Man City 1-1 Chelsea

[Strike 7,491]

3 minutes ago, Magic Lamps said:

Good. What’s the latest on Salah? 

Returning this weekend unfortunately

[Laylabelle 9,535]

28 minutes ago, Strike said:

Returning this weekend unfortunately

Ah great. Mean they were very comfy without him..fun

[Thor 2,715]

5 hours ago, robsblubot said:

Not changed much?! 🙂 

How does that work? You listed 3 out of 11 (not counting bench which also changed and drastically! include both goalies!) who stayed. Out of the 3, one FB is perm-injured and the other was unfit for most of the season. Then you have Thiago, who is older and past his usefulness at an elite club.

The rest is just personal preference and completely ignoring player characteristics and experience. For me, Mount and Harverts are way better than what we have... esp bench wise. Mudryk wouldn't sit on the bench for that team. Puli and Werner are starting for teams who are better than us. Jorgi is older and IMO is still WAY better than Caicedo (he can pass the ball for ex). Kova way better than any mid we have. All these players you listed play for teams who play better than we do and sit way above us in the standings.

So, yes, for me the team does not even resemble the team that won the CL. Not only in quality, but also in characteristics. It's a very poor roster, and the results only demonstrate that.

Mount and Havertz are better than what we have? They haven't done anything since leaving - and we often complained when they were here. Jackson has matched his goal tally in about half the games, all while we've been a considerably worse team performance wise...

By not changed much - I mean we've either stayed the same, or gotten more talented in areas. 

 

What you fail to mention is all those players you claim were better were also here when we suddenly slipped to 12th the year before... So what happened? They just became shite overnight? 

[robsblubot 3,595]

22 minutes ago, Thor said:

Mount and Havertz are better than what we have? They haven't done anything since leaving - and we often complained when they were here. Jackson has matched his goal tally in about half the games, all while we've been a considerably worse team performance wise...

By not changed much - I mean we've either stayed the same, or gotten more talented in areas. 

 

What you fail to mention is all those players you claim were better were also here when we suddenly slipped to 12th the year before... So what happened? They just became shite overnight? 

I have some ideas, but I don't think that's very important. If you follow football long enough you will see good players not "clicking" many times over... esp after winning big.

You keep going back to these two players, which is interesting. I will bite. First of all, they have accomplished more than all the players we've got with the exception of Sterling. Jackson can talk about Harvetz once he scores a CL final goal. Honestly I think Harvertz is the better footballer even if I don't think he's world class. Mount is injured, so it's like comparing any RB in the league to Reece atm.

My main problem with your argument, aside from the accomplishment part which IMO cannot be ignored, is that you only talk about the starting XI. Fuck I miss Loftus-cheek right now. I look at the bench and there is little quality available going forward.

[Thor 2,715]

1 hour ago, robsblubot said:

I have some ideas, but I don't think that's very important. If you follow football long enough you will see good players not "clicking" many times over... esp after winning big.

You keep going back to these two players, which is interesting. I will bite. First of all, they have accomplished more than all the players we've got with the exception of Sterling. Jackson can talk about Harvetz once he scores a CL final goal. Honestly I think Harvertz is the better footballer even if I don't think he's world class. Mount is injured, so it's like comparing any RB in the league to Reece atm.

My main problem with your argument, aside from the accomplishment part which IMO cannot be ignored, is that you only talk about the starting XI. Fuck I miss Loftus-cheek right now. I look at the bench and there is little quality available going forward.

So your first sentence indicates good players not clicking can only be the case after winning. These players coming in now and not clicking automatically means they aren't good... 

Enzo is a more accomplished player than just about any of those CL winning players by that merit. He is a world cup winner. Clearly - very, very good. A standout at the World Cup. 

Havertz scored the CL winning goal, and yes, average to subpar players score important goals. Look at Torres and what he did for us - to pretend he was anything but a letdown here would be ridiculous. Havertz received criticism his whole time here - and fairly - and he now struggles at Arsenal as well. Just because he scored an important goal doesn't mean he is better. Am I supposed to think Torres was equal to Diego Costa due to the relevance of his goals? 

Mount is injured? Cool. His stats never suggested world beater prior either. Sterling is comfortably a better player than him even with how meh he has been for us. Again Sterling and co didn't suddenly become bad players. Just like how our last lot didn't suddenly become bad 9 games in and slip from 1st that season all the way to 12th. There is more to it. 

The club would be absolutely foolish to sell any of Enzo, Caceido, Jackson or Nkunku. They are far more talented and dynamic than just about any player we've had bar Hazard and Kante recently.  

[robsblubot 3,595]

29 minutes ago, Thor said:

So your first sentence indicates good players not clicking can only be the case after winning. These players coming in now and not clicking automatically means they aren't good... 

Enzo is a more accomplished player than just about any of those CL winning players by that merit. He is a world cup winner. Clearly - very, very good. A standout at the World Cup. 

Havertz scored the CL winning goal, and yes, average to subpar players score important goals. Look at Torres and what he did for us - to pretend he was anything but a letdown here would be ridiculous. Havertz received criticism his whole time here - and fairly - and he now struggles at Arsenal as well. Just because he scored an important goal doesn't mean he is better. Am I supposed to think Torres was equal to Diego Costa due to the relevance of his goals? 

Mount is injured? Cool. His stats never suggested world beater prior either. Sterling is comfortably a better player than him even with how meh he has been for us. Again Sterling and co didn't suddenly become bad players. Just like how our last lot didn't suddenly become bad 9 games in and slip from 1st that season all the way to 12th. There is more to it. 

