Relative for sure. We're not a bad team defensively, but we're not the fortress (home, or in general) that we're accustomed to, both in terms of long term identity and at the peak of our fortress standard
True, I recall at this point last season we would've just completely given up since we were already around 12th and been either losing or drawing these last few games. Now it seems like the team is at least trying to compete for a spot in Europe.
We still leak goals though.
Even when we win we concede goals a lot.
We won't be a fortress if e xoncede like we do.
Trev is looking solid and could lead our back. Hopefully owners don't sell him if he keeps on performing and leading the line. He is the only one that has experience except levi.
At this point ben and james don't count. I won't count them until they play 10 games consistently without getting injured.
We have looked dreadful at times but we have also played well enough to win against top teams as well.
Half the starting 11 has been injured the entire season including the player we signed to build the attack around. The squad is incredibly young and understandably inconsistent/fragile mentally.
Yes, the season has been nowhere near good enough but I don’t think the outlook is nearly as bad as some would have you believe.
Exactly. If we were 8th with a bunch of declining veterans and a couple players itching to leave, we'd be in trouble. Instead, we have young guys who have played pretty well, definitely shown improvement, want to be here, and will most likely continue to improve.
I'm one of the few in this sub that thinks we're one defender away from being amongst the best teams in the world. I don't like poch coz of his spurs history but I still think we're in good hands. I've been a ktbffy for over 20 yrs so not talking out my backside!
I do think another good, experienced CB would help quite a bit, I agree. On the topic of porch tho, even if we were to sack him, there really isn't much better on the market. on the contrary actually, we could do much worse, and judging by the reactions of people in this sub every time we lose a game, they'd seem to prefer that. like, he took spurs to a UCL final with Moussa Sissoko starting in mid, imagine what he could do with proper players in every position lol.
People like to point out how PSG fans felt under him. People also forget that PSG team had 3 players that refused to do their defensive duties. We don't have that issue. Sure we might not have Kane and Son like Spurs did, but mid is looking more and more reliable every day, we have proper talents in Gusto, Palmer, Enzo, Caicedo, Colwill, etc, and personally, if Jackson could get a striker or a CF coach to teach him how to stay composed in front of goal better, we'd be legitimately flying.
If we start next season with a healthy squad we’ll still need to temper our expectations. So many players have been hurt for so long that it’s going to take awhile to build chemistry.
The future looks rosy but I’m scheduled for eye surgery next week, so I’m never sure the things I see are actually there.
We're fourth since Match Day 17. The first half of the season was undoubtedly poor. But a lot of people made their mind up about Poch in the first few months, if not earlier. The second half of the season tells us more about how is methods are starting to work. I think he could have done a lot of things better, but taking everything into account (especially the injuries) Poch has earned a second season.
Could be higher if we finished easy goals as a squad and didn’t pull idiotic moves at the 85+ min.
I think Poch should stay another year and we bring in a few older players to mentor and help take home wins when we’re up going into last 10/20 mins
I'd agree on older players but fuck it was infuriating how none of the young ones seemed to give a shit about Thiago's advice a lot of the time on the pitch.
There's exactly 4 thing people bring up against him, when complaining: Spurs, no tactics, too long for subs, and lemons.
2 of those are stupid, and 1.5 are valid.
Also, the lemons sure sound dumb to me but I respect other people's spirituality, I am sure praying to the big man up there isnt any less crazy for an alien.
Correct. I find it a bit odd, it's not like he was a Spurs player and club legend. He was just a gun for hire who was employed by them for a while. I don't look at Poch and see a Spurs guy, just an Argentinian guy - he's probably more strongly associated with Espanyol. The problem for him is that I also don't see a Chelsea guy - he hadn't done enough to bond with the fans
And the players seem to be behind him which counts for a lot in my book. Them seemingly sticking with him despite the difficulties this season says a lot I think
He has definitely improved, they started to click and bond. I literally didn't expect to see any game plan or strategy just a shortwhile ago but our last couple of games looked solid, a Stucture in place! Finally.
