How do you think we should be lining up next season?

 

I think, depending on personnel, I'd like to see us switch to something like a 4-2-3-1 next season.

E.g.

                        Mendy

James       Christensen         Decent CB/Rudiger         Chilwell

                Kovacic         Kante

    Pulisic             Havertz             Mount

                 Decent Striker/Werner

 

With 1 less defender, we can play Havertz in behind the striker, where he can either link play between midfield and attack, or go on beyond the striker.

Mount and Pulisic can be the main, interchanging wide attackers.

Kovacic and Kante in the middle gives us lots of energy and running, and good defensive cover. Plus without Jorginho "dictating the pace of the game" we should hopefully move the ball around quicker.

I think our main areas of recruitment should be a top quality striker and centre back. Those are the areas I feel we're weakest. Possibly LB and GK depending on who moves on.

 

I would probably attempt to move on the likes of: Zouma, Ziyech, Giroud, Abraham, Alonso and/or Emerson, Kepa (If anyone wants him), Zappacosta, plus various others who won't ever play for us, like Bakayoko, Drinkwater, Baba, etc...

 

I don't think Tuchel probably wants to play 3/5 at the back, long-term. I suspect he saw it as the easiest way to get a quick fix to our defence, but it's obvious it causes us problems going forwards, so hopefully we'll be able to address that over the summer.

Doesn’t matter what formation we start in, we need to get out of the dread U shape passing around the box before we’ll improve in anyway. It’s like a default mindset for these players. 

                 Donnarumma

James Marquinhos Tomori Chilwell

                 Kante   Ndidi

         Pulisic  Havertz   Mount

                    Haaland

Strikers:
The press are saying there's going to be a £150m budget to transfers, I think a top striker is crucial and will take up a big chunk of that. I want Haaland but he looks City bound.
Tammy will want a loan, Tuchel is on a short contract and he might want to wait and see than leave right away, any move right now will be a step down.
Giroud will leave 100%

Midfield:
Gilmour will probably also want a loan as he doesn't seem fancied over Jorginho.
Barkley may come back to be squad filler + get a chance to impress

Defence:
Thiago Silva has not slowed down at all, he'll be here for another season
Tomori should be kept if Milan can't afford him, but we already have a full squad, can see him swapped out for Zouma

Keeper:
We failed to add to Kepa's value and the board won't want to sell for peanuts, nobody has decent money to spend on a keeper anyway.

CB and ST would be goof for me this coming window, but DM is for me the most important. We need one DM that is more suited to the PL than Jorginho, and Jorginho is the only midfielder that sits back covering the defence of those we have, so can't sell him without getting a DM in. I'd still keep Jorginho as a back up (he's been useful in a few games, true against teams that haven't pressed us like crazy). Of Kante, Kova and Gilmour, I'd keep Gilmour and Kante for sure, but if we play a midfield of 3 we'd require all midfielders, so no sell any of them. We'd have 5 midfielders for 3 positions, good for rotation when legs get tired.

40 minutes ago, Gol15 said:

                 Donnarumma

James Marquinhos Tomori Chilwell

                 Kante   Ndidi

         Pulisic  Havertz   Mount

                    Haaland

Don't you feel Kante and Ndidi are a bit too similar?.

15 minutes ago, jack_super_class said:

Don't you feel Kante and Ndidi are a bit too similar?.

Ndidi is like a classic DM, the last time we had that pair with Kante was when we had Matic and we won the league. So I consider them a perfect partnership that would allow the midfielders in front of them to focus on the attacking and we would be a hard team to beat!

If Chels makes the CL, I think they will have lots of options for transfers.  I would think a striker would be salivating over the chances Werner has had.  We need a forward player who can score a header and hold up.  We need Giroud 10 years ago.  Who is out there like that?

Edited May 18, 20215 yr by DumbYank

There is no good looking upcoming striker that I can recall atm... Oli was the last of his breed  🥺

i would like to see something like this

 

Werner  Havertz   Sancho

              Mount

     Kanté Tchouaméni

Chilwell Rudiger Silva James

            Mendy

the bench looking something like this

Abraham, Ziyech, Pulisic, Kovacic, Gallagher, Azpi, Christensen

Sell: Jorginho and Zouma

Loan out : Gilmour, Hudson Odoi

Edited May 18, 20215 yr by DidierDrogbalala

21 minutes ago, DidierDrogbalala said:

i would like to see something like this

 

Werner  Havertz   Sancho

              Mount

     Kanté Tchouaméni

Chilwell Rudiger Silva James

            Mendy

the bench looking something like this

Abraham, Ziyech, Pulisic, Kovacic, Gallagher, Azpi, Christensen

Sell: Jorginho and Zouma

Loan out : Gilmour, Hudson Odoi

I quite like the look of this. Breaks me to say it but I agree that Zouma will leave - Tuchel just doesn’t seem to prefer him over our other CBs.

