42 minutes ago, Argo said:

You are joking? Spurs literally played defensive against any half decent team to the point Kane coming into midfield just to get involved was becoming a running joke. If that benefited anyone in a stat padding sense it was Son.

Lukaku only gets system tax if he does his bit. If he got involved with pressing we'd win it back more often in the final 3rd (or force the opposition to hoof it back to us) which will by default give him more opportunity's, or is it our CL winning player's that stop him running aswell? I'll give you the example of Eto'o when he was here, two of his goals came about through pressing the keeper, you don't need service for that.  That was a three times UCL winner who never liked us before joining (and only looked twice because of Mou) at the twilight of his career btw, yet a supposed Chelsea fan who's still got everything to prove refuses to offer any work rate of substance.

Not on the Lukaku subject so much. But was there really any evidence that Eto'o disliked Chelsea before joining us? Certainly he played for rival teams but he had a decent rapport with our fans when he was here. Actually he was one of our better strikers in recent memory. 9 league goals from 21 games wasn't too shabby. We could do with him now.

For the sake of sanity, I hope Abramovich does not pull the trigger on Tuchel if they implode down the line this season. For once it would be nice if the manager got the backing as opposed to the prima donna players. I'm aware it's none of my business and Chelsea are run in their own unique way which no other club can comprehend and the trophies that they have won to some extent justify the win now culture. I just think Tuchel has something about him, Which any next guy coming in might not have, It's all gone balls up after that Lukaku interview, If that didn't happen, I'd be shocked if those home games against Everton, Brighton weren't 6 points out of 6 and that in itself might have given your season a different outlook. 

For all the good times we're having, There have been some low points under Guardiola which had me questioning whether he was actually what it said on the tin, The first season was atrocious, The year Liverpool won the league was atrocious, The constant getting knocked out in QF's in the CL were awful but you keep the faith and eventually an elite manager will come through. If Tuchel is an elite manager in the eyes of the Chelsea board, You HAVE to weather this storm and I think Tuchel is an elite manager.

14 minutes ago, forbzy said:

Not on the Lukaku subject so much. But was there really any evidence that Eto'o disliked Chelsea before joining us? Certainly he played for rival teams but he had a decent rapport with our fans when he was here. Actually he was one of our better strikers in recent memory. 9 league goals from 21 games wasn't too shabby. We could do with him now.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/weaintgotnohistory.sbnation.com/platform/amp/2013/9/5/4698272/samuel-eto-quotes-chelsea

Maybe his opinion mellowed by the time he joined us but there was definitely no love lost around the peak Chelsea/Barca rivalry time.

2 hours ago, Argo said:

Lukaku according to himself is on his level of Benzema, Suarez, Kane and Lewandowski. Do you ever see the service excuse made for them? No, because they perform and score goals no matter what the system is, who's behind them and who the manager is. Kane last season had a washed up Mourinho (then a first time manager) with the only thing even resembling service being a greedy Son, guess what? He scored 33 goals in 49 games.

That is the main point why I can't make a case for him now that he's back from injury, fact is he proved himself in the most recent years so nobody can take that away from him, even if it wasn't him other were saying that he is among the top 5 strikers in Europe. 

There was a reason why he cost 100m and he's not delivering. Real Madrid fans booed Ronaldo after not scoring for 2 games in a row, this is not even close to that because there is a huge argument of Lukaku making us a worse team while he's on the pitch.

If you remember I used to give him a benefit of a doubt at some point during this season, he was injured and all that. But it's embarrassing to me as a fan that our top signing that is at the same time our only signing can't win us PL games. Cmon, Ronaldo at 36 carried a wack Man United team more than Lukaku did for us...

Oh and yes Lukaku did have a small kind of rivalry with Ronaldo while in Serie A as well, only when Ronaldo left Italy Lukaku could be considered as "the best striker" by many. Right now Ronaldo is outscoring Lukaku. But it's not just Ronaldo, 35 year old Vardy is outscoring him too.

I don't care what system we play, Lukaku by default looks like a 20m reject after the last 2 games and he should be more fresh than Rudiger, Jorginho and others that played for all this time while he was recovering from injury. It's like he comes in fresh has a decent game and the very next one he's already lacking the energy.

Edited January 19, 20224 yr by Gol15

Unfortunately we have a few albatrosses around the club's neck. Finding a system that works, trying to get our attacking players scoring goals, the Lukaku interview, the contract situations with various players, most notably, Rudiger. Need to figure this sh*t out. 

