It could be that they are just not suited to the EPL. I remember seeing Cuadrado for the first time in a Chelsea shirt and couldn't believe how easily he was bullied off the ball. Then it happened again, and again, and again. He looked quite shocked at how physical life could be in the PL. Strange really, looking back on his career so far he has played as an attacking wing-back on occasion ?

All the top teams have games when they create 20+ chances.
Against the best teams last season we created very few chances. In the second half of the season there was one spell of four games when we had something like 3 or 4 shots on goal during the entire four games.
If we are going to progress we need more firepower! Costa does his job when fit and Hazard does his bit, though even he needs to score a few more from open play. We need to replace those players who are not doing thier bit! No need to say who thet are!

Zouma is testament to that. When Cahill's form took an absolute nosedive around the new year, Zouma stepped in and hardly put a foot wrong. The_don1 mentioned something in the last page about Stones not looking out of place if he played against City (too lazy to quote it, sorry!), but Zouma has already done that. Remember that perfectly timed tackle Zouma made on Aguero? He was faultless in our home match to City last season. Let's not forget his performances against Liverpool and Spurs too - against Liverpool he handled the pace of Sterling very well and against Spurs, even though he was playing out of position, he did exactly what was asked of him which was to sit in front of our defence. I'm not trying to say Zouma is perfect (his timing for his jumps needs improving), but he has performed for us when we needed him the most.

Honestly, what can Stones offer that would even make him worth £30(+) million? Thiago Silva, the second most expensive defender in history, a full Brazilian international and Serie A champion, cost PSG £36 million FFS! The inflation for English players is crazy. Stones has the potential to become a very good player, but with that sort of money we could buy a CM who can actually improve us in the big games/CL campaign.


It's looking like we might head into the season with Hazard, Willian, Cuadrado, Moses and Traore as our wingers next season unless other clubs meet our asking price. I don't really have much of a problem with Moses coming back as a squad player due to his home grown status and I'm excited to see what Traore can do (he's left footed and has a very good finish on him - https://streamable.com/a4j3 -- Link for all his goals last season) but the one player I was hoping we would upgrade on this summer was Cuadrado. He's not comfortable with dealing players coming from behind him which is an absolute necessity given how physical the PL is. Cuadrado has quite a slim build but so does Oscar, and I've never seen Oscar get dispossessed in the same manner that Cuadrado has.

Easy to say they should be replaced but not to do.

We either buy those who 100% can do the job better or we gamble.

Those who are 100% able to do either offer little or no value for money or unavailable. That takes us to buying those who might be able to do a better job. You have to take educated risks (Stone for example) at this level. If you have someone who can do a job or someone who might do a better job its hard pressed to make a argument for gambling on someone. Its much better to wait for the someone who can do the job 100% to either become available or offer value for money.


This BUY BUY BUY culture has to end.

Instead of buying better players the manager has to make the players he has better. That's the whole point of the manager, There is not one Chelsea player in the first team who should not be able to have a much better season then last

sorry to intrude, but I really wish someone would say this to the Spurs fans that believe our squad isn't good enough for Pochettino to be able to do ANYTHING with

Our results against the top teams were fine last season. We didn't create many chances and restricted the chances the opposition created to very few well. That's just what tends to happen when the best teams are playing each other.
I've already agreed with you, we do need more firepower. When we dominate possession and create 20+ chances, we shouldn't be struggling to close out games. But that doesn't mean we should be getting rid of Willian and Oscar (as I'm guessing you're suggesting)..it just means we need alternatives, depending on the game and opposition.
Ideally, we'd go out and find another Frank Lampard. Someone who could create, tackle, track back, run all day, and score us 20+ goals a season. When you look back now, that guy was some player !

I think every club in Europe would want what lampard gave. Midfielders scoring 20 goals a season is unheard of.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yv8edZ2XLdg

He looks quality, and there are shades of JT

Will be interesting to see how Bamford gets on at Palace this season, hopefully his progress continues.

Anyone have an opinion on this Rahman player we've been linked with as Luis' replacement?

Only just turned 21 years old, he looks another fine prospect. Terrific pace, great crosser of the ball, more of a wing-back than a traditional full back. Not particularly strong, built more like Ramires, and I've read his positional play can be suspect. That would be a worry If an ageing JT was needed to cover. Another for the future I would have thought, we will miss the experience of Luis as a back-up.

Watched the game last night.
Only a friendly but it's safe to say that Mikel, Cuadrado and Moses should be nowhere near being starters.
Begovic had a decent half and Falcao looked reasonably sharp.
Not a bad game overall.

I thought Moses had a decent game, his contribution was one of the few plus points in my opinion. Mikel was just awful, even forgetting his blunder that cost us the goal. Cuadrado had one chance, brought the ball down brilliantly, but then dithered around with it. If he had rifled the ball into the net we might all be singing his praises..at least until the next game.
Over the 90 minutes, PSG looked the better side. With better finishing they could have been 3 goals up at half time. We improved in the second half, and as you say Falcao looked a lot sharper than I had expected. I actually quite enjoyed it, but having been starved of football for weeks, that wasn't surprising. The Courtois penalty was worth staying up for, no keeper on earth would have stopped that.

