Welcome Mauricio Pochettino

[Reddish-Blue 2,347]

2 hours ago, Thor said:

You're not going to tell me this team is worse talent and skill wise than some of the teams we've had over the last 10 years. And we were still finishing top 4 with those. 

If everything was about "talent", then some of our previous squads under Mourinho, Conte and others wouldn't have won league titles. 

You mention Costa and Willian and they ended up being two very solid signings.  Compare that to Mudryk/Madueke and some of these other signings and I still don't know why we bought them.  Costa wasn't a project that we had to develop, he came ready and showed everyone what he could do, scored 20 goals in his first season of PL football. 

2 hours ago, Thor said:

Look at our starting lineup for the 2021 CL final and I dare you to tell me it is far and away more talented than what we have now. Hint - it isn't. 

I agree that it isn't more talented but in saying that, we had far more experience where it mattered in that 2021 CL final.  Jorginho, Kante, Rudiger, Christensen off the bench, Alonso on the bench.  

Compare that CL lineup and look at our current lineup, other than Silva/Chilwell/Sterling/Reece/Enzo, who actually has the experience of being in finals and going through those tough periods?   

Jackson, Palmer, Caicedo, Lavia, Madueke, Mudryk, Colwill, Broja.....are all effectively talented U-23 kids, bright future for sure but will they step-up when it matters, do they have a Lampard/Terry/Essien/Drogba etc to lead by example.

[Special Juan 27,424]

I'm still sat here patiently waiting like everyone keeps saying to do, for this fucking Mudryk to start looking like he can tie his laces never mind looking like a footballer. This guy will be sent on loan next summer I can see it coming 

[YorkshireBlue 3,122]

1 hour ago, chelsea_4_eva said:

To me playing 3atb when our best RWB Reece is, out makes no sense. When playing 3atb with Reece and Chilwell bombing forward makes sense as they present attacking threat. Try a flat 4 and add an attacker because god knows we need more firepower up front. No more Chilwell at LW please.

We aren't playing 3 at the back Saturdays formation was 

 

                                 Sanchez 

Gusto        diassi                  Silva.          Colwil 

                      Conor          Caicedo 

Sterling.                   Enzo.                    Chilwel 

                               Jackson 

[Fernando 6,457]

28 minutes ago, YorkshireBlue said:

We aren't playing 3 at the back Saturdays formation was 

 

                                 Sanchez 

Gusto        diassi                  Silva.          Colwil 

                      Conor          Caicedo 

Sterling.                   Enzo.                    Chilwel 

                               Jackson 

Chillwell as a winger is dumb. Hope he don't continue with that. 

[Mhsc 876]

42 minutes ago, YorkshireBlue said:

We aren't playing 3 at the back Saturdays formation was 

 

                                 Sanchez 

Gusto        diassi                  Silva.          Colwil 

                      Conor          Caicedo 

Sterling.                   Enzo.                    Chilwel 

                               Jackson 

Yep. Imagine you magically transform all of these guys to their peak form and it is still just Sterling and Jackson that might get us goals regularly. Madness to put all our hopes on 2 players every game. Being generous maybe we have 2-3 players who are dangerous at heading in set piece situations as well.

Over a season if this lineup played every game maybe we would have an xG of ~2.5 and convert ~1 per game. It is like a team selection for an away day at City where you've decided you want to sneak a point.

I honestly don't think the tactical setup is the problem, we're using pretty much exactly the same system tonnes of really good attacking teams use but they don't put out a lineup with ~8 players who's best attributes are defensive / work horse related and just assume that a good tactical system will turn into scoring loads of goals.

The tactical setup / strategic setup lets us control the game and deliver players to dangerous positions with support around them, but it is not much use if the players themselves when in those positions are not dangerous attacking players who can utilise the opportunity. 

