If we didn't have these injuries and Covid cases we'd have no excuses. Tuchel and the team is in tough spot but we have done reasonably well considering the situation. 

Top 4 and to reach a final and maybe to win it would be good at this rate of injuries.

I don't think I have seen a Chelsea side looking so dead on their feet for a long time. The growing list of injuries, games every 2-3 days and Omicron/super flu are having a devastating effect on us, with the usual ZERO help from the FA or Premier League, while other Clubs, not on telly, seem to get games postponed at the drop of a hat and now for injuries not just COVID, WTF ???

Tuchel is still the right and BEST man for the job, injuries and illness are the only things preventing him from having a damn good team on the pitch, it has nothing to do with selections. Now we need to add a couple of new faces as soon as the window opens and pray that, apart from Chilly, the medical team can work miracles, as they have done in the past and get players back on the pitch ASAP.

A very Happy 2022 to everyone !!

I feel we might have a good run if we can shake this injury situation off us. I think the whole team knows it is all about fatique and not TT's system. Hoping for better days.

Our problems started when Kova, Kante and Chilwell all got injured at the same time.  The replacements are just not at the same level.  I'm convinced that if we had our strongest 11, week in week out and  playing Tommy's system, we'd be right in the race.  We are having same problem Liverpoo! had last year when they had their centre halves all injured.  For me, Tommy is still the man for the job, he is still an elite manager and would be madness of Roman gets rid (having said that Roman would have got rid of Klopp for that run where they failed to score at Anfield for half a dozen games).  However, I do have some criticism for Tommy:

1. There has been some games where we are winning but have lost the midfield.  Annoys me that he hasn't put an extra man in the middle and gone 2 up front during matches as I think we would have gone on and won these games (WHU for example).

2. Tinkers too much with the front 3.  Pick your favourites and stick with them.so that they can build an understanding.

3. I wonder whether the system has been worked out and needs to mix it up.  He now says we have no wing backs now, change it then and play a back 4.

To my mind, go for the cups and forget the title for this year.  Finishing third and picking up any of the cups would still be a good year.  We can then focus on fixing the problems with another transfer window (particularly when the most of our defence would be out of contract)....

Reece James left Stamford Bridge on crutches last night and looks set for a lengthy spell on the sidelines. With Chilwell already out that was probably the worst possible injury we could have got. Then Christensen gets injured with T.Silva already on the sidelines to make things ridiculously bad.

Our entire plan have been blown to pieces by injuries. Not only recently but through out the entire season but the last two now was a hammer blow in my view. We have zero capable wingbacks left and we are going up against Liverpool, Tottenham x3 & Manchester City next. And most of the so called "fit" players have been completely run into the ground. For example Jorginho who you had to feel sorry for last night. You could see that he tried his very best but his legs just didn't want to listen anymore. Same with Kovacic, Lukaku, Pulisic, Azpi and several others. And most if not all of those players will now have to face Liverpool in a couple of days which won't end well. They are well rested and got a nice 10 day break between their last two Premier League games. It's actually so unfair its unbelievable.

I think we are in great danger of finding ourselves in 5th soon enough. There is no break in sight for us and right now we don't have the squad to deal with the amount of injuries and fatigue we are facing.

I do hope the club (Roman) will understand the circumstances though and not be trigger happy. We won't find a better manager than Tuchel and he should stay on almost no matter where we finish this season as far as i'm concerned.

 

Edited December 30, 20214 yr by Sindre

He really needs backing in January. I know it’s the worse time to buy but this squad has been decimated by illness and injury forcing us to us half fit or just plain sh*t players. 

It is all about a top four place now and a run to defend our CL title.

Nothing you can do when the squad is ravaged by injuries to influential players and massive tiredness. We've seen it last season with Liverpool when their backline suffered the most and some others like Henderson and Thiago were in and out of the medical room constantly. It derailed their season and scrapped for a top four place in the end and got knocked out in the CL playoffs by a Madrid team we easily beat a few weeks later.

Still, if you look at the bigger picture, we've only lost 3 games this season and if you ask me the City loss was the only one there is no arguing about as they were the better team. The loss in Italy against Juventus was a stupid one as we've dominated that one and they scored with their only shot on goal and the loss against West Ham what can I say really?! We've handed them the first two goals on a silver platter and Masuaku scored a worldie that I bet even today he cannot understand how he hit that ball. 

