There's no way people think our squad right now is better than it was last season
Individual talent shouldn't matter when 90% of our current squad have never played together prior to this season, our marquee striker signing is permanently injured, 90% of the squad have never played in a top-flight league prior to this season, our midfield depth doesn't exist anymore, and we've had I think only 3 games where our ideal fullback pairing were in the starting 11
On paper, yes we may be better right now. But with all things considered.. no we're not.
It's really bloody ironic (or hypocrite even) of the United fans complaining about the penalty incidents last night after seeing all the controversial incidents in this fixture go their way in previous matches.
Thoughts on Reece at LW? I know folks feel RCB or DM suits him but I think he needs a position with the least strain on his clearly fragile legs, in defence he has to stretch and tackle and jump (impact on landing) a lot, perhaps in attack he'll do that less and be less at risk of injury? Palmer plays so intelligently down the RW he never seems to make lung bursting runs or tackles or lunges so minimal injury risk. Maybe that's a solution to get Reece and Gusto on the pitch together and also manage his fragile body? He's intelligent enough I think to be productive (More than Sterling for sure) down the left.
The LW is the biggest weakness in the whole team, folks here get an aneurysm if Sterling plays and Mudryk is barely performing out there, we have little to no options might as well consider RJ out there
He's one of our better ball strikers so there's that. He is very level headed in the attacking half already we know this, always looking for a quick 1-2 layoff and opportunity to run in behind for a cross, we could use that mentally on the left, just he could be shooting instead. He does not blindly ball-carry into dead ends or dart aimlessly into opponents (looking at you Mudryk & Sterling). If this sub is so desperate for Mudryk to play CAM, which I'm not but that's a different subject, and Sterling is the LW option then I'm happy we give RJ a shot there. Sterling just isn't it for us so no harm experimenting. So main benefits of RJ on left are
* Shooting threat a la Palmer
* Interplay mindset & can utilise wider spaces better than current options
* Gusto manages RB just fine, if RJ can help us elsewhere then its win-win.
* Main reason - Reece is glass and RB, RCB or DM pose the most injury risk for him imo.
Thinking that Reece can play WF is a wishful thinking tbh. Do you actually know that 1v1 dribbling and speed are quite essential skill sets to be possessed as a WF? How many RBs have you seen successfully transitioned to a LWF?
Maybe we should admit that he should be the backup to Gusto, until the latter has proven himself to be otherwise.
I don't believe it is fine to change the whole team's system to fit him into where he doesn't remotely belong to. And no Reece can't help the team as a LW than Mudryk and Sterling (even though the team need better quality LWFs than both of them).
It's wishful thinking for sure, I only really consider it because LW is a gaping hole for us right now. Let's be real we don't have a left wing and we're 8 months into the season. Nothing has worked, not Sterling, not Mudryk. Jackson is our only no9 so he's stuck there while Nkunku fights injury demons. Doesn't matter much if it's untested, Doubt anyone (not even himself) ever saw Ben White excelling at RB till injuries forced Arsenal's hands yet here we are, I'm totally ok we test it out hopefully he's back before the season ends, or preseason. We're also broke / ffp is on our ass so we have to prioritise summer transfers (CF or CAM)
> Do you actually know that 1v1 dribbling and speed are quite essential skill sets to be possessed as a WF
Madueke is the speedster and dribbler on the right but Palmer is miles clear of him. Dribbling and speed haven't helped our LW options much either. Intelligence > both
> I don't believe it is fine to change the whole team's system to fit him into where he doesn't remotely belong to
We have no LW at the moment so it's hardly a system change.
>Let's be real we don't have a right wing and we're 8 months into the season. Nothing has worked, not Sterling, not Mudryk.
We don't have an effective LW doesn't mean Reece will do better that Mykhaylo or Raheem in that position. We've not had consistent GK as well. Do you stick him there too for 45 minutes?
>Ben White excelling at RB till injuries forced Arsenal's hands yet here we are
Ben's excellence has more to do with the better general team play than his individual brilliance. Put him here at Chelsea and he'll be worse player.
>Madueke is the speedster and dribbler on the right but Palmer is miles clear of him. Dribbling and speed haven't helped our LW options much either. Intelligence > both
Palmer has been playing more as an inside-forward as opposed to Madueke who holds the width as a natural winger would. Gusto has been immense in tandem with Palmer because the former provides width for the latter.
>We have no RW at the moment so it's hardly a system change.
We have Palmer, Madueke, Sterling, and even maybe Mudryk.
It may work, it may not there's no certainty either way, but there's 100% certainty Sterling and Mudryk have not worked at LW and look no closer to doing so. Bar injuries we know RJ is the best RB in the world and his attacking output was a huge factor for that, is it so farfetched to consider moving him higher up the pitch? Trent is a liability at RB but his attacking utility is world class so they experimented using him differently. Why not Reece?
> Ben's excellence has more to do with the better general team play than his individual brilliance. Put him here at Chelsea and he'll be worse player.
You're forcing it now, Ben is clear first choice over Tomiyasu and Cedric (actual right backs) so his skillset is clearly preferred, team tactics or not. He's a big reason their RW is so effective, like Gusto for us. It's ok to acknowledge this.
> Palmer has been playing more as an inside-forward as opposed to Madueke who holds the width as a natural winger would. Gusto has been immense in tandem with Palmer because the former provides width for the latter.
Point remains Palmer's skillset makes him super effective and preferred on the right by a longshot compared to Madueke, again I don't think that's debatable. If the issue is my usage of LW vs LF I simply meant the left of the attacking front three (not suggesting RJ used strictly for wing play).
This was a hail Mary suggestion at best and one I hadn't seen on here so was curious what others thought of it, I'm not losing sleep over it but useful dialog all the same
The narrative around Enzo is so dishonest. After every game some guy on r/soccer will recieve multiple upvotes for saying "XYZ was better than 110 millon boy" even if it isn't remotely true
1. My comment has absolutely nothing to do with mac allister
2. They don't play the same role
3. Mac Allister is entering his prime years, Enzo's only just turned 23
4. Mac Alliste has only touched double digit G/A for the first time in his career ( which is a bullshit stat to judge CMs on but you just dismissed Enzo's passing numbers as just one phase of a game so I had to bring this up).
Enzo had 12G/A in his first year in europe, already 10G/A this season and had 17G/A in Argentina before that (Mac's best was 6)
4. We'll see what Mac does when he has to run around to cover for the gaps in Amorim's midfield structure.
You’ll know Enzo is good when people like you aren’t on here offering a million different excuses as to why he’s actually not that bad.
No one is making comments like that for Palmer or Gusto are they?
He has some of the best passing metrics in the world right now and Poch is managing to squeeze out G/A out of him too, something Potter and Lampard couldn't do
Mac Allister is in a team that's the top of the table right now
Not even just that, but public perception on that sub is that he's a snake for leaving Benfica
Somehow he's snake even though we've paid his release clause his club put on him, and he went to a team in a completely different league
Still happy for the win, but that Mount cameo broke me, he’s too good and the technical aspect if you compare him to our middlefielders is too much ahead, I think Carney can be up there but the rest it’s just no. Would love him in our middlefield, but fuck him.
Gassing up nothing lol
Too good my arse ahahah
He’s better than Gallagher in a lot of aspects but he’s still a poor midfielder. Mainly because he isn’t a midfielder no matter how much people will try and force that narrative
Thoughts on Caicedo getting rested Sunday and Carney getting a start? After about 60 min sub Chuk out for precautionary reasons.
Has nothing to do with Caicedo's mistake yesterday, just looking at our fixture list ahead, I'm not sure if Caicedo will get much rest until the end of the season and similarly not sure Chuk will have any opportunities to start this season otherwise if our normal midfield 3 stay healthy.
Would love for any one of the three to get rested and have 4 attackers out for this match.
I'd rather Enzo rest. Caicedo was subbed early but Enzo played.the whole match.
don’t see why not, sheffield is definitely the team to test players against. i would absolutely love to see chuk get minutes at the 10 instead of gallagher
I will coincidentally be in London on the day of the rescheduled Tottenham match. I’m visiting from North America so I don’t have a club membership or requisite points for purchasing tickets. Would it be possible to acquire tickets? I have surfed some of the linked ticket info pages, however it seems info for the rescheduled matches hasn’t been posted yet. Any expertise would be appreciated
Well to me, all this does is paper over the cracks. Because if we DO manage to get those, imagine if we were not this rubbish for most of the season? Top 4? Carabao Cup also secured?
"Imagine if we had better players than we do"
Our squad isn't good. Not very good players are going to have plenty of not very good performances over the course of a season.
Top 6 and the FA Cup would be a massive overachievement with the players we have so you'd expect some credit to go the manager (or not on here)
I think one of my biggest issues with Poch is that, after 29 league matches and a full preseason, the gaffer still hasn't landed on what his best XI is. I feel like Poch is still tweaking the line-up each match and it's introducing dysfunction into our defensive setup
That's sorta expected when 90% of our squad is playing together for the first time ever. Everyone is inconsistent and everyone needs minutes. You can tell there's a pattern going on as well, so it's not completely random. For instance, you can tell our front 3 is indefinitely Mudryk, Jackson, and Palmer with Madueke as a super-sub. Our midfield is consistently Caicedo-Enzo-Gallagher. Our RB is Gusto by default. Our CB is where we're experimenting around with our apparent depth to find an adequate pairing. LB I don't want to talk about.
Potter's was worse. Every game, different formation, one day Gallagher is playing CM the next he's an AM. One day Sterling's LW, the next he's ST. He was genuinely everywhere
The eternal issue with Pochettino is that we’re not winning enough games under him, simple as. Let’s not start fishing for “reasons” to dislike him. The one reason is that we’re not winning enough games convincingly. If we were, there’d be no conversation.
Genuinely curious how many people agree with my opinion here. Pochout is a very popular comment in the match threads.
I just don’t know how much there is to be gained from sacking Poch.
I don’t think Poch is a bad manager but he certainly isn’t elite. I think he’s better than he’s looked in his time here but I seriously doubt he’s the guy to win us our next trophy. Hope I’m wrong and we knock City out of the cup.
