One foot in the semifinals of the CL. The man deserves a lot of credit for that.

Yesterday was a fight and not a pretty game but it was never going to be against a tough Porto side.

Delighted with the win yesterday, our quality shone when it mattered. However, imo Porto was the better team in most parts of the game and closed us down so well that we had to resort to hoofing the ball and hope for the best. Except against Liverpool and Atleti second leg, we have struggled against teams that press us high and with intensity, and yesterday Porto was really on top of our midfield and defenders for large parts of the game. Great two goals in a moment of brilliancy between Jorginho (who imo had a meh game) and Mount (for me the POTY), and a cheeky steal of the ball and brilliant finish by Chilly. Overall, Tuchel is doing well, but he needs to start getting points from mid-low table teams winning convincingly.

12 minutes ago, RMH said:

Delighted with the win yesterday, our quality shone when it mattered. However, imo Porto was the better team in most parts of the game and closed us down so well that we had to resort to hoofing the ball and hope for the best. Except against Liverpool and Atleti second leg, we have struggled against teams that press us high and with intensity, and yesterday Porto was really on top of our midfield and defenders for large parts of the game. Great two goals in a moment of brilliancy between Jorginho (who imo had a meh game) and Mount (for me the POTY), and a cheeky steal of the ball and brilliant finish by Chilly. Overall, Tuchel is doing well, but he needs to start getting points from mid-low table teams winning convincingly.

Yep and where better to start than against Roy Hodgson's Crystal Palace. 

“For the next eight weeks, we just have to think how we can improve the scoring and the scoring situation, and nothing else, and then in the summer we will think further and think together with the club about what solutions are the best solutions for us,"

"Is it the best solution to stay with our squad? Is it the best solution to stay in the formation that we have? Can we improve? Can we improve on the training pitch individually and as a group? To create more big chances? These are the questions for June.

https://www.goal.com/en-gb/news/tuchel-warns-misfiring-chelsea-strikers-he-could-consider/1f3jfassp8wu71udq1o45tp2gs

Sounds like he's very aware that we need to improve offensively.
Also sounds like it's definitly going to be a back 3 until the end of the season. Then he will reconsider over the summer.

Well done Tuchel, good to see that the team has not taken CP for granted given that we play Porto on Tuesday. 

10 hours ago, Sindre said:

“For the next eight weeks, we just have to think how we can improve the scoring and the scoring situation, and nothing else, and then in the summer we will think further and think together with the club about what solutions are the best solutions for us,"

"Is it the best solution to stay with our squad? Is it the best solution to stay in the formation that we have? Can we improve? Can we improve on the training pitch individually and as a group? To create more big chances? These are the questions for June.

https://www.goal.com/en-gb/news/tuchel-warns-misfiring-chelsea-strikers-he-could-consider/1f3jfassp8wu71udq1o45tp2gs

Sounds like he's very aware that we need to improve offensively.
Also sounds like it's definitly going to be a back 3 until the end of the season. Then he will reconsider over the summer.

I honestly would stick with what we have now. I really doubt Havertz and Werner will continue their bad form, the only player I think could be replaced is Ziyech.

I like everybody else though, and believe they have the potential to take this team to another level. I think we need to worry more about finding cover for midfield.

I think we are up for one hell of an ending to this season. So many important games coming...

Tommy might have finally tinkered enough to find our best attacking front 3 for now.  CP, Kai and Mount all looked great today.

1 hour ago, BluesPower said:

Tommy might have finally tinkered enough to find our best attacking front 3 for now.  CP, Kai and Mount all looked great today.

Yeah I’d agree with this. Also I think James is notably more effective than CHO at the moment and should be first choice for that spot until proven otherwise .

6 hours ago, Gol15 said:

I think we are up for one hell of an ending to this season. So many important games coming...

 

I agreed with this and looking forward to it.

its a grand stand finish to the season... something we used to regularly have in the 2000's only difference instead of the title it is the top 4 we are competing for.. Not happy about this..  but hopefully next year we are back into the mix...

As he said in the press it will be difficult for other players (Tammy, Gilmour, Giroud, etc.) to come in the side now as we are in the closing stages of the season. I am sure he wants to give them opportunities but he is a calculated person therefor he is not going risk something new for what i already knows. 

