OneMoSalah

Isn’t built to be a RB but should he used as a DM or CM? I don’t get it, playing him as a DM or CM is even more ridiculous as central midfield is probably still and always will be the most physically demanding positions in football. Central midfielders have done and still do on average tend to cover the most distance, participate in the most physical duels, usually make the most recoveries, the most interceptions etc - all things that heavily rely on the physical aspects of the players. Also bone structure? This is certainly one of the most interesting takes on his fitness…. what has this got to do with reoccurring hamstring injuries? And even then, I genuinely get he may be top heavy but even then if he is, how would anybody know about his bone structure. For me - and I get this isn’t the direction you wanted to go with it making the comment- is definitely one of the most controversial and also ridiculous comments I’ve seen regarding any Chelsea player and injuries. Like ever. Majority of his issues have been muscular too.

So I am guessing (and wouldn’t be surprised) if the genius medical team we have were saying it was ok to play him through it?

Hopefully Nkunku is able to play a bit more on Sunday as I think his style will suit playing with the likes of Palmer and even Sterling. He will get in the box. He won’t sit out wide waiting for the ball to get fizzed across and come out to him. Sterling also does this but he has been much more of a creative source than a goalscorer for us this season, playing more directly, much more 1 v 1 and getting to the byline as opposed to getting across the box like he would at City. This is why I hope Gusto and Maatsen are given a run out next time round because the width and ability to go on the outside as well to put crosses in will encourage the wider attacking players to flood the box more. Erratic finishing doesn’t/won’t help either. Jackson had a few tonight where your thinking christ how has he managed that

Hate to be doom and gloom but I don’t think we should be getting overly excited yet. In fact far from it. Yes we are in the semi finals but the performance was still pretty awful in attack. We are never going to break any teams down playing like that and you cannot rely on other teams making huge errors like Trippiers for the goal every game. Nkunku being back though maybe that'll change a bit but still think with us and how we try to play through midfield, Caicedo and Enzo… just don’t do enough as a pair for me and whilst Gallagher has improved a lot and probably our best player on the park, he has a limit and a role. The starting fullbacks tonight also limit how he play in the other half of the pitch I feel, I think you can see Disasi and Colwill aren’t completely comfortable and Gusto made a difference. The players celebrating getting to a domestic cup semi final in that fashion, for me, is just odd… yes show of passion but I suppose it just shows where about we are as a club and that perhaps for now, getting to a semi final is going to be much more of an achievement than it was years ago for previous groups.

Whys he holding his face 🤣 fucking hell

Gallagher been our best player by a country mile. Barring the dive there. What I don’t get is, irrespectively of if he is good or not, how the fuck can he not get a look in ahead of Colwill at LB who was absolutely abysmal tonight? Also holy fuck did Mudryk just score 😂

Gallagher again putting fires out everywhere before that break for the offside goal….

Enzo coming off. Not going to lie, hopefully its not an injury but he has made fuck all effort to get involved in the game again tonight. Just stands there his body language is absolutely stinking. Apparently he isnt feeling very well… hmm…

Not sure what Colwill is doing or Caicedo there more than Badiashile. Yes he makes the most impactful error but its just more bad luck than stupidity. Colwill’s pass was incredibly slack. And not the first or last one he's done tonight. Also is Enzo planning on doing anything tonight or just sitting behind Newcastles midfield hiding?

Yep Caicedo would have been sent off if there was VAR. Honestly, what the fuck was he thinking there….

Personally think if the club sell Connor, it may be the thing to start fracturing the relationship between them and Poch. There are rumours that Poch would like a bit more say in the transfers/recruitment in January so how this goes and any potential sale of Gallagher… this could be a season defining few weeks in terms of how these things play out and will certainly show who has the power, be it Poch or Dumb & Dumber heading up the footballing director roles. I mean lets be honest. Do you sell a player who didn’t want to leave as he wanted to stay and fight for his future before a ball was kicked and ever since then has become a key player (which he has look at the minutes) the manager plays basically every week, trusts as a captain and has publicly said numerous times he wants to keep? But yes cue the club selling him and signing some other 16-18 year old that would maybe get a game for Brighton or Monaco in 3/4 years. Not willing to loan out Noni is also incredibly stupid and typically something we would do. I mean we aren’t selling him on that length of deal. But not loaning him out when he isn’t even remotely close to good enough right now - when we may be able to find him a beneficial loan - yeah…. Typical

Is it a 433 or 4231? Sky saying 4231 with Enzo as a 10…

Yeah thats not gonna happen.

We must need money to reinvest into the squad. Can’t see any other way we are entertaining selling him unless thats the case.

Would 100% keep Cucurella tbf. He has improved a lot with Poch for me and is a more than capable solid 2nd choice despite what many think. Not his fault Boehly spunked his load thinking he was the man and Brighton lapped it up - like they did again with Moises and Benfica did with Enzo. Maybe Gusto & Broja too but if there are good offers thats up to the club.

Not too many of them but yeah guys like Mbappe, Kane, Bellingham, probably Vinicius… not that we’d ever of had a chance regardless but even the tier or two of top players below that, I severely doubt we will sign them with this crowd in charge and the direction we are going. Under Roman you always felt we would be able to compete for some of the very best players if they wanted to move to England. Irrespective of how we were doing.

