Reddish-Blue

Playing for Brighton and the current version of Chelsea is the same thing. We're not that top 4 side anymore with title winning pedigree. I agree that United has similar quality but they've been able to get some results through Garnacho and some of the other youngsters showing flashes of brilliance...feel like that is something we are also lacking. Where is the attacking spark going to come from?

Why would anyone "let things marinate"? We are trending downwards, already at 12th spot and who knows where we will finish at the end of the season. The problem isn't youth promotion, it's the fact that we can't consistently score against decent opposition (who know how to drop deep and make it hard for us). I see other teams with youngsters in their lineup and they are not afraid to take the game to the opposition, we seem more interested in recycling possession than trying to attack the opposition with the talent we have at our disposal.

I disagree, I think someone like Mudryk would get a spot on the bench for a number of clubs...for the same reason Arsenal originally wanted him (squad depth and cover for Martinelli/Saka). The difference is, Mudryk would just be slotting into a solid Arsenal offense....and the pressure would be off. Bit different to having a 70 million price tag on your head and being recognised as a meme for your time at Chelsea so far... Same can be said for someone like Caicedo....where Callum Wilson said he recalls Caicedo being a center midfielder as per the lineup but in terms of tactics, he would usually drop into the right midfield type role and cover the wingers and space left by the Brighton fullback who was almost always in the final third of the pitch. That might be different to what he's being asked to do under Poch and he doesn't strike me as the technician type of midfielder who can get out of pressure and play those vertical passes/passes over the top to help link up the attack (something which Rice does so well). I feel like we bought all these spare parts for a nice vehicle but none of them actually fit together and this is leading to a broken tactical system and teams have figured this out.

I disagree, think there are quite a few pragmatic managers out there who would have done better with the current squad. This was our chance to build a spine for the next 5+ years and we went and got a manager with zero mentality and no record of winning any serious trophies. Now it makes sense as to why Enrique wasn't in the shortlist, he didn't want to deal with the new ownership and so many kids at the same time.

Pathetic all round, this lot needs a Mourinho/Conte to whip them into shape and make them work hard. I always questioned Poch's mentality as he came from Spurs...

That's what happens when you don't have transfer planning, you start signing players that are either not needed or just bang average. Seems to be between us and United for who has wasted more money in the recent transfer windows. There's a reason why Liverpool/Arsenal are in the mix for the title and we are barely hanging onto 10th place on the table. Will be interesting to see what happens with Poch in the coming weeks. Felt like we made a bit of progress against Arsenal/City, then somehow went backwards by the Newcastle thrashing and then not even putting up a fight against United.

I do wonder if we've employed an FM scout as part of Boehly's takeover? That would actually explain alot about all the signings under Boehly so far...

I hope for Santos that we break the loan in January and get him some game time somewhere else. Was touted as a proper talent coming out of Brazil (think he was the u-20 captain or something like that as well)...and now he's apparently wasting 6 months in the Forest reserves...

Wasn't there a post from the Brighton forum where they absolutely loved the fact that they were able to offload Winstanley or the other guy from their scouting/transfers team? That speaks volumes about the new ownership at Chelsea. Roman used to have Piet De Vissier as his senior consultant (i.e. the guy who brought Ronaldo to PSV, found De Bruyne, Courtois and a number of other top talents over the years)...and now all we have is an ex-Spurs man as our head coach.

Honestly felt like the board was just loading up a new save in football manager and signing every 4 and 5 star wonderkid hoping that they would pan out in 5 years time. I actually like Caicedo as a player but that 70-ish million that Arsenal offered to Brighton was overpayment back then and then they somehow laughed their way to the bank as we blindly offered 110+ million for him. For 200 million, we could have had a top midfield with experience...but in our case, we have 2 youngsters that will probably get agitated and depart once they actually hit their prime (Enzo won't be short on offers if he lives up to his potential).

Not to defend them but it was 40+ million which would have helped with FFP concerns moving forward (same reason why they were keen on Chalobah and Maatsen sales).

It's pretty simple stuff, counter with pace, pressure the opposition's defenders and cause mistakes (they were basically gifted 2 goals from Trippier....even the commentator on my service mentioned that Trippier has been the best everton player in the second half).

