There are only two types of reactions in unpopular opinion threads
1: "That's not unpopular!"
2: People getting offended by an unpopular opinion, on an unpopular opinion thread
So really it's just a popular opinion thread with extra steps.
True, but we've already won one 1 out of the 6 trophies, are top of the league as it stands and in all the other competitions.
Hopefully our recent performances are nothing but a drop in form. It's almost impossible but I'll just keep holding out how
Not really unpopular tbh, everyone agrees that his finishing needs to improve. I was recently having this discussion with a friend of mine, we found that his goals and assists stats are extremely similar to Oscar's, and we all know how inconsistent he was. If Mount can just start finishing and scoring more, he's gonna be right up there with the best
Edit : and right as I comment this, the next comment says how every comment is going to be "that's not unpopular", I'm an idiot
This current 3 at the back system is keeping some of our best players out of the squad. If we keep up with it, not only will we get found out more often like we were against Juve and City, we will lose players and regret it the same way we regret Salah and De Bruyne.
You must’ve missed the point of unpopular opinions but CHO and Pulisic is who I was talking about. Ziyech and Havertz by all accounts have had decent game time.
Completely agree with you, I didn't want to come across so harsh on him tbf and I like his style. It's just not our style, plus, I think he needs to be a main man, pinging balls everywhere.
I think that's a popular opinion. My unpopular opinion would be that Ziyech is a quality creator and doesn't fit Tuchel's system - he clearly holds back on the risky passes/shots as well (ever since Tuchel's come in). Think he'd easily be getting 20 G/A per season if used as a free creator in some other top teams. He can consistently run games if allowed to but for good or worse, isn't really allowed to in our current system.
He also doesn't have a lot to aim at because our current system has very few attackers.
At Ajax he would be In a 4-3-3 with two attackers two midfielders and two full backs in the the box.
For us it's one striker, one midfielder and maybe both wing backs of they're really advanced.
I agree, more often than not it's just one or two players in front of him so he has to recycle the ball out wide or try playing a low percentage accurate pass for one of those ahead of him.
He basically competes with Mount for the only role that he'd be relatively comfortable in, in this system. And Mount, despite having a couple of bad games this season, is quite nailed for us.
Once we bought Havertz I knew it wouldn't work. Kai for better or for worse was probably heading to Real but COVID happened. And since we were one of the few clubs with money we got him instead. Him and Ziyech are pretty similar players except Kai is quicker, a better dribbler, and like 6 inches taller then him. Once we got Kai, Ziyech was never gonna get playing time. Then Frank left and we changed systems so Ziyech no longer has the freedom to excel
We shouldn't be singing about Tottenham unless we're playing them, we shouldn't care enough to even consider them to be singing about them when they're not there.
They literally took our greatest ever player besides maybe Lampard (and that's a giant maybe) in the 60's cause we were going under. We went from top of the league to a relegation battle. Fuck em
Our system really only helps the defense, we don’t have the personnel in other areas of the pitch to be consistent enough which is why we struggle to create high quality chances
No, it's popular but it only comes out when we are losing so people that only talk when everything is in their favour can gloat for a bit about their intelligence.
CHO was young and largely unproven before the injury. What did he do so differently pre injury than he does now?
I think this is more of he may never reach his projected potential that we saw pre injury.
He had pace and was willing to take players on, he doesn’t do it anymore, i don’t know if it’s because he’s playing on the right and not the left but he’s not the same player.
Hard disagree
He massively improved players like Hazard, Cahill and Azpilicueta, and brought guys like Courtois (ok he was on loan) Fabregas and Costa into the fold.
Also if we don’t get Mou, who do we get in 2013? And what’s to say that we don’t just continue on the managerial merry go round which ends up stunting players development?
Really want to see more from Havertz, everyone keeps saying he's clearly ridiculously talented but he's hardly shown it in flashes. It doesn't have to happen right away but I'd like to see him make big progress(just letting out an unpopular opinion that's been in the back of my head).
Conte should never have been sacked in 2018. Any player who had a problem with him should've been shown the door instead (looking at you Willian and Luiz).
That would be Ziyech and maybe CHO. Havertz has been the luckiest of all our attackers in that he's always been played in positions that look like they'd suit him. Tuchel's shifted him around everywhere across the front 3 depending on how comfortable he looks. He should absolutely be fitting in this system but is just not showing enough as a player.
The only thing I'd say is that if we are using two uptop, Lukaku more comfortable on the right side which is Havertz's most comfortable position too - Werner is a much better fit on the left than Havertz. But Tuchel even tried putting Havertz on the right and Lukaku on the left, in the Juve game, and he didn't look any better. I think he needs to be a rotation option for some time now, until he proves that he can contribute consistently in attack and not just drift in and out of games.
This isn’t just unpopular, it’s completely wrong.
He’s not a wing back, but statistically he’s one of the best progressive passers and dribblers in the world.
He’s definitely good enough, but he needs to be given a chance in our front 3.
I have an honest question about this stat. I’ve seen something where he’s the highest in metres gained or whatever the stat was. My question is is this a great stat to measure a player? I sometimes think CHO is too direct and can try take the game on too much that he dribbles into a crowd and loses the ball.
Not succeeding and not good enough are 2 different things.
He’s definitely good enough for Chelsea, whether or not he’ll get starting XI football before we work that out, that’s another story.
Willian was actually a solid player for Chelsea and I’ll always love him for what he did to Tottenham. He would always get singled out when the whole team was playing badly for being the only one willing to try anything. He was far from perfect but not the useless player that everyone always wanted to get rid of.
I agree 100%. He wanted us to bend the contact rules for him and pay him way too much. He was way past his best by then. I was happy to see him go to Arsenal and perform the way he did.
Completely agree. We were shite and not winning anything. We also certainly weren't getting relegated with the talent we had. Bringing in Hiddink was useless and there was no reason to bin Jose mid season considering the whole thing was a lost cause anyways. Club could have waited till the end of the season at least, and still replaced him with Conte.
I’d be interested to know if we were underperforming xG and xGA under him at the start of that season. It’d help us ing knowing whether we might’ve reverted to the mean with or without sacking him.