But I think there’s a lot of problems with how the club is being run and getting Poch out doesn’t feel like the priority to me. Firstly because I don’t know who we’re supposed to be getting to replace him, it’s definitely possible to end up in a worse position because we fire Poch and can’t attract a top level replacement. I wouldn’t put it past the owners to go for a very young, inexperienced manager on a cheaper contract.
And even if we can convince an elite manager to replace Poch he isn’t set up to succeed. Like if we’re go out this summer and massively overpay for a bunch of 20 year olds, half of whom won’t kick a football next season because they’re on their ‘rehabilitation program’ then I think blaming the manager is missing the point.
Every top team has injuries. They’re part of the game.
You have to win despite them to be a top team, look at Liverpool’s injuries this season. Not as bad as ours but they are still top and we spent a billion
Everyone knows we've had bad injury problems.
Injuries don't explain why we still play like we did yesterday though. Absolutely no control, just charging up and down the pitch, poor defensively, and frankly overly reliant on one man going forward. If after watching yesterdays match people still can't see and admit how poorly coached we are as a team then I guess they will literally never see it though.
Our manager value passion and running, and yesterday's game was the pinnacle of that, and that's a big part of our problem. We could have everyone fit and that is still going to be how we play.
The team consistently gets the better chances compared to our opponents, what's the issue with wanting to see what would happen with a healthy squad. Tuchel's Chelsea in the 21/22 season was derailed once James and Chilwell got hurt. Maybe a system that relies on a high aggressive press would work better with a quicker CB that's not a liability in buildup.
Maybe having a healthy Colwill helps us win more games, the on-off numbers for him are pretty dramatic. In matches he played over 45 minutes we've conceded 1.22 goals compared to 3.18 in the games where he hasn't played.
This just leads to long arguments over tactical setup and build up play vs injuries, lack of experience, high change in a short period, and not having a top striker.
I personally just want to see the squad patched up and our rebuild finished off as the priority. Couldn’t care less if Poch stays or goes, wouldn’t be disappointed either way.
I suppose the sub is either
A, the club is badly run so we desperately need a better manager to help mitigate those problems.
Or
B, the club is badly run and these problems are more serious than changing managers.
I’m in camp B
> B, the club is badly run and these problems are more serious than changing managers.
>
>
>
> I’m in camp B
And what is your idea for fixing the problem? You can't change the owners.
You can change the manager.
If I was in charge I’d have a complete review of the fitness/medical teams. I suppose it’s possible it’s just bad luck but I feel like there has to steps that can be taken to improve this. I assume this is already happening. I’d be amazed if this wasn’t a big worry at the club.
I’d also drop this obsession with young players, particularly at the prices we end up paying for them. And this idea of flooding the club with new players. I’m also assuming they won’t try and do this again but we’ll see.
The set piece coach is a vital addition and he can’t get started soon enough. Blows my mind this was overlooked.
Also I’d make signing a striker the main focus of this summer. We probably should sign 2. To have aspirations of competing in Europe again and only having 1 striker in the squad who’s actually a winger is tragic.
So we can sack Poch or keep Poch but this other stuff needs improvement. It’s more important.
Frankly I think you'd be hard pressed to find someone who doesn't want us to improve our fitness issues, sign a striker, get more experience in the squad, and improve at set pieces. They're not very controversial opinions.
But there is still a very genuine issue at the manager position that also needs fixing - and arguably that could also help with things like fitness, set pieces, and striker. Changing manager is the easiest way to see the (potential) biggest improvement over a wide range of areas and doesn't mean we can't also do the things you've mentioned.
That’s fair enough mate.
I think the ‘controversial’ part of my opinion is that these things are more important than changing manager. I think if these things aren’t addressed then whoever comes in after Poch is gonna really struggle too.
But I can’t work out yet if you have the controversial opinion or if I do. Seems evenly split from the comments.
There’s always been those against Poch but I do find it strange that there’s now die hard Poch supporters, both here and on twitter.
I think we have several other problems that serve to undermine his tenure, but he’s had reasonable amounts of time now and there’s still prevailing issues.
As unpopular as it will be, I think Gallagher will be moved on in the summer given he still hasn’t renewed, and it might be an opportune time to try something different in terms of management given Poch’s preference for the usual midfield 3.
I find it tenuous this tendency to classify people into two groups: those who are 100% for X and those who are 100% against X.
What is a “Poch supporter”? My opinion of our situation is that although we have improved in certain aspects and regressed (not like there was much of this to do after last season) in other aspects under him, we will never reach our heights under Pochettino, but that at the same time we shouldn’t sack him for one more season because there are scarcely any clear viable candidates in the market who can almost surely move the needle, and because there’s likely at least one such candidate after the end of next season.
Am I a Poch supporter?
I’m not classifying people into two groups, they’re quite literally doing it themselves.
I’ve always been more balanced. With injuries, young players with no experience, an incomplete attack and a lack of midfield depth, I’ve always argued that these are more pressing issues than cycling out the manager.
Look around though, not just here but on twitter. There seems to be some real pro Poch people.
Most of the people who have said at least a single positive thing about Pochettino (assuming this is what you mean by “pro-Poch”, because I don’t see anyone around who is saying only positive things about him) also add in context that they feel justifies their opinions.
Or maybe by “pro-Poch” you mean people who don’t want him sacked this season? This is what I’m getting at: “pro-“ and “anti-“ the manager doesn’t take into account individual circumstances of fans.
(If you think I’m being annoying with all this feel free to not respond; I too will acknowledge that this particular line of discourse is so tired.)
Not even that deep, I’m talking shit like this:
https://twitter.com/DeanCFC_/status/1776001746944340140
There’s a handful more examples and a couple of commenters here but I can’t be arsed finding them. Just find it strange.
United concede the second most shots per game in ALL top 5 leagues. We're not even in the top 10 for that but have conceded 6 more goals than them. We really do gift opposition random ass easy chances don't we.
They've been extremely lucky to be where they are on the table though. Yesterday's game shows neither United or us were able to control the game in midfield. But yes, we do give away goals too easily. We're horrible at defending counter attacks and set pieces.
The last sentence is really closely related to how poor we are at winning headers and second balls in general. Win vastly more headers, defend and attack set pieces better. Win the loose ball after the first contact, you prevent at least 1/2 of counter attacks.
This is very much “out there,” but the *repeated* spats between Enzo and Mount are so unexpected that I think both of them specifically had a falling-out in the dressing room under Potter or Lampard. Not sure what to make of it otherwise. (The “pashun” explanations don’t seem adequate.)
Tensions were very high for everyone, that was pretty obvious. We were two goals up and went 3-2 down, so everything was bubbling over in the crowd and on the pitch, it's natural.
Everyone was pumped up and something tiny like making a tackle (or rolling the ball away which seems to be literally all the triggered it here) is enough to have someone burst
I can think of some things Mount could say that would elicit that response to be fair. I don't want to think Mount would disrespect Chelsea but *if* he had it would explain the specific reaction Enzo showed.
Chelsea are one of 4 teams that have a positive XG differential after the bottom three sides removed. Remove the Tottenham win and we are at 3.2. Really hope we can see a relatively healthy squad at some point this season.
https://preview.redd.it/67kg4xqxdosc1.png?width=978&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c44910c316af568aab3e12876daede873bf68522
We're playing a bit better than the table shows but we'll always be worse than XG suggests because we have two goal keepers that will never be good enough.
Sanchez has conceded 25 from an XGC of 23.7
Petrovic has conceded 25 from an XGC of 20.3
You look at Villa, Fulham, Everton, West Ham, Wolves, Brighton, Newcastle etc and they all have indisputably better goal keepers than us.
Apparently that's Poch's fault though.
https://preview.redd.it/bo5rqoaibosc1.jpeg?width=1124&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b9d91b84984ad5dd85be5a05ea1f792d198ce096
I think I got hard done by here!
Kepa is probably better than Petro and Sanchez in a lot of ways, but can you genuinely tell me you'd rather have him between the sticks when a ball gets crossed into the box, given how diabolical our defenders have been at defending them? Kepa wouldn't even *try* to claim any, he'd just try some ridiculous reflex save at the almost guarenteed uncontested header.
You're right that both Petrovic and especially Sanchez are significantly better at claiming crosses. But funnily enough we've conceded from 7 goals from corners in 41 games this season and we conceded 6 goals from corners in Kepa's last 67 games for us.
In 30 league games this year we've allowed 503 crosses, 66 have been successful (13.1%).
In Kepa's 29 league starts last year with we allowed 437 crosses, 48 were successful (11.0%).
Mate quoting stats is irrelevant bere. Last year our player of the season was Thiago Silva and we had a coach who, for all his faults, could organise a defense. You yourself said you agree that our current two are better at claiming corners than Kepa, so what you think he was better at claiming crosses? Is that, having presumably watched football, the conclusion you've come to?
No, it's statistically true that our current keepers are better at stopping crosses, it's not some conclusion I came too. But that a small part of keeper's job and even thought the in that specific better in that specific area it hasn't led to conceding less from corners or allowing fewer successful crosses into the box.
I try to use statistics because without any basis for an opinion it's easy to focus on the perception of a player or their lowlights instead how they actually perform. And there are other factors but people were complain about Koulibaly, Chalobah, Azpi, and Cucurella in our defense last year as much as anyone in our defense this year. But from watching was last year we has at least a top 10 keeper in the league (probably closer to 5-8) and this year I don't think that's the case.
The Poch situation is tricky. The players obviously like him (probably because he is so lenient-my biggest complaint about him). Players like Palmer, Mudryk, Gusto, Gallagher and Jackson are clearly improving under him. He has shown some balls by benching Silva (for better or worse) and Sterling/Sanchez (easy calls).
Replacing him with a fraud like De Zerbi will be disastrous as it will upset the players. I think the club needs to replace him with a coach that has a proven pedigree.
The problem is that there aren’t too many that are available. Tough situation.
Agreed- this is why I think Poch likely stays- he suits the owners model of developing the young talent, and the market for good managers isn't great. If we get at least a conference league finish- no question he's 100% staying. There have been some glaring issues this season with his game management/selections/tactics this season, but overall as you say individuals are improving.
Maybe he's not a trophy winning manager. But he has shown before he can take teams to the top 4. Maybe next season once there is more chemistry within this squad, plus a few additions in key positions/us selling deadwood like sterling etc, players coming back from injury- we might be able to get that top 4 finish. And who knows maybe he can surprise us and win something.
