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[BodiesInFlight]

Maresca?

Jeez. My issue is not so much being inexperienced well it is but more they outlay. This guy will be on less than half the wages of Poch. Less than the top man at Palace, West Ham, even Ipswich.

So despite spending a billion or whatever and not really having a striker - they now see the coaching position as where they can make savings?

Weird.

And a 5 year deal? Chelsea's last coach who left them after his 5th season did so in 1974.

None of it is adding up.

The initial splurge and now the desperate penny pinching. They have devalued their own ? billion investment in little over 2 years.

The hail Mary IS to employ a super coach.

Arteta finished 8th, 8th, 5th....and then 2nd.

These lot literally can't afford that same arc nor did they stick with Potter which might have proven that they would.

Thought it was obvious after the Poch fiasco that they just want a yes man who will just manage the players he is given.

Curious what super coach you was hoping for? Moureen? Conte?

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Thought it was obvious after the Poch fiasco that they just want a yes man who will just manage the players he is given.

Curious what super coach you was hoping for? Moureen? Conte?

Dunno, but the obvious would be someone who is winning league titles in the top tier of their leagues whoever they may be or those massively outperforming their initial targets.

I don't watch enough football to know how good Michel at Girona is but he's massively outperformed their target, Amorim is winning regular titles in Portugal, Xabi Alonso obviously is a big one, or the Stuttgart coach who went from a relegation play off to 2nd in the league.

Usually they would be ones that would be turning up at Chelsea after they fluttered their eyelashes at them.

But there has been a massive drop in status now at Chelsea.

I don't know Maresca. But I'd expect Leicester to get promoted and I'd expect them to finish top.

The whole thing is contradictory. You 'mutually' terminate Poch's contract presumably for not reaching the CL or is it purely for embarrassing them in public. You sack Potter who admittedly had terrible results but it is up to the club to see passed that. Then you give this guy the smallest contract in Chelsea modern manager history and expect him to do what? Presumably expect him to finish top 4. Or is it now that we will finish 8th, 8th, and 5th and then challenge? Like what is their new poster boy in Arteta.

Nobody is gonna swallow that now. Those two sporting directors will be strung up if we finish 8th next season and then they will be promptly sacked. Presumably along with this coach.

Or this guy does turn out to be more than Diet Pep.

I don't think Poch was good I dont even think he was that antagonistic.

I could even see why the sacked him if it wasn't to replace him with a cheap punt.

[BodiesInFlight]

Dunno, but the obvious would be someone who is winning league titles in the top tier of their leagues whoever they may be or those massively outperforming their initial targets.

I don't watch enough football to know how good Michel at Girona is but he's massively outperformed their target, Amorim is winning regular titles in Portugal, Xabi Alonso obviously is a big one, or the Stuttgart coach who went from a relegation play off to 2nd in the league.

Usually they would be ones that would be turning up at Chelsea after they fluttered their eyelashes at them.

But there has been a massive drop in status now at Chelsea.

I don't know Maresca. But I'd expect Leicester to get promoted and I'd expect them to finish top.

The whole thing is contradictory. You 'mutually' terminate Poch's contract presumably for not reaching the CL or is it purely for embarrassing them in public. You sack Potter who admittedly had terrible results but it is up to the club to see passed that. Then you give this guy the smallest contract in Chelsea modern manager history and expect him to do what? Presumably expect him to finish top 4. Or is it now that we will finish 8th, 8th, and 5th and then challenge? Like what is their new poster boy in Arteta.

Nobody is gonna swallow that now. Those two sporting directors will be strung up if we finish 8th next season and then they will be promptly sacked. Presumably along with this coach.

Or this guy does turn out to be more than Diet Pep.

I don't think Poch was good I dont even think he was that antagonistic.

I could even see why the sacked him if it wasn't to replace him with a cheap punt.

Diet Pep lol

Kinda agree on Poch. He was a bit crap for large chunks of the year. Never convinced he felt comfortable there.

But starting weak and finishing strong is better than the reverse imo. He deserved another season without a doubt.
I dont think he was sacked because of results or no champions league tho.

Amorim is interesting, seems to be linked to every vacancy over the past year. Was linked with us before we got Ange and I quite fancied him from what little i knew and saw of him.

I wanted him over Arne Slot. Really not sure about him. Hopefully he's proper pants.

[Sparked_26]

Diet Pep lol

Kinda agree on Poch. He was a bit crap for large chunks of the year. Never convinced he felt comfortable there.

But starting weak and finishing strong is better than the reverse imo. He deserved another season without a doubt.
I dont think he was sacked because of results or no champions league tho.

Amorim is interesting, seems to be linked to every vacancy over the past year. Was linked with us before we got Ange and I quite fancied him from what little i knew and saw of him.

I wanted him over Arne Slot. Really not sure about him. Hopefully he's proper pants.

Hopefully he's crap, Arne Sl.ut.

Yeah I wouldnt have sacked Poch in the end because we had momentum which we haven't really had for 3 plus years. Then towards the end of the season we finally had a few players other than Palmer doing well - Caicedo, Cucurella, Gallagher, Chalobah and Gusto. Sacked the manager - will sell 2 of those players.

As a fan you can only go on gameday and we were always terrible in 2nd half for 2/3rds of the season..but at least we scored goals!

My issue now is if he is Pep Light are we are going to have the mind numbing tedium that we had under Sarri? We finished 3rd and won a Europa league yet somehow it was still soul crushing stuff only matched by Potter.

