Chelsea 0 Nottingham Forest 1

[SideshowLuiz]

Silva replying on Instagram, saying we're playing a back 4.

 

Edited September 3, 2023 by SideshowLuiz

[Mark Kelly]

7 minutes ago, SideshowLuiz said:

Silva replying on Instagram, saying we're playing a back 4.

 

He's right, we are, however, it contains the wrong personnel. 

Chilwell, Colwill, Silva, Gusto is what it should be. 

 Or Disasi in for Silva if concerns arrise regarding his leg speed / recovery. 

Playing Colwill as the World's most ineffective left back and teaming him with Chilwell as the World's most ineffective winger is mental. 

Chilwell should be forging a relationship with the left winger of choice. 

Bringing Mudryk on for five minutes helps neither of them. 

Edited September 3, 2023 by Mark Kelly

[Max Fowler]

We spent 151 million Euros on Disasi, Palmer, Ugochukwu, Petrovic, and Washington this summer.

We could have put all that money into one statement, marquee forward signing like Oshimen.

And still ended up with Caicedo, Lavia, Jackson, Sanchez, and Angelo coming in.

Does anyone not think that would have been a better strategy? As much as I like Palmer.

What is the point in buying youth if you get sanctioned for failing to bring in enough revenue?

[Mark Kelly]

1 minute ago, Max Fowler said:

We spent 151 million Euros on Disasi, Palmer, Ugochukwu, Petrovic, and Washington this summer.

We could have put all that money into one statement, marquee forward signing like Oshimen.

And still ended up with Caicedo, Lavia, Jackson, Sanchez, and Angelo coming in.

Does anyone not think that would have been a better strategy? As much as I like Palmer.

What is the point in buying youth if you get sanctioned for failing to bring in enough revenue?

If we're not in the European competitions FFP doesn't count as far as I know. 

And to be honest, if the club is worried about it they should have stopped taking punts on children and actually sorted a f*****g shirt sponsor  the lack of which makes everyone at the club in a business capacity look like imbeciles. 

[My Blood Is Blue]

10 minutes ago, Max Fowler said:

We spent 151 million Euros on Disasi, Palmer, Ugochukwu, Petrovic, and Washington this summer.

We could have put all that money into one statement, marquee forward signing like Oshimen.

And still ended up with Caicedo, Lavia, Jackson, Sanchez, and Angelo coming in.

Does anyone not think that would have been a better strategy? As much as I like Palmer.

What is the point in buying youth if you get sanctioned for failing to bring in enough revenue?

Completely agree, however, that would not have helped the owners make money by 'flipping' these young players and that should tell you all you need to know about the ambitions of the owners... It's financial, not trophies. We were so bloody lucky with Roman, I would give anything to have him back.

[boratsbrother]

We sent people to watch Oshimen play a few games and they were not impressed with what they saw and thought he was not worth the money. But they are probably the same people who passed up on the chance to buy Madison for a bargin fee.

🤡🤡🤡

[Max Fowler]

9 minutes ago, Mark Kelly said:

If we're not in the European competitions FFP doesn't count as far as I know. 

And to be honest, if the club is worried about it they should have stopped taking punts on children and actually sorted a f*****g shirt sponsor  the lack of which makes everyone at the club in a business capacity look like imbeciles. 

FFP still applies in the Premier League and could catch up with us if we don't do well:

"Chelsea have to adhere to the Premier League's profit and sustainability rules, which allow for total losses of £105m over a three-year period. Any club that posts losses in excess of that figure could face penalties, including large fines or even a points deduction." (BBC)

We have been able to spread our spending out over a number of years but if we don't get the increased revenue from at least a higher league position or finishing in the Champions League, god knows where that leaves us. 

We have spread our spending out over a number of years so we may be forced to sell before we can buy - more turmoil ahead?

[Holymoly]

20 hours ago, Mark Kelly said:

Poch needs to grow a pair and get us playing. 

We went through pre-season showing some good play, albeit with Nkunku playing a 10, and then throw all that in the bin at the start of the season, change formation and try this weird hybrid system that I'm assuming Pochettino has convinced the players is the masterplan.  The players buy into it, especially after the Liverpool game that we really should have won. The trouble is that the less sophisticated sides, West Ham, Wimbledon, Luton and Forest realise that the way to combat us is to pack their penalty area then hit us on the break. We can't do anything as we don't have anyone creative enough to  take on the block and we end up passing the ball from side to side until we make a mistake and lose a goal and onve we're a goal down we're stuffed as the defense just stiffens up even more.

