Paddy

And don’t let’s let Ziyech off the hook, he spurned an excellent opportunity, central to the goal on the edge of the penalty area and on his left foot - blazed it way way over the top - it was a better than reasonable chance imo.

Absolutely spot on for me , agree 100% with your take. I like Tammy , as much as I know him he comes across as a decent lad, but I don’t know if he’s good enough at the highest level -sadly I suspect not ?

Almost completely agree. When you look back to the start of the season, Kepa in goal, no chilly, no Silva, Christensen and Alonso in the starting 11 and Mount playing outside on the wing, the muddled and confused Jorginho/Kovacic/kante configuration, would we have taken a 0-0 draw against the league leaders with the most potent strike force in the PL ? Think we might have ? Today’s game was all about the ‘first goal’, so whoever scored it would most probably have won the game, which is why Mourinho parked his bus and we were extremely cautious and not wanting to over commit so as not to concede what would have most likely been the only goal of the game. It wasn’t a great game , but what was special about today was how we nullified Kane, Son et al - they didn’t get a sniff and, aside from a solitary shot & Zouma’s wobble , we looked really really sound at the back. What was disappointing was the lack of penetration, especially in the first half - as someone said earlier in this thread, Hazard would have unlocked this lot, but that’s what he could do - hopefully Pulisic will do that in time. Second half was all us and the world class crosses into the box from James deserved so much more on the end of them - very disappointing, f**king awful actually - Tammy ??? I’m not sure he’s good enough at this level - Giroud, handsome as he is, is running out of legs and time. Werners finish for the disallowed goal was class , Ziyech should have done better with his chance, what a save from Lloris to turn away the shot from Mount, TA ‘missed’ 3 decent chances, and Oli got it all wrong in the last few minutes - we ought to have won and them c**ts and their flakey manager will be happy and relieved. I’m not convinced that FL sees Werner playing centrally, I think he wants a big man to play off - imagine Werner bags his goal and Tammy and Oli get 1 out of the four chances they had and we win 2-0 - got to get Roman’s cheque book out for next summer I feel. Tell you what though, James and Mount are something extra f**king special !!!

.........and a career ending ACL for monkey face ??

And conversely the Rashford penalty appeal against us the other week that the ref also didn’t see, that got VAR reviewed and reviewed and reviewed desperately trying to find something that could constitute a foul but the Maguire assault on Azpi gets barely a mention - makes you wonder don’t it ?!

...................and up until 8 weeks ago we had Kepa too !!

Mendy, best player so far ?? Maybe, but I think we were all so traumatised by the Kepa experience that anyone who played in goal and did at least the basics of what you would expect a goalkeeper to do was such a relief, that it’s possible to get carried away ? That said, Mendy has definitely done that and more and will surely be a star for us this season and for many seasons to come. Mount playing on the wing, whether we agree or not, was obviously the decision of FL and for reasons best known to him - for all we know Mount may have hated playing wide? but it should be noted that Mount never did anything but his best and as far as I could tell he never spat the dummy or got attitude and he always always gave 100%. You’re absolutely correct, since playing centrally he has been outstanding and that coupled with his willingness to play anywhere for this team, it’s not difficult to understand why Frank thinks so highly of him. Agree with your last sentence too, although I expect Havertz to give Frank a selection headache as the season progresses - good problem to have we hope !!

Yeah, I agree, as per The Don, it’s the side most of us would pick, give or take TA for OG - no element of surprise for Mourinho either, which is a bit of a shame in respect of allowing them c**ts to be fairly certain on how we will be set up and plan accordingly? However, there is always the possibility that FL plays a different set up - Pretty unlikely though isn’t it ???? * I mean as a side that he thinks is capable of winning but to undermine Mourinho’s selection

Again I agree 100% - what a servant. I don’t know Azpi personally, but he just comes across as a capable , decent, likeable, well regarded and respected leader of men who I suspect has a positive influence on the dressing room ? He’s worth his weight I reckon, hope the club are decent with him .

100 % agree - it’s difficult to know if he’s happy to stay with the unlikelihood of a starting place, but my hope is that he pins his future to the club and that the club reward his loyalty in return

Blimey, you don’t ‘alf go on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on ....................? I’m sorry, but frankly I find your intransigent and insistent, nth degree, total dissection, over analytical guess work of your take on football boring and it’s not for me - I don’t believe football discussion needs to be that difficult or deep? And for someone who writes a lot, your not very good at reading and comprehension are you ? Which bit of “............no amount of persuasion from YOU will change my opinion.......” didn’t you understand ?? and yet you continue to try ? I bet you are one of these types that could have a row in an empty room and you are definitely a ‘the last word’ merchant, so go on, knock yourself out, or knock one out if you prefer, the last word is yours, I’m done.

