Mykhaylo Mudryk

Does annoyingly look a lively player, but (for the sake of copium) I'll reserve judgement until the end of the season. Antony looked a player against Arsenal but seems to have slowed down.
 
Him and Felix together Chelsea will have a great attack.

The interesting problem is that they play largely in the same spaces. Mudryk is a pure left winger. But if you look at Felix's heat maps over the years he is also very much a left sided attacker - he basically plays as a left winger or in a two striker system as a withdrawn striker shaded to the left, occupying a lot of the same spaces that Mudryk does. Chelsea can try him on the right but he has played only 14 matches on the right in his career out of 219 and has been very unproductive in that role (2 goals and 1 assist).

If you assume that Chelsea will play somebody else as a 9 to provide some kind of focal point - Havertz, Auba, Fofana, or whoever - then its hard to see how both these guys get into the team without one of them playing in a pretty unfamiliar role, unless you're going to try to turn Felix into a central midfielder, which with his dubious work rate seems like a terrible idea.
 
For a 22 year old, his physical abilities is already top level and suited for the PL.

Quite jealous to be honest, they got the real deal with this kid.
 
Can definitely see why Arteta was desperate to get him and smash our transfer record. That being said, both teams looked pretty average and this wasn't the high quality game we're used to in this fixture.
Would have liked to see him track back a bit more but there's no denying the scary talent there. Hopefully he gets the chance at Chelsea to properly develop.
 
Can definitely see why Arteta was desperate to get him and smash our transfer record. That being said, both teams looked pretty average and this wasn't the high quality game we're used to in this fixture.
Would have liked to see him track back a bit more but there's no denying the scary talent there. Hopefully he gets the chance at Chelsea to properly develop.

Chelsea's Arseshavin?
 
Looks like a real deal. But Haaland is even a bigger deal, yet it isn't solving all of City's problems. Have a feeling it will be the same for Chelsea. They are just not a well-oiled machine. Hope it stays that way.
 
Barring injuries, looks like a top class talent. You could just tell instantly. If they manage to make the Joao Felix deal permanent, Chelsea look lethal again. Just like that.
Managers are the most important part. And even if Mudryk is the real deal (let's not get ahead of ourselves...), they still have tons of gaps in their squad. No striker, they just spent 40m on Madueke who is always injured and young, their defence isn't solid, their midfield is meh...
 
I've seen bits and pieces of him before so wasn't surprised he's a good player;
But I was impressed with how unfazed he was by his PL debut against Liverpool...

hyperbole or not, he's a great addition to this Chelsea side.

Let's see whether Potter or whoever replaces him later on manages to make a team out of the recent talent they assembled.
 
Already looks a better investment than antony.
:lol: I know Antony still has a lot to prove, but he scored a debut goal against Arsenal when they were flying high. Mudryk did one good dribble/control and 2-3 really poor ones and based on those 45 mins you think he's already better than Antony because he is fast?
 
Managers are the most important part. And even if Mudryk is the real deal (let's not get ahead of ourselves...), they still have tons of gaps in their squad. No striker, they just spent 40m on Madueke who is always injured and young, their defence isn't solid, their midfield is meh...

To be honest, the gaps could be filled in with mostly injured players, James, Fofana, Chilwell in defence, Kante and Kovacic to come in midfield and we know after the Enzo and Caceido bids they'll try and add at least 1 top level midfielder, more likely 2, and Nkunku, Felix possibly and Sterling to come in in attack. That's without guessing who else they are likely to add this summer.

I said in this weekends match thread yesterday that there's a very decent possibility that none of the starting XI from yesterday would be in their first choice starting XI next summer.

I agree though about the manager being most important, they need to try and stabilise the recruitment now and allow Potter to work with them on the training field. If any manager / squad needs a good pre season together it's Chelsea.
 
Did a couple of step overs and 2 neat passes, against an awful team in an awful game that ended 0-0. No doubt a good player but even Ziyech looked like Messi at times against the Liverpool practice cones. lets see how he develops, and how chelsea develop. He might solve one of their problems but they got tonnes more before they can even think of challenging for top 4 again.
 
The interesting problem is that they play largely in the same spaces. Mudryk is a pure left winger. But if you look at Felix's heat maps over the years he is also very much a left sided attacker - he basically plays as a left winger or in a two striker system as a withdrawn striker shaded to the left, occupying a lot of the same spaces that Mudryk does. Chelsea can try him on the right but he has played only 14 matches on the right in his career out of 219 and has been very unproductive in that role (2 goals and 1 assist).

