manpe

Down the youtube rabbit hole I was again and came across this brilliant video, almost pissed myself laughing. ? At first I was even confused who was attacking and who was defending.
Have you seen anything worse?
 
 

Honest question, what is our style? If it's passing to wing-backs and hoping they conjure something up, then I think Rice and Caicedo are both quite equally good enough at sideways passing for that style (not) to work.

Honest question, what is our style? If it's passing to wing-backs and hoping they conjure something up, then I think Rice and Caicedo are both quite equally good enough at sideways passing for that style (not) to work.

The problem with how he's being used, is that with only a few minutes at a time on the pitch, he's in the situation where every time he gets the ball it's probably his ONLY chance to shine. Hence all the added pressure, on top of the price tag, and all the the b*llsh*t about how he's failing, and not good enough. It will be interesting to see what happens in the England v Ukraine game.

I'm thinking no more than yes and it's because I don't think he really suits how we want to play. He loves to run at players and sprint past them, but I don't think he will get that kind of space in this league. If we were a counter attacking team, or a team that would attack relentlessly, I think he would be a lot better, but we don't. He's expected to link up with players and get out of tight spaces, and I just don't think he is that type of footballer. 

This is a stupid take. Of course you can pick players who have played a specific role all their career and deploy them somewhere else... So when David Luiz was playing as a number 6 under Mou it was a back 5 too? When Bale was still predominantly a LB it was 5 at the back when he started on the wing? 
"Formation" by definition describes how the players are deployed, not which players you pick. You can make a formation more or less effective depending on which players you pick in which position, but choosing the "wrong players" for a certain formation doesn't make it a different formation.
I do agree that this system has to go though. We need more players who are goal threats on the pitch. Move Chilly to LB, Colwill to CB, drop Disasi or Silva and get another proper attacker on. Chilwell at LW has had some chances, but has not done well enough with them to merit playing that role. Also I want Enzo running the game as an 8 and a player with more goal threat playing the number 10 role (Gallagher or maybe Palmer).

Nail on head.
Look at our very own Callum Hudson Odoi who was touted as the next big thing and we just sold him to Forest for a whopping potential of 5 million. Not saying that everyone will turn out like CHO but we have so many that the risk is far greater and we don't have anyone to turn back on. We also did not pay for Callum but we paid over 100m for Noni and Mudryk.
Remember when everyone on here were saying he was better than Sancho? Well look at Sancho now, there's another one.
I have hope that we have the right man for the job and in 6 months we could be looking at a different team but this project is far riskier than us spending money on proven quality and bringing in players from our academy.
We've also giving these players 6+ year contracts, what does that say for players like Humphreys who want to play for the first team.

In so far as his contract is concerned, actually he is. He trains, he makes himself available for selection, and has complied with every footballing request the club has made. However, clubs have very little power if players choose to make a hash of their transfer dealings. He would win any case for unfair termination with ease and we would be liable to pay out the entirety of his contract in full, plus face potential sporting sanctions as it would be breaching club and FIFA obligations to player contracts. Lukaku is impulsive and insecure, possibly even maliciously petty, but he is not stupid.

The only breach of a standard EPL player contract he has possibly committed is clause 3.2.5 which relates to bringing a club into disrepute and media dealings, but that is not considered so severe it would result in termination. We decided at the time to punish him with a fine etc. so we would be unable to justify retrospective action. Any decision to terminate his contract would likely involve a lengthy appeal/arbitration process similar to the Mutu case, which means the financial impact would affect us for years to come.
The standard contracts also allow EPL clubs to propose variations and amendments to contracts at any time, meaning it is not illegal for us to propose a new contract but there are restrictions on how we do so. There is a general principle that contracts are not valid if signed under duress and any implied demand by the club would make it easy for Lukaku to argue he was "forced' to sign his contract; in turn, this could potentially allow him to terminate his contract with just cause under FIFA regulations, allowing him to walk away freely and potentially be entitled to compensation, not to mention any breaches of English employment law that may also be relevant.
I don't think the club have made any demands of Lukaku. At the end of the day, the club own Lukaku's registration and are entitled to expect he is available to play for the club. The club's position is simply that they are happy to pay him 350k/wk if he plays for us, but will not be subsidising his wages if he doesn't. If a prospective club doesn't want to meet his wage demands then it is on him to sign an altered contract that is feasible for the prospective club, but that's a conversation between him and the other club, not Chelsea.

