Chelsea 2023/24 season thread.

I think Chelsea would almost be best served actually just standing still, and letting things actually cook. We know that doesn't happen, but just target and sign 2 or 3 top signings in areas where they think they are weakest, get them in the 23-26 age group, and add them to the talented young guys that they've got. Make sure they are happy with the spine, and supplement from that.

Stick with Poch, give him another pre season with the group, just don't add more unnecessary upheaval.
 
GoonerBear said:
I think Chelsea would almost be best served actually just standing still, and letting things actually cook. We know that doesn't happen, but just target and sign 2 or 3 top signings in areas where they think they are weakest, get them in the 23-26 age group, and add them to the talented young guys that they've got. Make sure they are happy with the spine, and supplement from that.

Stick with Poch, give him another pre season with the group, just don't add more unnecessary upheaval.
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I'm not gonna lie, I have completely lost faith in Poch. If we end the season on a high, I guess I could be convinced to give him more time but if the season just peters out with yet more inconsistencies and we finish 9th/10th, then I see no reason to keep him around. Keep the team the same. Don't go on another summer spending spree. Maybe a couple of moves around the margins and replace Poch with Tuchel or someone like Inzaghi if possible.

I just don't want next season to be another write off season because we stuck with Poch when we should moved on from him.
 
WeePat said:
I'm not gonna lie, I have completely lost faith in Poch. If we end the season on a high, I guess I could be convinced to give him more time but if the season just peters out with yet more inconsistencies and we finish 9th/10th, then I see no reason to keep him around. Keep the team the same. Don't go on another summer spending spree. Maybe a couple of moves around the margins and replace Poch with Tuchel or someone like Inzaghi if possible.

I just don't want next season to be another write off season because we stuck with Poch when we should moved on from him.
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I know, but the problem i think is that i'm struggling to see if the problem lies with Poch, the group of players, or just the speed and profile of how the squad has been put together.

Where i'm at is that i have seen some moments of quality from Chelsea, highly inconsistent yes, not even from game to game, but within game. But if he can work on the structure further and lessen those inconsistencies, get the players and the team another year older and wiser, then you might see decent progress. But i understand it's hard to call.

What would be your realistic wish list in terms of players for the summer? What do you think you need?
 
GoonerBear said:
I think Chelsea would almost be best served actually just standing still, and letting things actually cook. We know that doesn't happen, but just target and sign 2 or 3 top signings in areas where they think they are weakest, get them in the 23-26 age group, and add them to the talented young guys that they've got. Make sure they are happy with the spine, and supplement from that.

Stick with Poch, give him another pre season with the group, just don't add more unnecessary upheaval.
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I think we should largely stick with the same players (bar a keeper, left back and IF the right profile becomes available a centre forward) but unless we start seeing some stronger set ups by Poch I'd want him gone even if we fall upwards to 6th (and I think the chances of even that are slim now unless we either take 6 points of you and Spurs or United follow our lead and cock up vs the bottom 2).

Could be here all day if I go through all our structural issues but the most damming indictment is how he's got people unironically thinking Caicedo and Enzo are crap (and people were slowly starting to say the same about Nkunku until he got injured again), it's up there with how Lampard's coaching duped the world into thinking Rudiger and Christensen were duds.
 
Caciedo had his best game for a long while on Monday. Was winning every 50/50.

Does him and Enzo really work as the pivot? Maybe give it another season but I think the smart thing might be moving Enzo Fernandez on next summer as he'll have plenty of interest from Spain and Italy and that might not be the right partner to get Caciedo going?
 
FootballHQ said:
Caciedo had his best game for a long while on Monday. Was winning every 50/50.

Does him and Enzo really work as the pivot? Maybe give it another season but I think the smart thing might be moving Enzo Fernandez on next summer as he'll have plenty of interest from Spain and Italy and that might not be the right partner to get Caciedo going?
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It should be Enzo playing more deeper with Caicedo pressing higher and breaking up the play.

Either way I'm reserving judgement on almost all of our players until they're playing in a well coached set up.
 
FootballHQ said:
Caciedo had his best game for a long while on Monday. Was winning every 50/50.

Does him and Enzo really work as the pivot? Maybe give it another season but I think the smart thing might be moving Enzo Fernandez on next summer as he'll have plenty of interest from Spain and Italy and that might not be the right partner to get Caciedo going?
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Lavia is the guy that is missing from midfield as a true holding player. Caicedo is more like Kante; needs to have freedom to press vertically to be effective and if he's sitting deep you lose some of the benefits of his engine when it comes to tracking back.
 
Dancfc said:
I think we should largely stick with the same players (bar a keeper, left back and IF the right profile becomes available a centre forward) but unless we start seeing some stronger set ups by Poch I'd want him gone even if we fall upwards to 6th (and I think the chances of even that are slim now unless we either take 6 points of you and Spurs or United follow our lead and cock up vs the bottom 2).

