2019/20 Rivals - Chelsea

Fooza

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I can’t see you getting top 4, is that not a worry? Come on, you don’t think a more experienced manager could have an organised defence?
To be fair everyone knows ( Chelsea included) that this season they're not going to do well, so they won't be a worry. Frank's really lucky the transfer ban and Hazard leaving releases a heap of pressure off him this season.

This season it's going to be:
City
Liverpool/Spurs
Arsenal/Utd
----

Chelsea
 

crossy1686

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They are showcasing why Pochettino is the best manager in the world right now. Chelsea has a transfer ban, they somewhat crumble. Pochettino doesn’t sign anyone due to lack of backing from his board, they reach champions league finals and finish fourth with the weakest squad depth out of the top six.
fecking hell, this guy is going to break your heart one day.
 

duffer

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To be fair everyone knows ( Chelsea included) that this season they're not going to do well, so they won't be a worry. Frank's really lucky the transfer ban and Hazard leaving releases a heap of pressure off him this season.

This season it's going to be:
City
Liverpool/Spurs
Arsenal/Utd
----

Chelsea
He's not lucky, he probably would not have got the job without the ban.
 

ZolaWasMagic

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Give Lampard a season, a few transfer windows to make changes before we start questioning whether he is a good manager or not.

Although one thing he must stop doing, like right now, is playign Tammy Abraham. Not good enough. Championship striker, nothing more. I know that will cause mayhem among the youth lovers, but if Abraham was signed from an Italian, Swedish, French, German etc side, you'd want him nowhere near the team. And im basing that off his poor premier league stint at Swansea, too. Can't absolve him of blame and molly coddle him just because he is an academy boy. Batshuayi is so much better imo. I dont see what Abraham adds. His hold up play is poor, i never feel like he is going to score when he gets a chance. Loses a lot of aerial duels. Goes to ground far too much. I think he is miles off being a prem striker
 

Dancfc

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Derby weren't even consistently that good going forward. Scored less goals than the 5 teams above them. They had games where they destroyed sides but they were the standard Derby County, completely inconsistent and a playoff team, he changed nothing.

And that was with the likes of Mason Mount and Harry Wilson coming in to give him a helping hand.
He took over from Gary Rowett who makes Pulis look like Pep (style wise).

Maintaining a league position while changing a clubs culture is a decent season.
 

SquishyMcSquish

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He took over from Gary Rowett who makes Pulis look like Pep (style wise).

Maintaining a league position while changing a clubs culture is a decent season.
It was fine. Nothing impressive or worthy of earning a PL job, if it wasn't Frank Lampard nobody would have batted an eyelid.
 

Bobcat

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They are showcasing why Pochettino is the best manager in the world right now. Chelsea has a transfer ban, they somewhat crumble. Pochettino doesn’t sign anyone due to lack of backing from his board, they reach champions league finals and finish fourth with the weakest squad depth out of the top six.
:lol: Come on man. Poch is a great manager for sure, but this Chelsea side is the worst it's been in 15 years with a rookie manager at the wheel. Maybe they will get their act together, but right now i dont see a single Chelsea player making it into the Spurs first XI, maybe Azpilicueta and/or Kante, but not anyone else
 

Fooza

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He's not lucky, he probably would not have got the job without the ban.
I'd call that a lucky break. It's been awhile that a manager comes to Chelsea with no pressure to do well due to the circumstances. However even though the acceptance of not getting 4th maybe there, for Franks sake the performances better be, otherwise it's going to a long season for you lot.
 

Foxtrot

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I tried to tell you guys in the matchday thread when they faced us that chelsea wont finish top 8. They don't have a great squad after losing their best play who was responsible for 70% of their creativity. Its like us if we lost Pogba and couldn't effectively replace him.

Lampard is also very naive keeping the likes of kante and pedro on who played 120 minutes against liverpool. So much space in between their midfield and defense. That tactic were they blitz out the first 20 minutes cant last. They just dont have the quality to play the way Lampard wants them to play. They are trying to replicate city when they have players like azpilicueta, kante, zouma for example who arent really comfortable on the ball.

If lampard wants to last till December he will have to change to a more counterattacking system where he doesn't leave the likes of jorginho easy to run past. Its going to be a long season for them I'm afraid.
Their squad is looking very average and I actually think they will fall out of the top six and dare I say become a mid-table team in the coming years if teams like Wolves and Leicester start pushing hard, but it’s still only 2 games into the season. I’ll wait till Christmas to judge and decide.
 

VorZakone

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Next week they'll be playing Norwich away. Think Pukki will trouble that back 4 a lot.
 

