robsblubot

and I don't agree with any of it. 🤷‍♂️ I think PL can be picky as a league and certain players don't do well here. My prediction is that switching managers will accomplish nothing. We will see in time.

And you are not going to change my mind on Felix. I don't rate him at all and think his career speaks volumes. What you are doing here I've seen 100 times before: when a team is underperforming, it's because the player sitting on the bench is under/not used. Because fans magically know what is best for the team. Both manager and goalkeeping coach, not to mention the rest of the staff who work with these players every day know nothing, because "we the fans" know that Jorgensen would've been FAR better at the job. Hint: we do not know that. Marcesca is no Tuchel, but I'm still trying to find where someone said he was.

And? Did I saw Maresca was a great manager? My point was that Marcesca was exactly the same at the time he was hired: a project just like the squad. Felix is 25 and no manager has ever found a way for him to deliver at this level. He was the cheapest buy we got last window. Never seen a player as disinterested as Nkunku against City. People can claim lack of motivation, but for me that's unacceptable and shows a lack of professionalism.

And?

Well yeah. That's a WC player when fit right there. Even lacking match fitness he imposes respect. Had James been remotely fit, and Gusto's inconsistency wouldn't be a an issue.

Sure I got your point, but disagree. Sometimes a dud is a dud. It's a very odd position for me now because I was one of the few here criticizing Maresca's signing when it happened.

First of all, as much as I consider, and have said so before, Maresca as a newcomer at this level, Lampard really never did anything in coaching o deserve to be our manager. Now, Jorginho and Giroud were pretty much the same players everybody knew with very glaring strengths and weaknesses. Rudiger was always an interesting player, but had a pretty rough time with injuries. We only got to see his abnormally high pace for a CB, once he stayed injury-free for a while. This place is so weird... The club hires the championship "Arteta". Many here, myself included, show disappointment with the lack of ambition and suggest he will be a yes-man to help with a very long-term project. Now we are finally discovering all that again?! has anything changed? What did people expect? He's a project just like the squad we have. Many of us warned about young players and lack of consistency... see Gusto's form? Is he a bad player all of the sudden? Finally, do you see a Rudiger in the squad? a Jorginho, or a Giroud? because all I see is limited CBs (with a single one IMO with WC *potential*), a very young perma-wrecked DM, and an even younger striker who will NOT play whoever the manager may be.

I don't really care a whole lot about KDH. He's not good enough like many signed by the club, so I don't think he should be singled out. Maresca is a newbie coach like Arteta was when he took over Arsenal--this was mentioned a lot around here. There is should be no surprise. Felix is shit (at this level) and he belongs at a smaller club. He demands a free role to operate, but isn't good enough to get one at a club like Chelsea. He shouldn't have been signed. Yes, and you move them ASAP. United should've moved Rashford way sooner. While I agree that none is the match winner type, I strongly disagree about Mudryk: if I called Felix shit above, to make a point, Mudryk is barely a footballer in my mind. Players have different characteristics, like in terms of work rate for ex, Neto > Madueke >>> Sancho >>>>>>>>> Mudryk. All I hear on this forum is scoring goals, but when I watch our games all I see is us conceding nonstop. It's totally OK to win 1 nil sometimes.

I have to imagine that KDH shows signs of struggle in practice just as he does in games, after all he's now playing with and against far superior footballers -- not to mention athletes (which is where I think he mostly lacks). I don't rate Felix at all, so not sure what to say here. Every employer is a yes-man, esp one without the experience and name to push back. It is still very strange to me that people are surprised by things we knew about Maresca the moment he was hired. I was watching Noni and Sancho play like shit against City. Then Neto came on and also played like shit. Nkunku came on and did not even bother to play. So, I'm not sure I have enough evidence to say the manager is wrong about this or that player. Again, I agree that he perhaps could have rotated more esp in conf league, but it's very hard to do that in the PL, esp when you are chasing CL.

