On 24/11/2024 at 06:28, ducavis said:

Come Jan he will have 18mths left on his contract, ball is in his court IMO. I don’t see how freezing him out helps the club. He is highly rated by the national team, and is still starting for the U21s despite been frozen out. Linked a couple of days with PSG now, and with their current youth drive I can actually see him getting game time. 
I would think by giving him first team mins the club will either change his stance, or command a bigger fee in the summer.

If a young player has intimated he is leaving then why would a manager use him, he has nothing to gain at all as he tries to build his young squad.

We've seen this story time and time again. 

Player agents are at work here. 

Back to Nkunku, if you missed the prematch press conference then a few snippets from the beeb.

 

• He conceded "it is not always possible" to keep players happy but insisted Christopher Nkunku has not disclosed any unhappiness at his lack of Premier League minutes. Maresca said the pair have spoken this week.

• More from Maresca on Nkunku: "Of course, he wants to play more games but there are a lot coming up. For sure, he is going to play a Premier League game. His best position is as a 10 but Cole [Palmer] is playing there. We need balance."

• He said he is "absolutely not" looking to sell the forward in the January transfer window, adding: "I completely want him to stay with us."

The only way Nkunku fits in is if you play him at left wing and Chilly at left back. When we attack Chilly would play wing and Nkunku 10.

Otherwise, in Prem matches, he's bench fodder.

4 hours ago, Gordon Bennett said:

The only way Nkunku fits in is if you play him at left wing and Chilly at left back. When we attack Chilly would play wing and Nkunku 10.

Otherwise, in Prem matches, he's bench fodder.

He played Palmer for a full 90 off of the back of the Man Utd knock throughout the Arsenal game, where Palmer was largely ineffectual and was heavily limping afterwards and pulled out of England duty. If that is par for the course it won't be long before Maresca breaks Palmer, then he'll play and prove what he's about. The guy needs a run of games and a bit of belief from around him.

He is quality. 

13 hours ago, Gordon Bennett said:

The only way Nkunku fits in is if you play him at left wing and Chilly at left back. When we attack Chilly would play wing and Nkunku 10.

Otherwise, in Prem matches, he's bench fodder.

Or play Palmer RW and have Gusto overlapping at RW when Palmer drifts central with Nkunku. 

There's never only one way to play a player. 

I have a terrible feeling he's not been fully fit for a while and has been playing with a "niggle" that he's been hiding for a lot longer than a few weeks. 

I hope it's not serious, we will need him with all the games to be played in the next few months.

11 hours ago, Ukraine Bolt said:

Or play Palmer RW and have Gusto overlapping at RW when Palmer drifts central with Nkunku. 

There's never only one way to play a player. 

Yes that could make sense. I was just trying to keep Palmer in the role he prefers and is best at.

43 minutes ago, Gordon Bennett said:

Yes that could make sense. I was just trying to keep Palmer in the role he prefers and is best at.

I agree, we should keep him at RW where he is best

1 hour ago, Ukraine Bolt said:

I agree, we should keep him at RW where he is best

Those stats surprised me. When I looked into it further and made it a fair comparison by filtering into Chelsea Premier League games only and non-penalty goals he scores every 139 minutes at AM and every 307 minutes at RW.

Sounds accurate based on what I've seen from watching him.

Thought the perfect time to test that would’ve been against Leicester but Gusto was injured. 

Why Nkunku is not playing is clear. 

Maresca has very specific way to play, two winger very wide and high and attack through the middle. On paper you can play

Jackson 

Neto - Nkunku - Palmer 

Caicedo - Enzo 

Cucu - Colwill - Fofana - Gusto 

Gusto goes up very high as rw. 

The problem is what happen when you lose the ball. Are you confident that our back "5" + Nkunku+ Palmer can defend properly because gusto will be very high and won't be able to go back. 

 

 

4 hours ago, Bob stark said:

Why Nkunku is not playing is clear. 

Maresca has very specific way to play, two winger very wide and high and attack through the middle. On paper you can play

Jackson 

Neto - Nkunku - Palmer 

Caicedo - Enzo 

Cucu - Colwill - Fofana - Gusto 

Gusto goes up very high as rw. 

The problem is what happen when you lose the ball. Are you confident that our back "5" + Nkunku+ Palmer can defend properly because gusto will be very high and won't be able to go back. 

 

 

I think more to do with stubbornness. Jackson has been poor for the majority of games this season, and hasn't added significantly to the system. Maresca keeps playing him out of some stubborn position to prove he knows best. 

