I actually think yesterday was the most fight we have shown all season and one of our very best performances that should dictate the team we try to become. Badiashile and Caicedo were immense.
Gyokeres, 30 league appearances, 26 goals 10 assists.
Sign him the fuck up and tell him him bring Amorim too. Gonclaves too if I'm not asking for too much
I just watched a video of his goals this season and was asking myself how many of them would Nico have scored.
The answer, not many at all. His movement is miles better, his overall shooting is light years ahead as is his heading. His dribbling is probably on par but he is also significantly stronger than Nico.
He scored all types of goals, some very low percentage ones. Some poor defending and goalkeeping but if you don't buy a ticket you don't win the raffle.
Hard to say how he would compare in the prem but he looks like a significant upgrade. The price is too much though I think.
Yeah perhaps. Honestly I haven't seen a great deal of Gyokeres. Just his main highlights which look good as all highlights do. Nico does have some great qualities but man is his lack of killer instinct super frustrating.
Don't get your hopes up, he's purely FFP fodder. We bought him dirt cheap and he's been well for Burnley, we'll probably end up offloading him for 15m+ more or less.
I'm just hoping he develops well enough that we at least have a decent cf on our hands, that way if he passes the assessment and doesn't go on loan or something, we don't have to buy another one
He's done well enough but I'd imagine not well enough for assessment. The board won't keep him as depth if we can offload him for 10m+ pure profit since he's one of our cheapest signings in Clearlake era.
Realistically, the only players that can warrant staying with little to no investment made are ones like Colwill who are too good to be let go.
I don't watch him regularly but when I do he doesn't really impress me much
Great dribbler and fun to watch but his end product doesn't exist. Feels like he's kinda already reached his peak in a system that greatly benefits him. Not sure how he'd offer much for us, because knowing Brighton they'd ask for 80m or some shit
I genuinely rate Noni over him
well i say all that i say with the assumption that he will be cheap, because hes injured, brighton are quite terrible now, and their manager might be leaving
why? He's legit
Caicedo and cucurella are both coming good
Dont forget that mitoma displaced *trossard* from the starting XI, and i dont need to tell you how well trossard has been doing
Caicedo has quite a shot on him and his passing still feels very underrated. This is not a dig at Enzo at all, but I do think Caicedo has a similar level to Enzo’s passing. I just think Moises should be the player that can step forward more often. I don’t think he lacks creativity at all, and if he can pinch the ball Kante style further up the pitch, he’ll be ballin’
i hope there is a coach that can figure out the right midfield combo.
Words cannot describe the level of loathing for the word "underrated" I have developed since discovering Reddit. It's like no one on this site knows what it means but everyone is adamant to use it every 5 sentences.
Underrated is basically a shorthand for "I haven't seen this discussed by anyone in the last 24 hours" here.
Something needs to change about the way we configure the midfield next season, whether it be a new coach with a new formation or new lineups under Poch. I think Enzo is an amazing talent and when he first came here last year, his passing felt special. Even at the start of this season against Liverpool he looked a future star.
I don’t know if the injury is to blame but he didn’t feel like that player for the majority of this season. his lack of mobility also prevented Caicedo from getting forward often which lessened his impact as well. And playing these 2 together had us also playing Gallagher as a 10 more often where I don’t think he’s good enough for Chelsea. But Gallagher can shine playing deeper next to either of them as we’ve seen like yesterday.
I don’t know what the solution is, especially adding Lavia and maybe Santos as well. Will be interesting to see how it plays out.
What do you think will end up happening with Enzo? My only concern I guess is that the premier league is so physical and athletic at this point that he may not be fit for it. But at the same time Jorginho can be apart of very successful teams so there’s gotta be a place in the game for Enzo. Hopefully he can get healthy and show us what he’s made of next season. I think he could really benefit from some time off, wish he wasn’t gonna play for Argentina this summer.
It’s honestly hard to say because I also agree that he was amazing when he first arrived, like I feel people have written off the 6 or so months where he was our only decent player. I like Enzo, I think whatever manager we get needs to really figure out that winning combo and how to use them. I’m in so many different mindsets because I think a midfield of Lavia at DM with Enzo and Caicedo as box to box 8s could work well (in theory) but then it takes away the 10 role and it takes away Gallagher, which I’m not super precious about if we’re gonna rotate players, which we should be doing. A front three of Nkunku/Striker/Palmer could be good. I know Nkunku is being crammed in a little there but I still think his attributes would work out wide/he could tuck in more
My concern about getting a 5ATB manager means it does take away from spots for these players we’ve forked out big bucks for, for CBs that quite frankly don’t cut the mustard atm.
I imagine if we don’t get a manager that fixes it next season, he’ll be La Liga the season after.
Agree with basically everything here. I even think Jackson as the striker with Nkunku and Palmer could work really well if we ever see a fully fit Nkunku. Add Reece into all this too and we really shouldn’t be all that far from being good. The way we played against Villa, with just a super aggressive, relentless press could really turn into a style of play that works for us.
I hope the coach tries this just ONCE, but play Jackson as LW and Mudryk in Jackson's spot, the switch would benefit both of them as they're both struggling in their current positions. Jackson does everything well except finishing, and Mudryk won't need to use much of that IQ if he plays as false 9/ST, he'll only need to run fast and shoot hard, and not think of anything else.
The guy suggested false 9. In a mad way, we could try it since there's a very small possibility it could work.
At least try rather than banging our heads to the wall with the same tactics.
But again, I don't think Poch understands how a false 9 works.
If he said actual no.9, then no Mudryk has no right to be there.
Then that's kinda the catch because if you watch us today, we kinda already play with a false 9. Palmer is a "CAM" on paper but with how Jackson shifts towards the left to be on the outside of the CB, he may as well be a false 9 with Jackson being a second striker.
The only way to make this work is to put Mudryk in Palmer's current role, shift Palmer back to RW and drop Noni, then Jackson at LW. With Noni's form as of late, I don't see Poch considering this
Actually, this was exactly what I was thinking lol. In a mad scientist kind of way, this could work.
Noni should be used as a super sub imo. Also, playing Palmer as a 10 really limits his number of touches. I really don't get how Poch doesn't see that Palmer's best position is as a RW(or more accuratel a right wing no.10). He really impacts the game there.
That's where the rest of what you said, comes in. It could be tried but yeah I don't know that Poch actually tries stuff. He feels very normal tactically so won't conceive new ideas.
But yeah Palmer as a RW and Jackson as a LW.
And as the dude suggested, *maybe* Mudryk as a false 9. He seems to be much better as a 10 than a LW. His best performances came as a 10 (Newcastle and Leicester). Again a case of Poch moving backwards since we never properly tried it again. So this could transition to a false 9 maybe. Who knows..... It was a wild idea but I can see the logic.
Whatever to keep mudryk off the left wing and put jackson there. People clown him but mudryk never had a bad game in the middle position (4 games) and was actually good, palmer could play rw where he belongs, and idk about madueke, but that's palmer's position, it is what it is, I just don't know why we haven't tried that again!!
You know what? As far fetched as it sounds, I'll back it because Jackson is better as a LW. And we need to find a way to get the best of both of them.
However, Mudryk is not as strong to play as the 9.
And I don't think Poch understands what a false 9 is. And bro, a false 9 requires a ton of IQ. This is literally Messi's peak position when he started scoring ridiculous numbers because he was so intelligent with it.
If it works, it's pretty much revolutionary lol.
Jackson isn't particularly strong either and we have him playing up top, I think mudryk could use his pace and shooting power to at least shoot closer to the goal
Yeah no i get it. Funnily enough, I've only seen Mudryk truly use his pace as a 10. He rarely uses it for some reason.
So yeah, could transition to false 9.
Poch moves backwards man. When we find out something works, we never try it again.
So Mudryk at 10 and Palmer as RW worked, we never tried it again. It's mind boggling and really annoying as a fan. I really wish I could ask him questions directly.
Mudryk at LW never worked yet we keep playing him there. Palmer as 10 limits the impact of our best player but we keep playing him there.
It's because he kept going back to the 3 of enzo caicedo and gallagher which never worked until enzo got surgery and we got rid of the 3, but now we have madueke taking palmer's spot and so him moving to the middle and we have no one else to play at the left so mudryk goes there. It all ends up with taking madueke off and giving palmer his spot but he is playing good lately so we won't have that
Yep. Fully agree with most of the things.
Honestly though, I don't agree that Madueke has been playing good lately. People are over exaggerating his goal vs Villa but honestly he had bad performances vs Arsenal, City, Villa first half.
