We’ve got 28 points vs 20 compared to the same games. Improvement!

2 hours ago, El regreso said:

Stop talking sense only OTT reactions are needed. 

The f**king nerve of you saying that 🤪

To think we’d be 7th if Sterling didn’t commit that atrocity. 
 

 

59 minutes ago, Sconnie Blue said:

To think we’d be 7th if Sterling didn’t commit that atrocity. 
 

 

Aye, just one game.

Although I slag Poch off I don't think replacing him is the answer right now. Also in his favour we seem to have gotten over the goalscoring problem that plagued us. 31 goals in the past 15 games is decent enough that's for sure.

8 hours ago, Argo said:

Despite my critisisms of him I do think he's okay as a stop gap to get rid of stench of last season and has done well with our attacking players, Mudryk especially.

However if/when we want to aim to bring the title back home he needs to replaced but I'm not sure I trust Clearlake to do it or if they do certainly not adequately. With Ancelotti extending at Madrid we should be throwing everything we have at Alonso this summer or next.

I have similar view. Long term I dont see him being the manager to help us challenge for the league but he's a good transition manager for the turnover over the last year and a half and to help develop some of the players (At least the attacking ones). I'd say the board allow him to see out his contract and maybe by then there will be someone to the club's liking.

1 hour ago, Frankie8Lampard said:

I have similar view. Long term I dont see him being the manager to help us challenge for the league but he's a good transition manager for the turnover over the last year and a half and to help develop some of the players (At least the attacking ones). I'd say the board allow him to see out his contract and maybe by then there will be someone to the club's liking.

He can hopefully keep us moving forward till @Zetahas his qualifications done and is ready to take over.

Just thinking we have a lot of forwards yet not a decent striker.

In the short term it might be worth trying 

                                                                               Sterling

                     Jackson                                         Nkunku                    Palmer

                                                      Gallagher                            Caicedo

  Back four dependent on who is fit, alas.

 

 

23 minutes ago, strider6004 said:

Just thinking we have a lot of forwards yet not a decent striker.

In the short term it might be worth trying 

                                                                               Sterling

                     Jackson                                         Nkunku                    Palmer

                                                      Gallagher                            Caicedo

  Back four dependent on who is fit, alas.

 

 

You are right. Jackson is the Anelka without goals, Kalou without spider 🕷️ on the back of his head. Nkunku is a 10 that can score a ton. 

Broja is our only out and out striker candidate I think but he needs much more football. Maybe so much we can't afford it. 

Problem with buying a striker with a ton of goals is the sheer difficulty of finding one. Gambling-Toney is probably out best bet. He has faced every Prem club and is good striker but he is also a question mark.

Like most Chelsea fans I can go from utter despair to ridiculous over optimism with a couple of decent results.

Happy to see in the New Year in an optimistic frame of mind ( until the next sh*te result obviously)

Come on you BLUES !

5 hours ago, evissy said:

You are right. Jackson is the Anelka without goals, Kalou without spider 🕷️ on the back of his head. Nkunku is a 10 that can score a ton. 

Broja is our only out and out striker candidate I think but he needs much more football. Maybe so much we can't afford it. 

Problem with buying a striker with a ton of goals is the sheer difficulty of finding one. Gambling-Toney is probably out best bet. He has faced every Prem club and is good striker but he is also a question mark.

I like that Hwang at Wolves but he is also off to the Asian Cup for a month.

15 hours ago, axman2526 said:

He can hopefully keep us moving forward till @Zetahas his qualifications done and is ready to take over.

Zeta will probably be the first and only manager ever to call for his own sacking. 

Looking at how Ange is doing at Spurs with their injury situation and still being too 4 I can’t help but wonder how he would have done with us. 

5 hours ago, Remodez said:

Looking at how Ange is doing at Spurs with their injury situation and still being too 4 I can’t help but wonder how he would have done with us. 

He'd have similar struggle like Poch at Chelsea. Spur's great start was build on Maddison's first couple of months, once he was off their record has been rather ordinary. We would have never signed Maddison anyway, and don't have a reliable goal source like Son.

27 minutes ago, icecoolguy22 said:

He'd have similar struggle like Poch at Chelsea. Spur's great start was build on Maddison's first couple of months, once he was off their record has been rather ordinary. We would have never signed Maddison anyway, and don't have a reliable goal source like Son.

First 10 games won 8 drawn 2 lost 0  ... and then next 10 games won 4 drawn 1 lost 5 when the injuries kicked in.

There isn't a manager in the PL that is immune to a bad run of games when they are affected by injuries.

5 hours ago, Remodez said:

Looking at how Ange is doing at Spurs with their injury situation and still being too 4 I can’t help but wonder how he would have done with us. 

The same style? Relegation. 

Said it on another thread. If we are spending big on a goal scorer then Alvarez at City is my choice all day long. 
 

Would he want to come? He’d be the main man for us so maybe not as mad as it sounds. Not a January deal that’s for sure but if Haaland commits to a new contract you never know.

