oldgit

Confidence and ego has a lot to do with it. If they're not playing, their value in the transfer market goes down, their agents, wary of their reduction in prospective transfer fees, are in their ear plus their standing amonst all the other egos in the squad is affected. The fact that they're pulling in a few hundred thousand pound a week is irrelevant in their eyes. If the manager doesn't like me, I'm not playing. Guaranteed there are a few of the senior players on the periphery, who are letting it be known to the rest of the squad, that they're unhappy and want out. Pulisic has had countless injuries over the years, which has affected his confidence to not only take defenders on, but roast them as well. Brilliant in his prime but that was 2-3 seasons ago. We still get the odd, good game out of him but now, they're few and far between.

That would be a bit short sighted by the board Keith. He will, in my opinion, be worth a lot more than that with more first team opportunities. I'm sure Pocchetino will give him every chance to prove his worth. He's young, dynamic and quick. Thiago, as much as I admire the bloke, has probably one season left, so there's room in the defence. Azpilicueta, a fantastic defender for us but now showing his age, will be gone this summer so there's another opening for someone on the right side. It looks like Mount is on his way out as a contract cannot be agreed.

I didn't see the game because of an electrical black out in the village but a very disappointing result on the back of, what I thought would be, a confidence building win at Bournemouth. Plus the thought of an incoming manager, I thought, would see an uplift in spirit by some players desperate to put on a show. It sounds like that didn't happen by all accounts. I was listening to a former colleague of Pocchetino this morning, in which he said that he "puts a lot of store on the character of a player he wants at his club." Judging by the last few months, he'll have his work cut out with most of this lot Mendy coming in got me thinking. Was Frank told to play him by Boehly to prove to any prospective buyers that he was fit and ready? Of course, Pocchetino will need to trim the squad but, with very little form to go on, some of these high earners especially, will find themselves going out on loan as they'll be virtually impossible to sell. Lukaku is like an albatross around the club's neck. His return will do nothing for me. I've never liked the bloke from day one. He makes Michail Antonio look like Usain Bolt. The situation with Felix is that the club want to loan him another year. We'll never see the best of him if he's being messed about by us and Athletico. I would definitely sign him but it looks like Boehly and co. will have to balance the books first.

I'll have our defence over there's any time. They've got Arsenal at home and Palace away after us, so they will fancy their chances against us. We score early though, and it will open up the game but, I reckon they'll always be looking to defend and counter if they're in with a chance.

Cucurella definitely Keith. I still can't forget Hall's nightmare last match. Or we could go three at the back with Fofana (a precautionary measure why he was left out last time) , Thiago and Badiashile. Maybe Havertz was a bit rusty last time as it seemed he was always a yard off the pace. Yeah, I like Colwill as well but he's got stern competition in defence. When he gets his chance, he needs to prove his worth as he's got the ability. With our new found confidence (?), we need to take the game to Forest, so Felix and Havertz as a front two with a five man midfield with two attacking wingers.

A very handy win with some good performances, none more so than Gallagher who was everywhere. Kante wasn't far behind, controlling the midfield in the early part of the game, when our confidence was low. The man just gets on with it. Badiashile got better as the game wore on. Madueke was a box of tricks and drove their wing back mad. Mudryk was quiet but there's a bomb under this bloke. He'll get better when he integrates into the squad. Note to Chelsea FC: Do not lose patience with him as we did before with Salah and De Bruyne The subs. by Frank worked with Felix showing his class. I wonder if the renewed energy from some is down to Pocchetino's impending arrival?

Apparently, Pocchetino has signed nothing yet. I like Mane but would he, at 31 years old, want to come to a club with no Champions League football at this time in his career? We don't want another Sterling!

Our central defence used to be our strong point, but now they are getting so pissed off with the lack of potency in attack and the lack of defensive effort in midfield, the cracks are beginning to show.

He did it! Aubameyang. The man walks on to the pitch and has that look that says "I do not want to be here, especially against my old mates". He pulls in a couple of hundred grand a week but that does'nt deter him. He goes out of his way to put in an abject 'performance' of such ineptitude, it's embarrassing. If he carries on this way, he will disappear into oblivion because no one will have him, not even the Turkish graveyard.

I'd hesitate to stick Mendy in goal, in a white hot game like this Keith. He's been out a hell of a long time

With important players like Reece, Mount, Cucerella, Koulibally, Havertz (?) out, and Aubameyang who's disinterested in life in general, it will be interesting who Frank starts with at Arsenal. They will undoubtedly put us under pressure so I would start with a back three, five man midfield and two forwards. To counteract the threat of their wingers, I would play two greyhounds in Mudryk and Madueke out wide, with Kante, Kovacic and Enzo in midfield. Thiago, Fofana and' unfortunately Chilwell as the back three. Felix and young David Fofana up front to chase down their dodgy centre backs.

Yeah, Kante was different class to the rest. I didn't see any non triers in this game, unlike the Brighton match. Most put in a shift but, with confidence rock bottom, as soon as things weren't going our way, the incisive passing disappeared and it was 'safety first, I'm not the one who makes a mistake' attitude. Brentford did make it hard to pierce the lines by packing their half and countering. Reece will be badly missed, Koulibally needs to get back quick as well as Mount. Manager wise, I don't mind Pocchetino, although Nagelsmann would have been my first choice. He's got the experience at the highest level and has the knowledge of coaching egos like Neymar, Messi and Mbappe. It might be good for us to get away from the pressure at Stamford Bridge and sit back to let teams attack us for once!