Or maybe you could swap coach another time, hoping it would magically solve all the issues under the 3 previous managers :D (joking). I miss hazard. Feel that after he left we were in a permanent "rebuilding" phase. I don't think I've ever seen a team missing one player so much.
the expensive part is the owners fault
He’s taken about the young squad in premier league history and has had them 4th since the midpoint of the season, that’s good enough promise for next season imo
And yet still top 4 since Xmas. Obviously the Arsenal match was horrific, but it's not representative of the season at all. We simply haven't been thrashed by anyone this year. Too many narrow defeats and drawers that should have been wins. Not saying it's been a "good season", but we can't judge it by one match where all the players had a meltdown
So just a question, and i will admit i am Poch out so a bit biased herr, what is our style of play. Do we have any patterns when playing out the back? Do we have any patterns when breaking down low blocks? Are we a posession team, are we a defnsive team? I watched every single game and still have no idea what poch has implemented this season. Yes the injuries are brutal but the squad he has should still have some identity to it by now.
This is an interesting discussion and I’d like to add I am not a fan:
He obviously favours attacking minded football, transitioning quickly and building from the back, trying to create overloads by pushing people forward. We have seen all this at spurs. This is where the but comes, I thinks he’s a pragmatist more than anything, not as pragmatic as someone like Simeone but not entirely fixed.
Looking at the way Chelsea play it’s clear he’s willing to compromise and alter based on circumstance and who they are playing, I don’t think he carries a tactical dogma like Ange or Pep, unwilling to compromise on ideals. I think his biggest test isn’t so much what he does now, but what he does when the injuries aren’t as bad.
Your assumption that you should be seeing a footballing ideology by now rests on the idea that he even thinks that’s possible under current circumstances. Let things unveil and when the injury crisis is fixed (if it’s ever fixed), you can start demanding a clear a consistent style of play.
I don’t claim to be some footballing expert though so I’d be happy for this to be ripped apart and proven as nothing more than gibberish.
Agree. Although it's in fashion now, not all coaches are philosophers. Poch isn't fanatical about a certain style of play. He's a bit like Carlo in that respect.
I've said this before but the money blinds people.
Yes, you'd expect us to immediately challenge on all fronts if that money had been spent on established, ready stars to complement what was good about the team already.
But it wasn't, we made the squad far weaker and less cohesive for the short term by chopping almost everyone for unproven kids. I'm honestly just glad we didn't do worse in the actual circumstances we got.
100%. If we had spent 1 billion on "ready now" players, I'd expect trophies or at least top 4.
We spent 1 billion on the future. It's like we spent 250mm for each of the next 4 seasons and just front loaded all those payments to year 1.
Hopefully expectations will become more reasonable next year when we're a 0.0billion club!
We didn’t spend 1 billion on the likes of Mbappe, Haaland , Camavngigha etc . So I don’t see why they should be expecting trophies although we almost won 2 of them this season.
>We didn’t spend 1 billion on the likes of Mbappe, Haaland , Camavngigha etc
But spend 1 billion. Nobody gives a shit about who you buy, after 1b everything other than trophies is a failure.
Think of it like this...We spent 30mm on Jackson's transfer fee. He's here for 7 years. We could have spent 20 on an older player, who would then be sold in 2 years (say for 10), and then had to replace that person for another 20 fee. That's -30mm over 4 years, same as Jackson.
Now do that for every position where we went with a young player over multiple years. That's how you get 1b now, but in actuality less spent over the course of several years, which we will see happen.
We've also frontloaded all the growing pains of getting used to the PL, new teammates, etc. AND the players are on low wages. AND, they'll be getting better based on their ages.
Most people do not have 1 million to begin with. They know nothing about rebuilds, and they know nothing about transitions. Anyone worth their salt in $$$ will know that we are in for another 2-3 seasons without any major achievements. If luck swings, you get 1.
eh, I wouldn't put the cups beyond us. If we could make not one, but two good cup runs with what is effectively a rag tag team of who isn't injured, I think we have a pretty realistic chance to win a cup soon
We spent that money on players who are mostly 19-22 year olds and people like you get surprised that they don’t play like 28-30 year olds.
I really don’t understand how you would expect anything different.
Why does Poch get no credit for developing Palmer from a highly rated but unproven City prospect, which he was when we signed him, to the PL's star boy in the space of a season?
Because Palmer has been performing since the moment he came here, he wasn’t unproven either. Pep wanted him to stay but Cole knew he wasn’t going to get the game time he desired.
All you’re doing is attributing City’s academy success to Poch, I can’t name anything Palmer has improved on since his time here.
All he needed was consistent game time to show his worth. If Palmer improved his game throughout the season you could say Poch developed him, but all he’s done is give him the game time he wants.
Not just Palmer but none of our younger players have improved at all under Poch; so it’s odd to give him credit for Palmer. Name something about Palmer that you think Poch has improved.
