14 hours ago, axman2526 said:

Given who we play after the break the "curse" of manager of thw month will be an excuse used if we get poor results.

Won't affect Palmer in the slightest with his player of the month award though in my opinion. 

Now you've jinxed them both.

😆 

9 hours ago, Bluelion7 said:

I don’t know about any curses, but I am definitely worried about the overall “shift” in how media is handling Chelsea. I thought the over the top negative coverage, in a way, brought the coaches and players together. Nothing better in sports than having the whole world tell you you suck when you know you can prove them wrong.

NOW, there has been a complete 180: “Palmer is the best player in the league!”, “Chelsea: title challengers!”, “Maresca manager of the month”

That kind of attention worries me more. It can make players lower their guard a bit, can create jealousy inside the team, players try too hard for their piece of attention.

This could, in some ways, be a bigger test for Enzo than the start of the season, keeping the team together and maintaining success.

Can't say I enjoyed it to be honest.

The tedious and lazy takes by paid "experts" was hideous.

14 hours ago, Bluelion7 said:

I don’t know about any curses, but I am definitely worried about the overall “shift” in how media is handling Chelsea. I thought the over the top negative coverage, in a way, brought the coaches and players together. Nothing better in sports than having the whole world tell you you suck when you know you can prove them wrong.

NOW, there has been a complete 180: “Palmer is the best player in the league!”, “Chelsea: title challengers!”, “Maresca manager of the month”

That kind of attention worries me more. It can make players lower their guard a bit, can create jealousy inside the team, players try too hard for their piece of attention.

This could, in some ways, be a bigger test for Enzo than the start of the season, keeping the team together and maintaining success.

That was already a problem when we had Sterling, the most selfish, ego driven and individual player going. Now he’s out the way, I’m not too concerned. Palmer has a lot of social capital with the core, from his City days and general attitude to life and how he handles things. Felix’ agent no doubt keeps assuring him he’s Ronaldo/Messi/Kaka rolled into one, so might need to keep tabs on that, but otherwise.

It also works both ways, everyone was telling us how sh*t we were, the players were seeing all of that, and living up to the title. So.. 

 

8 hours ago, Simplymo said:

Now you've jinxed them both.

😆

Nah, the manager of the month award has done that for Maresca.

Nothing phases Palmer, he is true to his nickname. ;)

56 minutes ago, Term_X said:

That was already a problem when we had Sterling, the most selfish, ego driven and individual player going. Now he’s out the way, I’m not too concerned. Palmer has a lot of social capital with the core, from his City days and general attitude to life and how he handles things. Felix’ agent no doubt keeps assuring him he’s Ronaldo/Messi/Kaka rolled into one, so might need to keep tabs on that, but otherwise.

It also works both ways, everyone was telling us how sh*t we were, the players were seeing all of that, and living up to the title. So.. 

 

The 'dream' when it comes to Felix will hopefully be he does enough stat padding in the cups and conference league for a team to be willing to take a chance on him as a main man. Even with Mendes in his ear he surely knew deep down he wasn't breaking into this side.

We would need £36m to break even on him next summer, hopefully Villa will come back in.

20 minutes ago, Argo said:

The 'dream' when it comes to Felix will hopefully be he does enough stat padding in the cups and conference league for a team to be willing to take a chance on him as a main man. Even with Mendes in his ear he surely knew deep down he wasn't breaking into this side.

We would need £36m to break even on him next summer, hopefully Villa will come back in.

No idea who we were greasing with this transfer but I kind of feel sorry for the player, never premier league level, struggled in La Liga. I do hope he has a penny drop moment and decides his mediocre ability will be better served with a fighting spirit. But if he didnt work that out at Atletico he probably doesnt have a top flight career ahead of him. This team carries him and Fernandez when both on the same pitch... I've yet to see anything in Neto's game that makes me want to see more but im happy to give him more time as im hoping he turns up more often than not like Pedro used to do for us. I still cant believe we've gone and signed some of the talent we have given what "generational" talents are coming to us next summer. 

