2 hours ago, Sconnie Blue said:

 

Someone check on Jamie Redknapp please 

18 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

I expect one of Santos or Ugochukwu to go out on loan, hopefully we keep Gallagher, but I have this feeling that we will look to sell.

Ugochukwu can go on loan to Liverpool for a 10 million loan fee 

9 minutes ago, Victor90 said:

Someone check on Jamie Redknapp please 

i think they should check on danny murphy too.

8 minutes ago, azpi28 said:

Ugochukwu can go on loan to Liverpool for a 10 million loan fee 

they will probably offer 11.

If we buy Lavia as well I feel we are selling Gallagher. 

20 minutes ago, azpi28 said:

Ugochukwu can go on loan to Liverpool for a 10 million loan fee 

Nooooooooooooooo! I want my new hero to stay!

7 minutes ago, evissy said:

If we buy Lavia as well I feel we are selling Gallagher. 

Hope so.

He's bang average

1 hour ago, Barrettinator said:

Plus a year from now, we'll be competing in the CL. If by some stroke of luck we win, we'll have to add CWC to that as well.

We're already qualified for the 2025 Club World Cup. Remember, it's being redesigned to include the Champions League winners from each of the previous four seasons. 🙂 Thank you Thomas. Thank you Kai.

1 minute ago, OhForAGreavsie said:

We're already qualified for the 2025 Club World Cup. Remember, it's being redesigned to include the Champions League winners from each of the previous four seasons. 🙂 Thank you Thomas. Thank you Kai.

Ahhhh I completely forgot about that! Brilliant!

59 minutes ago, OhForAGreavsie said:

We're already qualified for the 2025 Club World Cup. Remember, it's being redesigned to include the Champions League winners from each of the previous four seasons. 🙂 Thank you Thomas. Thank you Kai.

Delighted we finally are seeing a restructured CWC. Crazy a chance to be called world champions is so streamlined.

Also on a trivial note if we won it in 2012 (before Liverpool would have) we could have totally reversed the history chants (not too bothered by them personally but it would have wound them right up).

 

i was thinking about something

if you ignore the football

who in that Liverpool squad is fun to be around? they are a bunch of pricks really. I wouldn't want to hang out with any one of them. The Chelsea squad seems like a nice group to be a part of. On top of that you have to live in Liverpool. I just don't see the attraction for a young player, i don't see them being very keen to be there for multiple years. I think we have a fun group of guys, and it attracts players who want to be a part of it.

Edited August 14, 20232 yr by azpi28

3 hours ago, OneTommyLangley said:

i think they should check on danny murphy too.

here he is

haha it's a no brainer to go to liverpool he says

the good news is that Tyler Adams is available!!

Edited August 14, 20232 yr by azpi28

What's wrong with the boy? Does he not know Liverpool won a lot of things in the 1980's? 

I think Lavia is an interesting signing. He's had a lot of hype/promise since his City days. Unlike a lot of young midfielders, he actually appears much better defensively than in attack. He's a great dribbler and very good in tight spaces, but often undermines himself with sloppy passes and is yet to consistently show he can contribute to the attack. 

My concern is that you don't really develop that attacking side of the game playing for a big team, in big games where you can't take risks without consequence. I think he would have benefited from staying at Southampton for a few years to develop his overall game with a bit more freedom, much like Declan Rice did at West Ham.

Assuming he forms a midfield three with Enzo and Caicedo, Lavia is naturally going to be the most defensive of the three and his role would likely be limited to getting the ball to them as soon as possible. I think football has entirely moved on from being able to accommodate an attacking passenger in defensive midfield, the era of players like Busquets, Mikel etc is long dead. You need your DM to be capable in attack because, as we have learned over the few years watching Jorginho, Kante and Kovacic, teams will just let them have the ball and press/mark everyone else to close down options, knowing they are unlikely to do much with it.

A definite upgrade over Adams. With the price tag, he would start a lot of games, be interesting to see how Poch fits him ( and the other MF) in his 11. Most of us would settle for either Caciedo or Lavia, now we have both it's a nice problem to have, as long as we have enough room in the dressing room.

So does lavia only play if Caceido is injured, Surely we ain’t playing, Caceido, Lavia, and Enzo???
Chukie and Santos ain’t gonna get much game time, and will Gallagher now be sold?

