A pretty poor display against City with the same old problems.It started well when we were gifted a goal in the first few minutes. We also had several promising chances latching quickly onto City mistakes.The assist from Jackson was excellent then he went right off the boil. 3 times he slipped over in the next hour . Was he wearing Cucurellas' boots?? He was replaced early, unusual fro Maresca, by an invisible Nkunku What else is there to say ?? Another flurry of subs, too late again?? Sanchez was dreadful, and his terrible position for Citys' 2nd goal was not the worst. He kept kicking out straight to an opponent, and once he passed out to one. He puts us under constant pressure doing that. Reece James looks miles off the pace, he looks only half fit ?? Fernandez, for all his effort ,gives us only problems in midfield. A strange lack of grit, grunt and go forward has invaded the whole team. Our defence looked pretty good and kept City out fairly comfortably, even with all their possession.Chalobah and Colwill were calm and tidy despite Trevoh being really shaken by a clash with Thor Thundergod. Cucurella was the Eveready Bunny again. The usual suspects were good as usual, but no one outstanding. It's our central midfield that doesn't work. Casiedo is too busy mopping up the players who escape Fernandez' ordinary defence. We had no one to control or dominate central midfield with any power or aggression. It was really evident that everything goes down the sides or else a long ball over the middle, and City just kept blocking the doorway, no problem. It's time someone debriefed the Mugs to forget the 2030 Team and concentrate on the 2025 one. Find a Goalkeeper, Central midfielder, a Striker and a back up Left Back, as a matter of urgency.
I don't know if it's that teams can work us out and stop us playing the way we want, or we simple fall apart against teams that have a halfway decent press. The one thing that has become glaringly obvious is our keeper situation is sub standard. How many games could we have been in for longer if Sanchez had not made a mistake? I'm not really convinced we will make Europe again at this rate.
Cant argue with any of that. I was very critical of Cucurella last season, but he has stepped up and perhaps Palmer aside, cucu has been our best player this season, which is nuts. We need to shift half a dozen players in the summer and bring in, like you said, a keeper, CM, striker and left back. I just hope we sign players that can hit the ground running, because any more ones "for the future" and I am going to start pulling my hair out.
Iv'e noticed an increasing number of Chelsea supporters with big lumps of their hair missing since Christmas !! Even a few blokes !! Seriously, it's all very well to have a warehouse full of the worlds most talented kids, but first we need to have a PL Team capable of making the top 4, and start to see a few of those kids actually playing . Kids rarely get better sitting on the benches watching, they can do that in the stands.
Indeed, and things are starting to dawn on me like, how long does Cole Palmer, perhaps the PLs best player, or at least in the top 5, decide to stay at a club that aint in the Champions League? How long before clubs like Barca or Bayern start coming in for him?
I believe we are already seeing that players we are trying to buy just don't want to come. It's only a mater of time before our top players want to move to better Teams than a mid table struggler. Maresca made a very good start but now players are losing the faith, losing the belief and losing their form.The "Team" is struggling to play like one. Maybe our early form was a leftover from Pochettino' last few weeks ?? Marescas touch on the other hand, is starting to slip. He is not even consistent with his claimed phillosophy. He didn't rate Chalobah, now he's our best CD. He was very wary of Cucurella, now he's our best left back. Gusto is nowhere near his form under Poch, Jackson' gone backwards. Maresca was adamant Chalobah couldn't play his system. Wrong. He is adamant Chilwell can't either, based on nothing because he's not had a second on the pitch. He keeps playing Fernandez who genuinely CAN'T play his system, so he's a hypocrite as well. Add to that the continuing selection of Sanchez, of not dropping Jackson or players who are clearly out of form , of playing Disasi and Casiedo as a right back. It all makes you wonder just what is going on. Players out of position, dynamite youngsters watching out of form "stars" get selected and play poorly game after game. Wish Clearlake would Clearoff. They couldn't manage to find their way home in the dark let alone Manage to run a Football Club. My feelings are we will be bottom part of top 10 this season unless something earth shattering happens and we start to properly use the talent we do have. I now longer think Marescas' way is going to improve anything or anyone with the squad he is using. He needs to be more open to other ways and other set ups. You can't keep playing a system that isn't working and expect miracles.
