How many of our midfielders see or hit that pass? If we are talking about giving young players a chance, and seriously building for the future. Why not give Webster a chance? 

1 hour ago, Bluesince66 said:

Gutted we didn't even get the new manager bounce,still I learnt a while back to switch of my emotions,I now just watch and stay calm even through the crap,the days of punching the wall or screaming at the tv doesn't change anything.We had a brilliant 20 year ride with Roman but there are more things in life to worry about.I wonder if the asylum will let me out for our next game.

Yea, these lot are so bad now, even the ‘new manager bounce’ won’t work on them anymore. 

22 minutes ago, big blue said:

How many of our midfielders see or hit that pass? If we are talking about giving young players a chance, and seriously building for the future. Why not give Webster a chance? 

It's a great pass. But every single one of our outfield players sees that pass and if they were afforded that much space they would hit it

7 hours ago, icecoolguy22 said:

True, exact words from Boehly yesterday, which was alarming to be honest.

I wonder where Potter will go from here, keep it tight at the back and trying to grind out some wins ( like Tuchel did), or takes the complete opposite approach

 

He's going to find it hard to keep it tight with Jorginho and Azpilicueta at the back - without playing a low block. And if he does that then the football will turn to sh*t. 

3 minutes ago, bisright1 said:

It's a great pass. But every single one of our outfield players sees that pass and if they were afforded that much space they would hit it

Sure, they would it into touch, the man 6 yards in front of them, so hard the goalie takes 2 steps forward to collect. 

There is not a single midfielder at the club who could hit that pass consistently. And that's the major problem we had with trying to get the best of Timo and Lukaku. For both of them you would want to play a lower block than we have, certainly more for Lukaku who can't press. But then you absolutely need that ball for the them to exploit the space, find 1v1s. 

14 minutes ago, venom2011 said:

He's going to find it hard to keep it tight with Jorginho and Azpilicueta at the back - without playing a low block. And if he does that then the football will turn to sh*t. 

What, get worse from here, dear God!

8 minutes ago, bisright1 said:

It's a great pass. But every single one of our outfield players sees that pass and if they were afforded that much space they would hit it

Not a chance, everyone of our midfielder players open their body up and play that pass with their in step down the line. No one is hitting a drilled faded pass inside the full back from there. They dont have that technique in their locker. Charlie Webster is doing that at 18. Jorginho picked the ball up with that much space 20 times just last night. 

He is very highly regarded, and unlike Gilmour, he is physically imposing. Just signed a new long term deal too. I would love to see him get some opportunities. 

 

Some takeaways for me from yesterdays performance:

- Result not ideal but there were some aspects of the performance I was pleased with. Thought at times we moved the ball well and quickly. However despite this there keeper didn't have many saves to make.
- Same old Chelsea, going 1-0 up and then not killing a game off. This has been a problem as far back as Conte's second season with us which was 5 years ago now!
- Ziyech with back to back disaster appearances off the bench. Outside of the odd goal or assist he offers very little to this squad. Shouldn't be anywhere near the team imo.
- This isn't a squad of bad players, it's a squad of players that aren't currently playing well. Potter has only had 6 days with this team so difficult to judge based on last nights performance. Last night it looked as though the players were 'still playing with the handbrake on' as they were towards the end of Tuchel's reign. Plus side is we don't play again until the 1st of October so hopefully by then we will look a bit better and attack minded.
- I really like Gallagher and want him to succeed. He's not had a good performance in 5 appearances now and it's a bit concerning.
-Kovacic at his best is so good. Only midfielder who's keen to get on the ball and drive. Just wish he had De Bruyne's passing ability then he would be one of the best midfielders in the league.
-Jorginho is far too weak to play in defensive midfield. He went in for about 5 50/50s last night and lost them all. I hate to keep beating this drum,  but he is such a liability these days.
- Initially didn't understand the decision to play Cucurella and Azpi as the left and right sided centre backs. Cucu made more sense as although Sterling was wing back he never did any defensive work going backwards, so Cucurella was essentially playing LCB and LB. Would prefer if we played natural centre backs considering we spent £100m on two this summer, and one is one of the best young talents in europe.
-Personally I think Chilwell is a better wingback than Cucurella and offers us more going forwards and is solid defensively. I really hope that Potter's reign isn't the beginning of the end for Chilly. 

Early days but shades of same old Chelsea in there. Hopefully when Potter has had a bit more time with his team they will start to look a bit better. There were one or two improvements yesterday but as I say it's not something that is just going to happen over night.

Mind you I wrote a similar length post last week defending Tuchel after the Zagreb loss, and he was sacked 30 mins later. Fully expect Potter to be sacked now I've done the same this week!

10 hours ago, SwedishEntity said:

But this is going to take a long, long time

So he's already doomed then. We don't give anyone a long, long time. Especially to someone who's completely unproven.

Perhaps we can bring Tuchel back when we sack Potter. I'd be all for it.