SquishyMcSquish

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:lol: Come on man. Poch is a great manager for sure, but this Chelsea side is the worst it's been in 15 years with a rookie manager at the wheel. Maybe they will get their act together, but right now i dont see a single Chelsea player making it into the Spurs first XI, maybe Azpilicueta and/or Kante, but not anyone else
Kante and Kepa both start.

Kante walks in without a second thought, I'd fecking love him at Spurs. Unreal midfielder.
 

dwd

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I'll wait until they've played about 10 games before deciding if Lampard has made a positive or negative impact.
 

Kush

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Chelsea are extremely naive, I know Lampard wants to play pretty football but he needs some semblance of balance in the side.

Both vs United and Leicester, they played right into their hands. Teams who want to soak up the pressure and hit them on counter.
 

FreakyJim

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I actually like how chelsea play now, lets give them a few more games before declaring Lampard a failure
 

Amadaeus

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This is a disingenuous (borderline deluded) argument. Chelsea lost their best player by far, and 2 games does not a crumble make.

Spurs did not lose anyone last year. They had nice continuity which Pochettino benefitted from.
I stated somewhat, but Chelsea should have lost today. Performance wise, if I was a fan I would be concerned. Spurs didn’t have Kane at his top level last season and was injured numerous time. You could easily say Spurs was without their best player as well after looking at his performance and games missed. Pochettino was the main difference between what Spurs accomplished last season and the quality of football on display at Chelsea at the moment.

:lol: Come on man. Poch is a great manager for sure, but this Chelsea side is the worst it's been in 15 years with a rookie manager at the wheel. Maybe they will get their act together, but right now i dont see a single Chelsea player making it into the Spurs first XI, maybe Azpilicueta and/or Kante, but not anyone else
Kepa = Lloris(?)
Azpilicueta - Alderweireld(Verthognhen) - Christiansen(Rudiger) - Alonso = Rose
Kante - N’Dombele
Odoi - Eriksen - Son
Kane

A lot could actually.
 

WR10

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Lampard has known most of his coaching staff for donkeys years. He said that his assistant (Morris) was his closest friend in football long before he took him to Derby.
Huh, so why do they look like absolute strangers on the bench? He’s rarely discussing anything with anyone
 

Sandikan

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Am I the only person in the world who doesn't know what Loftus-Cheek add's?

I swear a pundit, may have been Hoddle, was talking about him as if he were the next Pele last time I saw him play. He looks worse than any of the kids we've brought through recently.
Hudson Odoi - we can all see, but yeah agree with you on Loftus Cheek. Seems to be amazingly hyped up though.
 

Foxtrot

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People talking about top 6 as if that's something to aim for. If we can't finish top 4 then we'd be better off in 7th than 5th or 6th.
Europa League, you are the defending champion of it. Twice even.
 

RedPed

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#LampardOut trending on Twitter. Roman manager #15 incoming. :lol:
 

charlenefan

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Battered by a top 4 rival now held at home by a top 6 rival

Not looking good
 

Theafonis

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Battered by a top 4 rival now held at home by a top 6 rival

Not looking good
The 4-2-3-1 formation is killing us. Can be easily exposed. How many times did Leicester bypass the midfield with 2 or 3 passes and went through on goal. Also don’t understand Lamps obsession with an attacking mid, that is so 2012. Game has moved on man ! Despite the goal, I thought Mount was poor, looked out of depth sometimes.

I like Abraham, but he’s not meant for this level.

Azpilicueta was shocking. His legs might be done. Sad to see him fall off a cliff so quick.

Don’t get me started on Willian. My God :mad:
 

RedPed

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Why isn't he starting Michy?? He may have his deficiencies but he's still a great finisher, better than Giroud and Abraham imo. I fear for Chelsea against Norwich. Imagine the scenes if they don't come away with a win? :nervous:
 

HisDudeness

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I stated somewhat, but Chelsea should have lost today. Performance wise, if I was a fan I would be concerned. Spurs didn’t have Kane at his top level last season and was injured numerous time. You could easily say Spurs was without their best player as well after looking at his performance and games missed. Pochettino was the main difference between what Spurs accomplished last season and the quality of football on display at Chelsea at the moment.



Kepa = Lloris(?)
Azpilicueta - Alderweireld(Verthognhen) - Christiansen(Rudiger) - Alonso = Rose
Kante - N’Dombele
Odoi - Eriksen - Son
Kane

A lot could actually.
spurs have the better team in terms of attacking creativity... yes. you take kante out of that chelsea team and they truly are fked. chelsea needs to get back to buying players

no chance of them competing for the league. they need to get back to spending the $$$. and let the manager buy the players of course.
 
