Bluelion7

The Juvenile approach to the Mike Maignan deal was that last straw on the camel for some; possibly myself included. Todd, I have faith YOU want winning teams, but I don’t know how much say you even have there now. The 401k managers and the bargain director twins seem to think you get awards for portfolio valuations. You guys made some mistakes with strategically breaking from “the plan” in the beginning. Sterling’s contract is a nightmare, I get it. But you can’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. The players want the structure they agree to to be important, but they also want to win if they are worth their salt, and they’ll leave anyway if we don’t win things. The Maignan signing could have been team changing, and the way it was handled was petulant and embarrassing. Another team will see him available and pay that cheap fee. And no, our goalies are NOT good enough. You are also basketball owners so you should know this: 4 quarters don’t equal a dollar. You can’t replace a dollar signing 100 quarters. Your scouts are horrible. I came on here and begged you not to sign Nkunku, a flimsy, delicate flower that liked to sneak into the lanes left by other players to put away goals. Not good enough in the ball. Not creative. Needs another striker to play off of, but can’t play the wings. My exact synopsis. We have wasted/lost enough on signings like him and Felix (non promising-youth signings) to fund an Osimhen, Rodrygo, etc etc 10 times over. This team can win. But the time to sign 5 undervalued options at each spot to find one is OVER. We have fleshed out a decent team, and now we need targeted, known killers. They can even fit the age models for the most part, but don’t waiver. If everything tells you we need to add Morgan rogers? Do it, but don’t sign some guy a metrics site says is “close” to save 30m. The other teams are gearing up. “Close” will leave you in 10th after next season.

He is not going to come in and be great. He just isn’t. My worry is that many fans and even the owners don’t seem to get that. It will take a year just to bed in culturally and start to adapt to the vastly different PL. And even more time to get himself up to speed physically. He will most likely be doing this while trying to fend off near constant media and fan criticism “thought you were better than Neymar!?” We need to have people to step up and take the pressure off, AND fans that will put their arms around d him and shield him. We don’t really have either.

Took me more than a minute to think about congratulating them on here, but I’m glad someone did. They ARE excellent sports owners. That doesn’t make them incapable of mistakes or anything, but I have full confidence that their goal is to win and to be great.

I really, really don’t think there are “United ways”. Other players complained about the downright rude treatment Sancho received from ETH. He probably didn’t handle it well. But could we be trying to save him blushes? That’s absolutely a possibility. Everyone, Chelsea, Sancho, and the press included, need to be honest about what Sancho is and what he isn’t. He’s a technically skilled and crafty player who is not a great athlete . We play a team with a low block and one player up top to counter? Sancho would be extremely useful. His interplay with overlapping players and finding ways to unlock tight defenses is great. If you play a team with pace on the outside that attacks back with a high line and we are going to have mostly isolated wingers? Sancho probably isn’t the best choice. It’s really not complicated, but United was seemingly confused he wasn’t Ronaldo after he showed up at their camp. Then they blamed him for it. Then they harassed him for being “lazy” … like he was choosing not to be as fast as someone like Mudryk. That’s a sign their front office was bad (and it was), not a real reflection on Sancho. Our people have known Sancho since he was a kid. They know what he is good at and what he isn’t, and when/how to use him. As long as his cost reflects situational use and people are honest and ok with it.. no issue.

I don’t think he needs to bulk up. He’s just remarkably lackadaisical about things like possession in a Chelsea jersey. Argentina Enzo would never let himself get walked off the ball the way he was against Newcastle, and it is often against essentially the same players … just on international duty. In his large number of possession losses I’ve watched players simply run up from behind and hook the ball away from him . He may never be as locked in mentally for club games. I’m not saying he’s intentionally tanking or not trying at all… but it isn’t the same.

This to me is the key in his growth. The truly bad decisions with the ball are turning into good, simple decisions (creating cutback chances, crossses, decent shots) or recycling the ball with less possession loss.

I think the primary thing that Dewesbury-Hall brings to the team fans will never see. What Maresca wants from the team can be difficult to pick up, and he expects the players to know all the possible actions 4 movements away at any given point in a match … sometimes for multiple positions. A player that can show players how to adapt and learn, from a players perspective, is always valuable. Maresca didn’t bring him in because he thought he was going to beat our starters in the squad. But would the squad have adapted as quickly as they have without “the teachers pet” willing to work and teach and give so much in practice? Now, playing him at RW … seems like Maresca trying to either prove a point that he is an injury option in multiple places… or a last attempt to find somewhere he can contribute. The team is now at a place where they don’t need KDH to translate ares as instruction as much, and if he can’t find a contribution niche … then maybe he moves on.