 

56 minutes ago, big blue said:

How many of our midfielders see or hit that pass? If we are talking about giving young players a chance, and seriously building for the future. Why not give Webster a chance? 

Certainly one for the future but i think he's too raw at the moment to start for us. 

24 minutes ago, WhiteWall said:

What, get worse from here, dear God!

Oh yes, quite easily. I can watch yesterday's performance over and over - there's a lot to enjoy tactically. And of course there are many fans with no real tactical appreciation of the game which is also fine.

Sitting deep, scraping some wins on the counter would be way less enjoyable. And it can only last so long until the players start moaning again.

Edited September 15, 20223 yr by venom2011

I couldn’t work out what his game plan was last night from the stands (mainly because I was low down in The Shed) so could anyone shed a bit of light on our formation etc that’d be nice.

9 minutes ago, Sindre said:

So he's already doomed then. We don't give anyone a long, long time. Especially to someone who's completely unproven.

Perhaps we can bring Tuchel back when we sack Potter. I'd be all for it.

 

I can see us having a year or two of winning nothing and giving Potter time to build something under Todd, it doesn't seem he's as cutthroat as Roman and wants stability. 

It's worked for Arsenal sadly, giving Arteta time to shape the team in his own image. Now's the time to do the same with Potter. 

Give the manager time we will lot be at City or Liverpool level in one or two seasons. They are 5 years ahead of us in their project we literally just started.

Some entitled fans who probably started to support us when we became successful will now have to choose which club they want and if these fans leave than all the better we will have a less toxic community.

I was firmly Tuchel in but he’s gone get behind Potter and all the players even the ones you don’t like because they all need to fans support which can make a massive difference.

5 minutes ago, Munkworth said:

I couldn’t work out what his game plan was last night from the stands (mainly because I was low down in The Shed) so could anyone shed a bit of light on our formation etc that’d be nice.

On paper it was a 5-3-2 with Sterling at Left wing back. However when we attacked it was more like 4-3-3 with Sterling essentially playing Left wing, and Cucurella filling in at left back.

18 minutes ago, drjonesy1994 said:

Some takeaways for me from yesterdays performance:

- Result not ideal but there were some aspects of the performance I was pleased with. Thought at times we moved the ball well and quickly. However despite this there keeper didn't have many saves to make.
- Same old Chelsea, going 1-0 up and then not killing a game off. This has been a problem as far back as Conte's second season with us which was 5 years ago now!
- Ziyech with back to back disaster appearances off the bench. Outside of the odd goal or assist he offers very little to this squad. Shouldn't be anywhere near the team imo.
- This isn't a squad of bad players, it's a squad of players that aren't currently playing well. Potter has only had 6 days with this team so difficult to judge based on last nights performance. Last night it looked as though the players were 'still playing with the handbrake on' as they were towards the end of Tuchel's reign. Plus side is we don't play again until the 1st of October so hopefully by then we will look a bit better and attack minded.
- I really like Gallagher and want him to succeed. He's not had a good performance in 5 appearances now and it's a bit concerning.
-Kovacic at his best is so good. Only midfielder who's keen to get on the ball and drive. Just wish he had De Bruyne's passing ability then he would be one of the best midfielders in the league.
-Jorginho is far too weak to play in defensive midfield. He went in for about 5 50/50s last night and lost them all. I hate to keep beating this drum,  but he is such a liability these days.
- Initially didn't understand the decision to play Cucurella and Azpi as the left and right sided centre backs. Cucu made more sense as although Sterling was wing back he never did any defensive work going backwards, so Cucurella was essentially playing LCB and LB. Would prefer if we played natural centre backs considering we spent £100m on two this summer, and one is one of the best young talents in europe.
-Personally I think Chilwell is a better wingback than Cucurella and offers us more going forwards and is solid defensively. I really hope that Potter's reign isn't the beginning of the end for Chilly. 

Early days but shades of same old Chelsea in there. Hopefully when Potter has had a bit more time with his team they will start to look a bit better. There were one or two improvements yesterday but as I say it's not something that is just going to happen over night.

Mind you I wrote a similar length post last week defending Tuchel after the Zagreb loss, and he was sacked 30 mins later. Fully expect Potter to be sacked now I've done the same this week!

I agree almost completely!

On your last two points, I think the decision to play Azpi was a bit political. Potter is big on dressing room morale, so it makes sense he starts his captain for match 1 (and his vice captain, come to think of it). Similarly, I think Cucu was selected partly for his ability to play a hybrid CB/LB role, and also because he knows how Potter wants his teams to play - considering he's had less than a week with the squad I don't think its a surprise he's picked a player who knows his system in this first game. Chilwell is a top player, but he's not played a full 90 minutes in 2022 (I don't think), given time I'm sure he'll get back in the side.

Just now, Munkworth said:

I couldn’t work out what his game plan was last night from the stands (mainly because I was low down in The Shed) so could anyone shed a bit of light on our formation etc that’d be nice.

