Chelsea 1-1 Inter Milan

[Pizy 18,907]

Biggest positive by far out of that preseason is that Lavia, Nkunku, and even Fofana survived injury free. They badly needed a nice run of games to get back into the rhythm of playing consecutive matches.

Lavia & Nkunku will be HUGE for us this season if it stays this way.

[Vesper 30,175]

58 minutes ago, mkh said:

Chukwuemeka

has had some minor knocks

I think he is the one on your list that Maresca does rate

Angelo is still really raw but I can see glimmers there, deffo needs another loan move

the rest absolutely agree agree with

[cosmicway 1,333]

I hope it's the last we saw of Mudryk.
Sterling despite his antics proves useful sometimes.
Mudryk never.

[ZAPHOD2319 4,818]

50 minutes ago, cosmicway said:

So was that what you expected to see ?
Last minute equalizer against a team sized as Everton - Bournemouth ?
I won't write anything on the topic Man. City - Chelsea next week.
Let's have the match against City wiped out from memory unless we win and see what happens next.

Inter won Serie A last year. They are a well coached team that delivered all year. I thought we looked better than we have all preseason. I don’t care about the score line in preseason games. Maresca split the starters again. Allowing all players experience in his system and allowing him to assess the fringe players on who stays and who goes on loan. This is what I expect out of all preseason games. 
 

New Manager, new system, I honestly do not expect we get any points from Man City in the opening game. We are nowhere near their level currently. We would need to play our best and they would need to play really bad. The next five games could be every opportunity for points.

[Fulham Broadway 17,313]

24 minutes ago, Pizy said:

Biggest positive by far out of that preseason is that Lavia, Nkunku, and even Fofana survived injury free. They badly needed a nice run of games to get back into the rhythm of playing consecutive matches.

Lavia & Nkunku will be HUGE for us this season if it stays this way.

Also Gusto is very solid most of the time -which will be needed as James (injury wise) cant be relied on

[Mhsc 1,097]

I think the manager (and we!) learnt a fair bit from the games in terms of what could look quite promising and what probably isn't going to work.

Also think Maresca has been more flexible with tactics than many told us he would be. We've seen him go with inverted fullbacks on either side, and then sometimes playing with one of the fullbacks bombing forward while the other one stays back. Mostly 3-2-5 in possession but I reckon there was a bit of 3-1-6 today with Caicedo, but would need to rewatch to be sure.

Based on purely preseason, I for one saw some positives, but for sure there are some reasonably serious concerns.

Positives: Nkunku, Lavia, Malo, Cole Palmer (yes despite only playing half a game, thought it was great to see how Maresca integrated him), Veiga

Middle of the road: Madueke (might be harsh - simultaneously looks a menace in the system but also poor end product). Guiu a beautiful pressing machine that any fan would love, but obviously he needs to be more dangerous in front of goal which he will become over time - definitely one to watch for the future, much more excited for him than I was for Broja/Solanke etc, but honestly think he is years away from being a serious player (he's literally 18!). I also thought Enzo/Caicedo looked a bit average when they played.

Negatives: Biggest concern is probably CB situation (based on what we've seen, we do not have a single in form CB - I wont say they're all actually bad as I'm not sure they are, but clearly none of them are playing well right now and all look liable to make serious mistakes at least once a game), GKs (we've got one great shot stopper and one great passer, if you can merge them we'd be alright but you can only play one at a time...), Reece James honestly not looked that good all preseason plus already got a small niggle again (not bad either, but doesn't look WC aside from perhaps set piece delivery), Mudryk same old Mudryk (honestly be tempted to loan him to Strasbourg and see if a full season playing every game could do something to the man as a last ditch attempt with him). Chilwell we need to get rid asap.

[Pizy 18,907]

Biggest concern for me (and keep in mind that I haven’t actually watched a single one of these preseason matches) is all the stuff I’ve read this summer about how poor Colwill has looked. He genuinely looked like a future world class CB who would lock down an undisputed place at the back for us for a decade or more when he returned from Brighton. We fought off multiple suitors that were after him for that exact reason. We gave him a big, long contract.

But apparently he has been poor this summer. I wonder what the deal is? His best qualities when he was in the Brighton team were his composure/class on the ball and his passing. So what happened?

[ZAPHOD2319 4,818]

11 minutes ago, Pizy said:

Biggest concern for me (and keep in mind that I haven’t actually watched a single one of these preseason matches) is all the stuff I’ve read this summer about how poor Colwill has looked. He genuinely looked like a future world class CB who would lock down an undisputed place at the back for us for a decade or more when he returned from Brighton. We fought off multiple suitors that were after him for that exact reason. We gave him a big, long contract.

