OneMoSalah

I generally think Conte is the best manager we’ve had in a good few years in terms of motivational skills and tactics. I hope he stays in charge for another 1 or 2 seasons at least as I don’t think he’s done building the team or squad he wants, he is clearly wanting to challenge Man City next year for the title as he’s said in a few interviews and I believe that if anybody is capable of challenging City next season for the title it will be us. I still think we can get the points gap down this season but it will be pretty tough. This talk of Carlo coming back would be an extremely poor and backwards move for us I feel. Carlo is a good proven coach but at Bayern the complaints was he wasn’t anywhere near as demanding or intense as Pep (although not many are) and I feel he would have the same issues here. Conte is a demanding and intense coach, who works a lot on tactical aspects based on improving the team and players in training where as Carlo is not and although he had a very good spell here I think this group of players wouldn’t be as productive or willing to push themselves anywhere near as much as they do now, just because of how Carlo is.

Honestly disagree with this. If your any player and you’ve got the balls to question the managers tactics then you should be man enough to take the circumstances regardless if it means being benched, dropped completely or being sold. End of story. The board and owner (who were more behind signing Luiz than Conte was) would be backing the coach. We aren’t exactly short at CB and quite frankly there will always be good center backs available in football. Even if Luiz goes in January or say we wait to the summer, it’s an easy thing to fix because Kurt Zouma comes back. Before his injury for me he was by far our most consistent defender. Sure we’ve added but I don’t think his defensive side was ever an issue for him but positional and being comfortable with possession. If anything we lose Luiz we aren’t in the worst position because Christensen has shown he is more than capable of playing at a very high level at such an age. Will we even need so many CBs if Conte doesn’t stay beyond the summer as well? Talk of Carlo coming back, although maybe just rumours makes me wonder. If we go back to a back 4 Azpi, Christensen and Rudiger won’t be going anywhere.

If Luiz is injured or not think he’ll end up leaving and even if he doesn’t, Christensen will remain in the starting 11 undoubtedly. Think he probably has fallen out with Conte over questioning his tactics and the whole training alone thing. There was a similar thing with Sturridge years ago before he left for Liverpool, he was reportedly injured but moved to Liverpool and it turned out he wasn’t injured. People were saying he had fallen out with staff or that he had been asked to train alone etc. How true that was I don’t know.

Totally agree. Especially somebody like Pedro who has won the World Cup, European Championships, CL, Super Cup, Club World Cup, Premier League, La Liga, Copa Del Rey and whatever else. He is a serial winner. The thing with olders players is that they are more likely to accept being squad players as opposed to young guys and players in their prime who don’t want to be sitting on the bench. Pedros game is not necessarily about relying on break neck speed either, he’s always been quick to a degree but not that quick, I think he’s more than good enough to be an excellent squad player option if he’s willing to take on the role. He always seems to have an impact of some sort too when he comes on.

I’m not judging Bertrand on the fact we sold him. We had Ashley Cole on his last legs and he couldn’t break in. Eventually a RB took Cole’s place. When he did he played as a LM. Says it all. He didn’t go on and become a world beater or anything we necessarily missed. Hopefully the club can find some sort of player like a Alex Sandro or even take a gamble on Luke Shaw as well.

If Bertrand was good enough he’d never have been sold and replaced by a mediocre player like Baba Rahmann. Particularly when in recent times we needed to fill our home grown quota. Regardless of playing 3 at the back, 4 at the back, 5 at the back or whatever he’s not good enough... considering we already have Alonso who is a better player than Bertrand and people want to upgrade on him. Bertrand would of been a huge step backward. Unless he was to be Alonsos back up but considering links to the likes of Alex Sandro, Alex Telles... heck even Kolasinac at the end of last season, were all linked so for me Bertrand would be a step backwards. Regarding the former youth players not given a chance your meaning him, Ake and Chalobah in particular right? To be fair Nate is a much better player, with a higher ceiling who could have easily taken Drinkwaters place in the squad but he didn’t want to stay. Bertrand for me would be an upgrade on Kenedy but still he would hardly displace Alonso and offer anything more. Where as Nathan Ake has not shown anything to prove he’s worth the 20m Bournemouth paid for him so not a problem either.

Another defensive minded midfielder? Wont be a priority. Not even worth considering after signing Bakayoko and Drinkwater in the summer, unless it’s some sort of bargain once in a lifetime fee (which it won’t be). Our midfield needs creativity, not more defensive minded players considering we already have Kante, Bakayoko and Drinkwater in those roles. Fabinho’s clearly not a RB/RWB either now a days so it would be a stupid move as well to sign him to play there.

