23 hours ago, Sconnie Blue said:

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

Yes of course.

A new goalkeeper and centre back won’t be too disruptive. A striker like Osimhen would be too risky and could derail our season, we can worry about that in summer.

Bald is best. 

A nice bald CB and a big bald goalie for Xmas would be nice. 

 

 

Saw this and thought it was interesting. 12 wins doesn’t seem a lot 
 

“Chelsea need around 12 wins from 23 games to play UCL next season.

12x3 is 36. Chelsea have already 31 points. That’s would be 67pts. There is a 92% chance at the moment 5th is UCL. And 66pts was enough in 23/24, 22/23, 21/22, 20/21, 19/20, 18/19, 17/18.

12 would be playing with fire but with the PL unpredictability it could possibly be lower. We’ve created a gap on 6th place but if you wanted more than 2 feet in the UCL door then we’d need 12 wins + couple draws“

4 hours ago, Sconnie Blue said:

 

 

West Ham can't even top that table smh

52 minutes ago, JM7 said:

Saw this and thought it was interesting. 12 wins doesn’t seem a lot 
 

“Chelsea need around 12 wins from 23 games to play UCL next season.

12x3 is 36. Chelsea have already 31 points. That’s would be 67pts. There is a 92% chance at the moment 5th is UCL. And 66pts was enough in 23/24, 22/23, 21/22, 20/21, 19/20, 18/19, 17/18.

12 would be playing with fire but with the PL unpredictability it could possibly be lower. We’ve created a gap on 6th place but if you wanted more than 2 feet in the UCL door then we’d need 12 wins + couple draws“

It can be even less, given the amount of "6 pointers" we have left in the season versus other chasing teams.

19 hours ago, Sconnie Blue said:

 

 

Wonder if it's just a coincidence or if there has been any background changes other than just Maresca joining.

I know Poch's training regiments were well known for burning players out like Conte's, but we've had severe injury problems since Lampard first tookover, this season has been massively different and I'm bloody thankful for it. 

16 minutes ago, Victor90 said:

Wonder if it's just a coincidence or if there has been any background changes other than just Maresca joining.

I know Poch's training regiments were well known for burning players out like Conte's, but we've had severe injury problems since Lampard first took over, this season has been massively different and I'm bloody thankful for it. 

I imagine there were a multitude of findings from whatever internal review they conducted, and hence probably a lot of synergistic factors,  but would think the changing of the entire medical team had the most to do with the improvement, albeit the chronically injury prone (e.g.  James, Fofana, Lavia) are seemingly as susceptible as ever, despite careful management of their playing time !

Overall, it has been a huge plus to have most of the players available for selection, and I think it has also helped that we have had the lower level mid week fixture to keep everyone in the squad match fit and playing once a week. Maresca has managed his resources very cleverly in my opinion to give everyone a decent amount of minutes, while at the same time keeping standards and competition for places high for the definitive "best (PL)  XI", and having everyone broadly involved (I say broadly, due to the couple of obvious exceptions in Chilwell and Chukwuemeka, but I think overall you'd have to give him a solid "A" for his squad management).

Starting with Brentford, we have a run of 7 league games up until we play Citeh in late January that you would expect us to pick up a lot of points from.

I'm hoping we can put more distance between us and those behind us.  That said, for some reason Brentford have done well against us at The Bridge in recent years.

Come on you BLUES!

https://thehardtackle.com/transfer-news/2024/12/11/barcelona-ready-to-offer-frenkie-de-jong-ferran-torres-in-deal-to-sign-enzo-fernandez/

 

Oh dear..  Silly season. 🙂 🙂 🙂 

2 hours ago, guddy69 said:

https://thehardtackle.com/transfer-news/2024/12/11/barcelona-ready-to-offer-frenkie-de-jong-ferran-torres-in-deal-to-sign-enzo-fernandez/

 

Oh dear..  Silly season. 🙂 🙂 🙂 

After a lot of guff you gotta love the last line:

"So, Barcelona must look elsewhere for a new midfielder, with the 23-year-old Argentine international not going anywhere.*

 

3 hours ago, guddy69 said:

https://thehardtackle.com/transfer-news/2024/12/11/barcelona-ready-to-offer-frenkie-de-jong-ferran-torres-in-deal-to-sign-enzo-fernandez/

 

Oh dear..  Silly season. 🙂 🙂 🙂 

Suddenly these long contracts aren't looking so reckless.

1 minute ago, Argo said:

Suddenly these long contracts aren't looking so reckless.

They aren't really enforceable though. Webster ruling means he's effectively free to terminate after 3 years (protected period). Diarra ruling will possibly be the end of player retention as we know it.

