ja1

Give it time. Dasilva is on the lower range of normal (as opposed to being some sort of anomaly) for a full back at 5”7, the LB he is replacing at Bristol, Joe Bryan, is also 5”7. Could make a massive list of top full backs around present and past who are between 5”7 and 5”9 in height. Jay was ridiculously short in his youth maybe about 5”3 (maybe where people still think he’s *too* short from) but luckily he’s had a growth spurt since. Its a shame he hasn’t been starting from the off at Bristol, no doubt in part because we sent him there when they’d already started their season. I don’t get why we do that especially with our high profile/more talented loanees like Jay..can see with James, Trev and Sterling who are all starting what the benefits of a full pre season with a new team can do. Still Jay had this problem in his first few games at Charlton and eventually broke through, let’s hope he does the same.

Source, or are you inferring this from the fact he’s starting for U23s tonight?

I still think this guy is one to watch. Has all the raw ingredients to be a top full back, and his sub debut appearance for Torino showed some of the best parts to his game. Watch this space, Di Silvestri is injured and Aina may be allowed a run of games.

Mount and Tomori vs Trevoh tonight live on Sky Sports in league cup

An interesting move, to a club who have produced a lot of attacking full backs. I hope he does well, he has all the raw attributes of a modern full back.

Not sure about this myth he doesn’t have pace to play on the wins, he’s an exceptional dribbler and when subbed on for France that’s where he played. He’s hardly slow, he’s around Mahrez and B.Silva level for pace. Literally other than raw pace he has a whole heap of attributes you’d want from a winger (playmaking ability cutting inside/centrally, good delivery, great dribbler, goal threat from distance or inside the box..)

Other than raw pace (Fekir is hardly slow) he has a whole heap of attributes you’d want from a RW.

He can probably play both midfield or attack but I’d prefer we play him on the right if he signs. Productive for Lyon playing in an advanced role, hard working, maybe no raw pace but no slower than, say, Bernardo Silva. To my eyes he seems very much a final third player, previously touted as a false no.9.

This pre season there have been too many promising moments he should have done better ruined by simple poor quality, either a poor pass, or wrongly timed pass etc. And I hope it is just rustiness.

Is this still right thread for Trev? Gone to Ipswich now, his manager confirmed he’s signing as a midfielder which is disappointing for me, his future I’m almost certain will be at CB..but we’ll see

Goal for Mount!! Weak foot, edge of box, powerful low drive. Too much for ‘keeper

Lampard playing 4-3-3 with Mount, no.8, at LCM..

Derby vs Reading on TV tonight

What is worse about Emerson? He at least has tangible qualities unlike Alonso who is good at free kicks and that’s about it. Emerson has pace to overlap, can dribble, attempts to pass and move and can create chances. Same number of assists in 5 appearances for us that Alonso managed in a whole league season. Even this pre season, in less minutes can point to two clear cut chances Emerson has made (Pedro in first game and Abraham in second). I’m not completely sold on Emerson, he seems either low on confidence or just lacking extra bit of quality to be a top LB. But he damn well deserves a chance as it’s clear he has some strengths where Alonso lacks and if Marcos Alonso has managed to be be given a competitionless 2 seasons as our starting LB Emerson at least deserves a run of game. In summary, Emerson hasn’t set pre season alight per se but he at least has shown some of his strengths. Alonso every appearance for Chelsea FC doesn’t set anything alight. Annoys me when people call out Emerson having an average game as to why Alonso should start when Alonso is average at best for 60% of his games, not really contributing anything meaningful to attack or defence (the rest are worse than average).

What do people think on him? I’ve got to say, I rate him. Although on the face of it/at short glance his Swansea loan looked poor, they were just a terrible team, and he was still amongst their top scorers. I think most young strikers/any strikers of playstyle like Abraham wouldn’t do any better with Swansea. I think he’s a player who really works hard on pitch and also on his weaknesses. Really developed his all round game since Bristol (imo) utilising his height and deceptive strength to become more of a ‘target man’ type player. At his best he’s brilliant and honestly underrated in his back to wall play and occupying CBs. There was a game last season against Tottenham where Vertonghen and Alderwiereld really struggled to deal with him any time they pumped a ball up field. He’s extremely tall, he’s developing this Giroud like ability/trait of controlling /trapping aerial balls with back to CB, but unlike Giroud and most other target men he also has a bit of pace, eg. he can actually chase through balls. As we’ve seen at Swansea and Bristol he also has traits similar to Batshuayi in the box, an opportunistic goalscorer as I like to call them (or just a poacher if you’re not weird like me). Finally I also like him because he works hard (and indeed one of the reasons Bristol City fans found him so endearing). He can press from the front or chase back. Tammy’s at a bit of a crossroads. We already have 3 senior strikers, we don’t need a 4th. I’d be happy for him to be the target man in our squad but Giroud is already there. In that case, the obvious thing is to loan Tammy out for a year and he replaces out of contract Giroud next summer, right? My gripe with this is that after his loan at Swansea he’s not exactly hot commodity rn. The gold standard would be for him to go to a top 5 league and smash it but which club would opt for him based on last season? Maybe a top Dutch side could be an option. The risk is he just has another loan like Swansea in and out of a poor team imo. We need to take it upon ourselves to develop him (a bit like Kane after his dead loans with Tottenham). I think the club are genuinely considering this otherwise he wouldn’t still be with the squad. If he replaced Giroud he would also help are heavily stocked over 21 no homegrown spots. This pre season although no goals I think he’s quietly done well, showcasing all the qualities I talked about before..I think he’d be a fine option for any squad someone just needs to give him that chance.

