Chelsea 3-2 Newcastle

[bluesman2610 1,341]

20 hours ago, MoroccanBlue said:

Brighton and Newcastle. 

Not even close when you take in the last two or 3 years.. our players can’t stay fit

[MoroccanBlue 5,302]

3 hours ago, bluesman2610 said:

Not even close when you take in the last two or 3 years.. our players can’t stay fit

Blame coaching. 

[cosmicway 1,323]

Let's face it.
The players we brought the last three years, including the champions league year were not Chelsea level and things went from bad to worst.
The champions league team was not as good in the premier and from the foreigns teams we played only Real Madrid and City were premier league top ten level really.
Then we lost Rudiger and Kante and starting from August 2022 things are bleak.
The replacements of the old squad were the likes of Lukaku and Aubameyang and the great white hope Mount proved a flop - he 's gone.
Every single one of our present crop of players could do great in Italy, Portugal, Netherlands. Those are lower standard leagues (used to rule the world, now they are lower standard).
But the present squad are not Chelsea level.

[Tomo 21,733]

On 06/03/2024 at 10:08, Reddish-Blue said:

We lost Rudiger, Kante, Kovacic, Jorginho in 2-3 transfer windows and became mid-table

The simple fact is: we never replaced any of their qualities.    It was about spending big on "potential", go and get Lavia, Enzo, Caicedo for 300 million....yet none of them get anywhere near the midfield we had. 

The thing is most of our UCL squad people think we were mad to get rid of were playing for us in the first half of the 12th place season, the collapse before the world cup is as bad as anything we've seen since.

We may have fuked the rebuild (for me well too young and too fast) but if we hypothetically still had the bulk of that squad i don't think we'd be doing much better, especially without TT and Rudi, the former squeezed every last bit of juice out of that squad as a collective.

[robsblubot 3,504]

1 hour ago, Tomo said:

The thing is most of our UCL squad people think we were mad to get rid of were playing for us in the first half of the 12th place season, the collapse before the world cup is as bad as anything we've seen since.

We may have fuked the rebuild (for me well too young and too fast) but if we hypothetically still had the bulk of that squad i don't think we'd be doing much better, especially without TT and Rudi, the former squeezed every last bit of juice out of that squad as a collective.

That's true for most CL winners unless you are are talking about a team so superior to others that they manage to breeze through. And we saw what City x Inter looked like (don't think many Inter players would start for City).
I also think Tuchel had his issues losing the squad the way he did; for whatever reason, he could no longer convince the players to do the work needed. Some is unavoidable after winning big--there is a natural inflation of wages... and egos. 

I believe in potential vs form for both players and teams. I watched that team play extremely well for a very long time and winning very very big. Maybe Tuchel failed to tweak the system after the win; maybe the club failed to move 1-2 players and freshen up the squad as it is normally done (Pep does that every season). Likely it's all of the above. I just don't really see these players we lost as mediocre--suffice to see where they all play (the ones not semi-retired). * and we tend to talk about our starting XI and downplay what happened to our bench

Regarding the "rebuild" if one can call it that; every player you sign is a bet. The chance of coming through happens to be a bit higher when the player comes from Madrid, City, Liverpool, esp when the player has already seen playing time, and at the highest stage at that. What the club did only makes sense from a investment pov, a long-term take on the transfer market with little regards to building a competitive team.

[bigbluewillie 1,859]

2 hours ago, cosmicway said:

But the present squad are not Chelsea level.

And pray tell what is the level nowadays?

We are mid table squad at best, and there because of the players are Chelsea level.

 

[cosmicway 1,323]

1 hour ago, bigbluewillie said:

And pray tell what is the level nowadays?

We are mid table squad at best, and there because of the players are Chelsea level.

 

The level of 2008-2012.

[Special Juan 27,429]

Might watch from behind the sofa for this one, fancy this to be very comfortable for the Geordies.

Plus, if we go 1-0 down the crowd will tun on Poch after his 'me v them' comments he keeps coming out with, the fans have had enough of him

[lucio 5,418]

10 minutes ago, Special Juan said:

Might watch from behind the sofa for this one, fancy this to be very comfortable for the Geordies.

Plus, if we go 1-0 down the crowd will tun on Poch after his 'me v them' comments he keeps coming out with, the fans have had enough of him

We won’t trouble them 

[Laylabelle 9,359]

3 hours ago, Special Juan said:

Might watch from behind the sofa for this one, fancy this to be very comfortable for the Geordies.

Plus, if we go 1-0 down the crowd will tun on Poch after his 'me v them' comments he keeps coming out with, the fans have had enough of him

Hopefully not as comfortable as last time

[Billy. 2,742]

We must score first and at least 4 before HT, because after a Poch HT talk we come out 100% worse and seem to give up

 

Joking aside I just cannot see a win tonight, Draw at best 

[TheHulk 1,858]

Good chance Newcastle keep a clean sheet.

[TheHulk 1,858]

 

[Vytis33 1,142]

 

[DH1988 1,273]

Trev starting on the LCB 

[DH1988 1,273]

Thought Gallagher was reported as ill, cue the post game excuse, no other fit midfielders etc etc etc 

[TheHulk 1,858]

 

[nyikolajevics 2,577]

5 minutes ago, TheHulk said:

 

Chalobah, Disasi and Cucurella in same defense is scary, and not for Newcastle. Let’s see, hope for a positive result.
 

Who is this Archeapong guy? Quite interesting that Poch filling the bench with always different youngsters. Beginning of season was Matos, then Castlesine and Golding, after that the Finnish kid sat around.. Wonder how that could work.