51 minutes ago, Stim said:

I feel like this is taking a conclusion and working backwards from it. How was Sarri ever going to start CHO ever without it being used as a 'he is buckling to pressure' line? If he doesn't start CHO it is proof he is stubborn and won't last long. He starts CHO and its proof he was stubborn and won't last long.

Maybe he is telling the truth, and didn't think he was ready for the PL games and now does. At least enough to start a home game against one of our weaker opponents.

Yeah....

Unfortunately for Sarri, no one is noticing that CHO and RLC have both improved massively this season. They both have been embedded in the first team squad. Both have got their chances for England (as has Barkley). 

Yeah we might think he should have been progressed quicker, but at least he's been progressed. I can't imagine Conte or Jose would have done the same. I would wager that under them, we'd be talking about CHO as much as we'd be talking about other young players who never got played. 

Edited April 4, 20197 yr by bisright1

3 hours ago, bisright1 said:

Not a chance. I love the kid but he's not shown me he's that much better than Willian and Pedro as an all round player. He loses possession a lot. 

He should be playing more because he's as good and because those two won't (shouldnt) be at the club in 12 months time. 

It's this sort of overcautious mindset that has limited CHO's minutes up to now and meant we have seen FAR too much of Messrs Willian & Pedro!

 

He might not be the rounded player they claim to be, but that's because he's 13 years younger. Willian and Pedro regularly lose possession and okay, so they might track back a bit and be more defensively aware but that's why we are struggling to create and score goals because they give us very little as an attacking threat. CHO is a breath of fresh air and he will scare defenders sh*tless who up to now have been playing with a cigar on when they face our usual toothless attack. The time for change has come - Thank f**k!

 

9 hours ago, Ernie_blue said:

40 appearances at 10mins each. This appearance thing is rubbish, it's like saying I made 30 appearances at work in a month but I was only there for 5mins ?

Boss, is that you?

1 minute ago, Nibs said:

It's this sort of overcautious mindset that has limited CHO's minutes up to now and meant we have seen FAR too much of Messrs Willian & Pedro!

  

He might not be the rounded player they claim to be, but that's because he's 13 years younger. Willian and Pedro regularly lose possession and okay, so they might track back a bit and be more defensively aware but that's why we are struggling to create and score goals because they give us very little as an attacking threat. CHO is a breath of fresh air and he will scare defenders sh*tless who up to now have been playing with a cigar on when they face our usual toothless attack. The time for change has come - Thank f**k!

 

I agree with this, I would rather CHO starting, but I just am not ready to say he is definitely better than Willian or Pedro (who has actually had a good season). I can see how he's been held back. 

4 minutes ago, bisright1 said:

I agree with this, I would rather CHO starting, but I just am not ready to say he is definitely better than Willian or Pedro (who has actually had a good season). I can see how he's been held back. 

At least we agree!

Think we all know that come the summer, ideally it would be the time for Pedro & Willian to be shipped out (but a lot will depend on transfer ban and the fact we are likely to be losing Hazard). They are both as good as they are ever gonna get and will only decline. Both have very good games now & again but then both have the habit of just not turning up. Don't know about anyone else but one week I prefer Pedro (like the Spurs game) then prefer Willian when he has a better game. All I am certain of is that NEITHER are great these days and I would prefer to see CHO (although he does need to be handled correctly so not wanting him to start every game and burn out).

 

 

That’s how you blood in a youngster though. You give him the end of games when the pressure is off and get him used to the general awe of playing in front of 40,000 + fans. Then you introduduce him into “challenge” situations where the team  is seeing a game out or a goal down etc. Then he earns the right to start games. But a player needs to realise they need to keep improving and not made to believe they’re the finished article. This is what Sarri is clearly trying to do. 

On the mental side as well a young player and especially a winger needs to have confidence. If he comes into an inconsistent team who are losing and feels he can’t make the difference clearly that won’t help. And his teammates might resent the fact he is being fast tracked (despite him being the more promising player). Just saying there are a lot of different dynamics at play here rather than just chucking him in and hoping for the best.

Now Sarri says (again) he’s ready so hopefully he keeps starting. 

