It’s a bit grim isn’t it?

[Drogba1]

9 hours ago, just said:

And judging by his performance in the Community Shield yesterday, we dodged a right bullet with Haaland.

Always have to look on the bright side as @axman2526 would say.

He was very unlucky not to score 2 goals that game, let's be honest he's going to score a bucketload for City this season 

[just]

1 minute ago, Drogba1 said:

He was very unlucky not to score 2 goals that game, let's be honest he's going to score a bucketload for City this season 

You have to think positively Drogba. 

By the time he leaves Citeh he could be Fernando Lukaku-Haaland.

[Ballack & Blu]

We need a striker, looks like Werner will go, and we cant afford to start the season with only 1 recognised authentic striker in Broja, the Transfer window has been a bit of a  100% efficient Clusterf**k

[timetowaste]

- Koulibaly is in the top 5 best CBs in the world

- Sterling is in the top 10 best wingers in the world 

- We've been taken over by a new group of owners that have shown they're willing to pump hundreds of millions into the club

Yes we've been a bit unlucky in the transfer window but the future of Chelsea is bright, stop acting so spoilt.

 

[Ballack & Blu]

5 hours ago, timetowaste said:

- Koulibaly is in the top 5 best CBs in the world

- Sterling is in the top 10 best wingers in the world 

- We've been taken over by a new group of owners that have shown they're willing to pump hundreds of millions into the club

Yes we've been a bit unlucky in the transfer window but the future of Chelsea is bright, stop acting so spoilt.

 

Who’s the barb aimed at?

[icecoolguy22]

The short term pain is totally expected after the new owner got rid of all the senior backroom staff, and started doing transfer deals by himself. It's been tough, like it or not, there's a good reason Mariana and others had a job under Roman. We will get some deals done, may drag it on to the deadline day. But the first part of the season is short, so after WC ends, all the big teams start from scratch again.

[TheSage]

It's another season of challenging for Top 4 and it looks like it will be a way tougher challenge this year.  We do tend to perform well in the cups under Tuchel though, so hopefully we make a deep run in the CL and win one of the domestic cups. That will be a successful season in my book.

Our team just doesn't have enough goals to challenge for the title, especially in the era of Pep and Klopp.  We just don't create enough chances and, to make matters worse, none of our forwards are not clinical.

[Argo]

I've just thought. Imagine if Spurs beat us four times without conceding, finished above us then signed Koulibaly and Sterling and our response in those positions were Lenglet and Richarlison.

We'd be raving about their ambition and the prospect of finishing above them wouldn't even be discussed, but with the boot on the other shoe apparently they've done enough to overhaul us already, have to laugh.

[WhiteWall]

23 minutes ago, Argo said:

I've just thought. Imagine if Spurs beat us four times without conceding, finished above us then signed Koulibaly and Sterling and our response in those positions were Lenglet and Richarlison.

We'd be raving about their ambition and the prospect of finishing above them wouldn't even be discussed, but with the boot on the other shoe apparently they've done enough to overhaul us already, have to laugh.

I'd have Bissouma over Jorginho, any day of the week

[WhiteWall]

15 hours ago, Ballack & Blu said:

We need a striker, looks like Werner will go, and we cant afford to start the season with only 1 recognised authentic striker in Broja, the Transfer window has been a bit of a  100% efficient Clusterf**k

This has actually been worse than the ban. Under the ban we just sat on the sidelines and didn't bother with any of the rumour websites. This pre season window has been bl00dy awful 

[Argo]

Just now, WhiteWall said:

I'd have Bissouma over Jorginho, any day of the week

Totally different players. If we decided to swap one for the other we wouldn't be doing squad building right.

[PloKoon13]

18 hours ago, Drogba1 said:

The thing is the signings we have made (Sterling and Koulibaly) have been really good, it's just the fact that we've missed out on targets and are still saddled with too many mediocre deadwood players from the Marina era that's making things look so bad. If we can get either Fofana or Gvardiol in this would still be a good window

In addition to that we have avoided making the mistakes of previous windows, i.e. of signing players who are really only useful in certain systems (e.g. Kepa, Jorginho, Alonso, Drinkwater, etc.) Subsequent managers with starkly different setups then find that these players aren't optimal for what they're trying to implement. Sterling and Koulibaly are both players who are sufficiently multifaceted (and high-quality) that any manager will find them useful. Avoiding expensive specialists is certainly a positive. The worst of all probably being Lukaku, who wasn't even useful in the system he was signed to play in. 

Edited August 1, 2022 by PloKoon13

[andy]

A bit of realism needed, I don't think we will challenge for the title but mid last season we nearly went to the wall because of sanctions. 

I don't think we can replicate Roman's generosity overnight, then again, I think we have a great squad so no need to go mad.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Sexyfootball]

4 hours ago, TheSage said:

Our team just doesn't have enough goals to challenge for the title, especially in the era of Pep and Klopp.  We just don't create enough chances and, to make matters worse, none of our forwards are not clinical.

You don't necessarily need to score 90 or 100 goals to win the PL title, even in the era of Klopp and Pep. Theroetically you could score 38 goals and win it ... 38 1-0 wins for example. 

