Difficult season ahead

[Argo]

1 hour ago, KonaKai Blue said:

After what I saw last night, I cannot see us winning the title. Not even sure we will challenge and can see many lacklusture displays where we drop points.

I think we make top 4 comfortably. For me I can't see Kai and more so Werner going up SEVERAL gears that they need to in order for us to be consistent. 

Thats my honest opinion however, I accept it. We won the CL, im still grateful so they get a pass from me this seasom.

The second half last night was painful to watch. Reminded me of the Brighton game we drew 0 0 last season.  Creating nothing and no rythme.

Yes but in the first half we were great and if it weren't for Asenjo it would have been the most one sided super cup of the decade. The second half their match fitness advantage shown.

I don't want to go down the if, buts and maybe's rabbit hole but I thought the first half yesterday and the Spurs game (before we stuck the loan army Xl out) was very promising.

[BordeauxBlue]

Nah fam, we'll be fine. 

Super optimistic about the season ahead, especially if we land a CB or Midfield target! 

[ducavis]

33 minutes ago, BordeauxBlue said:

Nah fam, we'll be fine. 

Super optimistic about the season ahead, especially if we land a CB or Midfield target! 

What is fine though? and what is progress after spending £96m on a forward? Have us down for 4th place, 3rd place max if a Utd/Liverpool have a wobble. 
We will still have the same issue we had last season in the league where we enjoy loads of possession, but look short in the final third. The poster that suggested Rice was right to an extent, we need a DM desperately. Presently we are expecting the front 3 to create and score, which will be difficult when majority of teams bar City and Liverpool will sit back and let us have the ball. The 2 behind Lukaku will also playing very close to Lukaku, which low block defences will have fun with against all season long. A DM will allow us to drop Mount further back next to Kante, and create from deeper, your 2 behind Lukaku can also move wider to make the pitch bigger. Oh well the 3-4-3 won the CL, therefore it should also be able to win the league.

**Conte won the league using a 3-4-3 because he had no Europe to contend with, 2nd season when he had to combine both we dropped far down the table. Same can be applied to his stints with Juve/Inter.

[ashwin]

I'm sure many of these concerns are justified and may repeat from last season.

BUT, come on, this is no match to be jumping to conclusions after. Half the team had just come back, our starting wing backs did not play, almost everyone is far from full match fitness.

Lets wait for a few matches, wait for the team to get match fitness, see how Lukaku fits in and then jump to conclusions!

[strider6004]

I'm with Ashwin, though I don't see us winning the league I think we have a good chance to move up the table.

We looked decent until Ziyech went off and of course we will have Lukaku ready to play very soon.

Villareal had already played more games than and many of our first team were not match fit.

[dkw]

2 hours ago, KonaKai Blue said:

Rice will not solve our problems in lack of creativity. Waste of 100m. Look how crap and unimaginative England were with Rice and Phillips. We play the same way for large parts. We need a cesc type player to unlock passing lanes.

Cause and effect, getting a player like Rice to control the midfield, set the tempo and give a solid base to work from "should" open up the attack to be more direct and take more risks. Now thats obviously dependent on Tuchel allowing our attack to do that, but he seems incredibly risk averse so I doubt that will happen.

Edited August 12, 2021 by dkw

[big blue]

8 hours ago, SydneyChelsea said:

If you could sum up the last three years of attacking issues, this would be it!

It isn't a lack of creative opportunities, it's the quality of what we are doing in those key moments. Whether it's Reece James passing backwards instead of putting in a cross, Werner making decoy runs instead of attacking the ball or our entire midfield being unwilling to shoot from distance, the common threat is that lack of initiative.

I think that is mainly down to how many new ypung players we have in attacking areas, that none of them maybe with exception of Mount, have had to confidence to take responsibility in the attacking 3rd. Ziyech was that player, but his season was up and down with injuries.

Im hoping an experienced confident Lukaku will help the younger players find their feet even more, and i think we are already seeing with Havertz, that he is more willing to yry and make things happen, off the back of that confidence boosting CL final.

[Gol15]

54 minutes ago, ducavis said:

What is fine though? and what is progress after spending £96m on a forward? Have us down for 4th place, 3rd place max if a Utd/Liverpool have a wobble. 
We will still have the same issue we had last season in the league where we enjoy loads of possession, but look short in the final third. The poster that suggested Rice was right to an extent, we need a DM desperately. Presently we are expecting the front 3 to create and score, which will be difficult when majority of teams bar City and Liverpool will sit back and let us have the ball. The 2 behind Lukaku will also playing very close to Lukaku, which low block defences will have fun with against all season long. A DM will allow us to drop Mount further back next to Kante, and create from deeper, your 2 behind Lukaku can also move wider to make the pitch bigger. Oh well the 3-4-3 won the CL, therefore it should also be able to win the league.

