On 27/07/2018 at 12:35, Nibs said:

That is surprising Stim. I've spoken to a few Utd fans moaning about Rashford + heard the usual calls to TalkSport and they're all pretty scathing but as you say, those stats don't appear to back their argument up.

He barely started a game after Sanchez signed. That's where they are coming from.

23 minutes ago, yorkleyblue said:

So  you watched every Swansea match, did you?  You know exactly what team selection decisions their various managers made and why?

I can understand people having in-depth knowledge of performances of players in our team when they watch every match, but  making sweeping statements condemning a good young striker based on nothing but possibly a couple if Match of the Day highlights programmes is just bollocks.    As  @RIP Mourinho said "he did well with what he had at Swansea. Prime Drogba wouldn't have got more than a handful of goals in that Swansea team. "

Swansea was absolutely dreadful in attack last year and Tammy was one of their better rated attackers. It's like if our strikers on loan don't score 15 goals it's an utter failure, there is no context to any possible success or struggle.

1 hour ago, yorkleyblue said:

So  you watched every Swansea match, did you?  You know exactly what team selection decisions their various managers made and why?

I can understand people having in-depth knowledge of performances of players in our team when they watch every match, but  making sweeping statements condemning a good young striker based on nothing but possibly a couple if Match of the Day highlights programmes is just bollocks.    As  @RIP Mourinho said "he did well with what he had at Swansea. Prime Drogba wouldn't have got more than a handful of goals in that Swansea team. "

Not every obv but saw between 10 and 15 full Tammy performances. He's got the potential to become a good striker. Pure poacher that doesn't have too much else to his game despite his height and last year he struggled with finishing. Nowhere near ready to play an important role for Chelsea.

1 hour ago, RIP Mourinho said:

Rudiger, Luiz, Christensen and Ampadu are all CB's that can play the ball. How do these not fit the system? This is 4 players fighting for 2 spots, plenty enough.

Tammy flopped? Hardly. I don't particularly rate him but he did well with what he had at Swansea. Prime Drogba wouldn't have got more than a handful of goals in that Swansea team. 

Michy has never been given a run of games at Chelsea. One start every now and again. Look at all the other teams he's been at and he's consistently scored goals. 

Morata i agree is poor and don't rate him. Having said that i'll be happy to have him fight for the number 1 spot against Michy until next summer to see if a suitable replacement becomes available. 

Liverpool have played their best football in years with an attacking mid playing #9 for them ffs, we can manage with Morata, Michy and Tammy.

Alright then so you are fine with just gambling on Michy taking massive steps if he gets a bigger role? He got plenty of chances.

Go have a look in his thread from when he played a see what members here said. Many might have forgotten how poor he was for us now that he's been gone for a while.

And no we can't manage when every club we will be competing against have proven 20+ goal machines at their clubs.

1 minute ago, Sindre said:

Alright then so you are fine with just gambling on Michy taking massive steps if he gets a bigger role? He got plenty of chances.

Go have a look in his thread from when he played a see what members here said. Many might have forgotten how poor he was for us now that he's been gone for a while.

And no we can't manage when every club we will be competing against have proven 20+ goal machines at their clubs.

Its not a gamble with Michy. Every team that he plays multiple games in a row he scores goals for. Find me an instance where Michy started say 5 games in a row for Chelsea. How can a player perform when he has no match action for months then gets one go to score a hat trick. https://www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/chelsea-finally-set-to-give-michy-batshuayi-key-role-under-maurizio-sarri-a3901276.html 

Sarri apparently wants him too which is a good sign.

30 minutes ago, RIP Mourinho said:

Its not a gamble with Michy. Every team that he plays multiple games in a row he scores goals for. Find me an instance where Michy started say 5 games in a row for Chelsea. How can a player perform when he has no match action for months then gets one go to score a hat trick. https://www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/chelsea-finally-set-to-give-michy-batshuayi-key-role-under-maurizio-sarri-a3901276.html 

Sarri apparently wants him too which is a good sign.

