15 minutes ago, JM7 said:

Chelsea are actively scouting, monitoring and starting some contacts for Centre backs in Europe. It’s a position they are really looking at. Could be January or next summer. Thomas Araujo is a player they “love” (@FabrizioRomano) #CFC

I wonder where Aaron Anselmino sits in the thinking ... we've already paid £16m for him after all 🙂 

1 hour ago, Mod said:

Didn't we have an exact carbon copy of that the other week! Was it the Servette game?

Think it's happened three times now. It's clearly intentional and it's sh*t

8 minutes ago, Sexyfootball said:

I wonder where Aaron Anselmino sits in the thinking ... we've already paid £16m for him after all 🙂 

Both at different stages of development to be fair. Anselmino I reckon will be loaned to Strasbourg next season. 

First course of action is finding a way to get rid of the Monaco chuckle brothers. 

 

6 hours ago, PloKoon13 said:

Good article from Michael Cox about how our offside trap is easy to exploit and has repeatedly cost us goals this season:

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5912943/2024/11/11/chelsea-pellegrini-offside-trap-maresca/

(Google 'twelve foot ladder' for a proxy)

Good read, explains a lot. I don't like it though but as it says "it can work".

2 hours ago, El regreso said:

This is criminal!!!

 

Yep, it's not as bad as having 5 yellow shirts being marked by tosin from a few yards away! That pic gives me nightmares.

It's in the article above too, along with a few other examples.

17 minutes ago, Sconnie Blue said:

 

First course of action is finding a way to get rid of the Monaco chuckle brothers. 

 

Compared to the disaster brothers colwill and fofana are the fkn the best cb's in the world. Lol

They definitely need to be upgraded but imho gk first. 

For me, imho...

1) Gk: extreme priority level, January if possible and break the bank if needed. No youngsters but someone that can be a mentor to the youngsters and be our #1 from the off. Sanchez can be an understudy till his feet and brain learn to coordinate themselves.

2) Cbs: upgrades for the disaster brothers needed asap, can wait till the summer.

3) #9 to challenge jacko. Like the gk position, someone ready now and can take jacko under his wing. January better, summer fine.

4) bring back the kids that are ready to step up. Santos for example. Summer is fine.

Edited November 11, 20241 yr by Simplymo

7 minutes ago, Simplymo said:

Compared to the disaster brothers colwill and fofana are the fkn the best cb's in the world. Lol

They definitely need to be upgraded but imho gk first. 

For me, imho...

1) Gk: extreme priority level, January if possible and break the bank if needed. No youngsters but someone that can be a mentor to the youngsters and be our #1 from the off. Sanchez can be an understudy till his feet and brain learn to coordinate themselves.

2) Cbs: upgrades for the disaster brothers needed asap, can wait till the summer.

3) #9 to challenge jacko. Like the gk position, someone ready now and can take jacko under his wing. January better, summer fine.

4) bring back the kids that are ready to step up. Santos for example. Summer is fine.

I honestly don't know that the plan is for GK. 

We've brought in so many and none of them are good enough for #1. 

17 minutes ago, Sconnie Blue said:

I honestly don't know that the plan is for GK. 

We've brought in so many and none of them are good enough for #1. 

Just got to hope we will keep buying/selling them until we find/stumble across one.

1 hour ago, JM7 said:

Chelsea are actively scouting, monitoring and starting some contacts for Centre backs in Europe. It’s a position they are really looking at. Could be January or next summer. Thomas Araujo is a player they “love” (@FabrizioRomano) #CFC

Good, disassi and badiashile are miles off it and the jury is still firmly out on Fofana and Colwill for me. At the very least they need proper competition for their spots. 

We need defensive options, Disasi and Badiashile are not up to it.

But at least w heaven two very good CBS at the mo.

We don't have even one good goal keeper. Maybe Jorgensen can prove to be, so far though he cannot displace Sanchez, so that is not encouraging.

Also need a top CF. Jackson is ok to have as a back up, a sub option to a more seasoned striker.

