The Chelsea FC Thread

[KimuraGod]

31 minutes ago, PAW said:

In regards to the transfer window, it has been an F.  It's obvious Conte agrees as well, he has been pissed at basically every presser when the situation has been brought up.  He didn't want to sell Matic or Chalobah, didn't want to loan RLC (who just looked impressive against Liverpool).

Going into the offseason, I thought we needed additions at ST (only due to Costa situation), AM, CM, LWB, and RWB.  Not just depth signing, starter caliber signings at all those positions (while keeping most of our squad as it was already pretty then).

Stiker

Morata in; Costa frozen out, Traore and Solanke out, Abraham loaned

Attacking Mid

Cuadrado out (don't really count this as he wasn't with us)

Center Mid

Bakayoko in; Matic and Chalobah out; RLC and Baker loaned

Wing Back

Aina loaned

Center Back

Rudiger in; Christensen back; Ake and JT out; Zouma loaned

GK

Caballero in; Begovic out

-I haven't seen anywhere near enough of Rudiger or Bakayoko to form an opinion.  From what I have read on Bakayoko, he is very athletic and likes to carry the ball forward.  I worry about the creativity of a Kanta/Bakayoko pairing.  My fear is your dependent on Hazard creating everything again due to the center mids not being able to.

-Morata is going to be really good, but don't understand getting rid of all the young talent (Solanke left).  I don't rate Batshuayi at all so we are basically completely dependent on Morata who while really good has never been a full time starter so not sure he will be able to handle all of the minutes.

-Not any worse at CB, Christensen is really good and I hope he starts.  I like Ake a lot and think he is better than Cahill, but that was never going to be a switch made so making a nice profit on him wasn't bad business.  Zouma looked great last week but needed consistent game time to recover fully so a good loan.

-Wing back transfer business just a disaster.  If we wanted to be competitive in the CL, both Alonso and Moses needed to be upgraded.  We've tried to sign a lot of wing backs and have had 0 success. 

-Center mid another disaster.  At best, Bakayoko will replace Matic.  That still leaves us 3 CM for 2 spots with Fabregas being incapable of playing in a 2 man midfield against any top 6-8 side without being a huge liability and Bakayoko being unproven.  There is no way I would've allowed Chalobah to leave (especially for the pathetic fee we got).  Letting RLC go out on loan with no depth is another awful decision, but I am not sure if Conte would've played him in midfield anyways.

-Attacking mid, similar to wing back, is a position we needed to upgrade in order to compete in the CL.  Pedro and Willian are not good enough starters, both very good depth players.  Completely reliant on Hazard again.  Traore could've provided depth here as well as striker. 

I really hope Conte doesn't bother trying to advance in the CL with the current squad.  He needs to put all emphasis on league performance again as it is going to be really hard to make the top 4 this year for everyone and we can't waste guys fitness in the CL when we have no shot.  The goal every transfer window should be to get better, not just to make like for like replacements (Ake/Rudiger; Bakayoko/Matic; Morata/Costa). Palmer, RLC, Zouma, Abraham, Brown all started last week as we can barely field a side.

Great post. Chelsea will always have that aura which generate wins consistently. They are a very good and well balanced team and last year everything went right. 

I do think that they manager/system is the strongest part of the team rather than the players. Obviously Hazard, Kante, Apzi etc are world class players but there's holes in the team which needed upgrading. 

The two wing backs are solid but not good enough at the highest level. Still think Conte will get two/three players in but like I said before the market is so bad right now. Good solid players are going for £40m plus. It's insane!

[Kip Smithers]

4 hours ago, PAW said:

It definitely contributed to conceding goals. We had like 65% possession until Cahill sent off, under 30% the rest of the half. The rest of the half was basically played on our end. Didn't have enough advanced players to hold on to the ball. 

 

Don't agree that Alonso or Azpi are assets going forward. Average at best in attack. Neither are dynamic.  Alonso is a good crosser, but that attribute is worthless when you can't possess the ball to get him in good crossing positions and hold on to the ball to get people into the box. Azpi offers very little going forward. 

I wouldn't have played with a RWB, but like I said if he was insistent on 3 in the back move Willian there or something against a team like Burnley. 

The only reason we dominated possession in the second half was because Burnley was up 3-0 and sat back and was fine giving us possession. Let's hope we could dominate possession when they let us. 