Disagree but thats fine. He scores against lower league sides in the cups mostly and have a ton of flaws to his game so even when he scores he can be poor. He doesn't have the basics down like ball control, passing, and making runs.

 

17 hours ago, Sindre said:

Disagree but thats fine. He scores against lower league sides in the cups mostly and have a ton of flaws to his game so even when he scores he can be poor. He doesn't have the basics down like ball control, passing, and making runs.

Well, he seemed to be smashing them in for fun in the Bundesliga.

Keep Tbo for a year, run down his contract then let him go. 

Get Bulka a loan that'll play 40+games or have him as our own number 2 and let him take over next year. Looks special. 

Will be a similar age to when Courtois became number 1 at Atletico. 

On 01/08/2018 at 17:50, Sindre said:

Disagree but thats fine. He scores against lower league sides in the cups mostly

He can only score against teams he plays against. He didn’t fit in with Contes system because he was part of the two man attack in front of 8 defenders who was expected to hold the ball up for half an hour while people got forward or produce a miracle ala Hazard.

I think in a more attacking system he can thrive just like he managed on loan. There can’t  be any harm in giving him half a season to see. 

On ?01?/?08?/?2018 at 16:34, Davey Baby said:

As for Tammy, he struggled in a struggling side, sure, but he wasn't a flop. What did you expect of a teenager leading the line for a crap side in the PL? Last season was good for his development. 8 goals in under 40 games. He did okay. I wouldn't be surprised to see him loaned out again but I'd be disappointed. I think we could do a lot worse than Morata, Batshuayi and Tammy as our 3 strikers next season. It really isn't too bad at all. They all have the potential to be much-improved, given last season they had zero or little PL experience.

I think the purchase of Giroud last January re-invigorated our season because Morata was ineffective. Bats couldn't read a game and Tammy playing for Swansea never seemed  to get into a game either.

Yes they could all suddenly turn a corner under Sarri, yet is that likely?

Anyone that still thinks the squad is good enough? First competitive game of the season over and we were lucky to not lose by 4 or 5 to be honest.

Our backline is horribly suited to high line defence as we go into the season. We need a CB and LB.
Alonso and Luiz making up the left side in defence in this system is suicide.

Still need major upgrades in midfield and attack as well.

I know Sarri needs time and i fully support the manager but he's taking on an impossible task with this group of players. Even with everyone back, no injuries and a topped XI we are lacking four or five additions to do anything of note.

I think we all know the squad needs improvement, but the board seems unwilling to spend the money on top players. Going for quantity over quality.

7 minutes ago, Zeta said:

I think we all know the squad needs improvement, but the board seems unwilling to spend the money on top players. Going for quantity over quality.

Yep and thats exactly why we finished 5th last season 30 points behind Man City.

4 minutes ago, Sindre said:

Anyone that still thinks the squad is good enough? First competitive game of the season over and we were lucky to not lose by 4 or 5 to be honest.

Our backline is horribly suited to high line defence as we go into the season. We need a CB and LB.
Alonso and Luiz making up the left side in defence in this system is suicide.

Still need major upgrades in midfield and attack as well.

I know Sarri needs time and i fully support the manager but he's taking on an impossible task with this group of players. Even with everyone back, no injuries and a topped XI we are lacking four or five additions to do anything of note.

LB can be easily fixed, just don't start the slowest player in PL and play Emerson instead. CB, use Christensen instead of David Luiz.

Upgrades need to happen in central midfield and attack though. We can't afford to loose control in central midfield when we play with a high defensive line, thats the most important thing. Fabregas is way to slow for Sarris system to work, I don't care how good at passing he is. Barkley, RLC, Drinkwater and Bakayoko are mediocre options at best, we need a quality player like Savic or Kovacic to play alongside Kante and Jorginho.

For our attack we either need to buy someone that can score goals, or we change to a false 9 until Morata improves.