Let's be honest some of the deadwood had to go but the problem is, we didn't replace the outgoings with a similar level of quality. Spending 130 million on Cucurella and Mudryk and they've been bang average so far, then spending 30+ million on Madueke who isn't even part of the first team...not to mention the 75 million spent on Fofana and he's probably another bad injury away from early retirement. Losing Rudiger, Christensen, Kovacic and even an injured Kante has set us back 5 years. I'm keen to see what the plan is moving forward as the only things to look forward to are: - Nkunku getting fit and linking up with Palmer/Enzo and co - The development of Colwill, Gusto, Palmer

This has 1-0 loss written all over it. F*ck me, what a depressing state to be as a club. We are literally a mid table side and our rivals are all running away from us, they're on 30+ points already.

I don't think Gallagher has been here long enough to qualify as a "Leader" in the dressing room. Like I love his energy but he needs to add another level to his game if he wants to be part of the future England midfield in the next 3-5 years. I also think that's part of the problem we have at the club right now. With so many new signings, no one has been here long enough to be able to lead on the pitch and take the initiative. Back in the day, you could turn to Lampard, Cech, Ashley Cole, JT, Essien, Drogba and many others who were all leaders at club or international level.

Think Arsenal will be more worried about a motivated Klopp and Liverpool 😆

I get the example but he did have another "maestro" in MacAllister roaming around the Brighton midfield. Not to mention some other good midfielders in Gross and co. Caicedo's main problem is that he'll have a very hard time justifying his price tag at Chelsea. He's a good player and I'm sure he'll be valuable in the next 5 years but to spend that much on a midfielder who doesn't really score or create goals is crazy.

What I don't get is why we agreed to loan him there? Forest never had any plans to play him, I remember people on the reddit transfer forum saying that they were only signing Santos as cheap depth on loan. Why have strategic partnerships like Strasbourg if we can't loan them good young players

United are like our bogey side, similar to Villa/Everton They will beat us easily by 2-3 goals and then forget how to play football the very next game.

There's nothing wrong with Casadei, he's still a kid, give him a season or two of proper development before judging him. Santos to Forest was always a head scratcher, why loan your talented midfielder to a side that has like 20 midfielders to choose from. Surely he could have been loaned to the Championship or abroad to play 10-15 games? He's better than what we have in midfield (other than Enzo)...and he hasn't even played a minute of football yet for us....that should tell you all you need to know about our lack of technical quality in midfield. You can run around for days but if your midfield can't break down the opposition wall, the game is over before it started. Not every team will let you attack them on the counter like Spurs, City, Arsenal.

Poor players don't cost a fortune, you just have to make the right signings. You can't say that we "needed" Mudryk/Maduke/Disasi/Cucurella/Lukaku....even Caicedo/Lavia seemed like a bit of overkill for midfield. That's why we are mid table and Liverpool are fighting for UCL next season....and they've spent their fair share of money as well. The difference is they got attacking quality in the side, that fella from Leipzig, Gravenberch from Bayern, Gapko, Jota, Nunez. We blew our money on signings that have zero value. Other than Enzo, Sterling, Palmer and Gusto (in some games), the rest of the signings have been average at best.

There was also quite a few rumors of Tuchel being involved with a staff member and apparently there was backlash and as a result both parties decided to part ways. There's always 2 sides to every story and Tuchel's history shows that he's fallen out with most of the boards that he has worked with (Dortmund, PSG, Chelsea). In terms of signings, the biggest question marks will continue to surround: - Fofana, Disasi, Cucurella - Mudryk, Madueke

It's sort of interesting that Mount may actually have been a better fit next to our current midfield group....and Ten Hag was actually quite high on Lavia. From what I saw at Southampton, Lavia is definitely a level above Ugo. He's got that keen eye for a pass, ability to break the line...something which Ugo/Caicedo aren't known for.

I agree with what you're saying but it was always going to be very very difficult to replace 3 top class mids in such a short period of time. I think between Enzo - Caicedo and Lavia (once he's fit), we should have a decent base in midfield and Nkunku should definitely help the likes of Sterling/Palmer once he's fully fit. We still lack a clinical finisher up front and that will cost us a lot of points. Just look at us and United, you can't tell me that they've been playing amazing football this season, the only difference is, their attackers have been able to finish those 50-50 chances and they've taken the 3 points. The question will be: what to do with Mudryk, Madueke, Cucurella and some of the other players in the squad as they are nowhere near consistent enough to be playing for a side that should be (at the very least) around the top 6 of the league.

The funny thing is, Poch is actually a good fit for this current side. It was always going to be a huge challenge this season but the one positive is that we've gotten most of the deadwood out of the first team squad.