Chelsea 2-1 Newcastle

[ZAPHOD2319 4,477]

PRE/POST-MATCH DISCUSSION, LIVE CHAT AND ANALYSIS

 

 

Sunday 27th October 2024
 Premier League
Stamford Bridge
 3PM UK

[NikkiCFC 7,950]

Must win after two bad results. Surely Neto, Mudryk, Felix and Nkunku should be considered to start over Sancho and Madueke who didn't do anything in a while. 

[OneMoSalah 8,776]

10 minutes ago, NikkiCFC said:

Must win after two bad results. Surely Neto, Mudryk, Felix and Nkunku should be considered to start over Sancho and Madueke who didn't do anything in a while. 

Nkunku and Neto definitely should as they are better than Noni & Nico/whoever else in attack.

Felix not so much. Newcastle is a tough team to play and can’t afford any passengers as it won’t be easy. When the game gets stretched, they start showing tired legs, more spaces appear, it is more ideal for Felix to come in.

Really don’t see him becoming a permanent fixture outside of cup games anytime soon. Hasn’t exactly impressed, a goal against Wolves (one of the worst teams in PL by a mile so far), an assist vs Barrow & 2 goals v Panathinaikos…. what’s he done to deserve to start? Same with Mudryk. When your best game in a shirt is in the conference league, says its all. But again, Mudryk’s pace, late on in the game - ideal. Just a pity he often lacks the IQ and skill to do anything with it.

Edited October 25 by OneMoSalah

[bigbluewillie 1,859]

We'll wrap this up 2-0

Come on you blues👍

[Vesper 28,801]

good omen for us (Boehly's baseball team) 💙

Yankees vs. Dodgers World Series Game 1 Highlights (10/25/24) | MLB Highlights

 

crazy game

[Vesper 28,801]

Faltering stars, backwards transfer policy - why Newcastle are struggling so much this season

https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/faltering-stars-backwards-transfer-policy-why-newcastle-are-struggling-so-much-this-season/view/news/445342

 

Newcastle fans were offered some rare good news this week, when the Premier League club confirmed that star winger Anthony Gordon had signed a new “long-term” contract with the club. Although new deals for important players is always welcome news for fans of any club, Gordon’s commitment to the Geordie club would have come as welcomed respite from what has been a new season of misfortune for Eddie Howe’s team and the fans that follow them each and every week. 

After eight games, Newcastle sit ninth in the English top-flight table with just 12 points to their name. And what perhaps troubles fans of the club at this moment in time is that the next four fixtures include a double-header against Chelsea in the Premier League and League Cup, before welcoming Arsenal to St. James' Park and a trip to high-flying Nottingham Forest present equally difficult tests for Howe and his side. Which suggests that things could get even worse before they get better. So what’s gone wrong for Newcastle this season and is there any hope for Howe’s side to get back to winning ways? 

Big players not showing up in attack

The most obvious problem with Howe’s side in the Premier League this season is that they simply aren’t scoring enough goals. Last season Newcastle averaged 2.24 goals per game in the English top-flight, but are now averaging just one solitary goal per game this time around. And unfortunately for the club, there seems to be a number of issues at play that have led to Newcastle’s attacking line and flow of goals grinding to a halt. Last time around, Newcastle actually had the third most potent attacking trio in the Premier League with Alexander Isak, Gordon and Callum Wilson bagging a combined 41 goals for the club. Only Manchester City and Arsenal could lay claim to more product attacking lines. However, this season has seen Isak pick up just one goal in six games and Gordon score just two in eight games, while Wilson has yet to feature for the club this season due to a long-term back injury. 

However, when we take a look at the club’s top five players for goal contributions per game from last season and this season in the graphic above, we can see that it isn’t just a case of Howe missing Wilson through injury. In the previous league campaign, Howe had five players averaging over 0.4 goals and assists per game for the club in Bruno Guimarães, Jacob Murphy and the aforementioned attacking trio. But this time around only one player in Harvey Barnes has managed to average more than 0.4 goal contributions per game. Here, the most obvious culprits are Guimarães and Murphy, who bagged between them a combined 25 goals and assists in the Premier League for Newcastle last season. This time around, despite featuring in all eight games so far this season, the pair have just three assists to their name. And the attacking problems don’t stop there for Howe. 

