13 hours ago, axman2526 said:

Lions den start for him. After Zagreb we have to win, anything else and we are looking at Europa League in February.

I f*cking hate playing on a Thursday night 😡

1 hour ago, Bob stark said:

I won't blame potter for yesterday lineup. It was a classic political lineup. You don't want to upset senior player in your dressing room in your first game. 

But if we play palace yesterday we will get destroyed. If you want to play fast, you need surround Silva with two fast player. Fofana/chalo need to play over Azpi. 2nd you need different midfield profile, if you see Jorgi running around chasing player in open space again and again then there is something wrong with the way you play. 

 

 

Spot on Bob. In the GP thread @SwedishEntity , who seems to have followed Potter's career closely, has said it will take time and that the preferred line up will look very different in 2 or 3 months time. He also made the point that GP won't be publicly throwing players under the bus when we lose a game as it affects morale and dents player self-confidence.

24 minutes ago, just said:

Spot on Bob. In the GP thread @SwedishEntity , who seems to have followed Potter's career closely, has said it will take time and that the preferred line up will look very different in 2 or 3 months time. He also made the point that GP won't be publicly throwing players under the bus when we lose a game as it affects morale and dents player self-confidence.

100%. I guess I watched a couple of Aussies gradually eased out of the lineup at Brighton and so I kind of kept an eye on Brighton evolving. 

We are so reliant on a fit and in form Kante.

Turns out it was a 3 at the back with sterling wingback. I mean im not sure if its any better tbh.

One aspect from last night i forgot to mention.

After the television and online media made a point of noting that a "period of silence" was held at Anfield that was impeccably observed by most fans (surely an oxymoron if ever i heard one), i was waiting with baited breath for the plaudits for the Stamford Bridge crowd comprising both Chelsea and Salzburg fans literally, sorry once again LITERALLY not making one sound throughout a full minutes silence.

Not a mention. Surprising that!

To all of you that attended and conducted yourselves so admirably typically, thank you for representing all of us apparent racist, homophobic, nazi Chelsea thugs.

You were all a credit to the club.

 

slow old defenders cost us the points Silva was slow getting across so he tried jumping in two footed  Aspi got beat to the cut back by a fast forward  we will  be left with a defensive playing team who plays on the break  until we address the defenders and get centre backs with pace

10 hours ago, Kyle said:

There's no easy fix for an attack this blunt, especially in a week, but I can't help but feel any manager picking Havertz right now is shooting themself in the foot. Why keep chancing it on him when we have actual strikers and actual wingers? I'm not saying any of the alternates atm are going to strike fear into every opposition, but at least you can account for where they're going to be positionally and build and plan around it. What the f**k is Havertz even supposed to be doing?

 

I thought RLC looked much more of a threat than Havertz did when he came on for him. Whether or not he can play that physically regularly without injuring himself again is a bit of a question mark though.

3 hours ago, coombsie said:

I make a habit of not criticising Chelsea players, but I have to make an exception now with Jorginho. He brings NOTHING to the party, slows us down, is the main instigator of the sideways or backwards pass and its like he doesn't actually know how to play a forward ball. The wider issue is that we have no CREATIVITY whatsoever in midfield, a player that can get on the ball and make things happen. Until we get this man, it will continue to be "same sh*t - different day"

Easily one of our best players yesterday. Some would say it is not much but that is the truth. 

11 hours ago, bluehaze said:

Not funny mate some of us loved Ray Wilkins cheap shot and not deserved for a Chelsea legend.

Some? Ray is pretty much universally loved by anyone who’s heard anything about him. It’s more of a cheap shot at current management who aren’t fit enough to lace Ray’s boots (not that he’d had ever pointed that out). 

23 minutes ago, dellaw said:

slow old defenders cost us the points Silva was slow getting across so he tried jumping in two footed 

To be fair to Thiago he’d done the some crunching tackle earlier and saved our arses when it came off. He jumped in to that one a bit early and didn’t get enough on it unfortunately. 

22 minutes ago, evissy said:

Easily one of our best players yesterday. Some would say it is not much but that is the truth. 

Wow, I must have been watching a different game 

 

29 minutes ago, evissy said:

Easily one of our best players yesterday. Some would say it is not much but that is the truth. 

 

I'm not Jorgi's biggest fan by any stretch but I agree he played pretty well yesterday

I am virtually certain the team won’t improve consistently until Silva, good as he is moves to the bench.  More pace is needed at the back. Of course that goes also for azpi. 

1 hour ago, Munkworth said:

Some? Ray is pretty much universally loved by anyone who’s heard anything about him. It’s more of a cheap shot at current management who aren’t fit enough to lace Ray’s boots (not that he’d had ever pointed that out). 

No it isn't it's you trying to the be the class clown as usual post something that's not you playing to the gallery have a day off.

1 hour ago, evissy said:

Easily one of our best players yesterday. Some would say it is not much but that is the truth. 

I think overall he was definitely a lot more positive with his passing evissy and I said as much in the match day thread. BUT defensively there were still faults with him. He was very, very fortunate to be awarded a soft foul when he was easily crowded off the ball on the edge of our box at the start, very similar to the West Ham game that was. And he was also one of the players at fault for the Salzburg goal, though he certainly wasn't alone there.

