Magic Lamps

At least the women can get a proven winner with international pedigree as coach. Huge shoes to fill but the transition had already begun. She will inherit a squad full of quality

The one thing everyone has said about guardiola is that he does not drill attacking patterns. His idea is that he teaches his teams how to set up their attackers such that they enter the final third in an advantageous position. At this point it is up to them. This is why he has only ever worked at clubs with an arsenal of exquisite attackers . He trusts them to make the decisions in the final third themselves and encourages them to just have fun. If maresca is really a discount pep, I am intrigued to see how he handles that.

I don’t believe the gk rumours as of yet. We have to sell here if we want to get a new one in. We have 4 senior gks under contract all of which are varying degrees of average. Diogo Costa is talented but looks like Kepa 2.0 to me if we pay his release clause he will have that chip on his shoulder and be on a downward spiral after his first mistake. no 1 priority should be CB which is crazy given the huge amounts we spent on that position the past few years but that could be said about every position. Tosin in or not we should be looking for a ready made wc CB in his prime. Not many of those around but we need to get as close as possible before we even think about selling Trev.

He is actually quite poor a finisher. Reminds me of Broja. Tall, fast, strong but always has his head down and slow to react and adapt, poor anticipation. He is not a whiney little princess like morata but also less technical

I don’t doubt he is qualified and knowledgable on paper. But it is a different story if he will be able to convey his ideas to the players in a way such that they will be able to implement those on the pitch. Time will tell. nothing we can observe from the outside warrants this appointment but it is clownlakes catastrophic track record in selecting anything in terms of football that does not incite confidence

These long term deals for managers are ridiculous. Doesn’t change the fact he will be gone next summer, just increases the compensation they have to pay. with Potter likely going back, Brighton will soon have him plus the money we gave them for him. potter presumably is still living off the pay check of his life too. Clubs soon will be making a business model out of hiring coaches that play “possession football” and then basically renting them out to clownlake. Would at least save paperwork.

wow finally a smart value for money signing with low risk and some PP pedigree. He even has a tiny bit of CL experience But manure and nucastle are in for him too so better not get too excited

Ok I get you. The way I see it is that being attacked is inevitable but when winning back the ball you have a choice. Either you play it forward quickly, make runs off the ball, try to surpass the opposition defence before it has re-formed. IMO it’s his gives you a higher chance of scoring. Alternatively you can play it around the back, allow the opponent to settle down and try to find a way through an organised defense. What I experienced when watching us early last season, esp at the bridge that we did allow teams to settle after winning the ball but seldom had the creativity or the threat from range etc to slice through their defence . Only when we started pressing higher, attack early and play more on the counter like in the latter stages of the season we saw results. the problem with possession based football is there is no middle ground. Either you unlock teams with some slick moves and it is glorious or you make absolute fools of yourselves losing vs relegation fodder after having 70% possession. With the lack of creativity and positional intelligence of our current crop i can see us going down the latter path.

It’s obv a personal preference so no problem with that but what do you dislike a out counter attacking football? personally I think there is nothing more entertaining that a sequence of quickfire first touch passes sending a Pacey player on his bike leaving the entire opposition team in his dust. Especially here at Chelsea, counter attacking football is an essential part of our club’s footballing identity as for Pep he is one of a kind. No one apart from him and the Spanish NT for a few years has ever won anything playing that kind of ponderous football. The idea that some random coach who has worked with him for a couple of months can transform us into prime Barca is ridiculous esp when you look at the players he has at his disposal

What an eyesore affair. Good thing I fell asleep twice during that annoying exchange of sideways passes. Everyone thinking there is some genius ploy behind that is deluded. They just recycle possession from side to side till there is some space in the channel and coincidentally the defenders failed to mark the attackers approaching the 2nd post. Probably fell asleep as well. Everyone knows 80+% of goals from open play are scored within 15 seconds of winning the ball. Teams who press well, work hard, run fast, take chances, play vertically and hit oppositions on the break are rewarded most of the time. Building a system to have a plan for scoring when the opposition is parking the bus is valid. but when that’s your plan A you will lose tons of matches with 60+% possession 1-0 from one simpel individual error, set piece or opposition counter attack like we did countless times the last few years.

