5 minutes ago, Sexyfootball said:

Rudiger, Luiz, Ampadu, Christensen in that order is the centre back pecking order for me ...

We have two decent midfielders, one of whom isn't back yet.

RLC doesn't really fit in the team in any formation I can think of.

Moses can cover for Willian and Pedro in the bang average winger competition.

CHO was superb. He doesn't need loans or wrapping in cotton wool ... he just needs to be on the team sheet each week.

Barkley was disappointing.

Bulka loses nothing in comparison to Caballero and Green.

Bakayoko and Drinkwater need to be sold as soon as possible. No loans ... just sold ...

We need to be more clinical with chances. I don't see Morata or Abraham being a part of that unfortunately.

Alonso is not a decent left back in a back four. Palmieri possibly not either, but too early to tell.

 

I agree with most of this.

I was impressed with Ampadu and not particulalry with Christensen.

I actually thought that Barkley did pterry well. Let's not forget he had a guy up front with absolutely no spatial awareness and no ability with the ball at his feet.

Agreed on Bulka although has a lot to learn on penalties like not starting your dive virtually before they have started their run up. But he certainly is ahead of Caballero in my books.

Part of me wonders if Big Pete was having a job interview tonight, he ceratinly was quality throughout.

Whilst Drinkwater may not fit teh Sarri model i personally think there is more dross to push out of the door before he goes.

Agreed we definitely need a striker. Neither Morata or Tammy have got it, unfortunately.

In some ways i thought tonight was good becuase all of the players that we have had concerns about all showed the reasons why tonight. We must have a top quality keeper and if this move is goign to happen it needs sortign out now. We must also get at least one top quality striker.

8 days left of the transfer window and we've signed Jorginho.

1 minute ago, Floyd25 said:

Agreed, can’t judge him too much based on that 10 minute cameo. 

I don’t think people are judging LC on tonight’s showing. For me he was pulling up trees in youth football because of his undoubted skill but also his physicality. I’m not sure if he has really kicked on from then or if he ever will. Any time I have seen him he has disappointed.

All being well he can improve and become I Chelsea regular but I just don’t see it.

2 minutes ago, goose said:

I don’t think people are judging LC on tonight’s showing. For me he was pulling up trees in youth football because of his undoubted skill but also his physicality. I’m not sure if he has really kicked on from then or if he ever will. Any time I have seen him he has disappointed.

All being well he can improve and become I Chelsea regular but I just don’t see it.

Unfortunately i agree with this 100%. I don't think any of us want him to fail but he just never looks more than mediocre for me. Even those simgimg his praises seem to be clutching at straws as far as ia m concerned.

I would love for RLC to develop into the player that we all hoped he would be but i just can't see it happening.

Come back Diego!

My favourite thing from the ninety minutes was seeing Zola on the sidelines.

22 minutes ago, goose said:

All being well he can improve and become I Chelsea regular but I just don’t see it.

At the moment, I don’t either and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have doubts about him fitting in to this system. But I do see him as a player with a lot of potential and I hope that he fulfills it, I believe he can. Right now, I would still have him in the squad ahead of Baka and Drinkwater, every time. 

45 minutes ago, ForeverCarefree said:

This team already looks like it’s struggling for goals.

Slightly worried that we’ll be relying on Hazard to conjure something up more often than not.

The striker situation needs looking at, right now I’m not confident with any of our options leading the line week in, week out. Giroud is probably our best forward at the moment.

This for me is key & Higuain alone won’t have fixed it. We are missing a goal scorer, a RW who you can depend on to score consistently, and someone in midfield to chip in with 7-10 PL goals minimum.

Batshuayi is similar in profile to Higuain. Hopefully he can slot in effectively.

We need to work on our pressing in the initial seconds after we lose the ball. Too often we failed to effectively win the ball back due to lack of organisation and speed in the press. Same with our triggers, players put pressure on the opponent too slowly on many different occasions which lead to us not effectively stifling the opponent. The combinations were looking good in the first tworld iris and we played through their pressing well but we lack quality and decisiveness when we enter the final third. Our whole game needs to speed up which will take a lot of time. 

World Cup year has screwed us a bit with regards to preparation and I can see a slightly slower start as a result.

Greetings from Eire. The black stuff was flowing tonight in The Emerald Isle, to be sure, Nice of you to take a break from making a total bollocks of Brexit to send over a couple of teams from The Mainland. 