The season so far has been about injuries PLUS stupid goals we allowed and stupid decision of our players in front of opposition goal. Burnley and Everton have literally created half a chance and left the Bridge with a point, United had one chance and scored after a Jorginho blunder, Brighton last night scored in the dying minutes through Danny f**king Welbeck who has barely played this season, but it should not even matter as we had chances to put the game to bed long before that. Against Wolves the same story, we dominate and they don't even create half a chance, still we can't get the three points.

I know it is foolish to think "what if?!", but really the draws against Everton, Burnley, Wolves and United were incredibly stupid one, games we've completely dominated and did not put to bed when we should have, instead got done on the counter with others scoring with their only decent chance. Brighton ok I will give you that, they looked good and had plenty of opportunitiesto score, but if CHO takes his chance we'd talk about a win now.

3 hours ago, Sindre said:

Reece James left Stamford Bridge on crutches last night and looks set for a lengthy spell on the sidelines. With Chilwell already out that was probably the worst possible injury we could have got. Then Christensen gets injured with T.Silva already on the sidelines to make things ridiculously bad.

Our entire plan have been blown to pieces by injuries. Not only recently but through out the entire season but the last two now was a hammer blow in my view. We have zero capable wingbacks left and we are going up against Liverpool, Tottenham x3 & Manchester City next. And most of the so called "fit" players have been completely run into the ground. For example Jorginho who you had to feel sorry for last night. You could see that he tried his very best but his legs just didn't want to listen anymore. Same with Kovacic, Lukaku, Pulisic, Azpi and several others. And most if not all of those players will now have to face Liverpool in a couple of days which won't end well. They are well rested and got a nice 10 day break between their last two Premier League games. It's actually so unfair its unbelievable.

I think we are in great danger of finding ourselves in 5th soon enough. There is no break in sight for us and right now we don't have the squad to deal with the amount of injuries and fatigue we are facing.

I do hope the club (Roman) will understand the circumstances though and not be trigger happy. We won't find a better manager than Tuchel and he should stay on almost no matter where we finish this season as far as i'm concerned.

 

Hindsight is a wonderful thing but if only Livramento decided to stick it out.

With no help from the FA or league TT may just have to do what he has been saying and put the players first. Give the squad a 10 day break or so to recover and play the under 23 side. May come to that soon anyway of we keep dropping 2 players a game to injury. 

I don't think he has any choice but to go with a back 4 system now that 4 of our first choice back 5 are injured, and we do know who is next for the treatment table either.

Even with all the troubles, the difference points wise between us and Man City is essentially 4 draws vs 4 wins. Four 1-1 draws that could easily have been 4 wins if we had taken just one more chance in each game.

It is fine lines in professional sport, even when your squad is decimated with injuries and illness.

 

Quote

Fordstam has indicated support will continue "for the foreseeable future"

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/59827141

 

 

14 minutes ago, coco said:

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/59827141

 

 

All that loss after winning the CL. No wonder we won't offer Toni the contract he wants. 

9 hours ago, axman2526 said:

In the main we are, but is Roman? Just 12 months ago he did not like what he saw from his expensive new signings under Frank, sacked him and his replacement won the CL.

He broke the club record signing for TT and has seen us fail to win back to back league games for over 2 months. 

Will he even let TT get to Lille if we fail to beat City,  Spurs and Pool and get knocked out by Spurs?

Completely understand this mate and the only thing I can say is winning the UCL will give him more credit than Frank had at this stage. Factor in the favourable draw this year vs last year and I'm sure we have a bit more faith in TT to get past Lille vs Frank against Simeone and Athletico. 

 

6 minutes ago, LongtimerLurker said:

Completely understand this mate and the only thing I can say is winning the UCL will give him more credit than Frank had at this stage. Factor in the favourable draw this year vs last year and I'm sure we have a bit more faith in TT to get past Lille vs Frank against Simeone and Athletico. 

 

I hope so, I also hope I am wrong in predicting this, but I fear our January will consist of one win vs Chesterfield,  2 draws both against Spurs at home, and 3 losses vs pool, City and Spurs away.

That is when I wonder what Roman will do, factoring in James joined Chilwell in the long tern injured list so we are massively short wingbacks who are key to TT system.

22 minutes ago, axman2526 said:

I hope so, I also hope I am wrong in predicting this, but I fear our January will consist of one win vs Chesterfield,  2 draws both against Spurs at home, and 3 losses vs pool, City and Spurs away.

That is when I wonder what Roman will do, factoring in James joined Chilwell in the long tern injured list so we are massively short wingbacks who are key to TT system.

It all depends I believe before the James injury TT had said we would stick with what we have, however I'm of the belief now that the transfer market may need to be explored in order to stabilise our season. 

