I'm just frustrated because I predicted this problem weeks ago when Richarlison was sold. And I'm far from an expert about football
If you sell your main goalscorer for 60m and don't bother to line up a replacement then you're asking for trouble and have no excuse if things go wrong.
The game went how I expected. We were organised and didn't really play that badly at all, but we had absolutely no quality in attack and not even any presence. We can't win matches regularly with these options and are basically chucking points down the loo by leaving the manager with these options to choose from.
I'm extremely frustrated because we just never help ourselves by making the obvious decisions and prioritising what matters, and thats what happens in both boxes. Chelsea were there for the taking but we had to take plastic cutlery, nevermind a knife to the gunfight.
If we have to go with Rondon next Saturday then that's another game we are basically throwing away. If I was Lampard I would be thinking whats the point.
I totally agree but Richarlison is a very unique player to replace. We not only need to replace a wide player (we've got McNeil) but also a striker - and we need them to be versatile enough to play in a few positions adequately and also be happy to initially be second-fiddle to DCL (this is what they were looking at before his injury of course) for that central role... because we don't play two up top.
As I keep saying, as of Monday, we looked well set. We had DCL looking sharpish, and he was our striker. We'd brought in McNeil to boost the wide options, replacing Richarlison in half a sense, and we were focusing on the deals for Gana and Onana, which will have taken time, to get the midfield sorted.
We had been looking at versatile forward types. Cornet proved too expensive, Dennis could be there to take if Watford would have accepted a low price but the thing is now they know we're desperate... Broja clearly is or was the number one it seems. But we had Dom, we had another winger, we had Dele as second fiddle in case Dom tired in a game.
Then, boom, DCL injury and suddenly we look foolish. Again, this isn't a defence of them, but with such limited funds we're only doing deals on drip or loan. We haven't gone and plonked £20m down for Onana up front...
We were already in the position of needing a versatile striker, and now we're in that position with even more strain, but now every club and their dog knows we're desperate, so will try and rinse us, and we don't have much money...
The plan was clearly to get a forward in early but we couldn't afford it, so they changed to let's get the rest of the positions sorted, and we have Dom fit and that'll get us through the window when towards the end more players should become available on cheaper deals or loans etc, and that can still happen. It's just whether they are able to take the risk. They're clearly looking mate, so let's just see what happens. It's much-needed, the club know that, but this time last week we looked well set bar midfield. Now we have 2 CMs about to come in, but only 3 CBs fit and no striker.