Chelsea Discussion

[Cicero]

3 minutes ago, True Blue said:

Even with the formation?

Yeah. Hide our fullbacks weakness 

[True Blue]

3 minutes ago, Cicero said:

Yeah. Hide our fullbacks weakness 

Without Rudiger not so comfortable with Zouma in a back three. I really rate him and i know he is a decent defender but he is not in good form.

[Cicero]

2 minutes ago, True Blue said:

Without Rudiger not so comfortable with Zouma in a back three. I really rate him and i know he is a decent defender but he is not in good form.

 Valencia are awful so I’m tempted for a weaker lineup. 

[True Blue]

1 minute ago, Cicero said:

 Valencia are awful so I’m tempted for a weaker lineup. 

True and our next four games all home 

Valencia, Liverpool, Grimsby and Brighton. All winnable with Liverpool probably being very tricky, could use these games to heavily rotate and put ourselves in a good position in very competition.

[6666]

 

[True Blue]

Everyone knows I was never his biggest fan, but his words were taken out of context. Basically he means that Real Madrid fans are cry babies who can't accept that a team can lose. Also English fans are by the far the most loyal at least the real one's.

[Cicero]

He’s got his dream move 

[CaaC (John)+]

Chelsea have opened talks with forward Tammy Abraham and defender Fikayo Tomori to give the English 21-year-olds new five-year contracts. (Guardian)

[True Blue]

Both deserve it, i was surprised with Tomori who looks excellent. Maybe the best so far from the current CB disposal. 

Also the 3-4-3 brought back flashbacks from Conte, wing backs forcing crosses with no bodies to hit. I think we are best suited for 4-2-3-1 with the players we have. I wonder which formation will Lampard chose for Liverpool, think he will go for a deep 433.

[Vegan Kel]

I reckon Chelsea are in a decent place right now. Four or five decent youngsters floating around the first team, a manager who knows the club inside out, a transfer ban to stop Abramovich spunking money on journeymen to block the paths of young players into the first team. I'd be pretty made up if I was a Chelsea fan right now. 

They're probably going to be fighting for fourth with United, Arsenal and maybe Spurs if they have a below par season but long term things are looking rosy I'd say

[True Blue]

I can't wait to see a fully fit team, probably won't be until late December when Ruben returns. We were rarely in injury crises like this one as we always have a few first team players out. Lampard said that Odoi could get minutes against Grimsby, probably Reece too. Meaning they could be in contention for future games. Unpopular opinion Willian should be dropped for good, i'd rather play Odoi and Pulisic as they have time to grow rather to see a 31 year old doing nothing.

[Cicero]

Willian offering more than Pulisic at the moment. I think Lampard is being careful with the latter. 

Tomori and Rudiger need a stretch of games together: 

[carefreeluke]

Easy with hindsight but I did think it was a bit risky risking Emerson and Mount on Sunday, the former coming off injured. You could make a case that Rudiger came back a little too soon as well. Of course, we don't speak to the players on a daily basis and we don't know the medical team's view as well but it's maybe worth mentioning that Lampard should manage the players' returns a little better.

I think Willian has done well the past two games and is justifying a starting position at the moment. He looks hungrier than usual. 

[Cicero]

For me, Willians been the least shit vs he’s playing well. 

[True Blue]

I just want him gone, felt he was okay for us during his time but never really a key player. Had games where he was Messi and had games where he was Ben Sahar. 

On the injuries part, don't think Lampard could have forced a player to play. Rudiger played twice for the development team 90+ minutes without a problem. Came back and got injured again. Emerson's injury wasn't that bad and he wasn't rushed but again injured. It is either the medical team or the player that felt fit enough.

Injury crisis wise we are Arsenal.

Odoi returned for the development team, scored too. Think he and Reece will both have minutes against Grimsby.

[Cicero]

Emerson our for a month. Fantastic. 

Least October’s fixtures don’t look too bad. 

[Cicero]

With Emerson out, we should try the 5 at the back with James and Alonso as the wing backs. Centre backs Dave, Rudiger, and Tomori. 

That’ll do pig. 

Edited September 25, 2019 by Cicero

[True Blue]

The 3-5-3 is shaky as tits. We force balls on wing backs who can't cross to save their lives. The fixtures aren't too bad so Alonso - Tomori - Rudiger - James/Azpi can handle this.

Edited September 25, 2019 by True Blue

[Dr. Gonzo]

49 minutes ago, True Blue said:

The 3-5-3 is shaky as tits. We force balls on wing backs who can't cross to save their lives. The fixtures aren't too bad so Alonso - Tomori - Rudiger - James/Azpi can handle this.

Isn’t Alonso pretty decent at crossing? I thought he was good going forward, just wank at defending 

[Cicero]

9 minutes ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

Isn’t Alonso pretty decent at crossing? I thought he was good going forward, just wank at defending 

Yeah. Issue is he doesn’t have the pace to beat the man to deliver them. 

Dave is just poor. 

James remains to be seen. Don’t want to hype the lad too much. 

[Lucas]

Personally, I'm really pleased Tammy Abraham is starting to fire.

I remember last year on here where I kept reinforcing the point in Chelsea threads that he should be given a chance than that overweight waste of space Higuain and an inconsistent Giroud, and so far, that's looking justified.

Having seen him banging goals in, regardless of it being a level below, his confidence is sky high and sometimes thats all you need.

I hope he continues it because it's good from an England point of view too ahead of a major tournament next summer especially given Rashford is so hot and cold.

Edited September 26, 2019 by Lucas

[True Blue]

Our first ten against Grimsby was excellent, then we conceded and were poor until the penalty to make it 3-1. In the second we were far far better controlled and even could have gotten a few more. Good to see kids for a change, Odoi and James back to full fitness give us a world of options. The second also scored on his debut and had an assist. Like Cicero said it could be all hype but soon i can see him getting a chance in the league too. Hope he can either be a starter or a very good back up option for a long season. Anjorin was excellent when he came on, had a few good chances but you can see he is very very raw. Overall Lampard gets his first home win, we rest key players for the league can be only happy.

[carefreeluke]

On 25/09/2019 at 16:25, Dr. Gonzo said:

Isn’t Alonso pretty decent at crossing? I thought he was good going forward, just wank at defending 

He's meh/alright, the problem is that his mobility means he barely finds himself in good crossing positions, even at wing-back. On the other side, Moses used to get in crossing positions because of better mobility, pace, skill, and physical attributes. It's one of the reasons why Alonso scored more goals because if one wing-back was attacking, the other had the option to occupy the box. Moses' delivery wasn't great but he'd put in a lot of crosses because he would always get in the positions to do so. Moses is a very direct player also so that's always in his mind as well, to attack. If you do something regularly enough something positive will eventually happen, either from the first cross or from picking up the second ball and going again when the defence is a bit more vulnerable. On the left, Alonso would rarely get himself into crossing positions and hence Moses had less opportunity to occupy the opponent's penalty area. I've always said that Alonso needs to take a cross, like a set-piece. He's not very good at manoeuvring himself and finding space to cross a ball, particularly when opposing teams became more familiar with our system under Conte.

I noticed that Alonso's crossing was quite decent against you lot but in that second half especially you seemed to allow our full backs a lot of space. I don't know if that was planned by Klopp or not. Anyway, Alonso is always viewed as being good at attacking, poor at defending. I've always said he's not very good at both but he's a bit of a clutch player like Ivanovic used to be.

Edited September 26, 2019 by carefreeluke

[carefreeluke]

 

[True Blue]

People saying he wasn't a top center back because Carvalho covered the holes in his game is hilarious. Every CB partnership was about two players covering each other with different qualities.