carefree franco

Palmer quite rightly has had most of the praise from last night but quietly cucerella was superb! All the talk before the game of the threat betis posed was Antony and it wasn’t until he had a scrap with Fernandez that I noticed Antony was even on the pitch, cucerella had that left side locked down.

Instrumental in our conference league success he got 5 minutes in the second leg of a dead rubber

Had an absolute stinker last night but that’s on maresca, he’d be very quickly a regrettable sale if he does go. I get maresca wanting to protect James but if you have a right back the quality of gusto then alter the tactics to suit him or play Acheampong.

I think the narrative of Chelsea from that time is often unfairly labelled as boring football. There’s a difference between hard to beat and boring. You could argue that marescas Chelsea manages to be boring and easy to score against. Mid 00s Chelsea played some great football with drogba, Lampard, Cole, duff, robben, essien and the 10s had the likes of hazard, Fabregas, Costa, mata. Most games there was excitement and good football in there somewhere and even if there wasn’t I was confident that the defence and goalkeeper would get us a point. We have players who are class and will produce but it almost seems as though they’re told to recycle possession when they get the ball rather than play their game.

Interesting player.. he could be a force linking up with palmer with neat feet and clever interplay. He’s still young but seems to have a higher footballing iq than Jackson. The main dangers for me is seeing his frame and thinking he’s a target player and ruining that and if he’s that much the pressure might dwarf him, I still believe that if mudryk was half the price he’d have been so much better. It’s a risk but it could be one worth taking.

I like the idea of a Christmas tree and if it’s what was quoted above then having the 2 number 10s be able to play on the wing makes this a very flexible system. Could go to a 4-3-3 with palmer going to rw and estevao going to Lw, could push Enzo higher and play 4-2-3-1. If James is the right back then he could form a back three as well. The lineup quoted looks to give great in game flexibility. This would also solve the issue of estevao and palmer both wanting to be number 10s On Fernandez, if you give legs around him I think he can thrive. In no way am I saying that he’s anywhere near his level but pirlo for ac milan had seedorf and gattuso and for Italy he had de Rossi and gattuso in midfield with him which gave him space and time to dictate the play. So providing him with Lavia/santos and Caicedo he will not be reliant on the weaknesses to his game which are running and physicality.

I’ve just watched a documentary of ancelottis ac milan team in the mid 00s and it struck me that the players we have or will have could set up in a similar way. Obviously the current squad would be not as good on quality but the Christmas tree formation could work. Fernandez as the man in the middle dictating play with Santos and Caicedo being the legs either side, palmer being a free role with estevao behind a striker. Like a wish version of pirlo, ambrosini, gattuso, kaka, seedorf.

I think colwill shows really good traits and I think it’d be foolish to give up on him now. In an ideal world sign Tah on a free transfer this summer colwill to learn from him, then when Tah retires colwill can train acheampong through. Or is that too simple?

I’m on the fence with Delap. He absolutely bullied our defence but that’s not really saying much, and for his first season he’s played well. The question I have is had Ipswich not bought him and loaned guiu in at the start of the season instead would guiu have had a similar impact?

He does seem like he is, however he's right footed. Behind the striker the options we will have are palmer, quenda, estevao, Neto, Madueke, Sancho and mudryk. Apart from the last 2 who we don’t know the future of all these players are left footed so the only thing I would say he has over Madueke is better squad balance.

It pains me that the board overlooked Luis Enrique for poch. Seeing PSGs frontline have creative freedom, full backs offering support out wide and we have Maresca ball is very hard to watch

Palmer has the flag of st kitts and Nevis on his boots and is proud of the heritage from his dad’s side but he was always going to represent England. I think being proud of your roots and seeing yourself as being from there is two very different things.

The more I think about it the more I think we might be playing 3 number 10s with 2 starting wide and drifting in. With 2 players behind. Mudryk looked better as a number 10 last season, and would probably benefit with pressure coming off him. palmer and nkunku are best as 10s. Paez and Estevao are of that mould. Neto is the only “true winger” who isn’t open to being sold but I think he can play that role. It might be the case that the first choice front 3 is a fluid mixture of 10s behind a striker, if we get a proper number 9, 3 of palmer, nkunku, Neto, felix, mudryk could be fun

Him and colwill have got very good potential, I worry about the fitness issues of both and the other cbs behind them. If Chalobah wasn’t being forced out I’d have a lot more faith in the defence this season.

If he wasn’t on monster wages or have a team that releases statements when he’s not in the match day squad I think he would be a squad. The season is long and I would not be surprised to see a conference league and cup team where it’s basically a whole different line up. The players who are here when the window ends will all get game time especially with the track record of injuries last summer, but having a player with a big ego on big wages makes no sense. If we can get 20-30 million for him he’s definitely off

they discuss the statement here and they show it.