Edited April 4, 20197 yr by rtwelch

4 hours ago, RIP Mourinho said:

What really excites me is next season, perhaps in a cup game, we could see a team such as:

Kepa (24)

James (19) Christensen (22) Rudiger (26) Emerson (24)

Jorginho (27)

Kante (28)       RLC (23)

Pulisic (20)   Abraham (21)   CHO (18)

Average age of 22.9 years and on paper looks very strong. Even without a transfer window we can go from an old ageing team to a strong, youth-filled team with bags of potential. We've gone from an old stale team to one with huge upside potential if we can manage it correctly.

2 hours ago, evissy said:

I feel Sarri lied in the presser afterwards. He said CHO is now ready to play every opponent. For him it seemed it was important to say when CHO is ready. I think CHO has been ready for months. He let the criticism in and now he buckled under pressure to start CHO and state something everyone knew already. 

He is in a war with everyone else. It is very sad I think. I don't think he will survive Chelsea for too long. 

I agree that he probably won’t last and it’s too bad really - he didn’t even have to change his system yesterday, just the players, and it worked quite well.  His downfall isn’t going to be his “Sarriball” style of play, it will be his reluctance to rotate the team and play the youngsters.

Edited April 4, 20197 yr by mwblue10

2 hours ago, evissy said:

I feel Sarri lied in the presser afterwards. He said CHO is now ready to play every opponent. For him it seemed it was important to say when CHO is ready. I think CHO has been ready for months. He let the criticism in and now he buckled under pressure to start CHO and state something everyone knew already. 

I disagree (that he's buckling under the pressure), had he been he would have dropped Jorginho and played Kante as a DM by now but thankfully he's smarter than that.

5 minutes ago, mwblue10 said:

I agree that he probably won’t last and it’s too bad really - he didn’t even have to change his system yesterday, just the players, and it worked quite well.  His downfall isn’t going to be his “Sarriball” style of play, it will be his reluctance to rotate the team and play the youngsters.

Reluctant to rotate the team and play the youngsters!!! Lol

There were 7 changes yesterday and 3 youngsters on starting 11!  

11 minutes ago, Gentian said:

Reluctant to rotate the team and play the youngsters!!! Lol

There were 7 changes yesterday and 3 youngsters on starting 11!  

What he's saying, and many of us agree with, is that it should have happened closer to the 15th game of the season instead of the 32nd... 

You'll find  very few complaints about yesterday's starting  XI, before or after the match. Well, after the match you'll find a lot of people complain that it took so long... But not about the team selection itself.  

 

Edited April 4, 20197 yr by Skinnedy

26 minutes ago, Gentian said:

Reluctant to rotate the team and play the youngsters!!! Lol

There were 7 changes yesterday and 3 youngsters on starting 11!  

But after the second half display against Everton and the shocking display against Cardiff, he HAD to make changes. Credit that he did but to be honest, if he hadn't he would have run the risk of being lynched!!

53 minutes ago, Gentian said:

Reluctant to rotate the team and play the youngsters!!! Lol

There were 7 changes yesterday and 3 youngsters on starting 11!  

Well done, using one game to fit your narrative, I was quite obviously referring to the season as a whole.  The team selection yesterday was superb, and if anything, it reinforces the point I was making.

4 minutes ago, mwblue10 said:

Well done, using one game to fit your narrative, I was quite obviously referring to the season as a whole.  The team selection yesterday was superb, and if anything, it reinforces the point I was making.

Yes, yesterday was just proof that the so called "moaners" that have been on Sarri's back for not playing them were correct.

Before yesterday RLC & CHO had started one league game between them. It is a bit of a disaster that it would take this long for them too actually play.

17 minutes ago, Sindre said:

Yes, yesterday was just proof that the so called "moaners" that have been on Sarri's back for not playing them were correct.

Before yesterday RLC & CHO had started one league game between them. It is a bit of a disaster that it would take this long for them too actually play.

We were unbeaten in the league until late November, so you can understand why Sarri wasn't too keen on changing the team and playing a 17 year old. Also, RLC was out for most of January/February with his back issues, otherwise I'm sure he'd have played more.

I do agree that we've left it too late to give CHO a league start, but only by a couple of months.