On 13/10/2024 at 00:56, bluetrooper said:

No idea who we were greasing with this transfer but I kind of feel sorry for the player, never premier league level, struggled in La Liga. I do hope he has a penny drop moment and decides his mediocre ability will be better served with a fighting spirit. But if he didnt work that out at Atletico he probably doesnt have a top flight career ahead of him. This team carries him and Fernandez when both on the same pitch... I've yet to see anything in Neto's game that makes me want to see more but im happy to give him more time as im hoping he turns up more often than not like Pedro used to do for us. I still cant believe we've gone and signed some of the talent we have given what "generational" talents are coming to us next summer. 

Maresca signed the death warrant for Felix's career the moment he anointed him as the backup to Palmer.

Felix has never been a no. 10 in his career, in his breakout season for Benfica he was a second striker and a really good finisher, and should have been Griezmann's heir apparent. The problem was Felix plays with no energy or creativity and just could not play that role like the non-stop Griezmann does. 

Felix would have been better served going to an Italian club to develop in a league that values the art of the second-striker, but unfortunately due to ego or bad guidance, he just doesn't have the inclination.

1 hour ago, SydneyChelsea said:

Maresca signed the death warrant for Felix's career the moment he anointed him as the backup to Palmer.

Felix has never been a no. 10 in his career, in his breakout season for Benfica he was a second striker and a really good finisher, and should have been Griezmann's heir apparent. The problem was Felix plays with no energy or creativity and just could not play that role like the non-stop Griezmann does. 

Felix would have been better served going to an Italian club to develop in a league that values the art of the second-striker, but unfortunately due to ego or bad guidance, he just doesn't have the inclination.

I don't think ego is the problem. Italian league has no money, there is no chance they will go for player like Felix. 

5 hours ago, SydneyChelsea said:

Maresca signed the death warrant for Felix's career the moment he anointed him as the backup to Palmer.

Felix has never been a no. 10 in his career, in his breakout season for Benfica he was a second striker and a really good finisher, and should have been Griezmann's heir apparent. The problem was Felix plays with no energy or creativity and just could not play that role like the non-stop Griezmann does. 

Felix would have been better served going to an Italian club to develop in a league that values the art of the second-striker, but unfortunately due to ego or bad guidance, he just doesn't have the inclination.

They would have known this before signing him, it wasn’t a secret. The problem is his finishing took a nose dive, without that he is a fairly useless player to have in your team.

On 08/10/2024 at 03:19, SydneyChelsea said:

5.57 on average per game, in fact. For context, here's our company: we're conceding similar amounts of shots on target to relegation fodder and the underachievers

Maresca have been guilty of overcomplicating it so far in my opinion. Gusto's not a good inverted fullback but he wants to force that issue to get something out of his rightbacks that would otherwise be redundant in our current system. Which is fair enough of course because we risk Gusto ending on the scrap-pile with Chilwell and the others but Cucurella is genuinely one of the very best fullbacks in the world when it comes to inverting (Caicedo always looks like a different player when he does as well) so why not stick with that? Stick a CB at rightback if you must have your 3-2 base in the build-up and lets build on the very promising Caicedo-Cucurella partnership in the middle. 

So thats one case and I suspect Enzo Fernandez will become another. We already know that Pochettino stuck with him and continued to stick by him until his hands was forced and it played no small part in his downfall. I hope Maresca learns his lesson early doors (Unless Enzo turns it completely around in which i'll gladly hold my hands up) and brings Lavia into the fold as I think that would improve us.

To be completely honest I think Maresca's been riding Pochs momentum until now this season. It's surprising to me as I didn't expect us to play this way (continuation of Poch-ball) but it will be interesting to see if our style evolves now that the tough games are coming up thick and fast. Because until now I essentially feel our positives and negatives are the same as they were for the second half of last season which of course was good enough for Top 4 form but with the squad being as talented as it is there is room for plenty of improvement.

58 minutes ago, OriginalS said:

Maresca have been guilty of overcomplicating it so far in my opinion. Gusto's not a good inverted fullback but he wants to force that issue to get something out of his rightbacks that would otherwise be redundant in our current system. Which is fair enough of course because we risk Gusto ending on the scrap-pile with Chilwell and the others but Cucurella is genuinely one of the very best fullbacks in the world when it comes to inverting (Caicedo always looks like a different player when he does as well) so why not stick with that? Stick a CB at rightback if you must have your 3-2 base in the build-up and lets build on the very promising Caicedo-Cucurella partnership in the middle. 

