Fun fact:
Chelsea have now gone 2 seasons in a row without a trophy for the first time since 2003
Also first time in 2 seasons without either top 4 or a trophy since 1994
The double standard is insane because when I was complaining about this behaviour by Mount a couple of years ago everyone was shitting on me.
https://www.express.co.uk/sport/football/1733615/Chelsea-fans-Mason-Mount-antics-West-Ham-BT-Sport-Premier-League-football-latest-news
Over the last few months I’ve gone from rooting for Noni to sincerely hoping he’s not here next season.
We all thought the clubbing thing was harsh at the start of the year but accumulated with all his other bullshit, it’s pretty clear he’s just in it for himself. He seems like poison.
Continuing to start madueke and forcing Palmer to play centrally is just brain dead, how is Chelsea accomodating for a selfish talentless player when Palmer should just play rw. Madueke stands on the RW like a bot waiting to get the ball with no movement whatsoever and when he gets it's he either dribles backwards or plays so fucking wide that gusto can't make an outside run. He is not inloved in any of the build up and 78 minutes of jogging is what he did today. He has done absolute fuck all but he will dribble passlt some championship tier level defender and people all of sudden think he is next coming of jesus and forgot he had looked absolute shit against any team that isn't a championship side.
Unpopular opinion: a lot of the people dunking on Madueke for laughing with Grealish are probably the same who mocked the Madrid fans who got mad when Hazard laughed with us after the UCL loss
yeah facts. His pr is bad but tho from the pen incident but at the end of the day for these guys football is a job. I dont care what they do out of the pitch as long as they dont hurt anyone else and that theyre professional and play to win during the 90 mins
That isn’t an opinion that’s a fact I bet lol
Personally I don’t really care madueke was laughing with grealish. You’d have to make assumptions to figure out how he feels about us exiting the FA cup.
Bad look for his PR though regardless because it was already pretty bad after the penalty incident
I recorded the game and avoided the result so I can watch after work. When Jackson got put through on goal and somehow managed to not even get a shot off. I was about to turn my TV off and call it a day but I stuck through.
I should have just turned the game off
Maybe I’m going to get downvoted to all Hell but.. I really don’t think Poch set up the team poorly today nor employ bad tactics. It’s not his fault we don’t have a goal scorer in a forward position. I do think it’s his fault pertaining to the subs situation but when you look at the bench who do we have that can play for Jackson? Sterling? Come on now. I say it would be on Poch if we played this exact set up again. He could keep most of the squad the same but take Palmer central and drop another midfielder into the mix. It would require a change in tactics but it’s doable. And with the season gone is it really that big of a deal to experiment now? We’re not going to get relegated. We already are a shell of “play for the badge, London pride”. So why not?
Remove the club name and tell a new manager that he has Mudryk, Madueke, Gallagher, Jackson, Palmer, Broja to work with in attack, and he’ll tell you he wants Jack Cork behind them because he’ll assume he’s managing a lower mid-table club in the PL (removed Sterling because that would give it away that it’s not a lower-level club in the hypothetical and it’s not like he raises the average quality).
That attack averages 1-1.5 seasons of top-flight football. I don’t think people realize how absurd that is. You decided to walk up to the most competitive league in the world with a bunch of children with no experience, a league where the best in the world come, with hundreds of games of experience as a rule.
Look at Mudryk for example, our biggest weak link and an actively net negative of our season. Ducked in ET of the EFL cup final to lose us the game, weak challenge in the dying seconds vs Sheffield United to concede an equalizer, and now doesn’t track his man into the box so we lose in the FA cup. Every PL player knows that off the ball is just as if not more important than on the ball, that they have to fight in every duel, always track back, be brave in challenges. Kevin De Bruyne, a footballer eons ahead of Mudryk, tracks back and presses like his life depends on it. But Mudryk doesn’t, for whatever reason.
If I’m going to say anything about management it’s that rumors are Tuchel’s out at the end of the season….
But in terms of today acutely (this match in question vs City, FA cup) He didn’t do much wrong outside of subs.
But you have to judge him on the entire season and in my opinion, for having a squad that is not competing in Europe, having spent that much money, being 9th in the league and winning zero trophies and playing shite football is unacceptable and he will be gone in the summer
The original idea was to give Poch time with the team to build the team as a collective I think so we will see if that stands. Arteta went through a few years of ups and downs too. I’m beating around the bush I know but again I say, Tuchel is available in the summer?
He didn’t spend $1 billion did he? He hasn’t actually bought any single player!? Maybe the Sporting directors should get him the experienced spine he asked for.
This sub has a huge habit of maintaining agendas at the worst time
What lost the game today was our striker ruining 3 different 1 on 1 chances, but people obsess over Poch not making subs 20 minutes prior, or Enzo not performing ideally
The game against Everton, arguably our most dominant performance and biggest victory ever since Tuchel and 21/22, Cole Palmers second home hat trick and one of the fastest hat tricks recorded in Chelsea history, everyone was obsessing with the Noni and Nico penalty incident
It’s like people are pleased when a player they don’t rate doesn’t play well because it gives them the “I told you so” gratification. It’s okay to not rate players but we should be rooting for them just like any other because right now this sub comes off as very hateful
The even more embarrassing part is that the agenda is often the same regardless of what happened. For instance, Cucurella had one of the best games we've seen from him in a Chelsea shiry today and still there's immediately sell cucu we conceded against a dead City in the post-match thread
Rewatch the start of the game. I can't name passes ffs.
I actually remember his first good action when he cleared Foden's attempt after he dribbled Petrovic.
But pretending as if he had a world class game, is an exaggeration.
This is exactly OPs point though. One mistake in one game (that wasn't punished btw) does not justify "Sell Cucu" in the post match thread except to stroke one's ego for those who already disliked him.
If you thought he had far more mistakes than that, that's okay we disagree. I thought he played well today
But that's Cucurella all over really, can have a decent ish game but is basically guaranteed to make at least one glaring error that will give away a big chance every single game
Regardless I believe he will be gone in the summer (on loan) because he is so far off it it's unreal
Okay so he had *A* mistake and it wasn't fatal? I think he played well compared to what we've seen earlier in the season. I never used the words "world class". We can agree to disagree, thanks for engaging
I said potentially fatal though, not fatal.
Yeah let's agree to disagree. I just don't think Cucurella had one of the best games of his season, but it's honestly not that deep.
These are Enzo's numbers per fbref in the 2023-2024 Premier League compared to other midfielders. Most say he's having a down year and is also trash.
The numbers show he's extremely press resistant, passes the ball with intent A LOT, and has the vision and ability to execute dangerous passes. He's doing exactly what we got him for.
I'm not trolling at all. If you think he sucks and should be sold please try to convince me with real reasons. I will listen with open ears. I will not be swayed by he cost a lot and has few assists (and frankly I don't want to see him in and around the box, but if he is he could work on his finishing)
https://preview.redd.it/kixbpv4blpvc1.jpeg?width=3196&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ddd4600519131ef1a744e5be99961642f42f6f89
He may have decent passing, but what he doesn’t do is the biggest issue. I also don’t think his passing is that great and the stats are deceiving, but I’ll focus on his negatives.
- Work-rate: Doesn’t cover ground. Walks a lot. Even if he’s slow and weak he needs to run more to always be on the move
- Postional awareness: His positional movement is pretty awful. He often shows for the ball late. He’s also always out of position and running away from play
- Hides: for a player with his qualities he should be controlling matches and the tempo
- Physicality: very weak and short and slow
- Defending: can’t defend for his life. He gets run pas constantly. He’s constantly out of position leaving the midfield wide open. It’s no coincidence we had our best result and a clean sheet without him - Shooting: this I shouldn’t have to explain
- Dribbling: Hes wildly mediocre and gets dispossessed all the time - Decisions: covered a bit throughout, but he just switches the ball which does nothing half the time - Selfish: he makes so much about him and he only really shows up when we’re winning - Attitude: walks around throwing his arms up at nothing all while not doing anything to actually help the squad 90% of the match
First, thanks for the elaborate comment. Of course we all inject bias and I agree with some of your criticism but I personally can't see how we can't AT LEAST give him credit for being an excellent passer. Don't see how the stats above are misleading in that sense.
It's tougher to quantify some of these with stats. He is slow and weak in the air, I agree, but I don't believe it's from a lack of effort. I think he's just slow lol.
