All Barco no bite

Didnt Reece James play in midfield for coventry when loaned there?
had a quick flick through this click bait below... pretty much agree with it. so the question is, who do people want to replace our world class captain with in the middle of the park. Enzo couldnt do the job and he is a 240 million pound player. names below, and do factor into your thinking that we struggle to sign the right types of players.
More than happy for Alonso to keep picking our world class captain as a central midfielder. I'll be delighted to see him playing on the right in wing back role or right back, but I think our manager see's him as a midfielder. Anyhow. hope he stays injury free.

Why Reece James is a legitimate midfield option, and how...
He can’t just “play there” in midfield, he’s a top midfielder

Estevao needs more game time

Blatant foul by Konsa on Rogers before the goal. Ref and VAR blind to it again. Same story all day, they get reffed differently to everyone else.

That ball between the wing back and CB is killing us every time, Hato needs to switch on

We'll never know if a back 3 system is going to work until Palestra returns, Chavarria settles and we get a proper midfield. It's a mess right now off the ball because we're a mess in midfield and defence. We had Hato and Neto as our wing backs yesterday, with James and Lavia in midfield. For however long this continues, we will never see the best of this system.

Too talented for that to be the case in my view, he will be a success even if that's not with us.
I think it's more Estevao at his worse is still a better option than Neto rather than people getting carried away but no doubt that applies to some.

2 games into a new season under a new manager after coming back from a really bad injury?
I think people are really trying to create drama where ther isnt any.

He will start and earn more at Liverpool & Utd for starters.

Never seen such pointless energy wasted on a player.
He’s a road runner with zero IQ. End thread.

vs Arsenal, Neto was the second worst Chelsea player on the pitch, just ahead of Fofana. He was poor defensively (which I struggle to have a go at him for as he’s a winger not a defender) and beyond wasteful going forward. Crossing was pathetic, passing and positioning were consistently poor and these are basics he should be excelling at in this system.
I think for a lot of people (Not El Cheesey obviously) the thought of Neto far exceeds the actual ability of Neto. You picture a quick direct winger, you get an out of position, terrible touch, unable to cross, poor decision making wide man. Essentially the Madeira Madueke.
The point is moot because at full strength he doesn’t start for us, he becomes the 4th choice RB (Palestra, Gusto & James) and 6th/7th choice attacking option (JP, CP, Rogers, Stevie, Quenda, Welbeck) and this whole thread can go to the Jackson graveyard.

He’s sh*t.

I don’t know wether it’s a bit of a small club mentality creeping in or wether it’s just further degradation of the beautiful game by modern ‘tactics’ but this notion that our forwards must also be defenders does irk me somewhat.
I think we’d all be in agreement that two of the best Chels sides of ‘recent’ memory would be that early Jose side and the Carlo teams.
Now I could be misremembering but I don’t think any of Robben, Drogba, Joey Cole or Duff were particularly lauded for their defensive contributions. The same goes for a Drogba, Anelka, Malouda approach.
We took the game to other sides, made them game plan for us not the other way around.
Like I touched on our strength is in our attack, we should play to that and for me that involves getting all our best attackers on the pitch at once to give us the best chance.
Looking at it this way, would you trust JP, CP, Rogers and Stevie to score more than you would trust Hato, Fofana, Levi, Lacroix & Gusto not to concede?

If we are going to play with wing backs, I think our best central 3 are Josh/Lacroix/Colwill

Closer to Victor Meldrew

Martinez - Huge upgrade on Sanchez and offers some sanity at the back, by no means a world class keeper though. Everything relies on Penders being who we hope he is.
Acheampong - Good to see him having a break out season under Alonso. Would much rather invest the time in him than Fofana.
Lacroix - Good signing, solid.
Fofana - Just really average, don't get how he still gets so many minutes. Can only assume its his salary compounded with his attitude if he's sidelined. Has to be moved on in summer.
Hato - I like him, but he's not a wing back. Full back or CB.
Lavia - Great player but needs a solid partner next him. Think him and Barco would complement each other well.
RJ - RCB or back up CM. Still our captain and love him, had some brilliant shots from the edge of the box and covered a lot of their counter attacks. Think he's built for the RCB role here under Alonso.
Neto - CRAP. Float another cross into Raya's arms while you're at it you cabbage. Also kisses his mum on the lips still. Sell.
Rogers/Palmer/Pedro - Elite trio, Alonso can't be scared to hook any of them sooner though. Estevao should have come on much sooner, even if that meant going back 4 and keeping all these on the pitch.
Gusto - what is he good at?
Esteavo - My sweet prince, i will always love you.
Welbz - Dat guy, should have come on sooner.
Pep - want to see him starting games at LWB from herre on.

I think we need to calm down a bit. Palestra and Caicedo walk back into this team when fit and hopefully in the next couple of games Pep makes the LWB role his own. We need a CM in January and we're cushty. We're playing the most exciting football we've played since 14/15. One loss against the league champions with a cacophony of officiating errors doesn't change that. On another day Gabriel sees red within the first 10, their second goal is ruled out for Konsa's man handling of Rogers in the build up and we're walking away with at least 1 point. Everyone said before the game it was going to be an Arsenal win but a narrow 2-1 loss has everyone sh*tting the bed.