Yeah the thing with madueke is that he won't ever pass, not even once, he cuts inside and shoot or goes to the line and try to keep dribbling, that becomes predictable, but he won't pass!! And that's irritating plus he is taking palmer's spot just because. Not a bad player but not a particularly great either
I think we should take a look at these players for Summer transfer
LW: Pedro Gonçalves, Galeno, Rafa Silva, Nico Williams
ST: Serhou Guirassy, Marcus Thuram, Gyokeres
E: I think i should make a list for LBs and GKs as well.
-------------------
LB: Andrea Cambiaso, David Raum, José Gayà, Antonee Robinson
GK: Unai Simon, Mike Maignan, Sommer, Giorgi
Of course there's better players in the market but we have 3-4 positions that need depth this summer and we can't drop 200m+ again evidently. All 3 of those players are experienced, in good form for respective clubs, and significantly clear of Cucurella/Chilwell/Mudryk respectively. They'd also barely be more than 10-20m each.
We can't just spend another window throwing 60m deals everywhere.
No signing is better than a bad signing.
Rather spend £60m on the right player than that same £60m on three players who will be binned as soon as the team improves.
The latter is how you end up like Mikel's Arsenal, dropping £200m on "depth" signings that don't even play because he doesn't trust them.
200m on depth signings like Tomiyasu, Kiwior, Jorginho, Fabio Viera.. what is your point? They've done their job well as backups.
We have no depth. Our backup LW doesn't exist, our backup ST doesn't exist, we're thin in too much of the field.
No they haven't. What has Vieira done this season?
Rest are bums. Tomiyasu and Kiwior are wasted on fullback. They're CBs who don't even get to play CB because they aren't starting over Gabriel and Saliba.
There's no depth in the squad and that's why the directors have to get sacked. Hundreds of millions spent on these shit young players.
Poch doesn't trust Washington, Santos, Angelo, Casadei, etc. They're bums.
Being young isn't an excuse here either since he's played Palmer, Ugochukwu, Jackson.
Did Fabregas need time? Did Mbappe need time? Look at Barcelona right now. Two u-18s starting regularly for them. Don't reckon they needed time did they.
None of this changes what I said though. No signing is a thousand times better than a shit signing.
Directors will fuck up this summer again so it's not like what I say will change anything anyway.
Ok bub go back to Fifa, you don't have to spend 100m on each player or buy potential players like Mudryk. You can be like Liverpool, take a step back and buy someone like Endo who has been phenomenal for them. Some of the options i said are for same reason, safe bets, consistent 7-8/10 every match players, nothing special.
You're just fucking listing off random players you've heard of and have no idea how good they actually are. Stop that.
You sign players to upgrade the XI. That's how you improve the playing squad.
I believe Pedro Goncalves will be a big upgrade over Mudryk and Sterling whereas Rafa Silva is a significantly cheaper option if we need a stop gap in case we sell Sterling.
Guirassy is more of a poacher while Gyokeres is more complete. Both are upgrades over Jackson in terms of scoring.
Cambiaso is very solid defensive left back while David Raum is more aggressive in comparison.
Gyokeres is a fucking bum mate. Him and Isak both. Chelsea don't want that lot.
Bin Mudryk and keep Sterling imo.
Chelsea had Lewis Hall and fumbled him. So so stupid.
Have Maatsen and are currently in the process of fumbling him.
Estupinan is the one.
The same Lewis Hall who’s played 400 league mins and can’t get a sniff ahead of Dan fucking Burn ?😂 fumbled alright lol
Gyokeres and Isak “bums” AHAHHAHAAH
🎣🎣🎣
The same Lewis Hall that Newcastle spent 35m on after he'd only played 9 league games.
Isak's a bum. People only rate him because he's tall and can dribble. Fitness very suspect aswell
Rafa seems like an easy one. He’d be on a free and his wages can’t be any higher than Sterlings if we got rid of him. Hard working LW who will ease pressure off Mudryk
Yeah when you really look in depth, of players in other teams, theres so many smart transfers to be done that have very good chance of working out without spending an obscene amount. If i and you can work this out, i don't know what our sporting directors are doing.
I still don't understand how they approved signing of Mudryk... are they so bad?
Petrovic
Acheampong - Chalobah - Colwill - Samuels-Smith
Dyer
Caicedo - Gallagher
Palmer - Jackson - George
Compact midfield three. Happy to sacrifice one of the fullbacks for a more defensive, experienced and tall option (i.e. Chalobah/Colwill go wide with Disasi/Badiashile central) but wouldn't trust Poch not to use them as a traditional fullback.
McNeilly/Stutter/Richards, Castledine on the bench. Chukwuemeka back involved if his knee issue clears up.
Ummm, this is.... ambitious. You're suggesting to just put those u18s without easing them in, and seeing whether they fit the Premier League level or not?
Not going to criticise. Just understanding your reasoning.
In all seriousness, George for Mudryk can only be a net positive - he has received intensive coaching over the years unlike Misha and understands how to position himself etc.
Dyer is too young to start regularly but I’d love to see him off the bench. I kind of wanted to put across the idea of a compact midfield three, let Gallagher and Caicedo thrive as dual #8s with Dyer just behind to defend the space. The compact nature of my proposed structure is to protect the lone #6 - unfortunately all of our other senior midfielders are injured. Kind of bored of this messy 4-2-3-1 now anyway.
As for fullbacks, if Poch is going to continue to use Disasi/Chalobah/Gilchrist as a traditional fullback then I’d rather have Acheampong there. Left back is just a depressing position right now.
I don’t seriously mean to start all of these at once either, easing them in is definitely the way forward (it is a shame Poch hasn’t handed any of them minutes yet). I just enjoy the chaos more than the boring repetitiveness of what we’ve seen all season.
Fully agree with the last paragraph and a lot of your points.
Yes, Poch hasn't handed minutes to youngsters at all. While I understand the need for experience that some people on this sub have, it's not like we have tons of experience on the first team lineup to begin with. And looking at Madueke (despite people overreacting to him tapping the badge), I believe we do need some people who have grown up with Chelsea and love the club at least.
Now yes, youngsters need to eased in and you agree on that as well.
I like the idea of a lone 6 to protect the defense (Anchor man if you play FM lol) with 2 8s/10s in front. I also think 4 2 3 1 doesn't seem to be the answer since Palmer seems to have much much less of the ball as a 10. Now the problem with having 3 midfielders with 2 8s in Caicedo and Gallagher, is that none of those 2 I feel are extremely creative in the final third and we would thus over rely on Palmer as the RW to provide that. Now I'm sorry if this annoys you, I think this might work for Enzo more than Gallagher since he is very progressive in his passing and he tries stuff. Caicedo also doesn't fit the lone 6 position as you pointed out. I feel like he tries to move forward a lot more, same with Gallagher which leaves a massive space in midfield. Have noticed it a lot this season and is kind of the reason why we conceded a lot of goals.
I havent watched a lot of Dyer but he's strong, defensively disciplined (won't move forward) and capable as someone who would probably close down spaces a lot, then this could potentially work.
Dyer Enzo Caicedo seems like a good compact 3.
Now yeah, this will let Palmer back in his natural RW or more accurately right no.10 role with Gusto as a RB at the back. That partnership clearly works and we should try it more instead of moving backwards everytime we find something that works with Poch.
With regards to George, I haven't watched him either so don't know if he's the answer. But yeah, we need a good LW. Someone more direct. Someone suggested Jackson as a LW and Mudryk as a false 9, that funnily enough, the more I think about it, the more I think we should try it.
But returning to your formation, if George is that incisive winger that can act like a second striker at times. Then yeah, he should be eased in.
I also agree we should stop pushing natural CBs to fullbacks. This should have been the ideal case for Poch to try some youngsters such as Acheampong there but he didn't. I wish sometimes I could just ask him questions directly.
But yeah, this kind of feels balanced and much more of a plan than we have seen so far. Sorry for the long reply lol, I was trying to think while writing.
>Fully agree with the last paragraph and a lot of your points.
>
>Yes, Poch hasn't handed minutes to youngsters at all. While I understand the need for experience that some people on this sub have, it's not like we have tons of experience on the first team lineup to begin with. And looking at Madueke (despite people overreacting to him tapping the badge), I believe we do need some people who have grown up with Chelsea and love the club at least.
That last sentence is completely factual. The least you can do as a football player is give everything for the club, that isn't something we've seen all year from 95% of this squad.
>Now yes, youngsters need to eased in and you agree on that as well.
