20 hours ago, WhiteWall said:

Christ don't mention Amex around here. We're all Brighton-phobic now 

Sorry mate! I didn't realize I just poured salt into those gaping wounds 🤣

On 24/06/2024 at 17:15, Simplymo said:

I've been watching/reading tons of maresca vids/articles and I can't wait for the season to start tbh. Especially if he had a big hand in making palmer what he is (according to some articles/vids) then I'm looking forward to what he does with the rest of the kids.

Again, I know I'm in the minority and many will hate the way Maresca sets the team up* but I miss the bridge being a fortress. (I also miss other players being scared to go there, no idea how that will work with teenagers/kids! Lol)

Also there was quite a few Leicester players praising Maresca as very technical and a genius. 🤞 

*there was a quote about 90% of goals will not be counter attacks. And it's an average of 45-50 passes before scoring. 🤣 😂 

On The Athletic channel, John McKenzie said Maresca's tactics are..

Patient ball progression, squeezing the opposition into deep low blocks, and then breaking down those low blocks.

Can't wait 😂

It's the hope that kills you.

I feel so DISTANT from CFC these days just completely DISTANT. Even when we were sanctioned I didn’t feel like this!!

1 hour ago, The Rising Sun said:

On The Athletic channel, John McKenzie said Maresca's tactics are..

Patient ball progression, squeezing the opposition into deep low blocks, and then breaking down those low blocks.

Can't wait 😂

Poor Maresca, he's going to get it from the fans very quick unless he can produce great results from the start.

Granted its not as exciting but only a small minority of weirdos like myself like the tactical game, even a defensive one. 

5 hours ago, Simplymo said:

Poor Maresca, he's going to get it from the fans very quick unless he can produce great results from the start.

Granted its not as exciting but only a small minority of weirdos like myself like the tactical game, even a defensive one. 

True mate, but some highlights of Leicester from last season, they looked really quick and impressive, mind you, highlights videos are not a reliable indicator of a whole season.

I hope we get a winning Chelsea team back again, and Maresca gets a good start too.

 

12 hours ago, The Rising Sun said:

On The Athletic channel, John McKenzie said Maresca's tactics are..

Patient ball progression, squeezing the opposition into deep low blocks, and then breaking down those low blocks.

Can't wait 😂

Good luck with that. It worked, but far from always, in the Championship.

10 hours ago, Simplymo said:

Poor Maresca, he's going to get it from the fans very quick unless he can produce great results from the start.

Granted its not as exciting but only a small minority of weirdos like myself like the tactical game, even a defensive one. 

Pochettino was heavily criticized (also by me) for the unbalanced chaos-ball we played, but I dont think there wil be many games under Maresca before quite a few starts to hark back to the «good old days» under him. It was awful at times, but there were some very exciting moments  as well

Tactical game is fine. I don't mind that at all. What I don't like is when teams defend with the ball. The contest itself looks bad. If you are good at it it can produce amazing goals.

5 hours ago, AndyDowsleftflank said:

Pochettino was heavily criticized (also by me) for the unbalanced chaos-ball we played, but I dont think there wil be many games under Maresca before quite a few starts to hark back to the «good old days» under him. It was awful at times, but there were some very exciting moments  as well

Any manager that delivers a thrill factor that isnt killed by VAR is the man for this club. I dont think pressing football is that type of football and dont think Maresca will last more than six months, I actually think the game is moving on past pep. Once KDB is done, so is the spanish dildo head who manages him. 

23 hours ago, The Rising Sun said:

On The Athletic channel, John McKenzie said Maresca's tactics are..

Patient ball progression, squeezing the opposition into deep low blocks, and then breaking down those low blocks.

Can't wait 😂

Dreading this bore ball

11 hours ago, AndyDowsleftflank said:

Pochettino was heavily criticized (also by me) for the unbalanced chaos-ball we played, but I dont think there wil be many games under Maresca before quite a few starts to hark back to the «good old days» under him. It was awful at times, but there were some very exciting moments  as well

I am not where this phrase chaos-ball has really emerged from.

