If they get Havertz, then they'll play a 4-2-3-1 with whoever in the backline, Kante and Mount deep in midfield, Pulisic, Havertz, Ziyech left to right in the 3, with Werner up top. Willian's going, so is Pedro, RLC feels like he'd be a center mid rotation option, so that leaves CHO as Pulisic's biggest competition/as the first sub on the wings. I don't see Havertz or Werner impacting Pulisic's playing time at all.
You can attack your way into being a top 10 club. You need really good defenders (of which Pique is one) to be a threat to win Champion's League. Right now, I'm not sure Chelsea is a top 20 club. But you put Puli in the same attack with Werner, Ziyech and Kai with Mount supporting and a hopefully rejuvenated Kante backing - that's a top 10 team with even average defenders. That's their next stage of evolution. They can fix their backline in Winter/Summer 21
They need SOMEONE to eat into Pulisic's minutes. His usage in the restart has been absurd approaching dangerous.
If Pulisic is scared of these purchases, he'll never be a great player as we all think he can be. In fact, he should welcome the additions of these talents. They will help bring his game to the next level. Do you think Messi would be able to win all those trophies and titles without the likes of Xavi, Iniesta, Busquests, Suarez, etc.? Sure Messi is the best there is, but in the modern game; you can't win titles alone. Just look at what Messi and Ronaldo had done for Argentina and Portugal. This isn't the 60s or 70s where Pele can just put the entire team on his shoulder and carry them to victories. As for the rest of the guys you mentioned. Mount - He has evolved to a different role since restart. He spends more time in the backfield pressing and breaking up plays instead of attacking and pressing forward. He's more of a box to box and sometimes defensive midfielder. Willian - He's gone after this summer. CHO - He has not been the same after his achilles injury. Even before the injury, I am not fully convinced he's world class and at Sancho or Mbappe level. Also, I am not sure he has the mentality to be a super star, and I feel Lampard don't fully trust this guy. RLC- Hasn't been the same since his long injury. He looks rusty and slow. Will probably need a full season to get back to the level before injury. He's another option in midfield and will compete with guys like Barkley, Kovacic, etc. Not fully convinced he's world class either. So yes, getting a guy like Havert who can play on either the wing or attacking mid makes sense. Between Havert and Ziyech, you got the CAM/AM and RW/RF positions covered. Between Werner/CP, you got the central forward and LW/LF positions covered Now, they will probably need to remove some dead weights in the midfield. Mount, Kovacic, Barkley, Jorginho, Kante, Gilmour are ways too much. They need to get rid 2 or 3 guys over the summer.
The ways Pulisic has been playing, CHO will be glued to that bench. He can perhaps share minutes with Ziyech, if Ziyech is unable to produce quickly. Werner will keep Tammy on the bench. Heck, even old man Giroud is able to start ahead of Tammy.
Yes, that's why I said overly reductive. If that were true wouldn't he be playing a clearer 4-2-3-1 and not 4-3-3? Wouldn't he have Mount more off the leash rather than playing him more restrained, as has happened somewhat recently in order to get more energy in CM? Surely that would be the "overwhelming force in attack" option. What they've actually done so far in the market is replace 2 attackers who are out of contract in a month, not throw down the gauntlet for an "all out attack" philosophy. And if they're modeling themselves after Pep sides, I'll tell you right now they are not getting the right players in... because Pep is not "all out attack", Pep is "control the match through possession and positioning". Werner, CP, even Havertz... these seem much more like, say, Klopp guys than Pep guys as far as I'm concerned. So I'm still in believe it when I see it mode -- it's not impossible, but remains not yet plausible to spend ~180M pounds on the attack (before agent fees & wages) in a single window.
From football perspective, I think the Havertz signing makes sense. But from a financial perspective? I am not so convinced. 90M pounds for Havertz? I can't see Chelsea putting down that much cash for Havertz, unless they can somehow negotiate that $ number down significantly, by perhaps throwing a player or 2 in that deal.
... okay, but that was in direct response to my point which was specifically addressing the possibility of CP for the ballon d'Or. There are a number of very high level dribblers -- Messi, Neymar, Sancho, Traore, Fekir, but it's hard to directly compare them to me. When it comes to number of dribbles per 90 & touches in the box, I'm sure CP is fairly elite, but an overall idea of his dribbling and where it stands vs top 5 leagues in Europe, that depends on what you are focusing on & as always depends on lots of other context, like tactical roles and overall club situation Zaha for instance has numbers through the roof; he beats lots of players, moves the ball a great distance, and draws lots of fouls. So he's clearly a very good dribbler... but he also is dispossessed a lot and has his share of unstable touches, and I don't know where his touches in the box are at. This might mean that it's difficult for him to be the offensive star on an overall mediocre-at-best side, in terms of talent. I don't watch tons of Palace but maybe he's moving the ball through the midfield a lot and beating players in transition, but it doesn't often lead somewhere actually dangerous. But this kind of thing might be difficult for LOTS of players in his situation... if he changes places with Traore, or even CP, or Pepe... maybe he's then much more dangerous and those other players are less dangerous? I don't know.
