2 minutes ago, dkw said:

Names spelt wrong...

They didn’t have room for ‘Best Ever Chelsea Legend’ unfortunately. 

1 hour ago, Munkworth said:

 

 A man, a man, a word, a word...

Happy birthday to this CFC legend!

 

It turns out old school grandpa opinion that you need midfielder that can run defend and tackle is still true in 2022.

Zakaria is not an elite player but he has looked very good so far for us. 

59 minutes ago, Bob stark said:

It turns out old school grandpa opinion that you need midfielder that can run defend and tackle is still true in 2022.

Zakaria is not an elite player but he has looked very good so far for us. 

Looks good enough to keep on as part of our squad so far.

10 minutes ago, axman2526 said:

Looks good enough to keep on as part of our squad so far.

We need to see what happen when we face better team, bournemuth is not  the best measuring stick. 

However, our midfield has looked more solid with Zakaria and that say a lot about our midfield situation that a juventus reject can come to Chelsea and improve us. 

1 hour ago, Bob stark said:

We need to see what happen when we face better team, bournemuth is not  the best measuring stick. 

However, our midfield has looked more solid with Zakaria and that say a lot about our midfield situation that a juventus reject can come to Chelsea and improve us. 

For sure, Bournemouth were not much of a test, but you can only play what's in front of you. He gave us a little bit of a physical presence in our midfield which is something we desperately need. The Partey / Xhaka combination is a major reason why Arsenal are doing so well this season. Both can run, defend and tackle. Zakaria also looked half decent competing in aerial duels. Another area where we have been lightweight in midfield.

Wonder if Potter is brave enough to experiment and leave out Jorginho to try a more dynamic midfield of Zakaria, Mount, Kovacic or Zakaria, Mount, Gallagher? 

I don't think he is unfortunately.

2 hours ago, just said:

For sure, Bournemouth were not much of a test, but you can only play what's in front of you. He gave us a little bit of a physical presence in our midfield which is something we desperately need. The Partey / Xhaka combination is a major reason why Arsenal are doing so well this season. Both can run, defend and tackle. Zakaria also looked half decent competing in aerial duels. Another area where we have been lightweight in midfield.

Wonder if Potter is brave enough to experiment and leave out Jorginho to try a more dynamic midfield of Zakaria, Mount, Kovacic or Zakaria, Mount, Gallagher? 

I don't think he is unfortunately.

You bring up a very good point with aerial duel. There is a reason why most dm are tall. Having a tall dm really help you in term of screening your CB from direct ball. 

I agree with your point with pairing Zakaria with kova/Conor. With Kova it really depend on what version of Kova that we get. If we get the crazy chaotic version of this season then it will be disaster. If we get the calmer version of last season, then it will be fun. 

Mount - Gallagher 

Zakaria 

Is very exciting. If we still have Willian/ hazard this can be very fun. However I have 0 confidence in our fw in term of keeping the ball (maybe sterling can do this but certainly not puli or ziyech). I think this lineup will put too much pressure on Mount to keep the ball. 

I am afraid to say that you will see a lot of jorgi playing for us this season. We still need him. The hard part of watching jorgi after watching the WC is that you saw young player like Enzo Fernandez playing similar role to jorgi. Enzo smashed the ball left and right, carried the ball forward when given space, dribbled past player when being pressed and then you saw jorgi and we have to group these two player into the same bracket. 

 

 

I liked his energy and physical presence, we been missing a player like that all season after Kante went off against Spurs. Jorginho all the sudden looked a better player with someone around him doing all the dirty work

2 hours ago, just said:

For sure, Bournemouth were not much of a test, but you can only play what's in front of you. He gave us a little bit of a physical presence in our midfield which is something we desperately need. The Partey / Xhaka combination is a major reason why Arsenal are doing so well this season. Both can run, defend and tackle. Zakaria also looked half decent competing in aerial duels. Another area where we have been lightweight in midfield.

Wonder if Potter is brave enough to experiment and leave out Jorginho to try a more dynamic midfield of Zakaria, Mount, Kovacic or Zakaria, Mount, Gallagher? 

I don't think he is unfortunately.

Why is it important to leave out Jorginho? He is very good. We should be a team. J5 is not fast nor physical so someone needs to be that for him, like Zakaria. Jorginho really is the only midfielder that can control the rhythm of our game. 

