By my reckoning Chelsea have reduced their squad by six this window. Still need another half dozen to go.
By my reckoning Chelsea have reduced their squad by six this window. Still need another half dozen to go.
Another 6 year deal as well. Soon enough when some of these players don’t quite settle/make the grade they’ll be paying hundreds of thousands a week to players out on loan.Basket case of a club, house of cards will come crashing down, unproven players once again.
Still no proper striker and you have 10+ defenders in the squad. It isn’t balanced at allBy my count we have around 26 players (but that includes players I know are leaving this summer like Lukaku, CHO and Ziyech, and I've excluded young players most likely will go on loan like Casadei, Hall, Humphreys, Ugochukwu, Angelo). That's 8 players where only 2 (Hall and Ziyech) were part of 33 man squad last season.
I actually think we've done an incredible job at reconstructing the squad. There are still gaping holes of course but to be at this point, with a somewhat coherent squad composition after so much upheaval is pretty good.
I think if the above players are sold/sent on loan and we bring in Caicedo and one of Kudus/Olise then I actually think we're all set to start the season with a nicely balanced squad - the only negative being every fucker is brand new to the team, so the chemistry might take some time to build :)
Be interesting to see how you fare, early doors. Think a lot of your problems last season stemmed from an aversion to goal scoring and that hasn't seemed to be addressed.By my count we have around 26 players (but that includes players I know are leaving this summer like Lukaku, CHO and Ziyech, and I've excluded young players most likely will go on loan like Casadei, Hall, Humphreys, Ugochukwu, Angelo). That's 8 players where only 2 (Hall and Ziyech) were part of 33 man squad last season.
I actually think we've done an incredible job at reconstructing the squad. There are still gaping holes of course but to be at this point, with a somewhat coherent squad composition after so much upheaval is pretty good.
I think if the above players are sold/sent on loan and we bring in Caicedo and one of Kudus/Olise then I actually think we're all set to start the season with a nicely balanced squad - the only negative being every fucker is brand new to the team, so the chemistry might take some time to build :)
The CM options you have right now are Enzo Fernandes and Conor Gallagher, supported by a bunch of kidsBy my count we have around 26 players (but that includes players I know are leaving this summer like Lukaku, CHO and Ziyech, and I've excluded young players most likely will go on loan like Casadei, Hall, Humphreys, Ugochukwu, Angelo). That's 8 players where only 2 (Hall and Ziyech) were part of 33 man squad last season.
I actually think we've done an incredible job at reconstructing the squad. There are still gaping holes of course but to be at this point, with a somewhat coherent squad composition after so much upheaval is pretty good.
I think if the above players are sold/sent on loan and we bring in Caicedo and one of Kudus/Olise then I actually think we're all set to start the season with a nicely balanced squad - the only negative being every fucker is brand new to the team, so the chemistry might take some time to build :)
Still no proper striker and you have 10+ defenders in the squad. It isn’t balanced at all
Be interesting to see how you fare, early doors. Think a lot of your problems last season stemmed from an aversion to goal scoring and that hasn't seemed to be addressed.
Yeah we'll see. We're looking a lot more confident and creative under Poch. Jackson, Nkunku, Maatsen and Mudryk are developing decent chemistry early on which is great to see.
The CM options you have right now are Enzo Fernandes and Conor Gallagher, supported by a bunch of kids
Caicedo is a top player, but that is far from a balanced team even with him in there
Plus your hopes of goals are resting on a guy in Jackson who looks alright but is still inexperienced with not a lot of form other than a good half season
Also you're just about to get fleeced by Brighton (again) for £25mil for a keeper who's not even very good
Have you bought him?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!
I still can't see how that's balanced when the two only real goal outlets, Nkuku and Jackson are new to the leagueKepa
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.
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.
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.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
That's fair enoughNkunku 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
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'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.
Just saw this, I have posted my peace (somewhat in anticipation of your intervention).@ASHCFC and @SebastianBlue
If you can't put each other on ignore, please take your discussion to PMs. Thanks.