closed Everton 1-0 Chelsea

[Hutcho 8,443]

After 12 Premier League games:
2019/20:
W - 8
D - 2
L - 2
Pts - 26
Pos. - 3rd
2020/21:
W - 6
D - 4
L - 2
Pts - 22
Pos. - 3rd (could be overtaken on Sunday)

Apples and oranges. We're way better than last season as we are right now by a country mile. A blind man could see that.

[Vesper 30,182]

8 minutes ago, Hutcho said:

We played a game with no out and out wingers because of injuries.
We have a team with basically 6 new starters without a preseason. These things take a lot of time to gel and we've seen glimpses of it. But we have depth in some positions but not the position we seem to keep getting the injuries.

I believe the squad is good enough to win the prem but this season has come a bit too soon.

we need a 4th winger

said it since the end of last season when we knew Willian an dPedro were leaving

Havertz is not a winger, he is wasted there

same for Werner

Mount is not a winger

nor is Faustino Anjorin

[Blue Armour 4,439]

Before this game, a lot of us agreed that we needed to get results in fixtures against Everton, W Ham and Wolves in order to take advantage where others such as Liverpool, Tottenham and City could not.

In retrospect, I expect we'll see the other teams also drop points in away fixtures now that crowds are returning to some of these grounds.

 

 

 

[Blue Armour 4,439]

11 minutes ago, Vesper said:

we need a 4th winger

said it since the end of last season when we knew Willian an dPedro were leaving

Havertz is not a winger, he is wasted there

same for Werner

Mount is not a winger

nor is Faustino Anjorin

Have a feeling that Lampard intended Werner to be our 4th winger.

If you think about it, rotating between CHO/Ziyech/Pulisic/Werner especially when you can accommodate Tammy/Giroud/Werner in CF, and have Havertz as a spare,....that's not bad at all.

Its just our freaky luck that all 3 of CHO, Ziyech and Pulisic became injured simultaneously. Can't make this up. Especially with CHO, who has been relatively unused this season. Best chance for him to start a few games, and he's out.

 

That being said, we are fucked if Pulisic is not available for the Wolves game.

[communicate 2,703]

1 hour ago, Laylabelle said:

But with their injuries so far.. Liverpool have been fine. May change as it goes on but still just one random loss..

 

To some degree you are right, but they probably won't finish with 99 or 97 points. 

[communicate 2,703]

1 hour ago, Hutcho said:

We played a game with no out and out wingers because of injuries.
We have a team with basically 6 new starters without a preseason. These things take a lot of time to gel and we've seen glimpses of it. But we have depth in some positions but not the position we seem to keep getting the injuries.

I believe the squad is good enough to win the prem but this season has come a bit too soon.

Injuries suck, but right now we are ridiculously deep with crazy variety in the team. No winger, we just happen to have two very good wb who has winger skill. 

[communicate 2,703]

2 hours ago, Jason said:

After 12 Premier League games:

2019/20:
W - 8
D - 2
L - 2
Pts - 26
Pos. - 3rd

2020/21:
W - 6
D - 4
L - 2
Pts - 22
Pos. - 3rd (could be overtaken on Sunday)

Wow, did we really have more points last year? 

[Vesper 30,182]

9 minutes ago, Blue Armour said:

Have a feeling that Lampard intended Werner to be our 4th winger.

If you think about it, rotating between CHO/Ziyech/Pulisic/Werner especially when you can accommodate Tammy/Giroud/Werner in CF, and have Havertz as a spare,....that's not bad at all.

Its just our freaky luck that all 3 of CHO, Ziyech and Pulisic became injured simultaneously. Can't make this up. Especially with CHO, who has been relatively unused this season. Best chance for him to start a few games, and he's out.