The real issue here though is the manager. Can he swallow his pride and admit that these players are too young, inexperienced and naive to work his masterplan and revert back to a straightforward back four until they get some confidence in their own abilities? I was criticised for predicting this after the Liverpool game but I could see this coming. Yes we should have won that game but we were on a knife edge and it could have gone either way, especially if Salah's goal had been allowed. We had our pants pulled down by West Ham then were unimpressive against Luton and Wimbledon. I don't see things changing either if we are expected to keep playing in this formation. It's not a masterplan the way Conti's three at the back was, this is a plan to get us relegated. Forget top five, there are far too many teams ahead of us that are better than us.

The squad is weak, the tactics are weak, and the manager needs to admit this isn't the way and change it for Bournemouth and before Villa and Brighton come a calling otherwise we will become a bigger embarrassment that we already are.

[Sleeping Dave]

8 hours ago, xceleryx said:

We didn't lose because of what formation we played or who played what or where, we lost because we simply weren't clinical in the final third and saw a mistake punished to the maximum. The two shots on target out of twenty odd altogether says it all.

Eh ok? So if you play players who are more clinical in the final third than other players who aren’t, it won’t make a difference? 

We are where we are not because we have swapped 75% of the team and the manager. We are where we are because we still don’t understand that the three  most important positions on the pitch is;

1) Top GK

2) Proven goalscorer

3) Top defender

We have neither of those. 

 

[Sleeping Dave]

6 hours ago, Rob B said:

I made this point a few weeks ago and I think it remains our Achilles Heel -  we do not have enough goals in our starting 11 / squad.

Conceding one goal at home to Nottingham Forest should not mean you lose the game. Hell, it shouldn’t even mean you draw the game.

Man City conceded a goal to Fulham yesterday, Spurs conceded two to Burnley and Brighton conceded to Newcastle - all three won their games comfortably. 

Son, Haaland and Evan Ferguson all got hat tricks - we don’t have a single player in the squad capable of that and we will struggle with consistent results until we address that.

We weren’t that  bad yesterday.  Loads of teams play like we did and come away with a 2-1 win all the time.  But to spend a billion on players to end up with a young Jackson and Broja as your centre-forwards is unbelievable.  Like genuinely unbelievable. 

 

I’ve made the same point and just like last season it will mean your season ends up in tears. Scoring goals is everything to be a top team in the PL these days. 

Spending £1bn and ending up with an unproven Jackson and a fairly average Broja is, like you say, unbelievable. It’s what will curse our season for sure. What the hell is the plan if Jackson can’t play every game this season? Broja? Jesus fucking Christ, I can already predict where that will take us. 

[Gurj SS]

1 hour ago, SideshowLuiz said:

Silva replying on Instagram, saying we're playing a back 4.

 

Last season it was Jorge, Kova, Mount, Havertz and co, this season it'll be Silva who takes the blame. The club has been in free fall ever since RA got kicked out the new owner gutted out almost 20 years of development for what can only be seen as an ego trip; we had just suffered from off-field issues which had affected the club as a whole, all we needed was some stability and 3-4 top class players to give the squad a boost in quality and a platform to build from. A plan over 3 years to add to the team every window is all that was required, TB came in a tore down a Grade 2 listed building and is trying to re-build it with what could end up being RAAC concrete.

[Chelsea_Matt]

24 minutes ago, Gurj SS said:

Last season it was Jorge, Kova, Mount, Havertz and co, this season it'll be Silva who takes the blame. The club has been in free fall ever since RA got kicked out the new owner gutted out almost 20 years of development for what can only be seen as an ego trip; we had just suffered from off-field issues which had affected the club as a whole, all we needed was some stability and 3-4 top class players to give the squad a boost in quality and a platform to build from. A plan over 3 years to add to the team every window is all that was required, TB came in a tore down a Grade 2 listed building and is trying to re-build it with what could end up being RAAC concrete.

