Team 20-21?

[Vesper 28,880]

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 7,966]

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 6,370]

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. 

[Unionjack 7,531]

20 hours ago, Superblue_1986 said:

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. 

It SEEMS the logical way but the only 2 formations FL said to Kai was 433 and 442.

But the top 4 way I see it wont stick to their spots. They will be chaos. Coming and going from all over.

Byt this maens those 4 lads are going to have to live in each others shadows to learn how they think. This will be easy for Kai/Werner. Also Puli will have studdied them - and him a lot. And Ziyech to me wont have any trouble gelling

 

But its what is in FLs head! Ive not agreed with hardly any of his team selections. So WHO KNOWS?
Gonna be a steep learning curve. Just as long as there is learning.