Could be here all day if I go through all our structural issues but the most damming indictment is how he's got people unironically thinking Caicedo and Enzo are crap (and people were slowly starting to say the same about Nkunku until he got injured again), it's up there with how Lampard's coaching duped the world into thinking Rudiger and Christensen were duds.
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Has Nkunku not only started 2 games or something? Bit harsh to judge him on that 1. I’ll concede to you on Ensor and Caceido.

Anyway, you watch them more than me mate, so I’m not wanting to teach my grandmother how to suck eggs.

The most obvious thing for me from othe outside looking in is the lack of on field leadership, and I think the losses of Chilwell and Reece James are obviously a big part of that, as well as Silva when he’s been out.

We’ve suffered throughout the years at Arsenal with that at times, but the incident on Monday just totally epitomised that.
 
It's so hard to think about who we need for next season, given the injuries (same goes for lots of teams I know).

Even if they're fit, what will Lavia, James, Nkunku and Fofana be like after so long out?
 
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GoonerBear said:
The most obvious thing for me from othe outside looking in is the lack of on field leadership, and I think the losses of Chilwell and Reece James are obviously a big part of that, as well as Silva when he’s been out.

We’ve suffered throughout the years at Arsenal with that at times, but the incident on Monday just totally epitomised that.
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100%.

Silva is almost certain to leave and then we have zero outfield players over 30. Our oldest would be Sterling, who is not exactly a leader.

People bang on about a young team but you need a balance. I said at the time that we would really miss Azpilicueta, not necessarily for his skills but his influence as a professional, and we have.
 
duffer said:
100%.

Silva is almost certain to leave and then we have zero outfield players over 30. Our oldest would be Sterling, who is not exactly a leader.

People bang on about a young team but you need a balance. I said at the time that we would really miss Azpilicueta, not necessarily for his skills but his influence as a professional, and we have.
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Indeed, its very true, never mind on field, off field as well, and dressing room culture is something that we the fans have very little insight to.

I'm not sure even as good as we have been, that we have struck the balance right with the number of young players we have, i think Arteta would have liked to have kept Xhaka around for instance for his experience. I think we were very interested in Gundogan but had his heart set on sunnier climes.

Unfortunately a lot of modern fans etc seem a bit obsessed with having a team full of wonderkids, we must bag the next shiny big thing. Experience is often overlooked, until it's very evident it's missing. Like you say, the best teams have a perfect balance of both.
 
Didn't know where to put this.

The guy who went by Angry Rantman died yesterday. I normally hate over the top YouTubers but whenever I saw his rants during the Sarri era I really enjoyed them. His name was Abhradeep Saha and he was 27 when he died. RIP.

 
It will never stop being amusing how they spent 1 billion to have Nicolas Jackson upfront. It just doesn't compute.
 
Telsim said:
It will never stop being amusing how they spent 1 billion to have Nicolas Jackson upfront. It just doesn't compute.
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I would be very shocked if they didn't rectify that this summer. Reckon they bring in two strikers.
 
You can see the makings of a decent team there. They certainly look more competent than we do. But they suffer from some technically poor players in a few areas, and that Jackson fella appears to be completely hopeless. They'd have comfortably beat City with a quality forward
 
They played well and should've won.

Ultimately Sterling, Jackson and Mydryk waste so many good chances a game and then they concede. If the ball isn't falling to Palmer around the box you can't be sure anyone else is actually going to score so that's where the upgrade is needed next season, more ice cold finishers.
 
Telsim said:
It will never stop being amusing how they spent 1 billion to have Nicolas Jackson upfront. It just doesn't compute.
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Their plan I guess was to play Nkunku as false 9 and have Jackson as backup and also playing on the left wing. Saw that in the one and a half games Nkunku was fit for this season.

Simply can't risk the same happening next season so a new CF will be signed regardless.
 
FootballHQ said:
Their plan I guess was to play Nkunku as false 9 and have Jackson as backup and also playing on the left wing. Saw that in the one and a half games Nkunku was fit for this season.

Simply can't risk the same happening next season so a new CF will be signed regardless.
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Lukaku to return and save us.
 
I think Poch is going to get things right there. A very respectable performance today against the cheat squad.

A few experienced players he can trust and a lot of these young players could very well become players that play for him.

He was very good at that side of things with Tottenham and the players are definitely fighting for him now, a number of them just aren’t very good.

A CB, a couple of quality attackers and their injured players returning and they could be on to something.
 
What an utterly useless club… Everything got lined up for them and they bottled it. City was there for the taking, less than 72 hours after the most exhausting 120 mns and after a crushing defeat.
 
Carabao Cup Final loss can be blamed on Poch but yesterday they just missed their chances, and they had at least 2-3 promising situations. City looked tired and it was probably best time to play them. Still, it does seem like Chelsea's performances have improved at least.
 
Fully expecting them to struggle next season as well.

By the sounds of it they need to sell players now, but still need alot more themselves.
 
Again, another very decent performance against a top team, and it’s not been a 1 off, they’ve played well in a few different big games, and if they had a clinical no 9, could and should have won a few of them.

