Very disappointing game with so many dopey errors , lets move on. Not sure of fitness, but here's my thoughts Mendy/ Kepa Dave Silva Zouma Stillwell Kovacic Mount Havertz Ziyech Pulisic Werner Bench Tomori,James Giroud, CHO. Please NO Christensen or Abraham .
Can Mount play in a midfield of 2 Hope we play better in CL this season, we were very lucky to get out of our group
Can't see why not, Mount can pass, he can defend, he can make forward runs. Being more pragmatic, I suppose Jorginho will get the gong again, and if he plays as he did 1st half he will do the job. Not sure about midfield of Seville, but if they have pace and power, Jorginho is a risk.
Mount can press, pass and make forward runs. Does that qualify him to play in a midfield two when you need to sit deep?
Watching that 1st half, we are utterly hopeless again. never seen a Chelsea team so static, no one wants to run, they just pass flat footed, collect the ball flat footed, every pass is collected by a player facing backwards, Pulisic, Havertz Jorginho are hopeless, can't pass to the man beside them, Chilwell passes everything backwards, Kante is a train wreck of bad passes and reckless tackles. What's going on ?? This is like a Junior School Orchestra without a conductor. Off your ring Frank sort this mess out !!
Slightly better 2nd half, but Frank is terrible with his subs. Pulisic and Jorginho should have been hooked at half time, Chillwell was bog ordinary, CHO and Abraham need more than 2 mins of extra time. Kovacic was the only midfield player in the entire game who attempted to run towards goal. Werner got garbage from the mids all day, then fluffed his only real decent ball. Don't understand why you'd spend 200 mill on attackers and then don't attack !!!! Piss poor display from a static, negative team, who must be the worst passers in the league. At least the back 4 did a competent job for once, and earned us the single point. There is something wrong when such good attacking players are so reluctant to run, and just stand still and pass instead. Bad day at the office today. Ratings Mendy 6, James 6, Silva 6, Zouma 6, Chilwell 3. Jorginho 3, Kante 4 Havertz 3 Pulisic 3, Werner 5, Mount 4 Kovacic 7, Ziyech 4, CHO 0 Tammy 0
I don't feel as negative about that performance as you CP. The new players will need another 6 or 7 games to bed in. You can see Havertz's class but he hasn't adapted to the pace yet. Once he works out not having as much time on the ball he'll be fine. Werner will be massive once he slots a few more away. At the moment he reminds me of Costa's last 3 months with us...taking a little too much out of the ball. Silva is just class...needs to be used wisely. Mendy has shown enough already in 3 games that he should now be automatic #1. As regards Chilwell...apart from 2 loose passes i thought he had a solid game.
If you get a chance have a look at a replay, 1st half was just awful. My problem is not the ability of the players, but the attitude of the team. A week ago Chilwell was brilliant, bombing down the line, great crossing, good defence. Today ,one or 2 runs, far too much stopping dead and backpassing, some dodgy tackles and dopey free kicks, just a poor show. Havertz looked frail, sluggish apart from one great run,and even he was passing poorly, Pulisic was just poor, especially on the right, different player on the left. But again, bugger all go forward from midfield, instead stand still and pass instead any attempt to run. This may well because no one apart from Werner was doing any sensible running off the ball, so there was no one to pass to who wasn't surrounded by damned good defenders. Defence looked pretty good, and Seville are no mugs, so I get a clean sheet was a rare win for us. I hope we just get the whole machine moving .
With all due respects CP i have never watched a full game twice ...and that includes Champs League Final win ! Anyway i maybe kidding myself but i can definitely see things coming together. Time will tell. Onwards and upwards !
You are right ,there was improvement especially the defence. We have seen Werner has everything a striker needs, Havertz with vision and skill, Chilwell and James add attack and flair, Ziyech and Mount dangerous. What is needed now is to put it all together with a more positive attitude ( like yours !!!!) Let's hope it comes together against Utd !!! Onwards and upwards, (not backwards and sideways )
I think that the team is possibly trying too hard to follow instruction at the moment which is shackling their ability to actually play. The pieces of the puzzle are there, or thereabouts, we just don’t seem to have them all the right way round yet. Don’t forget it took Klopp 4 years to build Liverpool into what they are now. Frank is a new manager so has a steeper learning curve. Klopp got lots of criticism initially but the world can’t speak highly enough of him now.
Kova is a much better player in every aspect than Jorghino. Mount is a good player but not as good as Grealish or Maddison, he has the abillty but not the quickness of mind that the aforementioned have. The core of our problems are all across the field as in. The defence is always having to stay back because the midfield will not pass it forwards. The midfield is not capable of running at the opposition so always pass it back, the forwards are reluctant to make runs because of the problems mentioned previously. There is a magic bullet though and sometimes it only takes one player to remedy, hope we find him soon, maybe he may already be there just waiting to be discovered . Billy Gilmour get yourself fit we need you.
Very well put, there is no link in this squad from back to front, certainly it's not Jorginho. Kovacic is the only one who will make those attacking runs through the middle that at least get the defenders turned around and scattered. Then the front 3 can run into some space, which they don't do often enough. Unlike Frank, who could also go on and score, Kovacic doesn't have that string to his bow. But he's still my first mid starter. Iv'e been banging on about a midfield controller ever since Frank retired, and am also convinced such a player is our missing piece of the jigsaw.
If Kovacic had another like minded player that backed up and covered him ala Gilmour then we would in my opinion be a more balanced team, as good as Kante is in a system that is right for him I don't think we are set up to get the best out of him, and of course he has never been the best at passing, his problem has been he has nobody to pass it to after he has won the ball back, which he does on numerous occasions. I disagree with anyone that says Jorginho has played well for us period. It has not happened. He plays percentage football never takes a chance until its too late and all he does is slow the play down. Zouma has made quite a few mistakes lately and I for one would love to see Tomoroi with Silva. Youth blended with experience all day long for me.