20 minutes ago, C3blue said:

It staggers me how Meresca can’t see Palmer is better RW.

Its incredible isn't it, everyone watching games can see the difference in his contributions when playing right compared to centrally, yet he keeps doing it time after time. Its just moronic.

Don’t mind Palmer in the middle. It’s when Enzo pushes forward and shifts Palmer out left is what pisses me off.

Nominated for PL Manager of the Month! Well done gaffer 💙

The enduring image of Cole Palmer is him on the right cutting in beating an opponent cutting in again and shooting.

Its happened so many times stats are not necessary, its in plain sight.

Donnarumma might back this up.

Edited September 4, 2025Sep 4 by OneTommyLangley

1 hour ago, Clown Lake said:

Nominated for PL Manager of the Month! Well done gaffer 💙

He might win it if he played CP RW😜

6 hours ago, dkw said:

Its incredible isn't it, everyone watching games can see the difference in his contributions when playing right compared to centrally, yet he keeps doing it time after time. Its just moronic.

It's also so good for us defensively, as most teams send their DM/deep playmaker wider to counter them, which in turns neuters them building attacks.

3 hours ago, SydneyChelsea said:

It's also so good for us defensively, as most teams send their DM/deep playmaker wider to counter them, which in turns neuters them building attacks.

Exactly, it pins their midfield and defence too. But he wont play him wide right simply because he doesnt want a normal RB behind him, he wants this inverted nonsense which exposes Palmer, so instead of adapting to suit possibly our best player he`d rather play him out of position because it doesnt work with his "system". Its an abysmal display of either lack of flexibility or stubbornness.

Edited September 5, 2025Sep 5 by dkw

This is what keeping your head down, knowing what you're doing and building a winning team looks like. Let the haters and pundits eat humble pie.

3 hours ago, Clown Lake said:

This is what keeping your head down, knowing what you're doing and building a winning team looks like. Let the haters and pundits eat humble pie.

That all looks very impressive and long may it continue. Of course on paper our start to the season looked easy enough, many were hoping for 9points and we managed 7.

Those stats could of course look much different if West Ham’s GK could catch a corner and VAR didn’t help us out a couple of times. The fact is we couldn’t break down CP at home and scraped a win at home to Fulham but you can only beat what’s in front of you.

Nobody on here hates our manager, criticism isn’t hate or abuse. Discussing how players perform and how the manager sets the team up is what we’re here to do. Nobody has to eat humble pie for saying we play to slowly. They are not saying we play to slowly to be able to win matches, they are saying we play to slowly for their liking and in some matches it costs us points….. like the 2 against CP.

CP are looking a very hard nut to crack though and first game of the season, not much pre-season, new attackers etc we understand and move on.

To borrow a line from a manager I did hate dear old Avram…..”dis is football”.

13 hours ago, C3blue said:

That all looks very impressive and long may it continue. Of course on paper our start to the season looked easy enough, many were hoping for 9points and we managed 7.

Those stats could of course look much different if West Ham’s GK could catch a corner and VAR didn’t help us out a couple of times. The fact is we couldn’t break down CP at home and scraped a win at home to Fulham but you can only beat what’s in front of you.

Nobody on here hates our manager, criticism isn’t hate or abuse. Discussing how players perform and how the manager sets the team up is what we’re here to do. Nobody has to eat humble pie for saying we play to slowly. They are not saying we play to slowly to be able to win matches, they are saying we play to slowly for their liking and in some matches it costs us points….. like the 2 against CP.

CP are looking a very hard nut to crack though and first game of the season, not much pre-season, new attackers etc we understand and move on.

To borrow a line from a manager I did hate dear old Avram…..”dis is football”.

My biggest criticism is I find us boring and feel like a lot of our players are held back from being the exciting players we know they can be. Palmer especially. That first season where he was doing nut megs, flicking the ball over players heads, dribbling, turns that leave defenders in his dust, all of this has all but disappeared under Maresca. He's gone from one of the most entertaining footballers in the world to boring in most games now, and I personally think it's a sad indictment of modern football. Football needs some flair.

Mourinho was called boring in his time with us, but the flair was still there. We had a mix of everything. Long range shots, goals from the outside of the boot, Hazard's dribbling, Hazard and Willian doing backheel flicks and tricks. Fabregas hitting pinpoint long range and defence splitting passes. Quick counter attacks.

Winning is great, I'm always going to take that over losing, but can't the journey be fun exciting too? Sarri won us the Europa League, but my stance never changed, I found us horrible to watch. I hate that brand of football. I personally think this sentiment is shared amongst Chelsea fans. The ones that go to watch games and the ones at home, there isn't enough to get people excited and off their seat, we're bored. It's not a brand of football we can get used to.

Lol, PL MOM ... without VAR we'd have probably lost 2 of the 3 matches most of us were expecting our CWC heroes to win easily...

Continues to play Palmer out of position and carries on playing Enzo even if he's shyte.

