Reddish-Blue

I would be surprised if Santos wasn't loaned out for at least another season and Maatsen won't come back to play as 3rd choice behind Cucurella, watch us sell him for 15+ million in the summer.

They would have taken all 3 points (at the death) if it wasn't for Ramsdale. Liverpool are well ahead of us, they have a style of play in place and they have attackers in Salah/Jota who can make things happen in and around the box. If Klopp gets the funds to fix his midfield, they'll be back in the mix for top 3 once again. We just wasted a full season for nothing, could have gotten a more experienced manager at the helm instead of jumping aboard the Potter wagon and the 'squad' had enough quality to at least be around the top 6 this season. Right now, we're in relegation form, the players look afraid to score and the players generally look like they've given up and they're just going through the motions knowing that there's like 9 games left in the season. I was sort of shocked by the Lampard appointment as he isn't known for his tactical skills........and I get the feeling that the fans won't be too pleased if we continue to put in rubbish performances like the one against Wolves. If ownership is serious, they should announce the next manager as soon as possible. At least that way the players have a clear understanding of who is coming in and then hopefully some of the players try to impress the new boss in the remaining games.....as there should be a big clear out in the next transfer window (if we plan on regaining our spot in the top 4).

Has Carney been injured recently or is he just not being picked? Really feel like this would have been a golden chance to give Carney some proper minutes alongside Enzo/Kante/Kovacic. Watching RLC be passive and Gallagher run around like a headless chicken just isn't fun anymore. These final games of the season could have been used effectively by playing some of these youngsters and seeing what they have to offer. But instead of doing that, it'll be Havertz & Felix getting auto selections every game & Cucurella will somehow continue to be picked even though he has been absolutely horrible for the most part. Can't believe we actually let go of Alonso & Emerson to somehow downgrade at the LB spot with Cucurella.

When I say leadership, I mean understanding the context/situation of the game and making an impact. Go look at Arsenal and City again, interesting how their key midfielders in Odegaard, De Bruyne are in leadership roles for their national teams. The difference is, these guys can sense the moment to switch gears and they can control the tempo of the team's offense. Whereas look at our midfield and Kovacic looks like he's not that interested, Kante is still re-gaining his fitness and Felix was meant to be the player to help unlock our attack but it looks like his loan spell will go down as a massive flop (unless he finishes the season with multiple goals).

That's what happens when you keep buying individuals who don't fit a tactical system. You're telling me a combination of Havertz, Auba, Felix, Sterling, Mudryk, Madueke, Ziyech, Pulisic, Mount can't somehow combine to score 30 goals in the league? The problem is, we stockpiled players for no reason (Felix and Mudryk were not really needed in January and Madueke looks a young talent but quite raw) Grealish was laughed at for his big move to City but the sad thing is, he's better than our entire attack combined as he can at least create chances for Haaland/Alvarez/Mahrez.

Our attackers haven't been up for it the whole season, not sure how they'll suddenly flick a switch and turn it on against Madrid. If they don't win by 2+ goals, I'll be surprised. They got past Liverpool quite easily, wonder how much fun they'll have against Koulibaly, Cucurella and co.

You say that like he wasn't bailed out by Hazard's brilliance throughout the course of the season. What we have lacked for a number of seasons is leadership on the pitch and that is costing us massively this season. Other than Thiago Silva and Azpi, I can't name a single player in our first team who has shown any form of leadership this season. Sarri mentioned multiple times during his stay at Chelsea that he was never going to stay in England long term as he misses Italy too much.

You might be able to name 10 players who should leave before him but in all honesty, he should leave in the summer as well. That would give us a chance to rebuild the attack around a proper striker, rather than hoping that Kai somehow becomes a 20+ goal a season striker at Chelsea. He could probably achieve that in the Bundesliga with Bayern Munich but he won't get anywhere near those levels at Chelsea. As for replacing the guys with upgrades, Tammy for Lukaku (on paper) was meant to be a solid upgrade, no one could have predicted that Lukaku would have a mental breakdown about rejoining Inter Milan and then proceed to do an interview about it which would leave the club with no option but to loan him back to Inter Milan. Werner was a good sale but I still don't understand the reason behind buying Mudryk in January, he's had like 1 decent game so far and looked completely lost most of the time he's been on the pitch. That money should have been saved for the summer transfer market on a midfielder who we could pair with Enzo, Kante.

Why would he need to say any of that to the players? These last games of the season should just be about keeping it simple and scoring goals. This is the chance for some of the players to give Lampard a send-off at the Bridge. As for Everton, didn't they have Ancelotti and Koeman in charge? They had bad mentality back then as well.

A change was needed, just a shame that the club persisted with Potter for so long. Getting Lampard in for the remaining games of the season is just to keep the fans happy and possibly to convince Mount to stay at Chelsea rather than run off to Liverpool. I doubt he needs to change any tactics, probably just give a bit of motivation to some of the players and show them how to finish in front of goal. If Havertz could actually finish on a consistent basis, we wouldn't be in the bottom half of the table.