Yeah we tend to remember the one guy snubbed by the manger who did well once brought on; for each one those there are tons of players who did not get minutes, or did not get many minutes, because they were nowhere near good enough. Managers watch these players every freaking day. They ask these players to do certain things, then watch how they execute. Tbh, I don't see where he's so wrong; maybe lack of rotation, but that's debatable too--we haven't player that many games for the fitness to be well were it is at. 😕

Meanwhile the Biden administration was asleep. 😕

That he's inexperience is written on his resume. And the club hired him after reading it. As usual fans tend to overvalued their players, after all they become Chelsea players once they wear blue. When Chalobah (our best right cb imo) wasn't playing for us where was he? PSG? nope. Take Liverpool side for a second: how many of our players would start for them? displace their starters? Afraid not many would sit on their bench. I don't think Arsenal would be much different esp because they have the same weaknesses in centre forward. Go lower in the standings, and we start to get competitive, but I think the question isn't then if our players are as good as, but whether they are significantly better and give us a competitive advantage or not. There are no qualifiers here, btw. "He's young and will develop" does not matter one bit. Now, could this team fight for CL? I believe it could, as it did at some point. I think the question is to explain the very obvious drop in form, not to mention fitness, that has taken place. Players are running a lot less, playing with less energy, and intensity. Now that said inexperienced manager is incapable of leading an unbalanced roster into CL in his first term (remember Arteta?) shouldn't really be a surprise to us, or the owners who hired him knowing exactly who he was. If the club sacks him this season, that will only show the exact value of the so called (long-term) project they've got.

Agreed. It's as if they are operating with different goals? 😉 Has Ugo learned to play footy yet tho? because last I saw him was pretty dire.

Strange move. I thought the whole point was for him to play a lot at CB -- will he get that at Juve, or he will get minutes like he was getting at Chelsea?

We've already discussed Felix, so that's that. Nkunku is a different issue though: it's really hard to get a player motivated again after a display like the one against City; his mind is elsewhere. The injuries may have something to do with it, but now it's mentality. Blame does not matter anymore because we need to think about what is best for the team, and it is plain to see that he's not interested in putting an effort in.

Can't play for us. 😅

Agree to disagree on the first half and his importance on the goal then. I think his runs, and holding on to the football are undervalued around here and when he gets subbed off we miss that as we did with nkunku who does nothing on the pitch. Guiu seems super raw every time I saw him so not sure that was a game for him. Had we had another viable striker option, then we could have moved Jackson to the left retaining his runs, but that’s not the case. NJ gets singled out WAY too much around here. We had plenty of under-performers to pick from against city. Wings were dire (inc neto when he got on), for example—Cole not much better. Even if James looks a bit unfit, gusto is in terrible form. Just to name a few.

Second half, yes. he was quite good in the first half and his high press got us the goal. Nkunku managed to be far worse than Jackson’s second half too.

True. Yeah I wrote as a general rule. Managers cannot bash players however poorly they play… it’s really not their place. The players, as assets, belong to the club, not the manager. unless it’s a behavior issue. Managers tend to have more leverage there and the backing of the squad against a problem player. Managers cannot lose the locker room—that’s all they got. agreed with the remarks above: Sanchez can become our 2nd or 3rd keeper no prob as long as he does not play.

Same. He's the same "nobody" who was hired. That he's not the final product, much like our squad, is abundantly clear, but that's what the club wanted -- as well as some here as I recall. Fans get attached to players even when they aren't good enough.... managers, not so much.

Hehe same, but I was referring to what managers do. I remember Klopp on Karius back then when he single-handedly lost a CL… he prob wanted to kill him but was very careful when speaking to the press. players are club assets — exposing the shortcoming of players only make it more difficult to move them.

Quite on the contrary; that's how they build their reputation in the game. Players will know that however poorly they may be playing, the manager will always have their backs. The fact that he's protecting Sanchez so much only means, to me, that *Sanchez requires that much protecting*. Managers criticize their star players, their best players, or at least mention it's a bad spell or whatnot. That never happens with the actual poor players.

I get you, but what if the goalkeeping coach thinks Jorgensen is not good? What if the consensus among the coaching staff is that Sanchez is a lot better than him? Sometimes he players are so poor that they aren’t going to get minutes no matter what. I wish filip would be at least better than Sanchez, but I suspect he isn’t.

Someone said people from Brighton apparently. So, they may have pushed for Sanchez.

He will always protect the player esp considering the club may not sign a top goalie in this window.