Not for me. Don’t think Mahrez is Chelsea level. Hes a half decent player who had his best and most consistent year 2 years ago and won’t improved much more, it took two managerial changes and moving him to a “free role” to get something consistently productive from him. He wouldn’t get that here. I’m not even sure he’s better than Willian or Pedro, other than that one year he’s not done much else to get excited about except maybe 5 games since they changed coach and his role. This adjusting to PL thing is not as big as before, particularly for attacking midfielders and wide players, Lemar is a good player, if we could get him for 40-60m it would be an excellent move that would pay itself off as he’d be a player who is good enough to play here for the next 10 years. Buying in January is difficult though, Mahrez could be seen as a more attainable fall back option but he is a worse player than Lemar.

Don’t think it will be anywhere near as bad as people think. I mean the matches aren’t to February... Barca is Barca but they aren’t unbeatable as Valencia showed few weeks ago. Real/PSG game should be a belter for neutral football fans.

I don’t see why Courtois doesn’t get the recognition he deserves. If we lose him that is a huge problem because for me he is in the top 5 GKs in the world, has got god knows how many years at the top left and is at least equal or perhaps better than David de Gea (who is somehow talked about being better than Neuer which is nonsense as Neuer is incredible and the complete goalkeeper). Also he is a leader, big personality and ultimately a winner. There are lots of very good goalkeepers around and very good young ones developing sure but Courtois is better than most out there.

He’s nowhere near world class class. He’s a very good young player but people are getting carried away extremely Italians, he has shown just as many weaknesses since breaking into the Milan team as strengths, these world class tags are getting more ridiculous.He will undoubtedly grow into a top top player eventually at any club but he is not world class because if he was he would have already displaced Gigi Buffon as Italy’s number 1. That’s the stark reality of it. Buffon is a great goalkeeper (but think he’s no longer one of the best out there) but he is 40 y/o realistically if Italy had any world class goalkeepers they’d have replaced him. I think he’d be a very good long term replacement for Courtois if he left but don’t think he’s near the level of which many people think. He’ll grow into one of the best goalkeepers of his generation if not the best if he continues to play every week but honestly it could take him the next 3-4 seasons minimum to reach those heights.

To be fair he’s hardly made an impression at Liverpool. He’s played two games recently maybe yes but we are halfway into the season. Hardly a massive leap up the pecking order. He should of went somewhere else.

Definite downgrade on Courtois but a very good goalkeeper. Probably England’s best imo.

If he is as good as they say we should sign him. They are saying he will be in the Brazil World Cup squad for sure at the rate he’s going so we should to try get a deal done for the summer in January if possible, probably be our best bet. No coincidence Barca are after him either.

It doesn’t matter. Players have chosen other clubs and managers over us before. Benjamin Mendy said he had other offers (which we were one) and would only leave Monaco for City and Pep. There’s others as well clearly and with every target of the stature of a Sandro or a Mendy or a Lukaku they will have more than one suitor. The thing I meant as well is that Manchester United won’t hesitate to sign Sandro at the drop of a hat in January for £60m+ if Mourinho wants him. Like backing him with £100m Pogba, £75m Lukaku and Zlatan with huge wages despite being well in his mid 30s in the past. Conte obviously wanted Alex Sandro and still wants him but do you think upstairs will be willing to green light a potential £60m+ January move if that’s what’s Juventus want (nobody is cheap these days yet alone in January)? That is what I’m not so sure about. Time and time again in recent years we’ve shown recently that the club has a agenda regarding FFP, signing promising younger players instead of more developed ones and following a transfer strategy with targets that have clearly been followed by the club since before AVBs appointment.

If he really wants to leave Juventus and we lose out on signing him to United I will go mad. Fucking Mourinho.

At least he’s honest and to be frank hes correct. Bad summer, bad start v Burnley, loss to Palace and now this along with City’s current form and their late goal habit (regardless of the result vs United) all but confirms it. Think the players deserve much more criticism than manager considering he changed system twice, threw Moses, Pedro and Willian on and nobody looked interested or affected game any more than before. We had 0 shots on target in second half despite 70% possession, which says it all. Either too many touches or too many passes. Or no runs or nothing was quick enough. Couple that together with lack of energy. Poor. Can’t see Conte admitting we’re out of title race going down well with upstairs but it also strengthens his hand and makes January an intriguing month because if the club dont back Conte I think it will be pretty clear he’s going in the summer. He’s been saying stuff about recruitment/playing same players every 3 days for close to 2 months now and if the club really wants him to stay he holds all the aces, he can go through the chain of command and say look we need to buy players 1 2 and 3 or 4 5 and 6 to ensure we are more competitive (I’m sure he was already like that this summer when you consider who we were all linked with but Chelsea is Chelsea).