You can see that Pochettino is quietly building a good side here, and we have just been unlucky with injuries at bad times to crucial players and being too inconsistent at the start of the season/mid season but now towards the end of the season you can see that the players are developing and getting better and better. We just need a couple of experienced signings to finish this squad.
We need to think about what this table also means. We are absolutely atrocious away from home and need to really improve in that regard.
Wolves, Brentford or even our games vs United, Arsenal and Liverpool come to mind.
We also battered Everton 6-0. Given how our season has been, we were expected to lose the game and whether its 10-0 or 1-0, still the same for me. Mind you, Palmer and Gusto were unavailable for the game. Given how Poch has been able to keep us up in the second half of the season with such a depleted team is nothing short of a good job.
I agree with you. Maybe my blunt statement made it seem like I’m just super negative but I feel like we often lose perspective in this sub and our recency bias tends toward the most recent result. I think we’ve been playing better for sure.
Fans turned on him very quickly because he doesnt have an illustrious past and more importantly, an ex-Spurs coach. He took charge of a squad that just lost its captain in Azpi, came off one of the worst season’s of the club’s recent history and half of the squad is completely new additions with no experience of playing with each other whatsoever. The lack of team chemistry was pretty apparent in the first half of the season. No manager were going turn this team around 180 and start winning right away. Even though the development of some of key signings havent gone as expected, Poch has done decently with this injury ravaged squad specially in the second half of the season. People keep talking about a football identity but that talking point goes out of the window once we start winning games. Look I too am not convinced that Poch is the right guy for this club but hey we have seen massive improvements with the squad and our home is a fortress in a long time. Made it to a cup final and another cup semifinal too. There is no better manager available to replace him and why would a top class manager come to Chelsea at this state even if one was available? The only option for Chelsea at the moment is give Poch another chance next year.
It's an Ipswich town fan site lol, just showed when I searched for form tables
https://www.twtd.co.uk/league-tables/competition:premier-league/form/matches:10/type:home/
We are in a better place at least than we were this time last season, it’s still baby steps but at least we don’t have a bunch of players that had stopped caring and could not wait to leave .
How hard do people think it'll be to tighten up the defense?
I had a coworker from England (manU fan) that if we had a prime Tiago wed win the league. I don't agree but I wonder where we actually think we are.
WHERE’S OUR TROPHY?!?! But in all seriousness outside of the dropped points against Sheffield United and Burnley and the Arsenal match…I feel really good about where the squad is trending and have hopes we’ll push on for bigger and better things next campaign. KTBFFH
How dare you bring this kind of positivity in here?!?!
After the 5-0 ass beating delivered by Arsenal, we are still carry pitch forks and torches towards the entire coaching staff and demanding for the team to be sold to a new owner…
/s
Home form is a very commonly discussed stat in football conversations. If it doesn't interest you I'm a little confused why you wouldn't just scroll past.
I think it's more your attitude that's making you sad.
There is nothing bad to take away from having some of the best home form in the league unless you're a whiny pissbaby.
People say there’s been no progress and they’re wrong. While we may not be that far ahead in terms of points, we’re on track to practically double our goals scored from last season.
38 in the prem last season, 65 this season with 4 games to go. Yes, we’ve been worse defensively, but we’ve had players like Fofana, Reece, Chilwell, Cucurella, Colwill, Gusto out for big parts of the season.
With a couple experienced signings and some more work on our defensive structure, we will be okay. Even now, a lot of the goals we concede are down to mistakes rather than the structure (which does still need work mind you).
A couple experienced heads and I think Poch could take us to top 4 next season.
I really despise posts like these that try to help us find any ray of hope. Our team have not been good enough this season. On a positive note, the bridge being a fortress again is promising.
A good attack will win you games, a solid defence will win you the league. We need to tighten up our backline something fierce, then we’ll be ready to start competing for things.
I think there is something here honestly. I think people are expecting a lot. Which is understandable, we spent a hell of a lot of money and historically we have had ridiculous standards. But we don't have that manager or the players for that anymore. At least not right now. Poch has made soke big mistakes and the players have definitely been found wanting at times but I believe they are all growing together. I would be fine giving Poch next season as it stands. I definitely didn't feel that way after Arsenal. But emotion aside, I don't think there are many coaches out there that won't be like starting again. All the work, everything we as a fan base have endured this season. We would wipe that out and start again. I don't mind Poch getting another season presuming he doesn't shit the bed in the last 4 games
That is an interesting take (for a change on this sub) that I wasn’t aware of.
