These kids need some EQ training to control themselves better. That was a lousy foul to give, especially when already on a yellow and we are still leading 2-1 and when we haven't even reach the 2nd half, to be so aggresive in winning the ball back. In my mind, Caicedo was almost about to lose his head as well. These young bloods, really.

Good to see we still manage to win this, luckily. Sanchez did some good save but how many goal kicks did he end up sending to Poch/sdelines, my God.

Will Nkunku and Lavia be ready for the ManUtd game?

After that, we are back to playing against the "smaller" team.....hope we don't revert Charity FC.
So far our "scary" run of games, we didn't do too badly.


This post has been edited by Lahaha: Dec 4 2023, 02:38 PM

I suppose with the "bigger" teams, they have pride and ego and willing to go head to head with us, vs other teams who are willing to defend deep and wait for opportunity, which results have shown to be super effective against us at the moment.

Good FA Cup draw for us, maybe some young lads can come out and play a bit.

Not so good for Arsenal or Liverpool as they drew each other.

Been awhile since we had 2 matches in a week.
Tonight, sleep earlier wake up earlier.

Thought we gave it a different go with the starting lineup, which was refreshing to see Jackson and Sterling benched and giving Broja and Mudryk a chance to start and prove themselves. Palmer was good. Mudryk wasn't too bad and created some chances.

Enzo really deteriorated. Last year we didn't have a DM so Enzo had to defend and also become the creator. Now we have a proper DM, Caicedo and Gallagher in the middle as a passing lane, Enzo is no longer making those visionary passes that we thought he should be doing.

Also we are f-ed lacking in attacking players, James hasn't been making much forward runs and now is injured again ffs. Cucurella is not the offensive type like Chilwell who makes late runs into the box. Madueke, Chukwuemeka out injured. Nkunku still not ready, I wonder what is not ready, his jersey with his name and number not ready?

So now Poch is openly saying he needs support in the January transfer. Who to buy and who wants to join us (minus youngsters who wants a steady 8 years contract worth of potential gaji buta).




After spending all that money, buying so many "talented" individuals do not create a squad. Just a bunch of players playing for themselves in a game with no chemistry. Time is necessary to build chemistry but we cannot do that when we are only playing once a week and every week we play like a bunch of Dads forced to participate in their children's Parents Day football match.

This post has been edited by Lahaha: Dec 11 2023, 02:16 PM

We are not even top six anymore. Even if we are just referring to our previous old "label" I would chose none as a FM. I would say our best player right now is Palmer but I might find someone else who is clicking better with their teammates in other top six clubs.

Palmer has been great in carrying the ball and bringing the ball forward.


For some reason, Enzo is not making those forward passes. Also some of his passes are too short/low/soft and easily intercepted by opponents. Look at the so few forward arrows


Gallagher has been essential in moving around as a passing lane and retrieving the ball, however the only downside is he is more defensive minded and not a risk taker. He will usually just side or back pass it without looking up and trying to make that killer pass. Cannot brain it if we going to sell Gallagher. I am hoping Poch can train the guy to look up and find the wingers instead to the DM, defender or GK.

Gallagher's absence was definitely felt during the ManUtd.

Now, though we have ball possession in the Everton game, we lacked the ability to finish it but are we creating enough chances? The lack of chemistry with the strikers, Broja and lack of finishing skills - Jackson, maybe we are not trusting the strikers enough to make that run and finish the play.
Sell Chalobah, Maatsen and even Broja if we confirm trying to get an elite level striker and I definitely will hold on to the thought of letting Gallagher go. He got stamina and good injury record (hope I don't jinx it). Heck, I would put James ahead to sell before Gallagher.

sauce


This post has been edited by Lahaha: Dec 13 2023, 02:54 PM

At the moment, I think the single individual player that can fetch highest fee will be Gallagher. Regular starter, endless energy, good injury record. His traits will definitely be very useful to some managers. They tested the market at around 50m. I won't be surprised if someone came for him at 60m ish.

They definitely need to balance the books

What a game to forget (1st half) and to remember (in the final minutes).

Poch should really play the right players in the right positions. Disasi is a solid stocky guy for a CB but he is definitely not a RB. He doesn't run forward in the final 3rd, he doesn't made forward plays and link up with the wingers, he doesn't cross the ball to the strikers. He is just there by the half way line.

The moment we put Maatsen and Gusto in as the LB and RB, the game changed as we have new avenues to attack.

Mudryk was rusty (lousy movement and bad passes) when he first came on but he was quick to react and pounced on the opportunity. I was so worried that he (and Gallagher) will not have the composure to score the penalties but they did well, especially facing the Newcastle fans. Appreciate the spirit Mudryk shown when Bruno took out Maatsen in a swiping tackle and Mudryk ran and faced off Bruno.

Petrovic was good. If I am not mistaken, he dove to all the correct directions for all the pens and that save was remarkable.

They will want to blame it on their pileup of injuries but hello, we ain't that much better than them regarding our injury list. Proud to see them off and redeemed ourselves after our loss to them. Not convincingly but it gets the job done.
They cannot blame Trippier's mistake in injury time because they also only managed to score due to our mistake.

We move on to the next round of this Mickey Mouse Cup!

This post has been edited by Lahaha: Dec 20 2023, 02:17 PM

A chance at getting a Mickey Mouse cup.
Won't be easy against Liverpool, assuming both of us reach the Final. They dispatched off West Ham so easily and confidently.