To be fair we’ve played played a fair amount of games over the last 10-15 years against better opposition in a similar way defending with lots of numbers and good organisation. In my eyes it’s not really dirty.. when done right, it’s very effective. No disrespect meant but end of the day winning 1-0 like that is still winning 1-0. Id rather of seen us get points playing like that than getting 0 and playing like whoever or whatever. No doubt about it West Ham worked harder than us I felt and they ultimately deservedly to win, as well as looking more dangerous than we did despite having the ball a lot less, they could have got a second if not for a pass played a second too late and arguably should of had a penalty for handball. Moratas miss was bad. He has so much time and he just doesn’t realise but wow not to hit the target from there... still we hardly created any chances but for me the effort and will to compete for first and second balls today cost us, West Ham won more or less everything from knockdowns and whatever else. Little things like that but makes a huge difference. Anyway it’s only one game. One game doesn’t matter much in the grand scheme of things. Particularly when we know everyone competing in that top 4/top 6 bar City will still drop between 5-10 points somewhere this season. On the bright side all the hardcore Chelsea fan twitter accounts like carefree daily and whatever else are losing their rag and posting utter pish which will cheer me up because some of the stuff is ridiculously funny.

Really frustrated with Hazard, Morata, Zappacosta, Christensen and a few others so far in the second half. Christensen has looked asleep at times and scared of Arnautovic and Antonio. Zappacosta awful, poor final ball every time more or less. Second half Hazard and Morata not really offering much although at least both have the quality to do something which goes for them. No passion from the players at all though, Conte has made every sub he can too, can’t do much more. Also what the fuck was Bakayokos performance all about? Utter shite

Young player, new contract... so is it safe to assume he’s likely going out on loan in January? Similar things happened with Ruben, Zouma and Tammy... IIRC. Would be the best thing for him. If not unsure why club would have him as a higher priority than Eden, Cesc or Tibo with regards to sorting out a new deal. But this is Chelsea and we do a lot of shit that doesn’t make sense.

One thing he has is real pace. Unsure about much else not seen a lot of him. Not a massive goal scorer either looking at stats but a 20 y/o wide player maybe not most important thing.

I liked Chalobah. Showed in limited minutes last season he was dependable and could help shore up the middle of the park in matches but for a team looking to win, to improve and compete is that necessarily worth keeping when he wants to leave and you think your getting a guy who was one of the more impressive CM players in Europe who was vital for Monaco in their CL run? Not sure, it’s hard as well to judge now because Nathaniel is injured at Watford, after a decent start from what I hear but I’m sure come the end of the season we’ll know. I hope in the long run Baka turns out to be worth it. I think Chalobah would have stayed if he was told he’d get more game time, knew Matic was going to be sold (was surprised we sold him myself) and that Conte was going to change to 352. Instead of Drinkwater, he’d of been 35M cheaper that could have been used elsewhere although DD has looked good in limited minutes but I wouldn’t say we’re missing Chalobah as we have some options in MF (maybe could of done with somebody more like Cesc) and again I hope in the long run Baka will be a better player just to justify buying him and selling Chalobah but known Chelsea’s luck with former players who knows 😂

Yeah the wing backs do need some changes in terms of the quality. I agree with you regarding Moses thought he was good as well but it’s a nightmare to buy wing backs because it’s not a typical traditional position so to speak like a winger or a fullback. Sandro would be good with Alonso as back up yes but I still think that Batshuayi, Willian, Pedro to an extent (although he looks good as an impact player) can all be improved on for sure as well. Even as squad players I think they can be improved upon. Although it’s hard to get guys willing to be squad players and be at a high level. Tonight though, finishing and good goalkeeping kept us from winning, I think we created enough chances for sure.

Jesus. Don’t say this shite has begun? One miss? Was bound to happen eventually but yeah... For that chance Oblak made a good save, sure we would of all done something differently in that position based or whatever because we all seen it live on the tele and thought he should of scored but thats life. The keeper was really quick to come out to him which means Morata has to make up his mind and Oblak made himself really big, which I thought was good goalkeeping. He would probably score that 9/10 times I imagine. Oblak is a top keeper, fair enough people would back somebody to score from that position but I don’t think it was that bad, he’s hit the target and it’s definitely going in if the keeper doesn’t save it. Hardly a crisis. You’d think he was Demba Ba with that last comment about thinking he won’t make it as a top striker.

He needs dropped for Drinkwater or we go back to 343 for a while. He has got some ability but he’s playing so poorly after making some audacious claim about being better than a lot of French MF players. He clearly has self belief but I feel he’s trying to hard, it’s time for him to go back to basics, win tackles, win headers, keep it simple with the ball etc. Too often he looks to over complicate things and isn’t having a positive effect on the match. Since that United performance he has been pretty awful, has he won a tackle without fouling more than once in a game this season? He was caught sleeping for the goal tonight, fair enough that can happen to the best or worst of players but his performance itself was pretty poor other than one good pass into the box for Eden in first half and a few tackles which he somehow didn’t gift a foul to Atletico. I’m sure he’ll turn the tide eventually but this season is going to be one of transition for him. Keep seeing Ruben being mentioned but it’s not even relevant mentioning him because these guys are two different players. A 8 and a 10.