Coming back from the game and not an ounce worried about the result. Easily the best team I’ve seen at the bridge in the last few years, and I include Barcelona and Ajax. I thought we were good in the first half and until Azpi’s slip in the second that led to their first goal. But you could see that they were the better team by far. We should have taken at least one of the chances we created, but our quality in the last third is appalling. It takes us a hell of a job to score. No issues with the game, watched a great team, we had our chances, and finally the better team beat us fair and square.

We’re still champions of Europe in their own background.

45 minutes ago, enigma said:

Well when two or three players struggle, the whole team will struggle. Not to mention some of the more experienced players play like garbage too.

Barkley has way too many bad games than good ones. Alonso is only good for potentially getting a goal on the rare occasions. 

Azpilicueta is aging and, apart from defending, he is mediocre. Rudiger is too hot & cold against decent opposition, and can make poor decisions which can cost us. 

We literally rely on young players this season, which is abysmal tbh. James, Abraham, Mount, Hudson-Odoi, Pulisic, Loftus-Cheek are literally our saviours this season. Without them we would be midtable by now. 

 

What did RLC do exactly this season?

People say this team will be much better once Rudiger and Kante returns from injuries, yet both are struggling badly for form. Never rely on an injured player to save you.

 

54 minutes ago, Luiz4Chelsea said:

That's suuuuch bullsh*t. At half time we keep the clean sheet and managed to half some glimps of goal chances and you call that giving to them without offering a fight?

At 50' the performance was immaculate, exactly the combination of fight and luck required.
At 90' the score was just a mirror of the two teams' quality.

The tactics were spot on, the attitude was spot on, they were just way superior and at some point we couldn't cover up for that any more. But that's okay, football is a fast business and things can change within very few years. We just need to place our trust in Frank and our youngsters. I'm glad you're nowhere near them tonight telling them how they didn't fight.

No, this is suuuch bullsh*t. Immaculate performance up until 50 minutes?? Are you actually serious? What game were you watching? We should have been 3 down at half time and were getting run ragged. Their defence has been their Achilles heal this season and we didn’t lay a glove on them - at home. We Let them have the ball and it was inevitable that they were going to score. I can see why lampard wanted to keep the same team that performed well against spurs, but it failed miserably tonight. 

Can someone go find Raul Meireles and Fernando Torres for the next leg. Many thanks.

1 hour ago, Scott Harris said:

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.

Pretty well sums up all my thoughts on team and squad, sadly Romans not interested anymore, so the large investment in team and ground ain't going to happen. We will suffer on both counts, and left behind

6 minutes ago, Mod Stark said:

Can someone go find Raul Meireles and Fernando Torres for the next leg. Many thanks.

Missing Ramires for the Holy Trinity. 

Wow 0-3, Bayern were far superior today perhaps only Liverpool would have matched them tonight from the EPL.

• First half we did well to keep it at 0-0 though out of the keepers Willy was far busier.
• Unlike against Spurs our front three were struggling to create anything and even Giroud was struggling up front.
• We had the occasional chance from a corner yet were unable to convert.
• Kova and Willy were probably our only players to emerge with any credit and Pedro's cameo was interesting as with his forward play he asked different questions.
• I recall only two decent crosses, one from James and the other from Willian though there must have been one more as Tammy complained that Willian was not trying to get on the end of it.
• Should Tammy have been awarded a penalty for Boateng's challenge, well I don't know as we got the briefest replay from one angle, yet Tammy was incensed and Boateng was limping afterwards.
• We struggled to keep possession only Kova really doing it and Jorgy was just shoved off the ball.
• Disappointed that I never saw Willian or James trying to go around their man.
•  A shame that it took an Azpi slip for them to open the scoring.
•  Christensen diving in on one of the goals and Rudgier playing Bayern on were also worrying.
• James did not always read when he needed to run back and support.
• Mount worked hard yet made poor decisions in good positions.

No gripe with Frank we were up against a technically gifted and athletic side when we are surviving with a probable rebuild starting next season. 

 

 

 

 

Don’t blame the transfer ban that is irrelevant we would not have spent loads in one window, those days are gone 

this is an up and coming side with an up and coming manager. We are not at the standard we set ourselves over the last decade

However,  this is what we all wanted. A Chelsea man at the helm brining through Chelsea youngsters 

you got to take the rough with the smooth to put it into perspective I spent my youth praying we wouldn’t go down to Div 3,..... I am living the dream 

I got the patience I hope the board have 

 

 

3 minutes ago, Strider6003 said:

 

No gripe with Frank we were up against a technically gifted and athletic side when we are surviving with a probable rebuild starting next season. 