I think we need to calm down a bit. Palestra and Caicedo walk back into this team when fit and hopefully in the next couple of games Pep makes the LWB role his own. We need a CM in January and we're cushty. We're playing the most exciting football we've played since 14/15. One loss against the league champions with a cacophony of officiating errors doesn't change that. On another day Gabriel sees red within the first 10, their second goal is ruled out for Konsa's man handling of Rogers in the build up and we're walking away with at least 1 point. Everyone said before the game it was going to be an Arsenal win but a narrow 2-1 loss has everyone sh*tting the bed.

I was hoping he was going to be this seasons Victor Moses. Bang average winger turned brilliant wingback. Not looking likely....

Doesnt offer enough end product. I dont really have an issue with him as he has survived the summer cull and the manager obviously see's something in his game. Im genuinely interested to see what Alonso can do.
IMO Neto is a far less effective Willian. Dare I say it, but I'd much rather have kept George, who on here wasnt good enough, but had more redeeming qualities than Neto and would have saved us spending on Gittens, Garnacho and Neto (circa 150 million).
Always do this, but probably good to compare how both George and Pedro handle the season and finish with the better stats. Put George in my Fantasy team ahead of Neto so that's my take on it.
It's also why Im keen for Alonso to work some magic with the squad he has (if possible) and be given 18 months to sort out the mess he has inherited from the past 3 seasons.
Madueke hasnt kicked on since moving to Arsenal, didnt really impress at the world cup, glad he's no longer here, think I'll eventually say the same about Neto, but hope he can up his game while he's here, he's probably a demon on the five a side kick abouts.

I think we need to calm down a bit. Palestra and Caicedo walk back into this team when fit and hopefully in the next couple of games Pep makes the LWB role his own. We need a CM in January and we're cushty. We're playing the most exciting football we've played since 14/15. One loss against the league champions with a cacophony of officiating errors doesn't change that. On another day Gabriel sees red within the first 10, their second goal is ruled out for Konsa's man handling of Rogers in the build up and we're walking away with at least 1 point. Everyone said before the game it was going to be an Arsenal win but a narrow 2-1 loss has everyone sh*tting the bed.

Some quality doomsaying going on in this thread! The only disappointing thing other than the result was the fact we have put in better performances against weaker Arsenal teams.
The game reminds me of Liverpool beating Arsenal early last season, Arsenal played well but were outdone by the then-Champions and everyone proclaimed Liverpool as the inevitable back-to-back winners. The referee luck will turn against Arsenal at some point, maybe not this season but eventually things will no longer go their way.
I don't buy the "defensive" issues seeing as if that were actually true, then Arsenal would have scored 5 or 6. I think back to Sarri's 6-1 loss to Man City for an embarassing, statement loss.
An extra midfielder wouldn't solve this issue, certainly not a playmaker like Lamine Camara. Or "better" defenders. A change of attitude and a desire to win needs to happen. The team let Arsenal get away with murder in the way they treated Morgan Rogers.

Because we admit that mistakes were made. Top four is a decent shout after all the clown show that has been happening for the past four years. Investing 1.5B does not translate to automatic success because 30 Disasis and Garnachos for 1.5B is not the same as 15 Cole Palmers foe 1.5B.
At least the owners have finally admited they have no clue and gave a man with reall football knowledge the keys. Now let's wait and see what happens next, Alonso talked about "phase 1" of rebuilding the culture being done. To suddenly think we must talk about a title challenge is silly. We will get there, but at the moment it's small steps, four years of wrongdoings can't be undone in a few months only.
Let's see how the next "phases" look first, but if you ask me I do believe that Alonso will start next summer's pre-season by talking about winning the PL as the main target. It won't be a long project anymore. Now we got a world class GK and front three, we just need one great midfielder next to Caicedo and one or two very good center backs next to Lacroix and we are good to go.

I partially agree, but I don't agree that possession = control. In fact, the ability to deliberately cede possession is what stopped Fulham and Brighton from being able to defend deep and counter-attack in their preferred style, and against many (if not most) of the teams in the league it will solve our problem against low block defences.

We need to be able to do both, and at will.

PSG really set the standard for this last season. In our game they absorbed our best 20-30 minutes and then absolutely flattened us but crucially, they didn't give up any big chances in that 20-30min period. Half-chances and possession yes, but that made the killer blows from Kvaratskhelia et al worse.

I think we need to calm down a bit. Palestra and Caicedo walk back into this team when fit and hopefully in the next couple of games Pep makes the LWB role his own. We need a CM in January and we're cushty. We're playing the most exciting football we've played since 14/15. One loss against the league champions with a cacophony of officiating errors doesn't change that. On another day Gabriel sees red within the first 10, their second goal is ruled out for Konsa's man handling of Rogers in the build up and we're walking away with at least 1 point. Everyone said before the game it was going to be an Arsenal win but a narrow 2-1 loss has everyone sh*tting the bed.

Pleased with the performance overall and we competed with them properly for the first time in the blue Co era (which is scandal in itself).
When you compare it to last year under Resenoir where we were scared to attack until 75 mins, Alonso has bought us a good way forward. We know there’s areas for improvement but we were good for a draw.