robsblubot

Match between equals! make no mistake... this is our level.

"1 - Chelsea have named their youngest ever Premier League starting XI (23 years, 21 days); it's the youngest XI named by a Premier League team since Man Utd vs Crystal Palace in May 2017 (22y 284d) and the eighth youngest ever by any side in Premier League history."

Mudryk was electric in the first half: goal aside, he was playing well. Though he went back to poor mode in the second half, which hurt our attack. I liked the first half strategy a lot. The subs were bad, but not a whole lot of options tbf. Lavia looks pretty average to be... hope it's just the first game. Jackson looks offside to me.

Fair enough, but I used Enzo just as one example... more will follow.

Another goal by Mudryk -- is there a good player in there? Brilliant strategy with all the pace in attack. Credit to the manager whatever the outcome is.

best position for Maatsen at this time is attack where we can make use of his pace. Can't defend to save his life.

Players get paid however they perform or not. I'm not saying that they will go vacation-lite and screw the club, but some might. Imagine that what we see today lasts for a couple of years... can you imagine Enzo staying? I can't. Clubs need good relationship with agents, esp the super agents, otherwise they won't have a chance to sign the best players. If one these agent's player is stuck and unhappy at a club, they will act and protect their asset, the player. You see that happen a lot these days: unhappy players get their wanted move quickly in most cases. Evidently I'd like this strategy to work and work well, but I don't think it's feasible nowadays with the amount of money pouring in.

Except in rare cases of managerial blindness, starters are starters for a reason. Those are simply our best players only good players--unless Nkunku is ready to play the 90, it's going to be a tough one.

Bakayoko was also king at Monaco... apparently first touch isn't a requirement over there. 😆 Frankly, he struggled in the PL and then dropped a tier or two to find his game. Oldest tale in football. BTW, contrary to Bakayoko his skill was good, but he was so so slow... no surprise he'd struggle in the PL.

Yeah there are many risks here: not building a competitive foundation of winners for one. Then actually losing key players, for not being competitive. Honestly, I see more money in football not less. Our successful players will see their counterparts making twice as much elsewhere, and they will force their exists. Contracts mean little these days... player power, or should I say, agent's power dictate where players go.

Agreed. Needless to say that some of these young players won't cut it--regardless of how much money was spent. Club will need to be smart on finding out who is who, and then act swiftly to get back to being competitive. Good luck to us all! Considering the squad (as pointed out above), yes. Honestly, watch any mid table side and think whether our (available) attacking options are much better than theirs. I certainly don't think our options are better than top 5-7 tho. BTW, "equal" means there is no advantage, despite club size and investment made. And if we take youth into the account, that translates into a disadvantage, which is what we see on the pitch.

For the record, I think Poch gets far more rights than wrongs and I think he's 100% correct in being conservative with the shitty roster he's been given. This roster is not elite PL regardless of manager quality or style. Grass is always greener and switching the manager is always the "magical solution" for every problem at the club.

yup and also so much quality up front... even coming from the bench. Taking Salah aside and they still have Nunes, Diaz, Jota.... it's crazy compared to us atm.

Liverpool is cruising against Burnley, but VAR is tough opposition.

It's not a number for me personally. I see certain things from players which have different weights. Ball control, for example, if pretty fucking high in importance for me, so when I see players struggling controlling the football well that's also a big fucking red flag for me. It's hardly the first time I've seen Conor taking a few extra touches to control the football, show too much of it, or having a poor first touch. Perhaps the fact he's been one of our best player shows exactly the (poor) level we are at? 🤷‍♂️ Would he be a starter at Liverpool, City, Arsenal, Tottenham, or even Newcastle? can't see that myself tbh.

and I don't understand how that point isn't self-evident. 🤷‍♂️ Bear in mind I'm not arguing that his decision was not a very bad one -- it was. I'm arguing that players would respect a great solo play as opposed to a teamwork play where a player gets greedy at the end. To emphasize, Jackson, Broja, and (to a lesser degree) Palmer were awful; Sterling was literally playing alone esp in the first half, and we are here discussing Sterling's poor decision. That's exactly the problem with this roster IMO. Sterling is the only attacker we've got! 🙂 Well Nkunku will make it two... hopefully.

Did you watch the highlights by chance? It was a solo play by Sterling. Nobody passed him the ball, he took it. Teammates would definitely be super mad if it was a linkup play and he failed to pass in that situ. Regarding Palmer, he's young so it's understandable, but he needs to work on his consistency as every young play do. He was pretty poor against Wolves.

yeah could be... he is certainly not without his flaws otherwise he'd be still at City eh. I do think he worked harder at City... more like what he was doing pre-fuck up in the first half. Like for us, he has moments of City intensity and desire, but only moments. TBf to him, right before the fuck up, which was his solo play anyway, he did provide a nice lobbed pass to Jackson who inexplicably could not control it.

He was pretty scary (bad) against Wolves tho. Looks like getting a replacement shouldn't be too hard.

No question about that. One important reminder was that it was a solo effort: he was the one who high pressed, stole the football, and made the run. He was the one player playing at a high intensity in attack. Jackson was having trouble with the football and Broja did not show up for the match.

Interesting to see folks complaining about Sterling. He did fuck up a couple of times (the one on one for ex), but he was also the only player in attack performing well in the first half. He assisted maybe 2-3 times and his teammates simply could not control the football. Scary game from Jackson, Broja, and Conor for me. If this is not a VERY one-off, then they simply aren't good enough, I'm afraid. If one did not have a stake in the game, it was a match between equals where the home team won. 😢

Was our best attacker by far in the first half until the fuckup on the one-on-one w/ the goalie, which TBf was his play; still he had to pass the ball to 2 open players next to him. Perhaps he does not trust his teammates? I mean it did look, esp first half, he was playing alone at times.

This is the absolute worst I've seen from him, against Wolves. There is no excuse for the amount of times he simply misscontrolled the football. I hope this was a one-off, because otherwise he simply isn't anywhere near good enough.

Surprised this thread is active today. Thought we had player performing WAY WAY below even PL standards against Wolves. I mean players having trouble controlling the football is not something that should have to be taught or develop at this level.

Fair enough, but once again it's a completely new squad--also something some of us warned about early on. It's only natural for a manager to try to secure the defense first. That (tired) Newcastle side we beat is what 2+ seasons playing together w/ few changes? Disagree there: tight control between Mudryk and Salah is worlds apart. When I see the ball bounce off Salah's shins when he makes tight cuts and he ends up with the ball at the end, that's control... not luck. It's luck if it happens rarely, but it happens consistently with him. He also routinely makes quick change of directions while in control of the football (like Eden did) whereas Mudryk mostly runs in a straight line. Anyway that's what I see. I can dig up that post where I actually comment on Salah's tight control while a Chelsea player--recently (like early season) reposted it in the Chelsea transfer thread. 😃