Chelsea 1-4 Celtic

[cosmicway 1,326]

As cited by Football London, Maresca said: “For us, we need to analyse the game in general. I think on the ball, the team were 10 times better than in the game against Wrexham and that is important because we can see the amount of chances we created first-half and second-half.

Jesvs Cristvs
 

 

[Strike 7,217]

5 minutes ago, cosmicway said:

As cited by Football London, Maresca said: “For us, we need to analyse the game in general. I think on the ball, the team were 10 times better than in the game against Wrexham and that is important because we can see the amount of chances we created first-half and second-half.

Jesvs Cristvs
 

 

He’s right and I’m not gonna worry until we have squad back + Maresca has got time to adapt 

There are too many passengers right now 

[Wfisheruk 22]

8 hours ago, OneMoSalah said:

One of the worst pre-season performances I have seen as a Chelsea fan. Dreadful.

Yes again some will say pre season is only pre season, results don’t matter and what not but fuck me if Maresca cannot see after these 2 games that it isn’t working having Reece tucking into centre midfield then he will be out of a job by Christmas and deservedly so.

And the defence? What the fuck are they coaching them to do? 2 goals v Wrexham and 4 v Celtic. And multiple chances for more goals against us in both games. Shocking. Thats with Fofana, Badiashile, Levi, Tosin etc guys who are established at a certsin level. Selling Trevor and intending on replacing Silva with Tosin was always gonna be a risk. 2 pre season games and its already looking like a disastrous decision. 

I will say it now, irrespective of how many players we sign we will not finish 6th this season barring a miracle. Never mind higher. Reckon we will be looking for a new manager come the summer simple as that. 

Grow up! Are you 12yrs old I live 10 mins away and Been going sense I was 9 years old!  Trust me you don’t know the bad times lol 😂!go and support someone else it ain’t hard ! Lol 😂 ..and thats going for everyone else on here who’s started supporting us from 2003! Lol 😂 

Edited July 28 by Wfisheruk

[robsblubot 3,508]

This system's main way of defending is by keeping possession and then closing down as soon as you lose it. It's way less about that last-ditch tackle that prevents a goal, or strike. It's a different philosophy, which is the reason it's not going to be that quick or easy to implement.

[Mhsc 877]

1 minute ago, robsblubot said:

This system's main way of defending is by keeping possession and then closing down as soon as you lose it. It's way less about that last-ditch tackle that prevents a goal, or strike. It's a different philosophy, which is the reason it's not going to be that quick or easy to implement.

Exactly. The reality is the team needs time to learn the system. And it is likely we will be missing a player or two (GK for sure) for the system. It is an inevitable consequence of changing manager all the time - but also a consequence of choosing Poch and before that Lampard who both have basically the complete opposite approach to football, where the game is more about individual talent, passion and thriving in chaos.

The problem of course is the club have just appointed a manager who could take us to new heights, if we are patient and let him cook, but only after exhausting all of the slack they had as new owners. There is no patience left in most of the fanbase.

I still think it is the right move to take up a positional play system, as you mentioned in another thread - we simply have no hope of competing at top of PL again otherwise, and when the team start to get the hang of it we should concede very few goals, and experience fewer injuries. We should have a strong control over most games and through tedious repeatable means see games through to lots of wins and draws and few losses. The games will be kind of boring. But this is 2024 football reality if you want to compete and win eventually. It is just a shame they didn't start the journey 1-2 years ago, which is entirely on them.

[Mhsc 877]

9 hours ago, Superblue said:

 

However, I am concerned with what I've seen so far with the inverted full back into midfield tactic. Certainly in Reece's situation, I'm sure given a bit of time he could fulfil the role to a pretty strong standard. However in Reece and Gusto, we have arguably the most complete right back in the league when fit, and a top 5 right back in the league backing him up. Both play both ends of the pitch to a high standard and are a strength in our team. Playing them essentially out of position seems such a waste. If Maresca is adamant with this set up then it has to be off the left hand side where Cucurella proved he can play that role at the end of last season, and we've bought a deputy for him that has seemingly been purchased for that same role too. Even if it means Reece/Gusto tucking into a back 3, it's a much better fit and surely provides them the opportunity still to push on when the time is right as the spare defender.

I am also worried where Palmer fits into this setup. If he's our right winger we are not getting the same output compared to last season if he's expected to play so wide in this system. Unless he is given more freedom like Sarri decided he had to do with Hazard then we may be clipping the wings of our best attacker. If he's earmarked to play centrally then it's another player to add to a what looks like becoming a saturated position, and leaves Madueke with a free run at the right wing position, who whilst I think can play a role of a good squad player, for me isn't good enough to be a first choice player.

Maresca is paid the big bucks for a reason, and hopefully this summer can find solutions before results start to matter.

All fair concerns honestly. However I do think in Reece's case a career move to being an inverted fullback is the only hope he has left of being a top player. He will never stay fit as an attacking full back and RCB will not get the best out of him imo. If he is going to be a top player again I can see it mostly in the form of inverting into the pivot and getting forward for shots and getting into the right channel to do some crosses into the box (like Azpi used to do to great effect onto Morata's head for example). As an RCB I think he would have too many lapses in concentration and he'd pretty much never get into positions to do damage for us in attack but obviously would be interested to see it given a try.

Personally for Palmer I would imagine he will play as an 8 but swap around with the winger regularly to drag players around and create openings. But who knows. Maresca will have so many options to put the team together in different setups.

