11 minutes ago, Sindre said:

This team is still very much a work in progress. Especially in terms of attacking areas we simply don't have enough players of the required quality in front of goal.

So the fight against City & Liverpool who's clinical up front is going to be tough. But that's no surprise and most have realized that for several months already. Had we had a Salah up front for us i'm convinced we'd be good enough to win the title fairly comfortably.

 

But on the flip side isn't whatever advantage Liverpool have up top offset by the one we have at the back?

Personally I think the ACON will gift it to City, missing Mendy for a significant period (Liverpool, City, Spurs and potentially Arsenal) will prove too much.

I think the CL win and our overall great form since TT's arrival blinded some of our fans and distracted them from the fact that he has been on the job less than a year now.,  and apart from Lukaku (who probably wouldn't even be here, if Haaland was available) it's somebody else's team he's trying to improve.

Also, we were hoping that our last season's attacking transfers ( Havertz, Ziyech, Werner) would finally show they belong at that level after a season of struggling to adapt to a new league/team/country, but alas, I think that hasn't been the case so far. Havertz has a huge potential but still needs a lot of work. Werner and Ziyech are simply not good enough and no amount of hard work is going to change that. Our defence has carried us, both in terms of protection at the back and scoring in the front. The attacking players' form, if we're being honest, has varied from average to sh*t. CHO has been playing his best football last few weeks but still has no end product. Pu;isic is injured half the time and Mount looks a shadow of his former self. Lukaku hopefully will add some scoring but we'll have to factor in his limitations as a player along with the benefits he brings to the side, and I'm sure there'll be games where we either profit or suffer as a result of having him as a focus of our attack.

We also has no creative playmaker or goalscoring threat in central midfield. Jorginho only scores from penalties, Kovacic scores once a season, if that, and Kante while capable of doing some damage up front on occasion cannot really be counted on in that respect. RLC for all his fanciful footwork brings neither goals nor assists. We used to have Fabregas who would create goalscoring opportunities on a regular basis with his passing and before that Frank who was a phenomenal scorer from midfield. With the current team we have to rely on bloody Rudiger to take shots from outside the box.

1 hour ago, abramovich said:

I think the CL win and our overall great form since TT's arrival blinded some of our fans and distracted them from the fact that he has been on the job less than a year now.,  and apart from Lukaku (who probably wouldn't even be here, if Haaland was available) it's somebody else's team he's trying to improve.

Also, we were hoping that our last season's attacking transfers ( Havertz, Ziyech, Werner) would finally show they belong at that level after a season of struggling to adapt to a new league/team/country, but alas, I think that hasn't been the case so far. Havertz has a huge potential but still needs a lot of work. Werner and Ziyech are simply not good enough and no amount of hard work is going to change that. Our defence has carried us, both in terms of protection at the back and scoring in the front. The attacking players' form, if we're being honest, has varied from average to sh*t. CHO has been playing his best football last few weeks but still has no end product. Pu;isic is injured half the time and Mount looks a shadow of his former self. Lukaku hopefully will add some scoring but we'll have to factor in his limitations as a player along with the benefits he brings to the side, and I'm sure there'll be games where we either profit or suffer as a result of having him as a focus of our attack.

We also has no creative playmaker or goalscoring threat in central midfield. Jorginho only scores from penalties, Kovacic scores once a season, if that, and Kante while capable of doing some damage up front on occasion cannot really be counted on in that respect. RLC for all his fanciful footwork brings neither goals nor assists. We used to have Fabregas who would create goalscoring opportunities on a regular basis with his passing and before that Frank who was a phenomenal scorer from midfield. With the current team we have to rely on bloody Rudiger to take shots from outside the box.

Agree with this.

I don't want to sound like a broken record but I do believe we are at the mercy of our attacking players in many ways. Because Tuchel got this XI so well drilled that we are likely to dominate every game bar perhaps Manchester City, Bayern and Liverpool possibly. As we did yesterday against a side that many believed had a superior squad to ours before the season started.