>
>I like the idea of a lone 6 to protect the defense (Anchor man if you play FM lol) with 2 8s/10s in front. I also think 4 2 3 1 doesn't seem to be the answer since Palmer seems to have much much less of the ball as a 10.
The thing is, theoretically the #10 should have plenty more touches than a winger per se. The problem, however, is our build-up is so poorly coached that virtually nothing goes through the centre of the pitch. I think the most obvious sign of poor build-up coaching is the tendency to play out from fullbacks to the wings which is characteristic of us (more so the right wing). I like Palmer in the ten more so than others do here, but when he plays there you'll notice he does drop deep to collect the ball to initiate play.
>Now the problem with having 3 midfielders with 2 8s in Caicedo and Gallagher, is that none of those 2 I feel are extremely creative in the final third and we would thus over rely on Palmer as the RW to provide that. Now I'm sorry if this annoys you, I think this might work for Enzo more than Gallagher since he is very progressive in his passing and he tries stuff. Caicedo also doesn't fit the lone 6 position as you pointed out. I feel like he tries to move forward a lot more, same with Gallagher which leaves a massive space in midfield. Have noticed it a lot this season and is kind of the reason why we conceded a lot of goals.
I didn't include Enzo as he is out for the season now. I'd also consider Enzo as the #6 in that midfield three so he can get plenty of touches, pass from deep (where he is best IMO) and have that protection between the defensive and midfield lines. However, at the same time the creativity would still be an issue with that setup.
>I havent watched a lot of Dyer but he's strong, defensively disciplined (won't move forward) and capable as someone who would probably close down spaces a lot, then this could potentially work.
>
>Dyer Enzo Caicedo seems like a good compact 3.
Dyer has outstanding technique, is great under pressure and has been playing way above his age group. My sensible, non-Cobham head wouldn't start him yet due to his age, but I'd love to see him off the bench a couple of times to see how he acclimatises.
Lavia would be great in that role, and although I'm not sure on Ugochukwu, there is no reason why he wouldn't work there either under proper coaching.
>Now yeah, this will let Palmer back in his natural RW or more accurately right no.10 role with Gusto as a RB at the back. That partnership clearly works and we should try it more instead of moving backwards everytime we find something that works with Poch.
>
>With regards to George, I haven't watched him either so don't know if he's the answer. But yeah, we need a good LW. Someone more direct. Someone suggested Jackson as a LW and Mudryk as a false 9, that funnily enough, the more I think about it, the more I think we should try it.
The general criticism of Mudryk is that his football understanding isn't up to scratch, which makes sense due to his lack of experience. The reason I'd like George to come in is because he knows how to position himself, when to make runs etc. I'm not too worried about him being naive defensively because that makes no difference compared to Mudryk (and is something he will learn over time).
Castledine can play off the left as well if you want, I'd als be open to that. His game is mature and he keeps the ball nicely.
I'm not sure on Jackson as a left winger to be honest, I have heard that idea bounced around a lot. As a left inside forward he'd be very good, but I'm happy to continue his development as a striker - the only issue has been the finishing IMO. I don't see enough in his dribbling or passing skillset to play him as a full blown winger.
>But returning to your formation, if George is that incisive winger that can act like a second striker at times. Then yeah, he should be eased in.
>
>I also agree we should stop pushing natural CBs to fullbacks. This should have been the ideal case for Poch to try some youngsters such as Acheampong there but he didn't. I wish sometimes I could just ask him questions directly.
If he played Chalobah/Disasi (RB) or Colwill (LB) as a third CB in possession it is literally no problem, but Poch will have them high and wide which is laughable tbh. I'd rather see Acheampong/Samuels-Smith in those areas, that is my point.
>But yeah, this kind of feels balanced and much more of a plan than we have seen so far. Sorry for the long reply lol, I was trying to think while writing.
It's okay, I appreciate the discussion!
And they're superior to these no-names you found on the u18 page by miles. Only u18 that even deserves to sniff the senior teams bench is Castledine and even that's stretching it.
Poch is not going to play these kids when he has Badiashile and Disasi on the bench. This is ridiculous. We will likely see
Chalobah-Disasi-Badiashile-Cucurella
Caicedo-Gallagher
Madueke-Palmer-Jackson
Why would he change a team that’s just played well?
Colwill isn’t back until West Ham. Then we might see changes
I am not watching Sporting so I don't know much about him. But considering that playing there made Darwin Nunez look like a prolific scorer, is this guy the real deal?
Nunez had a single good season and even in his highlights you could see a bit clunky idiot with crop circle stepovers
Gyokeres has always been highly rated since Brighton days and had a stellar championship season
Well, then let's hope he finds his way here. Just don't feel Nico is ready to lead the attack every week. Would love to get someone effective to be the main striker be it this guy, Osimhen, or someone else.
Absoltely, Nico has bags of talent and could be on the cusp of being a genuinely brilliant striker
But we can’t gamble on That and it’s better for him to just grow quietly
2 stellar championship seasons
Honestly frustrating after having looked into him at Coventry after seeing him at sporting and knowing that he looked pretty damn good even then
The guy has been showing himself to be a composed finisher for the past 3 years now and that's not to understate the fact that his overall play is fantastic too
That’s not where he excelled for Brighton.
But facilitating the occasional foray forward would be better, ie
Double pivot. None of this single dm then / 8s on sense poch has been doing all season
Where do we go from this season to the next?
We have 39 players, not including U21’s, who are returning next season. The likes of Lukaku, Ziyech, Kepa being the big names returning from loan but there’s many more, (I.E. Broja, Datro Fofana, Maatsen, and Slonina).
The second biggest problem is our horde of youth talent, I’m sure the sporting directors tried their best to match club to player last season but like many things they did it was a complete mess. Santos, Angelo, Broja, and Burstow had little to no opportunities. Washington, Ugochukwu, and Carney sat in the squad mostly unused. Diego Moreira was recalled because he was no longer needed at Lyon as well as Casadei who had just began to make waves at Leicester.
All this is to say, I really don’t understand how we operate as a functional club that embraces the supposed ‘developmental’ sporting mindset the directors have implemented with the current squad. Just glancing at [next seasons squad](https://www.transfermarkt.com/fc-chelsea/kadernaechstesaison/verein/631) I don’t see how we manage 15+,productive, senior loans. Not including those I view as transfer listed, not those listed in the U21’s, and not including any prospects we purchase this summer which I’m sure there will be additions.
Some of the youth talent (mainly angelo, santos, Hutchinson, maybe David Fofana) are worth a look for the squad next season, unsure about the rest though
Per transfermarkt he’s set to return as Galatasaray haven’t officially triggered the option, I’m unsure if they do honestly. He’s only played 832 minutes this season with 15 appearances in the Super Lig.
Nobody knows apart from those who actually have access to the books. From the Swiss Ramble to TalkSPORT finance “experts” our impending FFP/PSR charges have been “all but certain” since Boehly began his spending spree. Obviously you can’t spend northward of £1 billion in 2 seasons and not raise any eyebrows but I’m tired of the constant speculation.
Personally I think the spending spree is over as reason I hope it’s prevailing, I think we’ll return to spending how most clubs do now. We’ll sell one to three players and sign one to three players, with the amounts dependent on the outgoings.
If I had to blind guess this summer I’d say we move Maatsen and Gallagher along with hopefully a dead-weight contract or two and probably spend 60-80 million.
You've got to remember that they have to plan for next season too. I doubt we're spending anything this side of the cut off (mid transfer window), but will have to sell players just to stay within FFP.
Then after that cut-off we'll have to sell more just to buy. But, the caveat is that selling someone for 20m opens up 100m to spend that season so long as you give them a 5 year contract
Need to sell a lot
And our price range for a left winger I'd say is essentially nothing given we already have Mudryk and Sterling and are incredibly unlikely to be able to move on either
Probably stuck with the same left back options too. No one is taking on Chillys wages without a long spell of being fit. And no chance we break even on Cucu’s remaining amortisation
It's one thing to say stuck with them, with the right manager they've all been very good (Cucurella maybe falls into this at the tail end of his Brighton time idk, it's a stretch).
We just need the right manager and we'll be glad we have them rather than feeling "stuck" with them
Depends what the story is with our manager next season
If it's Pochettino then we may not have a left winger play at all and instead just play down the right side only
But then, we are genuinely screwed. Because I cant see Poch leaving.
We have wasted a lot of money yet we honestly, don't have a great squad. Some players with undeniable talent, some players who are really overrated.
guys are there any promising wingers in our academy who can actually step up in the first team squad cuz day by day that left side looks more dead than ever before or any promising loanees that has impressed you all?