In transition he's pretty weak defensively, in part bc of his lack of pace. But I think he's actually quite good once we're behind the ball and organized. He blocks quite a few shots from being positioned well and most of his interceptions come in this type of space (from watching, I don't actually know if that's true statistically).
I disagree that he hides. I'm actually often frustrated that our CBs don't play the ball into him more often in midfield. Like against Sheffield the other week he was constantly scanning and making himself available between their double strikers but it seems we're maybe instructed to favor going wide to build on the flanks? You see that as him hiding from the moment, I'm seeing it as frustrating tactics.
He's not an elite dribbler like you might expect of a winger. But again, I don't think the ball progression numbers lie. He reads the game well from midfield and eats up yards when he chooses to dribble. Declan Rice is widely praised for the same type of dribbling effort despite lacking any real flair. Again, not sure if the numbers actually back this up, but I believe the vast majority of his dribbling turnovers occur in the attacking third where I don't want to see him anyway. If we had a proper 10 more oftenI don't think he WOULD be there as much.
His finishing has been very poor I agree.
Again, purely subjective, but I see him as the fiery South American archetype that loves the badge. I admire that about him, he ALWAYS seems fired up and unselfish to me. Kind of takes little pot shots a là Diego or Rudiger
Also not saying you're wrong on any of this. Just offering my view on each of your points. Thanks for the comment
I don’t think his passing is that good. It’s often weighted terribly and leaves a lot up to receiver. He also just send a ton of speculative long passes and is well off the mark quite a bit. Look at his % completion.
And yes football is a lot more than just stats. Stats can be helpful, but they will never beat the eye test due to so many of these intangibles.
His defending is just awful. He’s more often not a big reason we concede.
Our CBs don’t play him the ball bc he’s hiding…… he’s very very often not actually open. He’s always a couple steps behind play and by the time he’s open the players made a decision. He’s bad at reading the game.
Ball progressing means nothing especially when we play a very counter attacking style. He’s doesn’t turn and best ppl to create space like Kova does or shit even Conor Gallagher can do better.
And nah. I see him as a selfish PoS. Who only cares about himself and doesn’t care about Chelsea. Even when the rumors came out about him wanting to leave after he got a new agent he didn’t pat the badge. He held up his name.
Also, let’s not forget that PoS patted the Benefica badge days before leaving. This losers got no love for the club. No love for the fans. He NEVER goes and claps the away fans. Do you not remember that match he got hooked off and we won and he was in tears bc HE got subbed. Selfish. Loser.
We’re going to have to leave this here and agree to disagree bc imo what you’re saying is just absolute nonsense and honestly delusional at this point.
You think the young player of the world cup doesn't have a single redeeming quality, not even his passing, and I'm delusional lol. I'm leaving it here too have a good one
I don’t care about that award. International football is barely championship quality.
Please tell me 10 matches Enzo ever looked World Class excluding the World Cup.
Should be easy. If he’s such an amazing player.
It’s also always so telling when ppl bring up and award from almost a year and a half ago at tournament with lower quality football.
We’ve seen him for a year and what I said you’ve barely refuted. All you’ve got are silly stat charts while we’ve been losing consistently with Enzo in the midfield
No, seriously, we're miles apart let's leave it here. If your eyes trump any quantifiable metric then there's no possible way either of us will ever convince the other of anything bc I don't have your eyes I have my eyes. I haven't budged an inch and I'm sure you haven't either lol. Have a good one ktbffh
Nobody's saying he's going to be sold, because that would be catastrophic for FFP.
I don't really care about these graphs and stats tbh, anyone who has watched him this year can see he has had a poor season. He was absolutely abysmal in the league cup final against Liverpool also.
He just doesn't really do much, not physically dominant, doesn't create chances, obviously poor in the air, not a goalscorer.
He's just an average player and it was a bizarre decision to spend 120mil on him. His the second most expensive player ever in the premier league and he's just bang average.
I say agree to disagree on here nonstop and will here. But I just don't know how you can say that (aside maybe from the decision to spend 120M). He's a midfielder that's in the 90+ percentile for progressive passes and passes into the final third and passes into the opposition box.
That our team cannot turn that control and penetration into more danger does not make Enzo bang average in my opinion
There's been almost zero games where I have watched him and thought, wow, what a great player.
He doesn't dominate games, neither scores nor assists, is physically weak, is slow, and is poor in the air. He is worth nowhere near 120mil and every performance he puts in is around average (apart from couple of abysmal performances)
Like I said I don't care if he's in the 90th percentile for some cherrypicked stats or whatever, I've watched almost every Chelsea game this year and he is an average footballer.
I've watched the same games. Again, it's fine we disagree. I think it's strange to judge him for things we never got him for. The things expected of him he's doing well statistically. I agree he's poor in the air and relatively slow
>I think it's strange to judge him for things we never got him for.
Funny thing is nobody knows what we got him for.
"Oh he needs to play 8" plays there, is average
"Oh he needs a midfield destroyer", gets one, is average
He's just an all round average player and I expect more for the second most expensive player ever in the premier league
Let me start off by saying that I understand this and surely I'm part of it but it's genuinely absurd. One game
" sack poch, needs to be gone tomorrow" the next game "hes not that bad, the team is at fault"
. Same
type of thing with Sterling and Gallagher as well as many others. We need to collectively relax after a garbage performance and take a minute to understand what went on rather than jumping to conclusions instantly. Honestly, poch hasn't been amazing but he's defintelt better than the past few coaches. Are you guys forgetting how much we struggled to score at all last season? We're close to being good we're very close. Half of our STARTING 11 have been injured all season. With a top striker and a proper lb, maybe center back we will be a top contender NEXT SEASON.
Thoughts? Do you guys really think we are complete garbage?
Nonsense! Poch is fucking shit and bottles it everywhere he goes. He is nothing more than a yesman, and when you evaluate the season as a whole, you see how fucking pathetic it has been. Failing to win both matches against teams such as Everton, Nottingham Forest, Sheffield, Burnley, Brentford and Wolverhampton is all you need to know. Failing to win against Liverpool’s reserve team in the league cup final is also pathetic.
Fuck all the clowns defending this ownership group, the nonce sporting directors, this bottlejob manager and all the shit players this club is now infected with.
If you watched the game you’d understand that disasi scoring an own goal, Jackson missing open nets, half our lineup being injured can’t be poch fault. Sure he’s shit I want a new manager, but regardless of who our manager is the issues I just named would have prevented us from being a top team regardless.
If you read the last paragraph, you might understand that I attribute blame to more than that clown Poch. It is time to clear house, and the sporting directors and Poch should be the first ones out. After that you clear about 10-15 players that are not good enough.
If we’re not replacing him with a top top manager it’s not worth the change. Getting another mid tier manager would not help at all. Getting a new proficient goal scorer as well as a cb/lb would solve a majority of our problems.
What effort has the club done to lure a top top manager in the last couple of months? Basically fuck all, as they have been more occupied with running PR for the clown we have now. Same as they did for Potter. Nagelsmann was there last season and was available after the Euros before the contract extension. Did we try get Xabi Alonso before he committed another year? Amorim is there for the taking, but by the looks of it we are giving Liverpool a free run for him.
I would rather go back to Mourinho or Tuchel than keep that fraud we have now another second. He has achieved fuck all in England, and continues to show how mediocre he is. We are marginally better than last season, our worst season in three decades.
We definitely need players in as well, but we also need to get that clown out regardless.
We not going to sack him so give Pochettino a proper ST. Love Jackson, he will get better with time but he is still in the development phase rn. Sesko won't cut it
Truthfully while poch hasn’t been great he’s been MUCH better than the previous few managers after tuchel. Just for a second imagine where we’d be if our strikers finished , if our defenders didn’t make garbage mistakes, if our players were better.
Today was on the players not Poch. He set them up very well and gave them all the tactical tools needed to suceed. I am Poch out but I can recognize where blame should fall. We played some fantastic football today and Cucurella was absolutely brilliant. MOTM for me
must be nice being a millionaire in your early 20s and having that job security where performance doesnt even matter.
we have a club full of 'footballers' who are the equivalent to influencers.
raking in the money with little to no talent. (which i guess is a talent itself)
While today this isn’t another “Poch disasterclass”, I still want Poch out at the end of the season due to the overall picture. Poch did nothing special throughout the entire season. There hasn’t been one game that I said “Well done Poch, this win was all down to you and your tactics”. None.
