Reddish-Blue

Exactly....and then you add on the fact that both Liverpool and City were keen on getting him in the previous transfer window. Hopefully for his sake Chilwell/Cucurella get fit and he can focus on being a good CB and learning from Silva as much as possible.

I doubt that would be the signal for Poch to go. This will be dragged out similar to previous managers to the point where the players will give up again and then the owners will be "forced" to make the call.

I think there would have been managers out there good enough to get something out of this squad of players You don't think Conte/Mourinho would have been a good fit for the amount of money that was being thrown around by the Clearlake/Boehly group? At the very least, they could have taught these youngsters a thing or two about working hard and keeping them in shape. Feels like they chose Poch because he caved into their demands Also Poch needs to stop playing defenders out of position, if a player is a CB, play them in that role, stop asking them to play LB or RB, it never works out well.

I just think it was pretty poor squad planning to let 200+ games of experience walk out the door for minimal transfer fees and then put 200+ million into 2 talented but very young midfielders without any experience around them. I feel bad for both Caicedo and Enzo as they'll never live up to the price tags that were paid for them. When you spend 100+ million on a mid, you're expecting goals or assists or something special every single game (like a Hazard or Bellingham or even at a stretch a motivated Pogba).

Probably because they got players to fit roles within Klopp's system rather than buying every midfielder and hoping they work together in Poch's system. I mentioned it before the season started, the lack of squad planning under Chelsea's new owners is pathetic. Why did we need to sign Caicedo, Lavia and Ugo in the same window? Surely some of that money could have been used to get a different profile of player for our attack...

3 of those "10" players will continue to get injured every few games (Reece, Chilwell, Fofana).

I agree with your points but enquiring about a washed up Lacazette would be no different to the situation we had with Aubameyang. There's a reason why Arsenal were more than happy to offload them (Aubameyang being a bad influence on the younger players and Lacazette couldn't even get to 5 goals in the 21/22 PL season). There should be decent experienced strikers available within the Premier League.

I recall Gallagher being open to a move in the previous transfer window? From memory, he was keen on the potential West Ham deal. As I mentioned about 2 seasons ago, Gallagher is best fit for that squad midfield role where he might not be a guaranteed starter every single game but he'll still rack up 30+ appearances a season simply because he's a physical beast and he doesn't seem to have injury issues like our other midfielders. Happy to see him do well under Poch but it will be interesting to see what midfield is picked once everyone is fit (as I don't see Lavia/Carney/Gallagher fitting in the same lineup).

Unfortunately, feel like Gallagher being sold is only a matter of time to help balance the FFP books. Would be between him/Chalobah/Broja for getting pure profit on the books.

His previous club must be laughing all the way to the bank... probably the same with Madueke & PSV.

Seems a bit short signed from the club if that's the case? Similar to when we had Rudiger/Christensen/Tomori/Guehi developing on loan....and then we somehow lost all of them.

I'd be surprised if he gets anything more than 10-15 minutes. The sad part is, Sheffield have been playing decent of recent times and if they do somehow get a 1-0 lead against us, we would struggle to turn that around at the moment...

I highly doubt we'd be able to get Osimhen to Chelsea without European football. He's not going to come here and play for a rubbish side that will very likely finish 10th or worse in the league this season.

I don't know what style of football United are playing under EtH but the fact that Bournemouth can rock up at Old Trafford, put on decent pressure and actually attack them....and beat them quite convincingly says alot about our players under Poch right now. I don't mind the odd losses if the players are putting the effort in and scoring goals and have the right attitude on the pitch but we've looked 2nd best to a large number of PL teams this season (other than against Liverpool, City, Arsenal) and that's a massive concern moving forward. I'd be very surprised if Poch survives at the end of the season as right now he looks no better than Potter or Lampard considering the amount of money invested into the club.

I haven't seen this high pressing style on a consistent basis at Chelsea. Seems like the players are more content with keeping the ball than trying to create that moment of magic which could lead to a goal. Not sure if that is down to players not really understanding his instructions or whether they are just too young and need that senior midfielder (let's say for examples sake Fabregas/Jorginho/Lampard) to calm them down and coach them on the field. Like if you see Arsenal getting Declan Rice, he's got multiple seasons of PL football under his belt and he can read the situation very well. That was my one concern with going all out for both Caicedo & Lavia, you bring in two players who are green and they're somehow supposed to be starting XI midfielders. The people in charge definitely missed a trick by not going for that 25-28 year old midfielder to help out Enzo and the other young mids at the club. Losing the experience of Jorginho/Kante/Kovacic in consecutive windows was always going to hurt....but I didn't realise that we would go from hovering around top 6 to being uncompetitive in games and dragging ourselves to 10th place.

I feel like we have plenty of athletes in the squad that can probably run like crazy in a straight line but they don't have the ability or know-how in terms of breaking down an opposition who will sit a bit deeper against us and soak up the pressure. People on here were happy to see Werner sold as he didn't fit the tactics or whatever else but I feel we replaced him with the same player in Mudryk/Madueke. What we've sorely lacked for a number of seasons is that Hazard type attacker who can take the game on and create something out of nothing and lift the attacking momentum....and it's not easy to find that type of player in the market.

It's not only that, the top teams know they have a solid attack (that will produce multiple goals if needed) which means their managers can take a calculated risk and allow us to have a go in the final third. I agree that we need to give more of the ball to the opposition but I don't think we have enough technical thinkers in our attack to play that style of football effectively. Based on the players signed in the most recent windows, it seems to be all about counter attacking football. That's what I saw of Mudryk at Shaktar, Madueke at PSV, Sterling at Liverpool/City more known for his dribbling and ball carrying at pace, Jackson at his Spanish club...Palmer is the only one that came from the City system and even he was still making that breakthrough into the first team XI.

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...