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[Roy Jones Jnr]

[F l i c k e r]

I'm expecting to see parade photos from the residential Scousers in this topic.

Just letting you know.

[Sparked_26]

They could actually rest players for the league at this stage.

Liverpool have been exceptional but god there is some crap this year.

Leicester aren’t very good either let’s be honest. Chelsea p.issed all over them before they lost their nerve like they tend to do most weeks at this stage in their development.

The more I think about it the more I think Wolves are underperforming.

I like their team more than Man U, Spurs, Chelsea, obviously Sheffield United.

I think the extra games held them back and they also just need a bit more devil about them to go for the throat.

Chelsea beating them 5-2 looks like a freak result now. I really doubt we could beat them now. I think they’ll comfortably beat this Chelsea team at the Bridge.

Now the youngsters are gassed I think I see Chelsea finishing 8th. When we do slip out I’d like us to use the last 8 games to play an entire 11 from the academy for banter

[F l i c k e r]

The break will be good for Chelsea.

Frank needs the break more than the players. He needs to get a set way of play. Let the players grow into it and build chemistry.

Liverpool are a team of the whole > parts. A mixture of quality, familiarity, and pure chemistry combined with Klopp's charisma and know-how.

Chelsea need that. Need to quit setting out with Jorginho one day, the next without, another day counter attacking 3-4-3, then a 4-2-3-1 half between pressing and jorginho's impotence. Enough of it. Find the base, stick to it, let the players grow into it and find familiarity with each other from it.

I imagine he plans to shoe-horn Giroud into a lineup one match. Since they forced him to stay when Frank doesn't even want to use 2 strikers, let alone 3.

The break will be good.

[Sparked_26]

It’s difficult for him because a 3-4-3 every game I reckon we’d have lost about 4 less games at least but the team struggle to score goals. Which was always the fear.

Mount gets criticised by some Chelsea fans now which is bizarre as he actually has 5 goals and 5 assists, and leads the press - modest stats but it makes him our most dangerous midfielder.

I think Lamps treatment of Mount tells a lot about his vision for the team.

He knows he doesn’t want Kante, Kova, and Jorginho in there anymore despite them being the strongest midfield. He wants Jorginho picking the ball of a defender, a box to box man to join play up, and then basically no10. So when the quality is there is will be a team that dominates possession. It does now. Even at City for long spells.

So Frank has been aggressive in his pursuit of goals with what he’s got.

I think it was Bournemouth at home where he abandoned 3-4-3 it because Chelsea weren’t creating enough and we haven’t seen it since. That’s despite actually losing the game after the change.

Frank has big balls. So I can’t criticise him at all! I’m impressed with him.

Ultimately, we have a lot of players who aren’t that good or who are improving. But if you don’t score. You don’t win.

The issue will be say when he starts 3-4-3 against Bayern Munich - because that’s a one off and he’s got the weaker team and if Chelsea win and Kante looks world class again. Whether a result like that will cause a rethink.

But Frank’s midfield isn’t done yet. You can swap Jorginho with Kova if you like but Mount has to start and Kante - I know I’m a broken record here but it’s Kante that’s fundamentally unsuited to his role in that style because he’s no that great a footballer.

Put him in that 3-4-3 and he’s a different animal.

I think Frank is and has developed an identity and it will get stronger but to be better Chelsea need better players in key areas.

Gonna take deep, deep pockets if the aim is to really compete. I’d rather play the long game with the kids and battle it out for European places than try and unearth hidden gems that won’t take us anywhere. There’s no mysteries in football anymore.

Known quan****** is where it’s at.

[F l i c k e r]

There's a lot to unpack with Chelsea but I don't think Chelsea are in a bad way, per se.

More than anything else, Frank just has to settle upon something and commit to it.

Right now Chelsea need that chemistry and familiarity within the squad. That's how you get a team with unity; all on the same page, like Liverpool have with ex-Soton players and relegated Hull defenders. (their team is filled with unwanted players, not a bunch of Galacticos)

By now Frank should know what the best XI is. He needs to play to it. Making minor adjustments with subs that play to their strengths. Not telling Kante to be David Silva or Batshuayi to be Roberto Firmino.

If that's his preferred 4-2-3-1 style. Do it. Stop being half way with it. Drop the tiki-taka act and be heavy metal as Klopp likes to call it. If that's the Sarri 4-3-3. Do it. Stop trying to use Kante just because he's Chelsea "best player" he's not good for that style of football.

There's a risk of looking bad sure but it looks bad using Pogba as Makelele. Or Kante as David Silva.

As for Chelsea, I don't think we are that far off the mark.

We have talents in Tammy, Mount, Pulisic, CHO, Reece, Kovacic, Kante, Rudiger.

Those guys I can clearly point to and say they have a place in Chelsea going forward. And right now, Frank could make minor adjustments to that, to bring the most out of the squad, just like Klopp had to do with Alberto Moreno and Martin Skrtel.

But watch, if Chelsea spend 170m on Jadon Sancho just to play Sarri-ball and Sancho has no ability to play through a compact defense.... it's a waste.

He's never had to play tiki-taka through a compact defense at Dortmund. So who knows if he can do it.

[Sparked_26]

I agree with all that.

For we need a genuine no10 who can see the passes. I think Mount can be an inside forward or a no8 put doesn’t seem to have that ingenuity in him to find those weird slide rule passes through packed defences that a top class no 10 could do.

Alternatively you hope RLC is fit and firing and you play him not so much as no10 but a 9.5 like Delle Alli. RLC is 10x better than Alli at football. Biggest anomaly at Chelsea that he only looked like exploding last season. Put RLC won’t find the passes but commit players and open spaces.

If you have RLC, CHO, and Pulisic all doing that for example. Huge spaces will open up.

He is an excellent, excellent, player.

Apart from left back I see the midfield as the biggest issue. On paper it should be one of the best in the league but it isn’t. Jorginho is obviously very niche, Kante is regarded as world class and Kova is a fantastic footballer. But it’s never worked that well.

Jorgi and Kova play nicely together. Neither play that well with Kante but defensively you can’t get away with Kova and Jorgi.

I think Chelsea will be a very exciting team next season. It’s been decent this year but the sense I get now is that the wheels are falling off

[BM dnobagaV]

I hate absolutely everything going on at Barcelona currently.

As much I don't want to say it, Messi needs to change teams. He needs a team again, not just a collection of players around him.

[JJRod]

Neymar looking really good with PSG recently.
Could this be the year they put it all together?

[Sparked_26]

Neymar looking really good with PSG recently.
Could this be the year they put it all together?

No.

You can’t go from facing baguette salesmen to any top flight European outfit.

Liverpool or City are going to win it this season.

And maybe the next season.

I know Liverpool are pissing the league but the unfair tv deals in mainland Europe are probably coming home to roost.