Anyway, we're up where we belong, KTBFF and all that, the table never lies (😁)

On 07/09/2025 at 05:28, Scott Harris said:

My biggest criticism is I find us boring and feel like a lot of our players are held back from being the exciting players we know they can be. Palmer especially. That first season where he was doing nut megs, flicking the ball over players heads, dribbling, turns that leave defenders in his dust, all of this has all but disappeared under Maresca. He's gone from one of the most entertaining footballers in the world to boring in most games now, and I personally think it's a sad indictment of modern football. Football needs some flair.

Mourinho was called boring in his time with us, but the flair was still there. We had a mix of everything. Long range shots, goals from the outside of the boot, Hazard's dribbling, Hazard and Willian doing backheel flicks and tricks. Fabregas hitting pinpoint long range and defence splitting passes. Quick counter attacks.

Winning is great, I'm always going to take that over losing, but can't the journey be fun exciting too? Sarri won us the Europa League, but my stance never changed, I found us horrible to watch. I hate that brand of football. I personally think this sentiment is shared amongst Chelsea fans. The ones that go to watch games and the ones at home, there isn't enough to get people excited and off their seat, we're bored. It's not a brand of football we can get used to.

This topic is complicated. Football in general has been like this for a while now. It is hard to argue with the result because coach who employ a stricter football is the one that has been more successful.

Will Maresca want to reintegrate Jackson back into the squad next season when he comes back off loan? ( Fabrizzio Romano has tweeted Jackson has to make 40 starts for the obligation to buy to kick in.) (That isn't happening unless Kane gets serious injury.)

5 minutes ago, Andy North said:

Will Maresca want to reintegrate Jackson back into the squad next season when he comes back off loan? ( Fabrizzio Romano has tweeted Jackson has to make 40 starts for the obligation to buy to kick in.) (That isn't happening unless Kane gets serious injury.)

From what it sounds like, we want Emegha to join next season.

I wouldn’t look too deep into Hoeneß’s comments. End of the day, if Jackson does well Bayern will want to sign him at a price they feel is reasonable (obviously with the high loan fee already considered). The obligation fee is only there if Bayern really need him more than they anticipated which reflects the price.

2 hours ago, Sconnie Blue said:

From what it sounds like, we want Emegha to join next season.

I wouldn’t look too deep into Hoeneß’s comments. End of the day, if Jackson does well Bayern will want to sign him at a price they feel is reasonable (obviously with the high loan fee already considered). The obligation fee is only there if Bayern really need him more than they anticipated which reflects the price.

I think that's fair comment but if he fails to make an impact he could be coming back, although I think it more likely we sell to another team for a much lower fee.

22 hours ago, Andy North said:

Will Maresca want to reintegrate Jackson back into the squad next season when he comes back off loan? ( Fabrizzio Romano has tweeted Jackson has to make 40 starts for the obligation to buy to kick in.) (That isn't happening unless Kane gets serious injury.)

It is not up to Maresca. If the board say he is part of the squad, he will use him. If the board say he is not part of the squad, he will say David Washington is better than Jackson

Edited September 9, 2025Sep 9 by Bob stark

On 08/09/2025 at 17:35, Bob stark said:

This topic is complicated. Football in general has been like this for a while now. It is hard to argue with the result because coach who employ a stricter football is the one that has been more successful.

Are they, though? I'm not convinced because Ancelotti, Enrique, Alonso, Fabregas, Slot etc. have all had success whereas the "system" managers have become the perennial bridesmaids of late. Conte is the only one I can think of who has won a major trophy.

On 07/09/2025 at 07:28, Scott Harris said:

Winning is great, I'm always going to take that over losing, but can't the journey be fun exciting too?

My issue with modern "analysis" is that it always paints winning and attacking football as diametrically opposed when they are both necessary. Palmer's ability to break the mould is what has made us successful, not any system.

CWC 🫣🫣

This is why I have big concern about that tourney.

So much for Reece James not being able to play many games at Right Back then, feels like weve been gaslighted by Mresca.

46 minutes ago, Bob stark said:

CWC 🫣🫣

This is why I have big concern about that tourney.

If this is happening now I worry about what happens post-WC next year - 6 weeks rest in 3 years for players in the finals

15 minutes ago, dkw said:

So much for Reece James not being able to play many games at Right Back then, feels like weve been gaslighted by Mresca.

The soner we move him on the better. Bring in a manager who will play players in tehir best positions. Madueke looked a decent prospect last night, disinterested here doing what Maresca asked.

1 hour ago, bluelightening said:

The soner we move him on the better. Bring in a manager who will play players in tehir best positions. Madueke looked a decent prospect last night, disinterested here doing what Maresca asked.

Maresca like Madueke, but it is not up to Maresca

2 hours ago, SydneyChelsea said:

If this is happening now I worry about what happens post-WC next year - 6 weeks rest in 3 years for players in the finals

🫣🫣🫣

So many muscle injury this early of the season, hopefully it doesn't get worse.

27 minutes ago, Bob stark said:

Maresca like Madueke, but it is not up to Maresca

Think they had their differences. Palmer becoming top class helped ease the deicion to move him on.