Newcastle United 1 Chelsea 1

[exiledblue]

59 minutes ago, My Blood Is Blue said:

Only seen highlights, so again I can’t comment too much, but I think it’s safe to say I can repeat on a couple of key things people have said above… Jackson, I’m really trying to not get too excited about him, but he looks like a real find for us! Cucurella, needs selling, take the loss and just move him on for everyone’s sake!

agreed, Cucurella was given a little touch by Almiron and he was off to score, Got to go.

[Chelsea_Matt]

2 minutes ago, exiledblue said:

agreed, Cucurella was given a little touch by Almiron and he was off to score, Got to go.

He’s absolutely shit. £60m? Christ. Man’s stealing a living, he’s the worst of David Luiz with nothing good to offer as far as I can see. 

[CarefreeMuratcan]

7 minutes ago, Chelsea_Matt said:

He’s absolutely shit. £60m? Christ. Man’s stealing a living, he’s the worst of David Luiz with nothing good to offer as far as I can see. 

He was the Dunce of the Match in the 2 Madrid games last season. He caused the Chilwell red card, missed a sitter and caused the 3rd goal of the tie. 

[Blue Kratos]

Somebody get SA on the phone.

We have another dud for them to take off our hands.

[MickyDroy]

Can someone sign a god damn midfielder for Pochettino? He's brought up the need for midfielders in every single interview/presser for weeks now.

Give Brighton what they want for Caicedo and be done with it.

[Bones]

46 minutes ago, CarefreeMuratcan said:

He was the Dunce of the Match in the 2 Madrid games last season. He caused the Chilwell red card, missed a sitter and caused the 3rd goal of the tie. 

He's shocking unfortunately, we should sell him instead of Chalobah or Gallagher.

[Bones]

It's so nice to see forward passing, pace and freedom to take on defenders. Fantastic stuff

[Bones]

How good was Pope? Like if you'd take him over Kepa

[xceleryx]

34 minutes ago, exiledblue said:

agreed, Cucurella was given a little touch by Almiron and he was off to score, Got to go.

In fairness he also made some good interceptions, challenges, and recovery plays that others were at fault for.

Not to excuse his mistake, but it's getting to the point where everyone is just waiting for a mistake so they can hang him out to dry and justify that he's "shit". 

Looking back at the play you could even argue neither CB's were in good starting positions when Gordon initially received the ball. Near side on the wing there was RJ and Casadei both guarding Joelinton, then in the middle both CB's were tight together and shifted too far inside, which allowed Isak to split I believe Humphries and Cucurella. Almiron was in the centre circle beyond Enzo and completely unmarked. 

As Gordon comes inside Isak basically takes his run further towards the channel that Gordon had ahead of him and takes both CB's with him. Cucurella points at Almiron and is basically isolated one vs one. Gordon continues to drive inside, Cucurella gets isolated further and Almiron pushes his run further to the right where there was plenty of space ahead and behind, then looks to get in behind as Gordon gets into the centre circle. Basically we end up with CB's holding their appendages (Chalobah also blind to Joelinton behind him), and zero midfield support ahead. There's also an overlapping Newcastle player running down the right hand side, which gives Cucurella two players to be mindful of.

As the pass is made Cucurella steps up to make the interception, but looking at it further it's not necessarily a bad decision in itself because the pass could've also gone through to that overlapping attacker which would've created issues anyway had the ball gotten through. Humphries does a poor job of getting across earlier to lend support and they score. 

Had Cucurella held his ground he'd have still been beaten. It was poor defending from us stemming from organisation issues earlier in the play, but good attacking play by Newcastle to get basically a two vs one on the overlap out wide and with Gordon making a good pass that was dangerous either way. 

I did screenshot the play to break all this down but my on demand stream must have some sort of blocker on it so it just blacks out the screenshots. If I can be bothered I'll go back through it and take photos on my phone and upload. 

[Bison]

Lewis Hall, our academy player of the year, zero minutes but rubbish like Cucurella given every opportunity to embarrass themselves. 

Poch, I want to like you. Please don't make this difficult for me.

[Thiago97]

41 minutes ago, xceleryx said:

In fairness he also made some good interceptions, challenges, and recovery plays that others were at fault for.

Not to excuse his mistake, but it's getting to the point where everyone is just waiting for a mistake so they can hang him out to dry and justify that he's "shit". 

Looking back at the play you could even argue neither CB's were in good starting positions when Gordon initially received the ball. Near side on the wing there was RJ and Casadei both guarding Joelinton, then in the middle both CB's were tight together and shifted too far inside, which allowed Isak to split I believe Humphries and Cucurella. Almiron was in the centre circle beyond Enzo and completely unmarked. 

