Mauricio Pochettino leaves Chelsea by mutual consent

[ozzie]

Pochettino is the very least of our problems right now. I don't envisage us getting anywhere near to challenging for the league any time soon so have no problem with him. I don't particularly rate him, he's not someone I would have wanted at any other time in our recent history but we are not where we once were.

I am of the opinion that we have some very, very good players. Our defensive unit, albeit half of them being broken is up there with the best in the league, special mention to Badiashille who I think is going to be world class and soon.

Caicedo and Enzo, wouldn't swap them for anyone. Always loved Gallagher. Other than that we are pretty light but the quality is there.

Sterling, Nkunku and Palmer are top, top quality. 

Others like Jackson,  Mudryk, Lavia, Big Les, Gusto are not only young but very inexperienced too but should make up perfectly usable squad players at least.

When I look at 

James Badiashille Colwill Chilwell

Enzo Caicedo

Palmer Nkunku Sterling

I see 9 out of 11 starting players that are without a doubt good enough for us to get back into the top 4. I'm not even that against Sanchez, as a goalkeeper to get us back into the champions league positions,  we just need to stop trying to play out from the back with him, every single time.

Obviously James and Chilwell are broken beyond repair but that's really not the managers fault and with Silva and Disasi we can use Colwill at left back. Gusto is more than adequate at right back.

I'm not suggesting all our problems are down to the lack of a proper striker, far from it but it would make one hell of a difference. 

We have some quality, quality individuals, with some good depth but some glaring holes. It's not a team to challenge for the title, neither is the manager BUT we are 17 games in and have had our fair share of bad luck with injuries and been unlucky with some of our results. What we are not is ' A team' and that comes down to what I have said, new manager, new players, a whole new club in reality.  Imagine if we had no injuries this year and some of our performances got the results they deserved. The building of 'The team' would have been much quicker and better. A more consistent starting 11 with all your best players available will always make a big difference and stating the obvious so would winning more games.

As much as I don't particularly rate or like Pochettino I think he is capable of doing the job he was employed to do and that is get us back into the champions league. Clearly not this season but with the right couple of additions and some patience, which I don't think he will get I am fairly confident next year we will be back up there. There is certainly not another manager out there that would be willing to come and stand a better chance of doing what needs to be done.

 

 

[flllerywhereru2]

2 hours ago, ozzie said:

Pochettino is the very least of our problems right now. I don't envisage us getting anywhere near to challenging for the league any time soon so have no problem with him. I don't particularly rate him, he's not someone I would have wanted at any other time in our recent history but we are not where we once were.

I am of the opinion that we have some very, very good players. Our defensive unit, albeit half of them being broken is up there with the best in the league, special mention to Badiashille who I think is going to be world class and soon.

Caicedo and Enzo, wouldn't swap them for anyone. Always loved Gallagher. Other than that we are pretty light but the quality is there.

Sterling, Nkunku and Palmer are top, top quality. 

Others like Jackson,  Mudryk, Lavia, Big Les, Gusto are not only young but very inexperienced too but should make up perfectly usable squad players at least.

When I look at 

James Badiashille Colwill Chilwell

Enzo Caicedo

Palmer Nkunku Sterling

I see 9 out of 11 starting players that are without a doubt good enough for us to get back into the top 4. I'm not even that against Sanchez, as a goalkeeper to get us back into the champions league positions,  we just need to stop trying to play out from the back with him, every single time.

Obviously James and Chilwell are broken beyond repair but that's really not the managers fault and with Silva and Disasi we can use Colwill at left back. Gusto is more than adequate at right back.

I'm not suggesting all our problems are down to the lack of a proper striker, far from it but it would make one hell of a difference. 

We have some quality, quality individuals, with some good depth but some glaring holes. It's not a team to challenge for the title, neither is the manager BUT we are 17 games in and have had our fair share of bad luck with injuries and been unlucky with some of our results. What we are not is ' A team' and that comes down to what I have said, new manager, new players, a whole new club in reality.  Imagine if we had no injuries this year and some of our performances got the results they deserved. The building of 'The team' would have been much quicker and better. A more consistent starting 11 with all your best players available will always make a big difference and stating the obvious so would winning more games.

As much as I don't particularly rate or like Pochettino I think he is capable of doing the job he was employed to do and that is get us back into the champions league. Clearly not this season but with the right couple of additions and some patience, which I don't think he will get I am fairly confident next year we will be back up there. There is certainly not another manager out there that would be willing to come and stand a better chance of doing what needs to be done.

