3 minutes ago, DannyVblue said:

The midfield is the one area we are strong. We have to play 5 at the back because our best defender is 38 so needs extra cover. Our forwards lack any kind of creativity, bar Mount. Very unlucky that Koulibaly, fofana and James are out as they are all starters for me. We desperately need someone higher up the pitch who can pick a pass and create something out of nothing. A Totti, Guti or Kaka type

 

Our midfield isn't strong though. Jorginho has massive weaknesses that are getting exposed game after game, Loftus-Cheek barely looks interested. Kovacic is a great ball carrier but is awful in attacking positions and can't stay fit and Kante will probably never play at the top level for us again. Our midfield needs some major rebuilding.

I also don't buy that Silva needs extra cover. His positioning is amazing, he reads the game better than any defender in the world right now. I would be much more worried about any of our other CB's getting caught out than Silva, especially Koulibaly seeing as he can't defend 1v1 situations and turns like a tank.

9 minutes ago, DannyVblue said:

The midfield is the one area we are strong.

 

 

Blimey, and there was me thinking that it was our softest line, with players too soft and none with enough creativity.

43 minutes ago, Munkworth said:

Our midfield is pure 100% sh*te. 

Haha I wouldn't call it sh*te. Kovacic, Gallagher, Jorginho, loftus-cheek, Kante, chukwumeka, Mount - that's a quality midfield. I love Silva, he's been amazing but playing 5 at the back like we did today showed we didn't trust our defense. Tuchel knew how to play 5 at the back as he'd have the wing backs very high and tucked in if we were getting outnumbered in Central midfield. 

We are weak up top. That's it. We dont have a player up front who can win a match on his own. We are one of the best teams in the world up until the final third. 

40 minutes ago, RMH said:

 

Blimey, and there was me thinking that it was our softest line, with players too soft and none with enough creativity.

Forward line is the weak link in my opinion

47 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

Our midfield isn't strong though. Jorginho has massive weaknesses that are getting exposed game after game, Loftus-Cheek barely looks interested. Kovacic is a great ball carrier but is awful in attacking positions and can't stay fit and Kante will probably never play at the top level for us again. Our midfield needs some major rebuilding.

I also don't buy that Silva needs extra cover. His positioning is amazing, he reads the game better than any defender in the world right now. I would be much more worried about any of our other CB's getting caught out than Silva, especially Koulibaly seeing as he can't defend 1v1 situations and turns like a tank.

We play 3 players up front who cant take on a player or create some magic on their own. The forwards are the weak link. Our midfield are very good, although Id have still upgraded in the summer. I was a huge advocate of getting in De Jong. 

We played 2 players in midfield today against Man Us 3 and they got dominated. I don't trust Jorginho in a 2 either. As soon as we matched them up, our midfield of Jorgi, RLC and Kova came out on top. 

We need to find a creative magician from somewhere. 

Ai image of...........

"Graham Potter Chelsea manager sat on a toilet"

https://labs.openai.com/

 

31 minutes ago, DannyVblue said:

Haha I wouldn't call it sh*te. Kovacic, Gallagher, Jorginho, loftus-cheek, Kante, chukwumeka, Mount - that's a quality midfield. I love Silva, he's been amazing but playing 5 at the back like we did today showed we didn't trust our defense. Tuchel knew how to play 5 at the back as he'd have the wing backs very high and tucked in if we were getting outnumbered in Central midfield. 

We are weak up top. That's it. We dont have a player up front who can win a match on his own. We are one of the best teams in the world up until the final third. 

Jorginho Kovacic and Kante are all past their prime, with the latter two being very injury prone now as well. I'm not sure we'll ever see Kante playing regularly for Chelsea again. Mason Mount is not really a CM either and doesn't look great in that role.

 

That leaves Gallagher, Loftus Cheek and Chukwumeka. Gallagher and Chukwumeka have potential for sure, but realistically this midfield is nowhere near good enough to compete with the best teams in Europe anymore, unless everyone is magically fully fit. Someone like a Frenke De Jong or a Jude Bellingham would be a massive upgrade for us.

Past 3 games have been a chore to watch.

I remember @Scott Harrissaying after TT left he wanted us to go back to being entertaining to watch. For it To be something to look forward to, watching our team, "oh good we are playing today" rather than "oh sh*t another Chelsea game"

Past 3 have very much reminded me of those worst periods under TT.

I don't look forward to watching Jorginho, RLC, Sterling, Aubameyang or Havertz play for us.