As Gordon comes inside Isak basically takes his run further towards the channel that Gordon had ahead of him and takes both CB's with him. Cucurella points at Almiron and is basically isolated one vs one. Gordon continues to drive inside, Cucurella gets isolated further and Almiron pushes his run further to the right where there was plenty of space ahead and behind, then looks to get in behind as Gordon gets into the centre circle. Basically we end up with CB's holding their appendages (Chalobah also blind to Joelinton behind him), and zero midfield support ahead. There's also an overlapping Newcastle player running down the right hand side, which gives Cucurella two players to be mindful of.

As the pass is made Cucurella steps up to make the interception, but looking at it further it's not necessarily a bad decision in itself because the pass could've also gone through to that overlapping attacker which would've created issues anyway had the ball gotten through. Humphries does a poor job of getting across earlier to lend support and they score. 

Had Cucurella held his ground he'd have still been beaten. It was poor defending from us stemming from organisation issues earlier in the play, but good attacking play by Newcastle to get basically a two vs one on the overlap out wide and with Gordon making a good pass that was dangerous either way. 

I did screenshot the play to break all this down but my on demand stream must have some sort of blocker on it so it just blacks out the screenshots. If I can be bothered I'll go back through it and take photos on my phone and upload. 

A couple of points in relation to this. I agree that many are waiting for the errors and pouncing on them more with Cucurella, but when others make similar errors it does not get the same attention. It's quite similar to how the media, and some Chelsea fans, used to be with David Luiz.

The comment about Cucurella stepping up. I think a number of this mistakes he has made have been through being to keen to push up onto players. I think we have to balance this though, because he does also win his fair of possession and tackles playing in this manner. Though these things get ignored far more than when he is beaten.

I always had the feeling this is exactly how Potter wanted him to play. Very early days and two friendlies in, but he still seems to be playing that way under Poch. It will be interesting to see how this develops, as I think if he was to slow things down a little and be less proactive, he would reduce his errors. The question is does that make him become completely ineffective from the player we bought, or can he adapt his game to read situations better and only commit when the percentages are more in his favour.

Edited July 27, 2023 by Thiago97

[Thiago97]

6 hours ago, Bison said:

Need to see more urgency and dynamism from Nkunku. After getting rid of Havertz the last thing we need is another low-intensity player. 

You might be disappointed then. He's not really that kind of player from what I have seen. I have only watched him 4-5 times, but he is not all action chasing everything down and playing at pace in and out of possession.

He is however a very clever player and likes to drop off into pockets of space and link play, often roaming from the left and No 10 position at Leipzeig. I would not go as far as say he had a free role at RB, but he did seem to have more licence to float in and out of forward positions, compared with the other forwards he was playing with.

Whilst he has some pace, he does not rely on his pace to affect situations with/without the ball.  He is more similar to Havertz, rather than what we have seen from Jackson so far , as a comparison. I think he is a more intelligent footballer than Havertz though, he reads situations better, he will create more opportunities and assists, and is also a better finisher than Havertz.

[xceleryx]

12 minutes ago, Thiago97 said:

A couple of points in relation to this. I agree that many are waiting for the errors and pouncing on them more with Cucurella, but when others make similar errors it does not get the same attention. It's quite similar to how the media, and some Chelsea fans, used to be with David Luiz.

The comment about Cucurella stepping up. I think a number of this mistakes he has made have been through being to keen to push up onto players. I think we have to balance this though, because he does also win his fair of possession and tackles playing in this manner. Though these things get ignored far more than when he is beaten.

I always had the feeling this is exactly how Potter wanted him to play. Very early days and two friendlies in, but he still seems to be playing that way under Poch. It will be interesting to see how this develops, as I think if he was to slow things down a little and be less proactive, he would reduce his errors. The question is does that make him become completely ineffective from the player we bought, or can he adapt his game to read situations better and only commit when the percentages are more in his favour.

There's certainly a David Luiz feel to Cucurella, that's a good comparison to make actually.

Yeah, it's a little risk vs reward I suppose. He could step up and win possession 9/10 times but that one occasion where he doesn't and it results in a goal will be what gets focused on. There's of course a time and place and I do think Cucurella has gotten it wrong on occasions by being too aggressive, and ideally it is toned down, but it's also a useful quality when harnessed efficiently. I guess that's one for Poch to work on should Cucurella remain. 

[Gurj SS]

2 hours ago, MickyDroy said:

Can someone sign a god damn midfielder for Pochettino? He's brought up the need for midfielders in every single interview/presser for weeks now.

