16 minutes ago, Sconnie Blue said:

From someone who also has an autistic toddler, this resonates a lot.

Having an autistic nephew in Spain I also am sympathetic.

We never know what players are going through off field.

When he was struggling he had loads of things going on off field. His house got broken into if I remember correctly also.

He will leave Chelsea a cult hero and hopefully with some league medals and CL medals!!

5 minutes ago, El regreso said:

We never know what players are going through off field.

When he was struggling he had loads of things going on off field. His house got broken into if I remember correctly also.

He will leave Chelsea a cult hero and hopefully with some league medals and CL medals!!

He is proper Chels 💙

And without much noise, he kept Salah quiet all game, I’d go on to say that he’s got Salah in his pocket.

I thought he did really well to run around so much with Salah in his pocket.

16 hours ago, Ajbod said:

I thought he did really well to run around so much with Salah in his pocket.

He does fairly well when he's tasked to man mark a player. Always gives Saka and Salah a headache.

We look better as a unit when he's sitting in the back 3 and Caicedo/Reece inverts from the other side. It allows Colwill to play in the middle of defense without having to worry about defending wide left.

I can't remember Salah doing anything of note.

23 hours ago, El regreso said:

I can't remember Salah doing anything of note.

Apart from a header he should have potted, Cuca man-marked him out of the game. He's done the same before with Saka.

On 05/05/2025 at 16:26, Sconnie Blue said:

He does fairly well when he's tasked to man mark a player. Always gives Saka and Salah a headache.

I think his problem comes when he's asked to defend space, he just doesn't have that kind of positional discipline unfortunately, can be drawn away relatively easily to leave gaps.

He should be a case study along with Caicedo of players who needed time to come good.

What a freaking player!!

11 minutes ago, El regreso said:

He should be a case study along with Caicedo of players who needed time to come good.

What a freaking player!!

Agreed. The best centre-forward we have had since Costa...... who was also an extremely hairy, nut job.

9 hours ago, just said:

Agreed. The best centre-forward we have had since Costa...... who was also an extremely hairy, nut job.

He had hairy nuts?

Can someone confirm this? Apparently he’s won us 9-10 points this season.

Edited May 17, 20251 yr by Sconnie Blue

Most improved player for sure.

Seems to always put a shift in

8 hours ago, Sconnie Blue said:

Can someone confirm this? Apparently he’s won us 9-10 points this season.

I honest wouldn’t be surprised if it’s not more than that. He’s been our only goal treat since the new year started.

He has improved no doubt but to paraphrase @Scott Harris, he is doing things he has no business doing, in places he has no business being.

Goals need to come from strikers and attackers. Much like goals from Ivanovic, Chilwell and especially Marcos Alonso did, Cucurella's rich attacking form is papering over the cracks in a broken system. He should not be the primary playmaker or the primary recipient of crosses. Cucurella's goals need to be the icing on the cake not the primary attacking threat.

Edited May 22, 20251 yr by SydneyChelsea

6 hours ago, SydneyChelsea said:

... papering over the cracks in a broken system. He should not be the primary playmaker or the primary recipient of crosses. Cucurella's goals need to be the icing on the cake not the primary attacking threat.

Amen to that.

Just 26 goals in our last 21 PL games. 4 in the Southampton game, so 22 in 20 outside that. That is bordering on Potter levels of attacking "threat" ... (West Ham have 22 goals in their last 21, scored 1 against Southampton, so 21 in 20 outside that, so we have basically only scored one more goal than West bloody Ham in that period in games against all teams other than Southampton !!!)

• 4 goals : Palmer, Cucurella

• 3 goals : Fernandez, Neto. Own Goals

• 2 goals : Madueke

• 1 goal : Jackson, Nkunku, Sancho, George, James, Tosin, Colwill,

How our owners and DoFs aren't concerned about that and feeling the need to do an urgent in depth review god only knows ...

Edited May 22, 20251 yr by Sexyfootball

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Edited May 22, 20251 yr by Sexyfootball

7 hours ago, SydneyChelsea said:

He has improved no doubt but to paraphrase @Scott Harris, he is doing things he has no business doing, in places he has no business being.

Goals need to come from strikers and attackers. Much like goals from Ivanovic, Chilwell and especially Marcos Alonso did, Cucurella's rich attacking form is papering over the cracks in a broken system. He should not be the primary playmaker or the primary recipient of crosses. Cucurella's goals need to be the icing on the cake not the primary attacking threat.

Sure, but I'm sure that Jackson or Enzo would have missed that header. And they keep blowing the chances they get (including Palmer this season), so it's great to see that we have someone capable of scoring a goal on our LFB, just like we used to have with Alonso. Had we got someone capable of scoring regularly up front, I'd agree that he should invert to the midfield and only get into the box from time to time.

Play him up front.

Yeah when we are 2nd in big chances missed and 2nd in chances created in the entire league, I am not going to fault the only player who seemingly knows how to get the ball in the back of the net.

21 hours ago, Zeta said:

Play him up front.

But him and Caicedo are the only two who commit when pressing without the ball.

He'd never give the opposition defenders a minute on the ball with his pressing from the front. In fact, play 4-4-2 with Cucurella and Caicedo up front. We wouldn't need the midfield, if would never get that far.