I think we need to be brave and just attack these teams.  Man for Man we have more quality (even with Bakayoko and Luiz injured and out).  What we have is good players who should find a way to beat Watford if we play big like who we are.  We are unnecessarily negative and showing too much respect to opponents and this f**king sucks!  Azpiluceuta has been off the pace defensively and I think he should be benched.  Alonso as well is looking tired and I think we need to freshen the squad up with people who want to fight and prove something.  Having said all this - if we just go out and attack, Watford will surely park it into submission!  If it means putting a kid in mid then so be it, put him there.  He will have seniors around him and will adapt and grow.  This may not even be necessary if we really just go on with an all out attack.  Of course well concede but i think we will outscore these guys. 

My thinking is this,  Rudiger looked sure when he had the ball last night and his release of the ball was on point.  He managed to release the ball successfully from defence and link up with Pedro.  We lacked this all night till he came on.  Our mid is not good right now so we should not try to keep the ball too long in the mid but get the ball to our forwards in the most direct route.  If we get Hazard on the ball as much as possible then we will be fine.  To achieve this, I will go with 4-4-2 and get the opponents worry about defence and not us.   Basthuayi is bad in a 1 man CF team but has actually played well as a supporting striker and i think this is what we have and it would be better to play both our strikers and give the defenders from opposition a headache than add more to the mid and still be run over.  

                        Courtois

Rudiger        Xsen         Cahill           Kenedy

            Fabregas          Pedro 

Musonda                                    Hazard

            Basthuayi         Morata

 Watford wont see this coming and we will play direct fooball.  Win possession and ball distributed quickly to hazard / musonda or morata or pedro.  Don't keep the ball too much in mid cause right now we are not good at it!  This will definitely peg the watford guys back and win us the game.  I really hope we win this weekend and get a week to plan for the next match while our players recover.  I left Willian out and chose Musonda intentionally cause Willian is slowing down the game and not keeping possession as well.  Pedro in the center cause he has a good work ethic and will be able to beat the high pressure and distribute the ball to our wide players.  Fabregas in there cause we have no one better than him there who is fit.   Azpiluceuta out cause he has been so bad recently.  Kenedy or Alonso at left back. 

 

 

Edited October 19, 20178 yr by dhidza

4 hours ago, PloKoon13 said:

f**k it, 6-0-4.

 

--------------------------------------Courtois

-------Azpilicueta--------Rudiger-------Christensen---------Cahill

Zappacosta---------------------------------------------------------------Alonso

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--------------Pedro------------------------------------Hazard-----------------

-------------------------Morata----------Batshuayi

Oh no .  I think i would be happy seeing us adopt a more offensive set up.  4 and not 6 defenders on the pitch please.  Then play the other good offensive players that we have to attack the teams.  Having 6 defenders automatically means we sit deep and give space to Watford.  I just want to see a positive set up that shows we are Chelsea and we think attack,  and it is Watford that should sit deep and defend  

No chance Pedro is starting centre mid Conte would sooner start Cahill there.

Baka & Luiz listed on Physio Room as injured with slight doubt for being ready for Watford, looks 50/50 then either way cant see much prep time for both players if they're hurt no training right ? and no point in playing injured players, don't want to harp on about selling squad players in the summer to reduce net transfer spend cus that is over and done with and Chelsea want to self fund the new Bridge so I kind of get it, but look what happened to the gooners a decade ago. 

Game is at home which up until recently was a happy hunting ground for 3 points, Watford are in a rich vein of form. One more loss & a City victory and imo that's the title defence gone.

Team selection is not going to be easy, imagine losing to Watford after back to back prem losses- arghhhhhhhhhhhh.  Or could be a draw, win seems a long shot, last season seems like a longtime ago presently. KTF 

 

 

 

8 hours ago, Valerie said:

BTW The match is at 12.30, not 15.00.

True we had missed that in the title.

So rather than put it negatively I would say this is an uphill battle. Injured players, ones that are not are knackered and not as good as the ones injured to begin with, bar hazard. Watford on form. Barley two days of rest and an early kick off. Could prove rather interesting. 

Get the ball to hazard only way we win.

Must win literally. We win or Conte goes. Simple as that. 

Really hope that the players show respect to the coach and fight to last breath. But still must win anyway. 

 

 

33 minutes ago, Pendergast said:

Must win literally. We win or Conte goes. Simple as that. 

 

really 

I think Watford are being "bigged up" a bit too much. They are not a bad side and I do like their coach, but just because they beat Arsenal doesn't make them world-beaters. It was only a few weeks back City put 6 past them FFS!

