Jacksons goals have dried up and it's causing problems for Maresca, Palmer does the job for sure but he can't do it all on his own. 

I'm happy he gave Noni a game and that was the right call, but Noni needs to do better, that's on him not Maresca. But where are the goals coming from outside of those 3 players? Sancho and Neto don't provide anywhere near enough of a goal threat, Felix and Nkunku though? They can score goals and they're both severely underutilised by the manager.

Might be worth mixing the attack up more, because I can't see any improvement if we keep playing like this, Maresca will be gone by March.  

5 minutes ago, Ukraine Bolt said:

Genuine question, did we ever go 5 league games without a win under Poch? 

With all the injuries, lack of squad quality overall and our typical December patch we still did not have a run of games as bad as this. 

13 minutes ago, Ukraine Bolt said:

Genuine question, did we ever go 5 league games without a win under Poch? 

No - longest streak without a PL win was 3 games. 

12 minutes ago, Victor90 said:

Jacksons goals have dried up and it's causing problems for Maresca, Palmer does the job for sure but he can't do it all on his own. 

I'm happy he gave Noni a game and that was the right call, but Noni needs to do better, that's on him not Maresca. But where are the goals coming from outside of those 3 players? Sancho and Neto don't provide anywhere near enough of a goal threat, Felix and Nkunku though? They can score goals and they're both severely underutilised by the manager.

Might be worth mixing the attack up more, because I can't see any improvement if we keep playing like this, Maresca will be gone by March.  

I have mixed feedlings about Noni and honestly see him eventually sold but he put jackson on a plate at least once yesterday, often had multiple men to beat, he didn't have a flying full back out side him to take a man away. If your striker converets you have a hell of an assist there 

9 hours ago, Sconnie Blue said:

85 goal attempts. 
 

4 goals. 

A bit of detail behind that : 

1 minute ago, Remodez said:

With all the injuries, lack of squad quality overall and our typical December patch we still did not have a run of games as bad as this. 

Looking back we never actually went more than 3 games without a win. That was only once on matchweek 4, 5 and 6 when he was still tinkering with the players he had. 

From boxing day onwards he W12 D5 L3. Since boxing day Maresca has W0 D3 L2? 

Spurs will be sniffing around Maresca in the summer. 

6 minutes ago, Ukraine Bolt said:

Looking back we never actually went more than 3 games without a win. That was only once on matchweek 4, 5 and 6 when he was still tinkering with the players he had. 

Ah yes, back in the good old days when our typical bench options in attack to "change the game" were Washington, Stutter and Broja, as opposed to Felix, Nkunku and one of Neto/Madueke/Sancho 🙂 

Edited January 15, 20251 yr by Sexyfootball

Off the top of my head United, Milan, Bayern, Barca, Juve, Porto and Dortmund all had vacancies in the summer and not one of them decided to look in Poch's direction.

Didn't even get the "Chelsea" benefit of the doubt even AVB got, can someone trying to rewrite the Poch history explain that one?

2 hours ago, El regreso said:

This mentality of let’s get into the champions league is such a small club mentality. Unless we are winning cups or the league we don’t deserve CL football.

Celebrating top four is what Arsenal and Tottenham do not f**king Chelsea!!!

I couldn’t care less if we get CL if we are not winning competitions. I will take the league cup/FA cup now over just getting Top 4.

Chelsea are a club now that wins things not just “Get top f**king four”

f**k you Ted Lasso, f**k you Laurel and Hardy.”

With our squad, its form, and Maresma's tactics we have no business playing in the CL. Perhaps there's more money up for grabs than in the Europa and Conderence Leagues, but honestly, we would just be making up the numbers.

Hopefully everybody mans up and we'll make this season something of a success after all. We might even win the third-tier European trophy, nothing to be sniffed at!

4 minutes ago, Argo said:

Off the top of my head United, Milan, Bayern, Barca, Juve, Porto and Dortmund all had vacancies in the summer and not one of them decided to look in Poch's direction.

