Superblue

There is a good chance too that a few of our players don't get too far in the tournament. Besides Thiago Silva with Brazil, and Germany are always a curious case in knockout football so perhaps Havertz, I don't see many others getting too far unless they get a fortunate run. England may do something but have usually struggled with World Cups outside of Europe and I don't think will deal with the climate, etc as well as European sides like Spain or Portugal will. Should get through the groups, but I think will need some good fortune on their side to get much beyond that.

I agree, I think that deeper role with the licence to push forward suits him better and allows him to be a connector between midfield and attack, as opposed to a creator in attack which I don't think gets the most from his game. I know we're currently threadbare at the back, but I do think longer term a back 4 system will suit us better as an attacking unit. Having played a back 3 for the last couple of years, we shouldn't lose the ability to play that system at times which is an added string to the bow, but I feel we look more balanced playing in a 4-3-3/4-2-3-1 system. Personally, would have started him last night, but he is at least getting minutes in most games so it's hardly like he's being left to rot in the reserves. He's definitely got some impressive attributes about him but he's also still extremely raw (had to learn to get his head up quicker and be more aware of his surroundings foremostly) so I can understand why he might be a slow burner to blood through. He just has to keep learning, developing and take his chances when they come his way. The potential is definitely there.

Yeah I think the goalposts have probably changed compared to at the start of the season. I'm sure when the season was starting, we were touted to potentially have 19 players going which would have been the most around Europe I believe. But that figure I assume took into account players who might well be on the fringes of their national teams and could end up going - for example Gallagher, Fofana, Cucurella, Azpi. With lack of form/minutes and the injuries we've suffered, we might actually get somewhat fortunate that not too many make the World Cup. Having said that I am now a little in two minds over what's best for some players. The World Cup is, what, potentially 7 games across a month. It's not a ridiculous schedule of games (without the World Cup, the winter schedule is usually worse) so are we better off players remaining match fit throughout or are we better off with what looks like potentially quite a few players not going and getting a proper rest to tackle the second half of the season but having to try and maintain fitness for a prolonged period. If I had to pick, I'd still plump for the latter but games will come thick and fast after this world cup, and we don't want to be slow and sluggish starting back up again.

Thought Zakaria looked good tonight. Difficult to judge too much against today's opposition but he looked sharp and had that bit of pace which I was worried he might have lost from his injury struggles. What he does give the team is a more solid base to work from. He's capable of breaking up play and his size and physicality gives us a presence in the middle that we lack. At the very least now, he should offer an option that Potter should be more confident now to utilise. Regarding Chilwell, whilst I'm disappointed we've lost another player now for the last 3 games before the break, I'd rather a few of our players be out for this World Cup and get themselves fit instead. I'm not bothered about how England do; they create a blind spot for me as it is with a Spurs player captaining them.

I can understand Potter going strong to try and build some confidence and momentum, especially for players that are out of form. But leaving gaps on the subs bench which could have been filled with academy players is incredibly frustrating. Even if they didn't get minutes, they still get the experience. And Mount starting - he's a yellow card away from suspension. That could be a decision which backfires massively.

I think with the current absences we have at present, it would make more sense to look at a 4-3-3 that included Jorginho, Kova and one of the above to fill that midfield 3. A back 4 then would consist of Azpi, Chalobah, Silva and Cucurella/Chilwell. At the moment the two biggest areas of weakness I see in our team is being overrun in midfield and teams playing direct against us into wide positions and a lot of that is a result of the personnel we have trying to play currently a 3-5-2/3-4-3. I don't mind what Potter is trying to do but you need the players for it. Reece James in that formation is almost a cheat code for us because he's elite on both sides of the ball. It allows us to be a bit more creative on the left side because in a defensive shape at worst Reece can tuck in to make a back 4, which is something neither Sterling nor Pulisic will do. Being so threadbare with defensive options currently and having no true DM to anchor the team leaves us incredibly unbalanced in that set up at present. The frustrating aspect is that Potter has at times used a back 4 during his short time here and it's looked significantly more effective than when we played back 4 systems under Tuchel, so I'm a bit perplexed why he hasn't gone back to that as an option with the defenders we currently have out injured. Hopefully he finds the right formula quickly because Arsenal and Newcastle are two sides on current form that could exploit those same weaknesses.