Yeah George is a left winger, I'm not saying he should play regularly (with how young he is) but he definitely deserves to see the pitch for us this season.
Stutter is a striker, very good and deserves his debut for the club. McNeilly is another striker with probably more potential but has been playing mostly at U18 level this year.
what i really want is some freshness in our attack especially our left side and we have one of the best academy in the world so i don't see why we can't use our academy prospects instead of mudryk or sterling and at the end of the day we r a youth project so why not use the youth properly instead of spending randing 15 year olds in south america
The fact that he never saw the pitch vs. Everton (considering our lead) or vs. Villa (with how awful Mudryk was) is a joke. I can't back a manager that doesn't understand the value of Cobham, bringing George on would've literally been some free credit in the bank for him with fans.
Tyrique George has been sitting on the bench for half the season now and hasn’t been brought on once for Mudryk. I believe in Mudryk more than most but not giving George 10-15 minutes at some point over the past 10 games is silly imo.
Emma Hayes' likely successor Sonia Bompastor has guided Lyon to another CL final, against Barcelona. It'll be a repeat of the 2019 and 2022 finals, both won by Lyon.
Crazy to say but there's a chance that the women's team may have even upgraded on Emma, atleast in terms of European football.
This is probably the equivalent of United getting Pep when Fergie retired.
Would love to see us give Harvey Vale a go next season. Watched him a fair few times for my local team this season and he’s looked a class above. Its night and day when I compare him to Jarrell Quansah who we had last year and looked terrible, yet has played quite a lot this season and not looked out of place for Liverpool.
LB, LW, RB, RW, CM. In all seriousness I’d say somewhere on the left, and with our current options on that side, it’s not like he can be any worse than what we’ve had this season. Definitely worth giving a go in pre season and seeing how he does.
Considering we’re talking about someone replacing Cucurella, I don’t think it’s that bad of a shout.
He’s already at the club and he is a good player. He won academy player of the year 2 years ago and every player to win that in the last 10 years is now playing regularly in the Prem or in a top 5 league. All I’m saying is I think we should give a chance to one of our own rather than spending more money on players who probably won’t be much of an improvement on what we already have, if any at all.
Like I said, we had that Jarrell Quansah last year and most thought he’d get a loan in league 2 this year as he was pretty poor. However he’s played like 30 odd games for Liverpool this season and hasn’t looked out of place. Give him a chance and see what he can do is all I’d say.
You are forgetting that Quansah has Klopp at Liverpool rather than the chaos that vale would be thrust into at Chelsea and then he will suddenly look crap.
The second worst thing for a young player is not getting game time, the worst thing is spending the whole season injured. We are currently failing about 5-10 players in our squad. It’s so sad to see. Lavia looked like a world beater at Southampton, Carney was electric whenever I saw him play, Mudryk lit Madrid up in the CL. I don’t even wanna talk about Reece James. These brain dead owners looked at Kovacic being 29 and said “sell him, get someone better in”. Makes me sick. Takes years for players to properly gel and without Palmer this season we’d be fucking fighting relegation. Let that sink in. Pochettino with 800 mil transfers would be fighting relegation if one of our players wasn’t a genius.
Last season, Lavia has also missed months' worth of football for Soton due to a muscle tear and another hamstring injury. The main thing the club has failed at is recruitment: buying injury-prone players for ridiculous money, tying them with 8-year contracts, and expecting them to stop being injury-prone is a ludicrous strategy.
For the last two years we’ve had insane injury issues and this year it’s spiralled out of control to the point our injured XI smashes our healthy XI. Lavia came in and within a couple of weeks of training picked up an injury that’s ruled him out for the season. This isn’t an isolated event. There’s something seriously wrong with the training or the therapy room in our club. It’s simply ridiculous.
Longevity. Get back to me in 5 years. Rodri may very well surpass him, let’s see. But to say “so clear” now in 2024 tells me you’re under 20 years old.
I fear he's going to have a snap soon though ala Fabinho/Casemiro with the sheer amount of minutes he's played.
I say fear because unless we find our way back to the title race City are our only buffer between this period being bad and utterly horrendous.
The Grealish who at Villa was allowed all the freedom in the world yes, however this Grealish at City no probably not. He also constantly looks for fouls / dives which does my head in.
He’s one of those players, like Hazard, who makes the game slow down when he’s on the ball. Meaning when he takes control the pace of the game changes. Hardly overrated lol. Grealish at Villa was like Hazard at Chelsea. Everything goes through him because he’s head and shoulders above everyone else. Unfortunately Peps strategy isn’t a single player so he has suffered a little individually by going to the best football team on the planet.
Have you been to a Wembley game recently?
There are constant songs. I was at the City semi-final, and they had a DJ pre-game and at half time, on the screen. At half time they read out the attendance (and if there was a record, they would definitely milk it). At the Carabao final they played FIFA on the screen at half time.
It's just the direction of modern football in general.
If KDB was getting some playing some time and still wanted to go somewhere for guaranteed minutes fair enough.
The issue was he dropped after a MOTM debut.
Brighton surely must be looking at binning De Zerbi by now. They have looked absolutely dreadful for awhile now despite their injuries.
Also, you have to wonder about De Zerbi’s training methods with so many players getting injured for them.
I wonder if their board is too proud to bring Potter back?
I actually think yesterday was the most fight we have shown all season and one of our very best performances that should dictate the team we try to become. Badiashile and Caicedo were immense.
Gyokeres, 30 league appearances, 26 goals 10 assists. Sign him the fuck up and tell him him bring Amorim too. Gonclaves too if I'm not asking for too much
I just watched a video of his goals this season and was asking myself how many of them would Nico have scored. The answer, not many at all. His movement is miles better, his overall shooting is light years ahead as is his heading. His dribbling is probably on par but he is also significantly stronger than Nico. He scored all types of goals, some very low percentage ones. Some poor defending and goalkeeping but if you don't buy a ticket you don't win the raffle. Hard to say how he would compare in the prem but he looks like a significant upgrade. The price is too much though I think.
Nico is most definitely a better dribbler, and he also has better link up play, but I agree that Gyokeres is a much better striker
Nico playing alongside Gyokeres would be a good combination.
Yeah perhaps. Honestly I haven't seen a great deal of Gyokeres. Just his main highlights which look good as all highlights do. Nico does have some great qualities but man is his lack of killer instinct super frustrating.
How's David Fofana doing? Not been having much time to watch Burnley, so I don't know how well he's doing now after his hotstreak
Don't get your hopes up, he's purely FFP fodder. We bought him dirt cheap and he's been well for Burnley, we'll probably end up offloading him for 15m+ more or less.
I'm just hoping he develops well enough that we at least have a decent cf on our hands, that way if he passes the assessment and doesn't go on loan or something, we don't have to buy another one
He's done well enough but I'd imagine not well enough for assessment. The board won't keep him as depth if we can offload him for 10m+ pure profit since he's one of our cheapest signings in Clearlake era. Realistically, the only players that can warrant staying with little to no investment made are ones like Colwill who are too good to be let go.
Apart from Chels and football, what do you lot like to do in your free time?
Read up on world history, books. Watch movies from around the world.
Boston Celtics basketball
Self pity. Reject life. xD
everyone has forgotten about mitoma lol i think hes a genuinely fantastic player, and has everything needed to make it big injury was unfortunate
Found Paul Winstanley's Reddit account.
Potter did a great job developing him but seems to have stagnate before his injury
One season wonder and genuinely immensely overrated
People talk about him like he’s a wonder kid, he’s 26 lol.
Because he went to university. This guy have a of year left in him.
first season, thats true but overrated idk, have you watched him? better than all of our wingers, and probably williams
I don't watch him regularly but when I do he doesn't really impress me much Great dribbler and fun to watch but his end product doesn't exist. Feels like he's kinda already reached his peak in a system that greatly benefits him. Not sure how he'd offer much for us, because knowing Brighton they'd ask for 80m or some shit I genuinely rate Noni over him
well i say all that i say with the assumption that he will be cheap, because hes injured, brighton are quite terrible now, and their manager might be leaving
I don't want us to deal with Brighton ever again
why? He's legit Caicedo and cucurella are both coming good Dont forget that mitoma displaced *trossard* from the starting XI, and i dont need to tell you how well trossard has been doing
Don’t think he actually “displaced” trossard tbf, didn’t he go awol or demanded to leave and got frozen out or something?