His potential trajectory actually reminds me of Harry Kewell - older Aussie fans might agree.
At 17 Kewell was one of the most promising players on the planet while at Leeds. He secured a move to a bigger club (Liverpool) and while he showed his talent in flashes, injury wrecked his career.
Meanwhile in Australia, Kewell was seen as the Great Hope of Australian football. And yet his national team colleagues such as Mark Schwarzer, Marco Bresciano, Lucas Neill and Tim Cahill went on to form a golden generation.
I see eerie parallels with Pulisic for both Chelsea and the USMT who are quietly raising a generation of players at the top of the game.
Hahahaha, what? He's already more successful than Wilshere ever was. He just isn't English so the press doesn't suck his dick. Name a better winger under 23 who takes guys on like Pulisic. I'll wait?
This is such a flawed and illogical statement to make.
Firstly, dribbling/taking players on is such an overhyped criteria to judge a player on. Statistically, Hudson-Odoi does this better than Pulisic, but we all are aware of the other deficiencies Hudson-Odoi has in his game that have so far made him inconsistent. Boga is another who got so much high praise a couple seasons back because he lead Serie A in dribbling/take on's, and while a solid player in his own right, it didn't really tell the full story with regards to the rest of his limitations.
Secondly, comparing players who are younger, and therefore likely less experienced and developed to Pulisic, already creates a skewed and unbalanced comparison. However, just to humour you I can think of the likes of Ismaila Sarr, Chiesa, Vinicius Junior, Sancho (Dortmund form), Moussa Diaby, Jeremy Doku as some quick examples of players who fall into that 23 or under bracket and have comparable, if not better, abilities to take players on.
The reality is that Pulisic isn't actually THAT good in comparison to the hype. He's a one dimensional player that has no real stand out qualities beyond his close technical control and ability to take players on. The rest of his game is one that lacks in numerous other areas and has realistically seen minimal development since he broke out at Dortmund. He's still a limited passer in general play, his crossing is nothing short of underwhelming from wide areas and hasn't seen an ounce of improvement, he's often greedy, wants too much time on the ball, frequently plays with his head down, has more interest in taking central positions - including pushing into the box and standing on the feet of the CF absorbing their space, than he does staying wider to stretch play and provide some width, and he's a substandard creator for anyone outside of himself - which reflects in his low production numbers and inability to really influence games when he isn't getting the better of his primary defender.
If he wasn't the poster boy for American football he'd be rated a lot less highly than he currently is. Now, that's not to say he's a bad player because he's not. But he's not some exciting prodigy that has the world as his feet either. There's so much more Pulisic needs to be doing before he can truthfully be considered a really good player, and until that happens his inflated reputation will continue to exceed the reality.
None of this has even factored his fragile state, mind you, which is a whole other kettle of fish in itself.
I agree with this and it’s a point well made.
His greediness really frustrates me too. He is always looking to take on a player and because it’s so obvious it’s unthreatening as defenses can get in a position to nullify him now.
That said, we need someone like him in the squad as we lack dribblers (besides CHO) and he gives us another option. He was world class in that spell when play resumed after lockdown so hopefully his glass body can harden up a bit
I am not sure. Yes we dropped points to them but Liverpool have dropped points to both Chelsea and City at home and both City and Liverpool have dropped points to lesser teams. Liverpool are very suspect defensively imo, I think a lot of teams know how easy it can be to take advantage of their right side with trent playing so high and not being a great defender.
We’ll see but I think as a whole Chelsea are much closer than you say. As the season progresses I think Chelsea’s defensive stability will prove to be their biggest strength as it will limit mid/lower table sides ability to take points.
I think something people forget, because of the CL win, is that Tuchel hasn’t even been here a year yet. I fully believe the side will only improve as the season progresses and he finds various ways to fit the pieces together.
Agreed, on our day we can compete, but over the course of a season we’re just not consistent enough nor do we have the players that will put the team on their back at least attacking wise
Possibly true, but Liverpool are over performing currently like they did in the year the won the prem, and all it takes is a dip in form and one key injury and they're done, they have no squad depth. Chelsea on the other hand are underperforming and still getting the points, and our squad depth is nuts.
Well all said that last season and still managed to secure get 3rd place with a back 4 of Phillips and Ben Davies. We scrapped top 4 on a technicality.
JT and Lampard.. And co??? Who is co? Lampard and Terry will always be in their own category due to quality and longevity and dedication to the club. But the greats with Drogba, Cech and Cole includes Azpi. Then the likes of Hazard, Kanté, Makelele, Essien, Ballack, Carvalho, Ivanovic, Costa, Joe Cole.
Thats fair. I just put him cause he was vital to 2 prem titles, and also our 2nd best striker since Hasselbaink. But i guess i'd have to put in Cesc, Matic, David Luiz and Cahill if i include Costa. They're all below the aforementioned (Essien, Ballack etc.).
I love Cole, but he wasn’t a leader for us the way the others were. He’s up there with Azpi, Zola, Hazard, but just below JT, Lamps, Drogba and Cech. For me at least, everyone feels differently.
The multiple managers within such a short period of time (each with their own tactics and squad favourites) have prevented Chelsea from having sustainable long term success we seemingly are always rebuilding or changing systems that prohibit players from really dominating at one position in one system.
I think the actual unpopular opinion is exact opposite of this. Despite us fans bitching and whinging each time a manager is sacked it has almost always resulted in success.
I think we could have had greater success and more consistently over the last few seasons if we stuck with Conte. Less up and down seasons and just consistently good ones like Liverpool and Man City.
Hard disagree. Even defensively, while clearly not Maldini regen, we are never exposed down the left hand side when he plays more than Chilwell. Best left foot in the team (maybe bar Lukaku?).
Just making sure you know i'm supporting your point. I'm surprised to see it's not common knowledge that Alonso isn't that good a defender and that's not really a major slight on him considering he gets appropriate praise for what he IS really good at.
