It’s just really hard to know what to make of all of it.
I’ve been saying for a while we haven’t looked great. I chalked it up to us taking our foot off the gas last season, as the league was pretty much wrapped up. Then we had the summer of upheaval, both in terms of transfers in and out, and then the devastating loss of Jota, which is going to have a massive impact on the players already there.
We’ve started the season and are currently top, but our performances are similar to most of the second half of last season. For now, I can attribute that to the new signings settling in, and our players needing to adjust to each other, but the concern is there that we look like we did after the Carabao Cup Final/UCL exit to PSG, except this season, we’ve produced the wins until this week.
I think we could do with a really convincing couple of wins, something we can really pin our hopes on. At the moment, there are too many variables at play. A solid win at Stamford Bridge would do us the world of good.
He had a particularly terrible game. The team as a while needlessly giving the ball away with sloppy play, passes that are too short and lack of awareness of the opposition is what is really impacting overall play in my opinion. It’s the root of it all. Sort that out and overall performance will improve a lot.
Chiesa is an attacker who was introduced while we were chasing the game. It’s normal for some of his play to be riskier.
Konate is a defender whose primary concern is to play it safe. Instead he is good for either getting caught in possession, or making a dangerously bad pass in almost every game now.
We played really well the first 20 minutes at home vs Everton. Need to go back to that shape and formation. Conor, Kirkez, Macca, were all very good during that period.
Also it’s a completely different way of playing with our main creative threat now coming from a 10 as opposed to a right back who slots into midfield. We are not accustomed to that yet. This team has been set up for years to fit in with Trent’s talents. Will need training time on the pitch and matches to get used to Florian
But there is a huge difference, as one is defender, who has a lot more time and space and the other is an attacker who is normally marked and challenged and plays in tight areas.
Yes and no. You’re right when you say if the last 2 games were the norm then we wouldn’t have won the title as the last 2 games have been particularly bad.
But I don’t think we’ve played well for 50 minutes every game as you suggest. There have been good halves here and there but generally speaking the football has been terrible to watch and there have been a number of games where we have been fucking abject for the whole 90 minutes, Newcastle in the cup, PSG away and Newcastle again this season spring to mind.
Nobody can claim we’ve looked convincing since the start of this year and it’s a huge concern. Teams who want to be winning the big trophies don’t have that sort of drop-off for that length of time. We had enough in the bank to get over the line last season coupled with other teams’ being unable to mount a real challenge but that wont be the case this season, if it continues we’ll drop off and much as I hate to say it Arsenal will have a free run at it.
Except for Isak, and Hugo a little, the squad has had a full pre-season, 6 pl games, 1 cup game, a charity shield, and 2 CL games. 10 games and playing the way we are, this is not a time issue as there is no improvement, just good results for the most part.
He scored, had another go just past the post, and generally made a real nuisance of himself trying to make stuff happen. And the point is well made that when you are forcing it in the final third, there will be some loose passes. This is completely different to Konate’s passing, which is mostly low risk, so there’s no need for his numbers to be way off.
Chiesa is not the issue, at all. He has a Goal or Assist every 38 minutes so far this season. He is making a strong case to see more action, and to my eye, he looks sharper than at any point since he’s been here.
Konate is off form. He played really well against Arsenal, but was jittery before that and jittery since then. It’s a real shame the Guehi deal didn’t complete, as he is good on the ball. And it’s a real shame for Leoni that he got injured too, as he looked very promising.
A central defender seems a must in January, and another in summer.
As for Galatasary, it’s a cauldron and a tough away game, but had we been on top form that would have been irrelevant.
We have margin to spare to qualify in the CL, and we are top of the Prem, so it’s not all doom and gloom… but there are legitimate grounds for concern.
We need to see it start to click sooner rather than later, or we will fall off the pace.
No he is always like that and he loves giving penalties according to Mo from TAW as soon as he saw who the ref was he predicted he would give a penalty as he has what styled for 10 to 11 penalties and mainly to the home team.