Willian was one of the best in the business at picking up the ball from deep and taking out an entire midfield with pace and dribbling. He was frustrating when he finally got to the penalty area though, he would just stop. Neto is nowhere near the level of Willian for me. He's always got his head down.

45 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

Willian was one of the best in the business at picking up the ball from deep and taking out an entire midfield with pace and dribbling. He was frustrating when he finally got to the penalty area though, he would just stop. Neto is nowhere near the level of Willian for me. He's always got his head down.

Willian was like a light in the darkness sometimes, he stood out tall in our bad seasons and performed really well.

I do think he could've been a lot better for the talent he had and provided more but he was still a top player for us. Neto still has a lot to prove for them comparisons to have any merit.

13 hours ago, Scott Harris said:

Willian was one of the best in the business at picking up the ball from deep and taking out an entire midfield with pace and dribbling. He was frustrating when he finally got to the penalty area though, he would just stop. Neto is nowhere near the level of Willian for me. He's always got his head down.

I think there is a fair bit of revisionism about Willian here, he was fairly average and frustrating for the majority of his Chelsea career BUT he offered us good work rate and balance. The exact same as Neto now does in the LWB/LW role.

Neither have anywhere near enough product to ever be elite.

12 hours ago, Victor90 said:

Willian was like a light in the darkness sometimes, he stood out tall in our bad seasons and performed really well.

I do think he could've been a lot better for the talent he had and provided more but he was still a top player for us. Neto still has a lot to prove for them comparisons to have any merit.

I see Willian is falling into the Mikel category of improving ten fold in peoples opinions once he's left the club.

12 hours ago, Ukraine Bolt said:

I think there is a fair bit of revisionism about Willian here, he was fairly average and frustrating for the majority of his Chelsea career BUT he offered us good work rate and balance. The exact same as Neto now does in the LWB/LW role.

Neither have anywhere near enough product to ever be elite.

Not from me. I've always said Willian had everything to be one of the best players on the planet, which is why I always used to get so annoyed with him. His goals and assists numbers should have been way higher than it was. I used to hate that he would do all of the hard work, then stop and play a 5 yard pass backwards when he should have been taking on the full back.

12 hours ago, Ukraine Bolt said:

I see Willian is falling into the Mikel category of improving ten fold in peoples opinions once he's left the club.

Agree on Mikel being overrated by Chelsea fans, Willian probably to some extent but he was a top player for us. I don't think he ever reached his potential either as Scott is saying, could've been a lot better but still delivered some good years for us.

Not saying Pedro can't be on that level but from what I can see he's got some ways to go first. I've only seen a handful of good games from Pedro.

Let’s go! Phenomeno 🇧🇷

If he keeps this up, he'll be one of the greatest strikers in our history. Unsustainable in the long run but wow if his streak continues

So is he better as a 10 or as a st?

1 hour ago, Bob stark said:

So is he better as a 10 or as a st?

if he keeps scoring it doesn't matter.

Is

Delap

Neto - Pedro - Palmer - Gusto

Good attacking lineup.

Absolutely, this is a very good attacking lineup. The more important question, we could basically play the same lineup last season with Nkunku instead of Pedro yet Maresca played Nkunku as lw 😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫 with Cucu invert.

1 hour ago, nonotnowjim said:

if he keeps scoring it doesn't matter.

If Jp best role is as a 10 which I think it is. We had 3 right footed 10 last season and Maresca played them as 10/lw drift middle only once in pl (Soton).

2 hours ago, Bob stark said:

Is

Delap

Neto - Pedro - Palmer - Gusto

Good attacking lineup.

Absolutely, this is a very good attacking lineup. The more important question, we could basically play the same lineup last season with Nkunku instead of Pedro yet Maresca played Nkunku as lw 😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫 with Cucu invert.

...because last season, for some strange reason, Maresca insisted on playing the useless donkey up front, and setting the team up only to get the best out of that twat (and Cucu). The way we played only suited Jackson and Cucu.

Personally, I still think Nkunku as a 2nd striker behind Delap (or Pedro) would be a good option - but understandable given his disinterest from last season that we will be offloading Chris.

On 23/08/2025 at 08:52, nonotnowjim said:

...because last season, for some strange reason, Maresca insisted on playing the useless donkey up front, and setting the team up only to get the best out of that twat (and Cucu). The way we played only suited Jackson and Cucu.

If you take your blinkers off and actually try and be objective for once, the team set up was clearly tweaked to get the best out of the expensive signings (and club poster boys) Fernandez and Cucurella, whose limitations are severely exposed if you try to play them as what they are supposed to be, namely a central midfielder and a left back/left wing back. Nothing to do with Jackson. He was played because he was basically the only striker in the squad who could do any of what Maresca wanted his #9 to do. Poor squad building on the part of the sporting directors, sure, and personally I'd have liked to have seen Guiu get more opportunity, but Maresca clearly didn't fancy him outside of the Conference League.