Just now, Drogba1 said:

Someone like a Frenke De Jong or a Jude Bellingham would be a massive upgrade for us.

Both preferably, with an actually good defensive midfielder behind them.

5 minutes ago, Drogba1 said:

Jorginho Kovacic and Kante are all past their prime, with the latter two being very injury prone now as well. I'm not sure we'll ever see Kante playing regularly for Chelsea again. Mason Mount is not really a CM either and doesn't look great in that role.

 

That leaves Gallagher, Loftus Cheek and Chukwumeka. Gallagher and Chukwumeka have potential for sure, but realistically this midfield is nowhere near good enough to compete with the best teams in Europe anymore, unless everyone is magically fully fit. Someone like a Frenke De Jong or a Jude Bellingham would be a massive upgrade for us.

Id definitely get a de Jong or Bellingham in, but I just don't think the midfield is the top priority. Goals and attacking threat/creativity are. 

1 hour ago, Scott Harris said:

Our midfield isn't strong though. Jorginho has massive weaknesses that are getting exposed game after game, Loftus-Cheek barely looks interested. Kovacic is a great ball carrier but is awful in attacking positions and can't stay fit and Kante will probably never play at the top level for us again. Our midfield needs some major rebuilding.

I also don't buy that Silva needs extra cover. His positioning is amazing, he reads the game better than any defender in the world right now. I would be much more worried about any of our other CB's getting caught out than Silva, especially Koulibaly seeing as he can't defend 1v1 situations and turns like a tank.

Watch the goal Casemiro scored, T.Silva was sleeping.

34 minutes ago, axman2526 said:

Both preferably, with an actually good defensive midfielder behind them.

De Jong is a DM that can't get minutes cause Busquets is still there and he prefers to be on the bench anyway.

8 minutes ago, Gol15 said:

Watch the goal Casemiro scored, T.Silva was sleeping.

the whole back line was sleeping and just watching it unfold 

Chilly did a halfhearted attempt at heading it away

how can they have 2 free men on the back post in the 94th minute? If i'm not wrong this whole situation came initially from a tactical foul of Jorginho, not directly but the ball got headed out and it came to Shaw who had the freedom and time to cross it to the back post from deep 

6 minutes ago, Gol15 said:

De Jong is a DM that can't get minutes cause Busquets is still there and he prefers to be on the bench anyway.

De Jong got a standing ovation last game where he started instead of Busquets

Seems that Xavi has seen the light

 

Edited October 22, 20223 yr by azpi28

1 minute ago, azpi28 said:

the whole back line was sleeping and just watching it unfold 

Chilly did a halfhearted attempt at heading it away

how can they have 2 free men on the back post in the 94th minute? If i'm not wrong this whole situation came initially from a tactical foul of Jorginho, not directly but the ball got headed out and it came to Shaw who had the freedom and time to cross it to the back post from deep 

T.Silva simply let that happen, the area from which the cross was coming it shouldn't even been a real chance for them. Chilwell at least tried.

Just now, Gol15 said:

T.Silva simply let that happen, the area from which the cross was coming it shouldn't even been a real chance for them. Chilwell at least tried.

yes i agree it was poor, especially that late into the game 

the organisation was totally gone

11 minutes ago, Gol15 said:

T.Silva simply let that happen, the area from which the cross was coming it shouldn't even been a real chance for them. Chilwell at least tried.

Price we pay for relying so heavily on him. We have seen mistakes creeping in to his game that were not there last season. Father time eventually catches up to us all. 

Silva is now at the stage where I believe we should be managing him to 1 game a week, not having him on the bench at Brentford ahead of another 90 minutes after playing 90 minutes plus vs Villa.

He should be in a player/coach roll, helping Trev, Wes and any other young defenders we have to learn and improve. 

But no, we sign 2 injury prone CBS and leave us with Silva, Chalobah and then Dave and Cucurella as our options.

Not to mention if we could actually do the business at the other end a late mistake would mean losing a clean sheet not points.

But no if Mount does not fire neither do Chelsea. Heaven forbid if Sterling, Ziyech or Havertz would pull their finger put and show a good attitude and win us games. 

Nope one sulks off the pitch, one sulks on it and the other was made to look something he is not by David Silva, KDB and Pep.

Edited October 22, 20223 yr by axman2526

There's a lot spoken about midfield, but do you seriously look at Arsenal's midfield and say it's a great midfield? How about their front line or defence? On paper we should be where Arsenal are in the league. The fact is, it's taken Arsenal time and a vision. Whether Arsenal go on to challenge for the title, who knows, but it shows that it takes time implement ideas. We all knew it would take time for Potter to work with these group of players. He will definitely need to bring a few players in to work to his ideas.

