2 hours ago, axman2526 said:

Would be interesting to see them in tandem on the sides. Never have we had both in form at the same time to try it.

I think we have tried it with Lamp. They key with puli is you can't play him on the right it is a disaster. He is basically a poor man walcott on the right. 

CHO is 100x times, yes 100 times better than puli on the right but you reduce his passing ability because the angle of pass is going to be different. 

I am also not sure of playing two out2 winger in 343. You kinda isolate your cf and asking him to be a target man like Drogba. Lukaku isn't one, werner n havertz are certainly not one. 

I prefer one narrow and one wide player, or some games play a false 9/10 with two st up top (like what Barkley did for us not Havertz. Havertz played more like a no 9) 

 

Edited November 27, 20214 yr by Bob stark

Callum is a lot better than Pulisic bar finishing as @Bob stark pointed out.

Even before this recent explosion he was always up there at the top in terms of key passes/dribbles and all the other key creative stats and his general decision making is very good.

Pulisic runs down blind alleys too much for my liking and he has an annoying tendency to ruin promising moves by taking it one dribble too far. He looks great when everything comes off (ala his post lockdown run of form) but too often I come out of a game he's played in feeling he's done absolutely nothing.

18 hours ago, USATim said:

Numerous London publications have Chelsea selling Pulisic in the transfer window. Liverpool wants him desperately, and will pay, but Chelsea won't make that move, which I find rather ironic. Barcelona next up it seems, but money might be an issue. Thoughts from Chelsea fans on this? 

I have a feeling he'll end up in Arsenal. Good luck with that.

Can we now give him a couple of games as a wide forward?

Start him on the left at Watford. So long as he is not awful let him also play against West ham there. Let mount have his chance on the other side both games. Unless again he is poor at Watford.

Life as a wide forward at Chelsea is very hard, so many options.

 

1 minute ago, haviet1 said:

Life as a wide forward at Chelsea is very hard, so many options.

 

Unfortunately not one of them is a nailed on starter due to consistency and/or injuries. If we had players consistently delivering the goods, we would not see so many changes week in week out.

2 hours ago, RMH said:

Unfortunately not one of them is a nailed on starter due to consistency and/or injuries. If we had players consistently delivering the goods, we would not see so many changes week in week out.

So many options, and they are all Medicare at best this season bar CP who has been injured almost all season.

I wouldn't believe any of the news about us selling him, they have us selling for a £10m loss does that sound like Marina to you guys? If anything despite his injury issues which were well documented when we bought him, his value could have only increased since he's won 2 club and 1 international trophy since joining us. 

I'd also like to point out that despite his tendency to just go head down and dribble he's the only player in the squad that has shown a consistent purple patch in terms of goals. Under Lampard when the prem resumed he looked like the best player in the league and that I heard from not just Cfc fans but Liverpool and City ones too. He destroyed both their defences, scored vs Arsenal in the cup final. The guy is the definition of a big game player he nearly scored in the ucl final and got a goal and assist in the 2 legs vs Madrid. 

Selling him would be a huge mistake imo we need to give him time get fit, if he's injury prone for 3 full seasons then fair enough but as things stand he's fit and playing so I see no issue.

10 minutes ago, LongtimerLurker said:

I wouldn't believe any of the news about us selling him, they have us selling for a £10m loss does that sound like Marina to you guys? If anything despite his injury issues which were well documented when we bought him, his value could have only increased since he's won 2 club and 1 international trophy since joining us. 

I'd also like to point out that despite his tendency to just go head down and dribble he's the only player in the squad that has shown a consistent purple patch in terms of goals. Under Lampard when the prem resumed he looked like the best player in the league and that I heard from not just Cfc fans but Liverpool and City ones too. He destroyed both their defences, scored vs Arsenal in the cup final. The guy is the definition of a big game player he nearly scored in the ucl final and got a goal and assist in the 2 legs vs Madrid. 

Selling him would be a huge mistake imo we need to give him time get fit, if he's injury prone for 3 full seasons then fair enough but as things stand he's fit and playing so I see no issue.

It would given none of our wide forwards are anywhere near as good at him at scoring or creating goals.

3 hours ago, LongtimerLurker said:

I wouldn't believe any of the news about us selling him, they have us selling for a £10m loss does that sound like Marina to you guys? If anything despite his injury issues which were well documented when we bought him, his value could have only increased since he's won 2 club and 1 international trophy since joining us. 

I'd also like to point out that despite his tendency to just go head down and dribble he's the only player in the squad that has shown a consistent purple patch in terms of goals. Under Lampard when the prem resumed he looked like the best player in the league and that I heard from not just Cfc fans but Liverpool and City ones too. He destroyed both their defences, scored vs Arsenal in the cup final. The guy is the definition of a big game player he nearly scored in the ucl final and got a goal and assist in the 2 legs vs Madrid. 

