Tough watch again sadly.

I joked amongst friends at the start of the summer that the amount of business we were doing and the level of transition meant we had to get things right otherwise we’d be stuck floating in mid table for a few years. The joke isn’t as funny anymore.

There are, of course, excuses that can be made. Our injury list is once again, outrageous. Most teams would struggle with the amount of players out that we have. The usual line of the huge amount of new players needing time also stands up.

But my main gripe is the attitude in the final 15/20 minutes. We don’t look like a team desperate to get a goal. The urgency and tempo doesn’t go up, we don’t take throw ins quickly to keep things going. It’s been the case for a while. We have no change of gear, no reaction.

Fixture list is starting to look a bit ominous around the next international break. I want us to give Poch time as changing now will achieve nothing other than setting us back another 12 months, but if we can’t get points on the board before playing some more of the big boys, the media will have a field day and put the pressure on.

I do think that there is a little bit of xG that isn't favouring us recently. But i basically blame Poch for picking players out of position. Its f**** insane that you don't maximise what we have.

Enzo looks completely wasted playing in Mason Mount's position. Utterly stupid. Of course Chiller comes on late and tries too hard. He should have started instead of Disasi or Silva. Colwill can do Silva's job or close enough to it.

Conor, who played well enough for my money, even though I understand half the forum hates him, was basically doing the job Enzo should have been tasked with. Palmer should have been tasked with the No 10 role and central leaving the wider areas to Chillwell and Mudryck. Now Muddy's in the team leave him there for a few games. Give him the minutes. We've invested in him, he needs to play for a bit.

Nah this is well above Poch. Accountability needs to be taken. Top to bottom. 

9 hours ago, CFCCAN said:

Couldn't have put it better myself...

At the moment he's the glue that holds this defence together, he may not be as nimble or quick as he was years ago, however his experience and positioning more than makes up for lack of pace. If you watch, he's always looking forward but there is no movement in front of him causing him to play sideways or back to the keeper

One other thing, I don't think Enzo looks happy... which is a royal pita

miserable weather on the South Coast doesn't help..

I'm not saying he cannot defend... he still can... slight exaggeration but:

The problem is: every time he's the one who is given the ball to start with from the back, which is quite often, he's static... he doesn't run/walk with it and get the ball moving quickly again... he stands there looks up, waves his arms around as if to send a message to the midfield (like why the fk aren't you all coming back to help me?) and waits for someone to come and get it... it breaks up our flow and slows us down.

I don't see that from anyone else, they try to keep it moving and we're quicker to get back at the opposition - by the time Silva's finished waving his arms around the opposition are set up to defend again.

We actually played reasonably well yesterday and if it hadn't been for the 1) The poor finishing and 2)The shyness of taking an opportunity on goal and 3) Basic lack of composure in the last third yesterday we could have won the game quite easily. I didn't think the ref did us any favors either.

Mudryk needs to play and to be encouraged to draw the foul more around the box to give us more set pieces and chances at goal.

Bournemouth, along with Luton, are the side you would ask for to try and get some confidence against and score some goals. 

City managed 6 against them playing in second gear.

Haaland has 43 goals since the beginning of last season. Our men's first team collectively has scored the same.

How can Potter, Lamps and now Pochettino, 3 very different managers, all fail to get goals out of these players?

We all thought that we had a decent start to the season, fixtures wise. Liverpool Home, West Ham away, Luton Home, Forest Home and Bournemouth away. Arguably, most of us expected at least 11 points. But in reality, we have taken 5 points. We cannot even beat the likes of Forest and Bournemouth, the only side that we can beat is the one that is favourite for relegation and rock bottom in the Premier League. I still think the two main issues are the piss poor medial team we have at Chelsea, TWELVE first team players on the treatment table, most of the injuries serious and long term with little likelihood if any, of they key players returning soon.  Secondly, the woeful Directors of football who after the shambles of last season, could not even recognise that we needed a striker and consequently, didn't bother buying one. I am not including Jackson either as he is NOT a striker, he is a Havertz at very best.

We have bought dozens of supposedly talented youngsters (I have yet to see it !!) when what we really needed was a SPINE, a backbone for the team like we had in the Terry, Lampard, Drogba mould. This is NOT on Pochettino, the same results would have befallen any coach given this squad, injuries and lack of goalscorers. This is on Boehly and his cronies who do not have a clue how an English football club is run. They MUST sort out the medical team, bring in the very best available injury specialists, fitness coaches, nutritionists etc and in January (if its not too late by then) a striker worthy of the name. 

Edited September 18, 20232 yr by coombsie

What was wrong with Noni yesterday? Was he injured?

Why did Gallagher start ahead of Palmer yesterday? What exactly does Gallagher bring to this team?

Why is Pochetino still the Chelsea manager?

All these questions are begging for answers.

9 hours ago, icecoolguy22 said:

Mudryk finally got a start, what we offered on the field was bare minimum. I don't care how long he has on his contract, time is running out for him soon, would any clubs pay 30M for him right now?

Mudryk created chance after chance, he was decent. No his fault the mug on the end of the pass couldn't hit a barn door with a banjo.

Just now, Gonoir Beniashile said:

Mudryk created chance after chance, he was decent. No his fault the mug on the end of the pass couldn't hit a barn door with a banjo.

Mudryk should have had THREE assists before half time !!!

I was out yesterday so missed the match though see Caicedo was out with a knee injury following international duty.

