Chelsea 0 Nottingham Forest 1

[My Blood Is Blue]

Maddison absolutely flying now he's in a better team than Leicester, I still don't know why we didn't look at him.

[Mark Kelly]

6 minutes ago, thevelourfog said:

We do this every time, but it's a really easily observable fact so worth repeating. The away fans outsing the home fans at basically every PL ground, every week.

Makes you wonder why our owners don't want our away fans going then really doesn't it? 

[kev61]

At least Palmer and Maatsen were trying to attack they should start next game imo.

I agree with what people say about Chilwell he is not a winger he is a left back and should be playing in a back 4.I also agree that we should be using Colwill as a centre back more and using Silva less.

It's clear we need more width.Sterling was coming in field too often and leaving Gusto to attack on his own.

Hell what do i know,maybe some of the players are ignoring Poch's instructions or just daft - I wouldn't rule out either.

[thevelourfog]

Just now, Ham said:

Not true at all. Especially not completely unanswered singing for 90 minutes.  Granted away fans sing more songs, but there is no excuse for how bad the SB atmosphere is and it's been getting worse for years. 

We live in different realities then. When a few thousand of you are out together on an all day piss up, you behave differently to the home fans. Been to plenty of PL grounds as a neutral and seen the exact same thing everywhere.

Stamford Bridge is very obviously not a cauldron of noise. Reckon there's been a really decent reason for it for about 12 months, personally. Hard to have a song and dance when you've watched the exact same crap, and paid a grand a year for it, week in, week out. You turn people into customers, then they'll behave like them.

[Gurj SS]

8 minutes ago, Mark Kelly said:

Pochettino is scared to drop Silva and we are instead playing a formation and personnel that compensates for his lack of pace.

I think it was time to move Silva on in the summer, however I don't think Silva is the issue. In my opinion the rest aren't good enough so Silva still walks into the starting line-up, Colwill and Disasi as a pairing and we lose by more than 1 goal today. Colwill is so not ready that he's being played at LB so there's less responsibility on him.

[boratsbrother]

2 minutes ago, Sleeping Dave said:

Two shots on target at home to Forest. That we’d be extremely dependent on Sterling, Enzo and Jackson was clear. But it’s fairly irresponsible imo. 

Think we are in for another tough season unfortunately. Like I’ve stayed before, improvement and a clear style is probably all we can realistically ask for. Claims we would be able to challenge City are fairytales. We aren’t much better than midtable to 6th imo. 

Buckle up for another bumpy ride! 

Nevermind City as they're on another planet from us. But i would go further and say we even look levels below even the likes of Spurs.

I'm not trying to be too over the top here, but any team which can easily conceed against any team in the league but struggle to score against any team, could be in serious trouble of becoming involved in a relegation battle. 

 

 

[Backbiter]

Reece James (when fit)  remains our most important player. Even after spending a billion pounds.

[Mark Kelly]

2 minutes ago, Gurj SS said:

I think it was time to move Silva on in the summer, however I don't think Silva is the issue. In my opinion the rest aren't good enough so Silva still walks into the starting line-up, Colwill and Disasi as a pairing and we lose by more than 1 goal today. Colwill is so not ready that he's being played at LB so there's less responsibility on him.

So. I'm right then, Poch is scared to drop him. 

Presumably for the same reasons you've listed. 

[Max Fowler]

Average age of all outfield players today (Thiago Silva removed):

22.58.

[Mark Kelly]

Just now, Backbiter said:

Reece James (when fit)  remains our most important player. Even after spending a billion pounds.

And he's been playing within himself for a year. 

[Gurj SS]

28 minutes ago, Max Fowler said:

I mean I agree with you about Tuchel above, except you simply can't replace the third best manager in the world.

That was our cardinal sin and always will be IMO.

So we almost have the next best option in Poch, but he's making some fairly significant mistakes already.

I actually feel for the players as none of them really know each other. You can tell they are trying to play football but when the going gets tough there isn't enough leaders to rely on.

Did we need to make this many changes so fast? No!!!

We are in uncharted territory as no club makes this many changes so fast for good reason.

I agree with all of this apart from Poch being the best option, I'm not sure who I'd have chosen but it wouldn't have been Poch, the gut gave a lead up to Leicester and game third behind Arsenal; we need a serial winner who would be able to implement a culture into the club very much like Jose did, even when he moved on we still had it here for years to come after.

[My Blood Is Blue]

3 minutes ago, Gurj SS said:

I think it was time to move Silva on in the summer, however I don't think Silva is the issue. In my opinion the rest aren't good enough so Silva still walks into the starting line-up, Colwill and Disasi as a pairing and we lose by more than 1 goal today. Colwill is so not ready that he's being played at LB so there's less responsibility on him.