We have to buy IMO. We have absolutely no cover for the centre forward role. Anything happens to Jackson and we are back to last season's fiasco with no viable striker. 
It's a long time until Nkunku comes back. Broja isn't even getting a spot on the bench and how do we know he will even be the same player after such a horrific injury. And Burstow has looked like he really isn't ready for this level yet in the few occasions he has got on the pitch.

Yeah, I do feel he should be a bit more involved in the build-up phase myself. He wasn't at all involved in that area today so at times he was quite isolated further forward. With his quality on the ball it's a bit of a waste if he's not involved so we really should be looking to getting the ball to him as often as we can.

He's not worth 100m though. We are just idiots who are obsessed with giving Brighton money.

The kid has been slagged off left and right but he has barely had a sniff of play time.
 
Definitely needs a stretch of consistent starts to gauge where he is at, I will hold my judgement until then.

Hopefully now we have Caicedo and Lavia to help the defence we can ditch this back 3 rubbish. So much of what was exciting about what we saw in pre-season wasn't on show at all. 

If that's the truth then things really are very bleak. We have to just pray and hope things will fix themselves and I can't see it.

Arjen Robben was a player who had a lot of injuries in his career but still managed to have a good career, even in his 30's he was quick and at the top of his game. Reece on the other hand, I just don't know... It's can't be healthy missing half of the season from injuries at his age and every game I watch him play I always get that anxiety that he's going to ask to come off. Such a bloody shame...

What's sad is just how many of our academy players have been hindered with horrible injuries, CHO looked ace until he was out for 6 months, never the same player again. RLC again, looked brilliant until that stupid friendly game that took him out for months, he was never the same again. It's due to this reason I'm not that confident on Broja after he comes back. 

Why is 'selling' even a talking point? This is our Reece! Come on folks, this ain't Twitter/X!

We all know it though, we are hoping for different but we all kind of know that we will never get the best out of him, and I'm only meaning it in terms of an unbroken injury free season.
It's probably very painful to accept for all, player included, but how many times have you seen a young player that's constantly injured ? Not very often, usually older players and when it starts you know the decline has started. 
Maybe the age makes a difference but I won't bet on him ever having an injury free season.

All season, effectively. He'll get fit for a week or two here or there, but let's not kid ourselves. I love Reece, but we can't ever count on him for the long haul again. 

Full length call with Eden:
 
https://x.com/thebluedodger/status/1692474179616964654?s=46&t=-ihGgbdk7PMcROr0t1P76Q
 

More to the point as ESPN pointed out it’s now defensive midfielders that are going for the big bucks. Unless you have one of the top 3-4 then maybe you need to set your team to play  differently. . 

In the Endo he was their first choice all along...

No it doesn't 🤔

Loving the homage to Liverpool comments out there
Lavia
Fernadez
Caicedo

I don't know why they ever comment on anything. No one gives a sh*t about City and their fans, no matter how many trophies they win. Only thing interesting about them these days is Haaland.

To some degree that’s correct. Some might argue that we should have wrapped it up quicker or earlier - and just have bid the £100m Brighton wanted. It would seem as if we thought the deal was genuinly possibly at  £85-95m.
That being said… few would have foreseen Pool coming in with a massively higher bid; £110m + sell-on with and ideal payment structure.
In some way we us to thank, while Pool is part of the story as well.
IMO. The fee is too much. Should have been £90m at max - which was also the area our SD’s were working on. That part was defo influenced by Pool coming in with a record bid. However, I’m glad we got him. Even more so due them dropping that bid. Excited to see him alongside Enzo.