The club would be absolutely foolish to sell any of Enzo, Caceido, Jackson or Nkunku. They are far more talented and dynamic than just about any player we've had bar Hazard and Kante recently.  

Why do you think the players coming in are automatically better vs players who actually won the biggest trophy at club level is beyond me.

You used the word "automatically" implying that I'm the one assuming something, and in my mind it's the other way around: you are the one projecting and assuming relatively unknown players will become elite players for the elite club that Chelsea is. That's a lot of trust that I don't share esp considering the age of the players being scouted and signed.

I just disagree with the player analysis. "Dynamic" for me only covers one aspect of a player. Since you don't want to consider accomplishments, that leaves eyeballs then.

Enzo: IMO there is a good chance he won't stay here for long (what the club wants won't matter)
Jackson: there is really nothing special about... I really don't see what you see
Caicedo: there is really nothing special about... I really don't see what you see
Nkuku: looks like a very good player who has a worrying history of injuries

And once again, the one thing that recently changed in football is that we now have 5 subs. This means that the importance of the starting XI is much diminished. A couple of seasons back we had much better quality sitting on the bench IMO.
If we go into Madueke, Mudryk, Ugo, then the drop in quality becomes really obvious, to me at least.

[Blue Armour 4,443]

5 hours ago, Thor said:

 

What you fail to mention is all those players you claim were better were also here when we suddenly slipped to 12th the year before... So what happened? They just became shite overnight? 

I don't think so.

What I think happened is that the club hired shite management in Potter and afterwards a beaten down and less optimistic Lampard.

Took a top 4 team to new lows.

They've somewhat rectified matters by hiring a more reputable manager in Pochettino, but there's not much he can do with the current roster of players., in its current state.

Maybe our squad will improve next season (without notable departures), but it's all speculation at this point.

[Thor 2,715]

2 hours ago, Blue Armour said:

I don't think so.

What I think happened is that the club hired shite management in Potter and afterwards a beaten down and less optimistic Lampard.

Took a top 4 team to new lows.

They've somewhat rectified matters by hiring a more reputable manager in Pochettino, but there's not much he can do with the current roster of players., in its current state.

Maybe our squad will improve next season (without notable departures), but it's all speculation at this point.

This roster hasn't had any continuity of playing together - which is incredibly important. We have injuries upon injuries, upon injuries. 

This current state of players? Poch has done what? Enzo is a world cup winner - and has looked particularly average under Poch. Caceido looked amazing at Brighton and had Liverpool ready to pay 115 mil for him - now? Left alone on an island most games. 

robsblubot saying nothing special about Caceido when statistically he was one of the best midfielders in the world last season is hilarious. 

[robsblubot 3,595]

14 hours ago, Thor said:

This roster hasn't had any continuity of playing together - which is incredibly important. We have injuries upon injuries, upon injuries. 

This current state of players? Poch has done what? Enzo is a world cup winner - and has looked particularly average under Poch. Caceido looked amazing at Brighton and had Liverpool ready to pay 115 mil for him - now? Left alone on an island most games. 

robsblubot saying nothing special about Caceido when statistically he was one of the best midfielders in the world last season is hilarious. 

Sigh. If you think he’s one of the best mids in the world that’s hilarious indeed. Madrid is coming…. 😆 Once again I don’t give a shit about what Caicedo did at Brighton. Caicedo *NOW* is average at best for me. Future Caicedo, 2-3 years from now does not play -- this one does.

Chelsea requires footballers with different characteristics than Brighton. Our scouting is done differently, or used to be.

His amazing defending numbers at Brighton won’t translate here—thought that should be obvious by now. They are far more important to a team who defends and produces at lot of 50/50s than a team who keeps possession. 

going in circles here tho. 

Edited February 15, 2024 by robsblubot

[Seymop 90]

We got rid of a world class manager in Tuchel and then selected poorly in Potter and Lamps. We let a world class leader go in Rudiger — not done much since but for us he was our leader. Very poor transfer record — in recent windows we have never ended up with our supposed first choice , but in the end have settled in the most part for quantity over quality. Surely we have to give Poch longer to sort out the mess that in the most part he inherited. At this stage, who better would want the job ?? As for the City game, dump the obsession with possession — go for their throats and go down giving it a go !!

[Thor 2,715]

4 hours ago, robsblubot said:

His amazing defending numbers at Brighton won’t translate here—thought that should be obvious by now. They are far more important to a team who defends and produces at lot of 50/50s than a team who keeps possession. 

going in circles here tho. 

Brighton had more possession than us last season. Their team from last year had more than us this season too... He put up those numbers in a high possession team...

Edited February 15, 2024 by Thor

[TheHulk 2,463]

Make it competitive at least, the Liverpool match was embarassing.

[Vesper 30,195]

 

[Vesper 30,195]

 

[ZAPHOD2319 4,819]

 

[ZAPHOD2319 4,819]

 

[Special Juan 28,141]

Hospital FC

[DDA 9,941]

Personally, I'm starting to think our players are just a bunch of pussies. 

Twisted ankle? 

I've worked through worse in a physically demanding job and paid a tiny winie fraction of what these clowns are paid.

[MoroccanBlue 5,383]

The same "twisted ankle" that had Lavia out for 5 months...

[Fulham Broadway 17,319]

So thats Thiago, Badashielle,  James, Cucurella, Carney Chukwuemeka, Fofana, Ugochukwu and Lavia all thrown a sickie