re: Chelsea 2024/25 Season-Long Thread: The Enzo Era Begins

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So Man u is on like month 2 of their project?

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I don’t consider what Man H did to themselves and what Chelsea went through quite the same thing. I mean, a transfer of ownership, a transfer ban, and a change in managers kind of makes Chelsea’s situation unique.

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No it's been over a decade and it's because they are run by incompetents

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Fair enough…for Man U.

Chelsea is realistically two years in (max) with two pivot points (the most recent being Enzo M). So if your point of contention is my 6 month reference, then I’ll withdraw it.

A new gaffer, the youngest squad in the league, and 4th place (currently) does not equal failure imho.

Just my two cents.

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there is no denying the talent level on the squad

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Disagree. We don't have a GK, striker, or central defender that are, or ever will be, good enough at the level we want to reach. Palmer and Caicedo are the only guys who are consistently fit and legit.

Boehly and his team have had plenty of swings and misses. But I appreciate their continual search for better players. They have spent plenty and don’t look as if they’re going to slow down, as long as they can sell the cast offs. The question is their judgement of talent and focus on teenagers who might be good in three years. I get the idea- they’re cheap now and if they don’t pan out, it doesn’t cost us much. But by doing this, we are young forever.

Didn’t bother showing up today. No defense, no keeper, Nkunku is not a #9. Just bad.

Lots of standing and watching

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Didn’t bother showing up today. No defense, no keeper, Nkunku is not a #9. Just bad.

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Agreed on all points.

We were much better when Mudryk was out wide. He tracked back with regularity.

We have nothing going forward without Jackson.

Even Palmer misfired (again).

Nkuku May as well be an orange cone.

We won the middle (again), but the lack of defending by our wings, shite defense, and poor keeper play made for a long day.
The left side (Neto, Colwill, and Cucurella) was absolute shite.

When a keeper gets an assist on a route one pass, the defense is shite. I don’t think Tosin lets that happen, and he isn’t great.

Colwill is a weak link (I’ve noted it repeatedly in this thread). Even Cucurella was put on skates for a goal. Chalobah is serviceable at best.

Me personally, I put Palmer up
top, and play Nkuku behind him.

Without the runs of Jackson (something else that I have noted repeatedly as a positive), we are going to be very one dimensional.

The strongest lineup going forward imho is

Palmer up top
Nkuku playing off of him

Caicedo and Enzo

Sancho on the left
Whomever on the right

Cucurella as a holding mid

Gusto on the left, Tosin in the middle, and James on the right.

Keeper - whomever


Strap in boys, losing Jackson was huge (and not something that I anticipated).

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This team has zero guts, zero character, zero desire, zero accountability, zero promise, zero hope

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The team as a whole?

We will see.

Enzo and Caicedo work their asses off. Their issue is that they have to cover at times for the wingers that don’t track. That means that they get stretched and lose their form. People criticizing them for doing so have a point, but they should also note the reason for their lack of shape.

Cucurella and Tosin have been solid. Neither are elite, but Cucurella does seem to fit the system quite well. Tosin, for a free transfer, was a great move.

The combo of James and Gusto has worked. Sadly, because of injury, it needed to be a combo.
As you noted before, James seems to be made of glass.

Jackson, despite people continually shitting on him, has been quite good. The nice thing is that he has gotten better. I saw a star about him missing on his last 7 chances from Palmer, so I went back and looked at the “chances.”
I only consider 5 of them to be legit, 3 brought about top shelf saved from the keeper, one cut the post, and one hit the cross bar. In short, there was nothing wrong with his shots. Unlucky for sure, but shite happens. The ONE attempt that he could have arguably done better on was not a legit chance imho, but rather a shite pass from Palmer.

We are seeing how important Jackson is now that he is out.

To me, with those players, that is a very solid core.

Madueke has improved. He is actually passing. He still needs to learn to track consistently, but he has improved nonetheless.

Neto is similar to him, and both of them are better on the right.

Sancho is solid, but he can’t go it solo. The lack of depth is showing.

Palmer can be talismanic, but currently seems to be mentally detached. He is wired differently, so let’s see if he flips the switch.
He has been shite as of late, but he has the ability to turn the league on its head. If Chelsea is going to finish top 5, then he is going to have to drag them there.

Nkuku is NOT a striker. His runs suck…IF he he even makes them. His speed is average, and his work rate is shite. The ONE thing that he can do is finish. However, if he doesn’t get the ball, then he scoring ain’t happening.

Keeper is a weak spot, but they look worse than they are when Chalobah and Colwill are playing like hot garbage.

We had NINE corners yesterday.
Only Enzo had a legit chance. Tosin, with his limitations, is dangerous on set pieces. Maresca dicked up by leaving him out. Cest la vie.


TLDR

We still have work to do to he elite, but we aren’t that far off.

The core is young, and legit.

I’m still bullish on the blues going forward.

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I feel like you’re an Arsenal fan convincing us to keep this current squad as is

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Only that isn’t what happened.

The project is to buy young players cheap and stock up on young talent. Then sell them if they don’t pan out. But we have no veteran players like Silva to lead. And we collapse when things get tight. So yes we have young talent but they have not grown over the season. Will next year be any different? Doubtful.