They’ve obviously suffered a lot of lows, but I think the good performances and underlying stats show that it wouldn’t be a massive leap for them to really compete for top 4, which should be the next logical step.

They give me the fear for this game midweek, they are a good transitional team, and we tend to struggle against those type of teams. I’m hoping the defeat at the weekend has them now going into this week thinking their season is effectively over.
 
GoonerBear said:
Again, another very decent performance against a top team, and it’s not been a 1 off, they’ve played well in a few different big games, and if they had a clinical no 9, could and should have won a few of them.

They’ve obviously suffered a lot of lows, but I think the good performances and underlying stats show that it wouldn’t be a massive leap for them to really compete for top 4, which should be the next logical step.
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They don’t.

 
GoonerBear said:
Again, another very decent performance against a top team, and it’s not been a 1 off, they’ve played well in a few different big games, and if they had a clinical no 9, could and should have won a few of them.

They’ve obviously suffered a lot of lows, but I think the good performances and underlying stats show that it wouldn’t be a massive leap for them to really compete for top 4, which should be the next logical step.

They give me the fear for this game midweek, they are a good transitional team, and we tend to struggle against those type of teams. I’m hoping the defeat at the weekend has them now going into this week thinking their season is effectively over.
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Apart from a couple of exceptions (United away, Liverpool away) we've largely been alright against the big clubs this season. We've given City a few tough matches, gotten wins over United and Spurs as well as a couple of draws against Arsenal and Liverpool at home where we played reasonably well enough.

It's mostly been the games against the lower table opposition where we've struggled the worst. Dropping like 15-20 points over the course of the season against Sheffield Utd (20th), Burnley (19th), Forest (17th), Everton (16th), Brentford (15th) is just fecking criminal.

To me it seems like a structural issue. We are better suited to matching teams who play a more open game of football but teams who sit deep and defend for counter-attacks are like poison.
 
Pintu said:
They don’t.

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I’m sure they hoped Nkunku would be that guy.


Rnd898 said:
Apart from a couple of exceptions (United away, Liverpool away) we've largely been alright against the big clubs this season. We've given City a few tough matches, gotten wins over United and Spurs as well as a couple of draws against Arsenal and Liverpool at home where we played reasonably well enough.

It's mostly been the games against the lower table opposition where we've struggled the worst. Dropping like 15-20 points over the course of the season against Sheffield Utd (20th), Burnley (19th), Forest (17th), Everton (16th), Brentford (15th) is just fecking criminal.

To me it seems like a structural issue. We are better suited to matching teams who play a more open game of football but teams who sit deep and defend for counter-attacks are like poison.
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Yeah, I think you are probably right. My thinking is that it should be easier to tweak the team and structure to get results against teams you should be beating next season, than look way off in level regularly when competing against the best teams, which is basically where Arsenal were a few years ago.
 
Pintu said:
They don’t.

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Scream of a guy who wants to strike with his right foot, and only uses left through 'instinct' whereas because he had time he wanted to take it onto his stronger foot. I assume right is his 'stronger' foot given what we saw in the game?

I think Chelsea had the right approach v City, but also the timing of the game / circumstance was perfect to beat City. Them having just played Madrid and lost at home on penalties. A game after three days, players not on it, and Chelsea having that big win last week and a week to prepare.
 
P-Ro said:
Didn't know where to put this.

The guy who went by Angry Rantman died yesterday. I normally hate over the top YouTubers but whenever I saw his rants during the Sarri era I really enjoyed them. His name was Abhradeep Saha and he was 27 when he died. RIP.

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Wow, rest in peace. I didn't watch him much but I knew of him. 27 years old... I was just reading the comments of his last video. Crazy how sudden everything was.
 
I don't understand what has happened to Badiashile - he looked like a very promising player last year, yet this season he has been maybe the worst CB in the top 5 leagues?

Also would continue to reiterate that Gallagher is a complete liability in the final third & Poch insisting on him being there is a sackable offense.

Also also Chelsea should stop trying to make Alfie Gilchrist happen. It's not going to happen.
 
Tricky fixtures coming up. If heads drop because of this, could easily find yourselves finishing 13th.
 
duffer said:
Bit harsh, it's his first start.
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He's beyond atrocious on the ball and therefore not a right back - and he doesn't have the physical presence to be a CB at the top level given his height, jumping, and strength limitations.

Would love to see him succeed but for the club to spend this much money whilst letting young fullbacks like Livramento, Lamptey, Hall, and now apparently Maatsen go is exceedingly stupid.
 
P-Ro said:
I'd rather they stopped trying to make Marc Cucurella happen..
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He's equally shit and more egregiously so given his senior status but I'm afraid we're stuck with him. On an unrelated note, really glad we let a guy who is starting and scoring in CL quarterfinals at left back go because Poch only used him at right wing
 
duffer said:
Good. Gotta avoid any possibility of Europe and the stricter FFP regulations it would bring.
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Again? Last season it was so you could keep your squad fresh without the distraction. You're fast becoming Avoid Europe FC
 
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