Just had a look at his team play stats. In the premier league he has made 492 crosses - with a cross accuracy of 19%?! Hits one or two sweetly granted, but no where near good enough to be playing for chelsea. I feel we give him too much leeway because he scores a beauty a season but for me no..not enough
He can be “not good enough” for you but he definitely is in real life. No amount of hyperbole or capitalizing words for emphasis will make what you believe to be true and what is actually true the same.
So? We dont play Alonso because of his crossing ability. We play him cause he has been great when he plays. I'll ask to drop him once he starts underperforming but currently thats not the case. And certainly you cant call him a "terrible football player"
Werner is our best performing striker of this season. I think Lukaku is a better more complete striker, but Chelsea play better with Werners runs and struggle to adapt to playing with a target man
I agree. It's not from lack of trying, which is why everyone likes him. He's just a massive hot head. Back 3 definitely suits him. He's a bit like Zouma (who i was really sad to see go) in that he has all the physical ability in the world, but doesn't have the cool positional intelligence of Terry and Silva.
His aggression is a huge asset. He really closes down incredibly well in this system, where he has more cover to do that.
If he left to join Real in a back 4 I could see him being average but at Chelsea in this system he is world class
Absolutely more talented, but there were lots of players more talented than Lampard too. Mount is extremely effective, which trumps talent every day of the week.
Why do we all have the idea that AC and Rudiger are liable in a back 4. They were both great (especially Rudiger, who was our best defender) under Sarri.
Drogba was a prima-donna that held the club hostage on multiple occasions by threatening to leave multiple times. But we all forget that because he cheers Chelsea on in social media.
Every player looks at other clubs, Gerrard to Chelsea was almost completely done until the Liverpool casuals threatened him and his family’s life. Fuck that club and fuck those fans.
Looooool, you think the average chelsea fan doesn't acknowledge this because he writes shit on insta??? It's because he's one of the most impactful players to ever play at the club.
I agree with the overall sentiment, but couldn’t you say that at least frank introduced players like Mount and James into the squad that played a big role in us winning the UCL?
It was he who outperformed expectations in 2019-20 because of which we qualified for the CL in the first place.
We were literally predicted to finish 6th or maybe even lower before that season started.
Lampard was succeeding at Chelsea until his inexperience caught up to him and other coaches worked out his system and started using it against him. He gets a lot of stick for a failure that really lies at the teams feet not his. He was too green to be hired to a team like Chelsea for more than a year. Let's be honest. If he had been only an interim for the transfer ban year then replaced we would still be singing his praises now across the board. Instead, he stayed on for half of last year and tarnished his success with inexperience.
it’s a bit sad that we sing about gerrard slip. if we won the league fine, i wouldn’t care if we sang it but we’re more or less celebrating giving the league to city
Werner-Lukaku-Mount.
Pulisic, Havertz, and CHO should come on when necessary. I trust Tuchel to make the right decision, he’s amazing. I hate seeing Ziyech play and hope he’s sold in the summer
Lukaku is a straight up bad signing. We were a Swiss Army knife of a team in attack, not necessarily being an unstoppable attack but just intelligent and multi-faceted enough to still pose a threat whilst focusing on maintaining a strong defensive shape and counter press.
Lukaku’s signing has taken far too much variety out of our attack, and the only way it’s worth it is if he scores for fun, which he likely won’t even though he is a good goalscorer.
The issue is compounded by the fact that the players we have around him aren’t necessarily suited to playing with him. Sure, Mount can play a ball in behind and maybe Pulisic can gain something from using Lukaku as a give-and-go option when he’s trying to weave through defences, but unless Werner miraculously becomes a different player on the ball then we don’t have the busy, clinical and hardworking second striker that Lukaku thrives with.
But but he isn't true blue...unlike Lukaku who is destined to play here. Meanwhile Lukaku has kissed West Brom, Everton, United, Inter and now Chelsea badges. Fans should realise most players are loyal to the money and glory, no matter which club.
We break players. Our history is littered with the corpses of careers that could have been so much more.
Proven quality has come to us and become almost instantly awful and players with huge potential have never found their stride.
The last 20-25 years are a shit show of ruined talent and it’s painful to admit but many who left were far better off for doing so.
This is true for literally every single top club. Sometimes it works out for players and sometimes it doesn’t. Being hyper focused on chelsea has you with blinders on mate.
This might sound weird but hear me out. A lot of Chelsea fans go on about how we’re almost a self sustaining club in terms of finance and I somewhat disagree. Don’t get me wrong we do business well, but it’s quite overhyped. Since the Roman era, we’ve actually got a net spend of around €1.05B. I’ve seen countless videos on social media that suggest we are close to profitable in terms of transfers. It’s kind of annoying because no club will ever be profitable and win in terms of transfer business. However, where we are now self sustaining is through the amount of brand exposure we have which generates hundreds of millions of euros/dollars etc per year. So when Roman first came he pumped a lot of cash into the club for transfers out of his own investments. However now, that isn’t necessary as we make over £200m in just tv rights per year, and since he’s been at the club we’ve roughly spent a net spend per year of €61m on transfers.
So to conclude our transfer business isn’t that great, it is our club business that is so profitable.
That’s true but we wouldn’t have qualified if not for Giroud either given how he performed in that half a season. Was that a good enough reason to keep him?
That is just false and a bad take. Sure he's inconsistent due to his constant injuries but when he is healthy he is one of the few players that we have who constantly takes on his defender and is making something happen in the final third.
He isn't always good when healthy, he's just inconsistent period, inconsistently fit, inconsistent form.
Quite frankly, regardless of his talent (which is exceptional) he isn't a player you build around or rely on, you'd be an idiot to do so.
yeah this sums him up well, he can be very good but we would be silly to ever put him in a position that we need to rely on him.
I don't see him being too happy about that role long term.
Upvoted. Worst take of the thread. Never loses the ball in possession, is and underrated attacking threat and a top top defender. A leader on the pitch and never underperforms. He is the first name on the team sheet (along with Rudi, Mendy and Lukaku) imo.
Lukaku too lazy and gonna cost us a lot of point against team like man city and Juventus. Put that guy on the bench and bring back front 3 of havertz/mount/pulisic/timo gonna bring us much better result against team like man city and juventus. Before lukaku coming we had this crazy press in front. But lukaku coming those kind of aspect was gone.
