closed Chelsea 0-0 Lyon

[robsblubot 3,595]

we can't score goals with Tammy playing up front. It's not like he misses his chances, but rather he does not get anywhere near scoring most of the time. He pretty much does everything wrong and misses the simplest of passes. Tammy literally needs to learn to play in that position, like the basics, but luckily for him he's still 20. Would be very glad and surprised if he gets a loan offer from a PL club.

BTW, Moses on either side produced closed to nothing - very poor as a winger.

[Artandur 939]

Did we just win fekir? Is that how this works?

[Starman60 1,343]

24 minutes ago, Magic Lamps said:

What the icc has shown us is that we are absolutely shit at scoring goals. Lets hope when regular season starts its makes click but what i dont see is why we are splashing out 80m for a goalie when we need someone to score goals

I agree that we failed to create much in this match which is worrying. Some nice football at times but no end product. But we o need a keeper too

[Jase 43,479]

There are positives and negatives from this pre-season and it's hard to tell the state of the squad with Sarri unable to field his first XI in any of the matches. The two biggest concerns for me are (1) we have not been solid in defence at all and (2) we have hardly looked like scoring as well. Including the five matches in this pre-season, we've scored only 7 goals in last 10 games. Needs sorting out ASAP!

[dreamcfc 182]

Wonder why we didn't see Morata, is he injured?

[Pizy 18,916]

Think Rüdiger & Christensen should remain our first choice CB pairing, I think Emerson needs to be our starting LB, and I think we have a pretty significant problem up top. All things we pretty much already knew.

Alonso will certainly struggle and may even cost us points against anyone decent. Looks out of his depth and really struggling in this new formation. His one strength the past 2 seasons was his ability to get forward. Don't think I've really seen him do that once this preseason in 4 matches. So what use is he? Last thing we need with a new, inexperience keeper coming in is for him to be totally exposed from one side.

Lastly, Barkley was good in the first two games but has sort of retreated into his shell a bit since. He'll be a good option to have in the squad but Kovacic or someone else of higher quality is needed there.

[OneMoSalah 8,886]

49 minutes ago, Robguima said:

we can't score goals with Tammy playing up front. It's not like he misses his chances, but rather he does not get anywhere near scoring most of the time. He pretty much does everything wrong and misses the simplest of passes. Tammy literally needs to learn to play in that position, like the basics, but luckily for him he's still 20. Would be very glad and surprised if he gets a loan offer from a PL club.

BTW, Moses on either side produced closed to nothing - very poor as a winger.

A PL club would be daft to take him. It’s so evident he needs a lot of work positionally, tactically and technically. Talk of Villa wanting him, championships a more realistic option.

anyway the game

I think at CB in a back 4 Christensen could do with a bit of work yet. Ampadu impressed me a lot despite making some mistakes purely because you can see he has the right mentality for a kid his age to make it at a club the size of Chelsea. Emerson’s pace alone makes him more valuable than Alonso in offensive positions. Bakayokos a goner. 

[LAM09 7,056]

Looks like scoring goals could be an issue for other reasons this season.

Michy has to come good for things to change.

[Jase 43,479]

19 hours ago, Fulham Broadway said:

Just the title, no content

The section is back up now after correcting a few of its settings. 

[The Skipper 20,609]

Ampadu is quality at CB man. Definitely the best role for him. 

[Superblue 6,372]

27 minutes ago, The Skipper said:

Ampadu is quality at CB man. Definitely the best role for him. 

I think the centre back spots are well up for grabs this season and Ampadu deserves to be in the conversation.

I can see Luiz getting the nod initially, alongside Rudiger. But I see enough of Luiz's limitations at the back to believe that Christensen and Ampadu could well get ahead of him in the pecking order over the coming months.

[Unionjack 7,531]

No goals!!

This is going to be our problem unless someones brought in these last 2 days.

[Supermonkey92 1,428]

2 hours ago, Sideshow Luiz said:

That was quite some applause for Piazon.

It was meant for Kante

[Sideshow Luiz 2,310]

Just now, Supermonkey92 said:

It was meant for Kante

Are we sure?  Piazon's been here for a while now.  Kante and Hazard have a ways to go before reaching Next Kaka - Piazon status.

jokes.

[BlueStorm1003 539]

I couldn't help but smile when Green saved that pen. That means my last memory of him will be a good one  lol 

I really hope Bats does the job upfront. We can't score for shit

[robsblubot 3,595]

2 hours ago, OneMoSalah said:

A PL club would be daft to take him. It’s so evident he needs a lot of work positionally, tactically and technically. Talk of Villa wanting him, championships a more realistic option.

anyway the game

I think at CB in a back 4 Christensen could do with a bit of work yet. Ampadu impressed me a lot despite making some mistakes purely because you can see he has the right mentality for a kid his age to make it at a club the size of Chelsea. Emerson’s pace alone makes him more valuable than Alonso in offensive positions. Bakayokos a goner. 

and physically too, which surprised me actually. Now I wonder whether Tammy wouldn't be better served by hitting the gym hard and only then getting a loan once he bulks up a bit.

Ampadu looks great but he's only 17, so not sure how much the club can count on him if any. Perhaps a PL loan is open to him given how well he plays, but he's so young that maybe he does not yet need it.

I don't disagree with what people say of Emerson (and Alonso) just not sure how important having an attacking left-back is in Sarri's system. The fact that we have Azpi on the right may actually push Emerson ahead of Alonso since Azpi is terrific in defense and only decent going forward. That's on Sarri and I'm happy he has these choices for fullback position.

There are other areas of far more concern than the fullback IMO.

[OhForAGreavsie 6,075]

5 hours ago, El P. said:

RLC was good too

Can't agree about this. Didn't see it like that at all. Had his moments, or rather moment, but same old same old other than that. A lot of walking around and a lot of nothing sadly.

[OhForAGreavsie 6,075]

4 hours ago, Pizy said:

I think we have a pretty significant problem up top.

And yet we seem intent on spending £71m for a goalkeeper. Makes no sense to me. What can Kepa have that makes him worth £71m more than Marcin? OK, I understand that you pay the huge fee for that little bit of extra quality, the bit that elevates your squad above the pack, but we are clearly spending way more selectively these days than was once the case. In which case, I think we need to spend more wisely than this.

[cosmicway 1,333]

Lyon was the class of Everton or Southampton.
We therefore enjoyed possession and made some fast moves, the way Sarri wants, which looked pretty good.
But there was no one up front to score a goal and the defense made some curious mistakes.
We were going to score the winning goal in the second half but when Sarri changed nearly half the team the momentum was lost - even though two of the replacements were Eden and Giroud.
The only positive is Sarri's attack system. He wants the players to be very fast in deciding what to do with the ball, faster than with Conte system or Mou system. Ideally this breaks defenses and creates goal scoring chances.

[Fulham Broadway 17,317]

10 hours ago, Jason said:

The section is back up now after correcting a few of its settings. 

Have you noticed sections New Members. Chelsea Gold and Staff Room have a greyed out lion crest on the left of each respectively, and cant be accessed that way ?