Matchday thread for the FA CUP match vs Hull City from the MKM Stadium.

COULD BE A CHANGE OF SYSTEM, TWO UP TOP

...........JORGENSEN

SARR BADIESHILLE HATO

JAMES SANTOS LAVIA/ CAICEDO NETO

............ESTEVAO

,,,,,,,,,DELAP GUIU

Can’t even rest both Caicedo and Enzo here

After this we finally get a fortnight with only a single fixture per week. Once we get into March the FA Cup (assuming we win here) and Champions' League schedules resume and we're back to a game every three days.

We've got a few players who have racked up quite a few consecutive starts (admittedly this partly caused by injury). Rest them here and they get a ten-day break before we play Burnley at home in the league on the 21st. As such the question, as ever, is 'how big a risk do we want to take with our starting XI? - do we entertain giving rare/first starts to the likes of Sharman-Lowe, Guiu or Sarr? We may also wonder 'who is actually available?' - we still don't actually know the status of James, Cucurella, Lavia, Adarabioyo or Jörgensen.

Here's where we are squad-wise:

Lavia reportedly returning at the end of the month if all goes to plan.....

Sanchez

Fofana Sarr Badiashile

Gusto Santos Rak-Sakyi Hato

Neto Garnacho

Delap

16 minutes ago, Sconnie Blue said:

Lavia reportedly returning at the end of the month if all goes to plan.....

Sanchez

Fofana Sarr Badiashile

Gusto Santos Rak-Sakyi Hato

Neto Garnacho

Delap

Looks like you found a way to rest both Enzo and Caicedo there Sconnie.

I'd rest as many as we can physically, though they will hopefully get mental grief from Rosenior so a fair while for that Leeds f'ery

Sharman-Lowe

Acheampong

Sarr

Badiashile

Hato

Santos

Chalobah

Estevao

Walsh

Garnacho

Guiu

LR has confirmed Sarr will definitely feature v Hull.

Sanchez

Acheampong - Sarr - Badiashile - Hato

Gusto - Santos

Neto - Fernandez - Garnacho

Delap

I'd rather play Mheuka up top over that useless lump Delap. Even Guiu deserves more minutes than Delap.

Such a damp squib of a transfer.

P.S Gusto should be nowhere near our midfield.

Edited February 12Feb 12 by Malcolm9

Should be able to beat Hull…but who knows. Still if we want to play comedians and clowns in midfield and defence then it should be:

Coco

R.Gervais Bozo F. Starr. B.Hill

R. Atkinson. R.Corbett. R. Barker Krusty

At least we’ll have laugh rather than crying over what we’ve seen in recent weeks.

Another bloody evening kick off. I hate these. I usually miss most of the first half.

1 minute ago, Zeta said:

Another bloody evening kick off. I hate these. I usually miss most of the first half.

So do some of the team boom boom

Fitting that Caicedo and Fernández are both on the cover of this FifPro report into how physically overworked modern footballers are:

https://media.fifpro.org/media/g3ppki1p/english_pwm_men-s-annual-report_digital_single_page.pdf

Oh never mind, we're fine:

On 11/02/2026 at 10:17, Sconnie Blue said:

Lavia reportedly returning at the end of the month if all goes to plan.....

Sanchez

Fofana Sarr Badiashile

Gusto Santos Rak-Sakyi Hato

Neto Garnacho

Delap

Lavia reportedly returning for a brief 30 min cameo presumably?

Lets hope we have a bit more luck with his injuries.

21 hours ago, Sexyfootball said:

Sanchez

Acheampong - Sarr - Badiashile - Hato

Gusto - Santos

Neto - Fernandez - Garnacho

Delap

Reece might be available in which case he could possibly cover the midfield spot. Otherwise I think Caicedo will start.

15 hours ago, Malcolm9 said:

P.S Gusto should be nowhere near our midfield.

It felt dirty to include him in the line up LOL, but we are very short of bodies in midfield and I could see BlueCo/LR opting that route rather than a Walsh/Dyer/Rak-Sakyi option from the U-21s. I don't think you bring Reece James back after injury for an FA Cup game against Hull either, but maybe if Lavia is fit they would give him a try ?

1 minute ago, forbzy said:

Reece might be available in which case he could possibly cover the midfield spot. Otherwise I think Caicedo will start.

Haha yes - no rest for the wicked !

Edited February 12Feb 12 by Sexyfootball

6 hours ago, Zeta said:

Another bloody evening kick off. I hate these. I usually miss most of the first half.

On the other hand I’m off to Edinburgh on Saturday, have to be up at 4am so I can use this help get me off to sleep nice & early.

Hull are doing well in the Championship and pushing for promotion. So, this could be a tricky game. We need to put out a decent team, and the players need to show up.

Lavia and Reece took part in the full team training today.

So play them each 45 minutes alongside Santos, and leave Caicedo and Enzo at home

Lavia coming back at the same time as Mudryk?

It would be brilliant to see an appearance from Lavia tomorrow. And just imagine if he can still walk at the end of it. I know it’s just fanciful thinking, but with Santos looking so good and with a fit and healthy Lavia and Essugo, we would have incredible midfield options.

How's Jesse Derry been doing?

With Neto and Garnacho Being complete garbage and Gittens being both injured an garbage maybe he gets a shot today?

7 hours ago, just said:

Lavia coming back at the same time as Mudryk?

Probably Thiago Silva's son makes his full debut for Chelsea and captains England in a World Cup before these two play the full 90 for Chelsea again 😂

Match Day!

Come On Chelsea!!