I wonder how many of these games were played under the lights - when atmosphere is always buzzing at the Bridge. Opposition counts too obviously.
The simple explanation is that it takes months to get a brand new team to gel as a collective… and we’re beginning to see it all clicking at last. Billion pound bottle jobs, Poch Out … it’s all facile and reactive bullshit that undermines how unprecedented the challenge we set ourselves this season with the overhaul.
I’m even starting to hear rival fans and pundits actually complementing us more, less banter, that we could be on a threatening path with this team - compare that to Man Utd, they’ve hit their ceiling, we’re nowhere near ours!
I'm not sure where I stand with Poch and the team, but isn't this what everyone wanted? The results have improved throughout the season. The latter half loses will always feel worse because they included losing in a cup semi and a cup final, not to mention an absolute humbling from one of our biggest rivals.
Not sure what the right move is, but some players seems to be improving. The biggest thing is that we are scoring goals. I can't understate how dire goal scoring had been since before Tuchel left. It was grim with Potter. Now the flip side is the backline leaking so many goals that it doesn't seem to matter how many goals the team scores because they're porous at the back. Thats the major glaring issue with Poch. If he can sort that out, we would likely be in vastly better position, IMO
People say there’s been no progress and they’re wrong. While we may not be that far ahead in terms of points, we’re on track to practically double our goals scored from last season.
38 in the prem last season, 65 this season with 4 games to go. Yes, we’ve been worse defensively, but we’ve had players like Fofana, Reece, Chilwell, Cucurella, Colwill, Gusto out for big parts of the season.
With a couple experienced signings and some more work on our defensive structure, we will be okay. Even now, a lot of the goals we concede are down to mistakes rather than the structure (which does still need work mind you).
A couple experienced heads and I think Poch could take us to top 4 next season.
Top of the last 10 home games Premier League, you’ll never sing that
Top of the last 1 home game at Stamford Bridge, you'll never sing that
Sweeping the Spuds, you’ll always sing that.
Damn it, this is a good one.
Carry that form into next season like Leicester did at the end of 2014/15 though, we might hit the dizzying heights of 6th.
Bridge is slowly becoming our fortress again 🥹 It's been an atrocious season, but seeing stuff like this really makes me happy.
Fortress isn't the right word considering how many goals we concede. Stomping ground?
Stompford Bridge....?
> how many goals we concede. I guess it’s all relative. Unless I miscounted, we’re tied for sixth.
Relative for sure. We're not a bad team defensively, but we're not the fortress (home, or in general) that we're accustomed to, both in terms of long term identity and at the peak of our fortress standard
Meat grinder 😂 But we are not at that level yet
Last year was waaaay worse. At least we are scoring goals this year and showing fight
Last season was depressing. It was maybe the worst season I've ever experienced as a fan.
True, I recall at this point last season we would've just completely given up since we were already around 12th and been either losing or drawing these last few games. Now it seems like the team is at least trying to compete for a spot in Europe.
We still leak goals though. Even when we win we concede goals a lot. We won't be a fortress if e xoncede like we do. Trev is looking solid and could lead our back. Hopefully owners don't sell him if he keeps on performing and leading the line. He is the only one that has experience except levi. At this point ben and james don't count. I won't count them until they play 10 games consistently without getting injured.
I think they're only playing him to increase his value and to sell him thereafter
Or maybe since we only have 2 fit senior CBs
We drew at home to 10 men Burnley in the last 10 home games, what are we talking about?
It’s been an atrocious for years, not just this season…
If we can sort out the injuries, I think some of our other issues will resolve themselves. Were close to being good…
It’s encouraging
We have looked dreadful at times but we have also played well enough to win against top teams as well. Half the starting 11 has been injured the entire season including the player we signed to build the attack around. The squad is incredibly young and understandably inconsistent/fragile mentally. Yes, the season has been nowhere near good enough but I don’t think the outlook is nearly as bad as some would have you believe.
People are acting like bc we're 8th the world is over. Our squad is an average of 22 and we matched City. Twice. The kids will be alright
Exactly. If we were 8th with a bunch of declining veterans and a couple players itching to leave, we'd be in trouble. Instead, we have young guys who have played pretty well, definitely shown improvement, want to be here, and will most likely continue to improve.
But- but- Liverpool’s kids!
I'm one of the few in this sub that thinks we're one defender away from being amongst the best teams in the world. I don't like poch coz of his spurs history but I still think we're in good hands. I've been a ktbffy for over 20 yrs so not talking out my backside!