Give Brighton what they want for Caicedo and be done with it.

We've done that in the past with Cucurella, how many Brighton players leave and still look like quality players? I think Caicedo might turn out to be more about how Brighton play than the player himself, just how when Cucurella left and Estupinan looked miles better, when Caicedo filled in at RB last season Brighton looked far more composed in the middle of the park, we could say having played them in the last game they look even better with their 2 new central pairing; the scottish fella looked very good but can't remeber where I've seen him before ;) 

[Gurj SS]

Thank you all for the comments on the game, painted the picture for me as I missed the game, seems like we have more positives than negatives, I think the only player that worries me from what I've seen and heard from fans is Nkunku; can he step up? He showed so much promise before coming here, he looks like he could be a handful, but in the last game there was something disengaged about him for large parts of the game and from what I've read he hasn't been very involved in this one.

Edited July 27, 2023 by Gurj SS

[martin1905]

Nkunku is like that. He can spend large periods of the match appearing to be not involved but he is very clever, constantly moving and making runs, something people will see and start to appreciate.

He can appear to be quiet, which as I've said he's not, then suddenly come to life with a goal, assist or being involved in the build up. It's no coincidence that he's involved so heavily in scoring and creating so many goals. It's all the hard work he does off the ball that allows him to find himself in those positions so often and then he is very effective once there.

If people were expecting, for want of a better comparison as I can't think of many right now, a Wayne Rooney's type number 10 who was all hustle and bustle and involved in everything then they will be disappointed but I'm fairly confident people will love him, in no time at all.

[Blue Kratos]

With David Luiz you knew he had a brain fart in him.

With Cucurella it's more of a brain prolapse.

[Holymoly]

53 minutes ago, Gurj SS said:

Thank you all for the comments on the game, painted the picture for me as I missed the game, seems like we have more positives than negatives, I think the only player that worries me from what I've seen and heard from fans is Nkunku Sterling; can he step up? He showed so much promise before coming here, he looks like he could be a handful, but in the last game there was something disengaged about him for large parts of the game and from what I've read he hasn't been very involved in this one.

There, fixed that for you....autocorrect right?

[Gurj SS]

3 minutes ago, Holymoly said:

There, fixed that for you....autocorrect right?

Haha, yeah Sterling looked poor against Brighton and it looks the same old for this game.

What I meant by Nkunku was that apart from his goal he almost avoided the ball at times against Brighton; he was content as being marked out the game for long periods by almost going and standing onto the centrebacks; just expected more movement and taking the game to the opposition. I still think he'd make a better wide player or number 10 than a striker, but time will tell what Poch does; although I think Jackson might make that call for both Poch and Nkunku.

[exiledblue]

2 hours ago, Thiago97 said:

A couple of points in relation to this. I agree that many are waiting for the errors and pouncing on them more with Cucurella, but when others make similar errors it does not get the same attention. It's quite similar to how the media, and some Chelsea fans, used to be with David Luiz.

The comment about Cucurella stepping up. I think a number of this mistakes he has made have been through being to keen to push up onto players. I think we have to balance this though, because he does also win his fair of possession and tackles playing in this manner. Though these things get ignored far more than when he is beaten.

I always had the feeling this is exactly how Potter wanted him to play. Very early days and two friendlies in, but he still seems to be playing that way under Poch. It will be interesting to see how this develops, as I think if he was to slow things down a little and be less proactive, he would reduce his errors. The question is does that make him become completely ineffective from the player we bought, or can he adapt his game to read situations better and only commit when the percentages are more in his favour.

Luiz offerered something going forward. Cuca offers nothing. He has no awareness, no positional sense, cant complete passes and no speed to recover and will never score (i know its not his job but Luiz could). Both have hair that needes attention.

[Thiago97]

20 minutes ago, exiledblue said:

Luiz offerered something going forward. Cuca offers nothing. He has no awareness, no positional sense, cant complete passes and no speed to recover and will never score (i know its not his job but Luiz could). Both have hair that needes attention.

I was not comparing them as players. More how they are judged with errors and waiting for errors. 

[Proud-Blue]

I stayed up for the whole thing like others here... but I must admit I really flagged in the second half so might have missed a couple of things. But some notes from me regardless.

1) Nicolas Jackson... wow. Obvious caveat that it's pre-season, but he has really been doing the business against some good PL teams. His speed, skill, composure, and his attitude are all superb. If he can replicate this for the season ahead we could finally have the striker we've been craving for years. His understanding with Mudryk is also a real treat.

