Another fact.. In Chelsea's last 90 games 2 opposition players have arrived in our penalty box completely unmarked at least twice a game...

Enzo at Sevilla
 

https://www.instagram.com/share/BA7Lb48N-8

Edited December 9, 20241 yr by El regreso

7 hours ago, dansubrosa said:

Anyone still wish we kept Pochettino?

 

🤣

I don't get the Poch disrespect on here.

It's not like he took us backwards is it. It was very frustrating at times but he got us scoring a lot of goals aswell. 

Pochettino for me and most others was never someone for the long-term, just someone to lay the foundations and get a young team kicking on. I would say he did a well enough job just doing that. Maresca, on the other hand, has definitely exceeded expectations so far, and every Chelsea fan is delighted about that. 

9 hours ago, Scott Harris said:

He's really starting to make an impact now. Just gotta stop the silly nonsense at the back and see out games better and I think we can go very far.

This silly nonsense at the back won't stop. It is the same as last season. When you play chaos ball, you can throw defensive tactic out of the window, it is all about duel. 

So you  need cb who are fast and midfield who cover ground and win duel. 

 

Italians do it better, Maresca continues this tradition. Untouchable with the current form.

7 hours ago, SydneyChelsea said:

Poch deserves immense credit for one thing and that is fixing our attack and teaching us to score goals again. I still think it is the hardest problem in football to fix, you can make most any side defensively stronger with sheer effort but actually coaching a side to take risks and re-learn how to attack is as much more complex task.

It has meant that we are never truly out of any game, and that was a problem we saw repeatedly under Tuchel and Potter where we would batter teams with half-chances and no conviction. 

Maresca has, to his credit, built on that and taken it to an even higher level. 

I don't think poch fix our offense, I give him credit for allowing these young attackers to play their game (chaos ball). 

Does our offense improvement come from Maresca tactic or replacing Mudryk/Sterling with Sancho/Felix/Neto? 

Edited December 9, 20241 yr by Bob stark

Do Clearlake strengthen in January if we are still within reach of Liverpool?

20 minutes ago, Sconnie Blue said:

Do Clearlake strengthen in January if we are still within reach of Liverpool?

Is there a world class CB and Keeper available? If not no keep what we have and get them in the summer.

Just now, El regreso said:

Is there a world class CB and Keeper available? If not no keep what we have and get them in the summer.

There is Tah that’s end of contract in the summer. 

3 minutes ago, Sconnie Blue said:

There is Tah that’s end of contract in the summer. 

I haven’t watched him much apart from when he plays for Germany and it’s was meh but that’s from a small size so can’t judge him too much.

4 minutes ago, El regreso said:

I haven’t watched him much apart from when he plays for Germany and it’s was meh but that’s from a small size so can’t judge him too much.

Neither have I but he has that experience which we desperately need in our backline. 
 

I’d go as far as saying defensive composure is what’s lacking to really take Liverpool to the end. 

Edited December 9, 20241 yr by Sconnie Blue

6 hours ago, Bob stark said:

I don't think poch fix our offense, I give him credit for allowing these young attackers to play their game (chaos ball). 

Does our offense improvement come from Maresca tactic or replacing Mudryk/Sterling with Sancho/Felix/Neto? 

Tuchel and Potter were allergic to having numerical overloads in attack to be fair. Only 1-2 guys in the box at every given instance when trying to create a chance. 

Poch came in and immediately fixed that.

I posted this when poch was let go.

Poch did his job. His job was to nurture really young talent and he was brilliant at it. Very young kids that needed a hug or whatever. The only thing I wasn't sure about was if 1 yr was enough or did they need 2.

But there is no way he could take us all the way. He's not a tactical coach....

 

Maresca is a brilliant coach. A proper tactical coach that can be an amazing long term coach with Chels. Yesterday he showed he was vastly tactically superior to his spurs counterpart. 

We needed both, a bit simple but...we needed the nurturing mother figure to get these kids ready for school. And the strict, disciplined father figure to get them ready for the world.

