Jase

Positive first half. Awful second half.

Already an injury? FUCK THIS SHIT!

JFC! Aren't you lot being somewhat judgmental here?

Azpi playing as a CB in a back 4 it seems. Lampard has been reading TC...

To think we just gave Loftus-Cheek a new long term contract last year...

Werner and Ziyech have looked very good. Defending mostly solid after the opening 10 minutes. Lots of possession but little penetration, which feels rather familiar...

Liverpool have 4 first team players out injured but their bench doesn't look all that great...

Absolute ZERO chance we'll sell Kante. If anything is going to fund the purchase of Rice, it'll be through the sales of Barkley, Jorginho, Batshuayi etc. Also, there is no guarantee Rice will play as the DM when all the reports have suggested Lampard sees him as a CB. And even if he plays as the DM, we're gonna depth in that position.

LIVE stream link... https://www.chelseafc.com/en/live It's also live on the app.

A very youth looking bench...

LINE-UP!!

I can see it. It's right there when you open the app.

It's on the club's website and app! https://www.chelseafc.com/en/live

Live stream on the site here... https://www.chelseafc.com/en/live It's also live on the app. Still waiting for team news...

Brighton's team...

True but don't destroy the fantasy, Tomo! 2020 is shit enough!

If we get Havertz, a new GK and Rice on top of what we've already got, this would be our best transfer window ever.

Even then, have we at any point complained about Azpi getting exploited in the air? Since you're making him out to be bad, why have strikers not tried to exploit him more often? He has won even more headers than those taller than him in the team! Moreover, when it comes to dealing with aerial balls, it isn't always about winning them. Some times, it can be just about "disrupting" the opponent and preventing him from getting a clear connection to it. Lampard said nope about Azpi and yes about Alonso in dealing with tall strikers? Right, that is why the former plays more and the latter sits on the bench for most weeks... Seriously, having height in the team is important but it isn't everything. We didn't replace our 6 ft+ players with a bunch of dwarves. If you're so worried about the height, then maybe you should propose we hire Tony Pulis or Sam Allardyce as manager. Tall players do not necessarily mean they will defend better, they could be useless in the air or weak in dealing with aerial challenges. Short players can also defend well, the ones with great leap, intelligence and/or timing. And just as important if not more is having the physicality to deal with aerial challenges. One can be tall but if he doesn't fancy himself in physical challenges, then he will lose more often than not for example. We have a number of tall players in the team but they are mostly a bunch of softies when it comes to dealing with aerial challenges. That and the bigger problem for me is the organization of our set piece defending, considering how often we have seen players getting a free run inside the box, players caught ball watching, not reacting to second balls etc. Having a goalkeeper who can deal with the high balls into the box will also help our set piece defending. Was set piece defending really a problem under Klopp? I just remember them being more bad with defending in general before they got Van Dijk, Alisson etc in. AFAIR, Man City were the ones who initially had big problems defending set pieces under Guardiola before he solved the issue in his second season. And speaking of Man City, they don't really have a team of giants and they don't seem to be conceding many from set pieces. I know they try to prevent having to do so as much as possible but even then, they don't seem to let in many.

Wednesday - Chilwell Thursday - Sarr Friday - Silva Is today THE day!?

Was that even considered aerial battle? Didn't Spurs simply exploit the space between Azpi and Luiz back then by having Alli make late runs into the box?

That is true but on the other hand, just because Azpi isn't known for his aerial game, it doesn't mean he's bad at it. Have we ever complained endlessly about him getting exploited in the air? His positioning has always been spot on. Also, if we look at the number of aerial won, Azpi is second in that aspect in last season's Premier League for the team. I don't know what's the average aerial won % for a full back but unless you start turning into Tony Pulis and putting giant CBs in the full back positions for example, I'd imagine the average can't be far off from the 59-60%. Don't have the aerial won % for all the full backs in the Premier League last season (and too lazy to start counting every single one of them) but looking at the number of aerial won, there are only like 3 full backs ahead of Azpi in that aspect. Chilwell also in the top 10.

Yeah. Some short players can have a great leap or even timing that allows them to win aerial duels and render their height irrelevant. Having the physicality is also key of course. Am also sure Lampard took this into consideration when he was identify his main LB target.

You know Conte. He has a penchant for going after older players, workhorse players more than talented, younger players. People, including myself, have complained about the club not backing the manager in the transfer market but am glad they didn't so with Conte, even if we still ended up with duds of other kind.