It would, but if maresca is going to continue with Fernandez as number 10. That means this season we would have, felix, Enzo, palmer, nkunku, Neto, mudryk, madueke, sterling and Carney for 6 positions. I’d say even KDH would be considered to be an option there. That’s far too many players there especially when if Fernandez is playing there then we’ve only got Caicedo and Lavia as midfield options. This is a signing that screams luxury signing.

Sanchez and petrovic both aren’t great with their feet. But as a goalkeeper petrovic is better. There’s a reason why Brighton dropped Sanchez for Steele. We’ve bought 5 goalkeepers for what we could have bought Costa for and the only reason I can see why is if we can sell half of them for 5-10 million pound profit it is good for the books. But goalkeeper is a position where you can only play one player and to get a profit on a player they need to play football.

Completely agree. Jorgensen I haven’t seen much of but what I’ve read is he’s the “new model” of comfortable with his feet so I guess makes some amount of sense but to shift petrovic for Sanchez who is woeful when he’s under pressure, is something I can’t get my head around. He was dropped at Brighton because De Zerbi didn’t have faith in him when being pressed with the ball at his feet so for Chelsea to say “this is our number one” is ridiculous.

There was a moment in the first half where the ball came to him, he had 2 city players around him and nkunku (I think) in acres of space. He tried a step over and fouled Dias. Then there was the offside goal where he can see across the line from his position and still managed to be offside. Then there was the chance where if he put it anywhere apart from down the keepers throat it’s a goal. That’s 3 big moments in the game where he’s cost us. He is very good technically and has pace and is strong but his footballing brain is so poor a lot of the time, if he could learn positioning, composure and decision making he’d be unbelievable. Can he do that though? I’m yet to be convinced.

Fernandez should have been hooked instead of Lavia today, but there’s a good player in there. Just need to find the right balance, I remember when Modric started his career he was seen as a number 10 and he really clicked into gear when he was dropped deeper, pirlo was the same too. Just like under sarri I didn’t think playing kovacic, kante and Jorginho at the same time was wise playing Lavia, Caicedo and Fernandez doesn’t work. Play 2 of the 3 or if you want to play all 3 make Fernandez play deep where he’s at his best. Don’t shoehorn a good player into a position that doesn’t suit him. Lavia and Caicedo have the ability to be box to box Fernandez can unlock defences from deep.

There are so many concerns and questions I have over this. Mainly around the number of creative players and marescas principles. I’m guessing sterling is going to be sold? if we play with a striker, Guiu or Jackson for example, then 3 of nkunku, palmer, Neto, felix, madueke and mudryk linking up popping the ball about with Caicedo and Enzo behind being the glue is exciting. apart from nkunku the other 5 are 25 and under and nkunku is still young, so if as expected Paez and estevao are going to jump into the first team that’s 8 players for 3 positions? And that’s not considering George or Carney which would take it up to 10. It would be potentially special to watch the link up play between them. which brings me on to the other major question thing for me is the tactics. Maresca looks like he wants his team in a 4-3-3 with the wingers high and wide one midfielder holding getting support from an inverted fullback and two midfielders who are between “8s”and “10s”. Not a 4-2-3-1. So if he plays this system I’d say palmer and nkunku are musts but if either of them are on the wing they aren’t going to be hugging the touchline to stretch play, I’d actually say. And felix isn’t that profile either. in short, felix doesn’t look like he suits any of the positions in a bloated squad and I can’t understand why he’s being targeted.

I’d still take him as well as this veiga guy if we can unload chilwell and cucerella. It look’s almost certain that he’s arsenal bound though. Will arsenal be offloading anyone? If he’s being signed as a lb Timber seemed to be the one for lb before he got injured, then there’s zinchenco who left city because he wanted guarantees on game time. And if he’s seen as a cb then he’d struggle to shift saliba or Gabriel

Unfortunately he wanted first team football when he came back from Swansea. He didn’t want to go on loan and it was a risk if he was ready to step in straight away. I’d wonder what the reaction would be if the board said we’re not making a centre back signing because humphries will be the lb/lcb after a good season in the championship?

Apparently Bologna will accept 50 million euros for him because they will owe Basel a large % of the fee. So if Chelsea offer a fairly large fee plus cassedei (who apparently they rate highly) surely they’ll consider that better value overall as they won’t owe Basel as much of the percentage. I also wonder if Bologna would want Badieshille? He’s not as good but would be a decent replacement for calafiori for them and they wouldn’t have the headache of replacing him and not seeing a large part of the fee going elsewhere, just a thought