 

 

Agree, I dont particularly warm to Pochettino but he is an experienced coach who is steady which is precisely what is currently needed. We will be unpredictable and lose some we shouldn't already have in fact but as long as we dont get drawn into the relegation scrap im cool with that.  We have on the face of it a favourable draw in a league cup semi so perhaps at least a final this season though when the draw was made i couldnt help think back a few decades to Sheffield Wednesday in 91 where we didnt turn up in either leg(us or the team) . But park that for now, this team can imprive in the second half of the season providing that there isnt too much disruption like signing players that dont add value to the squad or sacking the coach. Left to do his thing and we could end up with a top to middle finish and perhaps a domestic cup final/win...I would call that a success right now.

[jasonb]

2 hours ago, ozzie said:

 We have some quality, quality individuals, with some good depth but some glaring holes. It's not a team to challenge for the title, neither is the manager BUT we are 17 games in and have had our fair share of bad luck with injuries and been unlucky with some of our results. What we are not is ' A team' and that comes down to what I have said, new manager, new players, a whole new club in reality.  Imagine if we had no injuries this year and some of our performances got the results they deserved. The building of 'The team' would have been much quicker and better. A more consistent starting 11 with all your best players available will always make a big difference and stating the obvious so would winning more games.

As much as I don't particularly rate or like Pochettino I think he is capable of doing the job he was employed to do and that is get us back into the champions league. Clearly not this season but with the right couple of additions and some patience, which I don't think he will get I am fairly confident next year we will be back up there. There is certainly not another manager out there that would be willing to come and stand a better chance of doing what needs to be done.

I think we would be crazy to get rid of Poch before the end of this season and expect him to be there next season.

Now we have reached a cup semi with a good chance of reaching the final the squad will be uplifted, Nkunku coming back will also add more attacking quality.  Perhaps also our luck is changing as noticed Newcastle doubling up on Palmer now at least with Nkunku the opposition will be more concerned.

Our wider squad is reasonable just our starting 11 and predominantly with injuries holding us back.

Will be interesting to see where we look to strengthen this window.

 

 

 

[Rob B]

1 hour ago, flllerywhereru2 said:

Agree, I dont particularly warm to Pochettino but he is an experienced coach who is steady which is precisely what is currently needed. We will be unpredictable and lose some we shouldn't already have in fact but as long as we dont get drawn into the relegation scrap im cool with that. 

This👆🏼

In addition to experienced and steady, Poch is also the right personality for this young group.  Demanding, but calm and confident.  Never calls individual players out publicly, not hot-headed enough to say stupid, divisive things in the media and manages up the line okay.  You get the sense that the players like him too.   He is fine for the squad we currently have.

Furthermore, when you look at our games this season - our result shortcomings have predominantly come in two isolated periods - three games on the bounce against Forest, Bournemouth and Villa in September where we failed to score a single goal,  and then again a few weeks ago with the Newcastle, United and Everton games (2 goals in 3 games) 

This points towards a confidence/mentality issue that is inevitably not helped by having the youngest squad in the league (by 1.1 years lower than the next lowest and skewed further by a 39 year old Silva) 

One issue we do need to address however is the lack of goals.  20 goals in our last 10 is slightly better than the 15 goals in the 10 games prior, but still not good enough.  I think Jackson is a good talent but isn’t ready to lead the charge.  Nkunku will undoubtedly help, but we need another striker (and probably a loan for Broja) 

Scoring a few more goals also means we concede less too, as you put the game to bed earlier and opposition teams don’t have anything to play for.   Sheff Utd, Luton and Burnley examples of where it works, Brentford, Villa and Everton examples where it doesn’t. 

All in all, I don’t think we need to do a lot.  Sign and proven striker,  be patient and enjoy the ride. 

[SideshowLuiz]

3 hours ago, Rob B said:

One issue we do need to address however is the lack of goals.  20 goals in our last 10 is slightly better than the 15 goals in the 10 games prior, but still not good enough. 

Agree with everything else, but if this stat is true, 2 goals per game sounds like a strong tally (I think only Man City has a significantly stronger average in the league at ~2.4 goals per game) - instead, it suggests our lack of points being down to letting in too many goals. 

 

[Rob B]

5 minutes ago, SideshowLuiz said:

Agree with everything else, but if this stat is true, 2 goals per game sounds like a strong tally (I think only Man City has a significantly stronger average in the league at ~2.4 goals per game) - instead, it suggests our lack of points being down to letting in too many goals. 

 

Just re-checked and it’s actually 20 goals in our last 11 games, but the Man City and Spurs games heavily skew the underlying ‘norm’ I would say. 

In those 11 games, there were still 5 where we have only scored 1 goal or less. 

[SideshowLuiz]

1 minute ago, Rob B said:

Just re-checked and it’s actually 20 goals in our last 11 games, but the Man City and Spurs games heavily skew the underlying ‘norm’ I would say. 

In those 11 games, there were still 5 where we have only scored 1 goal or less. 

