We were the better team by far. Sloppy defending again for their goal (I don’t recall them threatening to score much before or after that) and Barkley’s penalty miss were unfortunately the deciding moments. All the people saying it was a poor performance and we got what we deserve are talking out their arses and have clearly not been watching us long enough to have seen a genuinely poor performance.

1 minute ago, bluehaze said:

Lets forget who our manager is and put sentiment to one side Leicester, Sheffield Utd, Valencia if we played like this under Sarri fans would be going nuts and rightly so. It's going to be a long hard season I'm afraid.

Surely supporting a football club is all sentiment in the first place?

Agree it will be a long hard season though - but I am excited by it. ?

4 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

What a load of nonsense. What is the point getting back into the competition if we are going to fall at the first hurdle? 

Because if we play like like that against the elite teams we are going to be embarrassed. We're not a champions league team anymore in reality the Europa league is our level.

Our team isn't experienced for these games in Europe. Pulisic could have played instead of Pedro though I wonder why he didn't. Also the penalty miss, just unlucky to have lost here, we weren't outplayed that's for sure.

Just now, ozboy said:

Back to earth tonight. Barkley had The guts to take the pen and everyone misses one every now and then. Personally I thought Pedro was the worst for us tonight and I think frank got his tactics and subs wrong. 

Nut it really it’s not that surprising we come crashing back to earth  it’s going to be that kind of season  thin squad injuries youth  

 

James, Rudiger, Emerson, Kante, Loftus-Cheek, Hudson-Odoi, and now Mount ... that's 7 likely starters right there on our injury list ... the team is doing very well in the circumstances !

I love Azpilicueta and will defend him more than most but he HAS to step in there and physically take the ball from Ross. Really disappointed in him.

Whats all this bollocks Barkley had the guts to take it, its only a penalty, not walking round Anfiled with your Chelsea shirt on.

Depsite all the negativity. I think Tomori has been our best player tonight. 

Three and half years since Ross took a penalty in open game. The captain needs to be taking control of the situation.

I think we could well end up defending our Europa League title after Christmas - we didn't really threaten them much, that's the most disappointing thing for me tonight. 

Just now, EdinburghBlue said:

I love Azpilicueta and will defend him more than most but he HAS to step in there and physically take the ball from Ross. Really disappointed in him.

Think Frank will be sorting this one out Wednesday morning. Needs to make it clear which the order is and stick to it. 

1 minute ago, Sexyfootball said:

This is what happens when Pedro and Willian are the main support for the striker.

They lack that ability that Mount has in spades, to play the right ball or get into a goal-scoring position. You can't teach instinct like that.

As things stand, I would prefer to play all of our main younger players over our more experienced ones right now. Pulisic, Mount, Abraham, Tomori and Hudson-Odoi and Reece James when they return. The experienced players are just not doing anywhere near enough. I know Pedro has been out injured for a few weeks, but that doesn't excuse such a poor performance like he just put in. I would much rather have seen Pulisic come on, I doubt he would have been anywhere near as poor as Pedro. I also wasn't as impressed as some were with Willian tonight. Yes, he did his usual fancy footwork at times, but so what. I have seen that type of thing from Willian since the day he signed, it's all flash with nothing good at the end of it. I fear the worst if the pair of them are starting against Liverpool.

2 minutes ago, bluehaze said:

Lets forget who our manager is and put sentiment to one side Leicester, Sheffield Utd, Valencia if we played like this under Sarri fans would be going nuts and rightly so. It's going to be a long hard season I'm afraid.

The thing is we have not been too terrible. We are just lacking that final special player ie Hazard.

How can the fans go nuts when this is arguably one of the worst set of circumstances the club have ever faced in the recent era? We have a new manager, transfer ban, injury ravaged team, a team filled with youth and our best player just left.

It's not that bad.

