. You can't expect a 100m MF player, who excelled as a box to box at Juventus to be able to play as a 6, not struggle and then not be able to impose himself on the match and then blame him? Its not exactly as simple as that but he has guys like Matic and Herrera, even Fred and Andres Pereira, he shouldn't make United Pogba FC but everybody knows Pogba on his day when hes given the license to get forward and get around the box can cause some damage. Lukaku and Sanchez as well are both guys who would get 20 goals a season minimum. Marcus Rashford is one of Englands most talented youngsters, Martial is in a similar place in terms of being talented but he very very inconsistent. Jesse Lingard is probably one of the only younger players who has seriously come on leaps and bounds under him. For a guy with Mourinho's reputation and pedigree, having so much talented players or ready made players and not being able to get a decent team performance from them against a Brighton, where they lacked fight and quality is terrible. If that happened here it would be mayhem. We seen how bad it got last season against Watford and Bournemouth.

His Napoli team without the ball, the defence would be narrow and try make the opposition play in the wings to get crosses in because with Kouliably and Albiol and another fullback when the other one goes out to challenge they would always be favourites in the air because the two CBs were extremely dominant in that aspect and they'd have their sitting midfield player tucked in at the penalty spot. Its interesting because in that regard if the ball comes in from Azpi's side, Rudiger, Luiz and Alonso are all very strong in the air for high crosses. Azpi is a bit shorter, although still solid enough in the air but hasnt got the height advantage (I know this sounds a lot like Mourinho wanting 4 6 ft plus defenders haha) but I think low cut backs will be a big issue for us this season if the centre backs and DM aren't in sync and have that awareness of the space where it could be extremely dangerous, particularly if MF runners are going to come if off the back of Jorginho, Kante and whoever plays that 3rd position.

....and what about Mandzukic when he was at Bayern and didn't like Peps style... he called Pep out (https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2248629-mario-mandzukic-slams-pep-guardiola-for-bayern-munich-exit-taunts-former-boss). Morata hasn't called anybody out, he mentioned the style and the difficulties perhaps he had because that's not his game. I think your trying to add something where there is nothing in all honesty. If it was any other player it wouldn't be an issue. Torres again? The guy played over 200 games for us and had maybe 10 good games if you want to call it that. I mean its a bit pointless to bring him up. Yes Arsenal neutralised him but again still it doesn't mean he played poor, he didn't hold it up every time because Mustafi and Papodopulous like to get tight when they can and are very physical centre backs but he still did alright, nothing outstanding but still did things any striker would do. The way your critiquing him is a bit harsh. The truth is as individual players they maybe have 3-4 minutes in possession where as the rest of the match it is off the ball. Again I get it you don't rate him but you can't expect every striker or every player in that regard to play perfectly for 90 minutes. It just doesn't happen. Yes the jury is still out but again, give the guy a bit of an opportunity because pre-season means nothing in all honesty, the real games are now and so far hes been slowly improving and still will I feel, along with the rest of this team.

This hes indirectly accusing Conte crap your coming with is just ludicrous if I'm honest, I know you dont rate him but that is just clutching at straws, hes blamed a style but players play under managers who play styles which don't suit them the whole time, its just how it goes, the managers decide. Also hes struggling? 2 games into the season, 1 goal and hes played a lot better than he did for a lot of the second half of the season last year. Its a bit early to start bashing the guy for struggling when hes got 1 in 2 and will probably still improve as the team continues to do so as well, I don't think its a coincidence the team start playing well and hes back in amongst it looking better. Fair enough I know hes not Aguero or Kane but the guy is going to be our first choice striker I think we should give him another chance because hes obviously feeling very lucky to have the chance to be an number 1 option as opposed to a bench player and committed to trying to change his fortunes going from that other interview. I suppose if hes struggling that would mean some of the other guys are struggling too? Its very very very early to judge somebody in that way, you can't necessarily look at a team with a new coach (hes worked with everybody for what 2 weeks?), a new system and new players and instantly come to the conclusion somebody is struggling because also Azpi, Luiz and Rudiger have perhaps struggled in moments, as did Jorginho v Huddersfield in the first 15 minutes and then v Arsenal for 20 minutes before half time... its a work in progress and as stupid as that sounds its going to be another few games before this team properly gets going at what 75% of its capabilities never mind 100%.

Tbf that interview is a bit shit for me personally. It makes it look like an attack towards Conte but its more towards the style, although still think its a bit of a bullshit excuse. The headline says he blames Contes direct style but you look at how successful Costa was in it and think well do you change the style to suit the striker or make the striker adapt or a bit of both? I think the style maybe didn't suit him overly well just like Hazard, just like Willian, just like Pedro so yeah its fair to say maybe the change helps but you can't say that at the beginning it did work for a while, as the previous season Pedro and Hazard did pretty well too, perhaps because Costa and Matic were there and werent the season afterwards perhaps not. I don't think other than Willian anybody has actually come out and said a bad word about Antonio from a Chelsea point of view. The style regardless of what it was, the whole team seemed to struggle second half of the season. I generally think confidence was more to do with his slump than the direct style along with the back injury and no winter break which we've all seen it affect some players coming from Spain beforehand. I suppose as well its different playing in Madrid and now maybe this season we will see Sarri get something else out of Morata but I think he can't really blame Conte's style entirely. I like the other interview about wanting to bounce back for Chelsea though, he has a decent attitude just needs to keep working away getting more goals and more confident.