54 minutes ago, Sexyfootball said:

If you take your blinkers off and actually try and be objective for once, the team set up was clearly tweaked to get the best out of the expensive signings (and club poster boys) Fernandez and Cucurella, whose limitations are severely exposed if you try to play them as what they are supposed to be, namely a central midfielder and a left back/left wing back. Nothing to do with Jackson. He was played because he was basically the only striker in the squad who could do any of what Maresca wanted his #9 to do. Poor squad building on the part of the sporting directors, sure, and personally I'd have liked to have seen Guiu get more opportunity, but Maresca clearly didn't fancy him outside of the Conference League.

Blinkers are off....

....and soon Jackson will also be off....

It will be beautiful.

Make Chelsea Great Again!

59 minutes ago, Sexyfootball said:

If you take your blinkers off and actually try and be objective for once, the team set up was clearly tweaked to get the best out of the expensive signings (and club poster boys) Fernandez and Cucurella, whose limitations are severely exposed if you try to play them as what they are supposed to be, namely a central midfielder and a left back/left wing back. Nothing to do with Jackson. He was played because he was basically the only striker in the squad who could do any of what Maresca wanted his #9 to do. Poor squad building on the part of the sporting directors, sure, and personally I'd have liked to have seen Guiu get more opportunity, but Maresca clearly didn't fancy him outside of the Conference League.

Cucurella won the Euros as a left back and Enzo Fernandez the World Cup as a central midfielder.

Maresca did not have to tweak his tactics in order to fit the Chelsea players. He used the 3-2-4-1 tactics with one of the full backs inverting into midfield or as a no. 10 and both wingers glued to the touchline at Leicester after having experienced it as an assistant coach at City, under Guardiola. Maresca talks about it in very deep details even in his Coaches' Voice interview and he was not even the Chelsea manager back then.

17 hours ago, petre ispirescu said:

Cucurella won the Euros as a left back and Enzo Fernandez the World Cup as a central midfielder.

Maresca did not have to tweak his tactics in order to fit the Chelsea players. He used the 3-2-4-1 tactics with one of the full backs inverting into midfield or as a no. 10 and both wingers glued to the touchline at Leicester after having experienced it as an assistant coach at City, under Guardiola. Maresca talks about it in very deep details even in his Coaches' Voice interview and he was not even the Chelsea manager back then.

This is not a serious argument. International football is played at a tempo and quality below the Big 5 European leagues, and has been for some time. We know both players have excelled for their country, but there is a reason why they cannot consistently replicate that form in the same role at club level, let alone in the Premier League.

It is true that Maresca used fullbacks as midfielders prior to Chelsea, but it was Pochettino who used Cucurella there first at Chelsea which transformed from a liability into an asset. Cucurella has shone in that role but the reality is that it does come at a loss to the rest of the team in attack and defence when Cucurella plays at anything less than a 9/10. It isn't sustainable.

Fernandez plays a completely different CM role at Chelsea compared to internationally, where in fact he seems to be given much more attacking liberty at club level. Again, it comes at a cost defensively, and frankly in attack too when Fernandez is anything other than the very top of his game.

5 hours ago, SydneyChelsea said:

This is not a serious argument. International football is played at a tempo and quality below the Big 5 European leagues, and has been for some time.

I remembered Kyle walker said in some interviews that it is like different sport

Edited August 25, 2025Aug 25 by Bob stark

On 24/08/2025 at 18:10, Sexyfootball said:

If you take your blinkers off and actually try and be objective for once, the team set up was clearly tweaked to get the best out of the expensive signings (and club poster boys) Fernandez and Cucurella, whose limitations are severely exposed if you try to play them as what they are supposed to be, namely a central midfielder and a left back/left wing back. Nothing to do with Jackson. He was played because he was basically the only striker in the squad who could do any of what Maresca wanted his #9 to do. Poor squad building on the part of the sporting directors, sure, and personally I'd have liked to have seen Guiu get more opportunity, but Maresca clearly didn't fancy him outside of the Conference League.

Last season our attacker consist of

Jackson (st)

Sancho/Nkunku/Felix (right footed 10)

Palmer (left footed 10)

Neto/Madueke (left footed 10)

On paper it is very easy

Jackson

Lb - Right footed 10 - Palmer - Neto/Madueke

You have only 1 st so Jackson will play. Palmer will 100% play, rw or 10 doesn't matter but we have two left footed winger so 10 and we had 3 right footed 10.

And about Guiu, Maresca tried him in conference league and he was very bad vs championship level team

Edited August 26, 2025Aug 26 by Bob stark

7 hours ago, Bob stark said:

And about Guiu, Maresca tried him in conference league and he was very bad vs championship level team

Which opposition?

Phenomenoooooooo!!!!!! 🇧🇷

🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 hot streak continues

Baller!!!

Heard a couple of times he was limping towards the end of the game - totally missed that. Hopefully minor, if anything. Might also explain the Jackson turn of events beyond Delaps hammy.

Another headed goal and how great is it to see simple headed goals and we also know he can use his feet too.

Seems a great acquisition to me.