Ibn Battuta

Very weird as Luiz seems a good fit for the way Lampard wants to play. Much better on the ball than Zouma for example. We got worse by selling him. Arsenal got better. But the dressing room effect is hard to predict. Lampard knows that better than us.

Legs have gone for several players.

Need a back room threat. Pulisic has to drift more between the CBs

I see us finishing 5th or 6th. BUT I also believe we are capable of having a truly horrendous season. A few injuries and a bad run could spell disaster for this team as there are so few true leaders in the playing group and we have a really inexperienced manager. Kante, Rudiger and Willian might keep our heads above water when it gets rough.

Zouma made a mistake. It can be forgiven. But I am not sure how much longer we can accept Pedro’s ball losses in critical areas. I really like Pedro but he is a seasoned pro making the most unnecessary mistakes. Please stop.

Solskjaer plays one dimensional counter attacking football. The proof was in the pudding last season. Despite that we go out with a super soft team playing a high press game. It was a huge gamble we really didn’t have to take. 1st game of the season away to United. If there is one game you want to see some cynical play it is this one. You can’t judge Lampard on one game. Time will tell if he is a gunslinger or a kamikaze pilot. High risks he does not shy away from though.

Just let me start by saying that I was underwhelmed by Kovacic this season. Got suffocated out of matches far too often. His range of impact was too limited considering his on the ball skills. Tactically something wasn’t right. Just didn’t seem to be where he should be at times. That said, my big prediction for 2019/20 is that he will become an integral part of our starting XI and will show massive improvement. For several reasons. One of them being that I feel Sarri ball limited him to an extent. His best attribute seems to be to carry the ball forward with bursts of speed and robust physique, cutting through defensive lines. This is something Sarri did not use as a weapon a lot imo. He became easier to defend because of this. If the threat of Kovacic using his speed to cut through defensive lines is there, opposing teams will be much more hesitant to press high, thus giving him more time on the ball. As it was teams didn’t really respect that threat because our system was a pass and run system. Not a run and run system. Kovacic is not technically good enough to handle that increased pressure. He needs that added respect from defenders to thrive. I’m sure Frank will build that respect by punishing teams that press him high, utilising his bursts of speed and physique. Also it was his first year in the PL playing in a position of huge complexity. It takes time to adapt. This is not like buying a speedy winger from Spain and putting him on the wings. I can only see him getting better with a year under his belt. A CM at 25 years old, with good physical attributes. It’s a sensible buy.

130M for Hazard with a year left is quite the business. At 28 years old, a lot of top level matches on the clock and 7 seasons of hacking from cynical PL players, Hazard is far from sure to keep performing like he has for the next few years. You never know, but it is likely his PL stint has shortened his career. Never have I seen a player get brutalised as much as he has.

That’s a valid point. However my concern is that we have spent a year enforcing a whole new system and style of play. It would be a disaster to start from scratch again with a ban hanging over your head. Continuity in style and familiarity would be able to cover some of the damage from the ban. That’s my thinking Also do we even give managers significant power with regards to transfers? Usually not.

If we let Sarri go in must be because we are confident of freezing the ban. Otherwise it would be a truly baffling decision to make.

It’s an amazing thing they are doing from a legal perspective. Say they stay the ban and the appeal process overrules their initial ruling. They would in that case open themselves up for some amazing lawsuit if Chelsea decided to sue for damages.

Football is not so much about speed and precision as it is about timing and tempo. Jorginho sets the tempo and facilitates the timing of our attacking plays. He is the starting point of most of our attacks. When he has the ball, the entire team is supposed to move and attack as a single unit. He facilitaes that work. He is the man who fires the starting shot. That is why Sarri says that for Jorginho to thrive everybody else has to do their jobs, that is move at the right time with the right tempo and in the right directions. Speed and precision matters less under those settings. Listen, we are all frustrated by the small tedious football we have played this season. But there is potential for something really great here. For prolonged greatness. Guardiola knows: "I see Chelsea and I can understand what they want to do. And after I see them, they do it. Maybe for other people, they don't know exactly what they want to do. But they do it.

Yep. That could be the difference between top four or not, which means 100m has a big cost attatched to it.

Oh and RLC has come alive!

How good was that? Finally starting to see all that tactical work pay dividends. Our form and shape looked impeccable. There was a period of 5-7 min where West Ham looked to threaten but Sarri quickly adjusted. Very very promising stuff.