Didn't find another place to ask.
Chelsea 2018/19 - 3rd and European Champions. Sarri, not sorry
- Thread starter duffer
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik @Rood and Imran @Annihilate Now! start with the good news by celebrating Manchester United Women's emphatic FA Cup win over Spurs at Wembley and the future of manager Marc Skinner.
Then it's the bad news and the ever worsening form of our Men with losses to Arsenal and Palace.
Finally the main debate - ETH Out now or keep him until the end of the season - if not longer. Are you Team Nik or Team Imran?
What worries me is from 15 goals this season only one came from our strikers.
If we have someone like Diego Costa we would be 30% better.
Barkley is great player, i'm still 50%-50% between him and Kovacic starting.
Christensen should start ahead of Luiz ofc in PL.
If we have someone like Diego Costa we would be 30% better.
Barkley is great player, i'm still 50%-50% between him and Kovacic starting.
Christensen should start ahead of Luiz ofc in PL.
Morata has scored 4 goals in 2018
This Chelsea team could be a serious outfit with a lethal striker. Its not sustainable for Hazard to score a goal a game.
We cant keep giving Morata game time. Any decent opposition and we would have lost today. Doesnt offer anything at all!
Yeah forcing Costa out was rather silly, still nigh on impossible to play against when he's on top form.
Morata was always a silly signing because he never fitted the way they played, good all-round game but Chelsea were always very pragmatic and needed a clinical striker to take his chances.
There have more of a ball now but could still do with more goals up front quite clearly. Icardi is about the only top-class clinical striker remotely available, but Inter are notoriously difficult to deal with and he'll cost £100m+ as a result.
Morata was always a silly signing because he never fitted the way they played, good all-round game but Chelsea were always very pragmatic and needed a clinical striker to take his chances.
There have more of a ball now but could still do with more goals up front quite clearly. Icardi is about the only top-class clinical striker remotely available, but Inter are notoriously difficult to deal with and he'll cost £100m+ as a result.
Controversial opinion: apart from Arsenal (who have their own issues) they haven't had a challenging game so far.
Huddersfield, Cardiff, Bournemouth and Newcastle is as good a start as you could ask for.
Huddersfield, Cardiff, Bournemouth and Newcastle is as good a start as you could ask for.
So apart from the tough game, we've not had any tough games. Who have Liverpool played? Palace away?
And we've won every game and are top of the league. Nobody is saying we've had a tough run of fixtures.
LOL at Loftus-Cheek not even featuring in a Europa game.
What a career move that was to stay.
What a career move that was to stay.
Well Arsenal seemed to walk through your defense during the first half of your toughest fixture so far. We just beat Spurs away and PSG at home.
It's just an opinion. I want to see how Sarri does in some of the tougher fixtures.
Even we beat Spurs away last season. They're shite (and much more shite this season).
I also want to see how we do in the tougher fixtures but he could not really have done any better than he has already, having won every game and being top of the league.
I was worried about our strikers not scoring last season because we were playing under Conte who set up the team most of last season in a 3-5-2 formation. That required a super clinical striker.
Sarri ball is designed in such a way that any of our front 3, 2 advanced Mids and fullbacks can get into positions to score. This means we don't rely massively on our strikers anymore.
I happy as long as they put in a shift for the team even if they don't score much.
PS: I think Giroud should be our starting striker now, he also won't score much mind you, but his hold up play brings more to the table.
Sarri ball is designed in such a way that any of our front 3, 2 advanced Mids and fullbacks can get into positions to score. This means we don't rely massively on our strikers anymore.
I happy as long as they put in a shift for the team even if they don't score much.
PS: I think Giroud should be our starting striker now, he also won't score much mind you, but his hold up play brings more to the table.
But was there a successful striker in Sarri's Napoli side? It seemed like all goals were scored by the likes of Mertens, Insigne, Callejon etc.
You have many players who are basically better versions of the Napoli equivalents. Pedro, Willian and of course Hazard are fully capable of scoring tons and tons of goals in a Sarri system I'd say.
Liverpool fan talking about easy fixtures? On the way to the Champions league final, the only team you faced that were top class was City. Klopp always seems to do well against them.
I think he's still injured but yes, he should move for the sake of his career. I wouldn't mind selling him for ~15mil with a buy back clause.
I think Giroud will be big for you lot in this sense. He’s an excellent foil for players to play around, and I can see hazard having a very good season goals wise playing next to him. Also he won’t be a golden boot winner, but he will pop up with some important goals for your team.
Higuain.
What’s Liverpool'sChampions League opponents got to do with what I posted in this thread?
I never said that Liverpool had a tough run to the final.
No Higuain last season. Mertens was striking. Insigne and Callejon on this wings.
It's really sad that Chelsea has EL since they're the only ones capable of competing with the dippers and sheikhs(not sure we'll be able to). Anyone else being a closet Chelsea fan, hoping for them to win all their games except for when they're playing us?
Chelsea remind me a little of Van Gaal’s United at times.
I wouldn’t want Sarri at Utd. I’m not saying that he isn’t a good head coach because he’s obviously an intelligent, talented man.