Edited September 4, 2023 by Mhsc

[Reddish-Blue 2,347]

8 hours ago, YorkshireBlue said:

We aren't playing 3 at the back Saturdays formation was 

 

                                 Sanchez 

Gusto        diassi                  Silva.          Colwil 

                      Conor          Caicedo 

Sterling.                   Enzo.                    Chilwel 

                               Jackson 

Such a stupid formation, Forest must have been delighted to show up at Stamford Bridge and see Poch using a LB as a pure winger and also see a CB being asked to play LB, fits into their counter attacking style perfectly. 

[Thor 2,392]

On 04/09/2023 at 22:41, YorkshireBlue said:

We aren't playing 3 at the back Saturdays formation was 

 

                                 Sanchez 

Gusto        diassi                  Silva.          Colwil 

                      Conor          Caicedo 

Sterling.                   Enzo.                    Chilwel 

                               Jackson 

Should be this going forward: 

 

                               Sanchez 

Gusto        diassi              Colwill        Chilwell 

                      Enzo          Caicedo 

Sterling.                   Palmer                    Mudryk

                               Jackson 

[Vesper 28,801]

Chelsea have a hugely talented investment portfolio. Now they need a football team

https://theathletic.com/4827934/2023/09/04/Chelsea-transfer-spending-squad/

As Nicolas Jackson’s lunging finish looped almost impossibly over the crossbar in the 83rd minute, the raucous Nottingham Forest supporters in Stamford Bridge’s Shed End burnished their gleeful jeer with the chant that had become the soundtrack to a deeply frustrating afternoon for Chelsea.

“What a waste of money.”

The boos that rippled around the home support at the final whistle when Forest’s 1-0 victory was confirmed were an understandable response to a performance that echoed Chelsea’s worst travails at home last season: slow possession stifled by a deep-lying opponent following a smart but simple plan, rare good chances wasted and an unforced error ruthlessly punished to turn a draw into a defeat.

Forest did nothing unexpected to claim their first win at Stamford Bridge since 1995, but the fact that they succeeded should reinforce what might be an uncomfortable truth for those in charge of Chelsea’s insatiable recruitment operation: outspending everyone else in the transfer market offers absolutely zero guarantees of winning consistently in the Premier League, at least in the short term.

Lost amid the fanfare that surrounds massive transfer fees, hijacked deals and glitzy social media announcements is the reality that, with the exception of one or two promoted clubs, the talent advantage enjoyed by the richest Premier League clubs over the rest in England’s top flight is actually pretty marginal.

GO DEEPER

Premier League transfer window: The good and the bad for each club

There was compelling evidence of this across the pitch on Saturday at Stamford Bridge. Chelsea academy graduate Ola Aina, now 26, has never commanded an eight-figure transfer fee in his professional career. But he is an excellent one-v-one defender, more than capable of shutting down Raheem Sterling when mentally locked in.

Catch him on the right day and Anthony Elanga, the product of another elite Premier League academy (Manchester United) and with Champions League goals to his name, has more than enough ability to have a greater impact in the final third than Noni Madueke and Mykhailo Mudryk.

It also manifests in other ways. Brighton and Hove Albion had eight players at the last World Cup. West Ham had starters for England, Brazil, Germany and surprise semi-finalists Morocco. One day after completing a £30million deal for Ibrahim Sangare, a key midfielder from last season’s Eredivisie runners-up PSV, Forest were able to withdraw the tiring Aina and Serge Aurier in the second half at Stamford Bridge and introduce Gonzalo Montiel, the man who scored the winning penalty in the final shootout in Qatar.

Premier League clubs committed more than double the sums spent on transfer fees by the PIF-bankrolled Saudi Pro League in England’s summer transfer window. This competition is by far the closest thing football has to a Super League, and the talent level across the board has never been higher.

GO DEEPER

Premier League spending reaches almost $3billion - and the excess will only increase

Beneath the headlines that Chelsea seized when breaking the British transfer record twice in consecutive windows to acquire Enzo Fernandez and Moises Caicedo, all they were really buying on an individual level was a relatively marginal talent edge over most of their direct opponents on a weekly basis.

