General Chelsea Stuff

[Jase 43,479]

1 hour ago, Fernando said:

Apparently we did not accept a pay cut. 

I'm disappointed with the players. 

https://www.chelseafc.com/en/news/2020/04/25/club-update-on-coronavirus-initiatives-for-staff--supporters-and

Quote

Representatives of the Chelsea board have recently held extensive talks with the men’s first team to discuss how they can contribute financially to the club during the coronavirus crisis. The objective of these talks has been to find a meaningful partnership around ensuring we preserve jobs for staff, compensate fans and participate in activities for good causes.

We are grateful to the team for having played their role in assisting the club with community activities as well as all the charitable causes they have been supporting in their respective home countries and through the Players Together initiative supporting the NHS. At this time, the men’s first team will not be contributing towards the club financially and instead the board have directed the team to focus their efforts on further supporting other charitable causes. As this crisis develops the club will continue to have conversations with the men’s first team regarding financial contributions to the club’s activities.

Also, I don't get why are people being so judgmental over this pay cut issue...

[NikkiCFC 8,286]

6 minutes ago, Jason said:

https://www.chelseafc.com/en/news/2020/04/25/club-update-on-coronavirus-initiatives-for-staff--supporters-and

Also, I don't get why are people being so judgmental over this pay cut issue...

Because clubs from Italy, France, Spain are doing it. Roma players without salary for 4 months.

[Jase 43,479]

4 minutes ago, NikkiCFC said:

Because clubs from Italy, France, Spain are doing it. Roma players without salary for 4 months.

So you're unhappy simply because clubs in those countries are doing it?   There are also others like in England aren't doing it. Different clubs react differently to the crisis depending on their financial situation. The fact that the club aren't furloughing staffs, are still playing staff 100% of their wages, are offering to help NHS at no cost etc suggests we aren't in a desperate financial situation. And it's not like the players aren't using their money for good cause. A number of them, based on public knowledge, are already helping charities. 

[Laylabelle 9,534]

I'd be disappointed if it affected outwards. Say players getting 100% but that then meant staff wages were effected but from sounds not the case. If the club can afford to do both this way why not. 

[Jase 43,479]

1 hour ago, Laylabelle said:

I'd be disappointed if it affected outwards. Say players getting 100% but that then meant staff wages were effected but from sounds not the case. If the club can afford to do both this way why not. 

Because it's very easy for people to be armchair critics. I don't understand why players not taking a pay cut or little pay cut is seen like some sort of crime here, especially in our case. If the club were in the poor or dodgy financial state and the players don't want to take a pay cut, then by all means, have a go at them. But we aren't and we aren't the only club out there that their players haven't taken a pay cut. 

Anyway, it seems like negotiations between the club and players are still ongoing...

 

[Nikarlc 5]

Am I the only one who whinks Diogo Jota looks like hazard?  

[Vesper 30,081]

In a post-Hazard era, who can possibly stand out as Chelsea Player of the Year?

https://theathletic.com/1771383/2020/04/25/chelsea-player-of-the-year/

The first season of the post-Eden Hazard era at Chelsea has yielded no new clear talisman. In fact, you could argue that Frank Lampard’s most impressive achievement since taking over is how effectively he has divided the burden of scoring and goal creation that was disproportionately borne by the Belgian under Maurizio Sarri, even if a lack of ruthlessness has undermined his team at times.

That he has done it with youth is all the more commendable. Three of Chelsea’s top four goalscorers in the Premier League this season are aged 22 or younger.

Tammy Abraham is perhaps the best story of the season, blossoming from a prolific Championship scorer into a charismatic Premier League frontman with enough flashes of an all-round skill set to suggest he is capable of leading the line at Stamford Bridge for the next decade. His swaggering hat-trick in a 5-2 win over Wolves at Molineux in September — with Fikayo Tomori and Mason Mount also finding the net — felt like the moment Lampard’s youth movement came of age.