These needs are far more pressing than a CB.

We need a top keeper and CF. Whether that is Costa and Osimhen, or Maigain and Victor Gykiros, I don't know. But those should be the priority, not a CB.

To be honest I'm actually one foot in the camp of selling Tosin for a profit too. 

3 minutes ago, Sconnie Blue said:

To be honest I'm actually one foot in the camp of selling Tosin for a profit too. 

Agreed. In the summer. Sort of reminds me of signing Emerson Thome from Sheff Wednesday. Think we made a profit on him after 18 months.

Next 11 league games we need a minimum of 28 points imo.

9 of those games are against promoted sides, relegation fighters and mid table clubs. 9 wins from those is none negotiable for me, he and the team must do this.

Only games where winning should be difficult is Spurs away and Villa at home. 

4 hours ago, El regreso said:

Yep same goal as last season.

 

4 hours ago, PloKoon13 said:

Was basically the same goal we conceded against them last season for their equaliser as I recall?

So with different managers, what's the deal with that? Enzo is carrying on in some way in the same way Poch played, or they are/were both reading from the same hymn sheet from somewhere? To be caught like that in mostly identical situations is very odd!

4 hours ago, Simplymo said:

Good read, explains a lot. I don't like it though but as it says "it can work".

Yep, it's not as bad as having 5 yellow shirts being marked by tosin from a few yards away! That pic gives me nightmares.

It's in the article above too, along with a few other examples.

How can we read without a subscription?? 

1 hour ago, Mod said:

 

So with different managers, what's the deal with that? Enzo is carrying on in some way in the same way Poch played, or they are/were both reading from the same hymn sheet from somewhere? To be caught like that in mostly identical situations is very odd!

It is the 'risk' vs reward of zonal marking. The downside of zonal marking is that players can mark redundant spaces and not be aware of what is behind them. In theory zonal marking allows a smaller team to cover a wide variety of defensive situations, at the risk of conceding this specific scenario.

Zonal marking is popular, but in the era of advanced set-piece tactics and wide counter-attacking teams, it is fast becoming a liability and the risk-reward ratio is well off.

But both managers, sorry, 'head coaches', using exactly the same zonal marking in identical situations strung across different games, from which we concede goals! It seems a bit dodgy @SydneyChelsea 

11 hours ago, PloKoon13 said:

Good article from Michael Cox about how our offside trap is easy to exploit and has repeatedly cost us goals this season:

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5912943/2024/11/11/chelsea-pellegrini-offside-trap-maresca/

(Google 'twelve foot ladder' for a proxy)

How can we read without a subscription?? .. 

I. Don't understand the 12ft ladder thing. 

Just now, Mod said:

But both managers, sorry, 'head coaches', using exactly the same zonal marking in identical situations strung across different games, from which we concede goals! It seems a bit dodgy @SydneyChelsea 

It's very dodgy, and we've complained about zonal marking on this forum since Benitez introduced it. On the other-hand, it is one of the only ways opposing teams have been able to score against us; compared to the loose defending we saw in pre-season, it is an improvement.

Players are human. If you teach them to mark spaces they will mark spaces and react to spaces and if you tell them to mark players they will do that and not watch the spaces.

For me it's not so much the tactic, but you need to have leaders to marshall the defence and give them freedom to break the 'rules' in order to defend. Tuchel used zonal marking, but he had Silva, Rudiger, Azpilicueta and James to take initiative in word and in deed. We don't really have any equivalents in this squad and Maresca from all reports is quite rigid in what he expects.

15 minutes ago, guddy69 said:

How can we read without a subscription?? .. 

I. Don't understand the 12ft ladder thing. 

https://12ft.io/

 

Post the link in my times link in here.. 

 

8 hours ago, Mod said:

 

So with different managers, what's the deal with that? Enzo is carrying on in some way in the same way Poch played, or they are/were both reading from the same hymn sheet from somewhere? To be caught like that in mostly identical situations is very odd!