4 hours ago, terraloon said:

Actually the Arsenal game is still to be rescheduled 

Aye. What's the betting the PL put it during that supposed break period?

Not saying that Tuchel or the players are entirely blameless, but the injuries we were dealt were really awful. Not only in terms of quantity but also in terms of the positions we got hit in.

If I remember well, at some point all three of Kanté, Kova and Jorgi were out, and we had to play RLC, Saul, and even Barkley in midfield.

Now both Chilly and Reece are out, so we have to play Alonso and Azpi who are a few levels below.

Entire positions are being decimated at the same time, I don’t think many teams can survive that. If City lost KDB, Bernardo Silva and Gundogan at the same time, I’m not sure they’d be so far ahead.

If we had the same number of injuries but more spread out across the field, I don’t think our slump would be so bad.

The other big issue here is the huge drop in level between our starters and our subs. This is hardly the manager or the players’ fault.

Despite all the injuries and all the draws, we are still in a better position than those we are competing with for a top 4 finish. A win against Spurs and a rest after that would bring the season back on track in my opinion (or at least I hope).

Edited January 19, 20224 yr by yaz

21 hours ago, Gentian said:

It looked like 3 defenders to me and Ziyech playing on the right wing and alonso on the left. But you are right its deeper than just a formation change. 

The fact that none of the attackers are performing though its down to coaching too as i don't believe that they are all useless. 

No, look at Azpi's positioning. He was playing as a genuine right back with Silva and Rüdiger as the CB's and Alonso on the left. Look at the average player positions during the match on whoscored. Azpi was higher than Alonso. Definetely a back four.

Growing concerned there is more going on that we know.  You can see the body language, celebrations, work rate, etc.  They're shattered, but early signs they are no longer running for the manager.  Increasingly worried this does not end well as we've been here so many times before.  I don't mind writing a season off, would prefer we stick with TT and let the men stand up (Kova, Kante, Silva, Mendy, Chilwell, James) and boys (Ziyech, Pulisic, Odoi, Barkley, RLC, AC) leave.

Edited January 20, 20224 yr by PhilH930

28 minutes ago, PhilH930 said:

Growing concerned there is more going on that we know.  You can see the body language, celebrations, work rate, etc.  They're shattered, but early signs they are no longer running for the manager.  Increasingly worried this does not end well as we've been here so many times before.  I don't mind writing a season off, would prefer we stick with TT and let the men stand up (Kova, Kante, Silva, Mendy, Chilwell, James) and boys (Ziyech, Pulisic, Odoi, Barkley, RLC, AC) leave.

It's how our club is. The players have pulled this same act for years.

Something always seems to be going on.

Much as I would like to see a time come Roman trusts a manager over the players i just don't see him no doing what has proven vastly successful for him in the past.

Only one person gets blamed if we fail and the Lukaku weight drama drags us down, and it won't be a player or board member.

Edited January 20, 20224 yr by axman2526

I think that the club & manager should take the blame for not having any decent backups for James & Chilwell. When you know your system relies so much on quality players in those positions surely you can't go in with only 2 good players in those positions. What were they expecting anyway, them both playing every minute of 60+ games per season ? Azpi has always been a defender first & a reluctant attacker at best & Alonso is f**king nightmare, he gets targeted every game, gets booked early on & then you just keep praying he doesn't get sent off. That's why I never wanted Lamptey to leave, the club & coach should've convinced him to stay, he'd have had plenty of game time irrespective of injuries to others. And without any decent signing this window, I fear this winter slump won't improve anytime soon.

Sunday will probably define our season I reckon.

A loss or even a draw and you feel everything may just fall apart from that point on. That's the feeling I get right now at least.

Can't say I am confident. Tottenham have younger, quicker and better wingbacks, they have better attackers and everyone looks burned out here with us, including the manager. His demeanor have visibly changed before, during and after games and most players look off as well.

 

 

Conte has got Spurs playing with an an energy and self belief that we're sorely lacking right now.

There's a very real possibility that they're going to overtake us with their games in hand.

Sunday is a massive game for us and hopefully Tuchel can begin to turn it all around but anything less than a win will be a disaster. 

It is 20th of January and so far no movement in the market for any new players whatsoever. 

1 hour ago, enigma said:

It is 20th of January and so far no movement in the market for any new players whatsoever. 