It is a shame that ultimately Klopp and his philosophy was absolutely vanquished and he didnt win the philosophy battle with Pep. No doubt that hard pressing coupled with direct vertical passing is more fun to watch than death by a thousand cuts tiki taka.

I am hoping for some sort of tactical renaissance that makes Pep cry and have an existential crisis - his style and now by extention nearly all teams style is just tremendously boring business. Ange ball, McKenna winning the league with Ipswich - anything really needs to change that narrative.

what Pep has done is like what happened in the UFC when everyone realised that ultimately if you could wrestle someone to the ground and punch their head in or strangle them like a scorned lover you were probably going to win most of your fights.

Pep's style. Control the game. Stop the end to end. Take the risk out of the game.

Absolute yawn. Let's be honest.

[BodiesInFlight]

Hopefully he's crap, Arne Sl.ut.

Yeah I wouldnt have sacked Poch in the end because we had momentum which we haven't really had for 3 plus years. Then towards the end of the season we finally had a few players other than Palmer doing well - Caicedo, Cucurella, Gallagher, Chalobah and Gusto. Sacked the manager - will sell 2 of those players.

As a fan you can only go on gameday and we were always terrible in 2nd half for 2/3rds of the season..but at least we scored goals!

My issue now is if he is Pep Light are we are going to have the mind numbing tedium that we had under Sarri? We finished 3rd and won a Europa league yet somehow it was still soul crushing stuff only matched by Potter.

It is a shame that ultimately Klopp and his philosophy was absolutely vanquished and he didnt win the philosophy battle with Pep. No doubt that hard pressing coupled with direct vertical passing is more fun to watch than death by a thousand cuts tiki taka.

I am hoping for some sort of tactical renaissance that makes Pep cry and have an existential crisis - his style and now by extention nearly all teams style is just tremendously boring business. Ange ball, McKenna winning the league with Ipswich - anything really needs to change that narrative.

what Pep has done is like what happened in the UFC when everyone realised that ultimately if you could wrestle someone to the ground and punch their head in or strangle them like a scorned lover you were probably going to win most of your fights.

Pep's style. Control the game. Stop the end to end. Take the risk out of the game.

Absolute yawn. Let's be honest.

Grealish is a good example of why I don't really like Pep's style. Jack was so fun to watch at Villa, everything went through him and he would pop up anywhere in the final third where he could find space. He took players on, scored some lovely curled shots, screamers you name it. Now he's just a generic cog in the Pep machine whose easily replaceable

Obviously if I'm a city fan I'm loving it, but as a neutral it's not very fun barring the odd bit of De Bruyne magic.

[F l i c k e r]

I think Southampton could stay up, but it's borderline. I think Leicester stays up for sure, I'd actually be shocked if they go back down.

How long before Liverpool snap up their best players?

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And yet, goals per game in the EPL are the highest it's been in years, maybe decades. For all the tiki-taka yawn fest it hasn't hurt scoring.

True!

I can only think its because a lot of teams play it badly - the now called the possession based game.

[F l i c k e r]

Possession gives you the highest probability to score. The longer you have the ball, the higher the chance to score.

I don't particularly like it these days though. Tiki taka, vertical tiki taka, registas... I'm over it. But I will say, I was always curious to how this Chelsea team would play out of a 4-3-3 simply because that's Enzo's formation from Argentina and in Portugal. Idk why Pochettino couldn't get his head out to try it.

An interesting point made on the ESPN FC show about Maresca to Chelsea was,

"Hiring Maresca... For Chelsea to dip into the Championship, hire a coach that was at the strongest club in the Championship anyway, where Leicester fans were wanting him out a couple months back even. What does that say about the state of Chelsea?"

He could be a smash hit. Chelsea's own Arsene Wenger even. Like Arsenal plucking a random coach out of Japan and the rest is history. But that is a good point. Tough times.

[Sparked_26]

Possession gives you the highest probability to score. The longer you have the ball, the higher the chance to score.

I don't particularly like it these days though. Tiki taka, vertical tiki taka, registas... I'm over it. But I will say, I was always curious to how this Chelsea team would play out of a 4-3-3 simply because that's Enzo's formation from Argentina and in Portugal. Idk why Pochettino couldn't get his head out to try it.

An interesting point made on the ESPN FC show about Maresca to Chelsea was,

"Hiring Maresca... For Chelsea to dip into the Championship, hire a coach that was at the strongest club in the Championship anyway, where Leicester fans were wanting him out a couple months back even. What does that say about the state of Chelsea?"

He could be a smash hit. Chelsea's own Arsene Wenger even. Like Arsenal plucking a random coach out of Japan and the rest is history. But that is a good point. Tough times.

I always look at a lot of possession as being the opposite - especially most of it isnt in the final third. As long as you have the ball the opposition can't score.

The bulk of city's goals come from turning the ball over high up the pitch but the possession is control.

It is boring.

That is my concern with Chelsea next season. I don't think we are a winning team anyway but it is gonna be a tough sell if we are also a boring side.

[F l i c k e r]

I think one thing that will benefit us next season and I will credit Potter and Pochettino for this

Is that the Chelsea version of possession football with that horrifically fearful "U" shaped passing has been coached out of the team.

That will probably help Marseca's case as this team can actually pass forward in a straight line now

Hopefully it won't be too boring though. We saw how it got with Sarri