Saying “......Jorginho and Kovacic have played there - cold hard fact’ is the same as saying ‘Kepa is a goalkeeper- cold hard fact’ - both statements maybe “cold hard facts” but it doesn’t mean that any of them were any f**king good !!!! As I have said many times on this board, football is subjective, your opinion may align with mine, it might not - in this case we differ and no amount of persuasion from you will change my opinion about if and where Jorginho should play - only he will be able to do that, so until he does it’s Kante , Mount, Kova is the line up for me and let’s see what young Billy G brings in due course? I think our approach to how we appreciate football and players differs fundamentally. I grew up in a world where there wasn’t central heating, no hot water on tap, washing was done at the laundrette, our “car” was a double decker bus, we had blankets and coats for our bedding and ‘press’ was what ya mum did when she ironed ya shirts - we also used to watch football from the high distant terraces of the old North Stand - there wasn’t a % point in sight, no “missed tackle” count, no “pass completion” ratio, not a “headers won” “headers lost” comparison blah blah blah - but we knew who played well and who’d been on the piss the night before - we watched with our eyes and they told us what we knew ? I believe your a stats man and I guess they have their place, but there was a British PM in the 1820’s named George Canning who said he could prove anything with statistics but the truth and the famous American author Mark Twain who used the phrase , “ there are 3 kinds of lies; lies, damned lies and statistics “ it’s a phrase used to describe the persuasive power of numbers, particularly the use of statistics to bolster weak arguments - cold hard fact? A rhetorical question - Why would you say Mount missed a clear cut chance rather than say Mount got himself into a wonderful position and that their keeper pulled off a fabulous, maybe even a world class, save ?

And who might play there if Kante didn’t ???????? You can carry on with your Jorginho argument with those that can be bothered, but all I have to say on the matter is we look like a team in control when we’ve played with Kante deep along with Mount and Kova.

Were we all guilty of complacency tonight ? Dunno if we were, but Rennes worked hard and played ok - thank f**k they don’t finish so good - and probably deserved something from the game, but them’s the breaks. Ought to have been out of sight if we had had our scoring boots on tonight, don’t buy the Werner being tired theory, it’s just that missing (quite a lot unfortunately) is in his game - the argument is that he puts himself in place to miss ? I imagine statistics will tell a different story to them that want a different story to be told, but for me Kante has to play in the role sitting in front of the back four, Mount HAS TO PLAY full stop, Kovacic should start until Havertz gets used to life in the PL. Chilli just had an off night, but the Newcastle starting 11 is the team for spuds on Sunday.

Hopefully FL will use all 5 subs but not because he needs or has to

I wouldn't want to be a pundit, I could never mask my bias for Chelsea nor my absolute hatred for some other teams, if things didn’t go well during the game, the monitor would most likely be on the other side of the room and the desk turned over on top of the chair and as someone who can manage to say f**k 5 times in a four word sentence, if I ever were to be invited onto MOTD, it wouldn't be for long - so fair play to those that do it - and some, way better than others. But the thing that gets my goat, especially with the BBC , is the smug, self righteous, PC, inoffensive carry on that I suspect is completely false in most cases and the guy most guilty of it - and there are many - is that prick Mark Chapman , what a f**king complete melt he is. And Bonzodog, Janus is always a tit !!

I don't mean to be picky, but either I’ve missed some matches or your over egging the pudding in Kai’s rating department cause whilst there is masses of potential and expectation, some promising early signs, I don’t believe he has done enough to warrant being rated as one of our best players - yet. I would play him tonight, but not on Sunday.

