Dean

Good assessment. Though I didn’t watch the match I did watch the last half hour as I’d recorded it and was kind of curious. I know this was the part of the game where we’d come out of our shell, but I was still bracing myself as the comments on the thread were pretty negative. I was pleasantly surprised. We weren’t that bad. obviously it was too little too late vs a city on top form and they had the clearer cut chances but that’s to be expected as we were chasing. RLC was a real positive. Deserves a start in a big game soon.

Mendy Christensen Silva Rudiger Azpi RLC Kante Kovacic Alonso Havertz Lukaku I’m surprised so many of you think Jorginho should start. I am no hater and have defended him many times, but if we’re being meritocratic about it, is he doing enough to deserve to start? Why not Loftus Cheek who’s such a favourite AND playing well. Is it a CL thing? I agree about bringing Mount back into the fold, but maybe off the bench if coming back from injury.

I don’t know. I just don’t see the parallels. Things went wrong pretty quickly under those other managers iirc. The historical patterns you mention are valid but are there to be broken and I find looking for the breaks rather than the repeats to be quite a useful life (not just football) hack. Insofar as there’s a culture of player power, I don’t disagree but don’t think this is Chelsea-specific but more a feature of the top of the modern game, with the obscene paycheques etc. going back to the initial point about the trend, it’s still very much a favourable one. One day that will change, and maybe the players will rebel, who knows… but we’re not there yet (in my view we are just getting started but that’s just me), so we should just enjoy the ride and not worry about any of this stuff yet.

During his tenure, after every setback, TT and the team have emerged stronger. You have to respect this trend till proven otherwise. Yet doubts are immediately raised after one slim loss to City (is this worse than losing to villa or drawing with Brentford? Relax, Liverpool aren’t running away with anything yet). Ah but it’s the manner of the loss, the performance. Tuchel agrees with you! He didn’t want us to not attack and said so himself. As for Roman, @axman2526, he might consider having a word with TT… if he WEREN’T the cold / ruthless guy he is. If he were the panicky, anxious sort, sure he’d be calling TT asking for “reasons” after one bad day at the office. He’s anything but though. After all, those aren’t the attributes required to come out on top in the resource wars in Russia in the 90s. As well as being ruthless, Roman is a savvy operator with an excelllent read of the trend, a great intuitive feel for when to hold and when to fold. If you look at all the sackings bar Ancelotti, they were done when the weight of evidence pointed firmly in that direction. Hardly the case now. Look where we were when he got rid of AVB or Scolari vs where we are now. Not even close. It will take a lot more than this for questions to be raised and I’d be surprised if he even flinched on this result.

Yeah. I think some coaches are probably better suited to elite clubs and others to the mid/lower table ones. And If they swapped all would probably suffer.

I don’t know about lucky, and don’t really agree that he doesn’t adapt when things aren’t working. Think last weekend v tottenham. Today we had a forced substitution, then he reconfigured the midfield - which everyone agreed was the problem area - completely in the second half, bringing on two attack-minded players, just as everyone called for. As for tactics going into the game, who knows but judging by his post match comments, he didn’t want us to play as we did. We all tend to overthink/overanalyse this stuff. Why do we always need reasons?

So we lost to city who really brought their a game. We didn’t play well. Happens and we were probably “due” a defeat vs them and a setback more generally. To put things in perspective - imagine you’re a Liverpool (heaven forbid!) or man u (welp!) fan today. Are you any less disappointed by today’s result than a Chelsea fan?

I don’t think gol is being “bitter”particularly. Obviously pep a brilliantcoach, and we tend to underestimate just what it takes to coach at the top level. But I do wonder how good a job he’d do at a lesser side. Would a norwich or wolves appreciably improve their league position under pep? Would be an interesting experiment

Glad I missed it. Champions of Europe!

💯

Looks like my daughter’s first football match being scheduled for 12.30 today is a blessing. Was cursing it earlier 🙂

Come on. “struggled massively” is an exaggeration. The problem in the first half was as much to do with the formation as the personnel. But if we’re going to single out players as weak links, it should be Mount and Havertz, one of whom was indeed replaced. Kova been great for us this season, including today. Why not acknowledge it?

Hang on a minute. Kante came on for Mount, not for Jorginho or Kovacic. Surely then the more relevant comparison here is Kante vs Mount? Are you similarly reluctant to recognise that Mount may have been the weak link/ suffering a loss of form as you are to acknowledge the improvement of both Kovacic and Jorginho and their contribution (it was after all his Kante-esque hard work and recovery that set up the second goal )? “Decent player” doesn’t do them and their improvement justice. As for Kante not starting - first game back from injury is a legitimate reason to not start him, even if you think he’s out best player (and few on here have any beef with that). On manager making an error: in my book having the mental agility to admit you were wrong and make a change is a vastly underrated skill. Tuchel did this today, but importantly (and this ties into the first point) - it wasn’t just about bringing on Kante, it was about changing the formation, ie NOT replacing Jorginho or Kovacic, but replacing Mount instead. Btw Im not picking on Mount. I love him but he’s not in form right now. Zero doubts that he will recover it from me. I always like an out-of-consensus take, Just, but 3.7/10 for Tuchel is a bit much.

Another brilliant performance. Just keeps getting better and adding to his game.

Had a really good game albeit under the radar, I thought, especially second half, no doubt benefitting, like all the players, from the tactical switch that saw Kante come on. Put in quite the shift and a complete performance, showcasing the full range of his ability (not just the good runs / ball retention ) - there was that insane flick near the touchline while maintaining possession, some crunching tackles, a brilliant recovery to set up our second goal. That much of it went unnoticed seems to underline just what a great team performance it was second half.