Villa look much improved recently and ran Liverpool to a very close draw. On form they'll belt us. Our "Walking Dead" performances are turning us into The Easybeats.. Some big calls from Maresca are needed. Reece James to start? Not for me, he's only half paced due to fitness. Gusto was one of our best. Tosin and Chalobah in CD places and Cucurella (since we have no one else.) Casiedo and Dewsbury- Hall in midfield, NO ENZO FERNANDEZ pleeeeease!!! Tyrique George Nkunku ( Palmer is knackered and in a bad place mentally) Neto Best Striker from Academy. Even with these changes we couldn't be as bad as last game and certainly not worse. !! Maresca please STOP the hopeless "possession is everything" garbage and RUN, RUN RUN. Fast, straight and hard. He won't of course, just more of the same old same old, with the same result. A point would be an improvement, 3 points a miracle. Maresca changing would be a miracle. Another loss will push me to the " Football Directors and Maresca out " side, at seasons end. Right now I'm only "Football Directors out".
Maresca isnt going to get it right. It would be nice if he did exactly what you said but it isnt going to happen. He will play Fernandez and James, and probably Sancho and we will lose 3-1. No way we are getting CL now, even with 5 spots available in the league.
Depressing isn't it ?? Can't tell you how stunned I was to see the Gusto of old pound down the sideline in the first few minutes at Brighton. Just for a moment I thought we might break into a collective trot, but no. By half time we were walking and ****ing around again. Looking at our matches to come, we MIGHT win 3 but could lose all the rest. We'll just have to watch and hope someone among the players breaks ranks and starts to play to their strengths, which I'm sure is NOT walking.
That went well. Maresca finally tried something different and we went well for 30 mins with a lot more pace and some quite good position switches. At half time the commentator said "good to watch this Chelsea side transition quickly, but Maresca won't like it, he wants possession and control". And so it was . Second half we slowed to almost walking pace and Villa ran all over us. Many of their attacks went straight through our midfield where Fernandez was poor again and Reece James out of gas. Another underwhelming showing, and our squad weaknesses exposed again.Sancho and Jorgansen not good enough, Nkunku needs a slower paced League like Italy or Spain.Fernandez is too slow, too aggressive and can't defend.Those 4 need shifting out. And we need a STRIKER !!
He does and he always forgets to take his gloves off. Our Football Directors, better known as "The Mugs" get their info about buying youngsters from Buenos Aries pre school Kindergarten teachers. They only recommend toilet trained kids, one of their main briefs, and are limited to 30 mill quid per child. So far we have 273 in our Academy with 20 more arriving next season. Watch out for us in 2037, we'll get top 4 for sure.
Maresca will be getting the sack at the end of the season. We’ve seen this play out many times before. The boardroom want certain players played and he’s obliging which unfortunately means the team suffers. The real issue we have is that Palmer won’t want to hang around. The world knows how good he is now and if a big money offer comes in he’ll take it.
So would I !! Maresca's completely one dimensional and every Team has worked out how to stop us, even the dead mediocre ones. It's true he's been given a bucket of pigs vomit to work with, but he keeps selecting Sancho and Nkunku who are simply awful in this Team, and then he leaves kids on the bench who couldn't possibly be worse but might just inject some passion. Swapping Nkunku for Sancho is a typical gutless brainless thing he does all the time. His "style" is NEVER going to work in a League with better players and smarter Managers than Chelsea and him. Either he shows he's got something else, or he can join the list of ex Chelsea managers for mine. Still, that won't solve the problem of moronic owners and Mugs for "Football Directors". Marescas style doesn't work and the Owners "Project" doesn't work.
Just goes to show, Maresca changes it up for one half and we go in 1-0 up. Then he reverts to tip tap BS ball possession with zero penetration and we ship 2 goals and lose. Its ****ing ridiculous. Our squad is far from great, but the difference between us and say, Man United or Spurs, is that our squad is good enough to get top 4. Only top 4 granted, we are never going to get past Liverpool, City or Arsenal with this team, but with decent management, we could be the best of the rest. What Newcastle and Forest have that we dont are clinical strikers in Isak and Wood, but as a squad, I'd say ours is easily on par if not better. Maresca's tactics are terrible and predictable and he keeps playing the wrong players, get rid of Fernandez, Nkunku and James ffs. It makes me sad to say that about James, because 5 years ago he was one of our best players, and is a Chelsea academy player, but all that time spent on the sidelines injured has taken its toll and he is not the player he was. We need a striker, a goalkeeper, a backup CM for when Lavia is out and a new manager and this squad can win silverware.
Well finally a win and a few goals. We looked a bit more committed from the off and did pretty well. very good goal from Nkunku. Hard to knock anyone after that win, but por old Southampton are very much out of their depth this season. Palmer missed a couple of sitters (for him), but nice to see a wry smile which means he does see the irony. Again Gusto looked good, Cucurellas' goal a reward for his work the last few games, and finally some youngsters got a look in. Fernandez put himself about, but we didn't need him defending midfield 2nd half, Southampton could'nt get through anyway. Still we too often slowed to funeral pace 2nd half, I absolutely hate Marescas possession bore- fest football, and noticed lots of fans at the game did as well. When ( if ) Maresca ever rests Palmer Nkunku should get a run in his position, I thing He's be a good link with Neto. Anyway, it will be harder every game from now on as Southampton were not great.
We have Leicester next, while a lot of our rivals for top 5 are playing each other in the next few weeks. Forest and Arsenal tonight then Forest against City in the next round of fixtures after the break. If we Man City and Forest drop points tonight and one of them has to drop points against each other, then that puts us in good stead for a top 5 finish, provided we beat Leicester. Long way to go yet, but it just goes to show how good we were in the first half of the season, as we have stunk the league out lately and are still sitting in 4th.
It's a good season to have a dodgy Team 'cause there are plenty of others as well !! Our problems look likely to continue because there are 2 unknowns going on at the same time. 1. Are the players good enough?? The thing is, we STILL don't know our best Starting Team because we have too many players still to sort through. Lots of long term injuries, without any long term chance to assess them under Game conditions. What we do have is a good number of very good players in there somewhere. And a few duds. 2. Is Marescas' way of making us play going to work, or is that most of the problem? And a side question, Is Maresca able to change his ideas and get the Team winning playing a different way? Or is what you see every game all that he's got ?? I'm thinking our (Marescas) style is the main problem because every single Team can now stop us scoring (except Southampton). The others couldn't either for a few months, then they all worked out how to, and we haven't responded. At the same time, are players underperforming because they are not good enough or because they are not suited to Marescas style?? Bit of both I think. That endless, excruciating back passing around our Goalmouth is alien to most players who just don't seem to understand it. What is certain is our cradle snatching Policy is never going to make us a better Team for years, if ever. We need some grunt, some mongrel and some experience mixed in, like ALL great Teams. And a striker, and a controlling midfielder, and a CD.....................
