SydneyChelsea

He belongs in midfield. Just as Bayern did with Lahm then Kimmich, or Inter did with Zanetti.

I own it. I didn't count on England to be so miserably bad against Argentina they wouldn't get to meet them in the first place.

Arguably the first time since 1986 that England came in as favourites and again England underestimated an irrepressible genius. Only Messi makes a perfectly flat square cutback just begging to be hit, followed up by a perfectly aimed cross that somehow evades 3 6ft+ English defenders to land on the forehead of the second smallest guy on the pitch. Maybe Olise or Yamal pull that off on a good day too.
Tuchel built a team for the counter-press and the counter-attack and then decided to do neither. Two underwhelming teams but whereas Argentina rose to the level of its opponent, England descended to theirs.
Tuchel deserves most of the blame, of course. Less for leaving out Palmer/Foden and far more for leaving out Adam Wharton who would have been a great complement or substitute to Rice or Anderson. His comments about 'DNA' are unfounded, given that he had three of the most recent PL winners, three CL winners (one of whom could legitimately be called his protege), a Treble winner, the current European Golden Shoe holder, and the form player of the tournament in Jude Bellingham.

It was Tuchel's decision to play more defensively in the second half. The one thing in the world that Messi cannot do at age 39 is run, and yet, they never once required him to do it. They spent ~75 minutes denying him space only to give him the freedom of Atlanta from there on in. Firstly the wind went out of England's sails when Anderson, who pocketed both Paredes and Fernandez with ease, got a yellow card. Then it was Tuchel who ceded momentum the moment Gordon was taken off for Ezri Konsa when he could have easily switched in Rashford or Madueke or even Ollie Watkins to keep the pressure on.

In case it needed to be said, Romano is an idiot. "Five-year contract" ...players under 20 can only sign a 3 year deal. The other two years are either an option or unenforceable.

Makes him pretty damn expensive in PSR terms, 3m/season + wages. Yikes.

I own it. I didn't count on England to be so miserably bad against Argentina they wouldn't get to meet them in the first place.

Arguably the first time since 1986 that England came in as favourites and again England underestimated an irrepressible genius. Only Messi makes a perfectly flat square cutback just begging to be hit, followed up by a perfectly aimed cross that somehow evades 3 6ft+ English defenders to land on the forehead of the second smallest guy on the pitch. Maybe Olise or Yamal pull that off on a good day too.
Tuchel built a team for the counter-press and the counter-attack and then decided to do neither. Two underwhelming teams but whereas Argentina rose to the level of its opponent, England descended to theirs.
Tuchel deserves most of the blame, of course. Less for leaving out Palmer/Foden and far more for leaving out Adam Wharton who would have been a great complement or substitute to Rice or Anderson. His comments about 'DNA' are unfounded, given that he had three of the most recent PL winners, three CL winners (one of whom could legitimately be called his protege), a Treble winner, the current European Golden Shoe holder, and the form player of the tournament in Jude Bellingham.

It was Tuchel's decision to play more defensively in the second half. The one thing in the world that Messi cannot do at age 39 is run, and yet, they never once required him to do it. They spent ~75 minutes denying him space only to give him the freedom of Atlanta from there on in. Firstly the wind went out of England's sails when Anderson, who pocketed both Paredes and Fernandez with ease, got a yellow card. Then it was Tuchel who ceded momentum the moment Gordon was taken off for Ezri Konsa when he could have easily switched in Rashford or Madueke or even Ollie Watkins to keep the pressure on.

I think Tuchel is defintely taking far more of the blame than he should be. Literally the second we scored, the players all dropped back and stopped doing anything but defend. I can't imagine this was the plan. Tuchel has said it wasn't the plan, that they should have been going for the 2nd, but whether due to mentality, or fitness, they just couldn't do anything but defend. So he tried see it out. But, that being said, the subs were not great, we could have tried to force the issue by bringing on more attackers or more pace to stretch them, we also sacrificed the middle of the pitch.
In hindisight you can look at some of the players left at home and wonder if they could have helped.
I think the blame is pretty 50-50 between the manager and the players, they all got it wrong, for various reasons. Let's not pretend that it's 100% Tuchel and the players are blameless. The simple fact is they weren't good enough on the pitch and were out played, out run and out fought for the majority of the game.