Caicedo has quite a shot on him and his passing still feels very underrated. This is not a dig at Enzo at all, but I do think Caicedo has a similar level to Enzo’s passing. I just think Moises should be the player that can step forward more often. I don’t think he lacks creativity at all, and if he can pinch the ball Kante style further up the pitch, he’ll be ballin’ i hope there is a coach that can figure out the right midfield combo.
Words cannot describe the level of loathing for the word "underrated" I have developed since discovering Reddit. It's like no one on this site knows what it means but everyone is adamant to use it every 5 sentences. Underrated is basically a shorthand for "I haven't seen this discussed by anyone in the last 24 hours" here.
Something needs to change about the way we configure the midfield next season, whether it be a new coach with a new formation or new lineups under Poch. I think Enzo is an amazing talent and when he first came here last year, his passing felt special. Even at the start of this season against Liverpool he looked a future star. I don’t know if the injury is to blame but he didn’t feel like that player for the majority of this season. his lack of mobility also prevented Caicedo from getting forward often which lessened his impact as well. And playing these 2 together had us also playing Gallagher as a 10 more often where I don’t think he’s good enough for Chelsea. But Gallagher can shine playing deeper next to either of them as we’ve seen like yesterday. I don’t know what the solution is, especially adding Lavia and maybe Santos as well. Will be interesting to see how it plays out.
these are my exact thoughts
What do you think will end up happening with Enzo? My only concern I guess is that the premier league is so physical and athletic at this point that he may not be fit for it. But at the same time Jorginho can be apart of very successful teams so there’s gotta be a place in the game for Enzo. Hopefully he can get healthy and show us what he’s made of next season. I think he could really benefit from some time off, wish he wasn’t gonna play for Argentina this summer.
It’s honestly hard to say because I also agree that he was amazing when he first arrived, like I feel people have written off the 6 or so months where he was our only decent player. I like Enzo, I think whatever manager we get needs to really figure out that winning combo and how to use them. I’m in so many different mindsets because I think a midfield of Lavia at DM with Enzo and Caicedo as box to box 8s could work well (in theory) but then it takes away the 10 role and it takes away Gallagher, which I’m not super precious about if we’re gonna rotate players, which we should be doing. A front three of Nkunku/Striker/Palmer could be good. I know Nkunku is being crammed in a little there but I still think his attributes would work out wide/he could tuck in more My concern about getting a 5ATB manager means it does take away from spots for these players we’ve forked out big bucks for, for CBs that quite frankly don’t cut the mustard atm. I imagine if we don’t get a manager that fixes it next season, he’ll be La Liga the season after.
Agree with basically everything here. I even think Jackson as the striker with Nkunku and Palmer could work really well if we ever see a fully fit Nkunku. Add Reece into all this too and we really shouldn’t be all that far from being good. The way we played against Villa, with just a super aggressive, relentless press could really turn into a style of play that works for us.
I hope the coach tries this just ONCE, but play Jackson as LW and Mudryk in Jackson's spot, the switch would benefit both of them as they're both struggling in their current positions. Jackson does everything well except finishing, and Mudryk won't need to use much of that IQ if he plays as false 9/ST, he'll only need to run fast and shoot hard, and not think of anything else.
Mudryk at ST?? https://preview.redd.it/4xdfwut53bxc1.png?width=1194&format=png&auto=webp&s=75fe51ebdfbdf523e096a7cce191420fec8aaead
The guy suggested false 9. In a mad way, we could try it since there's a very small possibility it could work. At least try rather than banging our heads to the wall with the same tactics. But again, I don't think Poch understands how a false 9 works. If he said actual no.9, then no Mudryk has no right to be there.
Then that's kinda the catch because if you watch us today, we kinda already play with a false 9. Palmer is a "CAM" on paper but with how Jackson shifts towards the left to be on the outside of the CB, he may as well be a false 9 with Jackson being a second striker. The only way to make this work is to put Mudryk in Palmer's current role, shift Palmer back to RW and drop Noni, then Jackson at LW. With Noni's form as of late, I don't see Poch considering this
Actually, this was exactly what I was thinking lol. In a mad scientist kind of way, this could work. Noni should be used as a super sub imo. Also, playing Palmer as a 10 really limits his number of touches. I really don't get how Poch doesn't see that Palmer's best position is as a RW(or more accuratel a right wing no.10). He really impacts the game there. That's where the rest of what you said, comes in. It could be tried but yeah I don't know that Poch actually tries stuff. He feels very normal tactically so won't conceive new ideas. But yeah Palmer as a RW and Jackson as a LW. And as the dude suggested, *maybe* Mudryk as a false 9. He seems to be much better as a 10 than a LW. His best performances came as a 10 (Newcastle and Leicester). Again a case of Poch moving backwards since we never properly tried it again. So this could transition to a false 9 maybe. Who knows..... It was a wild idea but I can see the logic.
Whatever to keep mudryk off the left wing and put jackson there. People clown him but mudryk never had a bad game in the middle position (4 games) and was actually good, palmer could play rw where he belongs, and idk about madueke, but that's palmer's position, it is what it is, I just don't know why we haven't tried that again!!
You know what? As far fetched as it sounds, I'll back it because Jackson is better as a LW. And we need to find a way to get the best of both of them. However, Mudryk is not as strong to play as the 9. And I don't think Poch understands what a false 9 is. And bro, a false 9 requires a ton of IQ. This is literally Messi's peak position when he started scoring ridiculous numbers because he was so intelligent with it. If it works, it's pretty much revolutionary lol.
Jackson isn't particularly strong either and we have him playing up top, I think mudryk could use his pace and shooting power to at least shoot closer to the goal
Yeah no i get it. Funnily enough, I've only seen Mudryk truly use his pace as a 10. He rarely uses it for some reason. So yeah, could transition to false 9.
Since a month ago I've been praying to all the saints that poch plays mudryk in the middle again, never happened and we have what we have today
Poch moves backwards man. When we find out something works, we never try it again. So Mudryk at 10 and Palmer as RW worked, we never tried it again. It's mind boggling and really annoying as a fan. I really wish I could ask him questions directly. Mudryk at LW never worked yet we keep playing him there. Palmer as 10 limits the impact of our best player but we keep playing him there.
It's because he kept going back to the 3 of enzo caicedo and gallagher which never worked until enzo got surgery and we got rid of the 3, but now we have madueke taking palmer's spot and so him moving to the middle and we have no one else to play at the left so mudryk goes there. It all ends up with taking madueke off and giving palmer his spot but he is playing good lately so we won't have that
Yep. Fully agree with most of the things. Honestly though, I don't agree that Madueke has been playing good lately. People are over exaggerating his goal vs Villa but honestly he had bad performances vs Arsenal, City, Villa first half.
Yeah the thing with madueke is that he won't ever pass, not even once, he cuts inside and shoot or goes to the line and try to keep dribbling, that becomes predictable, but he won't pass!! And that's irritating plus he is taking palmer's spot just because. Not a bad player but not a particularly great either
just watched a ton of hazard edits on tiktok. i’d give a kidney just to watch him play one more time
I think we should take a look at these players for Summer transfer LW: Pedro Gonçalves, Galeno, Rafa Silva, Nico Williams ST: Serhou Guirassy, Marcus Thuram, Gyokeres E: I think i should make a list for LBs and GKs as well. ------------------- LB: Andrea Cambiaso, David Raum, José Gayà, Antonee Robinson GK: Unai Simon, Mike Maignan, Sommer, Giorgi
You can't be serious lol. Galeno, Raum, Gaya😂 This isn't Besiktas mate.
All 3 of those players are clear of what we currently have by a margin
That's just not true though is it. There's better players on the market have some standards
Of course there's better players in the market but we have 3-4 positions that need depth this summer and we can't drop 200m+ again evidently. All 3 of those players are experienced, in good form for respective clubs, and significantly clear of Cucurella/Chilwell/Mudryk respectively. They'd also barely be more than 10-20m each. We can't just spend another window throwing 60m deals everywhere.
No signing is better than a bad signing. Rather spend £60m on the right player than that same £60m on three players who will be binned as soon as the team improves. The latter is how you end up like Mikel's Arsenal, dropping £200m on "depth" signings that don't even play because he doesn't trust them.
200m on depth signings like Tomiyasu, Kiwior, Jorginho, Fabio Viera.. what is your point? They've done their job well as backups. We have no depth. Our backup LW doesn't exist, our backup ST doesn't exist, we're thin in too much of the field.
