3 hours ago, Sconnie Blue said:

I'd actually disagree entirely and say all of our defenders can do that. 

All of them?

Gusto, James, Chilwell and Cucurella sure, maybe Veiga.  I don't think any of CBS can though. They are all clumsy, especially Badiashile. 

1 hour ago, axman2526 said:

All of them?

Gusto, James, Chilwell and Cucurella sure, maybe Veiga.  I don't think any of CBS can though. They are all clumsy, especially Badiashile. 

Fofana could play the ball, remains to be seen how he'll do post-injury. 

Colwill certainly can.

Tosin grew up in City's academy and was rated by Pep, you'd think he can play but once again not watched enough of him.

Tweedle dee and Tweedle dumb from Monaco i worry about. 

1 hour ago, axman2526 said:

All of them?

Gusto, James, Chilwell and Cucurella sure, maybe Veiga.  I don't think any of CBS can though. They are all clumsy, especially Badiashile. 

Before someone put a voodoo on him Badiashile was very composed under Potter and played some fantastic passes through the channels. 
 

Disasi’s passing was the least of our worries last season. 
 

Colwill and Fofana are fantastic passers.

Tosin is well composed too. 

The defence for me isn’t an issue with the ball. (Badi was the only worry last season) It’s without it that worries me as it still looks incredibly shaky. 

 

 

2 hours ago, Ukraine Bolt said:

Fofana could play the ball, remains to be seen how he'll do post-injury. 

Colwill certainly can.

Tosin grew up in City's academy and was rated by Pep, you'd think he can play but once again not watched enough of him.

Tweedle dee and Tweedle dumb from Monaco i worry about. 

 

2 hours ago, Sconnie Blue said:

Before someone put a voodoo on him Badiashile was very composed under Potter and played some fantastic passes through the channels. 
 

Disasi’s passing was the least of our worries last season. 
 

Colwill and Fofana are fantastic passers.

Tosin is well composed too. 

The defence for me isn’t an issue with the ball. (Badi was the only worry last season) It’s without it that worries me as it still looks incredibly shaky. 

 

 

Interesting, you both pretty much agree. Let's see if your are right once the season gets to game two (City is a hiding coming with us playing a high line).

5 hours ago, gurru991 said:

If your defenders are comfortable on the ball and your keeper can pass the ball the system will work. 

Guys, you missed the important bit! Lol

 

I agree, I've seen some nice ball control/passess from the defenders apart from the disaster brothers.

Gusto, James, trev, chilly, Colwill, and cucu would definitely be fine in that type of play imo (an odd mistake or slip aside). I remember some lovely close quarters work on the right with Gallagher & caicedo linking too. And left side quick passes with mudryk involved on occasion.

As above, tosin was city academy for a while, I doubt they would have kept him past his 11th birthday (ish) if otherwise. But even though I do like his leadership, he hasn't shown anything special yet.

My issue is

1) he needs to invert cucu and not fk about with the strengths of gusto and James. And only gusto is fast enough to play inverted right back anyway imho. James is more of a fast tank when he bombs down the right flank. 

2) defensively they are all over the place without the ball

3) fix fofana!

4) somehow try and fix the disaster brothers, if not pls keep trev.

5) sanchez never to leave his box for any type of passing whatsoever!

Edited July 30, 20241 yr by Simplymo

8 hours ago, Simplymo said:

Guys, you missed the important bit! Lol

 

I agree, I've seen some nice ball control/passess from the defenders apart from the disaster brothers.

Gusto, James, trev, chilly, Colwill, and cucu would definitely be fine in that type of play imo (an odd mistake or slip aside). I remember some lovely close quarters work on the right with Gallagher & caicedo linking too. And left side quick passes with mudryk involved on occasion.

As above, tosin was city academy for a while, I doubt they would have kept him past his 11th birthday (ish) if otherwise. But even though I do like his leadership, he hasn't shown anything special yet.

My issue is

1) he needs to invert cucu and not fk about with the strengths of gusto and James. And only gusto is fast enough to play inverted right back anyway imho. James is more of a fast tank when he bombs down the right flank. 

2) defensively they are all over the place without the ball

3) fix fofana!

4) somehow try and fix the disaster brothers, if not pls keep trev.

5) sanchez never to leave his box for any type of passing whatsoever!

Yes. Watching the Japanese lad on Celtic's left gallop into acres of space several times with Reece huffing and puffing back from midfield wasn't pleasant.

1 hour ago, dermott said:

Yes. Watching the Japanese lad on Celtic's left gallop into acres of space several times with Reece huffing and puffing back from midfield wasn't pleasant.

Yeah opposition teams will soon figure out Enzo’s tactics especially if he’s not going to budge tactically 

Need Cucurella back soon. In the meantime, I hope Maresca tries Viega at LB and in the inverted role which frees up Gusto/James as the wide/traditional fullback. 

25 minutes ago, Sconnie Blue said:

Need Cucurella back soon. In the meantime, I hope Maresca tries Viega at LB and in the inverted role which frees up Gusto/James as the wide/traditional fullback. 

Does it though? 