I get the idea of not playing Zakaria to give us the flexibility to move him on in January, but I just hope we don't bomb Zakaria out in January for a short-term fix, that's going to leave us with another player we overpay for and in a year or two we're trying to move on. Alvarez for me fits this bill completely, he'd potentially offer a more solid base than we have currently in the midfield but I don't think his ability on the ball is at the required top level that we'd need it to be. Out of the truly top midfield targets, the only one remotely possible in January would be de Jong and that's completely dependent on him. There's been a couple of murmurings that he might be more open to moving now than he was in the summer but as usual with the Spanish boys you don't know whether it's just a club spin to the media to pressure him again. The only other player I can realistically think of currently that I mentioned in the transfer section the other day is Konrad Laimer as his contract is expiring in the summer and we have been linked with him (although so have Bayern). If we got him agreed in January, there may be the possibility of convincing Leipzig to part with him 6 months early for a few million perhaps and also that might be where someone like Zakaria could possibly come into play if we could help broker him a second half of the season move to Leipzig to replace Laimer. But besides the above, unless we're able to pull a true rabbit out of the hat elsewhere, I'd rather we keep our powder dry for the summer. As a club, we have an unfortunate history in recent times of buying what might be deemed the "best available" at the time to fill a need and not being prepared to wait for something better to come along. That has to change from January onwards if we're going to rebuild this team in a proper manner.

He's definitely been in poor form recently, but I read that he was hospitalised with a bad bout of tonsilitis a few weeks back and lost a few kilos in weight. It's easy to dismiss things like this hitting an athlete so hard, and he has been rushed back almost through necessity to play game after game because we're thread bare in senior defensive options and even in the left back/wing back role the other option is still having his minutes managed due to a serious injury. He's clearly not right as he's being caught out for pace and power in situations that he wasn't last season at Brighton or even earlier this season. We've probably overpaid for him, realistically like we have with a number of players in the summer and recent years, but I don't think by any means he's a busted flush and I think in time he'll prove to be a good addition to the squad.

I think the club has to be very careful with the January window. The urge will be there to buy a midfielder, but realistically which ones are out there who we'll be looking at potentially being starting quality in this side for years to come? When we're talking the ones which could become long term lynchpins within the team - Rice, Bellingham, potentially someone like Enzo Fernandez, they are not moving in January. I'd like to hope that Zakaria gets a start in the Dinamo and City games before the break. Just simply to be able to see at the very least what we might have with him. My feeling is that we should try and soldier on to the end of the season with what we have. The hope is there is something there in Zakaria to at least provide a useful squad role for the rest of the season and at the very least staying fit so far in training has to be some sort of positive with him given some of his injury issues recently. There is the possibility of also getting at least something out of Kante perhaps from around February onwards in the season run in (and bear in mind he'll be looking to play for a contract here or elsewhere). The other possibility is that I've seen we've been linked a few times with Laimer at Leipzig on a free transfer next summer. Given the surgery likely needed to our midfield where we may need 2 or 3 new signings, I wouldn't be against bringing him in on a free transfer. He's not a world beater but he's a good player, like Alvarez is (albeit different profile), but he's not someone we'd be taking a £40-50m chance on. If he didn't work out, we'd be able to easily move him back to Germany in a year or two without concerned about trying to recoup money on a huge investment. I guess the possibility if we get him signed to a pre contract agreement is to see if Leipzig would sell him 6 months early to us for a few million?

