3 hours ago, RMH said:

Both premises are not exclusive. The fact that Maresca is sh*t does not mean that Poch was great.

No but one was a lot better at setting up sides to attack... Play more exciting football... and lets be fair, defence isnt a thing for either... I'd have poch back in a heartbeat over the football currently on offer. We're back to corpse ball, the stuff Lampard said he was trying to coach out of the players.

3 hours ago, dansubrosa said:

We did the right thing sacking Poch, he was awful. I’m not going to be blinded by his 10 game form.

Just because we hired the wrong manager doesn’t make him a better manager.

He clearly is better than Maresca.

He had the worst injury crises i remember at Chelsea.

Players clearly liked Poch!

The form and results good better in the second half of the season not worse.

His football did not bore me to death.

I dont need more to know...

Edited March 18, 20251 yr by Nevamind

I have being very disappointed by Maresca and his style of play lately.

he started so well but its clear to see he is not an elite coach sadly.

32 minutes ago, Nevamind said:

He clearly is better than Maresca.

He had the worst injury crises i remember at Chelsea.

Players clearly liked Poch!

The form and results good better in the second half of the season not worse.

His football did not bore me to death.

I dont need more to know...

LISTEN TO SOME OF THE ARSE LICKERS WHO PLAY WEEK IN WEEK OUT

"WE LOVE HIM, HE IS SO FUNNY, HE IS VERY CLEVER..."

ABSOLUTE BOLLOX, ASK ANY OF VEIGA, FELIX, NKUNKU, CHILWELL, CHALOBAH, DISASI, JORGENSEN, MADUEKE, PETROVIC, UGOCHUKWU, STERLING, CHUKWUEMEKA, (EVEN PALMER AND JACKSON)

PETROVIC IS BETTER THEN SANCHEZ

VEIGA IS BETTER THEN BADIASHILE

FELIX, UGOCHUKWU AND CHUKWUEMEKA ARE ALL BETTER THEN KDH

3 hours ago, bluetrooper said:

No but one was a lot better at setting up sides to attack... Play more exciting football... and lets be fair, defence isnt a thing for either... I'd have poch back in a heartbeat over the football currently on offer. We're back to corpse ball, the stuff Lampard said he was trying to coach out of the players.

And nonotnowjim would bring Morata back instead of Jackson, but that doesn't make Morata a great choice to bring back. If we want to get back to competing, we need to sack Maresca and bring a top manager, not that Poch fraud.

The Maresca vs Poch argument

One thing Poch didn’t make me want to do is stop watching my team play. Win, lose or draw with Poch it was chaos and it was exciting!!!

Ask any opposition fan last season and we would be top of the list as teams they would watch as. neutral.

This doesn’t mean he was the right person as I don’t think he was long term but letting him finish his two year deal and continue the progression would do been ideal.

We have football that just bores me to death.

No excuses now everyone returning fit.

3 hours ago, RMH said:

And nonotnowjim would bring Morata back instead of Jackson, but that doesn't make Morata a great choice to bring back. If we want to get back to competing, we need to sack Maresca and bring a top manager, not that Poch fraud.

Look at you getting your little knickers in a twist... Who said I wanted him back? I said I'd prefer him over the coach we currently have because at least his sides attack. this season was entertaining until Maresca got his ideas across. Im in football purgatory, dont know about you.

Anyhow, we'll probably be having this argument again next season when the next big upcoming name playing corpse football rolls through the manager revolving doors. six in four years... im loosing track and count.

10 hours ago, Remodez said:

I do understand it to a degree. They got successful by using said system and reason they got the big job in first place was down to that success so changing it afterwards can be kind of difficult

I actually think that's rarely the case. Often these managers stumble on to a system by adapting a tactic and style that fits a certain group of players, then have the opportunity to refine the squad to suit that style.

