They’ll win the league cup final against City. Football is a strange old game sometimes. This isn’t based on anything logical, just have the feeling that they’ll upset City and win the league cup, then go on to lose the next league match they play after it.
Chelsea 2018/19 - 3rd and European Champions. Sarri, not sorry
- Thread starter duffer
- Start date
Really want this to happen too. Don't want City winning a domestic treble, or a quadruple
No chance they beat City. They’re rubbish. Their midfield has no creativity whatsoever, their lone striker inevitably isolated. Long live Sarriball.
They beat City a month or so back didn't they?
Edit 2 months ago. It can be done
Edit 2 months ago. It can be done
We'd still love it if it happens, of course.
If I were Sarri and I was pretty sure I was getting sacked, I’d play Kanté at regista now just to show how clueless all the pundits who think he should be playing as the deepest lying midfielder are.
Merson called him a holding midfielder.
Playing him as a holding midfielder and telling him to play his natural game mean things like this happen (1.23 onwards).
We would be (and were when he played there) in serious shit everytime he's bypassed.
I know, I just think it's astounding that people still think he's holding midfielder. Commentators on DAZN spouted the same nonsense.
Hudson Odoi loving life at Chelsea
Come to think of it, who actually can play that role for Chelsea? I've not seen them much this season. I know Jorginho is the deep playmaker etc but is there anyone else?
Sarri vs top 6 in 2019
Tottenham 3-0 Chelsea
Arsenal 2-0 Chelsea
Manchester city 6-0 Chelsea
Chelsea 0-2 Manchester united
Goals conceded: 13
Goals scored: 0
Cigarettes smoked: 13926292700
(from Somalian Gentleman)
Tottenham 3-0 Chelsea
Arsenal 2-0 Chelsea
Manchester city 6-0 Chelsea
Chelsea 0-2 Manchester united
Goals conceded: 13
Goals scored: 0
Cigarettes smoked: 13926292700
(from Somalian Gentleman)
This.
Squires is going to be busy.
They beat a Spurs B team in the cup. But apart from that have been pretty weaksauce.
Kovacic has played there for Madrid under Zidane and he was quite good at it in 2016/17. But he hasn't been as good as Chelsea probably hoped and whether he could actually could do a better job than Jorginho currently is probably questionable.
Has Smalling let Higuain out of his pocket yet?
Basically, their LVG.
‘My Jorginho shall always play’.
- My Jorginho shall always play.
- Higuain equals Silent Domination.
- Ross Barkley offers physicallity. In this league all teams need physicallity.
- We had more possession.
Big shout out to Alonso, who somehow has managed to remain first choice at Chelsea for ages now despite being shite. Thanks for giving Ander all the time in the world for the first goal..
I reckon Chelsea will have to put up with Sarri till the cup final atleast. Not fair to sack him without giving him a chance to win a cup final that he led the team to. Another 6-0 wouldn't be a surprise though if he fields the same robotic XI with zero variation.
They'll make it through in the Europa League, but at what cost? They can probably rotate but I'm not sure by how much, given how the tie could quickly turn if Malmo get a goal from a set-piece. As for the League Cup final, if they do beat us it'll be as a result of us not playing to our best.
They have next to nothing chance against City.
They're in huge trouble if Hazard leaves this summer. They desperately need to hold onto him.
Dont understand why they got rid of Ancelotti when he won the leaague
He's gone. Don't think it looks any other way, really.
I'm not sure how they're going to get their shit together then. The rest of their attack needs huge investment as it is, and if he leaves that project just becomes a lot bigger
I'm not sure if they can bring in 3 attackers in 1 window even with Hazard money.
There game plan seems to be pass the ball around a lot (mainly through Jorginho) and when that doesn't work, somehow get the ball to Hazard and hope he can do it all by himself.
I'm refreshing the Guardian footy page every five minutes.
Don't think they've replaced Matic properly yet. And they're kicking off after half a season of Sarriball, try 2 years of LvG's philosophy then lads!
Chelsea’s squad is full of dead wood to be honest. How many of their players would top teams actually want? Hazard and perhaps Kanté. Hudson-Odoi is probably their third most valuable asset and has played a handful of first team matches.