Perhaps the most under-rated aspect of Newcastle’s attack last season was Kieran Trippier’s playmaking from the right flank. Not only did the England international finish the league campaign with the joint-highest assists in the team, but according to FBRef also completed more passes that led to a shot than any other player in Howe’s squad. However, this time around Trippier has struggled for form and fitness, starting just three of Newcastle’s first eight games and now ruled out of action for the next few weeks with a hamstring injury. At 34 years of age, it’s highly unlikely that the full-back will return to form and prominence for Newcastle like he’s shown in recent seasons, but the worry for Howe is that first-choice right-back Tino Livramento has yet to bag a single assist this season and according to the aforementioned stats website is averaging just 0.41 passes that lead to a shot per game - which is considerably less than the 2.62 passes per game that his predecessor averaged last season.  

Howe’s side held back by backwards transfer policy

What will frustrate Newcastle fans about their poor start to the season is that much of it could have been largely mitigated had the club been more effective in the summer transfer window. Rather than effectively sign ideal transfer targets to fill the holes in their squad, Newcastle were held back by the appointment of new sporting director Paul Mitchell midway through the transfer window and the constant threat of breaking the Premier League’s financial fair play rules. This in turn meant that the club not only failed to sign any effective attacking reinforcements aside from back-up striker William Osula, but also sold Elliot Anderson to Forest and Yankuba Minteh to Brighton for a combined €76.2m. Two players that could have unquestionably provided more attacking threat in midfield or on the right wing, where Newcastle have struggled for much of this season. 

In fact, Newcastle complete in-action in the transfer window in the summer was so detrimental to Howe’s squad that the Athletic recently reported that the club may be forced to prioritise the signing of a new right winger in the January transfer window. All while the one they sold to Brighton continues to thrive for the Seagulls with two goals and assists in his first seven league appearances for Fabian Hürzeler’s side. In no uncertain terms, if Newcastle want to get back towards the top four of the Premier League table, they’ll have to find a way to support the hard work of Howe and his team with some smart transfer business in the January transfer window. 

[OhForAGreavsie 5,892]

23 hours ago, Vesper said:

good omen for us (Boehly's baseball team) 💙

Yankees vs. Dodgers World Series Game 1 Highlights (10/25/24) | MLB Highlights

 

crazy game

Baseball is such a great game. Sadly, for me, The Reds are mired in a decades long streak of mediocrity. Still, living in hope is what we sports fans do.

Speaking of our ownership and living in hope; Maresca is earning them a lot of credibility. He's clearly a great character. If he can turn his green shoots of progress into something real, he may well turn out to be Chelsea's best signing since Roman left.

Edited October 27 by OhForAGreavsie

[Vesper 28,801]

7 minutes ago, OhForAGreavsie said:

Baseball is such a great game. Sadly, for me, The Reds are mired in a decades long streak of mediocrity. Still, living in hope is what we sports fans do.

Speaking of our ownership and living in hope; Maresca is earning them a lot of credibility. He's clearly a great character. If he can turn his green shoots of progress into something real, he may well turn out to be Chelsea's best signing since Roman left.

Yankees vs. Dodgers World Series Game 2 Highlights (10/26/24) | MLB Highlights

 

[Vesper 28,801]

going to New York for 3 games with a 2 nil game lead

final 2 games back in LA, if necessary

Edited October 27 by Vesper

[Vesper 28,801]

16 minutes ago, Vesper said:

Speaking of our ownership and living in hope; Maresca is earning them a lot of credibility. He's clearly a great character. If he can turn his green shoots of progress into something real, he may well turn out to be Chelsea's best signing since Roman left.

the only thing I disagree with him on is our GKer situation (unless he is just praising them, especially Sanchez, for public consumption)

we also need to strengthen our CBs a lot IMHO

it is so risky to rely on Colwill and especially Wes Fofana to remain basically 100 per cent (or nearly so) healthy

Tosin is ok (to a point, but certainly he is not a 'take over as a starter for the rest of the season' level CB) but after that we are fucked

[Vesper 28,801]

14 minutes ago, Vesper said:

(unless he is just praising them, especially Sanchez, for public consumption)

I doubt this is the case

as there is this:

(the article is pretty OTT in terms of framing, but the general points are from Maresca's own words)

Enzo Maresca slams Chelsea star for lack of leadership amid possible dressing room rift

https://www.caughtoffside.com/2024/10/26/enzo-maresca-reece-james-leadership/

Enzo Maresca has not held back in his assessment of Reece James following the defender’s recent return from injury.

