Unlimited22:
DISCLAIMER - This might be a lengthy read. Every view expressed here is strictly my opinion and is subject to fair and objective criticism.


Quite apart from the fact that this current team seem to lack the mental fortitude that characterised their mid to late 2000s forbears (a problem that I hope winning club football's biggest prize will help mitigate), there are a few glaring on-field issues still plaguing the team, problems that I thought about for a bit and decided to postulate possible solutions to.


1. The lack of a true goalscorer.

While Kai Havertz, Timo Werner, Tammy Abraham and Olivier Giroud have their uses, they all have what seems to be the same glaring weakness. They just, at least at the moment, cannot be relied upon to bang in the goals regularly over the course of a season, something we have sorely missed since the heyday of one Diego Costa. And it is worthwhile to state that all the league titles we've won have had at least one player hitting 10 goals. Our highest goalscorer last season was Jorginho. And even though we've spent a lot on attacking talent lately, this is the issue with the most straightforward solution.
Just buy one of Harry Kane or Working Haaland or Romelu Lukaku. Whatever it takes. Whatever tactics and tweaks it will take. The aforementioned guarantee goals. We lack goals. Goals win games. Winning games translates to winning league titles. Simple.

2. The lack of a true DM

One area where Chelsea have a glut of talent is in the centre of the park, but one type of midfielder is conspicuous by their absence from the ranks - a true destroyer.
Jorginho, Mateo Kovacic and Billy Gilmour are all far more comfortable with the ball than without it, Ethan Ampadu has little experience in that role and seems more comfortable in defence despite his height and his quality in positioning, passing and tackling, Conor Gallagher is better served facing the opposition goal, while N'golo Kante will just not stick to one position as it quite limits his considerable capabilities. Other midfield players are more attacking minded than these 5 and any attempt to play them more defensively will be doubly damaging to the team in terms of limiting their talents going forward and exposing the defense. West Ham United are playing hardball over Declan Rice.

I have a twofold solution in mind.
One, simply buy a cheaper DM from Ligue 1. Aurelien Tchouameni and Boubacar Kamara both come to mind, but while supremely talented, both are still relatively inexperienced and might take some time getting to grips with the English game. Plus, the rather painful memories of Tiemoue Bakayoko are still fresh.

The other option is a bit unorthodox but far cheaper, especially considering the money involved in signing a new CF. And that is to convert one of Andreas Christensen or Reece James to a DM, the way PSG did with Marquinhos. I personally favour James, seeing as in his final loan season at Wigan he played quite a few games there, and he is stronger and quicker and more robust in the tackle than the Dane. His passing range is also good, his positioning has improved drastically, and he won't have to be making recovery runs, which is the one aspect of his game that still needs serious polish. With the impending signing of Achraf Hakimi and the emergence of Valentino Livramento, I would say we are covered on the right side of defence for the foreseeable. Worth trying IMO.

3. We might soon have a CB problem on our hands.

Thiago Silva is 36, a geriatric in professional football terms. Cesar Azpilicueta is a fantastic defender but will struggle with the aerial aspects of playing CB in a 4 man backline. Reports have emerged that Antonio Rudiger is refusing to even discuss a contract renewal. Fikayo Tomori is now an AC Milan player. Marc Guehi, Malang Sarr and Xavier Mbuyamba are still relatively untested at the highest level of English football. That leaves just Christensen, who I'm advocating for playing further forward, and Kurt Zouma. Capable hands, yes. Not good enough. And no, Sergio Ramos is not the answer either.

The solution? Two very capable young defenders, one of whom is starting for club (Dynamo Kiev) and country (Ukraine, at this Euros) at the age of just 18. Ilya Zabarnyi is very young but has shown signs of being a very good CB in a time where there's a lack of top class defenders, and will be available for less than 20m Euros. Which means even if the experiment doesn't work out we can always recoup money from loan fees and maybe a permanent deal later on, but I'm positive he's the real deal.
The other is already a league champion with Lille at just 21, a left footed beast who's quick, good at positioning, reading the game and tackling, and is very comfortable with the ball. Because he isn't at the Euros he'll be relatively unnoticed and we won't have to pay a premium to get him if we act fast. Sven Botman is a brilliant CB, and Virgil van Dijk and Mathijs De Ligt Better watch their backs In the Dutch setup.