Didn't even get the "Chelsea" benefit of the doubt even AVB got, can someone trying to rewrite the Poch history explain that one?

Perhaps they should have done, as most of those teams are having a pretty bad season LOL

If our lads put in half of the chances in these games we have struggled we'd be well off. That is just a simple fact. 

31 minutes ago, Argo said:

Off the top of my head United, Milan, Bayern, Barca, Juve, Porto and Dortmund all had vacancies in the summer and not one of them decided to look in Poch's direction.

Didn't even get the "Chelsea" benefit of the doubt even AVB got, can someone trying to rewrite the Poch history explain that one?

Probably due to the fact half the teams you mentioned didn't have vacancies in the summer tbh. 

For those that don't understand, pointing out Poch's form isn't advocating for him to have kept his job, its pointing out that we weren't happy with Poch and Maresca is currently doing worse than he ever did. 

37 minutes ago, Argo said:

Off the top of my head United, Milan, Bayern, Barca, Juve, Porto and Dortmund all had vacancies in the summer and not one of them decided to look in Poch's direction.

Didn't even get the "Chelsea" benefit of the doubt even AVB got, can someone trying to rewrite the Poch history explain that one?

That we know of, yeah. You seriously think he had zero options outside of US team? Even Potter was linked to top clubs. 

4 minutes ago, Ukraine Bolt said:

For those that don't understand, pointing out Poch's form isn't advocating for him to have kept his job, its pointing out that we weren't happy with Poch and Maresca is currently doing worse than he ever did. 

I was happy with Poch tbh.

Great man managment from Maresca, according to our new standard the 4 subs and James being one of them with the equalizer should make a strong passing grade.

Caicedo, good signing but clearly not a good RB.

 

1 minute ago, Remodez said:

I was happy with Poch tbh.

I think must people were come the end of the season. 

Obviously it would have been a very different story at this time last year, but people forget how bad we  were in 22/23 and that it was always going to take some time to sort that out, and especially so with a huge injury list !

His insistence on playing an inverted fullback will be the death of me.

We have a full squad. Why can we not simply play a balanced 11? Why do we need to make our numbers in defence short and players move out of position, to have someone join the midfield? It leaves us open to counters with width, and that side is never quite solid enough, because the player is moving back and forth between midfield and defence. And if you're absolutely insistent on doing it - motherf**ker, don't put Caicedo at RB. What's the point?

Unfortunately, it's basically what the leicester fans said it would be. He's stubborn and won't change his system, even if it's not working.

He’s been well and truly found out I think!!

Remains to be seen if Maresca will be able to turn things around. But even if he doesn't last past the season, I don't have any confidence that the next manager will have more success working with our board and sporting directors. That is where the real problem lies.

What is so frustrating is the predictability of it all. It's getting to the stage where we can go in at H-T 1-0 or 2-0 up, but you just know the game isn't over. 

Okay, last night we did manage to salvage a draw, although it still nearly felt as bad as a defeat. Last season, especially in the latter stages, I had belief and felt anything was possible. When we came back and won the games against man United and Forest, it was great stuff to watch. This season, I just don't see anything like that happening and once we go behind, you're kind of resigned to thinking, game over.

 

Poor man's Sarri with his tactics, poor man's Rafa with his subs.

He is not good enough, problem is the same people who hired him will hire his replacement.

And to echo what the Bolt said, Poch was a better manager for us, but he was still not good enough for the Chelsea we USED to be.

Edited January 15, 20251 yr by axman2526

3 hours ago, Sexyfootball said:

A bit of detail behind that : 

29 shots on target with a 4 goal return. 3 of which from Palmer. 

Beautiful. 

38 minutes ago, Nibs said:

This season, I just don't see anything like that happening and once we go behind, you're kind of resigned to thinking, game over.

Until last month I felt the total opposite.

I was 99% sure we were winning at Spurs after Sancho scored and I was still pretty confident vs Brighton every after going behind.