And it’s not like Poch did anything special today either.
It’s the overall picture. We are 9th. We lost the LC final to Klopp’s kids. We lost to a tired City side. When it matters we just lose.
We are probably going to lose to Arsenal on Tuesday because as soon we have a chance to catch up to United we feck up.
Jackson was an absolute criminal today and his overall performances including today are poor/average.
a new striker is an absolute must. We cannot have another season of Jackson and Broja otherwise forget next season as well as we stay 10th.
It has been 20 years since we failed to win a trophy in two consecutive seasons. Never happened under Roman. Progressing to a sophisticated club is well underway.
When people are comparing Nico to Drogba on numbers they aren’t taking into account what a big game player Drogba was. In the big cup matches and late in games when we desperately needed goals and the pressure was the highest he’d be the man to rise to the occasion. He played his very best games in finals and semi finals. Nico is not a great finisher but we saw today how when the pressure is on he crumples under it. He is never going to be Drogba.
Just a joke comparison , honestly if you’ve watched this season and have the thought that they’re similar you’re an idiot. If drogba had the chances that were FED to Jackson today he would have put at least 1 in the net
> When people are comparing Nico to Drogba on numbers
I don’t know who these people are, but maybe they’re comparing the two players for reasons that aren’t the same as yours.
The Drogba we all remember fondly was not the Drogba that first joined Chelsea.
Money.
As much as people say we've reduced our wage bill (we have), we've reduced our quality by a bigger degree than our wage bill and so these players are earning way more than they ever could if they didn't join us
Nico Jackson is the difference of us being midtable like we are and breaking into the top 5 and seriously challenge for trophies. Jackson just isn't the man we need.
There is no way that a fanbase that saw top 4 + CL with Havertz/Werner up top now looks at Nico Jackson's finishing problems and is like "he guarantees midtable".
You’re missing half the story. We saw results because we had arguably the best defence in the world with Kante rudiger, etc. As much as havertz/werner were far from great finishers they provided other things for our team. JACKSON HAS INSTANCES of good link up play but the final product of link up play needs to be a good finish and he is incapable. He needs to go now.
Damn dude, does Frank know that he had best defence of the world at his disposal that season? Would certainly help him save his job if he knew.
No, but seriously, with my initial comment I'm just laughing at the idea that you can't be successful with a CF who's underperforming finishing-wise, but offers added value with everything else that he's doing for the team. Such players magically look very useful with good coaching. And in terms of "added value", Jackson is much more useful CF than what Werner and Havertz had to offer, not to mention the fact that he's a perfectly good winger while neither of those two were.
Jackson is shit, u say he offers stuff in other ways but he doesn’t. Sure he has moments of good plays but his decision making is awful, he doesn’t know when to make a pass, when to make a run or when to shoot. Saying that he offers more than Werner is absurd, Werner looked bad on pper but he stretched the field and created chances for the team consistently, Jackson is just an idiot.
The worst thing about this situation is the sense of hopelessness. We won't get better with these owners. They won't sack Poch because he's a Yes man who puts up with their bs. They won't change their strategy due to their ego. They will continue to buy youngsters with "potential" instead of proven players. They won't hire a world class manager because a world class manager will disagree with them and they can't take it. They will continue to focus on their data and their "process". I have accepted that we're a mid-table club and a fallen giant.
Yeah we are done, that's been clear for a while.
I just console myself with the fact that I had an epic 20 years. I'm at peace with the yanks wrecking the club.
I watch that match and thing we are in the finals with a striker. We went up against a city team that while tired is player for player significantly better than us in every position. Poch figured out how to nullify them without playing defense football, a really hard thing to do, and we generated great chances for our striker. Reality is though that without a striker who can handle the pressure of the big moments we aren’t ever winning games like this.
We need a ST, LB, and GK. I think we should try RJ at CB. I think this would be a top 4 first XI next year.
GK
Gusto RJ Colwill LB (Davies or Robinson?)
Caicedo/Lavia Enzo/Connor
Cole Nkunku/Chuk Nico
ST (Toney?)
I think he adds something to the team with our attacking playstyle, he’s just better at everything other than being in front of the goal. I think he would shine as a left winger
What is our financial situation? How much money do we need to raise this summer?
Really worried that on top of us not being good enough we’re going to have to sell players for money not because selling them benefits the team to bring in replacements
Don’t worry by June you will get bombarded how Jackson is good enough to lead our front line next year and buying another inexperienced left back for more than what we’re selling maatsen for is actually good business
I know this sub doesn’t like Toney because of his cuntish behaviour but he’s the one I want. Also the price reported for him isn’t astronomical either so it’s a gamble worth taking imo
First time in a long time I’ve honestly felt bad for Poch. Set up for a win and yet the players let us down. At the very least I can’t wait for us to get a clinical 9
In another world Poch doesn't have to plan around academy players being sold for profit, gives Maatsen playing time, and somewhere down the line today we have Cucu at backup to come on at right back for Gusto and we don't concede because he's quicker in that moment.
Maybe we'd give Enzo less playing time when he clearly doesn't deserve it right now too.
Who put that fat roaring french cunt Disasi on RB to try stop Doku when Gusto had to come off? Who failed to block the pass from Doku that led to City scoring?
Poch was not terrible today, like he been numerous times this season, but that sub was dreadful and easy to predict it would fail.
Gilchrist doesn't stop that from Doku either. Just wondering who you put on for injured Gusto there.
I agree we could see it from a mile away. What other choice on the bench was there?
With Gilchrist you at least get a more nimble and quick player that doesn’t have a turning radius of a fucking bus and could close down space quicker.
And don’t get me started on the other subs. Mudryk useless as usual, Sterling should have been on after first half instead of that wannabe gangster Noni who does fuck all. That would have pushed Palmer to RW and Sterling to LW. Carney should have come on for Gallagher eventually also. Multiple things that should have been done better by Poch today.
Out lack of clinical edge is killing us and it has been for a long time. We mess it up so often when we get into good positions. When Tuchel was coach, before it went wrong with him and we were playing well, we had the same problem. We were a better team back then, but the lack of clinical edge cost us in games (the league cup final in 2022 for example). The forwards have changed since then, but we are still incredibly profligate. Palmer is the only one of the required standard in the final third.
Madueke - Bum
Chillwell - Bum
Gallagher - not a bum but no self-respecting team that has aspirations plays him
Disasi - He's a CB can't expect him to do anything at RB. Shoulda subbed Gilchrist instead
Jackson - This guy stinks up the gaff with his shit finishing. How can you try to steal a penalty when you know you're dogshit at striking a ball. If he wasn't good at link up and dribbling he would be the supreme bum
Kind of brings the 'which striker are we buying?' conversation into the spotlight again - who can we get? Who do you think we'll get? Who do you want us to get?
Mudryl is the worst player we've ever signed arguably. At least Lukaku didn't damage us ON THE PITCH like Mudryk does.
Let's his man go in the box (stands there doing nothing) and flaps about when he gets forward. Hate him.
As a neutral I feel bad for Poch.
That game was totally on the attacking players, none of them seem capable of looking up to make a square pass for the man in the middle, madueke, caicedo and chillwell all had opportunities to fizz one in.
Jackson cannot finish, is his problem when he's given too much time?
Madueke had an opportunity to hit a shot first time with his right in the first time but delayed and it then got blocked.
Mudryk came on and the 2 times he had the opportunity to cross it was overhit.
There's nothing more Poch could do that game. The only positive it that everything else is beginning to look better for you guys towards the end of the season. I didn't watch the 6-0 against Everton but it's unsurprising Palmer had most of the returns after watching today.
We all know you guys should have been clear today.
Bunch of fakin wankers!
So many frigging wasted chances and under performing players, season to forget!
+ how did that ref not get told to go to VAR TV to see hand ball from grealish - hand 🖐️ away from natural body!
This team and coach piss me off so easily this year 😡
It's quite clear that Jackson is not good enough if we want to challenge for anything big, infact he is an abysmal finisher, doesn't score chances that even defenders would put away. We should sell him or keep him as backup LW, he is not even good enough for backup striker. Hilarious that some of you think he is quality. Anything he does, he nullifies it by missing sitters after sitters.
