3 hours ago, Nibs said:

Yeah. Be interesting to see what he does when he looks at Garnacho and Delap.

Glue factory.

2 hours ago, Bob stark said:

I think you misunderstood the quote, being flexible is not about the manager. Tactic is more about the quality of the playe and how the player interpret the situation.

Exactly. Experience isn't just about having played in a league for a certain amount of time or playing in a team that may have won a Euros or a World Cup.

The experience, the leading by example is from technique, ability and game intelligence. Its seeing the picture and understanding the plan and then helping each other implement this on the pitch by technique and ability, not high fiving and chest thumping each other.

Gegenpressing is about high intensity, high pressing and early regains. This style can only be sustained if there is good care of the ball and fast, technically adept ball movements once possession is regained. He needs players that meet this profile and can meet the physical demands of our league. Garnacho, Neto, Delap, Gusto, Badiashile....nah.

9 hours ago, Nibs said:

It's kinda weird that I always expected Alonso to go to Liverpool and I wanted Iraola and yet exactly the opposite has happened.

Also funny that I have mates who said, no Iraola is not good enough for us but now see he has taken over at Liverpool and suddenly think he might be decent after all.

Guess it will all come down to how well they are backed by their clubs. Iraola is inheriting a decent squad at Liverpool but he will need signings and I think he will be backed. I just pray Alonso isn't told "that's your squad - you have to work with and improve them". 'cos as the saying goes - you can't polish a turd and we have a few of them!!

Liverpool fans want a return to a “heavy metal football.”

They were never getting that from Alonso. It might work out with Iriola for them.

Alonso will definitely play a more possession based game I reckon. Under Maresca in particular our game was to absolutely not give up possession and it became slow and utterly predictable. No one took responsibility for playing progressive passes.

I’m hoping Alonso (if he plays a possession based style) will coach the players to not be afraid of losing possession or playing passes with any sort of risk attached and focus on getting the ball back quickly via a press if we do lose possession.

Edited June 5Jun 5 by 19seventyone

9 hours ago, 19seventyone said:

Liverpool fans want a return to a “heavy metal football.”

They were never getting that from Alonso. It might work out with Iriola for them.

Alonso will definitely play a more possession based game I reckon. Under Maresca in particular our game was to absolutely not give up possession and it became slow and utterly predictable. No one took responsibility for playing progressive passes.

I’m hoping Alonso (if he plays a possession based style) will coach the players to not be afraid of losing possession or playing passes with any sort of risk attached and focus on getting the ball back quickly via a press if we do lose possession.

Playing fast/riskier and pressing sound good on theory.

The riskier ball you play, the more you lose the ball and you have to press more. The last time we were a crazy good pressing team was under TT, it was not just because TT is a very good coach, it was because mount, Timo, Kai were very good at pressing and you have Kante destroying everyone, two athletic fb and two lightning quick wide cb. When we played Lukaku straight away our pressing effectiveness drop.

Alonso and his backroom staff visited Cobham earlier in the week.

He doesn't officially start until 1 July.

BBC Sport

Chelsea news: New manager Xabi Alonso visits London with...

Chelsea news: New manager Xabi Alonso visits London with his staff

Here you go

IRAOLAS FOOTBALL WAS TOO EXCITING FOR BLUECO

Yeah I said a while ago that Iraola didn’t make sense considering we didn’t have the players capable of playing that brand of football.

Don’t even think Liverpool do either.

1 hour ago, Caps_Lock_King said:

Here you go

IRAOLAS FOOTBALL WAS TOO EXCITING FOR BLUECO

Im new to all this football coaching malarkey could someone explain to me in simple terms what work Mr Rosenior actually did?

18 minutes ago, OTL said:

Im new to all this football coaching malarkey could someone explain to me in simple terms what work Mr Rosenior actually did?

4 hours ago, Caps_Lock_King said:

Here you go

IRAOLAS FOOTBALL WAS TOO EXCITING FOR BLUECO

Jesus f**king christ

Player trading pyramid scheme

I can understand if the club have decided for what ever reason to cancel the deal, maybe Alonso wants better but I don’t understand the big song and dance and announcements to what are basically internal moves because as in this situation you have a pissed off set of Strasbourg fans a players who has been unsettled all season for a deal that might not now happen when it could have all been done behind closed doors as,if and when it needed to.

That's the LA way.

17 hours ago, Sconnie Blue said:

Player trading pyramid scheme

A pyramid scheme is where someone at the top of the scheme gets rich, but these people are losing money hand-over-foot lol.

With Strasbourg I think their plan/model is simply to finance via Chelsea or BlueCo, develop at Strasbourg and anyone that is remotely increased in re-sale value gets transferred to Chelsea to be put in the shop window.

2 hours ago, SydneyChelsea said:

A pyramid scheme is where someone at the top of the scheme gets rich, but these people are losing money hand-over-foot lol.

With Strasbourg I think their plan/model is simply to finance via Chelsea or BlueCo, develop at Strasbourg and anyone that is remotely increased in re-sale value gets transferred to Chelsea to be put in the shop window.

I think that's right. A player farm.

