Playing Devil's adovcate here but year to year spend is not really a good yard stick. I always think things need to be looked at over 5 years. If you look at Chelsea's net spend over the past five years including this one, I think they would still be outside the top 4.
Chelsea 2020/21 - General discussion
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Playing Devil's adovcate here but year to year spend is not really a good yard stick. I always think things need to be looked at over 5 years. If you look at Chelsea's net spend over the past five years including this one, I think they would still be outside the top 4.
They're doing everything we should be doing, it's real kick in the balls tbh. Chelsea have been run much better than us for a good while now though, even when SAF was papering over the cracks with the likes of Cleverly and Welbeck in our side. They are ruthless with their managers and buy enough quality players to keep riding the manager merry-go-round without falling off a cliff as we did and remain competitive always.
Werner scores less than 4 minutes into his debut in preseason - secondary assist from a ludicrous cross field pass from Ziyech.
Think the weeks of training with the team have helped them bed in, to be fair. Encouraging signs early at least...
Think the weeks of training with the team have helped them bed in, to be fair. Encouraging signs early at least...
Of course there are so many variables same for any team not only us. We are strengthening our squad and considering our team from last season to this season we are optimistic about our game play so that we expect some more points.
Love this post.
So many variables and unknowns in that Chelsea squad.
What happens if Silva gets injured? What happens if Werner doesn't hit the ground running? What happens if Ziyech can't handle the physicality of the premiership?
How's the squad harmony? How must Tammy, Mason Reece etc feel? Will they perform to the same degree as understudies?
Really being think a result against Liverpool will prove anything!!
If that's good enough to challenge for title we will see. For that Liverpool need to slow down a bit and city need to have a same kind of last season. If Liverpool and city have that 95+ above season then we won't challenge of course.
I genuinely believe Chelsea can challenge for title if normal total of points needed to win the title that is 85-90 pts. What is wrong in that?
More or less next season will not be easy for any team without rest and proper preseason 85-90 pts will be enough to win the title whoever able to achieve that can win the title in my opinion.
Net spend means nothing when it’s boosted by selling players that weren’t part of their team. It’s a smart business model they have but it’s not reflective of what success they should expect from the money spent.
Still not a signing in sight. Hopefully Ole has a press conference Monday where he can your some pressure on
Exactly- May as well get in our commercial sponsorships as net spend.
He will just say he will not speak about players from other clubs or we are exploring options. We should have discovered a new country by now the amount of exploring we do.
We will be miles off them and the other two next season.
Liking the crowd's being back, I didn't mind the fake noise but nothing like the real thing.
What’s this? Will there be crowds at the start of the season?
Not yet but there's a trial match for it in our friendly vs Brighton as we speak.
2500 fans were let in to the AmEx for the match. Don't think crowds will be there from the get-go but there are plans from October onwards I believe.
Ah okay, cheers!
You can flip that on its head and say that these young players are good enough to start at majority of premiership teams and need game time, so they might actually seek game time elsewhere, and if they can't get that then it can go one of two ways.This gets me laughing everytime. How do they feel?
They play for Chelsea fc not fecking Westham. If they feel sad that a top club, looking to potentially win major titles is strenghting the team by adding top class players to the squad then maybe they shouldn't be there? If they don't want competition for places and better teammates to at with then they should all hand in transfer requests and Chelsea will gladly oblige and sell them to the likes of Evertons and Newcastles.
But being professional footballers looking forward to be part of a winning team I doubt they'll be sulking.
If this is the mentality brewing at United then this is actually a very sad state of affairs. You lot are worried about the feelings of Rashford, Martial, Pogba instead of getting actual top quality players who will either push them to rise above their current level to beat out the competition or relegate them to the bench, giving you a stronger squad anyways?
Word of advice...buying squad fillers to keep your current XI ‘happy’ is a disaster magnet for every top club.
It's Not sulking, just good players wanting to play.
A team, in order to function correctly, needs some form of 'team spirit' or morale, all it takes is a couple of seeds of discontent and it can grow into something bigger.
Not sure United fans have ever had realistic expectations to be fair
I know quite a few Chelsea fans and everyone has stated that they will win the league this season, I think for every pessimistic view there's an optimistic one!