It’s difficult to disagree with anything you've written - I think that familiarisation, anticipation and understanding becomes second nature when a set eleven plays together regularly is the key to a team winning championships, so I wouldn't necessarily make many, if any, changes either. I’d give consideration to playing Dave at left and then right back over the 2 halves, alternating with chilli and James just to give them a bit of a rest and Dave a run out ? Don’t think it would do any harm to play Silva from the start, but I think that using the 90 minutes to play combinations of Silva/Rudiger & Rudiger/Zouma would be beneficial for confidence, understanding and rest. Definitely take advantage of the 5 sub rules and use them all and use them early-ish - 60 mins onwards. Taking nothing for granted but the above assumes that with any combination of the squad we are beating Rennes, as we should if we fancy our chances of progression through the group stages and as winners of the group. Looking ahead to Sunday’s game the difficulty for me is Havertz ? Admittedly the international breaks and the COVID isolation have broken up his run of games and haven’t helped his assimilation into the team, but of all the new signings, I’m not sure I’ve seen enough from him so far, to warrant automatic selection - I feel he needs more time to grow into the EPL ? At times he seems in awe of the Premier league, a bit of a rabbit in the head lights ? I think I would start him in this game instead of Kova, with them being swapped at 70 mins, but against them north London c**ts , Kovacic has to start - think that game maybe too fast and furious for Kai at this point in his premiership life and I could see Mourinho targeting him ? However, I have great hope and expectation for this fella - I think, in time, he will become a star.

Yeah, sorry about that, I got your point and I was sorta half joking. I too advocate changes, but I think 7 is too many - I do think relationships and understanding gained when playing together regularly is important. I would make less changes to the starting 11 and bring on all of the allowed ( is it 5 ?) subs very early 2nd half. Definately no place for Kepa tho ??

Wow, you would make 6 or 7 unforced changes from the team that has become the norm since the Burnley game with Kante playing in front of the back four ? Or to put it another way, you would only retain 4 of the “usual” starting 11 ? You would pick Rudiger in front of Silva ? You would actually choose Jorginho and Kante and leave out Mount ? You would consciously select Hudson Odoi before Werner ? You would drop TA in favour of Giroud ? And all of the above because of the “threat spuds will be” - Blimey, they must a bigger pile of sh*t than I had realised ? You sure you can’t find a spot for Kepa ?

Drop him, drop him !!

Also meant to say , in context of the above, Newcastle were poor for me today, seemed to lack any ambition or motivation ?

Phew, the stats may tell a different story, but it being only 1-0 until the last 25 or so, had me in ‘threepenny bit, half a crown’ mode for a while and no mistake !! In truth if it ended up 2-5 , as a score line, that would have been about right , but if it had went 1-1 then .........you know that story, we’ve lived it enough in recent times. Thankfully it ended up 0-2 so we are all pleased as punch and top of the pile !! Positives today, Mendy continues to be everything you want your keeper to be - and I too felt that in spite of missing the target, there was a Newcastle effort that if Kepa was between the jumpers, would have somehow been a goal ? Wow, we have a brace of quality full backs in chilly and James, James was outstanding today, didn’t make a bad decision and coped with everything - MOTM for me. Zouma is an immense man and what a force he is, so powerful - had a good game today and Rudiger did ok too. Kante has to start every game in this position, he too was awesome and back to his imperious best. Kova and Mount paired up ok, Mount continues to be a very capable, he never ducks responsibility even though he sometimes gets it wrong, always always puts a shift in, no wonder Frank thinks so highly of him and he’s still only a pup ! Thought Ziyech had a quite-ish game, showed the best and worst of his passing today ? Read with interest the earlier comments on Tammy v Timo and who is the biggest waster - for what it’s worth, I like Tammy but I don’t think he’s a long term solution , his anticipation and awareness are lacking, not sure you can teach that, think it’s just instinctive and you’ve either got it or you haven’t and his goal today was only just - maybe he meant it in off the post but I’m not convinced, thought he should have done better with the header too. Werner, he frustrates and excites in equal measure, but he does get himself in positions to miss the opportunity rather than not , Tammy’s goal was all about Werner. Giroud. he’s there ‘in case of’ injury/loss of form, purely and simply that, he’s not the long term future, he’s for this season maybe next at most. At 2-0 up, James seemed to have a knock - thought FL would of, maybe should of, taken James off and put Azpi on . I’m a big advocate for not changing a winning side, but battles need to be picked, so change away Frank for Tuesdays game if necessary to get the best 11 fresh and ready for those c**ts next Sunday.

Jermaine Anus is a no nothing c**t , wasn’t much a footballer but he’s a f**king awful pundit

I doubted very much that he would be available for the Newcastle game on Saturday 21st anyway due to his travels and jet lag, we could probably manage without him for the Rennes game on Tuesday 24th but it’s critical that he’s available for the spuds game on Sunday 29th - so if anyone in the squad is going to get it , get it now !!