jack h

Just watched MOTD some bird introducing it, at the end they showed brief highlights of Arsenal beating Ipswich, when that finished she said “the shine was taken off that win though, as Saka was injured in the first half and tore his hamstring and will be out for 2 months”….er that was in the previous match against Palace, and thats why women shouldnt be anywhere near mens football

Guiu comes on for Jacko, he presses and reads the game well, far better than Nico does. Nkunku comes on for Palmer, who has now drifted out of the game, and Nkunku is there to feed on the space Guiu makes for him.
Acheampong and Disasi replace the knackered Gusto and Neto, we switch to a back 3, with Cucu and Josh as wing backs this deals with Fulhams biggest threat.
Lastly Felix replaces Sancho. Tactically what we had was not working, got us over run and lost us the game. I don't think many blame Maresca if he tries something different to gain back control and solidify our 1 goal lead.
 
Sanchez 
 
Acheampong
Disasi
Tosin
Colwill
Cucurella
 
Caicedo
Enzo
 
Felix
Nkunku
 
Guiu

Of course instructions were given but they clearly weren't working. It's not making subs for the sake of it, you need fresh legs as our players looked tired. The subs that came on for Fulham were not better than the ones who started (Not even better than the ones we had on our own bench) and yet they still changed things up. 
Who comes on for who is largely irrelevant as my point is more to do with having fresh legs. We had 4 players on the bench that have played enough professional games to do a job. You could shore things up defensively and accept the draw, maybe hope for a counter goal by taking off Sancho and putting on Casadei. The whole right side was torrid could have put on Disasi (or if you want to be brave then Acamepong), gone 3 atb in possession instead of this awful double invert system we had. If you are going to bring Nkuku on then he needs to play with Jackson not instead of, move Palmer to the right with Disasi behind to provide the protection for lack of Palmer work rate defensively. If Nkuku does replace Jackson you have the option of putting Felix in the middle. 
I'm not saying any of this would have resulted in a win but all of these and more were options available to him instead of doing nothing and accepting the inevitable.

Really poor from Meresca - he costs us the 3 points. Even in the first half, after Palmer's goal, had a feeling Fulham would nick it. We looked lethargic whereas Fulham got stronger and stronger as the game went on - helped of course by a proactive coach who made changes whilst Maresca watched on thinking one change was all that was needed. Not sure what game he was watching.

Infuriating, deserved loss. Jackson should have been hooked after 15 minutes, Felix and Nkunku I can't blame if they're looking to leave given how they're being used (or not used to be more accurate).
Cucurella being upfield and offside when Sanchez sent it forward for their second just about sums the game up, dawdling and sleepwalking through the entire game.

Agree with all of that Jack. 👍 

It was never there. Our pressing was terrible throughout, and Jackson was often not looking or wiping his sweat in his shirt instead of paying attention to anything going on around him.

Well, of course, your entitled to your opinion Gordo. But I am convinced that if N'kunku got the consecutive starts and minutes that Jackson gets, and if even a third of the chances that regularly fall to Jackson, fell to N'kunku instead, we would score a lot more goals and look a lot more fluid up front. 
But that's never gonna happen Gordo, because N'kunku is going to be sold and, unfortunately, he is going to show his class at another top European team. And it will be on Maresca.