NB - There are rumours that Aymeric Laporte wants to leave City, but I don't think they have any substance and he might be out of our reach anyway.

PS - Don't forget all views are mine and can be objectively examined and critiqued. Please kindly ignore all typos and grammatical errors.

Interesting take , i think there is shortage of pure 9s in modern era, we used to have scouts looking for southern American nd other leagues(Belgium) prodigies, i dont know why that stopped..I feel TT is going to try james in the dm position that's if hakimi becomes a blue. I think we should sign Tchouameni n let him develop for for one more season seeing kante is in his 30s i dont know how much years he can give..i still have a strong case for kova( very poor output) keeps forming activity..Gallagher is another case if we can give mount a shot in the first team why not him..i think we have enough numbers in defense, TT just needs to find the right combination.

This hakimi speculation, maybe TT will try reece James in cdm, like he did against aston villa.

Ibime:
Abeg wetin make this Hakimi so expensive?

They better go and buy Traore for lesser amount if they know what's good for them.

As for me, I'm only waiting to hear news of a new DM and new striker and possibly a right winger. No other signing in any position will dramatically improve us.

I dont think the club is going to add anyone in that cm/cdm this window,looking at the the players in that position..top target should be getting a striker and trimming the squad.not loans ,sell.

I don't understand why una de feed that troll and scums reject..y'all saying sell pulisic. Its a market strategy for chelsea and won't be going anytime soon..
Chels signing haaland this summer will be madd..the starting 11s and competition will just be interesting.. we can give them batsman nd tammy...that Bellingham guy looks promising for a cdm

popizaino:


Now this is better and agree with you .

I actually prefer lukaku epl tested and in his prime, anything from that Bundesliga looks like fluke

airmark:


Why must he change a working formation? Abi na the formation make Werner and our attackers to be wasteful in front of goal and deny us of the FA cup?

What happens when the formation is found out or injury to players...

OJURONGBE1:


A defence that conceded the 2nd least goal in the EPL is very much okay. As expected, Thiago won't have the same run of games next season. We have Rudiger, Zouma, Christensen to compete, save for Thiago, Azpi & Reece to slot in at CB when the need be. Rather than waste millions of pounds on Jimenez/ Sule, who i considered level on par with those 3 mentioned, we should keep our CB's and cheer them on to perform at optimal level next season & beyond.

Concerning Mount, i won't join mouth with you to lambast that boy. He was quite decent last season but we do need another creative midfielder, in the mould of Debruyne or Fabregas to improve our team. This, i campaigned for throughout last season.

[b][/b]
With 3 at back even pep said its difficult to score us...

NinjaMetahuman:
typical Chelsea Fan

Who qualified Chelsea against all odds and transfer ban when most people already settled for top 10 at most. Without Chelsea in the champions league, would they have even won it.

You can enjoy victorious moment without dissing club legend whose contribution got us to this point you know?

Credit to lamps but this season he was just clueless..with Lampard I'm sure some of us didnt have the confidence facing Atm..the same lamp that played into pep's hand in jan and lost....i hope TT wont continue with this 3 at the back next season

Make we no lie.. put werner in the that havertz position and he would miss

donstan18:

Will he easily adapt to Tuchel style of play?

I think he has improved his all round play..and he is in his prime and should be hungry for more success

donstan18:

Halland?? Lol, I don’t know why I feel like he’ll flop in England. I just don’t know why.

Kane is tested.

I think lukaku is ideal ..

Egbon Diggz in the building

Can we party in these scummies thread

Tuchel has pep where he wants..

