And watched the match and decided midway through the first half to go bed because defensively it was horrific again. Every time Real put some pressure on we look like a wet paper bag, falling apart without must effort.

Its shocking how bad we see defensively.

Positively it looks like we can crate clear cut chances easily we just need to take them.

Some of you are going somewhat overboard with the negativity when we just narrowly lost to the European Champions in a game where we didn't play with a ST (sorry Guiu) and should've finished level at least. Leaving the states with no major injuries is great. 

Fitness and defensive structure are the only 2 issues coming out of that preseason in my opinion and thankfully we have a little under 2 weeks to sort that out in preferable conditions now. The press was always going to be a work in progress but I for one was astonished of the laborious defending from Badiashile and Colwill. In a season where CBs should be trying to compete and stand out from the rest to fill Silva's void and you are putting in half effort in recovery runs/anticipation? Last night also gave us another indication why we need a ST. Guiu proving to be still very inexperienced and Nkunku proving to yet again be completely redundant at ST. 

 

 

Appreciate it's going to take time for Maresca. He would never have been my choice, but now he is here, he needs time, and he also needs the right players too. 

There are a couple of issues that I think is really going to make things difficult.

1st is how high the defensive line is, but then with the lack of pace we actually have. Badiashille is really slow. Disasi, Colwill, and Fofana, not exactly quick either. Tosin looks to have decent pace, but maybe not starting level. Chalobah frozen out. 

This group of centre backs is so underwhelming. No leaders, no pace. I know we were linked with Murillo, so maybe they are looking at it, Todibo is still available, very quick defender. We are going to get caught out with balls in behind all season I think.

2nd is the winger situation. With the full backs inverting, the wingers have nowhere to hide. The system is designed to get our wide players in 1v1s often, the trouble is, none of the wingers are really at good level. Sterling awful, Mudryk brain dead, Madueke inconsistent. Even if Palmer plays there, he isnt really a 1v1 winger. 

We had Olise lined up, so obviously it is an area we wanted to strengthen but there doesn't seem to be an alternative. 

Both of these areas are bottle necks for the system. Can't blame Maresca, sd have assembled this squad. At the moment I think we are a top 6 team at best.

13 minutes ago, big blue said:

Appreciate it's going to take time for Maresca. He would never have been my choice, but now he is here, he needs time, and he also needs the right players too. 

There are a couple of issues that I think is really going to make things difficult.

1st is how high the defensive line is, but then with the lack of pace we actually have. Badiashille is really slow. Disasi, Colwill, and Fofana, not exactly quick either. Tosin looks to have decent pace, but maybe not starting level. Chalobah frozen out. 

This group of centre backs is so underwhelming. No leaders, no pace. I know we were linked with Murillo, so maybe they are looking at it, Todibo is still available, very quick defender. We are going to get caught out with balls in behind all season I think.

2nd is the winger situation. With the full backs inverting, the wingers have nowhere to hide. The system is designed to get our wide players in 1v1s often, the trouble is, none of the wingers are really at good level. Sterling awful, Mudryk brain dead, Madueke inconsistent. Even if Palmer plays there, he isnt really a 1v1 winger. 

We had Olise lined up, so obviously it is an area we wanted to strengthen but there doesn't seem to be an alternative. 

Both of these areas are bottle necks for the system. Can't blame Maresca, sd have assembled this squad. At the moment I think we are a top 6 team at best.

Maresca just said the high line is a hangover from last season and he would prefer them deeper. I kid you not.

9 minutes ago, dermott said:

resca just said the high line is a hangover from last season and he would prefer them deeper. I kid you not.

At least he is acknowledging the issue. This is not entirely surprising when trying to change the system from last season. I think for a lot of last season the players were still struggling to move on from Potter/Lampard season. We could do with having a manager (or at least a consistent system) in place for longer than a season

25 minutes ago, forbzy said:

At least he is acknowledging the issue. This is not entirely surprising when trying to change the system from last season. I think for a lot of last season the players were still struggling to move on from Potter/Lampard season. We could do with having a manager (or at least a consistent system) in place for longer than a season

Except it wasn't a particularly high line last season, certainly nothing like this pre-season. He's dishing out unwarranted blame.

I've never felt this uninterested in a new season. These owners have totally ruined supporting the club for me. I'll watch us get humiliated by City on the opening day, but that might be it.

I realize that doing pre-season is a money maker but with so many games & so much travel I don't think it helps a  manager bring in a new system.

1 hour ago, gurru991 said:

I realize that doing pre-season is a money maker but with so many games & so much travel I don't think it helps a  manager bring in a new system.

The increase in importance on pre-season is very detrimental to teams imo.

Question regarding Enzo though, did it take a while for your players to adapt to how he defends? Because I can see improvements in our attacking but defensively we look as all over the place as we did at the start. Enzo has basically insinuated that our defensive issues are down to bad habits instilled in the players by Poch.

1 hour ago, gurru991 said:

I realize that doing pre-season is a money maker but with so many games & so much travel I don't think it helps a  manager bring in a new system.

I Meant to say doing a pre-season in the US

3 hours ago, dermott said:

Maresca just said the high line is a hangover from last season and he would prefer them deeper. I kid you not.

Strange, the line looks higher to me, which makes sense if we are meant to be pressing more? Whatever he is doing, it needs massive work. Pochettino's defensive record is in danger!😂

1 hour ago, gurru991 said:

I realize that doing pre-season is a money maker but with so many games & so much travel I don't think it helps a  manager bring in a new system.

The preseason tours at chelsea are never to the benefit of actual team. Can't remember the last time we had a sensible one. Terrible pitches, loads of air miles, I think we had a European one under Jose when we played rangers, probably 18 years ago.