Yeah, there were reports saying Vivell wants Nagelsmann (as they've worked in a similar RB model setup) but it's understandable that the owners would look at experienced candidates with so many young-ish players in the first team. Enrique would be an interesting choice.

Sometimes losing a coach or having to work with a new coach can really stuff up a players rhythm and performance, especially Goalkeepers. I remember Cech spoke about it when he was working with a particular coach under Mourinho and they had a good bond but then Mourinho left and the new manager came in with his own backroom staff and Cech had to build a new relationship with the coach. I'm not saying Mendy is excused from his below average performances but it wouldn't be the first time that a keeper has lost confidence/motivation after changing coaches.

Liverpool will play in 2nd gear the whole game and they have their best mate Mr. Taylor as the referee....just waiting for one of our defenders to make a rash challenge and they'll get an easy penalty, take the lead and our players will check out.

Unless I'm mistaken, Spurs were already a top 4 side (pretty sure they achieved that with Pochettino a few seasons back...Pochettino even had them playing in the UCL Final...which was well beyond anyone's expectations of Spurs and how they always manage to bottle it in key competitions) and Conte was given good additions to his squad in Romero, Kulu, Bentancur and others. I agree that Conte is a good manager, I just feel using Spurs as an example of his "good work" is misleading as he had a solid squad to work with and the team shouldn't really be finishing lower than the top 6 in most seasons (with Kane & Son up front).

You can't really say we had an inferior side in 2021 when Jorginho-Kante-Kovacic was a very solid trio, Mount was flying and we also had Rudiger/Christensen at the back. Fofana/Badiashile/Koulibaly haven't shown that they are capable of producing the same level of performances as Rudiger/Christensen on a consistent basis. The only real upgrade from that 2021 side would be Enzo & Sterling (if he is used properly).

Emery has coached Sevilla to Europa League titles multiple times, led Villareal their as well, has also managed PSG/Arsenal. He knows what it takes to manage at the top level. Compare that to Potter who has only had exposure with Brighton....and it becomes clear that he is Moyes 2.0 (just like Moyes crashed & burned at United...Potter is making Chelsea a mid table club). What I hate about Potter is that he has no response to the rubbish performances on the pitch. I didn't mind us losing a few games under Lampard's management as at least we knew he had the Chelsea connection and he was a young manager giving it a go. We lose games under Potter and it's always the same line: "we gave everything" "we all feel pain" Emery must have been having a laugh when he saw the teamsheet and it was Koulibaly/Cucurella as the CB's. Neither player can be trusted to defend properly and you decide to put them together....

Let's see how many Liverpool can put past us in the next game. They got 7 against United, wonder if they'll be motivated enough to repeat it.

I don't see Enrique coming on board for the last two months of the season. Any good manager out there won't join in the middle of this mess of a situation. Feel like somehow beating Dortmund has actually cost the club a chance to get in a good manager and we'll have to put up with another 10 games of "the boys gave everything" as we proceed to get humiliated by Real Madrid, Arsenal, United, probably even Liverpool on Tuesday.

Potter deserves some of the blame, he knew full well that he was no where near ready to take on the role at Chelsea but jumped at the chance to run away from Brighton and get a huge paycheck in the process. It looks like the only reason why Potter was selected is because he is a yes man who won't go against the owners wishes.

or maybe this has nothing to do with what Tuchel 'did' behind the scenes at Chelsea and it's more to do with a talented coach wanting to learn more under Tuchel in a top level environment like Bayern Munich?

An in-form Sané is something else. Haven't seen enough of it but in terms of ball carrying and dribbling, he's up there with Hazard. There's a reason why Arteta tried to get him for the left side of their attack.

It's hard to play hardball with a player who was meant to be future of Chelsea's midfield. It's not like the club hasn't offered good deals to Mount, he just hasn't accepted any of them and now he's likely off to Liverpool where he'll just be another player instead of being the academy kid in Chelsea's first team.

Conte's going back to Italy, that's for sure. As for Nagelsmann, why would he bother taking over any club this late in the season? He'd be way better off to start fresh next season.

I feel like it would be a bit of a waste to have all three of Havertz, Felix and Nkunku in the same team as they all have the same preferred position which is the old school "#10" or support striker role. Without proper width in the side, we will continue to look predictable in attack.

That's why I fear that he'll be back at Chelsea for pre-season training even if he doesn't like that proposal...as there is no way the owners cop a massive financial hit after the amount they just wasted in the recent transfer windows. Hopefully another team comes in with some sort of loan deal as I just don't see how the club sells him for peanuts after splashing 90 million in him, would be an immediate red flag for FFP and probably lead to transfer window bans.