Timo hasn't been the same since Germany got thrashed by Spain a few months back. I think his poor form has been caused by 2 key issues: i) confidence and ii) not playing in his best position. Both factors are self-reinforcing.
This is the great thing about our current squad. Lots of homegrown players who have been with the club for their entire lives. Lots of great talented young players from elsewhere. It is a young squad of players. This amount of academy players breaking into the first team is what we have always wanted. The dream is to combine these young players with the right balance of older stars. Getting the balance right.
Since roman arrived any youth we had were pretty much tossed aside for instant stars. No complaint, it has brought unprecedented success. Now that we have a crop of talented youngsters given a chance I think its backed up what a lot of people say about intangibles. Sure mount may not be as purely talented as pulisic et al but he puts in 100% everytime he pulls that shirt on and plays with pride. There was (and remains to some extent) a vocal minority* who maintained he was only in the squad because of some sort of nepotism or the manager's desire for a vicarious second career but you'd have to be blind to miss what he brings. If our new players played with half the passion/desire mason does, we'd be top four comfortably. Couldn't be happier for him to get the armband today and wouldn't be surprised or upset to see that become more permanent. *revisionists will say it was just the number of games he plays that was the issue but that isn't true. It was the knock about him lacking technical ability or some sort of false trade off of mount over pulisic (esp from the likes of lalas and marsch) which never rang true. PS I still would ease off on starting him as much and rotate the squad a little more but the lad has an engine and keeps himself healthy. Whatever our woes, he has been a bright spot and our best player for the first half.
Not super convincing, but the conditions probably didn’t help. Poor Timo. If you give a guy a penalty to help his confidence and he misses it, that has to be 10x worse. I think Timo is too good for this to be headed in a Torres/Morata direction, tho. Loved seeing Mount with the armband (of course, looking at that line-up, who else would you have given it to?). I don’t get the supposed “criticism” of him. He puts in a shift, he’s productive and reliable. He’s becoming one of my favorite players. We just lack a killer instinct. After the second goal, we literally walked around the pitch for 5 minutes. Maybe the boys should watch some games from the USWNT. They have zero mercy and give zero Fs. If they were playing their mothers, they’d score 50 and celebrate every goal.
Timo's best position imho is where he played today or the inside left wing/2nd striker, where he has mostly played here, and until today was despite the drop in form was our goal scoring leader. In Germany when I watched, especially last year he played to the left inside off a bigger main striker. We are not usually an off the shoulder counter team where he could thrive as a main center striker, and if we try to force that, like with Torres, he will become Torres-ish. And not even talking about the goals, Tammy is just effing good, not only pressing but in all around attacking play, today he showed a fair bit of what Kane is now doing deeper in all-around play only he is getting there near a decade sooner. Confidence is huge though, as the BBC lady said if Timo just get one that falls accidently off a calf rebound or his backside when he is not even looking he may ignite again, and though he worked hard mostly* going forward i am a bit concerned he was a bit soft and sluggish on other side of ball, all in all I would not start him for a match or two in favor of CHO to to rest his head, think and gain hunger * we are still too stagnant in the front 4/5 though, I would like to see far more movement and presentation
agree with a good bit of what KDB said, except, I think he and many, seriously under-appreciate how incredibly talented truly is Mount, in the same way Lamp was early as well.
And to complete my 20's degree with a lovely double digit rainy wind mandatory outside patio craft beer fueled tri-rant, if Kante not playing, Billy must play.
I think Roman has always been interested in and has invested in the youth and the Academy since the beginning. I think that this has always been a big part of his Chelsea FC plan. But you don't get an instant Academy. It takes a long time and we are now in the last couple of seasons starting to see the benefits of 20 years of work iand investment. Y'know the young players are like buses, you don't see any for a while and then they all come along at once. A cluster of young players all emerge from the Academy simultaneously. We had quite a few years of players who didn't quite make it. E.g, Did Dominic Solanke not make it at Chelsea because he wasn't given enough of a chance OR because he wasn't quite good enough? Josh McEachran? Chalboah? Gilmour, Mount, James, Christensen, Tammy and CHO all from the Academy in today's game.
