Chelsea Discussion

[carefreeluke]

33 minutes ago, Cicero said:

You notice that Kovacic stays back when he does? Has to be part of the instructions. Sarri must really like Alonso, and aside the defensive criticism, he looks a lot more suited in a possession minded side. Less exposure defensively. 

There is then the question of Emerson. He must really not impress during training. 

Yeah, some sort of tactical arrangement happening there. 

[Cicero]

Think Morata is gone next summer. 

Don't think he'll ever be cut out for this type of football. We will need a Mertens, Aguero, Firmino, Dybala, etc type of striker. Mobile and great on the ball. 

[The Liquidator]

I have watched the Newcastle game twice.

 

Real difficult game to analyse because of the tactics used by Newcastle. Couple of things on them. Sarri said he had never seen the Fat Spanish waiter play 5 at the back before. Well I can remember him setting up at home in a CL semi final pretty much the same against us. It was the game we didn’t have a left footed player on the pitch and everytime the ball got out to Gallas playing as a left back the attack stalled. More on stalling left side later. Remember when Big Sam was Newcastle boss? He was despised by the club's own fans for the negativity of his football. While the Fat Spanish waiter walks among the Gods on Tyneside for that defensive thuggery.

As I have already said difficult game to really say anything concrete as only the one team wanted to play. My first impression was if Fabregas had played in the game with 158 touches as Jorginho had, he would have set up at least one great chance on goal, something Jorginho failed to do. Again our whole attacking play was aimed towards Hazard. In the first 20 minutes it looked as thou they had upped from the last 20 at Stamford Bridge and bedded into the same at Newcastle. Jorginho again only looking the one way and for me Kovacic getting in the way of the ball that should go directly to Hazard or Alonso. I am sorry, I really think the manager is missing a trick here by having a midfield player behind Hazard. We have Alonso for that & that midfield role should be given to someone who is going to bust a gut getting up alongside Morata giving Hazard or Alonso a second option attacking the box from the left side. Loftus-Cheek would have been ideal for this roll against Newcastle as he wouldn’t have had to run back as they didn’t want to play. I don’t know if Kovacic has it in him to be that player. From what I have seen he is an admirer of his work, rarely attacking past where his pass has gone, instead waiting for the ball to return to him so he can short pass again. Kovacic and Jorginho together in this game was a mistake. Granted the manager wasn’t to know how Newcastle would set up, but he should have remedied his selection earlier or at least not waited for Alonso to break forward in the second half. Hazard, when out wide on the left, more often than not cuts inside onto his right foot. If we could get a midfielder to bust a gut into that area taking a defender with him it would open up so much more space for Hazard. So many times in the first half Hazard ran inside into waiting Newcastle players making it easy for them to defend. A highlight for me in the first half was Hazard moving away from the left flank and teaming up with the staying wide Pedro on the right flank. If the manager is giving Hazard the license to move around freely, it would get my vote. They linked up along with Dave with Kante moving both forward & more central while Hazard was right side. Again plenty of possession during that period, but again very little in way of good chances created.

Must bring up our defending. I said in pre season it looked like we had changed to zonal defending . Sarri has now confirmed this is his way of defending by pointing out how hard it is for defenders to change from 10 years of man marking, to changing to zonal. We have seen in the PL a few times before how teams who have adopted this mainland Europe style of defending suffer with conceding headed goals. David Luiz fell foul of not attacking a ball which had been crossed into the box allowing their bloke to run infront of him to score. It looked as thou David was looking to cushion head the ball out to one of our players. Real poor defending. I guess there might be an argument this is why Arsenal had so many players in our box last week free from any Chelsea shirts. I am not saying the manager was looking to offer an excuse for Luiz by saying he isn’t used to the managers style of defending. I am more pointing out what I sussed early on in pre-season.

What can we say about Alonso? It’s pretty much becoming what would we do without him? The game was perfect for him as Newcastle had no interest in attacking allowing him to become more n more bold attacking down the flank and into that space I was talking about alongside Morata, again winning us another penalty. I figure it wont be long before we see the other side of him, but credit where credit is due, his forward play while he has been with us had been exemplary. I found it very interesting what Ruud Gullit had to say about our full backs. We will see as the season progresses.

Morata was back to normal and needs to shut up about the amount of goals he wants to score, just do it. I felt Pedro played well and had obviously been told to hug the right touchline. Kante did attack the space that created, but the guys on the left struggled to get the ball to him. Again, Fabregas springs to mind. It's another 3 points which we must be very grateful for as its at a ground where we have failed so often in the past. I dont think its was much of a performance and for all the possession we had we failed dismally to create anything of substance. I ask the question did we look any different than any other time we faced a packed defence in the last 5 seasons?