I thought Moses did ok too and it's nice to have someone more direct on the right again. Bear in mind too that he's had very little time working under Mourinho over the last couple of years so it'll be interesting to see how he develops and whether he can give Willian some proper competition for a starting spot. Ideally we'd bring the likes of Pedro in, but if we're sticking with what we've got in the attacking positions then I'd sooner he played over Cuadrado any day.
PSG looked the better side up until we equalised but I think they're further ahead with their pre-season, so probably a bit sharper? Still think we need to strengthen our midfield with someone to play alongside Matic. Mikel poor again but what's new? Looks like he's going nowhere though.
As for the new signings Begovic made some decent saves and Falcao looked lively when he came on. Early days for him but I was glad he put his penalty away. Terrific penalty from Courtois too.

For PSG, Lucas Moura caused us no end of problems in the first half. He looked genuinely world class. But I understand he's not a regular starter ? Presumably it's because he's inconsistent, otherwise I'm surprised nobody has come along with a cheeky offer ?

What did it tell us?

Mikel at fault for the PSG goal. I'm not having a go at him, and he's a good, solid squad player to keep, but it only takes one lapse of concentration at the highest level, and that can be the difference between winning and losing.

Thibaut? We've arguably got the best keeper in the world now, AND he can score goals!

Falcao? Looks dangerous, hopefully a bargain at £0 in transfer fees. After Sheva and Torres, the club is due a bargain.

Basically, the squad looks balanced and hungry. We need a left back, and there's still a big question mark over Cuadrado. A bit more time there, plus we've got Moses who is a lot stronger and has skill and goals in him as well.

It's looking good imo

Think it would be difficult to persuade PSG to sell, they don't exactly need the money.

I can't see Moses getting starts. Sure he did ok but he's not good enough to be in a team challenging for the title, IMO.
I wouldn't be surprised if Jose gave him some game time for potential buyers to see him.

Moses is unlikely to displace Willian as first choice, but he should now be first in the queue as a replacement option, in my opinion.
I know it was only a fairly meaningless pre-season game, but again Cuadrado didn't show us much. I would have liked to see us bite the bullet and sell Cuadrado, even at a sizeable loss. If we could then have brought in Pedro, we would have had our AM set for the next couple of years. Hazard, Pedro or Willian on the left. Oscar, Willian or Fabregas in the centre. Willian, Pedro, Moses (or Traore) on the right. Then there are loan players like Jeremie Boga coming through. Terrific potential, whether he'll make it or not we don't know.
Of course, a mega signing (like Bale) would be great, but it doesn't seem to be on the cards for the near future. It looks as if we are going to be more frugal in our transfer dealings until the stadium is completed. The drawback is that finding reasonably priced players who can be guaranteed to improve the squad is not easy.

Personally I prefer Oscar playing deeper, as he did when he came on last night. If we're not bringing in any more midfielders then maybe we should look at doing that more often…. Oscar alongside Matic with Fabregas taking up the central AM position on a more regular basis?

Oscar is a good tackler, no reason why he cannot play there

Am I the only one who thought Moses should never of gone on loan in the first place? He had an incredibly good first season for the European Champions scoring 10 goals. He also had a relatively good pre season in America that year too. I think he is an upgrade on Salah, but I still beg the question to you all where have we actually improved?


Begovic is a downgrade but the best we could get, Rahman looks likely but he is a downgrade on Luis. Falcao may score a few more than Drogba but we have lost that dressing room presence. Moses is an upgrade on Salah but Cuadrado IMO is a downgrade on Schurrle. So is it fair to say we have downgraded since last season? (The start of). Meanwhile our rivals are strengthening. It is a bit worrying even if we sign Stones I do not believe it would of strengthened us that much

I don't think I could argue with any of that. On paper we don't appear to have improved, and Jose has more or less admitted that. He was quoted as saying that he wants more from the players he's already got, and warned that there wouldn't be any marquee signings.
I would take Petr Cech over Begovic every day of the week, but we've done the best we can to replace the big man. I do think Falcao will be an upgrade, he's still only 29 years old, Drogba was 37 before last season ended. That's an enormous difference in footballing years.
The return of Moses should strengthen us in depth, Traore and Loftus Cheek the same. But I'm not sure any of them will become automatic starters. The same could be said of Rahman and Stones, if we do end up getting them. They are both players with tremendous potential, but are they ready to step straight into the back four of a team like Chelsea ?
Basically, the team that runs out for Chelsea in the Charity Shield picks itself. There might be a couple of new faces on the bench, but no major surprises. Of course that doesn't mean we won't improve. More consistency from Oscar and Fabregas would make a big difference for starters. Zouma is a year older and wiser, he was another who had a very good game against PSG last weekend. Willian might actually be persuaded to take a few shots on goal, perhaps remind him that he was quite good at it before joining us.

No, I questioned that at the time. That's why I'm quite surprised that Mourinho suddenly appears to see a place for him within the squad now.

Cudrongo is so bad that he makes Moses feel like a much better option.

I wanted to keep schurle. However, Moses and Salah are good players to have on the bench. They are fast, mobile and can attack players. You cannot gave too much ove in a term, especially on the bench.

I would have taken Walcott from arsenal if we had chance

Anyone going to watch the Barcelona v Chelsea game tomorrow morning ? Probably doesn't finish until about 3am, so I'm not so sure I'll bother.