He belongs in midfield. Just as Bayern did with Lahm then Kimmich, or Inter did with Zanetti.

I own it. I didn't count on England to be so miserably bad against Argentina they wouldn't get to meet them in the first place.

Arguably the first time since 1986 that England came in as favourites and again England underestimated an irrepressible genius. Only Messi makes a perfectly flat square cutback just begging to be hit, followed up by a perfectly aimed cross that somehow evades 3 6ft+ English defenders to land on the forehead of the second smallest guy on the pitch. Maybe Olise or Yamal pull that off on a good day too.
Tuchel built a team for the counter-press and the counter-attack and then decided to do neither. Two underwhelming teams but whereas Argentina rose to the level of its opponent, England descended to theirs.
Tuchel deserves most of the blame, of course. Less for leaving out Palmer/Foden and far more for leaving out Adam Wharton who would have been a great complement or substitute to Rice or Anderson. His comments about 'DNA' are unfounded, given that he had three of the most recent PL winners, three CL winners (one of whom could legitimately be called his protege), a Treble winner, the current European Golden Shoe holder, and the form player of the tournament in Jude Bellingham.

It was Tuchel's decision to play more defensively in the second half. The one thing in the world that Messi cannot do at age 39 is run, and yet, they never once required him to do it. They spent ~75 minutes denying him space only to give him the freedom of Atlanta from there on in. Firstly the wind went out of England's sails when Anderson, who pocketed both Paredes and Fernandez with ease, got a yellow card. Then it was Tuchel who ceded momentum the moment Gordon was taken off for Ezri Konsa when he could have easily switched in Rashford or Madueke or even Ollie Watkins to keep the pressure on.

I actually like what I have seen and read of Scaloni. He seems he decent, down-to-earth guy.

@SydneyChelsea strikes me as too overqualified to be Australian.

In case it needed to be said, Romano is an idiot. "Five-year contract" ...players under 20 can only sign a 3 year deal. The other two years are either an option or unenforceable.

Makes him pretty damn expensive in PSR terms, 3m/season + wages. Yikes.

In case it needed to be said, Romano is an idiot. "Five-year contract" ...players under 20 can only sign a 3 year deal. The other two years are either an option or unenforceable.

Makes him pretty damn expensive in PSR terms, 3m/season + wages. Yikes.

Plays better deeper.

Tuchel has regressed as a coach in recent years. He's become way too defensive minded. Remember our Champions League winning run and how he had us set up when we defended? There was always an out ball. Werner, Pulisic, Mount, Havertz, they were always available to take the pressure off the defence, and even a full back would move forward to help. He doesn't do that anymore, he goes too defensive and there is never an out ball.

Have to defend, @SydneyChelsea He is a wonderful human being. But he is the most un-Australian, Australian ever. Even when the Aussies had Warne, Ponting and McGrath he still worried that England had a good shot at winning The Ashes.

Seems like the club are getting bent over a barrel by Rayo Vallecano for a f**king 28 year old. 21.5m release clause, lol