I am absolutely fuming right now. I can't defend his game management here.
Completely unacceptable subs. Why would you take off Sterling when he's one of the only players we have that can get you that single goal to win a game. I don't care if he doesn't touch the ball the whole 80 mins, he is still infinitely better than the other options in the box. If you want to bring Nkuku on, take off Enzo who was dreadful for most of the game apart from a good spell in the second half or you take off Jackson. 
Bringing Mudryk on, why? You have barely played him the past 4 or 5 games and you suddenly now think he is good enough to come on and make a difference? He is currently someone you bring on when we are already winning, not when you are chasing a goal. 
Noni for Connor is honestly the worse sub I have ever seen under Poch. Nothing about it makes any sense and all it did was force us to sit back and defend which is the compelte opposition of what we should have been doing. Madeuke himself was dreadful, killed virtually every attack we had.
Chalobah for Chilwell, I would love to to how the logic behind this sub from Poch. I hope someone asks him cause I'm struggling. Chilwell is better at pens, if you want to defend a lead again Chilwell is better so by all logic it was a dreadful sub. 
Before anyone chimes in, yes the players missed plenty of chances. We should really have scored at least one goal but didn't. It happens, it's football. Pool missed chances too. What is not acceptable is how Poch threw away this chance of our only trophy with his management v the worse Liverpool team you are likely to see all season. Unbelievable.

This is Coco’s son I’d just like to thank you all from the family for your messages on this forum and renaming a thread in his name. It brought tears 😭 to my eyes reading the comments and tributes and how much he was respected amongst the forum.
 
Below I’d like to share a photo of my father Coco with his grandson Tyler who’s 15 he lost his Dad in August. I arranged for a training ground visit at Cobham via Colin Lee who i became friends with over the summer and he had contacts at the club. This was only on the 14th September and his last proper outing as a week later his health drastically went downhill. Chris Robinson showed them round that day and that smile on the photo below with his grandson gets me every-time I’m just so glad he got to do this 💙💙
 
Many Thanks
Shane
 
 

Thankyou for all your kind words! Going to miss Big bro it's all down to him taking me to my first chelsea match me being a blue! 

An extremely hard post to write here on the forum, but our legend and moderator Coco passed away this morning.
He's a private person and only shared details of his illness with me and Loz recently when he knew the outlook wasn't good for him.
His son kindly logged in to his account to share the news.
Coco has always been around on the forum and before that, many years ago on the CSR Forum. I will miss him around here terribly, the place won't feel the same. He loved it here and at times, it felt like he ran things on his own. He even requested to move into a different member group when the time came. He will be truly missed and our thoughts go out to his family.
I would say sleep well coco, but you won't be sleeping and will be powering up Motorbikes on the other side.

Someday someone should explain "Chelsea material" to me, and how to identfy it.

Here here. Every squad / team needs balance and Conor provides that. He might not be the pick of the squad ability wise but he more than makes up for it in other areas and is still a very decent player to have as an option. Would have been unforgiveable to sell him to Spurs, just days after he wore the captains armband. Hope he stays for many seasons to come.
 

f**king love Conor and I wouldn't trade him for any other player. I don't care if he's not world class, we need players like him in the squad. Always available, never complains, loves the club. As long as he's happy being here I'd gladly keep him.

No, our best bet is to stop buying f**kloads of players for more than they're worth.

‘Portsea Island contains the majority of the City of Portsmouth.’
Also I used to get the ferry across Portsmouth Harbour from Gos Vegas when going to Fratton Park so double f**k you. 
 
 

He’s from Waterlooville. It doesn’t count as Portsmouth. It’s on the mainland. 

I don't think you understood my point. 
You think a large proportion of Chelsea fans hated lampard. You also think all united fans like Shaw and AWB. 
No United fan would agree with that view. Because they live in their world and you live in this one. 
And in their world, a player who isn't known for scoring, tackling or assists, is joining their club for a big fee and big wages. He's going to have an incredibly short honeymoon. 
And you might not notice, because it won't be your world. But he's going to get it from all corners.

I was more gutted about the Vialli sacking than any other manager since!

Were you there when Isildur failed to destroy the ring? Curious. 

I don't want to turn this into a political debate but frankly this is just so wrong and makes me angry just reading it.

I thought it was excellent.

Was surprised how close it stayed to the direction of the games, felt almost shot-for-shot in some spots

Anyone else watch the first episode of the last of us series?
Very good first episode! Hope it stays as close as possible to the games story, I'd imagine it will expand a bit further mid season but very happy with it so far!

A wonderful message to the memory of legendary Luca from the Chelsea faithful...