Awesome pass from Ziyech but that Hudson Odoi assist was definitely an accident hahaha
Not sure United fans have ever had realistic expectations to be fair
I know quite a few Chelsea fans and everyone has stated that they will win the league this season, I think for every pessimistic view there's an optimistic one!
Are they match-going fans?
Three of them yeah, the others an ex season ticket holder, had to give it up when he moved to Australia.
Lunatics to a man.
Did that game just finish 1-1?
Would be interested to see if Chelsea fans think Lampard will persist with the 4-2-3-1 style formation as today was or if it was just because if personnel?
Would be interested to see if Chelsea fans think Lampard will persist with the 4-2-3-1 style formation as today was or if it was just because if personnel?
I think they have a real shot of challenging for the title.
They can’t even beat Brighton 
Maybe, Kante in best position in 4 2 3 1.
Integrating lots of new players and new system without proper pre season won't be that easy.
I thought we would go 4 3 3. Might find we try few things.
Yeah 1-1 final, Ampadu conceded a penalty at the death.
I thought it was interesting personally that we seemed to be much more in a 4-2-4 shape in possession and a 4-3-3 while defending - could see Havertz filling that role as a striker in possession / midfielder while defending much more effectively than RLC.
I worry a bit about the Kante / Kovacic pivot as both are better at progression the ball via carrying instead of passing, but we probably don't have better options there. In particular Kovacic was pretty poor though I thought; misplaced several passes allowing for dangerous transitions.
4-3-3 seem to be lampard's preferred line up with kante holding the midfield with two number 8s in havertz if he comes and mount and back up in kovasic,Barkley and rlc.
We will have goals from two number 8s (mount and havertz)which is great. This formation give the numbers to dominate midfield with wingers supporting the 8s with fullbacks pushed up.
On the Shedend nearly nobody is saying we will challenge for the titel. Maybe you don't get the sarcasm from your Chelsea fans.Not sure United fans have ever had realistic expectations to be fair
I know quite a few Chelsea fans and everyone has stated that they will win the league this season, I think for every pessimistic view there's an optimistic one!
Werner is going to absolutely kill it for Chelsea in the Premier League. Great signing. Fast, robust, technical, equally good from the wing as through the middle.
Just saw that ziyech pass. What the flip.
Chelsea really did good business this summer.
Which means nothing. Frank will be under pressure no doubt about that. You cannot hide from that pressure which come from good transfer window. He backed himself and got the players he wanted in single window.
He openly quoted I want to improve my team but last two transfer windows didn't provide any opportunity to improve my team but now I am improving the team. It's upto him to improve performances of the team. Will be interesting to see how he manage the huge squad with good signings coming in.
With Havertz looking like getting over the line, that's our attack pretty much set for the next 4-5 yrs.
Pulisic(21), Mount(21), Tammy(22), Werner(24), CHO(19), Havertz(21) and Ziyech(27). Ideally we should look at another winger next summer but that will be heavily reliant on what CHO has to offer this season.
That is incredibly exciting stuff tbh.
Provided we get in a goalkeeper this window, we are potentially looking at just these signings for next summer....
*RCB to replace Tiago Silva - Upamecano, Konate, (Zouma, Christensen develop further)
*CDM incase Kante’s woes continues - Rice, Camavinga, (Ampadu)
*Backup LB as we move on Alonso - (Ian Maatsen is the only choice, hopefully we get him a good loan this season)
*LCB - (Keep a close hopeful eye on the loan moves of Tomori and Malang Sarr)
We can fully concentrate on completing the team with defensive reinforcements next season after getting our attack sorted. There can always be the odd attacking change like being one of the 1000 teams who'll activate Haaland’s release clause if Abraham fails to push on and Haaland maintains his progression. Hopefully Abraham kicks on as a solid competition for Werner and well only have to replace Giroud with Broja(who is going on loan to Vitesse this season) as the 3rd striker option.
In two seasons time, we could only potentially be looking at a WC competition for Reece James at RB as Azpi is faded out. This may all read like some overly enthusiastic and optimistic fanpost, and things rarely work out like that as a lot can change in 2-3 yrs, but things are really looking great at the Bridge at the moment and um loving every bit of it.