That alone does not yield much of a margin for error. Caicedo’s loose touch that initiated the sequence directly leading to Elanga’s winner was not befitting of a £115million midfielder, because £115m is an arbitrary price that Chelsea decided to pay in order to avoid losing him to Liverpool. It provides very little by way of insurance against a moment of hesitation or misreading of Conor Gallagher’s intentions, particularly when the two have been team-mates for less than three weeks.

Only when these highly skilled individuals are put together in a stable environment and coherent system that maximises their best qualities is a gulf created with rival sides that delivers consistent results. This is why Manchester City and Liverpool have been the gold standard for the last five years and it is why every top modern coach, Mauricio Pochettino included, is so fond of talking about ‘processes’.

No amount of transfer spending can skip the time needed for coaching, adaptation and development to run their course. This is not the Premier League of 2003, when Roman Abramovich’s deep pockets elevated Chelsea to perennial contender status almost overnight. Progress is a slower burn now, even more so when your recruitment strategy consists of assembling the youngest squad in the division.

Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital believe youth is underrated in football, but it is also by nature relatively untested. Jackson, despite frequently flashing elite talent, is not currently displaying the composure in front of goal that he will likely find with greater experience. Caicedo has the look of a superb midfielder feeling his way in a new team while saddled with a huge price tag.

The scale of Chelsea’s transfer spending over the past year has created external expectations that are impossible for this squad to meet right now, and the prevailing “£1billion spent” narrative cares nothing for the context of almost £300m raised through player sales, or the fact that most of the new signings are players aged 23 or younger regarded internally as investments rather than costs.

GO DEEPER

Chelsea's transfer window: Heavy spending, significant sales and bargain Jackson

West Ham and Forest have already beaten Chelsea in familiar fashion. There will be more days like these, more symposiums of schadenfreude on social media, more gleeful chants of wasted money on miserable matchdays, as Pochettino’s shiny new team learns through its growing pains. The key question is whether the outside noise will be allowed to cause internal strife.

Boehly and Clearlake have utterly remade every aspect of Chelsea in the space of a little more than a year, driving a squad overhaul unprecedented in its speed and spend. For the last three months in particular, the club has been a transaction machine, buying and selling at a bewildering rate.

That is over now.

For the next four months, Chelsea have to become a football team that maximises the talent they have amassed, a cohesive squad of footballers as well as a human investment portfolio. That path will be far from painless, because winning in the Premier League is much more difficult than winning in the transfer market.

 

Edited September 6, 2023 by Vesper

[Vesper 28,801]

16-year-old Kiano Dyer now spotted in Mauricio Pochettino’s Chelsea first team training

https://www.thechelseachronicle.com/news/16-year-old-youngster-now-spotted-in-mauricio-pochettinos-Chelsea-first-team-training/

Chelsea youngster Kiano Dyer has been spotted as part of the first team squad training during the international break.

A video posted on the club’s Instagram page has seen the 16-year-old as part of the session being run by Mauricio Pochettino.

It has already been claimed that it was business as usual as far as Pochettino was concerned for the players who remained at Cobham over the next two weeks.

He was planning to remove days off that had been previously allowed for the players, as they look to climb up the table when domestic football returns.

However, it does seem as if the lack of first teamers has seen an opportunity present itself for some youngsters to be involved and get an experience of what it is like training with the best in the world.

Dyer spotted in training

One of these this time has been Dyer, who was born as late as November 2006. 

He has become a full-time scholar at the club this season after his move from West Brom.

 

It has not taken long for him to impress enough to be part of the young group who took part alongside the likes of Raheem Sterling and Romeo Lavia.

It has reportedly not all been good news on the training ground this week, with the Belgian being one of those who has potentially suffered a serious injury this week.

