Reddish-Blue

If Potter finishes mid-table it's because he was given an attack and midfield that just don't give a f*ck anymore. Time for guys like Sterling & Pulisic & Havertz to start pulling their weight and scoring goals for the team. The whole team right now screams mid-table. No Kante, no Reece, Kovacic running at 50% fitness.... You take away 3 first team starters from the rest of the top 4 sides, they would probably look much worse as well.

All started with not investing into the side after Conte won the league and we sold Matic for peanuts. Sarri started this transition to 'possession' football with Jorginho as the teachers pet and now we're stuck in no mans land. Feels like any progress we made in those UCL games against AC Milan have been well and truly wiped out with both Reece & Fofana going down to bad injuries. If only July 1 was around the corner, we could look forward to a good transfer window and sell of the players that don't need/want to be here. Don't be surprised if we're in 10th place later on in the season, the only thing that can save us now (from real pain) is a magical potion which gets Reece & Kante fit for the 2nd half of the season.

Wonder if it's too late to try and package Havertz into any potential Nkunku deal....win win for everyone involved

If Kai was our best attacker and we literally had zero shots on target against Arsenal at home....that is seriously concerning for not just the team but also Kai. We don't need another one of those attackers who likes to play between the lines, that worked for Leverkusen because the team was built around him but here at Chelsea, he needs to do something other than 'find space' against the opposition. No wonder why our attack sucks, we have the German generational talent finding space but lacking any other skill infront of goal, we have the washed up 33 year old striker up front (who at this point in his career offers nothing other than finishing in the box) and we have Sterling who seems to have forgotten how to do the simple things right after playing in Pep's system where he was gifted chances on a plate by De Bruyne/Gundogan and co.

We've had this issue since Hazard left the club and that was a few seasons ago. The fact that none of our attackers know how to take on the opposition defender/fullback (other than Pulisic, when he feels like it) is a massive concern for the club. The only other player we had who showed signs (pre-injury) of wanting to take on the opposition defender was Hudson Odoi but then he was asked to learn how to play wingback and now he's out on loan in the Bundesliga.

It's also because they've maintained a clean bill of health for the most part. They haven't had to really tinker with their first choice XI and that's showing in their results as they look confident, most of their players are in form and they have consistency. Sort of reminds me of our first season under Mourinho, things just start to click into place, players start stepping up to the occasion and taking control of the game. If City falter for some reason post world cup, hate to say it but Arsenal will be in the mix...

Makes you wonder just how fit Kovacic actually is...considering the fact that he's putting off surgery to play for Croatia in the World Cup. It's a shame but most managers would struggle with two dynamic midfielders out (Kante for who knows how long and Kovacic is probably 60% of what he was in previous seasons) and then we also have no cheat code on the right flank!

Were we actually that close to City with Tuchel at the helm? Maybe tactically, but from an overall league perspective, we haven't been anywhere near them since Conte departed the club. Conte had to replace Matic with Bakayoyo in midfield and that's where the issues started. He's currently got one midfielder who was discarded by Southampton as surplus to requirements and another who was let go by Juventus and he's somehow got that team in the mix for top 4. it's almost like alot of fans have Tuchel tinted glasses on when they talk about him, it's like our general performance in the league and the rubbish football we were serving up last season has been forgotten about and all we want to do is highlight his amazing cup runs which led to 1 major trophy. People actually wanted Tuchel for the long term with the poor transfer decisions he was making? Interesting how his longest stint in management is still Mainz (180+ games), with Dortmund, PSG and Chelsea, it was 3 seasons or less.

Feel like the end of season transfer window will be huge in deciding where the club is headed (e.g. a bit of stability and retaining our UCL spot or sliding down to a top 8 place). There shouldn't be anymore excuses for the new owners as they've invested in some quality footballing minds from the likes of City & Southampton. I'm not sure if Potter needs to regain trust, we've done alright considering the circumstances (Kante out long-term, Reece out, Fofana out, Kovacic carrying an injury), but I do feel we need to figure out what to do with our attack that is so inconsistent in front of goal. Havertz, Pulisic, Ziyech all have question marks over their ability to either create goals or score goals...

The problem is, it stopped making sense on the pitch from pre-season to the start of this season. Players were just jogging around the pitch in those early games and it looked like a change was needed as the trend was concerning (1 point in the UCL after 2 matchdays, 2 horrible losses against teams that we shouldn't be losing against in the league - Leeds, Southampton). I was a fan of Tuchel but I feel he never really recovered from losing Rudiger.

He was given a team half way through the season and managed to motivate them to get over the finishing line, not sure how that is 'winning big'. Quite similar to what Di Matteo achieved with the club, got us over the line against Barcelona and Bayern Munich in that famous UCL season. The last manager who won 'big' with us was the Special One. Klopp can do what he wants at Liverpool now, he hasn't finished lower than 4th in the PL since his first season at the club, broke their PL title curse. It's laughable that your comparing the achievements of Pep & Klopp who have built up credit over multiple seasons with their clubs to Tuchel. Pep & Klopp have had their outbursts to the media over the years but they didn't really fight with their owners whereas Tuchel has a history of falling out with the board (Dortmund, PSG fell out with the sporting director, Chelsea fell out with the ownership group).

Kante, Reece, Chilwell (depending upon injury severity) are all out of WC. Jorginho, Auba aren't involved, would be surprised to see Chalobah/Gallagher called-up. Ziyech should be sold at the first opportunity, what a waste of a player. That leaves: Mendy, T.Silva, Koulibaly, Kovacic, Zakaria, Pulisic, Mount, Havertz, Sterling (9) City would have: Ederson, Cancelo, Dias, Laporte, Ake, Stones, KdB, Bernardo, Gundogan, Grealish, Foden, Rodri (12)

His chances were always going to be limited. Potter's going to go with Auba & Havertz over him on most occasions, he's only going to start if they need a breather or they are unavailable to play...

Might just be a depth signing (Trossard in, Ziyech out) to help get a good deal for Caicedo in the process! We've done it before with Drinkwater & Kante from Leicester

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.