kellzfresh

The problem isn't the board bidding. The problem is can the Chelsea Fc board close a deal that is more than £35mil ?? The stones, Koulibaly and other sagas say otherwise.

This is exactly what I want. Azpi must start because of his captain like qualities and spirit. But I don't want him in the centre back position, mandzukic, ronaldo and many other players in champs lge will crucify him with aerial duels. Azpi is already a better crosser than Moses will ever be and has more assists than Moses from centerback and scored similar amount of goals anyway. So it's only Moses dribbling we'll miss but we won't be a defensive liability in the wingback positions anymore. Azpi and Sandro will be such an upgrade defensively and Sandro alone is a better attacker than Moses and Alonso combined. I just hope that the board fully support Conte and land his targets. I don't care if we have to spend €250 million to do it. Looking at players we're linked with, Conte is clearly trying to improve that Matic-Alonso-Cahill triangle which we complained about a lot this season. We could be looking at having instead Bakayoko-Sandro-Christensen all are better passers than what we currently have, all can dribble and all are better defensive. Instant improvement for Hazard. We're also looking to be tactically flexible and change between 3-4-3, 3-5-2 and 4-4-2 during the match like Juventus did in the champs lge. In 4-4-2 Bakayoko-Kante will cover the middle and Sandro with his energy will provide width in the wings. That's why their signings are crucial. We can't be flexible without their qualities.

It's not time to panic. It's a concern that so many reporters are saying Conte isn't happy but when panic mode will set in is a week or two after the Nike deal kicks in and we haven't announced anything. Until July 10th, I'll still give our board the benefit of a doubt.

Okay, this is beginning to concern me now. I thought it was just metro and dailyfail trying to cook things up.... Hope this isn't happening and we're just waiting for the Nike deal to kick in

I guess I wasn't the only one who has noticed this 32m£ cap ever since we signed torres. With incredible consistency we never go above that lol 😁

I thought we were waiting for the Nike deal to kick in before officially announcing any deals. So that adidas doesn't get any free advert when the new signings hold up the Chelsea shirt.

The best video I've seen of him. If you want to see how he does against pressing, watch from 40secs If you want to see his tackling, watch from minute 4.30 or so If you want to see his passing range, and accuracy watch from minute 8.40 If you want to see his aerial strength, towards the end of the video He's a better passer than I thought. He obviously doesn't have the vision of Fabregas or even Tolisso, but I thought he just used to give short passes here and there. But watching this he clearly attempts to make a lot of long range passing to the Monaco wingbacks easily and even his teammates try to make runs behind once he raises his head to pass (a sign of teammates confident that he can find them, like Pedro does when Luiz is on the ball) His weakness is obviously his passing after making a longdrive/dribble through the middle. He probably gets tired after taking on so many people, but he should improve that in time since he's just 22. He's better than Matic in passing, dribbling, winning aerial balls, strength, and he's not one footed (a huge advantage in a midfield) He could be better than Matic in tackling, because Matic hasn't been the same since Barnes injured him years ago. All in all, he's going to offer more than Matic, especially in the big games where hazard will be targeted. So having a driving force from midfield (Essien type) will be crucial.

I don't know whether city are still in for Mendy, it seems to have stalled but anyways that is still an easier deal compared with trying to get Sandro from Juventus. A CM would have been great but maybe with Kante and Bakayoko shielding the middle and fabregas could slot in easily without exposing us. Especially since Bakayoko is far better at winning duels than Matic so a 3-5-2 could be on the cards.

If we can pull off this transfer, it will justify getting Bakayoko (another defensive midfielder beside kante) instead of a creative CM. Conte plans to be solid in midfield, win tackles and then create through the wings with better quality wingbacks like Sandro. Especially with lukaku upfront to eat up crosses instead of Costa who hates jumping. My only problem is why we are not going for Mendy instead, who we can secure faster and cheaper.