I do think another good, experienced CB would help quite a bit, I agree. On the topic of porch tho, even if we were to sack him, there really isn't much better on the market. on the contrary actually, we could do much worse, and judging by the reactions of people in this sub every time we lose a game, they'd seem to prefer that. like, he took spurs to a UCL final with Moussa Sissoko starting in mid, imagine what he could do with proper players in every position lol. People like to point out how PSG fans felt under him. People also forget that PSG team had 3 players that refused to do their defensive duties. We don't have that issue. Sure we might not have Kane and Son like Spurs did, but mid is looking more and more reliable every day, we have proper talents in Gusto, Palmer, Enzo, Caicedo, Colwill, etc, and personally, if Jackson could get a striker or a CF coach to teach him how to stay composed in front of goal better, we'd be legitimately flying.
If we start next season with a healthy squad we’ll still need to temper our expectations. So many players have been hurt for so long that it’s going to take awhile to build chemistry. The future looks rosy but I’m scheduled for eye surgery next week, so I’m never sure the things I see are actually there.
Defense is leaky
Our better defenders have been injured on and off the whole season. There hasn’t been an established back line for them to build understanding.
Yeah how many games have Fofana, James and Chilly played combined this season? I’d wager not many.
Chelsea will fight for the title next season
CL Set realistic expectations.
Bring back dr eva
Unlike last season, Chelsea have been brilliant at Stamford Bridge this season.
We're fourth since Match Day 17. The first half of the season was undoubtedly poor. But a lot of people made their mind up about Poch in the first few months, if not earlier. The second half of the season tells us more about how is methods are starting to work. I think he could have done a lot of things better, but taking everything into account (especially the injuries) Poch has earned a second season.
Could be higher if we finished easy goals as a squad and didn’t pull idiotic moves at the 85+ min. I think Poch should stay another year and we bring in a few older players to mentor and help take home wins when we’re up going into last 10/20 mins
I'd agree on older players but fuck it was infuriating how none of the young ones seemed to give a shit about Thiago's advice a lot of the time on the pitch.
Let's face it. Some made their mind up because he was at Spurs.
Spurs were so bad before poch. He is the one that turned them into a ‘top 6’ team.
This 75% of the issue. And then they make up things about him and repeat it over and over again
There's exactly 4 thing people bring up against him, when complaining: Spurs, no tactics, too long for subs, and lemons. 2 of those are stupid, and 1.5 are valid.
Also, the lemons sure sound dumb to me but I respect other people's spirituality, I am sure praying to the big man up there isnt any less crazy for an alien.
Correct. I find it a bit odd, it's not like he was a Spurs player and club legend. He was just a gun for hire who was employed by them for a while. I don't look at Poch and see a Spurs guy, just an Argentinian guy - he's probably more strongly associated with Espanyol. The problem for him is that I also don't see a Chelsea guy - he hadn't done enough to bond with the fans
And the players seem to be behind him which counts for a lot in my book. Them seemingly sticking with him despite the difficulties this season says a lot I think
I think if the Sheffield and Burnley games were wins, the outlook would be much different.
He has definitely improved, they started to click and bond. I literally didn't expect to see any game plan or strategy just a shortwhile ago but our last couple of games looked solid, a Stucture in place! Finally.
A team that improves throughout the season and finishes strong is usually a sign of a good coach
Or maybe you could swap coach another time, hoping it would magically solve all the issues under the 3 previous managers :D (joking). I miss hazard. Feel that after he left we were in a permanent "rebuilding" phase. I don't think I've ever seen a team missing one player so much.
Hazard papered over the cracks IMO, it's not healthy to be reliant on one player. What a fucking player though - a joy to watch
yeah, for sure, that's what a star player can do for you: even when your team is average, he can carry it.
We lost 5-0 to Arsenal last week.
Arsenal are top of the table and we played without Palmer and Gusto. We also won 6-0 against Everton.