 

12 hours ago, nonotnowjim said:

 Maresca keeps playing him out of some stubborn position to prove he knows best. 

Given Jackson has only been outscored by Haaland & Watkins since he's signed for us, maybe Maresca does know best...

8 hours ago, Sconnie Blue said:

Given Jackson has only been outscored by Haaland & Watkins since he's signed for us, maybe Maresca does know best...

Think how many a good striker might have scored for us.....

I see that there is a rumour that PSG are interested in Nkunku and would offer 25 year old France forward Randal Kolo Muani in part exchange. I wonder why Muani would be happy to never play for us instead of Nkunku? At two years younger than Nkunku and with the additional cash, I could see the appeal to the owners of such a deal. I know zero about Muani.

No thanks. Flop. 

On 01/12/2024 at 05:20, Sconnie Blue said:

Given Jackson has only been outscored by Haaland & Watkins since he's signed for us, maybe Maresca does know best...

Seen this stat doing the rounds on social media and it's wrong lol.

The original post qualified the stat by referring only to "number 9s", which isn't even true any more as Chris Wood (lol) has scored 23 and Alexander Isak has scored 25. I don't think we need to celebrate Jackson being the 5th best of the 6 "proper" center-forwards in the league. If we expand it to all players, then the obvious omissions are Cole Palmer (30) and Mohammed Salah (29), pushing Jackson down to 7th.

On goalscoring alone though,  if you look at players who have had 20+ goals since the start of 2023/24, Jackson sits firmly in company with the likes of Saka, Isak, Son, Solanke, Bowen, Mateta i.e reliable EPL goalscorers. It's clear there are two classes of goalscorers, and it's clear that Jackson belongs in the category of very-good-but-just-below the very top.

Does Nkunku improve us beyond that? I'm with the minority that says yes, but Maresca has a pretty valid reason to disagree.

Edited December 2, 20241 yr by SydneyChelsea

It is in many ways hard to criticise Jackson because he does score goals. But yesterday still offered examples where you can’t help but wonder how many goals a better player could score in this team.

58 minutes ago, Snedger said:

It is in many ways hard to criticise Jackson because he does score goals. But yesterday still offered examples where you can’t help but wonder how many goals a better player could score in this team.

Cant we just let Jackson develop. DD came to us in his late 20's and wasn't pulling up trees straight away.

I'd rather have Jackson upfront right now over Haaland. Currently he is scoring goals and helping us win games.

Edited December 2, 20241 yr by Malcolm9

4 hours ago, SydneyChelsea said:

Seen this stat doing the rounds on social media and it's wrong lol.

The original post qualified the stat by referring only to "number 9s", which isn't even true any more as Chris Wood (lol) has scored 23 and Alexander Isak has scored 25. I don't think we need to celebrate Jackson being the 5th best of the 6 "proper" center-forwards in the league. If we expand it to all players, then the obvious omissions are Cole Palmer (30) and Mohammed Salah (29), pushing Jackson down to 7th.

On goalscoring alone though,  if you look at players who have had 20+ goals since the start of 2023/24, Jackson sits firmly in company with the likes of Saka, Isak, Son, Solanke, Bowen, Mateta i.e reliable EPL goalscorers. It's clear there are two classes of goalscorers, and it's clear that Jackson belongs in the category of very-good-but-just-below the very top.

Does Nkunku improve us beyond that? I'm with the minority that says yes, but Maresca has a pretty valid reason to disagree.

I assume its open play goals in regards Wood and Isak? Take away penalties and Wood has 21 and Isak has 20. Or if Jackson was the penalty taker like those two he would have 32 goals. 

2 hours ago, Snedger said:

It is in many ways hard to criticise Jackson because he does score goals. But yesterday still offered examples where you can’t help but wonder how many goals a better player could score in this team.

It’s easy to criticise. I do it without trying. 
 

He is rubbish - oops I did it again.  Easy!

1 hour ago, Malcolm9 said:

Cant we just let Jackson develop. DD came to us in his late 20's and wasn't pulling up trees straight away.

I'd rather have Jackson upfront right now over Haaland. Currently he is scoring goals and helping us win games.

Sorry - but this is absolutely stupid. It is statements like this that make me question if a democracy is a good thing.

You would rather have Jackson up front than Haaland???!!! f**k me!

1 hour ago, Ukraine Bolt said:

I assume its open play goals in regards Wood and Isak? Take away penalties and Wood has 21 and Isak has 20. Or if Jackson was the penalty taker like those two he would have 32 goals. 

Wrong - he would have missed the target in all of them.