Positive set up against Wolves. Pleasantly surprised with the width on show and the threat we offered on the counter. Jackson dropping deep seems to suit him best as he has the ability to offer killer through balls on the counter. We still look easy to penetrate especially out wide but fluidity of our attacks in the second half were close to perfection. 

2 hours ago, big blue said:

Didn't see that at all. Thought Caicedo was awful 1st half, got his pocket pinched for the 1st goal, lazy poor tackle which lead to the chance that hit the bar. Sloppy passing too. Second half Caicedo much better. 

Enzo was great much better than Caicedo yesterday, just seems people look for the negatives with him. His switch balls to put wingers in 1v1 positions is vital, that lead to the 1st goal, he won the ball high which lead to the 5th  and he played clever 1st time ball to start the move for the 6th. 

Then when he dropped in deeper when Caicedo came off injured, he was fantastic at dictating the tempo, and we looked slick, drew the press and played through it. 

Not sure what people want from Enzo, it seems if your not 6 foot and throwing yourself into tackles in midfield then your input gets over looked. Jorginho got it, and now Enzo gets it too. 

Enzo is vital for how maresca wants to play. He isn't going anywhere. 

I agree can be a bit defensively suspect but he can clearly work on it people forget his age and hes got loads of room to improve especially with a coach like maresca

Signs are there he’s the right man for the squad dynamics too, you can’t be buddy-buddy with everyone and despite decisions obviously coming from the top too, he isn’t bullsh*tting anyone or giving false hope for political points.

Excellent game and a good turnaround, still got some ways to go before I'm convinced yet though. 

6 hours ago, dermott said:

Enzo is always going to suffer the burden of his price tag. The doomsayers around here, of which there are a number (I'm not sure why some of them bother getting out of bed in the morning) are forever ready to slag him off. He's an intelligent, educated player with an excellent range of passes in his kitbag, who is always up for the second ball. It's easy to say he's  what Jorginho should have been but Jorginho just didn't have the same skill set.

There is a middle ground too. You can acknowledge when he is good, like I did yesterday, but still see that there are issues with him that will make it hard for him to fully adapt to the league. He's not very mobile, agility is lacking, these are two aspects of your game that are absolutely vital in a midfield in the current era of the Premier League. Even players as good as Matic and Fabregas were in their prime with us would struggle today. Teams are set up to press your midfield quickly when you're on the ball, and out of possession, they are looking to bypass you midfield entirely with power, pace and a good pass. Midfield needs the same to counter this, and Enzo doesn't have those attributes outside of a good pass, so we are constantly going to be looking at one of Caicedo, Lavia, or both if they play together, to make up for what Enzo lacks.

A big problem of his is that he is not very press resistant. Doesn't have the close control, agility, physical strength, burst of speed or low centre of gravity required to protect the ball efficiently. In addition he is not a very good ball winner, able to be bullied physically and there is a certain sloppiness to his game at times... So yes, while he is a great passer and has a promising shooting technique, I can't see him developing into the kind of player we expected to get when we paid the big money. Hopefully I'm wrong though.

 

Disn't he press a wolves player high up and nicked the ball that led to one of Madueke's goals via palmer yesterday.

Enzo junior did improve in the second half.

 

Edited August 26, 20241 yr by Simplymo

19 hours ago, Simplymo said:

 

 

He's a spuds supporter right?

 

 

Ditto mate...I also like the fact he wanted to fix the errors we made today.

I still think he needs time though. That was a maresca-ball lite, i can see tactics developing even more. At halftime he said he emphasised accuracy to the team but something tells me theres lot more to come. More styles, and more intricate play. I hope the kids can keep up. 

As above mate, agreed. I'm really happy he's showing signs of being a good tactical coach. We really needed that.