Just a very simple tactical analysis. This is our 1st half passing map vs luton. 

The most noticeable thing is Conor position. is he nuts? Is he a roadrunner? Why is he up that high? 

Let's say instead of high on the right, Gallagher play in his "correct" position next Caicedo. There will be a big space on that right hand side and it will be difficult to feed Madueke and if you can he will be isolated. 

One solution is to ask Madueke to drift middle and ask gusto to push up. But we have seen what happen when a winger play am position under TT especially with Cho and Ziyech (Disaster). 

You can ask gusto to invert and allow Gallagher to push high (zinhcenko style) but can gusto play as midifelder? 

This is where different manager have different approach. Some prefer to have a rigid perfect alignment, some prefer to play looser structure to allow player to play in their best position (usually attackers). 

Edited January 1, 20242 yr by Bob stark

8 hours ago, 19seventyone said:

Said it on another thread. If we are spending big on a goal scorer then Alvarez at City is my choice all day long. 
 

Would he want to come? He’d be the main man for us so maybe not as mad as it sounds. Not a January deal that’s for sure but if Haaland commits to a new contract you never know.

He signed a new contract last summer. City will say 200m.

6 minutes ago, Bob stark said:

Just a very simple tactical analysis. This is our 1st half passing map vs luton. 

The most noticeable thing is Conor position. is he nuts? Is he a roadrunner? Why is he up that high? 

Let's say instead of high on the right, Gallagher play in his "correct" position next Caicedo. There will be a big space on that right hand side and it will be difficult to feed Madueke and if you can he will be isolated. 

One solution is to ask Madueke to drift middle and ask gusto to push up. But we have seen what happen when a winger play am position under TT especially with Cho and Ziyech (Disaster). 

You can ask gusto to invert and allow Gallagher to push high (zinhcenko style) but can gusto play as midifelder? 

This is where different manager have different approach. Some prefer to have a rigid perfect alignment, some prefer to play looser structure to allow player to play in their best position (usually attackers). 

Looking at that map it looks like all Gallagher was doing was getting in the way and passing backwards to Disasi or Gusto. I'm probably mis-interpreting it. Not a fan of these pass map things personally 🙂 

If Gallagher plays where he's supposed to (next to Caicedo), why would Madueke be isolated if Gusto's average position is right next to Madueke, in support ?

9 hours ago, 19seventyone said:

Said it on another thread. If we are spending big on a goal scorer then Alvarez at City is my choice all day long.

Alvarez has 6 Prem goals at 266 minutes per goal. Jackson has 7 at 207, so wouldn't be my choice as a big money signing for goals.

10 hours ago, 19seventyone said:

Said it on another thread. If we are spending big on a goal scorer then Alvarez at City is my choice all day long. 
 

Would he want to come? He’d be the main man for us so maybe not as mad as it sounds. Not a January deal that’s for sure but if Haaland commits to a new contract you never know.

If he was to leave City he would surely have his pick of pretty much all of Europe. Both Liverpool and Arsenal would be more appealing propositions for him just from the PL. Could never see Alvarez coming to us, tbh.

5 hours ago, WhiteWall said:

If he was to leave City he would surely have his pick of pretty much all of Europe. Both Liverpool and Arsenal would be more appealing propositions for him just from the PL. Could never see Alvarez coming to us, tbh.

I think what role the player is offered in team also makes a difference in their choice. At Liverpool and arsenal, he is just going to be another cog in the wheel of an already established team. The reason why we are still able to attract players despite the last couple of years is the opportunity to be a leading player in the team and bringing them back to the top versus just being another player. Really comes down to if the player is looking for a challenge or looking for guaranteed success.

If Alvarz buys the squad is build on youth and himself type of thing, we may have a chance. No idea how we are going to finance it, I doubt he will settle for a 8 year deal ( think it's no long valid anymore) on ' minimum wage'. We are talking about huge wages for a proven player, may not be in our scope anymore. Back to Poch, think he has made some progress, definitely an improvement over the previous 2 managers. It's impossible to expect him improve everyone, and players with big price tag really have to work on themselves.

15 hours ago, Sexyfootball said:

Looking at that map it looks like all Gallagher was doing was getting in the way and passing backwards to Disasi or Gusto. I'm probably mis-interpreting it. Not a fan of these pass map things personally 🙂 

If Gallagher plays where he's supposed to (next to Caicedo), why would Madueke be isolated if Gusto's average position is right next to Madueke, in support ?

This is one of the drawback of passing map, if a player move a lot, it will give you an average position plus it also doesn't capture off ball movements. 

Gallagher probably played deep first and then went forward.  That is why he received tons of ball from disasi and gusto. 

What Gallagher will do is influenced by what our rw and rb want to to. If our rw drift middle (in this pic Maatsen), Conor will stay back next to Caicedo more

But imagine, Maatsen staying wide on the side line. Gallagher will pass to Maatsen. Now what? Maatsen will be isolated. 

You will need either gusto (too far away in this instance) or Gallagher to make run to help Maatsen.