EPT2024 - 2025 Football Thread - Page 76
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Pandemona
Charlie Sheens House51487 Posts
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WombaT
Northern Ireland25396 Posts
On August 10 2025 00:27 Pandemona wrote: Might have only been a pre season game, our first one (one week before season starts!) but wow Estevao played so well vs Leverkusen, what a player i cannot wait for this season. Chelsea look amazing going forward, i still think we will suffer defensively, but wow our offense is going to be crazy good! According to the BBC’s long-term South American football journalist, Tim Vickery, Estevao is the Brazilian talent. Possibly the best since Neymar, who also I think personally underachieved and still had unbelievable peaks and is a tad underrated. Better than Endrick, better than Vini Jr or whoever else. If he’s even in that ballpark, and he settles that’s a hell of a signing indeed. Vickery is usually on the money, and when he isn’t it tends to be from a player he hyped getting crippled by injuries, and not them lacking the requisite talent. I already think Chelsea are in with a shot for the league as it is, if Estevao hits the ground running and is as good as he’s rated, rather than taking a year of promising but inconsistent form to settle, that shot just increases. If we get peak Cole Palmer again, with all those other wingers, 3 good 9s with slightly different strengths around him, all firing simultaneously, that’s pretty potent alone. Their midfield 3 if they go with Lavia/Caicedo/Fernandez is bloody good as well if they can find the right balance. Their defence isn’t bad either, I mean it’s probably not Arsenal’s, but it’s not a gigantic weakness. I think much will depend on Maresca. He started very well, when they played with a bit more fluidity and improvisation. They actively got worse the more he insisted on control and sterile possession, then they had a good Club World Cup. I felt his initial phase was basically building off Poch’s late momentum and running with it, and the side got worse the more ‘Maresca’ he made it. I think if Maresca lets the handbrake off to some degree, and adjusts Chelsea are a scary team indeed. If you give Palmer license to try things, and those forwards a bit more freedom to take players on and make risky runs, that’s pretty good. I still think Palmer’s legitimately the best all-round 10 in Europe, I think he’s in that weird zone when an English player is legit that good, we tend to underplay it in this country, but we overrate a lot of other players. See also - Harry Kane clearly being one of the best 9s in Europe forever. Yeah Yamal is maybe better at what he does, but I dunno if he is better if he’s playing centrally. Wirtz and Musiala are great players as well, but I think Palmer is better across more areas than they are than him. He’s an incredible finisher and passer, they’re not bad at either but I don’t think they’re as good there. Those two are probably better running with the ball, but it’s not like Palmer is bad at that. At their worst last season Chelsea would control games, but it was super sterile and you just had people tapping it about and afraid to try things. You’re the Chelsea fan mind, you’ve seen a lot more of them than I! What do you think Pande? | ||
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gTank
Austria2567 Posts
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Pandemona
Charlie Sheens House51487 Posts
On August 10 2025 01:28 WombaT wrote: According to the BBC’s long-term South American football journalist, Tim Vickery, Estevao is the Brazilian talent. Possibly the best since Neymar, who also I think personally underachieved and still had unbelievable peaks and is a tad underrated. Better than Endrick, better than Vini Jr or whoever else. If he’s even in that ballpark, and he settles that’s a hell of a signing indeed. Vickery is usually on the money, and when he isn’t it tends to be from a player he hyped getting crippled by injuries, and not them lacking the requisite talent. I already think Chelsea are in with a shot for the league as it is, if Estevao hits the ground running and is as good as he’s rated, rather than taking a year of promising but inconsistent form to settle, that shot just increases. If we get peak Cole Palmer again, with all those other wingers, 3 good 9s with slightly different strengths around him, all firing simultaneously, that’s pretty potent alone. Their midfield 3 if they go with Lavia/Caicedo/Fernandez is bloody good as well if they can find the right balance. Their defence isn’t bad either, I mean it’s probably not Arsenal’s, but it’s not a gigantic weakness. I think much will depend on Maresca. He started very well, when they played with a bit more fluidity and improvisation. They actively got worse the more he insisted on control and sterile possession, then they had a good Club World Cup. I felt his initial phase was basically building off Poch’s late momentum and running with it, and the side got worse the more ‘Maresca’ he made it. I think if Maresca lets the handbrake off to some degree, and adjusts Chelsea are a scary team indeed. If you give Palmer license to try things, and those forwards a bit more freedom to take players on and make risky runs, that’s pretty good. I still think Palmer’s legitimately the best all-round 10 in Europe, I think he’s in that weird zone when an English player is legit that good, we tend to underplay it in this country, but we overrate a lot of other players. See also - Harry Kane clearly being one of the best 9s in Europe forever. Yeah Yamal is maybe better at what he does, but I dunno if he is better if he’s playing centrally. Wirtz and Musiala are great players as well, but I think Palmer is better across more areas than they are than him. He’s an incredible finisher and passer, they’re not bad at either but I don’t think they’re as good there. Those two are probably better running with the ball, but it’s not like Palmer is bad at that. At their worst last season Chelsea would control games, but it was super sterile and you just had people tapping it about and afraid to try things. You’re the Chelsea fan mind, you’ve seen a lot more of them than I! What do you think Pande? Pretty much spot on, most of this is going to come down to how good Maresca is now, he has the tools at his diposal. I think you are kinda right on our defense, but i dont know if you are accounting the fact that Colwill did his ACL on first day back for pre season so now we are our best defender short for the season lol. Leaves us with Tosin, Fofana, Badiashile (injured until september) and my favourite Trev! We do have Hato now, but he is 19! and i would prefer him as cover to Cucuerall anyway. So imo our defense which was needing a big leap to become stable and strong, has a massive hole in it. I also think this seasons premier league will see a massive gap between the top 4 and everyone else. Every team minus the top 4 has gotten weaker, Spurs and Yanited were so shit last season that even though they might theoretically improved, surely they are not going from relegation to top 4 contenders, so i see them battling it out from 5-8 with the others, but even then Newcastle are struggling to spend there money and will lose there best player, Villa can't spend there money and have not gotten any better. Brighton are the only ones that even though they lost Pedro might be able to consolidate on that top 6-8 spots. Bournemouth lsot a lot of players, Everton can't spend there money and get people in either, West Ham are just crazy. Notts Forrest i think will have a hard time with Europe and domestic games as squad too thin, plus lost a couple of players. Palace also haven't gone forward. Then you into the bottom half lower side of it and that's just going to be really poor compared to the top 4. Think this season Chelsea should concentrate on champions league and top 4 push to then try and attack scouse at the top next season. | ||
GTR
51459 Posts
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