The 24-year-old made his long-awaited return against Liverpool last weekend after being ruled out for the majority of last season.

Thrown straight into the deep end and asked to start against Arne Slot’s Reds six days ago, James was clearly off the pace and appeared a shadow of the player once tipped to become England’s first-choice right-back.

And speaking ahead of Sunday’s exciting matchup against Newcastle United, Maresca didn’t mince his words when discussing James’ first performance back.

“I expected from him more in terms of leadership, inside the changing room,” the Italian told reporters.

“He’s on the way, he’s doing well, he’s progressing but from Reece I expected more also in terms of leadership.

“For me, because you are the captain, you have to give more than the rest. Sometimes, ‘OK, I am the captain, I can give less’. No. He’s one of the captains and I expected from him, and his team-mates expected from him, to give always more in terms of leadership.”

Step up or risk losing captain’s armband

Going on to compare James’ mental attributes to the rest of the Chelsea squad, Maresca feels the Blues lack a ‘proper leader’ — potentially bad news for James, who was named club captain by Mauricio Pochettino before the start of last season.

“He understands we expected more from him,” the manager added.

“He’s one of our guys from the academy but this is one of the reasons why he has to show more in terms of personality.

“When you don’t have a proper leader, you need to build that. I think we don’t have a proper leader. Probably Tosin [Adarabioyo] is one of the guys that is. The rest, we need to build them.

“Reece is there, he’s on the way but he’s not there. He needs to make an effort in that one. Levi [Colwill] probably at the beginning of the season was not a leader but now you can see that he is one of the guys that is always speaking. We need to build that.”

Maresca’s recent comments are unlikely to go down well with the Chelsea defender and will fuel speculation over his future at the club.

Barcelona and Benfica have already been linked with surprise approaches with the former particuarly light in James’ position with Jules Kounde the side’s only senior recognised right-back.

end

 

the article did, in the last sentence, leave out

who has massive potential and has played in 7 games (granted only one as a starter for the Sr team, see below)

Edited October 27 by Vesper

[NikkiCFC 7,950]

Neto for Sancho. Gusto LB over Cucurella. 

[Pizy 18,368]

Happy with everything other than Gusto at LB instead of Cucu. For me this is the kind of important game you want the combativeness and fire of Cucu in the team. I love Malo but he feels kinda shoehorned in there because Maresca would feel bad dropping him after he’s been so great over the last year.

Anyways, HAVE to win this at home if we’re serious about pushing on. Got to build up that winning, machine like mentality now.

[Mhsc 876]

Enzo is officially now a B teamer with Nkunku, Felix and co then I guess.

[Pizy 18,368]

1 minute ago, Mhsc said:

Enzo is officially now a B teamer with Nkunku, Felix and co then I guess.

I think it’s for the best right now for Enzo to play against weaker teams for a nice long run where he can build back up to his best. Can help get the supporters who are down on him back on his side too if he progresses nicely.

 

[Pizy 18,368]

Oh nice, didn’t realize Anthony Gordon was injured and out for this. That’s a huge bonus.

Almiron and Harvey Barnes can definitely still cause problems with their pace but they’re much less scary than Gordon is when in form.

[mkh 273]

4 minutes ago, Mhsc said:

Enzo is officially now a B teamer with Nkunku, Felix and co then I guess.

That these players will not accept a whole season with Nkunku there are already rumors about a departure of the rest of these players will follow.🏄

[mkh 273]

Today Disasi, Badiashile, Chilwell(clear) KDH, Chukwuemeka(clear) Casadei, Guiu all didn't even make the bench.

If they are all fit it doesn't look great for these players.

They could all be players who will leave Chelsea by next summer.