I think he's far better than costa who played from January. But is behind the costa we saw at the beginning of the season. I'm not as bothered about his first touch as many here, from what I can remember, costa was worse imo, terrible at holding the ball Infact and we still won the league with 93 points. What I don't like the most about lukaku is this I think his runs off the ball is poor, and I think he doesn't move enough to create angles for passing and putting off defenders. But I'll give him the benefit of a doubt and say maybe the midfielders he's been playing with at Everton and westbrom are terrible passers and couldn't locate him with accurate passes so he didn't make sprints behind because of that.

Since we're surely getting him, I guess Conte is seeing a dembele-like player who can carry the ball forward against tough midfielders and get the team high up the pitch. His passing after the dribbling isn't better than Matic though, in fact quite similar. But he and kante will cover a lot of grass in the middle easily. I hope Conte will still field Bakayoko. Kante Fabregas Them together against the big teams has to be the way to go. 3-5-2, no surrendering of the midfield to the likes of arsenal. The only problem is if we remove Pedro from the team, we lose goals/creativity. So we must create from the wingback positions: fast dribblers, good crosses, stamina and one on one defending wingbacks has to be a priority.

The suspicion was correct. Costa was intentionally playing rubbish for us from January. Any Chelsea fan who thinks otherwise must have no eyes for perception. Just watch our matches for the season again, compare costa from August till December and then from the China news till the end. No player can look world-class performing better than even hazard for months, then suddenly look like a pub player who can't pass, holdup play or shoot for months and months. It was as intentional as ever

In the final 4 out of the 5 goals scored was because of fullbacks who beat their man and put in proper crosses for the striker to finish. When you look at marcelo, carvajal, Alves and Sandro then you know we're not on the same planet with them. You cannot defend against when the fullbacks are pushing the opponent wingers back with dribbling, energy and accurate crossing. I hope we improve on Moses and Alonso or that's what we'll be competing with next season. Even here in the league as tottenham did and Guardiola is also going out for energetic dribbling fullbacks too.

If Conte lands him, my confidence in his eye for midfielders will be raised higher. Conte knows his stuff when it comes to midfield as a former midfielder himself who played beside Zidane and Edgar Davids; and Conte even proved it with Juventus bringing vidal, Pogba and Pirlo and gave them the top 3 midfielders in Europe. Hopefully Conte still has that eye for midfielders because I'll trust him 100% with who he wants

You're in luck

Double post

Realistically the best way to improve our team most efficiently with our resources and competition from others is to get a CM that can pass and is mobile (holding unto the ball or dribbling under pressure) and can cover space defensively, then improve our wingbacks. When we used to dominate Europe, we had among the best midfield (Ballack, Lamps, Essien, Makelele) and wingback (Ashley cole) in Europe. We had the likes of anelka, kalou and malouda upfront and it didn't matter because of how dominant our midfield and defense was. This way we drastically improve the whole middle of our 3-4-3 which will help with the spine of our team. We can hardly find improvements on Hazard and Costa, Pedro improvements that is available will be very expensive. But surely, surely a team of our status is capable of doing better than Matic, Moses and Alonso. These 3 players have not had one good game against a top team and that is why we'll struggle in the Champions League.

