NO RATTY! Come on you Blues!

I dont understand why not to play Traore, but let's just support and believe, commme one CHELS!!!!

Team to play PSG: Courtois; Azpilicueta, Cahill, Ivanovic ©, Kenedy; Mikel, Fabregas; Pedro, Willian, Hazard; Diego Costa. #CHEPSG

We're certainly going for it!! We have to try and get 2 up before we can think of defending it out.

I wouldnt be surprised to see this go to extra time again.

Pedro needs to be on form otherwise I would have gone with traore. Hazard has done nothing to warrant a pick tbh, i think its blind hope/optimism he will turn up tonight, but he hasn't all season so why any different tonight?! Kenedy is a decent choice, but up against di maria could be trouble waiting to happen with his lack of defensive capabilities. We shall see, but c'mon chels do this tonight and it will be a humungus boost of belief

Edited March 9, 201610 yr by enigma

Team to play PSG: Courtois; Azpilicueta, Cahill, Ivanovic ©, Kenedy; Mikel, Fabregas; Pedro, Willian, Hazard; Diego Costa. #CHEPSG

i like this line up.  come on you blues - attack attack attack

Pleased with that line up.

Happy that Matic and Oscar aren't preferred.

luiz become the *ock who f**ked your twat last year

Bonsoir, welcome to the forum.

Wow Kenedy and Pedro in the start.  Attacking lineup

Nice attacking lineup, Guus is at least giving it a go and not being too cautious , if we're good enough we'll go through.

NO RATTY! Come on you Blues!

This is good news, he is there best player IMO.

luiz become the *ock who f**ked your twat last year

Your team is the epitome of a flat track bully. You win a second rate league title every year, but still can't get close to this trophy.

Edited March 9, 201610 yr by Blue Exile

wouldn't it be so sweet if we proper trashed these upstarts

Good lineup. As said if we play the best game of this season we are through. Not easy even if we do.

after so many millions , laurent blanc decide to put matuidi and rabiot .. so disgusting if we lose it's our fault to disrespect you like that .

I'm so relieved Matic is on the bench. Lucas/Di Maria vs Kenedy is a bit scary though.

Bonsoir, welcome to the forum.

thanks for the reception :)

What's PSG line up?

after so many millions , laurent blanc decide to put matuidi and rabiot .. so disgusting if we lose it's our fault to disrespect you like that .

 

Errrr both Matuidi & Rabiot are excellent players....

What's PSG line up?

 

 

PSG team: Trapp, Marquinhos, Thiago Silva ©, David Luiz, Maxwell, Thiago Motta, Rabiot, Matuidi, Di Maria, Moura, Ibrahimovic. #CHEPSG

Wow, just wow. I'm liking this comment just down to the fact you went out your way to do this maths whilst at work or whatever you are currently doing. Well done, sir. 

 

Heh thanks, it was a quiet day at work, plus messing around with football stats comes fairly naturally to me.

 

 

Again, a very interesting post and obviously I'd expect that because you've mentioned before that you work in the football industry.

 

I'm only a layman but here's a go. I'll borrow your template.

 

When we played Stoke, they'd lost 4 of their last 6 away games.

When we played United, their next to away games in the Premier League were losses at Sunderland and West Brom.

Between the two Watford matches, they'd lose 4 of their 5 matches.

 

These don't appear to be teams of that high quality either but of course I'm picking and choosing what I use to support my argument. Now you're right that we have conceded fewer goals under Matic and Mikel, but we need to score tonight. We also need to win and the examples you used didn't quite prove that. I enjoyed reading your posts though.

 

Haha well 'football industry' is perhaps overstating it, certainly I work in a stadium, although no actual football knowledge is really required.

 

You are absolutely right that we need to score in order to win and I would imagine (I haven't looked at the stats but it seems entirely logical) that we are more likely to do that with, say, Oscar in the side, than Matic. My fear is that if we try and out-score PSG we will be soundly beaten; they are simply far better at it, in better winning form, and have better tools for the job. I suppose I am [perhaps wrongly] assuming that PSG will try and win the game rather than play cautiously as they are already winning the tie (this article from Barney Ronay is an interesting take on it).

 

My other fear is that attempting to control a three-man midfield with Mikel and Fabregas will lead to us getting overrun like we did in the first leg; the lack of numbers and their individual lack of dynamism will likely lead to Matuidi having a(nother) field day. Oscar's fairly indifferent form and the Ramires-shaped hole in the squad mean that our only real option to amend that is Matic - which of course, as many in the thread have [probably] rightly said, dulls our attacking sharpness - and we need to score. What I cling to with that midfield is that we actually have a fairly decent defensive record with both Mikel and Matic in the side, which was the point I was initially trying to make with the splurge of statistics from earlier. This kind of caution would be characteristic of Guus Mk.II so it seemed worth exploring (bear in mind Matic was suspended for the first leg).

 

I suppose the sad truth this highlights is that this kind of dichotomy is necessary - either sacrificing a fair amount of attacking threat in order to adequately protect our defence, or taking a huge risk in order to ensure that we can score goals. It's a shame we no longer have an Essien or Ballack (or even Lampard) figure in our midfield who could provide a balance between the two.

 

 

Usually i'd agree with a cautious approach in this situation however, I'm not confident this team is capable of soaking up pressure a winning 1 nil. We have conceded alot of goals at home under gus, so I think we will have to score at least 3 times to go through tonight.

Also in the last 2 seasons, a cautious approach going into the home tie has cost us both years. In fact the only time this group has beaten a top side over 2 legs when we knew we had to score twice against psg the 1st time around.

I'd rather us go out having a proper go at this psg team, who I think we have shown far too much respect for in the last 2 years.

Anyways ploks here's to hoping we are in the next round by hook or by crook!

 

I am not particularly confident either way in all honesty, but one thing I do find reassuring is that the approach has seemed to work best in the 'bigger' games under Guus (1 goal conceded in three games against Arsenal and Man Utd x2).

 

You are not wrong about defensive strategies having cost us in the recent past of the knockout stages, but a cautious midfield three seems like a more attacking prospect than something like Azpilicueta on the wing against a side (Atletico) who have never looked particularly vulnerable to counter-attacking football.

 

Absolutely agree though - by hook or by crook!

Kenedy at left back. Wow....

That is incredibly ballsy.

 

Too much i think, Baba deserve that place after his performance in Paris and i don't look forward to Kenedy defensivly against that lineup.

 

I actually like this and kind of feel its going to pay off!  I like that for once Chelsea are actually going for it.  Mikel needs to be sharp and aggressive - that's where Chelsea will win the game if he is.  he needs to win possession and own the mid field!

I'm so relieved Matic is on the bench. Lucas/Di Maria vs Kenedy is a bit scary though.

Yes. Just wonder if Kenedy is ready for this. Will find out shortly. Come on you BLUES

Team to play PSG: Courtois; Azpilicueta, Cahill, Ivanovic ©, Kenedy; Mikel, Fabregas; Pedro, Willian, Hazard; Diego Costa. #CHEPSG

 

Haha well it looks like Guus hasn't taken my advice on board at all (bar Pedro).

 

Prove me wrong lads, prove me wrong!

AVB feeling the heat. Zenit just went out after losing home to Benfica. I thought they are clear through from that pair.

Your team is the epitome of a flat track bully. You win a second rate league title every year, but still can't get close to this trophy.

Are you mad bro ? dont get cocky and have fun no ? :)

but if i answer you seriously i wonder how does it feel to got 49% posession when you are playing 11vs10 btw :)

have fun all !

Edited March 9, 201610 yr by Shinishi