So far (including preseason) we've seen the opposite of all the negative stuff we were worried about, like being rigid and no plan B, etc. I said at the time that we didn't have enough reference points (1 season at Leicester only) and maybe he was playing to the strengths of his team. Forget the references and past experience bit but he's come out a few times now saying he likes the talent and adaptability of the players.

I think we will see some really good tactics thrown into great games with some bad ones as part of this wild inexperienced manager and team. But I'm also really looking forward to the growth of both if the owners now let this grp and manager develop together, especially if he's the tactical coach he's shown to be so far...Still early days.

 

TLDR:

What I'm trying to say is pls pls pls eghbali, todd and dumb and dumber don't fk it up . Let this develop and put the fkn cheque books away. Lol

Same here, I was dreading a slow ponderous style of football but it has been a pleasant surprise.

The long goal kick to Jackson,  first time pass to Palmer , then a glorious finish is the complete opposite to what I expected from Maresca team .

Hope it continues, I hope he settles on his squad without any last minute transfers to f**k it up for him.

24 minutes ago, The Rising Sun said:

Same here, I was dreading a slow ponderous style of football but it has been a pleasant surprise.

The long goal kick to Jackson,  first time pass to Palmer , then a glorious finish is the complete opposite to what I expected from Maresca team .

Hope it continues, I hope he settles on his squad without any last minute transfers to f**k it up for him.

That was my favourite goal of the six and, as much as I've never been convinced by Jackson, I don't think he has been given sufficient credit for his part in the goal.

8 hours ago, evissy said:

I thought instantly about the mishaps from the past that the new regime has brought forward themselves. That plus the rate we are buying players would suggest we are heading towards troubled times. Someone here have suggested transfer bans which would make sense. Because buying a ton of players at surface make little sense. We are sort of stacking for the winter. 

Missed that completely, thx. First time I've seen a real admission of financial worries, although it seemed a safe assumption and that the denials were all bluster to strengthen negotiating. 

The indiscriminate buying still confuses me though - I assume it's a points deduction not a transfer ban, which when they've been given were more about using underage / ineligible players? If it was just financial, wouldn't we stop with buying random 10 mn pound players from the US, or even Neto and just sticking to who we have?  If you're in a hole, first thing to do is surely... stop digging? But I wouldn't say anything about the owners has seemed to make sense.    

 

34 minutes ago, The Rising Sun said:

Same here, I was dreading a slow ponderous style of football but it has been a pleasant surprise.

The long goal kick to Jackson,  first time pass to Palmer , then a glorious finish is the complete opposite to what I expected from Maresca team .

Hope it continues, I hope he settles on his squad without any last minute transfers to f**k it up for him.

That was a beautiful goal tbh. The simplicity yet the skill and effort involved by all 3 players.

And exactly...so far there have been slow bits, fast bits, different setups and tactics. He's anything but rigid. Lol

I actually think he's worried about that too. He comes across as a proper professional but I bet deep down he's hoping they leave him and the squad alone. He probably has the calendar marked or an alarm set for when the window shuts and he can finally breathe, hahaha. Tbh I wouldn't blame him.

8 minutes ago, loz said:

That was my favourite goal of the six and, as much as I've never been convinced by Jackson, I don't think he has been given sufficient credit for his part in the goal.

He also did some great hold up play and link ups in that game. I understand he's a cf and his main job is to score but he does a lot on and off the ball still. But unfortunately a miss overshadows all the rest. Not that other strikers don't miss chances too, but I hope maresca can work on the individual players after he's finished drilling them on tactics...May take a while.

19 minutes ago, VG said:

Missed that completely, thx. First time I've seen a real admission of financial worries, although it seemed a safe assumption and that the denials were all bluster to strengthen negotiating. 

The indiscriminate buying still confuses me though - I assume it's a points deduction not a transfer ban, which when they've been given were more about using underage / ineligible players? If it was just financial, wouldn't we stop with buying random 10 mn pound players from the US, or even Neto and just sticking to who we have?  If you're in a hole, first thing to do is surely... stop digging? But I wouldn't say anything about the owners has seemed to make sense.    

