2 hours ago, just said:

Simple. E.....P.......L.

Sorts out the men from the boys. Jackson isn't bad he just doesn't cut the mustard as a lone striker. Too lightweight. Not physical enough. Same as Werner. Same as Abraham. Weak players in a strong league.

A fully fit Broja would make a lot of difference imo. All the tools needed physically.

9 hours ago, dansubrosa said:

I just don’t understand what on earth happened to Jackson. He looked like a real player at start of the season, taking on players, making runs, fantastic build up play. It’s like he completely lost all of it overnight.

His performance yesterday is due to the team being dysfunctional in general going forward apart from the first 30 minutes.

It's pretty obvious the system is wrong when Sterling, Jackson and Noni are all poor. Only Palmer did well. Disasi and Cucu offered nothing going forward. We missed Enzo's passing.

4 hours ago, axman2526 said:

A fully fit Broja would make a lot of difference imo. All the tools needed physically.

Borja won't be fully fit until probably next season. 

9 hours ago, just said:

Simple. E.....P.......L.

Sorts out the men from the boys. Jackson isn't bad he just doesn't cut the mustard as a lone striker. Too lightweight. Not physical enough. Same as Werner. Same as Abraham. Weak players in a strong league.

Bang on. Speaks for a number of our players. And with this ridiculous modern societal attitude of living your life through social media these kids just don't have the thickness of skin to ignore and persevere when the slings and arrows are thrown at them via social media platforms. 

This I also lay at the clubs door in part to be honest.

1 hour ago, Bob stark said:

Borja won't be fully fit until probably next season. 

We said the same last season.

Many a talented footballer never hit the heights simply cos they couldn't stay injury free. I'm sure Danny Ings is a better striker than any we have had since Costa, but nobody could ever rely on him as your main striker.

9 hours ago, Bob stark said:

This. Playing st in PL is very difficult. It is just very physical. 

Which is why we should avoid chasing after Osimhen. Absolutely no guarantee he could do it in the EPL. We can't afford that gamble again. We have to get a centre forward who is EPL proven. Ivan Toney is a must buy in January.

1 hour ago, just said:

Which is why we should avoid chasing after Osimhen. Absolutely no guarantee he could do it in the EPL. We can't afford that gamble again. We have to get a centre forward who is EPL proven. Ivan Toney is a must buy in January.

Don't disagree but why would he come here when Arsenal beckons with Jesus made of biscuits

1 hour ago, just said:

Which is why we should avoid chasing after Osimhen. Absolutely no guarantee he could do it in the EPL. We can't afford that gamble again. We have to get a centre forward who is EPL proven. Ivan Toney is a must buy in January.

I won't go for Toney. Way too expensive. Can we get somebody like Giroud/demba ba? 

Edited October 29, 20232 yr by Bob stark

I knew it would take a few games for fanbase to turn on him. Look at the comments in pre-season. He is struggling, but so are the whole team. I still like him and while he is not world-class, I can't believe fans are writing him off already. Just shows how little fan patience is. From hero to zero. The stark contrasts in opinion from July to now is amazing.

1 hour ago, Bob stark said:

I won't go for Toney. Way too expensive. Can we get somebody like Giroud/demba ba? 

Mitrovic. But he was too old apparently and went to Saudi

2 minutes ago, WhiteWall said:

Mitrovic. But he was too old apparently and went to Saudi

Same problem. Too old and too expensive. 

4 minutes ago, Bob stark said:

Same problem. Too old and too expensive. 

Then no, you won't buy any proven PL proven players. Not under 25 and cheap. That's why we spent millions on young players from abroad and over hyped them as the next big thing. 

There is talk of Osimhen re-signing with Napoli. 

Think £65m for Toney is worth it, assuming Romano is correct on this figure. Only issue is winning him over Arsenal who are miles further from us in terms of being a team. 

9 hours ago, reparto corse said:

His performance yesterday is due to the team being dysfunctional in general going forward apart from the first 30 minutes.

It's pretty obvious the system is wrong when Sterling, Jackson and Noni are all poor. Only Palmer did well. Disasi and Cucu offered nothing going forward. We missed Enzo's passing.

Sorry, but a decent striker still has an impact on the game. Puts himself about - makes a nuisance of himself. Jackson offered absolutely nothing (just as he did when he came on against Arsenal) and we might as well have played with 10 men.

They highlighted his lack of movement on MOTD and a couple of times, Cole Palmer was trying to show him to makes runs and you could see the frustration.

It's easy to forget he is still relatively young, but he needs to improve big time and once Nkunku returns I can't see him getting many minutes.

16 minutes ago, Nibs said:

Sorry, but a decent striker still has an impact on the game. Puts himself about - makes a nuisance of himself. Jackson offered absolutely nothing (just as he did when he came on against Arsenal) and we might as well have played with 10 men.

They highlighted his lack of movement on MOTD and a couple of times, Cole Palmer was trying to show him to makes runs and you could see the frustration.

It's easy to forget he is still relatively young, but he needs to improve big time and once Nkunku returns I can't see him getting many minutes.

At this rate we are 100% bringing in someone in January. This can't continue. We can't play Liverpool or Arsenal every week. 70% of the teams we will face will sit back. 

We will HAVE to buy someone there is no choice unless we are happy to finish right down the bottom because this useless empty vessel is just not doing it. He was hiding yesterday just did not want the ball 

ship him off to Strasbourg and forget about him 

We've just had Poch come out and say he doesn't know what to do against these teams that will sit back. This is a very big problem and it correlates to our league position. 