A lack of goals was the main problem in the earlier part of the season (likely due to playing many more 'weaker' teams with lower blocks), but I've felt we've scored enough in our more recent games to get decent results (even if they are skewed by the City and Spurs results).

Excluding the traditional big teams, our results since Villa have been:

• Chelsea 2-0 Sheffield
• Chelsea 0-2 Everton
• Chelsea 3-2 Brighton
• Chelsea 2-0 Blackburn
• Chelsea 0-2 Brentford
• Chelsea 4-1 Burnley
• Chelsea 2-0 Fulham
• Chelsea 1-0 Brighton

Barring Everton and Brentford where we blanked, 6 out of 8 wins is okay, given where we are as a team now.

Against the big 6, we have:

• Chelsea 1-1 Newcastle (win on pens)
• Chelsea 1-2 Man United
• Chelsea 1-4 Newcastle
• Chelsea 4-4 City
• Chelsea 4-1 Spurs
• Chelsea 2-2 Arsenal

We were dreadful against Newcastle and United, but got strong results in the other 4 games (and arguably deserved more). 

It's strange doing a recap of these games - doesn't look that bad! I think the inconsistent results have accentuated the missed chances up front, but I think the mistakes at the back have been more alarming recently.

[xceleryx]

7 hours ago, SideshowLuiz said:

<snip>

It's strange doing a recap of these games - doesn't look that bad! I think the inconsistent results have accentuated the missed chances up front, but I think the mistakes at the back have been more alarming recently.

And that is the hallmark of inconsistency, which is what you're going to get with a group of young players that are still finding themselves. They'll all be better for this experience, whether that's here or elsewhere in the future.

Our defensive mistakes heap more pressure on the attack to score, the fumbling around goal heaps more pressure on the defence to keep clean sheets. 

Not being able to field our best eleven once this season hasn't aided the cause either. I'd have been curious to see the sort of impact that would've had on things, even if only minor. 

[Dwmh]

9 hours ago, xceleryx said:

And that is the hallmark of inconsistency

Looks pretty consistent to me.

[Chelsea_Matt]

https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/25143057/mauricio-pochettino-chelsea-entourages-charity/
 

Some interesting quotes I think.

[Sciatika]

To me, he was telling it like it is.

[Mark Kelly]

59 minutes ago, Chelsea_Matt said:

https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/25143057/mauricio-pochettino-chelsea-entourages-charity/
 

Some interesting quotes I think.

The worm is turning 

[Rob B]

No idea what he’s going on about if I’m being completely honest 

[east lower]

3 hours ago, Mark Kelly said:

The worm is turning 

It sounds like he’s had a Todd & Eggi pep talk. 
 

I.E. - Shape up or ship out 

Edited December 22, 2023 by east lower

[kev61]

7 hours ago, Mark Kelly said:

The worm is turning 

I hope the worm doesn't turn too much or the players will lose all respect.

You can't go from Mr molly coddle and then suddenly turn into Mr assertive.

The overpaid dimwits will smell weakness and are unlikely to respond in a positive way.

[jasonb]

Might be a message for the player agents........

[xceleryx]

12 hours ago, jasonb said:

Might be a message for the player agents........

I believe this is who it's largely geared towards - agents and players entourages. 

[Bison]

10 hours ago, xceleryx said:

I believe this is who it's largely geared towards - agents and players entourages. 

Suspect it's also a message for some of the directors too. 

[Bison]

Contender for worst manager we've had in 20 years. 

[thevelourfog]

2 minutes ago, Bison said:

Contender for worst manager we've had in 20 years. 

All of the fierce competition is very recent. And he's, tbf, a fairly distant third to the two most recent. 

Not much of an achievement or defence. 

[Mark Kelly]

13 minutes ago, Bison said:

Contender for worst manager we've had in 20 years. 

I think everyone knows my opinion, I don't think he's earning a tenth of what he's being paid and we're actually getting worse not better the longer it goes on. 

[ROTG]

1 hour ago, Bison said:

Contender for worst manager we've had in 20 years. 

Given the worst squad in 25 years 

[Mark Kelly]

1 minute ago, ROTG said:

Given the worst squad in 25 years 

Who he's not improving 

[ROTG]

7 minutes ago, Mark Kelly said:

Who he's not improving 

Nobody is going to improve that squad which was put together by scouts and owners with ego’s. 
 

Let’s not forget a week ago poch and the team were the best thing since mothers prides after drawing with Newcastle. 

[Mark Kelly]

3 minutes ago, ROTG said:

Nobody is going to improve that squad which was put together by scouts and owners with ego’s. 
 

Let’s not forget a week ago poch and the team were the best thing since mothers prides after drawing with Newcastle. 

Nobody said that. Nobody. 

Until you stop blaming Boehly who stepped back months ago for everything, you'll never see what's happening in front of your eyes. 

The longer he's "coaching" them the worse they're getting!