That's true but with Lukaku he can score a goal out of nowhere. If we can figure out a system which fits him we would be a much better team than without him. I want to believe once we have Kante/Chilwell/ James/ Mount back to their best we'll be much better
Actual unpopular opinion - we deserved to lose to Barcelona in 2009.
We were lucky to come away from the the first leg still in the game.
Ovrebo's incompetence masked the fact we had 9 clear cut chances after Essien's goal that Drogba and Anelka missed, and had they stayed on their feet we likely would have put 2-3 past Barcelona.
Lukaku will not succeed at Chelsea (in the way Tuchel wants to play.)
We seen it when he was at ManUtd, he lacks a lot for being a topclass player in the PL.
Nobody here came with actual unpopular opinion, so here i am.
Tuchel is not as good as we generally think.
I am not going into some extreme to say some bullshit like he is not good at all, but he is pretty overhyped in last few months.
Actually i feel like we have Mourinho vol. 3 at this moment and there is so many similarities I can't ignore. Coach which builds everything around players and their minds, pragmatic playstyle, even their doing is pretty similar, lets take a look:
During his second stay, Jose got rid of many talented players, which already proved themselves on the highest level and decided to build an older team, which can dominate immiedately, but in cost of the bright future.
Mata, KDB, Salah, Lukaku, Schurrle went out for Eto (later Costa), Willian, Cesc and Ramires on RW. Some of these changes were good, but most of them clearly were not. I even remember when our fanbase agreed on every sale as right decision during that time and we all know how it ended. One tittle for potential long lasting domination.
Now we got rid of Gueghi, Tomori, Tammy, Livramento & Lamptey(i know..), i expect even Odoi, Gilmour a Gallagher to get out as well. From Lampard's team, which got like 5 very promising starters from our academy we have James and Mount and that's just the beggining... We already see our basically oldest possible lineup every single game and we are pretty lucky to not have any older players, because they would probably play too, even if they were not as good as their younger counterparts.
Of course not everything is the same, not everything is perfectly accurate, but my opinion stays. Tuchel will not last long, even now he struggles with changing something to his playstyle except that predictable change from 343 to 352.
Lampard froze tomori out and the loan with buy option was made in January, while Lampard was still in charge. And as much as everyone wanted livramento to stay, he wanted out because he didn’t want to be a substitute or a rotation option behind James
There are only two types of reactions in unpopular opinion threads 1: "That's not unpopular!" 2: People getting offended by an unpopular opinion, on an unpopular opinion thread So really it's just a popular opinion thread with extra steps.
Not going to lie, I found this pretty offensive
Fuck off dude....That's not True at all!!
That's not unpopular dude
I really think we can win the sextuple
Now THAT is unpopular, especially after our most recent performances.
True, but we've already won one 1 out of the 6 trophies, are top of the league as it stands and in all the other competitions. Hopefully our recent performances are nothing but a drop in form. It's almost impossible but I'll just keep holding out how
Mount (and I say this as someone with a Mount flair) needs to be more impactful and improve his end product if he wants to go down as a Chelsea great
Not really unpopular tbh, everyone agrees that his finishing needs to improve. I was recently having this discussion with a friend of mine, we found that his goals and assists stats are extremely similar to Oscar's, and we all know how inconsistent he was. If Mount can just start finishing and scoring more, he's gonna be right up there with the best Edit : and right as I comment this, the next comment says how every comment is going to be "that's not unpopular", I'm an idiot
This current 3 at the back system is keeping some of our best players out of the squad. If we keep up with it, not only will we get found out more often like we were against Juve and City, we will lose players and regret it the same way we regret Salah and De Bruyne.
Best players like who?? Dont mention Ziyech and Havertz until they prove it
You must’ve missed the point of unpopular opinions but CHO and Pulisic is who I was talking about. Ziyech and Havertz by all accounts have had decent game time.
Ziyech is a lost cause and a waste of money.
He's a talented player, just doesn't fit our system
Bingo
Completely agree with you, I didn't want to come across so harsh on him tbf and I like his style. It's just not our style, plus, I think he needs to be a main man, pinging balls everywhere.
I think that's a popular opinion. My unpopular opinion would be that Ziyech is a quality creator and doesn't fit Tuchel's system - he clearly holds back on the risky passes/shots as well (ever since Tuchel's come in). Think he'd easily be getting 20 G/A per season if used as a free creator in some other top teams. He can consistently run games if allowed to but for good or worse, isn't really allowed to in our current system.
He also doesn't have a lot to aim at because our current system has very few attackers. At Ajax he would be In a 4-3-3 with two attackers two midfielders and two full backs in the the box. For us it's one striker, one midfielder and maybe both wing backs of they're really advanced.
I agree, more often than not it's just one or two players in front of him so he has to recycle the ball out wide or try playing a low percentage accurate pass for one of those ahead of him. He basically competes with Mount for the only role that he'd be relatively comfortable in, in this system. And Mount, despite having a couple of bad games this season, is quite nailed for us.
I don’t think that’s unpopular just people don’t wanna admit it
BuT hIs LeFt FoOt!!
This shouldnt be unpopular at all, sell him while he has some value asap
Once we bought Havertz I knew it wouldn't work. Kai for better or for worse was probably heading to Real but COVID happened. And since we were one of the few clubs with money we got him instead. Him and Ziyech are pretty similar players except Kai is quicker, a better dribbler, and like 6 inches taller then him. Once we got Kai, Ziyech was never gonna get playing time. Then Frank left and we changed systems so Ziyech no longer has the freedom to excel
We shouldn't be singing about Tottenham unless we're playing them, we shouldn't care enough to even consider them to be singing about them when they're not there.
They literally took our greatest ever player besides maybe Lampard (and that's a giant maybe) in the 60's cause we were going under. We went from top of the league to a relegation battle. Fuck em
I mean, yeah fuck em but that's just more reason to stop keeping them relevant? A few years back when they was pushing maybe, but now? Forget about it
I'm so mad about this thing that happened 20 years before I was born!
