Sideshow Luiz

Pedro = Sarri-Ball

Some of those CL groups look tricky. And it will make a Europa League win very difficult. Atletico, Dortmund, or Monaco down to the EL PSV or Inter Napoli or Liverpool Shakhtar, Lyon, or Hoffenheim Man Utd, or Velencia

Yeah, it's pretty interesting. Haven't seen anyone do stats like that (for teams). You can see how far away our defence is from the finished article. Also, the tempo may be there, but I think if they looked at things like key passes and xG, we'd still be off the mark. Long way to go, but the article does echo how surprised/pleased I am with how far along we are.

https://www.stats.com/industry-analysis-articles/fast-learners-how-sarris-chelsea-are-emulating-sarris-napoli/

I don't know if he's doing his thing where he takes all the heat to remove the press talking about his players (he used to be really good at that). But Utd fans don't seem to be too enamoured with him talking about the 3 PLs he's won. In conjunction with the way he's handled himself all summer, it's not a good look for him.

Yeah, these journos don't really know how Sarri's system works. I don't really blame them, everyone on this board spent months looking at every YouTube video/reading every article they could.

Yup. Bye-bye Bakayoko. We hardly knew 'ye.

When Courtois was going on about getting Hazard to join him in Madrid, it got me thinking: If you were in the RM squad, what would you be thinking? This guy has just rocked up. Expects to take (my friend) Navas' spot. And now he thinks Hazard should come and take who's spot? Mine? Marcos'? Isco's? What, are we shit or something? You don't think we're good enough? Probably not the best way to enter a new place of employment. If someone came to my work and sat down and right away started talking about how this guy from his last company should take my job because they are much better, I'd tell them to go fuck themselves.

Go with the Marina negotiation strategy. They say 2B. Start with 100K.

I like it simple.

Yeah, I agree. I like the yellow kits. This was my last favourite away kit:

I still don't think that Madrid want him all that badly. We gave them a chance, and they made an offer that everyone knows is a lowball. Hazard knows it too. Neymar to Madrid makes too much sense for everyone.

Hope so. He didn't fail here through lack of effort. Just not up to scratch, not with the way we want to play. Hope his career gets kickstarted again in Milan.

1pt in the last 5 visits to St. James' Park. I see a draw. 2-2. It's going to be tough sledding until the defence is sorted.

You can try StubHub or some other re-seller. It won't be cheap. https://intl.stubhub.com/chelsea-fc-vs-liverpool-fc-tickets/ev659822?afl=1Q606O8YRW&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=103654107&utm_source=sh-com

I rate Verratti. But he had his little contract thing at PSG as well and tried to get a move to Barca. Donnarumma had it big time with AC Milan a couple of seasons ago (?).

Nope, no one. https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/mino-raiola/beraterfirma/berater/282

I'm glad we don't really deal with him. It's always trouble. He's all about moving his clients around for new contracts and fees for himself. From a club perspective, it's a pain in the ass because he's always unsettling things. Can you imagine if Hazard had him as an agent? He would have been at Madrid years ago, and probably moved on to Juve or Man Utd. by now. He tries that shit all the time. Hamsik parted way with him when he tried to do it with him: https://www.thesportsman.com/articles/marek-hamsik-the-man-who-turned-down-super-agent-mino-raiola If I'm not mistaken, we don't have any of his players at the club, do we?

WTF is that?

I'm delighted to have 6 points from the first 2 matches. I think we were fortunate to get all 3 vs Arsenal. We were the better team overall, but that 20 minute stretch was so bad that we could have very easily given it away. In fact, we did, but Arsenal refused to take it. Right now, as much as I love picking up these crucial points, it's not my main area of concern. I really look forward to the match to see where our progress is at. I'm really excited, we've seen some glimpses of great stuff, but personally, I think we're only 60% of the way there. If we can keep picking up points while playing under our potential, we're going to be in good shape. I really think people are underestimating our ceiling.

I know we have the results right now, but I think we're only really 50-60% of the way there. I'm still in the mind-set that we're looking at Oct/Nov before things are clicking. We're seeing improvements every week. At the start is was a move or 2 would look in synch. Against Arsenal it was 20 minutes. The second half was hard to judge because Arsenal kind of stopped playing and sat deep looking for a draw. We have a long way to go still. I know Luiz has his moments. But, I'm not convinced that Albiol is better and Napoli had a solid defensive record. We'll get there. Right now, I'm going to hold off on worrying about personnel (Bakayoko aside, that was painfully obvious). We need training ground reps more than anything right now.

That's what I thought. I think the cutbacks will be sorted out, i'm not worried. They've had such little time on the training pitch. The French and Belgian players have only been back for 2-3 weeks.

From what I've seen of Sarri's Napoli, the FB will go out to challenge the winger and the other 3 defenders will be in the box almost like a3 CB (because they shift to the ball side so much). That's not the best video of it, I forget which one I saw that showed it in-game. I think that gap being exploited more on the left vs the right isn't just down to Luiz and Alonso vs Azpi and Rudiger. That's also Pedro and Kante vs Barkley and Willian