The punishment of a transfer ban isn’t going to come from PSR breaches but from the Roman dodgy payments case. We can only hope that grassing up on ourselves mitigates the punishment as we’ve already admitted the offences.

Worst scenario I’ve read is that we could be looking at a 30 month transfer ban which is 5 windows.

13 minutes ago, 19seventyone said:

The punishment of a transfer ban isn’t going to come from PSR breaches but from the Roman dodgy payments case. We can only hope that grassing up on ourselves mitigates the punishment as we’ve already admitted the offences.

Worst scenario I’ve read is that we could be looking at a 30 month transfer ban which is 5 windows.

Ah, makes sense in that case. Wouldn’t rule out a deduction at some point too from the PSR issues.  

2 hours ago, 19seventyone said:

The punishment of a transfer ban isn’t going to come from PSR breaches but from the Roman dodgy payments case. We can only hope that grassing up on ourselves mitigates the punishment as we’ve already admitted the offences.

Worst scenario I’ve read is that we could be looking at a 30 month transfer ban which is 5 windows.

Wondered why they bought that new bus:

19 hours ago, big blue said:

Dogsh*t passenger with a champions league winners medal.

Him, Rhian Brewster and Kepa can shine them on whatever respective bench they're currently warming. 

Chelsea have won possession more times in midfield (35) during the opening two games in the Premier League than Liverpool, Manchester City and Arsenal.

1 hour ago, Sconnie Blue said:

Chelsea have won possession more times in midfield (35) during the opening two games in the Premier League than Liverpool, Manchester City and Arsenal.

Okay…..

1 hour ago, Sconnie Blue said:

Chelsea have won possession more times in midfield (35) during the opening two games in the Premier League than Liverpool, Manchester City and Arsenal.

Yet have conceded 4x more goals than all three of those teams combined. 

Edited August 27, 20241 yr by Ukraine Bolt

18 hours ago, 19seventyone said:

The punishment of a transfer ban isn’t going to come from PSR breaches but from the Roman dodgy payments case. We can only hope that grassing up on ourselves mitigates the punishment as we’ve already admitted the offences.

Worst scenario I’ve read is that we could be looking at a 30 month transfer ban which is 5 windows.

Yeah we did report ourselves, but those Cyprus papers revealed stuff that no one was aware of on top of the reported stuff.

But to be honest, I don't know if that's been included in the investigation, it's hard to find out exactly what's going on 

7 hours ago, Sconnie Blue said:

Chelsea have won possession more times in midfield (35) during the opening two games in the Premier League than Liverpool, Manchester City and Arsenal.

We also give the ball away cheaply a hell of a lot so we need to double our efforts to win it back

On 27/08/2024 at 08:08, Ukraine Bolt said:

Him, Rhian Brewster and Kepa can shine them on whatever respective bench they're currently warming. 

Which one of those finished 3rd in balon d'or? or Won Uefa player of the season?

Really disingenuous, and proves the point I am making about Enzo will be like Jorginho, and will get judged way more harshly by certain sections of the fan base.

One thing I like so far is how blunt he is and takes no sh*t from the press.

The doesn’t give them any headlines at all.

Just heard on SSN, that Maresca had said in the last few minutes that anyone still sidelined after the window closes won’t get any minutes at all. 
 

The club has some job now to move all these players. 

4 minutes ago, SimonH said:

Just heard on SSN, that Maresca was instructed by the board that anyone still sidelined after the window closes won’t get any minutes at all.

More like it!

4 minutes ago, SimonH said:

Just heard on SSN, that Maresca had said in the last few minutes that anyone still sidelined after the window closes won’t get any minutes at all. 
 

The club has some job now to move all these players. 

I really like his strong stance on these things. Tuchel and Pochettino both ran into trouble trying to manage everything. Enzo's just the coach.