Today's friendly

comment by Devil D.A. (U6522)
posted 3 hours, 6 minutes ago
With hazard gone, goals from other midfielders is more important than ever and it's great to see mount and Barkley on the score sheet plus RLC had a good goal scoring run towards the end of last season. I think the fact it looks like we're going to play a number 10 this season will really help one of them get a good goal scoring return. The big problem is how it's going to work. I can't see more than one of them in the starting 11 regularly but we need as many goals as possible to make up for what we're losing in hazard. Good luck Frank is all I can say.
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The onus will be more on CHO than them to chip in with goals throughout the season. For 100k/w at his age we should expect nothing less quite frankly.
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You can be on all the money in the world but at the end of the day he's still an inexperienced kid and with that comes inconsistency, I hope people don't get that pumped up about him, that they start expecting Hazardesque performances because it's simply not going to happen.

All we've done with his (very lucrative) contract is, assuming he signs it, tie up a potentially huge talent to keep him away from avaricious eyes elsewhere. In this day and age everyone from clubs to managers to players are trying to cut the best possible deals to suit themselves anyway so I don't blame him for setting himself up with a contract for 100k a week, even if I don't necessarily agree with footballers wages in general.

If he does turn out to be the talent we hope it will be money well spent!

There isn't a contest between Mount & Barkley....

Mount is a cut-above Barkley...in the way he uses the ball, movement, pressing, and general footballing IQ on and off the ball.
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I've got to say I agree with that. I've never been a fan of Barkley, however this pre-season he has shown more ability than I've had cause to give him credit for previously. I'm hoping he can carry this form on into the season and prove me wrong over the next 9 months.

However I think Mount looks a class above in natural ability and the way he reads the game. He's probably the closest thing I've seen to Lampard himself, with the way he times his arrival into the box to get efforts on goal.

If they can both carry on in the same vein it will give Frank a selection problem without a doubt but one he'll be glad to have - especially when RLC returns!

I see Fat Lumpard convincingly won a game for Chelsea against mighty royals..

Because Wet Spam's pre-season has been Sooooo successful hasn't it!

Smashed by the all conquering Rubin Kazan!

Could even manage a draw with the biggest team in Essex - lost 1 nil to Colchester!



https://www.whufc.com/fixtures/first-team/fixtures-and-results?field_competition=341&field_competition_season=All

That's an academy game...

The onus will be more on CHO than them to chip in with goals throughout the season. For 100k/w at his age we should expect nothing less quite frankly.
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You can be on all the money in the world but at the end of the day he's still an inexperienced kid and with that comes inconsistency, I hope people don't get that pumped up about him, that they start expecting Hazardesque performances because it's simply not going to happen.

All we've done with his (very lucrative) contract is, assuming he signs it, tie up a potentially huge talent to keep him away from avaricious eyes elsewhere. In this day and age everyone from clubs to managers to players are trying to cut the best possible deals to suit themselves anyway so I don't blame him for setting himself up with a contract for 100k a week, even if I don't necessarily agree with footballers wages in general.

If he does turn out to be the talent we hope it will be money well spent!
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Absolutely agree, nor do I blame him for negotiating the best possible deal for himself, but now that he's on senior player money (if he signs the deal) it's only fair to expect senior level performances from him on a consistent basis. The argument of "he's young, needs time" has less traction now.

The responsibility to spread out Hazard's goal contribution (including assists) will fall on the whole team, but out of everyone involved CHO is the one whose contract will most exceed his value at 100k/w IMO, so there's an obligation on him to prove his worth more than everyone else.

Goalscoring could be an issue for us this coming season. I assume we will line up something like this:

-------------------------------Kepa-----------------------------
Azpi/James--Zouma/Rudiger----Luiz---Emerson/Alonso
-------------------Kante-----Jorginho/Kovacic-----------
CHO/Willian-------Mount/Barkley/RLC--------Pulisic
--------------------Abraham/Giroud------------------

I don't have a lot of faith in our striker scoring too many. Either it will be Giroud (who isn't exactly prolific, let's face it) or it will be Abraham who is yet to prove himself at this level. I hope I'm wrong - but I'm not holding my breath.

I really like the look of Pulisic, but again, he is just settling in, and it may be a while before he shows his best form. Plus, he is not known for his finishing - which I think needs to improve.

The 3 players vying for that number 10 position are all goalscorers - but in this formation only one of them can play, so they are not all going to score.

And on the other wing, CHO is definitely more of a natural goalscorer than Willian, but he is also young and hardly the finished product.

If we are going to do well this season - we are going to have to chip in with goals from every part of the team. Rudiger and Zouma are both great in the air, and Luiz is always capable of scoring. Our full backs are going to have to be more creative and dangerous, and our wingers are going to have to score regularly.

I'm sure Frank already has a good idea of the starting lineup and squad that will be selected going into the season, keeping cards close to his chest.

Lineup for season opener should be fairly straightforward:
Kepa Azpi AC Luiz Emerson Jorginho Kovacic Mount PED Pulisic Tammy.

The performance Frank has been most pleased about was the one against Barcelona, that starting lineup played close to his ideals.
Incidentally that was the only pre-season match Kepa has started thus far.

Only contentious decision is whether Kante plays over Kovacic or Jorginho.

The more I think about it, the more I see why Frank would want to keep Kenedy as an option.

Probably taken a liking to his shoot on sight policy and the only naturally left-footed attacker (similar to Wilson last season, playing the inverted winger role), could make useful impacts off the bench.
Impact sub is his limit, at this level.

comment by Tory Requiem (U21957)
posted 22 hours, 24 minutes ago
I see Fat Lumpard convincingly won a game for Chelsea against mighty royals..
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may have passed you by but he beat barca with our reserve team