I think he's a good player but like a lot of players, I just don't think he justifies the price tag Ajax will want, and particularly when he's unproven in a league stronger than the Eredivisie. His profile as a DM is something we're missing, but his passing isn't anything special and I worry in particular about that part of his game in a league that is played at a quicker tempo. He'd provide us with a much more solid defensive base within the midfield and also add a physical presence in there, but I think people would quickly become frustrated with him being able to 'play' to a high enough level. I begrudge spending the sort of money West Ham will want for Rice but if we're comparing the two, I see a more rounded player in Rice who can do both sides of the game (granted we're not talking playmaking ability, but he is capable of driving with the ball and passing through the lines). The longer-term outlook has to be finding players like Alvarez earlier in the process when he's £5, 10, 15m. I think if the ownership can get a couple of European clubs into the 'group' they're looking to build, a team or two in places like Holland and Portugal will hopefully provide a base to be able to look at heavily scouting areas such as North and South America without worrying about work permits. We can just park these players for a couple of years until they develop hopefully to a quality to play for Chelsea.

It definitely didn't work today. Having said that, we looked significantly better offensively against Salzburg with a similar set up in comparison to recent games like United and Brentford where chances were created at a premium. We're in a situation where the manager has come into a team that has changed a lot from the previous season (not just the new signings, but even bringing players like Broja and Gallagher back into the squad) so is still adapting itself to playing together, let alone adding a new manager to that dynamic and with the season having already started with pretty much a straight run of 3 games a week. Even with the break, it will allow Potter and his staff time to breathe and analyse but ultimately most of our squad are playing in the World Cup (think we're set to have the most in the league) so we'll still have a situation where he won't have huge amounts of time to work with players during this period. I think patience is really needed in this situation. The question mark now probably is what he does in mid-week. The obvious answer was to just rest players and play a 'skeleton' team, but a number of players are out of form. Do you give them the chance to play in midweek and play themselves into form? Players like Thiago Silva and Kovacic obviously can be rested but a number of the attacking players, Cucurella, etc really need to find some form and quickly.

Completely agree, people unfortunately have become too used and comfortable to the club being able to perform miracles with short term fixes. Ironically, scraping the top 4 for the last 4 years, coupled with the Europa League and Champions League wins have masked significant deficiencies within this squad and just exacerbating the long-term problems we were eventually going to experience. More questions should have been asked as to why we've been unable to mount any sort of title challenge for half a decade. A top 4 finish shouldn't be primary aim at the start of a season, but that is where we've currently fallen to. The midfield is definitely a hole in our team and has been for a long time now. It's the 4th year of dealing with Kante's injury problems - if you keep going to the well for water and there's none there, you shouldn't expect one day that it's miraculously full! Kante is 32 in a couple of months; we have to finally draw a line and look to the future. From what has been mentioned in the media, it does appear that midfield has been identified as THE position that needs working on next as a matter of priority and I do think now that will happen irrespective of how this season pans out. Ultimately, I'm also very much aware that whilst we're going through a poor patch of form currently, it's very possible we can turn things around suddenly and push back up the table. Everybody is gushing over Newcastle who just a few weeks ago were stuttering a bit and struggling to convert draws into wins. Arsenal jumped out the traps at the start of the season and in the last couple of weeks have started to show some vulnerability. Form and results will ebb and flow throughout the season. It's not looking promising now, but beating Arsenal and Newcastle isn't out of the question. That happens and we go into the break on a huge high compared to right now.

Ironically Brighton set up today in a 3-5-2 with two wingers. March and Trossard aren't wing backs either. If it's something that he wants to do there will be some serious teething problems, and I do think a defensive midfielder is needed for it to work properly. Let's be honest though, if he instead played Azpi and Chilwell, there'd still be people moaning that we're not offering enough offensively. There has to be a balance there, and it's something Potter is going to have to learn on the job, but he also needs a more balanced squad than he's inherited.

I can't agree with that based on today's game. Apart from Pulisic were any of the other starters linked with wanting to leave the club in the summer? Pretty sure from the starting lineup too, 5 or 6 of them were 25 years old or under and only Silva is older than 30. I can accept when we're beaten by a better team, but I hate being out battled by worse teams.

Overall pathetic display, and more concerning bar the Salzburg game, is how poor we've looked in recent games going through a period in the season where we've now got a tough run of fixtures. The most unforgiveable thing at present is how much our pressing ability has dropped off in the last 12 months. It was something that looked strong initially under Tuchel, but has been very poor and ineffective for a long time.