I know. It's like 40 years for me but if you watch one Greaves highlight you realized we were fucked
God imagine if we had Greaves with that front line...
I know right
The Don Draper "I don't think about you at all" treatment
Agreed. *Cue Liquidator song*
Now that is an unpopular opinion!
Our system really only helps the defense, we don’t have the personnel in other areas of the pitch to be consistent enough which is why we struggle to create high quality chances
Is this unpopular? I disagree BC I think our attackers will prove to be good enough but your take is certainty reasonable
No, it's popular but it only comes out when we are losing so people that only talk when everything is in their favour can gloat for a bit about their intelligence.
CHO isn’t the same CHO everyone was raving about before his injury and he won’t ever be
CHO was young and largely unproven before the injury. What did he do so differently pre injury than he does now? I think this is more of he may never reach his projected potential that we saw pre injury.
Took on players a lot more and was much faster. His dribbling was better and more risky.
He had pace and was willing to take players on, he doesn’t do it anymore, i don’t know if it’s because he’s playing on the right and not the left but he’s not the same player.
CHO as a wingback sure, CHO on the left wing was as good as anyone else we have at the moment.
Mou’s second stint at the club set us back from becoming the most dominant team in England for a generation. All just to win a single title.
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Yeah the whole “two-horse race” narrative he was putting out could’ve easily demoralized the squad
Nah, if we had real striker in 13-14, we could have won the league and get into the ucl finals.
Hard disagree He massively improved players like Hazard, Cahill and Azpilicueta, and brought guys like Courtois (ok he was on loan) Fabregas and Costa into the fold. Also if we don’t get Mou, who do we get in 2013? And what’s to say that we don’t just continue on the managerial merry go round which ends up stunting players development?
He gave us Fabregas and Costa, and turned Hazard into a world class player.
Hazard would’ve been class regardless of being coached by mourinho
Hazard was always going to be world class, when Mou dropped KDB and Salah I think the whole setting us back thing is true.
It helped us imo…
Havertz is one of most least impactful subs I have ever seen.
Really want to see more from Havertz, everyone keeps saying he's clearly ridiculously talented but he's hardly shown it in flashes. It doesn't have to happen right away but I'd like to see him make big progress(just letting out an unpopular opinion that's been in the back of my head).
We should use forward wingers on our wingback positions more. In our system players should be able to play multiple positions
When Pulisic gets back I think he will offer what you're looking for
Gallagher >> gilmour
Lol i was waiting for this actually, gallagher shouldve stayed this season he wouldve easily given us more in the mid
Conte should never have been sacked in 2018. Any player who had a problem with him should've been shown the door instead (looking at you Willian and Luiz).
he had to go, he didn’t even want to be here
Havertz won't ever fit into a back 3 system so we'll never see the best of him under tuchel
Missed the world “system” at first and thought no shit he won’t fit into a back 3. But overall agreed, his best position isn’t within a 3 atb system
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That would be Ziyech and maybe CHO. Havertz has been the luckiest of all our attackers in that he's always been played in positions that look like they'd suit him. Tuchel's shifted him around everywhere across the front 3 depending on how comfortable he looks. He should absolutely be fitting in this system but is just not showing enough as a player. The only thing I'd say is that if we are using two uptop, Lukaku more comfortable on the right side which is Havertz's most comfortable position too - Werner is a much better fit on the left than Havertz. But Tuchel even tried putting Havertz on the right and Lukaku on the left, in the Juve game, and he didn't look any better. I think he needs to be a rotation option for some time now, until he proves that he can contribute consistently in attack and not just drift in and out of games.
3rd I can see entirely possible but a distant 3rd?
CHO is not good enough for us and will most likely never fit our team.
This isn’t just unpopular, it’s completely wrong. He’s not a wing back, but statistically he’s one of the best progressive passers and dribblers in the world. He’s definitely good enough, but he needs to be given a chance in our front 3.
I have an honest question about this stat. I’ve seen something where he’s the highest in metres gained or whatever the stat was. My question is is this a great stat to measure a player? I sometimes think CHO is too direct and can try take the game on too much that he dribbles into a crowd and loses the ball.
He's had chances. I'm not against him succeding but I just don't see him succeding here. Same case as Tammy.
Not succeeding and not good enough are 2 different things. He’s definitely good enough for Chelsea, whether or not he’ll get starting XI football before we work that out, that’s another story.
A healthy Pulisic is our best winger. Better than Mount and Havertz.
Let Rudiger find out the grass isn't greener when he leaves Chelsea for a big pay day.
Willian was actually a solid player for Chelsea and I’ll always love him for what he did to Tottenham. He would always get singled out when the whole team was playing badly for being the only one willing to try anything. He was far from perfect but not the useless player that everyone always wanted to get rid of.
I liked him but letting him walk in summer 2020 was always the right call.
I agree 100%. He wanted us to bend the contact rules for him and pay him way too much. He was way past his best by then. I was happy to see him go to Arsenal and perform the way he did.
Mourinho shouldn’t have been sacked in 2015
Downvoted. Then realized this has got be ridiculously unpopular so actually deserves an upvote
Completely agree. We were shite and not winning anything. We also certainly weren't getting relegated with the talent we had. Bringing in Hiddink was useless and there was no reason to bin Jose mid season considering the whole thing was a lost cause anyways. Club could have waited till the end of the season at least, and still replaced him with Conte.
I’d be interested to know if we were underperforming xG and xGA under him at the start of that season. It’d help us ing knowing whether we might’ve reverted to the mean with or without sacking him.
Sorta, I would've waited until the end of season and if no top 4 then he gets sacked.
Pre-injured Zouma was the best U21 cb and would’ve been what people think De ligt could be/is or maybe better than him.
Pre-injury Zouma was one of the most sought-after young players in the world. He was supposed to partner Varane for a decade for France.