But if your attackers simply can't finish in certains games (far too many to be fair) you are going to struggle. If you take Hudson Odoi-Werner-Ziyech who started yesterday as an example that attack is far from comparable to the best ones in this league on paper. Thankfully we have options coming back from injuries (Pulisic, Lukaku) which will hopefully help but there is a massive room for improvement in attack. Mount had a decent cameo yesterday (but a poor one v Juve before that) but he desperately needs to find some consistency and form as well. Outside of Norwich I don't think he's had a goal or assists in ages now.

 

Tuchel is doing a great job at Chelsea and I hope that he stays here for a long time. He's made us look formidable and confortable dominating games. Our woes come from the attacking lot, they are not consistent and have no scoring instinct. Take an example from yesterday's game. While when Sancho got the ball from Jorginho I had no doubt that he'd score, when CHO got his one v one earlier on in the first half, I was certain that he'd miss the chance. And that's been like that since Costa left, we create loads of goal chances but miss most of them. We've got a more or less stable defensive and midfield line-ups, which only change due to injuries, but there's not one front three that plays consistently most games. They perform when called on as a sub, go on to play well as starters for a game or two, and then they lose their form to be benched. And the rotation goes on and on. Something is not working well in training or Tuchel would have made them perform as he's made the other lines of the team. I believe that Tuchel can find a way to make them more clinical but time is what he requires to make us serious title contenders for years.

For me TT got it wrong I suspect Werner played as we lacked pace in midfield and so the plan was to have our pacey forwards close down the opposition.

The downside was we won corners instead of goals and our forwards that are good in the air were both on the bench.

I liked the way he made a fuss when Ronaldo got away with a late offside, shows he is alert.

Think the first time this season our injuries from several first team players have challenged his substitutions.

 

I'm always impressed at how Pep can get City playing to a consistent level every season since he took over. Not once have City looked like slowing down season on season.

This season they look just as strong as ever again. I don't know how they do it honestly. If we could keep that consistency then we'd win the league, but unfortunately we don't seem to have that consistency to win games in the league when it matters most.

City seem to be far better over the long haul of a 38 game season. Tuchel, we don't know yet if he can keep that same consistency at Chelsea over the course of a whole season. We all hope he and the players can, but we are yet to know. 

I'm going to do a mini table now just to emphasise head 2 heads as it stands. 

          City    Liverpool     Chelsea    UTD

City      x           1                   3             3

LFC     1           x                    1              3

CFC     0           1                    x              1

Utd      0           0                    1              x

 

Now regardless of where United are in the league they have at least a top 4 squad, some believe its a better squad than 1-2 of the current top 3. Now this table is to emphasise how we are dropping points vs the better teams in the league. Liverpool and City have taken 4 and 7 points respectively from these fixtures whereas we have taken 2.

This really emphasises the fact that in the big games we are still lacking, yet we still sit above those two teams. What this tells me is that Tuchel is doing the good job with what he's got because we are still leading the pack. The games we have dropped points (not including 10 men vs Lfc) have been down to poor finishing and decision making in the final third. 

This will probably be a title race for the ages and could for the first time in recent memory have 3 teams go all the way to the wire. For us to win the league I personally feel we need to play the players that statistically give us the most points up top and stop with the constant changing. I like utilising this big squad but sadly we are not City the level is not consistent all the way through the squad up top.

My favourite front 3 is Puli, Mount and Kai atm but I would also like to see Puli, Lukaku and Mount/Kai. In fact I think having Mount, Kai and Pulisic all behind Lukaku would ensure a fluid style of football that would probably result in lots of goals however its hard to do with a 343 but not impossible.

Edited November 29, 20214 yr by LongtimerLurker

2 hours ago, LongtimerLurker said:

I'm going to do a mini table now just to emphasise head 2 heads as it stands. 

          City    Liverpool     Chelsea    UTD

City      x           1                   3             3

LFC     1           x                    1              3

CFC     0           1                    x              1

Utd      0           0                    1              x

 

Now regardless of where United are in the league they have at least a top 4 squad, some believe its a better squad than 1-2 of the current top 3. Now this table is to emphasise how we are dropping points vs the better teams in the league. Liverpool and City have taken 4 and 7 points respectively from these fixtures whereas we have taken 2.

