Even manu and inter looked quite sharp. Still the Italian clubs are all missing a key player. Juve don’t have a Jorginho which they need for Sarri  and inter a striker. Still it’s interesting to see conte and Sarri at work. They are in charge and they have a clear style and plan. And like Jose they pick players they like and discard seemingly good ones they don’t want. There is a total system at work. 

On 19/07/2019 at 17:29, WalterWhiteCFC said:

He just played in the gold cup with a 9 day break how can he not be match fit 

It was 9 days between the final and when we joined up for preseason, 12 days between games played.  I’m sure he is still quite fit, but 12 days without a game is more than enough time to lose some sharpness.

20 hours ago, WalterWhiteCFC said:

Just imagine if sarri wins the CL ?

Wouldn’t bet against it

10 hours ago, Old Shaggy said:

I don't find myself agreeing with you a lot @WalterWhiteCFC, but in this I do. Our rivals seem to be getting better results against the big boys (Liverpool aside) and we're struggling against cannon fodder. I know I know "pre-season is about fitness", but you've got to admit, we need to be hitting the back of the net soon, or our start to the season could be a messy one.

I think it’s about cohesion, the teams that have the same managers know what they are doing, sarri seems to get players sharp very quick as we saw we flew out of the gates last season.

As for us I don’t think frank knows how he wants to play yet, this is where experience comes in, it would be understandable if he was apprehensive and wanted to make sure he didn’t get this wrong but he needs to get an idea in his mind and go with it, we have had no shape look like we don’t know what we are supposed to do...

It will take time but unfortunately not a commodity we have, we need a quick start or things could go left quite quickly, a good start would take some of the pressure off of frank.   

5 hours ago, mwblue10 said:

It was 9 days between the final and when we joined up for preseason, 12 days between games played.  I’m sure he is still quite fit, but 12 days without a game is more than enough time to lose some sharpness.

I mean a team in the PL with no other competitions can go 8 days between games, now imagine a sub that missed one plays the other, could be 15 days, you dont lose match fitness in 9 days, when he came back he was training remember, he is certainly match fit, but I agree could lose a bit of sharpness. 

27 minutes ago, WalterWhiteCFC said:

I think it’s about cohesion, the teams that have the same managers know what they are doing, sarri seems to get players sharp very quick as we saw we flew out of the gates last season.

It will take time but unfortunately not a commodity we have, we need a quick start or things could go left quite quickly, a good start would take some of the pressure off of frank.   

 

1 hour ago, WalterWhiteCFC said:

 

 

It will take time but unfortunately not a commodity we have, we need a quick start or things could go left quite quickly, a good start would take some of the pressure off of frank.   

I heard some talk that all Frank has to do to keep his job is to avoid relegation, so if that's true? there won't be any pressure from inside the club.

Everyone should appreciate how difficult it's going to be this season. How can we be expected to be competitive with this squad? I though we hugely over achieved last season, partly due to Spurs losing so many games, Arsenal being terrible away and Utd being pants. 

We have to face the harsh facts that our strikers are not good enough. William and Pedro are bang average and without RLC our midfield is dire. If Mount and Pulasic don't come in and start creating and scoring we might well be in for a long, hard season, but even if we are, I won't be one pointing a finger a Frank!  End of the season after this will be the time to start judging him.

PS. Soz about the messed up reply in the above post. Had to answer a call and unintentially posted it before it was ready.

 

 

 

 

 

9 hours ago, Dixons said:

I heard some talk that all Frank has to do to keep his job is to avoid relegation, so if that's true? there won't be any pressure from inside the club.

Everyone should appreciate how difficult it's going to be this season. How can we be expected to be competitive with this squad? I though we hugely over achieved last season, partly due to Spurs losing so many games, Arsenal being terrible away and Utd being pants. 

We have to face the harsh facts that our strikers are not good enough. William and Pedro are bang average and without RLC our midfield is dire. If Mount and Pulasic don't come in and start creating and scoring we might well be in for a long, hard season, but even if we are, I won't be one pointing a finger a Frank!  End of the season after this will be the time to start judging him.