**Conte won the league using a 3-4-3 because he had no Europe to contend with, 2nd season when he had to combine both we dropped far down the table. Same can be applied to his stints with Juve/Inter.

I think we're not desperate for anyone, we're not that bad. And we're getting Lukaku. Mount tried to play deeper in the midfield before and he didn't look that good, would be great if he could adapt but so far he has been much better futher up the pitch...

I think it's impossible to judge how the whole season will go based on this one game, we didn't see our strongest 11 there either. An example is Man City that lost the Community shield but it's very unlikely that their season will be a poor one based on that one loss.

[Evenflow20]

4 hours ago, evissy said:

When we got the ball back after their goal we were very predictable and frankly easy to fend off. Losing Ziyech hurt us. 

I am not expecting this season to be anyway easy. I am just hoping we can bridge these gap between us and whoever is in front of us (if any). Probably City, Liverpool and ManU are going to do well. 

Agreed. I noticed a change from the first half to the 2nd. 

It seemed like we were a bit flat in the 2nd & just coping with their waves of attack. 

I know it's just the Preseason but I am concerned especially considering Villareal will not be the best we face 

[bluehaze]

Wow we're champions of Europe and fa cup finalists a game we should have won and people are saying we'll have a difficult season based on last night ? Us old school Chelsea fans are natural born pessimists but honestly just get behind the team and leave the naval gazing till at least 10 games in.

[Bob stark]

4 hours ago, KonaKai Blue said:

Rice will not solve our problems in lack of creativity. Waste of 100m. Look how crap and unimaginative England were with Rice and Phillips. We play the same way for large parts. We need a cesc type player to unlock passing lanes.

It's about balance, in perfect world you want your midfielder to be able to do everything. 

The idea of having a dm who can actually protect the midfield is to allow us to add one more player in midfield who can help us offensively like what cesc did for us. 

Imagine if we play cesc with Jorginho, it will be disaster

 

 

 

[Valpo]

As far as I can see we arn't short at all on creativity we're short on finishing.

We have a lot of players up front who can create chances.  Havertz, Werner, Pulisic, Mount, and Ziyech   But not one who's really strong at finishing those chances.  To be fair Ziyech looked like he might be finding his finishing form before he got hurt.  

 

I am hoping that Lukaku can be the strong finisher we need to get over the hump.  

[Evenflow20]

1 hour ago, Valpo said:

As far as I can see we arn't short at all on creativity we're short on finishing.

We have a lot of players up front who can create chances.  Havertz, Werner, Pulisic, Mount, and Ziyech   But not one who's really strong at finishing those chances.  To be fair Ziyech looked like he might be finding his finishing form before he got hurt.  

 

I am hoping that Lukaku can be the strong finisher we need to get over the hump.  

Hope Lukaku is the finisher we've desperately needed!

 

[big blue]

4 hours ago, dkw said:

Cause and effect, getting a player like Rice to control the midfield, set the tempo and give a solid base to work from "should" open up the attack to be more direct and take more risks. Now thats obviously dependent on Tuchel allowing our attack to do that, but he seems incredibly risk averse so I doubt that will happen.

Sounds like your describing Jorginho...

[dkw]

1 hour ago, big blue said:

Sounds like your describing Jorginho...

Solid base, jorginho, really? I've seen jelly that's more solid.

[big blue]

1 hour ago, dkw said:

Solid base, jorginho, really? I've seen jelly that's more solid.

Seemed a pretty solid base in the champions league, and for Italy. 

 

[hephzibah]

6 hours ago, bluehaze said:

Wow we're champions of Europe and fa cup finalists a game we should have won and people are saying we'll have a difficult season based on last night ? Us old school Chelsea fans are natural born pessimists but honestly just get behind the team and leave the naval gazing till at least 10 games in.

Till at least ten games in? When we can no longer buy a player again to fix the problem we have? No way. The team is a work in progress, and as long as we watch the team, and see a weakness that the team has, the board may go to the transfer market and see whether we can get a player who can improve the team.

And that is if we have ambition to win things this season. Reason we are talking about Declan Rice is that we need a player who can get us out of the type of situation we were yesterday. An energetic player who helps us regain possession and give the ball to the creative players we have upfront who will supply assist to the striker for us to score goals.

Some people here are saying it is a creative player that we lack. No, and it is because they don't understand the 343 formation. When we played the 343 formation under Conte, if I'm correct, most of the times the two guys that played in the Midfield were Matic and Kante. I think Fabregas was always part of the three upfront. Then I think, against weaker opponents, maybe when we don't need to defend a lot, maybe Fabregas played in the Midfield.

We already have creativity upfront, we just need strong DMs to get the ball to them, so that they can use their trickery to play with the striker and score goals.