Mount has become arguably the symbol of Lampard’s team, playing the third-most minutes across all competitions (2,866) when compared to his fellow Chelsea outfielders, with only captain Cesar Azpilicueta (3,333) and Jorginho (2,965) ahead of him. And he has done so through the pain of two ankle injuries. His decision-making is far from flawless — not an unusual problem for a young player — but he consistently sets the tone with his relentless work rate, with and without the ball.

Christian Pulisic produced the most spectacular run of form of any Chelsea player from late October to the end of November, following up a match-winning assist against Ajax in Amsterdam with six goals in seven matches across three competitions. His perfect hat-trick against Burnley at Turf Moor was emphatic proof that Lampard is right to consider the American integral to his future plans. The fact he has barely kicked a ball in 2020 is our loss as well as his.

At the other end of the pitch, Tomori played a key role in Chelsea’s seven-match winning streak alongside Kurt Zouma in the autumn while Reece James returned from an ankle injury to justify the excitement sparked by last year’s phenomenal loan at Wigan and emerge as a formidable attacking weapon from right-back.

When you add Callum Hudson-Odoi, Andreas Christensen, Billy Gilmour and a fit-again Ruben Loftus-Cheek to the mix, Lampard can remould this squad around a homegrown core that should be the envy of elite clubs all over Europe — with more to come from the academy and the bank of loanees.

Abraham and Mount have ensured an unprecedented amount of overlap in Chelsea’s Player of the Year and Young Player of the Year debates, particularly as some of the older heads have floundered.

Kepa Arrizabalaga lost Lampard’s confidence in the midst of the worst slump of his career. After four years of being a Premier League machine, N’Golo Kante’s body has failed him. Antonio Rudiger has struggled to rediscover his best level after his own lingering injury problems. Marcos Alonso continues to be the Superman of wing-backs and the Clark Kent of full-backs.

But other senior stars have led the way. Azpilicueta’s durability is showing no cracks at the age of 30 and his performances remain generally solid, regardless of whether he is deployed at right-back, left-back or centre-back. His professionalism and on-pitch leadership have helped Chelsea’s bright youngsters and his four goals across all competitions constitute the most prolific scoring season of his career. Two of them, against Ajax and Lille at Stamford Bridge, were vital.

Willian is now the oldest regular Chelsea starter, though there has been nothing on the pitch to highlight that fact. His speed and work rate are undiminished, to the extent that Lampard held up the Brazilian’s brilliant all-round display against Southampton in October as the benchmark for his other wingers. His match-winning performance away at Tottenham in December was the best of his Chelsea career, and one of the most thrilling seen anywhere in the Premier League this season.

Goals and assists have always been an underwhelming measure of Willian’s impact and 2019-20 is no exception (five goals and five assists in 28 Premier League appearances). But it is worth noting that his 3.3 passes that lead to a shot attempt per 90 minutes this season ranks sixth-best in the entire division among regular starters.

When reviewing a season in which Chelsea all too frequently struggled to create while finding a way to concede, however, it feels wrong to bestow the highest praise on any one attacker or defender. Lampard, like Sarri before him, has built this team around a dominant passing midfield, and the most consistent performers in the squad can be found in the middle of the pitch.

Jorginho has been transformed under Lampard from a Stamford Bridge pariah into a crowd favourite without changing all that much about his game. He is still a passing metronome at the base of midfield, though he attempts fewer passes per game this season (71.6) than last (84.3) and slightly more of them go long (3.7 per game, up from 2.5 in 2018-19). He still takes arguably the most quirky effective penalties in world football.

Chelsea’s defenders still know that they can trust Jorginho with the ball under pressure and he still gives his team a level of control and calm that few other midfielders can. Out of possession, his defensive contribution is a little underrated, though his glaring lack of athleticism ensures that any midfield geared around him will always have a tantalisingly obvious weakness. He has been key to many of this season’s best performances, and also some of the worst.