Just now, Sexyfootball said:

James, Rudiger, Emerson, Kante, Loftus-Cheek, Hudson-Odoi, and now Mount ... that's 7 likely starters right there on our injury list ... the team is doing very well in the circumstances !

That is some serious bad luck with injuries TBF, especially for a start of a season.

Listening to Azpi talk about the penalty situation. Not sure if he's being tactile by just trying to be positive about the situation - or genuinely naive, to the point he didn't bother to go do anything because he thought Jorginho and Willian were there just to encourage him lol...

Just now, coco said:

Think Frank will be sorting this one out Wednesday morning. Needs to make it clear which the order is and stick to it. 

100% at the same time, for everyone calling for Jorginho for Captain, similarly, he should have physically removed that ball from Ross. I remember Frank telling Didier he was not getting the ball and pushing him away because DD was going for the golden boot because the game decided the title and when we got another one at 3/4-0 I’m sure - frank gave Didier the penalty. 

1 minute ago, Deino said:

The thing is we have not been too terrible. We are just lacking that final special player ie Hazard.

How can the fans go nuts when this is arguably one of the worst set of circumstances the club have ever faced in the recent era? We have a new manager, transfer ban, injury ravaged team, a team filled with youth and our best player just left.

It's not that bad.

It's not great either you're either half full or half empty I'm the latter unfortunately 

Just now, bluehaze said:

It's not great either you're either half full or half empty I'm the latter unfortunately 

Nothing wrong with being half empty when your in the middle of a desert and need drink, but not when your club is rebuilding with academy players.

We are unlucky with injuries, but this is not an excuse for such a flat performance on the first CL game at the Bridge.

We didn't deserve anything in this game against a poor and out of form Valencia who played defensively for the majority of the game. 

 I think Ajax will trash us if we play like this against them.

1 minute ago, bluehaze said:

It's not great either you're either half full or half empty I'm the latter unfortunately 

I'd say relax. We're not even 20 games in and this experience is overall good for the team. Dust it off and we go again.

Unless you're expecting that we're unbeatable at this point which is just bonkers given the situation we're in.

Azpi is a terrible captain. Not the first time we need some leadership on a pitch and he's gone missing. Last season the Kepa/Sarri fiasco, and now Barkley being an idiot.

As for the game, it's all part of the learning curve. We're having bad luck with injuries, Kante, Rudiger, Emerson, CHO, RLC, James and now Mount. Losing a group opener at home isn't great, but there's still plenty of games to go and we'll get better, I'm sure.

We all knew there'll be games like these. It'll be ups and downs for most of the season, I imagine. Just need to learn to be patient and enjoy the positives. 

Lampard said Barkley is the penalty taker...

Just now, Saru said:

Lampard said Barkley is the penalty taker...

He's diffusing the situation I think, no way there are 2 players challenging him if he was designated pen taker. Still right thing to do to brush it under the carpet in front of the media and sort it out behind closed doors

I really don’t think we were that bad considering our situation atm. New manager, transfer ban, youth players, loads of injuries. Barkley fiasco is f**king me off a bit but I still think we will go though to group stage. 

Dont know what some people are expecting.

3 minutes ago, bluedave said:

We were the better team by far. Sloppy defending again for their goal (I don’t recall them threatening to score much before or after that) and Barkley’s penalty miss were unfortunately the deciding moments. All the people saying it was a poor performance and we got what we deserve are talking out their arses and have clearly not been watching us long enough to have seen a genuinely poor performance.

If we were the better team BY FAR, then we would have won it. The fact is we created zero clear cut opportunities, didn't make their keeper work hard enough and played right into their hands. Valencia were set up to defend, hit us on the counter attack and hope for a goal from one of those counter attacks or a set piece, and it worked for them.

We played poor, I don't know how anybody watching that can say it was a good performance from us, because it wasn't. It's nowhere near the worst performance I have seen from us in the last year, but it was still poor. Their game plan worked, ours failed. I can't see any positives to come out of tonights performance.