We have won 3 of our 5 PL titles by scoring 72, 72 and 73 goals. Last year we scored 76.

[ozboy]

Its a relative game. Have we improved? Koulibaly is about the same as rudigier maybe even a bit better but older so I'd score that as a minor upgrade. Sterling is better than any of our other attackers so that is a plus. On the other hand guys like alonso and azpilcueta are older and declining so that's a downgrade. The midfield is about the same. Maybe Loftus Cheek will be more consistent. Maybe Gallagher will grow into the team, that looks less likely than before preseason started. Seems nervous to me.

The trouble is that Spurs and Arsenal will almost certainly be better this season.

That's the way it looks to me right now. Last season I thought we could challenge for the title. This season I'm feeling that top 4 would be an achievement and that aint good enough.

[HazardousChoice]

3 minutes ago, ozboy said:

. Maybe Loftus Cheek will be more consistent.

Maybe people will stop talking about Loftus Cheek like he's some talented young player and not 5 months away from turning 27.

[ozboy]

1 minute ago, HazardousChoice said:

Maybe people will stop talking about Loftus Cheek like he's some talented young player and not 5 months away from turning 27.

i don't care if he is 19, 27 or 31 the point is he was dominant in his position in the Udinese game. if he could play wing back and leave James as the right side defender I dunno probably it wouldn't work.

[Sconnie Blue]

6 minutes ago, ozboy said:

i don't care if he is 19, 27 or 31 the point is he was dominant in his position in the Udinese game. if he could play wing back and leave James as the right side defender I dunno probably it wouldn't work.

What’s RLC’s sample size at RWB? 
 

[just]

1 hour ago, WhiteWall said:

I'd have Bissouma over Jorginho, any day of the week

Indeed.

[Sexyfootball]

10 minutes ago, ozboy said:

i don't care if he is 19, 27 or 31 the point is he was dominant in his position in the Udinese game.

Worth bearing in mind that the game was against Udinese's reserves ... Udinese who finished 12th in Serie A.

Akin to getting excited by a strong performance against Crystal Palace reserves ... in a friendly ... 

 

Edited August 1, 2022 by Sexyfootball

[Argo]

17 minutes ago, ozboy said:

Its a relative game. Have we improved? Koulibaly is about the same as rudigier maybe even a bit better but older so I'd score that as a minor upgrade. Sterling is better than any of our other attackers so that is a plus. On the other hand guys like alonso and azpilcueta are older and declining so that's a downgrade. The midfield is about the same. Maybe Loftus Cheek will be more consistent. Maybe Gallagher will grow into the team, that looks less likely than before preseason started. Seems nervous to me.

The trouble is that Spurs and Arsenal will almost certainly be better this season.

That's the way it looks to me right now. Last season I thought we could challenge for the title. This season I'm feeling that top 4 would be an achievement and that aint good enough.

Its not always linear. For example, United on paper were surely going to improve signing Ronaldo, Varane and Sancho yet look.

And if it is, then surely same applies to us (surely) not having such injury and ownership crisis' this year?

[Guest Sindre]

20 minutes ago, ozboy said:

Its a relative game. Have we improved? Koulibaly is about the same as rudigier maybe even a bit better but older so I'd score that as a minor upgrade. Sterling is better than any of our other attackers so that is a plus. On the other hand guys like alonso and azpilcueta are older and declining so that's a downgrade. The midfield is about the same. Maybe Loftus Cheek will be more consistent. Maybe Gallagher will grow into the team, that looks less likely than before preseason started. Seems nervous to me.

The trouble is that Spurs and Arsenal will almost certainly be better this season.

That's the way it looks to me right now. Last season I thought we could challenge for the title. This season I'm feeling that top 4 would be an achievement and that aint good enough.

Losing Christensen seems to be going under the radar too. As long as he was motivated he was absolutely brilliant for us under Tuchel and so far we haven't replaced him at all. And don't say Chalobah because while he's an academy lad and we wish him all the best he's nowhere near Christensens level.

The way it stands right now we will have to be extremely lucky to escape a crisis with our defence. First of all we'd need Silva and Koulibaly to be fit for the entire season and secondly we are going to need that Chalobah/Colwill/Sarr steps up massively and saves the day. Both those scenarios are unlikely to happen in my opinion.

[HazardousChoice]

28 minutes ago, ozboy said:

i don't care if he is 19, 27 or 31 the point is he was dominant in his position in the Udinese game. if he could play wing back and leave James as the right side defender I dunno probably it wouldn't work.

Udinese reserves who were absolutely awful and dominated themselves. That Udinese team wouldn't stay up in the championship.

RLC crumbles under any kind of pressure and is a liability whenever the opposition attack.

He's not good enough and he's not going to improve now.

The only reason he's even at the club is because we can't find anyone to take him on loan with his wages but he's not a serious option for us even as a squad player imo.

Edited August 1, 2022 by HazardousChoice

[Ballack & Blu]

2 hours ago, WhiteWall said:

I'd have Bissouma over Jorginho, any day of the week

And I’d have Kane or Son, or maybe ‘Don Conte’ anyday

[Sconnie Blue]

Tuchel has his flaws but preferring Conte over Tuchel is just mad.