Jorginho simply is NOT a good defensive player. I don't care what anyone says, he just isn't. BUT I thought he made several good, early, forward passes yesterday that put us in good attacking positions and if Potter encourages him to try more of that when he plays that will be a big improvement IMO.

 

 

7 hours ago, Bob stark said:

 

They guy say that shot is 85% saveable. Even I don't think that was that easy. But let's just say that was not saveable. His play on the ball was so bad. Playing from the back is not standing on the ball for 1 hour and then make a short pass to Silva who immediately get pressed. You can see the whole field, make chip pass to wb or wide cb. Help you team best press 

Every time Kepa put that ball out, there wasn’t anyone there, but at least it was getting put out on the pitch instead of haywire out for a throw in.

You can pull out people on Twitter and analyse the goal, but it was an overall clear improvement on Mendy. We are still a million miles off a Courtois or prime Cech with goalkeepers though granted.

43 minutes ago, just said:

I think overall he was definitely a lot more positive with his passing evissy and I said as much in the match day thread. BUT defensively there were still faults with him. He was very, very fortunate to be awarded a soft foul when he was easily crowded off the ball on the edge of our box at the start, very similar to the West Ham game that was. And he was also one of the players at fault for the Salzburg goal, though he certainly wasn't alone there.

Jorginho simply is NOT a good defensive player. I don't care what anyone says, he just isn't. BUT I thought he made several good, early, forward passes yesterday that put us in good attacking positions and if Potter encourages him to try more of that when he plays that will be a big improvement IMO.

 

 

Kepa passed that ball to him and it wasn't a peach

And Jorginho is not a defensive player. What the team doesn't do is cover for him. Mount did it a couple of times as he emulated Kante but otherwise he is alone. Look at how well Team Italy did it in the Euros. Locatelli and Verratti ran for him because he can't. His job is to decide when to go, through who. He is excellent at receiving the ball and distributing it to a player with a channel. 

Jorgiho is picked by all the managers because they see it in him. 

 

1 hour ago, bluehaze said:

No it isn't it's you trying to the be the class clown as usual post something that's not you playing to the gallery have a day off.

May I present the solution to your problem. You’re welcome. 

We did enough to win, so disappointing we only came away with a point especially when we already lost to Zagreb in the first group match.

Some good signs from what I saw, but also some concerns that continually persist especially in front of goal.

I was unable to watch the game live but it seemed like it followed a pattern that we have been familiar with recently. Had the better of the first half without creating many clear cut chances. Take an early lead second half, but fail to push on from there and put the game beyond the opposition. Allow a sloppy equalizer. Then finally step up with some urgency in the last 15 mins and create more chances than we did for the rest of the match. But miss some decent opportunities.

Seems like if we could play with some of that attacking urgency for more than just the last 15 mins we would be in much better shape. 

1 hour ago, Mod said:

Every time Kepa put that ball out, there wasn’t anyone there, but at least it was getting put out on the pitch instead of haywire out for a throw in.

You can pull out people on Twitter and analyse the goal, but it was an overall clear improvement on Mendy. We are still a million miles off a Courtois or prime Cech with goalkeepers though granted.

Ironically Courtois was one of the worst that we have had for bottom corner, low shots due to a him not doing a collapse dive but a pounce dive, which woudl often result in a lift off upwards or parallel to the ground. Numerous commentators have speculated that this is a mixture of height and his volleyball upbringign formn his parents. Who knows.

14 minutes ago, WhiteWall said:

Ironically Courtois was one of the worst that we have had for bottom corner, low shots due to a him not doing a collapse dive but a pounce dive, which woudl often result in a lift off upwards or parallel to the ground. Numerous commentators have speculated that this is a mixture of height and his volleyball upbringign formn his parents. Who knows.

Tbf In Courtois case it was a weakness of his.

Kepa's biggest weakness is that he has no strengths,  he's terrible at saving low shots,  terrible at saving long shots, is terrible with the ball at his feet doesn't command his box and generally does nothing to indicate he's a premier league level goal keeper.

Going from Cech and Courtois, spending 100m and ending up with Mendy and Kepa has to be one of the largest positional downgrades a club has had in such a short time.

28 minutes ago, HazardousChoice said:

Tbf In Courtois case it was a weakness of his.

Kepa's biggest weakness is that he has no strengths,  he's terrible at saving low shots,  terrible at saving long shots, is terrible with the ball at his feet doesn't command his box and generally does nothing to indicate he's a premier league level goal keeper.

Going from Cech and Courtois, spending 100m and ending up with Mendy and Kepa has to be one of the largest positional downgrades a club has had in such a short time.

Agreed. Although that is a little harsh on Mendy who was brought in at a more reasonable price, and has been very good for us at times. He has definitely been in a slump of form recently, but will hopefully get back to his best. Longer team Slonina looks like a great prospect.

56 minutes ago, HazardousChoice said:

Tbf In Courtois case it was a weakness of his.

Kepa's biggest weakness is that he has no strengths,  he's terrible at saving low shots,  terrible at saving long shots, is terrible with the ball at his feet doesn't command his box and generally does nothing to indicate he's a premier league level goal keeper.

Going from Cech and Courtois, spending 100m and ending up with Mendy and Kepa has to be one of the largest positional downgrades a club has had in such a short time.

Once again can't disagree with any of this