A full back and a cb perhaps to allow us to either keep the same system or to revert to a back 4. Without reinforcements at the back and maybe in midfield we will truly be limping for the rest of the season, not factoring in potential injuries after January.

I think we will find some form but not until we switch to a back 4. 3421 is dead without James, Chilwell and Silva/Christensen. Not to mention an overplayed Jorginho, injury prone Kanté and a Kova that's just come back. These are all key players, time to put trust in the expensively assembled forwards and let them earn their money in a system that requires more of them. 

I'm not sure what 4atb system though 4222/442, 433 and 4231 have all been mentioned on here. It's interesting that Tuchel hasn't experimented much with a back 4 at all here makes me wonder what his plan b is for situations like this. Sure these are unprecedented times but I'd like to think he has some sort of a fall back formation.

43 minutes ago, LongtimerLurker said:

It all depends I believe before the James injury TT had said we would stick with what we have, however I'm of the belief now that the transfer market may need to be explored in order to stabilise our season. 

A full back and a cb perhaps to allow us to either keep the same system or to revert to a back 4. Without reinforcements at the back and maybe in midfield we will truly be limping for the rest of the season, not factoring in potential injuries after January.

I think we will find some form but not until we switch to a back 4. 3421 is dead without James, Chilwell and Silva/Christensen. Not to mention an overplayed Jorginho, injury prone Kanté and a Kova that's just come back. These are all key players, time to put trust in the expensively assembled forwards and let them earn their money in a system that requires more of them. 

I'm not sure what 4atb system though 4222/442, 433 and 4231 have all been mentioned on here. It's interesting that Tuchel hasn't experimented much with a back 4 at all here makes me wonder what his plan b is for situations like this. Sure these are unprecedented times but I'd like to think he has some sort of a fall back formation.

Agreed on both counts, both the back TT and system change.

We may not have planned for it but if we are to salvage this season Roman must invest. 

Now we need a minimum one lb/lwb, one CB and one Rb/rwb. Short and long term planning as Alonso is getting on, Dave may be leaving and Rudiger is almost certain to go, so spots free for the new signings to stay.

I agree with @comtrend that Theo Hernandez would be a good fit, just expensive at 60mill euros or more.

Kounde for CB, at around 80mill. Again expensive but long term quality at least.

RB not sure on. Activate Tinos buy back?

We also need to pay what Monaco need to release Tchouameni as once more we cannot keep Kova and Kante injury free.

These are the must haves, ideally we get a better forward partner for Lukaku as well.

But I do not expect it to happen, at most a loan of Digne but that will be it and then just write the season off.

Without proper reinforcements and some luck with injuries and covid we will have a real battle on to stay top 4 and may well miss out on it.

I know we need players but I hope the club makes good, long term investments unlike signings like Drinkwater, Bakayoko, etc. We get sub-par players on high wages and are just not able to move them out. 

3 hours ago, axman2526 said:

I hope so, I also hope I am wrong in predicting this, but I fear our January will consist of one win vs Chesterfield,  2 draws both against Spurs at home, and 3 losses vs pool, City and Spurs away.

That is when I wonder what Roman will do, factoring in James joined Chilwell in the long tern injured list so we are massively short wingbacks who are key to TT system.

We have been very unfortunate with injuries but this is also a test for TT. I am hoping he can adapt to the current situation and consider changing his system to 4 at the back if needed.

If the interview from Lukaku on his thread is accurate he just stuck the knife in to TT and, imo, one of them will have to go.

2 minutes ago, axman2526 said:

If the interview from Lukaku on his thread is accurate he just stuck the knife in to TT and, imo, one of them will have to go.

The negative comments are odd on the back of a couple of games where he has scored. I would have been less surprised if this interview was from a couple of weeks ago, as it seemed odd the way Tuchel kept him benched while we struggled for goals.

12 minutes ago, axman2526 said:

If the interview from Lukaku on his thread is accurate he just stuck the knife in to TT and, imo, one of them will have to go.

Most likely it will be Tuchel in that situation. We all know how these things tend to work at the club. 

Good thing Ole doesn't have a job these days. 

6 minutes ago, forbzy said:

Most likely it will be Tuchel in that situation. We all know how these things tend to work at the club. 

Yeah of Rom does not back track on this Roman wi back his shiny new toy like he has before and TT will be gone soon, within within month possibly. 

5 minutes ago, axman2526 said:

Yeah of Rom does not back track on this Roman wi back his shiny new toy like he has before and TT will be gone soon, within within month possibly. 

Well if your score predictions are correct for January (and unfortunately you are eerily close a lot of the time) I'd have to agree with you.