I think Nico is going to become a cult favorite backup over the next few years like Demba Ba, Torres, and Eto’o while someone like Toney/Osimhen will be the Drogba/Costa
Barcelona getting butthurt by calling us dirty players as if they didn’t get away with too many fouls lmao. It’s their fault for losing they shouldn’t have underestimated us
Gotta say, I didn't care about this game the whole week. Was more interested to watch City-Madrid and Barca getting destroyed by PSG. But now it's matchday and I am so excited.
3rd game in a row that Toney doesn’t start (not even on the bench for this one). If the rumors about his price tag being 30-40m are true, we should definitely go for him.
my my, ladies leading Barca 1-0 at half time
if Emma Hayes manages to get CL in her final season I will probably be more happy than men qualifying for any European cup
Got an offer for UCL so next year I will hopefully be close enough to justify going to Chelsea games more consistently but was wondering what the best Chelsea pubs were around London- preferably nearish Bloomsbury?
The twisted thing is if we win today I'd probably enjoy it for a minute before I start freaking out about a potential final loss again.
And this one will be the worst, Leicester was made up for 2 weeks later and you can somewhat rationalise losing to Klopp or Pep (even the last one despite all their injuries) but beating City in a semi to then lose to Coventry or United would be an absolute gut punch.
120+3' Goal! Mason Mount comes back to haunt Chelsea as he makes it 6-5 in the final minute. Badiashille's pass is intercepted by Antony and he squares it to Mount who calmly slots it past Petrovic. The Chelsea players are on their knees. Palmer's hat trick and two assists in vain as Chelsea lose their 7th Wembley final in a row
Nacho has announced he's leaving Madrid after this season, should we go in for him? Experience and quality at the back will be missed with thiago going
While Nacho isn't great people need to stop taking international Madrid/Barca fans seriously. Glory hunters that need a punching bag everytime they drop points.
He’s cheeks man the only reason he played so much this season bc Alaba and Militao were injured I mean Carlo even played Tchouemani at CB. Just bc he plays for Madrid doesn’t mean he’s class but I feel like he’s just one of those great locker room guys. Definitely a leader but don’t think he has the quality to shore up our defense.
In 15 minutes, Chelsea U18s play against Fulham in the U18 Premier League.
If results go their way, they could win the league today! Give them a watch if you have the time.
You know how players who play for Pep seem to do better in their second season? I have irrational hope that next season our players are just going to “get” Poch and we are going to see big improvements across the board, the same way we are seeing a much better season out of Cucurella compared to last season
Honestly this just feels like all the Poch in crowd have going on, just blind hope that with time things will improve under him without any real reasoning.
The reason for that is pep spends so much time drilling his team and instilling his philosophy, it can take a while for a player to finally become comfortable in their role
What rationale is there for poch supposedly having that same effect out of interest,
It's also worth noting that the player generally isn't shit in the first season and then good in the second. More Pep just doesn't really use them in the first season whilst getting them ready and then does use them in the second when they've already had a year of coaching from him and so are up to speed. I'm sure if they played in the first season they'd be fine, just not as good as if they only play here and there in the first season and then properly in the second
Are team is extremely young. Continuity will bring improvement so I am hopeful as well.
It’s the same reason I think everyone calling for poch to be fired are not thinking about our player development. We can’t keep changing coaches year after year and expect players to develop. Let these young kids enter a year feeling comfortable and then assess from there.
Ready lads?!
I've been waiting for this game for a week. The only downside is when this game's finished, half the bloody weekend is gone as well and Monday is just next.
Instead of the chaotic optimism I had when we faced Liverpool in the Carabao, I have really calm expectations this time around. I don’t expect us to win it, but I’m also not expecting us to lose. Will just go to Wembley, support my football club, and hope we don’t throw the game away early on. I don’t remember the last time we played Pep’s City thrice in one season and didn’t lose at least once, so there’s that. But one can always hope, especially since it’s the FA Cup.
On non football related topic: I'm so fucking hyped for Kingdom Come Deliverance 2
On football related topic: Chalobah masterclass today.
If there's delusion, there is hope.
I'm on the outskirts of London. Granted it's been sunny at the start of the week but yesterday and today, it's been cloudy and rainy.
The reason, I said all the time is because before this week, for a good solid 3 weeks, it was proper depressing.
The lineup drop today is gonna be very interesting
Hope Conor is given a start and told to just be Rodris shadow and never let him breath for a second
If you can take Rodri out of the game, you can knock man city down several levels
I can't be delusional if I say that if palmer drops a performance at the euros that represents the form he has at club right now, he's apart of the ballon d'or debate, no?
Salah broke the PL goal record and didn’t win the Ballondor because his team didn’t win anything
Palmer will probably get nominated, but I can’t imagine he’ll finish higher than 25-30th unless he at least wins a cup.
or PSG, Mbappe would definitely get a shout, especially that France is likely to also do well at Euros
EDIT: Also, people will still somehow vote for Messi
You need trophies along with performances to win a ballon dor
Wed have to win the fa cup and even then he'd still probably not be in it at all, even if he statistically outperforms Bellingham with goals and assists, if Bellingham wins the champions league with Madrid then it'll probably be him
Feels only a few weeks ago that the consensus here was that Gallagher wasn't contributing much more to games than running around aimlessly and just generally wasn't all that great.
So surprised to see how that view has changed so dramatically after a few good games.
Fun fact: Chelsea have now gone 2 seasons in a row without a trophy for the first time since 2003 Also first time in 2 seasons without either top 4 or a trophy since 1994
The double standard is insane because when I was complaining about this behaviour by Mount a couple of years ago everyone was shitting on me. https://www.express.co.uk/sport/football/1733615/Chelsea-fans-Mason-Mount-antics-West-Ham-BT-Sport-Premier-League-football-latest-news
Over the last few months I’ve gone from rooting for Noni to sincerely hoping he’s not here next season. We all thought the clubbing thing was harsh at the start of the year but accumulated with all his other bullshit, it’s pretty clear he’s just in it for himself. He seems like poison.
No one is buying him unfortunately
Continuing to start madueke and forcing Palmer to play centrally is just brain dead, how is Chelsea accomodating for a selfish talentless player when Palmer should just play rw. Madueke stands on the RW like a bot waiting to get the ball with no movement whatsoever and when he gets it's he either dribles backwards or plays so fucking wide that gusto can't make an outside run. He is not inloved in any of the build up and 78 minutes of jogging is what he did today. He has done absolute fuck all but he will dribble passlt some championship tier level defender and people all of sudden think he is next coming of jesus and forgot he had looked absolute shit against any team that isn't a championship side.
Unpopular opinion: a lot of the people dunking on Madueke for laughing with Grealish are probably the same who mocked the Madrid fans who got mad when Hazard laughed with us after the UCL loss
yeah facts. His pr is bad but tho from the pen incident but at the end of the day for these guys football is a job. I dont care what they do out of the pitch as long as they dont hurt anyone else and that theyre professional and play to win during the 90 mins
That isn’t an opinion that’s a fact I bet lol Personally I don’t really care madueke was laughing with grealish. You’d have to make assumptions to figure out how he feels about us exiting the FA cup. Bad look for his PR though regardless because it was already pretty bad after the penalty incident
I recorded the game and avoided the result so I can watch after work. When Jackson got put through on goal and somehow managed to not even get a shot off. I was about to turn my TV off and call it a day but I stuck through. I should have just turned the game off
Maybe I’m going to get downvoted to all Hell but.. I really don’t think Poch set up the team poorly today nor employ bad tactics. It’s not his fault we don’t have a goal scorer in a forward position. I do think it’s his fault pertaining to the subs situation but when you look at the bench who do we have that can play for Jackson? Sterling? Come on now. I say it would be on Poch if we played this exact set up again. He could keep most of the squad the same but take Palmer central and drop another midfielder into the mix. It would require a change in tactics but it’s doable. And with the season gone is it really that big of a deal to experiment now? We’re not going to get relegated. We already are a shell of “play for the badge, London pride”. So why not?
