Chelsea Thread - 2023/24

[Inter Me Nan]

Kepa
James Silva Colwill Chilwell
Enzo Caicedo
Nkunku
Sterling Mudryk
Jackson

That is a pretty balanced 11. You can then swap out Maatsen with Sterling or Mudryk. Swap out Kudus with Nkunku or Sterling. Swap out any of the CBs and FBs.

I agree a lot rests of Jackson but I'm confident in what I've seen of him so far. I think he'll surprise a lot of rival fans next season. We are heavily linked with Vlahovic, if that helps anything.

Have you bought him?
I've not been keeping tabs!

 

[Vialli98]

Have you bought him?
I've not been keeping tabs!

Not yet, but I was responding to a poster who said we had an imbalanced squad even with Caicedo in there. So I presented a team with Caicedo in it to demonstrate how wrong he/she is :)

You'll notice I added Kudus in that post too, who we haven't signed yet.

 

[handsofstone]

Kepa
James Silva Colwill Chilwell
Enzo Caicedo
Nkunku
Sterling Mudryk
Jackson

That is a pretty balanced 11. You can then swap out Maatsen with Sterling or Mudryk. Swap out Kudus with Nkunku or Sterling. Swap out any of the CBs and FBs.

I agree a lot rests of Jackson but I'm confident in what I've seen of him so far. I think he'll surprise a lot of rival fans next season. We are heavily linked with Vlahovic, if that helps anything.

I still can't see how that's balanced when the two only real goal outlets, Nkuku and Jackson are new to the league

A lot of pressure and Mudryk (mot a reliable goalscorer) and Sterling for goals as Mudueke isn't exactly prolific

Kudus I know nothing about tbf but a. You haven't signed him and b. He's coming from a weaker league

The only cover for Enzo and Caceido is Gallagher who may be off and probably isn't good enough

It's a team that's heavily loaded at the back compared to getting goals which was your issue last year

 

[hammocity]

Yeah, definitely excited. As @mrbelfry said, it's going to be fascinating to see how we get on.

I am of course aware that there will almost certainly be some problems.

However, for me personally I just want to see some progression, unity and enjoyment in the players.

Too often last season we had to see glum 'I don't really want to be here' faces. I'm thinking of you, Mount and Havertz.

Kepa
James Silva Colwill Chilwell
Enzo Caicedo
Nkunku
Sterling Mudryk
Jackson

That is a pretty balanced 11. You can then swap out Maatsen with Sterling or Mudryk. Swap out Kudus with Nkunku or Sterling. Swap out any of the CBs and FBs.

I agree a lot rests of Jackson but I'm confident in what I've seen of him so far. I think he'll surprise a lot of rival fans next season. We are heavily linked with Vlahovic, if that helps anything.

Ha ha ha, Sterling! He’s so shit these days he wouldn’t get in our squad, good luck with that one. BTW, I like him as a person and he was great for us but by fuck he deteriorated in the last couple of seasons, we absolutely mugged you for £45m, thanks for that.

 

[Vialli98]

I still can't see how that's balanced when the two only real goal outlets, Nkuku and Jackson are new to the league

A lot of pressure and Mudryk (mot a reliable goalscorer) and Sterling for goals as Mudueke isn't exactly prolific

Kudus I know nothing about tbf but a. You haven't signed him and b. He's coming from a weaker league

The only cover for Enzo and Caceido is Gallagher who may be off and probably isn't good enough

It's a team that's heavily loaded at the back compared to getting goals which was your issue last year

Nkunku is new to the league but we paid a lot for him to be big player for us. I don't think we'll be a team that relies heavily on a few goal scorers. I think it will be spread around a bit like Arsenal last season. So if Nkunku gets 15-18 goals, Jackson 12-15 goals and then Sterling and Mudryk 8-10 goals that's a decent spread. Then there's Maatsen who is kind of a wildcard because he's primarily a LB but he's played 0 minutes in that position this preseason and played heavy minutes at LW and CAM, and he's looked genuinely incredible in those positions. There's also Chukwuemeka who could have a breakout season. He's certainly looked in top shape this summer.

Andrey Santos is a super talented kid, who has demonstrated enough maturity and composure in preseason to make Poch want to keep him for the first team. He'd be excellent cover for Caicedo. Gallagher is there too, who also looks much more composed in the 6 than he did at any point last season. I'm starting to think Poch's coaching is capable of getting a higher level out of a lot of these players that were really poor last season.

I appreciate a lot of this is reliant on so far very unproven players proving themselves but that's what makes it all so exciting. I don't expect rival fans to share in my optimism. I appreciate from the outside looking in it looks a bit chaotic but for me, as someone who has watched very minute of preseason, I'm kinda liking where this team is going.

 

[handsofstone]

Nkunku is new to the league but we paid a lot for him to be big player for us. I don't think we'll be a team that relies heavily on a few goal scorers. I think it will be spread around a bit like Arsenal last season. So if Nkunku gets 15-18 goals, Jackson 12-15 goals and then Sterling and Mudryk 8-10 goals that's a decent spread. Then there's Maatsen who is kind of a wildcard because he's primarily a LB but he's played 0 minutes in that position this preseason and played heavy minutes at LW and CAM, and he's looked genuinely incredible in those positions. There's also Chukwuemeka who could have a breakout season. He's certainly looked in top shape this summer.