This really emphasises the fact that in the big games we are still lacking, yet we still sit above those two teams. What this tells me is that Tuchel is doing the good job with what he's got because we are still leading the pack. The games we have dropped points (not including 10 men vs Lfc) have been down to poor finishing and decision making in the final third. 

This will probably be a title race for the ages and could for the first time in recent memory have 3 teams go all the way to the wire. For us to win the league I personally feel we need to play the players that statistically give us the most points up top and stop with the constant changing. I like utilising this big squad but sadly we are not City the level is not consistent all the way through the squad up top.

My favourite front 3 is Puli, Mount and Kai atm but I would also like to see Puli, Lukaku and Mount/Kai. In fact I think having Mount, Kai and Pulisic all behind Lukaku would ensure a fluid style of football that would probably result in lots of goals however its hard to do with a 343 but not impossible.

Unless Pulisic rediscovers his restart form there's absolutely no way he should be ahead of Callum right now. 

I think yesterday is making people forget just how brilliant he's been of late. 

1 hour ago, Argo said:

Unless Pulisic rediscovers his restart form there's absolutely no way he should be ahead of Callum right now. 

I think yesterday is making people forget just how brilliant he's been of late. 

I think the main thing is that CHO is still just 21 so he'll have some inconsistency, like at times poor finishing. But he can end up being better than Pulisic in due time.

11 hours ago, abramovich said:

I think the CL win and our overall great form since TT's arrival blinded some of our fans and distracted them from the fact that he has been on the job less than a year now.,  and apart from Lukaku (who probably wouldn't even be here, if Haaland was available) it's somebody else's team he's trying to improve.

Also, we were hoping that our last season's attacking transfers ( Havertz, Ziyech, Werner) would finally show they belong at that level after a season of struggling to adapt to a new league/team/country, but alas, I think that hasn't been the case so far. Havertz has a huge potential but still needs a lot of work. Werner and Ziyech are simply not good enough and no amount of hard work is going to change that. Our defence has carried us, both in terms of protection at the back and scoring in the front. The attacking players' form, if we're being honest, has varied from average to sh*t. CHO has been playing his best football last few weeks but still has no end product. Pu;isic is injured half the time and Mount looks a shadow of his former self. Lukaku hopefully will add some scoring but we'll have to factor in his limitations as a player along with the benefits he brings to the side, and I'm sure there'll be games where we either profit or suffer as a result of having him as a focus of our attack.

We also has no creative playmaker or goalscoring threat in central midfield. Jorginho only scores from penalties, Kovacic scores once a season, if that, and Kante while capable of doing some damage up front on occasion cannot really be counted on in that respect. RLC for all his fanciful footwork brings neither goals nor assists. We used to have Fabregas who would create goalscoring opportunities on a regular basis with his passing and before that Frank who was a phenomenal scorer from midfield. With the current team we have to rely on bloody Rudiger to take shots from outside the box.

All the more reason why I'm surprised you guys didn't consider going for Grealish- I think he would have solved most of the team's midfield creativity issues.

 

3 minutes ago, CostaXMartinez said:

All the more reason why I'm surprised you guys didn't consider going for Grealish- I think he would have solved most of the team's midfield creativity issues.

 

He's been sh*t at City since joining. He receives the ball on the wing and just stops and plays it backwards. He doesn't run at defenders, he doesn't hit a cross across the penalty area. I had enough of seeing that when we had Willian.

6 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

He's been sh*t at City since joining. He receives the ball on the wing and just stops and plays it backwards. He doesn't run at defenders, he doesn't hit a cross across the penalty area. I had enough of seeing that when we had Willian.

Really? I honestly haven't seen him too much this season!

 

He looked really good at Villa (I remember him putting in some stellar performances against the big clubs last season)...

 

Do you think Tuchel's system would allow him to thrive more than Pep's?

Officially the club of the year award, didn't even know that kind of an award existed, well done Chelsea FC.

9 minutes ago, Gol15 said:

Officially the club of the year award, didn't even know that kind of an award existed, well done Chelsea FC.

It's a new award. So we are the first to win it.

2 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

It's a new award. So we are the first to win it.