Kepa could develop into a top keeper one day but right now none of the rest of the top 6 in England would swap their keeper for him. Azpilicueta has been in decline for a few years now. Rüdiger and Christensen are average centre backs and there’s little between them and Lindelöf and Bailly for me. David Luiz is a player I like but not in a back four with no real protection ahead of him. Alonso, as you say, is poor. Jorginho, Kovačić and Barkley is a very underwhelming group of midfielders and Willian and Pedro are alright if unspectacular wingers. Higuaín is only at the club because neither Juve nor Milan wanted him anymore.
Chelsea simply doesn’t have a top four squad anymore.
Selling Matić wasn’t a great loss but they simply haven’t replaced him with the correct player. Bakayoko was a completely different type of midfielder to Matić and Jorginho just doesn’t have anywhere near his physical presence.
The logical thing for Sarri to do now that teams have opted to man mark Jorginho would be to move to a double pivot in midfield but Chelsea simply doesn’t have another player who can play such a role next to Jorginho.
No chance, if we play same tactics and team will be lucky to lose only 3 0.
Sarri must be blind if he can't see our midfield doesn't work against any half decent opposition. Just ends with us passing the ball around without any creativity, 67% of the ball yesterday and double the amount of passes of Utd but only two shots on target! Awful.
My opinion is Kante can't play the role he's being asked to, that is the main issue.
Our squad overall is pretty good, just the tactics / team selection being used doesn't work at all against any half decent side. If we're going to persist with 4 3 3 we need to try, Jorginho, Barkley, Kovacic as our starting midfield. Or switch to 4 2 3 1 and play Kante in a two.
I don't understand football managers sometimes. That match was screaming out for Giroud to come on. We were pinned back and defending the space happily, they needed a target in the box to aim some crosses at or win some flick downs, just cause general annoyance.
As others have mentioned he's too stuck in his way like LVG was. I admire his dedication but it'll get him sacked. The best managers adapt on the spot when things aren't working.
His vision of football may be the holy grail, but right now they can't even get a choir together.
Hazard is their only threat, their midfield has 0 goals in it and Higuain while his movement looked good is so isolated.
I really do think they'd be better with a 2 man midfield or Kovacic / Kante.
As others have mentioned he's too stuck in his way like LVG was. I admire his dedication but it'll get him sacked. The best managers adapt on the spot when things aren't working.
His vision of football may be the holy grail, but right now they can't even get a choir together.
Hazard is their only threat, their midfield has 0 goals in it and Higuain while his movement looked good is so isolated.
I really do think they'd be better with a 2 man midfield or Kovacic / Kante.
As Tim Vickery always says, the most dangerous of beasts are defenders who are principally in the team for contributions going forward. Chelsea have both Luiz and Alonso who are suspect defensively, but supposedly compensate that with attacking output. When that dries up, it looks pretty damning.
The guy has literally won feck all though in his couple of decades as a manager at any level. He started great and I remember thinking that Chelsea may win the league this season, but with a larger sample size you need to start asking whether the emperor is actually wearing any clothes. On what basis are people supposing that Chelsea should go all in on building the club in his image? Trotting out to second in a one team league? There's a bit of a cult around him and very few pundits are willing to say the obvious. Was he just lucky for a few seasons?
I think it's fair to say his Napoli team did play good football, but they caved as soon as any pressure/expectation came on them. As you say though I do wonder whether his reputation proceeds him. He's living off this wave of "sarriball" but I don't think anybody truly knows what that means. Most fans just assumed it meant sexy football, but honestly I've not seen anything special from this Chelsea team.
The problem is he might need 2/3 seasons to fully change the side into what he wants, but nobody can wait that long anymore, you have to be amazing from the 1st match.
I don't think you need to be amazing from the first match, but you need to be pragmatic. Ferguson and Pep are both greats because they are or were pragmatic, even if they would often build a media image of being the opposite. They have their ideals about how football should be played, but they also adjust to the limits of their squad and look to tactically negate the opposition. Contrast that to Wenger, Van Gaal and now Sarri, all of whom seemingly were too stubborn or simply did not have the ability to react to the opposition. It's absolutely imperative to succeed in at the highest level.
Only way he definitely stays is if Zidane got the job. I'd bet my house on that