OneMoSalah

R Madrid playing a diamond in this sort of game, where Atletico play a 352, was always going to cause themselves trouble. Playing a system with wingers against a system with wingbacks leaves the wide areas exposed as it is due to the potential for an overload & spare man on the opposite side, never mind playing a narrow midfield diamond against it.

Another player who is aged between 17-21 and if signed, will go in to the group of 4 current more defensively minded midfielders we have already on the books after Caicedo, Ugo, Lavia & Santos. 100% two of them are not going to make it here if so. Only so much playing time available when everyones fit and only 25 squad places. Would be Southgate esque to make up a 25 man squad and have 5 defensive minded midfielders in it 🤣

His record with developing young players and the overhauling he did at Spurs was the major pull I think. And it made sense. In theory. Its just all blown up a bit in everyones face at the moment but when your squad contains over £1bn of players signed in the last 12 months or so, it is to be expected that any manager regardless will have huge huge scrutiny if they don’t get results. But the poor recruitment and squad building strategy has hamstrung him also. And he will be the first person to get called out for bad results. Oh please… Felix couldn’t buy a goal or a decent performance most games last season. His performances were more frustrating than inspiring yet because hes scored goals against Betis and Antwerp in two hugely one sides games, where the quality difference between both of the sides is staggering, people are making out we made a “huge mistake”. If he hits 15-20 goals this season for Barca ok fair maybe. But lets see. Same with Vlahovic. If they get 15-20 goals. Ok maybe. But until then, still early to say so. Gallagher as captain I agree on but with the club and Poch seemingly intent on giving the armband to guys who aren’t perhaps as well suited to the role as Thiago is right now to build them up, in a squad that lacks genuine leaders, experience & knowhow, what do folk expect? Reece may be the main guy from the academy and the biggest talent from there in a while but for me, he shouldn’t be captain when Thiago Silva is in the squad. Chilwell getting more responsibility as someone coming into his prime years though & pretty well experienced now (similarly like Maddison at Spuds with Ange), that I agree with - he should be taking that sort of responsibility and hopefully kicking on. Or are you going to say Enzo Fernandez (who by the managers account, like Jackson, needs to watch he is disciplined enough to stop picking up cheap yellow cards) should of wore the armband? A guy who has been here all of 5 minutes, barely speaks English (although not overly sure on Silva’s English speaking abilities either) and needs to get his finger out his arse snd start performing again?

Bit OTT. Was a red card every day of the week pal. Excessive force and follow through caught him above ankle.

Yep which makes the signing of Lavia look even stupider, money wasted on a position we didn’t need 3 very similar players in.

Think Poch still deserves time to get going but as I have said numerous numerous times, our squad balance is awful. No real leaders, characters or players with know how on how to get through difficult moments in games and seasons. Plus no regular goalscoring CF for about the billionth season running .

No complaints on the red. May take the ball but studs up, excessive force, catches him right above/at the ankle what do you expect? If had happened to us would be huge clamouring for a red card…. Shocking in front of goal again though. Keep up like this Poch won’t see Xmas.

Badiashile looked good last season. Although disagree on the MF. Far far far too defensive minded. But we cannot use injuries as an excuse - plain and simple. We signed the likes of Gusto, Disasi & took Colwill back to be in the squad specifically to provide competition and pick up the slack if we lost the likes of Reece, Badiashile, Silva etc. After all the “what a signing” comments made about Gusto and all the raving about Colwill last season amongst the other players we’ve signed this last 3 windows, to use injuries as an excuse in particular as a fan base is just shying away from the more obvious problem: a lot of these players aren’t at the level required yet (some may never be). Plain & simple.

Well we were stupid enough to hire him. So would say the FA just as bad.

Genuinely sounds like he’s peddling out excuses already but there is always pressure here and the spending will accelerate scrutiny on him. We should win every game as its Chelsea but we shouldn’t because its not the same team as before??? The clubs only invested over £1bn in 3 transfer windows so that’s going to always be above him or any other manager. Yes maybe spent incorrectly in terms of certain players and valuations but you don’t expect £1bn expenditure to take what was probably a good squad, backwards. Either that or he isn’t convinced some of these players are at the level needed and is trying to send a message. Yes we aren’t the team that won the PL or CL (they were hardly outstanding teams for a prolonged period after those seasons either given the drop off like City & Liverpool have been) and ok it is a “project” but to have only won 1 game so far and scored 5 goals - close to pretty fucking embarrassing. So theres that. Can see him getting the boot if this season continues on in this fashion - plain and simple. But the lack of proven and experienced players in this squad doesn’t help. Him and the footballing people’s reputations will be on the line if we have another poor season.

Its pretty abundantly clear that one or even two of Caicedo, Lavia, Ugo & him won’t have a long term career here. Thats 4 more defensively minded or combative midfielders. All same age group. Not to mention we want some other Brazilian defensive midfielder now, from Santos I think. So clearly stockpiling, why I don’t know, either 1) to sell and generate profit or 2) just mindblowingly retarded squad building.