Have to say not something I’ve noticed, I can’t think of Alonso taking any shots on goal from long range this pre season, maybe 1 or 2 that weee wildly off target (and of course free kicks). But not something that seems like Sarri instructed him too. Same with Zappa, I think they’re both just players who when in space 25-30 yards out will opt to shoot. Under Conte Alonso had almost free reign sometimes to give the ball to Hazard/whoever is playing LW and just run into the box and stay there until attack broke down.

Imo he looks even more lost at LB. No more being allowed to goal hang and take pot shots like under Conte. No tangible qualities to his game bar freekicks.

Based on my perception of pictures only but I swear players often look a lot beefier in pre season. Maybe they use the extra time without matches to build up muscle , that is perhaps harder to do/keep in full season when you’re running 10-15km 1-2 times a week. Last summer in particular our players looked massive in pre season. Batshuayi and Bakayoko both looked like right units, not that they aren’t strong now but last summer I swear I they looked just much more lean muscle on em

Baker looks beefed up

Shame it hasn’t worked out. I think I along with many others earmarked as a future star with his performances in the youth team. Looking back at that time, I think it’s interesting I kind of knew there were parts of his game that were lacking. His dribbling was EXCELLENT but something of a party piece. He could only do it in central areas, even though he was great at it, if he played on the wing he’d invariably be quite quiet. While his dribbling was excellent in central areas his playmaking abilities weren’t as good as you’d expect from a normal no.10. He also had this problem where he drifted in and out of games..10 minutes of nothing then he’d beat 3-4 players, then 10 minutes of nothing..there were these flaws that I kind of turned a blind eye too because I was so excited about him. In full flow, honestly was just as good/satisfying to watch as Hazard/Messi. If you look back on this thread I remember someone posting of the flaws to his game similar to what I’ve just said at the time of when he was ripping up youth teams. I knew somewhere deep down he was right lol but.. for first team football I think that his dribbling has become less of a strength for him. He no longer can just pick the ball centrally on the half turn as he did all the time for the youth team.

And it seems Sassaullo is his destination. I believe it’s a loan with an option to buy at the end.

Increasing rumours of a Derby loan (after he signs a new contract). I was initially very disappointed with this move, now I’m less disappointed but still not happy. It does make sense as rarely do we have this kind of 100% guarantee he will start every game and get the benefits of that but on the other hand, after a season Mount had I think we can afford to send him on a more high risk loan to a top 5 league.

Obviously it’s unrealistic yes, I never said it wasn’t, just like it’s unrealistic we’d buy an upgrade at RWB after signing Zappacosta last year, doesn’t mean I don’t think we need it. It’s also unrealistic we’ll sell Drinkwater this summer but it’s one of the weaknesses in the squad I think we can improve on like at LWB and RWB. Having said that I like what I’ve seen from Emerson and feel like he could be the LWB we need IF he’s given the chance. If you’re happy to just put any player at wingback and they provide width just by virtue of being present in their position that’s fair enough, what you said doesn’t change the fact that having a LWB superior than Alonso in the attributes I mentioned would compliment Hazard further, would probably have helped us last season, and would mean you can still be happy with your bare minimum requirement of just having wingbacks who stay in their position and provide width.

If Alonso is still our starting LWB next season then it’s one of the places we need reinforcements in, just as important as any place in the team. What ‘serious qualities’ does he have bar being above average in the air and free kicks? Don’t bring up his supposed goal threat. He shoots a hell of a lot and is often joining up with our CF in the box and his goal output is the same as Moses if you take away free kicks. Hazard being able to link up for the first time in his Chelsea career with a LWB with pace to overlap, good close control and ability for give and go, pass and move, would make a world of difference.

I’m not sure why so many are obsessed with him playing DM. He looked out of his depth/nothing special when he played there for our first team, and actually looked like a good talent when he was later deployed at CB for the rest of his appearances. He played Cb for Exeter. He played CB for our youth team. Strengths for me lie in his defensive skills, nothing that special about him on the ball.