With the title race not dead and buried thanks to last weekend's results. Dare I say if we win our game in hand and bring it to 10 points behind the leaders with 12 games to go we are not completely out of the race. 

This is mathmatically speaking not taking into consideration form. EPL was always going to be a combination of a sprint and a marathon. 

So our attack has cost us heavily and not being able to see out games when ahead recently. Spurs seem to have City's number. I think Liverpool have more of an incentive and will try and beat City when they play in March. We must stay in the mathmatical race now for as long as possible.

TT may have conceeded to the media and perhaps even privately, but even he will know that it's now possible to put some pressure on the two above even without playing either again. 

City will drop more points for the rest of the season but I don't expect many, 1-2 loses maybe with Liverpool being the only club I can see beating them. However, I've not seen their fixture list and they could play another well drilled team that takes all 3 points in their last 12 games. Not to mention the chances of a couple draws down the line.

My point is whilst we are unlikely to win out from this period. Sticking with this current game plan that clearly isn't working is not beneficial to the team.

Even if there is a small chance we can close the gap to 5 points by the end of the season we should do that.

If we are more likely to win games by dropping Lukaku for example then TT needs to do the hard thing and just do it.

We must now approach the rest of the season exactly the same as last season. We won the UCL because every epl game was a final for us to make up ground on the top 4. Now we must do the same to try and remain part of the title discussion we have been written out of. 

Regradless of whether we can win the title just like last season we must try and then we remain in that mindset for the UCL and who knows maybe we retain our title and push Liverpool and City like 18/19 season.

 

 

Edited February 22, 20224 yr by LongtimerLurker

The most frustrating thing is we were supposed to be challenging this season. Not challenging for top four. We all thought this could be the season we could at least make a decent go of it, and looking at the way things have gone with our rivals, it is even more frustrating that we've dropped points when we should never have. 

It's lady luck we have had major injuries, Lukaku, Chilwell, James and even Havertz our for long periods, looks to me that TT has done rather well to keep us in all comps and pick up silverware too. 

The front 3 of Kai, Ziyech, and Pulisic looks very fluid, dynamic, and high energy today.

Sad to say, but I am sure many of you already realized that the attack look so much more alive and potent WITHOUT Lukaku.

With CHO/Werner on the bench, and Mount coming back; TT has a lot of options to tinker with and rotate in the attack.

Let's see this form we see today translate to the League this weekend.

 

 

I saw this tweeted after todays game and thought it was interesting:

Against Palace we had 63% of the ball in the first half and conceded 3 shots. In the first half vs Lille, we had 53% and conceded 9. At higher tempo and with quicker passing, our attack was far more threatening, but we lost the ball multiple times and let David/Sanches use their pace on the counter.
 

This is the trade-off we currently have to find the perfect balance in. Today's breathless attack and shaky defence was far better than ultra-safe defence & non-existent attack vs Palace. More proof that lack of attacking transitions have been our flaw.

2 minutes ago, JM7 said:

I saw this tweeted after todays game and thought it was interesting:

Against Palace we had 63% of the ball in the first half and conceded 3 shots. In the first half vs Lille, we had 53% and conceded 9. At higher tempo and with quicker passing, our attack was far more threatening, but we lost the ball multiple times and let David/Sanches use their pace on the counter.
 

This is the trade-off we currently have to find the perfect balance in. Today's breathless attack and shaky defence was far better than ultra-safe defence & non-existent attack vs Palace. More proof that lack of attacking transitions have been our flaw.

That is more on the opp plus our setup ( we played with 4 cb against palace) and the game state.

 

I find our football under him boring. Attacking wise there is little or no build up, and we rely on 1 or 2 players upfront.  We wait for opposition mistakes or counter attacking situations.

 

15 minutes ago, ducavis said:

I find our football under him boring. Attacking wise there is little or no build up, and we rely on 1 or 2 players upfront.  We wait for opposition mistakes or counter attacking situations.

I think it has been boring though thought last nights first half was electric just wished we played more like that.

 

13 hours ago, JM7 said:

I saw this tweeted after todays game and thought it was interesting:

Against Palace we had 63% of the ball in the first half and conceded 3 shots. In the first half vs Lille, we had 53% and conceded 9. At higher tempo and with quicker passing, our attack was far more threatening, but we lost the ball multiple times and let David/Sanches use their pace on the counter.
 

This is the trade-off we currently have to find the perfect balance in. Today's breathless attack and shaky defence was far better than ultra-safe defence & non-existent attack vs Palace. More proof that lack of attacking transitions have been our flaw.

We made a lot of unforced errors though yesterday. Passing straight into the feet of Lille's players without much pressure - Rüdiger, Alonso of course, Kovacic, Mendy etc pp. (bar Pulisic though which is a miracle 😉   ). So one reason for having less possession and also conceding 1-2 shots more than necessary. Though I can hardly remember any of those 9 shots being threatening - lots from far away and the most dangerous one I do recall was that Rüdiger worldie.