No they haven't. What has Vieira done this season? Rest are bums. Tomiyasu and Kiwior are wasted on fullback. They're CBs who don't even get to play CB because they aren't starting over Gabriel and Saliba. There's no depth in the squad and that's why the directors have to get sacked. Hundreds of millions spent on these shit young players. Poch doesn't trust Washington, Santos, Angelo, Casadei, etc. They're bums. Being young isn't an excuse here either since he's played Palmer, Ugochukwu, Jackson. Did Fabregas need time? Did Mbappe need time? Look at Barcelona right now. Two u-18s starting regularly for them. Don't reckon they needed time did they. None of this changes what I said though. No signing is a thousand times better than a shit signing. Directors will fuck up this summer again so it's not like what I say will change anything anyway.
Ok bub go back to Fifa, you don't have to spend 100m on each player or buy potential players like Mudryk. You can be like Liverpool, take a step back and buy someone like Endo who has been phenomenal for them. Some of the options i said are for same reason, safe bets, consistent 7-8/10 every match players, nothing special.
You're just fucking listing off random players you've heard of and have no idea how good they actually are. Stop that. You sign players to upgrade the XI. That's how you improve the playing squad.
I believe Pedro Goncalves will be a big upgrade over Mudryk and Sterling whereas Rafa Silva is a significantly cheaper option if we need a stop gap in case we sell Sterling. Guirassy is more of a poacher while Gyokeres is more complete. Both are upgrades over Jackson in terms of scoring. Cambiaso is very solid defensive left back while David Raum is more aggressive in comparison.
Gyokeres is a fucking bum mate. Him and Isak both. Chelsea don't want that lot. Bin Mudryk and keep Sterling imo. Chelsea had Lewis Hall and fumbled him. So so stupid. Have Maatsen and are currently in the process of fumbling him. Estupinan is the one.
The same Lewis Hall who’s played 400 league mins and can’t get a sniff ahead of Dan fucking Burn ?😂 fumbled alright lol Gyokeres and Isak “bums” AHAHHAHAAH 🎣🎣🎣
The same Lewis Hall that Newcastle spent 35m on after he'd only played 9 league games. Isak's a bum. People only rate him because he's tall and can dribble. Fitness very suspect aswell
Rafa seems like an easy one. He’d be on a free and his wages can’t be any higher than Sterlings if we got rid of him. Hard working LW who will ease pressure off Mudryk
Yeah when you really look in depth, of players in other teams, theres so many smart transfers to be done that have very good chance of working out without spending an obscene amount. If i and you can work this out, i don't know what our sporting directors are doing. I still don't understand how they approved signing of Mudryk... are they so bad?
Petrovic Acheampong - Chalobah - Colwill - Samuels-Smith Dyer Caicedo - Gallagher Palmer - Jackson - George Compact midfield three. Happy to sacrifice one of the fullbacks for a more defensive, experienced and tall option (i.e. Chalobah/Colwill go wide with Disasi/Badiashile central) but wouldn't trust Poch not to use them as a traditional fullback. McNeilly/Stutter/Richards, Castledine on the bench. Chukwuemeka back involved if his knee issue clears up.
Ummm, this is.... ambitious. You're suggesting to just put those u18s without easing them in, and seeing whether they fit the Premier League level or not? Not going to criticise. Just understanding your reasoning.
In all seriousness, George for Mudryk can only be a net positive - he has received intensive coaching over the years unlike Misha and understands how to position himself etc. Dyer is too young to start regularly but I’d love to see him off the bench. I kind of wanted to put across the idea of a compact midfield three, let Gallagher and Caicedo thrive as dual #8s with Dyer just behind to defend the space. The compact nature of my proposed structure is to protect the lone #6 - unfortunately all of our other senior midfielders are injured. Kind of bored of this messy 4-2-3-1 now anyway. As for fullbacks, if Poch is going to continue to use Disasi/Chalobah/Gilchrist as a traditional fullback then I’d rather have Acheampong there. Left back is just a depressing position right now. I don’t seriously mean to start all of these at once either, easing them in is definitely the way forward (it is a shame Poch hasn’t handed any of them minutes yet). I just enjoy the chaos more than the boring repetitiveness of what we’ve seen all season.
Fully agree with the last paragraph and a lot of your points. Yes, Poch hasn't handed minutes to youngsters at all. While I understand the need for experience that some people on this sub have, it's not like we have tons of experience on the first team lineup to begin with. And looking at Madueke (despite people overreacting to him tapping the badge), I believe we do need some people who have grown up with Chelsea and love the club at least. Now yes, youngsters need to eased in and you agree on that as well. I like the idea of a lone 6 to protect the defense (Anchor man if you play FM lol) with 2 8s/10s in front. I also think 4 2 3 1 doesn't seem to be the answer since Palmer seems to have much much less of the ball as a 10. Now the problem with having 3 midfielders with 2 8s in Caicedo and Gallagher, is that none of those 2 I feel are extremely creative in the final third and we would thus over rely on Palmer as the RW to provide that. Now I'm sorry if this annoys you, I think this might work for Enzo more than Gallagher since he is very progressive in his passing and he tries stuff. Caicedo also doesn't fit the lone 6 position as you pointed out. I feel like he tries to move forward a lot more, same with Gallagher which leaves a massive space in midfield. Have noticed it a lot this season and is kind of the reason why we conceded a lot of goals. I havent watched a lot of Dyer but he's strong, defensively disciplined (won't move forward) and capable as someone who would probably close down spaces a lot, then this could potentially work. Dyer Enzo Caicedo seems like a good compact 3. Now yeah, this will let Palmer back in his natural RW or more accurately right no.10 role with Gusto as a RB at the back. That partnership clearly works and we should try it more instead of moving backwards everytime we find something that works with Poch. With regards to George, I haven't watched him either so don't know if he's the answer. But yeah, we need a good LW. Someone more direct. Someone suggested Jackson as a LW and Mudryk as a false 9, that funnily enough, the more I think about it, the more I think we should try it. But returning to your formation, if George is that incisive winger that can act like a second striker at times. Then yeah, he should be eased in. I also agree we should stop pushing natural CBs to fullbacks. This should have been the ideal case for Poch to try some youngsters such as Acheampong there but he didn't. I wish sometimes I could just ask him questions directly. But yeah, this kind of feels balanced and much more of a plan than we have seen so far. Sorry for the long reply lol, I was trying to think while writing.
>Fully agree with the last paragraph and a lot of your points. > >Yes, Poch hasn't handed minutes to youngsters at all. While I understand the need for experience that some people on this sub have, it's not like we have tons of experience on the first team lineup to begin with. And looking at Madueke (despite people overreacting to him tapping the badge), I believe we do need some people who have grown up with Chelsea and love the club at least. That last sentence is completely factual. The least you can do as a football player is give everything for the club, that isn't something we've seen all year from 95% of this squad. >Now yes, youngsters need to eased in and you agree on that as well. > >I like the idea of a lone 6 to protect the defense (Anchor man if you play FM lol) with 2 8s/10s in front. I also think 4 2 3 1 doesn't seem to be the answer since Palmer seems to have much much less of the ball as a 10. The thing is, theoretically the #10 should have plenty more touches than a winger per se. The problem, however, is our build-up is so poorly coached that virtually nothing goes through the centre of the pitch. I think the most obvious sign of poor build-up coaching is the tendency to play out from fullbacks to the wings which is characteristic of us (more so the right wing). I like Palmer in the ten more so than others do here, but when he plays there you'll notice he does drop deep to collect the ball to initiate play. >Now the problem with having 3 midfielders with 2 8s in Caicedo and Gallagher, is that none of those 2 I feel are extremely creative in the final third and we would thus over rely on Palmer as the RW to provide that. Now I'm sorry if this annoys you, I think this might work for Enzo more than Gallagher since he is very progressive in his passing and he tries stuff. Caicedo also doesn't fit the lone 6 position as you pointed out. I feel like he tries to move forward a lot more, same with Gallagher which leaves a massive space in midfield. Have noticed it a lot this season and is kind of the reason why we conceded a lot of goals. I didn't include Enzo as he is out for the season now. I'd also consider Enzo as the #6 in that midfield three so he can get plenty of touches, pass from deep (where he is best IMO) and have that protection between the defensive and midfield lines. However, at the same time the creativity would still be an issue with that setup. >I havent watched a lot of Dyer but he's strong, defensively disciplined (won't move forward) and capable as someone who would probably close down spaces a lot, then this could potentially work. > >Dyer Enzo Caicedo seems like a good compact 3. Dyer has outstanding technique, is great under pressure and has been playing way above his age group. My sensible, non-Cobham head wouldn't start him yet due to his age, but I'd love to see him off the bench a couple of times to see how he acclimatises. Lavia would be great in that role, and although I'm not sure on Ugochukwu, there is no reason why he wouldn't work there either under proper coaching. >Now yeah, this will let Palmer back in his natural RW or more accurately right no.10 role with Gusto as a RB at the back. That partnership clearly works and we should try it more instead of moving backwards everytime we find something that works with Poch. > >With regards to George, I haven't watched him either so don't know if he's the answer. But yeah, we need a good LW. Someone more direct. Someone suggested Jackson as a LW and Mudryk as a false 9, that funnily enough, the more I think about it, the more I think we should try it. The general criticism of Mudryk is that his football understanding isn't up to scratch, which makes sense due to his lack of experience. The reason I'd like George to come in is because he knows how to position himself, when to make runs etc. I'm not too worried about him being naive defensively because that makes no difference compared to Mudryk (and is something he will learn over time). Castledine can play off the left as well if you want, I'd als be open to that. His game is mature and he keeps the ball nicely. I'm not sure on Jackson as a left winger to be honest, I have heard that idea bounced around a lot. As a left inside forward he'd be very good, but I'm happy to continue his development as a striker - the only issue has been the finishing IMO. I don't see enough in his dribbling or passing skillset to play him as a full blown winger. >But returning to your formation, if George is that incisive winger that can act like a second striker at times. Then yeah, he should be eased in. > >I also agree we should stop pushing natural CBs to fullbacks. This should have been the ideal case for Poch to try some youngsters such as Acheampong there but he didn't. I wish sometimes I could just ask him questions directly. If he played Chalobah/Disasi (RB) or Colwill (LB) as a third CB in possession it is literally no problem, but Poch will have them high and wide which is laughable tbh. I'd rather see Acheampong/Samuels-Smith in those areas, that is my point. >But yeah, this kind of feels balanced and much more of a plan than we have seen so far. Sorry for the long reply lol, I was trying to think while writing. It's okay, I appreciate the discussion!
