When Loftus-Cheek returns, surely he takes Bakayoko's spot immediately. What a waste of money Bakayoko was. We should have just given his minutes to Loftus-Cheek last season. It would have saved us a lot of money.

Hudson-Odoi on the other hand looks great. Hopefully he get's a few chances to prove himself this season. The one thing i would say is that i would prefer him to take his full back on a bit more. Sometimes he is 1v1 and he will take the safer option which he doesn't really need to do. He already looks like he has the pace and skill to beat most full backs. It could just be because it's pre season though and maybe in a real game he wouldn't play so many safe passes.

may be useful to some to know that that match will be rebroadcast on UK Freeview channel 95 at 11:00am tomorrow morning.

Decent first half. Very scrappy second half. CHO major plus on the night. Baka sadly isn't good enough, Caballero will cost us if he is needed for a sustained spell of matches. Early days but I've a feeling defensively left back will be a problem position in a four.

 

 

 

 

 

Personally i was very impressed with Pedro. He was outstanding first half very quick and direct. Ampadu is a young man but already a leader, fearless and I think he is already ahead of Christiansen. 

Odoi excellent and should play when hazard is given a rest. 

Jorginho and Fabregas seem to work well together more so than barkley, so I see barkley making way for Kante. 

Zappacosta has been decent too. 

 

1 hour ago, cRyptic said:

CESAAAAAAAAAAR

No, We'll just call him Dave

 

 

56 minutes ago, Gentian said:

Personally i was very impressed with Pedro. He was outstanding first half very quick and direct. Ampadu is a young man but already a leader, fearless and I think he is already ahead of Christiansen. 

Odoi excellent and should play when hazard is given a rest. 

Jorginho and Fabregas seem to work well together more so than barkley, so I see barkley making way for Kante. 

Zappacosta has been decent too. 

 

But Fabregas and Jorginho won't be playing so close to each other once Kante returns, so it will be a very different situation. The only way Fabregas can play is if he plays in a more advanced role like Barkley does, i just don't know if he is capable of that anymore.

3 hours ago, charierre said:

Caballero? will cost us if he is needed for a sustained spell of matche?s?????.??

Agreed, decent shot stopper and good in a shootout, but he makes too many mistakes and flaps at high balls. Honestly, I think Bulka might play if Tibo is injured, the club think highly of him and he looks more composed that someone far more experienced than him. 

2 hours ago, Gentian said:

Ampadu? is a young man but already a leader, fearless and I think he is already ahead of Christiansen. 

Stood out like a sore thumb in the youth games last season and took no sh*t from older, more experienced players in the checkatrade games. What I love about him is he is a physical defender and likes a challenge, but he combines that with a good eye for a pass, suits this system. 

Watching the highlights the quick passing Jesus I can't remember the last time I a Chelsea team play such quick passing

I think this system is going to take some time for the players to settle.  Although the back 4 looked reasonably solid, they looked rather narrow leaving Inter to exploit the wide areas and they got behind a few times and didn't take full advantage.  I know today's back 4 will not be the one that starts the season, however hopefully more work is done or we could be shipping goals as we get caught on the flanks.  The middle of the park looked rather disjointed, scrappy and lacked shape at times,Barklay was solid but Cesc' was hardly in the game, again these games are in the very early stages of Sarri's vision and hopefully before the first game of the season we are in better shape as the star players return.  Again, unfortunately the attack lacked any real penetration and hardly any chances were created after Pedro's goal; hopefully the return of Hazard and Willian will nullify any fears about the lack of goal scoring.    

 

How did Jorginho look lads & lasses? I see he was on for the full game

Ampadu needs to improve his pass under pressure. He was the only one in our team clearing the ball when somebody on him.

Glad to see the desire, even in a match like this, to play dominant, aggressive football. Hope Hudson gets his well deserved start against City.

2 hours ago, Giordano_Bruno said:

Ampadu needs to improve his pass under pressure. He was the only one in our team clearing the ball when somebody on him.

Glad to see the desire, even in a match like this, to play dominant, aggressive football. Hope Hudson gets his well deserved start against City.

I disagree, Ampadu chose the right times to play the ball out or when to just boot it as all the best players do. 