Numba 1

15 minutes ago, CostaXMartinez said:

Really? I honestly haven't seen him too much this season!

 

He looked really good at Villa (I remember him putting in some stellar performances against the big clubs last season)...

 

Do you think Tuchel's system would allow him to thrive more than Pep's?

I don't think the system has much to do with it, it's more to do with the player himself. The only game against the big teams I thought he looked really good in was when Villa thrashed Liverpool, other than that, I was never really that impressed. When he played us, Azpilicueta dealt with him easily and Grealish's only answer to it was try and buy a freekick from diving.

1 hour ago, Scott Harris said:

I don't think the system has much to do with it, it's more to do with the player himself. The only game against the big teams I thought he looked really good in was when Villa thrashed Liverpool, other than that, I was never really that impressed. When he played us, Azpilicueta dealt with him easily and Grealish's only answer to it was try and buy a freekick from diving.

Well to be fair, Azpilicueta is arguably one of the best defensive-fullbacks in the league- a LOT of attackers would have a tough time getting past him...

14 hours ago, enigma said:

I'm always impressed at how Pep can get City playing to a consistent level every season since he took over. Not once have City looked like slowing down season on season.

This season they look just as strong as ever again. I don't know how they do it honestly. If we could keep that consistency then we'd win the league, but unfortunately we don't seem to have that consistency to win games in the league when it matters most.

City seem to be far better over the long haul of a 38 game season. Tuchel, we don't know yet if he can keep that same consistency at Chelsea over the course of a whole season. We all hope he and the players can, but we are yet to know. 

Pep is one of the best manager in the world, no one will deny that but how do they keep being at the top. It is simple, pep can get almost any player that he want. 

So you have fantastic manager who can sign any player that he want that fit his system. That is one formidable combination. 

7 hours ago, Scott Harris said:

He's been sh*t at City since joining. He receives the ball on the wing and just stops and plays it backwards. He doesn't run at defenders, he doesn't hit a cross across the penalty area. I had enough of seeing that when we had Willian.

Hmm, that is what pep want. Pep want to keep the ball at all cost. No clear opening, just go back and recycle. 

8 hours ago, Scott Harris said:

It's a new award. So we are the first to win it.

Probably embarrassment for Mendy criminally omitted from top 30 players. So think of a new award to compensate.

 

 

20 minutes ago, charierre said:

Probably embarrassment for Mendy criminally omitted from top 30 players. So think of a new award to compensate.

 

 

Aye if David De Gae was our keeper and played as well as mendy to win us a CL he would have made top 10 and won the keeper award.

We have a few situations that are really threatening to undermine our season:

- Number of injuries 

- AC contract situation 

- Rudiger contract situation 

- Out of form forwards/strikers

- Mount out of form/injury

- Kante injuries 

- Chilwell injury

 

Its alot for Tuchel to navigate. 

2 hours ago, JM7 said:

- Number of injuries 

- AC contract situation 

- Rudiger contract situation 

- Out of form forwards/strikers

- Mount out of form/injury

- Kante injuries 

- Chilwell injury

Injuries we can not control. Anyone would miss Kante and Chilwell, we just do the best we can.

Mount needs to get over his Euro 2021 hangover.

Our forwards have been an issue long before TT came. Again they need to step up or leave, Roman needs to be prepared for the latter with his wallet ready and hope he does not end up with more Werners.

Toni is gone, accept it and hope he remains professional. I think he will, and therefore has no bearing on this season.

AC is not coming out of this well. Toni has remained in the same position with his contract the whole time, AC on the other hand twice has basically agreed a deal only to go back on it and not sign. He is starting to look disloyal and a problem. 

We have been linked with a few CBS. I say we sign 2 of them and if AC does not sign sell him in the window.

Saw enough in Mount the other day to think he will be back to form very quickly.

Rudiger will probably want more silverware before he goes too.

20 hours ago, JM7 said:

We have a few situations that are really threatening to undermine our season:

- Number of injuries 

- AC and Rudiger contracts

- Out of form forwards/strikers

- Mount out of form

Its alot but less for Tuchel to navigate. 

Fixed it for you