2 minutes ago, GarnachoCheese said:

☝

Stuck with another square peg we overpaid for.

If you have a manager with a system in which there was no role for Nkunku, it beggars belief that you'd go for a direct replacement after you'd finally managed to offload him.

On the surface, Pedro had 30 goals in 70 games at Brighton, which sounds decent, but when you dig a little, you see that half of them were penalties, and so his goals form open play is about 1 every 4 or 5 games, which is what we are now also seeing for us. Not what we needed.

9 hours ago, Bob stark said:

JP scored 2 goals from 3 shots in CWC. It is impossible for even Haaland to do this.

All of the parachuted in from a Brazilian beach during the tournament talk was all a load of media bo**ocks as well.

He admitted himself that we was told by the club to keep training and in peak condition during the summer as the move would happen. This whilst he was still on Brighton's books

9 minutes ago, Sexyfootball said:

If you have a manager with a system in which there was no role for Nkunku, it beggars belief that you'd go for a direct replacement after you'd finally managed to offload him.

On the surface, Pedro had 30 goals in 70 games at Brighton, which sounds decent, but when you dig a little, you see that half of them were penalties, and so his goals form open play is about 1 every 4 or 5 games, which is what we are now also seeing for us. Not what we needed.

If Nkunku never got injured I think there was a role for him, just as I think there is a role for Pedro.

The biggest avert? The two Enzo's.

Enzo is shoe horned into every lineup creating such a disbalance and Maresca is so hell bent on implementing his true way of playing, which is isolated wingers, no traditional fullbacks, and a back 3 moving the ball at a snail's pace.

As @SydneyChelsea has mentioned, strikers or central forwards can't thrive in Maresca's preferred set up.

He's playing a lot like a player who is carrying an injury. Hopefully with Palmer back we can manage his minutes a bit more.

I dont think we should be making excuses for him - he has not performed for a couple of months.

26 minutes ago, WhiteWall said:

All of the parachuted in from a Brazilian beach during the tournament talk was all a load of media bo**ocks as well.

He admitted himself that we was told by the club to keep training and in peak condition during the summer as the move would happen. This whilst he was still on Brighton's books

Out of all the players Brighton have sold to us and others, is there anyone who has gone on and performed away from Brighton? I'll say Caicedo, Macallister... Very few have gone on elsewhere to light up a league.

7 minutes ago, PloKoon13 said:

He's playing a lot like a player who is carrying an injury. Hopefully with Palmer back we can manage his minutes a bit more.

Shouldnt be playing if injured... Not like we couldnt play Neto/ Gittens/ Enzo/ Garnacho/ Estevao/ Palmer/ Santos in his role. Doubt he'll be with us after the world cup. Unless his performances seriously improve quickly, he's another that'll stink out the place and be moved on sharp.

8 minutes ago, PloKoon13 said:

He's playing a lot like a player who is carrying an injury. Hopefully with Palmer back we can manage his minutes a bit more.

By "managing his minutes" do you actually mean, stick him on the bench?!!

Jackson was twice the player he is.

9 minutes ago, bluelightening said:

I dont think we should be making excuses for him - he has not performed for a couple of months.

Out of all the players Brighton have sold to us and others, is there anyone who has gone on and performed away from Brighton? I'll say Caicedo, Macallister... Very few have gone on elsewhere to light up a league.

Shouldnt be playing if injured... Not like we couldnt play Neto/ Gittens/ Enzo/ Garnacho/ Estevao/ Palmer/ Santos in his role. Doubt he'll be with us after the world cup. Unless his performances seriously improve quickly, he's another that'll stink out the place and be moved on sharp.

8 minutes ago, Nibs said:

By "managing his minutes" do you actually mean, stick him on the bench?!!

Well he's our only outfield player who has started every game in the league. He has the second-most minutes for outfield players (behind only Cucurella). He's started two out of the five CL games (came off the bench and got sent off against Benfica, suspended against A**x, didn't play against Barça). Not unreasonable to suspect that he may need a rest:

36 minutes ago, bluelightening said:

Out of all the players Brighton have sold to us and others, is there anyone who has gone on and performed away from Brighton? I'll say Caicedo, Macallister... Very few have gone on elsewhere to light up a league.

