Sideshow Luiz

Reminiscent of PSG last year

Hopefully that's Hazard and not Iazzard.

Maybe the players think that winning 1-0 is the easiest thing to do in football.

He's not hurt when we need a striker?

I knew this would happen as soon as I started getting excited about Sampaoli.

Yeah. This would be the time to get/trust some youth. It's hard for big clubs who are challenging for trophies on all fronts to play the kids. It's a lot of pressure to not drop points. This season is a lost cause. Developing youth is a luxury that mid-table teams have.

I have faith that Matic will come good again. I don't actually think he's been that terrible this year. Just no where close the beastly 1.5 years prior.

It's all about the capacity. Stamford Bridge = 42K The teams we want to compete with in Europe are 60+. 80 and 100K respectively for Madrid and Barcelona. Even in England: Old Trafford = 75K Emirates = 60K Etihad = 60K It's hard to compete with teams whose gate revenues are 50% higher than ours.

Yeah, everyone can see it. Even Madrid look at our squad and wonder what we're trying to build. Like I said, I hope that the silver lining in this season is that we become a little more patient in the next few years and try to build an identity without worrying about instant results. Galactico-lite was a nice run, but it doesn't work when you're trying to build a new stadium and the money faucet slows down. We've been re-tooling for years. The CL win put off something that should have been done after that season.

I agree. I think 433 suits our midfield and wingers the best. Move Cesc a little further forward without being a pure no.10. I'd switch out Ramires for Oscar as I think Oscar plays well when he has a little space in front of him, not as a no.10 or second striker. Maybe I'm wrong, but we don't have a lot to lose this season. Would it kill us to give it a shot?

It's from the top down. Barca lose Xavi and they just bring in Rakitic and keep on ticking. Sure, he's a little different, you don't just find a new Xavi, but Rakitic fits what they want. They have a club ethos and a board that gets signings based on that idea. They hire a new manager based on that as well. Our board just seem to have an old copy of FIFA (2008 I think, based on our targets) lying around and build a team like that. Of course it helps to bring in WC players, but we're not doing that. If you want to be frugal, you have to get players that fit your squad and can do well within your structure. Look at Liverpool over the past few years. Absolute mess. Another squad with a mish mash of players. Now, they have a £30M striker that was very good at Villa, but doesn't work with what Klopp wants to do. You need to have some sort of stability and if you keep changing managers, that stability has to come from the board. I'm hoping that there is a silver lining to this awful season. Maybe the next manager won't be expected to win the league and we can start to build a squad that has an identity that we can continue.

That's kind of the issue, isn't it? Ramires works well in a midfield diamond where he can go box to box and has others to do more technical work or be a purely holding midfielder. He was part of Ancelotti's diamond. We have a defence that needs to sit deep because it has no pace, good fit for playing on the counter like Jose likes. We have wingers who like to play with the ball at their feet and be very slow around the box, no one besides Willian seems to want to track back too much. Would be nice for Blue Barca as Roman is constantly being reported as wanting. It's kind of all over the place.

True Chelsea legend. Sad day.

I must admit, I do not know anything about Sampaoli either. Then, I read these articles on his tactical preferences: https://footballmanageranalysis.wordpress.com/2014/03/12/a-tactical-analysis-of-jorge-sampaoli/ https://defendingwiththeball.wordpress.com/2014/06/15/chile-attack-attack-and-then-attack-some-more/ I'm intrigued, but I also really wanted Bielsa as an interim manager and Pochettino as the next full time. So I suppose it only makes sense that I'd be excited to see Sampaoli after leaning who he was. Of course, this now means that it won't happen and we'll get Rafa. Edit: I should note that I don't actually think we have the squad to implement the philosophy of any of those coaches. The back line is too slow. Terry was one of our best players last season, and possibly the best CB in the PL. But he really needs a team that defends deep to cover for his (lack of) pace. Sampaoli (from the brief amount that I've read) seems to want midfielders that go box to box, and we don't really have those (Vidal > Ramires). If he comes in, we'd be looking at a lot of new additions to the starting XI. I'm not against that, but it's a difficulty.

Gazumped by Liverpool. Dark days.

I'm not confident about this match, but you never know. I'm less confident that we'll try anything new. 433, please, the midfield is crying for it. Get Cesc further forward without being a pure 10. Get Oscar further back where he can have a little more space. I'm very confident that we'll trot out the same thing that's been broken all season long.

I think Pedro would do well here if we played him as a winger, instead of as a midfielder where we ask him to come deep. Our squad is dying for 433 IMO. Fabregas doesn't work as well as a DM or as a pure 10. I also think that Oscar would be better a little further back. Pedro and Hazard would also work better as winger/forwards, also IMO. Now, we're being linked with Lavezzi, I think he's pretty similar to Pedro in the winger vs. midfielder regard.

Jose would have said that he won't comment on the extra time and the offside because he doesn't want to be fined. For which he would receive a fine. I'm expecting Martinez to come out unscathed.

Fergie time. Offside goal in injury time +1. I feel a bit dirty, but I'll take it.

That was shambolic. Zouma loses his man so much. He needs to read the game better. Haven't seen a lot of improvement in that area.

I don't think we're paying his full wages. I think Man Utd. did last year, but I think that Monaco are covering a large %. Just looked it up, and he took a 50% pay cut to join. http://www.express.co.uk/sport/football/588785/Manchester-United-flop-Radamel-Falcao-wage-cut-secure-Chelsea-move Still overpaid.

The google translate version of that link is great: Now with duck in the sights, Chelsea is a true 'cemetery attackers'

Could be. But, if he's primarily an aux striker who can play out on the left, 433 would suit him better. Same with Pedro. Not so much LM like we use. I'd love for us to give 433 a shot, but...

We can hope. I'd love to see him at Chelsea.

There are a few places reporting that we are in the market for him, £40M. Can't see it happening. Probably trying to get a new contract from Madrid.