With such a huge squad, how does Maresca even start ? Pulling names out of a hat might bring better results than selecting . GK Your guess is as good as anyones. Back 4 ? Or is it 3 or 5 . Inverted wingers or extroverted CDs?? Midfield On form it should be Lavia, Casiedo and Dewsbury Hall for me, with Enzo in the "for sale" basket. Wide front Madueke and Palmer Striker Guiu , or Jackson or Nkunku? Worse than trying to pick Lotto numbers. Whoever plays, can't see City breaking a sweat.
Am not even sure to be honest. I havent been paying attention to our pre season formations (I usually dont), so I cant go on that. At Leicester I hear he preferred the 4-3-3 but with all the players we have I really cant even begin to predict who will start. Am gonna wait and see how he approaches this game.
I don't have great hopes, but then I've proved often enough I am not the worlds' best judge. This, as you suggest is a whole new kettle of poissons. Unknown players, unknown Manager ,unknown line ups, unknown intentions. Hope we see a Manager who is not just a lap dog of Owners, who can get the Team playing good football and start restoring our very tarnished Clubs' credibility. Fingers crossed.
I think Sanchez Gusto - Fofana - Colwill - Cucurella Enzo - Lavia - Dewsbury Hall Palmer - Jackson - Nkunku
Is Caicedo injured? The only thing Enzo should be starting is the engine to his car as he drives out of London
Thought we went OK, all a bit rusty and sluggish. Didn’t seem so much sideways passing?? That said we were really not worrying City too much, they ran things really as you’d expect. Enzo might have cost 100 mill but he’s a 40 mill player at best. Dewsbury Hall is a proper mid who can attack defend and hold things together, he’s looked really good. Thought it was the quote of the year to hear the Manager say we were poor in the goal area !! It would be better to say “ We really need a striker “ !!!!! . That resonates with ever football fan on earth except our Owners and the 2 Duds who buy and sell.
Well Felix is on his way back, by all accounts. Meh! Still can't believe they have spent over a billion and havent bothered to sign a proper striker. Meanwhile we have 8 goalkeepers!
Thought Felix would be much better than he was. Total waste for another bang average player who doesn’t fit in anywhere. We’d be better off selling Enzo for what we can get, but instead they’ll keep him in somewhere stuffing up the midfield and shoehorn Felix in somewhere as well.
Conors finally gone. Good luck to him as our waste of space of a chairman and dof get rid of our true blues to bring in more mediocre crap
Connor isnt a world beater, but he is as good probably as anyone else we have on our books, except maybe caicedo. Lavia is unproven, and Enzo is ****, and a **** to boot. What was the point in selling a good midfielder like Connor for £33m and keeping a £100m waste of space like Enzo? Gallagher is better, and cost us nothing. I get the whole balance the books thing, but the only reason you need to do that is because you spent stupid money on absolute dogshit players like Enzo Fernandez and Mudryk. Absolute brain dead transfer strategy from the clueless ****s running our club. We need them out. I am done with this ****. Fair enough if we are in midtable with midtable finances, but to have spent a billion and a half on a squad and to have a mediocre squad at best, is unforgivable. Look at the way Villa are run, or and I hate to even say this, Spurs. And both clubs are in a better place than Chelsea. If, by Christmas, this club are not in the top 6, then I am done until these clowns are out.
I don’t think Enzo is poor I just don’t think we play to his strengths at all. At the weekend we had him running around pressing their defence, he can’t run! Gallagher should’ve played at the weekend in that role and done so for most of the season. Now signed Joao Felix today who I have to be honest is great to watch but, he doesn’t fit into our team at all. The reason we’ve bought him is so Atletico could afford Gallagher and we’ll get the profit.
If a player isnt able to adapt to a different style, or tweak his gameplay enough to be useful in a premier league squad, then in my eyes, he is not worth £100m. Thats the sort of quality you should be getting for £100m. I have no doubt Enzo could be sold to Juventus or Man United and maybe be a decent player, but that does **** all to help Chelsea football club.
Wasn't Gallagher on 50 G a week?? And Felix on 150Gs?? And Felix cost 12 Mill more than Gallagher sold for ?? So Felix will cost an additional 5.2 mill per year more on the wage bill as well?? Am I missing something??
It will be an interesting watch. Boehleys' Clown Show has put so much faith in Marescas' style being effective in the PL, with zero to back it up.They are ignoring that PL Clubs are smart enough and good enough to vary their set up to counter any style of opponent. Innovation quickly gets countered by top teams, because simply put, football is not rocket science, it's player quality and the proper blending and merging of players that wins.The best Teams are built, not bought. Playing out from the back and inverting defenders is not exactly revolutionary, plus we don't have the players to do it well especially when playing 100mill. flops just because you paid 100 mill for them.Good luck to Maresca, he's going to need it. And good luck winning the fans, he's not going too well so far.
Thing is though, its worked out in a ****ed up way where the fee is split by the length of the contract signed by the player when it goes on the books. And I think Felix signed a 7 year contract so that £45m is split by 5 (which I think is the max you can split it now), where as the Gallagher money, if Atletico paid it in a lump sum, will count as £33m of pure profit. In any case, Felix has never even hit double figures in goals in a single league season, so by that rationale, Jackson is a better option, a player who we already have. Ugh, gives me a headache just thinking about this ****.
Always look on the bright side of life !! We will be at long odds to win anything, so even one upset that sees us actually win a game, will bring good rewards for little outlay !! I copied this pattern from the Genius' at Clearlake !1
I don't call myself a Chelsea fan anymore it is so degrading. I need to go to sleep for a decade or so, wake up and then celebrate the team we have. A bit like I did in the 70 80's.