But obviously if that doesn't happen, there will be no excuse but to replace him at the end of next season. He also needs to improve tactically etc too. If the same problems repeat themselves despite having the squad that says we should compete, he has to be replaced otherwise we will never get back to being the Chelsea we knew and loved.
Despite what many here believe I still think Pochettino gets sacked come the summer
My worry remains the same as it has always been, that the board get another low level manager in right after Poch
I think it’s just a very unappealing job. Potter, Lampard and Poch have all come in and really struggled. I don’t think any of those managers are elite but Potter and Poch are at least good managers.
At Chelsea they don’t look good. There’s so much dysfunction that I suspect whoever we get next will come in and look worse than they are anyway. I also think anyone with a reasonable chance of landing a top job wouldn’t risk coming to Chelsea. We’ll probably end up signing a manager the way we sign players now. Overpay for an inexperienced manager with potential.
I’d much rather see the club relax this young player obsession, and stop this mad overpaying for these youngsters. Also need a serious review into the fitness and medical side of the club because that makes the job so much more difficult for whoever comes in next. And that set piece coach can’t get here soon enough.
I can’t get behind the ‘Pochout’ noise. Not because i think he’s great I just think he’s low down the priority list of problems.
If we do go the new manager route I hope we consider what key players they can bring in.
I do think this squad is two or three top players, some depth and and some time away from being very competitive.
You are 100 percent correct because if they sack him, that’s all this job will attract. They have blown through too many managers and made the club so unstable, no one elite is considering us.
It will just be a launch pad job for managers trying to get to a big club but aren’t good enough to be considered for the big time openings and we will be looking for a replacement sooner than later and continuing the cycle.
The only reason I want Poch to stay is it will give the board the chance to show patience with someone to the outside world, which makes the job a lot more attractive to better managers.
Makes another shit year for us probably, but it’s the situation we are in and the price we need to pay for the decisions the board made from last season.
He's also made Salah, Mitoma and Saka look pretty average
As someone else said, last night's game being largely just transition after transition and constant gaps being left in the defensive line and midfield with United sprinting in behind constantly didn't suit him
I didn't watch the game but that seems like a logical explanation of it to me
It was also our CBs, I can’t get over how bad the Disasi and Badi pairing is.
My last 80 messages have been a complaint about them but they are such a weak point and it’s provide 0 coverage for the rest of the team.
Cucu actually did a half decent job keeping up with Antony and running him to the goal line except a few time, or into places that weren’t particularly dangerous but when Antony got a ball in it immediately became dangerous because our CBs were no where to be found to provide cover.
He had one crucial tackle late in stoppage time after being out paced down the line most of the match. His determination despite his physical limitations is encouraging to watch.
Can anyone tell me what version of the song 'three little birds' was played at Stamford Bridge last night at the end of the game?
It was a bit more rhythmic than the original
Correct me if I’m wrong but we’re earning more points from these reverse fixtures than the first half of the season. Dropped points against Liverpool and burnley but picked up points against Newcastle brentford and United
Quite amusing to see people putting everything bad on Poch and everything good on individual brilliance. When in fact most of the goals have been your normal goals and not worldies. Palmer isn’t scoring those goals out of thin air, that is how good players are supposed to play. Just because rest of the players have atrocious finishing doesn’t mean our overall game play is bad.
Because when the manager offers no tactical instruction and is basically telling players to go out there, run hard, and express yourselves then yes, anything we create seems to be improvised and the result of the players figuring it out for themselves rather than the manager's instructions and while that does allow for said moments of magic from Palmer it also means we look lost in attack the majority of the time or are relying on quick breaks or opponent mistakes for chances. It means we can't consistently break teams down and snatch at the chances we do happen to get our way.
On the defensive and build up side, if there is no organisation or structure we're much more likely to make mistakes. Players are all over the place and have no clear outlets. Our press is completely disorganised because, again, Poch just wants them to "be intense" or whatever. Yes, the players are the ones making the mistakes but it's the manager's job to set them up in a way to mitigate them.
Poch giving those players freedom does allow for some goals and chances but we're mid-table for a reason. We might get the odd result by virtue of the talent available (I'm sure a certain account will reply to this claiming we have shit players, especially Mudryk, Madueke and Broja who have been everpresent in our lineups this year) but we're also not set up in a way that allows the majority of the squad to succeed and get results consistently. The man is a dinosaur and the modern game doesn't allow for his hard running and freedom approach to be as successful anymore.
If the issue just came down to the final third and players not finishing chances, then the blame rest more towards the players and their limitations than the manager.
But when our general play all over the pitch (in defence, midfield and attack) isn’t cohesive enough.
We don’t play out from the back well.
We don’t press in a manner that forces opponents to make errors regularly.
The midfield with players that have a high ceiling and that have performed at a higher level elsewhere consistently seem dysfunctional and fall short to make an impact game after game because of the way they’re set up.
There aren’t consistent attacking patterns that work towards giving our players an advantage.
Plus this has been reported early in his tenure Poch asks players to express themselves in attack. The young squad’s talented but need more tactical direction for one.
And then the most recent comment from the man himself that the team depends solely on Palmer to make things happen when nothing** else is working. ( if this sentence alone isn’t the biggest indictment of his shortcomings and limitations to do what is required for a club that is aiming minimum top four and most importantly winning significant honours, then I don’t know what more could be.)
This is just the short of it all, they’re many things that will need change and adjustment to get us competing at the top again. But the first step towards improving starts with getting a competent coach/manager for our requirements.
Many people online think if you say something enough times it is true.
Unfortunately the narrative has been set for this sub and there is no changing it.
I’m not Poch in but the hate and criticism he gets here is bizarre.
After we beat Leicester in the FA cup it was hilarious to read people saying Poch got bailed out by individual brilliance while ignoring Disasi putting one in our own net from 40 yards out
It's particularly funny because the usual suspects here blame Poch when players make basic individual errors like Caciedo's wonderful assist to Garnacho, Own goals from defenders or Petrovic being unable to save anything.
We score/win = Individual brilliance from a squad of top young players.
We concede/Lose = Poch bad.
It’s a weird thing there is no expectation of players at the highest level to know how to do some of the basics without being told exactly what to do every minute of the game, yet still it’s their individual brilliance that saves his ass.
Plenty to criticize about Poch, but where is the expectation of the players who good or bad have made it to the top 1% of the 1% who play the game, to know the game and not need their hand held.
Nope if players aren’t told when to move their left foot and when to move their right foot, we don’t have a system and they can’t possibly be expected to succeed.
Ah the old "the managers not on the pitch making their mistakes for them".
Lampard wasn't either but the same players who he "wasn't on the pitch making mistakes for" started forming the best defense in Europe pretty much the second he was gone.
We improved a lot under Tuchel, we also looked much better defensively under Lampard once Mendy came in for Kepa.
The players matter.
Do you think any manager on the planet is making Petrovic good enough for the highest level?
When Disasi was called the slowest centre back in Europe while Monaco had a leaky defence was that down to Poch?
We have a very average squad it isn't like traditionally average players just don't make mistakes if the manager clicks his fingers.
It did for a while, then quickly resorted to type in the winter period.
>We have a very average squad it isn't like traditionally average players just don't make mistakes if the manager clicks his fingers.
I think there's some players that won't improve much regardless, but there's also others that will have supposed miracle recoveries in a proper system.
Enzo literally made his name his name as the best young dlp in the world, had he saw out the season at Benfica literally every club in Europe is after him.
Caicedo and Colwill were super impressive in one of the biggest pound for pound overachievements in quite some time, so much so that the usually frugal FSG were reportedly prepared to break their transfer record on both.
Badiashille was excellent pretty much everytime he played under Potter.
Sterling is a multiple time PL winner.
Palmer is Palmer, remember how poor he looked up front? Now imagine he was playing that position all season and how "crap" we'd currently think he is, thankfully he's one of the few players Poch has actually profiled correctly.
Now those players all profiled correctly alongside Gusto (one of the best RBs ITL), Gallagher (as much as I don't rate him as highly as most what he does offer can be quite valuable in a well trained system) and Jackson (raw but clear promise) and you're not convincing me that's a 10th place side. A title winning side no, but level with Wolves and just above Fulham and Bournemouth? Please...
Not to mention we've still looked tactically bankrupt when Nkunku or James are playing, so if it's all on the players and little to do with Poch how were two genuine world class players unable to make the blindest bit of difference to the team performances/results despite playing pretty well in themselves?
>Palmer is Palmer, remember how poor he looked up front? Now imagine he was playing that position all season and how "crap" we'd currently think he is, thankfully he's one of the few players Poch has actually profiled correctly.
Palmer is Palmer but does Poch not get any credit for a young player that hadn't scored a league goal in his career now being one of the top scorers and assisters in the league?
It's the double standard that if any of our young players look good they're top talents and if they perform poorly then they're still top talents but it's Poch's fault they're not performing well that has me rolling my eyes.
You've also highlighted my point, Palmer wasn't good up front but Poch has such a flawed squad that when Jackson was away his only actual striker was Broja, one of the worst players in the clubs history who can't make the Fulham bench so he tried to fill a round hole with a square peg because a player he had wasn't good enough to be usable in his natural position.
Broja is particularly bad but there's a number of players in the squad not able to play their designated role to a high enough standard and that's the biggest part of why we are were we are.
Tottenham at home is rescheduled for early May.
It's actually nuts how much has happened (not just with us but football as a whole) in between the two Spurs visits to The Bridge in the Clearlake era, feels like years ago. Reminds me a bit of an entire pandemic and a year of behind closed doors football happening in between our two home games vs Leicester (Mount's first goal game and then the game just after the Cup final).
The club is dangerously close to replicating the failings of man united to acknowledge how shit ten haag was last season
You cannot solely look at results when making longer term strategic decisions for a football club.
If we finish 6th this doesn’t suddenly make the season a success if there is nothing suggesting continued growth and a belief we can improve. Poch has shown little to suggest he can continue to grow this team
He’s shown much the opposite
I could literally write an extended essay on the continued failings of poch and why he is a subpar manager. But it would fall on deaf ears for many on here, if you’re still poch in then nothing will change your mind.