I keep hearing reports about “big boys” of Europe coming for PL players, Well excuse me, we are the only watchable competitive league, the other leagues aren’t watched regularly and rarely have more than one or two clubs as champions.

tgese “big boys” only thrive in the CL that’s their spot light, and incase anyone didn’t notice half of the teams in the 1/4 finals are English, 4 from the PL, 1 from each of Spain, Italy, Holland and Portugal.

so the question is why on earth would any player want to leave this league for any of these second rate leagues and “big boys” that aren’t even qualifying for the later stages of the only competition they are watched in. 

32 minutes ago, DannyVblue said:

We were unbeaten in the league until late November, so you can understand why Sarri wasn't too keen on changing the team and playing a 17 year old. Also, RLC was out for most of January/February with his back issues, otherwise I'm sure he'd have played more.

I do agree that we've left it too late to give CHO a league start, but only by a couple of months.

I can get behind this as far as the league goes, but there should have been more rotation in the Europa League and domestic cups.  I think our downturn in the league is partially due to the lack of rotation in other competitions.

Either way, hindsight is 20/20 and it’s easy for us to sit here and criticize after the fact - though I don’t think our criticism makes us wrong or Sarri right.  If CHO and RLC will be first choice the rest of the season, a lot will be forgiven.  That however, doesn’t automatically make Sarri the correct manager going forward in the years to come.

A more subdued performance tonight, particularly the second half but great to see him get another start and 85 minutes under his belt. 

2 hours ago, ForeverCarefree said:

A more subdued performance tonight, particularly the second half but great to see him get another start and 85 minutes under his belt. 

He cannot always shine. But here is the thing, defenders are not scared of Pedro or Willian. You can see it in how they face them. Brighton and West ham dropped deep as they were scared of Callum, his pace and his consistant level of crosses. That makes more space for RLC and Eden and that is worth picking him as a starter alone.

Still had a good shot on target and a handful of good crosses.

On 04/04/2019 at 03:32, RIP Mourinho said:

What really excites me is next season, perhaps in a cup game, we could see a team such as:

Kepa (24)

James (19) Christensen (22) Rudiger (26) Emerson (24)

Jorginho (27)

Kante (28)       RLC (23)

Pulisic (20)   Abraham (21)   CHO (18)

Average age of 22.9 years and on paper looks very strong. Even without a transfer window we can go from an old ageing team to a strong, youth-filled team with bags of potential. We've gone from an old stale team to one with huge upside potential if we can manage it correctly.

+1 for this. Add Mount and Ake in there for kicks. It's a pipe dream but a side like that if everyone pans out is how you win long term. None of those boys bar Christensen would be opposed to finishing their career at Chelsea either. 

On 04/04/2019 at 10:35, mwblue10 said:

I can get behind this as far as the league goes, but there should have been more rotation in the Europa League and domestic cups.  I think our downturn in the league is partially due to the lack of rotation in other competitions.

Either way, hindsight is 20/20 and it’s easy for us to sit here and criticize after the fact - though I don’t think our criticism makes us wrong or Sarri right.  If CHO and RLC will be first choice the rest of the season, a lot will be forgiven.  That however, doesn’t automatically make Sarri the correct manager going forward in the years to come.

Tooting my own horn here but I've been on this for a while now as a big deficiency in our team. Aubameyang would have had a massive impact for this reason. 

Its not that Willian doesn't have pace, he just doesn't threaten the space behind a defense like CHO has or Aubameyang would have.

One thing about us for the past decade has been a lack of pace up front to threaten getting behind teams. When you have God playing CF it's not as vital but Drogbas dont grow on trees

8 hours ago, ForeverCarefree said:

A more subdued performance tonight, particularly the second half but great to see him get another start and 85 minutes under his belt. 

Agreed, but more good experience for him.

Absolutely love how direct he is. He wants to beat his man and get a shot away, or get a cross in. Unlike Willian/ Pedro who will beat their man, and then try and beat them again.

What Carragher said about CHO post game just showed what a complete c* he is. Isn't using contract as a leverage against the club to get an advantage what don't want see it football, this is why you have those agents making loads of dirty money with the leverage, and club being held hostage over transfer deals? I'm sure if he's talking about a Kop player, he'd talk about loyalty and honour, YNWA crap. he's a f* embarrassment on Sky.

CHO played well, can't expect him to turn up 8/10 every game, he did his part and looked threatening everytime he ran at Creswell