First half we weren't bad at all. Hudson-Odoi looked top class, would really like to see more of him. Defensively we looked comfortable enough and in general we always looked a lot more dangerous than them. On one or two occasions we got a glimpse of how Maurizioball might work. Jorginho was worth the (incredibly over priced) price of admission - what a gorgeous footballer he looks. The second half was disjointed due to the number of changes. 

I don't get to see the team live much anymore which is just as well as watching Morata was depressing. If I wasn't feeling so sorry for myself I might have even felt sorry for him. We've seen this before with Torres - when you're gone, you're gone.  

I do miss Conte but when you don't have the good sense to go bald gracefully, like say, Yorkleyblue, and when you look taller than you actually are, then things were always going to end badly. 

Overall I'm encouraged for the season as it looks as if we will at least try and play football.

 

 

1 hour ago, Total-Football said:

One criticism of Hudson-odoi, he needs to occupy the half space much more then he does right now.

What does this mean?

35 minutes ago, ducavis said:

This for me is key & Higuain alone won’t have fixed it. We are missing a goal scorer, a RW who you can depend on to score consistently, and someone in midfield to chip in with 7-10 PL goals minimum.

It will take time. The team won't automatically score a bag full. I see no reason why Pedro/Willian (or whoever it may be to take that RW spot) cannot chip in with goals, as well as Hazard. I genuinely think Michy will be a top player under Sarri. He a clinical finisher, and rarely needs 2 chances to score. If Michy would have gone to Dortmund sooner, he could well have scored 15-20+ goals for them. I think we will see players rejuvenated under Sarri, more so than any other coach we've had. Our top players have been stifled for too long with negative, overly defensive tactics. We have great talent in the squad, they just need refining. So many bad habits have infested the current squad from previous management, that Sarri now has to complete a 360 with the players to make them shine again. 

On my way home (Wicklow) from Aviva Stadium and I had a blast.  Enjoyed the match and the atmosphere.  I missed singing the Chelsea songs like we do when I fly to London (Stamford bridge) for the games - but overall I enjoyed it. 

Chelsea played really well in the first half and Odoi is a breath of fresh air.  The boy should feature this season and learn a lot from Eden.  He should also play this season and in the next year or two his value should be sky high.  I think we have a gem of a player here.  Jorginho - can't wait to see him play with Ngolo.  We were more dangerous than Arsenal even when we didn't have Ngolo, Eden, Willian!  This makes me really optimistic for the coming season.  

Morata, I really want the guy to get a second chance and more time at Chelsea, but he just looks lost!  Looks like he won't make it!!  Tammy Abraham looked hungrier and the more comfortable player for us.  This is dark zone for which we need to sort out.  

Luiz is really good in possession but when defending he looks a bit off Pace.  On the other hand Rudiger is excellent both on attack and defense, I think our best two central defenders for the moment are Christensen and Rudiger.  

Sarri-Ball, the best part of the night.  We play from the back and are so comfortable.  We made one or two errors but that's okay.  We are playing lovely football and I'm excited fur this season.  We need to ship out Morata and Bakayoko and keep the rest.  We are in ready good shape!!

  

 

41 minutes ago, Total-Football said:

Batshuayi is similar in profile to Higuain. Hopefully he can slot in effectively.

We need to work on our pressing in the initial seconds after we lose the ball. Too often we failed to effectively win the ball back due to lack of organisation and speed in the press. Same with our triggers, players put pressure on the opponent too slowly on many different occasions which lead to us not effectively stifling the opponent. The combinations were looking good in the first tworld iris and we played through their pressing well but we lack quality and decisiveness when we enter the final third. Our whole game needs to speed up which will take a lot of time. 

World Cup year has screwed us a bit with regards to preparation and I can see a slightly slower start as a result.

On point. I agree with you on the early press 100%.  As for quality in the final third - Morata.  Morata was just aweful.  Link up play was weak as well and he's just not top notch.  We wasted money there.  I think Tammy and Michy can do a better job there and we already have them.  But Odoi was class.  Bellerin suffered big time - Absolutely loved it.  I think We should play both Odoi and Eden!  Defenders will be completely f ucked!!

1 hour ago, ForeverCarefree said:

This team already looks like it’s struggling for goals.

Slightly worried that we’ll be relying on Hazard to conjure something up more often than not.

The striker situation needs looking at, right now I’m not confident with any of our options leading the line week in, week out. Giroud is probably our best forward at the moment.