Andrey Santos is a super talented kid, who has demonstrated enough maturity and composure in preseason to make Poch want to keep him for the first team. He'd be excellent cover for Caicedo. Gallagher is there too, who also looks much more composed in the 6 than he did at any point last season. I'm starting to think Poch's coaching is capable of getting a higher level out of a lot of these players that were really poor last season.

I appreciate a lot of this is reliant on so far very unproven players proving themselves but that's what makes it all so exciting. I don't expect rival fans to share in my optimism. I appreciate from the outside looking in it looks a bit chaotic but for me, as someone who has watched very minute of preseason, I'm kinda liking where this team is going.

That's fair enough

But its all hypothetical

Heavily reliant on these very young players coming good

Preseason is all well and good but there is zero pressure, when fans start booing them when they are a goal down then we'll see their characters

From the outside looking in, your team is heavily reliant on unknowns in this league, with a team that likely lacks cohesion, that has an abundance of young players who all need game time to actually develop properly (which they wont get as there are too many of them)

Just can't see how they can be seen as balanced based off how poor offensively you were last year and you've lost a lot of midfielders who, as of today right now, you haven't bought anyone in to replace those

 

[Vialli98]

That's fair enough

But its all hypothetical

Heavily reliant on these very young players coming good

Preseason is all well and good but there is zero pressure, when fans start booing them when they are a goal down then we'll see their characters

From the outside looking in, your team is heavily reliant on unknowns in this league, with a team that likely lacks cohesion, that has an abundance of young players who all need game time to actually develop properly (which they wont get as there are too many of them)

Just can't see how they can be seen as balanced based off how poor offensively you were last year and you've lost a lot of midfielders who, as of today right now, you haven't bought anyone in to replace those

Yes of course it's all hypothetical, 80% of this squad have not played any competitive games together yet.

And yes it's heavily reliant on unproven players proving themselves. On paper it's very balanced if we sign Caicedo and Kudus. In practice, you're right, there are lot of moving parts and lot of question marks.

Last season the attack was fairly balanced on paper too. It just didn't work in practice. We had the right and left sided forwards, we had a striker and a false 9 and we had the attacking mids. We also had a well balanced midfield and defence. The reason the attack was poor wasn't because it wasn't balanced enough. I'm glad it's behind us now. Both James and Chilwell have alluded to the fact that there were loads of players who just didn't fancy being at Chelsea anymore and it was obvious from the effort levels in training and matches. Your boy Kovacic was certainly guilty of that in my eyes.

It's a brand new team now with a brand new coach, so in a sense the slate is wiped clean. Most of these players don't have the stench of last season hovering over them.

 

[ManCitizens.]

I'm confident enough in Jackson to consider him the starting striker for us (though we're seemingly linked with Vlahovic in a Lukaku swap deal). We're lacking numbers and quality in midfield but if we sign Caicedo and Kudus, then we've covered that hole.

We have 6 CBs but one is out injured for the next 12 months probably, and by the time he returns to the team Silva is probably gone, as I think this will be his last at Chelsea, so in practice it's actually only 5 CBs, so I think we're perfectly fine there. City also have 6 CBs for example so :)

We have 4 LBs but all signs points to Hall going on loan and we're apparently inviting offers for Cucurella. In the meantime, Poch has used Maatsen at LW, CAM and RW to great effect so it won't actually be a log jam there. Hopefully we can find a stupid buyer for Cucurella though.

We have 2 RBs, so we're fine there.

If Jackson or Broja are the main men this season it’ll be another struggle to get top six. We might have 6 cbs, but they also play full back for us. I agree re Cucurella, not sure what went wrong with him. Maybe the season at Brighton is an anomaly.

I just don’t think think Boely has built the squad well at all, especially considering the 700m spent. There’s a lot of decent to good young players on 6+ year deals, with not a lot to show for it.

 

[Vialli98]

If Jackson or Broja are the main men this season it’ll be another struggle to get top six. We might have 6 cbs, but they also play full back for us. I agree re Cucurella, not sure what went wrong with him. Maybe the season at Brighton is an anomaly.

I just don’t think think Boely has built the squad well at all, especially considering the 700m spent. There’s a lot of decent to good young players on 6+ year deals, with not a lot to show for it.

Maybe but I have confidence in Jackson, and as I said I think he's going to surprise a lot of people. Fair point on some of your CBs playing fullback. I think for us the added context is Fofana will be out for 9-12 months and by the time he returns Silva will most likely be gone, so it is actually only 5 CBs in practice and even still, Chalobah has been in the transfer rumour mill pretty much all summer, so there's a chance he could go.

I guess i just disagree with that. I think when add context and nuance around the 600-700 million spent, it's a pretty good job and some of it we won't even see until a couple of years down the line.

 

[SebastianBlue]

@ASHCFC and @SebastianBlue

If you can't put each other on ignore, please take your discussion to PMs. Thanks.

Just saw this, I have posted my peace (somewhat in anticipation of your intervention).