Lampard’s most frequently outstanding performer has been the man next to Jorginho. When a £40 million agreement was struck with Real Madrid to make Mateo Kovacic the lone Chelsea signing of a summer defined by a FIFA-imposed transfer ban, the reaction of most supporters ranged from an indifferent shrug of the shoulders to mild consternation.

Kovacic’s fit was more in question than his talent but he quickly proved his worth. Largely in the absence of Kante he has refined his formidable understanding with Jorginho – one which provided the foundation for Chelsea’s best run of form this season, the seven-match winning streak from late September to the end of October that put Lampard’s team in the driving seat in the race for fourth.

Both men take particular delight in receiving the ball under extreme pressure and working together to play their way out of trouble. Nowhere was this mutual passion more evident than in Amsterdam, where Jorginho completed 93.5 per cent of his 46 passes and Kovacic completed 92.6 per cent of his 54 amid a swarm of Ajax bodies. An historic win was built on their unshakeable composure.

Kovacic has largely matched Jorginho’s passing prowess deep in Chelsea’s midfield this season but the Croatian also has another dimension to his game: he is the best ball-carrying central midfielder anywhere in world football and Lampard has unleashed his rare gift to the benefit of the team.

He is averaging 4.7 attempted dribbles per 90 minutes in the Premier League this season with a 79.3 per cent success rate, up from 3.2 per 90 minutes with a 67.7 per cent success rate in 2018-19. He carries the ball an average of 449.5 yards per 90 minutes, the most in the Chelsea squad, and 227.9 yards towards the opposition goal, second only to Willian among regular starters.

No other central midfielder in Europe comes close to combining the volume and efficiency of Kovacic’s dribbling. A look across the Premier League reveals his numbers are more comparable with wingers or No 10s like Adama Traore (457.1 yards per 90 minutes), Felipe Anderson (455.2 yards per 90 minutes) or Jack Grealish (453.7 yards per 90 minutes).

Direct impact on the final third remains Kovacic’s big weakness; his one goal and three assists in the Premier League this season actually represent an overperformance on his expected goals (0.90) and expected assists (1.66) while his 1.33 key passes per 90 minutes compare unfavourably with Kante (1.56) and rank 13th in the current Chelsea squad.

But in football’s age of pressing, Kovacic’s uncanny ability to slalom his way through the middle of the pitch, taking out several opponents as he turns defence into attack, is hugely valuable. It was telling that as Chelsea suffered their heaviest-ever home European defeat against Bayern Munich in February, he was the only player in blue who frequently threatened to turn the tide with eight completed dribbles of nine attempted.

Kovacic earned high praise from a somber Lampard after that match as he was the only Chelsea player who had shown in the Champions League knockout stage that he could grace any team in the world. Only 25, he should be a dynamic presence in the middle of the Stamford Bridge pitch for years to come, and he is a more than worthy Player of the Year.

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This week, The Athletic’s writers will be choosing their Player of the Year for their club and writing a piece explaining their pick.

We are also hosting an awards night on our app and social media on Sunday, April 26, to decide the awards for the season so far. Read more here.

[Jase 43,479]

 

[Laylabelle 9,534]

The Mail don't seem to be able to get their story straight..one minute it's no wage cut all going to charity.. the next they've refused how dare they blahhh and now this one which is what was said originally!

[Vesper 30,081]

2 hours ago, Laylabelle said:

The Mail don't seem to be able to get their story straight..one minute it's no wage cut all going to charity.. the next they've refused how dare they blahhh and now this one which is what was said originally!

its the Daily Hail, what do you expect, lolol

[Laylabelle 9,534]

That's why was surprised when they posted the first nice article..followed up by a not so nice now followed by a nicer...next be they're on strike lol

[NikkiCFC 8,286]

5 hours ago, Jason said:

 

And how is that helping the club?