Hello. This is my first post here. I'm kind of a coach follower. It's just amazing to see a good coach transform a team. I think i have watched nearly every Liverpool game since Klopp took over there, i stopped this year. What an amazing time, i think they played better football in the beginning, but they changed and became really successful. 

I always admired Tuchel though. Dortmund was the best second ever in his final season and Bayern had a crisis the year after he left, it's fair to say, that he would have won the league then. More and more people realise that the Dortmund managers are not that brilliant. Klopp left them a great base and time might tell, that they actually might have had two world class coaches in a row, which sugar coates the entire rest of the staffs performances.

I always thought he was wasted at Paris, a team were you win the league anyways and you have to prepare more for the big games. Tuchels master strength is to rotate players and still put out a great team every week or twice a week, it was clear to me, that i would follow him if he ever enters the Premier League and it's really exciting for me and i have to say this squad is really good. I really like CHO and Reece. Reece is so big and strong and yet still very skilled, a great player. CHO can become REALLY big i think, a jewel. I think Chelsea should stop buying players like Havertz, Werner, Pulisic or Zyiech, who nobody else actually wanted. CHO is actually wanted by many, a sign that proves my theory. Good work they kept him. I see now why. I think Tuchel is weak on transfers, but the squad is alredy at a point that Klopp had much later. I think just one or two really big names could make a perfect team.

Anyways i'm very happy to watch it all unfold, this could become big.

Tuchball

 

Felt like he took the handbrake off yesterday and we looked more direct and wanting to get the ball forward quicker. Felt like there were a lot more passes being exchanged between the centre backs. 

Palace were quite passive in the first half and I think that helped but we were very good with one/two touch football. 

Hopefully a sign of things to come. 

1 hour ago, Gol15 said:

Tuchball

 

That just confirms what I thought yesterday, given the space, we play great football. But my god look at the space Palace was giving us, most of their players are not within 10 meters of any of ours, and that just crazy against us.

3 hours ago, Nevamind said:

As he said in the press it will be difficult for other players (Tammy, Gilmour, Giroud, etc.) to come in the side now as we are in the closing stages of the season. I am sure he wants to give them opportunities but he is a calculated person therefor he is not going risk something new for what i already knows. 

Think that ultimately will hinder us. There are situations where a target man like Giroud and a poacher like Tammy will win us games that Havertz, Werner, Pulisic and Mount will not.

42 minutes ago, RMH said:

That just confirms what I thought yesterday, given the space, we play great football. But my god look at the space Palace was giving us, most of their players are not within 10 meters of any of ours, and that just crazy against us.

huh? That's a prime example how the opposition tries to press us very early while we stay composed, compact and try to play/combine ourselves free from those pressing situations - not without risk btw. Once we overcome those 2-3 pressing lines we finally do have wide spaces open in front of us - but only then.

Opposed to that example in the twitter post I think Palace didn't really press that much in the first half (or maybe first 30min) and just left us doint our thing up to their box - which wasn't a good plan.

2 hours ago, Gol15 said:

Tuchball

 

You just have to look at our 2nd goal yesterday, we can really see the Tuchel influence.

 

https://streamvi.com/watch/1618072877

 

one of my favorite of the season.

41 minutes ago, weetee said:

huh? That's a prime example how the opposition tries to press us very early while we stay composed, compact and try to play/combine ourselves free from those pressing situations - not without risk btw. Once we overcome those 2-3 pressing lines we finally do have wide spaces open in front of us - but only then.

Opposed to that example in the twitter post I think Palace didn't really press that much in the first half (or maybe first 30min) and just left us doint our thing up to their box - which wasn't a good plan.

I don’t know how to take images from the video, but just take a look at second 10 for example, look at the space, the closest Palace player is about 3 meters, they try to press but giving so much space to other players. They tried to put three four players on the one with the ball, leaving all the others unmarked. Just crazy bad press. Compare that to the high press all our defenders and midfield had against West Brom or Sheffield. It was easy to escape Palaces attempt to press because there were acres of space for two to three of our players involved in the triangulation.