It's not only that playing Lavia, Enzo and Caicedo further limits the goal scoring options. None of them is a recognised goal scorer not even as good as Ballack or Essien let alone Lampard. Enzo, likely to be furthest forward, has looked terrible when shooting, no better really than Kovacic.

What I have liked about Chelsea in the pre season is the attacking. I do get that having a powerful midfield that can win the ball and get it moving quickly helps the attack a lot, but its only part of the job.

Spending the money on Lavia means that as thing stand we have Jackson, Sterling, Mudryck and Carney as fit attackers/attacking midfield with Madueke close to a return and Brorja (who I have my doubts about) a bit further away. I think this is way too  few attackers. Maatsen is not a forward or even an attacking midfielder really. We could have used the Lavia money to really reinforce the attack. In the end its attackers that win games, its attackers that fans watch and show up on highlight reels and its attackers that command the really big bucks.

We need midfield depth with PL experience - it is as simple as that.  To all the comments about how do you fit Enzo, Caicedo and Lavia in a team - what happens if Enzo got injured and we hadn't signed Lavia.  Looks pretty light again.

The engine room wins games, many of which are now 100+ mins long.  We need options and legs - keep up intensity and roll in many late goals.  It does likely mean loans for some younger players (relatively speaking), but long term that is also a good thing.

Edited August 15, 20232 yr by PhilH930

4 hours ago, ozboy said:

It's not only that playing Lavia, Enzo and Caicedo further limits the goal scoring options. None of them is a recognised goal scorer not even as good as Ballack or Essien let alone Lampard. Enzo, likely to be furthest forward, has looked terrible when shooting, no better really than Kovacic.

What I have liked about Chelsea in the pre season is the attacking. I do get that having a powerful midfield that can win the ball and get it moving quickly helps the attack a lot, but its only part of the job.

Spending the money on Lavia means that as thing stand we have Jackson, Sterling, Mudryck and Carney as fit attackers/attacking midfield with Madueke close to a return and Brorja (who I have my doubts about) a bit further away. I think this is way too  few attackers. Maatsen is not a forward or even an attacking midfielder really. We could have used the Lavia money to really reinforce the attack. In the end its attackers that win games, its attackers that fans watch and show up on highlight reels and its attackers that command the really big bucks.

We've got many young attackers with a point to prove, what we need is strength, pace, and resilience in the middle. Something we've lacked for years, obviously we had Kante but he was injured for the majority of it. 

The best decision we made was bolstering the midfield instead of throwing money at wingers, attacking midfielders, and strikers. 

If we go out there and spending bucket loads on attackers, what's even the point of having Carney, Mudryk, Jackson, and the others? They've all got potential, give them a chance to shine. What we didn't have was defensive midfielders and we would have been in serious trouble had we not went out there and bought some. 

We are basically going to play the pivot because we need to get the best out of Enzo. That means we need to pair him with a Destroyer/Ball winner/DM. This is why we paid so much for Caicedo. To deputise Enzo and Moises we have Gallagher and Santos currently in our ranks.

Pochettino said during the pre-season he needs experiece in the midfield. If we draw the tiny bit of experience of who we have now and if we hypothetically add Lavia the experience is: 1. Gallagher, 2. Caicedo 3. Enzo 4. Lavia 5. Santos. That would mean Santos heads out on loan. If we want to look at the pairings Enzo-Caicedo is the fixed pair, then it would be Gallagher-Lavia. 

That would mean Santos is loaned to Strasbourg or somewhere else. I feel Gallagher is the only one from him/Lavia/Santos who has something to give further up the pitch but a DM pairing with Enzo he isn't as we saw against Liverpool in the first 30 minutes.

Enzo-Caicedo, Gallagher-Lavia feels good for pivot-options for this season.

We also just purchased Ugochukwu but I don't see him feature for us this season. 

Not a massive fan of this signing now we have Caicedo. Could use that money elsewhere.

 

Oh well, he's a good player at least.

This signing would be a significant sign of a return to genuine strength in depth in a vital position. With the ever present risk of injuries (especially in SW6) and red cards, it'll almost certainly prove a great move. Plus, this way we can't be looking back later thinking that Liverpool got the better player, because they got neither!!

Trust me this Lavia kid will be much better than we even anticipate.