Nah massive swing and miss on that one.

Jose managed to win things with this squad, he did not proceed directly to finish 10th.

He won things because he played if indeed created the Abro era way of: not high possession/counter attacking.

Any new manager should be able to get at least one season of WIN out out our squad before they collapse on him.

Our play is so turgid in build up that we allow the opposiiton team litterally the time to go have orange quarters+discusion about how they will organise the defence before we attempt actual through ball/cross.

Also, we press so ridiculously high up the pitch that the opposites teams MF and defence is compressed into the the same space with no room between the lines or behind the defence, meaning any approach play into the penalty box has to be world class and flawless.

The whole approach of Chelsea before now was try to give the other team the ball so they move up the pitch and then counter or at least manipulate the space behind left by opposing team not just bus parking. Obviously was not 100% if opposite team was just nah we bus parking fu.

So we have a team built on leveraging space behind and a tactical system that kills all space behind.

It wont end well.

I was thinking more along the lines of Jose at Man Utd, not Chelsea...

Just watching MOTD. Ryan Babel looks like he's wearing a swimming cap

I'm in Brazil at my brother in laws watching Palmeiras Oeste and there is literally a dude wearing a swimming cap

Yeah everyone knows that it's really only chelsea that the refs collectively hate, especially in Europe

So you guys are telling me giroud isn’t working out?

Enjoy Leon BAIDS

800k? How does that even happen?

Heard that too but think it's nothing more than a show.

Need it for diving.

Jesse Lingard should've been wearing one the other night.

lol

Big win for the Toon against City, very happy to have put a bit of breathing space between us and the relegation zone for the weekend.

Not good news for us that Son is back for Spurs this weekend as was quietly fancying a point there with them lacking attacking options.

Hoping they announce our new signings today and we can stay up meaning that Ashley sells us in June and Rafa signs a new contract with an owner that will invest in the squad more frequently and we can push to compete for top half/decent cup runs.

So, do they sack him and bring in yet another manager in the summer or do they finally back a manager and start a badly needed overhaul of a squad and, at the same time, get rid of all the players who only put an effort in when they feel like it?

Nice narratives about Sarri, but seems like Chelsea have ran quite bad this season in xG (or at least less good than the teams around them). Pretty sure the problem is more that they are no longer spending as much relative to the rest as the league as they used to.

I think Sarri's style of play has been found out and as Bournemouth showed us, if you can take Jorginho out of the game they struggle quite a lot to play Sarri's preferred style and don't have a plan B. Add to that Willian and Pedro seem lost and misfiring in the new system and David Luiz struggles defensively and they it shows they need to switch it up.

Playing Kante out of position as well is mental.

We lost the Xg against Bournemouth quite clearly.

I think there is more narrative around the players throwing the toys out the pram.

Yes we had the collapse under Jose, but given what has happened at MU, there is every chance that Jose played a big part in that.

Second season Conte we swapped Matic for Baka, and Costa for Morata and bought Danny Drinkwater, its says A LOT that Barks is probably the most influential player out of that transfer season. We still spent plenty of money though. So finishing 5th and winning a cup is not that much of a disaster.

I dont think a team that has played a philosophy of counter attacking for nearly 16 years struggling to adapt to a diametrically opposed philosophy can be just waved away as narrative.

Two coaches have tried to change that philosophy, Scolari and AVB.

They will turn on the sprinklers if they dont win it all

got a massage from Michael Sternkopf brother today. whoever the fk this guy is? played for BM. was he any good?

Chelsea should get Rafa and Ozil

Lol. Reminds me of back in the ol' days (~10 years ago) when some smaller Bundesliga clubs' pitch heating system would mysteriously malfunction against technically superior sides.

Congrats on Peter Crouch TP!

Oh the humanity!