[King Tunechi 0]

Enzo maresca already is moving like a manager that expects to loose some games and is not pissed when we loose 😡 People are trying to take the cool aid and say it’s only a pre season friendly, Well Bayern won 14 - 1 ! And we lost 4 - 1 . Very embarrassing result, Badieshile should now be our 5th option in defence! As far as I’m concerned Trev and disasi should be our pairing against man city come the first game of the season. I really wish this can be a wake up call for Enzo to keep the 4 at the back defensive shape that let’s Reece and gusto be key players in our team because that really is one of the most talented position in our team in terms of personnel. Also wish he can go back to 2 midfielders sitting in front of the defense instead of just one. And that crap he did having a CB run up the pitch should never be set eyes upon again! Noni had a bad games because the formation didn’t let him express himself Same goes for Chukwuemeka. Mudryk is not a good player, waste of money. Sterling is selfish, and Sanchez should be our 3rd choice keeper 

[milka 3,347]

The selection is tragic - mediocre players and unknown children. You remain without your leader Silva, you get rid of your best defender Chaloba for pound notes after that mess you made it blowling 1bn for nothing every decision  you made are out on any logic and footballing brain take us championship level manager and expect this to work yes on finicial level will work but on the pitch we are shit .

[Gundalf 804]

What a shame. Everone knows how important preseason games are. Last year we had a phenomenal preseason with Poch and went on winning the league bc of that.....oh wait.....

[OneMoSalah 8,778]

2 hours ago, Wfisheruk said:

Grow up! Are you 12yrs old I live 10 mins away and Been going sense I was 9 years old!  Trust me you don’t know the bad times lol 😂!go and support someone else it ain’t hard ! Lol 😂 ..and thats going for everyone else on here who’s started supporting us from 2003! Lol 😂 

Do you want a medal pal? Can’t remember anyone asking? Bellend.

[Laylabelle 9,359]

9 hours ago, Thor said:

Why would you not expect us to be near top 4 this season? We were one bad call against Villa from being top 4 last season.

Do you think we've gotten worse? 

From the last two performances yes...know its early days but 6 goals conceded and with Leicester it was worrying how they lost 6 games out of 10 and went from comfy to struggle at the top. Can't play this way in the league all over the place

Hopefully some signs of something in the next one..

 

 

[Wfisheruk 22]

56 minutes ago, milka said:

The selection is tragic - mediocre players and unknown children. You remain without your leader Silva, you get rid of your best defender Chaloba for pound notes after that mess you made it blowling 1bn for nothing every decision  you made are out on any logic and footballing brain take us championship level manager and expect this to work yes on finicial level will work but on the pitch we are shit .

Grow up! All you do is moan! You’re probably in his early 20s and don’t even tho the meaning of being bad! Go and support someone else and bore them,or even better go out and play with your friends before the summer holidays finish and school is back..😂

Edited July 28 by Wfisheruk

[Wfisheruk 22]

1 hour ago, OneMoSalah said:

Do you want a medal pal? Can’t remember anyone asking? 

Edited July 28 by Wfisheruk

[Reddish-Blue 2,347]

50 minutes ago, Laylabelle said:

From the last two performances yes...know its early days but 6 goals conceded

Considering none of our starting midfield is there for pre-season and our best attacking weapon is on holidays, it's not all bad. 

The concern is that we had a chance to solve the defensive issues and fill the T.Silva role with a proper leader at the back but we chose to cheap out and go for Tosin/Veiga (who are nothing more than squad depth). 

[Reddish-Blue 2,347]

2 hours ago, Mhsc said:

However I do think in Reece's case a career move to being an inverted fullback is the only hope he has left of being a top player.

I feel like Reece at Wing back is a weapon and even if he does pick up injuries, that's his best position. 

All this talk of being inverted, I thought Cucurella had already shown decent signs last season of doing that pretty well on the left flank and that would actually give Reece freedom to roam the right flank and go for it. 

[YorkshireBlue 3,122]

Just now, Reddish-Blue said:

I feel like Reece at Wing back is a weapon and even if he does pick up injuries, that's his best position. 

All this talk of being inverted, I thought Cucurella had already shown decent signs last season of doing that pretty well on the left flank and that would actually give Reece freedom to roam the right flank and go for it. 

What's the point in having a weapon that you can't use? 

[Reddish-Blue 2,347]

3 minutes ago, YorkshireBlue said:

What's the point in having a weapon that you can't use? 

True but this is also the old round peg in a square hole theory. 

Just because someone played midfield for Wigan in the championship doesn't mean they'll be anywhere as effective at PL level against good midfielders. 

 

[Mhsc 877]

28 minutes ago, Reddish-Blue said:

I feel like Reece at Wing back is a weapon and even if he does pick up injuries, that's his best position. 

All this talk of being inverted, I thought Cucurella had already shown decent signs last season of doing that pretty well on the left flank and that would actually give Reece freedom to roam the right flank and go for it. 

 

22 minutes ago, Reddish-Blue said:

True but this is also the old round peg in a square hole theory. 

Just because someone played midfield for Wigan in the championship doesn't mean they'll be anywhere as effective at PL level against good midfielders. 

 

It is just a random tidbit of info to me that he played there at Wigan - who cares really. He is an incredibly good footballer, one of our best, and personally I think he has all the tools to play in that position to an extremely high level. I agree Cucu is good in this role too but personally I think Reece has a bigger ceiling in that position, but its great we have both as options (plus Veiga + Malo!)

While Reece is obviously a great crosser, personally I don't really see a lot of value in him pumping crosses into the box from RB these days - although it is great he can do that for us on set pieces where the defenders have got forward to be in the mix. It seems a lot more likely we'll score consistently from cut backs to feet than crosses onto heads - who do we even have that is a good header of the ball?