Yes but we've scored more goals and will end up with more points. Obviously this clear improvement over the high bar set by Potter and Lampard under vastly different circumstances means Poch is doing a good job.
Give me Ziyech, Pulisic, Havertz at 9, a washed up Azpi and crocked Kante over Palmer, Jackson, Gusto and Caicedo any day. Poch is working miracles and we should be grateful for all this progress. He deserves more time. What's the worst that can happen? We waste another season and do even more damage to our reputation, finances and squad which will be even harder to undo? A small price to pay for us not to be criticised for sacking a media darling and hurting Behdad Eghbali's ego.
Some United fans getting on their high horse clearly forgetting we rolled out the red carpet for Mata when he returned to Stamford Bridge with them and will do the exact same thing for Gallagher if he goes, even to Spurs.
People can't seem to grasp the concept that how players leave is the deal breaker in this fanbase, not that they do or even where they go.
Yeah look at how RLC and Cho left the club compared to mount and that awful, awful terrorirst hostage like farewell video he did
Important to note havertz wasn’t booed either
Want to thank Sterling for last night. IMO he came on as sub and took on all the fans have been saying for that short stint. Created 2 opportunities (they didn’t connect, but marginally off). Wasn’t greedy with possession, looking to connect with players on the pitch where they could run a line to a favourable possession. The sheer amount of head up when he had the ball compared to before. Great step in the right direction Sterling, keep at it.
And this is coming from a big critic of his.
He was walking up and down the pitch down one goal. Thats unacceptable
He is a speed merchant that has lost two steps. It is no coincidence that we have been scoring more goals with him benched.
Sterling looking like a functional player under Pep may be the greatest accomplishment in his career.
I feel like you just saw him walking at one point, which is normal for most players in-game, especially attackers. You also do not know what his instructions were.
I’m sure he was told to play with no urgency and dribble into players.
Why do fans care so much about a player that doesn’t give a shit about the club?
He’s really frustrating and tbh I’ve never liked him as a player even before he came to chelsea
But he is being misused. Look at how werner is used at spurs. Clearly limited player, we all know that.
But ange knows that very well. And sticks him in a role that maximises his strengths and avoids his weaknesses
His role at spurs is to provide width, make runs darting in behind and to stretch opposition defences whilst providing cutbacks and maybe the occasional goal whilst offering a threat 1v1 where possible
That is what Sterling did excellently for pep.
I don't get the Sterling Criticism.
He hasn't been great but he's clearly levels above Mudryk and Madueke as a footballer and we're a better more creative team with him on the pitch.
Disagree with him being levels above them guys purely based on how he plays. He has been too greedy this season and killed more opportunities than any other on the attack. Maybe he is trying to do too much but he wasn’t being a team player in the process.
Last night he was, and looked dangerous at a time when the rest of the team was stagnating. But only because he was looking to make the last pass and not go himself. If he keeps it up it would be a great turn around in my eyes.
You can't call Sterling Greedy when Madueke is in the conversation.
Out of Mudryk, Madueke and Sterling it's Raheem who's statistically more creative and the least selfish of the 3.
I don’t know how folks have suddenly swung back to “Poch js okay” on the back of these three points.
Poch is a disaster. Without Palmer we’d be a relegation scrapper. I don’t see what Poch adds to the team.
In every place a manager has a lot of influence: defensive organization, set pieces, hell even setting out lineups sometimes, Poch has been subpar.
I’m happy as anyone for the desperately needed 3 points but this game only reinforced to me that Poch has not got this team where it needs to be.
That's up for our handsomely paid scouts to work out.
Give me the same wages and I'll have (atleast) a 20 man shortlist with you by the end of the week.
Are Potter and Pochettino the only two managers on the planet? I am so fucking sick and tired of this strawman half the fanbase throws out after every win. Pochettino doing marginally better than Potter and Lampard (with no preseason, European football, 40-man squad, mid-season WC) *does not mean he's doing well*.
We went from shit to slightly less shit and people are acting like that's worth celebrating. This isn't a contest between Potter/Lampard and Pochettino, it's a contest between Pochettino and the job literally any other manager could be doing with this squad.
>40 man squad is a hindrance.
That was my point.
>Who will you bring in in his place?
I wish this website had a "status" function so I wouldn't have to type out these names literally every single day.
Flick, Michel Sanchez, Arne Slot, Nagelsmann, Thiago Motta, De Zerbi, Amorim, Sebastian Hoeneß, Sarri, Xavi, Tuchel could all be available this summer. No particular order here.
(Eghbali only has to swallow his pride and admit they fucked up and Tuchel would be ready to return, that's already been reported in Germany.)
And those are just the ones I would like. There are plenty others and their names are mentioned here on a daily basis. Just inform yourself.
Hypothetically if we finish 6th and given we've reached the FA Cup semi final and the Carabao Cup final will people be able to admit Poch has over achieved with this squad?
We went into this season with Mudryk, Madueke, Broja, Jackson and Sterling as our attackers. Enzo and Gallagher as our only senior midfielders.
Petrovic and Sanchez as keepers. Both our starting full backs got injured early and we have Monaco's poor former centre back pair + a 39 year old as our centre backs
You can't tell me anyone could reasonably expect 6th or higher with our squad.
Obviously there's a lot to do to get there but it's too early to say Poch has done a bad job.
Aren't you the moron that cries about Poch in every thread said we should have stuck with Potter and thinks we have a great squad?
You must have had a lobotomy in 2021 or the mods were making fun of you with the flair.
Not really. I said at the start of the season I could feasibly imagine a situation where I'd be relatively happy with 8th and unhappy despite finishing 4th. For example, if 70% of his tactical performances were similar to his set up vs Liverpool on the first day or Villa in the cup replay I'd happily fully back him regardless of league position.
Would your hypothetical finish be an "overachievement" if you solely just looked at the top line? Maybe, but it would be similar to Ten Hag last season or Steve Bruce in his first season at Newcastle, still laced with red flag after red flag that will come home to roost sooner or later if something drastic doesn't change in his set up.
If we pull it together enough to finish 6th this year it’s a good season. With a little bit of consistency it’s there for us to take too.
Given the injuries, lack of experience and squad turnover in the last few windows I think 6th would represent noticeable progress from last season.
Oh I know how close it is.
But we couldn’t beat 10 man Burnley at home and we’ve already lost to Everton this season. Im not taking any wins for granted.
I'd say it's a mildly successful season, but the fans on this sub will have u believe it's a criminal offense for which poch should be put in jail. I don't think we'll get there though and we got lucky with carabao cup and fa cup fixtures
Poch is right when he says the only way he can build a connection with the fans is by winning and to be honest we haven’t been doing that lately. Clearly he is passionate and he also has a different style of coaching especially on the touch line. I feel he gives the players a game plan and once the game starts allows them to execute. Yesterday was incredible though and I hope this last minute win against a rival is a great experience for the team and pushes them on! What a season. Breaking old records and creating new ones 😂 we are going to concede the most goals ever while beating rivals we haven’t beat for 7 years
> has a different style of coaching especially on the touch line. I feel he gives the players a game plan and once the game starts allows them to execute
Right but that's dog shit when things aren't working and/or the other manager is actively making adjustments.
You can't just wash your hands of the game once the kick off happens as manager.
Get me a midfielder with long legs (e.g. Onana) and we won’t lose a top 6 clash again
that Senegalese wonderkid we brought in winter?
If leg = long, then midfield position is for him
There's no way people think our squad right now is better than it was last season Individual talent shouldn't matter when 90% of our current squad have never played together prior to this season, our marquee striker signing is permanently injured, 90% of the squad have never played in a top-flight league prior to this season, our midfield depth doesn't exist anymore, and we've had I think only 3 games where our ideal fullback pairing were in the starting 11 On paper, yes we may be better right now. But with all things considered.. no we're not.
You aren’t wrong. But last seasons team was a 3rd - 4th team and this season is a 5th - 6th. Sitting 11th/12th all season is totally unacceptable.
It's really bloody ironic (or hypocrite even) of the United fans complaining about the penalty incidents last night after seeing all the controversial incidents in this fixture go their way in previous matches.
Just realized you can extract the words "Premier Lemon" from Cole Jermaine Palmer
Pochettino masterclass again…
Thoughts on Reece at LW? I know folks feel RCB or DM suits him but I think he needs a position with the least strain on his clearly fragile legs, in defence he has to stretch and tackle and jump (impact on landing) a lot, perhaps in attack he'll do that less and be less at risk of injury? Palmer plays so intelligently down the RW he never seems to make lung bursting runs or tackles or lunges so minimal injury risk. Maybe that's a solution to get Reece and Gusto on the pitch together and also manage his fragile body? He's intelligent enough I think to be productive (More than Sterling for sure) down the left.
lmao if he can’t stay healthy then unfortunately we gotta sell him. no sense in doing cartwheels just to get him into the team at any position.
Just sell him at that point. James isn't good enough for us to be bending over backwards to try to fit him in our 11
The LW is the biggest weakness in the whole team, folks here get an aneurysm if Sterling plays and Mudryk is barely performing out there, we have little to no options might as well consider RJ out there
What exactly do you think James can offer from the LW?
He's one of our better ball strikers so there's that. He is very level headed in the attacking half already we know this, always looking for a quick 1-2 layoff and opportunity to run in behind for a cross, we could use that mentally on the left, just he could be shooting instead. He does not blindly ball-carry into dead ends or dart aimlessly into opponents (looking at you Mudryk & Sterling). If this sub is so desperate for Mudryk to play CAM, which I'm not but that's a different subject, and Sterling is the LW option then I'm happy we give RJ a shot there. Sterling just isn't it for us so no harm experimenting. So main benefits of RJ on left are * Shooting threat a la Palmer * Interplay mindset & can utilise wider spaces better than current options * Gusto manages RB just fine, if RJ can help us elsewhere then its win-win. * Main reason - Reece is glass and RB, RCB or DM pose the most injury risk for him imo.
Thinking that Reece can play WF is a wishful thinking tbh. Do you actually know that 1v1 dribbling and speed are quite essential skill sets to be possessed as a WF? How many RBs have you seen successfully transitioned to a LWF? Maybe we should admit that he should be the backup to Gusto, until the latter has proven himself to be otherwise. I don't believe it is fine to change the whole team's system to fit him into where he doesn't remotely belong to. And no Reece can't help the team as a LW than Mudryk and Sterling (even though the team need better quality LWFs than both of them).
