Luiz4Chelsea

That's suuuuch bullsh*t. At half time we keep the clean sheet and managed to half some glimps of goal chances and you call that giving to them without offering a fight? At 50' the performance was immaculate, exactly the combination of fight and luck required. At 90' the score was just a mirror of the two teams' quality. The tactics were spot on, the attitude was spot on, they were just way superior and at some point we couldn't cover up for that any more. But that's okay, football is a fast business and things can change within very few years. We just need to place our trust in Frank and our youngsters. I'm glad you're nowhere near them tonight telling them how they didn't fight.

People going to the loo at half time

Not tonight

Prime example this, another one obviously being our win at the Etihad that season. Was a real shocker of a game up until that point and he single handedly turned it around in his typical tank engine fashion, away to our main title competitors

One could have a lot of justified pessimism about these two legs against Bayern but I feel this is one positive aspect: We don't desperately need a clean sheet tomorrow. I remember many first legs at home against monster sides like Barca and there would always be this common understanding "we need a 1-0 or 2-0 here, otherwise we're basically out already". Now against Bayern we may statistically be unlikely to proceed, but at least I can picture a hundred unlikely ways of it happening. We could picture the Ajax scorelines (4-4 at home, 1-0 away), or we could even lose tomorrow and win it in Munich. I'm not saying the first leg result won't significantly impact our chances of going through. I just feel like the home-factor won't be so massively impactful, and maybe we can simply regard them as two legs, and that's for two reasons: a) our team seemed pretty indifferent this season to where they play b) it seems to be a general tendency in the champions League recently. Same round last year Ajax went through against Real after losing the first leg at home 1-2. ManUnited went through against PSG after losing the first leg at home 0-2. Liverpool drew Bayern 0-0 at Anfield (actually quite a decent result) and then won it 3-1 at the Allianz arena. Still, 1-0 or 2-0 tomorrow please

----------------------Willy -----Azpi-----Christensen---Rüdiger James-----Jorgi----Kova-------Alonso ----------Barkley----------Mount ---------------------Giroud I desperately hope Lampard sticks with the back three as with our current available squad it's easily our best line-up in all areas of the pitch. 4 at the back with azpi on the left and they'll tear us apart. To me there's only two question marks over yesterday's starting line-up: Tammy for Giroud Bayern will push us deeper than Spurs and leave us with the counter attacking role more of the time, to which Tammy's pace might be better suited. However they're not playing the same handball-Type 70%+ possession game they used to under pep. Also, Giroud's hold up play and ability to distribute the ball to faster players around him could be invaluable against Bayern, let alone his bomb of a left foot. He gave the team a real lift yesterday and I don't believe this is the game to introduce Tammy back into the starting 11. He'll be a strong option from the bench. Willian for Barkley: Great performance by Barkley yesterday and let's not forget the result contribution stats that are being thrown around a lot here lately. Would be a real shame to not reward this performance by starting him again, especially when Willian hasn't impressed me for some time now. On the other hand we might face less than 50% possession in this match and some added pace around Giroud could be vital. Plus Willian has the tendency to properly turn up for important European nights. It's a tough one for me, real 50-50 decision. I could live with either.

When I'm saying output I mean goals obviously but also the general impact on the team (how many points did the player win us). As I said, Costa couldn't compare on any of these mentioned technical metrics but his "output" in this sense was quite comparable. He did it in big and "small" games equally (which is what you want from your striker imo) and he did it when the team was playing well or badly (let's not forget Drogba never had to play in a 15/16 type season). I also don't necessarily find 120 games a very short duration. In the end it doesn't matter much because Drogba's achievements are untouchable. He's the technically superior player, delivered for way longer and showed far better character. I just find it silly to deny that for some time we had a real monster of a striker in Costa, just because things didn't end well. No point when the player insists to be a troublemaker, just a real shame.

This is right however, and it's a real shame. Ability is worthless if it fails because of personal deficiencies. Knowing Costa and knowing Chelsea's habit of changing managers it seems like an eventual fallout with one of them would have been unavoidable in any post 2003 period. That's why ultimately Costa's status at the club can't even remotely be compared to Drogba's. Drogba did it for longer, he did it without unsettling the changing room (quite the opposite) and he did it when it counted most in 2012. He's a true legend. Ultimately any consideration if Costa would have been capable of achieving the same remain purely theoretical. But when personal issues were not involved, his impact on the team week in week out was not smaller than Drogba's. I'll stand by that.