Viega/Cucurella would invert into the base of midfield next to i assume Lavia and Reece/Gusto would then be stuck at CB making up the back 3 as i see it.

Personally just don't think this suits our squad when Reece/Gusto are so important in the attacking phase. 

1 minute ago, Ukraine Bolt said:

Does it though? 

Viega/Cucurella would invert into the base of midfield next to i assume Lavia and Reece/Gusto would then be stuck at CB making up the back 3 as i see it.

Personally just don't think this suits our squad when Reece/Gusto are so important in the attacking phase. 

Then its going to have to be a work in progress. Maresca needs to realize the benefit Gusto and James have in the attacking phase. 

On the optimism side, I do remember when Cancelo inverted for City in 2020 that he made a lot of underlapping runs. 

I can feel some beatings on the way 

Not sure if it has been pointed out, but neither fullback in his system is free to go forwards down the flank: one goes into midfield and the other becomes a third central defender. 

I reckon James can do both, and both better than cucurella. I dint put much stall behind Marc's form moving into midfield at the end of the season - to me pochettino did that primarily to add ballast to the midfield, maresca will be looking for that player to do a lot with the ball in potentially tight spaces. 

I'm not worried by the performances or results in pre season so far as I think they are fairly easily and obviously explained, but i do wonder if maresca will consider other ways to play deploy his preferred 3-2 with the ball. 

2 hours ago, g3.7 said:

Not sure if it has been pointed out, but neither fullback in his system is free to go forwards down the flank: one goes into midfield and the other becomes a third central defender. 

I reckon James can do both, and both better than cucurella. I dint put much stall behind Marc's form moving into midfield at the end of the season - to me pochettino did that primarily to add ballast to the midfield, maresca will be looking for that player to do a lot with the ball in potentially tight spaces. 

I'm not worried by the performances or results in pre season so far as I think they are fairly easily and obviously explained, but i do wonder if maresca will consider other ways to play deploy his preferred 3-2 with the ball. 

Having them both play at the same time would be an interesting dynamic though, one that I would like to see at some point. 

Having the ability to alternate which full back inverts would be good for games when we are struggling to beat a press/break a team down. 

3 hours ago, g3.7 said:

Not sure if it has been pointed out, but neither fullback in his system is free to go forwards down the flank: one goes into midfield and the other becomes a third central defender. 

I reckon James can do both, and both better than cucurella. I dint put much stall behind Marc's form moving into midfield at the end of the season - to me pochettino did that primarily to add ballast to the midfield, maresca will be looking for that player to do a lot with the ball in potentially tight spaces. 

I'm not worried by the performances or results in pre season so far as I think they are fairly easily and obviously explained, but i do wonder if maresca will consider other ways to play deploy his preferred 3-2 with the ball. 

This is the crux of it.

A fit Reece James is such a weapon from rightback. Will be completely wasted tucking into midfield or tucking into make a 3rd center back. Gusto is a similar player.

I also worry it's going to nullify Palmer. A lot of his threat was due to overlapping runs taking away defenders. Without a fullback to do it they can double up on him a lot easier.

On 29/07/2024 at 02:15, Bob stark said:

It is very easy to implement whatever system. 

The hard question, does it fit your player and what happen if it doesn't? 

 

Apparently he's got one system and that's it.

But logically you'd think there would adaptations even during games ?

Dunno, I've read that at Leicester he was adamant he wouldn't change. Let's hope it works .

4 hours ago, g3.7 said:

Not sure if it has been pointed out, but neither fullback in his system is free to go forwards down the flank: one goes into midfield and the other becomes a third central defender.

Which is quite concerning given that James and Chilwell are two of our best players.

As an adopted 'chisit' I watched quite a bit of Maresca's Leicester last season. It was the most miserable title win I have ever seen in my entire life; they had one of the best squads the second division has ever seen and limped over the line, more or less entirely because of the deficiencies of the manager. There was no joy whatsoever.

I'm not kidding, we would do better to sack him now, save ourselves the misery, and bring in Super Frank. Maresca is terrible. There is almost nothing about the club currently which doesn't make me despair. Even the special, racinated things we fans cling to, BlueCo are doing their best to systematically dismantle and replace with something far, far worse. If there is anything the fans can do to get rid of these inept, feckless c**ts even a second sooner, we should do it immediately. It's a second sooner that we can start cleaning up the horrific mess BlueCo have made of the club.

Let's not forget, the club they inherited were world champions. Look at us now.

20 hours ago, Sconnie Blue said:

Before someone put a voodoo on him Badiashile was very composed under Potter and played some fantastic passes through the channels. 
 

Disasi’s passing was the least of our worries last season. 
 

Colwill and Fofana are fantastic passers.

Tosin is well composed too. 

The defence for me isn’t an issue with the ball. (Badi was the only worry last season) It’s without it that worries me as it still looks incredibly shaky. 

 

 

Badi was fine when he first played for us, , I don't know what it is about us ,but so many players eventually become unrecognisable in their ability to the player that arrived.

I hope Palmer avoids the all too common plummet in form.