 

That being said, we are fucked if Pulisic is not available for the Wolves game.

all of these could be had for less than 40m quid a pop

 

Hirving Lozano

Gabriel Veron

Leon Bailey

Silas Wamangituka (has scored a brace in back to back games, including destroying Dortmund) 21yo, 1.89m, strong as a bull, super pacey, huge upside

Ousmane Dembélé (Barca is saying 40m euros takes him)

Moussa Diaby

Jesús Corona

Ismaïla Sarr (as long as Watford do not get promoted)

Riccardo Orsolini

Jens Petter Hauge (7 goals, 3 assists for AC Milan, in only 639 minutes)

Samu Chukwueze

Jérémy Doku

 

 

[NikkiCFC 8,324]

Everything we produced today came after set pieces. And it is not the first time. Yes all 3 players upfront were horrible but they did not had any chances.

Our three number 8 players Kova, Kai and Mount this season in the PL after 1/3 season have 2 goals and 2 assists (if you take away Mount two corners). And all came against shit sides. Mount scored against WBA, Kai against Southampton, Kai assist WBA, Kova - SU.

McGinn, Klich, Harrison, Bowen, Ward Prowse alone have better numbers. Foden and Barkley are almost there. Soucek scored more goals than our 3 number 8s. Not to mention players like KDB, Bruno and Grealish... Havertz for his price tag is the player you would expect to step up and all of his 3 assists came from the middle so playing him wide is not helping. Zieych is our only creative player. Mount is great from set pieces only. He should already have 6 or 7 goals but missing too many chances. Last season he started very well with 4 goals in his first 8 games for Chelsea but after that just 5 in 63 (and one is free kick, one is DDG howler).

Kova is lost case in the final 3rd for years. You would expect Frank will teach them how to score from MF area but this is not happening. Once Ziyech and Puli are out we are in big trouble in terms of creating. And also about goals Werner is now 7 games without a goal and are we going to put all hopes in Giroud scoring every game? Because it is not going to happen either. Zouma is our best goalscorer in the PL with Timo ffs... 

 

 

[Superblue 6,372]

1 hour ago, Vesper said:

all of these could be had for less than 40m quid a pop

 

Hirving Lozano

Gabriel Veron

Leon Bailey

Silas Wamangituka (has scored a brace in back to back games, including destroying Dortmund) 21yo, 1.89m, strong as a bull, super pacey, huge upside

Ousmane Dembélé (Barca is saying 40m euros takes him)

Moussa Diaby

Jesús Corona

Ismaïla Sarr (as long as Watford do not get promoted)

Riccardo Orsolini

Jens Petter Hauge (7 goals, 3 assists for AC Milan, in only 639 minutes)

Samu Chukwueze

Jérémy Doku

 

 

I don't like the idea of keep throwing (big) money at essentially squad players. It's left us in a mess before and when everyone is fit the likes of the above would be struggling for game time whilst also potentially restricting someone else's chances. We need to keep following the recruitment plan we have been with much more specific acquisitions who are looking to improve our starting XI, not just another squad option from the bench.

Neither of the three look like being out long term and hopefully worst case is we're without some or all for Wolves and West Ham.

Surely there's an option within the reserves or academy that Lampard could bring up for these couple of games for the bench and at least then present us with an option that could be turned to if the game wasn't working out? Today we were crying out for someone to provide us some width and run at the full backs. Hopefully Lampard can monitor this before the Wolves game, he had no qualms throwing Gilmour on last season and put Lamptey on against Arsenal. 

[Vesper 30,182]

6 minutes ago, Superblue_1986 said:

Surely there's an option within the reserves or academy that Lampard could bring up for these couple of games for the bench and at least then present us with an option that could be turned to if the game wasn't working out?

nope

no wingers on the first team U23 squad

on the U18 there are these

[NikkiCFC 8,324]

2 minutes ago, Vesper said:

nope

no wingers on the first team U23 squad

 

Musonda is still here but not registered and probably not fit. And probably shit.

[Vesper 30,182]

3 minutes ago, NikkiCFC said:

Musonda is still here but not registered and probably not fit. And probably shit.