We are a little fragile right now, with injury problems (ssshh - don't let Mourinho hear that) but we should still have enough to defeat Watford. I'm going 2-0.

COME ON THE CHELS!

1 hour ago, Pendergast said:

Must win literally. We win or Conte goes. Simple as that. 

Really hope that the players show respect to the coach and fight to last breath. But still must win anyway. 

So sack him, and pay him off ££££, then pay out for a new manager £££££, and then give the new manager money to spend on new players...£££££.  

Or we could just get the new players and keep the manager.

Which is simpler ?

Looks like we have a bit of a midfielder crisis. I wonder if Drinkwater will be available

3 hours ago, mojo said:

Referee: Jonathan Moss

f**k

 hardly matters what team we put out, he'll find someway to screw us over 

5 hours ago, Elliott said:

If I was Conte, I would make a statement vs. Watford.

Rest Luiz & Bakayoko and play Ampadu & Kyle Scott in Midfield alongside Cesc. Failing that, if Christensen can play in the middle, play Clarke-Salter in defence.

These are currently our back-up options, so why not use them?

 

Hate the early Saturday fixtures,just glad Morata is back.

7 hours ago, mojo said:

Referee: Jonathan Moss

f**k

If things couldn't be worse. I expect a chelsea red card.. That fat f**k hates us

it sounds silly to say after we got beat by bottom of the league crystal palace, but watford aren't really anything special. they have scraped through the last few games, in the arsenal game they got a penalty which was debatable and this is the same team who got smashed 6-0 at home by man city. the next two league games for us are winnable (i know, crystal palace, i know, i know) and we really should and need to be winning them games, not just to keep up with the top two, but to also regain some confidence. i hope some positive news comes out in the next day or two regarding drinkwater. 

Edited October 19, 20178 yr by enigma

Doesn't look like Drinkwater, Bakayoko or Luiz will be ready for this one.

Maybe the board will realize how bad they screwed up over the summer when Watford line up with a better midfield than ours.

19 hours ago, Nibs said:

I think Watford are being "bigged up" a bit too much. They are not a bad side and I do like their coach, but just because they beat Arsenal doesn't make them world-beaters. It was only a few weeks back City put 6 past them FFS!

We are a little fragile right now, with injury problems (ssshh - don't let Mourinho hear that) but we should still have enough to defeat Watford. I'm going 2-0.

COME ON THE CHELS!

They didn't even play bad against City though, certainly not 6 nil bad. City were just too good. 

Watford have been playing some good football as of late and given how ease it has been to bypass our midfield I'm worried they will just outplay us. Never thought I would say this about Watford of all teams but I would be happy if we came away with a draw to be honest. We can't afford to lose, that's for certain. 

Edited October 20, 20178 yr by Remodez

PARK THE BUS! Even if we are at home we need to do this. Dont be ashamed. We need to stay organized and not let in any goals. Hazard and Morata up front will score goals. The same way we played vs Spurs, sit back and use the one or two chances we get to score. Nobody will complain if we win with an ugly performance knowing we have key players injured. I hope Conte follows this plan. 

Unfortunately Cesc will definitely start, since our other midfielders are injured. Sadly even with a parked bus as long as Cesc is in there we will get run over. f**k. Why do we have to play Watford of all teams. Just no luck this year, either playing top 6 teams week after week or playing teams on form firing on all cylinders week after week. 

 

We must win this game, it's that simple. The players revolt story is already all over the back page, the Conte getting sacked headline will be on if we fail to win this. We need a strong start, I fear they will chase us down if we don't have a 2 goals lead with 39 minutes to play, given we had less than 72 hours to prepare after a tough game and they had a full week.

Had a dream last night we lost this one 3-0 [emoji102]

It is a must win it’s just annoying we are screwed in midfield.

drinkwater and Kante won’t be ready until the 5th of November apparently.

and question marks on luiz and Baka 

I think we will draw this one, ordinarily not good enough yet if the injury crisis is that severe it will feel like a win.

We might also see some unusual faces in midfield as we attempt to put a first XI on the pitch, hopefully the pitch-side fans recognise that and make allowances.

 

 

Conte just admitted that he is waiting, and hoping, that some players may be fit within the next 24 hours.  But, he also admitted that Cesc may be the only senior midfielder available tomorrow.  Man, who knows what we're going to line up with

I am dreading this one after so many injuries. Hopefully pubs will be opened before KO as I will need a couple of pints before entering SB.