In my day we called that entertainment

11 hours ago, AndyDowsleftflank said:

Pochettino was heavily criticized (also by me) for the unbalanced chaos-ball we played, but I dont think there wil be many games under Maresca before quite a few starts to hark back to the «good old days» under him. It was awful at times, but there were some very exciting moments  as well

Probably an unpopular opinion but when it comes to Chelsea I absolutely prefer control.

Last season being unable to relax even at 3 up or being resigned to drop points when the opponents pull it back to 2-1 was awful (and unlike Lampards spell before lockdown the football wasn't good enough to make up for it). Give me the peak Jose effect of being relaxed while 1 up at Highbury or Tuchel effect of feeling as comfortable as you can be at 1-0 in the UCL final anyday of the week, if Maresca can bring back that feeling of comfort to even 70% I won't be complaining.

4 minutes ago, WhiteWall said:

I am not where this phrase chaos-ball has really emerged from.

In my day we called that entertainment

Probably because with the odd exceptions Pochs brand of chaos was anything but entertaining.

As I alluded to the football we were playing under Lamps before lockdown was entertaining, last season was anything but for me.

5 minutes ago, Argo said:

Probably an unpopular opinion but when it comes to Chelsea I absolutely prefer control.

Last season being unable to relax even at 3 up or being resigned to drop points when the opponents pull it back to 2-1 was awful (and unlike Lampards spell before lockdown the football wasn't good enough to make up for it). Give me the peak Jose effect of being relaxed while 1 up at Highbury or Tuchel effect of feeling as comfortable as you can be at 1-0 in the UCL final anyday of the week, if Maresca can bring back that feeling of comfort to even 70% I won't be complaining.

But you should still be able to play open, attacking football and if your set up and players are good enough a risk reward approach can still be implemented.  Yes I agree that effectively playing a rush defence is horrendous as Poch showed us, but death by a thousand pointless passes is just as bad. Hopefully this guy can strike the right balance 

11 hours ago, WhiteWall said:

But you should still be able to play open, attacking football and if your set up and players are good enough a risk reward approach can still be implemented.  Yes I agree that effectively playing a rush defence is horrendous as Poch showed us, but death by a thousand pointless passes is just as bad. Hopefully, this guy can strike the right balance 

I think thats the issue with possession football. When done well it looks fantastic, but when its not done well, players dont buy into or cant play it, its really turgid. 

The right balance... Of all the "Possession managers" weve had, how many have had it going well? After three transfer windows, 1 billion spent, I hope the players can play Maresca ball from the off. If he can get Cole Palmer banging in 40+ great. we'll win some games, but defence is an issue for me going into the new season. How we set up will matter... Interesting pre-season ahead. 

12 hours ago, bluetrooper said:

I think thats the issue with possession football. When done well it looks fantastic, but when its not done well, players dont buy into or cant play it, its really turgid. 

The right balance... Of all the "Possession managers" weve had, how many have had it going well? After three transfer windows, 1 billion spent, I hope the players can play Maresca ball from the off. If he can get Cole Palmer banging in 40+ great. we'll win some games, but defence is an issue for me going into the new season. How we set up will matter... Interesting pre-season ahead. 

I like possession football, but with a bit of flair like Argentina in the 2006 world cup. Possession for the sake of possession does my head in. It's painful watching attackers pass backwards all of the way back to the keeper from a positive position because they can't play the perfect pass. It's dull, miserable football that bores fans to death.

Edited June 30, 20242 yr by Scott Harris

10 hours ago, Scott Harris said:

I like possession football, but with a bit of flair like Argentina in the 2006 world cup. Possession for the sake of possession does my head in. It's painful watching attackers pass backwards all of the way back to the keeper from a positive position because they can't play the perfect pass. It's dull, miserable football that bores fans to death.

That kind of possession football is negative defensive football, always amazed me that some fans think its an attacking style. Its all about keeping the ball away from the opposition, then you cant give a goal away. It worked for Barcelona as they basically did that then gave the ball to Messi to do something, it didnt work anywhere near as well for Spain as they didnt have Messi (or a Messi like player). 

The idea of possession football is basically " don't give up the ball so they can't score". I know it revolutionized football...or has done many times past decades. And it requires top skill and amazing levels of discipline. 