Well, a positive is that is a European Cup that we haven't won before (if I am not mistaken).


It is for Liverpool to lose, judging by our current performances. That is if we can reach the Finals.
Eh, I didn't know EFL Cup semi-final is a 2 legged game. Okaylah, play Boro twice, more games for us to watch (hopefully not frustrating performances)

And I wonder if Gallagher will still be around in Jan. I believe quite a huge portion of the fanbase believes in him (me included) and wants to see him continue at the club (he himself included).
Or will the owners really piss (most of) us off by selling him. Some fans who still think he is "just someone who runs around like a headless chicken" and don't mind him being sold.....but for what purpose? Hope not another 2-3 kids that "bulu pun belum panjang" type.

This post has been edited by Lahaha: Dec 21 2023, 12:09 PM

How many times Poch want to play players out of position. We have proper RB and LB in Gusto and Maatsen but he stubborn want to play Colwill and Disasi there. Colwill got cooked by Olise. Only when Poch took out Colwill and put Gusto from RB to LB, we challenged Olise but we lost a proper RB because Poch shifted Disasi to become a RB. Disasi passing, movement, crossing is just pathetic as a RB. He is a wall like CB but cannot play as RB.

Luckily Madueke came in on the right side and caused an impact.

Lucky win, I would say. I would like to see Gusto and Maatsen playing in their proper positions as our fullbacks with Mudryk and Madueke on both wings with Palmer in the middle while Nkunku try as the CF.

I can understand giving Jackson time, maybe consider on a loan elsewhere if we bring in a proper CF. Right now Chelsea is under pressure to win games and fans are not appreciating him missing easy chances and always being offside. Luckily this game he had some good passes. Hopefully he is building some chemistry with Mudryk, Nkunku and Palmer. Saw they were attempting some creative passes.

I hope we will go for a ready CF "Victor", not another "promising" young talent "Viktor". We are already 2 seasons in midtable, no one is patient anymore, unless we start a string of winning games to give some breathing space.

So far Gusto been good too, his movement from right to left to compensate Colwill's lack of offensive move on the left to create the first goal. Dude's face looks seasoned, hard to imagine he is only 20yo.

This post has been edited by Lahaha: Dec 28 2023, 02:02 PM

A lot of people say Toney, but this guy hasn't played a game for how long already? Still fit and does he still keep his goalscoring boots?

We were leading 3-0 when I wasn't watching it and we concede 2 goals when I started watching. Guys, I think the problem is me.

Lucky win though

My wife always asks me why I bother to wake up 3 something in the morning to watch some games, they always lose when I watch them. The days that I didn't wake up to watch them, we won.

She wasn't wrong. *teary eyes*

He is not helping himself with poor lineup selection.
I can understand he could be experimenting something but we are not winning enough games to accept an one-off disappointment performance because we are testing something (eg. Palmer as false 9) because the disappointment keeps on piling on. I pay RM40 to stream from Astro smoothly in HQ only for Chelsea games also feeling wasteful, imagine those match going fans paying good quid moolah.

Who dares to say, experimenting in Middleborough is okay because we are going to smash it when we bring it back to the Bridge for the second leg. Who dares to say? No one.
For one, Middleborough can just park the 10 players in front of the GK and hold on FTW and they know damn well we are absolute garbage against low block or they could sneak in a one time wonder counterattack goal against us.

Only thing to look forward is the transfer news, hoping we buy someone that an average current football fan with no scouting knowledge can recognize. I am about to had it with Poch. Nearly there but also know "we need time." Perhaps time is for another person to take charge.

And I wouldn't mind if we actually got Werner back on a loan. Out of our 3 forwards from the UCL winning team, Werner was the only one I absolutely respected for his work rate and pitied his luck. Would love to wish Werner the best, but not at Spurs.

This post has been edited by Lahaha: Jan 11 2024, 03:25 PM

I am about done with Poch. No consistency. Playing players out of their natural position. My brain wants to give him until end of the season but my heart cannot tahan already.

Mourinho 3.0? I recall his contract with Roma is reaching the end also. What other big-name managers are available soon?

I want to give the man time and "trust the process" but it is difficult to do when he plays a CB as LB and put a LB as LW while there is a proper LW on the bench. Maybe it was just a one time thing to give Chilwell some unstressful minutes on his return.

If Poch keeps on doing that and we lose the game, the "process" we can try to trust but we cannot trust that gaffer anymore.
I mean, we all want the players to be really drilled into their specialised roles. I don't think now is the time to experiment players' alternative roles.

This post has been edited by Lahaha: Jan 16 2024, 12:18 PM

Mourinho kena sacked by Roma.

Time to bring him home for the Final Round 3.0?

Or should we try to bring in Benzema on loan? Will he become another Higuain?
Or Giroud/Silva, old but gold

Will it be another night of shame, this time at the Bridge against Boro?
Broja probably won't play since he is one of the potential outgoings.

Gusto injured, so again we don't have two proper RB and LB. Please no Colwill as LB and Chilwell as LW.

Probably have to make do with Disasi as RB. Palmer as false 9 again? No Nkunku too. Put newbie Washington upfront?

False 9 doesn't work well for us. Let's hope we don't do that again against Liverpool.

Aiyo. 4.15am punya match....but it is a holiday (for KL peeps).