1 minute ago, abramovich said:

We would have lost no matter what formation we'd have used or who would have played where. Let's not kid ourselves, Bayern are a class or two above us, we tried our best and still got spanked. This is just a reminder of where we are as a team at the moment and what we should be aiming to become.

Nailed it. All there is to it. They were formidable and were always going to win. I think it’s the best team we’ve played this season. This result really shouldn’t be ruining anyone’s evening to the extent it seems to be. Best to focus attention elsewhere till Bournemouth.

We were well beaten by a brilliant side, let's be real about it. They taught us a football lesson, and we should be thankful they only got 3. It was pretty painful viewing from our point of view. Having said that, I feel Frank made a massive mistake at 2-0 down, when he took off Dave and went to a back four. At 2-0 we're still in the tie, just about. I mean it's basically over but we still have a sniff. A home goal doesn't make much difference, we'd still need two goals away. I understand his reasoning for going more attacking with 4 at the back, but if there's 2 players you don't want in a back four it's Christensen and Alonso, and it should have been one of them coming off instead of Dave. My first thought was, please don't leave Christensen on the pitch against this lot in a back four. Frank should really know better. Christensen's defending for the third goal is criminal and if Luiz had done that he'd be getting pelters for it. There was absolutely no need to commit himself, particularly against the fastest player on the pitch. He was always going to lose that challenge, but at the very least bring the guy down and get a yellow. No, he can't even do that and the third goal's a gift. 

 

I thought Willy did well first-half but he could have done better for the first two goals, particularly the first where he's way too far outside his post, but the goals weren't his fault. Mount lacked quality, Barkley was anonymous, and Tammy when he came on failed to anticipate a couple of crosses that went across the goal, just as he has done a lot this season. 

 

Having said all that, no shame losing to this lot, it really was a masterclass. Tonight was a steep learning curve for some of our lads, and I dare say for the manager as well. 

 

F*ck it, we'll just have to go to their place and win 4-0.

1 minute ago, Gol15 said:

The fun part is that our exact team and formation won against Spuds recently. It just shows how the league level has fallen, we playing with an old Giroud, average Barkley and inexperienced Mount can win against rivals for the top 4.

Bayern was playing this without any problems, it's like a free pass to the next round for them, they do this every season while we were in Europa league just a year ago so we are really staring from almost 0 here.

I've been saying it for a while. The Premier League is rubbish at the moment. That is a big reason Liverpool are running away with it. Yes they are a good team but not that good. They are seeing that in Europe too.

3 minutes ago, Maldeika said:

Müller and Alaba are homegrown. Boateng came from City, Thiago from Barcelona, Gnabry had no future anymore at Arsenal - same with Coman at Juve. Kimmich came from 2nd league. Pavard went down 2nd league with Stuttgart. Davies came from the MLS. Lewy was not bought....

You nabbed Lewy from Dortmund like you did Gotze, when Dortmund where challenging you and beating you for the title you signed their two best players. Lets not deny reality, no other team in the Bundesliga is able to rise and compete with Bayern, your team dominates every other in the market. 

29 minutes ago, DannyLB said:

Which youngsters exactly? Mount and Reece? I am seeing this "youth" excuse creep up when instead we have problems with senior players not being good enough. Azpi, Christensen, Rudiger, Alonso, Barkley...I could keep going. We lack quality in our squad all over the place, period. 

It was something that was a problem last season too. Pretty much every position needs an upgrade. People underestimate just how bad that transfer ban was for us, it came at the worst possible time. We were desperate for new players, but we had to bring back players we loaned out that weren't good enough in the past and young players that were playing in the Championship. Selling Hazard to Real Madrid and losing Loftus-Cheek and Hudson-Odoi to injury for a big chunk of the season just added to the damage. The injuries we have had this season has really hurt us too.

Mount, Tomori, James, Abraham, they were all playing in the Championship last season.

Zouma, Batshuayi, they were playing for mid table Premier League teams and didn't really do anything special in their time at those clubs.

Pedro, Willian, Giroud, past it. Should have been moved on by now, but the transfer ban forced us to keep them.

Emerson, Barkley, Christensen, Caballero, not good enough for top sides.

Jorginho and Kepa have big question marks on their name. Can you build a successful side around these two players? I'm not so sure.