Selling him would be a huge mistake imo we need to give him time get fit, if he's injury prone for 3 full seasons then fair enough but as things stand he's fit and playing so I see no issue.

 

There's just no way Chelsea would entertain any thoughts of selling him this January. At the very least, Tuchel would want to have him as bench options throughout this very competitive season with both league and Euro trophies at play.

If he's still injured and not able to produce for the rest of this season, then a summer move in 2022 could potentially be possible.

 

4 hours ago, LongtimerLurker said:

I wouldn't believe any of the news about us selling him, they have us selling for a £10m loss does that sound like Marina to you guys? If anything despite his injury issues which were well documented when we bought him, his value could have only increased since he's won 2 club and 1 international trophy since joining us. 

I'd also like to point out that despite his tendency to just go head down and dribble he's the only player in the squad that has shown a consistent purple patch in terms of goals. Under Lampard when the prem resumed he looked like the best player in the league and that I heard from not just Cfc fans but Liverpool and City ones too. He destroyed both their defences, scored vs Arsenal in the cup final. The guy is the definition of a big game player he nearly scored in the ucl final and got a goal and assist in the 2 legs vs Madrid. 

Selling him would be a huge mistake imo we need to give him time get fit, if he's injury prone for 3 full seasons then fair enough but as things stand he's fit and playing so I see no issue.

I'm hopeful that the rumours of selling him are complete bullsh*t. We shouldn't even entertain the idea of selling him, not at his age. There is plenty of space in this squad for a player of Pulisic's quality. 

I would go as far as to say that he has the ability to go many levels above any of our current attacking players. All we need to do is keep him fit.

15 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

I'm hopeful that the rumours of selling him are complete bullsh*t. We shouldn't even entertain the idea of selling him, not at his age. There is plenty of space in this squad for a player of Pulisic's quality. 

I would go as far as to say that he has the ability to go many levels above any of our current attacking players. All we need to do is keep him fit.

And how long are we going to keep having to wait?

Yes his restart form gives him some credit in the bank but with a few exceptions (admitedly a CL semi being one) he's been absolutely rubbish for the past year and a bit. 

22 hours ago, axman2526 said:

Can we now give him a couple of games as a wide forward?

Start him on the left at Watford. So long as he is not awful let him also play against West ham there. Let mount have his chance on the other side both games. Unless again he is poor at Watford.

It's ridiculous to me that Callum has one so so game after being outstanding for a month and there's calls to drop him for someone who has a handful of good games in the last 16 months.

19 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

I'm hopeful that the rumours of selling him are complete bullsh*t. We shouldn't even entertain the idea of selling him, not at his age. There is plenty of space in this squad for a player of Pulisic's quality. 

I would go as far as to say that he has the ability to go many levels above any of our current attacking players. All we need to do is keep him fit.

 

The two teams I keep hearing about that are interested is Barca and Liverpool.  

Barca can't afford him and Chelsea isn't interested in a loan deal.  Liverpool may want him but Chelsea doesn't want to give their rivals a player.

2 minutes ago, Argo said:

And how long are we going to keep having to wait?

I won't commit to time frame. All I can say is at this point, I am not entertaining the idea of selling a player of his ability. I would rather we keep working on it and see how it goes than give up on him. In the past I have wrongly given up on players when they were going through a tough time, even when I knew they had the talent to reach the highest levels. Just look at how much Christensen has improved. It was only a year ago I was saying he wasn't mentally or physically strong enough for the Premier League, but now I am desperate for us get him tied down to a long term contract. 

We have given the likes of Loftus-Cheek a lot more time when we thought his chance had gone, and now he is impressing Tuchel enough to play him in big games. Loftus-Cheek may or may not reach the highest level of the game, but as it currently stands, we have a very handy squad player that can help make a difference.

It's not like Pulisic is Bakayoko, we have seen glimpses of genuine world class talent in him. It would be stupid to risk another Salah situation. There are already rumours of Liverpool having an interest, and just like with Salah, they wanted Pulisic before we signed him. Just the thought of Pulisic being sold and then returning to the Premier League as a world class player playing for Liverpool is enough for me to say we should take us much time as we can with him.

11 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

I won't commit to time frame. All I can say is at this point, I am not entertaining the idea of selling a player of his ability. I would rather we keep working on it and see how it goes than give up on him. In the past I have wrongly given up on players when they were going through a tough time, even when I knew they had the talent to reach the highest levels. Just look at how much Christensen has improved. It was only a year ago I was saying he wasn't mentally or physically strong enough for the Premier League, but now I am desperate for us get him tied down to a long term contract. 