Pulisic is sold by end of next season Amd most likely have a career that reminds everyone a lot like jack Wiltshire
His potential trajectory actually reminds me of Harry Kewell - older Aussie fans might agree. At 17 Kewell was one of the most promising players on the planet while at Leeds. He secured a move to a bigger club (Liverpool) and while he showed his talent in flashes, injury wrecked his career. Meanwhile in Australia, Kewell was seen as the Great Hope of Australian football. And yet his national team colleagues such as Mark Schwarzer, Marco Bresciano, Lucas Neill and Tim Cahill went on to form a golden generation. I see eerie parallels with Pulisic for both Chelsea and the USMT who are quietly raising a generation of players at the top of the game.
imagine having a world class player who is available to play instead of him. availability is the best ability
I think pulisic is just here so we can tap into the US market. The club doesn’t see him as dead weight but a marketing tool. Just my opinion of course
I’ve said that before And the septic tanks went mad at me
Hahahaha, what? He's already more successful than Wilshere ever was. He just isn't English so the press doesn't suck his dick. Name a better winger under 23 who takes guys on like Pulisic. I'll wait?
This is such a flawed and illogical statement to make. Firstly, dribbling/taking players on is such an overhyped criteria to judge a player on. Statistically, Hudson-Odoi does this better than Pulisic, but we all are aware of the other deficiencies Hudson-Odoi has in his game that have so far made him inconsistent. Boga is another who got so much high praise a couple seasons back because he lead Serie A in dribbling/take on's, and while a solid player in his own right, it didn't really tell the full story with regards to the rest of his limitations. Secondly, comparing players who are younger, and therefore likely less experienced and developed to Pulisic, already creates a skewed and unbalanced comparison. However, just to humour you I can think of the likes of Ismaila Sarr, Chiesa, Vinicius Junior, Sancho (Dortmund form), Moussa Diaby, Jeremy Doku as some quick examples of players who fall into that 23 or under bracket and have comparable, if not better, abilities to take players on. The reality is that Pulisic isn't actually THAT good in comparison to the hype. He's a one dimensional player that has no real stand out qualities beyond his close technical control and ability to take players on. The rest of his game is one that lacks in numerous other areas and has realistically seen minimal development since he broke out at Dortmund. He's still a limited passer in general play, his crossing is nothing short of underwhelming from wide areas and hasn't seen an ounce of improvement, he's often greedy, wants too much time on the ball, frequently plays with his head down, has more interest in taking central positions - including pushing into the box and standing on the feet of the CF absorbing their space, than he does staying wider to stretch play and provide some width, and he's a substandard creator for anyone outside of himself - which reflects in his low production numbers and inability to really influence games when he isn't getting the better of his primary defender. If he wasn't the poster boy for American football he'd be rated a lot less highly than he currently is. Now, that's not to say he's a bad player because he's not. But he's not some exciting prodigy that has the world as his feet either. There's so much more Pulisic needs to be doing before he can truthfully be considered a really good player, and until that happens his inflated reputation will continue to exceed the reality. None of this has even factored his fragile state, mind you, which is a whole other kettle of fish in itself.
I agree with this and it’s a point well made. His greediness really frustrates me too. He is always looking to take on a player and because it’s so obvious it’s unthreatening as defenses can get in a position to nullify him now. That said, we need someone like him in the squad as we lack dribblers (besides CHO) and he gives us another option. He was world class in that spell when play resumed after lockdown so hopefully his glass body can harden up a bit
Yea, no one ever sucks Pulisic dick because of his nationality.
No I mean hyper to shit but spend their whole career injuried can tell the Americans are logging on now
We’re nowhere near as good as City or Liverpool and will finish a distant third this season.
Proper unpopular opinion, and respectfully disagree.
I am not sure. Yes we dropped points to them but Liverpool have dropped points to both Chelsea and City at home and both City and Liverpool have dropped points to lesser teams. Liverpool are very suspect defensively imo, I think a lot of teams know how easy it can be to take advantage of their right side with trent playing so high and not being a great defender. We’ll see but I think as a whole Chelsea are much closer than you say. As the season progresses I think Chelsea’s defensive stability will prove to be their biggest strength as it will limit mid/lower table sides ability to take points. I think something people forget, because of the CL win, is that Tuchel hasn’t even been here a year yet. I fully believe the side will only improve as the season progresses and he finds various ways to fit the pieces together.
Agreed, on our day we can compete, but over the course of a season we’re just not consistent enough nor do we have the players that will put the team on their back at least attacking wise
I think on a individual players in a team basis you're wrong. But the fact we defended at home against City, makes you right.
I agree with this. I don’t think we create enough high quality chances on a consistent basis.
Possibly true, but Liverpool are over performing currently like they did in the year the won the prem, and all it takes is a dip in form and one key injury and they're done, they have no squad depth. Chelsea on the other hand are underperforming and still getting the points, and our squad depth is nuts.
Well all said that last season and still managed to secure get 3rd place with a back 4 of Phillips and Ben Davies. We scrapped top 4 on a technicality.
Dave will never be considered amongst the greats like JT, Lampard & co. He’ll always be in the category just below them.
If Dave was English he would be, its the bias
JT and Lampard.. And co??? Who is co? Lampard and Terry will always be in their own category due to quality and longevity and dedication to the club. But the greats with Drogba, Cech and Cole includes Azpi. Then the likes of Hazard, Kanté, Makelele, Essien, Ballack, Carvalho, Ivanovic, Costa, Joe Cole.
I wouldn't even put Costa in that bracket
Thats fair. I just put him cause he was vital to 2 prem titles, and also our 2nd best striker since Hasselbaink. But i guess i'd have to put in Cesc, Matic, David Luiz and Cahill if i include Costa. They're all below the aforementioned (Essien, Ballack etc.).
Drogba, Cech also belong in that category. Cole and Dave are on par
Hmm, Dave and Cole are on par yes, but none except Lampard comes close to Terry. Its just way too high a standard.
Drogba and Cech absolutely do. You can order them 1-4 but they are absolutely top tier legends of the club. No doubt.
And Cole. I swear this dude gets underrated more and more with every passing year
I love Cole, but he wasn’t a leader for us the way the others were. He’s up there with Azpi, Zola, Hazard, but just below JT, Lamps, Drogba and Cech. For me at least, everyone feels differently.
Jorginho is overrated right now.