I believe I read it was their first loss in 20 months and 40 games at home in all competitions.

7 games this season under Tuchel - 3 wins, 1 draw, 3 losses, scored 8, conceded 10, 8 games this season under Potter - 5 wins, 3 draws, 0 losses, scored 14, conceded 3 At the very least what Potter has done is stabilised the team and made us harder to beat despite absences in the defence and Kante. If anyone thinks a new manager is immediately going to walk in and get us playing fluent, free flowing attacking football then they're deluded. In my opinion Potter has done what we've needed him to do this side of the World Cup. If he can get us qualified from the Champions League group from the next 2 games and keep us within the pack of clubs in the top 4 mix before the break then, for me, it's been a successful start. I always find it amazing that no one is ever given any time in football anymore, whether player or manager. I know we've been spoilt under Roman, but people seem to be given no more than a half dozen games at our club now to be assessed whether they're any good or not, and it's been like that for quite a while now. You only have to go back and look at the period just pre-Roman and for the early years of his ownership to see some of the players who flourished here, but in many cases needed a year or two to start hitting the levels really acceptable of a top club - Lampard, Gudjohnsen, Gallas, Joe Cole, Makelele, Drogba, Ashley Cole, Essien, Ballack. Some of these players are amongst our greatest ever but you wonder in today's climate whether they would have been given the opportunities of time and patience they were afforded 15 - 20 years ago. The same goes for the manager. He's been thrust into the job with very little opportunity afforded to training with the players on a technical level. We're playing 3 games a week, and in these periods, it's about managing the group and the recovery. He isn't going to have us playing like prime Barcelona any time soon, it'll take time for him to put his ideas across. This period and then one of reflection during the World Cup should be a positive for him, as it gives him time to really dig into and plan things that he wants to try and implement here. For now, it's more important to manage the team and the sheer number of games we're playing. As a side note one thing that has pleased me is that Potter isn't fixed to the one formation like Tuchel. Under Tuchel, when we moved to a back 4 we looked significantly worse in all facets of the games. Under Potter, if anything we're starting to look a better fit. He's answering questions such as can Silva and Chalobah both play in a back 4 which they are both answering currently that they can. I do think that ability to transition into a back 4 opens up a lot more options and possibilities regarding the way we can set up for games and hopefully is something that can allow us to also develop into a better and more fluid attacking outfit.

I think the biggest problem for Havertz is that no one seems to know his best position. He's heading the same way Ruben did where different managers have different ideas and concepts of his strengths and where to utilise them. He might well simply be one of these players that thrives under being the big fish in the small pond, like he was at Leverkusen. I felt last season that false 9 position was going to actually be the most suitable place for him and he had a bit of a run early on in the sanctions period where he looked really good and it just tailed off again. We don't have big goal scorers around him to put up numbers like say Liverpool have had in the past around Firmino and that poses a problem then when he's not a consistent scorer. It's extremely frustrating. Whatever people say about Mount, he's at the very least shown a consistent increase in his goals and assists numbers each season. 3 - 4 seasons on, we should be seeing Havertz and Pulisic really kicking on now and being big game changing players here and, as of now, they're not.

At the end of this season Kepa will only have 2 years left I believe so I think the club would actually have to make a decision on him at that point. I suppose even if he's not the long term solution for us, at the very least this run of games has maybe put him in the shop window as a worthwhile punt for a team in the £15-20m bracket.

There is a player in there, in the same way there is also one in Havertz. That's why so many fans find them both infuriating because there's no consistency to their play.

As mentioned previously, this isn't going to be an overnight fix/change but when I've watched us, I do feel we're moving the ball quicker and looking to play the ball through central areas of the pitch in comparison to the style of play under Tuchel. This is at times and very much a work in progress as I do still think at times those levels can drop back down in stages during the game to a much slower, possession across the backline and midfield style. I do worry a little that in the last two games, Villa and Brentford have found joy in particular in the first half down the sides of our back 3. We seem to have managed to stem those issues into the second half of both games but ultimately, we can't rely on Kepa pulling off world class saves to prevent good chances from the opposition in every game. Potter needs to find that balance in the team from a defensive perspective, and having James, Fofana and Kante all out currently doesn't help with that to be fair. But overall, I've been reasonably pleased so far. Despite really wanting things to work with Tuchel, I can't deny how boring and directionless we felt at the end of last season and the start of this one and I don't see that in our play now. We're definitely, in my opinion, currently more pleasing on the eye and enjoyable to watch.