Tbh, I'm getting the vibes that Maresca really knows and understands how to do both and these kids aren't far off form the u23's he's used to. It's natural progression in a way, for him too.

 

I really like where we are as a squad/team atm.

13 minutes ago, Simplymo said:

I posted this when poch was let go.

Poch did his job. His job was to nurture really young talent and he was brilliant at it. Very young kids that needed a hug or whatever. The only thing I wasn't sure about was if 1 yr was enough or did they need 2.

 

I mean he didnt though did he, we lost a quality young left back because he wouldnt play him, then stuck him at right midfield for a game. He insisted on playing Colwill out of position, then kept him there during a period where he was really struggling, battering his confidence. Only young player that really did well under him or progressed was Palmer, and thats been seen to be down to him being an outstanding footballer. 

His first 6 months with use were dreadful, he had an Indian summer for 6 weeks or so after he finally had to succumb to an enforced change in the midfield after months of having Enzo and Caicedo further apart than Joey Bartons 2 brain cells, every single person with even a modicum of football knowledge could see what needed doing, yet he just wouldn't do it.

1 hour ago, dkw said:

I mean he didnt though did he, we lost a quality young left back because he wouldnt play him, then stuck him at right midfield for a game. He insisted on playing Colwill out of position, then kept him there during a period where he was really struggling, battering his confidence. Only young player that really did well under him or progressed was Palmer, and thats been seen to be down to him being an outstanding footballer. 

His first 6 months with use were dreadful, he had an Indian summer for 6 weeks or so after he finally had to succumb to an enforced change in the midfield after months of having Enzo and Caicedo further apart than Joey Bartons 2 brain cells, every single person with even a modicum of football knowledge could see what needed doing, yet he just wouldn't do it.

Oh, tactically he was inept... I actually used that word several times in my posts for poch. He's tactically useless...

Read my post again bud...he was a soft cuddly mother figure, that's it!

Taught them basics like how to hold a spoon for example (the footy equivalent) but that's it.

There's an old proverb about kids I like and I sort of go by...

First 7 years...spoil them; Second 7 (til 14)...teach them; Third 7 (to 21)...befriend them. At 21...let them go.

 

Poch did his job (first 7) but he was never the one to take them to the next lvl imho. I'm sure you can find quite a few posts of mine in my history saying this from the start I think.

 

1 hour ago, dkw said:

Only young player that really did well under him or progressed was Palmer, and thats been seen to be down to him being an outstanding footballer. 

Poch could also have locked him in place as a touchline left or right winger like Pep did and he'd be nowhere near the player he is right now if he had. He deserves more credit for that one than many is prepared to give him and it's obviously had a massive impact on the club as a whole. Palmer himself had no problems saying that Pochettino made him so that speaks volumes in itself.

Maresca seems to be the superior manager and I am glad we have him but Pochettino sure made his job a hell of a lot easier than it could have been. The latter also started the season and obviously had no pre-season with any of Palmer, Caicedo and Lavia which of course also contributed to the challenging start.

Had Maresca taken over the no-good, bloated, lazy and useless squad that finished the 22/23 season the story would be different. Thankfully its not different and Poch have played no small part in that. And that comes from someone who was far from impressed with him for most of last season.

21 hours ago, SydneyChelsea said:

Poch deserves immense credit for one thing and that is fixing our attack and teaching us to score goals again. I still think it is the hardest problem in football to fix, you can make most any side defensively stronger with sheer effort but actually coaching a side to take risks and re-learn how to attack is as much more complex task.

It has meant that we are never truly out of any game, and that was a problem we saw repeatedly under Tuchel and Potter where we would batter teams with half-chances and no conviction. 

Maresca has, to his credit, built on that and taken it to an even higher level. 

Agreed and the biggest reason our results against the bottom half teams have improved. 
 Over the last 2 seasons when we went behind I never had much faith we’d get back into the game. We look like we’ve worked out how to play against a low block. It’s not quite there yet but a massive improvement nonetheless.

Yesterday I was convinced at 2-0 we were going to win whereas the corresponding fixture last season wasn’t comfortable until the 93rd minute against 9 men.

Changed days indeed.