Edited December 11, 20241 yr by SydneyChelsea

On 10/12/2024 at 20:30, Hessleboink said:

Bald is best. 

A nice bald CB and a big bald goalie for Xmas would be nice. 

Haha, who is available?

On 11/12/2024 at 02:45, JM7 said:

Saw this and thought it was interesting. 12 wins doesn’t seem a lot 
 

“Chelsea need around 12 wins from 23 games to play UCL next season.

12x3 is 36. Chelsea have already 31 points. That’s would be 67pts. There is a 92% chance at the moment 5th is UCL. And 66pts was enough in 23/24, 22/23, 21/22, 20/21, 19/20, 18/19, 17/18.

12 would be playing with fire but with the PL unpredictability it could possibly be lower. We’ve created a gap on 6th place but if you wanted more than 2 feet in the UCL door then we’d need 12 wins + couple draws“

Why don't aim bigger to pip liverpool for the league title?

11 hours ago, haidertalal said:

Why don't aim bigger to pip liverpool for the league title?

Too early. 

On 12/12/2024 at 04:42, guddy69 said:

https://thehardtackle.com/transfer-news/2024/12/11/barcelona-ready-to-offer-frenkie-de-jong-ferran-torres-in-deal-to-sign-enzo-fernandez/

 

Oh dear..  Silly season. 🙂 🙂 🙂 

Maybe 100M + those two and Barca pay the wages for 2 years to start talking

Edited December 13, 20241 yr by Deino

21 hours ago, Deino said:

Too early. 

Agree, not getting my hopes set on a title challenge at all. And truth be told I still think Liverpool and Arsenal will both finish above us come the end of the season. And there's nothing wrong with that, finishing top 4 this season will be a fantastic job done by the manager, especially if we manage to finish 3rd. 

The team just isn't there yet to push that consistency on a title run, but what we're doing so far this season will be a great deal of experience to take into next. Keep up the same level of performances and results and we'll get top 4, then we get a defender and goalkeeper in the Summer and build on that.

Could be very exciting times ahead. 

Anyone have any concerns that Maresca might do a Leicester and slow down come the new year? He raced ahead last year and then started to struggle come in the new year. Obviously hoping it won’t happen again but it is a risk. 

1 hour ago, JM7 said:

Anyone have any concerns that Maresca might do a Leicester and slow down come the new year? He raced ahead last year and then started to struggle come in the new year. Obviously hoping it won’t happen again but it is a risk. 

Nope, we don't know what's going to happen so why worry

2 hours ago, JM7 said:

Anyone have any concerns that Maresca might do a Leicester and slow down come the new year? He raced ahead last year and then started to struggle come in the new year. Obviously hoping it won’t happen again but it is a risk. 

Based on what Leicester fans were saying we shouldn’t have even been in this position. He was stubborn, inflexible and had no plan B but what we have seen is the complete opposite. 
He has a hungry young talented team who wants to prove they are good . We will have a blip eventually and we will overcome it we just have to be patient with these young players.

He will slow down as teams will begin to work us out. That’s normal but his big test will be kicking on again.

He looks like he’s fully settled into the role though and for me he’s already shown he has what it takes to manage Chelsea.

I honestly think we’ll finish 3rd at worst.

32 minutes ago, 19seventyone said:

He will slow down as teams will begin to work us out. That’s normal but his big test will be kicking on again.

He looks like he’s fully settled into the role though and for me he’s already shown he has what it takes to manage Chelsea.

I honestly think we’ll finish 3rd at worst.

I'm not sure there's that much to work out about the way we play really, there's nothing really out there tactics wise, no real surprises for teams to defend. Just excellence in the middle, good wide players and Cole Palmer ripping teams apart.

So hopefully the finding out thing shouldn't affect us. I think it's more keeping players fighting with him, keeping them interested in training etc.

It's a very very young squad, so keeping their enthusiasm and drive high if we do hit a bad period will be the big test.

1 minute ago, dkw said:

I'm not sure there's that much to work out about the way we play really, there's nothing really out there tactics wise, no real surprises for teams to defend. Just excellence in the middle, good wide players and Cole Palmer ripping teams apart.

So hopefully the finding out thing shouldn't affect us. I think it's more keeping players fighting with him, keeping them interested in training etc.

It's a very very young squad, so keeping their enthusiasm and drive high if we do hit a bad period will be the big test.

I would venture looking at the best ways to exploit the inverting full back might be something sides will continue to look at. Of they can get at it.

 

Your last part is bang on.

Just now, axman2526 said:

I would venture looking at the best ways to exploit the inverting full back might be something sides will continue to look at. Of they can get at it.

 

Your last part is bang on.

We're not the first or only team to do that, I don't think it's a surprise to defences anymore.