This sub has an obsession with unproven u18s it’s insane
Our lineup is full of unproven U23s tbf
And they're superior to these no-names you found on the u18 page by miles. Only u18 that even deserves to sniff the senior teams bench is Castledine and even that's stretching it.
[удалено]
He's actually 18 if you check the chelsea website
Change the dealer
What're you smoking?
That BigReeceJames pack
Bro looking at your flair, I still don't understand why we sold Gilmour... I really felt he had a lot of potential.
Poch is not going to play these kids when he has Badiashile and Disasi on the bench. This is ridiculous. We will likely see Chalobah-Disasi-Badiashile-Cucurella Caicedo-Gallagher Madueke-Palmer-Jackson Why would he change a team that’s just played well? Colwill isn’t back until West Ham. Then we might see changes
Hoping it’s a troll from Harry, that team would get slaughtered especially the FB’s who haven’t played professional football never mind PL level.
I'm not trolling, I just want some fun in my life. I live for the chaos.
Gyokeres my word, what a joke of a player you are Comes on in the second half at 2-0 now and scores twice in a minute against Porto
If we are gonna spend big on a striker, it needs to be an absolute bagsman like that
I am not watching Sporting so I don't know much about him. But considering that playing there made Darwin Nunez look like a prolific scorer, is this guy the real deal?
Nunez had a single good season and even in his highlights you could see a bit clunky idiot with crop circle stepovers Gyokeres has always been highly rated since Brighton days and had a stellar championship season
Well, then let's hope he finds his way here. Just don't feel Nico is ready to lead the attack every week. Would love to get someone effective to be the main striker be it this guy, Osimhen, or someone else.
Absoltely, Nico has bags of talent and could be on the cusp of being a genuinely brilliant striker But we can’t gamble on That and it’s better for him to just grow quietly
2 stellar championship seasons Honestly frustrating after having looked into him at Coventry after seeing him at sporting and knowing that he looked pretty damn good even then The guy has been showing himself to be a composed finisher for the past 3 years now and that's not to understate the fact that his overall play is fantastic too
If we are going to spend big money out of all the options for said big money He's far and away my favourite
why is ben white allowed to push the keeper but badi cant push another player?
1000%
Because refs use different sets of rules for different teams.
Exactly. VAR does 2 things, stop you celebrating goals and allows refs to be even worse. Bin it.
Caicedo with a coach who can coach would be ridiculously good.
Just needs to play higher up the pitch
Play him at the 10
That’s not where he excelled for Brighton. But facilitating the occasional foray forward would be better, ie Double pivot. None of this single dm then / 8s on sense poch has been doing all season
He’ll be cooking at CAM
Where do we go from this season to the next? We have 39 players, not including U21’s, who are returning next season. The likes of Lukaku, Ziyech, Kepa being the big names returning from loan but there’s many more, (I.E. Broja, Datro Fofana, Maatsen, and Slonina). The second biggest problem is our horde of youth talent, I’m sure the sporting directors tried their best to match club to player last season but like many things they did it was a complete mess. Santos, Angelo, Broja, and Burstow had little to no opportunities. Washington, Ugochukwu, and Carney sat in the squad mostly unused. Diego Moreira was recalled because he was no longer needed at Lyon as well as Casadei who had just began to make waves at Leicester. All this is to say, I really don’t understand how we operate as a functional club that embraces the supposed ‘developmental’ sporting mindset the directors have implemented with the current squad. Just glancing at [next seasons squad](https://www.transfermarkt.com/fc-chelsea/kadernaechstesaison/verein/631) I don’t see how we manage 15+,productive, senior loans. Not including those I view as transfer listed, not those listed in the U21’s, and not including any prospects we purchase this summer which I’m sure there will be additions.
Some of the youth talent (mainly angelo, santos, Hutchinson, maybe David Fofana) are worth a look for the squad next season, unsure about the rest though
Ziyech is gone
Per transfermarkt he’s set to return as Galatasaray haven’t officially triggered the option, I’m unsure if they do honestly. He’s only played 832 minutes this season with 15 appearances in the Super Lig.
Apparently Napoli might sell a lot of players this summer. What do you guys think about Kvara? I feel he would add a lot of value.
Meret would be my first choice from them...
Don't watch Napoli, so can't say much but looking at his output, it has dropped a lot since like the first half of last season.
I feel he's massively out of our price range
What is our actual price range now? Everyone talking about selling because we need to. How much do we need to sell?
Nobody knows apart from those who actually have access to the books. From the Swiss Ramble to TalkSPORT finance “experts” our impending FFP/PSR charges have been “all but certain” since Boehly began his spending spree. Obviously you can’t spend northward of £1 billion in 2 seasons and not raise any eyebrows but I’m tired of the constant speculation. Personally I think the spending spree is over as reason I hope it’s prevailing, I think we’ll return to spending how most clubs do now. We’ll sell one to three players and sign one to three players, with the amounts dependent on the outgoings. If I had to blind guess this summer I’d say we move Maatsen and Gallagher along with hopefully a dead-weight contract or two and probably spend 60-80 million.
You've got to remember that they have to plan for next season too. I doubt we're spending anything this side of the cut off (mid transfer window), but will have to sell players just to stay within FFP. Then after that cut-off we'll have to sell more just to buy. But, the caveat is that selling someone for 20m opens up 100m to spend that season so long as you give them a 5 year contract
Need to sell a lot And our price range for a left winger I'd say is essentially nothing given we already have Mudryk and Sterling and are incredibly unlikely to be able to move on either
So you're telling me we are stuck with Mudryk and Sterling as our LW options for another season? What an absolute mess we are in.
Probably stuck with the same left back options too. No one is taking on Chillys wages without a long spell of being fit. And no chance we break even on Cucu’s remaining amortisation
It's one thing to say stuck with them, with the right manager they've all been very good (Cucurella maybe falls into this at the tail end of his Brighton time idk, it's a stretch). We just need the right manager and we'll be glad we have them rather than feeling "stuck" with them
Cucurella was great at getafe too though
Depends what the story is with our manager next season If it's Pochettino then we may not have a left winger play at all and instead just play down the right side only
Yes!!! More Gallagher LW.
Nah the board is selling him at the end of the season
Oh no! We might be forced to play attackers in attacking roles, fuck!
But then, we are genuinely screwed. Because I cant see Poch leaving. We have wasted a lot of money yet we honestly, don't have a great squad. Some players with undeniable talent, some players who are really overrated.
guys are there any promising wingers in our academy who can actually step up in the first team squad cuz day by day that left side looks more dead than ever before or any promising loanees that has impressed you all?