Yeah I know but even then under Conte we had a clear structure before we started playing shit in December and the whole of the first season once we swapped to 343. Even in the bigger games under Mourinho the first 2 years he was back, we had a clear structure and we could go and nulify teams just by being organised and playing into our strengths. Sometimes with a good structure you can get away with having slightly more average players, because the structure masks their deficiencies, Cahill and Terry were in the PL team of the year 2 years in a row under Jose I'm sure. United need to evolve, if I were a United fan I'd be looking at why aren't they taking the shackles off and giving Pogba and the front 3 a lot more freedom to go and do their thing. Fair enough they need to get the balance but still they are far to negative. Its good for us because if they continue to struggle then we will have more chances for top 4 over the season.

True but again I think that United team has always struggled defensively, since Ferguson went, the guys they've brought in in terms of defenders is horrible. Its funny to see Jose struggle as well because hes always talking and theres nothing now to back it up with because we've seen at Real, Chelsea and now United hes not adaptable. He used to be good at making subs that would change the dynamic of a game but that rarely happens. He has one of the potentially best MF players in the world playing within himself. He has Sanchez and Martial but they struggle because of their own inconsistencies and also the team doesn't have a clear platform either. The fact Kovacic didn't want to go to United because of their playing style says it all.... feel sorry for the boys Fred and Pereira because like Shaw they will be thrown under the bus this season.

Yeah definitely agree although some championship teams such as Fulham, Wolves even Swansea previously in the past have shown it can be done but they needed time (or in Wolves case a talented manager and about 50-60M worth of players to good for that level). I think Leeds will have a chance to make a big jump to this style because they have a proven coach in Bielsa who has managed at the likes of Argentina and Chile national teams, Athletic Bilbao as well as other clubs where maybe it hasn't gone so wellbut the guy is renowned and has his reputation as a manager. Even then every coach is trying to be Pep Guardiola disciples in a way, so its normal now to see many coaches try and get these things such as playing out from the back or winning the ball back in 3 seconds etc. I mentioned Gerrard at Rangers, the guy has got them playing proper aggressively, playing to their strengths, defending as a unit and going long playing 40/50 yards directly ot their centre forwards but its working. I still think Jody Morris would have been more ready than Lamps but I think Lamps rep as a player probably helped him in landing that job too.

I don't know, Milan will have a lot of the ball and will probably discover very quickly how mediocre he is with it. Fair enough they won't play the same sort of style we are going to be playing but again, they will learn that his physical qualities outweigh his technical. I'm a bit intrigued because I generally don't think he offers anything more than Franck Kessie, who was highly rated and has a big talent too.

Honestly under Conte I thought he was a more box to box player as well. After he changed from a 4-1-4-1 to a 3-4-3, Kante was a box to box for me and not solely a holder, so I don't get this impression that hes a sitting midfield and has to play there and not as a box to box. Hes given more freedom because Jorginho will be there controlling the play and being in front of the defense. Obviously the team is a lot more attacking than it ever was under Conte so he is going to be more and more involved offensively as he ever was under Antonio but again, he was never really solely a holding player. Even at Leicester he was rarely a sitting midfield player. Maybe because the teams were a lot more defensive minded he was seen as that but I wouldnt go and say hes a pure defensive midfielder who cannot offer anything else except for tackling and interceptions (we all know that anyway). When we press this sort of player is vital too, he is probably the one guy you wouldn't want as an opponent coming near you when your team is being pressed because he is so good at winning the ball back and rarely gets dribbled past. So for me I don't see the issue, other than we conceded 4 or 5 big chances against Arsenal which I'd say had other causes as opposed to Kante not being infront of the defence. Jorginho will get better defensively as he gets more used to the speed of the English game too, hes not the quickest guy in the world but you don't need to be when you know where to stand and understand that PL is not Seria A so the games will be faster in transitions.

Perhaps but as you've said you would lose the runs and I think in a Sarri team having that is a big big plus because the forwards create spaces for other players and the likes of Kante or Barkley could expose those spaces and profit from them. I think Sarri has been working with the defenders and GK alone to try and build that defensive shape and will continue to do so for a bit and also with the midfielders to try get that balance right. Its only 2 games, it was a bit alarming because there was 2 or 3 big chances other than their goals that came from cut backs into that area and I think Jorginho should have been closer to that zone. Sarri said something like "we lost the players distances", not 100% sure but I think hes meaning the gaps between defence and MF without the ball? Still plenty to work on. I think another thing that would maybe also not work is Kante isn't as excellent a passer (hes improved tenfold since he was at Leicester I feel though) going forward as Jorginho, those 30-40 yard passes where he can just open something up is a big plus too and under enough pressure having that relief is also excellent, I know that we will always have options in possession but having that quick pass into a MF runner, could be very good. Fair enough Luiz can do it too but I think Jorginho should remain as the deeper player, although we've already seen he does venture on a bit more too when he needs to to initiate the pressing and when we are trying to break teams down.