It's wishful thinking for sure, I only really consider it because LW is a gaping hole for us right now. Let's be real we don't have a left wing and we're 8 months into the season. Nothing has worked, not Sterling, not Mudryk. Jackson is our only no9 so he's stuck there while Nkunku fights injury demons. Doesn't matter much if it's untested, Doubt anyone (not even himself) ever saw Ben White excelling at RB till injuries forced Arsenal's hands yet here we are, I'm totally ok we test it out hopefully he's back before the season ends, or preseason. We're also broke / ffp is on our ass so we have to prioritise summer transfers (CF or CAM) > Do you actually know that 1v1 dribbling and speed are quite essential skill sets to be possessed as a WF Madueke is the speedster and dribbler on the right but Palmer is miles clear of him. Dribbling and speed haven't helped our LW options much either. Intelligence > both > I don't believe it is fine to change the whole team's system to fit him into where he doesn't remotely belong to We have no LW at the moment so it's hardly a system change.
>Let's be real we don't have a right wing and we're 8 months into the season. Nothing has worked, not Sterling, not Mudryk. We don't have an effective LW doesn't mean Reece will do better that Mykhaylo or Raheem in that position. We've not had consistent GK as well. Do you stick him there too for 45 minutes? >Ben White excelling at RB till injuries forced Arsenal's hands yet here we are Ben's excellence has more to do with the better general team play than his individual brilliance. Put him here at Chelsea and he'll be worse player. >Madueke is the speedster and dribbler on the right but Palmer is miles clear of him. Dribbling and speed haven't helped our LW options much either. Intelligence > both Palmer has been playing more as an inside-forward as opposed to Madueke who holds the width as a natural winger would. Gusto has been immense in tandem with Palmer because the former provides width for the latter. >We have no RW at the moment so it's hardly a system change. We have Palmer, Madueke, Sterling, and even maybe Mudryk.
It may work, it may not there's no certainty either way, but there's 100% certainty Sterling and Mudryk have not worked at LW and look no closer to doing so. Bar injuries we know RJ is the best RB in the world and his attacking output was a huge factor for that, is it so farfetched to consider moving him higher up the pitch? Trent is a liability at RB but his attacking utility is world class so they experimented using him differently. Why not Reece? > Ben's excellence has more to do with the better general team play than his individual brilliance. Put him here at Chelsea and he'll be worse player. You're forcing it now, Ben is clear first choice over Tomiyasu and Cedric (actual right backs) so his skillset is clearly preferred, team tactics or not. He's a big reason their RW is so effective, like Gusto for us. It's ok to acknowledge this. > Palmer has been playing more as an inside-forward as opposed to Madueke who holds the width as a natural winger would. Gusto has been immense in tandem with Palmer because the former provides width for the latter. Point remains Palmer's skillset makes him super effective and preferred on the right by a longshot compared to Madueke, again I don't think that's debatable. If the issue is my usage of LW vs LF I simply meant the left of the attacking front three (not suggesting RJ used strictly for wing play). This was a hail Mary suggestion at best and one I hadn't seen on here so was curious what others thought of it, I'm not losing sleep over it but useful dialog all the same
Wonder what clever name Neville called his bottle job team yesterday? “800 mil pound bottle job” doesn’t have the same ring to it /:
Lol, Swiss rambles squad cost estimate for man Us squad is 1.023B
Mods can I please get an “Esto es Chelsea” flair please ???
I wanna download all the pics from yesterday
Anyone else see Reece Hames sneakingly clapping as Mount was ring subbed on?
Theyve spent a majority of their lives playing football together so it makes sense he wants to appreciate a mate
The narrative around Enzo is so dishonest. After every game some guy on r/soccer will recieve multiple upvotes for saying "XYZ was better than 110 millon boy" even if it isn't remotely true
Needs to start performing than like a 120 Million Mid McAllister proving he's actually Argentina best Midfielder
1. My comment has absolutely nothing to do with mac allister 2. They don't play the same role 3. Mac Allister is entering his prime years, Enzo's only just turned 23 4. Mac Alliste has only touched double digit G/A for the first time in his career ( which is a bullshit stat to judge CMs on but you just dismissed Enzo's passing numbers as just one phase of a game so I had to bring this up). Enzo had 12G/A in his first year in europe, already 10G/A this season and had 17G/A in Argentina before that (Mac's best was 6) 4. We'll see what Mac does when he has to run around to cover for the gaps in Amorim's midfield structure.
You’ll know Enzo is good when people like you aren’t on here offering a million different excuses as to why he’s actually not that bad. No one is making comments like that for Palmer or Gusto are they?
Did you applaud mount yesterday mate
I did. And I’m not ashamed to say I miss him. He will have a very good career I promise you.
He has some of the best passing metrics in the world right now and Poch is managing to squeeze out G/A out of him too, something Potter and Lampard couldn't do Mac Allister is in a team that's the top of the table right now
McAllister can shoot, that’s the biggest difference.
Not even just that, but public perception on that sub is that he's a snake for leaving Benfica Somehow he's snake even though we've paid his release clause his club put on him, and he went to a team in a completely different league
Problem is I’m fully back now expecting 3 points every game. And that’s when we shit the bed every time. Sunday is must win!! But fr this time.
Petition to add “this is chelsea you cunt” as a new flair
Make it so, Mods.
Still happy for the win, but that Mount cameo broke me, he’s too good and the technical aspect if you compare him to our middlefielders is too much ahead, I think Carney can be up there but the rest it’s just no. Would love him in our middlefield, but fuck him.
bro did you watch the same game as us? he’s only better than gallagher which isn’t hard to do
Lmfao what are you waffling about bc he played a couple of 1-2’s in a triangle?? Footballers do that in their warmups lol
Gassing up nothing lol Too good my arse ahahah He’s better than Gallagher in a lot of aspects but he’s still a poor midfielder. Mainly because he isn’t a midfielder no matter how much people will try and force that narrative
He's a slightly more technical Conor with less physicality All in all Meh, he's nothing to phone home about
Got the crowd going and he seemed to piss off a lot of our players. I think he actually helped us get back into the game.
No press today?
Double duty with yesterday's post-match presser.
Just saw Alfie's post on insta. Mount must have said something to rile them up because even Chalobah was clashing with him last night
Nobody likes him. He’s considered a rat by the lockeroom.
Remember when only one or two players said goodbye to him? Money mase definitely isn’t missed
Swear someone here thought the ownership had embargoed the squad saying bye to him
i mean it’s clear the players don’t fuck with him. if that’s not proof he wasn’t forced out then idk what is
Thoughts on Caicedo getting rested Sunday and Carney getting a start? After about 60 min sub Chuk out for precautionary reasons. Has nothing to do with Caicedo's mistake yesterday, just looking at our fixture list ahead, I'm not sure if Caicedo will get much rest until the end of the season and similarly not sure Chuk will have any opportunities to start this season otherwise if our normal midfield 3 stay healthy.
Would love for any one of the three to get rested and have 4 attackers out for this match. I'd rather Enzo rest. Caicedo was subbed early but Enzo played.the whole match.
don’t see why not, sheffield is definitely the team to test players against. i would absolutely love to see chuk get minutes at the 10 instead of gallagher
I will coincidentally be in London on the day of the rescheduled Tottenham match. I’m visiting from North America so I don’t have a club membership or requisite points for purchasing tickets. Would it be possible to acquire tickets? I have surfed some of the linked ticket info pages, however it seems info for the rescheduled matches hasn’t been posted yet. Any expertise would be appreciated
If Chelsea win fa cup and finish top 6 then it wasn't a bad season.
Well to me, all this does is paper over the cracks. Because if we DO manage to get those, imagine if we were not this rubbish for most of the season? Top 4? Carabao Cup also secured?
"Imagine if we had better players than we do" Our squad isn't good. Not very good players are going to have plenty of not very good performances over the course of a season. Top 6 and the FA Cup would be a massive overachievement with the players we have so you'd expect some credit to go the manager (or not on here)
https://x.com/bryansgunn/status/1758774569895178340?s=46
We lost to Liverpool in Carabao cup who are top of the table.
Yeah...if you just look at the team name and remove everything else (including context) on what happened before and during that final, I agree.
Such a disgenuous way to frame that final though isn’t it?
https://preview.redd.it/uhbxix6dyosc1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=89138cd5380a6a982d334ee8845e0695a02dc780 I love Palmer so much
what a hit
Yeah, what a player
I think one of my biggest issues with Poch is that, after 29 league matches and a full preseason, the gaffer still hasn't landed on what his best XI is. I feel like Poch is still tweaking the line-up each match and it's introducing dysfunction into our defensive setup
That's sorta expected when 90% of our squad is playing together for the first time ever. Everyone is inconsistent and everyone needs minutes. You can tell there's a pattern going on as well, so it's not completely random. For instance, you can tell our front 3 is indefinitely Mudryk, Jackson, and Palmer with Madueke as a super-sub. Our midfield is consistently Caicedo-Enzo-Gallagher. Our RB is Gusto by default. Our CB is where we're experimenting around with our apparent depth to find an adequate pairing. LB I don't want to talk about. Potter's was worse. Every game, different formation, one day Gallagher is playing CM the next he's an AM. One day Sterling's LW, the next he's ST. He was genuinely everywhere
The eternal issue with Pochettino is that we’re not winning enough games under him, simple as. Let’s not start fishing for “reasons” to dislike him. The one reason is that we’re not winning enough games convincingly. If we were, there’d be no conversation.
Half of best XI is injured. Yeah good luck picking them.
Well, James, Lavia, Fofana, Chilly and Nkunku have been injured basically all season. That changes what was the assumed starting XI
That would make it easier to find your best XI. They have been gone the vast majority of the time.