Totally agree, but their output was basically the same. What Costa did hardly ever looked pretty or technically skillful, but he delivered consistently against any type of opponent and certainly didn't require ten world class performances behind him for it. In his years with us he would have been capable of bullying any defence in Europe. So if I had to choose between the same output but once pretty and once dirty I'd obviously go for Drogba, but that's a very luxurious choice to make. Considering how silly the premise of "finding another Drogba" is anyway I find it hard to ask for more in a post Drogba striker than what Costa offered.

Bold statement but I actually believe we found another Drogba a few years after him in the man called Diego Costa. He had this rare ability to not only be a good striker but to take entire games in his hands. I remember many times when the team had a meek day he would just go into full tank engine mode and steal a 1-0 or 2-1 from the opponents. He was a real leader up front, him and hazard always were the players capable of turning the whole game around when everything seemed to be going in the wrong direction. Right now we'd already be happy to have a striker who does his duties, holds the ball and converts, and in the first half of the season we found that in Tammy. But what Diego did to the game was a whole different level. Now I'm obviously not comparing his status to the legend Drogba (to reach such a status will ultimately require a certain character and charm as well) but if Diego's Chelsea tenure had taken place 5-10 years earlier, with the even more prolific players Didier played with, I can't rule out that he may have been equally successful.

Exactly, so roughly two months ago. It's time for a sign of belief again.

Right now it's important to break through the patterns by removing as much flakiness from the team (bats, Christensen...) as possible. First concern shouldn't be to show beauty but to show presence by putting in a fight. We need a spark and we need it soon and need it to spread quickly. A win sure but most importantly a good (and maybe even ascending?) performance.

Problem is we have zero mental strength right now. Here's the main three things unsettling our performances these days: - going behind - going in front - goalless draw at 30 mins Tell me the last time the first third of our game wasn't the most positive one.

I still very much trust in Lampard, I believe he's very short in options right now but unfortunately the sole decision of playing bats over Giroud was a fatal one, and that comes down to way more than the conversion of particular opportunities. Pedro and William are very decent wingers but they are not solo-world-beaters (a la hazard) and now more than ever are extremely dependent on the support they are provided, and batshuayi offers zero, not physically and not mentally. By fielding batshuayi we were not only lacking a striker but basically a whole front 3. When I saw that line-up I thought literally the only ways we could score tonight is either a poker from Azpi or Rüdi after a messily defended corner or a Reece brace from outside the box. Here's how to turn things around and fix this team: Play Giroud. Giroud offers that kind of support, not only in the way he holds and distributes the ball, but also by providing leadership. The team clearly is extremely insecure atm and needs guidance from someone like Giroud. He might also well be our most clinical converter currently and could finally reward Reece's crosses. He could well be the player we were looking for in the summer and MUST start against Tottenham and Bayern no matter whos available, even if he's taken off after 60 mins. Kante Out means going back to mf 2 of Jorgi and Kova, which has been arguably our best CMF setup this season. It seems like Jorginho only assumes his role to lead the middle when Kante isn't playing, which the latter can't be blamed for. We need Jorgi and Kova to shine next week. In for kante comes Alonso on the left. I know he's not loved on here but he always shows up physically and has a goal in him, which is what we need right now. Cover for his defensive deficiencies by playing a back 3. Play Zouma for Christensen. I believe tomori is the future but he seems to be a bit away from the Starting eleven rn for some reason and should maybe be eased back in against a "smaller side" (as if that existed these days). I liked Zoumas performance last night. We need his physical strength as opposed to lightweight Christensen. Keep Tammy and Callum out of the starting 11 even if fit for now. They might be our best on their respective position, but given the form of the team and coming back from injury I can already picture their display nervously screaming "this must be my breakthrough performance!!!" in every action. They would be strong options from the bench. Right now we need things to calm down a little. Pulisic if fully fit could offer sth over Willian or Pedro. These changes don't guarantee us anything next week, but at least we have a fair chance, which last night we hadn't before the game had even started. Remember how di Matteo, fixed AVB's shaky side by adding maturity? We obviously don't have the same catalogue of experienced legends at our disposal today, but maybe it's time to try a similar approach.

Based on who's available today the line-uo should be: Caballero Azpi - Rüdiger - Zouma James - Jorginho - Kovacic - Alonso Willian - Giroud - Pedro If Tammy, Callum and Pulisic make the cut play Pulisic for Willian and bench Tammy and Callum to bring them on 2nd half