Cucurella.

Just goes to show how full of sh*t Maresca is about rotating players ... especially when he named Joao Pedro as one of those who has been playing through injury.

He's the same as Madueke last season. Had a few good games at the start of the season and lived off that.

10 hours ago, Sexyfootball said:

Just goes to show how full of sh*t Maresca is about rotating players ... especially when he named Joao Pedro as one of those who has been playing through injury.

Tbf I don't think Maresca trust any of his attacker except Jp n neto (estevao is a kid n Palmer is 🏥

15 hours ago, Scott Harris said:

He's the same as Madueke last season. Had a few good games at the start of the season and lived off that.

Lets hope Arsenal offer us 60M for him too.

On 04/12/2025 at 21:02, WhiteWall said:

All of the parachuted in from a Brazilian beach during the tournament talk was all a load of media bo**ocks as well.

Was there anybody who believed this? 😂😂😂

Edited December 6, 2025Dec 6 by Bob stark

6 hours ago, Bob stark said:

Was there anybody who believed this? 😂😂😂

Peter fking Drury apparently

Poor attitude, below average footballer.

10 hours ago, axman2526 said:

Poor attitude, below average footballer.

Poor recruitment... Again!

10 hours ago, axman2526 said:

Poor attitude, below average footballer.

He’s starting to piss me off. Strolling around half arsed in front of a thousand travelling fans is just not the right attitude. Enzo is poor but at least breaks a sweat, this bloke looks completely disinterested. If at least he scored goals….

5 hours ago, RMH said:

He’s starting to piss me off. Strolling around half arsed in front of a thousand travelling fans is just not the right attitude. Enzo is poor but at least breaks a sweat, this bloke looks completely disinterested. If at least he scored goals….

Same sort of things we said about nkunku

2 hours ago, axman2526 said:

Same sort of things we said about nkunku

Exactly, I said some days ago that he was reaching Nkunku’s level of disinterest. And he’s got to that point. Unless he changes his attitude, I don’t want to see him in a Chelsea shirt. One thing is being crap, another different thing is not giving a flying f**k.

1 minute ago, RMH said:

Exactly, I said some days ago that he was reaching Nkunku’s level of disinterest. And he’s got to that point. Unless he changes his attitude, I don’t want to see him in a Chelsea shirt. One thing is being crap, another different thing is not giving a flying f**k.

Delap is likely out for 6 weeks or so, so we will see a lot of false 9 Joao.

was better yesterday and held the ball up well.. but just too falshy for a striker and takes too many touches.. if only his first thought was to layoff and run into the box.. he keeps trying to dribble past an entire team...

I thought Pedro was alright yesterday, nothing special, he linked well at times, but I want goals from our strikers. His performances have been up and down this season, but the problem I have the most isn't really his fault, it's chance creation. We don't create anything for our strikers. Haaland would struggle to score goals for us right now. The problem with Jackson (outside of doing stupid sh*t) was how many easy chances he missed. I feel like if Pedro was given the opportunities to score that Jackson would usually miss, he would be on double digit goals this season.

Without Palmer, we create nothing for our strikers. Neto's delivery into the box is too inconsistent, Garnacho is greedy and often makes the wrong choice, Gittens mostly gets bullied off the ball before he can deliver anything, Enzo can't play a defence splitting pass to save his life, and our fullbacks don't even play like fullbacks. There's nothing for our strikers to feed off of. Our strikers are basically just link up players tasked with holding the ball up with their back to goal.

I think he probably created more chances for others than he got himself so I can't fault him too much.

60 million for one goal contribution every 317 minutes... compared to the maligned Jackson at a contribution every 123 minutes.

If Jackson wasnt the answer to our striker problem, is this lad? he seriously needs to up his game over the rest of the season.