See, Cucurella has played get role where he inverts up to the 10. That’s where his heat map was predominantly against the Greece side. Difference being he’s the only one that seems comfortable doing it. His awareness in terms of knowing where to be, when to be there, especially coming back on defense and not being caught out, is simply better than Gusto’s. Heck, even offensively, Cucu was running pivot in the left channel between Mischa and Joao really well. Tight spaces and playing in midfield is far more in Cucu’s wheelhouse than Gusto. Now if we overlapped? Gusto all day. Maybe he is working his way back to a Cucu James partnership as others have said. The other thing that worries me, other than wearing Reece out, is a Gusto partnership also seems to mean more Desasi at RB…

So, I love that Reece is back .. but this isn’t how I imagined it. Cucurella is one of the most in form players in the league. He is specifically good at what Gusto seems near unaccustomed to. I pictured Reece building up his match fitness, starting 45, 60 minutes . Then playing maybe one game a week, the league, if his form calls for it. Having Reece go 90 his second game back… we needed his heroics, but that seems off to me, and I would prefer to see him partnered with Cucu.

See, from the time I started watching him with us I kept thinking “yes, hes good going forward, he looks good at LB…. But couldn’t he absolutely dominate as a CB?” His pace, power, comfort on the ball. He seems like he’s just growing into his body and realizing what he can do as he fills out. Gets better seemingly every time he plays. Cucurella and Colwill both will have to be top top on their game. If Colwill is ever out he gets in at LCB ahead of Benoit comfortably for me.

I don’t know about any curses, but I am definitely worried about the overall “shift” in how media is handling Chelsea. I thought the over the top negative coverage, in a way, brought the coaches and players together. Nothing better in sports than having the whole world tell you you suck when you know you can prove them wrong. NOW, there has been a complete 180: “Palmer is the best player in the league!”, “Chelsea: title challengers!”, “Maresca manager of the month” That kind of attention worries me more. It can make players lower their guard a bit, can create jealousy inside the team, players try too hard for their piece of attention. This could, in some ways, be a bigger test for Enzo than the start of the season, keeping the team together and maintaining success.

His comfort level on the ball surprised me. My friend thought I was crazy when I said I thought he might be a better pickup than Califiori. He looks like he could comfortably start in midfield, left back or center back if needed. He can also, politely, remind anyone thinking of leaving a leg in on Palmer that he has a yellow of his own to give … in like 9 different languages. Talented young man.

I see “if we just had someone to finish all these chances” a lot. But do you have that sheer number of chances without Jackson? He does such a good job of dragging defenses into shapes they don’t want. The other front players, especially Palmer, love playing off him. There are ways you can set up to stop technical players that like to play a certain way, like Sancho, Palmer, Felix. But with his speed and power, Jackson single handedly provides a counter that makes those set ups not really an option. That one goal blocked by the sliding defender… could he have taken the shot a half step sooner? Yeah. But think about how he was just onside (would’ve been off last year). How good was the first touch control of that outrageous Palmer pass? Instead of getting nervous and immediately putting it at the goalie’s stomach or shanked wide of the goal altogether, he rounds the goalie. He can still get a ton better, but he’s already fixed and sharpened his play a ton. He does the work that makes the fancier stuff come off so well. Great stuff.

“Killer instinct” no. Helping a player who is hesitating fractions of a second here and there? Yes, absolutely. We are talking about a guy who had received massive amounts of abuse from his own fanbase. And when we are playing away and he’s just mad and looking to take it out on opponents … no issues. But he REALLY wants to do everything right for the home fans. And if a player is putting too much on their shoulders or the hesitation is coming from overthinking, that has a definite treatment in sports psychology.

We need to keep showing Jackson the love. Maybe he could have pulled the trigger on the shot earlier, etc but it’s a lovely control on the Palmer pass and he rounded the keeper and the defender did make a good play. The rest of the game Jackson was fantastic though. It was his runs and the work he was doing that was making the channels so open. But there are situations where he needs to think less and just “Do”. The Chelsea fanbase can help with that though. As the support and love for him grows, the “what happens if I miss?” goes away and the sky is the limit for Nico. I can easily see him being a 20 goal, 15 assist guy.