Boston Blue

I can't recall seeing a player for us who (often in the same match): Looked so totally out of his depth Completely crumbled after an obvious mistake Was so ill suited for the way we play It's as if our board bought him solely based on a 4 minute Monaco YouTube highlight video they saw of him.

…….and one who has already shown that he's not up to the task at Chelsea?

A player is going to have a poor performance now & then. But his total lack of effort is the one thing he can control, and he chose to not make an effort at all. If he wasn't fit enough to make an effort, he should have told the manager he wasn't fit.

We were worse when he came on. Anyone who would have tried to make an effort in that position would have been a better choice. Obviously Frank couldn't have known he was putting someone on who wasn't even going to try. I have been a Willian supporter in the past...….but that performance last week was inexcusable.

He's been given a go with us. And in virtually every go, he's looked slow, lost, and over matched.

Then why put him in at all?

I have found myself being wowed several times watching RLC execute a turn around an opponent. As has been mentioned, he is so strong with the ball at his feet, you want him in a position where he can use that skill.

Didn't Conte flirt with this idea in his first pre-season?

RLC will have to be managed as we know of his back issues, and he will ease back in after rehabbing from the Achilles. And Mount is young, there may come a time this season where he hits a poor run of form as defenses adjust to him. I think there will be plenty of opportunities for Ross.

I get it. Willian is a better car park than he is a footballer.

Edited…….

As long as Willian isn't anywhere near the team after that half assed performance on Sunday. Correction: it was a fully assed performance. Pedro, Pulisic, CHO. Three wide players for two positions. Pace and effort. Willian ran (plodded about the grassy surface) as if he had a Dacia Duster strapped to his back side.

Again, where have our realistic expectations gone? We are operating under a transfer ban. The players we have are the players we have to work with this season. It's not like we've made a calculated decision to go with unproven youth over buying an experienced striker. We know what we have with Giroud. Tammy and Michy are still young enough to be coached. At least Michy has some PL experience. We need goals from all three, so coaching, support, and tempered expectations are needed. Michy and Tammy have a great opportunity to show that they belong here. If they don't, we will look to buy in that position when we can buy players again. But it's solely up to them, and they won't be able to say they didn't get the chance.

Frank is still searching for some formation and player combination that will produce goals. No Hazard, and no proven goal scoring striker. He has to figure it out on the fly, and he is relying on players proving they can step up. It's going to take a few games. We know that CHO & RLC are capable, but they have to rehab and get match fit. If we were strong defensively, it would be easier to manage. But it's tough when you need to score 3 or 4 to overcome how easy we have been to score against. Having Rudiger back will help shore things up a little. Maybe we need more of a bidet formation.

Yes, and it sounds like the club wanted to loan Reece out and use Aina in that role. But he left to play. Ironically, he could have played a lot this year as things have turned out.

Yes please. He played yesterday as if his contract had already been terminated.

There's working hard and being sh*t. Then there's just producing a sh*t effort. He's usually guilty of the former. Against Leicester, he was guilty of the latter.

He might be if it weren't for Willian's brutal (lack of) effort and the social media complainers about our results

I think we can eliminate "waiting for the best PR time to announce it" as a reason why it hasn't been announced yet...…….

As one of the veteran players on the team, he should be showing leadership. But if the that is the tone he wants to set, and the example he wants the young players to respect him for, then I hope those are the last minutes he plays for us. We were so much worse when he came on, it was a terribly wasteful substitution.

Thank you for injecting some non reactionary common sense into the discussion. It's a learning process/on-the-job training for our coaching staff, and the young players. We knew this was likely to happen, yet there are still some people surprised that we are not firing on all cylinders for every game and for 90 minutes.

He'll be fine. He has a passion and connection to the club. Morata was a fragile ballerina in a football player's body. Every team he has been with felt he was expendable.

Frank hinted at the possibility that we're looking to overturn for the January window. But if we don't have the players we want picked out, with relative confidence that we can get them, then we are better off just serving the entire ban and waiting.

Morata never goes for that ball. That's the difference. PK's are psychological. You have to want the pressure of taking one, and you have to believe you'll make it. It's all good if this is used as a learning experience and motivation. He's just seems so desperate for his first Chelsea goal.

If the referee team weren't female, we likely wouldn't even be talking about them. Which is the highest compliment you can pay a referee team. I so enjoyed watching us play yesterday, I went home and watched the game again.