I feel we should get a player like Declan Rice before the window closes to enable us do this.

Edited August 12, 2021 by hephzibah

[chiefBlueCFC]

10 hours ago, ashwin said:

I'm sure many of these concerns are justified and may repeat from last season.

BUT, come on, this is no match to be jumping to conclusions after. Half the team had just come back, our starting wing backs did not play, almost everyone is far from full match fitness.

Lets wait for a few matches, wait for the team to get match fitness, see how Lukaku fits in and then jump to conclusions!

waiting and see is the antithesis to jumping to conclusions. And with my lack of physical exercise, jumping to conclusions is all physical activity I get

[bluehaze]

4 hours ago, hephzibah said:

Till at least ten games in? When we can no longer buy a player again to fix the problem we have? No way. The team is a work in progress, and as long as we watch the team, and see a weakness that the team has, the board may go to the transfer market and see whether we can get a player who can improve the team.

And that is if we have ambition to win things this season.

Ambition to win things no we're spending nearly £100 million on one player cause obviously we're going to be in our annual dog fight against relegation. We were 9th in January and had a pretty good season in my book.

[Gol15]

4 hours ago, hephzibah said:

Till at least ten games in? When we can no longer buy a player again to fix the problem we have? No way. The team is a work in progress, and as long as we watch the team, and see a weakness that the team has, the board may go to the transfer market and see whether we can get a player who can improve the team.

And that is if we have ambition to win things this season. Reason we are talking about Declan Rice is that we need a player who can get us out of the type of situation we were yesterday. An energetic player who helps us regain possession and give the ball to the creative players we have upfront who will supply assist to the striker for us to score goals.

Some people here are saying it is a creative player that we lack. No, and it is because they don't understand the 343 formation. When we played the 343 formation under Conte, if I'm correct, most of the times the two guys that played in the Midfield were Matic and Kante. I think Fabregas was always part of the three upfront. Then I think, against weaker opponents, maybe when we don't need to defend a lot, maybe Fabregas played in the Midfield.

We already have creativity upfront, we just need strong DMs to get the ball to them, so that they can use their trickery to play with the striker and score goals.

I feel we should get a player like Declan Rice before the window closes to enable us do this.

So spend 100m on Rice or bust then?

I love when people describe him as the answer to every question, the new Roy Keane. He can help the team regain possession and then give the ball to a creative player, just love it. No wonder many Man United fans also want him.

[The Brit]

On 11/08/2021 at 23:33, Evenflow20 said:

I know we won, but I think the team is lacking in creativity and having a true difference maker. During the 2nd half we simply didn't have any answers or a plan going forward. 

Their defense stayed back and that really hampered our counter attacking. 

Hopefully having Lukaku might provide that spark in the final 3rd.

 

win another trophy with an understrength team lacking fitness and this is the take? Wow. I doubt we'll be able to start judging Chelsea this season after a few months, let alone after one 'pre-season' game.

[Scott]

9th post

 

Right . . . .

 

 

 

[evissy]

What we had in our advantage late in the season is the change. TT came in and immediately we switched to 3 at back and completely changed the way we played. Now every team know exactly how we play. Remember under Conte we did this same switch. Second season was really difficult. 

I don't expect as much difficulty as we look well oiled and most of our players are suited to this system. 

15 out of 24 teams in Euros played 3 at back and in the Prem you will see more of that for sure. 3 at back itself does nothing. It how you implement it. TT knows how to play it. Not many teams can field Jorginho - Kante double pivot. 

With Lukaku in I hope we are getting closer to our xG numbers. 

[Zeta]

Every time we have a good season lately, something seems to ruin it the next.

Win the Champions League -> Don't qualify from the group -> Sack the manager -> Hire the fat one
Win the league under Mourinho -> Get rid of lots of promising youngsters, down near the relegation zone, sack the manager.
Win the league under Conte -> Garbage recruitment -> Finish 5th -> Sack the manager

Every time we have a good seaosn and we go into the next with positivity that we can push on, something goes wrong. I'm just waiting to see what it is this time.
 

 

[hephzibah]

13 hours ago, Gol15 said:

So spend 100m on Rice or bust then?

I love when people describe him as the answer to every question, the new Roy Keane. He can help the team regain possession and then give the ball to a creative player, just love it. No wonder many Man United fans also want him.

For God's sake, what is the purpose of this thread? We saw some weaknesses in the team in the match against Villarreal and we are pointing them out.

For you, was there no weakness in the team against Villarreal? If there was what is it? Now, I've pointed out the weakness I think the team has. And I've said some things that we can do to solve the problems.

Now if you know a better thing that we can do to win the premier league, then say it.

16 hours ago, chiefBlueCFC said:

 

 

Edited August 13, 2021 by hephzibah