Official Chelsea FC Thread

[5DOM]

Very sloppy with the ball. Down 2, couldn't have done much with either goal.

[Foye]

Did Chelsea really just lose to a Hunt-less Werder Bremen by 3 goals? I know its preseason but come on lol.

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[5DOM]

Like you said it was a preseason game. 2 unfortunate penalties given away and one great header from a Bremen player.

[J-Mezzy]

How have our new signings looked?

[treiz]

How have our new signings looked?

Costa and Fabregas have been fantastic

Costa just attacks more directly and has shown some some unselfishness too, relentless when pressing, sort of like a Suarez, obviously not as good. But he'll try to dribble a lot and will tumble his way to good positions with and without the ball.

Fabregas is so far been the missing piece, just connects the space between Matic and the 4 front players wonderfully. Recycles possession, vision, tenacity when pressing. Sort of what we should expect from a former Barcelona player.

Felipe Luis has looked a bit uncomfortable initially, but he's been steady albeit unspectacular.

Courtois (although not a new signing, still here though in his first pre-season with us) made one incredible save yesterday, but really couldn't do much against the second goal. Still he looked pretty solid, it was his first game.

Still have 4 pre-season games left so hopefully it picks up a bit more for the guys that played in the World Cup.

EDIT: Romeu loaned to Stuttgart for the season

[J-Mezzy]

Good to hear. Costa can be a dick, but he's a hard worker and a striker with character in front of goal. I like our chances this season, a lot.

[fatlever]

huge, must win game, tied in the closing minutes. a chelsea player is fouled resulting in a penalty. drogba, costa, hazard and fabregas are all in the game. who should take the penalty?

[5DOM]

Gotta be Hazard. Great penalty-taker and our best player.

[Ted Lasso]

So who plays next to Matic? I was watching a Mourinho interview the other day. He was asked where he'd play Cesc and he rather overtly dodged the question.

[5DOM]

Think that's probably his honest answer. Fabregas has been playing in both the advanced and deeper roles this preseason and has looked equally good in both. It will depend on the opposition and who's available, but I imagine he'll see more time as the #10 early on because of the WC players returning late. Other option is playing 4-3-3.

[fatlever]

another question for you guys...

you sometimes here coaches or analysts say that player x "is the first name on the team sheet every week". it got me to thinking, in what order would you list the players in terms of who would be the first name on your team sheet, followed by the 2nd name on your team sheet etc...

not really a ranking of who is our best player. matic is pretty close to the top because he fills a role that nobody else on the team can do. terry, despite his age, is clearly the guy who organizes the defense. nobody has been able to replace him in that regard. conversely the keeper would be near the bottom of my list, because we have two that are world class. same goes for all the guys in the attacking band not named hazard.

im thinking something like:

1. hazard
2. terry
3. matic
4. azpi
5. costa

[fatlever]

Think that's probably his honest answer. Fabregas has been playing in both the advanced and deeper roles this preseason and has looked equally good in both. It will depend on the opposition and who's available, but I imagine he'll see more time as the #10 early on because of the WC players returning late. Other option is playing 4-3-3.

i am really hoping we see a little more of the 4-3-3 this season. in the 4-2-3-1, i agree, fabregas for the easy teams that will park the bus against us. maybe ramires for the games where the play will be wide open. and if we have to park the bus vs a barca/bayern type team, then perhaps mikel (when we would have played luiz last year)

[5DOM]

another question for you guys...

you sometimes here coaches or analysts say that player x "is the first name on the team sheet every week". it got me to thinking, in what order would you list the players in terms of who would be the first name on your team sheet, followed by the 2nd name on your team sheet etc...

not really a ranking of who is our best player. matic is pretty close to the top because he fills a role that nobody else on the team can do. terry, despite his age, is clearly the guy who organizes the defense. nobody has been able to replace him in that regard. conversely the keeper would be near the bottom of my list, because we have two that are world class. same goes for all the guys in the attacking band not named hazard.

im thinking something like:

1. hazard
2. terry
3. matic
4. azpi
5. costa

Hazard
Matic
Costa
Terry
Cahill

Didn't pick the fullbacks because we can play any 2 of Luis, Azpi and Ivanovi. I'm not a huge fan of Ivanovic at CB although he's clearly our 3rd best CB.

Think that's probably his honest answer. Fabregas has been playing in both the advanced and deeper roles this preseason and has looked equally good in both. It will depend on the opposition and who's available, but I imagine he'll see more time as the #10 early on because of the WC players returning late. Other option is playing 4-3-3.

i am really hoping we see a little more of the 4-3-3 this season. in the 4-2-3-1, i agree, fabregas for the easy teams that will park the bus against us. maybe ramires for the games where the play will be wide open. and if we have to park the bus vs a barca/bayern type team, then perhaps mikel (when we would have played luiz last year)

I'm thinking van Ginkel could play more, but I do like the options available for the midfield 3

[fatlever]

i am definitely looking forward to see van ginkel play some games. i haven't been able to catch any of the preseason games outside of some crappy streams while at work. i'd have to think that mou has a lot of faith in him by loaning out romeu and not yet making a move for another dm/cm.

i am also curious to see if mikel has a larger role this seaosn. just when we all though mikel was going to be sold, after seemingly falling out of favor at times last year, mikel stands to see a fair amount of games this year. surely we cant expect matic to play them all.

[treiz]

i am definitely looking forward to see van ginkel play some games. i haven't been able to catch any of the preseason games outside of some crappy streams while at work. i'd have to think that mou has a lot of faith in him by loaning out romeu and not yet making a move for another dm/cm.

i am also curious to see if mikel has a larger role this seaosn. just when we all though mikel was going to be sold, after seemingly falling out of favor at times last year, mikel stands to see a fair amount of games this year. surely we cant expect matic to play them all.

I feel like Mikel will have a similar role to last year, on the bench about 70% of the time (perhaps even more now that Matic is eligible to play in CL) and just be there to stabilise a 2-0 lead and have more bodies in midfield. I hope Van Ginkel will eventually play a bigger role this year, when he played last year he didn't look too good and then he suffered that injury but so far this preseason he's looked good. Give him the easy cup games first then let him work his way from there.

huge, must win game, tied in the closing minutes. a chelsea player is fouled resulting in a penalty. drogba, costa, hazard and fabregas are all in the game. who should take the penalty?

Easily Hazard, has the Balotelli-like swagger about him when it comes to penalties

Also think this team is definitely more suited for the 4-3-3 as opposed to a 4-2-3-1, don't need 2 DMs unless we're against a tiki-taka team.

[Matty]

Any word on Islam Feruz and whether he's going to be loaned out this season? Kid is really talented, but also really short for a striker (5'4") and he's 18 so his window for getting taller is pretty much closed. I think he'd be better off as a forward/winger.

[5DOM]

Any word on Islam Feruz and whether he's going to be loaned out this season? Kid is really talented, but also really short for a striker (5'4") and he's 18 so his window for getting taller is pretty much closed. I think he'd be better off as a forward/winger.

Haven't heard anything. It was always going to be tough for him with how small he is.

[treiz]

So who saw Costa's goal today? No worries if you didn't

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIc-77eydGg[/youtube]

[MountainDrew]

Am reading Josh McEachran (spelling?) will be going to Vitesse. Heard some stuff about him, he's a midfielder, right? Makes sense, we could use some depth there, though I think he will be riding the pine a lot initially. Midfield already seems in place right now.

[5DOM]

Better news is that Bruno Alves didn't end his season