I think I might be poorly communicating my point. I agree that Frank isn't trying to play Pep Ball. But at a higher philosophy he is - overwhelming opponents with threatening play, and thus forcing them to be a lot more hesitant and fearful when they have the ball. The reason he's not trying to do that now, is because absolutely no one is "terrified" of an attack where 75% of it is in the form of Willian, Tammy Abraham/Oli Giroud, Ross Barkley and Mason Mount. Willian is the only elite talent out of that group, and has considerably slowed down. Rather, Lampard has his team playing more possession soccer, and relying mostly on Pulisic to create chaos to score goals. What he has done in the market (especially if they land Kai) is exponentially upgrade their attacking options alongside the one elite attacker they have - Pulisic. Which would allow Frank to pull off the overwhelming attack philosophy, and Unleash The Mount
Just did a bit of a dive, and unsurprisingly CP's dribbling numbers relative to the rest of Chelsea are quite good. CP obviously has limited minutes with only 16.3 "90s". He's top 4 in attacking 3rd touches, opponent penalty area touches, and total distance progress made toward goal. He's top 3 in both successful dribbles and opponents dribbled past. He's won 2 pens in the league and 1 in CL, which leads the squad. He's also top 4 in unstable touches and top 2 in dispossessions, but that's not exactly unexplainable. Dribbling wise, he's doing just fine... if he had played the full season he'd almost surely be leading in all these categories. Some of them by far. 32nd in touches in the box, for the prem overall. 35th in players beaten with dribble. 48th in total progress made toward goal.
Does he normally play ACM or winger? If he’s ACM I wonder if they change formation a bit. When they’ve played Barkley and amount together it feels like they have two McKennie-esque free roaming 8’s. It would be incredibly stupid if he normally plays winger to buy him for that much. If Pulisic keeps playing the way he has then there’s no worry. They really should upgrade at CB and RB. Although James did look like he was improving before the break. Maybe they’re still banking on him.
They already are an unbalanced side now. Even before Ziyech and Werner have started playing matches. Obviously they should buy better defenders but, even now the midfield has not been giving the defense much protection all season. And that would be even harder to do if they add Havertz.
He plays both ACM and RW. Also spent sometimes as a striker, but not as successful as ACM/RW. He will be a significant upgrade to Barkley.
If Havertz comes, it almost has to be a 4-2-3-1 --------------------------------Werner-------------------------- Pulisic ----------------------Harvert---------------Ziyech --------------Mount----------------------Kante--------------
If they were able to swoop in Havertz and sign him up, that would be incredible... one of the best windows I can think of, on paper, in terms of revamping a squad at multiple positions. Who is even close to that? LFC signed VVD, Salah, Ox, and Robertson in 1 season 17/18, but Virg was in January. Then they signed Alisson, Naby, Fabinho, and Shaqiri in summer 2018... which is pretty atrong. Madrid signed Bale, Isco, Casemiro & Carvajal in one window, that feels like it’s up there. 09, Madrid snapped up Cristiano, Xabi, Benzema, & Kaka. That’s pretty insane. And PSG got Neymar, Alves, & Mbappes loan-to-buy deal in one window. There’s a lot of smoke on this everywhere now... could just be slow silly season, but maybe it happens. That could be a killer front 4 for Chelsea. If I were Tammy, or CHO, or possibly even Mount/Kovacic, I think I’d be pretty upset if that happened.
When you say, 'eat his minutes', do you mean Pulisic needs to play less? I only ask because his manager famously played 164 consecutive league games, (which was a record for an outfield player), so I doubt he'd be of the opinion that players need 'rests' as such. My guess is he'll only not play if there's a problem of some sort like an injury niggle or his form drops.
I don't know that the defense is as bad as it's made out to be. The team attacks, attacks and then attacks some more. On the rare occasion that they do sit back and defend they are capable of good defensive results. That said, the do need to upgrade their left back position.
The Bale window is what I'd compare it to - also better. Say what you want about Bale, but he's a world class player, and Isco quickly turned into one, while Casemiora and Carvajal also turned into pretty big contributors for a side that basically won everything
Yea, I think Pulisic is being overused right now. He shouldn't be playing every minute available next season. I'd much rather than number be between 70 - 80%...but that's also me being a USA fan