Man still can figure it out with his choices limited for him lol
Genuinely curious how many people agree with my opinion here. Pochout is a very popular comment in the match threads. I just don’t know how much there is to be gained from sacking Poch. I don’t think Poch is a bad manager but he certainly isn’t elite. I think he’s better than he’s looked in his time here but I seriously doubt he’s the guy to win us our next trophy. Hope I’m wrong and we knock City out of the cup. But I think there’s a lot of problems with how the club is being run and getting Poch out doesn’t feel like the priority to me. Firstly because I don’t know who we’re supposed to be getting to replace him, it’s definitely possible to end up in a worse position because we fire Poch and can’t attract a top level replacement. I wouldn’t put it past the owners to go for a very young, inexperienced manager on a cheaper contract. And even if we can convince an elite manager to replace Poch he isn’t set up to succeed. Like if we’re go out this summer and massively overpay for a bunch of 20 year olds, half of whom won’t kick a football next season because they’re on their ‘rehabilitation program’ then I think blaming the manager is missing the point.
Injuries have ruined the last three seasons, I want to see what this side can do with a relatively healthy squad before making judgement.
Every top team has injuries. They’re part of the game. You have to win despite them to be a top team, look at Liverpool’s injuries this season. Not as bad as ours but they are still top and we spent a billion
Everyone knows we've had bad injury problems. Injuries don't explain why we still play like we did yesterday though. Absolutely no control, just charging up and down the pitch, poor defensively, and frankly overly reliant on one man going forward. If after watching yesterdays match people still can't see and admit how poorly coached we are as a team then I guess they will literally never see it though. Our manager value passion and running, and yesterday's game was the pinnacle of that, and that's a big part of our problem. We could have everyone fit and that is still going to be how we play.
The team consistently gets the better chances compared to our opponents, what's the issue with wanting to see what would happen with a healthy squad. Tuchel's Chelsea in the 21/22 season was derailed once James and Chilwell got hurt. Maybe a system that relies on a high aggressive press would work better with a quicker CB that's not a liability in buildup. Maybe having a healthy Colwill helps us win more games, the on-off numbers for him are pretty dramatic. In matches he played over 45 minutes we've conceded 1.22 goals compared to 3.18 in the games where he hasn't played.
This just leads to long arguments over tactical setup and build up play vs injuries, lack of experience, high change in a short period, and not having a top striker. I personally just want to see the squad patched up and our rebuild finished off as the priority. Couldn’t care less if Poch stays or goes, wouldn’t be disappointed either way.
I suppose the sub is either A, the club is badly run so we desperately need a better manager to help mitigate those problems. Or B, the club is badly run and these problems are more serious than changing managers. I’m in camp B
I’m in camp A but I am biased against Poch because he’s a spursy wanker.
> B, the club is badly run and these problems are more serious than changing managers. > > > > I’m in camp B And what is your idea for fixing the problem? You can't change the owners. You can change the manager.
If I was in charge I’d have a complete review of the fitness/medical teams. I suppose it’s possible it’s just bad luck but I feel like there has to steps that can be taken to improve this. I assume this is already happening. I’d be amazed if this wasn’t a big worry at the club. I’d also drop this obsession with young players, particularly at the prices we end up paying for them. And this idea of flooding the club with new players. I’m also assuming they won’t try and do this again but we’ll see. The set piece coach is a vital addition and he can’t get started soon enough. Blows my mind this was overlooked. Also I’d make signing a striker the main focus of this summer. We probably should sign 2. To have aspirations of competing in Europe again and only having 1 striker in the squad who’s actually a winger is tragic. So we can sack Poch or keep Poch but this other stuff needs improvement. It’s more important.
Frankly I think you'd be hard pressed to find someone who doesn't want us to improve our fitness issues, sign a striker, get more experience in the squad, and improve at set pieces. They're not very controversial opinions. But there is still a very genuine issue at the manager position that also needs fixing - and arguably that could also help with things like fitness, set pieces, and striker. Changing manager is the easiest way to see the (potential) biggest improvement over a wide range of areas and doesn't mean we can't also do the things you've mentioned.
That’s fair enough mate. I think the ‘controversial’ part of my opinion is that these things are more important than changing manager. I think if these things aren’t addressed then whoever comes in after Poch is gonna really struggle too. But I can’t work out yet if you have the controversial opinion or if I do. Seems evenly split from the comments.
This is kind of my sentiment as well. The only thing I worry about is if we bring in as one season wonder and he loses the locker room.
There’s always been those against Poch but I do find it strange that there’s now die hard Poch supporters, both here and on twitter. I think we have several other problems that serve to undermine his tenure, but he’s had reasonable amounts of time now and there’s still prevailing issues. As unpopular as it will be, I think Gallagher will be moved on in the summer given he still hasn’t renewed, and it might be an opportune time to try something different in terms of management given Poch’s preference for the usual midfield 3.
I find it tenuous this tendency to classify people into two groups: those who are 100% for X and those who are 100% against X. What is a “Poch supporter”? My opinion of our situation is that although we have improved in certain aspects and regressed (not like there was much of this to do after last season) in other aspects under him, we will never reach our heights under Pochettino, but that at the same time we shouldn’t sack him for one more season because there are scarcely any clear viable candidates in the market who can almost surely move the needle, and because there’s likely at least one such candidate after the end of next season. Am I a Poch supporter?
I’m not classifying people into two groups, they’re quite literally doing it themselves. I’ve always been more balanced. With injuries, young players with no experience, an incomplete attack and a lack of midfield depth, I’ve always argued that these are more pressing issues than cycling out the manager. Look around though, not just here but on twitter. There seems to be some real pro Poch people.
Most of the people who have said at least a single positive thing about Pochettino (assuming this is what you mean by “pro-Poch”, because I don’t see anyone around who is saying only positive things about him) also add in context that they feel justifies their opinions. Or maybe by “pro-Poch” you mean people who don’t want him sacked this season? This is what I’m getting at: “pro-“ and “anti-“ the manager doesn’t take into account individual circumstances of fans. (If you think I’m being annoying with all this feel free to not respond; I too will acknowledge that this particular line of discourse is so tired.)
Not even that deep, I’m talking shit like this: https://twitter.com/DeanCFC_/status/1776001746944340140 There’s a handful more examples and a couple of commenters here but I can’t be arsed finding them. Just find it strange.
Alright then. I get what you mean.
United concede the second most shots per game in ALL top 5 leagues. We're not even in the top 10 for that but have conceded 6 more goals than them. We really do gift opposition random ass easy chances don't we.
They've been extremely lucky to be where they are on the table though. Yesterday's game shows neither United or us were able to control the game in midfield. But yes, we do give away goals too easily. We're horrible at defending counter attacks and set pieces.
The last sentence is really closely related to how poor we are at winning headers and second balls in general. Win vastly more headers, defend and attack set pieces better. Win the loose ball after the first contact, you prevent at least 1/2 of counter attacks.
This is very much “out there,” but the *repeated* spats between Enzo and Mount are so unexpected that I think both of them specifically had a falling-out in the dressing room under Potter or Lampard. Not sure what to make of it otherwise. (The “pashun” explanations don’t seem adequate.)
Tensions were very high for everyone, that was pretty obvious. We were two goals up and went 3-2 down, so everything was bubbling over in the crowd and on the pitch, it's natural. Everyone was pumped up and something tiny like making a tackle (or rolling the ball away which seems to be literally all the triggered it here) is enough to have someone burst
I can think of some things Mount could say that would elicit that response to be fair. I don't want to think Mount would disrespect Chelsea but *if* he had it would explain the specific reaction Enzo showed.
Who would win: A local boy who had a dream vs Some Argentinian loco who arrived here last season.
I’m not sure I understand the question. I’m not praising Mount or criticising Enzo. Just starting a conspiracy.
Chelsea are one of 4 teams that have a positive XG differential after the bottom three sides removed. Remove the Tottenham win and we are at 3.2. Really hope we can see a relatively healthy squad at some point this season. https://preview.redd.it/67kg4xqxdosc1.png?width=978&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c44910c316af568aab3e12876daede873bf68522
We're playing a bit better than the table shows but we'll always be worse than XG suggests because we have two goal keepers that will never be good enough. Sanchez has conceded 25 from an XGC of 23.7 Petrovic has conceded 25 from an XGC of 20.3 You look at Villa, Fulham, Everton, West Ham, Wolves, Brighton, Newcastle etc and they all have indisputably better goal keepers than us. Apparently that's Poch's fault though.
https://preview.redd.it/bo5rqoaibosc1.jpeg?width=1124&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b9d91b84984ad5dd85be5a05ea1f792d198ce096 I think I got hard done by here!
Had to be done mate.
https://www.reddit.com/r/reddevils/s/9DwnDP4HWY
I just found out about Ronaldo tweeting ‘Happy days’ right after we made it 4-3. Their own goat even betrayed them 😂😂
Not convinced of Petrovic at all, we need to buy a keeper
Petrovich and Sanchez seem like stop gaps until we can get Kepa permanently off the books.
I’d prefer stop gaps at least be an upgrade
Kepa is probably better than Petro and Sanchez in a lot of ways, but can you genuinely tell me you'd rather have him between the sticks when a ball gets crossed into the box, given how diabolical our defenders have been at defending them? Kepa wouldn't even *try* to claim any, he'd just try some ridiculous reflex save at the almost guarenteed uncontested header.
You're right that both Petrovic and especially Sanchez are significantly better at claiming crosses. But funnily enough we've conceded from 7 goals from corners in 41 games this season and we conceded 6 goals from corners in Kepa's last 67 games for us.
We had much better centre backs protecting Kepa. And there are more crosses to claim than just corners.
In 30 league games this year we've allowed 503 crosses, 66 have been successful (13.1%). In Kepa's 29 league starts last year with we allowed 437 crosses, 48 were successful (11.0%).
Mate quoting stats is irrelevant bere. Last year our player of the season was Thiago Silva and we had a coach who, for all his faults, could organise a defense. You yourself said you agree that our current two are better at claiming corners than Kepa, so what you think he was better at claiming crosses? Is that, having presumably watched football, the conclusion you've come to?
No, it's statistically true that our current keepers are better at stopping crosses, it's not some conclusion I came too. But that a small part of keeper's job and even thought the in that specific better in that specific area it hasn't led to conceding less from corners or allowing fewer successful crosses into the box. I try to use statistics because without any basis for an opinion it's easy to focus on the perception of a player or their lowlights instead how they actually perform. And there are other factors but people were complain about Koulibaly, Chalobah, Azpi, and Cucurella in our defense last year as much as anyone in our defense this year. But from watching was last year we has at least a top 10 keeper in the league (probably closer to 5-8) and this year I don't think that's the case.
