Chelsea F.C. Thread IX

You know what it is.

@samir12 in terms of squad depth we don't particularly have anyone worse than you guys.

You know how I feel about your midfield already.

Going forward you are obviously much better than us (maybe Abraham is the only guy who could realistically start for you lot).

Fullbacks James tbh don't see much difference in overall quality between him and TAA so far, only difference is games and having top players to assist. Those crosses and runs I've seen from James are something to behold, hits on the money every time. Generally he's good defensively too which I can't say the same for TAA, not that it matters with that attacking output, never mattered to Marcelo.

Left back for us lmao. Centre backs for us lmao (although just need an experienced head because your CB's were laughable until you got Van Dijk in).

You lot don't really have squad depth, you have key players who have ridiculous consistency and emit confidence in the team and the rest are plug in and play(including Henderson, but he's become very consistent, energetic, good crosser of the ball and works well defensively and has always been decent offensively, aka James Milner at Man City but not 34 years old).

Goalkeepers not sure if straight up night and day because our defence in front of us is laughable in literally every way in and out of possession but obviously would rather have Alisson than Kepa, better handling of the ball.

There isn't much substance to your post and in your comparisons other than to say you think Chelsea players are as good/better than Liverpool players.

The stats and points paint a completely different picture. TAA has a ridiculous number of assists in the last 18 months and I don't think anyone else even gets close (maybe just KDB?) He's part of a defence which has the best defensive record in the league by some distance.

Perhaps why that's why this Liverpool team is able to keep on going in this fashion? Everyone underestimates them but they keep performing week in, week out. If this Chelsea side were as close to Liverpool as you think, there wouldn't be a 35 point gap only two-thirds of the way into the season.

Btw Kepa has the worst save percentage in the league this season. He's been awful for you this season.

Watch Reece James, hitting great crosses and in general it's more a case of people not getting onto it. Reminds me of say Robertson when he first came to Liverpool, crosses were great but people weren't in sync with them.

Part of a defence but 1 vs 1 he struggles, games like Spurs e.g.

Defence isn't just down to individuals but the entire system, while Van Dijk and Alisson are obviously world class players, the entire system is perfected to a T.

The Kepa thing I get a lot, I have issues with his ball handling but he's really not helped with that defence in front of him. He's an easy scapegoat because we put in a reliable no.2 goalkeeper and we still concede two goals vs Leicester, clearly there's an issue with our defending in general.

I'm not saying we are close to you in general, you have a system that's perfected, much better offensive players and more reliable defenders, but looking at City, they were at a similar level 2 seasons back and they solved their issues within one transfer window. We have the money to do the same, its a case of fine tweaking the system, having some more creativity. Like e.g. we'd easily be 2nd place this season if we had Hazard on top of the players we have.

Tbh Chelsea are so irrelevant these days that I haven't watched much of them. Do you think you need a better striker or wingers to see more product from Reece James then? Agree it's unfair that a player can look worse than he is because the forward players can't make anything stick.

It's interesting cos TAA outshines Robertson by a fair bit these days. Well Liverpool defend from the very front line so yes we have a system which works for us. Obviously not every team sets up the same.

Your top goalkeepers still find a way to bail out your team though. All it sounds like you're saying is that you world's most expensive goalkeeper is as bad as your 2nd choice GK.

The other thing being that Guardiola had a season to improve his squad and get them to play how he wants. He's a world class manager who had already done it at Barca and then implemented his system at Bayern. Man City was his third attempt so already had a proven track record in doing. Lampard is in his first big job so there's no guarantee that just buying better players will improve you.

Do you think Roman will loosen the purse strings? Does FFP even allow you to spend a fortune at the moment?

@samir12 in terms of squad depth we don't particularly have anyone worse than you guys.

You know how I feel about your midfield already.

Going forward you are obviously much better than us (maybe Abraham is the only guy who could realistically start for you lot).

Fullbacks James tbh don't see much difference in overall quality between him and TAA so far, only difference is games and having top players to assist. Those crosses and runs I've seen from James are something to behold, hits on the money every time. Generally he's good defensively too which I can't say the same for TAA, not that it matters with that attacking output, never mattered to Marcelo.

Left back for us lmao. Centre backs for us lmao (although just need an experienced head because your CB's were laughable until you got Van Dijk in).

You lot don't really have squad depth, you have key players who have ridiculous consistency and emit confidence in the team and the rest are plug in and play(including Henderson, but he's become very consistent, energetic, good crosser of the ball and works well defensively and has always been decent offensively, aka James Milner at Man City but not 34 years old).

Goalkeepers not sure if straight up night and day because our defence in front of us is laughable in literally every way in and out of possession but obviously would rather have Alisson than Kepa, better handling of the ball.

I'm talking in terms of relative squad depth to the first XI really not an absolute comparison of player quality between the teams (as the systems will always be there regardless of the players absolute quality), ie how big of a drop off is there between your first XI and your bench if you rotate?

For Liverpool, our midfield is stacked with similar level of players so there is very little drop off.

Front 3 there is quite a drop off but Minamino and possibly Werner could solve that.

For CB, there isn't a big drop off between Gomez, Lovren and Matip. Van Dijk is elite so there will always be a drop off but overall our depth at CB is decent.

For full backs there is a big drop off offensively but defensively it is fine.

For goalkeeper, Adrian has been pretty good in Allison's lengthy absence so the drop off is not that bad either.

I mean Liverpools squad depth was good enough last season to go far in the CL and PL. We had to bin off the cups but City had to cheat FFP themselves to build a squad to challenge on all fronts.

now we don't have Hazard the drop off isn't huge for any player bar Tammy. We don't have a plug in and play midfield but going by this season there's a drop off from mount to Barkley, but he's not our first sub as a midfielder, our first sub is one of Kante, Jorginho or Kovacic. Pulisic to Hudson Odoi is relatively little in difference, Willian to Pedro there's a little drop off going by this season.

obviously huge drop off from Abraham to Batman.

this however e.g. doesn't include loftus cheek, who makes our team much better than expected.

it's hard to build an elite cream of the crop all fronts squad in the PL. City e.g. only do a job domestically, you and us vary but we tend to do well in one of Europe, league or cups.

I think Adrian in Alissons absence is more a case of elite defence protecting him. not to say he's a bad keeper, I have always thought he was solid. I think people underestimate the van Dijk lockdown performances and your overall work as a unit. Bit similar to how we were locking **** down with Terry, Ivan, Cole and Carvalho for years.

Oh and azpi LB lol

While azpi is definitely a legend for our club. Am i the only one who think we need a left footed LB.

We do but defensively he's good at LB.

I think we'll draw. We've not been bad at big games and our midfield is stronger than theirs.

Got to win tbh. Spurs right behind us.