I think this goes back to the root of the problem at Chelsea. Player control. A select few players can do whatever they want. When they don't get their way they pout and stop trying until the manager is replaced. This worked for awhile because we had strong players who wanted to win. Drogba, Terry, lampard being the 3 main guys but even players like ballack, essien and Ashley Cole had a will to win. Chelsea's issue is that the select few players play regardless of performance while the other players get benched if they make one error or play one bad game. De Bruyne, cuadrado, miazga, and a host of other youth have been effected by this. Miazga makes a critical error and is pulled off at halftime. Confidence is almost certainly shattered. Rahman makes a big error, pulled at halftime and confidence shattered (I thought he looked shaky so I did actually agree with this one but he still looks shattered and I don't think it was handled right). Cahill, Ivanovic and Mikel can make unlimited errors and still stay on the pitch. What does that say about the club? I have looked into conte a lot and like what I see. A team that clearly needs to be rebuilt while not being able to offer champions league football is lucky to get a manager of his caliber. What I am concerned about it a) can he change the culture and b) can he work with out inept board to get the transfers in and out needed to speed up the rebuild
I feel pretty good about him being able to change A after reading up on him, B is going to have an impact on that however, as I think we might just have to move a few players to really bring about the desired change I would be pretty happy if I never had to watch Cahill again
Time to send them all out on loan while their careers go to shit. Reports coming out the past few days that Hazard wants to stay after meeting with Conte.
I think he's going to go to a bigger team. Just a matter of who and when. I doubt it is us. I know we swallowed our pride on the buyback of matic but lukaku would be a much more expensive mistake
Definitely some future professional footballers on that team but too early to tell who and if they can be Chelsea quality. Sucks that the 2 time defending youth champions league winners won't get to defend the title because our first team is shit Youth who could be Chelsea quality in my opinion Ola aina-RB Jake Clarke-Salter CB Andreas Christensen CB (not included below because his loan for next year is locked up) Jay dasilva LB Charlie Colkett CM Ike ugbo ST Youth who should start preseason with first team and at least show conte what they have in preseason Nathan ake LB Jake Clarke-salter CB Ruben loftus-cheek CM Lewis baker CM Charlie musonda LW/CAM (might be back on loan already) Jeremie Boga LW/CAM Izzie Brown CAM/LW/ST Kasey Palmer CAM/LW/RW Dom Solanke ST Tammy Abraham ST I might have missed someone but a lot of players that at least deserve a shot. Hopefully conte really does blood the youth. I think our fans can take losses if they are done with the future in mind. Watching £100k/week players in their prime giving 0 effort is what makes fans want to pull their hair out
Going to be fascinating to watch what happens with you guys this summer. Going to be a crazy summer over all. Chelsea, Liverpool and one of Arsenal-Citeh-United out of the champions league. And with Euros and Copa taking up huge swaths of the summer, there's going to be frantic movement at the beginning and the end.
I think we're all hoping for an overhaul, I assume Roman wants to splash money around and you kinda have to with the way the league is looking. Especially if Mourinho goes to Man U, next year will be insane with the combo of money, personalities, and talent in the EPL.
I am heading to the beach but once I saw the lineup without youth I cancelled my recording of the game
Played well but who gives a shit w/ no youth and inexcusable to only use the 1 sub. Fuck off Guus. RLC comes on and is instantly one of the best players on the pitch. Thought Baba started poorly then picked it up as the game went along. Whatever, let's go ruin Spurs' season.
Will be interesting to see if conte sticks to the 4-2-3-1 that doesn't seem to work, moves back to the 4-3-3 that Chelsea are known for or tries to build a 3-5-2 (or 3-5-1-1) that is is known for. Just for the sake of conversation I think this is what a 3-5-1-1 would look like for us GK courtois RWB cuadrado CB Cahill CB terry CB Ivanovic LWB baba DM Mikel CM cesc CM matic Off forward hazard Striker Costa I think an in form hazard could play as an off forward. The biggest holes in this lineup from a player standpoint are defense and DM. If you can get a truly elite DM, bring terry back and sign another CB at least until zouma is healthy I could see the lineup working. I think oscar is gone this summer anyway and Willian could possibly play next to cesc or even at RWB. The wingbacks in a 3-5-2 don't have to be quite as defensive which might truly unlock baba. He was such a good crosser and attacker in the bundlesliga. Just not a good fit for the defensive requirements Jose puts on his fullbacks
I have yet to be convinced that 3 at the back can win you a title in the league these days. Too much frenetic pace and most teams only playing w/ 1 striker. With Terry, Pato, Oscar, and Remy almost certainly gone and pretty good chance that Mikel and Matic go too you're looking at a total midfield rebuild. That said, I would love to see if Willian playing deeper and then either Pedro, Cuadrado, Kenedy, or someone knew (can Griezman play on the right?)on the non-Hazard wing. For the summer I think a striker to push Costa and play through his inevitable hamstring problem, 2 midfielders, a wide attacker (particularly if Cuadrado doesn't come back), 1 central defender, and at least 1 FB, maybe two. Like to see Mosunda, Kenedy, Traore, and Christiansen have first team roles next season as well. T-bo Dave - Cahill - Ivan - Baba New DM Cesc - Willy/RLC Pedro Hazard Diego
He's good, but not irreplaceable. Especially considering his on field antics and shit. When he is on form he is a top 4 striker in the league, but he has been a bit streaky this season. Injuries haven't helped.
Would totally depend on how they decided to replace him (and how much $ they got for him). If it's Icardi, Dybala, Lukaku, or Morata along w/ Traore that's fine. Not sure any of them will come b/c of no CL. If it's Higuian or someone else approaching their 30s, I'll be pretty pissed.
We searched for an adequate replacement for Drogba for far too long. We find one and we're ready to sell him off so soon? He's got his warts but replacing him will be difficult, especially without CL soccer. Hopefully Conte can keep him under control and in form.
hello, I am odin. one of the few black sheep bama fans. I also like chelsea quite a bit and have for years, but i thought after this season i could let that be known without seeming like a bandwaggoner. I know very little about soccer theory or strategy but i love watching the game. I became a chelsea fan back in 06 or 07 because I just loved the way Essien played. I'm hoping someday I can actually understand the sport rather than just watching it.
i'm going to follow the season much more closely next year, also this thread. hopefully that will help me learn the sport. all i know now is buy fifa, get ronaldo, give him the ball.
It will be an interesting offseason, the transfer market is essentially recruiting on steroids. No one knows what the squad will look like next year so may wanna read up on our new Italian overlord Antonio Conte whose taking over after the Euros in the summer.
Good stuff. I picked Chelsea because of Drogba so completely understand. Essien was incredible until injuries slowed him down. That goal against Barca in 09 is still an all timer for me. What a shame it was they lost that semifinal.
yeah my reason is just as lame, Chelsea was my FIFA team when I first starting playing and Drogba was my favorite player in the game. Led to following and watching more and more each year. Didn't really start watching every game until about 3 years ago.
Really excited to follow this transfer window, I hope we make some early moves so we can hopefully start to see Conte's plan From what I've read sounds like he has a pretty good idea of our weaknesses with athleticism in the midfield and defense
pretty glad I'm at work and not able to watch Honestly I was thinking about that the other day, we don't really have that talented of a squad.. I mean we have some talented players no doubt, but overall looking at the team today... it's not spectacular by any stretch