Too simplistic to look at it like that in my opinion. Before Potter came in, we'd already been thrashed by Leeds, lost to Southampton (both of which have barely won since beating us) and lost to a poor Dinamo Zagreb side. Besides the Spurs game, our start to the season was extremely soft on paper and we'd really struggled through it. I'll always hold a soft spot for Tuchel but it was clear that we were churning our wheels for months under him and a new season and fresh start had made little difference. From what I've seen so far under Potter, the matches are a lot more watchable and there looks a lot more attacking intent in our game. It's by no means perfect, far from it currently, but so far you can't ask a whole lot more than 5 wins and 2 draws from the first 7 games, with 5 clean sheets. For me the key is to qualify from the Champions League group and be in and around the top 4 places (preferably in) when the season pauses for the World Cup. If he can manage that, then in my opinion he's built up a strong base from which we can hopefully kick on after the World Cup.

I think before last nights game there was a stat flying around that Mount and Lampard had the same number of goals from the same number of games up to this point in their Chelsea careers. I think it's difficult to truly assess both when they don't even really play the same position. Mount plays in a naturally more advanced and higher position than Lampard, but I think that deeper position suited Lampard anyway. When Carlo first came in, I'm pretty sure he tried Lampard a few games at the tip of a diamond and it didn't work. He perfected the knack of being able to run late into the box unmarked. Rather than compare Mount to one of, if not, the best players that ever played for this football club, I'd rather just focus on continuing to see natural progression in Mount - his all-round game, his influence, and ultimately his raw stats of goals and assists. He's definitely a stronger, more durable, more confident player to the boy that was thrown into the team 3 years ago. And as you've shown above, his goal output is improving year on year whilst also being able to maintain a high number of games and minutes in a position that is usually easier and heavier to rotate players. We're lucky to have him and hopefully like Reece, he commits his long-term future to the club very soon.

It does feel like we're very much in transition with our playing style under Potter. Even in that short time, you can see that he wants the ball moved up the pitch a bit quicker and doesn't mind us being a bit more direct in our approach and willing to punch balls through central areas. I do think some of the problem stems from being drilled into us under Tuchel to play in a much more patient manner. I feel at times, in bursts, we look more threatening, and then at other times we can be very slow and pedestrian. I watch some players and it does at times feel like they're playing a game within their own head to try and play in a more expansive manner as opposed to what they are used to. At times tonight, we had joy and gave Brentford problems trying to put the ball through central areas or inside channels as opposed to just looking to find spaces in wider areas. In particular I thought Kova showed more intent with his passing, opting at times for more difficult options centrally as opposed to an easy out ball wide. I think over a longer period of time, we'll be much more pleasing on the eye and will create more varied chances under Potter, which should also bode well for coping without Reece as we shouldn't be solely reliant on our wing backs to create chances for us like we have in the past.

The most frustrating aspect for me is that there is definitely a player in there, and someone who has a lot of attributes to be a big player at this club but the lack of consistency is infuriating and when he's off his game, he offers nothing and plays very much one pace. He can't live off the Champions League final goal and Club World Cup penalty his entire Chelsea career. You do feel this season really is do or die for him. If he can't find that consistency we need, I wouldn't be surprised if we moved on from him. I don't really want that to happen personally because he's still young and there's a nagging feeling I have that he could very easily kick on at some stage and we'll be looking back wondering what if, but ultimately it comes down to him. His situation is not a case of lack of opportunities. Pulisic has at least now played well against Wolves, and looked significantly more threatening tonight than Havertz did in less than half the game time. He's doing everything right to pinch that spot from Havertz if both continue playing like this.