Would absolutely love for us to get Sancho. The kid is unbelievable, and would bring a quality in the final third that our squad is desperately missing.

I haven’t watched much of Tchouameni, however, he is highly rated for sure. A few of the Chelsea YouTubers salivate over this guy, and Julien Laurens - who is very tuned in to Ligue 1 - talked about this guy as if he’s primed to become a world beater. 

6 minutes ago, mwblue10 said:

I quite like the look of this. Breaks me to say it but I agree that Zouma will leave - Tuchel just doesn’t seem to prefer him over our other CBs.

Would absolutely love for us to get Sancho. The kid is unbelievable, and would bring a quality in the final third that our squad is desperately missing.

I haven’t watched much of Tchouameni, however, he is highly rated for sure. A few of the Chelsea YouTubers salivate over this guy, and Julien Laurens - who is very tuned in to Ligue 1 - talked about this guy as if he’s primed to become a world beater. 

I think we lack a bit of physicality          in the squad, i have watch a lot of Ligue 1 this season for some reason and he really stands out for me, i feel he can really improved a lot with Tuchel. Fabregas already takes care of him and if he comes here he can learn from Kanté so not a bad mix of tutors.

Zouma is just not good with the ball at his feet and thats a big red flag in his folder. Plus i feel Marc Ghuehi can take his place as the 4th choice centerback.

Sancho creates chances by himself and is very tricky to defend and he can play on both sides so its no brainer for me.

 

Hmm how about

 

Oblak

 

Gimenez

Varane

VVD

 

TAA

Fernandes

Nididi

Shaw

 

Salah

Kane

KDB

 

👍

 

 

Edited May 18, 20215 yr by axman2526

Honestly, It's really tough. I tried to make a post that I feel would get the best out of them with a few new players added into the mix, but it became a bit of a mess. This squad is such a mixed bag that it's really hard to get the best players on the pitch and get the best out of them at the same time. Even Tuchel is struggling with this, this is why the likes of Havertz and Pulisic are rotated so much.

It's easy to say I want us to move to a back 4 again, get some physicality in midfield, have Pulisic, Mount and Havertz playing together and a striker that scores goals, but because of the players we have, it's very hard to actually do that. Bringing in a physical player in midfield and a striker that scores goals could be done, but getting that back 4 playing like a back 4 that doesn't leak goals isn't easy with the CB's we have. I don't even know if Rudiger or Christensen can play in a back 4. If recent season is anything to go by, then I have serious doubts. How do we get Mount, Pulisic and Havertz playing together? Pulisic sucks on the right, Mount is better drifting from the left and Havertz is better making runs in to the penalty area. The hardest part is getting one of Pulisic and Mount playing comfortably on the right, but neither of them seem capable of it. 

Also, what does Tuchel really want? He seems to love Jorginho, so does he even want a physical midfielder? We may want to see it, but if Tuchel is comfortable with Jorginho and Kante, then we may have to stick with a back 3.

We have an unbalanced squad, after changing so many managers it was bound to happen.

I would love to see Ndidi + Kante in a 4-2-3-1 but that leaves Kovacic and Jorginho out. Still we do need someone like Ndidi and if we are going to play with a back 4 we need a world class CB there. Christensen is bound to make mistakes, Rudiger as well and Zouma isn't that stable on the ball so it's impossible to win something without a new, good CB.

Inn: Andrea Belotti & Franck Kessie (both would be cheap with 1 year left on their contract). Alex Sandro for Emerson&Alonso

Out: T.Abraham, Giroud, Ziyech, Emerson, Alonso

4-1-2-3 :

---------------------------------Mendy/Kepa------------------------

James/Azpilicueta------Christensen/Silva---Rudiger----------Chilwell/Sandro

--------------------------------Kessie/Jorginho---------------------------------

--------------Kante/Kovacic--------------------Mount/Havertz--------------

Pulisic/CHO-----------------------Belotti---------------------------Werner

8 hours ago, axman2526 said:

Hmm how about

 

Oblak

 

Gimenez

Varane

VVD

 

TAA

Fernandes

Nididi

Shaw

 

Salah

Kane

KDB

 

👍

 

 

It's ok, but I'd swap Varane for Dias and then call it a team

12 hours ago, PhilH930 said:

It's ok, but I'd swap Varane for Dias and then call it a team

Sounds like a plan, Roman can afford it 👍

As much as I want to fit in a more forward thinking player I'm not convinced a switch to back 4 is in our best interests at least for now. If we win the champions league with a back 3 I say stick with it to win the league or at least til it gets found out. Why fix what's not broken? 

For me it's not the shape that's the issue but our lack of cutting edge. Despite only playing with '3 attackers' we actually do attack and make chances we just lack a lethal finisher.

The fact that players like Pulisic and CHO can play wb means often we can play with 4 attackers without changing shape.

Priority has to be a lethal striker, a world class cb and a midfielder ideally that can play holding and has a bit of creativity (not sure if there is a wc player that fits the profile who's available atm).