9 hours ago, Sconnie Blue said:

Do Clearlake strengthen in January if we are still within reach of Liverpool?

I’d imagine so if they aren’t in breach of FFP. They’ve not been shy of making the cash available the last 2.5 years , so would be very peculiar to not do so if there is even an outside chance of a title. 

Love how things are going.  Given our position and assuming we maintain decent form, Champions League is on.  If i was Maresca I would be asking for midfield reinforcements as the games will take their toll.  Caicedo can't play every week, nor can Enzo or Lavia, and KDH isn't really up to it.  Veiga could deputize, but think he'll also be needed left back to cover for Cucurella.  Fortunately think we have two solutions:

1. Recall Santos.  A little short-sighted, and ideally we keep him in France for the full season of football.  Play the long game here
2. Recall Ugochukwo.  Barely playing for Saints, who are all but going down.  Would do better in our squad and would get minutes and development.  This would be my choice.

In terms of how Maresca sets the team to press so high up the pitch, attacking patterns and how many players he brings inside and around the box every time we are in possession, the current Chelsea team looks as similar as Klopp's title winning Liverpool and Pep's City of past seasons. The only difference is the quality/experience of the players, other than that is maybe the first time since Carlo Ancelotti that Chelsea has a manager that sets the team so high up the pitch as a compact unit.

Defence wise, well there is a lot of talent there, but unfortunately little to no experience...

Still, looking at the schedule ahead of us you can't help but feel it is a favorable one. It's only May that we play Liverpool again. And it's a home game. Also United at the Bridge is also in May. Newcastle away is also in May.

Up until then it's only City away in January and Arsenal away in March.

The way Chelsea played against Spurs and the way the team celebrated with the fans after the match, it only makes me think these players' confidence levels are sky high.

They score for fun, they play beautiful football, if they keep winning and winning and Liverpool drop points, I think it's hard for Maresca and everybody else to keep the same narrative that we're not in the title race. Defence could be our Achille's in the end (touch wood), but you simply can't help but feel the schedule ahead is shaped so nicely.

11 hours ago, El regreso said:

Is there a world class CB and Keeper available? If not no keep what we have and get them in the summer.

I believe the most likely names would be Murillo who Nottm would ask a lot for, Araújo from Barca and their financial problems or one of those new young Portugal CBs from either Sporting and Benfica. Guehi is also an option. I'm not sure if any of them is world class, but they're better than Disasi/Badiashile and that may just be the difference between the title and being "only" top 4. 

15 minutes ago, Brigadeiro Mk II said:

I believe the most likely names would be Murillo who Nottm would ask a lot for, Araújo from Barca and their financial problems or one of those new young Portugal CBs from either Sporting and Benfica. Guehi is also an option. I'm not sure if any of them is world class, but they're better than Disasi/Badiashile and that may just be the difference between the title and being "only" top 4. 

I completely forgot about Guehi I will take him above anyone else but it probably will be a ridiculous fee too.

13 hours ago, Sconnie Blue said:

Tuchel and Potter were allergic to having numerical overloads in attack to be fair. Only 1-2 guys in the box at every given instance when trying to create a chance. 

Poch came in and immediately fixed that.

Imo TT overload was actually very good but 

If you can rewatch some of our game under TT, you will see that we move between the line slowly ( I posted a whole ago it was rudi, jorgi, alonso, mount, jorgi, mount back to aloso, mount and just recycle) whereas under Maresca/Poch once we get a break, we just go. 

Offensively it was so boring but we were the best defensive team in the world. 

 

 

8 hours ago, El regreso said:

I completely forgot about Guehi I will take him above anyone else but it probably will be a ridiculous fee too.

I’m sure we have some percentage fee on his next transfer so whatever the fee we are only realistic going to pay about half. 

I really love how Maresca and the players celebrated with the fans on Sunday after the game. A connection is growing and he's starting to be properly appreciated in the stadium.

I know Spurs are struggling, but this is our biggest win under Maresca, especially after going 2 down. A top four candidate beaten away from home. Let's see if we can do the same against Brentford too, who are no slouches.