Jase

No striker on the bench. LOL

Do you have something against Sanchez? Why do you seem to dislike him so much? I think the Eriksen's situation is different from Sanchez's. Eriksen is only 27 and is in his peak years and while it's not a good look on him, I believe his lack of motivation is due to the fact that he doesn't want to be at Spurs. With Sanchez, I think it's a case of his body just gave up on him after his endless exertions with club and country over the years. Over the last decade or so, I think he had less than 3 summer breaks. Otherwise, he played a lot for Barcelona and Arsenal and god knows how many tournaments with Chile. If anything, it's a surprise that he didn't break down sooner, especially when you consider his playing style on top of the lack of proper rest.

You forgot another reason - AVB lost the dressing room. That's not the case here with Lampard. In any case, we were in danger of losing the Top 4 under Conte (2nd season) and Sarri but the board didn't do anything until the end of the season.

I'm assuming he doesn't want to join another English club. Hence why we haven't been linked with him at all. Heck, United were strongly linked with him previously but even that has gone completely gold as Inter try to get him.

Pulisic is still out. Will be back after the winter break. Tammy is ruled out for the game.

Nagelsmann once said that "30% of coaching is tactics, 70% is social competence". It's little wonder that players respond strongly to him. He did great at Hoffenheim and has now seemingly taken Leipzig to another level.

You know things are getting desperate when United are reportedly going after Slimani...

That's debatable, I think. If we're talking about Oscar-Conte, then it's hard to find a place for Oscar under Conte's back 3 system.

It's always been a catch 22 situation. The top quality players aren't gonna be available this month. So either we stick with what we have and try to persevere through the remaining months go for them in the summer OR pay some stupid money for some B/C grade players and be stuck with them for years like we do now. It's hard to tell whether the board have had epiphany and suddenly learned their lesson from buying duds in past Januaries - it's their fault that our squad quality is mishmash and not up to the required standards - but they seem kinda bit more cautious about buying players that aren't our top targets (cue some dumb signings in the next week).

Can't remember for what it was but IIRC, Conte did something similar to Buffon at Juventus.

They play with 2 strikers, so they can easily rotate. As for Costa, he's already over 30 and has been useless since returning to Atletico. They probably would have no qualm about ditching him if he kicks up a fuss TBH.

Not so sure about the latter. Felix is struggling, Morata is inconsistent and Costa has gone downhill. He'll start lots of games there, similar to when David Villa went there and did a decent job for them.

This is not defending Kepa but the defence in front of him is also crap...

Most likely wants Cavani to replace Giroud and he'll end up with no one or another dud. Not sure if there's much we can do about Cavani if he really wants to join Atletico, assuming the reports are to be believed.

And if he doesn't, he'll most likely still retain his place. Problem with a number of players at this club, due to lack of serious competition. But Lampard did seem to indirectly warn Kepa that if he doesn't show improvement between now and May, he'll look for replacement in the summer... https://www.chelseafc.com/en/news/2020/01/24/frank-lampard-confirms-goalkeeper-selection-for-hull-and-discuss?cardIndex=0-3

https://www.chelseafc.com/en/news/2020/01/24/chelsea-announces-three-as-new-official-shirt-partner New shirt partner (Three) announced (cc @NikkiCFC)...