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Alex Sandro

The weakest squad?

I remember having Ba, Torres and Eto as our forward options.

Hazard will come back, Bakayoko will come in and be a monster and we'll sign a couple of players. It'll be fine.

 
wallosh said:
Why are you reading too much into this preseason games?
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The season starts in 13 days and our first 7 games are Burnley, Everton, Leicester, Arsenal, Stoke and City.

Our pre-season was short and it's fine if we lost if we fielded youth teams but we didn't. We fielded close to our full strength team with our most important player unavailable for at least a month and our main formation has been sussed out by European teams. 

I have PTSD from the Mourinho season

 
BleedChelseaBlue said:
How can we possibly sign 4 or 5 more players...its simply not feasible to sign 10 players in one summer 
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Ask the board, cause they do this. They should have buy someone in the winter and not sell almost all of our alternative option. From winter till now, they sold 11 players and last year Conte said our squad is thin.
O my godness, what he will say now ?
Pretty sure he is far, far from happy.

I hope it`s not happen, but 1 injury on Kante for example and the season is over, before it starts.

Whatever you look it, we need atleast 5-6 guys.

 
Deino said:
The season starts in 13 days and our first 7 games are Burnley, Everton, Leicester, Arsenal, Stoke and City.

Our pre-season was short and it's fine if we lost if we fielded youth teams but we didn't. We fielded close to our full strength team with our most important player unavailable for at least a month and our main formation has been sussed out by European teams. 

I have PTSD from the Mourinho season
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The difference is in preseason Conte likes to run training sessions before matches which other teams don't necessarily do.

Conte is know for his teams having poor preseasons as a result so I wouldn't get to upset by it.

 
charierre said:
An injury to Kante,Alonso or Moses in next week's Community Shield could seriously damage our seasons prospects. Little wonder Conte is asking for additions sooner rather than later.
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I think this is the key point. We are very thin and largely in areas where we have no youth cover. We have no young DMs and no young wingbacks. All have either been sold or are on loan. 

In my view these next two weeks are big. We have a massive first two months with no Hazard and it'll take signings some time to settle.

If we haven't signed Sandro shortly we need to move on to other targets.

 
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Spiller86 said:
I think this is the key point. We are very thin and largely in areas where we have no youth cover. We have no young DMs and no young wingbacks. All have either been sold or are on loan. 

In my view these next two weeks are big. We have a massive first two months with no Hazard and it'll take signings some time to settle.

If we haven't signed Sandro shortly we need to move on to other targets.
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The thing is we do have youth players/loanees that can come in to match or even better those going out.

Young DMs - Pasalic who has had a much more distinguished loan career than Chalobah had. (AC Milan 20 league starts, Monaco 16 starts (ahead of Bakayoko) and Elche 26 starts, so that's Serie A, League 1, LaLiga and CL experience). Plus there is Baker to come in.

WBs - Tomori looks to me to be a better prospect than Aina, admittedly Kenedy looks like he may be given the boot but if not we aren't weaker their either.

AMs - Boga is more suited to the role than RLC 

CBs - Christensen again has had a more distinguished career than Ake

STs - yes Ugbo or Abraham would have been useful to have as 3rd choice ST but we didn't have a 3rd choice striker last year and we barely used our 2nd. Ohh I suppose we do have Remy as 3rd choice if we need him.

Whilst we are lacking a bit of depth up top and at WB and you would expect we need a deeper squad this year to last, we certainly don't have less squad depth than last year and have actually strengthened our depth at CB and AM this year whilst arguably improving the depth at CM with Pasalic and Baker over Chalobah.

 
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I don't question our depth at CB or at AM. It is the wing backs that bother me. 

Tomori is a CB by trade. Wingback in my mind needs a bit of a different skillset. Sadly Aina and DaSilva are on loan.

Pasalic I do like but he has barely featured in preseason and seems to be linked away every other day. Baker is an attacking player,  replacement for Fabregas but not for Kante or Bakayoko.

 
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Deino said:
The season starts in 13 days and our first 7 games are Burnley, Everton, Leicester, Arsenal, Stoke and City.
Our pre-season was short and it's fine if we lost if we fielded youth teams but we didn't. We fielded close to our full strength team with our most important player unavailable for at least a month and our main formation has been sussed out by European teams. 
I have PTSD from the Mourinho season
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I understand your concern. But as for me, am not really bothered about the result of our preseason games. We have blamed virtually all the players that won us the league last season for not being at their best in this preseason and its ludicrous from my view. What if the players are trying to avoid getting injured before the season start so as to keep their place in the team with the world cup on the horizon?
Even if we lose to Arsenal in the community shield next week, am willing to bet it that we will be unbeaten throughout the month of August before the international break.
Real Madrid have been losing their preseason games for fun yet they are still Champions league favourite for this season.
For me, losing our preseason games after winning the league last season is good, because the players won't be overconfident, they will know this season brings a different challenge and they will see the need to try to improve their game when the season starts to avoid what happened the season after we won the league last.
 