Why didn’t they try sign him then ? Because they didn’t try and were never linked, even when we went for Ugarte (we were willing to buy a stake in the club in that deal). Only Porto (apparently loan w/ option to buy) and an Italian team were actually properly credited with interest. Vesper said something on here about Sporting being the “perfect loan” for him but there was never ever any links between them and the player, not one… so no point saying it would of been the right move or they’d actually have a pathway in there if there was 0 interest on their side for taking him.

Funny thing is Steve Cooper has a pretty solid & proven track record working with young players. From his time with Liverpool’s academy all the way through to Swansea. But NFFC had already signed multiple MF players in the 2 summer windows prior to us loaning Santos there, so ideally it was a big error on our behalf (I get the feeling we were using him as a bargaining chip to try and sign Johnston, who went to Spurs, as links were pretty prominent). But I said it before, we needed to temper expectations on this guy. If he isn’t getting a game at Forrest, he probably wouldn’t be at Porto or Sporting Lisbon in Portugal. And he wouldn’t be getting a game here. Going from Brazilian to European football is a big jump, never mind going straight to the PL.

Wanted longer duration - was widely reported the club offered 2 + 1 but was a lot depending on number of appearances to get the + 1. He wanted more security by all accounts, was nothing to do with money. Considering he’s been highest paid player here for years. And only getting £25m a year in Saudi (only as if its not a lot of money 😂). But again every time someone leaves here, we always boil it down to oh he only went for the money…

He’s washed? When he came back last season his performances were better than most of our other players by a mile but sure. And again, never said he should of been a nailed on starter but here in the squad and used in some of the bigger games like Jose did with Maka would of been a very sensible move. Particularly at his age and also with the balance of the squad. Wages wasn’t why he turned down our deal either - was the length of contract which I think we could of maybe got him to compromise on with a bit more negotiating (apparently the terms we had offered financially were favourable and much lower than his current wages). But at the time it was great because we shifted his large wages “as he was always injured”. Then we signed Caicedo & Lavia but they are both now injured. Alongside half the squad shattering the narrative that Kante himself is fucked. But the goons who were more interested in how Boehly & the clubs spreadsheet looked as opposed to what our squad balance/performances are always going to be happy.

Was actually a fair few of us (myself included) who said we should of kept him. But that was met with contempt from the spreadsheet warriors who said “we couldn’t justify keeping him at that wages if he was going to be injured”. Yet he goes to what may be an inferior league, but one with inferior footballing and medical infrastructure at present and is never injured….. you can’t just say its the pace of the league. Whilst the £170m we spent to replace him in Lavia & Caicedo are injured/struggling for fitness? Alongside multiple others.

And no injuries in Saudi - yet we have heaps of them. And Kante was the problem. Absolute horseshit. Definitely could of done with him in and around the squad given the problems his so called upgrades Moises & Romeo are having. Still a ludicrous decision from the club.

Chalobah’s trainer makes a comment. Big whoop. He pointed out what anybody with 2 eyes can see by looking at a injury list. Chalobah was well within his right not to leave here for Forest too. Despite the small per saying he should of etc - a solid squad player to have.

I hope your joking. Painful enough watching him as it is never mind for a prolonged period. He’s had ample chances but cannot seem to do the basics or have a fundamental understanding of the game - if he can’t do them/doesn’t know that now, he never will. @Reddish-Blue Maatsen? City? Eh? I somehow severely doubt that. When have City ever bought Chelsea 3/4th choice players? Considering the success they've had with hybrid fullbacks such as Zinchenk, Ake & now even Gvardiol, I would be incredibly incredibly shocked if there were any truth to those links 😂 I mean one season in the championship and City want him…. sure but lets freak out if he does go because he is that good. Good enough for City but not good enough to displace Chilly?

Couldn’t think of anything worse than Mudryk starting regularly.

We’ve already let him rip out a lot of what made the club successful and work beforehand though. The footballing structure wasn’t perfect but it was better and worked better than this. The medical staff was better and we didn’t have as many big injuries like we do now. All good saying we won’t allow Boehly to do X Y or Z but he already has done a lot.

I still don’t get Poch’s comments saying about the full backs being high and confusing the attacking players. At Southampton and Spurs these were huge parts of his team.

He’s been poor for Bayern for nearly 2 seasons now though. His first proper breakthrough season he was very good but just looked so off it since then.

Onana and Alphonso Davies must be two of the most overrated players on the planet. Not seen Davies have a good game since that one v Barca 2/3 years ago. Onana wow, worse than De Gea.

In this day and age I severely doubt the pitches have anything to do with it. Most clubs have got incredibly high standards of pitches and training pitches. Its 99% either coaching or medical related - I mean it is virtually unheard of for teams to have this many or reoccurring injuries happening each season. I know players play a lot of games but it is like 6 weeks in to the season too.