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Sheff Utd v Chelsea (PL) Sun 7th Feb 2021 19:15 GMT

The Brit said:
To be fair after the own goal, he really stepped up - and so he should! That header away from the set piece late on saved a goal and he blocked a couple of shots.
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Agree, after the goal he was a different player, but before he was out of sorts...

 
Gol15 said:
I think there is a clear difference from defending poorly and making this random mistake of an own goal. He wasn't scoring own goals last season...

He was decent recently before this own goal and even after, maybe he's not as bad as a pure defender as he is "just" an unstable player that loses concentration and that isn't focused enough at times and stuff like that...
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Hardly random if he was heavily mistake prone last season is it...

 
The Brit said:
All the talk of souness, Match of the day commentator was adamant it wasn’t a penalty either. I’m utterly bemused. Hope they both listened to chris wilder post match who said everyone on their bench thought it was a pen. 
meanwhile Salah goes down over bugger all contact and another match of the day commentator says it was a blatant pen. Signs of inherent north west Bias?

in fairness Shearer said Chelsea decision was right in analysis afterwards 
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It's incredible that anybody can think it wasn't a penalty.

They are moaning because Werner was playing for the penalty, but so what if he was? It's the keepers fault for charging out so recklessly. He didn't have to slide into Werner, he could have stood up to Werner and try and save the incoming shot. At least Werner waited to get clattered, unlike the likes of Salah, Kane, Mane, Grealish and Fernandes who always dangle a leg and force the contact to win a foul / penalty. This is actual cheating, and they always escape criticism.

 
Imran_CFC said:
Starting to get annoying and repetitive Managers mentioning our squad value every time we beat them. 
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Moyes use to do it all the time then went to a club with even more money than us and wound up below the ex club he pleaded poverty with.

 
A win but Sheffield forced the players to work extra hard. 

The own goal was because the defenders got into the habit of passing it to the GK whenever they are under pressure.

 
I was worried when I saw Christensen in the lineup against Sheffield United, knowing they are quite physical, but I thought he was very good yesterday evening. Dealt with everything his way.

 
Lovely worked goal for Mount, nice to see that.

Rudiger again leaves us baffled how he gets in the team. Such a poor defender and even worse footballer. To be honest I laughed when it happened but was not surprised at all.

Lucky with the VAR help on both pens. Just shows what I said before. Ramsdale is not a good keeper he did not need to make that challange and he cost his team again.

We are not creating enough chances, we need to link up better and get more shots on goal. Werner man of the match for me, 2 assists used his pace well.

 
This was pretty much how sheffield stopped us from building from the back, which spurs failed to do. 

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Nibs said:
Thought Christensen was solid and our best defender tonight.
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Perhaps I am more critical of him than others. For me it is the lack of physicality and a slightly passive approach that bothers me and I think creates uncertainty in other defenders. He doesn't take control of the situation often enough and is too reactive. The early shot (I think it was Norwood) is a good example. Be active and take control and show him down the line. Instead Christensen just sort of stands there in no man's land and lets him play the ball inside him, neither making a challenge or really having any impact on the attackers decision. Same at end with Sharp. Stick your head in there. Don't let him have the space to bicycle it while you turn your head away.  All our best defenders recently (and I include Gary Cahill in this) aren't letting him get that shot away on target.

 
Slojo said:
Not upset by any means, but these broadcasters provide a lot of revenue for the EPL. And the lack of coverage we as a club have been getting for years when we've been one of the top teams in England is just ridiculous. We and City get minimal protection, but at least City have Micah Richards there now, who do we get there? Joe Cole occasionally who's biased for us but that's it really. Ruud supports us but he's usually very harsh with us. 

You might not think it matters but it does. We got about 3 penalties in 2015 because of MOTD's coverage on our diving in one specific game, where they slaughtered all of our players. After that referees weren't giving us any penalties all season, that's why Jose was specifically talking about punditry bias, media bias and the campaign, he actually had a good point. United and Liverpool especially never get this treatment that we do. 
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We're beginning to sound like victims.