Well, I hope they all do tbf

On 28/07/2024 at 11:42, Aussie79 said:

It’s going to a long year for Maresca peplite didn’t enjoy watching Leicester last season possession football and inverted fullbacks thought they was boring to watch . .so didn’t want sarri part 2 back at Chelsea But feel sorry for him so far recruitment this year has been awful no improvement on the starting 11. But some how spent  over 100 million again . Sorry but the board are incompetent winstanley and Stewart are frauds and have to much power . 

Presumably Stewart and Winstanley are recruiting players under the  instructions of the owners ?

It's always safe to blame the owners, you can't go wrong really .

😜

24 minutes ago, PloKoon13 said:

Which is quite concerning given that James and Chilwell are two of our best players.

As an adopted 'chisit' I watched quite a bit of Maresca's Leicester last season. It was the most miserable title win I have ever seen in my entire life; they had one of the best squads the second division has ever seen and limped over the line, more or less entirely because of the deficiencies of the manager. There was no joy whatsoever.

I'm not kidding, we would do better to sack him now, save ourselves the misery, and bring in Super Frank. Maresca is terrible. There is almost nothing about the club currently which doesn't make me despair. Even the special, racinated things we fans cling to, BlueCo are doing their best to systematically dismantle and replace with something far, far worse. If there is anything the fans can do to get rid of these inept, feckless c**ts even a second sooner, we should do it immediately. It's a second sooner that we can start cleaning up the horrific mess BlueCo have made of the club.

Let's not forget, the club they inherited were world champions. Look at us now.

👍Not only world champions but absolutely debt free due to the terms of the sale.

We must have been the only top club in the world without a penny's worth of debt.

Then we end up selling hotels to ourselves, selling academy players, and giving extra long contracts to bang average players to avoid PSR sanctions while at the same time plummeting down the table , sacking managers, ..oh f**k me, I can't go on, everyone knows what these f**kers have done.

As soon as Todd appointed himself  sporting director of our club without knowing jack sh*t about football, the writing was on the wall.

Absolute useless c**ts in the matters of football and Chelsea.

 

18 minutes ago, The Rising Sun said:

It's always safe to blame the owners, you can't go wrong really .

Had a bad stomach all day today. Damn you, Todd! 🤣

1 hour ago, The Rising Sun said:

Apparently he's got one system and that's it.

But logically you'd think there would adaptations even during games ?

Dunno, I've read that at Leicester he was adamant he wouldn't change. Let's hope it works .

He stated many times at Leicester that he would not change the system. Towards the end of the season opposition managers initiated a low block against us & refused to chase the ball so tapping the football around in midfield did nothing. We dropped points like crazy but Enzo refused to change.

I stated it in the Celtic post match chat but I will repeat the thought here again with an added wrinkle.

invertinng Reece or Gusto is counter productive and limits their abilities to be their most creative and effective so we’re capping the output of our right side at 75% of potential.

 

and if Maresca is only inverting the right side because Cucurella isn’t available right now and he actually intends on inverting the left once the season starts that’s somehow even dumber because then we’ll have wasted preseason teaching a tactic to players who aren’t even going to play those roles.not to mention the further forward players who rely on the tactics and attack that the inversion generates etc. that would look even stupider to me than the already insanely dumb decision to invert 2 of the best FBs in the PL.  

maybe we’re all wrong and the analytics actually show that gusto, Cucurella, Chilwell, James, Veiga, etc. are all better as CDMs/ CBs who don’t use their speed than the eye test would show to anyone with eyeballs? It seems like taking a stable of racehorses and deciding they would be better as plough horses… sure they can do it but it ain’t what they’re built for.

 

additionally, rewatching that Celtic game, Guiu, Nkunku, mudryk all tried to break lines and make runs only to see the man on the ball choose to pass sideways, again wtf is the purpose of having intelligent speedy / shifty attackers if we just want them to play at a walking pace? 
 

none of the players in our squad really seem to mesh with what Maresca wants to do, and it really seems that we’re for a gloomy season, and Maresca looks to have been the worst possible hire available.

 

 

8 hours ago, Sconnie Blue said:

Then its going to have to be a work in progress. Maresca needs to realize the benefit Gusto and James have in the attacking phase. 

On the optimism side, I do remember when Cancelo inverted for City in 2020 that he made a lot of underlapping runs. 

Pep played 3 CBs next to him though, and when Walker played on the opposite flank it was sitting deep as a CB. Presently the only recognised fullback at City is Walker who now plays as a CB. They have just sold Couto to Dortmund, and Cancelo is for sale. Pep doesn’t want any fullback. Arteta’s Arsenal also only has Tierney who he sent out out on loan last season, and is up for sale as their only recognised fullback. Calafiori has been bought not to play as fullback, but rather to invert.

Personally unless James & Gusto can invert, I just don’t see how they work in Marseca’s system. He has come out today to say he is struggling to fit Chilwell into the side, but we will struggle to find a buyer for him on his £200k/w wages. Won’t be surprised come next summer if one of James/Gusto is put up for sale if he is still here.

Got a bad feeling about Marcesca. Not so much about him per se but I just think he’s tactics might be easy to work out and he will be found out. 
 

I really hope I’m wrong.