That was 20 times better than on Saturday against Brighton BUT, we must take our chances when presented and, of course, we didn't. There was no leadership on Saturday but here, Thiago was inspiring and Reece was immense. A surprising starting line up with Gallagher and Kante at the front pressing their defence. Personally, I would rather see Kante deeper with the play in front of him. He's far more effective there. Sterling, rumoured to be the butt of Boehly and co.'s anger in the dressing room dressing down (what a surprise!), came on as sub and started where he left off against Brighton....two bob. Felix and Mudryk did well although Felix has got to get out of the habit of throwing his hands in the air and running on another 20 yards into nothing territory, when he doesn't get his own way. I loved it when Kepa launched a right foot up Rodrygo's back side for trying to take the piss and walk the ball into the net. Now the Champions League is out of the way, let's see some bottle from the players, for the bread and butter games.

That was as poor as a Chelsea performance I've seen in a very long time. How is it that, when other clubs call on fringe players (Enciso for Brighton, Ellis for Everton), they fly against us but, when we ask our fringe players to step up. they can't get out of a slow walk? This expensively assembled rabble need to accept responsibility for their own actions on the field, instead of directing the blame on the coach all the f&^%*ng time. At the end, they have got to say to themselves, did I do my best? The answer is a resounding no. Luckily, we built up some points early in the season because this is definitely relegation form. One thing I will blame Frank for is falling into the same old, predictable trap that others have done. When you have an important game a few days away, why don't you play your best eleven in the FIRST half, then make changes at half time if you're that worried about fatigue? We might have the biggest, richest squad in the universe but, in the summer when it has to be trimmed down, other interested clubs will look at this lot and hold the club to ransom. I can see lots of loan arrangements because nobody will want to be landed with this timid pile of crap permanently. unless, there is a rapid improvement starting Tuesday. We'll start with Sterling. Laziness personified. I hear he's doing another vitally important Gillette commercial, so there's no way that he's going to risk ruining his looks on some non -descript football match. Chalobah, Fofana (Vinicius has definitely f*****d him up mentally), Baliashille early on, Zakaria and Pulisic looked like they'd been woken up from a deep sleep and rolled out of bed on to the pitch. When you've got this number of players on the pitch and out of form, you cannot win football matches, no matter who you're up against. Gallagher worked hard as usual but isn't the answer to our midfield. The one ray of light was Mudryk. Quick and incisive, he needs players around him on the same wave length.

I didn't see the game Keith. No positives to come out of it? How were Thiago and Kante? I'm all for being positive and, as we've discussed many times before, I like a person with an opinion, however outlandish, before the game starts. I don't know what the U.S media are like, but Todd's got to learn that they're like jackals feeding on a carcass in the UK. Don't give them anything. Guardiola doesn't!

Talksport, Daily Mail and the others? In the words of the great Bernard Cribbins "Gossip Calypso" sites. If, like Sky Sports, they sourced from The Sun? Lazy journalism.

No it didn't. You'll want to try reading your own posts through. Your initial piece, by Sky Sports, identified The Sun as the source of this information. I wouldn't believe The Scum if they told me the sun was setting.

According to The Sun? Oh, then it must be gospel.

As if Boehly would ask an opinion from that half wit.

Frank decided on a back four and, for the first five minutes, our passing was crisp and incisive. BUT, we didn't score so, the same old doubts came back and we became negative and edgy, passes going astray and the work rate dropped. That first half was purgatory. The second half was a lot better because we became more positive, getting the ball forward and creating chances. A question, is there anybody that can take a corner at the club? For all his talent, Reece was abysmal at that and the free kicks were equally poor. Sterling annoys the f*** out of me with his 'don't care' attitude. Runs up more blind alleys than I've had hot dinners. Gallagher runs his cobblers off but doesn't have that turn of pace to get away from people. No room in the Premier League for tortoises in midfield and attack. The game on Wednesday will be totally different, where we will be the team on the back foot and they will have to break us down. We'll be on the counter this time.

"Your wish is my command, O Master!" It looks certain that Frank will take over, at least until the end of the season. Time will tell but I think that's a good move by the board. Looking at the reports from the tabloids, you'd think it was a 90 minute borefest against Liverpool. I'm sure some of them don't watch the game, look at the 0-0 scoreline, and assume it was a crap. I thought it was an interesting game, with some terrific link up play from us, resulting in chances that we couldn't put away or stopped by VAR. Bloody confidence! Many stand out performances starting with Felix, who was a constant thorn in Liverpool's side (sign him up permanently now), Kante who never ceases to amaze me. You'd think he'd never been away for 5 months! Koulibally was excellent against two very dangerous forwards in Jota and Darwin and many others who played there part.

Agree that Terry should be more involved. His knowledge of the club and personnel would be invaluable to whoever replaces Potter. I'd be surprised if we see Conte again this season. He's had a serious illness and hasn't given himself much time to recover, and that outburst a couple of weeks ago, was his sign that he wanted out. My opinion is that we need a good, young manager who's full of himself. Another Mourinho in his pomp and not the shuffling old greybeard he is now. Young enough to identify with the young squad we've got but aloof enough to show that he is the guvnor.

Yeah Keith, one of those days where, whatever we did, wasn't going to amount to anything so, the piss was taken and we were then punished accordingly. The experiment with Mudryk, playing as a central attacker, isn't working so back on the wing with him where he can attack the full back. We need young Wesley to return for Tuesday so Reece can play where he's best suited, as an attacking winger. A painful lesson in not taking your chances when their available.

The exodus begins. The head groundsman and his son have just been given the boot.

We seem to lose concentration and focus when we went ahead both times. It seemed like some players thought their job was done, when we scored, and stopped working. Particularly galling is the number of corners we got which came to nothing yet, from their second, they manage to scramble an equaliser. Definitely upset the rhythm of the team when Forfana and Kovacic came off.