Charly Musonda Jr Jets Into Zambia, Visits President Rupiah Banda

http://www.zambianfootball.news/charly-musonda-jr-jets-into-zambia-visits-president-rupiah-banda/

Legendary Charles Musonda and his son Charly Musonda last week met Former Republican President Rupiah Banda at his retirement home.

Musonda is in Zambia after attending to some rehab in Dubai following his injury that has threatened his career.

 

[Vesper 30,182]

4 hours ago, Laylabelle said:

But with their injuries so far.. Liverpool have been fine. May change as it goes on but still just one random loss..

 

more than one

Alisson still out with a bad hip injury

VVD done for the season probably

Joe Gomez done for the season

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain still injured, has not played since last season. He produced 10 goals (8 goals and 2 assists) in half a season's minutes last year, so not exactly unproductive when he does play.

and now this

Liverpool sweating over the fitness of striker Diego Jota following knee injury

https://www.independent.ie/sport/soccer/premier-league/liverpool/liverpool-sweating-over-the-fitness-of-striker-diego-jota-following-knee-injury-39855150.html

Liverpool are waiting to discover the extent of a knee injury suffered by Diogo Jota.

The Portuguese forward has been in stunning form for Liverpool since signing for the club from Wolves last summer, firing nine goals in 17 appearances so far.

Yet he will miss Sunday's game at Fulham due to a knee problem, with club medical staff waiting on the results of further tests before discovering the extent of the problem.

Klopp described Jota's injury as 'a knock' in his latest press conference and club officials remain hopeful that he does not require an extended period on the sidelines.

His injury will raise question marks over Klopp's decision to pick the striker for Wednesday night's Champions League game against Midtjylland, even though the club had already secured their place in the knock-out stages of the competition prior to kick-off.

"You can make changes but you need a few key positions," declared Klopp as he explained his decision to play big names in Denmark.

"That's why Fabinho played and the decision for Mo, who looked fine and that's why we didn't take him off. He had no issues."

Jota's absence in the hectic month of December would be another hammer blow to Klopp, who is already trying to navigate his way through a challenging season littered with high-profile injuries.

The issues inspired former Liverpool midfielder Steve McManaman to suggest Liverpool need to sign defenders in next month's transfer window.

"They need to do something about the central defensive area in January, that’s clear,” said McManaman. "They let (Dejan) Lovren go last summer and never replaced him. What you don’t expect is to get two or three injuries in that position.

“I don’t know what the finances are at Liverpool, but if you are asking me whether I would bring somebody in during the next transfer window if I had the money to buy a good centre-half, the answer is yes.

"If Joe Gomez is out for a significant amount of time and Virgil van Dijk is as well, you have to look at it."

[Vesper 30,182]

25 minutes ago, NikkiCFC said:

Musonda is still here but not registered and probably not fit. And probably shit.

I would say his career is hanging by a thread, and he certainly is not Chels level

plus he is not even eligible to play atm, like you stated

[DDA 9,941]

5 hours ago, Hutcho said:

Such an over reaction to 1 game.

This place is crazy.

Not an overreaction whatsoever. Not even in the slightest. I have kept my mouth shut watching Werner playing LW week in, week out since he joined us. The whole point of buying him was because our strikers last season couldn't finish their dinner on a consistent basis. I get it, the idea of Tammy or Giroud upto with Werner on the wing sounds good but what we are seeing is a mess on my opinion. We need to at least give him a run in the ST position and see that lethal striker we saw in Germany. 

[Vesper 30,182]

5 hours ago, killer1257 said:

Both giroud and werner were horrible today

Gesendet von meinem VOG-L29 mit Tapatalk
 

and Tammy too

[chelsea_4_eva 1,182]

I thought today everyone was horrible bar James. What is it with Goodison...

[cosmicway 1,333]

I was expecting this. Momentum lost.

[Jase 43,479]

5 hours ago, communicate said:

Wow, did we really have more points last year? 

Yes, although things started to go downhill from the 13th game onward last season.