Chelsea 1-2 Real Madrid

[Sir Mikel OBE 4,920]

Vinicius coming off.

 

Thank god

[LAM09 7,056]

24 minutes ago, King Kante said:

Noni and Lavia are the only ones that look completely clear on what they're meant to be doing. However, as a fan of Noni, I agree that he is the second best AM we have after Palmer in terms of impact in the final third - despite him not being great technically. 

I agree. Lavia seems a perfect fit for what Enzo is after.

19 minutes ago, Vytis33 said:

True.  But compared to Hazard or Pedro...or even Willian?   Yikes

We were aiming for titles back then. Different times, different expectations.

[Sir Mikel OBE 4,920]

Just now, LAM09 said:

I agree. Lavia seems a perfect fit for what Enzo is after.

We were aiming for titles back then. Different times, different expectations.

Willian was also constantly shit on. There were very few of us who were Willian fans😂

[Mhsc 1,097]

Mudryk so bad in 1v1s, only has one idea and its too predictable: cut inside and get a shot off, never take a man on the outside and then decide what to do after...

[NikkiCFC 8,324]

Real bench laughing at Noni...

[Vesper 30,190]

18 minutes ago, Mhsc said:

Mudryk so bad

you could have stopped there

[Sir Mikel OBE 4,920]

Just now, NikkiCFC said:

Real bench laughing at Noni...

They werent laughing when he scored on them 😂

[Vesper 30,190]

meh

[ZAPHOD2319 4,819]

The back line still needs sorting but the team as a whole are playing Maresca’s better

[LAM09 7,056]

24 minutes ago, Sir Mikel OBE said:

Willian was also constantly shit on. There were very few of us who were Willian fans😂

Aside from that season when he was seemingly the only attacker that turned up, I felt the same way. An incredible frustrating player.

Pedro still doing his thing in Serie A. He just has that eye for goal,

[NikkiCFC 8,324]

Well, most positive thing is no injuries on USA pre season. 

[Vesper 30,190]

5 minutes ago, LAM09 said:

Pedro still doing his thing in Serie A. He just has that eye for goal,

[Special Juan 28,141]

The cunts should be flying into Cobham doing everything they can to repair the damage they have done with Chalobah, because he is fucking way better than the likes of Badshit, Colwill and Disasi yet the cunt is sat rotting in London.

Heard Maresca saying we created a lot of chances, this is a theme again, nobody finishing them becasue again shouting it from the hills w need a fucking proper striker.

As for Mudryk, sell that useless cunt NOW

[Fulham Broadway 17,319]

Maresca will have to fine tune just how high up the pitch his defenders can play for 90 minutes, before hes dumped. 

It's one thing to play deeper; giving defenders time to "see, think, then move at speed" and another to play high; forcing defenders to "think at speed and move at speed and at the same time".

We have defenders that cant turn quick enough with the high line - Bada and Disaster shouldnt be there.

Whats the betting the club will be in the same situation in a years time ? Talking up another mediocre manager/season ?

[milka 3,393]

these  talents cant win one  game  this season mid table  will be reality at best but not worry Clownlake knows what doing we are cook we are top side with top players  top 4 is our 

[Mhsc 1,097]

19 minutes ago, Fulham Broadway said:

Maresca will have to fine tune just how high up the pitch his defenders can play for 90 minutes, before hes dumped. 

 

Yeah he said after the game that the line was way too high and that he was trying to coach it out of them, "a habit they have from last season"

Also in the press conf the other day he mentioned how due to the insane schedule travelling to/around the US and playing every 2 days that the only real training they've done is the 2 weeks before the tour with some players, since then mostly they've just had time for little video sessions to talk about ideas and not actually practice them on the pitch and so it is not really possible to improve the problems until they get back for the ~10 days they've got in Cobham before the first real game.

That means some of them (Caicedo, Enzo, all the ones who joined during the tour) have had at best light touch training on the field in the new strategy, and some video sessions.

I hate these intense preseason tours abroad tbh. If the club really want to be bold and do things differently they should be contrarian by being the only top club to give their managers a proper pre season, letting them spend it all at Cobham, and just play a friendly a week in the UK or something.

Matters a little less a couple of years into an established managers reign maybe but when you change manager every season it is really dumb to give them a shit preseason every year.

Edited August 7, 2024 by Mhsc

[Fulham Broadway 17,319]

2 minutes ago, Mhsc said:

a proper pre season, letting them spend it all at Cobham, and just play a friendly a week in the UK or something.

Thats how it used to be - a few domestic pre season games -the most exotic pre season might be against a Scottish team. Main aim of US friendlies is marketing.

The US pitches also very dry, something a lot of Euro teams not used to nowadays

[OneMoSalah 8,886]

Maresca will be gone by either Christmas or next summer. Simple as. Don’t care how your team plays if they defend this badly so often you’re always up against it. And its not improving with the shite we have got in that position. Simple as.

And Maresca saying its habits from the previous season then that sums his mentality up for me. The talk of things such as travelling, US tours etc, most big clubs do these tours now. What did he expect when he took the job? God forbid when the UEFA Conference League games kick off? And the other domestic cups too? If he’s coming with this nonsense then maybe the job is going to be too big for him.

Improvements on the ball in certain aspects but was the same under Lampard in his first pre-season. Conceding horrible goals left right and centre.

Inter coming up next before kicking off to City, be a really really bad start to the season coming if these 2 games go as I think they will. Pastings.

[Mhsc 1,097]

20 minutes ago, OneMoSalah said:

Maresca will be gone by either Christmas or next summer. Simple as. Don’t care how your team plays if they defend this badly so often you’re always up against it. And its not improving with the shite we have got in that position. Simple as.

And Maresca saying its habits from the previous season then that sums his mentality up for me. The talk of things such as travelling, US tours etc, most big clubs do these tours now. What did he expect when he took the job? God forbid when the UEFA Conference League games kick off? And the other domestic cups too? If he’s coming with this nonsense then maybe the job is going to be too big for him.

Improvements on the ball in certain aspects but was the same under Lampard in his first pre-season. Conceding horrible goals left right and centre.

Inter coming up next before kicking off to City, be a really really bad start to the season coming if these 2 games go as I think they will. Pastings.

Was your mind made up on Maresca before he even took the job? Kind of feels like no matter what he says or does you would be annoyed? I agree with everything he said tbh, I don't think he is making excuses, just answering questions when put to him in a pretty straight forward and honest way. Also don't disagree he'll probably be sacked in <2 years, probably ~1, he seems like a nice man so I hope it works out with him but obviously history teaches us that it is unlikely at Chelsea.

Personally I like that we've moved to playing positional football. Whether Maresca is up to the scale of the job I wont even start to judge until he's had at least a few competitive games, and even then really don't think it makes sense to judge too much until the new year.

Everyone is pissed off but its not his fault that the club has repeatedly sacked managers, spent a tonne of money and a lot of it quite badly, and failed to tackle some simple fundamentals.

Also I don't really care what happens in the Inter game, why do you? I usually only watch them to get an eye on some of the young players that might come through in the future, like Guiu, or when we have a new manager to have a look at how he might be setting them up - which turned out to be pointless last year as Poch played one system in preseason and then abandoned it as soon as the league started.

They are training games, essentially an open televised training session. It is well known good or bad preseasons have no correlation with results in the actual season. I don't really care what the result is vs Inter as long as no one gets injured and we get fitness into the legs of those who are a bit behind and we want fit for City.

[cosmicway 1,333]

Real 2 - Headless chicken 1.
Obviously there was a mini conference at half time to keep the score down.