The club are waiting for the results of a scan after what could be a muscle tear for the youngster, which either way is likely to push his debut back a few more weeks.

more:

Teenage Kicks: Kiano Dyer

https://www.chelseafc.com/en/news/article/teenage-kicks-kiano-dyer

Edited September 9, 2023 by Vesper

[KEVINAA 95]

Gary Neville YT Channel - The Overlap

Just uploaded a few minutes ago.

How Pochettino is fixing Chelsea.

 

 

[dimmas 126]

Double post

Edited September 17, 2023 by dimmas
Double post

[dimmas 126]

I don't understand what Pochettino is trying to do with Enzo since he has moved Enzo's position and role in the last 2-3 matches. It has made Enzo's and everyone's performance much worse.

Having an idea or offering a different solution is one thing, but while continually seeing that it doesn't work at all and not providing enough support to make it work, and insisting on it, is like asking for trouble.

Right now, Enzo is playing in a really high or too advanced position, which only makes him play in a strange way. He plays like he's chasing shadows, appears insignificant, isolated, and also doesn't receive enough runs or any other necessary support around him.

And after all this midfielder buying, our best midfield performance still occurs when we play Enzo-Gallagher in the pivot.

This doesn't necessarily mean Ugo played poorly today; actually, for me, he is decent and playing quite well. But it seems so bizarre and very unfortunate after we acquired Caicedo, Ugo, and Lavia. Pochettino actually seems to have a different (or weird) idea about how he sets up our team, and for now, it seems to make our midfield play much worse, despite spending around 170-200 million in total to get those three midfielders.

[xPetrCechx 13,563]

Why he changed our formation from the pre-season games?! too much Defensive.

 

[Sir Mikel OBE 4,919]

4 minutes ago, xPetrCechx said:

Why he changed our formation from the pre-season games?! too much Defensive.

 

That formation has been dead ever since Nkunku got inured tbh. There's something about missing him that has poch spooked, and I think its because he was relying on him.

 

Folks were going crazy over Jackson during the preseason but those with a keen eye could see the true star of the show was Nkunku.

[robsblubot 3,504]

11 minutes ago, dimmas said:

I don't understand what Pochettino is trying to do with Enzo since he has moved Enzo's position and role in the last 2-3 matches. It has made Enzo's and everyone's performance much worse.

Having an idea or offering a different solution is one thing, but while continually seeing that it doesn't work at all and not providing enough support to make it work, and insisting on it, is like asking for trouble.

Right now, Enzo is playing in a really high or too advanced position, which only makes him play in a strange way. He plays like he's chasing shadows, appears insignificant, isolated, and also doesn't receive enough runs or any other necessary support around him.

And after all this midfielder buying, our best midfield performance still occurs when we play Enzo-Gallagher in the pivot.

This doesn't necessarily mean Ugo played poorly today; actually, for me, he is decent and playing quite well. But it seems so bizarre and very unfortunate after we acquired Caicedo, Ugo, and Lavia. Pochettino actually seems to have a different (or weird) idea about how he sets up our team, and for now, it seems to make our midfield play much worse, despite spending around 170-200 million in total to get those three midfielders.

@OneMoSalahcommented on that on a diff thread (game thread?).

The squad is extremely unbalanced. There are a lot of CMs most on the defensive side and few capable of going forward.
I agree that it's the wrong thing to do; you don't touch your best player, but move and adjust everyone around him.

He's prob desperate given the lack of options up front.

We ask for Palmer and he looked raw which is understandable... because he is.

[Costa19 858]

 

And go next.  

Next one cant be as bad anyway so whats the point of keeping him?

Thanks for the 1-2 games in pre season and close the door on your way out. 

 

[Mário César 975]

our biggest problem is todd, tbh 

[Blue Armour 4,278]

Blaming Pochettino is so short sighted. Maybe he can do better.

But in less than two years we have gone from a top 4 team to below midtable.

That's not down to Poch.