Reddish-Blue

Would love to see Hall or Webster get some minutes, Hutchinson isn't eligible as he hasn't been at the club for at least 2 seasons (between ages of 15 and 21)

Harsh on Kova & Jorginho, they might not be at their best this season but they've been solid in midfield in previous seasons. Probably part of the reason why we haven't even bothered to re-invest into our midfield as the trio of Kante - Kova - J5 were getting the job done on most occasions. Massive transfer window coming up at the end of the season, it may set us up for the next 5+ years or put us down to scrapping/fighting for a Europa League spot.

None of the players listed provide an immediate solution to our central midfield/pivot problems. Gallagher & Mount won't survive playing in a pivot as they want to be on the ball higher up the pitch, not recycling possession/breaking the opposition's play in the defensive half of the pitch.

That might be the case but they lost a key player to Bayern and they are light in midfield (just like us...the Kante & Reece injuries have left the rest of the team exposed in terms of work ethic). Arsenal are flying as their first choice midfield is all fit & firing, City have the best midfielder in the PL, United appear to have found some balance with Eriksen & Casemiro providing the experience. Funny how we always looked a midfielder short incase of injury and the club decided it was better to spend 120 million on Fofana & Cucurella...

Chucky is too young to play all the time, he's been given minutes recently but it'll take time for him to settle in It really is a shame that Fofana is out and now Koulibaly has been out recently as he was just starting to settle in before that injury against Brentford (you take 3 starting defenders out of our top 4 rivals and I bet they'd struggle as well!) As for no passion & drive, that's because we're not selling off the average players (like RLC) and the players that don't give a shite (Ziyech, even Pulisic), I really do hope that we can clean out our first team deadwood and start building a proper team again Feel like next season's transfer window could be huge in the make up of this team, massive opportunity to build that midfield with two key players off contract Long story short - we're in for a painful one this season, tough to see how we go past 6th place this season unless Aubameyang, Sterling and Havertz start banging in goals for fun....

Where would you start? That would mean replacing everyone other than James, Mount, T.Silva, Kante, Kovacic, J5, Chilwell and the new signings this season.

He's got some qualities but there should have been a massive question mark on the fee we were paying (when City pulled out at the 35 million mark). I was sort of surprised that we never looked at alternative options for the LB/LWB spot when the Cucurella fee was so high, he'll never be a 55 million dollar player. I felt even United overspent on Martinez but he's getting the job done and he has helped Ten Hag build out a solid base moving forward.

The bigger question is, does that mean that the club has a replacement midfielder lined up for January? The whole midfield situation is a mess, Kante not back till February and his contract is expiring....Jorginho's contract is expiring as well and we basically got a midfielder in for no reason other than 'cover' on deadline day. Hopefully Potter & Boehly have a solid plan in place for our midfield as we are a few months away from having Kovacic and RLC as the only midfielders under contract...which is quite alarming!

I love how everything is not Tuchel's fault...even though he was in charge when we had some absolutely shocking transfer windows which dropped our overall squad quality from top 4 to Europa League. No striker would have been better than bringing in Lukaku, even United fans and pundits were stunned when they heard that Chelsea was about to shell out 90 million for the same striker they sold for being bang average. Anyway, enough about Tuchel, I'm sure he'll go on to another top level European side, get some short term success, fall out with big name players/board and then be told to go again (just like Dortmund, PSG, Chelsea)....feels like a pattern is emerging, he's on route to be the next Mourinho at this rate!

Why would Tuchel get a free pass for a bad season but the new manager gets no time to try and improve the squad with players that he wants? Are we giving Tuchel that time because he won us the UCL because his league form was no different to Lampard's last season in charge. Tuchel's marquee signing who was given 300k a week is arguably our worst player this season. His other marquee signing was allowed to walk from the club on a loan back to his beloved Inter Milan for 7 million (after we shelled out 90 million to get him here). If we wanted a short term fix to come and paper over the cracks and have us in the top 4 this season, there were plenty of 'experienced' managers available, I like the fact that Boehly & co went with a young manager. It's going to be a tough season for alot of fans on this forum as this will not be the last game where we get thrashed by 3-4 goals. Expectations are one thing but it's crazy to expect Potter to wave his wand and fix our midfield problems instantly, especially when our best midfielder is out till February with a bad injury, our other midfielder is basically carrying a knee issue into the world cup as he doesn't want to miss out and there is every chance that Reece may not be back to full fitness for a while. I'm fully expecting another Lampard-like season where our attackers can find some form, we may just scrape 4th place but nothing more than that.