A much improved Morata first half.Hudson Odoi looks an exciting prospect.I like Jorghino and Ampadu has a bright future.With the return of our world cup players i feel we will be challenging on all fronts.We are moving the ball much quicker.Early days i know.

People need to realise, this kind of style will always have a risk to it. However, pretty much every style does. The balls over the top because the back four press high is a risk, and so is passing out from the back under pressure. However, I believe the rewards greatly outweigh the risks. 

In this game you could see that Sarri has been working on the players defensive shape when off the ball. At Napoli his sides sat in a compact 4-1-4-1 which would then go to a 4-4-2 when the team pressed the opposition. You can see the players trying to implement this albeit they did look awkward and slow to transition between the two. They also didn't look very organised when pressing in the 4-4-2 and often pressed in isolation as players didn't fully readjustable the triggers for the press. We lack the compactness of his Napoli side and often left gaps when shifling from side to side as well as when being countered. The defence are still too deep and need to push up to squeeze the space between them and the midfield. 

Positive would be how well our defence move in a line as a defensive unit. For most of the game they kept their shape and moved in great unison up and down the pitch. 

On the ball we looked decent. That was until the second half where our players stopped moving and stood still. Our team became static and we were much easier to press. We are looking good playing out under pressure but still and rent fully fluid with our positional play. At times we made a few silly errors which lost the ball in dangerous errors and our midfield and fullbacks didn't give the correct options for our defence at times. Hudson-odoi needs to tuck in a bit more as he is playing too wide at the moment. Pedro is playing very well and understands his role perfectly. Emerson should play over Alonso who is just too awkward in a back four. 

 

Bakayoko is crap.

Teams like Liverpool and City will run riot against that high defensive line.

1 hour ago, Total-Football said:

In this game you could see that Sarri has been working on the players defensive shape when off the ball. At Napoli his sides sat in a compact 4-1-4-1 which would then go to a 4-4-2 when the team pressed the opposition. You can see the players trying to implement this albeit they did look awkward and slow to transition between the two. They also didn't look very organised when pressing in the 4-4-2 and often pressed in isolation as players didn't fully readjustable the triggers for the press. We lack the compactness of his Napoli side and often left gaps when shifling from side to side as well as when being countered. The defence are still too deep and need to push up to squeeze the space between them and the midfield. 

Positive would be how well our defence move in a line as a defensive unit. For most of the game they kept their shape and moved in great unison up and down the pitch. 

On the ball we looked decent. That was until the second half where our players stopped moving and stood still. Our team became static and we were much easier to press. We are looking good playing out under pressure but still and rent fully fluid with our positional play. At times we made a few silly errors which lost the ball in dangerous errors and our midfield and fullbacks didn't give the correct options for our defence at times. Hudson-odoi needs to tuck in a bit more as he is playing too wide at the moment. Pedro is playing very well and understands his role perfectly. Emerson should play over Alonso who is just too awkward in a back four. 

 

Bakayoko is crap.

Agreed. A few times I was baffled at the amount of space Inter had between our defence & midfield. 

Sarri also spoke after the game about how we had a lot of the ball but didn't move it quickly enough in the first half and how that would lead to blunt attacks.

I'm really intrigued as well to see how the dynamic of this midfield is going to work. Jorginho sure loves the quick short passes but how is he going to be on the long Cesc'esque (!) passing? Presume Kante won't be asked to do this role. Also do you think Kante has the attacking attributes in his game if Jorginho will be dropping deep a lot of the time...

not sure if anyone posted this Post-match interview after the Inter Match

 

6 hours ago, Zeta said:

Teams like Liverpool and City will run riot against that high defensive line.

I’m hoping we can adapt to the opposition when the need arises rather than persisting constantly with the same sh*t formation and starting 11 for 80 minutes like last season. 

Any links?

There isn't a match.

We play Arsenal on Wednesday. They will play a full strength team since most of their players never participated in the world cup. Hope RLC gets to play now that he's back. 

I know its only pre-season and the result really doesn't matter, but I really want to beat Arsenal  

13 minutes ago, PedroMendez said:

I know its only pre-season and the result really doesn't matter, but I really want to beat Arsenal  

IMHO right now it trying to figure out the right way to start the season - I am with Jose, this tourny shouldn't be a big thing - getting fitness & players ready for Sarri's system is the priority