I read somewhere that he is systematically addressing all parts of the team which imo is fine (attack first, then midfield, defence, etc). He had to sort out the squad first obviously which took a while too till the window was closed, then fitness, then setup and now tactics. It's quite a lot in the 3 or 4 months he's been with Chels. 

My issue is when does he move on to address the defence? Is he spending too much time addressing attack and tweaking it? If it was me, I'd get basics of each done first before tweaking and going into advanced tactics. But that has to be balanced with some results or ppl would be calling for his head (which some are already!!!) and maybe it could have an adverse affect on players if they don't see some immediate progress, etc.. as they learn.

In 3-4 months he's got us going toe to toe with alleged title challengers after the chaos and sh*t show of last 2-3 seasons and the transfer window. 

Imho, I think maresca can be really good for Chelsea (from what ive seen so far) but if he's given the luxury by the club/fans/players and sticking by him for a few years before asking for his head. Like arteta, pep, klopp, etc...he needs time.

I know ppl will say we had 3 yrs already but this is marescas first year. The clock was reset when he joined.

 

 

6 hours ago, guddy69 said:

How can we read without a subscription?? 

 

6 hours ago, guddy69 said:

How can we read without a subscription?? .. 

I. Don't understand the 12ft ladder thing. 

As in the post, (Google 'twelve foot ladder' for a proxy). Once on that website post the link for the nytimes. 👍

7 hours ago, guddy69 said:

How can we read without a subscription?? .. 

I. Don't understand the 12ft ladder thing. 

Sorry, didn't want to post the actual link in case Mod got in trouble with the Google bots again. Useful site though, gets you around most of the major newspaper paywalls.

8 hours ago, Mod said:

But both managers, sorry, 'head coaches', using exactly the same zonal marking in identical situations strung across different games, from which we concede goals! It seems a bit dodgy @SydneyChelsea 

Reading the NY Times article, perhaps the inference is that Pochettino and Maresca are both students of Pellegrini's defensive tactics ?

https://chelsea.news/2024/11/felix-nkunku-b-team/amp/
 

This is a good article. It’s always difficult to manage such a large squad but when you have players that are not performing and yet insist on playing them, others will become frustrated. Maresca needs to give some game time to Nkunku and Felix asap in my opinion if he doesn’t want unrest.

36 minutes ago, Gentian said:

https://chelsea.news/2024/11/felix-nkunku-b-team/amp/
 

This is a good article. It’s always difficult to manage such a large squad but when you have players that are not performing and yet insist on playing them, others will become frustrated. Maresca needs to give some game time to Nkunku and Felix asap in my opinion if he doesn’t want unrest.

I agree. If those on the bench must perform in training and Cup matches to earn PL starts, then the regulars must perform in the PL in order to keep theirs and Jackson and Madueke have not done that much lately to warrant their places.

I also feel that, because of Maresca's tactics, with Palmer on the right and Felix at "10", we'd still not lose Palmer's creativity as he could easily shift centrally in the pocket on the attacking phase and James could come and occupy his position on the right and play in his natural position.

Something like this on the attacking phase:

                Nkunku/Jackson

         Neto Felix Palmer James

                  Lavia Caicedo

          Cucurella Colwill Fofana

Just about this bit...

 

2 hours ago, petre ispirescu said:

James could come and occupy his position on the right and play in his natural position.

Something like this on the attacking phase:

                Nkunku/Jackson

         Neto Felix Palmer James

                  Lavia Caicedo

          Cucurella Colwill Fofana

I honestly don't think James is ready yet fitness wise to do this for 90mins. Another worry is getting back quickly enough on the counter too. When maresca plays James in a really forward position I've noticed it's never for the full 90. Not yet anyway. I genuinely think maresca is taking his fitness into consideration atm. We don't want to lose him again for stupidly long periods of time.

When he's ready though, he'd be a beast up top. On the outside letting palmer run in or coming inside and taking a shot (like gusto did recently).