29 minutes ago, axman2526 said:

Hmm

 

Let's see if we agree on these

 

1st City

 

After them we finish behind Arsenal with their soon to be 9 point advantage too much to overcome.

 

Spurs have goalscorers in Kane and Son, we only have 16 goals on 11 games, worse than Leicester who are bottom. Spurs also have Conte. They will get top 4 with those combinations, dropped points to top 6 don't matter while you put the other 14 sides to the sword.

 

I Disagree with you United are better than us under their new boss.

 

That leaves one spot, and you forgot Newcastle are there too. 

Not sure I agree.

Spurs have played awful in their las handful of games and have basically been scraping wins, that finally caught up to them against United. They've also had Kane and Son fsince forever and still failed to get to UCL in multiple seasons despite our sh*t attack since the days of Hazard and Costa

United might be playing better under a new manager but they still have questionable results every other game and miss as many chances as we do.

I honestly feel all three of us are at the same level and either three could take the two spots for UCL. 

Newcastle I agree is a wildcard

 

Slowly creep back to the last month of Tuchel's. Injury to James, Kante ( if we still remembers him), Fofana etc havent helped, but we were hardly injury free in the last couple of seasons. It's going to be a long season, I hope WC comes a bit sooner, right now we looked out of ideas and legs.

49 minutes ago, HonoreMeiBalsac said:

 

That is so many Chelsea managers. Pick the big names and favorites most of the time, not matter how sh*t they have been.

Just imagine what would be said about Pulisic if he had the amount of games Mount has had and had only 2 goals and 3 assists to show for it? Or Broja the amount of starts as Havertz with just one goal? Another overrated Cobham kid etc...

It's so frustrating that our team has been a work in progress since the last 4-5 years. We keep turning over managers and players, rarely making progress and our performances inevitably nosedive till the manager is sacked. 

 

We've done nothing special since Tuchel was sacked. Only thing is that we've been less dire and scored a bit more. This usually happens when we get a new manager, things go our way for a brief period till it all comes crashing down.

1 hour ago, axman2526 said:

That is so many Chelsea managers. Pick the big names and favorites most of the time, not matter how sh*t they have been.

Just imagine what would be said about Pulisic if he had the amount of games Mount has had and had only 2 goals and 3 assists to show for it? Or Broja the amount of starts as Havertz with just one goal? Another overrated Cobham kid etc...

Mount at least is a work horse who glues everything together defensively. When Sterling isn't scoring he isn't helping.

Since Sept 1st Sterling has played 672 minutes and has 1 goal and 1 assist. Both are in UCL. None in league matches.

Since Sept 1st Pulisic has played 123 minutes and has 1 goal and 1 assist. Both in league matches as Potter won't even playing him in UCL.

Imagine if Pulisic played the next 550 minutes and didn't get a goal or assist. What would be said about him. He'd only be doing what Sterling has done.

You have to start asking, what is Potter looking at. Just the name on the back of the shirt? At least rotate in the players who are playing better. 

As to Mount I think he's best in midfield. Playing him at RW every match will never see us attacking as we should. 

Edited October 23, 20223 yr by HonoreMeiBalsac

18 minutes ago, HonoreMeiBalsac said:

Mount at least is a work horse who glues everything together defensively. When Sterling isn't scoring he isn't helping.

Since Sept 1st Sterling has played 672 minutes and has 1 goal and 1 assist. Both are in UCL. None in league matches.

Since Sept 1st Pulisic has played 123 minutes and has 1 goal and 1 assist. Both in league matches as Potter won't even playing him in UCL.

Imagine if Pulisic played the next 550 minutes and didn't get a goal or assist. What would be said about him. He'd only be doing what Sterling has done.

You have to start asking, what is Potter looking at. Just the name on the back of the shirt? At least rotate in the players who are playing better. 

As to Mount I think he's best in midfield. Playing him at RW every match will never see us attacking as we should. 

 

Sterling is this seasons Lukaku. Big star on big wages with very little football ability that has been vastly overrated (Sterling because he player for a domainte City, Lukaku because of 2 good Conte years in in cr@p Seria A)

 

Not that they are the same players as the two from the past but if we had a modern day Makalele then Mount would be best in the Essien position imo.

 

Maka

 

Essien

Lampard 

 

Maka

 

Mount

Gallagher/Carney C

Edited October 23, 20223 yr by axman2526