But their football is too slow and tippy tappy for this league I think. They look so shakey in defence as well.
They won’t get near Liverpool or City, unfortunately for Utd fans.
I wouldn’t want Sarri at Utd. I’m not saying that he isn’t a good head coach because he’s obviously an intelligent, talented man.
But their football is too slow and tippy tappy for this league I think. They look so shakey in defence as well.
They won’t get near Liverpool or City, unfortunately for Utd fans.
I'm glad for WH but at the same time upset because I expect Chelsea to win this season. If the alternatives are the scouse and QatarchesterCity/Pepus, then Chelsea, always.
Good team but don't see them winning the league.
Lack of top striker will cost them that. Hazard was pretty well marked today aswell so not huge creativity if he isn't in the game.
Lack of top striker will cost them that. Hazard was pretty well marked today aswell so not huge creativity if he isn't in the game.
Seems like Giroud has hardly scored any goals for Chelsea. With all the stick he got at Arsenal he was always a solid 15-20 goal a season striker in all competitions.
Just seen the extended highlights. Main positives, another clean sheet away from home, defensively we looked pretty good, West Ham only created a couple of chances. Kepa made a great save. Alonso a bit of a weak point allowing Yarmolenko in behind him to miss an easy header. Although there was an offside before the ball was crossed.
We created plenty of chances, Hazard, Giroud, Morata, Willian, Kante, Barkley and probably others I've forgotten all had decent attempts that they either missed or were well saved. On another day we could win this game pretty comfortably. Fairly sure our midfielders and strikers will start to hit form as the season progresses. We're creating very well.
We're a work in progress, we've completely changed our style of play this season. Liverpool, City, Utd, Spurs are all have settled systems with managers who've had multiple seasons to coach the team as they want to play. We also had a game Thursday night, came back late and didn't rotate that much. Overall happy with the clean sheet and very happy with the season so far.
Main negative this season so far is that we haven't played our young squad players much yet, especially Ampadu and CHO I felt we should have played then Thursday night, though I can see why Sarri didn't. If Rudiger is injured then presumably we'll see Christensen as a starting CB till he recovers. That will be good for his development and I think he can take his experience from last year, adapt to the new style and do very well for us.
Bring on Liverpool, twice, Going to be a a good test for our defending, both the back 5 and the team.
We created plenty of chances, Hazard, Giroud, Morata, Willian, Kante, Barkley and probably others I've forgotten all had decent attempts that they either missed or were well saved. On another day we could win this game pretty comfortably. Fairly sure our midfielders and strikers will start to hit form as the season progresses. We're creating very well.
We're a work in progress, we've completely changed our style of play this season. Liverpool, City, Utd, Spurs are all have settled systems with managers who've had multiple seasons to coach the team as they want to play. We also had a game Thursday night, came back late and didn't rotate that much. Overall happy with the clean sheet and very happy with the season so far.
Main negative this season so far is that we haven't played our young squad players much yet, especially Ampadu and CHO I felt we should have played then Thursday night, though I can see why Sarri didn't. If Rudiger is injured then presumably we'll see Christensen as a starting CB till he recovers. That will be good for his development and I think he can take his experience from last year, adapt to the new style and do very well for us.
Bring on Liverpool, twice, Going to be a a good test for our defending, both the back 5 and the team.
I'm officialy declaring my support to Chelsea this season. More tolerable than the other two. We aren't ready yet.
Genuinely think that if you put a man on Jorginho and play 10v10, chelsea and Sarri are pretty much done. The system relies heavily on him.
Pretty much what we all said about City two years ago..
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Cardiff and Bournemouth both tried to do that and he was taking the marker from side to side, leaving a lot of space for the other side’s CB/FB. A much more athletic team might be able to handle it better, but Kovacic looks like he’s settled in and it wouldn’t make too much of a difference IMO.
Will be interesting to see how Pool play Chelsea.
In the league game at Anfield vs City last season, Klopp had balls played to Fernandinho as a pressing trigger.
Might see the same with Jorginho.
Cost us the league title in 15/16 when he decided to go 19 or so games in a row without a goal. You can’t rely on Giroud to score goals and he’s not going to win you a league title if you don’t have a team full of goalscorers to compensate for him.
Weekend showed a few deficiencies in our team, first 25 minutes we moved the ball with a lot of pace and it looked like a matter of when we would score rather than if. We still had 4 good chances to score throughout the game also.
David Luiz defensively is not good enough, was at the heart of most things poor on Sunday, Rudiger I thought was playing well up until that point.
Sarri suffered from not rotating he needs to do this better, starting this week.
Overall early on in the season but it looks like we will be slightly off City & Liverpool's pace but 3rd should be achievable
David Luiz defensively is not good enough, was at the heart of most things poor on Sunday, Rudiger I thought was playing well up until that point.
Sarri suffered from not rotating he needs to do this better, starting this week.
Overall early on in the season but it looks like we will be slightly off City & Liverpool's pace but 3rd should be achievable
This is the fickleness of the sport of football and it annoys me. People knew it would take time for Sarri to come in and implement his style, and we even knew that we may drop points in the first month or two with him at the helm, but yet here we are sitting third having won 5 and drawn 1, yet people are criticising the style of play or other players because they weren't as good yesterday. It's actually absurd.