The same stuff our schools appear to be made of…

[Blue Orca]

Arsenal have goal threat from their midfield and strikers and had Jesus, Smith Rowe and Trossard on the bench today. 😳 

[Miguelito07]

Why can’t we just sit back and break on the counter-attack?! It’s worked for mostly every team we’ve played this season. It’s clearly not working when we’re on the front foot

[Mark Kelly]

10 minutes ago, Miguelito07 said:

Why can’t we just sit back and break on the counter-attack?! It’s worked for mostly every team we’ve played this season. It’s clearly not working when we’re on the front foot

Other sides have worked out exactly how to play us. If they just defend in numbers, eventually we will confuse ourselves with endless, pointless ball recycling and drop a clanger. Every team with a decent manager is going to copy Moyes. We've already seen Wimbledon, Luton and Forest do it, the only game in which for part of it we looked to be able to counter was Liverpool because they went toe to toe with us believing they were our betters.  Everyone else is scared so they play the only way they think they can and to be honest, they're not winning these games, we're losing them.

[boratsbrother]

23 minutes ago, Blue Orca said:

Arsenal have goal threat from their midfield😳 

Scary thing is we've replaced Jorginho, Kante and Kova by spending £300 millions on another three who couldn't score in an Amsterdam Brothel. 😭

[boratsbrother]

22 minutes ago, Miguelito07 said:

Why can’t we just sit back and break on the counter-attack?! It’s worked for mostly every team we’ve played this season. It’s clearly not working when we’re on the front foot

Imagine us playing that way against West Ham l. You'd end up with two teams standing in each half staing at eachother.

[My Blood Is Blue]

All stats are irrelevant if none of your players can put the ball in the back of the net.

[Miguelito07]

19 minutes ago, boratsbrother said:

Imagine us playing that way against West Ham l. You'd end up with two teams standing in each half staing at eachother.

At least we wouldn’t lose 

[Miguelito07]

3 minutes ago, My Blood Is Blue said:

And this isn’t going to improve. Jackson is new to the league and will take time. Not sure Broja is the answer either 

[Thiago97]

33 minutes ago, Mark Kelly said:

Other sides have worked out exactly how to play us. If they just defend in numbers, eventually we will confuse ourselves with endless, pointless ball recycling and drop a clanger. Every team with a decent manager is going to copy Moyes. We've already seen Wimbledon, Luton and Forest do it, the only game in which for part of it we looked to be able to counter was Liverpool because they went toe to toe with us believing they were our betters.  Everyone else is scared so they play the only way they think they can and to be honest, they're not winning these games, we're losing them.

Yep. It’s why an early goal every now and then is so important. Actually, can anyone actually remember the last time we went ahead with a goal in the first 20mins ? Nothing springs to mind, though some of these games are months back now last season. 

[jasonb]

Does Disasi speak English?

Silva speaks French this might be part of our current defensive  defensive thinking rather than relying on a young Colwil to communicate with Disasi in a back four.

I hark back to those days when we had a Leboef or Alex that could score a goal from defence at about 35 yards. 

[Original 21]

Pochettino pleaded with the Board in July to provide him with more experience. It appears the Board ignored him. Pochettino clearly thinks the players he has to choose from are too young and lack experience and he doesn’t trust them in his preferred formation especially now that we’re missing Nkunku upfront. I think this tinkering with formation is an attempt to make us harder to beat and to compensate for inexperience. It’s not working. Ultimately, it’s the hand he’s been dealt with and he’s got to find a way to make it work. But it doesn’t help if there is a split already in what the manager wants and what the Board thinks. 

[Backbiter]

9 hours ago, Backbiter said:

The backroom staff (and Boehly) are big on data and will be thrilled that we have a 100% record so far, in the alternative reality of xG. We outscored Forest 2.28 to 1.15. Possession-wise we are destroying teams, and our passing stats are impressive.

If only we could prevent the opposition's first shot on target being a goal, we might do OK, as winning games when we concede first is something the stats say we are absolutely appalling at.

It's incredible how we've just picked up where we left off last season.

 

 

As I posted above, we're looking good for a theoretical data-driven CL spot based on performances:

https://twitter.com/CFCPys/status/1698400472804081982?s=20

[DannyLB]

5 hours ago, My Blood Is Blue said:

All stats are irrelevant if none of your players can put the ball in the back of the net.

 Very true point. I had made a point to a couple of buddies (who support Liverpool and United, for whatever that is worth) in which I claimed that there isn’t much of a difference between most top teams in this league. The ones that stand out have players that can finish, whereas we do not. We do well in all stats except the one that matters, scoring goals. It’s strange but our seasons success relies on Jackson becoming a goal scorer and hoping he stays fit. Yet again I don’t see where the goals will come from unless Sterling, Palmer and eventually Nkunku surprise us with turning into reliable goal scorers. 

Edited September 4, 2023 by DannyLB
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