We get a midfielder on deadline day who is known for his box to box ability and physicality and he's just left on the bench game after game. RLC is the definition of average, he'll put in a 1 or 2 good performances as required but in reality, he should of been sold in the summer to Palace.

Without Reece, we look horrible We have zero defensive options available to rotate (No KK, Fofana or Reece) Cucurella has been useless for a few games now Sterling is useless right now, feels like selling Werner was actually a mistake Brighton exploited us perfectly, they've been building for a few games, showed they were in for a fight against City and they just continued their good form taking full advantage of a makeshift lineup by Potter

Almost like Tuchel wasn't in charge when this same team put up a rubbish performance against Zagreb in the UCL and then the same team went to Leeds and got humiliated for 90 minutes and to add the cherry on top we even lost to Southampton. This team needs serious changes if we want to stay in the top 4 in the coming seasons as United will definitely overtake us and Newcastle look to be on the verge of becoming a top 6 side. Even if Potter was sacked tomorrow, the next manager wouldn't stop us getting owned by a good counter-attack.

I don't expect to see drastic changes for that last UCL game, probably Mount, Kovacic, Jorginho and T.Silva get the night off but that's about it. Wonder if Potter and the club look at getting a RWB in the January window (considering Reece's injury and the fact that RLC will need a breather as well).

Sounds like young Mourinho coaching in the Portuguese leagues....

They're not failing, they just don't allow as much freedom to their attackers and in crucial situations, it comes back to bite them as they're often left chasing a 1-0 deficit with 20 minutes left in the second half of the game. I wouldn't be surprised to see Conte progress though, he still has two cheat codes up front (which tend to work in most games).

Probably because his name isn't on the registration list for UCL... This is what the UEFA webpage is showing for our squad: https://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/clubs/52914--Chelsea/squad/

if he does leave, would be great for the rest of the top 6 😆

The Fofana deal was just pure desperation. Like if the club wanted him that badly, why bother flirting with Ake returning to Chelsea or trying to convince De Ligt or even chasing Kounde? Would Leicester really have rejected 50+ million for Fofana earlier in the window? As for Cucurella, I completely agree. You're telling me that there are no other LB/LWB's available that could have been brought in to compete with Chilwell for less than 55 million? TT was out of depth trying to deal with the transfer market and we paid the price as all of our top 4 rivals got stronger...and we still have the same issue in midfield. Arsenal got the 2 best City players available, Spurs added squad depth and United upgraded their midfield.

That's correct As long as we win one of the remaining 2 games, we get first place. Hopefully we can win matchday 5 and then have a rotated squad for the last matchday.

If we played either of those sides, I wouldn't be surprised to see a 4-1 scoreline in their favor. Both Chelsea & United are in the same place, fighting for 4th place in the league. The only difference is that they got their midfield sorted whilst our midfield is one injury away from serious problems (especially with Kante out for many months).

Agree with most of this and we need to fix the glaring issue in midfield. Get someone in there who can add a bit of physicality and get away with those 'professional' fouls like Rodri, Fabinho, Casemiro etc The fact that Potter doesn't want to use Zakaria at all...it seems like he'll be sent back to Juventus in January. As for Cucurella, we overpaid massively. City were smart, they offered very good value for Cucurella (30-35 million) and when Brighton asked for 50+ million, they cancelled the deal. For some reason we got desperate and ended up spending twice his actual value.

To be fair, they tend to turn up against us. Would not be surprised one bit if Rashford is the match winner for them. Just feels like that type of game without Reece on that flank.

At least with Ruben, he has adapted to the situation. Whether it's playing in midfield, playing further back than his preferred role or even playing as the RWB. The comment about big fish in a small pond, that's not true at all, if that was the case, he'd be struggling for Germany as well. Put Havertz in a team with attackers like Bayern Munich and he'll flourish as he'll have the time & space to impact the game around the likes of Sane, Musiala, Muller, Davies and co. I don't think we will ever see the very best of Havertz at Chelsea because the system doesn't suit him.

What does Havertz actually provide? After 60-ish appearances in the PL, does anyone know his best position or whether he's had 10 really good games in PL? I know people love to hate on Pulisic but he's got enough 'variety' in his play to be a solid option for Potter. I can see why Newcastle wanted him, him in Eddie Howe's system would have been nice to watch. If Potter can get some consistency out of Pulisic, that would save us a nice transfer fee and having to hit the market again for another attacker.