Wearyourblue

I think many of you are drastically undervaluing Pulisic in today's market. He's 20, he could easily play for 4-5 years and be sold off at a profit. He's already experienced in the Champions League. He's pretty clean technically, but he has been knicked up this year. Sancho may be better, but this is a team they play for that will make it to the round of 16 in the Champions League playing the best young talent. I'd sign him now, and if Hazard goes to RM, go big on a 9.

Willian's not even ball park with top first touch on the team. It's why he struggles so much when we have to play in a tight a attacking third. A good first touch isn't just taking a ball down out of the air when you're running, it's being able to play one time too. Even the rhythm of his two touch passing is just too much time. Jorginho, Alonso, Kovacic, Hazard, Ampadu, Luiz, Pedro, Cesc. I think CHO's first touch is better than Willian's right now. CHO is better now, if he had the #24 instead of the #18 behind age, he'd be playing over Willian. I think we will see more and more of Odoi as it goes on. I think if Sarri were already established with Chelsea, and players were used to his system, we'd already see more of Odoi. You can't convince me that CHO would only have 2 goals and 2 assists if he had Willians premier league minutes. NGola Kante has 1 goal and 2 assists, and many experts are bemoaning his play this season.

It can be both with Willian, I disagree with he fits in well with a team trying to play a lot of one - touch two touch, he's too technically loose imo, first touch is rarely tidy enough for me. Willian's at his best when he has room to counter and run, and then he's dangerous. You have to love when he gets a chance run with the ball laterally across the top of the box, he's very dangerous. Games like derby where they try to take away the first line and force you to launch big balls to get in behind are where he shines. My biggest problem with Willian is not really Willian, he clogs a spot for CHO, as the back up to Hazard on the left. I'd sell Willian, get better on the right, and let CHO have the left backup spot. I think Hudson-Odoi is better right now today than Willian, and view him as a future star, that needs to be kept happy and improving. Willian's not good enough now to be considered a key squad member, and he cannot cost us CHO long term.

He's better than Willian right now.

Yeah... emerson should start over alonso

I like this approach more, CHO gets to play with with experienced pros, best way to develop your "real" talent IMHO.

We are tied for 2nd in Goals scored and we are tied for 2nd in goals conceded, without a proven 9, I think his style is fine. We don't have the team to play any style and win the premier league right now, we need something out of our man up top.

It should be obvious why Luiz and Jorginho are so important to Sarri. Teams get away pressing and countering because of our 9 play, fix the 9, everything else looks better. Through Balls Rank Player Club Nationality Stat 1. David Luiz Chelsea Brazil 11 2. Jorginho Chelsea Italy 10 Passes Rank Player Club Nationality Stat 1. Jorginho Chelsea Italy 1,237 2. Aymeric Laporte Manchester City France 1,151 3. Granit Xhaka Arsenal Switzerland 1,053 4. David Luiz Chelsea Brazil 1,050 5. Antonio Rüdiger Chelsea Germany 1,049 Offside Rank Player Club Nationality Stat 1. Álvaro Morata Chelsea Spain 18

I think Sarri get's his players... he kind of already has with Jorginho and Kepa. Mourinho and Conte seemed to irritate their players and needed new players to get better....but also fill the wholes by the players irritated. Sarri, seems to be more of a fix one issue at a time and develop what you have manager. I see him adding a guy in January and a guy in the summer that really makes the top 11 better. RW is the easiest to improve (as in find quality in the market) , really need a splash at that central defender and center forward.

I think if everyone in the PL had to play all season with an under 25 lineup only, Chelsea would win it. If Hazard does leave, he'll bring in enough to buy a couple of good players. As well I think we make one nice January splash, think Sarri really wanted to evaluate what he had before moving the deck chairs. If Sarri's here a while... it starts with the midfield Jorginho 26, Kante 27, Barkley 24, Kovacic(?) 24, Mason Mount 19 Wide players : I think RLC starts to take ownership of that RW spot Hazard 27, RLC 22, CHO 17 CF Morata 26 Defenders Azpi 29, Alonso 27, Emerson 24, Rudiger 25, Ampadu 18, Christensen 22 GK Kepa 24, Bulka 19

Disagree on that, all three goals were strikers goals. And when I think his biggest attribute -its how strong he looks keeping balance when someone's in his back. He had 3 nice goals, but the one that stood out to me was the second, not sure anyone else on the roster scores the second goal - that was a diego costa / didier drogba goal. He was being held and thrown, and it just didn't matter. Would Morata or Giroud score that? If a guy wants to jump Eden's back, he runs him around and needs the space, RLC just takes the hit and keeps playing.