Spain's tactics conceded the width in order to clog the middle. They had a really hardworking front four that pressured hard to disrupt the counter, didn't mind fouling, and while France reset they formed a back five between Laporte, Cubarsi, Cucurella and Rodri with the spare midfielder in front. It's more Brentford than Barcelona tbh.
France couldn't/didn't exploit it. They should have got Olise and Mbappe out wide opposite to each other to create at the back post. I think that was the first time this tournament that neither were allowed their favourite pocket of space, and that deadly rotation where Dembele plays 9, Mbappe plays in from the left, Olise plays right just never happened. Instead they had Mbappe moving from in to out, dealing with 3 defenders, Olise couldn't do much with the overlap or through the middle, and Dembele was pushed out wide instead of attacking the back post. France played too fast in attack and too slowly to break the press.
Harsh but this loss is hugely on Deschamps, Rabiot and Kone were never going to win this midfield battle and he had Kante on the bench FFS. If he even got 20 minutes on him shutting down Ruiz it would have done them a lot of good.
Spain won't have these luxuries against England. England's back four is excellent on the ball, as are Anderson and Rice. O'Reilly and James aren't going to give a sh*t about mid-tier La Liga pluggers. Other than Yamal they don't have players capable of exploiting big gaps on the counter. Their weakness is going to be aerial crosses and set pieces, which are Kane and Bellingham's bread and butter.
It's England's best chance to win a World Cup ever.

Spain's tactics conceded the width in order to clog the middle. They had a really hardworking front four that pressured hard to disrupt the counter, didn't mind fouling, and while France reset they formed a back five between Laporte, Cubarsi, Cucurella and Rodri with the spare midfielder in front. It's more Brentford than Barcelona tbh.
France couldn't/didn't exploit it. They should have got Olise and Mbappe out wide opposite to each other to create at the back post. I think that was the first time this tournament that neither were allowed their favourite pocket of space, and that deadly rotation where Dembele plays 9, Mbappe plays in from the left, Olise plays right just never happened. Instead they had Mbappe moving from in to out, dealing with 3 defenders, Olise couldn't do much with the overlap or through the middle, and Dembele was pushed out wide instead of attacking the back post. France played too fast in attack and too slowly to break the press.
Harsh but this loss is hugely on Deschamps, Rabiot and Kone were never going to win this midfield battle and he had Kante on the bench FFS. If he even got 20 minutes on him shutting down Ruiz it would have done them a lot of good.
Spain won't have these luxuries against England. England's back four is excellent on the ball, as are Anderson and Rice. O'Reilly and James aren't going to give a sh*t about mid-tier La Liga pluggers. Other than Yamal they don't have players capable of exploiting big gaps on the counter. Their weakness is going to be aerial crosses and set pieces, which are Kane and Bellingham's bread and butter.
It's England's best chance to win a World Cup ever.

Spain's tactics conceded the width in order to clog the middle. They had a really hardworking front four that pressured hard to disrupt the counter, didn't mind fouling, and while France reset they formed a back five between Laporte, Cubarsi, Cucurella and Rodri with the spare midfielder in front. It's more Brentford than Barcelona tbh.
France couldn't/didn't exploit it. They should have got Olise and Mbappe out wide opposite to each other to create at the back post. I think that was the first time this tournament that neither were allowed their favourite pocket of space, and that deadly rotation where Dembele plays 9, Mbappe plays in from the left, Olise plays right just never happened. Instead they had Mbappe moving from in to out, dealing with 3 defenders, Olise couldn't do much with the overlap or through the middle, and Dembele was pushed out wide instead of attacking the back post. France played too fast in attack and too slowly to break the press.
Harsh but this loss is hugely on Deschamps, Rabiot and Kone were never going to win this midfield battle and he had Kante on the bench FFS. If he even got 20 minutes on him shutting down Ruiz it would have done them a lot of good.
Spain won't have these luxuries against England. England's back four is excellent on the ball, as are Anderson and Rice. O'Reilly and James aren't going to give a sh*t about mid-tier La Liga pluggers. Other than Yamal they don't have players capable of exploiting big gaps on the counter. Their weakness is going to be aerial crosses and set pieces, which are Kane and Bellingham's bread and butter.
It's England's best chance to win a World Cup ever.