Not blaming the formation, I'm blaming the completely negative mindset after the red by Conte at home against Burnley. Teams like City, Man U, Spurs would still be creating down a man at home vs a team like that. 

If you look at all the goals, maybe except the second one, they were off defensive errors and nothing to do with shape. I'm not blaming him for not going aggressive after the sending off. Burnley didn't exactly sit back when we went down 10 men. It's not necessarily us going conservative. Plus there was so much time left in the game  for us to take control sooner or later

Azpi is good going forward. He plays CB now, he's not a wingback unless out of necessity. He's better going forward than you think. Alonsos crossing, albeit frustrating, is a help and he is able to cut inside went on the weakside and making runs in the box.

You put Willian wing back we have nothing centrally. And who do we take him off for.

 

[Kip Smithers]

4 hours ago, xenajets said:

I think with the exception of Matic you are right about it being mostly backups. But I have to disagree with your comment on this years team being better than last year. 

No chance that Morata and Bakayoko are an upgrade over Matic and Costa. Costa suited your team perfectly, as good as Morata is he doesn't offer you the qualities Costa does. 

Apart from Hazard I truely find it difficult to come up with any attacking players we would have to really gameplay for. I like Willian but he doesn't start. I'm not overly worried about Morata and Pedro although they are obviously good players. 

I think Conte needs to go out and bring in another attacking talent although this transfer window has been historically bad to find value. 

Bakayoko is better than or rather will prove to better than Matic. Same with Morata, though I think Bakayoko is an upgrade over  Matic. Morata may not have the same skills as Costa but that doesn't make him less. Morata offers more as a player.

We needed another playmaker last year and we need it even more right now due to injuries. I agree. But our core players are better. We have upgraded at CB. We upgraded in midfield and we have somebody who can be better than Costa.

[Kip Smithers]

4 hours ago, PAW said:

In regards to the transfer window, it has been an F.  It's obvious Conte agrees as well, he has been pissed at basically every presser when the situation has been brought up.  He didn't want to sell Matic or Chalobah, didn't want to loan RLC (who just looked impressive against Liverpool).

Going into the offseason, I thought we needed additions at ST (only due to Costa situation), AM, CM, LWB, and RWB.  Not just depth signing, starter caliber signings at all those positions (while keeping most of our squad as it was already pretty then).

Stiker

Morata in; Costa frozen out, Traore and Solanke out, Abraham loaned

Attacking Mid

Cuadrado out (don't really count this as he wasn't with us)

Center Mid

Bakayoko in; Matic and Chalobah out; RLC and Baker loaned

Wing Back

Aina loaned

Center Back

Rudiger in; Christensen back; Ake and JT out; Zouma loaned

GK

Caballero in; Begovic out

-I haven't seen anywhere near enough of Rudiger or Bakayoko to form an opinion.  From what I have read on Bakayoko, he is very athletic and likes to carry the ball forward.  I worry about the creativity of a Kanta/Bakayoko pairing.  My fear is your dependent on Hazard creating everything again due to the center mids not being able to.

-Morata is going to be really good, but don't understand getting rid of all the young talent (Solanke left).  I don't rate Batshuayi at all so we are basically completely dependent on Morata who while really good has never been a full time starter so not sure he will be able to handle all of the minutes.

-Not any worse at CB, Christensen is really good and I hope he starts.  I like Ake a lot and think he is better than Cahill, but that was never going to be a switch made so making a nice profit on him wasn't bad business.  Zouma looked great last week but needed consistent game time to recover fully so a good loan.

-Wing back transfer business just a disaster.  If we wanted to be competitive in the CL, both Alonso and Moses needed to be upgraded.  We've tried to sign a lot of wing backs and have had 0 success. 

-Center mid another disaster.  At best, Bakayoko will replace Matic.  That still leaves us 3 CM for 2 spots with Fabregas being incapable of playing in a 2 man midfield against any top 6-8 side without being a huge liability and Bakayoko being unproven.  There is no way I would've allowed Chalobah to leave (especially for the pathetic fee we got).  Letting RLC go out on loan with no depth is another awful decision, but I am not sure if Conte would've played him in midfield anyways.

-Attacking mid, similar to wing back, is a position we needed to upgrade in order to compete in the CL.  Pedro and Willian are not good enough starters, both very good depth players.  Completely reliant on Hazard again.  Traore could've provided depth here as well as striker. 

