Reddish-Blue

Enzo Fernandez is top class, I really hope Liverpool don't get him as they'll be set up for the next decade.

Maybe because Nkunku actually has the technical ability to play out wide and through the middle like a certain Eden Hazard? The problem with Havertz is that he offers nothing in terms of creativity/team play if he's not scoring goals. As I've said multiple times in the past, Havertz should leave for Bayern Munich if he wants to be a star player and get goals/assists for fun. At Chelsea, he will always struggle because he's definitely not a striker built to play in the Premier League and I'm not sure why any manager would bother to play him as a #10/support striker.

Big fish in a small pond generally refers to players with an ego who think they are better than they actually are. Like Zaha is a big fish in small pond, he went to United, couldn't break through, went back to Palace and he is their star player. Lukaku sucks because he never worked on his game.

Because they don't mess around in the transfer market. They needed a defender, they got VVD, they needed a goalkeeper, they got Alisson. They needed reinforcements in midfield, went out and got Fabinho & Thiago. They wanted young talents as squad depth, they got Carvalho & Elliot. Compare to that us, and it's truly shocking how much money Chelsea has blown on players that didn't really improve the squad (Pulisic, Ziyech, Havertz, Cucurella)

It's probably more to do with playing alot of games and not having enough rotation options to give the players a breather every now and then...and it doesn't help when you sign injury prone players like Pulisic, Fofana...

Funny thing is, there were so many people on social media who said Kane was going to overthink the 2nd penalty and not hit the target and that's exactly what happened. France were basically out of gas for the last 20+ minutes and Deschamps doesn't even bother to add some defensive reinforcements, only takes Dembele off for Coman.

He also left Cancelo on the bench, like surely you would want one of the better fullbacks in Europe to be starting a knockout world cup game?

To be fair, their squad quality was always going to drop off after that golden generation (Casillas - Ramos - Puyol - Iniesta- Xavi - X. Alonso - Villa - Torres - Silva and so many more). The only real positive for Spain is that they had quite a few players in that Under-21 age group for this world cup and assuming they develop to the levels expected, they'll be in good enough shape in 4 years time.

Was he seriously linked to us? Seemed like Real Madrid would be a no brainer considering they have Vinicius & Rodrygo who can show him exactly how to get to the very top.

I don't see us letting Kovacic go anytime soon, feel like he'll get a nice contract in the coming months. Jorginho is the most interesting one as the rumors around Declan Rice will only get more frequent & annoying as the transfer window approaches and you would think that if the club is "all in" on Declan Rice, then Jorginho's role in midfield comes into question as I don't see Potter utilizing them together in any possible midfield combination. The defensive planning is just shocking as we had two replacements in Tomori & Guehi but we let them go for about 25 million each and now we're likely to spend 60-70 million just to find a solid CB to take over from Thiago Silva. Interesting times ahead, massive transfer window coming up

Not that I like talking about Arsenal but they did a good job in getting rid of the average players from their squad and heavily investing in players of the 21-24 year age group. Feel like we took a step in the right direction by offloading Barkley, Drinkwater and other squad fillers. Now if we can do the same with Ziyech/Pulisic, get in a solid defensive midfielder....we might be able to start building a half decent team again! Nkunku*, Havertz, Mount, Gallagher, Reece, Fofana, Colwill will be nice to watch in the coming years...just need to fill out the rest of the squad

If that's the case, then we should have moved on from Christensen & Rudiger well before they ran down their contracts and left on free transfers as well. Kante was the vital cog for our midfield, it's no surprise that our midfield is getting over run and absolutely hammered by most PL teams this season as they know it's a free for all, Kovacic was like 50% fit and RLC should have been sold off in the summer, the guy offers nothing when he is asked to play from deep. I can see why the club didn't sell off Kante as it is hard to part ways with top class players like him.

Considering no team has looked like the standout so far, I'd say Japan vs Croatia, Morocco vs Spain and Portugal vs Switzerland will be quite interesting to watch. The other last 16 ties look quite simple for the stronger side (on paper)...

Alot of that will depend upon the fitness of players returning from injuries (James, Fofana, Kante) and what happens with our squad players who aren't really clicking with the team but look very good for their national sides (Pulisic, Ziyech). I get the building towards the long term but that won't happen till next season, feels like we're almost at that point where we should just rip the band aid off from our midfield and just head into next season with a clean slate (probably means that Kante may end up walking for free). Potter wasn't helped by the fact that our best player went down with injury just before our run of fixtures heading into the world cup break. Definitely some interesting months ahead. Wonder if Mount does get moved to the midfield with a new contract.