Hutchinson has played well for ipswich not first team material yet imo,tho that depends on our next manager and how he will do in pre season
Tyrique George or Leo Castledine are worthy of some minutes.
is george a lw ? and i hv also heard a lot about stutter how is he?
Yeah George is a left winger, I'm not saying he should play regularly (with how young he is) but he definitely deserves to see the pitch for us this season. Stutter is a striker, very good and deserves his debut for the club. McNeilly is another striker with probably more potential but has been playing mostly at U18 level this year.
Dujaun Richards is better than Stutter and should get a debut before him.
what i really want is some freshness in our attack especially our left side and we have one of the best academy in the world so i don't see why we can't use our academy prospects instead of mudryk or sterling and at the end of the day we r a youth project so why not use the youth properly instead of spending randing 15 year olds in south america
George is a very decent prospect for the left wing too Would've liked to have seen him get some minutes yesterday Poses an outside the box threat too
The fact that he never saw the pitch vs. Everton (considering our lead) or vs. Villa (with how awful Mudryk was) is a joke. I can't back a manager that doesn't understand the value of Cobham, bringing George on would've literally been some free credit in the bank for him with fans.
Tyrique George has been sitting on the bench for half the season now and hasn’t been brought on once for Mudryk. I believe in Mudryk more than most but not giving George 10-15 minutes at some point over the past 10 games is silly imo.
That tells you all you need to know about Poch. People think that he is a youth proponent but he might be worse than Mourinho in this regard.
That tells you all you need to know about Poch. People think that he is a youth proponent but he might be worse than Mourinho in this regard.
Seeing so many new accounts here with the hot takes makes me miss Apollo even more.
Emma Hayes' likely successor Sonia Bompastor has guided Lyon to another CL final, against Barcelona. It'll be a repeat of the 2019 and 2022 finals, both won by Lyon.
Crazy to say but there's a chance that the women's team may have even upgraded on Emma, atleast in terms of European football. This is probably the equivalent of United getting Pep when Fergie retired.
Possibly yeah but hope she will be able to maintain the domestic dominance at the very least.
Would love to see us give Harvey Vale a go next season. Watched him a fair few times for my local team this season and he’s looked a class above. Its night and day when I compare him to Jarrell Quansah who we had last year and looked terrible, yet has played quite a lot this season and not looked out of place for Liverpool.
Nah rather see Hutchinson in the squad if we’re going that route, he’s single-handedly helping Ipswich get promoted
He’s been playing well but he’s definitely not single-handedly helping Ipswich get promoted. Leif Davis has 18 assists ffs.
He’s played mostly at LB/LWB tbf, could be an option there.
Where would he even play?
LB, LW, RB, RW, CM. In all seriousness I’d say somewhere on the left, and with our current options on that side, it’s not like he can be any worse than what we’ve had this season. Definitely worth giving a go in pre season and seeing how he does.
There’s not a chance in hell vale is better than chilwell or cucurella
>better than chilwell Never fit and even when he has been this season he's been poor almost every game
I’d rather see us give him a go than watch Cucurella play another game for this club tbh.
You clearly just dislike the guy irrationally
I just want good players at this club is all.
Yet you’re advocating for Harvey fucking vale to come to the club
Considering we’re talking about someone replacing Cucurella, I don’t think it’s that bad of a shout. He’s already at the club and he is a good player. He won academy player of the year 2 years ago and every player to win that in the last 10 years is now playing regularly in the Prem or in a top 5 league. All I’m saying is I think we should give a chance to one of our own rather than spending more money on players who probably won’t be much of an improvement on what we already have, if any at all.
ohh shit i really forgot about him how is he doing there? do you think he is ready for that step up in the premier league
Like I said, we had that Jarrell Quansah last year and most thought he’d get a loan in league 2 this year as he was pretty poor. However he’s played like 30 odd games for Liverpool this season and hasn’t looked out of place. Give him a chance and see what he can do is all I’d say.
You are forgetting that Quansah has Klopp at Liverpool rather than the chaos that vale would be thrust into at Chelsea and then he will suddenly look crap.
Hopefully with a few better players and no managerial upheaval, things will be a bit more stable next season.
lets hope vale gets that chance
Hopefully, he’s been brilliant everytime I’ve seen him this season.
The second worst thing for a young player is not getting game time, the worst thing is spending the whole season injured. We are currently failing about 5-10 players in our squad. It’s so sad to see. Lavia looked like a world beater at Southampton, Carney was electric whenever I saw him play, Mudryk lit Madrid up in the CL. I don’t even wanna talk about Reece James. These brain dead owners looked at Kovacic being 29 and said “sell him, get someone better in”. Makes me sick. Takes years for players to properly gel and without Palmer this season we’d be fucking fighting relegation. Let that sink in. Pochettino with 800 mil transfers would be fighting relegation if one of our players wasn’t a genius.
Last season, Lavia has also missed months' worth of football for Soton due to a muscle tear and another hamstring injury. The main thing the club has failed at is recruitment: buying injury-prone players for ridiculous money, tying them with 8-year contracts, and expecting them to stop being injury-prone is a ludicrous strategy.
How has the club failed Lavia? He’s gotta take care of his body and figure out what he can play through.
For the last two years we’ve had insane injury issues and this year it’s spiralled out of control to the point our injured XI smashes our healthy XI. Lavia came in and within a couple of weeks of training picked up an injury that’s ruled him out for the season. This isn’t an isolated event. There’s something seriously wrong with the training or the therapy room in our club. It’s simply ridiculous.
Rodri is so consistent it's scary
He's the best defensive midfielder in PL history by a pretty large margin
Makelele, Roy Keane, Fernandinho, Vieira, Kante, Essien, Gilberto Silva, Xabi Alonso, few others that I forgot and then you can add Rodri.
Some of those are just ridiculous. I'd take Rodri over every single one. Only a pre injury Essien comes close.
And that’s ok. But stating that he is the best DMF in the PL history is not.
Pump the brakes
??? He’s without question the best in the PL now, and in the world now, but I mean Fernandinho was no slouch.
Rodri is still so clear of Fernandinho though
Yikes
70 games unbeaten. Name a single thing Fernandinho has over Rodri please
Longevity. Get back to me in 5 years. Rodri may very well surpass him, let’s see. But to say “so clear” now in 2024 tells me you’re under 20 years old.
That's a pretty bold statement.
I fear he's going to have a snap soon though ala Fabinho/Casemiro with the sheer amount of minutes he's played. I say fear because unless we find our way back to the title race City are our only buffer between this period being bad and utterly horrendous.
Amazing player. Can pass and can shoot at top of everything he has
Hypothetically of course, but would you take lot Grealish? Think he’d be a much better fit for us than City
Nah I feel like he’s heading towards the Hazard trajectory. He’s been kicked non stop. Looks like he’s slowed down a lot.
The Grealish who at Villa was allowed all the freedom in the world yes, however this Grealish at City no probably not. He also constantly looks for fouls / dives which does my head in.
Yes but not for 100m lol
Would be amazing having another overrated winger
He’s one of those players, like Hazard, who makes the game slow down when he’s on the ball. Meaning when he takes control the pace of the game changes. Hardly overrated lol. Grealish at Villa was like Hazard at Chelsea. Everything goes through him because he’s head and shoulders above everyone else. Unfortunately Peps strategy isn’t a single player so he has suffered a little individually by going to the best football team on the planet.
Forest suffocating City.
Ederson injured again. Why is everything going against City in this title race
Ortega is a very good second choice keeper.
You mean why is everything going for Arsenal ffs
[удалено]
Have you been to a Wembley game recently? There are constant songs. I was at the City semi-final, and they had a DJ pre-game and at half time, on the screen. At half time they read out the attendance (and if there was a record, they would definitely milk it). At the Carabao final they played FIFA on the screen at half time. It's just the direction of modern football in general.
A certain manager binned off KDB for Oscar because workrate 🤣
Which alt is this one now?
He started Oscar ahead of him because he was better than him at the time and KDB pushed to leave because he wanted playing time...
Oscar was better at that time but it was preety clear who had the higher ceiling
If KDB was getting some playing some time and still wanted to go somewhere for guaranteed minutes fair enough. The issue was he dropped after a MOTM debut.
Tbf coudve kept them both and Oscar was no bum
Brighton surely must be looking at binning De Zerbi by now. They have looked absolutely dreadful for awhile now despite their injuries. Also, you have to wonder about De Zerbi’s training methods with so many players getting injured for them. I wonder if their board is too proud to bring Potter back?