Been watching a lot of analysis on him, and it seems like the biggest issue during his tenure at Real Madrid was that he wasn't able to find (or given enough time) solutions for Real's build up and disorganized press. The profile of Real's squad wasn't balanced enough to where Alonso could play to the squads strengths that wouldn't also expose weaknesses.

Alonso however was intelligent enough to quickly move on from certain styles/tactics that evidentially weren't working,

An area where there was a falling out was when Alonso had Vinicius operate wider instead of his favorite inside channel so that the LB wouldn't be so isolated when he received the ball. Vinicius didn't like doing that and wasn't pressing to the level needed.

Edited June 10Jun 10 by Sconnie Blue

18 minutes ago, Sconnie Blue said:

Been watching a lot of analysis on him, and it seems like the biggest issue during his tenure at Real Madrid was that he wasn't able to find (or given enough time) solutions for Real's build up and disorganized press. The profile of Real's squad wasn't balanced enough to where Alonso could play to the squads strengths that wouldn't also expose weaknesses.

Alonso however was intelligent enough to quickly move on from certain styles/tactics that evidentially weren't working,

An area where there was a falling out was when Alonso had Vinicius operate wider instead of his favorite inside channel so that the LB wouldn't be so isolated when he received the ball. Vinicius didn't like doing that and wasn't pressing to the level needed.

Pretty much sums it up. Vinicius wasn't the only culprit. You're up against it when egos are deciding how they want to play. Looking forward to seeing how Mourinho deals with it.

23 minutes ago, dermott said:

Pretty much sums it up. Vinicius wasn't the only culprit. You're up against it when egos are deciding how they want to play. Looking forward to seeing how Mourinho deals with it.

I wonder if that's the reason hes brought jose in, 1 or 2 seasons at most being a hard ass to them knowing hes got nothing to lose, treat them like they deserve and either force them to grow up or leave.

3 minutes ago, dkw said:

I wonder if that's the reason hes brought jose in, 1 or 2 seasons at most being a hard ass to them knowing hes got nothing to lose, treat them like they deserve and either force them to grow up or leave.

Mourinho, these days, is as much a loose cannon. A temperamental twat. I think it's more of Perez's ill-thought-out decision making. He likes names. Bring in Mbappe because he's Mbappe. Plays on the left where Vinicius is already in situ. Bring in Bellingham because he's Bellingham. To further clutter up an already cluttered forward line. Bring in Mourinho because he is - or was - Mourinho.

36 minutes ago, dermott said:

Pretty much sums it up. Vinicius wasn't the only culprit. You're up against it when egos are deciding how they want to play. Looking forward to seeing how Mourinho deals with it.

I think for Alonso to be a success here, we need an intelligent/adequate partner for Colwill and a midfielder capable of transitioning the ball to the attackers.

The latter is especially important. At Bayer he had Xhaka. At Real, he wanted Zubimendi because he recognized the midfield was dire in progressing the ball since Kroos left. He ultimately had Guler dropping deep and progressing, removing an attacker completely.

I do not want Palmer doing that.

Edited June 10Jun 10 by Sconnie Blue

On 06/06/2026 at 16:17, OTL said:

Im new to all this football coaching malarkey could someone explain to me in simple terms what work Mr Rosenior actually did?

He was aging men.

9 hours ago, dermott said:

Pretty much sums it up. Vinicius wasn't the only culprit. You're up against it when egos are deciding how they want to play. Looking forward to seeing how Mourinho deals with it.

There are only two tactic in Madrid. How do you get all this superstar player to run/press defensively and how do you get them to do stuff that they don't really like offensively. Done

10 hours ago, Sconnie Blue said:

I think for Alonso to be a success here, we need an intelligent/adequate partner for Colwill and a midfielder capable of transitioning the ball to the attackers.

The latter is especially important. At Bayer he had Xhaka. At Real, he wanted Zubimendi because he recognized the midfield was dire in progressing the ball since Kroos left. He ultimately had Guler dropping deep and progressing, removing an attacker completely.

I do not want Palmer doing that.

Our problem last season is not cb.

15 hours ago, dermott said:

Mourinho, these days, is as much a loose cannon. A temperamental twat. I think it's more of Perez's ill-thought-out decision making. He likes names. Bring in Mbappe because he's Mbappe. Plays on the left where Vinicius is already in situ. Bring in Bellingham because he's Bellingham. To further clutter up an already cluttered forward line. Bring in Mourinho because he is - or was - Mourinho.

Im just wondering if hes going to be Perez`s "useful idiot" to change how much power the players have at that club. Its likely the most toxic squad in football, they pick and choose the managers they play for, if they can be bothered to use their tactics, even down to whether they accept new player coming in. Wind Jose up, fir him into the middle of it absolutely not a care for the consequences.

24 minutes ago, dkw said:

Im just wondering if hes going to be Perez`s "useful idiot" to change how much power the players have at that club. Its likely the most toxic squad in football, they pick and choose the managers they play for, if they can be bothered to use their tactics, even down to whether they accept new player coming in. Wind Jose up, fir him into the middle of it absolutely not a care for the consequences.

I think you overestimate Perez's acumen.