 
Wasn't a great performance, but crucial 3 points and took us within touching distance of the top 4. Sheffield United deserved credits to give us a tough game, to be honest they gave us more problems that Spurs did 3 nights ago. We played well within ourselves, but had the right answers at the crucial moments to seize the game. I was critical during the game about lack of attackers TT put ( or left) on the pitch, but given it's a long season and a game every 3 days, we actually managed to give some players a rest without costing points. I believe in the next game we will probably see freshed up Ziyech, CHO or Tammy. We definitely need Silva back, just lost that calmness at the back, but for once Christensen stepped up and had a good game. Werner had a good game, and he said all the right things post game, but need that goal or two soon or he will be under the microscope everytime he steps on the field.

 
carrickblue said:
we look like a bunch of strangers pulled out of a local pub to play a kick about

can't wait for Tuchel to decide his 1st 11 and start moulding them into a team - that's what he is supposed to be expert at
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Go back through a lot of the threads since Lampard was sacked and there have been HUNDREDS of posts saying this game and the next couple of matches were a great chance to play all of the squad, give some of the others a chance to find out our best 11.  Now that the new manager is doing that, you find that a cause to have a moan?

No pleasing some people.

 
yorkleyblue said:
Go back through a lot of the threads since Lampard was sacked and there have been HUNDREDS of posts saying this game and the next couple of matches were a great chance to play all of the squad, give some of the others a chance to find out our best 11.  Now that the new manager is doing that, you find that a cause to have a moan?

No pleasing some people.
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Not to mention we played Thursday evening. Sheffield last played Tuesday afternoon and quite clearly had fresher legs than some of our players.

Rotation was absolutely necessary.

 
Bob stark said:
This was pretty much how sheffield stopped us from building from the back, which spurs failed to do. 

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I noticed this in the first half - Kovacic and Jorginho couldn't pass the ball through the middle towards Mount-Werner-Giroud due to those 3 that were marking that area around the final third. Kovacic managed to pass well longer balls towards Werner instead and Giroud came deeper to receive a pass.

We managed to score without having many players going forward which hasn't been the case in general this season and it's a must when we play with the 3 at the back.

Chilwell was pretty much ignoring Havertz making runs into space in his last game but he passed to Werner this game and we automatically scored from that, from his position he had no other attacking option so he finally just played someone making a run and it's a relief that such a simple thing worked so well.

 
Thought we were generally poor tonight with the exception of Mount, Werner and Christensen. The games are coming thick and fast so perhaps tiredness was an issue. I felt he could have played Billy instead of either Kova or Giorginho to freshen it up a bit.

I was more disappointed with the likes of Chilwell and James who were looking to prove a point to the new manager.

I didn't think the shape worked although it is refreshing to see TT trying different formations, I thought Giroud was a virtual passenger and his inclusion left us light in midfield, but we got the win against a tricky side which keeps a nice little run going and puts us back on the premisis.

KTBFFH

 
Arguably the least impressive performance since Tuchel took over. 

We struggled to play out from the back against the slightest wiff of a press from Sheffield United. 

Giroud was a ghost for the hour he was playing, I'm assuming Tuchel expected United to sit deeper and and was expecting to have Giroud to aim at for crosses but he was largely anonymous and if I were to guess, I'd venture he had the least number of touches from the starting XI in those 60 minutes. 

We're not really creating a lot of chances from open play, we only had 3 shots on target last night, one being the penalty. We were playing bottom of the league, we really should be creating more clear cut chances. 

 
ForeverCarefree said:
Arguably the least impressive performance since Tuchel took over. 

We struggled to play out from the back against the slightest wiff of a press from Sheffield United. 

Giroud was a ghost for the hour he was playing, I'm assuming Tuchel expected United to sit deeper and and was expecting to have Giroud to aim at for crosses but he was largely anonymous and if I were to guess, I'd venture he had the least number of touches from the starting XI in those 60 minutes. 

We're not really creating a lot of chances from open play, we only had 3 shots on target last night, one being the penalty. We were playing bottom of the league, we really should be creating more clear cut chances. 
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I think there are elements of truth to this noting Sheffield United have been much better recently. We didn't create lots but we took our one big chance which we hadn't been doing recently.

Giroud wasn't as involved but did his usual things well off the ball. Note his run taking the defenders away for Mounts goal. I actually like the combination of Werner running beyond with Giroud coming short,  Giroud is very good at creating opportunities for his team mates with his movement so I wouldn't bin this combination just yet.

As with all tactical setups, teams watch and react and setup to negate you, this is particularly the case with the more reactive teams. The more games they have to watch video and draw patterns in what you do the more successful they are. That's one of the key reasons Lampard's approach which dominated in the spring, failed in the winter. I think we're starting to see this with Tuchel.

I'll be interested in seeing the next phase of Tuchels approach which we will need against United and Everton next month if not sooner. He is well known for his tactical flexibility so I am hoping he has some options up his sleeve to keep us winning.

 
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