If that's the case, then move him to the bench and play Chilwell at LB. Thus current formation is weird and clearly is not working.

[My Blood Is Blue]

2 minutes ago, Backbiter said:

Reece James (when fit)  remains our most important player. Even after spending a billion pounds.

And yet ironically, our best signing so far seems to be the guy currently in James' position.

[Gurj SS]

1 minute ago, Mark Kelly said:

So. I'm right then, Poch is scared to drop him. 

Presumably for the same reasons you've listed. 

So scared he'll be bricking it if Silva got injured, in my honest opinion as much as the middle of the park needed sorting out, defence and attack should have been where the big money signings should have gone because both areas were by far our weakest links last season.

[boratsbrother]

4 minutes ago, My Blood Is Blue said:

Maddison absolutely flying now he's in a better team than Leicester, I still don't know why we didn't look at him.

He'll score and create more league goals in one season than our two record buys will do in 5 combined and he only cost 210 million less.

A catastrophic waste of money by us....AGAIN.

[Floyd25]

11 minutes ago, Sleeping Dave said:

Buckle up for another bumpy ride! 

Sod it, I’m following Berkhamsted Town instead…they’d probably give us a good game actually.

[Mark Kelly]

2 minutes ago, Gurj SS said:

So scared he'll be bricking it if Silva got injured, in my honest opinion as much as the middle of the park needed sorting out, defence and attack should have been where the big money signings should have gone because both areas were by far our weakest links last season.

It's early days but so far for the money Caicedo is worse than Cucurella if you ask me. 

[Gurj SS]

2 minutes ago, My Blood Is Blue said:

If that's the case, then move him to the bench and play Chilwell at LB. Thus current formation is weird and clearly is not working.

100% it isn't working but Poch has started the season like that, made signings which I thought would give him the ability to move away from that system but he hasn't; 3 centrebacks seems to be his starting point to build upon.

[Super Kenny Monkou]

22 minutes ago, Ham said:

That's not how it's supposed to work though. 

Outsung every week at home by everyone. Embarrassing and entitled. 

It is now though. The days of the crowd motivating the team are long gone. It is the other way round now.

[Max Fowler]

6 minutes ago, Gurj SS said:

I agree with all of this apart from Poch being the best option, I'm not sure who I'd have chosen but it wouldn't have been Poch, the gut gave a lead up to Leicester and game third behind Arsenal; we need a serial winner who would be able to implement a culture into the club very much like Jose did, even when he moved on we still had it here for years to come after.

I would have gone for Nagelsmann but I still think Poch could be a decent choice to take us through this transition.

I always said he was never the guy to take us to the promised land.

[My Blood Is Blue]

I genuinely think it will be quite some time before we're good again and by good I mean, where we can all confidently go into matches against the majority of teams in the league with a genuine and justified confidence that we'll get a result.

My mate text me before the game today saying he thought we'd win 4-1 and my reply was that I fully expected us to be losing when I got my phone back on line and that was a genuine feeling because I still go into every game we play expecting to lose, after last season. So far, that win against Luton was a blip in our form and nothing more.

2 weeks before we can hope to put this defeat out of our minds and have a little bit more positivity again, but I'm not expecting too much.

[My Blood Is Blue]

1 minute ago, Gurj SS said:

100% it isn't working but Poch has started the season like that, made signings which I thought would give him the ability to move away from that system but he hasn't; 3 centrebacks seems to be his starting point to build upon.

Which is so odd after watching us in pre-season.

[My Blood Is Blue]

1 minute ago, Max Fowler said:

I would have gone for Nagelsmann but I still think Poch could be a decent choice to take us through this transition.

I always said he was never the guy to take us to the promised land.

I think Poch was the right choice, however, he's going to make it hard for himself if he persists with Colwill at LB over Chilwell and Chilwell playing a weird Left wing type role and doesn't start getting more attacking players on the pitch from kick off.

[Max Fowler]

1 minute ago, My Blood Is Blue said:

Which is so odd after watching us in pre-season.

Is it because Nkunku and James got injured?
I feel like he's playing safer because we lost those two key players.

[Gurj SS]

1 minute ago, Mark Kelly said:

It's early days but so far for the money Caicedo is worse than Cucurella if you ask me. 

Woah!!

I mean yeah I think we could have got two 25-26 year olds for the same money we spent on one 21 year old, but I think he'd have to still be beyond poor, something like pick up a yellow card for fouling himself poor, before he gets to Cucu level; but I will say this Gilmour is looking brilliant Brighton and it does seem like the system there is the key rather than the players.