 

 

 

 

 

This is fair and accurate. Sometimes he got an unfair beating because of performances and results like this from the team, but the man just don't have a whole lot of options.

It's not like he got Coutinho sitting on the bench.

52 minutes ago, charierre said:

Abraham is the best we have at present but there things that are natural that can't be taught. Movement and anticipation in the box is vital for a top striker, Tammy lacks these. He can do a job for us as a very decent number two but if we want to dine out at the top again we need a top striker.

I find myself agreeing with this on Tammy. Someone in the thread earlier said he needs to learn anticipation. How exactly do you learn anticipation? Movement can be taught but anticipation cannot as that relates to what people like to call a strikers instinct, an inherent talent. Not writing him off yet but I’m not fully confident to know he will lead the line for years to come. Are people really prepared to take such a huge gamble on Tammy? As a fan base, I think we know all too well what it means to have an absolute top striker (Drogba) vs waiting on a Morata to turn good for us. 

1 minute ago, DannyLB said:

I find myself agreeing with this on Tammy. Someone in the thread earlier said he needs to learn anticipation. How exactly do you learn anticipation? Movement can be taught but anticipation cannot as that relates to what people like to call a strikers instinct, an inherent talent. Not writing him off yet but I’m not fully confident to know he will lead the line for years to come. Are people really prepared to take such a huge gamble on Tammy? As a fan base, I think we know all too well what it means to have an absolute top striker (Drogba) vs waiting on a Morata to turn good for us. 

 

Go get Haaland, that guy score goals for fun.

2 minutes ago, haviet1 said:

 

Go get Haaland, that guy score goals for fun.

Mate, he plays for Dortmund so he’s going to Bayern. 

19 minutes ago, Strider6003 said:

Wow 0-3, Bayern were far superior today perhaps only Liverpool would have matched them tonight from the EPL.

• First half we did well to keep it at 0-0 though out of the keepers Willy was far busier.
• Unlike against Spurs our front three were struggling to create anything and even Giroud was struggling up front.
• We had the occasional chance from a corner yet were unable to convert.
• Kova and Willy were probably our only players to emerge with any credit and Pedro's cameo was interesting as with his forward play he asked different questions.
• I recall only two decent crosses, one from James and the other from Willian though there must have been one more as Tammy complained that Willian was not trying to get on the end of it.
• Should Tammy have been awarded a penalty for Boateng's challenge, well I don't know as we got the briefest replay from one angle, yet Tammy was incensed and Boateng was limping afterwards.
• We struggled to keep possession only Kova really doing it and Jorgy was just shoved off the ball.
• Disappointed that I never saw Willian or James trying to go around their man.
•  A shame that it took an Azpi slip for them to open the scoring.
•  Christensen diving in on one of the goals and Rudgier playing Bayern on were also worrying.
• James did not always read when he needed to run back and support.
• Mount worked hard yet made poor decisions in good positions.

No gripe with Frank we were up against a technically gifted and athletic side when we are surviving with a probable rebuild starting next season. 

 

 

 

 

Good, balanced overview.

6 minutes ago, DannyLB said:

Mate, he plays for Dortmund so he’s going to Bayern. 

He's not German, so he's won't be going to Bayern.

More likely Madrid or Barca, with PSG a long shot.

57 minutes ago, big blue said:

They were really impressive, Ive not seen much of them this season, bit from what ive seen from Barcelona, Madrid, city and even liverpool, i think bayern have a great chance this season.

Barring some miracle in Munich, I’ll be rooting for them to win the whole thing.

Is it just me, or does Thomas Mueller just seem so likeable (kind of the opposite of Delle Ali in that regard)?

Disappointing that we lost but it's not like we were on a level playing field. This is a Bayern side coming into their prime years with established world class players throughout against a Chelsea side with players in their debut CL year, a few declining experienced players and average players off the back of a transfer ban with our best player leaving and another one who is injured and suffering a terrible loss of form.

I see people complaining how we didn't build on the 2012 CL win when in retrospect we did try. In a span of 1-2 years after, we had Hazard, KdB and Salah in the same team mixed in with a few high profile transfers like Fabregas, Costa etc. The difference is that we employed coaches who weren't about building something long term but rather short term victories. Bayern were more ruthless, the moment their coach couldn't turn a bad run of form around, they sack the guy. 