Lastly. I have to admit I have not taken much interest Sarri the man\coach before he turned up at my club. Now he is here, I tend to listen to every word he offers. For me, he has changed since being introduced. He don’t look well to me. Granted the Track suit he wears does him no favours, but his face looks drawn, tired. Maybe its withdraw symptoms from not being able to get the nicotine into his body through a game ect. Obviously I hope I am wrong, but………

[carefreeluke]

Games like Sunday are exactly why you keep Cesc around.

[LFCMike]

56 minutes ago, The Liquidator said:

I have watched the Newcastle game twice.

Sad twat

[LFCMike]

Double post

Edited August 28, 2018 by LFCMike

[The Liquidator]

12 minutes ago, LFCMike said:

Sad twat

Still taking it in the ass I see Mike ~ Hope you dont catch anything

[The Liquidator]

35 minutes ago, carefreeluke said:

Games like Sunday are exactly why you keep Cesc around.

Maybe, but the question is, would this manager have played him? Nothing we have seen so far points he would have even made the bench.

[Cicero]

Is Cesc even fit yet? Thought he hurt his knee from running too fast? 

[The Liquidator]

Interesting ~ I wonder if its an accurate translation.

https://themoscowtimes.com/articles/its-time-for-russian-oligarch-abramovich-to-sell-chelsea-fc-62699

 

[The Liquidator]

2 hours ago, The Liquidator said:

Interesting ~ I wonder if its an accurate translation.

https://themoscowtimes.com/articles/its-time-for-russian-oligarch-abramovich-to-sell-chelsea-fc-62699

 

Then on the other hand.....

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2018/08/28/chelsea-investment-could-thaw-stamford-bridge-redevelopment/

[The Artful Dodger]

Brexit is going to play a big part in a lot of the new stadium stuff, Spurs were lucky they had all their plans in place before the referendum. I wouldn't expect much movement until after March next year, that goes for Everton too.

[Danny]

13 hours ago, The Artful Dodger said:

Brexit is going to play a big part in a lot of the new stadium stuff, Spurs were lucky they had all their plans in place before the referendum. I wouldn't expect much movement until after March next year, that goes for Everton too.

BRITISH STADIUMS 4 BRITISH PEOPLE

[LFCMike]

16 hours ago, The Artful Dodger said:

Brexit is going to play a big part in a lot of the new stadium stuff, Spurs were lucky they had all their plans in place before the referendum. I wouldn't expect much movement until after March next year, that goes for Everton too.

Funny that they're the two most pro-leave fanbases according to some survey after the referendum

[RandoEFC+]

3 hours ago, LFCMike said:

Funny that they're the two most pro-leave fanbases according to some survey after the referendum

That surprises me as most of the fans I know from Liverpool and the fan pages I follow on Twitter are very anti-Brexit. 

[LFCMike]

3 hours ago, RandoEFC said:

That surprises me as most of the fans I know from Liverpool and the fan pages I follow on Twitter are very anti-Brexit. 

Yeah to be honest the results of this survey were rather odd and I only replied with the mention of it looking for a bit of a bite really The survey had just 40% of Stoke fans voting leave and 37% of Burnley fans voting leave. Doesn't really add up when you look at how those areas voted

[Danny]

3 hours ago, LFCMike said:

Yeah to be honest the results of this survey were rather odd and I only replied with the mention of it looking for a bit of a bite really The survey had just 40% of Stoke fans voting leave and 37% of Burnley fans voting leave. Doesn't really add up when you look at how those areas voted

Suppose you've gotta take into account people living in the city and people living outside of it as that'll be where the difference is.

[True Blue]

Izzy Brown and ike Ugbo loaned out to Leeds United and Scunthorpe United respectively.

On loan 34 

[Danny]

Chelsea's academy is less productive for their first team than ours, and we don't have one.

[The Liquidator]

Bradley Collins has joined League One side Burton Albion on loan until 2 January.

Collins spent last season on loan with League Two club Forest Green Rovers, where he made 45 appearances and kept nine clean sheets.

[LFCMadLad]

On loan 35 

[Bluewolf]

4 hours ago, Danny said:

Chelsea's academy is less productive for their first team than ours, and we don't have one.

You seem to have some anti Chelsea agenda today for some reason... very strange behaviour

[The Liquidator]

25 minutes ago, Cannabis said:

Do people seriously still get rattled about Chelsea's loan policy?

Alas, soft lads do

[LFCMadLad]

2 hours ago, Cannabis said:

Do people seriously still get rattled about Chelsea's loan policy?

Nope. I was mimicking what a Chelsea fan said above.

[The Liquidator]

Tammy Abraham has joined Championship side Aston Villa on a season-long loan deal.

Que Mad Lad

Edited August 31, 2018 by The Liquidator