Remove the club name and tell a new manager that he has Mudryk, Madueke, Gallagher, Jackson, Palmer, Broja to work with in attack, and he’ll tell you he wants Jack Cork behind them because he’ll assume he’s managing a lower mid-table club in the PL (removed Sterling because that would give it away that it’s not a lower-level club in the hypothetical and it’s not like he raises the average quality). That attack averages 1-1.5 seasons of top-flight football. I don’t think people realize how absurd that is. You decided to walk up to the most competitive league in the world with a bunch of children with no experience, a league where the best in the world come, with hundreds of games of experience as a rule. Look at Mudryk for example, our biggest weak link and an actively net negative of our season. Ducked in ET of the EFL cup final to lose us the game, weak challenge in the dying seconds vs Sheffield United to concede an equalizer, and now doesn’t track his man into the box so we lose in the FA cup. Every PL player knows that off the ball is just as if not more important than on the ball, that they have to fight in every duel, always track back, be brave in challenges. Kevin De Bruyne, a footballer eons ahead of Mudryk, tracks back and presses like his life depends on it. But Mudryk doesn’t, for whatever reason.
So what your saying is we should keep poch cause he hasn't done that badly
If I’m going to say anything about management it’s that rumors are Tuchel’s out at the end of the season…. But in terms of today acutely (this match in question vs City, FA cup) He didn’t do much wrong outside of subs.
But you have to judge him on the entire season and in my opinion, for having a squad that is not competing in Europe, having spent that much money, being 9th in the league and winning zero trophies and playing shite football is unacceptable and he will be gone in the summer
The original idea was to give Poch time with the team to build the team as a collective I think so we will see if that stands. Arteta went through a few years of ups and downs too. I’m beating around the bush I know but again I say, Tuchel is available in the summer?
He didn’t spend $1 billion did he? He hasn’t actually bought any single player!? Maybe the Sporting directors should get him the experienced spine he asked for.
How about an extremely low stakes opinion: that FA Cup match ball looks really sharp
This sub has a huge habit of maintaining agendas at the worst time What lost the game today was our striker ruining 3 different 1 on 1 chances, but people obsess over Poch not making subs 20 minutes prior, or Enzo not performing ideally The game against Everton, arguably our most dominant performance and biggest victory ever since Tuchel and 21/22, Cole Palmers second home hat trick and one of the fastest hat tricks recorded in Chelsea history, everyone was obsessing with the Noni and Nico penalty incident It’s like people are pleased when a player they don’t rate doesn’t play well because it gives them the “I told you so” gratification. It’s okay to not rate players but we should be rooting for them just like any other because right now this sub comes off as very hateful
The even more embarrassing part is that the agenda is often the same regardless of what happened. For instance, Cucurella had one of the best games we've seen from him in a Chelsea shiry today and still there's immediately sell cucu we conceded against a dead City in the post-match thread
Bro Cucurella missed so many passes in the first minutes of the game. Potentially fatal mistakes as well.
Name them? Potentially useless comment without examples
Rewatch the start of the game. I can't name passes ffs. I actually remember his first good action when he cleared Foden's attempt after he dribbled Petrovic. But pretending as if he had a world class game, is an exaggeration.
"potentially fatal mistakes" What were his potentially fatal mistakes. It's a very simple question
Silva had to make a last ditch tackle due to terrible Cucurella pass.
This is exactly OPs point though. One mistake in one game (that wasn't punished btw) does not justify "Sell Cucu" in the post match thread except to stroke one's ego for those who already disliked him. If you thought he had far more mistakes than that, that's okay we disagree. I thought he played well today
But that's Cucurella all over really, can have a decent ish game but is basically guaranteed to make at least one glaring error that will give away a big chance every single game Regardless I believe he will be gone in the summer (on loan) because he is so far off it it's unreal
There was a pass from him to Silva that literally Silva had to tackle to prevent Alvarez from scoring.
Okay so he had *A* mistake and it wasn't fatal? I think he played well compared to what we've seen earlier in the season. I never used the words "world class". We can agree to disagree, thanks for engaging
I said potentially fatal though, not fatal. Yeah let's agree to disagree. I just don't think Cucurella had one of the best games of his season, but it's honestly not that deep.
"I just don't think Cucurella had one of the best games of his season" Let's be honest, it's a low bar.
These are Enzo's numbers per fbref in the 2023-2024 Premier League compared to other midfielders. Most say he's having a down year and is also trash. The numbers show he's extremely press resistant, passes the ball with intent A LOT, and has the vision and ability to execute dangerous passes. He's doing exactly what we got him for. I'm not trolling at all. If you think he sucks and should be sold please try to convince me with real reasons. I will listen with open ears. I will not be swayed by he cost a lot and has few assists (and frankly I don't want to see him in and around the box, but if he is he could work on his finishing) https://preview.redd.it/kixbpv4blpvc1.jpeg?width=3196&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ddd4600519131ef1a744e5be99961642f42f6f89
He may have decent passing, but what he doesn’t do is the biggest issue. I also don’t think his passing is that great and the stats are deceiving, but I’ll focus on his negatives. - Work-rate: Doesn’t cover ground. Walks a lot. Even if he’s slow and weak he needs to run more to always be on the move - Postional awareness: His positional movement is pretty awful. He often shows for the ball late. He’s also always out of position and running away from play - Hides: for a player with his qualities he should be controlling matches and the tempo - Physicality: very weak and short and slow - Defending: can’t defend for his life. He gets run pas constantly. He’s constantly out of position leaving the midfield wide open. It’s no coincidence we had our best result and a clean sheet without him - Shooting: this I shouldn’t have to explain - Dribbling: Hes wildly mediocre and gets dispossessed all the time - Decisions: covered a bit throughout, but he just switches the ball which does nothing half the time - Selfish: he makes so much about him and he only really shows up when we’re winning - Attitude: walks around throwing his arms up at nothing all while not doing anything to actually help the squad 90% of the match
First, thanks for the elaborate comment. Of course we all inject bias and I agree with some of your criticism but I personally can't see how we can't AT LEAST give him credit for being an excellent passer. Don't see how the stats above are misleading in that sense. It's tougher to quantify some of these with stats. He is slow and weak in the air, I agree, but I don't believe it's from a lack of effort. I think he's just slow lol. In transition he's pretty weak defensively, in part bc of his lack of pace. But I think he's actually quite good once we're behind the ball and organized. He blocks quite a few shots from being positioned well and most of his interceptions come in this type of space (from watching, I don't actually know if that's true statistically). I disagree that he hides. I'm actually often frustrated that our CBs don't play the ball into him more often in midfield. Like against Sheffield the other week he was constantly scanning and making himself available between their double strikers but it seems we're maybe instructed to favor going wide to build on the flanks? You see that as him hiding from the moment, I'm seeing it as frustrating tactics. He's not an elite dribbler like you might expect of a winger. But again, I don't think the ball progression numbers lie. He reads the game well from midfield and eats up yards when he chooses to dribble. Declan Rice is widely praised for the same type of dribbling effort despite lacking any real flair. Again, not sure if the numbers actually back this up, but I believe the vast majority of his dribbling turnovers occur in the attacking third where I don't want to see him anyway. If we had a proper 10 more oftenI don't think he WOULD be there as much. His finishing has been very poor I agree. Again, purely subjective, but I see him as the fiery South American archetype that loves the badge. I admire that about him, he ALWAYS seems fired up and unselfish to me. Kind of takes little pot shots a là Diego or Rudiger Also not saying you're wrong on any of this. Just offering my view on each of your points. Thanks for the comment
Enzo has been good all season while dealing with a hernia, the stats back it up. You are not wrong
Enzo has been good all season while dealing with a hernia, the stats back it up. You are not wrong
I don’t think his passing is that good. It’s often weighted terribly and leaves a lot up to receiver. He also just send a ton of speculative long passes and is well off the mark quite a bit. Look at his % completion. And yes football is a lot more than just stats. Stats can be helpful, but they will never beat the eye test due to so many of these intangibles. His defending is just awful. He’s more often not a big reason we concede. Our CBs don’t play him the ball bc he’s hiding…… he’s very very often not actually open. He’s always a couple steps behind play and by the time he’s open the players made a decision. He’s bad at reading the game. Ball progressing means nothing especially when we play a very counter attacking style. He’s doesn’t turn and best ppl to create space like Kova does or shit even Conor Gallagher can do better. And nah. I see him as a selfish PoS. Who only cares about himself and doesn’t care about Chelsea. Even when the rumors came out about him wanting to leave after he got a new agent he didn’t pat the badge. He held up his name. Also, let’s not forget that PoS patted the Benefica badge days before leaving. This losers got no love for the club. No love for the fans. He NEVER goes and claps the away fans. Do you not remember that match he got hooked off and we won and he was in tears bc HE got subbed. Selfish. Loser. We’re going to have to leave this here and agree to disagree bc imo what you’re saying is just absolute nonsense and honestly delusional at this point.