I digressed. Today was just a showing of where we want to be vs where we are. This season we are starting from scratch, it was always going to be an uphill battle and this game is a good learning experience for our manager and some of the younger players.

Bayern had the pleasure of being in a perfect storm for years in that they are a huge team with years of domination + cash + shrewd signings like Davies, Coman, Gnabry + signing their rivals best players and they also haven't won the CL in years (they won it the year after us (the treble season) and that's it). Comparing them to us is like apples and oranges. If we met them 3 years ago, then it might have been a different story.

Keep the chin up and we go again. We need to upgrade on GK, CB, LB, CM, CF, all positions we've known from the start that needs refurbishing.

We're so easy to play against it's worrying. Against the better teams, we should at least learn to play it tight as our attack isn't that strong, but even that we don't want to or can't seem to do. Also, the number of times one of their players beat so many of our players is ridiculous. We really need to learn how to team up to dispossess players with the ball instead of chasing individually and getting dribbled. 
Didn't expect much from this competition though, so whatever (as long as we learn from these sorts of games against an undoubtedly superior team)

Edited February 26, 20206 yr by TheSage

52 minutes ago, TheSage said:

We're so easy to play against it's worrying. Against the better teams, we should at least learn to play it tight as our attack isn't that strong, but even that we don't want to or can't seem to do. Also, the number of times one of their players beat so many of our players is ridiculous. We really need to learn how to team up to dispossess players with the ball instead of chasing individually and getting dribbled. 
Didn't expect much from this competition though, so whatever (as long as we learn from these sorts of games against an undoubtedly superior team)

Bayern studied us really well during the 1st half. All of their goals came from one tactic. Overload one side then quickly pass to the other side whilst having Muller or Lewandowski drop deep to pull one of 2 CB out of position. The 3rd goal though was also a show of what can a quality player do for you.

 

43 minutes ago, Deino said:

Bayern studied us really well during the 1st half. All of their goals came from one tactic. Overload one side then quickly pass to the other side whilst having Muller or Lewandowski drop deep to pull one of 2 CB out of position. The 3rd goal though was also a show of what can a quality player do for you.

 

They studied us very well. I swear I've watched that second goal about 10 times this year.

Thought Bayern were just a cut above us in every way. 

Credit where credit is due. They were really, really good. That Davies looks some player. 

Very disappointing result, but it was one of those games where you have to put your hand up and admit the opposition was superior to you in every way.

I hope the playing squad and Frank can take some valuable lessons out of the game. Bayern are a good team to model ourselves upon in order for us to improve.

I'm 95% certain the tie is over, and we'll be waiting at least another year to win a last 16 tie.

Unfortunately we have not advanced beyond the last 16 since the 2013/2014 season (Mourinho's first season back in charge of us), so a drought is starting to accumulate akin to Arsenal's drought of not advancing past the last 16 after 2010 despite reaching the knockout stages for seven consecutive years after that.

I hope in the return Frank uses the dead rubber game to give minutes to players either out of favour (Emerson, Batman, Pedro etc) and young players who rarely if ever get used (Gilmour, Cummings, Maatsen etc) .

No sense in adding more minutes to already tired legs.

I must say I'm not suprized that we lost. What suprized me was how much superior they were compared to us. The positive thing is that now we can totally focus on staying among top four. Now the cap between us and the European top teams is huge but I am sure our young team will narrow the cap in the years to come. And it is clear that to reach the absolute top we need quite a few signings in several positions.

Edited February 26, 20206 yr by JPH
Typing error

4 hours ago, Jezz said:

Very disappointing result, but it was one of those games where you have to put your hand up and admit the opposition was superior to you in every way.

I hope the playing squad and Frank can take some valuable lessons out of the game. Bayern are a good team to model ourselves upon in order for us to improve.

I'm 95% certain the tie is over, and we'll be waiting at least another year to win a last 16 tie.

Unfortunately we have not advanced beyond the last 16 since the 2013/2014 season (Mourinho's first season back in charge of us), so a drought is starting to accumulate akin to Arsenal's drought of not advancing past the last 16 after 2010 despite reaching the knockout stages for seven consecutive years after that.

An Arsenal drought Jezz? You forget one thing mate, "we're the only London team to win the European cup"....... London's first, London's Finest! Regards  UTC