It seems that we will keep Chalobah OR Ampadu. I would prefer to keep Chalobah. I am not sure about Ampada as a backup CB.

And like many have said here before. In this season with a World Cup during the season in Qatar it is highly probable that the "backup" CBs will get a lot of time on the pitch.

9 hours ago, dkw said:

Ridiculous move, we are desperately hunting for a CB yet we let one go, keep Azpi who should really be getting limited minutes. No doubt this points to Tuchel using James at CB more now, which is moronic.

It's a real head scratcher ... Chalobah did great last season, and you'd think he could be trusted to play and kick on ...

Ditto CHO to be honest. With Werner already gone, and CHO and Ziyech touted to leave on loan, we seem to be offloading our forwards in reverse order of effectiveness ... utterly bizarre ...

I guess we can only sat back and watch it all unfold ... 

On 20/08/2022 at 13:35, Jangz said:

Don’t understand Fofana.. we need someone who can play in the center of back with Thiago becoming more injury prone .. not rightside where we have Azpi and TC ..well this club sometimes works in mysterious ways.

Fofana can play anywhere across the back line. 

I don't want to see Chalobah leave though. 

One of his best performances in a Chelsea shirt. Would be very disappointing to see him going out for loan.

Still haven’t lost a match when Trevoh has played…

 

7 minutes ago, TheGermanOne said:

One of his best performances in a Chelsea shirt. Would be very disappointing to see him going out for loan.

Almost cost us a goal though. And had one shaky moment after that as well. Also for his height, he's pretty bad in the air.

Big Trev!

Trev the lucky charm starter strikes again !

Decent game from him today but every game he plays he either costs or nearly costs us a goal, he really needs to work on that 

7 minutes ago, timetowaste said:

Decent game from him today but every game he plays he either costs or nearly costs us a goal, he really needs to work on that 

The same happened with Tomori. I still think we pulled the rip cord too soon on him and I think his development is starting to prove this right.

Saw somewhere that we have blocked his outgoing transfer to any club. Great news imo, he’s good enough to be a back up to any of the first choice defenders. In fact I’d have him ahead of Azpi.

Hopefully he’ll be good enough to replace Silva or Koulibaly when they age, I’m probably about 10 years time!

If we don't sign a midfielder we should push him in to midfield to keep him in the side. Kante and Kova getting injured so often will give him lots of minutes.

He's not good enough on the ball to be a serious option for us in midfield.

41 minutes ago, True Blue23 said:

He's not good enough on the ball to be a serious option for us in midfield.

He played DM for both Ipswich and Llorient in France. It may not work out and ideally we sign a midfielder or two but if we don't that leaves us with Jorgi, RLC and Gallagher for most of the season.

I know he did but playing in midfield for Ipswich and Lorient and playing in midfield for us are two very different things. We are a possession based team, we need midfielders who are comfortable on the ball, who are capable of receiving the ball in tight spaces or on the turn and release it quickly. Chalobah is too awkward and slow with the ball and panicks too easily to be anything but an emergency option. And with five other midfielders to chose from, we shouldn't need him in midfield very often.

24 minutes ago, True Blue23 said:

I know he did but playing in midfield for Ipswich and Lorient and playing in midfield for us are two very different things. We are a possession based team, we need midfielders who are comfortable on the ball, who are capable of receiving the ball in tight spaces or on the turn and release it quickly. Chalobah is too awkward and slow with the ball and panicks too easily to be anything but an emergency option. And with five other midfielders to chose from, we shouldn't need him in midfield very often.

Will be interested to see how good Carney, Casadei and our new Russian really are.

26 minutes ago, axman2526 said:

Will be interested to see how good Carney, Casadei and our new Russian really are.

Are they staying with us? Kinda feels like a waste. Not like they're going to see much game time...

1 hour ago, True Blue23 said:

Are they staying with us? Kinda feels like a waste. Not like they're going to see much game time...

You never know. Kante, Kova and Gallagher now not starters for the next game. All we have left is Jorgi and RLC. Who comes in if they were not able to play too?

Could he play wing back, or too limited on the ball?

He shouldn’t leave on loan. We need the depth, and let’s be honest, it’s no coincidence we continue to win when he plays. Silva and KK will both get injuries this year - Chalobah can heavily rotate. We need 5 proper CBs to play this system. 

Decent performance, can't expect a 8/10 for his first game of the season, and playing a man down for 60+ minutes. Be mad to send him away, need the depth and  make full use of the 5 subs, the legs of Silva\KK\Azpi don't last full 90 these days

13 hours ago, timetowaste said:

Decent game from him today but every game he plays he either costs or nearly costs us a goal, he really needs to work on that 

To me, not much difference in quality to Sarr, just one comes from Cobham so gets more love.

24 minutes ago, jack_super_class said:

To me, not much difference in quality to Sarr, just one comes from Cobham so gets more love.

You’re joking right? Sarr is a terrible defender, Chalobah is miles ahead of him.

10 hours ago, axman2526 said:

You never know. Kante, Kova and Gallagher now not starters for the next game. All we have left is Jorgi and RLC. Who comes in if they were not able to play too?

Ampadu is another option for Tuesday.

1 hour ago, dansubrosa said:

You’re joking right? Sarr is a terrible defender, Chalobah is miles ahead of him.

No i'm not, Sarr was average, so is Chalobah. Chalobah purple patch when he first came into the team has clouded people judgement on how good he actually is.

Looking at it without blue-tinted glasses, I would say he had quite an average game.

Things he did well: Was good in the air, passing and general ball at his feet was good.
Things he struggled with: Vardy was running behind him countless times and he kept losing him. Had that one moment where he let Vardy in completely by going for an awkward interception, instead of slowing him down.

I would say he needs to work a lot on his decision making and his concentration. The physical side of things he seems fine.