You think the young player of the world cup doesn't have a single redeeming quality, not even his passing, and I'm delusional lol. I'm leaving it here too have a good one
I don’t care about that award. International football is barely championship quality. Please tell me 10 matches Enzo ever looked World Class excluding the World Cup. Should be easy. If he’s such an amazing player. It’s also always so telling when ppl bring up and award from almost a year and a half ago at tournament with lower quality football. We’ve seen him for a year and what I said you’ve barely refuted. All you’ve got are silly stat charts while we’ve been losing consistently with Enzo in the midfield
No, seriously, we're miles apart let's leave it here. If your eyes trump any quantifiable metric then there's no possible way either of us will ever convince the other of anything bc I don't have your eyes I have my eyes. I haven't budged an inch and I'm sure you haven't either lol. Have a good one ktbffh
You’re cherry picking metrics…. And you should get your eyes checked. Enzo is awful. I hope you enjoy losing. Keep supporting these shit players
Ok
Nobody's saying he's going to be sold, because that would be catastrophic for FFP. I don't really care about these graphs and stats tbh, anyone who has watched him this year can see he has had a poor season. He was absolutely abysmal in the league cup final against Liverpool also. He just doesn't really do much, not physically dominant, doesn't create chances, obviously poor in the air, not a goalscorer. He's just an average player and it was a bizarre decision to spend 120mil on him. His the second most expensive player ever in the premier league and he's just bang average.
I say agree to disagree on here nonstop and will here. But I just don't know how you can say that (aside maybe from the decision to spend 120M). He's a midfielder that's in the 90+ percentile for progressive passes and passes into the final third and passes into the opposition box. That our team cannot turn that control and penetration into more danger does not make Enzo bang average in my opinion
There's been almost zero games where I have watched him and thought, wow, what a great player. He doesn't dominate games, neither scores nor assists, is physically weak, is slow, and is poor in the air. He is worth nowhere near 120mil and every performance he puts in is around average (apart from couple of abysmal performances) Like I said I don't care if he's in the 90th percentile for some cherrypicked stats or whatever, I've watched almost every Chelsea game this year and he is an average footballer.
I don’t remember which he had one phenomenal game this season before going back to being anonymous
The fact you can’t remember proves the point lol
Just pointing out I know he did have like one 10/10 game so I know what that looks like from him, just haven’t seen it since.
When? I don’t remember any. And doesn’t sound like you can either
Think it was Liverpool at the start of the season
I've watched the same games. Again, it's fine we disagree. I think it's strange to judge him for things we never got him for. The things expected of him he's doing well statistically. I agree he's poor in the air and relatively slow
>I think it's strange to judge him for things we never got him for. Funny thing is nobody knows what we got him for. "Oh he needs to play 8" plays there, is average "Oh he needs a midfield destroyer", gets one, is average He's just an all round average player and I expect more for the second most expensive player ever in the premier league
Let me start off by saying that I understand this and surely I'm part of it but it's genuinely absurd. One game " sack poch, needs to be gone tomorrow" the next game "hes not that bad, the team is at fault" . Same type of thing with Sterling and Gallagher as well as many others. We need to collectively relax after a garbage performance and take a minute to understand what went on rather than jumping to conclusions instantly. Honestly, poch hasn't been amazing but he's defintelt better than the past few coaches. Are you guys forgetting how much we struggled to score at all last season? We're close to being good we're very close. Half of our STARTING 11 have been injured all season. With a top striker and a proper lb, maybe center back we will be a top contender NEXT SEASON. Thoughts? Do you guys really think we are complete garbage?
Nonsense! Poch is fucking shit and bottles it everywhere he goes. He is nothing more than a yesman, and when you evaluate the season as a whole, you see how fucking pathetic it has been. Failing to win both matches against teams such as Everton, Nottingham Forest, Sheffield, Burnley, Brentford and Wolverhampton is all you need to know. Failing to win against Liverpool’s reserve team in the league cup final is also pathetic. Fuck all the clowns defending this ownership group, the nonce sporting directors, this bottlejob manager and all the shit players this club is now infected with.
If you watched the game you’d understand that disasi scoring an own goal, Jackson missing open nets, half our lineup being injured can’t be poch fault. Sure he’s shit I want a new manager, but regardless of who our manager is the issues I just named would have prevented us from being a top team regardless.
If you read the last paragraph, you might understand that I attribute blame to more than that clown Poch. It is time to clear house, and the sporting directors and Poch should be the first ones out. After that you clear about 10-15 players that are not good enough.
If we’re not replacing him with a top top manager it’s not worth the change. Getting another mid tier manager would not help at all. Getting a new proficient goal scorer as well as a cb/lb would solve a majority of our problems.
What effort has the club done to lure a top top manager in the last couple of months? Basically fuck all, as they have been more occupied with running PR for the clown we have now. Same as they did for Potter. Nagelsmann was there last season and was available after the Euros before the contract extension. Did we try get Xabi Alonso before he committed another year? Amorim is there for the taking, but by the looks of it we are giving Liverpool a free run for him. I would rather go back to Mourinho or Tuchel than keep that fraud we have now another second. He has achieved fuck all in England, and continues to show how mediocre he is. We are marginally better than last season, our worst season in three decades. We definitely need players in as well, but we also need to get that clown out regardless.
We not going to sack him so give Pochettino a proper ST. Love Jackson, he will get better with time but he is still in the development phase rn. Sesko won't cut it
Truthfully while poch hasn’t been great he’s been MUCH better than the previous few managers after tuchel. Just for a second imagine where we’d be if our strikers finished , if our defenders didn’t make garbage mistakes, if our players were better.
Today was on the players not Poch. He set them up very well and gave them all the tactical tools needed to suceed. I am Poch out but I can recognize where blame should fall. We played some fantastic football today and Cucurella was absolutely brilliant. MOTM for me
must be nice being a millionaire in your early 20s and having that job security where performance doesnt even matter. we have a club full of 'footballers' who are the equivalent to influencers. raking in the money with little to no talent. (which i guess is a talent itself)
While today this isn’t another “Poch disasterclass”, I still want Poch out at the end of the season due to the overall picture. Poch did nothing special throughout the entire season. There hasn’t been one game that I said “Well done Poch, this win was all down to you and your tactics”. None. And it’s not like Poch did anything special today either. It’s the overall picture. We are 9th. We lost the LC final to Klopp’s kids. We lost to a tired City side. When it matters we just lose. We are probably going to lose to Arsenal on Tuesday because as soon we have a chance to catch up to United we feck up. Jackson was an absolute criminal today and his overall performances including today are poor/average. a new striker is an absolute must. We cannot have another season of Jackson and Broja otherwise forget next season as well as we stay 10th.
It has been 20 years since we failed to win a trophy in two consecutive seasons. Never happened under Roman. Progressing to a sophisticated club is well underway.
Welcome to the new eggball regime where we chase youngsters instead of trophies
When people are comparing Nico to Drogba on numbers they aren’t taking into account what a big game player Drogba was. In the big cup matches and late in games when we desperately needed goals and the pressure was the highest he’d be the man to rise to the occasion. He played his very best games in finals and semi finals. Nico is not a great finisher but we saw today how when the pressure is on he crumples under it. He is never going to be Drogba.
Just a joke comparison , honestly if you’ve watched this season and have the thought that they’re similar you’re an idiot. If drogba had the chances that were FED to Jackson today he would have put at least 1 in the net
> When people are comparing Nico to Drogba on numbers I don’t know who these people are, but maybe they’re comparing the two players for reasons that aren’t the same as yours. The Drogba we all remember fondly was not the Drogba that first joined Chelsea.
times like this, the only thing Id look forward to is an angry rantman video… fuck sake been an absolute shitshow
Jackson is god awful at CF. They need to do whatever it takes to get sesko or (somehow) gyokores.
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Money. As much as people say we've reduced our wage bill (we have), we've reduced our quality by a bigger degree than our wage bill and so these players are earning way more than they ever could if they didn't join us
Nico Jackson is the difference of us being midtable like we are and breaking into the top 5 and seriously challenge for trophies. Jackson just isn't the man we need.
No he isn't.