30 points behind City and the board thinks its most appropriate to bring in 1 senior player to help close the gap - Jorginho 

Hazard - "I want good players"

Board - "Go f**k yourself Eden"

3 minutes ago, The Liquidator said:

30 points behind City and the board thinks its most appropriate to bring in 1 senior player to help close the gap - Jorginho 

Hazard - "I want good players"

Board - "Go f**k yourself Eden"

It was last summer where we f**ked it up, we had the momentum of winning the league and the board f**ked it up badly.

6 minutes ago, The Liquidator said:

30 points behind City and the board thinks its most appropriate to bring in 1 senior player to help close the gap - Jorginho 

Hazard - "I want good players"

Board - "Go f**k yourself Eden"

"But please sign this contract we are offering you so our sh*tness won't be so visible"

37 minutes ago, Zeta said:

I think we all know the squad needs improvement, but the board seems unwilling to spend the money on top players. Going for quantity over quality.

We've already amended this statement in this close season. We have taken out the quantity now.

I think ideally we need a CB, right winger and a forward.

Will we get any with the distraction of maybe needing to find a replacement for Courtois?

We’ve left it too late in the window again though. We’re asking the manager once again to improve upon the previous season with inadequate or lack of signings. It’s very frustrating.

It’s either going to be a frantic few days or a very underwhelming few days.

Would like us to go all in for Martial and stump up the asking price for Rugani. 

Looking at Willian and Moses today, I’d take Zaha in a heartbeat. 

44 minutes ago, comtrend said:

LB can be easily fixed, just don't start the slowest player in PL and play Emerson instead. CB, use Christensen instead of David Luiz.

I assume Sarri would have used him if he was any good. Not getting any chances under Sarri or Conte before him doesn't making me optimistic about his abilities.

I can see us signing one player at most and they may end up being the replacement for Tibo

Poor defence. Terrible midfield and even worse up front.  I know its still only pre season but the huge gulf in class between City (and Liverpool) and us is sad and becoming increasingly wide. We know how little patience Roman has when things are not going well. With this group of players it will be impossible for us to mount any kind of challenge to the likes of City and Liverpool. We now look so average in every department we could easily be mid table come November and then what?

People were saying we are stacked. I pointed how we only had Kante who has a high energy game to press and run which is vital for Sarri. Fabregas is so lazy and his pressing is abysmal. He cant start big games or even against mid-table teams. 

Jorginho had Allan and Hamsik next to him in midfield at Napoli both high energy with legs. Today he looked below average being flanked either side with lazy players. We have no pace in this side. 

Defensively we will improve Napoli were equally as bad in Sarri's first few games but improved over time. 

But Danny Drinkwater, Bakayoko and Cesc are no Allan or Hamsik Sarri at his disposal in Italy. They jog around the pitch every time I see them. 

 

1 hour ago, Sindre said:

Anyone that still thinks the squad is good enough? First competitive game of the season over and we were lucky to not lose by 4 or 5 to be honest.

Our backline is horribly suited to high line defence as we go into the season. We need a CB and LB.
Alonso and Luiz making up the left side in defence in this system is suicide.

Still need major upgrades in midfield and attack as well.

I know Sarri needs time and i fully support the manager but he's taking on an impossible task with this group of players. Even with everyone back, no injuries and a topped XI we are lacking four or five additions to do anything of note.

That is a question for the board to answer. If the aim is a top 10 finish then absolutely yes. If the aim is top 4 then nope. Our bloated squad with sub-par players need to be trimmed. I would rather have one 60 million starter earning 250k per week than 2 x 35 million players earning 150k per week. 

It wasn't good against city, but it's important to remember that city are by far the best team the country, and the squad as it is now is comfortably stronger than 14 teams in the league. 

It's going to take a couple if months before we start seeing a real sarri team begin to take shape. 

The club cannot expect sarri to challenge for the title, when they are not bringing in top quality players. 

Ideally we will add 2 or 3 players that improve the starting 11, if we don't, then this season is a transitional season, in which our goal is change the style of football, whilst finishing top 4. Any trophy would be a massive bonus.

We are paying the price for a lot of poor decisions in transfer market over a number seasons. We aren't willing to spend big to fix the problems quickly, so it's going to take time.