If all of your cover is a youngers, you are in a big trouble.

Just check City Squad, check United, check Real Madrid, Bayern ....

Last season for Real alternative/Subs was Isco, Morata, James Rodriguez, Kovacic, Danilo, Vasquez, Asensio ....

The young you mention won`t get even 1 start, if someone is injured or in bad form. Most of them are not Ready. And you need depth, not only for injuries. Someone form could drop and not get back, so you need qualites on the bench, so you can change that guy, with a guy ready to come from bench, not just yet to start develop him ....

The only ones thats looks half-ready, are only Christensen And Baker.

Abraham is our most talentent youngster, so the best thing for him right now is a loan.

 
Spiller86 said:
I don't question our depth at CB or at AM. It is the wing backs that bother me. 

Tomori is a CB by trade. Wingback in my mind needs a bit of a different skillset. Sadly Aina and DaSilva are on loan.

Pasalic I do like but he has barely featured in preseason and seems to be linked away every other day. Baker is an attacking player,  replacement for Fabregas but not for Kante or Bakayoko.
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I can't see the club letting Pasalic go without signing someone (or Matic staying) who can fill that role, links or not, it should also be noted that Christensen also got very little game time in preseason and he is more than likely staying.

I think the depth at wingbacks is an issue DaSilva is not ready to play back up yet there is a reason he has bee loaned to league 1 and Aina whilst quick does lacks in a lot of areas and I don't see Tomori as a downgrade on him. Tomori is quick, strong and atheltic so can easily get up and down the wing he has played at RB so has some of the transferable skills to play RWB (I believe he was deployed as a RB for brighton last season). I'd also like to point out that we have strengthend CB so if needed Azpi can play RWB.
Its LWB which is the more pressing issue, Kenedy and Pedro were used as backups last season and with Kenedy potentially being forced out due to his PR blunder we may have an issue with depth, however given Kenedy is still here we are in the same situation as last year.    
 

 
Deino said:
The season starts in 13 days and our first 7 games are Burnley, Everton, Leicester, Arsenal, Stoke and City.

Our pre-season was short and it's fine if we lost if we fielded youth teams but we didn't. We fielded close to our full strength team with our most important player unavailable for at least a month and our main formation has been sussed out by European teams. 

I have PTSD from the Mourinho season
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My opinion is unless the squad is further boosted with quality, the club will not repeat its title win.  Players such as Moses, Alonso and Pedro were playing to their maximum capabilities last season and it's doubtful that they can attai neven higher levels of performances in the new season especially with more games in the pipeline.

 
In an ideal world we'd sign cover for Alonso, replacement for Moses, Squad Player for Midfield and a starter level winger.

The likelihood is we'll only probably make 2 of those signings.

 
i have been thinking, surely with the hundreds of players playing at the top level there are wingbacks out there worth buying with huge potential. i am surprised our scouts haven't picked any out yet. what happened about those wingbacks we were looking at from italy? what about that telles lad we were linked to a few weeks ago? what about wingbacks in spain such as gaya etc? you telling me there's none out there good enough for the top level? 

 
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enigma said:
i have been thinking, surely with the hundreds of players playing at the top level there are wingbacks out there worth buying with huge potential. i am surprised our scouts haven't picked any out yet. what happened about those wingbacks we were looking at from italy? what about that telles lad we were linked to a few weeks ago? what about wingbacks in spain such as gaya etc? you telling me there's none out there good enough for the top level? 
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There probably is and we probably have identified a few, but whilst there is a chance of signing Sandro someone who is already world class we won't be signing anyone else.

 
CarefreeSimmo_ said:
In an ideal world we'd sign cover for Alonso, replacement for Moses, Squad Player for Midfield and a starter level winger.

The likelihood is we'll only probably make 2 of those signings.
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I'd prefer a replacement for Alonso and cover for moses. If we have a player with pace in the lwb position it could really give us an added attacking threat (alex sandro).

 
Ox can slot in at wing back as well, hes played there before. Would be a good addition.

 
Chamblerain isn't an upgrade though. If we want to challenge for the PL again and hold our own against the best teams in the CL, we need players better than Moses and Oxlade-Chamblerlain.

 
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