2) Mudryk. He looks so fired up, fit, and ready to go. His talent is extremely obvious. His end product wasn't quite there today, but he can change games alone. 

3) Maatsen. Another assist, I can see why Poch wants to keep him this season. I'd really like to see him play at left-back. I'm worried that if we keep moving him around he'll not nail a proper position, and I think that can have a negative impact (maybe contributed to RLC not being what he could have been).

4) Malo Gusto was excellent I thought. It's nice to have some proper competition for Reece James because he definitely needs it. It may also help us manage Reece's fitness a bit better.

5) Cucurella... oh dear oh dear. We have a serious problem here, but one that could also be resolved if the club just acknowledges the mistake. We currently have four players who can play LB. If we were looking purely at the evidence of his performances versus Hall, Chilwell, and Maatsen, there is no case whatsoever for Cucurella starting. 

The mistake he made for Almiron's goal wasn't a one-off moment. He was constantly out of position for the whole game, being dragged everywhere, and just seemed totally confused. Honestly so disappointing given how good he was at Brighton. I hope he can have some kind of redemption arc but it's looking unlikely.

6) Sterling... he just seems to slow us down. I hope this is just poor pre-season form and he picks up in August, but the signs are not good.

7) Chalobah and Humphreys looked good together to me. Seems to be a decent understanding. I really hope we don't sell Chalobah personally as I still think we've yet to see the best from him.

😎 I think Casadei looked a bit tired. I think he's in the top three for minutes played this pre-season so that could explai nit. The talent is obviously there, but this wasn't his best performance, especially his passing which was erratic. I think he could probably do with a short rest.

Overall, generally good. We clearly need to reinforce the midfield, but we already knew that. I think even if we get Caicedo we may well need one more.

Looking forward to Fulham. It's nice to be excited about watching Chelsea play again!

edit:: Got name wrong and I can't count.

Edited July 27, 2023 by Proud-Blue

[Ham]

7 minutes ago, Proud-Blue said:

I stayed up for the whole thing like others here... but I must admit I really flagged in the second half so might have missed a couple of things. But some notes from me regardless.

1) Nicolas Jackson... wow. Obvious caveat that it's pre-season, but he has really been doing the business against some good PL teams. His speed, skill, composure, and his attitude are all superb. If he can replicate this for the season ahead we could finally have the striker we've been craving for years. His understanding with Mudryk is also a real treat.

2) Mudryk. He looks so fired up, fit, and ready to go. His talent is extremely obvious. His end product wasn't quite there today, but he can change games alone. 

3) Maatsen. Another assist, I can see why Poch wants to keep him this season. I'd really like to see him play at left-back. I'm worried that if we keep moving him around he'll not nail a proper position, and I think that can have a negative impact (maybe contributed to RLC not being what he could have been).

4) Malo Gusto was excellent I thought. It's nice to have some proper competition for Reece James because he definitely needs it. It may also help us manage Reece's fitness a bit better.

5) Cucurella... oh dear oh dear. We have a serious problem here, but one that could also be resolved if the club just acknowledges the mistake. We currently have four players who can play LB. If we were looking purely at the evidence of his performances versus Hall, Chilwell, and Maatsen, there is no case whatsoever for Cucurella starting. 

The mistake he made for Almiron's goal wasn't a one-off moment. He was constantly out of position for the whole game, being dragged everywhere, and just seemed totally confused. Honestly so disappointing given how good he was at Brighton. I hope he can have some kind of redemption arc but it's looking unlikely.

6) Sterling... he just seems to slow us down. I hope this is just poor pre-season form and he picks up in August, but the signs are not good.

6) Chalobah and Colwill looked good together to me. Seems to be a decent understanding. I really hope we don't sell Chalobah personally as I still think we've yet to see the best from him.

7) I think Casadei looked a bit tired. I think he's in the top three for minutes played this pre-season so that could explai nit. The talent is obviously there, but this wasn't his best performance, especially his passing which was erratic. I think he could probably do with a short rest.

Overall, generally good. We clearly need to reinforce the midfield, but we already knew that. I think even if we get Caicedo we may well need one more.

Looking forward to Fulham. It's nice to be excited about watching Chelsea play again!

On (6) That was Bashir Humphreys, not Colwill.  

[Proud-Blue]

7 minutes ago, Ham said:

On (6) That was Bashir Humphreys, not Colwill.  

I realised just as I submitted and now I feel so stupid haha. Also I apparently counted six twice.

[DannyLB]

Humphreys is also the real deal. Plays like he’s got 200 EPL matches under his belt. So comfortable in everything he does. We need to trust in a lot of the youth we have. Long term this will be of great benefit.