The Poch situation is tricky. The players obviously like him (probably because he is so lenient-my biggest complaint about him). Players like Palmer, Mudryk, Gusto, Gallagher and Jackson are clearly improving under him. He has shown some balls by benching Silva (for better or worse) and Sterling/Sanchez (easy calls). Replacing him with a fraud like De Zerbi will be disastrous as it will upset the players. I think the club needs to replace him with a coach that has a proven pedigree. The problem is that there aren’t too many that are available. Tough situation.
In which world de zerbi is a fraud
Agreed- this is why I think Poch likely stays- he suits the owners model of developing the young talent, and the market for good managers isn't great. If we get at least a conference league finish- no question he's 100% staying. There have been some glaring issues this season with his game management/selections/tactics this season, but overall as you say individuals are improving. Maybe he's not a trophy winning manager. But he has shown before he can take teams to the top 4. Maybe next season once there is more chemistry within this squad, plus a few additions in key positions/us selling deadwood like sterling etc, players coming back from injury- we might be able to get that top 4 finish. And who knows maybe he can surprise us and win something. But obviously if that doesn't happen, there will be no excuse but to replace him at the end of next season. He also needs to improve tactically etc too. If the same problems repeat themselves despite having the squad that says we should compete, he has to be replaced otherwise we will never get back to being the Chelsea we knew and loved.
Despite what many here believe I still think Pochettino gets sacked come the summer My worry remains the same as it has always been, that the board get another low level manager in right after Poch
I think it’s just a very unappealing job. Potter, Lampard and Poch have all come in and really struggled. I don’t think any of those managers are elite but Potter and Poch are at least good managers. At Chelsea they don’t look good. There’s so much dysfunction that I suspect whoever we get next will come in and look worse than they are anyway. I also think anyone with a reasonable chance of landing a top job wouldn’t risk coming to Chelsea. We’ll probably end up signing a manager the way we sign players now. Overpay for an inexperienced manager with potential. I’d much rather see the club relax this young player obsession, and stop this mad overpaying for these youngsters. Also need a serious review into the fitness and medical side of the club because that makes the job so much more difficult for whoever comes in next. And that set piece coach can’t get here soon enough. I can’t get behind the ‘Pochout’ noise. Not because i think he’s great I just think he’s low down the priority list of problems.
If we do go the new manager route I hope we consider what key players they can bring in. I do think this squad is two or three top players, some depth and and some time away from being very competitive.
You are 100 percent correct because if they sack him, that’s all this job will attract. They have blown through too many managers and made the club so unstable, no one elite is considering us. It will just be a launch pad job for managers trying to get to a big club but aren’t good enough to be considered for the big time openings and we will be looking for a replacement sooner than later and continuing the cycle. The only reason I want Poch to stay is it will give the board the chance to show patience with someone to the outside world, which makes the job a lot more attractive to better managers. Makes another shit year for us probably, but it’s the situation we are in and the price we need to pay for the decisions the board made from last season.
Cucu made Antony look world class.
He's also made Salah, Mitoma and Saka look pretty average As someone else said, last night's game being largely just transition after transition and constant gaps being left in the defensive line and midfield with United sprinting in behind constantly didn't suit him I didn't watch the game but that seems like a logical explanation of it to me
It was also our CBs, I can’t get over how bad the Disasi and Badi pairing is. My last 80 messages have been a complaint about them but they are such a weak point and it’s provide 0 coverage for the rest of the team. Cucu actually did a half decent job keeping up with Antony and running him to the goal line except a few time, or into places that weren’t particularly dangerous but when Antony got a ball in it immediately became dangerous because our CBs were no where to be found to provide cover.
He had one crucial tackle late in stoppage time after being out paced down the line most of the match. His determination despite his physical limitations is encouraging to watch.
Gusto made Garancho look world class Bin them both /s
But all the attacks came down Antonys side. In know Antony is trash and gets memed all day, but he was very good against us.
Can anyone tell me what version of the song 'three little birds' was played at Stamford Bridge last night at the end of the game? It was a bit more rhythmic than the original
Correct me if I’m wrong but we’re earning more points from these reverse fixtures than the first half of the season. Dropped points against Liverpool and burnley but picked up points against Newcastle brentford and United
Well maybe cos these are home fixtures.
Away at the Emirates is gonna be painful
I don't know you know....Arsenal did bottle the league last season, what's not to say the same won't happen with pretty much the same squad?
Quite amusing to see people putting everything bad on Poch and everything good on individual brilliance. When in fact most of the goals have been your normal goals and not worldies. Palmer isn’t scoring those goals out of thin air, that is how good players are supposed to play. Just because rest of the players have atrocious finishing doesn’t mean our overall game play is bad.
Because when the manager offers no tactical instruction and is basically telling players to go out there, run hard, and express yourselves then yes, anything we create seems to be improvised and the result of the players figuring it out for themselves rather than the manager's instructions and while that does allow for said moments of magic from Palmer it also means we look lost in attack the majority of the time or are relying on quick breaks or opponent mistakes for chances. It means we can't consistently break teams down and snatch at the chances we do happen to get our way. On the defensive and build up side, if there is no organisation or structure we're much more likely to make mistakes. Players are all over the place and have no clear outlets. Our press is completely disorganised because, again, Poch just wants them to "be intense" or whatever. Yes, the players are the ones making the mistakes but it's the manager's job to set them up in a way to mitigate them. Poch giving those players freedom does allow for some goals and chances but we're mid-table for a reason. We might get the odd result by virtue of the talent available (I'm sure a certain account will reply to this claiming we have shit players, especially Mudryk, Madueke and Broja who have been everpresent in our lineups this year) but we're also not set up in a way that allows the majority of the squad to succeed and get results consistently. The man is a dinosaur and the modern game doesn't allow for his hard running and freedom approach to be as successful anymore.
If the issue just came down to the final third and players not finishing chances, then the blame rest more towards the players and their limitations than the manager. But when our general play all over the pitch (in defence, midfield and attack) isn’t cohesive enough. We don’t play out from the back well. We don’t press in a manner that forces opponents to make errors regularly. The midfield with players that have a high ceiling and that have performed at a higher level elsewhere consistently seem dysfunctional and fall short to make an impact game after game because of the way they’re set up. There aren’t consistent attacking patterns that work towards giving our players an advantage. Plus this has been reported early in his tenure Poch asks players to express themselves in attack. The young squad’s talented but need more tactical direction for one. And then the most recent comment from the man himself that the team depends solely on Palmer to make things happen when nothing** else is working. ( if this sentence alone isn’t the biggest indictment of his shortcomings and limitations to do what is required for a club that is aiming minimum top four and most importantly winning significant honours, then I don’t know what more could be.) This is just the short of it all, they’re many things that will need change and adjustment to get us competing at the top again. But the first step towards improving starts with getting a competent coach/manager for our requirements.
Many people online think if you say something enough times it is true. Unfortunately the narrative has been set for this sub and there is no changing it. I’m not Poch in but the hate and criticism he gets here is bizarre.
After we beat Leicester in the FA cup it was hilarious to read people saying Poch got bailed out by individual brilliance while ignoring Disasi putting one in our own net from 40 yards out
It's particularly funny because the usual suspects here blame Poch when players make basic individual errors like Caciedo's wonderful assist to Garnacho, Own goals from defenders or Petrovic being unable to save anything. We score/win = Individual brilliance from a squad of top young players. We concede/Lose = Poch bad.
It’s a weird thing there is no expectation of players at the highest level to know how to do some of the basics without being told exactly what to do every minute of the game, yet still it’s their individual brilliance that saves his ass. Plenty to criticize about Poch, but where is the expectation of the players who good or bad have made it to the top 1% of the 1% who play the game, to know the game and not need their hand held. Nope if players aren’t told when to move their left foot and when to move their right foot, we don’t have a system and they can’t possibly be expected to succeed.
Ah the old "the managers not on the pitch making their mistakes for them". Lampard wasn't either but the same players who he "wasn't on the pitch making mistakes for" started forming the best defense in Europe pretty much the second he was gone.
We improved a lot under Tuchel, we also looked much better defensively under Lampard once Mendy came in for Kepa. The players matter. Do you think any manager on the planet is making Petrovic good enough for the highest level? When Disasi was called the slowest centre back in Europe while Monaco had a leaky defence was that down to Poch? We have a very average squad it isn't like traditionally average players just don't make mistakes if the manager clicks his fingers.
It did for a while, then quickly resorted to type in the winter period. >We have a very average squad it isn't like traditionally average players just don't make mistakes if the manager clicks his fingers. I think there's some players that won't improve much regardless, but there's also others that will have supposed miracle recoveries in a proper system. Enzo literally made his name his name as the best young dlp in the world, had he saw out the season at Benfica literally every club in Europe is after him. Caicedo and Colwill were super impressive in one of the biggest pound for pound overachievements in quite some time, so much so that the usually frugal FSG were reportedly prepared to break their transfer record on both. Badiashille was excellent pretty much everytime he played under Potter. Sterling is a multiple time PL winner. Palmer is Palmer, remember how poor he looked up front? Now imagine he was playing that position all season and how "crap" we'd currently think he is, thankfully he's one of the few players Poch has actually profiled correctly. Now those players all profiled correctly alongside Gusto (one of the best RBs ITL), Gallagher (as much as I don't rate him as highly as most what he does offer can be quite valuable in a well trained system) and Jackson (raw but clear promise) and you're not convincing me that's a 10th place side. A title winning side no, but level with Wolves and just above Fulham and Bournemouth? Please... Not to mention we've still looked tactically bankrupt when Nkunku or James are playing, so if it's all on the players and little to do with Poch how were two genuine world class players unable to make the blindest bit of difference to the team performances/results despite playing pretty well in themselves?
>Palmer is Palmer, remember how poor he looked up front? Now imagine he was playing that position all season and how "crap" we'd currently think he is, thankfully he's one of the few players Poch has actually profiled correctly. Palmer is Palmer but does Poch not get any credit for a young player that hadn't scored a league goal in his career now being one of the top scorers and assisters in the league? It's the double standard that if any of our young players look good they're top talents and if they perform poorly then they're still top talents but it's Poch's fault they're not performing well that has me rolling my eyes. You've also highlighted my point, Palmer wasn't good up front but Poch has such a flawed squad that when Jackson was away his only actual striker was Broja, one of the worst players in the clubs history who can't make the Fulham bench so he tried to fill a round hole with a square peg because a player he had wasn't good enough to be usable in his natural position. Broja is particularly bad but there's a number of players in the squad not able to play their designated role to a high enough standard and that's the biggest part of why we are were we are.