You are to negative!  Only Morata is sh*t.  Overall we played well from the back!  Odoi was sharp.  Tammy was good - only that when he came on, we had lots of subs on so quality was lower.  Basthuayi is another option.  Hazard Ngolo Willian will be back soon.  Based on what I saw - we are in great shape and we will have a very good season.  Cheer up!!

1 hour ago, Sexyfootball said:

Rudiger, Luiz, Ampadu, Christensen in that order is the centre back pecking order for me ...

We have two decent midfielders, one of whom isn't back yet.

RLC doesn't really fit in the team in any formation I can think of.

Moses can cover for Willian and Pedro in the bang average winger competition.

CHO was superb. He doesn't need loans or wrapping in cotton wool ... he just needs to be on the team sheet each week.

Barkley was disappointing.

Bulka loses nothing in comparison to Caballero and Green.

Bakayoko and Drinkwater need to be sold as soon as possible. No loans ... just sold ...

We need to be more clinical with chances. I don't see Morata or Abraham being a part of that unfortunately.

Alonso is not a decent left back in a back four. Palmieri possibly not either, but too early to tell.

 

Agree with most apart from Barkley, Drinkwater,  Abraham and Emerson.  The rest spot on

CHO Is very left footed/left side oriented. He won’t get on the team in front of Hazard unless one or the other plays down the right. For me Hazard isn’t a number 10 he is best out wide. 

2 minutes ago, ozboy said:

CHO Is very left footed/left side oriented. He won’t get on the team in front of Hazard unless one or the other plays down the right. For me Hazard isn’t a number 10 he is best out wide. 

What a good problem to have. 

5 hours ago, Liam said:

What does this mean?

Its a football tactic theory were you split the different parts of the pitch into pieces and players have different responsivilities depending on were the ball in is and were you are, the halfspace is the space that is between the wings and the center of the pitch. In essence it means he should move more centrally at times, or at least thats how I understand it, Im sure @Total-Football can explain it better.

 

edit: heres a pic, Halbraum is the German word  

The negativity on here can be a bit ridiculous, and whilst it was disappointing to concede so late on and then to lose on penalties, the context needs to be considered.

Arsenal have had the majority of there first team squad available since the start of preseason most of ours our either still on holiday or have just return last night we were missing Hazard, Kante, Courtois, Bats/Giroud from the likely first 11 and Azpi, Christensen, RLC, Moses and Rudiger will have had very little time on the training pitch.

Arsenal also despite this only really threatened a handful of times and we created more chances in the first 30 than they did the entire game.

Now for the positives we saw out there today:

CHO looked outstanding and has seemingly developed a nice understanding with Barkley, Jorginho and Alonso. On the left this was the focal point of Sarri's Napoli and it already looks like the cogs are progressing nicely. 

The transition from defence to attack was looking very good and very difficult to defend against in the first half and to an extent in the second, Barkley again was key in this transition. 

Chance creation we created a lot of good chances which only bodes well and should have been 3-4 up before Arsenal got any footing on the game and missing these chances cost us, as the style progresses though we will only start to create more chances.

Defensively we didn't concede a large number of chances, despite some of the whining on here, which suggests whilst yes it doesn't look fully organised yet they are doing a lot of things right.

The first 30 minutes we were almost unplayable and would have caused any team problems if we can continue to improve that style and execute it for a whole match we are in for some very exciting football.

There is still a lot of room for growth, it is obvious we aren't executing Sarri's vision properly as of yet and despite this we still played and should have beaten a fellow top 6 team that should be well ahead of us in terms of there managerial transition.

I think there has been a lot of confirmation bias on show tonight in particular at Alonso, RLC, Barkley and Abraham and I actually thought Alonso and Barkley seemed to be very useful cogs in the style of football we were trying to play.

I can't really defend Morata at all as he looked absolutely shot for confidence after he missed that penalty.

Onwards and upwards Exciting times ahead. 

9 hours ago, ducavis said:

This for me is key & Higuain alone won’t have fixed it. We are missing a goal scorer, a RW who you can depend on to score consistently, and someone in midfield to chip in with 7-10 PL goals minimum.

In general last season the team didn't score enough goals Cahill and Christensen didn't score at all whilst Dave and Rudiger only got two each. 

Between Fabregas, Kante, Bakayoko they only managed five goals all season, that simply isn't enough. 

Willian and Pedro got 10 between them, you'd be expecting at least one of them to score that many on their own. 

It's all well and good bringing in a coach to implement a more visually pleasing style of football but unless we start sticking it in the onion bag more we're going to struggle again. 