Guardiola, for example, stumbled on to his 'false 9' system to accomodate Messi with the Spanish players who had embraced tiki-taka at Euro 2008. He created a system that suited his players. He adapted to injury crises at City by using Gundogan as a deep-running attacker, and using inverted fullbacks.

Mourinho, at Chelsea, created a system to accomodate two left-sided wingers (Duff/Robben) and a no. 10 (Cole), and using a strong defensive core to allow them more tactical freedom. At Inter, he was able to develop a possession-focused outfit into an outstanding counter-attacking unit in Europe, and at Real Madrid he developed arguably the best counter-attacking team ever.

Twenty years on both men are held as the poster children for "systems" football but in reality their most successful moments were when they adapted to their team.

12 minutes ago, SydneyChelsea said:

I actually think that's rarely the case. Often these managers stumble on to a system by adapting a tactic and style that fits a certain group of players, then have the opportunity to refine the squad to suit that style.

Guardiola, for example, stumbled on to his 'false 9' system to accomodate Messi with the Spanish players who had embraced tiki-taka at Euro 2008. He created a system that suited his players. He adapted to injury crises at City by using Gundogan as a deep-running attacker, and using inverted fullbacks.

Mourinho, at Chelsea, created a system to accomodate two left-sided wingers (Duff/Robben) and a no. 10 (Cole), and using a strong defensive core to allow them more tactical freedom. At Inter, he was able to develop a possession-focused outfit into an outstanding counter-attacking unit in Europe, and at Real Madrid he developed arguably the best counter-attacking team ever.

Twenty years on both men are held as the poster children for "systems" football but in reality their most successful moments were when they adapted to their team.

Spot on. In fact, I think, Guardiola actually started by "inverting" Stones from CB to DM. This he could get away with because a) for a CB Stones is a bit of a baller and can play and b) Walker had the speed and legs to play a combined RB and CB role. So the groundbreaking tactics from Guardiola could only really happen with the players available. Employing similar tactics with the likes of Badiashile, Disasi, Gusto etc is a car crash waiting to happen. There is no football IQ there between the lot of them.

7 hours ago, El regreso said:

One thing Poch didn’t make me want to do is stop watching my team play. Win, lose or draw with Poch it was chaos and it was exciting!!!

Ask any opposition fan last season and we would be top of the list as teams they would watch as. neutral.

This doesn’t mean he was the right person as I don’t think he was long term but letting him finish his two year deal and continue the progression would do been ideal.

We have football that just bores me to death.

Agree. I never saw Pochettino as a long-term proposition, but he was a potential gateway to something better once we stabilised ourselves and our young players matured.

To rip it up and go for an unknown in Maresca was idiotic to say the least.

I’ve said before, Poch should have been kept, for the progression, and then moved on when the right “winning” manager was identified (like Ranieri to José).

Personally, I thought last season was exciting, from the turn of the year onwards. I don’t blame Poch for not beating Liverpool in the Cup Final, that was on the players for missing the numerous chances. The same with the semi against City (that was on Jackson missing sitters). The managers job is to set the team up to win, he did this, not his fault if the players missed chances his structure set up.

Poch’s team was all over the place at the back but they were exciting to watch but the Poch haters here just can’t get over the Spurs connection. I’d guarantee that if it was an ex Chelsea legend in charge last season who had the exact same performances and results as Poch the entire fan base would be “we got rid of upward trajectory for Pep Lite borefest”.

Same fan base would be saying ex Chelsea legend got us to a cup final and semi, where the players missed chances so on them, progress in the league and got the best out of the attacking players.

Those here saying that the c*** football served up by Pep Lite doesn’t mean that Poch is a good manager is simply the Spurs bias coming through.

Plenty of “One Step Beyond” moments last season. This season, if we beat Ipswich 1-0, expect it to be played then - pathetic…..

On 19/03/2025 at 01:06, SydneyChelsea said:

I actually think that's rarely the case. Often these managers stumble on to a system by adapting a tactic and style that fits a certain group of players, then have the opportunity to refine the squad to suit that style.