Pulisic(21), Mount(21), Tammy(22), Werner(24), CHO(19), Havertz(21) and Ziyech(27). Ideally we should look at another winger next summer but that will be heavily reliant on what CHO has to offer this season.
That is incredibly exciting stuff tbh.
Provided we get in a goalkeeper this window, we are potentially looking at just these signings for next summer....
*RCB to replace Tiago Silva - Upamecano, Konate, (Zouma, Christensen develop further)
*CDM incase Kante’s woes continues - Rice, Camavinga, (Ampadu)
*Backup LB as we move on Alonso - (Ian Maatsen is the only choice, hopefully we get him a good loan this season)
*LCB - (Keep a close hopeful eye on the loan moves of Tomori and Malang Sarr)
We can fully concentrate on completing the team with defensive reinforcements next season after getting our attack sorted. There can always be the odd attacking change like being one of the 1000 teams who'll activate Haaland’s release clause if Abraham fails to push on and Haaland maintains his progression. Hopefully Abraham kicks on as a solid competition for Werner and well only have to replace Giroud with Broja(who is going on loan to Vitesse this season) as the 3rd striker option.
In two seasons time, we could only potentially be looking at a WC competition for Reece James at RB as Azpi is faded out. This may all read like some overly enthusiastic and optimistic fanpost, and things rarely work out like that as a lot can change in 2-3 yrs, but things are really looking great at the Bridge at the moment and um loving every bit of it.
How does having an awesome transfer window mean nothing?
You guys have your attack set for the next 10 years, all with world class talents.
Sorry misquoted. What I meant to say is good transfer window means nothing they need to perform on the pitch.
So i'm guilty of giving up on Kepa, this season he's been a disaster, however after looking at his save percentage and performance over his career i've become less worried with Kepa and more worried with the bigger picture.
If we take his last 5 seasons save percentage we get:
15/16 - 77.8%
16/17 - 67.2%
17/18 - 68.9%
18/19 - 67.5%
19/20 - 51.5%
if you average his four seasons prior to this one you get 70.35%, that would put him 8th out the 25 or so keepers that played in the PL last season, so why the big drop off? To me it points to something more worryng than just Kepa being a bad keeper, and to a combination of poor defending and bad tactical set up. The system we play under Frank in my eyes is leaving the defence exposed in pursuit of attacking football. If we are more clinical this season this may be less of an issue (I remember seeing some stats to suggest we should be much more proflic, and i also remember games where we missed several chances only to drop points with the opponents first attack).
Based on the above i think Kepa deserves another chance this season, whilst he may never be a top goalkeeper he should be able to hold his own until it's viable to upgrade.
If we take his last 5 seasons save percentage we get:
15/16 - 77.8%
16/17 - 67.2%
17/18 - 68.9%
18/19 - 67.5%
19/20 - 51.5%
if you average his four seasons prior to this one you get 70.35%, that would put him 8th out the 25 or so keepers that played in the PL last season, so why the big drop off? To me it points to something more worryng than just Kepa being a bad keeper, and to a combination of poor defending and bad tactical set up. The system we play under Frank in my eyes is leaving the defence exposed in pursuit of attacking football. If we are more clinical this season this may be less of an issue (I remember seeing some stats to suggest we should be much more proflic, and i also remember games where we missed several chances only to drop points with the opponents first attack).
Based on the above i think Kepa deserves another chance this season, whilst he may never be a top goalkeeper he should be able to hold his own until it's viable to upgrade.
Problem with kepa was his confidence issues. He has flaws in skill sets too. Going with wrong hand, have wrong positional sense, most of the time he rooted to the ground when ball fly past him and afraid to come off the line to collect ball.
Confidence issues will always be bigger problem for even elite goal keepers.De gea one of the best in his position and wonderful shot stopper with cat like reflexes yet with slight confidence issue he let in some silly goals recently which confident de gea would stop those with eyes closed. Opponents too gain confidence to take probing shots against vulnerable goal keepers.
Frankly speaking, Chelsea have defensive issues no doubt about that but if Frank have kepa as main keeper coming season he can say good bye to his job at the end of the season.
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We gave up fewer xG than Liverpool did. The problem isn't the tactical setup or the defence in front of it, it's that Kepa is in with a shout of being the worst goalkeeper in Europe (maybe bottom 5 if you're feeling generous).