Skinnedy

Truly great athletes can do this... he glides... so he doesn't look like he's putting forth a ton of effort. So you need some perspective... other players around him. and when he's carrying the ball in open space, NO ONE catches up with him. The man is a unit (that's a good thing in american english, so apologies if that doesn't translate). I think we're going to several new levels of him as he settles in and matures.

I was a fan of football before I was a Chelsea fan. I became a Chelsea fan because of football, not the other way around. I watch a TON of matches, not necessarily because I'm a neutral, but because of how I can relate it to Chelsea. For me the question is really... would you, could you pick another team to support, even if not as passionately as Chelsea, or would you walk away from the game if there was no Chelsea... for me that's easy... I'm a fan of football.. I played, my son has played, I have season tickets to my local clubs, I kind of adopt teams in other leagues based on their ties with Chelsea (or Americans)... I watch pretty much all of Inter's matches this season. I don't think I could ever love another team the way I love watching Chelsea now... That said, one of the things I love about the game is the constant risk and reward. Promotion / Relegation, qualifying for Tournaments... if that goes away, my overall interest in International football will take a big hit as well. I watched two 10U softball games and 10 11U baseball games over the weekend... I can find other ways to spend my time... If we're vehemently against the Super League, we can control its success or failure as consumers. These big clubs are taking our loyalty for granted... and frankly the Super League sounds like a gussied up International Champions Cup to me....

Tata Martino would have taken the USMNT job... and oh what an upgrade that would have been 😪

It's their option. It was considered high at the time, so we'll see if they decide to exercise the option or try and negotiate the price down. I have a feeling I know what Marina is going to say when they ask for a discount.

The offsides is the one bothering me the most. I think the letter of the law has to change in the age of technology to represent the intent of the law. The naked eye can't see strides or sleeves. feet move to fast to know whose foot is in front of the other at any given time. Get a guy reaching for a tackle, and he's objectively half a meter behind the other player, but his shoelace may hold the other player on... or off... it's ridiculous. I think it should be like sprinters. When you want to draw an offsides line, draw use the sternum. I saw someone else say the waist... that's fine, that's the same idea... if you and I are in a race, we basically judge shoulder to shoulder who is winning, not whose feet or sleeve or hair is in front. That's the way the game has been officiated for 200 years. by looking at the Torso. They keep trying to take the human element out of the game. They try to standardize it, but then they leave out common sense. I'm more pissed off about Werner's goal being disallowed than Havertz. I've said this for 20 years now with regards to replay and the "clear and obvious" error. Put a clock on it. You have 20 seconds to make a decision. If it takes longer than 20 seconds, it's not clear and obvious... play on... Replay was never intended to judge the small margins... just the big errors.

I thought it was strange that Zouma started centrally in that game. Of the 7 or so CBs we've had on the team this year, Zouma might be my LAST choice of the guy to put in the middle. (Silva, Christensen, Rudiger, Tomori, James, Azpi, Zouma). He needs the freedom to roam and attack aerially, not be a sweeper...

I still think this guy is underrated...

He worked hard but was largely ineffective. One of the few players who looked active. I'd sum it up by saying, better than most, but not good. It was a really drab performance yesterday

In Didier I trust

On one of his last overlap passes, the one that chillwell played for a corner, on the replay, Pulisic had 4 defenders inside of him. Cutting inside was completely taken away. Having a threat in behind him trailing the play will be helpful. As we know, Kovacic just isn't that type of player. Pulisic's options were limited for a great deal of the game. Thats one reason I wanted to see him move more centrally. But once CHO came on, Pulisic also came alive on the wing.

As soon as CHO came on, Pulisic nearly has two assists. Big chances by Werner and Azpilicueta and the narrative around Pulisic might be a bit different today. Neither Pulisic or Ziyech looked great today. The only thing I'm convinced of right now, is that wing #1 needs to be CHO.

