Chelsea 21/22 - Improving Efficiency

Apparently Lampard's mandatory goal for the season is to not get relegated

As long as he gets that, he'll get a second season

Marca and Di Marzio are reporting that we're going to sign Kova for 50m Euros.

Not sure I trust it, but we only have 3 days to get it done so we'll find out soon.

Kovacic is official now.

I am ok with it, given RLC's injury, but we're still yet to see the best Kovacic.

Lampard and RLC have been pictured outside Stamford Bridge.

RLC is expected to sign a new 5 year deal with CHO and Mount to follow.

Eddie Newton, Joe Edwards and Jody Morris will all join Lamaprd's staff.

Lampard is official

So we're most of the way through pre-season and things are shaping up. I thought I'd look through the squad and what we should expect to happen.

Our GK's are set as Kepa, Willy and it seems to be Cummings as our third choice. I am happy with that.

Zouma would appear to have won the 4th choice CB slot, joining Luiz, Rudiger and Christensen. I imagine Tomori will go on loan unless a suitable permanent move occurs, which is unlikely.

Left back is unchanged with Alonso and Emerson tussling for the starting spot, it looks like Emerson is winning, right now.

Right back is a bit more curious, reports suggest Zappa could go on loan to make room for James. Personally, I like that, so lets hope it  happens. Azpi would be the starter.
One thing to note is that there is little interest in Zappa right now, so let's see if we can shift him on and avoid another Drinkwater situation.

Speaking of Drinkwater, it would appear Lampard doesn't rate him, and the same can be said about Bakayoko. Both seem to be on the outer but it does, once again, leave us with an issue in defensive midfield if anything should happen to Kante.
Our midfield options look like this:
No. 6 options: Kante, Kovacic, Jorginho
No. 8 options: Kante, Kovacic, Jorginho, RLC, Mount, Barkley
No. 10 options: RLC, Mount, Barkley

Our attacking options seem to come down to who stays out of Batshuayi and Kenedy, especially if we're unable to shift of Zappacosta. Our wing options will be Willian, Pedro, Pulisic, and CHO with our CF options as Abraham and Giroud, with Batshuayi probably beating Kenedy to join them.

If I were to have a guess at our first XI against Utd, it'd be this:


The backline is set, and I think Kante will probably make the bench, giving the starts in midfield to Kova and Jorgi. I think Mount will start, to allow someone with Lampard's idea's to play. Willian and Pedro over Pulisic, at least, initially. Giroud and Tammy is 50/50 I think we'll see more of that battle in the coming friendlies.

So it looks like Luiz is going to join Arsenal, and Tomori will replace him as 4th choice.

It's ok long term, but I feel like we'll take a hit short term. I feel that Arsenal should 100% be getting top 4 with Us and Utd fighting for 5th and 6th.

We're going to need a big season from Christensen, Zouma, and Tomori now.

Zouma-Rudiger is first choice?

RealGunner wrote:Zouma-Rudiger is first choice?

Surely, with Christensen and Tomori as back up options.

So Drinkwater and Luiz leave on deadline day, Kenedy was looking likely to leave but now hasn't. Baka, and Zappa can still leave overseas in the coming month.

I am happy we're playing the youth, but I'm worried about the sheer amount of youth we'll be forced to play. Only time will tell how well this is going to go.

Amazing how when we finally give some of our youth players a chance, they look good.

I can only imagine how much better the likes of Baker, RLC, and McEachran could have been had we actually put faith in them.

Hopefully this is the start of something, and Tomori, James, Mount, RLC, and Tammy are not the only youth players we use in the next decade.

Worth watching.

It's gonna be interesting how our midfield is gonna pan out now that everyone bar RLC has recovered from injuries.

Kovacic and Jorginho have been brillant these last weeks, and it's just silly to think about benching Kantè, yet I feel like the same issues that this midfield trio had under Sarri. Lack of an edge forward, lethargic play that stagnates the game. It was very apparent when Jorgi and Kova lost so many dangerous balls while complacently trying to tiki taka close our box, one of which resulted in their goal.

Mount while being individually worse than them just gives a new dimension to our play with his directness, his offball movement, runs into the box, his pressing. But who knows, maybe with him we get utterly dominated by City's midfield and not even get to the point where he could be dangerous.

Katy Perry wrote:It's gonna be interesting how our midfield is gonna pan out now that everyone bar RLC has recovered from injuries.

Kovacic and Jorginho have been brillant these last weeks, and it's just silly to think about benching Kantè, yet I feel like the same issues that this midfield trio had under Sarri. Lack of an edge forward, lethargic play that stagnates the game. It was very apparent when Jorgi and Kova lost so many dangerous balls while complacently trying to tiki taka close our box, one of which resulted in their goal.

Mount while being individually worse than them just gives a new dimension to our play with his directness, his offball movement, runs into the box, his pressing. But who knows, maybe with him we get utterly dominated by City's midfield and not even get to the point where he could be dangerous.

If everyone is fit and on form, my choice would be a 4-2-3-1 with a Kante-Kovacic pivot, and either RLC or Mount at 10. Jorginho playing against park the bus teams.

Not sure if that's what Lampard will do, though.

Yea I wouldn't have thought Lampard would ever bench Jorginho considering the recent vice captaincy all the praise he gave him in the press, but with Kovacic's recent performances plus the fact that Lampard has been subbing Jorginho off for tactical reasons multiple times now indicates that he's leaning towards that direction.

Kante and Kova have been improving in their attacking presence compared to last season, but Mount just gives a whole new dimension to the team going forward.