6 minutes ago, weetee said:

We made a lot of unforced errors though yesterday. Passing straight into the feet of Lille's players without much pressure - Rüdiger, Alonso of course, Kovacic, Mendy etc pp. (bar Pulisic though which is a miracle 😉   ). So one reason for having less possession and also conceding 1-2 shots more than necessary. Though I can hardly remember any of those 9 shots being threatening - lots from far away and the most dangerous one I do recall was that Rüdiger worldie.

Agree we did have a number of enforced errors and from several players and thought Lille with better finishing might have been on the scoresheet.

1 hour ago, ducavis said:

We wait for opposition mistakes

We try to force mistakes from our opponents. By pressing high and being aggressive. It's not excactly "sit back and counter" type of football no matter what some want you to believe.

As we saw yesterday when Kante joined the front three in pressing Lille far into their own half. Also created a couple of chances for Ziyech and Havertz that way.

 

 

1 hour ago, ducavis said:

I find our football under him boring. Attacking wise there is little or no build up, and we rely on 1 or 2 players upfront.  We wait for opposition mistakes or counter attacking situations.

 

I didn't find our Champions League performances last season under him boring. Between August and November, I didn't find us boring then either, I was really enjoying our start to the season. This patch between December and February has been very tough to sit through at times, but it's not the first time it's happened to us in recent seasons. I also don't think we wait for opposition mistakes or counter attacking situations either. Yesterday against Lille was the first time in a long time I have seen us counter attack like that, I also don't think it's a bad thing either. With the players we have, we should be counter attacking like that now and again, it can be a stength of ours.

I think the team plays a wonderful season to this point. Such a young team after winning several trophies and the CL usually go bankrupt mentally. It'sa  ride on the edge but the team is there fighting.

Edited February 23, 20224 yr by FargoFargo

14 minutes ago, FargoFargo said:

I think the team plays a wonderful season to this point. Such a young team after winning several trophies and the CL usually go bankrupt mentally. It'sa  ride on the edge but the team is there fighting.

Your post gave me flashbacks to David O'Leary when Leeds were in the Champions League. He kept banging on ad nauseam about "such a young team" and how wonderful they were, ugh. 

Don't do this to me again!

It's true though. You just can't get back to normal after such a break. It's a fight and one of the biggest tasks for a manager to keep a title winning team winning. It's almost impossible with a young squad, that's why you don't see many of them at the very top season after season. Have you ever wondered why the UCL wasn't repeated for ages or why so many World Cup winning teams don't qualify for the next tourney or go out in group stages? It's the flip side of the coin.

Tuchel does a good job, they will only be stronger next season.

If he has the balls to keep Lukaku on the bench against half decent opposition I could genuinely see us retaining the UCL and possibly a domestic double aswell.

Edited February 23, 20224 yr by Argo

3 minutes ago, Argo said:

If he has the balls to keep Lukaku on the bench against half decent opposition I could genuinely see us retaining the UCL and possibly a domestic double aswell.

Is clear Havertz is our best central forward.

https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11668/12551696/thomas-tuchel-says-he-understands-criticism-of-chelsea-after-russian-invasion-of-ukraine

Shared this elsewhere. Really feel for TT and the players. Is horrible for them they are being tarred with this brush due to the uncertainty around where Roman stands in Russias attack on the Ukraine. 

As the article says some are targeting the club by association, and that is affecting all there concerned.

Sounds like the players and TT are braced for some reprocussions upon the club, maybe some of them are ashamed to be involved with Chelsea football club now because of the possibility Roman is an aid to Putin.

Of course does not compare to what the people of the Ukraine are going through, thoughts and prayers for them.

Chelsea are our family, so I feel for TT and the players.

TT's all class with the above statement.

Sensitive to what is happening in Ukraine, and acknowledging the uncertainty surrounding the club at the moment.

4 hours ago, Jezz said:

TT's all class with the above statement.

Sensitive to what is happening in Ukraine, and acknowledging the uncertainty surrounding the club at the moment.

If there is one thing I trust Tuchel on, it is he always says the right thing. And he doesn't hide from difficult questions. 

Overall a 2:0 win aganist Lille and a 0:0 against Liverpool is a decent result.

He must be seething but overall hard to criticize him for anything today. His calls were near perfect. 

Nobody would have predicted it would go down to 11v11 penalties and the only questionable penalties were Kepa's, Konate's and Werner's.

19 of those penalties today were perfect textbook examples of where to shoot penalties

Had a feeling taking Mendy off would be a bad idea, they guy was having the game of his life

On 23/02/2022 at 14:16, Valerie said:

Your post gave me flashbacks to David O'Leary when Leeds were in the Champions League. He kept banging on ad nauseam about "such a young team" and how wonderful they were, ugh. 

Don't do this to me again!

A podcast I listen to painted David O’Leary out as a madman who used to inject his players with ‘Baby Serum’ because he obsessed with making them all wee little babies. I know this is useless information to pretty much everyone but it makes me laugh. 

Fair pay to Tuchel today. We were the slightly better team. Luck was just not on our side.