18 hours ago, RIP Mourinho said:

Sadly we don’t have Salah and Mane for him to be linking play with up top. Need your wingers to be getting 15 goals a season for a false 9 to work.

I think at our current rate we can expect Jorginho to bag around 15 goals next season as well, will take some pressure off the attackers

Had a good first half, though I think he could have done better with some of the opportunities he got. He was very quiet in the last half hour unfortunately.

Should of scored i thought.

Decent 60 minutes held the ball up when needed and made some decnt runs. Real pity every half decent chance was on his weaker foot, but I thought he shouldve buries the one right after half time, when he actually had more time than he thought.

Really need someone to grab the goalscorimg mantle. 

31 minutes ago, big blue said:

Decent 60 minutes held the ball up when needed and made some decnt runs. Real pity every half decent chance was on his weaker foot, but I thought he shouldve buries the one right after half time, when he actually had more time than he thought.

Really need someone to grab the goalscorimg mantle. 

Love to see a player blast the ball but sadly with that chance he should have chosen placement there was so much of the goal to aim at. I think he'll be disappointed today but will hopefully come back and score in the next prem game. I assume he will be either benched for Athletico or start in place of Mount with Oli up top.

1 hour ago, LongtimerLurker said:

Love to see a player blast the ball but sadly with that chance he should have chosen placement there was so much of the goal to aim at. I think he'll be disappointed today but will hopefully come back and score in the next prem game. I assume he will be either benched for Athletico or start in place of Mount with Oli up top.

I think werner and giroud will definitely play, then that 3rd spot will be between CHO, Havertz, Ziyech, and Pulisic, hopefully one of the former 2.

In terms of holding the ball up, Havertz was actually half decent with his back to goal today (which I suppose is no great surprise given his physical frame), but without players willing to run beyond him it's pointless. He can hold off a centre-back, his close control is good, and he can make intelligent lay-offs with both feet. He also has an appreciation of space, but he's not a natural individual outlet like a Drogba or an Hazard - he needs players around him.

I think he could do just fine in the 'false X' role, but he will be far better either:

- Playing behind/next to somebody he can feed (either someone making runs inside [Werner, Pulisic, Hudson-Odoi] or somebody in front of him [Abraham])

- Playing with another genuine forward who will make decoy runs (probably Werner or Abraham)

Had a decent game just needed to be more clinical with the opportunities he had, he certainly looks better in the more advanced positions probably could have done with a bit more support with someone like Giroud in the second half.

Our best chance went to him when the Leeds back line parted like the red sea. So much time to pick a spot out but used his weaker foot to hammer it straight at the keeper.

Unfortunately is the normal for our attackers to just panic and hit pathetic efforts on goal.

Out of all our players I think only Giroud and Mount would have made the chance count.

Like what i've seen from him the last two games.

Looked completely off from Game 1 until the last under Lampard unfortunately but against Everton & Leeds today I saw a player with great potential. Think him as the 9 will suit both him and the team and expect him to continue there.

 

12 minutes ago, Sindre said:

Like what i've seen from him the last two games.

Looked completely off from Game 1 until the last under Lampard unfortunately

That's not really true, he was looking good under lampard until he caught Covid, I'm sure he had a few man of the matches on here. Covid obviously kicked the sh*t out of him, when he returned back to the team he lacked energy. 

4 minutes ago, dkw said:

That's not really true, he was looking good under lampard until he caught Covid, I'm sure he had a few man of the matches on here. Covid obviously kicked the sh*t out of him, when he returned back to the team he lacked energy. 

Can't agree with that. With a few exceptions, mainly Southampton and Burnley I don't think he was good at all. 

Everton was by a distance his best performance at the club in my view.

11 minutes ago, Sindre said:

Can't agree with that. With a few exceptions, mainly Southampton and Burnley I don't think he was good at all. 

Everton was by a distance his best performance at the club in my view.

So not every game then like you originally said.

I do agree about the Everton game though.

Edited March 13, 20215 yr by dkw

Got all his attempts on goal on target today ... if he keeps doing that he'll start banging a few in sooner or later ... 

6 minutes ago, Sexyfootball said:

Got all his attempts on goal on target today ... if he keeps doing that he'll start banging a few in sooner or later ... 

Been thinking that about Werner for some time...The goals total produced by TW, KH, HZ and CP this season has been diabolical.