Azpilicueta, Alonso, Hudson-Odoi. They should be squad players at this moment in their careers, not regular starters.

Kovacic, Rudiger (?), Kante, Loftus-Cheek, Pulisic, these players are our only players at this moment that are good enough to be challenging top sides. Rudiger's drop in form is worrying though, maybe it's the injuries he had. Kante is another worry, he's been getting injured a lot and hasn't been playing well all that much this season. Loftus-Cheek has been out for nearly a year and Pulisic is new to league and picked up an bad injury as well.

Edited February 25, 20206 yr by Scott Harris

7 minutes ago, BordeauxBlue said:

Did you watch a different game? Okay we didn't ship 7, but we got absolutely shat on all game. 

The levels were obvious. 

You’re right, they were levels above us. I was just practising my response for my Spurs workmates.

2 minutes ago, Slojo said:

You nabbed Lewy from Dortmund like you did Gotze, when Dortmund where challenging you and beating you for the title you signed their two best players. Lets not deny reality, no other team in the Bundesliga is able to rise and compete with Bayern, your team dominates every other in the market. 

So basically like we did circa 2005.

Bayern doing what they do to keep winning is up to them and if their rivals allow themselves to sell their best players to them then more fool them. Not sure why this is a dig at Bayern tbh

Edited February 25, 20206 yr by Chelsbear

Remember when Chelsea players used to have a bit of fight and bottle?

13 minutes ago, loz said:

Kovacic is quality in bursts and, in fairness to him, if he had better players around him he might be able to do it more consistently over a whole game rather than fading too regularly. It is hard to keep up the level he can show when things are fairly average around him.

Can't agree on Jorginho. Nothing about him looked like quality tonight.

Only disappointment about him missing second leg is that Kante won't be fit to replace him. Big players show up in big games. He never does.

Ayy finally! See he doesn't just do it against Hull, he is a good player and has improved massively. 

So basically like we did circa 2005.
Bayern doing what they do to keep winning is up to them and if their rivals allow themselves to sell their best players to them then more fool them. Not sure why this is a dig at Bayern tbh

Exactly. Club in buying players shock!

Just now, Chelsbear said:

So basically like we did circa 2005.

Bayern doing what they do to keep winning is up to them and if their rivals allow themselves to sell to them then more fool them. Not sure why this is a dog at Bayern tbh

Did we? Did we sign all of United's best players? All of Arsenals and Liverpools? I can't remember that bit. 

4 minutes ago, Gol15 said:

The fun part is that our exact team and formation won against Spuds recently. It just shows how the league level has fallen, we playing with an old Giroud, average Barkley and inexperienced Mount can win against rivals for the top 4.

Bayern was playing this without any problems, it's like a free pass to the next round for them, they do this every season while we were in Europa league just a year ago so we are really staring from almost 0 here.

the fact that the English clubs in this round of 16 have (so far) all lost maybe does says something about the state of the Premier League right now - does feel as though the standard has slipped back this season. when I do see Liverpool, they're not that hugely impressive and yet they're running away with everything as we all know 

1 minute ago, Slojo said:

Ayy finally! See he doesn't just do it against Hull, he is a good player and has improved massively. 

I’d say he’s our best player, along with Kante. I think our midfield is solid, just need better attackers and defenders. And goalkeeper ?

Ayy finally! See he doesn't just do it against Hull, he is a good player and has improved massively. 

Agreed. He has. Still not consistent enough and too often he seems to have a good 30 minutes or so then fade but he is definitely improving.

I can't understand why so many fans (and TV pundits) keep making reference to this "young" Chelsea team. Even Hoddle mentioned it during commentary that they would be a force in 2-3 years. In actual fact in the starting XI only Christensen, Mount and James were under 25 and none are teenagers. This was a Chelsea side sprinkled with experience versus a Bayern side with a very similar makeup of youth and experience. Face it Frank may not have it after all. 

Just now, dansubrosa said:

I’d say he’s our best player, along with Kante. I think our midfield is solid, just need better attackers and defenders. And goalkeeper ?

We just need 20 more players, that'll do, nothing much! x

3 minutes ago, Slojo said:

Did we? Did we sign all of United's best players? All of Arsenals and Liverpools? I can't remember that bit. 