But you don’t just disappear by mistake in games against a poor poor Man Utd side, against Everton, Newcastle, Brentford etc either then by that logic? Great improvement? Where? Which aspects? The results improved but barring the bigger games where we have been more of a counter attacking side (bar v Spurs but our quality wasn’t great and we struggled to break them down at times until late on…), performance wise, playing style wise, its been very very poor. On the two lads in MF - Enzo hasn’t played remotely near well enough this season and neither has Caicedo. The team’s best performances have been where we have been the underdogs and played counter attacking football so if your telling me we’ve spent £220m on two midfielders who between the two of them do not have the ability to influence a team that is going to have the majority of the ball then yes I can see why people would be upset. If you had said 12 months ago we would be saying Connor Gallagher has been our stand out midfielder this season, people would have laughed. But he has been. By a considerable distance. Fair play to him but the other two have been incredibly poor from what is to be expected.

Regardless if the players are or aren’t good enough now, having spunked £1bn on them, the ownership is going to give the players much more time as opposed to Poch if it comes down to it. I will be honest, this lack of high pressing was also something that Pochettino and his reputation seemed to get around at PSG. I mean how could anyone say they were a high pressing team when Messi, Neymar and Mbappe stood around doing fuck all/half arsing it out of possession? I get the same feeling again that he isn’t actually trying to make us a hugely high pressing team like Southampton & Spurs were with him but more a possession based team. I mean thats what it looks like but even then, its not even that distinctive what our playing style is. Its that bad to the point that even Man United look much more of a high pressing team than we do with EtH and its next to impossible to guess what your watching when you watch them.

Should have signed him in the summer instead of either or both of Ugochuwku or Lavia. Would have been a similar profile of player but with plenty of experience and know how to come in and do a job immediately. But he was probably “too old” for Dumb & Dumber (the 2 footballing directors). Or because they didn’t know of him from Brighton or Southamptom or wherever then he was probably too high profile for them.

Wasn’t impressed with Newcastle tonight really barring a few moments. Also think that their players constantly having to get the crowd up every 5-10 minutes to try and jump start them to doing something rather than relying on genuine quality like they did for the build up for first goal was also suicidal and schoolboy. Good team but lack the maturity needed I think, they are there on merit from last year but its almost as if the players didn’t believe they could genuinely beat Milan (who in typical Italian fashion, get the job done). Yes get the crowd up and on side as often as possible but do it more by producing quality moments of football as opposed to celebrating winning throw ins and 50/50s (which I get early on doing so but they had Bruno Guimares and others in the second half trying to get them going again and again after winning a throw in FFS 😂).

Listened to the Obi Mikel podcast with RDM and other clips where he has mentioned AVB. I think it is clear that dressing room whilst had plenty of leaders, a lot of success, clearly had big egos and more power than perhaps they should have had with regards to some of the managers. Villas-Boas definitely one of them, even Gary Neville had mentioned on the overlap some time ago that Ashley Cole and Frank went running to their friends in the press after being left out of the Napoli CL game where we got beat in Naples. Mikel definitely right about lack of leaders in this group though - without doubt. But we had the likes of Azpi, Jorginho, Kante and even Kovacic who was more senior but 90% of the folk here were undoubtedly happy to trade them in for guys like Gusto, Enzo, Caicedo and Lavia - as they were younger/potentially good players - and not even when we had made those signings, there were idiots (and yes that is the word I will use because they were idiots to suggest it) who wanted us to sell the likes of Azpi and Kante long long before they left too. Need to gradually taper these bigger more senior guys out of your squad, not all in one go. But nobody could see past Boehly spunking his load on £1bn of young players who might be the worlds best or might not be. If we lose to these crowd at the weekend Poch has to go also. Unacceptable.

We will probably offer them 200M then. To get the deal done, although if the guy has any sense he is avoiding here and waiting for Madrid or someone else. I think before with Abramovich and the culture at the club, we would always attract big players but I think with Boehly & Clearlake now, the lack of success they’ve had already and more incentive/performance based contracts as opposed to the “Abramovich premium wages” as it was put, I don’t think the top top players will be coming here as much as before, particularly now with our position and clear lack of direction. Yes we got Caicedo and Lavia ahead of Liverpool but they cost nearly £170m combined fees which they may never justify and they aren’t the sort of top elite name players that win you titles. Enzo we were only ones who would pay what it would take to get it done also but even then (and now), will he ever be worth the £100m?

How many more fucking defensively minded midfielders are these daft footballing director cunts wanting to sign? 🤣

Was disrespectful when he didn’t do it the minute Azpi left never mind now without Mr Glass and Chillwell in the side. Not only disrespectful, incredibly fucking stupid.

Not surprised one bit. This could have the potential to turn toxic if it is any of the lads on 7-8 year deals and they do want out sooner than later. The club have shot themselves in the foot with this - but again its come from the top. And if some of these lads push to leave and do leave, we will look even more amateurish. Suppose lets see how it plays out but I do think 3 or 4 players will definitely be looking around and thinking wtf have I signed on for. The guys with a slightly higher profile like Sterling, Enzo, Reece… I’d be concerned if we aren’t really getting any sort of progress in the next 6-12 months. There will be some of the other guys like Trev, Maatsen, Broja, Noni, Gallagher perhaps also in that list for trying to move but at the same time, I don’t think we can discount some of the newer signings on life long contracts….