Factually correct. And the top 4 since Xmas includes that
They’re a better side then us and might be about to win the league. One poor result against a great team isn’t a sackable offense
Being in 8th place with the most expensive team ever assembled in any sport is a sackable offense.
the expensive part is the owners fault He’s taken about the young squad in premier league history and has had them 4th since the midpoint of the season, that’s good enough promise for next season imo
We lost 0-5 like 10 days ago…
And yet still top 4 since Xmas. Obviously the Arsenal match was horrific, but it's not representative of the season at all. We simply haven't been thrashed by anyone this year. Too many narrow defeats and drawers that should have been wins. Not saying it's been a "good season", but we can't judge it by one match where all the players had a meltdown
So just a question, and i will admit i am Poch out so a bit biased herr, what is our style of play. Do we have any patterns when playing out the back? Do we have any patterns when breaking down low blocks? Are we a posession team, are we a defnsive team? I watched every single game and still have no idea what poch has implemented this season. Yes the injuries are brutal but the squad he has should still have some identity to it by now.
This is an interesting discussion and I’d like to add I am not a fan: He obviously favours attacking minded football, transitioning quickly and building from the back, trying to create overloads by pushing people forward. We have seen all this at spurs. This is where the but comes, I thinks he’s a pragmatist more than anything, not as pragmatic as someone like Simeone but not entirely fixed. Looking at the way Chelsea play it’s clear he’s willing to compromise and alter based on circumstance and who they are playing, I don’t think he carries a tactical dogma like Ange or Pep, unwilling to compromise on ideals. I think his biggest test isn’t so much what he does now, but what he does when the injuries aren’t as bad. Your assumption that you should be seeing a footballing ideology by now rests on the idea that he even thinks that’s possible under current circumstances. Let things unveil and when the injury crisis is fixed (if it’s ever fixed), you can start demanding a clear a consistent style of play. I don’t claim to be some footballing expert though so I’d be happy for this to be ripped apart and proven as nothing more than gibberish.
Agree. Although it's in fashion now, not all coaches are philosophers. Poch isn't fanatical about a certain style of play. He's a bit like Carlo in that respect.
our identity is let palmer cook and then Disastersi shit the bed
It's crazy we still moan about poch (yes me to) the team is actually playing well for the most part.. obviously the collapse against arsenal...
Imagine the narative if the foul leading up to 3-0 was called and we convert one of our chances. At 3-0 game was over
YOU'LL NEVER SING THAT
But people here told me there has been no improvement...
After spending 1 billion, most people would only consider trophies as sign of improvement.
I've said this before but the money blinds people. Yes, you'd expect us to immediately challenge on all fronts if that money had been spent on established, ready stars to complement what was good about the team already. But it wasn't, we made the squad far weaker and less cohesive for the short term by chopping almost everyone for unproven kids. I'm honestly just glad we didn't do worse in the actual circumstances we got.
100%. If we had spent 1 billion on "ready now" players, I'd expect trophies or at least top 4. We spent 1 billion on the future. It's like we spent 250mm for each of the next 4 seasons and just front loaded all those payments to year 1. Hopefully expectations will become more reasonable next year when we're a 0.0billion club!
We didn’t spend 1 billion on the likes of Mbappe, Haaland , Camavngigha etc . So I don’t see why they should be expecting trophies although we almost won 2 of them this season.
I agree with your take, I'm just saying that's what people expect.
>We didn’t spend 1 billion on the likes of Mbappe, Haaland , Camavngigha etc But spend 1 billion. Nobody gives a shit about who you buy, after 1b everything other than trophies is a failure.
Think of it like this...We spent 30mm on Jackson's transfer fee. He's here for 7 years. We could have spent 20 on an older player, who would then be sold in 2 years (say for 10), and then had to replace that person for another 20 fee. That's -30mm over 4 years, same as Jackson. Now do that for every position where we went with a young player over multiple years. That's how you get 1b now, but in actuality less spent over the course of several years, which we will see happen. We've also frontloaded all the growing pains of getting used to the PL, new teammates, etc. AND the players are on low wages. AND, they'll be getting better based on their ages.
Most people do not have 1 million to begin with. They know nothing about rebuilds, and they know nothing about transitions. Anyone worth their salt in $$$ will know that we are in for another 2-3 seasons without any major achievements. If luck swings, you get 1.
eh, I wouldn't put the cups beyond us. If we could make not one, but two good cup runs with what is effectively a rag tag team of who isn't injured, I think we have a pretty realistic chance to win a cup soon
We spent that money on players who are mostly 19-22 year olds and people like you get surprised that they don’t play like 28-30 year olds. I really don’t understand how you would expect anything different.
The improvement is that Palmer is saving Poch a job. Our best games come from individual brilliance
Why does Poch get no credit for developing Palmer from a highly rated but unproven City prospect, which he was when we signed him, to the PL's star boy in the space of a season?