Ziyech and Pulisic have been injured, coming back from injury and neither has quite reached top form yet this season. CHO's form is sporadic. Timo and Havertz new. Tammy and Giroud doing well, but they are about scoring goals, not about creating per se.
I dont mean it as any sort of knock and rate him extremely highly. I'm thinking more of the sort of talent that pulisic has to dance through a few players and score. Mount can certainly take players on but his game is also still coming together and he sometimes lacks the final touch that would elevate him to the next level. I also think of natural talent. A player like hazard has some of this innate ability whereas with mount I get the feeling he has to work that much harder to develop his skills. And I think that's one reason managers rave about him in training. Similar with terry. Percy was always a more cultured defender with great timing but terry was better overall, in large part because he had to work so much harder. I recognize a work ethic isn't what the fanboy element admire (we have guests on here who love to bash english players in particular) but suspect there's more than a few of us old schoolers who put that at the top of the list. It's what makes our form so galling, we have all the talent in the world but we sure dont look like we want it all that much. Maybe talent wasnt the best word, probably flair is more the essence of it. Regardless I'm glad mount is a blue and genuinely think he could become a leader out there as he grows in confidenc .
Fair points. It's not just time with a youth system, its luck too. United had one unbelievable crop that fergie molded but haven't produced anything close to that since and I dont think it's a lack of trying. I hope we can produce a talent pipeline for years to come and in many ways that may be the biggest legacy roman leaves us. We've certainly had huge success at that level.
Oh, yes, luck, luck plays it's part, it is luck for sure. I think we have added to our young players perfectly. With other great young players. Pulisic. Havertz. Chillwell. We are missing something, like that big angry CB you mention from time to time? Or maybe our youngsters need a crowd?
KDB, agree Pul and Mount are different players and I would say Pul has more flair and attacking danger and edge while Mount has more metal, so to speak, and though they overlap a bit I see Mount as a more box-2-box-ish on the front foot MF and his defensive ability to press and win the ball, and break attacks and position, on both sides of the ball, are superb though rarely as appreciated as warranted. That said, Pul already was a fair bit and has really improved his all -over tracking, play and work rate and it was good to start, and a bit like Timo he needs a couple breaks his way to unleash again. And as both you said an angry/nasty cb or mf'er or two to stamp authority and keep our players attention would be very useful, which reminds that the latter part of shit form has been while Kante has been missing, and if not that sort, his play can be nasty and disheartening to the bad guys.
Y'know, maybe it is in midfield that we need that type of player more. A Roy Keane. A Dennis Wise - with his Home and Away eyes. AND maybe we have that player already in Billy Gilmour? Fiesty little fcucker.
“You can Control it, you can Pass it and you can Run. Just do those three things”. – Brian Clough’s advice to Roy Keane. Billy Gilmour. Maybe Billy is our future Captain?
Even today Lampard is seriously under rated, I think he scored more goals than Xavi, Scholes and Gerrard put together? Mount will ALWAYS get sh*t from people that don't really know what they're talking about, of course Lampard, Southgate and Messi are more likely to be honest about him and they rather rate him. Over the last two seasons he has probably been our best player.
Tuchel has a good history of playing youth. I don't agree with the decision either but this is an overreaction imo. But I get it, we're all emotional
That’s encouraging, but don’t love what I’ve read about his tumultuous relationships with ownership. Obviously I’ll be rooting for him. Not his fault, the circumstances.
As has been said in the other thread, that's only a problem if you want the manager to be a long-term hire. I don't love to merry-go-round and still naively hope for a 20-year appointment to bring stability and long-term vision to the team. But in the aftermath of the situation with Frank, our best hope for the above, I'm trying to embrace the idea that 2-3 years is all we should hope for in a manager, and in some ways the periodic changes in vision and style can be fun. If that sounds like me trying to convince myself, its because that's exactly what it was. We're all trying to grow I guess