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.

This, this exactly. Referees in England are stars for some reason. I always hear about how “Webb is going to cover for them so it doesn’t look like they’re being called out.” They are referees. The fact that everyone knows their names is problem number one. In America, being man NFL ref, for example, isn’t even really a full time job. By the people that do it, it is considered a privilege. You would NEVER have clue they supported a particular team. They get graded for performance after each game. Crews that have grades that fall below a certain level are Suspended, and then out if it continues. The fact that teams like Chelsea can be openly targeted by certain officials, and that one one of the mildest Chelsea teams ever can set the all time season yellow card record, is insane. I thought the referee for the West Ham game did a very good job of keeping things fair, protecting player safety, and letting the game flow. You know how I know he did a good job? Because I don’t remember his name name or even what he looked like. VAR is just a tool. PGMOL running refs like a corrupt union is a MUCH bigger issue.

The model isn’t “designed to sell for profit”. That is a false narrative. It is designed so that those that don’t make it can be sold for profit, which is an entirely different principle. Targeting one or two big names, at an older profile and higher wages, has great risk. If you target the best 5 younger players at a lower PSR impact per year, then you are hoping one or two of them can be elite. That is why we brought in the Timberwolves guy in my opinion. He is a genius at manipulating soft caps like PSR and FFP. You don’t know which player is going to be the next Palmer, and which one is going to be the next (insert player that has not thrived on the first team). There will come a point, like with Man City, where we will have a much more settled first team and the need to both buy, and sell, will be reduced. We will then have younger competition challenging the established first team to keep them sharp or take their jobs. And we will probably target a specific immediate upgrade every now and then if the opportunity arises. We had teams interested in Santos for VERY good money already. They were adamant about keeping. We brought in a group of super talented younger players, and he is a “keep”. The others are good enough that we will make (or not lose money) on them…. And the team gets stronger. Andre is developing so quickly from match to match, and right now he is planting the flag to make our sister team successful, and if Lavia continues to have injury issues we might see him recalled in January.

Tosins last name tripped me up as well. I also had trouble getting KDH’s name to load. Got the rest.

Well, we had a player come straight out and say the team didn’t like playing at home last year. It did feel like fans were coming into games swayed by coverage of things like the owners. We were told by Leicester fans that Maresca would doggedly do the same thing every match: “one way to play” And he has been the opposite. We came out playing a possession-based, counter attack system that he basically admitted he designed around the weird way West Ham have been setting up. People are saying West Ham was poor, but Enzo created that. They looked like a guy who’s prepped for a fight, then sent the wrong address and had no one to punch. They had no idea what to do.

All I know is, when Caicedo got kicked in the ribs a few matches ago… there were other members of the squad just kinda looking on, like “aw man, that’s too bad”. It was Cucu that came flying in, hands ready. He is an energizing player. He’s a guy that ties the team together because he’s so likable. He takes being a teammate seriously in a way that’s reminiscent of players from previous eras. And he is simply a better player than he often gets credit for.

It IS a good problem to have; especially since I think Wesley still has some catching up to do in terms of playing regular, competitive matches after being out so long. Whether Tosin is playing better individually seems beside the point: the defense as a whole looks better when he is on the field.

I dont know if anyone would come in for Reece anymore. I actually think seeing if we have some sort of insurance that allows him to be paid off separate from PSR and give him some non-playing role within the organization might be the best solution. At a certain point he’s going g to be gone too long to try and play again. He already looked a bit lost and off it in his returns. It takes a long time of steady playing and slowly being reintegrated to get your brain and body on the same page for something like the PL. has he made it back for longer than two games?

What that story tells me is that what’s on their mind is the 2.3B or whatever locked in limbo from the sale: PL: ”Excuse us your honor, we know you have this whole dispute over whether the funds can go to organizations outside Ukraine, what type of charities and entities it can go to, etc….. but you see, Chelsea may have broken a rule … a decade ago… so we feel we should have a nice big slice of it. It will go to teams that are in distress” Bank Exec: “The only team listed here is Man United” PL: “Well, like with the Covid money, we feel it’s more efficient that way…”

You shouldn’t consider it cynical, and it seems exactly the right thing to do. You have a massive scouting network, you identify high quality talent, and you are always buying potential replacements for every position. You should, at the same time, be raising the next people to take the place of your players in house with an academy tailored towards development (I think by following City’s EDS model we will improve in this area). In the end, in any 2 to 3 year period you should have 4 or 5 high quality options competing to take someone’s spot in the team. And if they aren’t quite good enough to do that, then you sell them for a sustaining profit while doing it all again. The goal is to have a team talented enough that you end up selling some Cole Palmers, Sancho’s, etc. And you are having to come out of pocket 60-80m for someone else’s HQ option less and less often. It’s not even just about money. If you are buying/developing 1, maybe 2 options at each position and giving them 4 or 5 years to “see if it works” your roster will become complacent and stagnate. You’ll end up with players like Rashford at United; entrenched, but withering and dragging the team down. I wish Gabriel the best.

Hopefully he’s ok. I’m more concerned about Lavia’s hamstring. If we want to avoid wearing down to injury Caicedo will need to get back to end of season form. i think our best midfield setup is two of Enzo/Lavia/Caicedo with Palmer as the most attacking 8.