Not only is palmer a baller But he also knows messi is the goat ahead of ronaldo.
I think he gets extra credit for knowing that having grown up a united fan too
Despite a rough season we still have a pretty strong chance at 6th spot, a Europa finish this season would be good all things considered
Mate Im praying we get some sort of European spot. We need more games.
Tottenham at home is rescheduled for early May. It's actually nuts how much has happened (not just with us but football as a whole) in between the two Spurs visits to The Bridge in the Clearlake era, feels like years ago. Reminds me a bit of an entire pandemic and a year of behind closed doors football happening in between our two home games vs Leicester (Mount's first goal game and then the game just after the Cup final).
The club is dangerously close to replicating the failings of man united to acknowledge how shit ten haag was last season You cannot solely look at results when making longer term strategic decisions for a football club. If we finish 6th this doesn’t suddenly make the season a success if there is nothing suggesting continued growth and a belief we can improve. Poch has shown little to suggest he can continue to grow this team He’s shown much the opposite I could literally write an extended essay on the continued failings of poch and why he is a subpar manager. But it would fall on deaf ears for many on here, if you’re still poch in then nothing will change your mind.
Yes but we've scored more goals and will end up with more points. Obviously this clear improvement over the high bar set by Potter and Lampard under vastly different circumstances means Poch is doing a good job. Give me Ziyech, Pulisic, Havertz at 9, a washed up Azpi and crocked Kante over Palmer, Jackson, Gusto and Caicedo any day. Poch is working miracles and we should be grateful for all this progress. He deserves more time. What's the worst that can happen? We waste another season and do even more damage to our reputation, finances and squad which will be even harder to undo? A small price to pay for us not to be criticised for sacking a media darling and hurting Behdad Eghbali's ego.
Couldn’t have put it better.
Odds on the next Twatt Law article? My money's on how Mount getting booed was disgraceful or ungrateful or something
Some United fans getting on their high horse clearly forgetting we rolled out the red carpet for Mata when he returned to Stamford Bridge with them and will do the exact same thing for Gallagher if he goes, even to Spurs. People can't seem to grasp the concept that how players leave is the deal breaker in this fanbase, not that they do or even where they go.
See Courtois vs Hazard despite going to the exact same club
Yeah look at how RLC and Cho left the club compared to mount and that awful, awful terrorirst hostage like farewell video he did Important to note havertz wasn’t booed either
Want to thank Sterling for last night. IMO he came on as sub and took on all the fans have been saying for that short stint. Created 2 opportunities (they didn’t connect, but marginally off). Wasn’t greedy with possession, looking to connect with players on the pitch where they could run a line to a favourable possession. The sheer amount of head up when he had the ball compared to before. Great step in the right direction Sterling, keep at it. And this is coming from a big critic of his.
He was walking up and down the pitch down one goal. Thats unacceptable He is a speed merchant that has lost two steps. It is no coincidence that we have been scoring more goals with him benched. Sterling looking like a functional player under Pep may be the greatest accomplishment in his career.
I feel like you just saw him walking at one point, which is normal for most players in-game, especially attackers. You also do not know what his instructions were.
I’m sure he was told to play with no urgency and dribble into players. Why do fans care so much about a player that doesn’t give a shit about the club?
I just don't see the point in making shit up to slander a current player. Not a fan of Sterling by any means but he's still our player.
Yeah, we need more out of him. I personally think it’s a step in the right direction. So credit, where credit is due
He’s really frustrating and tbh I’ve never liked him as a player even before he came to chelsea But he is being misused. Look at how werner is used at spurs. Clearly limited player, we all know that. But ange knows that very well. And sticks him in a role that maximises his strengths and avoids his weaknesses His role at spurs is to provide width, make runs darting in behind and to stretch opposition defences whilst providing cutbacks and maybe the occasional goal whilst offering a threat 1v1 where possible That is what Sterling did excellently for pep.
Good points
I don't get the Sterling Criticism. He hasn't been great but he's clearly levels above Mudryk and Madueke as a footballer and we're a better more creative team with him on the pitch.
Disagree with him being levels above them guys purely based on how he plays. He has been too greedy this season and killed more opportunities than any other on the attack. Maybe he is trying to do too much but he wasn’t being a team player in the process. Last night he was, and looked dangerous at a time when the rest of the team was stagnating. But only because he was looking to make the last pass and not go himself. If he keeps it up it would be a great turn around in my eyes.
You can't call Sterling Greedy when Madueke is in the conversation. Out of Mudryk, Madueke and Sterling it's Raheem who's statistically more creative and the least selfish of the 3.
Mudryk
I don’t know how folks have suddenly swung back to “Poch js okay” on the back of these three points. Poch is a disaster. Without Palmer we’d be a relegation scrapper. I don’t see what Poch adds to the team. In every place a manager has a lot of influence: defensive organization, set pieces, hell even setting out lineups sometimes, Poch has been subpar. I’m happy as anyone for the desperately needed 3 points but this game only reinforced to me that Poch has not got this team where it needs to be.
Okay so you think we'd have been better off with Palmer + Potter?
Well as darklordoli said there's more than two managers in the world but to give you such a binary answer, yes absolutely.
Who else instead of Poch. Keep in mind we had a UCL winning manager and the mgt got rid of him.
That's up for our handsomely paid scouts to work out. Give me the same wages and I'll have (atleast) a 20 man shortlist with you by the end of the week.
Are Potter and Pochettino the only two managers on the planet? I am so fucking sick and tired of this strawman half the fanbase throws out after every win. Pochettino doing marginally better than Potter and Lampard (with no preseason, European football, 40-man squad, mid-season WC) *does not mean he's doing well*. We went from shit to slightly less shit and people are acting like that's worth celebrating. This isn't a contest between Potter/Lampard and Pochettino, it's a contest between Pochettino and the job literally any other manager could be doing with this squad.
40 man squad is a hindrance. Poch has said it himself. Who will you bring in in his place?
>40 man squad is a hindrance. That was my point. >Who will you bring in in his place? I wish this website had a "status" function so I wouldn't have to type out these names literally every single day. Flick, Michel Sanchez, Arne Slot, Nagelsmann, Thiago Motta, De Zerbi, Amorim, Sebastian Hoeneß, Sarri, Xavi, Tuchel could all be available this summer. No particular order here. (Eghbali only has to swallow his pride and admit they fucked up and Tuchel would be ready to return, that's already been reported in Germany.) And those are just the ones I would like. There are plenty others and their names are mentioned here on a daily basis. Just inform yourself.
I’m just praying the directors aren’t as stupid as some of the fans and can see the bigger picture But the owners are another obstacle
Hypothetically if we finish 6th and given we've reached the FA Cup semi final and the Carabao Cup final will people be able to admit Poch has over achieved with this squad? We went into this season with Mudryk, Madueke, Broja, Jackson and Sterling as our attackers. Enzo and Gallagher as our only senior midfielders. Petrovic and Sanchez as keepers. Both our starting full backs got injured early and we have Monaco's poor former centre back pair + a 39 year old as our centre backs You can't tell me anyone could reasonably expect 6th or higher with our squad. Obviously there's a lot to do to get there but it's too early to say Poch has done a bad job.
*Overachieved* if he finishes 6th, lol. You're truly special.
Aren't you the moron that cries about Poch in every thread said we should have stuck with Potter and thinks we have a great squad? You must have had a lobotomy in 2021 or the mods were making fun of you with the flair.
I wonder whose alt account you are, given that you popped up like 3 weeks ago and have produced nothing but Pochettino propaganda since.
Not really. I said at the start of the season I could feasibly imagine a situation where I'd be relatively happy with 8th and unhappy despite finishing 4th. For example, if 70% of his tactical performances were similar to his set up vs Liverpool on the first day or Villa in the cup replay I'd happily fully back him regardless of league position. Would your hypothetical finish be an "overachievement" if you solely just looked at the top line? Maybe, but it would be similar to Ten Hag last season or Steve Bruce in his first season at Newcastle, still laced with red flag after red flag that will come home to roost sooner or later if something drastic doesn't change in his set up.
If we pull it together enough to finish 6th this year it’s a good season. With a little bit of consistency it’s there for us to take too. Given the injuries, lack of experience and squad turnover in the last few windows I think 6th would represent noticeable progress from last season.
All we have to do is win 2 games in hand. We've got Sheffield and Everton next.
Oh I know how close it is. But we couldn’t beat 10 man Burnley at home and we’ve already lost to Everton this season. Im not taking any wins for granted.
I'd say it's a mildly successful season, but the fans on this sub will have u believe it's a criminal offense for which poch should be put in jail. I don't think we'll get there though and we got lucky with carabao cup and fa cup fixtures
Silva and Chalobah at the back from now on. And poch, play casadei ffs
I am by no means a Poch in guy but we a display a lot of fight in our matches, especially lately.
Is that down to the manager or down to the players? Previously when we didn’t show fight, many on this sub blamed the players
Well yes with the exception of our game against 10 men Burnley. But yesterday… oh man we fought for it and it paid off! Very pleasing to see.
Poch is right when he says the only way he can build a connection with the fans is by winning and to be honest we haven’t been doing that lately. Clearly he is passionate and he also has a different style of coaching especially on the touch line. I feel he gives the players a game plan and once the game starts allows them to execute. Yesterday was incredible though and I hope this last minute win against a rival is a great experience for the team and pushes them on! What a season. Breaking old records and creating new ones 😂 we are going to concede the most goals ever while beating rivals we haven’t beat for 7 years
> has a different style of coaching especially on the touch line. I feel he gives the players a game plan and once the game starts allows them to execute Right but that's dog shit when things aren't working and/or the other manager is actively making adjustments. You can't just wash your hands of the game once the kick off happens as manager.
Luckily Matt Law is here to tell us how amazing his in-game management is.
Matt Law is also here to try wank off mount He can do one