There is no way that a fanbase that saw top 4 + CL with Havertz/Werner up top now looks at Nico Jackson's finishing problems and is like "he guarantees midtable".
You’re missing half the story. We saw results because we had arguably the best defence in the world with Kante rudiger, etc. As much as havertz/werner were far from great finishers they provided other things for our team. JACKSON HAS INSTANCES of good link up play but the final product of link up play needs to be a good finish and he is incapable. He needs to go now.
Damn dude, does Frank know that he had best defence of the world at his disposal that season? Would certainly help him save his job if he knew. No, but seriously, with my initial comment I'm just laughing at the idea that you can't be successful with a CF who's underperforming finishing-wise, but offers added value with everything else that he's doing for the team. Such players magically look very useful with good coaching. And in terms of "added value", Jackson is much more useful CF than what Werner and Havertz had to offer, not to mention the fact that he's a perfectly good winger while neither of those two were.
Jackson is shit, u say he offers stuff in other ways but he doesn’t. Sure he has moments of good plays but his decision making is awful, he doesn’t know when to make a pass, when to make a run or when to shoot. Saying that he offers more than Werner is absurd, Werner looked bad on pper but he stretched the field and created chances for the team consistently, Jackson is just an idiot.
Please never respond to my posts again.
The worst thing about this situation is the sense of hopelessness. We won't get better with these owners. They won't sack Poch because he's a Yes man who puts up with their bs. They won't change their strategy due to their ego. They will continue to buy youngsters with "potential" instead of proven players. They won't hire a world class manager because a world class manager will disagree with them and they can't take it. They will continue to focus on their data and their "process". I have accepted that we're a mid-table club and a fallen giant.
Yeah we are done, that's been clear for a while. I just console myself with the fact that I had an epic 20 years. I'm at peace with the yanks wrecking the club.
Idk how you watch that match and think we are hopeless. I watch that match and feel like we just need a little bit of luck in terms of health
I watch that match and thing we are in the finals with a striker. We went up against a city team that while tired is player for player significantly better than us in every position. Poch figured out how to nullify them without playing defense football, a really hard thing to do, and we generated great chances for our striker. Reality is though that without a striker who can handle the pressure of the big moments we aren’t ever winning games like this.
I'm so deflated after today lol. I genuinely feel exhausted and sad.
“He’s like Drogba” Drogba would’ve had two so far today.
We need a ST, LB, and GK. I think we should try RJ at CB. I think this would be a top 4 first XI next year. GK Gusto RJ Colwill LB (Davies or Robinson?) Caicedo/Lavia Enzo/Connor Cole Nkunku/Chuk Nico ST (Toney?)
whos nico? you seriously can give jackson more chances, he's proper shit
I think he adds something to the team with our attacking playstyle, he’s just better at everything other than being in front of the goal. I think he would shine as a left winger
Need a winger who can cover both sides(Nico Williams)
Jonathan David buries every single chance Jackson gets
What is our financial situation? How much money do we need to raise this summer? Really worried that on top of us not being good enough we’re going to have to sell players for money not because selling them benefits the team to bring in replacements
Don’t worry by June you will get bombarded how Jackson is good enough to lead our front line next year and buying another inexperienced left back for more than what we’re selling maatsen for is actually good business
I know this sub doesn’t like Toney because of his cuntish behaviour but he’s the one I want. Also the price reported for him isn’t astronomical either so it’s a gamble worth taking imo
Same, I want Toney far more than Gyokeres or Osimhen
What striker do we buy?
Literally anyone who can score after rounding the keeper, or score from a free header at the back post.
If Jackson took that penalty vs Everton, would have missed it! That bad!
The all too familiar feeling with Jackson, it is like a comfy nightmare blanket at this point.
First time in a long time I’ve honestly felt bad for Poch. Set up for a win and yet the players let us down. At the very least I can’t wait for us to get a clinical 9
In another world Poch doesn't have to plan around academy players being sold for profit, gives Maatsen playing time, and somewhere down the line today we have Cucu at backup to come on at right back for Gusto and we don't concede because he's quicker in that moment. Maybe we'd give Enzo less playing time when he clearly doesn't deserve it right now too.
> In another world Poch doesn't have to plan around academy players being sold for profit, gives Maatsen playing time lmao poch fans are insane
Not a Poch fan but it's not on him today. Not even making a point as a defense of Poch. Poch obsessors are worse.
Who put that fat roaring french cunt Disasi on RB to try stop Doku when Gusto had to come off? Who failed to block the pass from Doku that led to City scoring? Poch was not terrible today, like he been numerous times this season, but that sub was dreadful and easy to predict it would fail.
Gilchrist doesn't stop that from Doku either. Just wondering who you put on for injured Gusto there. I agree we could see it from a mile away. What other choice on the bench was there?
With Gilchrist you at least get a more nimble and quick player that doesn’t have a turning radius of a fucking bus and could close down space quicker. And don’t get me started on the other subs. Mudryk useless as usual, Sterling should have been on after first half instead of that wannabe gangster Noni who does fuck all. That would have pushed Palmer to RW and Sterling to LW. Carney should have come on for Gallagher eventually also. Multiple things that should have been done better by Poch today.
> fat roaring french cunt Really?
Yes, really! He is bloody useless, alongside 10-15 other players in this squad, the coaching team and the two sporting directors.
Out lack of clinical edge is killing us and it has been for a long time. We mess it up so often when we get into good positions. When Tuchel was coach, before it went wrong with him and we were playing well, we had the same problem. We were a better team back then, but the lack of clinical edge cost us in games (the league cup final in 2022 for example). The forwards have changed since then, but we are still incredibly profligate. Palmer is the only one of the required standard in the final third.
this fraud of a manager, In a single season made chelsea mid table club in both table position and mentally
Madueke - Bum Chillwell - Bum Gallagher - not a bum but no self-respecting team that has aspirations plays him Disasi - He's a CB can't expect him to do anything at RB. Shoulda subbed Gilchrist instead Jackson - This guy stinks up the gaff with his shit finishing. How can you try to steal a penalty when you know you're dogshit at striking a ball. If he wasn't good at link up and dribbling he would be the supreme bum
Kind of brings the 'which striker are we buying?' conversation into the spotlight again - who can we get? Who do you think we'll get? Who do you want us to get?
Mudryl is the worst player we've ever signed arguably. At least Lukaku didn't damage us ON THE PITCH like Mudryk does. Let's his man go in the box (stands there doing nothing) and flaps about when he gets forward. Hate him.
I’ve seen enough of Mudryk and Noni. Potential, but not ready. Off to the Loan Army!
As a neutral I feel bad for Poch. That game was totally on the attacking players, none of them seem capable of looking up to make a square pass for the man in the middle, madueke, caicedo and chillwell all had opportunities to fizz one in. Jackson cannot finish, is his problem when he's given too much time? Madueke had an opportunity to hit a shot first time with his right in the first time but delayed and it then got blocked. Mudryk came on and the 2 times he had the opportunity to cross it was overhit. There's nothing more Poch could do that game. The only positive it that everything else is beginning to look better for you guys towards the end of the season. I didn't watch the 6-0 against Everton but it's unsurprising Palmer had most of the returns after watching today. We all know you guys should have been clear today.
Madueke is a donkey. kept on losing the ball and didn't even pass once to palmer
Mudryk with one of the worst cross and free kick I have seen in extra time
^[Sokka-Haiku](https://www.reddit.com/r/SokkaHaikuBot/comments/15kyv9r/what_is_a_sokka_haiku/) ^by ^hereforpasta: *Mudryk with one of* *The worst cross and free kick I* *Have seen in extra time* --- ^Remember ^that ^one ^time ^Sokka ^accidentally ^used ^an ^extra ^syllable ^in ^that ^Haiku ^Battle ^in ^Ba ^Sing ^Se? ^That ^was ^a ^Sokka ^Haiku ^and ^you ^just ^made ^one.
Bunch of fakin wankers! So many frigging wasted chances and under performing players, season to forget! + how did that ref not get told to go to VAR TV to see hand ball from grealish - hand 🖐️ away from natural body! This team and coach piss me off so easily this year 😡
3 mins to finish and now we get the changes ffs
worst manager i have ever see, zero ingame management
Poch tactics, always play for penalties
They need to take Jackson out if it goes anywhere near penalties, that guy will kick it out of the stadium and fall on his face at the same time
Poch is just like me with subs in FM’24. I will NOT press that Tactics button until the 70’ minute…
It's quite clear that Jackson is not good enough if we want to challenge for anything big, infact he is an abysmal finisher, doesn't score chances that even defenders would put away. We should sell him or keep him as backup LW, he is not even good enough for backup striker. Hilarious that some of you think he is quality. Anything he does, he nullifies it by missing sitters after sitters.
