Riccardo

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/30/sports/soccer/ngolo-kante-chelsea.html

Sorry, looked back at replay, my mistake, Alonso was nowhere near Pereira for the first goal. Nothing much could be done about that, it was a bit of tin a*se. The second however Alonso was planted in the 18 yard box as Pereira was winding up to shoot, did nothing to press him. Even in the lead up to it he was easily taken out of position by the WBA forward he was marking. He is cut out to play LWB when there are 4 other defenders to cover him - he is good at finding space behind the opponents defence, but the trade-off is that he is defensively a nightmare. He gets skinned too easily and too often, and when we are a man down that trade-off is too much and becomes a liability.

Jorgi has been poor but both those goals were Alonso’s fault. Where’s Chilwell?

Been a while since I’ve watched a game live, first while 90 with TT in charge. Thought I’d like to share my observations. 1. We are too slow playing out from the back. By the time we get to the half way line usually all 11 Southampton players were in there own half and this congrats the midfield, forcing us to play wide or even bypass the midfielders. I thought we looked better at the start of the 2nd half when we let them have the ball a little more and the game opened up a bit. 2. Alonso is too slow to be LWB. It is probably his best position but there were a few occasions where his lack of pace left a few opportunities begging. 3. Kante is Makalele reincarnated, but runs around too much. He is just as good as Maka was at breaking up play. If he stays in position more, like Maka did, we probably won’t need to play with 3 at the back, and would help to balance the midfield, allowing 2 no. 8’s to do the running. Yes, a lot of his running is pressing but I think our midfielders were running into each other’s space too often. He’s in his 30’s now (I think) and he could perhaps sustain his career by learning to read the game more than running around as much as he does. 3. With 3 at the back I think Jorginho and Kova are better options in midfield than Kante. At least against weaker opposition. 4. Mount is Lamps mkII, just without the long range threat. 5. Werner clearly does not have the qualities to be the lone striker in our setup. I do think he’d have scored 40 goals if he was at Liverpool last season.

This was supposedly what the mics picked up, but there had also been allegations that a form of the “n” word was used.

If it weren’t for Ruud, none of this would have ever happened. No FA Cups, League Cups, Roman, PL Titles, Champions Leagues. Nothing. Zip. Nil. Niet. Niente! We’d be just another Tottenham at best. https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/52904670

I recall AVB starting well, but teams had him figured out after a few games and then he didn’t know how to solve the problem. With Lamps, the flaws are there straight away, but hopefully he’ll get it solved soon(er rather than later).

Dreaming a little but if Sarri goes to Juve maybe Roman can make a quick call to Z-man?

Big balls of a big dog. God bless him. https://www.uefa.com/video/skills/video/videoid=1954219.html?autoplay=true

http://sportwitness.co.uk/chelsea-player-front-page-marca-transfer-will-happen-nothing-goes-wrong/ Read the bottom.

Anyone watch Portugal v Spain? When AC let Costa go at the start of last season I thought it was probably for the best. But after seeing his goal, AC would probably wish he could go back in time and do everything he could to keep him.

I'd be f**king miserable too if I were the manager and asked in the summer for a second striker and left back to give us any chance of doing anything after Christmas. Then only to get told at the end of August to wait and see what happens in January. With 5 days to go before the window closes again all he's got is "Here you go, not what you asked for but another injury prone midfielder. And while we're at it, what do you reckon of Andy Carroll?". This Palmieri/Dzeko transfer better follow through. If I was Roman, and Conte manages to get us to finish second in the Prem and get over Barca in the CL, I'd walk into that boardroom in May, take a dump on the middle of the table, and tell all the board members that "It's simple. You have two choices. Eat up, or piss off". Then I'd pull out the cheque book, print my autograph on the first 6 pages, hand them to Antonio and say "Don't spend it all at once .... you got till the end of August". He makes a few mistakes with tactics, etc. So what? He's doing the best he's got with a bare bones team on four fronts. He won us the prem last year. It is not his competency that should questioned.