If you put coaches on a stylistic spectrum… With Guardiola at one end and Klopp at the other Alonso is def more Jurgen than he is Pep. He’s also taking this squad from being coached under positional play principles to now something the other end of the spectrum. Add in big squad turnover and new league and we have valid reasons. I appreciate al this context needs to be taken into account as we go through the journey - it’s obvious that there will be growing pains. However, there also aren’t many more painful defeats than spurs at home. That was 100% their biggest premier league win since city away last year and we gifted it to them - it wasn’t just a loss, it was how we lost imo - limp. Brutal, especially this early in his tenure in front of the SB crowd and the watching world. For me, he needs to take primary responsibility and swallow that one whole as a huge learning lesson and having watched him in interviews so far - I’m sure he will. If he does, we will benefit in the long run from it. Because we will progress faster. In my personal experience, the most painful failures carrying the very biggest learning opportunities - and with that, for me failing can never be seen as ‘bad’… I’m personally ready and willing to continue to fail forward IF the net trajectory is forward. Bournemouth and Everton was enough to make me think it is so I can isolate yesterday as a necessary bump in the road. Even though his success strategy/approach isn’t my personal cup of tea I’m actually still confident we will be ok… But I’m having to use ALOT of logic to overcome the emotion/fears that come with watching some of our performances this season - and especially that particular loss - so I get the crash outs and even to some degree, the scaremongering. Grab a helmet imo, the progress will not be linear - because true change never is. Many more highs and lows to come. Still confident we will be a better and more consistent side by May though with CL secured …that’s the expectation this year and we can achieve that in spite of that shit show yesterday imo. Need a win asap now though to help the healing process from that one. 🔵

It’s was definitely far from ideal… 😑 Again though, what we saw didn’t pissed me off. Persisting with what we were seeing, when we had viable options on the bench (and ample time to change it) pissed me off… Spoken a lot on the micro and macro of this in last 24 hours so I won’t repeat myself. Horrifically painful day that will be hard to forget. If we learn and grow from it though - I’m can personally make peace with it. Onto the next… 🔵

Third $100k bonus in three UFC events… Superstar.

José Chilavert 2.0

By design… Clearly watched us beat Brighton and copied the approach. Both losses for Brighton this season have come up against teams with a similar strategy. Strategically give up the ball & hit them in transition. Rightly or wrongly, this was seemingly Alonso’s thinking again yesterday too… Just without the end outcome so optics are therefore horrific.

Oh my…

Similar league trajectory to last year at the minute… Aside from the top two, everyone is beating everyone

For me, when looking at foundational principles…. Rightly or wrongly; Maresca was too horizontal early on. Too much early emphasis on structure. Too much early emphasis control. Too much early emphasis possession. Too much early emphasis on the build. Too much early emphasis on the collective unit. Too little early emphasis on individuality Too little early emphasis freedom. Too little early emphasis uncertainty. Too little early emphasis on energy The majority of the fan base (and the bridge) let him know very quickly that the balance was off and he slowly started to evolve… As he evolved, on pitch fortunes changed, the noise lessened, silverware followed and the haters even began to turn. He almost make it though… For me, Alonso is the polar opposite in philosophy and principles. He’s almost too vertical early on. Too little early emphasis on structure. Too little early emphasis control. Too little early emphasis possession. Too little early emphasis on the build. Too little early emphasis on the collective unit. Too much early emphasis on individuality Too much early emphasis freedom. Too much early emphasis uncertainty. Too much early emphasis on energy Those who were more naturally patient with maresca through the early days, weeks and months (culturally = the minority) will likely be very agitated right now watching alonso’s approach In contrast, vice versa, those that were maybe less patient with Maresca will likely be more patient now. (Culturally = the majority) It’s all to do with personal preference, there are many ways to skin a cat. For me, the objective of the managers was the SAME though - to create a balanced successful football team. The prioritisation on foundations are just different. The speed of progress under Maresca meant he almost didn’t make it through the early fan resistance of the majority. All eyes now are on the speed of progress under Alonso, I personally think it will be quicker than maresca’s journey mainly because of what the majority of the fan base resonate more with him. Due to his status, Alonso is also benefitting from a MUCH much higher patience gap than any Clearlake manager has had so far. This is my logical big picture overview of what’s happening. Personally, I was in the minority with Maresca. I backed him through the darkness because I understood the logic and his approach resonated more with my personality. With this in mind, is only natural that the current approach doesn’t resonate as much with me personally and is therefore causing me a lot stress …but that doesn’t make it wrong. What’s more, despite being personally painful for me, taking into account the culture of the club and the majority of the fan base - i can logically see why this could end up being the right path to take. In spite of these early road bumps, my current expectation is still that we’ll be more than fine. My body is telling me opposite though, I’m getting triggered like a mother fucker tbh 😅 Being a Chelsea fan isn’t for the faint hearted. Win or lose 🔵

Stats without context can be useful and useless at the same time imo. Stats with context are always useful

Lots of time for this

Good thread man

First part great of these comments, great. The second part - disagree. From memory, all our chances came from their errors. If that was by design - then ok but then I don’t personally like that design. For me, we were second best from min one yesterday. We never had any control of the game and this fan base aren’t going to tolerate that (especially at home and especially against spurs) … as much as they didn’t tolerate Maresca’s sideways and backwards passing. It’s the polar opposite end of the spectrum and will bring the same early grumbles Marescaball brought. We need to learn and improve. I have no issue with any manager doubling down on their approach (even if I disagree) but at sole point they need to adapt and evolve. I remember Maresca having huge early issues with playing short and Rob Sanchez mistakes and it bringing a chorus of boos As i said, any extreme is not good. Maresca was too horizontal - too much possession, too much control, too little energy, too little chaos, excitement and uncertainty - the crowd let him know and he had to evolve with time. For me, Alonso is too vertical imo - too little possession, too little control, too much energy, too much reliance on chaos, excitement and uncertainty - he ALSO needs to evolve with time. Learn. Adapt Pivot. Grow. Progress. Onto United…. 🔵

Going to struggle to shake that one off tbh…

Apologies for the off topic content but this is one of my little boys kick boxing coaches ffs. Not so much in recent months for obvious reasons (because he’s now a superstar 😅) MASSIVE win against Temirov at UFC 333. Rise to stardom has been beyond rapid. Crazy - title shot next maybe… 🫨

Even Gary Neville said it on comms after 20 mins - “Survive until half time and then make the changes” When the change didn’t come the loss became almost inevitable. Why it didn’t come only Xabi Alonso knows tbh. The change may not have fixed everything, but it was the logical next step to improving that performance and it never came…

😱 👑

Agree man. Isolated criticism is extremely healthy and shouldn’t never be suppressed… Attempting to suppress any criticism or negativity (especially when it’s warranted) can lead to enabling which is equally as toxic imo. After today, let people be pissed and criticise. As long as they’re doing it in a controlled manor it’s very healthy and some positives can even come out of it in the cold light of day.

I don’t want to focus on Penders today. I predicted it as a possibility for a reason. I stated my position on him in the summer. I watched him ALOT last season and he should be on loan imo. I’ll probably selfishly revert back to that topic in isolation in the coming days but for me the majority of healthy critical attention today needs to be elsewhere imo.