manpe

Are you saying you wouldn't have taken that swap at that time? Considering the state Kante and Jorgi were in when they were sold compared to Enzo and Caicedo... Kante almost never played and Jorgi was just slow and shit. What we are seeing is failure at squad building. Too young, too overpriced and too much in a short period of time. Stick that same Enzo or Caicedo in a Shitty, Liverpool or any team with identity and structure and I guarantee they would be regarded among the best. We are just an inexperienced disjointed leaderless bunch of potentials thrown together. Those players may never reach their real levels at Chelsea if we keep going aimless like that. Poch has a mammoth task on his hand.

Very sad. Career ruined by injuries just like CHO and RLC. I don't have any hopes for him to fulfill his potential anymore, it simply is not possible if your body is breaking down already so young. We seriously need to start looking at RBs in the market.

We should be playing 4-3-3 I think. Caicedo sitting, Enzo and Gallagher going b2b. This way Enzo gets his wish of having the freedom to bomb forward, same for Conor. Sitting in a pivot just doesn't fit Gallagher and staying high doesn't fit Enzo.

Midfield is also a worry for me. When your front-line doesn't produce, you need a goal threat from midfield, but our eventual MF of Lavia, Caicedo and Enzo has none in it. Solid defensively in theory, but defence gets you draws, not wins. We will be relying heavily on defenders and set-pieces to score goals with such a defensive midfield and toothless attack.

I remember most on here didn't want Felix for the money quoted, many called him another Havertz (including me) - no set position, no end product. He would be redundant when we already have Nkunku, unfortunately nobody could predict he'd miss half the season. We were screaming out for a proper winger or striker more than for another SS. He may work for Farca but he would have gone to shit at Chelsea like most attackers do.

Dude is probably frustrated that the attacker the club provided him was an average U21 Man City reject. Poch was asking for experience and proven quality all summer and got none.

Agreed. He's an average AM but a world class CM, he should participate in our build-up all over the pitch, a roaming playmaker.

Bent to player pressure is my guess. Someone (was it Poch or Enzo?) said that Enzo came to him and asked to play further up the pitch, that's what he's doing.

Wish I was that optimistic. We have no world class senior players for those kids to learn from, I think that aspect is undervalued when it comes to development. If you constantly underperform in games you should be winning your confidence will drop, you won't enjoy playing anymore and you will be stuck in a rut, you lose belief in the project and so on.. no progress comes from that. We need to start winning soon or we're gonna have a bunch of wantaway players again by the end of the season.

Feel the criticism towards Poch is unfair. It's Winstanley and Laurence who deserve it more for turning us into an unbalanced youth team with average players at best (signing of Mudryk alone is a sackable offence, for that money we could have signed a ready-made player). Also all the injuries probably have something to do with the owners getting rid of most backroom staff from day 1, can't really put up a fair fight with 10+ players injured constantly. It's a shitshow from top to bottom, we have a saying "the fish starts rotting from the head" so it's the head that needs chopping first. The fact that we had 3 managers fail and a 4th one already struggling is at least some kind of indication that maybe, just MAYBE the managers are not the root cause for "coincidentally" becoming relegation fodder overnight after the new owners came in. Even Guardiola would struggle with the situation we are in, I have no doubt about it.

I thought it was because of our midfield situation, but now that we have played two games in a row with 3 at the back against relatively easy opponents at home with both Enzo and Caicedo starting, I don't know... If it is about Nkunku, then scrapping your system and going full defensive just because one of your attackers is out is pretty retarded imo. My final hope is that we will revert to 4 atb once Lavia is fit... The last time we played good solid footie with 3 atb was when Rüdiger was still here. He acted as an extra midfielder to devastating effect, none of our current CBs are capable of running the show in that system like he did.

Everybody keeps saying he was 4th choice LB. Based on what evidence? Afaik Maatsen only played attacking positions in pre-season, no indication that Poch saw him ahead of Hall at LB.

I'm so fucking tired of the "come back stronger" cliche they say every single time someone gets injured. It's a blatant lie, very few come back "stronger". If it was true, why not injure every single player in pre-season so they would come back stronger at the start of the season?

🤣

Yup, like when people should have listened to us when we said Willian was pants, but pundits were creaming all over him and eventually Arsenal found out the hard way that we were right. If there is a strong unanimous reaction from fans, it shouldn't be disregarded.

That's the thing, Gallagher would be a perfect squad option to have, but never should he be an absolute starter in a CL aspiring team. I don't want him gone, good to have some Chels DNA in the squad, but come on, at the moment he can't be the best we can put out.

If so, then EPL is becoming Bundesliga with Shitty being Bayern. Can't wait for Pep to fuck off from EPL.

Fantasy line-up time! 🥳

Excited about Sanchez tbf. Kepa induces so much anxiety every game, I just don't trust him. Sanchez, on the other hand, is much more commanding in his area... It's an improvement and could work wonders for the defence, like it did when Mendy first came.

We don't want Vlahovic, we just want rid of Bukkaku, and Vlahovic doesn't want us if reports are to be believed... Sounds like a great match 🤓

Frank Leboeuf thinks Chelsea could be about to sign a defender who’s better than Levi Colwill “I like him. Very talented centre-back. The guy is strong; he’s massive. He’s experienced, and that’s very good,” Leboeuf told ESPN. “He’s strong, he’s powerful, and he has technique. He’s a perfect match for Thiago Silva. There’s lots of centre-backs at Chelsea, but he’s my first choice if he comes.”

I think the fact that the contract was done so quickly and easily proves that the reports that Levi wanted to leave were bullshit. Nobody in their right mind would actually prefer fucking trophyless Brighton over certified winners, sooner or later they're gonna get relegated anyway... Even Leicester weren't safe from that and they achieved more than BHA ever will. Any word what salary he's on now?

Lol, is that clip supposed to be an example of superb 1 on 1 defending? That dude passed the ball to Malo, nothing to do with actual defending.