I think the bigger problem is that no-one knows what Mount's best role is, and that's a significant concern for the club, going into contract extension talks with one of their best academy products (Reece being the other). We say he's better in a midfield 3 but that's the same as saying Havertz/Pulisic/Ziyech are best utilized in a free role behind the striker. Feel like we have too many players who want to play a specific role in the team. Azpi had to play at LB when he started out at Chelsea, Ivanovic was playing RB, Essien had multiple games at RB/LB. Until we get our midfield situation sorted (both Kante & Jorginho are available on a free at the end of the season as things stand), I don't see Potter making any drastic tactical changes for the 2nd half of the season.

You do realize that one of the best talent scouts in world football (Piet de vissier) who was a consultant for Roman for many years basically said "don't sell KDB" as this kid will one day go to the very top...and that was after watching him for half a season at the Belgian club he was playing for... It just wasn't meant to be as KDB had ambitions to be a first team player and he asked Mourinho about his prospects and Mourinho said he preferred to develop Oscar as he was more well rounded to the tactical system at the time. As for your example on Pato, it was just injuries and getting too much acclaim at the young age which destroyed his career. People forget that a very young Pato went to Camp Nou with AC Milan in those days and he was destroying one of the better Barcelona teams of that era, then came the pressure, then came all the injuries. I'm not saying that Mount is a bad player, I just think he's not worth the reported figures of 300k a week as he doesn't have a skill that stands out on a consistent basis. With Lampard, you knew you were getting goals, with Hazard, you knew he would embarrass the opposition fullback, with Fabregas you knew he had that killer pass in him. When I think of Mount, nothing really comes to mind...but I guess you could say pressing?

I think a significant improvement would be needed to make him an influential player, I don't recall him taking over any games this season (other than the goals he got against Villa). To me influence means you're taking over the game like Lampard, Drogba, Hazard and co. The problem with Mount has always been him drifting out of games, he has flashes of brilliance where you think he's about to turn the corner and take the next step and then he is back to being bang average for the next 4-5 games. As for the comment about City, let's be honest, you could stick alot of players into their starting XI and they wouldn't look out of place challenging for the title. You look at our top 4 rivals and the question becomes, is Mount a guaranteed starter for Conte, Ten Hag or Arteta?

Let's put it this way, no other top club would be offering Mount anywhere near 200k a week. We really are becoming a mid table side by overpaying average talent...

Feel like Pulisic has actually done relatively well on the LW for USA in both games, shame they don't have a solid striker up top...

It's more than pain in the eye, it was a pathetic performance. How does a team with so much talent not even try to attack the opposition? It was like the tactical instruction before the game was: "play it safe, pass it sideways and backwards". England were just lucky that USA didn't have another gear in attack, could of easily been a loss today.

They really are a monopoly in the Bundesliga. Didn't they get Sabitzer for a minimal fee from Leipzig as well? Even Gnabry was some shady deal where Bremen officially bought him but he was apparently moving to Bayern the following summer. Imagine if they somehow lure that young Dortmund striker as well...

They got the right age profile of players, Bellingham would fit in perfectly with the likes of Saka, Saliba, Ramsdale, Odegaard, Martinelli. Gut feeling is that Liverpool will be out to make a statement signing in the next transfer window and Bellingham is the one they want.

I just hope it's not another Fofana situation. He only just got back from a bad injury and then we splashed all the cash on "potential".

I don't think the new ownership group wants players to leave on a free, we lost out on at least 60-70 million from the Rudiger & Christensen contract sagas...

Lol, to think that fans actually believe Tuchel built that team. Klopp explained it best when he heard we were getting Tuchel, he said Congrats on the Christmas gift Thomas, you've been given a very nice squad by your new club. The only Tuchel signing that springs to mind is Mr. Lukaku and we know how that turned out. 90 million in the drain after 1 season at the club, Inter laughing all the way to the bank with a 8 million dollar loan spell and the player they were "forced" to sell back on the books. I get the criticism for Potter but the fact that he hasn't had 1 game with our best midfield trio available at full fitness should speak volumes about the lack of quality he's having to deal with right now. The sooner people realize that RLC is nothing more than squad filler and he should only be starting games based on the opposition...the quicker they will understand just how awful our midfield is at the moment compared to the rest of the traditional top 6.