carefree franco

It wasn’t just the like for like subs that was baffling, it was the bring gusto on for James and ask him to do the exact same thing as him. If something isn’t working try the same thing with different players mentality

I haven’t seen enough of Gittens to make a proper judgement on him yet. However if he is the same level as Madueke I don’t really get the criticism, palmer, estevao and Neto all favour the right hand side and no one was naturally a LW so if we have just got a player on Maduekes level on the left then it gives the squad more balance.

It wasn’t just the like for like subs that was baffling, it was the bring gusto on for James and ask him to do the exact same thing as him. If something isn’t working try the same thing with different players mentality

I actually thought he looked pretty good physically, brushed off 2 players with relative ease within 5 mins or so of coming on.
Seems to be able to handle himself which is good as he will probably have to be a starter sooner than people thought.

And that remains a big problem, essugo should be the understudy to Caicedo and who plays next to him should be based on the game, santos should play against teams who aim to stifle us, Enzo should play when the teams a a bit more attacking and he has time to play and Lavia should play when he’s fit.

I meant that although it was given for that, the contributing factors also played a part. The ref in the United game did also make a mark on how close the attackers were to the wall so maybe it’s a thing that’s being enforced more this season

I’ve accepted that we will build as a back three but during the club World Cup and brief pre season I thought Maresca had learnt from last season but today really struck home how foolish I was.

I then (stupidly) got excited when santos and gusto were coming on for Enzo and James (admittedly too late) because I thought that meant gusto would attack high and wide like he did against PSG and santos would drop into the pivot and cucerella would be the third centre back. All of which in turn meant you could get estevao palmer and Neto in space to cause problems. But no he asked them to perform the same job that wasn’t working when Enzo and James were on.

That’s a long winded way of saying, the frustration of last season attacking stubborn defences looks to be a norm again this season.

Maybe not, he’s definitely more explosive and flashier than George which might deceive the eye test somewhat but I’ll give him time to prove himself

Which translates to:
“We bought too many crock/sh*t CB’s that we can’t sell so you’re just going to have to suck it up.”

Maresca: "The performance was good, we created chances"
I'm reconsidering, I think giving him until October is too long.

Drawing with Palace is fine, it's the manner of the draw for me. If we tested the keeper a few times, played with some pace, created good chances, had something to our game, then walking away with a draw would be frustrating, but there would be something to take away from it. What we saw though was something that shatters the confidence.

I said last season that I wouldn't put up with Maresca for another season if the same sh*t continues. For me, he has until the start of October. If we still play this football and if there is a big distance between us and the top 3, then I am more Maresca out than ever.

He should have been brought on earlier. He has more presence than Enzo, he impacted the game and I think he should have been used deeper to allow estevao more freedom and gusto holding the width but he is definitely a player who should get plenty of minutes this season

Seems we are actually what we all thought we were before it was masked by the CWC.
Enzo will probably make a fantastic coach on the continent where you can play so slowly.
In the Prem, we’re just so EASY to play against, everyone not called City, Liverpool or Arsenal will just play a low block against us and hope to hit us on the counter.
Maresca’s insistence to hamstring our best player (Palmer) by playing him centrally where he can be so easily nullified as opposed to where he is most effective (cutting in from the right) is absolute beggars belief at this point.
It’s that kind of pig headed arrogance that hampered us so much last season.
Play our best players in their best positions and stop dicking about with it at the back, so f**king dreadful to watch and has 0 positives to it.

Every team has ten men behind the ball when they don't have the ball. This is not a low block, it is just defending. They didn't come into this game to stifle us. We're going to have more possession as we're at home. The reality is that we moved the ball too slowly, we again wasted vast amounts of our possession with aimless passes to the nearest unmarked play to just receive it back form them. If anything i thought our lack of intensity and creativity came from the medium level pressing they put on us.

Why single our Pedro though? Neto, Palmer, Estevao, Gittens, Delap, they all suffered with the same problem, and that problem is Maresca.

Looks like he is going to take a while to adapt to the physicality of the league. I didn't know much about him tbh, doesn't look much better than Tyrique George though, not sure he is an upgrade on Sancho, different player, but I guess time will tell, not too impressed so far though.

Vanity player that can’t be dropped because of his price
Going to see how long it takes before Maresca grow some balls and drop him.

He needs to be benched again until he brings out his best performance. Today Palace brought forth all the bad parts of his game.
Santos should start

I’ve accepted that we will build as a back three but during the club World Cup and brief pre season I thought Maresca had learnt from last season but today really struck home how foolish I was.

I then (stupidly) got excited when santos and gusto were coming on for Enzo and James (admittedly too late) because I thought that meant gusto would attack high and wide like he did against PSG and santos would drop into the pivot and cucerella would be the third centre back. All of which in turn meant you could get estevao palmer and Neto in space to cause problems. But no he asked them to perform the same job that wasn’t working when Enzo and James were on.

That’s a long winded way of saying, the frustration of last season attacking stubborn defences looks to be a norm again this season.

All the work that Chelsea have done with the wage structure will be undone in an instant if we went for him. I think he’d be an immediate upgrade but would not be surprised if half way through the season there’d be questions about making mistakes with the ball at his feet

I wasn’t that keen when we were first linked but having watched a couple of games and seeing how Maresca played around with tactics a bit more in the club World Cup I really want him. A touchline winger (gittens or Neto) with Simons and palmer playing as “outside” 10s and one of the full backs offering width on the other side sounds exciting. Estevao looks like he can play in any of the 3 positions behind the striker as well so those 5 could offer flexibility and mean that our attack isn’t going to be predictable.

All the work that Chelsea have done with the wage structure will be undone in an instant if we went for him. I think he’d be an immediate upgrade but would not be surprised if half way through the season there’d be questions about making mistakes with the ball at his feet

I hope to be proven wrong but not going after a top CB worries me. Even if Colwill was fit I thought we needed a partner for him given Fofana can't be relied on. The other CBs we have are various degrees of average; one of Badiashile, Tosin and Chalobah shouldn't be a starter for a team trying to challenge for the top trophies, let alone two of them.

If Liverpool do get Isak I can see them becoming a mid to late naughties Real Madrid. All shiny toys but no steel. I don’t know how they plan on lining up but frimpong has been a right midfielder for Bayer and I don’t have confidence in his defensive abilities, kerkez looked good but the same questions defensively have to be asked. Then the midfield of wirtz macalister gravenberch seems attack heavy. On paper Liverpool getting these players seems scary but in reality it doesn’t appear at all balanced.