@Chelsea_Ram19 Sunderland didn't want to sell him, god man, you think every failed transfer is our fault. Given we got Henderson on a free, maybe save the money for an elite midfielder in Jan and the summer.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe:
“We’ve gone all woke in our Universities, if you’re a middle-class English white person, your kid is not going to go to Oxford or Cambridge because we don’t want that.”
https://t.co/nVZwgKyOWZ
Fabian Hürzeler has Brighton doing outstanding things 🔵⚪️
Goals Scored - 1st (16)
Big Chance Created - 1st (23)
xG - 1st (12.34)
Average Possession - 2nd (64.6%)
The most creative current team whilst dominating the ball and not relying on transitions or counters.
Hardest thing to do in football is construct.
Also averaging 2nd most shots P90 (19.0) & on target (5.8).
That aside, you can see the non-negotiable - Counter-press, supporting each other in and out of possession, win duels and trust each other’s instincts on the ball.
THIS.
And you can’t build this if you change managers every year.
Our environment/culture has been awful for a while.
Xabi signed Henderson, Welbeck and other experience to help him change that - and it will take time.
Environment/culture surely has to be one of the most underrated aspects of building a successful team.
We talk about assets a lot these days, in relation to recruitment, but at the end of the day, it’s real people who play on the pitch.
No, we wanted a more established player. Alonso literally knows him and worked with him.
We also have Watson (same profile) and Nazuli and he’d directly block their pathway.
De Zerbi was backed massively in the market at Marseille. He left behind a club in free-fall & on brink of financial ruin.
Today, after a summer of austerity, Marseille are 15th and on a run of 4 straight losses.
De Zerbi may be a genius, but is he a good football manager?
Chelsea's problem for several years now is balancing defence and attack. Either we go super aggressive under Lampard, or solid defence with weaker attack under Tuchel. More defence under Potter, chaotic attack under Poch.
It takes time to get the balance right. It took Xabi months to sort it out at Leverkusen, and it will here too - especially when we're coming off a season where our mentality, belief and confidence was on the floor.
Football is all about a balance imo
Knowing when to be very vertical and aggressive and when to be very horizontal and a little more passive is the skill.
The issue in the first 4 games was that we were too vertical and too aggressive. Shit ton of turnovers, game stretched = basketball.
Issue against Brentford is they forced us to play more horizontally and we allowed them to dictate the pattern of the game.
For me, learning game management is critical. We need to understand when to put the foot on the gas and when to not.
This comes down to individual players too, nothing wrong with just looking after the football and playing backwards sometimes.
Maresca was an extreme and got criticised for being too horizontal- you could argue the other extreme is also very naive and should be criticised too.
Get that balance right and we’ll be fine.
🔵
Always said following Chelsea was more fun up to 2005. Up to then, even when we won things, we really enjoyed it as it was kind of a first, we weren't yet a superclub, still felt like pluky underdogs. After 2005, that changed and its never come back apart from Lampard during the transfer ban.
Chelsea have always played, high paced, high intensity football, with physicality combined with a bit of flair and magic. Transitional football, not Pep ball. Think Jurgen Klopp rather than Pep Guardiola. That's Chelsea.
Chess or rock and roll?
Rock and roll.
Basketball or hard to beat?
Bit of both.
3 at the back or 4 at the back?
Both.
Describe the physical profile of our players:
Tall, strong, physical monsters (with notable exceptions), able to handle themselves, agile, quick, high energy.
Describe our CB’s and wingers:
CBs: Complimentary: Both tall, strong, aerially dominant, but also good on the ball, able to pass out from the back.
Wingers: Quick, get your bums off seats, score and create, have a bit of magic and flair.
HUMOUR ME -Play this game ?
Describe the systems & football philosophies of the following clubs to yourself…
City
Arsenal
Liverpool
Newcastle
Brighton
Brenford
Easy right?
Now do Chelsea.
Take into account our history & write in the comments how you would best describe our football identity?
Who are we.
What do we stand for.
Chess or rock and roll?
Basketball or hard to beat
3 at the back or 4 at the back?
Describe the physical profile of our players
Describe our CB’s and wingers.
Genuinely interested in how you perceive Chelsea to be in your heads.
🔵
The only thing that will change the thinking of the fan base culturally is success…
Arteta is doing that with Arsenal now
Pep did it with city
Klopp with Liverpool
Fans associate with Mourinho because it brought success
Alonso will need time and patience and most importantly unequivocal success to change the thinking of the fans - so make his style the one that fans associate with.
Arteta took 7 years
Chelsea fans are simply delusional
What did ppl expect...Alsono to walk in this team and have us slapping up everyone 4 -0 every week ??
This will be a process, we will get top 5 this season but thier will be some highs and lows until he figures some things out #CFC