To be fair in Sarri's system, I think he fits the 9 better, he has the strength, quality on the ball. He also doesn't seem to work / cover enough in the midfield.

pedro a little off today

Gotta live Wiki: Style of play[edit] Known for his eye for goal, Cutrone has been described as a "true number 9" by several Italian football pundits.[30] His main playing attributes as a forward are his physical strength, positioning, aerial ability, and heading, as well as his opportunism, movement, and ability to read the game; his technique and team play have been cited as areas for improvement, however. Due to his characteristics, he has been compared to former A.C. Milan striker Filippo Inzaghi, who used to train him while working as a coach with the A.C. Milan Youth Sector from 2012 to 2014. Although being an avid Milan fan since childhood, he idolizes Alvaro Morata.[30][31][32] Another player he looks up to is Andrea Belotti.[31]

To be fair we paid 70m... but he only cost us 39m vs keeping Courtois, and I'm not sure what other option we would have had. The year of Courtois was offset by the year of Kovacic

Odd you see it that way. I'm more worried in him playing himself out of a permanent move. I think with the way Sarri plays the left center mid is very demanding - technical enough to combine with Hazard / Alonso, and a good enough defender to cover some for Alonso to make his runs. I think Kovacic has been a very important player. I'd love to see RLC succeed probably more than most here (his brother was very good to me). I'm just not sure RLC is a center mid the way Sarri plays, he's very good on the ball, and the wider he gets the better he looks.

David Luiz sure looks a lot like Willian.

He had a pretty nice goal vs Liverpool that started with his back to the goal.

I can't help but feel if Chelsea were in Spain, we'd see Hazard as a false 9 and CHO with taking Hazards current spot. I also think in part that's why La Liga has seen more Ballon d'or winners. When would Messi's career have begun if he were in England? While I don't see CHO as a Messi... I could see him winning a Ballon d'Or

Hazard Kante Jorginho Odoi Alonso Rudiger Azpi Kepa Kova Pedro Willian Ampadu

Isn't some of the point of the loan army to meet FFP? At some point, they can go after someone big and have 6-7 extra players to sell to balance it?

Not a bad analysis... disagree some with him on the cause of defensive lapses being about compactness. Willian just tracks too centrally IMO defensively leaving Alonso on an island. When this started their lines were fairly compact, but Willian got sucked in a little too far leaving the lane between Luiz and Alonso. There's a few other examples, but the Barkley/Willian left side needs to defend better IMO taking away passing lanes, should be fixed as they play together more. That was one area Kovacic made a nice difference.

Long time Chelsea fan (cemented favorite 15 years ago when Makelele was signed) Charlie Cooke - Chelsea player from the 60's was a mentor of mine cementing the love of the blues.

I think it was a very nice transfer window, but I prefer quality over quantity. I wouldn't trade kante/jorginho for any pair of center mids in the premiership, maybe even all europe right now. kroos, modric, casemiro and isco are great... but I'm not sure any of those 2 replacing kante/jorginho make us better. Jorginho was huge from what I've seen so far, looks to be a top 10 player in the premiership this year. The need for a young attacker went way down IMO opinion with how well CHO played, think Martial would just be in the way. CHO still needs to be signed to a senior contract, so keeping Willian over others... keeps us relevant for now, but keeps the spot open for CHO who I believe will be world class. As far as the GK situation, think it was handled very well knowing Courtois would leave on free next year. The way I look at it is a year of Kovacic traded for a year of Courtois and getting Kepa for 36 mil for 7 years. I'd do that all day. Would have been nice if Courtois would have inked up long term, but that didn't seem to be an option. Getting CHO inked long term is more valuable than any of the wide attackers that could have been signed, all just seemed to be needless blocks. Morata needs to get better or replaced in January, but think he deserves a bit of a shot.