40 minutes ago, 2211 said:

I like Liam Delap.

An old fashioned number 9.

Better than Fernando Torres' or Chris Sutton's debuts so I'm optimistic.

He looked ok, needs to start to judge him probably.

Always great to see Chelsea play. They never really got out of second gear today. Comfortable, but so much more there. Would love to see a consistently higher performance level, and less playing to the level of the opposition.

We did not create enough good chances against an MLS side, albeit we should have had 3 or 4. Would like to see more end product from the wide players, although Neto did come to life and took his goal very well. Great control, turn and pass by Jackson also. We play in such small spaces and always recycle - very few good chances for a striker.

James and Caicedo - just a class above. Tosin is a leader on the pitch, and Colwill continues to grow as a player. Enzo's runs into the box continue to yield reward also. Great cheer for Delap, and Essugo, while too soon to really know much, has one hell of a recovery engine on him.

Disappointed to not see Santos - he is too good to sit on the bench. Hopefully gets his chance Friday. Nice winning start.

Would like to see a midfield of Enzo, Caicedo and Santos

Front 3 of Palmer on RW, Delap on ST and Noni/Neto on LW

---

Can't help thinking that a 2021 Rudiger on RCB would be improve us immensely

Need a better RB as Reece backup. Gusto is not the right fit for us sadly, hope Josh can take that spot. Same thing on the left, Cucu is so crucial to how we play but we can't play him every game or he'll crash out with an injury

Edited June 17, 20251 yr by Deino

Neto goal from the ref cam.

Streamable

Watch unnamed | Streamable

10 hours ago, Sexyfootball said:

You ok Val ?

Haven't fainted or anything ?

Awww, your concern is so sweet @Sexyfootball, thank you. I decided to go to bed. School night, you know!

1 hour ago, Valerie said:

Awww, your concern is so sweet @Sexyfootball, thank you. I decided to go to bed. School night, you know!

I was concerned after the full minute half body close up coverage of the sports vest clad Olivier Giroud just before the start of the second half LOL. Tell me you didn't miss that !!! 😂😂

7 hours ago, PhilH930 said:

Always great to see Chelsea play. They never really got out of second gear today. Comfortable, but so much more there. Would love to see a consistently higher performance level, and less playing to the level of the opposition.

We did not create enough good chances against an MLS side, albeit we should have had 3 or 4. Would like to see more end product from the wide players, although Neto did come to life and took his goal very well. Great control, turn and pass by Jackson also. We play in such small spaces and always recycle - very few good chances for a striker.

James and Caicedo - just a class above. Tosin is a leader on the pitch, and Colwill continues to grow as a player. Enzo's runs into the box continue to yield reward also. Great cheer for Delap, and Essugo, while too soon to really know much, has one hell of a recovery engine on him.

Disappointed to not see Santos - he is too good to sit on the bench. Hopefully gets his chance Friday. Nice winning start.

Some good points there, especially the one about playing to the level of the opposition. I thought the exact same thing.

Last night was hard to judge, the first half hour was pretty dire….was it the temperature? Player fatigue? Us just having a look at the opposition,getting a feel for the pitch? Or was it just another really really slow start from us?

Delap looks a decent signing, Noni needs to do more. Palmer has always been most dangerous for us at RW and I don’t care what anybody says we look in much better shape both with and without the ball when the full backs aren’t inverted.

We also look better when we go behind, I know that didn’t happen last night but when we go behind we step it up, we raise the tempo and play with higher intensity which is obvious when chasing the game but we look a much better more fluid side for it so more of that from the start please.

I felt for Santos when Essugo came on.

Its time Mascara changed the system, 4-3-3 is the way to go

GK

JAMES CHALOBAH COLWILL CUCURELLA

SANTOS ENZO CAICEDO

PALMER DELAP NETO

10 minutes ago, Caps_Lock_King said:

Its time Mascara changed the system, 4-3-3 is the way to go

GK

JAMES CHALOBAH COLWILL CUCURELLA

SANTOS ENZO CAICEDO

PALMER DELAP NETO

With Lavia coming in for Enzo in tough away games.( acknowledging and respecting the opposition)And the full backs playing full back. 👍

12 hours ago, Scott Harris said:

Why can't Maresca adapt to the players he has? The style of football he wants them playing doesn't suit them, so why doesn't he come up with something different?

He has said multiple times he only plays football he knows. So it not up to him to fix that. The club has agreed to hire him under this knowledge. We have the summer window to fix these holes in the team.

I like Gusto very much and he is great as a left back but inverting seems a bridge too far for him. He is hit and miss and unreliable with the ball in central areas.

2 hours ago, evissy said:

He has said multiple times he only plays football he knows. So it not up to him to fix that. The club has agreed to hire him under this knowledge. We have the summer window to fix these holes in the team.

I like Gusto very much and he is great as a left back but inverting seems a bridge too far for him. He is hit and miss and unreliable with the ball in central areas.

Step 1 : Buy £1.2 billion of players with specific characteristics as per your data analysis model

Step 2: Hire a manager who is so limited/rigid in his approach that he can't make use of many of the players purchased in Step 1.

Not very joined up thinking from our Sporting Directors is it ?

Hence the "Diabolical" thread LOL

4 hours ago, Caps_Lock_King said:

Its time Mascara changed the system, 4-3-3 is the way to go

GK

JAMES CHALOBAH COLWILL CUCURELLA

SANTOS ENZO CAICEDO

PALMER DELAP NETO

I'm curious if he will ever come to the point of putting Palmer back on the wing.

The reason I don't mind Palmer at CAM is that it gives us numerical advantages in attack, particularly when its Enzo in the midfield base and he makes his runs forward. I would rather see Maresca adapt his current set up and have the CAM & RW interchange, which I hope is the plan when Estevao is here.

30 minutes ago, Sexyfootball said:

Step 1 : Buy £1.2 billion of players with specific characteristics as per your data analysis model

Step 2: Hire a manager who is so limited/rigid in his approach that he can't make use of many of the players purchased in Step 1.

Not very joined up thinking from our Sporting Directors is it ?

Hence the "Diabolical" thread LOL

Last time this worked at Chelsea? Maybe under Jose. Conte and Tuchel used what they had and played players out of position which was massive gripe for fans. That was due to changing managers every season and not having an idea of a player type or a playing system.

Not saying this is now better or all these things are though out but this is nothing new to Chelsea. Why we won things is mainly due to Superior resources and idea of bringing in top top Managers.

On 16/06/2025 at 22:19, Liam said:

How is this a neagtive for a no. 9?

It's the refs that seem to look for ways to penalise us rather than just Delap though he does throw himself around a bit.