One of the things I keep reading is "Frank spending...." It's strange to me. In the US, the scouting, acquisition, budgeting, negotiation, etc... is completely separate from the coaching. The coach will have his say and get involved in recruitment of course, but that's really the extent of it. And that's how I see most modern football these days. I saw a comment about "why would Frank spend all that money on Havertz and Werner if he didn't know how to use them?" Now, I have no doubt that he was consulted on the targets, but he's not spending that money. That money is being spent by the Chelsea brass who will likely outlast Frank. Marina was in charge of those deals and she is acquiring a lot of young talent. That they may not be perfect fits for the system right now is largely irrelevant. The money in this window was spent to build the team for the better part of the next decade. Stockpiling young, talented footballers is good business. The manager is going to get too much credit when things are going well, and too much blame when they're not. I think people are still used to the idea of the totalitarian football manager who controls everything, but at best, the manager is third in line these days as personnel department is largely handled by other people than the manager. The idea of the coach/general manager gets thrown around here in the states, because every coach wants to be a general manager as well, but for the most part it doesn't happen any more, because it's two completely different skill sets.... and coaches are too arrogant to realize that they're not great evaluators of talent at times... and even worse negotiators... I don't want Frank EVER dealing with an agent. I want him focusing on the first team and being consulted on possible targets and team deficiencies.

My friend asked me after the City game... "who realistically gets into this City team from Chelsea?" And right now, we're just not there. I told him from that game - Mendy over Steffen - Chillwell over Zinchenko - and Probably Silva over Stones, but Stones is in great form it was eye opening. Sure, we still didn't play very well, and there's no cohesion with a midfield 3 of Kante, Mount, Kovacic, but man for man, we were still outmanned. Big Time When our young players have matured... I expect to put at least 3 players on that same list within a year or 2 Anjorin (19) Gilmour (19) CHO (20) James (21) Havertz (21) Mount (21) Pulisic (22) Abraham (23) Chillwell (24) Werner (24)

I was pissed, and I'll own it... you stay down like that, and you'd better be coming off... he should have come off if he was injured. From the moment Grealish dragged a leg back, Christensen only hurt himself and the team. Now those 2 points weren't only on him obviously, but it was so disappointing to see him get another chance and have it go by the way-side. I feel like he has to be about out of chances at the Club. He's 4th choice now...

It's not exactly injury after injury with this guy. It's one injury that has been troublesome. And hamstrings are like that. It's not like a bone break, set your watch for 6 weeks, and you're healed. Hamstrings are like voodoo, they can linger. Hamstrings and Achilles. 2 you don't want to mess with, and 2 that have plagued us the last 18 months.

We won't find out any time soon. We can't seem to get two fit wingers at the same time. So Timo... to the Wing!!

We're talking about him as a striker right now, but he's rarely played striker for us. His ability to play wide has been absolutely crucial for us with the injuries. I've been hoping he'd get a rest, but every time it seems we can, someone else goes down. Including Ziyech and CHO this week. His work rate has been off the charts. His pressing and defensive contributions have been Mount-like, he's creating a ton of chances, he's leading the team in G/A in the league and 2nd behind Giroud in Champions League, despite bouncing around the wings. If this is as bad as it gets, I'm thrilled. We wouldn't be where we are without him, that's a promise.

I love this man

Bakayoko has been at least average to very good as a DM for everyone he's played for. We'll end up breaking about even on him, because we'll get a fee for him next summer. Of that window, the only complete loss was Drinkwater. Got a refund on Morata. We'll get close to one on Bakayoko, Zappacosta has gotten loan fees... Drinkwater... sunk cost.

I was thinking either "Member of the Media" or "Politician" though the line between those two professions gets blurrier every day

It really is odd.... we call out the managers for not using the younger players, and then we call out the younger players for not being the finished article. He's 21 for goodness sake and a dang good player already. I love having Mason in this team. We have a legit front 3, a monster at CAM, we need Mason and Kante to do the dirty work, and they're great at it.

I mixed up the order of the saves, you can tell by the daylight... the second save on the clip, you see the first time he gets up rubbing his knee. Middle of the second half, and he had been under fire. It was 1-1 at that point. Then we lost 3-1. Tendon bruise just below his kneecap. That was Saturday night and he sat out on Sunday and is still icing today. So he was hurting, but not injured... I call him "day to day" 😀

They do. He's at Alpharetta Ambush right now (link) But they have a kit sponsor right now from one of the regional hospitals. But I'll always be around for any updates 😀Thanks for thinking of him.

I've gone to the Atlanta Blues meet ups once or twice, but I haven't been since they moved to FADO. hit me up though next time... DM or skinnedy@gmail.com