West Ham defended well and they deserve credit. The change of styles is not going to happen overnight, the players have been used to the Mourinho/Conte style so we are doing a complete 360 in system change. Sarri is trying new stuff with a couple of players and generally trying to figure out who fits where and where certain players will be successful. Before the season started nobody expected us to challenge, so what's changed? Sarri has come into a league that has gotten even stronger compared to the last two/three seasons. He was never going to have a simple run at the title.
West Ham defended well and they deserve credit. The change of styles is not going to happen overnight, the players have been used to the Mourinho/Conte style so we are doing a complete 360 in system change. Sarri is trying new stuff with a couple of players and generally trying to figure out who fits where and where certain players will be successful. Before the season started nobody expected us to challenge, so what's changed? Sarri has come into a league that has gotten even stronger compared to the last two/three seasons. He was never going to have a simple run at the title.
Agreed with this really we still had enough chances to win the game too.
Most defensive mistakes come through poor defending from Luiz
Really poor attempt at trolling.
1. Did you see sarri's napoli?
2. We are still atleast months away from playing his system properly.
Could be, but Jorginho is a much much better passer and I'd trust him to find the spare man much more readily than Fernandinho. I suspect Kante might be the target given he is still adjusting to playing further up and is the least assured of our midfield 3 in possession.
Would make no sense for Jorginho to be the trigger since hes the most comfortable in possession. The reason Fernandinho was used was because he is the poorest on the ball in Citys midfield by a distance.
It's all coming together much faster than I'd ever expected. Striker is a problem, but that's more down to the individuals we have rather than the system. Despite Morata looking mentally out of sorts though, he's been getting into some great positions recently, and if they start going in I still think it might turn him around. Defence is the other problem of course, but Sarri said early on that it usually takes a good 3 months for his new defences to settle into the system. I'm not going to start calling out Luiz or anyone else until more time has passed and we start getting a real idea for what Sarri is actually trying to achieve. He's trying to revolutionize the clubs tactical approach, so criticizing him for old problems seems pointless and counter-productive.
Considering the shit show we were last season, as far as I'm concerned Sarri has a free pass for the first half of the season at least, if not the whole season. We've already been far better than we could have wished for pre-season (and let's not forget how late he actually joined and the huge upsets when it seemed like pre-season was turning into an extended nightmare with Conte still taking training sessions).
I'm pretty much expecting to get beaten quite badly at Liverpool at least one, maybe both games. I fecking hate Liverpool and usually that would upset me a lot, but given where we are and what we're trying to become, I can live with it this time.
Considering the shit show we were last season, as far as I'm concerned Sarri has a free pass for the first half of the season at least, if not the whole season. We've already been far better than we could have wished for pre-season (and let's not forget how late he actually joined and the huge upsets when it seemed like pre-season was turning into an extended nightmare with Conte still taking training sessions).
I'm pretty much expecting to get beaten quite badly at Liverpool at least one, maybe both games. I fecking hate Liverpool and usually that would upset me a lot, but given where we are and what we're trying to become, I can live with it this time.
True, I had forgotten the about those pre season issues. Does make the start of the season more surprising really. We've only conceded twice in the last 5 games, we got a bit lucky against Arsenal and haven't really faced any other top teams. Don't think we can pick out particular issues yet. Morata, Giroud, Barkley, Kovacic, Kante have all been getting chances in recent games. If we keep creating chances for them as we have done in first 7 proper games then I'm confident they'll starting scoring goals.
Klopp, Guardiola, Pochettino all took a season at least to get their teams playing as they wanted. Sarri will be the same, no one should expect any different. If we're playing decent stuff, as we have, creating chances etc then that is good for us fans to watch as well. I much prefer to see us having 70%+ of the ball in games, dominating rather than grinding out results, even if you need better more technical players and it can be harder to win trophies playing this way. It works for Barca, RM, Bayern, City etc and as long as we recruit the players needed for the system I think we can get to that level too.
No idea what to expect from the Liverpool games, unusually. We're an unknown quantity playing this new way against the top sides. Will partly depend on how they, and we rotate, especially for the game at Anfield tomorrow.
Klopp, Guardiola, Pochettino all took a season at least to get their teams playing as they wanted. Sarri will be the same, no one should expect any different. If we're playing decent stuff, as we have, creating chances etc then that is good for us fans to watch as well. I much prefer to see us having 70%+ of the ball in games, dominating rather than grinding out results, even if you need better more technical players and it can be harder to win trophies playing this way. It works for Barca, RM, Bayern, City etc and as long as we recruit the players needed for the system I think we can get to that level too.
No idea what to expect from the Liverpool games, unusually. We're an unknown quantity playing this new way against the top sides. Will partly depend on how they, and we rotate, especially for the game at Anfield tomorrow.
Seeing Zola do our press conference today and speak so highly of Hazard & Hudson Odoi was awesome
What did he say about Hudson-Odoi? Had a promising preseason but didn't feature since.Seeing Zola do our press conference today and speak so highly of Hazard & Hudson Odoi was awesome