So thats one case and I suspect Enzo Fernandez will become another. We already know that Pochettino stuck with him and continued to stick by him until his hands was forced and it played no small part in his downfall. I hope Maresca learns his lesson early doors (Unless Enzo turns it completely around in which i'll gladly hold my hands up) and brings Lavia into the fold as I think that would improve us.

To be completely honest I think Maresca's been riding Pochs momentum until now this season. It's surprising to me as I didn't expect us to play this way (continuation of Poch-ball) but it will be interesting to see if our style evolves now that the tough games are coming up thick and fast. Because until now I essentially feel our positives and negatives are the same as they were for the second half of last season which of course was good enough for Top 4 form but with the squad being as talented as it is there is room for plenty of improvement.

I don't think maresca is riding on Poch momentum. Maresca definitely doesn't need to deal with many raw player though. Mudryk was the 1st att off the bench last season, right now he is the last. 

What is good so far with Maresca is that he doesn't force his way. He tried man to man controlled football in pre season and it was a complete disaster. Now we are more of Conte, mid block, counter team. 

1 hour ago, OriginalS said:

Maresca have been guilty of overcomplicating it so far in my opinion. Gusto's not a good inverted fullback but he wants to force that issue to get something out of his rightbacks that would otherwise be redundant in our current system. Which is fair enough of course because we risk Gusto ending on the scrap-pile with Chilwell and the others but Cucurella is genuinely one of the very best fullbacks in the world when it comes to inverting (Caicedo always looks like a different player when he does as well) so why not stick with that? Stick a CB at rightback if you must have your 3-2 base in the build-up and lets build on the very promising Caicedo-Cucurella partnership in the middle. 

So thats one case and I suspect Enzo Fernandez will become another. We already know that Pochettino stuck with him and continued to stick by him until his hands was forced and it played no small part in his downfall. I hope Maresca learns his lesson early doors (Unless Enzo turns it completely around in which i'll gladly hold my hands up) and brings Lavia into the fold as I think that would improve us.

To be completely honest I think Maresca's been riding Pochs momentum until now this season. It's surprising to me as I didn't expect us to play this way (continuation of Poch-ball) but it will be interesting to see if our style evolves now that the tough games are coming up thick and fast. Because until now I essentially feel our positives and negatives are the same as they were for the second half of last season which of course was good enough for Top 4 form but with the squad being as talented as it is there is room for plenty of improvement.

Couple of reasons why Maresca is looking to invert the RB, firstly with Gusto shifting into Midfield one of the Left sided opposition midfielders has to press to account for the additional body in midfield, this creates space for Palmer on the inside right channel.

Secondly I believe Maresca wants Levi to be the Central Defender in his system, if Cucurella Inverts Levi shifts to the left Fofana is the Central defender and Gusto is on the right and I don't think Maresca has the trust in Fofana to play in that central area.

A bit tame from us most of the game.

He made a good call when he realised the imbalance he had created in defence by trying to accommodate a very obviously rusty James, needed to be sorted out. 

Too bad he only made it after James was ball watching for 2nd goal. 

The defence had pitched their tent with an offside trap which he joined late and also was the only one who could have done anything about picking up Curtis's run.

Not seen any Pool game this season but they seemed tentative as well, almost a bit wary of the danger we could pose on the counter if they came at us heavy.

All in all quite a few players in important areas of the pitch had an off day. 

Colwill below par, Tosin shocking, Gusto first half seemed confused and making wrong defensive choices.

Further afield Palmer a bit slow and selfish in instances, Sancho anonymous, made a few good runs but opted to cut back and pass to midfield, Jackson mostly anonymous in game apart from 3 moments when he was being idiotic, scored and held up play to bring in his runner very well in centre circle. Maduekwe not much action seen but when he was given ball got behind his man with his players not giving him options or Palmer not taking advantage of a couple passes he fed him in good positions.

All in all, will see days like this. Part of the journey.  I didn't expect a win but we could have managed a draw.

Have to admit, I wasn't convinced by this appointment at all but I really like how we're playing recently, despite the result.

 

Only issue is how easily we get carved open in transition, but this is probably the most optimistic I've been about Chelsea since Tuchel was here.