We need to score to realky unsettle this peo

Up the chels...

donstan18:
Werner, Tammy and Mount won’t be bad against City.

An in form abraham yes i dunno about this one

Hazard's performance this euros will determine taking him back or not.i hope TT wont continue with this 3-4-3 next season..i hope we bin kovacic .we bought him because of the ban.i dont know why a cm will have 4shots on goal all season..Fabian ruiz isnt a bad cm to add in our ranks, he can create,shoot and has a very good technique, gilmour needs a loan spell..we need our attack to click, we create but the conversion rate is poor.i hope we dont miss out on kane.

Irrespective of the result james played well in the middle of the park and get kane by any necessary means

NinjaMetahuman:
dunno why I feel like letting Abraham go will be another lukaku situation.

Abhram has eyes for goal but his lack of experience in certain situations always his problem.

Time will tell sha.

True

popizaino:


Most people here probably understand and know what you are saying about Mason mount is correct but won't admit it here in order not to take L. I will only advise you to go slow on mount for two reasons even though his skills and talent are limited, he is still the best AM we have at the moment as Havertz isnt doing enough to displace him to that position and he is also improving. Moreso, in that your gif,I will never fault mount for that misplaced attacking pass,jorginho and Willian in that position will cowardly break the ball and pass back to the midfield and that is why I will always give mount the credit to even try ot out in the first place. Had we had a better AM and was on the bench for mount,trust me I will do more than you're doing

Having watched Havertz play this season he and mount don't play similar position and we the fans expected different from havertz ..we thought he was going to be our number 10 but he is a similar to dybala..i guess if we look at it he was a luxury buy from the board not really a scout job to shop for a no10 position and on the other hand our our numbers on the attack has been poor with mount having played so much games, but should be criticised the same way we do to other players.

hensben:
At 22 years old were was iniesta. Mount is still in the learning phase, not in his peak yet.

I hope his numbers improve because with the position he plays its really poor, a proper no10 will tell us how much mount has been serving us .

Havertz10:
kane is 27, has been having ankle injuries, he has 3 years left on his contract, plays for spurs

They wouldn't accept anything less than 140m and they don't like Chelsea, it's better to look elsewhere, hopefully he goes to city and we can use tuchel's Dortmund connections to get haaland

Kane injury history is very disturbing, commot eye abeg

Kane can give us 20 league goals even werner will come good more and kane can pop in assist here n there.

Can we sign kane and give the batsman n emerson or jorginho

With kepa in the post you will surely have a feeling we will concede some how, i dont get why the TT started the the same people that made mistakes against arsenal,we can fault jorginho for not defending what about attacks , mount was unanimous bar the shot in the 2nd half , in the first half werner was getting into positions mount should be in..we are not scoring goals..and we just undone by poor decision making

This loss is painful i no go lie,this team has been patched too much, we should cut our losses on ziyech mans just too casual.i hope we get a proper no10 to shiite on Mounts' numbers ..i hope TT is not having selection headache..play your strongest team ffs

Unlimited22:
Let's hope the boys make today a memorable birthday for me.

Happy birthday doc

timbros:
Meanwhile....



The last time Arsenal beat Chelsea in Stamford Bridge was 2011/12 season. They just beat Chelsea again.

Check out the referee in both matches

All these

Zouma shouldn't be in the starting eleven in the two finals. Seen ref giving pens to opposition even if the ball has been kicked..mount is usually lost whenever he drops into that midfield.Today wasn't our day

OJURONGBE1:


A league where 97points couldn't guarantee Liverpool a league title, sure has to be the toughest.
If Tuchel play Thiago,Mount, Werner, Kante , Chillwell & Azplicueta this night, we go fight.

Don't you think mendy deserves to rest ?

Odoi looks hungry and ready to take his chance ,i don't know about tammy

Up the chels

Oga Ibime you said you'd compose a verse if we reach the ucl final