This marisca guy gives off massive fraud vibes. It’s not even as if Leicester played some stellar season or scintillating football. They had by far the best squad and still lost 11 games and scored just 1,9 goals per game. I understand many were not happy with TT and his football. But no one can deny he is leagues above the coaches we have been linked with. Apparently Clownlake etc had informal talks with TT recently and he would like to come back but they acted like absolute oafs so the chance is now gone.

With Leverkusens Cup win we might face Heidenheim in uecl. I imagine us playing in their tiny stadium deep in the Swabian Alb but it’s not even the most degrading possible destination. Some teams from Luxembourg or San Marino we could theoretically face don’t even have actual stadium. Just pitches where you stand at the sites or sit on portable benches like in youth football.

This delusional obsession with playing possession based control football was already annoying under Roman . No team in the world can play the same way every game. Least of all our team. They tried it first half of the season and we lost most matches to teams just parking the bus. The players we have are suited to press teams and play on the break with their pace, which they did successfully towards the end of the season. Most players don’t have half a brain and could only dream of cutting through packed defenses. These players have been picked by the very same half-wits who now demand possession football. It would be funny how incompetent Eghbali and Clownlake are if it wasn’t this frustrating.

Obv garnachos overhead kick will win it bc it’s manure but caicedo‘s is just as good. The strike is so clean and even finds the top corner, not tipping once before it hits the net. One of the most uncompromising goals from the half way line.

Leverkusen play with 10 after kossonou red card. Will get interesting now

That is without all the expenses. All in we will lose money playing ucl

It’s stupid tho. The player is supposedly useful and surely should find someone who pays up. Pretty sure BVB would eventually cough up the money anyway if we insist on it but clownlake is clueless

BVB are apparently unable or rather unwilling to pay the 40m euros RC. Instead they want to lowball us. Should not budge but it is the players wish to stay there. I know what Marina would have done …

I like the Bristol example. But it can get even worse. Look at HSV. One of the historic Bundesliga founding clubs. 6 times German champion, (legacy)Champions league winner 1983, From wealthy Hamburg, Germanys 2nd largest City, bankrolled by Germany’s richest man KM Kühne (40bn in the bank), iconic 4 star stadium . All the ambition in the world and they have been playing 2nd tier division for years now. A similar case could be made for Schalke or Köln. The point is, even with money and ambition a club can get ruined by poor management. We ofc have the advantage of superior TV income and less restrictions (german clubs can not be fully owned by investors) but our owners are even more incompetent than the HSV and Schalke hierarchies who are at least experienced football ppl

Senior Chelsea figures still think it is a jigsaw when they hold the chess pieces in their hands.

Maresca has worked with Pep for just one year before managing to lose 11 championship games with a PL squad. But now he at least has massive experience of 53 games as manager. Seriously, I would consider Lamps tenure at bankrupt Derby in his first season as manager getting them into the playoffs with a washed up squad and a few kids more impressive than what Maresca has done with a 200m squad in a league with a median player market value of 2m. Still, we appointed Lamps after that bc of his standing at the club not his managerial record. Maresca has not even that. But yeah, winning CC with a PL squad probably makes him the best candidate to lead a 1bn+ squad into the Europa Conference League, just try not to lose 11 games

The problem is not Poch being gone but no superior alternative being available and compatible with the club hierachy's demands.

Not even Leverkusen is gonna come back from that. Bergamo have been so much better, what a performance. Look man with those auperbly taken goals but how hard they worked pressing up and tracking back. Incredible

What a goal to complete your hat trick

Leverkusen have benefited from superior fitness when scoring in the final minutes. I don’t expect Atalanta to cave in physically like westham did. No team has ever approached Leverkusen like Atalanta does, chocking their build up through the middle