Edited March 13, 20215 yr by Backbiter

11 minutes ago, Backbiter said:

Been thinking that about Werner for some time...The goals total produced by TW, KH, HZ and CP this season has been diabolical.

True ... I think we were all imagining we'd get minimum 20 from Werner and double figures from all the others ...

7 minutes ago, Sexyfootball said:

True ... I think we were all imagining we'd get minimum 20 from Werner and double figures from all the others ...

They have scored EIGHT combined so far in the Prem, in 83 combined appearances

KH, CP and HZ have 3 goals and six assists between them in 55 combined appearances.

1 hour ago, Sindre said:

Like what i've seen from him the last two games.

Looked completely off from Game 1 until the last under Lampard unfortunately but against Everton & Leeds today I saw a player with great potential. Think him as the 9 will suit both him and the team and expect him to continue there.

 

I think he has the quality to be behind the main poacher which in our case is Tammy/Werner because he is great when it comes to coming in as a second option into space and he can also pass the ball well. Last game as a false 9 with Werner he was better than now as a pure striker for example, I think he's better at a more free role.

1 minute ago, Backbiter said:

They have scored EIGHT combined so far in the Prem, in 83 combined appearances

KH, CP and HZ have 3 goals and six assists between them in 55 combined appearances.

The XG stats might be quite insightful as well ... i.e how far below expectation have they performed ? (and is the problem profligacy in front of goal, or simply in not carving out enough decent goal scoring opportunities so that the ones missed are actual low percent conversion chances anyway)

16 minutes ago, Sexyfootball said:

The XG stats might be quite insightful as well ... i.e how far below expectation have they performed ? (and is the problem profligacy in front of goal, or simply in not carving out enough decent goal scoring opportunities so that the ones missed are actual low percent conversion chances anyway)

CP's xG is 3.5, KH's 2.4, HZ's is 1.1 and TW's is 11.1. That would be 18 expected goals combined, more than twice as many as the pitiful 8 they have contributed.

Tammy and Mason have both scored slightly more than their xG.

Based on xG, we would/ could/ should have 57 points, 10 points more than the next best team, and we'd be just 6 points behind City.

https://understat.com/league/EPL

Edited March 13, 20215 yr by Backbiter

34 minutes ago, Backbiter said:

CP's xG is 3.5, KH's 2.4, HZ's is 1.1 and TW's is 11.1. That would be 18 expected goals combined, more than twice as many as the pitiful 8 they have contributed.

Tammy and Mason have both scored slightly more than their xG.

Based on xG, we would/ could/ should have 57 points, 10 points more than the next best team, and we'd be just 6 points behind City.

https://understat.com/league/EPL

Interesting ... and I'm gobsmacked at where Brighton would be !!!!

The last two games have definitely given us some hope that he might turn out to be a great player for us. 

Hopefully he doesn't end up having the same problems Timo has in front of goal because his finishing today was pretty poor. 

Unlike Werner, Havertz was known to be a composed finisher, with both his feet as well as his heading ability. Against Everton I thought he was very unlucky. This time however his finishing was miles off. Wouldn't look into it too much, Kai Havertz under normal curse-free Chelsea circumstances has such fine composure in front of goal. Timo, on the other hand, has always been a bit hit or miss in that regard.

Two successive games as a false nine and he's had quite a few decent opportunities. Makes clever runs at the right moments and seeing as he's been out of the squad for a while now, I'm sure his finishing will improve with match fitness.

I'm sorry Yorkley, but Kai Havertz is going to be special.

I understand not everyone is a leader type or highly charismatic or ‘one of the lads’ or however you want to put it, but this doesn’t look great to me.

11 hours ago, PloKoon13 said:

In terms of holding the ball up, Havertz was actually half decent with his back to goal today (which I suppose is no great surprise given his physical frame), but without players willing to run beyond him it's pointless. He can hold off a centre-back, his close control is good, and he can make intelligent lay-offs with both feet. He also has an appreciation of space, but he's not a natural individual outlet like a Drogba or an Hazard - he needs players around him.

I think he could do just fine in the 'false X' role, but he will be far better either:

- Playing behind/next to somebody he can feed (either someone making runs inside [Werner, Pulisic, Hudson-Odoi] or somebody in front of him [Abraham])

- Playing with another genuine forward who will make decoy runs (probably Werner or Abraham)

He was struggling big time to hold the ball high early in the season, he kept losing the ball when he was being hit. We shall see i guess