october always seemed likely based on the initial injury and his past injury difficulties. was false hope before that didn’t make a lot of sense. tbh i think there’s a lot of false precision with injury recoveries and not enough erring on the side of caution.
muscle injuries are super hard to predict. You can image bones much more easily and precisely than soft tissues
Are they really though? Their performances seem to indicate they need Pulisic now as much as ever. Mount has had little impact as a wide forward, Werner is still not producing, whether playing in the center or wide forward position, Ziyech is injured, CHO is inconsistent as ever, and Havertz hasn't shown much in the league. If Pulisic was 100 percent he would be a clear upgrade over every one of them in the wide forward position. And their league performances so far show that they need that upgrade asap.
If it were the World Cup or the CL final he would be playing. But it's early in the season and they are gambling that the additional rest now will ultimately result in more minutes played over the course of the season.
Based on how CP played after the covid break? If that is the CP we see consistently then he is Chelsea's best offensive player. Really top 10 in the EPL. I too think Chelsea is desperately in need of him... but understand why they may be being over-cautious.
When they get everyone healthy and have a starting attack of Pulisic-Havertz-Werner-Ziyech.....they going to be pretty nasty. Itll be fun to see Pulisic with some guys that can convert on his runs
Finally saw the NBC studio crew make this point the other day. Their defense is worse than the people playing it. They need a guru on the staff.
Have we really seen a lot of EPL teams loan talent yet to first divisions? I think we might see a flurry of later loans with CHO being one of them. Right now Chelsea is down two wingers and isn't exactly showing that he's needed in the club. Fulham is right down the road...
Loans to championship may be more likely in these situations, but getting talented youth in at a prem club which will play them seems to happen fairly frequently. And if he's really not in the plans, that idea (CHO to Fulham) is not a bad shout. But it's clear he's in Frank's plans. It might come to a head at some point, maybe in a year or so, but 2 people for each wing position is manageable, especially since they are covering for those absences by playing Mount outside of his natural position. Ziyech can also be played inside in an attacking mid role, leaving wings to CHO & CP, Havertz is coming out of midfield... what does that leave? CP, CHO, Ziyech, and sometimes Werner/Mount for 2 spots? CP being somewhat injury prone, seems like there's plenty of mins to go around there. Mostly Mount will be in CM & Werner will be up top. Plus, Chelsea are on 4 points from 3 games and sit in 9th. Not exactly setting the prem on fire, so I don't know how certain they are that certain options aren't needed to the point of being sent out on loan.
I keep providing a link to what seems to be an accurate web page which is updated daily. Bookmark and follow CP's bizarre recovery route which, last week, had him returning by this past weekend, but is now saying, "hamstring 1 month." My current view is that Lampard's reference to his injury history and the need to take more precautions with his recovery means that a) there has been a setback or b) the doctors finally weighed in and said do the recovery fully and correctly or else he might never ever get back to full recovery and Chelsea is trying to maintain some possibility of benefit from its investment in CP.
That Werner goal wouldn't happen with James playing right back because it would have been a cross whipped in instead.
Some guys somehow can just maintain fitness at extreme levels. I think Willian was similar. Frustrating though when our fav Americans Abroad don't seem to share that trait, and for many are exactly the opposite.
Not many teams have the depth Chelsea has. But Tottenham's first 11 is capable of pretty good soccer. I'd certainly choose to watch them over what I've seen of Juventus the past couple weeks.
good genes I guess. Lampard was similar, never missed games until he was older. Although it’s still very early in his career, he hasn’t been a professional as long as pulisic has. Don’t want to jinx him.