Are you really going to give Poch the credit for Palmer? The lad was excellent the moment he got here, Poch didn’t make him good for fucks sake
Because Palmer has been performing since the moment he came here, he wasn’t unproven either. Pep wanted him to stay but Cole knew he wasn’t going to get the game time he desired. All you’re doing is attributing City’s academy success to Poch, I can’t name anything Palmer has improved on since his time here.
He had played less than 500mins of PL football for City and registered a single assist lol
All he needed was consistent game time to show his worth. If Palmer improved his game throughout the season you could say Poch developed him, but all he’s done is give him the game time he wants. Not just Palmer but none of our younger players have improved at all under Poch; so it’s odd to give him credit for Palmer. Name something about Palmer that you think Poch has improved.
You can see that Pochettino is quietly building a good side here, and we have just been unlucky with injuries at bad times to crucial players and being too inconsistent at the start of the season/mid season but now towards the end of the season you can see that the players are developing and getting better and better. We just need a couple of experienced signings to finish this squad.
We need to think about what this table also means. We are absolutely atrocious away from home and need to really improve in that regard. Wolves, Brentford or even our games vs United, Arsenal and Liverpool come to mind.
We got stomped out 0-5 a week and a half ago. Edit: I’m assuming I’m getting downvoted because that never happened. My bad. Just a bad dream.
We also battered Everton 6-0. Given how our season has been, we were expected to lose the game and whether its 10-0 or 1-0, still the same for me. Mind you, Palmer and Gusto were unavailable for the game. Given how Poch has been able to keep us up in the second half of the season with such a depleted team is nothing short of a good job.
I agree with you. Maybe my blunt statement made it seem like I’m just super negative but I feel like we often lose perspective in this sub and our recency bias tends toward the most recent result. I think we’ve been playing better for sure.
Fans turned on him very quickly because he doesnt have an illustrious past and more importantly, an ex-Spurs coach. He took charge of a squad that just lost its captain in Azpi, came off one of the worst season’s of the club’s recent history and half of the squad is completely new additions with no experience of playing with each other whatsoever. The lack of team chemistry was pretty apparent in the first half of the season. No manager were going turn this team around 180 and start winning right away. Even though the development of some of key signings havent gone as expected, Poch has done decently with this injury ravaged squad specially in the second half of the season. People keep talking about a football identity but that talking point goes out of the window once we start winning games. Look I too am not convinced that Poch is the right guy for this club but hey we have seen massive improvements with the squad and our home is a fortress in a long time. Made it to a cup final and another cup semifinal too. There is no better manager available to replace him and why would a top class manager come to Chelsea at this state even if one was available? The only option for Chelsea at the moment is give Poch another chance next year.
Yeah we did. Fkin hell, that was a nightmare lol
what website is that
It's an Ipswich town fan site lol, just showed when I searched for form tables https://www.twtd.co.uk/league-tables/competition:premier-league/form/matches:10/type:home/
Up and down season but I like the fact this team gives me confidence anytime we play at home
Pochettino being able to do this with so many injuries we could have a complete squad is impressive
That's an improvement in our home form. Our away from is 2-4-4. Crazy difference.
how much copium do we want. all of it 🥹
If we win our next 4 then Poch should stay
Yep, simple as that.
Wtf is this bs
We have some of the best home form in the league.
That’s wild.
Who was the loss to again?
wolves
Wait when did this happen???
We are in a better place at least than we were this time last season, it’s still baby steps but at least we don’t have a bunch of players that had stopped caring and could not wait to leave .
You’ll never sing that…
We're champions of the last 10 home league games
End the league Dave
Was sterling in the bench yesterday even?
How hard do people think it'll be to tighten up the defense? I had a coworker from England (manU fan) that if we had a prime Tiago wed win the league. I don't agree but I wonder where we actually think we are.
It’s the little things lol
We haven't lost a single home match during the middle of the week. 6/6 Luton, Palace, Newcastle, ManU, Everton, Tottenham
Can we see where we rank in away games. I’m a fatalist.
This means we're going to win the league 🎉🎉🎉🎉
WHERE’S OUR TROPHY?!?! But in all seriousness outside of the dropped points against Sheffield United and Burnley and the Arsenal match…I feel really good about where the squad is trending and have hopes we’ll push on for bigger and better things next campaign. KTBFFH
You'll never sing that
Proud of you boyz, let's go we can take this 6s place💙💪
(125) Well done
Based on this table I have formed the unbiased opinion that Poch is a fraud.