...that we know of.

2 hours ago, enigma said:

It is 20th of January and so far no movement in the market for any new players whatsoever. 

Tuchel mentioned in one of his press conferences this week that he was happy with the squad. Although he may just be saying that because he has been told we will not be bringing any new players in this window. I know Kenedy returned from loan but that was more related with playing time at the club he was loaned to, and not to provide cover for our squad. I am surprised we haven't made a move to recall one of our left backs yet.

19 minutes ago, forbzy said:

Tuchel mentioned in one of his press conferences this week that he was happy with the squad. Although he may just be saying that because he has been told we will not be bringing any new players in this window. I know Kenedy returned from loan but that was more related with playing time at the club he was loaned to, and not to provide cover for our squad. I am surprised we haven't made a move to recall one of our left backs yet.

Lyon said no when we tried to recall Emerson.

 

2 minutes ago, Backbiter said:

Lyon said no when we tried to recall Emerson.

 

Well not exactly. They just wanted some compensation which is not surprising.

6 hours ago, Nick05 said:

I think that the club & manager should take the blame for not having any decent backups for James & Chilwell. When you know your system relies so much on quality players in those positions surely you can't go in with only 2 good players in those positions. What were they expecting anyway, them both playing every minute of 60+ games per season ? Azpi has always been a defender first & a reluctant attacker at best & Alonso is f**king nightmare, he gets targeted every game, gets booked early on & then you just keep praying he doesn't get sent off. That's why I never wanted Lamptey to leave, the club & coach should've convinced him to stay, he'd have had plenty of game time irrespective of injuries to others. And without any decent signing this window, I fear this winter slump won't improve anytime soon.

If only it would be that easy. You think having better back up in one or two position is the solution to our problems?

Edited January 20, 20224 yr by Nevamind

5 minutes ago, Nevamind said:

If only it would be that easy. You think having better back up in one or two position is the solution to our problems?

Its not the solution to ALL our problems but you can see how weak  the team is in both attack & defence when both are off the pitch. 

2 minutes ago, Nick05 said:

Its not the solution to ALL our problems but you can see how weak  the team is in both attack & defence when both are off the pitch. 

Alonso was regarded as fine backup to Chilwell as a squad player, but I don't think he is good enough as a longer term first choice. Not to mention what if Alonso gets injured or suspended. Once Chilwell was out for the season, we should have made it a priority to bring back one of our loaned LB's. It was pretty clear Emerson was not going to be an option to return unless we forked out compensation, but Maatsen would be a good option.

At RWB I agree we have less options. I don't think Dave has the legs for the position any more. He can play a more central role just fine but not RWB. Lamptey was never an option to keep at the time and that was under Lampard. Maybe we could have done more to convince Livramento to stay longer. Once he left we should have brought in some cover for Reece in my opinion. Dave can do the odd game perhaps but not a half season.

4 hours ago, ForeverCarefree said:

Conte has got Spurs playing with an an energy and self belief that we're sorely lacking right now.

There's a very real possibility that they're going to overtake us with their games in hand.

Sunday is a massive game for us and hopefully Tuchel can begin to turn it all around but anything less than a win will be a disaster. 

Shows how quickly things change considering we have comfortably beaten them twice in the last fortnight. 

I feel for Tuchel, tired team, out of form attackers, injuries. 

Brighton was the 1st game under Tuchel, where we didnt look like well coached team. It is really worrying. 

The biggest problem for me, is the safe stale possession we are seeing more and more of. 

For as bad as the forward line have been, I have some sympathy as there are players that are not playing direct enough to cause teams problems. Azpi and Alonso do not have the pace to stretch teams, so to hurt teams, we need to play forward quickly as we saw vs Liverpool. 

So many times, we have players that turn down blatantly obvious forward passes in order to keep possession, and when the balls do go forward, the quality has been really poor. 

Tuchel needs to address this fast, before the rot sets in. Rotating the forwards doesnt not help. We need to be alot more direct, and stop turning back and passing backwards because we are scared to lose the ball. 

7 hours ago, enigma said:

It is 20th of January and so far no movement in the market for any new players whatsoever. 

48 hours.  Standby

43 minutes ago, PhilH930 said:

48 hours.  Standby

For what TT being sacked?

1 hour ago, axman2526 said:

For what TT being sacked?

Geez I wasn't going to go there!