Team 20-21?

[milka 3,390]

 

+ Giroud , Barkley , Hudson - Odoi ,  RLC , Gilmour ,Christensen  and Tomori .

[NikkiCFC 8,286]

25 players squad next season?

Ok, we may sell Jorgi and keep Barkley but this is close guess I think.

[Rekin 835]

4 hours ago, NikkiCFC said:

25 players squad next season?

Ok, we may sell Jorgi and keep Barkley but this is close guess I think.

I think it will be mostly as you show for the preferred starting eleven.

Havertz will most likely be more of an 8 than a 10, and I'm not sure if Frank will prefer James and Zouma over Azpili and Rudiger. I also don't think Rice will join, so Mount and Kovacic will probably rotate for the third midfield spot. 

One way or another, I suspect we wont see the "true" 11 until October. Chilwell and Pulisic are still recovering, we don't know the status of Ziyech while Havertz, Silva and Mendy will be very fresh and might need some time to adapt to the team. 

 

[Puliiszola 519]

Mendy/Kepa/Willy

James/Azpi Zouma/AC Silva/Rudiger Chilwell/Alonso

Kai/RLC Kante/Gilmour Mount/Kova

Ziyech/CHO Werner/Tammy/Giroud Pulisic

 

Sell Barkley, Jorginho, Bakayoko, Emerson, Michy. Loan Tomori, Ampadu, Gallagher. After hopefully what will be a successful loan spells for all 3, replace Rudiger and AC with Tomori and Ampadu, RLC (if he does not have a breakthrough this season)/Kova with Gallagher. 

[NikkiCFC 8,286]

Pretty much we got confirmation today about our formation and what Frank wants.

He was speaking about Havertz as AM and how he plays more advanced than what he used to play.

Matt Law also said that we are looking for another DM to make workable double pivot which we do not have at the moment with any possible combination.

So the rumor that Frank wants to play with solo DM and two number 8s is not true it seems.

Rice last two seasons played only DM, never CB. I think Frank wants Rice-Kante with Havertz advanced. It is hard to accept Kova being benched but this is what it is...

[Unionjack 7,531]

16 hours ago, NikkiCFC said:

Pretty much we got confirmation today about our formation and what Frank wants.

He was speaking about Havertz as AM and how he plays more advanced than what he used to play.

Matt Law also said that we are looking for another DM to make workable double pivot which we do not have at the moment with any possible combination.

So the rumor that Frank wants to play with solo DM and two number 8s is not true it seems.

Rice last two seasons played only DM, never CB. I think Frank wants Rice-Kante with Havertz advanced. It is hard to accept Kova being benched but this is what it is...

Kinda but I see it as a Rice/Kova. Im not sold on these stories Ive read saying how much FL wants N'Golo. Is he just saying this to keep his price high?
FGrom everything Ive read N'golo hasnt worked well in any combination of a double pivot. YES OK I think he would work with Rice but leaving out POTY out would be a crime.

Im also at a loss as to WTF we are going to do with wee Billy G?

2 of the only games I saw last season was Everton and Victimpool and he was blinding in both.

I had visions of him and Kova playing together.

[Vesper 30,083]

I am terrified of injuries fucking us even worse than they have 

it really has me down, and wifey is not helping at all, grrrrrr

she has been on a whinge roll for days 

we have more injury issues than any other club in the top 20 in Europe

 

all of the following (19!!!!!!) have had or have injuries and some have had injuries that have long term fucked them to a point

Bold are ones who have had their careers damn near destroyed

red are those who never fully recovered as of yet (meaning they still are not back to pre injury level)

bold red are those who will never be the same (as it has been years since their big injuries and they will never be as good as before the major injuries)

bold green are players I fear will never recover to pre injury levels (cannot make the final call yet)

Antonio Rüdiger (on his way to bold green)  
Kurt Zouma  
Ben Chilwell 
Emerson    
Abdul Rahman Baba    
Reece James    
Davide Zappacosta    
N'Golo Kanté   
Ethan Ampadu
Ruben Loftus-Cheek   
Billy Gilmour  
Danny Drinkwater  
Marco van Ginkel 
Charly Musonda Jr.    
Christian Pulisic    
Callum Hudson-Odoi    
Hakim Ziyech    
Tammy Abraham
Michy Batshuayi

 

 

 

[Unionjack 7,531]

I noticed just how thinly framed and fragile looking we was when we played Bayern. We do have a lot of lads that look like praying mantis stick insects. I dont understand why they aren't put on a good dose of testosterone shots up the bum, super strong protein shakes and a raw meat diet.

I do think injuries MAY be a problem.

[Unionjack 7,531]

I'll just add that I can see some headlines and meltdowns we will have this season.

Ive neen doing a lot of reading about our main 3 buys and its made interesting reading.

It seems to START with each of them were slagged odd by their own fans.

Because the make/take so many chances theres some that go wildly wronf. But the ones that pay off make that balance more than worthwhile. Their clubs fans didnt realise that at first and were voacal about it.

But of course we have such patient,understanding fans we wouldn't dream of going into meltdown mode. Would we??

 

Hyst been reading thru this, Interesting. Tho some of the diagrans confused me

https://statsbomb.com/2020/09/chelsea-season-preview-2020-21/

[Unionjack 7,531]

Having reread the Timo interview he said in a chat with FL that he wants Timo to play in differebt positions whether its a 433 or 442!

Given that the lads are all match fit who can you see the set up being in a 442?

[NikkiCFC 8,286]

3 hours ago, Unionjack said:

Having reread the Timo interview he said in a chat with FL that he wants Timo to play in differebt positions whether its a 433 or 442!

Given that the lads are all match fit who can you see the set up being in a 442?

In moments against Brighton it looked like 4-4-2 with RLC going up. Frank just told him that to convince him to come 

On a serious note Giroud - Werner could be nice combo. 

There are different set ups in 4-4-2 as well. With wide players it could look like 4-2-4. But you can also play without wide players like legendary AC Milan with Gattuso, Seedorf, Pirlo and Kaka. 

In this case I think:

         Havertz 

  Kovacic  Kante 

        Jorginho 

Would be nice option when Pulisic and Ziyech are not fit like now... 

 

[Superblue 6,372]

I always thought that this season our preference would be to play a 4-3-3 with a holder and two 'number 8's'.

Now however I think we are more likely to see a hybrid of 4-2-3-1 and 4-2-4.

I think the two midfielders will be given the task to sit and hold. This would likely be Kante (if he's back to full fitness this season, he will be a game changer for us in that midfield) and Kovacic but we would also have Jorginho and Gilmour as options. I also think that at times when we perhaps are playing the lesser teams or chasing a goal that Barkley can be an option in there to add a bit more attacking thrust.

Then looking at the front four I think Lampard wants energy, movement, freedom, versatility to go out and overwhelm teams. I can see Havertz becoming the number 10 and being given some freedom to at times drop and play deeper to act as a link and other times play much higher up to Werner. The pace and direct nature of Pulisic and Werner and guile and creativity of Ziyech and Havertz could end up being something pretty special. And then we have an abundance of options available to us in that front line alongside these four.

Chilwell coming in and James hopefully kicking on too I think will also make a difference in having two full backs capable of getting up and down and providing the width through overlaps.

I think it may take some time to get going, but when it does I could see this group building up some real momentum and causing a massive headache for a lot of teams. I'm really looking at getting the next 3 games in the league out the way before the next international break and then hopefully Lampard has his strongest squad on paper available to him at that point.