8 hours ago, dhidza said:

You are to negative!  Only Morata is sh*t.  Overall we played well from the back!  Odoi was sharp.  Tammy was good - only that when he came on, we had lots of subs on so quality was lower.  Basthuayi is another option.  Hazard Ngolo Willian will be back soon.  Based on what I saw - we are in great shape and we will have a very good season.  Cheer up!!

I don't think it's negative to make the fairly obvious observation that the team looks like it's going to struggle to score goals. In three games we've only score three goals, letting in two, if our season pans out like that we'll struggle for top four. 

That was the case last season, creating chances wasn't a problem but putting them away was. 

Our build up, approach play might change under Sarri but with the same players from last season I still think we'll struggle to score with regularity. Tammy isn't going to play for us this season and the only reason he's getting minutes in pre-season is because Basthuayi and Giroud aren't back yet. 

Hard truth is our rivals for the title/top four all have better strikers than us right now and have at least one sometime two other players in their teams that comfortably score double figures in the league, we don't and we need to. 

9 hours ago, Liam said:

What does this mean?

Hipster trash, meaningless hipster football speak trash.

5 minutes ago, dkw said:

Hipster trash, meaningless hipster football speak trash.

The only hipster around here seems to be you with your constant belittling.

4 minutes ago, dkw said:

Hipster trash, meaningless hipster football speak trash.

so much hipster trash talk that the FA do a two day training course about half spaces as part of obtaining your A-licence coaching course and Pep revolutionised football with focus on it. 

Just because you don't know what it means, doesn't mean its 'hipster trash'. 

Enjoyed the game last night. It was a good performance from us in the first half especially, Arsenal were not even in the game until the second half, really. Sarri rotated the team quite a bit which really let them in the game. 

Hudson-Odoi was a joy to watch, a real live wire! I will be utterly depressed if he goes out on loan as he looks such an exciting prospect, still quite raw, but he's only 17! I really hope Sarri lets him play for 30 minute spells here and there if we are winning games.

Morata had a stinker. I was watching shooting drills the players were doing for about half an hour before the game, Zola was laying off balls and trying out various little sequences, Morata could hardly hit a barn door. It seemed that the vast majority of his shots were either wide or sent high and wide. I don't know if his heart is in it, or what is wrong with him, but he looks well off the pace. Worrying.

Barkley showed glimpses of promise but as usual that end product isnt quite there at the moment.

You could see them trying to start the Sarri style of fast, short passes, back and forth and quite intense. It kinda looked like a Pep team with more energy in phases, which is no bad thing.

That sort of intensity will be gruelling and if we are to use this style the team will often need rotated. 

Conclusion: It should be an exciting season and we have reason to be optimistic!!

19 minutes ago, ForeverCarefree said:

In general last season the team didn't score enough goals Cahill and Christensen didn't score at all whilst Dave and Rudiger only got two each. 

Between Fabregas, Kante, Bakayoko they only managed five goals all season, that simply isn't enough. 

Willian and Pedro got 10 between them, you'd be expecting at least one of them to score that many on their own. 

It's all well and good bringing in a coach to implement a more visually pleasing style of football but unless we start sticking it in the onion bag more we're going to struggle again. 

I don't think it's negative to make the fairly obvious observation that the team looks like it's going to struggle to score goals. In three games we've only score three goals, letting in two, if our season pans out like that we'll struggle for top four. 

That was the case last season, creating chances wasn't a problem but putting them away was. 

Our build up, approach play might change under Sarri but with the same players from last season I still think we'll struggle to score with regularity. Tammy isn't going to play for us this season and the only reason he's getting minutes in pre-season is because Basthuayi and Giroud aren't back yet. 

Hard truth is our rivals for the title/top four all have better strikers than us right now and have at least one sometime two other players in their teams that comfortably score double figures in the league, we don't and we need to. 

I doubt we will struggle for goals.  Napoli under Sarri even played with Mertens as their main forward and scored lots of goals.  Hazard Willian Pedro Barkley are very capable of getting goals, they did it in the title winning season (excluding) Barkley who wasn't at Chelsea.  I think we will see good football and lots of goals.  Morata for me is the only problem but overall the team is playing well.

9 hours ago, Total-Football said:

Batshuayi is similar in profile to Higuain. Hopefully he can slot in effectively.

 

In what ? height , shoe size , inside leg  ??? Batshuayi is not on the same planet football as Higuain ..................................sorry to compare the two is laughable . 

The only thing Batshuayi has more off in any area than Higuain is Twitter followers