Chelsea 1-1 Inter Milan

[Pizy 18,368]

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 15]

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 3,508]

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 7,955]

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 4,289]

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 4,289]

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 7,217]

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 27,429]

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 877]

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

[OneMoSalah 8,778]

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.