RDCW

Well I agree with you about Gusto, Palmer, Petrovic and Jackson (whom I believe will improve in confidence and consistency and turn out to be a good addition), but not on Disasi, whom I believe will come good. All central defenders make mistakes, even the very best, so I wouldn't hang him on a single error. I think we have seen a general improvement in him and will continue to do so. Silva is gone in the summer, so there is no point in playing him for the rest of this dead rubber season. Badiashile has not looked good, but is clearly better than his form would suggest. Fofana is probably the best of all of the centre backs but it is looking doubtful that he will ever be fit enough to play himself into form. As to the midfield Caicedo and Enzo are obviously good players, but have not been integrated, have not been deployed properly by the coach and have not had the support of a rational tactical plan. Nkunku should be playing more. Gallagher and Colwill will continue to develop. Injuries and inadequate coaching and discipline have prevented us from being top 6, which is where the resources available should have placed us. I would get rid of Sterling, Madueke, Mudryk, Chilwell (controversial I know), Sanchez (unless he is content to remain No2), Cucurella. We obviously need to add an out and out attacker, a new left back + perhaps Lewis Hall as backup, and we need a pure holding midfielder and 2 new competent wide players. In other words, 6 additions to the squad and 5 departures. We have good cover in the form of Chalobah, Gilchrist, Big Les.

We are wonderful people !

Nothing to disagree with there.

Oh dear! QED my young friend!

Just a bit Allo Allo!

Please don't set yourself up as the non provocative, rational poster Max. You constantly offer personal jibes, directly or by implication (most notably against Mark Kelly). Dont try to belittle someone in this way if you dont like it back up you. As far as your age is concerned if you display naivete it is a valid question, but if you are coy about it I won't press the point. Let's get back to the actual debate, as it appears there are more points of agreement than dispute between us.

You really are a silly sausage sometimes Max, but I'm glad you're coming round to the Poch out school!

I'll turn my attention to what I like, thanks Max. I'm not sure how old you are, but your naivete is quite amusing. Ask Man United fans how easy it is to dislodge an unwanted owner/investor. We have no recourse in getting rid of Clearlake. The only way they will leave is of their own volition. If you genuinely think we would be no better under Guardiola or Klopp (and by the way our players are not 12, or even 18, they are in their 20s) then there really is no conversation to be had. Let me clarify my position, since you like to put words in people's mouths and and straw men into the argument: 1. Clearlake and the Boehly/Eghbali axis has been disastrous for the club. Their arrogant and facile moneyball philosophy has taken us backwards. The attitude that they apply American Sports methods to Premier League football has been crass, needlessly squandering the advantages of a mature winning culture. They have, despite appearances, however bought some good players, albeit for inflated figures. The long contracts have to some extent watered down the effectiveness of the coach. 2. The Brighton 3 have failed to respond to the complex needs of team building and have not introduced a properly blended set of playing resources. They also brought in 2, perhaps 3 inappropriate coaches for the resources available. 3. Pochettino, even given the youthful and underdeveloped squad, has been utterly woeful. He has had an opportunity to instil confidence and style and the duty to develop incisiveness and tactical coherence. As I said, no-one is shifting Clearlake unless they decide to cut their losses; there is a small possibility that they will get rid of the Brighton 3, but that would not solve the extant problem, which is that the squad is pretty much what it is and will have to be persevered with because of the immovable sunk costs. The team's performances and the club's general morale could be salvaged by the appointment of a competent and motivational coach and that is our only move

Oh dear! Max, I suggest you go back over my previous posts in order to understand what I think of the Clearlake involvement, facile philosophy and appointment of the Brighton 3. The problem is that Clearlake are going nowhere (sadly in every sense of the word) and as things stand they are all in on the Brighton 3. These administrative incompetencies could largely be mitigated by the presence of a good coaching organisation : do you think we would be where we are with Guardiola or Klopp in charge? There will be others out there and we need to find one. What we can be certain of is that Pochettino ain't it.

That is not for me to say. I have no idea who is out there, but what I do know is that Pochettino is failing. We need someone who is capable of instilling confidence (in the players' own ability and in the tactical plan), organising a playing style appropriate to the resources we have (which, it has to be said are nowhere near as bad as Pochettino is making them look) and reinstalling the sense of identity of the club as serial winners. I don't buy into the narrative that the players aren't trying; they are floundering in a sea of nervousness and tactical ineptitude.

No-one mentioned "instantly". Additionally, it's not just the failure to get results, it's the self-evident lack of consistent progress and the lack of development of players. There is no forward momentum and no coherent tactical approach. The desire to get rid of Pochettino is not a knee-jerk reaction; it is the rational response to the observable mediocrity which has been the reality of his tenure.

This is mostly silly stuff Max. No-one would argue that the Clearlake administration hasn't been utterly disastrous, but there is no evidence that they were specifically looking for a yes-man, despite the constant assertion Most preposterous is the idea that failures of morale, tactical organisation, winning mentality etc are anything other than the fault of the coach and his team. Poch has nit had the desired effect of galvanising, educating and organising this group and needs to go before he does any more damage.

Come on you Blues!

Great to see the passionate response of the defenders! Disasi had a great game. Colwill and Gusto good too.

Gallagher is an absolute beast! What a work rate.

I'd forgotten just how good Eidur was!

I don't think we can point to Sterling as the issue for this game, as he wasn't on the pitch until minute 79.

My view is that Chilly has become something of a curate's egg. He is undoubtedly capable of galvanising our attack and can score a goal or two, but he is something of a defensive liability and is becoming frustratingly less effective out wide : he tends to cut inside and pass backwards, stopping the forward momentum (especially in comparison to Reece James and Malo Gusto). Whether this is due to his injuries is difficult to tell, but our left sided attacks are frequently floundering because of his reluctance to be more progressive.

I was aghast at that! No words........

Yawn. You utter dullard.

Of course he was! Anyone suggesting otherwise is simply taking the piss and should be ignored as the attention-seeking muppet he is.

I'd be astonished if we are actually in breach of the regs. Our problems are more to do with future ability to buy and sell players since Clearlake have gone all in on their "strategy" to game the ffp rules.

I don't think matchgoing fans are actually all that fickle. We do have an idea of what we expect from our players, mainly around effort, intelligence and evidence of coaching. Drogba was booed because he dived. I remember it well. There was a lot of anger about a specific attempt to cheat which we hadn't really seen before at The Bridge and which we associated with North London and Northern clubs. Our traditionally acceptable form of cheating was specifically in the realm of violence, so Drogba's antics were seen as effete. The reaction largely stopped him from diving (although there was the later winking episode which elicited a certain amount of media hysteria) and he was never booed again.

Great post. I think this encapsulates what VAR should be about. I love the idea of post match and season long statistical analysis of the decision outcomes; that alone would focus the minds of the VAR operators.

Beauty!