Magic Lamps

Better go out now than lose another final on pens

Cucurella and kouli are atrocious defenders. Ball watching all day long

Just want us to turn up. Never mind the poor results, but we just seem completely void of intensity whenever an opponent gives us a tough game. Our lack of interest in the Manure and arse games was just painful to watch. It must not even be intentional. Team is getting used to new footballing ideas, everybody takes that split second longer to make a decision, resulting in us getting outfought and outthought which from the outside looks like a complete lack of effort. While this is an historically (say wrt to the last 20 years) average Chelsea squad with all the absentees compared to what we look like with everyone fit and I am not convinced by GP yet but we will not be this terrible forever. To me, it feels like the whole club is still looking for its identity. During the Roman years we always had a swagger about us, a resilience, a never say die attitude. Only in recent years we have shown this mental weakness. I do not think it is just because of the ownership change but it surely is a factor. Marina and other long serving board members gave us some kind of stability but for this current crop of players so much has changed in so little time. For one, I have honestly hated our football from a pure tactical standpoint since Conte left. Our footballing identity had been defensively resolute, athletic, powerful, always combative, lightning on the counter, threating from set-pieces. We have never really been about fashionable tiki-taka nonsense or boring to death the opponent with posession. Every attempt to give us a new identity from AVB to Sarri has failed. Whenever we won anything we were pragmatic or at least playing to our best players strengths. Ofc, we struck gold with the old guard who could turn on the style but whenever we looked like playing sexy football it was bc of improvisation of brilliant individuals and not some robotic system a manager tried to teach us. Posession-based footy always makes us look lethargic independent of personnel. Sure, it might have worked for other clubs like pool and shitty who gave their visionary managers time to implement their style but they did not really have any sort of identity beforehand, did they? If we really stick to Potter, I hope he does adapt and evolve some bit. We do not need to reinvent the wheel here but if try this new start it has to work from the ground up. The squad looks like bits and pieces, no real cohesion but we still have the academy, some excellent prospects going through the ranks. Let us hope we can gradually replace all those expensive dregs we signed in the catastrophic transfer windows with homegrown blue-blooded talent. that would be the only way i could endure the years of mediocrity ahead.

Great news. Thank god finally some reason. This desperate attempt to get fit in time was always a nonstarter. Hopefully it has not impeded his long term recovery prospects. he should get over it. Young enough to see 2 or 3 more phoney wcs fans have long turned their back to int football, hopefully players also will at some point. I Wonder if we can make some sign clauses to denounce their nt

Glad we finally get to play BVB they are a joy to watch, proper attacking football with lots of homegrown talent but very weak mentality. Will be an interesting fixture but too far away to worry about it now.

What a terrible game again. Whenever we face half decent opposition we just crumble and even make silly mistakes to concede. This team can’t score can’t defend has no idea how to string passes together and is completely out of rhythm. So many passengers and past it players it’s all shambles Probably gonna spend a few years in mid table with this disjointed squad, clueless manager and amateur ownership

The reffing is such a disgrace. So many of our clean tackles penalised we are getting outfought cos the ref is not allowing us to tackle yet indulges them

My feeling is that our small pitch at SB is not doing us any favours for our style of play. With this idea of dribbles and getting in behind we are always running out of space. It was great for counter attacking side like under conte or with the old guard where we had players who could play a PinPoint pass from one corner flag to the other but for the current crop they struggle in tight spaces.

Kai has been our best attacker but they have all been poor esp lazy Auba and clueless Sterling . The entire frontline is just clueless and out of confidence

He is good on the ball and versatile. But doesn’t score goals. In other words perfectly aligned with the requirements of our first team. will probably join city at the end of the season for tiny tribunal fee bc we failed to extend his contract.

No just for the year, he will return early 2023

Right. I do not expect us to go very far but as you say you never know with German NT. Can so see Kai tearing it up down there. Our team has great potential but lacks that last bit of quality. Timo is out of the WC btw. England I think is again one of the favourites and will probably go out on pens in the semis I'd wager. Brazil will probably win so I hope we give Thiago a nice holiday afterwards. Fofana, RJ, Chilly, Kante all out already. We surely will pick up a few more injuries in the remaining games. Kepa, Cucu are both starters for us now but will probably not go to the WC anyway So we will have at least 5 starters missing out but returning early next year.

That was not my point. Your point was Benfica would wreck us easily which I disputed. Sure but that applies to every team. Bayern lost to Augsburg and then spanked Milan and Barca. Liverpool lost to Leeds and then defeated the so far invincible Napoli. Different games, different performances. Big clubs tend to raise their game to the occasion. Writing us off now for games vs 2nd tier teams to be played in a few months is just stupid.

Probably. Takes at least 3 months to recover from surgery. They will need to open up his thigh by the length of it and reattach the muscle and/or tendons. Worst cases I have heard of needed years but those were old ppl. With a bit of luck Chilly misses not only the WC but also the euros in 2024. goddamn our luck

Get a grip. They might have upset the odds by drawing PSG twice but they still are just a Liga Dross side that will falter when the stakes are higher. We have beaten better Benfica sides in 2012 and 2013 with equally mediocre Chelsea squads. But let's just put a pin in this. In the unlikely case we draw them in the quarter finals you are welcome to put a tenner on them, I will give you even odds 😉

they are nothing special. They have a decent coach in Roger Schmidt but no real danger man. Enzo fernandes and antonio silva look mildly interesting but that is about it. They are a physically inferior side. If we outbattle them like we did Milan, we should win.

I think it is quite evident the clown would play Shaw over Chilly again anyway. A pulled hamstring grade 1 or 2 usually takes 4-8 weeks to heal, so it is quite likely he will miss the WC which would be greatly appreciated tbh. If he is out say 5 weeks but only misses our next 3 games but can slot back right into the side after the WC that would be by far the lesser evil.

Doesn't help getting injuries still. Chilwell should a regular anyway. He clearly is the best solution to LWB. A case can be made for Zakaria having to feature more regularly as well. The point remains, that today was an unnecessarily high-risk selection which once again completely backfired. It is unclear what was the objective of playing such a strong team in the first place.

The incompetence is just unbelievable.Potter was begging for it playing so many regulars in a dead rubber. Now we caught another 3 injuries . Another average performance full of missed chances vs an amateur side. This team is just hopeless. Has developed not an iota under GP. best we can hope for on Sunday is another full draw

The most impressive chance wasting festival yet. We seem to get more wasteful with every game

Again Zak dispossessed a player by sprinting past him from behind and bullying off the ball. Our only player with this kind of recovery speed and strength. Can be so important whenever Jorginho leaves tons of space kn behind and then loses the ball.

Sterling is just such a tiny man I always have phantom pains whenever his child body gets pancaked by another player

Now isn’t zakaria exactly what I said he was.

wtf this game is basically a friendly and we don't give a start to Broja? This reminds me when Maureen promised us an academy day in some dead rubber last group game and all we got was a couple of 2mins cameos from chaps we never heard of again.

FFS leave them alone. It is obviously just the 55man squad and I doubt they will make the shortlist but still the fewer of our players are associated with this comical gauntlet of a tourney and those corrupted organisations from FA to FIFA the better.