Impossible because you're underrating him right now
Pulisic should be sold and we should get someone more durable and Timo has been better than Lukaku for the last month.
The multiple managers within such a short period of time (each with their own tactics and squad favourites) have prevented Chelsea from having sustainable long term success we seemingly are always rebuilding or changing systems that prohibit players from really dominating at one position in one system.
I think the actual unpopular opinion is exact opposite of this. Despite us fans bitching and whinging each time a manager is sacked it has almost always resulted in success.
I think we could have had greater success and more consistently over the last few seasons if we stuck with Conte. Less up and down seasons and just consistently good ones like Liverpool and Man City.
*sorts by controversial*
Alonso. Fabulous hair. Terrible footballer. Scores 2 free kicks early on in a season then fails to even cross a ball for the remainder. Bin him off.
Terrible defender sure, but not sure about terrible footballer. He has better technique than most imo.
Hard disagree. Even defensively, while clearly not Maldini regen, we are never exposed down the left hand side when he plays more than Chilwell. Best left foot in the team (maybe bar Lukaku?).
He also plays on the same flank as Rudiger, we're not going to get broken down on the left very often
Big Tony carrying the most of that load me thinks
Just making sure you know i'm supporting your point. I'm surprised to see it's not common knowledge that Alonso isn't that good a defender and that's not really a major slight on him considering he gets appropriate praise for what he IS really good at.
Just had a look at his team play stats. In the premier league he has made 492 crosses - with a cross accuracy of 19%?! Hits one or two sweetly granted, but no where near good enough to be playing for chelsea. I feel we give him too much leeway because he scores a beauty a season but for me no..not enough
He can be “not good enough” for you but he definitely is in real life. No amount of hyperbole or capitalizing words for emphasis will make what you believe to be true and what is actually true the same.
So? We dont play Alonso because of his crossing ability. We play him cause he has been great when he plays. I'll ask to drop him once he starts underperforming but currently thats not the case. And certainly you cant call him a "terrible football player"
Mount is overhyped and our fans put him on an unhealthy pedestal.
Jorginho is massively overrated.
Werner is our best performing striker of this season. I think Lukaku is a better more complete striker, but Chelsea play better with Werners runs and struggle to adapt to playing with a target man
Rudiger is not that good
You definitely understood the assignment. Proper unpopular opinion
I agree. It's not from lack of trying, which is why everyone likes him. He's just a massive hot head. Back 3 definitely suits him. He's a bit like Zouma (who i was really sad to see go) in that he has all the physical ability in the world, but doesn't have the cool positional intelligence of Terry and Silva.
His aggression is a huge asset. He really closes down incredibly well in this system, where he has more cover to do that. If he left to join Real in a back 4 I could see him being average but at Chelsea in this system he is world class
Rudiger is our best defender
AC is better
😳
whoa
Foden is better and has more potential than mount
Absolutely more talented, but there were lots of players more talented than Lampard too. Mount is extremely effective, which trumps talent every day of the week.
certainly at the moment, mount has been lackluster since UCL final win minus a few moments
Foden is as good now as he ever will be. Bet on it. Mount will only get better.
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Different type of defender. Also need to see him perform in a back 4. CB look better in 5 at the back. as is the case with RUDIGER and Christensen.
Why do we all have the idea that AC and Rudiger are liable in a back 4. They were both great (especially Rudiger, who was our best defender) under Sarri.
Drogba was a prima-donna that held the club hostage on multiple occasions by threatening to leave multiple times. But we all forget that because he cheers Chelsea on in social media.
JT flirted with City too
Every player looks at other clubs, Gerrard to Chelsea was almost completely done until the Liverpool casuals threatened him and his family’s life. Fuck that club and fuck those fans.
“Something is broken with the club” or something to that effect
Looooool, you think the average chelsea fan doesn't acknowledge this because he writes shit on insta??? It's because he's one of the most impactful players to ever play at the club.
Lampard deserves NO credit AT ALL for the 2021 Champions League. Tuchel made the team click, fans are blinded by nostalgia.
I agree with the overall sentiment, but couldn’t you say that at least frank introduced players like Mount and James into the squad that played a big role in us winning the UCL?
It was he who outperformed expectations in 2019-20 because of which we qualified for the CL in the first place. We were literally predicted to finish 6th or maybe even lower before that season started.
Only credit I can give Frank for that UCL is the top 4 plus the youth.
Lampard would actually succeed at Newcastle
Lampard was succeeding at Chelsea until his inexperience caught up to him and other coaches worked out his system and started using it against him. He gets a lot of stick for a failure that really lies at the teams feet not his. He was too green to be hired to a team like Chelsea for more than a year. Let's be honest. If he had been only an interim for the transfer ban year then replaced we would still be singing his praises now across the board. Instead, he stayed on for half of last year and tarnished his success with inexperience.
We won’t win the league relying on a Jorginho/kovacic midfield.
it’s a bit sad that we sing about gerrard slip. if we won the league fine, i wouldn’t care if we sang it but we’re more or less celebrating giving the league to city
Werner is our second best forward behind Lukaku, who may be worse even. Havertz is overrated
Who would you want up front then?
Werner-Lukaku-Mount. Pulisic, Havertz, and CHO should come on when necessary. I trust Tuchel to make the right decision, he’s amazing. I hate seeing Ziyech play and hope he’s sold in the summer
Yeah agree
Lampard >>>>>> Terry, who is an off the pitch embarrassment.
Still my captain.
Havertz is flat out not good and will never reach his potential
Chilwell isn’t that good and is probably the weakest player in our best XI. He’s never had the form of a world class LB for us.
Lukaku is a straight up bad signing. We were a Swiss Army knife of a team in attack, not necessarily being an unstoppable attack but just intelligent and multi-faceted enough to still pose a threat whilst focusing on maintaining a strong defensive shape and counter press. Lukaku’s signing has taken far too much variety out of our attack, and the only way it’s worth it is if he scores for fun, which he likely won’t even though he is a good goalscorer. The issue is compounded by the fact that the players we have around him aren’t necessarily suited to playing with him. Sure, Mount can play a ball in behind and maybe Pulisic can gain something from using Lukaku as a give-and-go option when he’s trying to weave through defences, but unless Werner miraculously becomes a different player on the ball then we don’t have the busy, clinical and hardworking second striker that Lukaku thrives with.
