HazardousChoice

Given his inability to finish it wouldn't matter if he had. I hadn't even mentioned Pulisic, I'm surprised his cheerleaders are acting Like he's proved me wrong and asking me to praise him. I'm even more surprised MOTD didn't dedicate a section to Pulisics 27 minutes or that none of the usual player rating websites seem to have seen what they saw. It was a decent performance off the bench but nothing noteworthy or memorable or really worth discussing really.

The left foot to Ziyechs right.

Tim votes for his man of the match before kick off.

We wish. It takes him 4 seasons to score that many! I haven't criticised Pulisic today, he wasn't bad but it simply wasn't a good performance by any metric. Standards are rock bottom amongst anyone who would argue otherwise. I'd say you'd praise Pulisic every game he managed to keep his balance but given you praised him after the Southampton game even that's not a requirement apparently!

And what exactly would I be giving him credit for? The 2 times he lost the ball in the last minute in about 15 seconds? Are we praising everyone who doesn't trip over their own feet? I don't think Puli played particularly well, he was brighter than Havertz but if that's the kind of performance you think warrants praise then Yikes it really wasn't anything special.

Perhaps we'd have 0.

I'm not even sure it was evident there. RLC was the worst player in the entire league for a relegated Fulham with some Fulham fans calling him the worst player in their history. Played nearly every game behind the striker and finished the season with 1 deflected goal and 0 assists. Only came back to Chelsea because no one else would take him on loan so we kept him as last choice squad depth while we loaned Gallagher and other more talented players out. But due to chronic sick notes like Reece, Kante and Kovacic we've seen a lot more of RLC filling in gaps than we really should have. His contract is up in 18 months and it would be a surprise to see us renew it or any club to offer him a contract anywhere close to his 150K a week salary even on a free. He just didn't fufill the promise he had 10 years and 10 injuries ago.

Tuchel had Sterling scoring every other week. Not basically man marking Kepa. While we depend on a coalition of 4/5 players that score less goals combined per year than Sterling does alone to fluke 1 in.

It's ridiculous how many people bought into the ridiculous notion Tuchel was holding our attacking players back. When the same attacking players were just as poor under Frank and have literally never played well at the highest level (the Premier league) They're mostly just not very talented unfortunately, Havertz falls into the untalented group. I've never known an attacking player be labeled a generational talent while being a poor finisher, having no creativity and not being able to dribble past anyone. He looks silky because of his body language and style of play but in terms of actually showing supreme technique or a skillset to trouble defenders he really hasn't shown much at all here.

We are. It's a 10 year transition.

Because Potter is a wizard. He's made the clubs biggest goal threat disappear. Having 112 PL goal Sterling stuck at Wingback while we've got Havertz and Pulisic up front, Kovacic and Jorginho shooting from outside the box and RLC trying to create on the other wing is one of the most shambolic team set ups I've ever seen. 5 players in attacking positions that have next to no chance of ever scoring 10 PL goals a season while one of the best goal scorers of the last decade is marooned at wingback covering for a teenager playing his first game for the club.

I'd argue he's a jack of no trades. He's a defensive liability who switches off regularly who creates nothing and scores once every 5 Chelsea managers.

That's my point. You can have whatever manager you want. But when we need a goal and we end up with Havertz and Pulisic up front and Jorginho and Kovacic shooting from distance and Loftus Cheek out wide you're not going to have much goal threat. Where are the goals? The clubs best goal scorer is being played out of position at Wingback so Pulisic and Havertz can stay up front.

Why hasn't Tuchel got these untalented attacking players managing more than 3 or 4 shots a game yet?

Potter playing Sterling all over the backline while he keeps his German son up front 😪

Havertz isn't remotely close to half as talented as Ozil was. Ozil split more defences a season with his passing than Havertz will in his career if he plays until he's 40

I've never seen him run. He's nowhere near talented enough to justify his laziness and lack of defence awareness. When you score or assist 1 goal every 5 years you should be busting a gut and setting an example with your work ethic.

You think Coutinho could help us tonight mate?

I've never got the RLC love in He's a defensive liability, has no intensity or awareness and is absolutely useless going forward. What does he bring other than bring a Cobham graduate?

Can we get a refund? We've been mis-sold a Rudiger upgrade.

Very happy with the team selection. First start for Broja so hopefully he delivers

Even for you that's shocking. Ask Villa supporters what they think of Coutinho. They're pretty much all in agreement his legs have completely gone and he's only playing top flight football now because the manager is his mate. Very surprised to see you in particularly champion Coutinho given he's now both slower and weaker than your favorite Brazilian/Italian has none of the positional sense and is even worse in the final third now despite solely operating there. Admittedly the below stat is out of date as he's added another blank against us to continue his rich vein of form.

For all Tuchels strengths he had a massive blind spot regarding Kante. Tommy Calling Kante a key player for us a few months ago terrified me, it was a ridiculous comment akin to the worst comments you see on here. You simply can't be a key player if you can't reliably called on to actually play. Perhaps if we'd brought in a world class midfielder instead of bringing in Saul/Zakaria on loan and pretending Kante still was one capable of giving consistent world class performances Tommy would still be here.

But how do you manage a sick note like Kantes minutes? Perhaps that was possible in 2019. It isn't now. He had a full summer and pre season off, didn't feature at all because he refused to get vaccinated and missed the pre season tour, went through a personalised fitness plan back at Cobham to ensure he was in the best shape to start the season and broke down midway through our 1st home game of the season. He's simply not worth 150K a week, you could argue he's worth offering a pay as you play deal (which he wouldn't accept) but at 32 with injury record and inability to stay fit he just isn't worth a squad spot at any salary.

Very true, he was instrumental in our CL win truly sensational. Just as Drogba was in 2012. Wouldn't give him a new contract either though we'd likely get more out of Didier than Kante now over the course of a season. Not really sure what the issue is with thanking Kante for his service, he had some excellent games here and was key to our most recent PL and CL wins but acknowledging their are 1001 reasons why no serious club should be offering him a long term contract now and it's time for him and the club to move on instead of remaining in this strange Limbo where we continue to pretend he's still this world class key player for us while he contributes very little.