Spain's tactics conceded the width in order to clog the middle. They had a really hardworking front four that pressured hard to disrupt the counter, didn't mind fouling, and while France reset they formed a back five between Laporte, Cubarsi, Cucurella and Rodri with the spare midfielder in front. It's more Brentford than Barcelona tbh.
France couldn't/didn't exploit it. They should have got Olise and Mbappe out wide opposite to each other to create at the back post. I think that was the first time this tournament that neither were allowed their favourite pocket of space, and that deadly rotation where Dembele plays 9, Mbappe plays in from the left, Olise plays right just never happened. Instead they had Mbappe moving from in to out, dealing with 3 defenders, Olise couldn't do much with the overlap or through the middle, and Dembele was pushed out wide instead of attacking the back post. France played too fast in attack and too slowly to break the press.
Harsh but this loss is hugely on Deschamps, Rabiot and Kone were never going to win this midfield battle and he had Kante on the bench FFS. If he even got 20 minutes on him shutting down Ruiz it would have done them a lot of good.
Spain won't have these luxuries against England. England's back four is excellent on the ball, as are Anderson and Rice. O'Reilly and James aren't going to give a sh*t about mid-tier La Liga pluggers. Other than Yamal they don't have players capable of exploiting big gaps on the counter. Their weakness is going to be aerial crosses and set pieces, which are Kane and Bellingham's bread and butter.
It's England's best chance to win a World Cup ever.

Spain's tactics conceded the width in order to clog the middle. They had a really hardworking front four that pressured hard to disrupt the counter, didn't mind fouling, and while France reset they formed a back five between Laporte, Cubarsi, Cucurella and Rodri with the spare midfielder in front. It's more Brentford than Barcelona tbh.
France couldn't/didn't exploit it. They should have got Olise and Mbappe out wide opposite to each other to create at the back post. I think that was the first time this tournament that neither were allowed their favourite pocket of space, and that deadly rotation where Dembele plays 9, Mbappe plays in from the left, Olise plays right just never happened. Instead they had Mbappe moving from in to out, dealing with 3 defenders, Olise couldn't do much with the overlap or through the middle, and Dembele was pushed out wide instead of attacking the back post. France played too fast in attack and too slowly to break the press.
Harsh but this loss is hugely on Deschamps, Rabiot and Kone were never going to win this midfield battle and he had Kante on the bench FFS. If he even got 20 minutes on him shutting down Ruiz it would have done them a lot of good.
Spain won't have these luxuries against England. England's back four is excellent on the ball, as are Anderson and Rice. O'Reilly and James aren't going to give a sh*t about mid-tier La Liga pluggers. Other than Yamal they don't have players capable of exploiting big gaps on the counter. Their weakness is going to be aerial crosses and set pieces, which are Kane and Bellingham's bread and butter.
It's England's best chance to win a World Cup ever.

Called it. From the start of the tournament. No one is winning anything with a midfield that Adrien Rabiot starts in. Spain kept Mbappe central and Dembele wide, completely neutered them.
Anyway @just you might want to pick up some fireworks for yourself for Sunday. This Spain team will not beat Tuchel-ball. Get ready for the most dour, unsatisfactory WC final.

Lacroix is a fantastic player and we were stupid not to sign him from Wolfsburg when the club identified him as a replacement for Christensen. He has been scouted by Chelsea for years.
Man City smacked 6 past them this season and Lacroix was the only defender who looked like he belonged on the pitch.

Called it. From the start of the tournament. No one is winning anything with a midfield that Adrien Rabiot starts in. Spain kept Mbappe central and Dembele wide, completely neutered them.
Anyway @just you might want to pick up some fireworks for yourself for Sunday. This Spain team will not beat Tuchel-ball. Get ready for the most dour, unsatisfactory WC final.

Alonso looks in better shape than Eden Hazard ever was on the first day of pre-season training. Are we sure he can't do player-manager to save us a few $$$$?

No Bates, no Chelsea
Being younger than some on here I only ever saw the "good" side of Bates during the late-90s, and some of the stories you all have told over the years on this forum are truly hair-raising (electric fence pun intended). He was clearly a person who was disliked but respected.
I don't know if I ever got the feeling he had the same emotional connection as say Roman Abramovich did, but he did a lot of things that set standards and expectations (as did Abramovich).

Also he nearly sent Leeds to oblivion, which should also be up there with his crowning glories.