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Mb194dc

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Not great start. Always going to be very difficult putting in a new system after Sarri and without Hazard though.

I think playing youngsters untried in the premier league, or any top league and selling Luiz smacks of overconfidence though.

Second half today will have been big wake up call. Lampard got lot of work to do.
 

SquishyMcSquish

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Leicester game also summed up Jorginho.

One of the most boring and pointless central midfielders I can remember being in the Prem. Sideways, sideways, sideways... andddd then go missing whenever an opposition midfield puts real pressure on you.
 

tony54

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Who? The BBC asked about 30 of their "experts" and the only one who had Chelsea in the top 4 was an Ex-Chelsea manager!

I don't know anyone who is or was "so convinced" that we'll get top 4.
I only saw chelse v man utd and liverpool and thought there is a lot of potential. Frank has a lot of work to do to steady the ship and get them winning again before theyve lost the season before it starts. At least they will be able to concentrate on the cl league if these results continue.
 

Ooh2B

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People talking about top 6 as if that's something to aim for. If we can't finish top 4 then we'd be better off in 7th than 5th or 6th.
True that. I’d have preferred us to have capitulated properly last season and finish outside of a Europa spot.

Sometimes you have to just take a season or two to regroup, and the Europa is a pain in the rectum schedule wise during that period.

As an oppo and just an normal guy I wouldn’t be wishing anyone bad luck, but all I can say is keep up the work. It helps the cause!
 

Santoryo

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Who exactly are going overhaul us in the top 8?

Yes Hazard will be a loss and short term will likely cost us top 4 but this notion he was single handedly preventing us from dining with Watford is as laughable as it is ignorant.
I think you're putting too much effort trying to talk people into making rational posts right after a game. It's basically peek time for kneejerk right after a game.

I mean we're talking 2 games into the season and people have already decided who isn't going to make top 4 or top 8. This is the Caf where opinions swing with every results at the drop of a hat, that's all you need to know.

I personally think Chelsea is right there into that top 4 fight(lmao at Chelsea not making top 8 :lol:). They've been playing good football and if they carry their performances they should start getting results soon.

Only issue is they run out of steam. My opinion is that Frank should have done a bit more or peraps a lot more fitness work if he wanted to adopt such a high octane pressing style he's trying to do. Chelsea start at 100 miles an hour then tail off due to fatigue which wouldn't be that much of an issue if fitness were higher.

Either that or they start managing their game. Cool off on the ultra pressing, the players just aren't fit enough to carry that type of game for a full 90 minutes.

The good news for Chelsea is that they've been creating chances which is what important and also means they'll start getting results. The bad news is if Chelsea get another bad result, the Caf will collectively come to the conclusion that Chelsea will get relegated :lol:
 

RedPed

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I think you're putting too much effort trying to talk people into making rational posts right after a game. It's basically peek time for kneejerk right after a game.

I mean we're talking 2 games into the season and people have already decides who isn't going to make top 4 or top 8. This is the Caf where opinions swing with every results at the drop of a hat, that's all you need to know.

I personally think Chelsea is right there into that top 4 fight(lmao at Chelsea not making top 8 :lol:). They've been playing good football and if they carry their performances they should start getting results soon.

Only issue is they run out of steam. My opinion is that Frank should have done a bit more or peraps a lot more fitness work if he wanted to adopt such a high octane pressing style he's trying to do. Chelsea start at 100 miles an hour then tail of due to fatigue which wouldn't be that much of an issue of fitness were higher.

Either that or they start managing their game. Cool off on the ultra pressing, the players just aren't fit enough to carry that type of game for a full 90 minutes.
That's the thing. I think they will run out of steam, especially when the cup games kick in. They just need a couple of injuries and they're royally fecked. They really should be getting some credit in the bank for when those lean times come along. But dropping 5 points already which they will never get back before even getting going is why people are getting jittery.
 

VorZakone

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Leicester game also summed up Jorginho.

One of the most boring and pointless central midfielders I can remember being in the Prem. Sideways, sideways, sideways... andddd then go missing whenever an opposition midfield puts real pressure on you.
I don't think he fits this Chelsea team. I saw a compilation of Jorginho's passes in 2016/17 and 2017/18 and they were great. He was pinging some lovely balls to Mertens, Insigne, Callejon etc.

He has quality but it's not really working out so far at Chelsea.
 

Hugh Jass

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For 15 minutes they were brilliant. Looked like a cricket score. Then they fell off.

Leicster unlucky to not have won.