If you assume that Chelsea will play somebody else as a 9 to provide some kind of focal point - Havertz, Auba, Fofana, or whoever - then its hard to see how both these guys get into the team without one of them playing in a pretty unfamiliar role, unless you're going to try to turn Felix into a central midfielder, which with his dubious work rate seems like a terrible idea.

Felix can play pretty much anywhere in the attacking band - ideally he's a second striker / 10 who has license to drop deep, hold play up, and play in runners. This is why he makes so much sense with Mudryk - he can drop into the space Mudryk creates behind him then play clever passes through.

Ideally our front three for the moment would be Mudryk / Felix / Havertz - with Havertz in the right half space. This should work especially well if/when James is fit - since he can provide attacking width down the right by himself.
 
I guess when you buy everybody it was a matter of time to get a decent one.
 
So he looked great against Milner and/or TAA? Doesn’t take much to look fast against either or go past them. Zaha looked like the best player in the world playing against TAA.
 
Which one of you on here the other day said he was a vertical runner and didn't have elite lateral movement? You can't have watched him. :lol:

In addition, he does the little things so well. Pass choices, movements away from immediate pressure, spatial awareness. Essentially footballing IQ abiliies. His talent is in the combination of immense physical traits and inside creativity.
 
So he looked great against Milner and/or TAA? Doesn’t take much to look fast against either or go past them. Zaha looked like the best player in the world playing against TAA.


Everything else is up for debate but he didn't look fast because he was up against Milner or TAA. He is objectively one of the fastest players in the world.
 
:lol: I know Antony still has a lot to prove, but he scored a debut goal against Arsenal when they were flying high. Mudryk did one good dribble/control and 2-3 really poor ones and based on those 45 mins you think he's already better than Antony because he is fast?

I'm a fan of Antony but this guy's physical abilities are another class higher than him.

Antony might need a season or two to level up his muscles or strength, but Mudryk already outpacing Liverpool players.
 
I'm a fan of Antony but this guy's physical abilities are another class higher than him.

Antony might need a season or two to level up his muscles or strength, but Mudryk already outpacing Liverpool players.

Google Konate v Mudryk. He was doing anything but. Ignore the headline "Mudryk chases down Konate". It's BS when you actually see Konate was toying with him before the after burners.

Edit: finally got the vid link below. Interestingly there's a Mudryk touches video too and this clip is completely omitted. :lol: :lol: :lol:

https://www.google.com/search?q=you...-xiaomi-rev1&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8#

Edit, edit: Thinking about it, the clip was omitted because Mudryk couldn't even get a whiff of a chance of a contact on the ball with Konate's pace. :lol: :lol:
 
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He'll be a great player but man, these tattoos are abysmal. I can't help but feck with my Ukrainian friends that he's really damaging the image of an Eastern European footballer :lol:
 
I'm a fan of Antony but this guy's physical abilities are another class higher than him.

Antony might need a season or two to level up his muscles or strength, but Mudryk already outpacing Liverpool players.
Him being quicker does not mean he is already proving a better buy. That's what I meant. There are a lot of really quick players out there, none really quicker than Adama Traore, but that does not automatically make them better.

Let's wait for him to at least score before we start singing his praises. He didn't really do much except for that one really close piece of control in the Pool box. Apart from that he showed some heavy touches in fact.
 
Google Konate v Mudryk. He was doing anything but. Ignore the headline "Mudryk chases down Konate". It's BS when you actually see Konate was toying with him before the after burners.

Ps. I'm shit at posting links/vids, etc. :(

You’ve mentioned this little foot race a few times now, you even said Mudryk had a head start, so I went and checked. Konate was way closer to the ball :lol:

 
Konate is also one of the fastest players in the world (IIRC he was 3rd fastest in the Prem last season, behind only Salah and Rudiger).

There's probably not much in it between the two. He's certainly never going to get "skinned" by anyone if they start at the same time.
 
You’ve mentioned this little foot race a few times now, you even said Mudryk had a head start, so I went and checked. Konate was way closer to the ball :lol:



If there's any advantage then it's slight. And a truly pacy player would still get away. I reckon Nunez would beat Konate to that ball.
 
Him being quicker does not mean he is already proving a better buy. That's what I meant. There are a lot of really quick players out there, none really quicker than Adama Traore, but that does not automatically make them better.

Let's wait for him to at least score before we start singing his praises. He didn't really do much except for that one really close piece of control in the Pool box. Apart from that he showed some heavy touches in fact.

Tempering expectations is actually very wise. But remember, part of what made that so impressive is he hasn’t played at all in … months? What you saw was essentially his first pre season minutes, with a brand new team, that he’s been with for only two training sessions…

I was extremely worried he would look like rusty crap and people would lambast him the other way.