But apparently he has been poor this summer. I wonder what the deal is? His best qualities when he was in the Brighton team were his composure/class on the ball and his passing. So what happened?

He looked good with Silva guiding him on the pitch. He has looked lost at times out there. He still has all the physical attributes, he just needs to make better positioning decisions.

[Pizy 18,907]

7 minutes ago, ZAPHOD2319 said:

He looked good with Silva guiding him on the pitch. He has looked lost at times out there. He still has all the physical attributes, he just needs to make better positioning decisions.

This is why I hope Maresca starts Tosin and Colwill together. Develop that relationship as our starting pair.

[erinblue 27]

22 minutes ago, Pizy said:

Biggest concern for me (and keep in mind that I haven’t actually watched a single one of these preseason matches) is all the stuff I’ve read this summer about how poor Colwill has looked. He genuinely looked like a future world class CB who would lock down an undisputed place at the back for us for a decade or more when he returned from Brighton. We fought off multiple suitors that were after him for that exact reason. We gave him a big, long contract.

But apparently he has been poor this summer. I wonder what the deal is? His best qualities when he was in the Brighton team were his composure/class on the ball and his passing. So what happened?

His contract is the problem....set for next 6yrs or so.... doesn't have the fight to play to win....fight with opposition yeah..... he thinks he's Beckanbaer at times just strolling around....I want a more JT player from him....a want to win every ball & every challenge, a real disappointment if opposition score..not a look round in bewilderment & see if someone else can be blamed....the talent has to be there or others would not have been looking him......sort it out Levi

[robsblubot 3,595]

Friendlies are helpful for the manager to make experiments and get the team closer to match fitness.... nothing else really. I'm glad to see the players running better and looking ready for the real thing.

Competitive matches test both temperament and physicality of players, while that's not tested at all in friendlies. This is especially important for younger players as their weaknesses lie in the mental area, which means they tend to look a lot better in friendlies.

Frankly, if you ever kicked a ball and also played a remotely competitive match, it is really hard to compare. And evidently I can only extrapolate at how competitive a PL match can be.

[NikkiCFC 8,319]

5 hours ago, Pizy said:

This XI from Maresca looks like a “let me have one last look in preseason at a few of these players” sort of team. Specifically, this is one last chance to impress from Sanchez, Mudryk, Guiu, and Fofana before we start making some decisions about if some of them will be sold/loaned/benched.

Some expected him to just go with our strongest possible XI as a proper warm up for next week but he clearly wants another look at some of these guys.

So people shouldn’t freak out if we lose again since this absolutely isn’t our best XI.

I could easily see this GK, defense and midfield starting. Attack obviously is not first 11 but this is more due to Jackson injury, Palmer coming late and Neto just arrived. 

[Blue Armour 4,439]

1 hour ago, ZAPHOD2319 said:

Inter won Serie A last year. They are a well coached team that delivered all year. I thought we looked better than we have all preseason. I don’t care about the score line in preseason games. Maresca split the starters again. Allowing all players experience in his system and allowing him to assess the fringe players on who stays and who goes on loan. This is what I expect out of all preseason games. 
 

New Manager, new system, I honestly do not expect we get any points from Man City in the opening game. We are nowhere near their level currently. We would need to play our best and they would need to play really bad. The next five games could be every opportunity for points.

Very realistic assessment 👏 

[Blue Armour 4,439]

2nd half looked solid., if not spectacular.

Maybe not enough to overcome the elite sides, but decent enough for a top 4 push.

If we can just sort out the issues at center back, things would be a lot better. Not convinced about the ideal CB pairing.

Veiga can play at CB & CDM in addition to being LB, correct?

[Strike 7,489]

Rest of the top 6 except United have a settled XI going into the season.

We should really finalise the squad and give Maresca the 24-25 players he'll be working with

[Special Juan 28,141]

Couldn't be arsed watching the game and glad I didn't in all honesty. 

Read that we were poor in areas and decent in some others.

[Mhsc 1,097]

Official Chelsea youtube account posted full match in case anyone is interested

[OneMoSalah 8,886]

5 hours ago, Strike said:

Rest of the top 6 except United have a settled XI going into the season.

We should really finalise the squad and give Maresca the 24-25 players he'll be working with

Should have been the plan from day 1 but too busy scrambling about to sign players without offloading/loaning out guys. Just stupidity again but as I always keep coming back to, look at the clowns heading the football operations.

I get we can have as many u21s as we want without actually registering them but this is still poor squad management and affects Maresca big time. Like it did with Potter and also Lampard.