Having a fit Nkunku is going to help loads but deary me we need a f**king established goal scorer. 

6 hours ago, just said:

Which is why we should avoid chasing after Osimhen. Absolutely no guarantee he could do it in the EPL. We can't afford that gamble again. We have to get a centre forward who is EPL proven. Ivan Toney is a must buy in January.

Very punny Just lol

2 minutes ago, Sconnie Blue said:

We've just had Poch come out and say he doesn't know what to do against these teams that will sit back. This is a very big problem and it correlates to our league position. 

Big red sign to most of the league who don't fancy their chances to destroy us playing an attacking style, Ala Liverpool or City's way.

Come and play a low block against Chelsea, their manager admits he has no clue how to beat a side that plays this way.

There is no elite striker available buying someone just because we believe what is have isn’t enough is wasting money, might as well burn that money.

Unless you can get a guaranteed goal scorer wait until everyone is back fit and see how we play because this Jackson looked completely different even at the start of the season

36 minutes ago, Sconnie Blue said:

We've just had Poch come out and say he doesn't know what to do against these teams that will sit back. This is a very big problem and it correlates to our league position. 

Having a fit Nkunku is going to help loads but deary me we need a f**king established goal scorer. 

If true this is a damning indictment and worries me greatly.

This tactic is not unique to Chelsea.  I would imagine that Sheffield United are pretty punch drunk by now, flailing around on the ropes trying desperately to stop the blows from raining in. As such I expect they go into games packing their entire team into their own box. Yet Arsenal hit 5 with a striker that the majority at the club don't rate ending up scoring a hat trick.

Do we truly focus on this when we do pattern. Do we forensically analyse and work on each and every aspect. We should be doing attack vs defence for days on end with a variety of permutations of players, so that every conceivable situation is covered and we have a dozen different plays and routine ingrained into every player regardless of where they are on the pitch when attacks occur. Man City live with this. Look at the constant rotational movement of their players in and around the box.

Do we analyse every pass in the final third and ensure that we constantly get the weight and direction of passes correct. I lose count of how many breaks are wasted due to under hit passes or balls that are slightly behind the players runs.

It sounds over the top but we have no natural finishers. Therefore if nobody is a natural then you just have to work harder than anyone else around you.

Why doesn't our management know this, I was under the impression that everything was closely scrutinised.

3 minutes ago, WhiteWall said:

If true this is a damning indictment and worries me greatly.

This tactic is not unique to Chelsea.  I would imagine that Sheffield United are pretty punch drunk by now, flailing around on the ropes trying desperately to stop the blows from raining in. As such I expect they go into games packing their entire team into their own box. Yet Arsenal hit 5 with a striker that the majority at the club don't rate ending up scoring a hat trick.

Do we truly focus on this when we do pattern. Do we forensically analyse and work on each and every aspect. We should be doing attack vs defence for days on end with a variety of permutations of players, so that every conceivable situation is covered and we have a dozen different plays and routine ingrained into every player regardless of where they are on the pitch when attacks occur. Man City live with this. Look at the constant rotational movement of their players in and around the box.

Do we analyse every pass in the final third and ensure that we constantly get the weight and direction of passes correct. I lose count of how many breaks are wasted due to under hit passes or balls that are slightly behind the players runs.

It sounds over the top but we have no natural finishers. Therefore if nobody is a natural then you just have to work harder than anyone else around you.

Why doesn't our management know this, I was under the impression that everything was closely scrutinised.

Easier for a bad workman to blame his tools, and in this case knowing a nice payday awaits for failure, than to figure out a way to make these tools get the job done. These players should be better than is shown.

Forest, Bournemouth and Brentford have all been rubbish this season, yet we have 1 point from them and no goals. That is unacceptable. 

7 hours ago, STATS said:

I knew it would take a few games for fanbase to turn on him. Look at the comments in pre-season. He is struggling, but so are the whole team. I still like him and while he is not world-class, I can't believe fans are writing him off already. Just shows how little fan patience is. From hero to zero. The stark contrasts in opinion from July to now is amazing.

In July we were looking at pre-season games. I still like Jackson but he doesn't look ready to lead the line on his own every week. No surprise there really. He is 22 years old and has just come into the quickest, most physical football league in the world.

My biggest concern is that he simply hasn't looked strong enough. That was exactly the same with Tammy Abraham. I think Jackson will probably look better when he has a strike partner taking some of the load, that should be N'kunku if we can ever get him fit and keep him fit.

Broja has more physicality about him than Jackson, but we know his injury problems and even when fit he is also very young and inexperienced. Is he good enough to play as a lone striker? 

20 minutes ago, just said:

In July we were looking at pre-season games. I still like Jackson but he doesn't look ready to lead the line on his own every week. No surprise there really. He is 22 years old and has just come into the quickest, most physical football league in the world.

My biggest concern is that he simply hasn't looked strong enough. That was exactly the same with Tammy Abraham. I think Jackson will probably look better when he has a strike partner taking some of the load, that should be N'kunku if we can ever get him fit and keep him fit.

Broja has more physicality about him than Jackson, but we know his injury problems and even when fit he is also very young and inexperienced. Is he good enough to play as a lone striker? 

Agreed. Højlund at United is having the same struggles despite being highly rated by many. It is hard to expect such an inexperienced striker to lead the line.

1 hour ago, just said:

Broja has more physicality about him than Jackson, but we know his injury problems and even when fit he is also very young and inexperienced. Is he good enough to play as a lone striker? 

Yes, I believe he is.