Kepa

Azpi  Silva  Cucurella

James    Jorginho    Kovacic    Sterling

Mount       Havertz

Auba

In defence it seemed to slide more into a back 4 with James getting back and Cucurella being the LB as Sterling wasn't really tasked with any defensive responsibility. Thought overall it worked well, just a shame we can't finish our chances. 

7 minutes ago, Munkworth said:

I couldn’t work out what his game plan was last night from the stands (mainly because I was low down in The Shed) so could anyone shed a bit of light on our formation etc that’d be nice.

I'm no expert, but to me it looked like a hybrid back 3/4 - Sterling and James offering width on attack, Auba(later Broja) playing as a traditional 9, then Havertz playing like a false 9 or second striker off them (later RLC).

Midfield looked like a 3, with J5 sitting, Mount given license to roam, and Kova kinda doing a bit of both.

7 minutes ago, El regreso said:

Give the manager time we will lot be at City or Liverpool level in one or two seasons. They are 5 years ahead of us in their project we literally just started.

Some entitled fans who probably started to support us when we became successful will now have to choose which club they want and if these fans leave than all the better we will have a less toxic community.

I was firmly Tuchel in but he’s gone get behind Potter and all the players even the ones you don’t like because they all need to fans support which can make a massive difference.

Give the right manager time.

Like the one we just had for example who had already proved he can take us to the very top.

Is the idea that we should give Potter five years so he in that time may reach the heights Tuchel got to in 5 months? What a waste of time that would be then.

I'll support Potter because he's here. But he better make sure we progress from this group and reach Top 4. If not he should be out the door.

 

48 minutes ago, venom2011 said:

Sure, they would it into touch, the man 6 yards in front of them, so hard the goalie takes 2 steps forward to collect. 

There is not a single midfielder at the club who could hit that pass consistently. And that's the major problem we had with trying to get the best of Timo and Lukaku. For both of them you would want to play a lower block than we have, certainly more for Lukaku who can't press. But then you absolutely need that ball for the them to exploit the space, find 1v1s. 

I disagree. I think they can they just don't. Why they don't is either because it's too high risk or because they've been instructed not to. 

18 minutes ago, bisright1 said:

I disagree. I think they can they just don't. Why they don't is either because it's too high risk or because they've been instructed not to. 

'They've been instructed not to' is one of the most overused, non-sensical arguments. Why would any manager - especially ones as tactically flexible as we've had in recent years - ask players not to play brilliantly weighted, defence-splitting passes? There is a reason why you only see those passes consistently from the likes of Fabregas, Lampard, KDB, Pogba, Kane etc. That is not an easy pass by any stretch. It is perfectly timed and weighted - requiring high level technical ability. I'm not sure how you can watch Kante, Kova, Mount, misplace and overweigh 5 yard passes, but think they can pull that off regularly.

it takes a while to unlearn habits 

56 minutes ago, RIP Mourinho said:

Kepa

Azpi  Silva  Cucurella

James    Jorginho    Kovacic    Sterling

Mount       Havertz

Auba

In defence it seemed to slide more into a back 4 with James getting back and Cucurella being the LB as Sterling wasn't really tasked with any defensive responsibility. Thought overall it worked well, just a shame we can't finish our chances. 

That's more or less it, apart from Jorginho was also dropping back next to Silva, you can tell Potter has instructed him to drop back and protect Silva, i think Potter see's the vulnerability in Silva is pace, but its outweighed by his defensive technical ability. Potter is going to have to make the call with Silva from game to game, he can't keep relying on him all season. I was astonished Fofana didn't play next to Silva.

6 minutes ago, coco said:

That's more or less it, apart from Jorginho was also dropping back next to Silva, you can tell Potter has instructed him to drop back and protect Silva, i think Potter see's the vulnerability in Silva is pace, but its outweighed by his defensive technical ability. Potter is going to have to make the call with Silva from game to game, he can't keep relying on him all season. I was astonished Fofana didn't play next to Silva.

Yeah i thought Fofana would have been that RCB. Read a lot into Potter and his ability to manage egos/personalities. I wonder if he went with Azpi in his first game purely because he's club captain and doesn't want to upset anyone first match out. 

1 hour ago, Sindre said:

Give the right manager time.

Like the one we just had for example who had already proved he can take us to the very top.

Is the idea that we should give Potter five years so he in that time may reach the heights Tuchel got to in 5 months? What a waste of time that would be then.

I'll support Potter because he's here. But he better make sure we progress from this group and reach Top 4. If not he should be out the door.

 

I fully agree mate I wanted him to stay I wanted him to build on the last two years but the owners see it differently and I can understand why if the vision is different.

I will give you an example.  I work for a USA based  collaboration company and they change leadership regularly and with each CEO change the C-Level staff changes because CEO vision may not align with certain C-Level staff vision!!!

In this instance owners vision doesn’t align with manager’s vision, now we may never know if it’s true or not but we have to take it as face value.