Can't wait see us play close to our first team squad instead of these patched up teams.  

 

14 minutes ago, strider6004 said:

I was out yesterday so missed the match though see Caicedo was out with a knee injury following international duty.

Can't wait see us play close to our first team squad instead of these patched up teams.  

 

I am afraid it will not change much, unless we somehow magic up a player who can put the ball in the old onion bag 

1 hour ago, coombsie said:

I am afraid it will not change much, unless we somehow magic up a player who can put the ball in the old onion bag 

Yah... I hope we get Ivan Toney... in the meantime maybe we should listen to Jenas

15 hours ago, icecoolguy22 said:

The ball is absolutely refusing to go into the net for us right now, how the hell did that Sterling Free Kick bounced out, and a really poor attempt run to be offside right after. As usual, we were a yard short when comes to meet the ball for a clean strike, and players are afraid of taking a shot. When was the last time you see a team passing the ball around 20 yards from the box when chasing a late goal? Another mystery is despite spending so much, we couldn't even field a full team on game day, let's not blame it on some bad luck, there has to be something seriously wrong there. Sanchez was on his game, could have easily been a 1:0, and we wouldn't have much complains about it. Poch tried a back 4, looked a bit more direct, and after a while it's the same pass it around and hope the other team slips up. Mudryk finally got a start, what we offered on the field was bare minimum. I don't care how long he has on his contract, time is running out for him soon, would any clubs pay 30M for him right now?

Agreed on the state of our squad. The bench yesterday looked much weaker than Bournemouth's and included a couple of names from the academy that I had barely seen before.  Given the amount of players we have signed that should not be happening. I know we have an awful existing injury list. Did we have a ton more players out injured after international break?

5 hours ago, Gonoir Beniashile said:

Mudryk created chance after chance, he was decent. No his fault the mug on the end of the pass couldn't hit a barn door with a banjo.

Mudryk showed some bright moments but it would be slightly generous to say he created chance after chance. Often his final ball should have been better and would have led to use having a much better chance to score. Great example being the cross to Conor. That may go down as a miss from Conor, but the position and height of the cross made the finish much more difficult. Certainly some signs of encouragement but too often I don't think he looks up before he passes.

Imo the mistakes I saw from Mudryk are things you learn to improve through game time, ala trial and error. (Actions in dangerous areas, sharpness, when to come deep vs run behind, etc). 

Poch also needs to learn to utilize his strengths. 

Should still start Sunday. 

Edited September 18, 20232 yr by Sconnie Blue

22 minutes ago, Sconnie Blue said:

Imo the mistakes I saw from Mudryk are things you learn to improve through game time, ala trial and error. (Actions in dangerous areas, sharpness, when to come deep vs run behind, etc). 

Poch also needs to learn to utilize his strengths. 

Should still start Sunday. 

I agree. He will hopefully improve with more starts.

10 hours ago, coombsie said:

We all thought that we had a decent start to the season, fixtures wise. Liverpool Home, West Ham away, Luton Home, Forest Home and Bournemouth away. Arguably, most of us expected at least 11 points. But in reality, we have taken 5 points. We cannot even beat the likes of Forest and Bournemouth, the only side that we can beat is the one that is favourite for relegation and rock bottom in the Premier League. I still think the two main issues are the piss poor medial team we have at Chelsea, TWELVE first team players on the treatment table, most of the injuries serious and long term with little likelihood if any, of they key players returning soon.  Secondly, the woeful Directors of football who after the shambles of last season, could not even recognise that we needed a striker and consequently, didn't bother buying one. I am not including Jackson either as he is NOT a striker, he is a Havertz at very best.

We have bought dozens of supposedly talented youngsters (I have yet to see it !!) when what we really needed was a SPINE, a backbone for the team like we had in the Terry, Lampard, Drogba mould. This is NOT on Pochettino, the same results would have befallen any coach given this squad, injuries and lack of goalscorers. This is on Boehly and his cronies who do not have a clue how an English football club is run. They MUST sort out the medical team, bring in the very best available injury specialists, fitness coaches, nutritionists etc and in January (if its not too late by then) a striker worthy of the name. 

The spine is missing a striker worthy of the name,  for sure. Jury is out on the keeper, most agree Sanchez is not the one to be the new Cech or Tibo.

However how many on here thought we had most of a spine with James,  Colwill, Fofana, Lavia, Caciedo and Enzo?

Opinions have dropped a lot but I think a few said this was a spine to last a decade.

Can imagine they perk right up next summer if we decided to spend over 200mill bringing in Diogo Costa and Victor Oshiman. 

12 hours ago, axman2526 said:

The spine is missing a striker worthy of the name,  for sure. Jury is out on the keeper, most agree Sanchez is not the one to be the new Cech or Tibo.

However how many on here thought we had most of a spine with James,  Colwill, Fofana, Lavia, Caciedo and Enzo?

Opinions have dropped a lot but I think a few said this was a spine to last a decade.

Can imagine they perk right up next summer if we decided to spend over 200mill bringing in Diogo Costa and Victor Oshiman. 

By spine, I mean leadership, in every department of the pitch. Colwill, Fofana, Lavia, Caicedo and Enzo, do not strike me as the leaders we need, despite being very good players.

On 18/09/2023 at 06:48, hephzibah said:

 

Why is Pochetino still the Chelsea manager?

 

Is this a joke? 5 games in FFS.