It's really easy to point at the last match and say we lost because of weak mentality, but it's to argue the opposite for many big matches this season: Where we mentally weak when we survived City's offensive assault and rallied from being down 1-0 to winning 3-1? Where we mentally weak when we recovered from letting Spurs equalize twice in the FA Cup semi final? Where we mentally weak when we crushed Man U 4-0 and also against our club's most successful manager? Where we mentally weak when we went down 1-0 to Spurs at home but ended up coming back to win 2-1? Where we mentally weak in all those matches it took a late winner or defending a 1 goal lead for a long time to secure the 3 points? Where we mentally weak when we destroyed Arsenal 3-1 after they destroyed us earlier in the season? I could go on and on, but I think you get my point. We didn't lose that last match because of mentality imo. It was another example of us struggling against a big club that could press very effectively. We just don't have the players to handle those situations consistently. Matic is too slow at making decisions. Moses is poor when he isn't given a ton of space. Alonso was unusually subpar against teams that press compared to what we've seen recently against smaller teams. We got better in the second half not just because fabregas came on for the woeful Matic, but because arsenal got a little tired and couldn't press like in the first half. I would have liked Conte to adjust his tactics against big teams to press back too against teams that press us, but he wants us to absorb pressure and punish them when they tire. There's nothing so bad about this, since Juventus uses the same tactics. But compared to Juventus who have dribbling energetic monsters as wingbacks, an impenetrable BBC backline, and an attacking player in mandzukic who can hold up the ball when Buffon clears the ball up field, we don't have players who can concentrate, absorb pressure, and have the holdup or passing quality to punish teams on the counter. If Conte is backed in the summer, he'll easily mould the team to Juventus like style. And we'll be dominant in big games once again imo....

It's incredible what Conte has achieved with this type of technical deficiencies. When Courtois has the ball, he passes to Azpi, because luiz is marked by welbeck, Azpi passes to Moses, Moses is pressed along with Azpi and we kick the ball up field to costa who never jumps for any ball. We are so so bad against pressing, so so bad. This is why we need to improve on the back 3, it requires passing out from the back or a striker who can jump to win those aerial balls and help us up the field. Conte always had Pelle for Italy who knew the meeting of hold up football to get the team up the pitch, we don't. So when we play the ball up, we lose it again because costa can't jump to save his life. Hazard too can't shoot, if he isn't touching the ball for 30 minutes, he doesn't care and just accepts it, when he is near the box he doesn't want to shoot (2 times today) He needs to learn how to make use of all that world class talent. Getting nainggolan is a priority, we can't keep playing Matic against big teams when he turns into a lumbersome dunce under the slightest pressure. Another problem is Alonso, the only big match he ever played well for us is against arsenal in February. His centerback speed is such a disadvantage against big teams that press. Conte has performed miracles with this team honestly. But if we think we don't need to develop the back 5, then we will be destroyed in Europe

Fair play to Mourinho. He stifled another match and got the goals (scruffy or not) to get into Champions League through the back door. Let's see how his style of letting the other team play the football fares against higher quality in the champs. Griezmann has already admitted to going there if champs lge is guaranteed. Hopefully this motivates our board to improve our team as much as possible so that we don't get caught by the Manchester clubs next season.

When you watch him, you understand the idea Conte wants to bring. Having two midfielders (kante and Bakayoko) who can cover so much space, win back the ball and be mobile on the counter to make us more dominant against big teams who press. Especially as we are already totally dominant against the smaller teams with fabregas playing. Bakayoko has that essien potential, to dribble right through pressure but he's still very rusty in his passing. Maybe Conte thinks he can fine tune the passing like he did for vidal and Bakayoko is still very very young anyways.

Conte drills us to a pattern of play and players like Pedro who don't have the individual dribbling talent of Hazard benefits massively from this. I think if Costa was a better linkup player, Pedro would have been even better.

Very frustrating indeed. I'm looking at Thierry Henry reincarnated in mbappe and Chelsea can't do anything about it because Madrid.

You're right that 1v1s are very necessary for wingbacks (marcelo, Alves, Mendy proved in champions League) but I wonder why Moses with all his dribbling and experience as a winger is outperformed massively by Alonso this season both in goals and assists. And even Azpi is a far better crosser which is important for a wing-back. Hopefully Moses improves his crosses because from what we've seen today, no way should Azpi be moved from the centerback position, none of the rest are good enough to replace him.

He's our very own Lahm. Versatile, can play any position and give you a 7/10 performance. I know people will disagree but I think Azpi will be better than Moses in the wingback role. He already has more assists than Moses as a centerback.