The College Dropout

I bumped into him the first GW of the season. He came into a cycling shop in Wembley with his family. They must have been getting them new bikes. His partner is really pretty and he has a beautiful family. I would've stopped and asked for a picture but lad was with his whole family, didn't want to disturb. I also spent an inordinate time looking at his lass which made it weird - tbf the sun was behind her, making it difficult to get a good look and I didn't notice she was with a man.

I know some models count a chance over 0.3Xg as a big chance. As in 1 in 3 times that opportunity is a goal as a minimum which is fair. That's what Howe's system is good at generating for the right type of 9. Central-ish penalty box shots are high Xg and likely to be big chances. Some players take lots of shots so will always have decent-ish Xg.. think Mitro was like that. So as an FPL guy I had to pay more attention to his Big Chances. ---- It is Howe's management style to ride out momentum in games through determination, work rate and a bit of luck. It's the same when we are good or bad. We've faced far worse "onslaughts" and he's not made any changes so Burnley was light by comparison. I said this years ago and got a load of stick for it. A few years later I appreciate sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Like it's not necessary as a boxer to react to every feint. I've seen Emery make more proactive subs which sometimes just kills the game for Villa. He shifts and it just doesn't work, team is lost. So the key is - can we do it well? It requires a high level of commitment and determination and physical exertion. My issue is that i don't think we can do it well enough without Joelinton. i think that style needs a Dan Burn and Joelinton (I include Schar, Pope etc. to a lesser degeree Trippier & Livra). Physical monsters that win duels, win headers, leaders, committed, composure, make every block etc. That leans into an older squad profile with experience and a certain type of character. I think we needed an Ederson or Gallagher in midfield, I'm not sure Ramsey is of that grinding physical monster mould - Gallagher is like a baby Tonali from memory. It's hard to get a young keeper - he needs to be a big personality (like a young Pickford), because the Howe system needs you to be big and bold. Come out and grab/punch these crosses time and again. I think that's a learning from his Bournemouth days. He likes Ramsdale as a player but having a Ramsdale in goal rather than a Pope was probably the difference between relegation and staying up for him. Likewise going for an unproven Solanke over a more establoshed ST - that choice cost them survival. So here he doesn't want to take risks.

Guys you have to watch football with your eyes.

He's not been sacked primarily because of performance. He's lost the job because he doesn't want to be a puppet and is causing issues behind the scenes. The Chelsea approach will damage a managers reputation. Truly ambitious managers like Maresca will want to move on. At best some may use it as an opportunity to then join a team that wants to win things consistently so will leave after a year or two. Chelsea are becoming a top 5 Brighton it seems.

The more that comes out, the more you can see Chelsea won't hire a top manager. Roman always wanted to win the league. This PE ownership - that's not the aim. The coach has to play kids they've bought. The coach has to put players in the shop window. Has to rotate etc. As imperfect as our owners are - I do believe they expect the coach to do the best on the pitch as possible and everyone is meant to support that. That's not the case at Chelsea. Sell value is more important than performance.

As good as can reasonably be expected? Qualified for the CL. Won 2 trophies.

Qualified for Europe for the first time in... however many years

Done a good job at Strasbourg aka Chelsea Lite

He's also a poor footballer and deeply unpopular with the fans. Spurs just want him off the books. It is a relatively low amount but more an indication that "the rest" aren't willing to throw big money at top 6 flops. I feel like Palace are losing recipes a bit with some of their attacking acquisitions.

These couldn’t defend a lick against Leeds. 0-3 Haaland hatty fuck offf

Yeh the tension between risk, short term results, long term results and player health is difficult to manage and I don’t think there’s a defined best practice

Interestingly there’s a rumour that Chelsea has a medical department that essentially decides how the maximum minutes allowed for a player. And Maresca ignored their input multiple times

They spent £90m on Garnacho and Gittens. These are massive and needless risks.

The squad building can’t be with the intention of winning high level trophies. Jackson out for Delap and Pedro is dumb. Osimhen was right there. Noni out for Gittens is dumb. Garnacho for Sancho - what is the point? Need some experience in defence.

It’s an incredibly high floor squad. Palmer, Neto and Estavao is high quality attacking players imo. The others are ok. I don’t think Neto is world class but he would be our best winger imo. Reece James and Gusto are among the strongest sets of RBs in European football. Cucarella is a very good left back. Chelsea probably have Englands and Spains fullbacks as their first choice full backs. Chelsea have finished above us 3 seasons in a row. Across 2 managers. Ita because of the quality in depth of their squad. With them consistently finishing above us the question should be how many of ours would make their squad. Pope as backup (stylistically). Take an experienced CB for leadership. Hall would probably be a great rotation option for Cucarella - I don’t think he would be in their strongest team. Tonali and Bruno make the squad but arguably neither start. Gordon makes the squad - arguable that he starts. We wanted both Their strikers over our own. There’s an argument none of our players start over theirs.

I disagree a bit. We can overwhelm them. But once they get it done and play we can struggle. We were so wobbly against 10 man when we beat them at the end of last season. And they kept sliding through us in December.

Not enough of a yes man I hope.

The squad is talented. Estevao is brilliant.

No offence but you sound entitled and deluded. but I’m not convinced you’re wrong about PIF. If we sack Howe we will see an era of mediocrity. Of that I’m so confident. IMO this season is about giving Howe a platform to succeed. The squad needs to be much improved. We need movement on infrastructure. We need to be a club on the up. This isn’t an Amorim situation where a decent coach gets an easy 15% improvement on the pitch. I don’t think there’s a massive underperformance happening. So this ‘has got x to turn it around’ just sounds silly to me. You think someone is going to come in and make this squad have CL form whilst competing on all these fronts? You’re deluded imo.

Everything counts on the pitch. It also literally counts in attracting players. Something we have been noticeably worse at since Staveley left. My fear with the recent hires is that they would just end up as a new suit walking around. Not enough power and influence on PIF. These new set of quotes from Eddie and Joelinton don’t help that fear.

Agreed. Maresca is a competent coach. Nothing spectacular. Not terrible. A system manager I think he’s blunted Palmer a bit but has pulled off some good results. Main thing is Chelsea leadership is terrible. They won’t have sustained success under these lot. They might fluke a Slot like title here or there but nothing like Roman era.

‘its now or never’

I said recently I thought the lack of progress was impacting the squad. The project feels like it’s stagnating and that will impact the players.

We. Are so dependent on his physicality to see games out. His ability to get around the pitch at good intensity. With Howe I’m pretty much ‘it is what it is ‘ with his tactics and management style. It’s pretty much proven and largely for me about whether we do it well or not rather than do it at all. But I do think being reliant on this physicality has a ceiling. I was thinking Wolte on for Joelinton to maybe play a bit more football would’ve been a good approach but like… that’s not Eddie’s style and he seemingly has no desire to pivot. And Joelinton was 100% needed to keep doing what we were doing good enough. I think Ramsey will need a full Howe pre season if he’s ever going to succeed here. He needs to up his physicality and presence in n a game. I think Anderson toook a year or so to get there but then injury disrupted him

Well we managed to fold to a weak Spurs team at home and we didn’t this time. Cleared one off the line. While we were bad the last line of defence got blocks in when it mattered. It wasn’t pretty but it was something. Under Howe we’ve always seen games out without the ball. Under Howe he’ll see us get battered and the plan is to ride it out as is. Scheduled subs. Our second half performances being bad is inexcusable mind