His defensive coaching has been as bad if not worse than Pochettino's so far. I genuinely hate watching us off the ball and the stupid mistakes every single game from the defenders are ridiculous. We can say they are all individual errors and the coach can't do anything about it, but I think these mistakes are a symptom of a greater problem. This slow build up creeps into their game off the ball. Both of Liverpool's goals came from this. Colwill wasn't aware of the danger around him, wanted to play it out of defence, realised too late that it wasn't on, attempted to boot it clear but was too late and caught the player. Sanchez should have reacted much quicker to the Liverpool players first touch, but he was stuck to his line. They all play too slow, they all react too slow, everything is too slow from them. 

Personally, I think we are too slow in all most every way we play, but it starts from the defence. They set the tone and that is how we play for 90+ minutes, and we inevitably make mistakes that cost us goals because the longer they play at this tempo, the more likely it is that they will be caught sleeping. It's happening in every game. You can feel it as a match progresses, more and more errors creep into our game from the same type of situations, getting too casual and not keeping up with the increase of tempo from the opposition. Then we concede.

If we are going to spend another 200m next window, make sure we only spend it on 2 players. A centre back and goalkeeper.

We desperately need a world class centre back. Apparently Skrinar isn’t happy at PSG, he might be worth a try. f**k knows who else is out there for winter window.

Edited October 20, 20241 yr by dansubrosa

21 minutes ago, dansubrosa said:

If we are going to spend another 200m next window, make sure we only spend it on 2 players. A centre back and goalkeeper.

We desperately need a world class centre back. Apparently Skrinar isn’t happy at PSG, he might be worth a try. f**k knows who else is out there for winter window.

No thanks. I used to watch him playing for Inter and always thought he would be terrible in the Premier League. Likes to play way too slow. Would be very similar to Koulibaly.

29 minutes ago, dansubrosa said:

If we are going to spend another 200m next window, make sure we only spend it on 2 players. A centre back and goalkeeper.

We desperately need a world class centre back. Apparently Skrinar isn’t happy at PSG, he might be worth a try. f**k knows who else is out there for winter window.

Agree on keep and CB but What about a proper striker?

Edited October 20, 20241 yr by Nibs

On 11/10/2024 at 15:11, axman2526 said:

Given who we play after the break the "curse" of manager of thw month will be an excuse used if we get poor results.

Won't affect Palmer in the slightest with his player of the month award though in my opinion. 

Off to the naughty step with you.

Just now, WhiteWall said:

Off to the naughty step with you.

I posted up he jinxed them both!

He was adamant palmer wasn't going to be affected. Grrrr😡

I say ban him/read only access, if anyone wins another one of these awards, then sod it, just ban everyone, until after the following game. Oh and goal of the month and stuff too. 😂

 

1 hour ago, Nibs said:

Agree on keep and CB but What about a proper striker?

We have a proper striker Nibs, but Maresca won't start him.

Honestly I can’t fault the performance too much, actually thought we were unlucky not to get a draw. 

We came out there to play, Liverpool simply denied that invitation and kept it simple by just playing direct football and the pressure on our backline resulted in them winning the match.

We have had the same problem with the backline for years, as soon as there is pressure on them you can't be sure that they will be ready for the job. So much rebuilding and so many players bought and the same things are happening so if there is a possibility that there is a defense coach or more that have been a part of the training ground during the last 5 years I would be inclined to look at them first and foremost.

To be fair Liverpool does have a tough squad to play against but tactically speaking Slot did manage to make the match focus on our weaker spots and areas while we couldn't really stop that from happening.

Finally it's worth to note that our squad is significantly younger so the lack of experience often does make the bad result...

The positive for me is seeing Reece James back, top player, top guy, legend for me. And to be honest Lavia looks like a "DM James" so 2 positives!

 

Will post more tomorrow but we are genuinely right on track. Couple promising stats here: 

- Chelsea recorded the highest passing completion rate 88% by an away team at Anfield since 2004. 

- Chelsea restricted Liverpool to only 8 shots. Fewest since 2021. 
 

Genuinely think we are a top ST, CB, & GK away from challenging. We need a 2014/2015 type transfer window next summer. 

Edited October 20, 20241 yr by Sconnie Blue

13 hours ago, Nibs said:

Agree on keep and CB but What about a proper striker?

It would be nice but not urgent imo. Jackson and Nkunku will be fine for the season, we are scoring a fair few.

I think a centre back is more crucial than goalkeeper, we need a Van Dijk to sort out the defence.

If we get a top class goalkeeper it still won’t sort out our defensive issues.