I doubt it, but there's always hope. Take the next game against Brighton. They're 6th from bottom, we're 6th from top, 9 places ahead of them. After Brighton we have 5 days before our next match, time for any player to recover. A smart manager would be kicking himself for turgid dross served up by his last selection effort, and ring the changes. But will Sarri? Can he learn from the dire showing against Cardiff and drop Jorghino, Kovacic and maybe Barkley, as his 1st choice midfield, or will he just play Kante, Jorghino and one other as he usually does ,and usually with the same result? I'm guessing the second which would make him the dumbest manager in the PL Will the "other" be RLC or Barkley?? If RLC doesn't start ahead of Barkley and Kovacic, then the dumbest Manager in Europe. Will Giroud play or Higuain ? Will CHO start or Willian/ Pedro?? Will Luiz and Rudi start or will Christensen get the nod? Will Alonso again disappoint or Emerson start?? Here's the team I hope he plays Kepa, Dave, Luiz Christensen Emerson, Kante , Kovacic ( the only understudy to Jorghino we have), RLC, Hazard, Giroud, CHO. Here's who I think he'll play Kepa , Dave, Rudi, Luiz, Alonso, Jorghino, Kante, RLC, Hazard, Higuain, Pedro. If I see Jorghino' name in the starting line up, it will be the first match in 6 years I will not bother to watch until the highlights are shown next day. I can't take another minute of Jorghino and his snails pace play.
Jorginho must be one of the Premiership’s most talked about footballers and for all the wrong reasons. For the last 3 months I’ve heard our supporters, opposition supporters and TV and radio pundits wondering why he’s displaced Kante from his natural position. Kante’s a genuine world class footballer while I’d rate Jorginho at lower Premiership/ Championship level - Sarri’s really lost the plot. How many times have you heard “stop Jorginho and you stop Chelsea”!!!!!
I think opposition teams smile from ear to ear when Jorghinos name is on our starting line up. Brighton game is a really big chance to jump to possibly 3rd place. Sarri is "probably " going to start CHO, so he says. Sarri had better not produce a starting line up like last weeks.
.......an excellent starting line up this evening including Hudson Odoi.........one exception - he’s playing Jorginho.
And 2 of the 3 players screaming in the ether for the last 6 months scored, and the third made the assist. Didn't watch the game as I am absolutely over the useless weasel Jorghino being selected and bringing the team down to walking pace. Oh what we could have achieved with an attacking midfielder, Kante in his correct position and the right team selections. Still, we are doing OK despite Sarri, so let's hope he saw something today to inspire him till seasons end.
Just watched 40 mins of highlights and happy to report that Sarri made some good calls for this game plus, Jorghino occasionally flickered into life as well. Having Hazard, RLC and CHO busting to get at defenders seems to have woken Jorghino up to the fact that passing forwards now and then gets rewards. If he improves in this area, and if Sarri again selects his best team just maybe we can finish strongly and grab that 4th spot. Still love to see Kante in his correct position and maybe Jorghino if he must play, then play a more roving role. Anyway, lots of good things happened today, may they continue. ps. thought Christensen looked really good and deserves a bit more rotation with Rudi and Luiz.
Hope RLC's hamstring isn't too bad and doesn't effect his back problem. Be good if he can complete 90 mins without injury
Having been at the game last night I'm even more convinced the system is the issue rather than personnel. Regardless of who plays, the patterns of play are always the same and we are so predictable, save for the odd bits of Hazard fairy dust. A lot seems to depend on whether we get the initial breakthrough in games. No way did we play better than at Everton, especially in respective first halves. But in 1 game we got the opening goal, in the other we didn't and lost. The relative ease of last night's win was as much down to a very tepid Brighton performance as anything. CHO and RLC showed what good players they are in moments but both lost the ball a fair bit as well. Giroud, the goal aside was actually quite poor.
I only caught the second half and felt we were all over them. What i like about rlc is that he will try things to go forward even if he loses the ball. Hudson is the same but what i really like about him is he stays out wide to offer width, something that Pedro and willian do not do. Also he tries to cross which is another plus. I must say Brighton didn't make it half easy by just letting jorginho bring it out easily all the time
Yeah Brighton were entirely happy to let Jorginho have the ball and sit in and invite us on. Some of the lesser sides adopt this tactic against us knowing we don't score many and they've always got a chance on the break or at a set piece. They were ultimately undone by some brilliant finishes. CHO and RLC definitely offer a bit more directness with their play and I'd like to see them feature more. Ultimately though the system needs some adjustments before we will be able to kick on. Even if it's varying attacks now and then. The odd long kick from the keeper like Cech used to with Drogba for instance.
You are spot on . The change to CHO and RLC brought immediate results, and can only improve with more game time .Christensen also adds stability to allow Luiz or Rudi to get involved more in attack. Better late than never but bloody frustrating. Now if Sarri would only address the mediocre midfield by at least trying Kante where he's best, and getting Jorghino to vary his predictable play ,we should see a pretty big lift in the pace and be far more dynamic than the slow, repetitive "give it to Hazard" route that we have been playing. There's plenty in this side that we are not seeing, Sarri needs to bring it out.
I can only imagine Jorginho is limited in what he's allowed to do in this system. There is a very good footballer in there but clearly his role in this team is heavily influenced by how Sarri wants to play and his approach to possession.
Technically he does look good. In all honesty I saw very little of him at Napoli, but I find it weird that he never seems to look to run at anyone, just passes it away as quickly as possible, in any direction. He's also pretty lightweight, and sluggish in defence. Hopefully with more attack minded players coming in he might get the bug and show more .
I missed those. I saw CHO set up Giroud, RLC assist for Hazard, and Hazard assist for RLC, but somehow missed Jorghino assists !! He did put in a few good long passes though and looked better. Maybe we just need to put a red light on Kepas goal and a green light on the opponents' so Jorghino knows which way is forward??
See the Brick with eyes left Raffles at 5am with a gang of girls to carry on the party after Brighton game
Just shows the kind of dedicated professional he is. No problem with anyone having a good night out ,but 5am pissed as a newt for a supposed pro during the season is absolutely a no go. Nothing good happens to footballers after midnight. If it was a one off , then OK , mea culpa mea, head down arse up. But he needs a serious boot right up the core of his arse for such an unprofessional act, in the full glare of the media. Thick as a brick, dumb as dumb gets, pretty much sums up Mr Almost for his entire career. Another god given talent wasted because of a low intellect, and an underperformer all of his mediocre career.
Sadly agree with this. he took a load of girls back at 5am so he probably partied all night and day. Not good prep for West Ham. V unprofessional