We bought Ashley Cole who was the best LB in in Europe. We tried to sign the best young players in England constantly too. There are plenty of examples. 

Bayern signing players to enhance their chances of winning is obviously a successful strategy. Just because you dont like it doesn't make it wrong or unethical. Just makes you seem bitter tbh

If Dortmund and others had real ambitions of being the best they wouldn't have sold Lewy, Gotze, Hummells and so on. Not Bayerns fault they are push overs 

Edited February 25, 20206 yr by Chelsbear

Just now, beemac said:

I can't understand why so many fans (and TV pundits) keep making reference to this "young" Chelsea team. Even Hoddle mentioned it during commentary that they would be a force in 2-3 years. In actual fact in the starting XI only Christensen, Mount and James were under 25 and none are teenagers. This was a Chelsea side sprinkled with experience versus a Bayern side with a very similar makeup of youth and experience. Face it Frank may not have it after all. 

At some point we had Tammy,Mount,Pulisic,CHO,James,Tomori playing at the same time. We don't have any player close to their prime part from Barkley,Jorginho and Kovacic, all other players are past their prime.

3 minutes ago, Slojo said:

Did we? Did we sign all of United's best players? All of Arsenals and Liverpools? I can't remember that bit. 

Don’t you remember Veron? World beater 

7 minutes ago, Sexyfootball said:

I've put red highlighter through all the players older than 25 ... 

I agree Mount wasn't on it tonight, but at least he tried, and he still did a lot better than most of the more senior pros ...

Kovacic is really the only player to come out of tonight with any credit ...

Mount's runs were very dangerous. Only one really moving off the ball. End product wasn't superb but he got into the right areas. Even James and Alonso were subdued tonight.

Just now, Chelsbear said:

We bought Ashley Cole who was the best LB in in Europe. We tried to sign the best young players in England constantly too. There are plenty of examples. 

Bayern signing players to enhance their chances of winning is obviously a successful strategy. Just because you dont like it doesn't make it wrong or unethical. Just makes you seem bitter tbh

If that's the case, why didn't we win Premier League after Premier League? Bayern have won the Bundesliga 7 times in a row now; we've won the Premier League 5 times in 17 years under Roman. We haven't exactly bought out all the competition, that's a blatant lie. 

By the way I'm not being bitter here, I'm just saying it how it is, they have it much easier compared to us, we were still outclassed by the much better side and we were lucky it was just 3-0. 

I can't understand why so many fans (and TV pundits) keep making reference to this "young" Chelsea team. Even Hoddle mentioned it during commentary that they would be a force in 2-3 years. In actual fact in the starting XI only Christensen, Mount and James were under 25 and none are teenagers. This was a Chelsea side sprinkled with experience versus a Bayern side with a very similar makeup of youth and experience. Face it Frank may not have it after all. 

Or maybe Frank simply doesn't have the players. Ignore the players 25 or younger players for a second and look at those over 25. Of those who played tonight not one of them would be a guaranteed starter for Bayern, or Liverpool, Barcelona, Real Madrid etc etc etc. This squad is not in that league. Nowhere near it. Lampard can only be judged once he has had a couple of windows where he is backed.

 

Kovacic was our best player by far once again. Actually thought he had a brilliant game and did not deserve to be on a team who got thumped in the end. Mount also was decent as well.

We were just up against a different animal tonight. That Alphonso Davies is lethal. Brilliant in defence and attack. We will learn and hopefully us not being in European competition gives un an edge to just focus on top 4 and come back stronger in the Champions League next season with a better squad.

11 minutes ago, The Don Antonio said:

We are still sticking with him but he has to earn that starting positions.  Man u bought ibrahimovic and lukaku. Rashford fought them off and has earned it. Spurs bought soldado and Kane finished him off. Abraham needs competition and time to develop

13 goals this season hasn't earned it? In this average ass team? Drogba scored less than Abraham in his first THREE seasons at Chelsea. 

Mount must be a nightmare to mark, he’s everywhere.

At this point I’d say James, Mount and Tomori are the only ones who are good enough to break into team. Don’t see a future for Abraham, and the jury is still out on Hudson Odoi.

I really like Abraham, but he misses far too many chances! Had two opportunities handed to him on a plate tonight and he wasn’t even close to it. Keep seeing that too often, not sure if he’ll ever become an elite striker.