When people tell me it is so creative they are not right. It is creative yes in that condensed space, but also hugely disciplined. Those two are pretty much the opposite ideas....i always loved football match as a contest where both teams go up and down the pitch. Doesn't even have to be too pacy. I love when creative smart players find holes to pass even if it is a long one. Pirlo, Cesc, Riquelme, Maradona, Messi...

I'm looking forward to seeing a front four of Mudryk, Palmer, Madueke and Jackson trying to keep the ball between them. 

22 minutes ago, evissy said:

The idea of possession football is basically " don't give up the ball so they can't score". I know it revolutionized football...or has done many times past decades. And it requires top skill and amazing levels of discipline. 

When people tell me it is so creative they are not right. It is creative yes in that condensed space, but also hugely disciplined. Those two are pretty much the opposite ideas....i always loved football match as a contest where both teams go up and down the pitch. Doesn't even have to be too pacy. I love when creative smart players find holes to pass even if it is a long one. Pirlo, Cesc, Riquelme, Maradona, Messi...

We look on, salivating, at the way the Spanish can seamlessly integrate kids into their main domestic and national teams and still maintain a possession based style. So much so that we have developed our game from the route one football people often hark back to (teams like Liverpool, Nottingham Forest, Aston Villa) to a similar style.

But its not a similar style because we seem to be maintain possession purely for possession sake and because its fashionable to do so. We don't probe, we're not fluid in movement, we don't play a one, two touch style. We play the ball around at the back often in our own half with nobody within ten yards, taking the softest safest pass every time.

Compare the two games last night. For the most part we spent the game with the ball at the feet of the least technical players in our team. At one point John Stones literally nutmegged himself in receiving a 5 yard pass from Guehi, whilst under no pressure. Three touches just to get the ball under control.

The Spanish played fast, fluid, one and two touch football. How did they overcome a low block, they flooded 6 into attack and fronted up 2 v 2 at the back. It back fired, they got caught on the break. So what did they change. Nothing. They carried on with the same pattern knowing that the opposition would not be able to maintain focus against so many moving parts without crumbling at some point. We are trying to convince ourselves that playing this way is chaos ball, yet the Spanish may well end up winners of the tournament or may need to be beaten by the winners.

We also go a goal down and change what. Virtually nothing. The same defensive, safest option, negative passes unless there is a 90% pass success likelihood. The pitch narrows as all of the players start running towards each other whilst dinking off 5 yard passes to the nearest unmarked bloke. Eventually Bellingham or someone else tries to pull off a virtually impossible one-two, funneling the ball into an area just outside the box which is surrounded by 5 defenders and it peters out to nothing. Its still possession, but its sh*te.

If what i saw from the Spanish last night, where they bet on themselves to be better that Georgia in combating a low block strategy, is deemed to be chaos ball then please for the love of God bring some chaos into my life. Please.

 

It was chalk and cheese between England and Spain's styles last night. I dont think any chelsea fan would bemoan football like the type Barcelona played when they had their star names from Spain and Argentina in that side with Pep. The clashes between Chelsea and Barca back in the 2000's were epic and the clash in football styles between those sides still continues to this day. 

You dont really win football games without possession or ability to retain the ball. We're heading down a data route, players are now athletes and secondly footballer, (given the injuries they're sustaining) and unless CFC can play fast attacking football like spain which was really well described above by a poster, then CFC are going to struggle. 

If there's any hope for me its that Cole Palmer looks like he wants to tear up football pitches club and international level, with him in the side, we have a chance in any game, he's going to push saka out of the england side and some of the stuff he did with defenders bouncing off him just looked a lot like Hazard, I think Cole has a much higher work rate than Eden, so fingers crossed we keep ho;d of him because he is to CFC what Haarland is to City. I also think Palmer in England team has made Foden look bang average. 

He's to next season not being a snooze fest

 

 

 

England, under Southgate, has no chance of playing quick passing fluid football. It is a team of hyper level individuals led by a conservative coach. 

Isn't this Enzo's first official day? Where is the interview? 

Good point. He’s probably getting rid of the smell of lemons in his office..