Well it does appear we have a manager that will probably on the balance of what we have seen so far, be out of his depth, is a yes man to a pathetic ownership, quick to look for who to blame for his failures, has proved that he plays the favouritism game even in pre-season and probably be unadaptable or resistant to change when things don't go his way.

Well what could go wrong? In only a few short years we have seen an ownership all too ready to pillage our youth/academy resources for pure profit whilst buying every young man available in the Americas and beyond whose testicles are just about dropping with the hope of scoring big to the tune of billions that have never led us to a position of being more stronger than the previous window.

f**kwits who have managed to suck the soul and passion out of the team and club as they construct the most bland Chelsea team intentionally put together in such a way its devoid of any emotion and are nothing more than pieces on a chess board.

Won't be long now before they teach us Brits proper mechanisms of sports branding and commercialisation where the players are nothing but numbers on a spreadsheet and should consider trading them at their behest without any regards for unimportant factors like morale, affiliation, and other such immeasurable tangibles a certain group of players offer over others.

sh*t show!

2 hours ago, gurru991 said:

I realize that doing pre-season is a money maker but with so many games & so much travel I don't think it helps a  manager bring in a new system.

I dont mind if the money is going to charity but yeah its just an easy money maker if the club is pocketing the money

1 hour ago, timetowaste said:

The increase in importance on pre-season is very detrimental to teams imo.

Question regarding Enzo though, did it take a while for your players to adapt to how he defends? Because I can see improvements in our attacking but defensively we look as all over the place as we did at the start. Enzo has basically insinuated that our defensive issues are down to bad habits instilled in the players by Poch.

I was never particularly impressed with our defending to be honest. He loved a high line (no idea why he’s blaming Poch when he plays that way). If the championship strikers weren’t total muck we’d have conceded a damn site more 

7 hours ago, Sconnie Blue said:

Some of you are going somewhat overboard with the negativity when we just narrowly lost to the European Champions in a game where we didn't play with a ST (sorry Guiu) and should've finished level at least. Leaving the states with no major injuries is great. 

Fitness and defensive structure are the only 2 issues coming out of that preseason in my opinion and thankfully we have a little under 2 weeks to sort that out in preferable conditions now. The press was always going to be a work in progress but I for one was astonished of the laborious defending from Badiashile and Colwill. In a season where CBs should be trying to compete and stand out from the rest to fill Silva's void and you are putting in half effort in recovery runs/anticipation? Last night also gave us another indication why we need a ST. Guiu proving to be still very inexperienced and Nkunku proving to yet again be completely redundant at ST. 

 

 

Im usually positive but I just feel so apathetic going into this season. Maybe its heat from the summer on my end or fatigue from so many sporting events but this summer just feels odd. 

City are gonna smash us. The fact that Pep is praising us tells us all we need to know. 

8 hours ago, Sconnie Blue said:

Some of you are going somewhat overboard with the negativity when we just narrowly lost to the European Champions in a game where we didn't play with a ST (sorry Guiu) and should've finished level at least. Leaving the states with no major injuries is great. 

Fitness and defensive structure are the only 2 issues coming out of that preseason in my opinion and thankfully we have a little under 2 weeks to sort that out in preferable conditions now. The press was always going to be a work in progress but I for one was astonished of the laborious defending from Badiashile and Colwill. In a season where CBs should be trying to compete and stand out from the rest to fill Silva's void and you are putting in half effort in recovery runs/anticipation? Last night also gave us another indication why we need a ST. Guiu proving to be still very inexperienced and Nkunku proving to yet again be completely redundant at ST. 

 

 

Jackson is going to be our main man up top - cant see anyone else doing it. Given the frustrations with his finishing last season, not sure Guiu is the answer as think you're spot on, he's looked promising but inexperienced. We also somehow have Broja still with us so Maresca is looking at all the options. 

I much prefers a manager to say we need to fix something, rather than saying fix something from the season before. You are in charge now, bucks stop with you, don't talk down the last guy because you are having problems.  I don't recall we played with that high of line last season, even on occasions we had, we were able to drop deeper. It's not rocket science as people made out to be. Of course it's pre-season and no need to panic, fortunes will change a few times this season. But so far, can't say he impressed many people, maybe the owners.

What are management doing we have 45 players.... 

 

2 hours ago, Conte said:

What are management doing we have 45 players.... 

 

Half of Maresca’s week will be taken up by players knocking on his door.

 

8 hours ago, Frankie8Lampard said:

Im usually positive but I just feel so apathetic going into this season. Maybe its heat from the summer on my end or fatigue from so many sporting events but this summer just feels odd. 

More than likely you’re seeing the last throes of the old Chelsea, the one you loved, gradually disappearing over the horizon. The owners have literally sucked the life out of the club with little care for players, staff and fans alike. The constant bringing in of (young talent?) and departure of academy players has resulted in a club full of strangers devoid of any empathy for the club we all have loved for many years. It may in the end get results though at a cost, the old Chelsea is now gone forever. Sad 😢 
 

Maresca unfortunately needs to get off to a good start, he won’t have long before fans start to turn. There are lots of warning signs that things could get nasty for him early on. 

7 minutes ago, JM7 said:

Maresca unfortunately needs to get off to a good start, he won’t have long before fans start to turn. There are lots of warning signs that things could get nasty for him early on. 

Says more about our fans than him to be honest. The amount of toxicity at the minute is a joke it's no wonder the players prefer playing away from home, with fans like ours who needs rivals.

7 hours ago, Conte said:

What are management doing we have 45 players.... 

 

Do we, name them.