Guardiola, for example, stumbled on to his 'false 9' system to accomodate Messi with the Spanish players who had embraced tiki-taka at Euro 2008. He created a system that suited his players. He adapted to injury crises at City by using Gundogan as a deep-running attacker, and using inverted fullbacks.

Mourinho, at Chelsea, created a system to accomodate two left-sided wingers (Duff/Robben) and a no. 10 (Cole), and using a strong defensive core to allow them more tactical freedom. At Inter, he was able to develop a possession-focused outfit into an outstanding counter-attacking unit in Europe, and at Real Madrid he developed arguably the best counter-attacking team ever.

Twenty years on both men are held as the poster children for "systems" football but in reality their most successful moments were when they adapted to their team.

Well said. As short-lived as it was due to an insane amount of injuries, Tuchel developed the best implementation of a back 5/WB system I've ever seen. It could have dominated football for a few seasons under reasonable circumstances. But wouldn't have been nearly as effective without Kante, James, Silva, and a core who were absolute workhorses.

On 19/03/2025 at 01:24, WhiteWall said:

Spot on. In fact, I think, Guardiola actually started by "inverting" Stones from CB to DM. This he could get away with because a) for a CB Stones is a bit of a baller and can play and b) Walker had the speed and legs to play a combined RB and CB role. So the groundbreaking tactics from Guardiola could only really happen with the players available. Employing similar tactics with the likes of Badiashile, Disasi, Gusto etc is a car crash waiting to happen. There is no football IQ there between the lot of them.

I think this touches on something we all know about Guardiola's teams, he's had the (deserved) fortune of having quality options at his disposal. Would he be able to do much more than Maresca with this squad? I doubt it. They gave him two 1v1 demons in Doku and Savinho when he needed them. Here, with Lavia and Fofana injured, the defense would still be making the same mistakes and the midfield would be porous in transition. You have 2 wide forwards ill-suited for there positions, and a forward line that can't win duels to save their lives.

I've liked some of what I've seen from Maresca and I'll wait another season to have a fuller picture of what he's able to achieve. I expect the holes in midfield to be plugged by Santos and Essugo, and the squad strengthened at both ends of the pitch. We should not be reliant on the fitness and form of Lavia, James, Fofana, and Jackson.

57 minutes ago, Ukraine Bolt said:

Bournemouth map shows just how good Kerkez is.

We sure do like recycling it back to CB’s…

Maresca was stupid to take on this job, he should have known the expectations were way beyond his tenure of experience. The SD's even stupider to go this route. Not to mention half the players they bought in not Chelsea standard. .They could have gotten Enrico or Flick or even me.

Wtf are Southampton playing at ? 😂

Bring back Poch!!!

31 minutes ago, dansubrosa said:

Bring back Poch!!!

Given our own team's current failings, he sounds like exactly what we need :

Pochettino was especially upset with how the U.S. started, being a little too content to play possession without being incisive.

"The way that we approach the game and start the game wasn't in the right way," he said. "That is why I feel so disappointed, and we all feel disappointed. I think in the first half, we played too slow, so comfortable on the pitch. We didn't show aggression with the ball."

"If you don't have aggression, it's impossible because the opponent, [they] know that we are going to play into the feet," he said. "You are going to play safe. You are not going to take risk.

"If you want to play football, you need to take risks, you need to go forward, you need to win duels, sometime 50-50. That is my goal."

https://www.espn.co.uk/football/story/_/id/44336896/usmnt-pochettino-wearing-shirt-not-enough

Third tournament in a row that Panama have knocked your USA boys out isn't it ? Obviously a bit more to it than simply who happens to be the manager 😀

First of all, I’m not American 😅 I’m English!

Poch became USA’s manager last September, seems like he’s had plenty of time to implement his ideas?

And surely you’d expect USA to beat Panama, I don’t think I can even name one player from there 🤣