We have given the likes of Loftus-Cheek a lot more time when we thought his chance had gone, and now he is impressing Tuchel enough to play him in big games. Loftus-Cheek may or may not reach the highest level of the game, but as it currently stands, we have a very handy squad player that can help make a difference.

It's not like Pulisic is Bakayoko, we have seen glimpses of genuine world class talent in him. It would be stupid to risk another Salah situation. There are already rumours of Liverpool having an interest, and just like with Salah, they wanted Pulisic before we signed him. Just the thought of Pulisic being sold and then returning to the Premier League as a world class player playing for Liverpool is enough for me to say we should take us much time as we can with him.

Unlike with Salah no blame will be able to be put on our door as we have given him multiple chances to not only be more healthy but deliever when he does play. Salah actually did deliever everywhere bar here and he even done okay here for 6 months.

Regarding Christensen I was one of the few actually saying we should stick with him, it was clear for me he had late bloomer potential but with Pulisic I'm just not sure, he plays and runs with his head down which is great when everything is coming off for him like it did in the restart but when it doesn't he is unbelievably frustrating, I've lost count of the amount of times he's done one dribble too many and ran into the defender. 

41 minutes ago, Argo said:

And how long are we going to keep having to wait?

Yes his restart form gives him some credit in the bank but with a few exceptions (admitedly a CL semi being one) he's been absolutely rubbish for the past year and a bit. 

It's ridiculous to me that Callum has one so so game after being outstanding for a month and there's calls to drop him for someone who has a handful of good games in the last 16 months.

Play CHO lwb, they can both play. We need people who score goals, we are wasting too many good chances. CHO is not a goal scorer.

11 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

I won't commit to time frame. All I can say is at this point, I am not entertaining the idea of selling a player of his ability. I would rather we keep working on it and see how it goes than give up on him. In the past I have wrongly given up on players when they were going through a tough time, even when I knew they had the talent to reach the highest levels. Just look at how much Christensen has improved. It was only a year ago I was saying he wasn't mentally or physically strong enough for the Premier League, but now I am desperate for us get him tied down to a long term contract. 

We have given the likes of Loftus-Cheek a lot more time when we thought his chance had gone, and now he is impressing Tuchel enough to play him in big games. Loftus-Cheek may or may not reach the highest level of the game, but as it currently stands, we have a very handy squad player that can help make a difference.

It's not like Pulisic is Bakayoko, we have seen glimpses of genuine world class talent in him. It would be stupid to risk another Salah situation. There are already rumours of Liverpool having an interest, and just like with Salah, they wanted Pulisic before we signed him. Just the thought of Pulisic being sold and then returning to the Premier League as a world class player playing for Liverpool is enough for me to say we should take us much time as we can with him.

Unlike with Salah no blame will be able to be put on our door as we have given him multiple chances to not only be more healthy but deliever when he does play. Salah actually did deliever everywhere bar here and he even done okay here for 6 months.

Regarding Christensen I was one of the few actually saying we should stick with him, it was clear for me he had late bloomer potential but with Pulisic I'm just not sure, he plays and runs with his head down which is great when everything is coming off for him like it did in the restart but when it doesn't he is unbelievably frustrating, I've lost count of the amount of times he's done one dribble too many and ran into the defender. 

2 minutes ago, axman2526 said:

Play CHO lwb, they can both play. We need people who score goals, we are wasting too many good chances. CHO is not a goal scorer.

That maybe but let's not pretend Pulisic is banging them in in recent times, he didn't get his second league goal of the season last time until April last year and he was played by Frank when fit pretty much unconditionally.

Previous two games before yesterday we produced quite possibly our two best performances in years with Callum front and centre of it, it would send all the wrong messages if he's punished for one so so (not even bad) performance, putting him back at wing back would also class as punishment in my book.

The only justification for him not starting at Watford would be if he needs a rest and if that's the case he should be straight back in at West Ham.

7 minutes ago, Argo said:

That maybe but let's not pretend Pulisic is banging them in in recent times, he didn't get his second league goal of the season last time until April last year and he was played by Frank when fit pretty much unconditionally.

Previous two games before yesterday we produced quite possibly our two best performances in years with Callum front and centre of it, it would send all the wrong messages if he's punished for one so so (not even bad) performance, putting him back at wing back would also class as punishment in my book.

The only justification for him not starting at Watford would be if he needs a rest and if that's the case he should be straight back in at West Ham.

Well neither of us are well paid to make that call, TT is. And he knows to keep Roman from pulling the axe out again he needs to be the first manager since Conte season 1 to avoid a festive spiral down the table.