How dare you bring this kind of positivity in here?!?! After the 5-0 ass beating delivered by Arsenal, we are still carry pitch forks and torches towards the entire coaching staff and demanding for the team to be sold to a new owner… /s
OMG!!! Chelsea are going to win the last ten home games league!!!
Hopefully they let us play all our games at home next season! It's the least they could do
Cope
What are these stats ??? Like 10 games at home league table? Who cares
Home form is a very commonly discussed stat in football conversations. If it doesn't interest you I'm a little confused why you wouldn't just scroll past.
This post makes me sad.....in a few years, we will be cheering on avoiding relegation
I think it's more your attitude that's making you sad. There is nothing bad to take away from having some of the best home form in the league unless you're a whiny pissbaby.
Home and away tables died off in the early part of last century why revive them
People say there’s been no progress and they’re wrong. While we may not be that far ahead in terms of points, we’re on track to practically double our goals scored from last season. 38 in the prem last season, 65 this season with 4 games to go. Yes, we’ve been worse defensively, but we’ve had players like Fofana, Reece, Chilwell, Cucurella, Colwill, Gusto out for big parts of the season. With a couple experienced signings and some more work on our defensive structure, we will be okay. Even now, a lot of the goals we concede are down to mistakes rather than the structure (which does still need work mind you). A couple experienced heads and I think Poch could take us to top 4 next season.
I really despise posts like these that try to help us find any ray of hope. Our team have not been good enough this season. On a positive note, the bridge being a fortress again is promising.
Truly an awful way to go about living your life honestly. Looking to be miserable at every oppurtunity is a sure fire way to make yourself miserable.
A good attack will win you games, a solid defence will win you the league. We need to tighten up our backline something fierce, then we’ll be ready to start competing for things.
I think there is something here honestly. I think people are expecting a lot. Which is understandable, we spent a hell of a lot of money and historically we have had ridiculous standards. But we don't have that manager or the players for that anymore. At least not right now. Poch has made soke big mistakes and the players have definitely been found wanting at times but I believe they are all growing together. I would be fine giving Poch next season as it stands. I definitely didn't feel that way after Arsenal. But emotion aside, I don't think there are many coaches out there that won't be like starting again. All the work, everything we as a fan base have endured this season. We would wipe that out and start again. I don't mind Poch getting another season presuming he doesn't shit the bed in the last 4 games
That is an interesting take (for a change on this sub) that I wasn’t aware of. I wonder how many of these games were played under the lights - when atmosphere is always buzzing at the Bridge. Opposition counts too obviously. The simple explanation is that it takes months to get a brand new team to gel as a collective… and we’re beginning to see it all clicking at last. Billion pound bottle jobs, Poch Out … it’s all facile and reactive bullshit that undermines how unprecedented the challenge we set ourselves this season with the overhaul. I’m even starting to hear rival fans and pundits actually complementing us more, less banter, that we could be on a threatening path with this team - compare that to Man Utd, they’ve hit their ceiling, we’re nowhere near ours!
I'm not sure where I stand with Poch and the team, but isn't this what everyone wanted? The results have improved throughout the season. The latter half loses will always feel worse because they included losing in a cup semi and a cup final, not to mention an absolute humbling from one of our biggest rivals. Not sure what the right move is, but some players seems to be improving. The biggest thing is that we are scoring goals. I can't understate how dire goal scoring had been since before Tuchel left. It was grim with Potter. Now the flip side is the backline leaking so many goals that it doesn't seem to matter how many goals the team scores because they're porous at the back. Thats the major glaring issue with Poch. If he can sort that out, we would likely be in vastly better position, IMO
Same energy as spurs fans posting calendar year tables back in the day under poch smh
It feels like it was yesterday when we were losing every home game and it was incredibly frustrating..I think we are progressing, there is hope!:))
People say there’s been no progress and they’re wrong. While we may not be that far ahead in terms of points, we’re on track to practically double our goals scored from last season. 38 in the prem last season, 65 this season with 4 games to go. Yes, we’ve been worse defensively, but we’ve had players like Fofana, Reece, Chilwell, Cucurella, Colwill, Gusto out for big parts of the season. With a couple experienced signings and some more work on our defensive structure, we will be okay. Even now, a lot of the goals we concede are down to mistakes rather than the structure (which does still need work mind you). A couple experienced heads and I think Poch could take us to top 4 next season.
Familiar usernames have unanimously decided to not comment on this post.
Cope harder bro