Bakayoko and Luiz will be fit, imo.

I reckon one of the CBs will be put into midfield, Christensen or Rudiger are probably most suitable.

Wonder what the chances are of Kyle Scott or Ampadu making a surprise start?

Really nervous about this one. Anything less than a win and our season is heading towards a battle for top 4. Our team doesnt seem like the type that will be up for the fight for a top 4 finish if out of the question for winning the league. 

 

Would certainly like to see Pedro from the start tomorrow anyway,its baffled me how he's been out of our team. I suspect that he's been carrying an injury for a number of weeks. 

 

I'm hoping that Conte doesn't start this same sh*t Jose did, playing players that are not producing, someone like Kenedy deserves more game time than he is getting, nobody has mentioned his name as a possible starter in CM, yes it may be a risk but looks like whoever we play in CM is going to be a risk anyway,Rudiger or Christensen in CM? Cannot see this working. One thing we know is that Kenedy has a decent engine, he may be a bit raw and tactically unware but lets be honest weve looked like that in midfield for most of the season. 

If DL and Bakayoko not fit then I would like to see:  

                        Tibo

      Dave      Christensen     Rudiger

Zappa                                         Alonso

               Kenedy  Cesc

                    Pedro 

           Hazard  Morata 

 

Not having that Ampadu or Scott,they are far too young to be considered starters here tomorrow when we have a pretty versatile player in Kenedy in our squad. Lets give him a chance and see what hes made of if DL and Baka arent fit. 

 

Just to point out above is not the team i want to see start but taking into consideration the worst case scenario regarding injuries. 

We could be in a bit of a predicament team wise tomorrow. Worst case scenario out starting XI could look like this tomorrow:

Tibo
Azpi Rudi Christensen
Zappacosta Fabregas Scott/Musonda (can he play CM?) Alonso
Pedro/Willian Hazard
Morata

3 hours ago, sonic90 said:

Wonder what the chances are of Kyle Scott or Ampadu making a surprise start?

No chance.

Christensen will be CM, I think he played there a bit at youth level didn't ?e?

Gaffer's pre-match press conference

Few minutes in the press are trying to bait him about mou's injury comments again: "does he annoy you?", "does he get under your skin?"

Pathetic and desperate journalism.

 

1 hour ago, adineen98 said:

We could be in a bit of a predicament team wise tomorrow. Worst case scenario out starting XI could look like this tomorrow:

Tibo
Azpi Rudi Christensen
Zappacosta Fabregas Scott/Musonda (can he play CM?) Alonso
Pedro/Willian Hazard
Morata

Ouch! Anyone want my ticket tomorrow any reasonable offer considered!

3 hours ago, STATS said:

No chance.

Sad but true.  I also thought Ampadu looked assured when he played in the  Carabao Cup earlier this season.  Thought his passing was good, and i don't see why he shouldn't be used. 

Bakayoko passed fit for this game. 

4 minutes ago, JM7 said:

Bakayoko passed fit for this game. 

Great if true but what's the source?

1 hour ago, JM7 said:

Bakayoko passed fit for this game. 

Source ?

FFS! Just win. Pls

4 hours ago, Sing the Blues said:

FFS! Just win. Pls

Totally agree.Come on Chelsea!

10 hours ago, boomerdog said:

Few minutes in the press are trying to bait him about mou's injury comments again: "does he annoy you?", "does he get under your skin?"

Pathetic and desperate journalism.

 

 

10 hours ago, boomerdog said:

Few minutes in the press are trying to bait him about mou's injury comments again: "does he annoy you?", "does he get under your skin?"

Pathetic and desperate journalism.

 

Totally agree. Why don't they simply report the facts? That might be too hard for some of them...

Can’t find The actual source saying Bakayoko is fit but it’s all over Twitter and loads of people saying it’s true. 

Hopefully good news. 

Match day, Come on Chelsea ! Hope we steady the ship today a little bit, not overly optimistic given the last 3 performances but a narrow win will do for me today. Curious abut the lineup, what will Conte come up with?