And RLC, he had a much rigid and restricted role last season and he still showed so much class and personality. I can't wait to see him in Frank's free flowing system.

Katy Perry wrote:Yea I wouldn't have thought Lampard would ever bench Jorginho considering the recent vice captaincy all the praise he gave him in the press, but with Kovacic's recent performances plus the fact that Lampard has been subbing Jorginho off for tactical reasons multiple times now indicates that he's leaning towards that direction.

Kante and Kova have been improving in their attacking presence compared to last season, but Mount just gives a whole new dimension to the team going forward.

And RLC, he had a much rigid and restricted role last season and he still showed so much class and personality. I can't wait to see him in Frank's free flowing system.

Yeah, It'll be interesting to see what happens.

Amazing how important Tammy is for us, now.

Looks like we're signing Ziyech. Personally, I am quite happy with this. The transfer fee seems to be around 40m Pounds which is a decent price for a good player.

Given that we're losing Pedro and likely to spend big this summer, signing Ziyech early for a decent fee makes sense. It'll be interesting to see if we still go for Sancho or whether we opt for Boga on the cheap (or re-sign Willian) and inject all of our funds into signing a LB like Chilwell and a CF.

Regardless, doing a deal early is always good

Kick wrote:Looks like we're signing Ziyech. Personally, I am quite happy with this. The transfer fee seems to be around 40m Pounds which is a decent price for a good player.

Given that we're losing Pedro and likely to spend big this summer, signing Ziyech early for a decent fee makes sense. It'll be interesting to see if we still go for Sancho or whether we opt for Boga on the cheap (or re-sign Willian) and inject all of our funds into signing a LB like Chilwell and a CF.

Regardless, doing a deal early is always good

congratulations for signing the diamond of a player.
rest assured, he will be the best chelsea player... and he will come out as top 5 EPL player in coming seasons (given he stays fit and plays regularly).

he had one of the most assist for consecutive seasons since 2017... and he will do the same, tammy will likely get into one of the top scorer list in EPL next season onwards
the best left foot u guys will get since robben!

He honestly sounds like our Willian replacement, which I am quite happy about. I honestly think he'll do really well for us and given he is a Lampard signing, he'll have the managers backing too.

Kick wrote:He honestly sounds like our Willian replacement, which I am quite happy about. I honestly think he'll do really well for us and given he is a Lampard signing, he'll have the managers backing too.

yea i think given that willian is out of contract and no signs so far of being renewed, bringing a player of Ziyech calibre is a righteous one but i think that he will be more of a pedro replacement in RW as Ziyech plays in right with pulisic or mason in that respect covering the left.

also like u said, lampard advocates youth in the team and it works well for ziyech (although he is not that young) but definitely he has bit of both age and experience on him. seriously i really thought ziyech will go to barcelona but i kinda a feel like willian is the one who will end up at barcelona (or PSG)

I'm going to say it now, give Lampard at least three seasons before we make a call on him.

We all know this season is a write off due to the transfer ban, but he has shown enough that, given time and appropriate players, he can do great things with us.

Get a new GK, LB, Ziyech and get Tammy on the end of a lot of our chances, and we'll be a quality side.

I came here to say this - next season Ziyech will be ya all's standout performer of the season.
Today he started his first training session in Chelsea shirt.

Lampard is assembling what guardiola did few seasons ago with hosts of legit talents and this will be very good years for Chelsea.

JespSwe wrote:I came here to say this - next season Ziyech will be ya all's standout performer of the season.
Today he started his first training session in Chelsea shirt.

Lampard is assembling what guardiola did few seasons ago with hosts of legit talents and this will be very good years for Chelsea.

I am very excited by the team we are building, and hopefully Lampard is given the time to show how good it can be.

Kick wrote:

JespSwe wrote:I came here to say this - next season Ziyech will be ya all's standout performer of the season.
Today he started his first training session in Chelsea shirt.

Lampard is assembling what guardiola did few seasons ago with hosts of legit talents and this will be very good years for Chelsea.

I am very excited by the team we are building, and hopefully Lampard is given the time to show how good it can be.

the defense esp. CBs are a concern for u guys but really the rest looks absolutely solid. ur team looks like goal is going to come from everywhere that being said its no point when defense starts conceding goals equally.

ziyech has been hardly discussed except i and ajax fans here did so im gonna say again that ziyech is going to be a big time player for u guys... ; that guy is going to provide u so many good scoring opportunities.

JespSwe wrote:

Kick wrote:

JespSwe wrote:I came here to say this - next season Ziyech will be ya all's standout performer of the season.
Today he started his first training session in Chelsea shirt.

Lampard is assembling what guardiola did few seasons ago with hosts of legit talents and this will be very good years for Chelsea.

I am very excited by the team we are building, and hopefully Lampard is given the time to show how good it can be.

the defense esp. CBs are a concern for u guys but really the rest looks absolutely solid. ur team looks like goal is going to come from everywhere that being said its no point when defense starts conceding goals equally.

ziyech has been hardly discussed except i and ajax fans here did so im gonna say again that ziyech is going to be a big time player for u guys... ; that guy is going to provide u so many good scoring opportunities.

Honestly, I think the GK is a greater issue than CB. Zouma has shown that he should be our first choice at CB, Tomori has the ability to be an able partner and Rudiger is fine as well. I'd like an upgrade there, but I'd prefer a GK first.

It also seems like we're lining up a midfield and attack of:


That's a very technically sound, high pressing team, but would need a commanding CB and GK to finish it off. A GK would be more important as Zouma somewhat fits the role.