Something has changed, but it took tooooooo long.

Let's start with a big hand for the team. Looks like a different mob than a month ago. But it's pretty much the same people in different positions.
First defence. Disasi and Badashielle side by side. That just doesn't work, hasn't worked all year. Either work beside Silva or Chalobah, whole different ballgame. So why did Poch not see and change it?? God only knows. Also Chalobah is clearly better than either Disasi or Badashielles. Why didn't Poch see that? God only knows.

Mid field. Casiedo and Enzo doesn't work. Enzo doesn't defend so Caseido can't do the job of two. Caseido and Gallagher is brilliant, instant ,massive transformation in midfield. Enzo is the one who we should sell. Why didn't Poch see that?? God only knows.

Cucurella playing more central is a revelation. Everything he's good at becomes into play and has made a really big upgrade to our attack. Poch DID see that and deserves all the credit for finally using Cuckoo in a great way that no previous manager has been able to see.

Jackson and Madueke now look more mature and proper grown up. The bollocking they got over the Penalty taker fiasco has sunk in. They look like PL players now, not school kids. Poch again take a bow.

Poch still misuses subs. At 5-0 up he should have given Casadei a 30 minute opportunity, not a 10 minute run out which does zilch for him or the team.

However big uplift in most aspects of the game so a very, very good 2 weeks.

 

Looked good these last couple of games.
I am far from convinced we have turned the corner, but am prepared to give Poch more time.
My worry is the summer, all news points at us selling Gallagher, which I feel would be a big mistake

 

I think most agree with you on that. Gallagher looks more suited to the spot beside Caicedo, he gets through loads of work but pops up with good shots as well, a big bonus. Iv'e got a feeling that Romeo Lavia, if fit, will be our best buy as a partner for Caicedo, but Gallagher is the type of player every team needs. Hope he stays.
IF , and it's still an IF, we continue our form into the seasons end, then it will require a serious and proper think about Pochs' place. Would seem churlish to undo all the building work that's been achieved and start again, but we can't have another season like this one, so big big decision to make.

 

We gotta hope that he has finally found his best XI.
Hopefully our defence is now sorted with Chalobah and either Disasi or Badi beside him.
We still have Lavia and Nkunku, both of whom barely featured this season, to come to full fitness.
I was pretty excited about both of those two signings when we made them, so hopefully they can make an impact, and, to use the cliche, will feel like new signings.
We need a striker, a goalkeeper, and if Gallagher goes, a midfielder.
I think we should go for Ramsdale. He is better than any keeper we have and is surplus to requirement now at Arsenal with Raya having took his place.
For striker, I am unsure, if we can get Toney for a decent price, then I am all for it, otherwise no.

 

Striker is never easy. Even Osimhen seems to have dipped a bit in form and 100 mill is just madness. Toney is a good striker and a big tough sod to boot, he'd do a job, but he's no Drogba or Jimmy Floyd.i like Gyokes or whatever his name is, but so does every other team in Europe,the search goes on.

 

yeah, agreed, gallagher is chelsea through and through, works his bollocks off and has proper drive.

A bit like jordan henderson for pool under klopp (til he got old). Not technically the best but he would die for this team and has real impact just with all his running. Also pops up with some goals. I feel we may need to sell him for FFP which is ridiculous as we've overspent on so much dross

 

I'd like to give Jackson another go. HIs finishing has been woeful but he has been a handful and he's young and busy.

I remember Drogba being pretty awful in his first season but became a beast

 

Yeah I would deffo keep Jackson, i think there is potential there for sure.
He lacks an eye for goal but his all round play looks good, he can draw defenders, he is quick.
He is kinda like Timo Werner, everything in his game is very good, he just lacks the killer instinct, if he can add that to his game then he will be a great striker.
Do we want to stick with him as our only choice up front though?
Even when Drogba came through we still supplemented our front line with players like Crespo, Torres etc.