10 hours ago, mad_mac said:

Sad but true.  I also thought Ampadu looked assured when he played in the  Carabao Cup earlier this season.  Thought his passing was good, and i don't see why he shouldn't be used. 

He looked good in the cup, but putting him in against a good Watford team could be too much too soon.  Definitely want to see more of this lad though.

2 hours ago, JM7 said:

Can’t find The actual source saying Bakayoko is fit but it’s all over Twitter and loads of people saying it’s true. 

Hopefully good news. 

Not sure about this. I've found a report that Luiz and Bakayoko returned to training yesterday but that's no guarantee that they'll be considered match fit.

It's feels like there is a lot riding on today's game so I'd only want to play either of them if they were 100%.

Would be tempted to throw a youth player in. They'll be hungry and run themselves into the ground. Might make a lot of other players have a long hard look at themselves and up their effort a bit. 

Well, things are not looking good at the Bridge. It's been a combination of crap referees, bad luck, injuries and bonkers lineups, tactics and substitutions from Conte. He looks stressed out of his mind and Stamford Bridge is not a happy place to be at the moment. Then we have the Fabregas debacle. We have only won one game  when Fabregas has started in midfield in the premiership and that was against Everton. If I picked up on that ages ago then why hasn't Conte? Fabregas is  poor  defending and is the weak link in midfield. Today he will likely start so I'm not that confident of our chances.Our squad isn't strong enough to compete on all fronts and Conte knows this. The board have really let him down.Bakayoko looked flimsy on Wednesday night. He was brushed of the ball far too easily and kept on losing possession. The only midfielder with passion was Luiz who played like a man possessed. He wasn't happy when he was subbed and stormed off down the tunnel. We then went from 2-1 up, to  3-2 down. LOL. Zapacosta is a bit better going forward than Moses but nowhere near as good at defending and that's why Dave got a complete roasting.  He had no protection. Alonso and Cahill did better on the other flank. Add Storm Brian into the mix and this could be a difficult afternoon.  Watford are in form at the moment and must be favourites. The only  bright side to the Roma  game was we didn't lose and Hazard scored twice. Him and Morata need to step up to the plate and save our season. Pedro to play today alongside Hazard and Morata. That will give WAtford pllenty to think about. Fingers crossed we get all three points today. COME ON YOU BLUES !!!

Match day.....COME ON YOU BLUES!

25 minutes ago, RIP Mourinho said:

Would be tempted to throw a youth player in. They'll be hungry and run themselves into the ground. Might make a lot of other players have a long hard look at themselves and up their effort a bit. 

Great idea, Musonda is the first one who pops up in my mind. Sends a message to Willian he needs to improve. I don't think he should be playing this one anyway. 

Christensen has to start for me. Dave or Cahill can make way. I'm surprised at the lack of posts calling for Dave to be dropped considering how many I've seen about Willian when he's not in form. I suppose its hard to drop him given out injury problems and how it affects CM. 

Rudiger---Christensen----Cahill

Frank-----Luiz-----Cesc------Alonso

--Musonda----Morata----Hazard

 

And tell Luiz to sit in front of the defense. The space between those two lines was atrocious vs Roma

Edited October 21, 20178 yr by TheChelseaBlues

4 minutes ago, TheChelseaBlues said:

Great idea, Musonda is the first one who pops up in my mind. Sends a message to Willian he needs to improve. I don't think he should be playing this one anyway. 

Christensen has to start for me. Dave or Cahill can make way. I'm surprised at the lack of posts calling for Dave to be dropped considering how many I've seen about Willian when he's not in form. I suppose its hard to drop him given out injury problems and how it affects CM. 

Rudiger---Christensen----Cahill

Frank-----Luiz-----Cesc------Alonso

--Musonda----Morata----Hazard

 

And tell Luiz to sit in front of the defense. The space between those two lines was atrocious vs Roma

pretty much summarised everything i've been thinking in this post. Couldn't agree more.