I really hope Conte doesn't bother trying to advance in the CL with the current squad.  He needs to put all emphasis on league performance again as it is going to be really hard to make the top 4 this year for everyone and we can't waste guys fitness in the CL when we have no shot.  The goal every transfer window should be to get better, not just to make like for like replacements (Ake/Rudiger; Bakayoko/Matic; Morata/Costa). Palmer, RLC, Zouma, Abraham, Brown all started last week as we can barely field a side.

First off, we don't keep players that don't want to be here. Solanke refused to sign a new contract and left. He isn't gonna start for Liverpool either. Chalobah wanted to leave and TBH he was never gonna be a starter, he's not good enough. He was depth. Ruben best position is behind the striker a la Barkley. You can't put him in a two man midfield. And he'd be at best 4th in line behind Willian, Hazard and Pedro and Fabregas (who Conte had plans to put him further forward). Ake we got nice profit but Christensen is better as is Rudiger. I agree Wingback is a concern. But we've tried in that area. We tried with Walker, Sandro and Danilo and we got spurned there. Zouma is not a fit for our style of play. He's a liability in possession. You only have to watch the City game.

What do you mean Pedro and Willian aren't good enough starters? They're very good players. They're good enough for CL. 

Traore could've provided another option in attack. I agree. 

Our summer has been poor I agree but that's a product of the transfer market. Conte isn't upset at the board, he's just annoyed at current climate. 

[PAW]

Bakayoko is a freak. To have no preseason and be able to go the full 90 in a game like that is extremely impressive.  

Conte is going to have a decision on his hands. Christensen was the best CB on the field. Outside of the early misjudged long ball, he was flawless. 

[Kip Smithers]

I take back criticism of Alonso. Despite his flaws, he has value for us

Edited August 20, 2017 by Kip Smithers

[Imarobot]

26 minutes ago, Kip Smithers said:

I take back criticism of Alonso. Despite his flaws, he has value for us

I don't understand why you were so hard on him in the first place. He was one of our best players in a title winning season. His free kick ability is world class and so is his crossing. He's strong in the air, has a good shot, and has an extremely high work rate. His only real weakness is that he doesn't have world class pace, but he isn't slow either. We certainly need more depth at wingback but I have no issue with Alonso starting.

[Kip Smithers]

20 minutes ago, Imarobot said:

I don't understand why you were so hard on him in the first place. He was one of our best players in a title winning season. His free kick ability is world class and so is his crossing. He's strong in the air, has a good shot, and has an extremely high work rate. His only real weakness is that he doesn't have world class pace, but he isn't slow either. We certainly need more depth at wingback but I have no issue with Alonso starting.

Nah. He's slow. My gripe with him is not only defensively against against pace but how he is in possession. He can be very sloppy and while he's got a great delivery, the timing of his delivery is always off. He is an asset for us that's for sure but we can upgrade 

[persiandud]

Can't suffer from recency bias just because Alonso had a masterful performance against Spurs (which was awesome) 

his position still needs upgrading. we have 8 days left! what in the world are we doing??? how can we compete in all of these competitions? this is ridiculous

would not be surprised at all if Conte leaves soon if we don't get some signings in 

[UKTexans]

1 hour ago, persiandud said:

we have 8 days left! what in the world are we doing???

Drinkwater and Vardy are inbound for £70m

[persiandud]

drinkwater lel 

[teamorange]

Just because Alonso isn't a big name doesn't mean he isn't great. He was fantastic last year as well. Chelsea just needs depth at pretty much every position

[Kip Smithers]

21 minutes ago, teamorange said:

Just because Alonso isn't a big name doesn't mean he isn't great. He was fantastic last year as well. Chelsea just needs depth at pretty much every position

I wouldn't call him great at all. He's solid and at times good. He is an asset to us. 

At CB, we are set. Wingback we need depth and possibly upgrades

[Kip Smithers]

4 hours ago, persiandud said:

Can't suffer from recency bias just because Alonso had a masterful performance against Spurs (which was awesome) 

his position still needs upgrading. we have 8 days left! what in the world are we doing??? how can we compete in all of these competitions? this is ridiculous

would not be surprised at all if Conte leaves soon if we don't get some signings in 

Why do people act like the board is refusing to sign players. Unless Conte is just demanding players at any cost, I don't see why he'd be angry at the board. The market is outta control and you've seen the teams around us signing the same amount players. And you see City spending crazy amounts of money. 

[LeeEvans]

I'm shocked by the amount of people who don't value Alonso. He's quality.