But I bet we will have a game soon enough where you have a combo like that. 

What we lack is consistency and patterns. We are experimenting formations, players in different positions. Best teams in the league play with a fixed 11 like Arsenal, City and Liverpool. This is not the season where we compete with them though.

I see you’re all realising what I already knew; ol’Denny boy is a f**king legend. 

Edited December 28, 20223 yr by Munkworth
Typo

7 hours ago, just said:

Wonder if Potter is brave enough to experiment and leave out Jorginho to try a more dynamic midfield of Zakaria, Mount, Kovacic or Zakaria, Mount, Gallagher? 

I don't think he is unfortunately.

For me Mount and Gallagher is like Lampard and Gerrard, simply don't work together. Too much of the same. I don't think it's a coincidence boths best games come when the other is on the bench (Mount yesterday and Milan, Conor vs Salzburg).

Also if the rumours are true about Enzo Fernandez we may be seeing Jorginho sit out more as early as next week.

Gallagher is gone next summer sadly. 

Just don't seem him cut out for a side like this.

2 hours ago, Sconnie Blue said:

Gallagher is gone next summer sadly. 

Just don't seem him cut out for a side like this.

I can see that happening too. He needs to be a regular starter and I am not sure that we would be able to give that to him unless he was to displace Mount.

3 hours ago, Sconnie Blue said:

Gallagher is gone next summer sadly. 

Just don't seem him cut out for a side like this.

I can actually see Gallagher going this month. It wouldn't surprise me in the least tbh

4 hours ago, Argo said:

For me Mount and Gallagher is like Lampard and Gerrard, simply don't work together. Too much of the same. I don't think it's a coincidence boths best games come when the other is on the bench (Mount yesterday and Milan, Conor vs Salzburg).

Also if the rumours are true about Enzo Fernandez we may be seeing Jorginho sit out more as early as next week.

That would be amazing, Enzo would automatically be our best player along side T.Silva and James.

Though in the context of the last match, Jorginho wouldn't deserve to sit out next week if Enzo isn't coming as he had a great match last night.

23 minutes ago, WhiteWall said:

I can actually see Gallagher going this month. It wouldn't surprise me in the least tbh

I don't think we should let him go until Mount's contract situation is sorted.

If/when that happens then yeah we should start listening to offers.

22 minutes ago, Argo said:

I don't think we should let him go until Mount's contract situation is sorted.

If/when that happens then yeah we should start listening to offers.

I agree, but i can see somebody coming in to put pressure in this area as well. Maybe McAllister or Trossard from Brighton or Felix. I can see this happening if Gallagher and/or Pulisic go out the other way

7 hours ago, Gol15 said:

Though in the context of the last match, Jorginho wouldn't deserve to sit out next week if Enzo isn't coming as he had a great match last night.

Jorgi will play a lot of games. In term of sitting and spraying passes, jorgi is still our best or to be exact our most consistent midfielder. 

20 hours ago, WhiteWall said:

I agree, but i can see somebody coming in to put pressure in this area as well. Maybe McAllister or Trossard from Brighton or Felix. I can see this happening if Gallagher and/or Pulisic go out the other way

We have Carney who I believe Potter and his coaching staff rate. Just been unlucky with injuries. 

 

Thing with Zakaria is that if he has a stellar second half of the season, we have a quality CM for only 20m in the bag. 

8 minutes ago, Sconnie Blue said:

We have Carney who I believe Potter and his coaching staff rate. Just been unlucky with injuries. 

Thing with Zakaria is that if he has a stellar second half of the season, we have a quality CM for only 20m in the bag. 

Tbh I'm not really feeling buying him at this point.

Thankfully he atleast appears to be serving a purpose unlike last season's CM loanee but I don't think he's been as good as people are making out.

Ofcourse though like you said things can change quickly.

49 minutes ago, Sconnie Blue said:

We have Carney who I believe Potter and his coaching staff rate. Just been unlucky with injuries. 

 

Thing with Zakaria is that if he has a stellar second half of the season, we have a quality CM for only 20m in the bag. 

Agree with this. I don't see that he has done anything wrong yet. A bit more fitness over a sustained period, and more of a dominant presence when he makes the position his own. What's not to like?

Legend recognises legend. 

Could be 24.7 million well spent based on tonight’s performance. Looks like he could form a good partnership with Kovacic

Boehly, sign him up!