Long time lurker but finally registered.  I don't think I've seen this anywhere lately, but what is the consensus on the formation?  I know that we are winning, but I'm not a fan of the 343 with our mix of players.  In theory, I would prefer seeing a 4141 or maybe a 4231 would be more realistic.  Basically something that would allow more creative players to get on the pitch at the same time.  And yes, I realize that I'm basically suggesting that we move back to Lampard's formation.  

In a 4141, I would love to see Pulisic on the left, maybe CHO on the right with Lukaku up front.  Havertz and Mount in the middle, but you would have to ask to defend more than they do now.  I don't know if we have the DM right for this set up.  I think that's where Kante played at Leicester, but I don't think he can counted on all the time now.  In a 4231, maybe drop Havertz for a central pairing of Jorginho and Kante (if healthy).   In this formation, James could still bomb forward.  

I should also disclose that I'm an American, so selfishly I want to see Pulisic play as much as possible.  Between being made of glass and Tuchel preferring other options, he's not getting the run that would allow him to show his post lockdown form.

1 hour ago, pesape said:

Long time lurker but finally registered.  I don't think I've seen this anywhere lately, but what is the consensus on the formation?  I know that we are winning, but I'm not a fan of the 343 with our mix of players.  In theory, I would prefer seeing a 4141 or maybe a 4231 would be more realistic.  Basically something that would allow more creative players to get on the pitch at the same time.  And yes, I realize that I'm basically suggesting that we move back to Lampard's formation.  

In a 4141, I would love to see Pulisic on the left, maybe CHO on the right with Lukaku up front.  Havertz and Mount in the middle, but you would have to ask to defend more than they do now.  I don't know if we have the DM right for this set up.  I think that's where Kante played at Leicester, but I don't think he can counted on all the time now.  In a 4231, maybe drop Havertz for a central pairing of Jorginho and Kante (if healthy).   In this formation, James could still bomb forward.  

I should also disclose that I'm an American, so selfishly I want to see Pulisic play as much as possible.  Between being made of glass and Tuchel preferring other options, he's not getting the run that would allow him to show his post lockdown form.

Not sure why you'd change what is a winning formula with the players available. Our whole stability has been based on the three at the back and keeping more players behind the ball than Lamps did. We are still creating chances with the current formation, its just our forwards are all very profligate. Pulisic will get game time he just has to earn it like others.

23 minutes ago, charierre said:

Not sure why you'd change what is a winning formula with the players available. Our whole stability has been based on the three at the back and keeping more players behind the ball than Lamps did. We are still creating chances with the current formation, its just our forwards are all very profligate. Pulisic will get game time he just has to earn it like others.

I agree.  I highly doubt Tuchel will make any changes - nor realistically should he as you point out, it's a winning formula right now.  What got me thinking about this was the post match chat after the ManU game.  There seemed to be a lot of people who felt the ceiling was a third place finish, and I think someone said Fabregas was calling the midfield unimaginative, not giving the forwards the service that they need.  The defense is obviously incredible right now, but that's partly at the expense of the offense.  

4 minutes ago, pesape said:

I agree.  I highly doubt Tuchel will make any changes - nor realistically should he as you point out, it's a winning formula right now.  What got me thinking about this was the post match chat after the ManU game.  There seemed to be a lot of people who felt the ceiling was a third place finish, and I think someone said Fabregas was calling the midfield unimaginative, not giving the forwards the service that they need.  The defense is obviously incredible right now, but that's partly at the expense of the offense.  

If we weren't creating chances I'd agree. A peak Fabregas would definitely improve us, though he would need protecting. As it is our forwards at present can't hit a cows arse with a banjo, summed up by the incredibly poor miss by Werner when he tried to bend the ball in with his right foot when his left just had to hit the target on Sunday. 

5 minutes ago, charierre said:

If we weren't creating chances I'd agree. A peak Fabregas would definitely improve us, though he would need protecting. As it is our forwards at present can't hit a cows arse with a banjo, summed up by the incredibly poor miss by Werner when he tried to bend the ball in with his right foot when his left just had to hit the target on Sunday. 

Werner is hot garbage.  I wish Tuchel would stop giving him chances.  I've been surprised that Havertz has gotten time at the striker too.  Wasn't he always an attacking mid at Leverkusen?  I wonder if Lukaku will come good as well.  I wasn't a fan at ManU, and I never watched Serie A.  I wonder if we'll go after Haaland in the summer.  His power and pace would fit in well with our smaller attackers.  The same should be said about Lukaku, but I don't know...

How long will his restart form save him from critisism? Another Alex Iwobi tribute act today.

Shouldn't even be a debate between him and Callum right now.