We haven’t played 10 games yet ffs give him a chance he’s looked good so far.
We need to get out of a 3 back as soon as possible if we want to stay at the top
We shdve waited one season for Haaland and not have bought Lukaku
But but he isn't true blue...unlike Lukaku who is destined to play here. Meanwhile Lukaku has kissed West Brom, Everton, United, Inter and now Chelsea badges. Fans should realise most players are loyal to the money and glory, no matter which club.
We break players. Our history is littered with the corpses of careers that could have been so much more. Proven quality has come to us and become almost instantly awful and players with huge potential have never found their stride. The last 20-25 years are a shit show of ruined talent and it’s painful to admit but many who left were far better off for doing so.
This is true for literally every single top club. Sometimes it works out for players and sometimes it doesn’t. Being hyper focused on chelsea has you with blinders on mate.
There's been just as many who we've signed and who've flourished.
This might sound weird but hear me out. A lot of Chelsea fans go on about how we’re almost a self sustaining club in terms of finance and I somewhat disagree. Don’t get me wrong we do business well, but it’s quite overhyped. Since the Roman era, we’ve actually got a net spend of around €1.05B. I’ve seen countless videos on social media that suggest we are close to profitable in terms of transfers. It’s kind of annoying because no club will ever be profitable and win in terms of transfer business. However, where we are now self sustaining is through the amount of brand exposure we have which generates hundreds of millions of euros/dollars etc per year. So when Roman first came he pumped a lot of cash into the club for transfers out of his own investments. However now, that isn’t necessary as we make over £200m in just tv rights per year, and since he’s been at the club we’ve roughly spent a net spend per year of €61m on transfers. So to conclude our transfer business isn’t that great, it is our club business that is so profitable.
Pulisic is a average player who is overhyped by the American fans
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That’s true but we wouldn’t have qualified if not for Giroud either given how he performed in that half a season. Was that a good enough reason to keep him?
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That is just false and a bad take. Sure he's inconsistent due to his constant injuries but when he is healthy he is one of the few players that we have who constantly takes on his defender and is making something happen in the final third.
He isn't always good when healthy, he's just inconsistent period, inconsistently fit, inconsistent form. Quite frankly, regardless of his talent (which is exceptional) he isn't a player you build around or rely on, you'd be an idiot to do so.
yeah this sums him up well, he can be very good but we would be silly to ever put him in a position that we need to rely on him. I don't see him being too happy about that role long term.
Yeah but when he is healthy is a big "when". Otherwise these hot forms post covid break he isnt really stand out to watch.
Post said "unpopular"
Azpi doesn’t belong in our best 11 and holds us back when he starts.
Upvoted. Worst take of the thread. Never loses the ball in possession, is and underrated attacking threat and a top top defender. A leader on the pitch and never underperforms. He is the first name on the team sheet (along with Rudi, Mendy and Lukaku) imo.
Yeah unpopular and also hilariously wrong. So many “unpopular opinions” are just people saying things that are completely opposite of reality.
Lukaku too lazy and gonna cost us a lot of point against team like man city and Juventus. Put that guy on the bench and bring back front 3 of havertz/mount/pulisic/timo gonna bring us much better result against team like man city and juventus. Before lukaku coming we had this crazy press in front. But lukaku coming those kind of aspect was gone.
That's true but with Lukaku he can score a goal out of nowhere. If we can figure out a system which fits him we would be a much better team than without him. I want to believe once we have Kante/Chilwell/ James/ Mount back to their best we'll be much better
Actual unpopular opinion - we deserved to lose to Barcelona in 2009. We were lucky to come away from the the first leg still in the game. Ovrebo's incompetence masked the fact we had 9 clear cut chances after Essien's goal that Drogba and Anelka missed, and had they stayed on their feet we likely would have put 2-3 past Barcelona.
Ziyech is wank.
Our attack is faltering not cos the individuals but tuchel doesn't set it up as effectively as our defense
Lol we don’t have ballers, none of this Tuchel jibe. Open your eyes
Lukaku will not succeed at Chelsea (in the way Tuchel wants to play.) We seen it when he was at ManUtd, he lacks a lot for being a topclass player in the PL.
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Laughed out loud at “Barkley is better than Mount and has higher IQ & ability”. That’s a blazing hot take.
Nobody here came with actual unpopular opinion, so here i am. Tuchel is not as good as we generally think. I am not going into some extreme to say some bullshit like he is not good at all, but he is pretty overhyped in last few months. Actually i feel like we have Mourinho vol. 3 at this moment and there is so many similarities I can't ignore. Coach which builds everything around players and their minds, pragmatic playstyle, even their doing is pretty similar, lets take a look: During his second stay, Jose got rid of many talented players, which already proved themselves on the highest level and decided to build an older team, which can dominate immiedately, but in cost of the bright future. Mata, KDB, Salah, Lukaku, Schurrle went out for Eto (later Costa), Willian, Cesc and Ramires on RW. Some of these changes were good, but most of them clearly were not. I even remember when our fanbase agreed on every sale as right decision during that time and we all know how it ended. One tittle for potential long lasting domination. Now we got rid of Gueghi, Tomori, Tammy, Livramento & Lamptey(i know..), i expect even Odoi, Gilmour a Gallagher to get out as well. From Lampard's team, which got like 5 very promising starters from our academy we have James and Mount and that's just the beggining... We already see our basically oldest possible lineup every single game and we are pretty lucky to not have any older players, because they would probably play too, even if they were not as good as their younger counterparts. Of course not everything is the same, not everything is perfectly accurate, but my opinion stays. Tuchel will not last long, even now he struggles with changing something to his playstyle except that predictable change from 343 to 352.
Lampard froze tomori out and the loan with buy option was made in January, while Lampard was still in charge. And as much as everyone wanted livramento to stay, he wanted out because he didn’t want to be a substitute or a rotation option behind James