PS. Soz about the messed up reply in the above post. Had to answer a call and unintentially posted it before it was ready.

 

 

 

 

 

I would doubt a club like Chelsea would even have relegation in their minds they didn’t specify he must get top 4 according to frank himself but he said it was basically mutually understood that Chelsea must always challenge.

I do t think the club will be putting a great deal of pressure on frank, but I think he will be putting pressure on himself, he also knows it’s all eyes on him this season, so my comment about taking off some pressure by good early results was in relation to that not the club. 

However that won’t last forever from Chelsea If we finished bottom half he would likely be gone or close to it let alone worse than that it’s just not Chelsea standards, this team minus hazard finished 3rd and won a European cup as well as a domestic final, he isn’t facing the uphill struggle some would portray.

If we can find a goal scorer we should be top 4 contenders all day. 

Edited July 23, 20196 yr by WalterWhiteCFC

Looking forward to the Barcelona friendly in an hour or so. It's the first pre-season match that I've had a chance to watch. Apparently it's all looked very disjointed so far, but you cant judge a team on pre-season. I'm hoping that Frank is working them into the ground, so that by match day they're shattered. There were a couple of matches last season where I felt we looked off the pace in terms of our fitness - that shouldn't be an issue this year.

With the squad that we have available I'd like to see this team start...

                    Kepa

Azpi    Zouma    Christensen    Emerson

          Jorginho     Kovacic

                   Mount

          Pedro         Pulisic

                 Abraham

Edited July 23, 20196 yr by DannyVblue

You got it and I think that’s close to the strongest available although Barkley could feel  dissapointed and Christensen starts in front of Zouma. I’d have tomori instead of either

Edited July 23, 20196 yr by ozboy

http://bfst.to/play/soccer-14.php

https://stream-cr7.net/chelsea-live-streaming.html

http://leadingred.us/live/2332/barcelona-vs-chelsea-espn2/

43 minutes ago, DannyVblue said:

Looking forward to the Barcelona friendly in an hour or so. It's the first pre-season match that I've had a chance to watch. Apparently it's all looked very disjointed so far, but you cant judge a team on pre-season. I'm hoping that Frank is working them into the ground, so that by match day they're shattered. There were a couple of matches last season where I felt we looked off the pace in terms of our fitness - that shouldn't be an issue this year.

With the squad that we have available I'd like to see this team start...

                    Kepa

Azpi    Zouma    Christensen    Emerson

          Jorginho     Kovacic

                   Mount

          Pedro         Pulisic

                 Abraham

Good call! Only difference is Luiz starts in place of Zouma

Good chance for Tammy to impress now. Hope he takes it.

Fairly strong starting line-up, need to see a decent performance from these players.

32 minutes ago, Amputechture said:

Good call! Only difference is Luiz starts in place of Zouma

Could have picked any of our centre-backs really - I like them all.

Glad to know that Frank and I are on the same wavelength ? 

It’s interesting to watch Tammy. His touch and movement are good so far. His decision making not so much. Palmeri looks smooth so far. 

That's a really poor challenge from Jorginho. Dangerous.

Abraham bombs it

Empty net for Tammy, it's a bad miss after good work from Pulisic.

We score

Now thats how you press high, force the error, and finish in style.

Real class by Abraham there, that’s what you want from your striker, just missed a sitter, gets his head up and has the confidence to take it round one of the top goalkeepers in the world. 

 

Imagine that was Morata? He’d never have bounced back that quickly!

The midfield duo is looking excellent today.

Very impressed with Tammy's first touch today. The ball is sticking to him under pressure. Took his goal well too - it's just a shame that he missed a good chance a little earlier. We're the better team here - really liking the look of this line-up. Impressed by Pulisic too - he's looking class!

Edited July 23, 20196 yr by DannyVblue

Poor finish from Pulisic there, that needs work!