 

Yea but he's much better than werner ffs lol. That guy was a piss merchant but has zero strength and didn't offer much apart from some good runs and pace. Couldn't dribble pass or control the ball.

You are right we probably need a supplementary striker although we have casadei coming through and nkunku and you could probably insert sterling palmer etc in there but would it be worth splashing the cash on someone decent, dropping jackson and having to sell gallagher due to ffp. Not for me.

 

A lot of what we need to do depends on whether we sell or keep Gallagher to be honest.
Until we know the situation regarding him, its hard for us to forecast what kind of movements we need to make in the market, because if Gallagher goes, then we will likely have a midfield imbalance, because for me, Gallagher starts with Caicedo at CM.
At this stage I would rather sell Reece James than Gallagher, if we have to sell an academy player. But with James' injury record, how much would we get and who would come in for him?

 

i dunno why we can't just sell the likes of Enzo who is basically like a more technical but less defensively minded jorginho (is it because we paid a ridiculous amount and it would all come into the accounts in one go if we don't sell him for like 80m).

You are right, Reece James is amazing but he's never available. We should get rid of him if we have to raise ffp funds. Surely, we can get rid of chilwell as well.

 

Exactly this.
We havent finished paying for him I wager, probably not even half way there, so if we sold him, it would be at a loss, especially given the ridiculous amount we got him for (100m + wasnt it?), so if we sold him, we would be lucky to get 60-70m for him, and we would probably still owe that much so it doesnt free up anything, except wage bill I guess.
And thats provided we get a buyer for him who a) He wants to go to and b) who is willing to pay that price for a proven dud.

Chilwell would be slightly better, we likely have finished paying for him, as we signed him 4 years ago and for only £45m.
But how much would we get for him? I cant see any PL club paying more than £45m for him and who would he go to? Maybe somewhere like Aston Villa?
They in the CL next season so may want to buy some decent players to flesh out their squad. Digne is in his 30's now.

Having a system where they claim to encourage Clubs bringing through academy players, then hugely incentivising clubs to sell their academy players seems a bit counter productive!

 

nah its just us having a dumb chairman whos overpaying for mediocre players and then mortgaging those payments against our future.

 

well yeah, that too

 

We sure got ourselves into a crazy state with our Chairmans cash splash. Basically we have to sell our good young home grown players , keep less good Boehly players, and buy more less good ones than we sell because we can't pay enough under FFP rules to get better ones !!!. Genius Accounting, from the Wall Street Short sellers.
I agree with selling Enzo, whoever is left, he doesn't give us what we need anyway. next I'd sell Sterling and Mudryk, neither is good enough nor improving. And top of the list , get a striker !! Jackson looks like he could be up there in time, but equally, could replace Sterling or Mudryk today.

 

Chilwell’s time is up if we play this new inverted full back thing, doesn’t suit him at all. Maatsen however..:

I genuinely wouldn’t even buy a forward, I’d keep Jackson and have Nkunku as an option too.

We need a keeper though. We have a couple of decent ones but we need one that takes us up a level.

 

Hate to see players like Chilwell and James as being sellable, but injury has wrecked their development along with ownership and management changes. Gusto looks a decent deputy for James and Maatsen would be excellent in Chilwells place, hope sense prevails and he is not sold off too. Gallagher and Chalobah have shown they are among our best in their positions, so surely they need keeping?

 

I have to mention Maatsen and for the sake of going overboard, he is not that good, if you watched the game against PSG, he was far and away the most wasteful, regarding passes and seemed the weakest link in the transition, often playing wayward passes when better options were available. His defending was OK and if we do get him back I will be happy, as there is room for improvement and he does have talent, Real will be the litmus test for the boy if he is picked.

 

Not his best game true, but the 2 games before that he was a star . He was rarely played by Poch, but he looks to have pretty much everything to become a top player. Real will sure be a litmus test, but not only for him, they have that winners look about them again.