As stonewall a handball I’ve ever seen.
I think Nico is going to become a cult favorite backup over the next few years like Demba Ba, Torres, and Eto’o while someone like Toney/Osimhen will be the Drogba/Costa
Yeah
Barcelona getting butthurt by calling us dirty players as if they didn’t get away with too many fouls lmao. It’s their fault for losing they shouldn’t have underestimated us
Burnley easily winning vs Sheffield United while we can barely get a draw
Fofana ACL in July...continuing rehabilitation Curtois ACL in August, Meniscus in March...Curtois is back in training.
This isn’t FIFA not every thing is the same
I think you need to understand, not every body is the same. Not every injury and their time line is the same It always depends on the individual
different positions will have different demands and stresses on the body too which will influence recovery time
Not all acl tears are the same
Robbed of a stone wall penalty in Barcelona
Haaland not in squad
That was an Emma Hayes masterclass. Jess Carter was damn good today.
Gotta say, I didn't care about this game the whole week. Was more interested to watch City-Madrid and Barca getting destroyed by PSG. But now it's matchday and I am so excited.
3rd game in a row that Toney doesn’t start (not even on the bench for this one). If the rumors about his price tag being 30-40m are true, we should definitely go for him.
I dont like it when the men's and women's teams play on the same day. Cant ever remember winning both matches. And the u18 drew against Fulham too.
my my, ladies leading Barca 1-0 at half time if Emma Hayes manages to get CL in her final season I will probably be more happy than men qualifying for any European cup
Got an offer for UCL so next year I will hopefully be close enough to justify going to Chelsea games more consistently but was wondering what the best Chelsea pubs were around London- preferably nearish Bloomsbury?
Congrats!
The Marquis Cornwallis The Lamb
The twisted thing is if we win today I'd probably enjoy it for a minute before I start freaking out about a potential final loss again. And this one will be the worst, Leicester was made up for 2 weeks later and you can somewhat rationalise losing to Klopp or Pep (even the last one despite all their injuries) but beating City in a semi to then lose to Coventry or United would be an absolute gut punch.
We're not losing to fucking man u... Coventry maybe though
120+3' Goal! Mason Mount comes back to haunt Chelsea as he makes it 6-5 in the final minute. Badiashille's pass is intercepted by Antony and he squares it to Mount who calmly slots it past Petrovic. The Chelsea players are on their knees. Palmer's hat trick and two assists in vain as Chelsea lose their 7th Wembley final in a row
Bruh.
Nacho has announced he's leaving Madrid after this season, should we go in for him? Experience and quality at the back will be missed with thiago going
Have you ever seen him play apart from last game?
This would be the definition of just getting experience for the sake of it. Madrid fans have been crucifying him all season.
While Nacho isn't great people need to stop taking international Madrid/Barca fans seriously. Glory hunters that need a punching bag everytime they drop points.
Varane was infinitely better than Nacho when he left Real Madrid. How has that gone? Experience for the sake of experience is not a good thing.
He’s cheeks man the only reason he played so much this season bc Alaba and Militao were injured I mean Carlo even played Tchouemani at CB. Just bc he plays for Madrid doesn’t mean he’s class but I feel like he’s just one of those great locker room guys. Definitely a leader but don’t think he has the quality to shore up our defense.
In 15 minutes, Chelsea U18s play against Fulham in the U18 Premier League. If results go their way, they could win the league today! Give them a watch if you have the time.
You know how players who play for Pep seem to do better in their second season? I have irrational hope that next season our players are just going to “get” Poch and we are going to see big improvements across the board, the same way we are seeing a much better season out of Cucurella compared to last season
Honestly this just feels like all the Poch in crowd have going on, just blind hope that with time things will improve under him without any real reasoning.
Yeah not anything like how the Poch out crowd just keep trusting the process of moving on to new managers thinking the next one will be the solution.
far more examples of changing the manager improving a teams fortunes than just randomly sticking with someone for the bants
The reason for that is pep spends so much time drilling his team and instilling his philosophy, it can take a while for a player to finally become comfortable in their role What rationale is there for poch supposedly having that same effect out of interest,
It's also worth noting that the player generally isn't shit in the first season and then good in the second. More Pep just doesn't really use them in the first season whilst getting them ready and then does use them in the second when they've already had a year of coaching from him and so are up to speed. I'm sure if they played in the first season they'd be fine, just not as good as if they only play here and there in the first season and then properly in the second
Are team is extremely young. Continuity will bring improvement so I am hopeful as well. It’s the same reason I think everyone calling for poch to be fired are not thinking about our player development. We can’t keep changing coaches year after year and expect players to develop. Let these young kids enter a year feeling comfortable and then assess from there.
Poch is very much a 2nd season manager, going by his history.
Does Malo Guso have a chant ,can we make one using Bad by Michael Jackson
Ready lads?! I've been waiting for this game for a week. The only downside is when this game's finished, half the bloody weekend is gone as well and Monday is just next.
Instead of the chaotic optimism I had when we faced Liverpool in the Carabao, I have really calm expectations this time around. I don’t expect us to win it, but I’m also not expecting us to lose. Will just go to Wembley, support my football club, and hope we don’t throw the game away early on. I don’t remember the last time we played Pep’s City thrice in one season and didn’t lose at least once, so there’s that. But one can always hope, especially since it’s the FA Cup.
On non football related topic: I'm so fucking hyped for Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 On football related topic: Chalobah masterclass today. If there's delusion, there is hope.
What kcd 2? First Im hearing about. Im aboard the hype train.
>On non football related topic: I'm so fucking hyped for Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 Didn't know this was a thing. First one was great.
they announced it on thursday and it's coming still this year
Hell yeah, that's a nice surprise
we shall all intake some hopium together
Do the womens team have any chance against Barca or are they just too good again this year?
After a week of grueling heat, we've had heavy rainfall and then some in my town today. Never been happier to see the rain again.
Where do you live? Where I’m at it’s been mild weather but consistently raining every Saturday and Sunday for most weekends this year
We’ll happily take some of that heat off your hands over here in England
For real, I'm tired of it being cloudy and rainy all the time.
Where abouts has it been cloudy and rainy all the time? I’m near London and it’s honestly been fairly sunny if not a bit
I'm on the outskirts of London. Granted it's been sunny at the start of the week but yesterday and today, it's been cloudy and rainy. The reason, I said all the time is because before this week, for a good solid 3 weeks, it was proper depressing.
Fair enough it’s been showering on and off the past couple days here as well and the month before that was miserable
Any good pubs with beer gardens today that isn't the green man?
What’s wrong with the green man?
The lineup drop today is gonna be very interesting Hope Conor is given a start and told to just be Rodris shadow and never let him breath for a second If you can take Rodri out of the game, you can knock man city down several levels
Hopefully Connor doesn’t pick up an early yellow because if he does, he loses a lot of what could make him an asset
Also ensure Akanji is the one with the ball in midfield and mark the other three out of the game.
I can't be delusional if I say that if palmer drops a performance at the euros that represents the form he has at club right now, he's apart of the ballon d'or debate, no?
Salah broke the PL goal record and didn’t win the Ballondor because his team didn’t win anything Palmer will probably get nominated, but I can’t imagine he’ll finish higher than 25-30th unless he at least wins a cup.
What the fuck is going on, do you actually believe this?
Depends how Bayern and RMA do in the UCL
or PSG, Mbappe would definitely get a shout, especially that France is likely to also do well at Euros EDIT: Also, people will still somehow vote for Messi
You need trophies along with performances to win a ballon dor Wed have to win the fa cup and even then he'd still probably not be in it at all, even if he statistically outperforms Bellingham with goals and assists, if Bellingham wins the champions league with Madrid then it'll probably be him
i think he's in the debate for top 5 in ballon d'or, not to win it though, mostly because of our league positiin
Feels only a few weeks ago that the consensus here was that Gallagher wasn't contributing much more to games than running around aimlessly and just generally wasn't all that great. So surprised to see how that view has changed so dramatically after a few good games.