21 minutes ago, RMH said:

I don’t know how to take images from the video, but just take a look at second 10 for example, look at the space, the closest Palace player is about 3 meters, they try to press but giving so much space to other players. They tried to put three four players on the one with the ball, leaving all the others unmarked. Just crazy bad press. Compare that to the high press all our defenders and midfield had against West Brom or Sheffield. It was easy to escape Palaces attempt to press because there were acres of space for two to three of our players involved in the triangulation.

Well, I‘m not saying that‘s the best way how one should press but I wouldn‘t call that extremely bad either. There were several moments were our players  could have easily lost the ball or could have played a bad pass (Mendy, then Rüdiger and also Jorgi). But as long our collective movement is there (it clearly was yesterday and I‘d say also against WestBrom in general) and the passing is done correct (which wasn‘t against WestBrom and Porto) we can outplay most pressing situations. And of course there are wide spaces left open when you press high - you can‘t cover every square inch.

Anyway, it‘s important to show we can execute both: escape pressing and utilize the then available space as well as outplaying deep sitting lines (+score from free kicks/corners as a bonus) which makes it extremely demanding to play against us. Won‘t always work as great as yesterday though.

 

 

Edited April 11, 20215 yr by weetee

1 hour ago, weetee said:

Well, I‘m not saying that‘s the best way how one should press but I wouldn‘t call that extremely bad either. There were several moments were our players  could have easily lost the ball or could have played a bad pass (Mendy, then Rüdiger and also Jorgi). But as long our collective movement is there (it clearly was yesterday and I‘d say also against WestBrom in general) and the passing is done correct (which wasn‘t against WestBrom and Porto) we can outplay most pressing situations. And of course there are wide spaces left open when you press high - you can‘t cover every square inch.

Anyway, it‘s important to show we can execute both: escape pressing and utilize the then available space as well as outplaying deep sitting lines (+score from free kicks/corners as a bonus) which makes it extremely demanding to play against us. Won‘t always work as great as yesterday though.

 

 

I’m not taking away any credit from us, I think we are very good given the space. But that amount of space is just crazy. Just review Havertz’s first goal, he is in the box, no one single defender trying to close him in, two defenders running to CHO who has got meters of space to receive the ball, look up and assist to Havertz, who then has got no one within 3-4 meters and is allowed to turn, advance a bit a look where to put the ball. That sums up CP press all match, just acres of space and when they tried, they were not good enough to cover the passing angles. But that’s just my opinion, I respect the fact that we’ve seen differently the game, that’s the beauty of football too.

22 hours ago, RMH said:

That just confirms what I thought yesterday, given the space, we play great football. But my god look at the space Palace was giving us, most of their players are not within 10 meters of any of ours, and that just crazy against us.

I believe that clip is from the 2nd half when CP had to look to open up, in the first half they did setup with a low block but 2 goals in 10 minutes killed their game plan and confidence, that's what happens when you take your opportunities.

Normally we don't take advantage of good spells and often be wasteful (Werner), this kills our momentum and confidence often gets drained so therefore it was pleasantly surprising we made the most of our first half dominance.

I believe Tuchel is starting to get an idea of his first team however there are positions which are still up for grabs, if I had to take a guess at the players who have nailed down a position that would be the following:

                    Mendy

          Azpi - ????? - Rudiger

James - ?????? - Kova - Chilwell

          Mount - ????? - ?????

I think the front 2 positions are still up for grabs however Kai & Pulisic have made serious strides to make that position their own, the central spot at CB is contested by Silva and Christensen and I dont think its up for grabs just that both players have done well and will be rotated. Similar state for the Midfield role where Jorginho and Kante will rotate for the CM role alongside Kova.

Tuchel will obviously tweak and rotate the team but the players above are the first few names on the team sheet if we were to play a CL final tomorrow.

26 minutes ago, Imran_CFC said:

I believe Tuchel is starting to get an idea of his first team however there are positions which are still up for grabs, if I had to take a guess at the players who have nailed down a position that would be the following:

                    Mendy

          Azpi - ????? - Rudiger

James - ?????? - Kova - Chilwell

          Mount - ????? - ?????

I think the front 2 positions are still up for grabs however Kai & Pulisic have made serious strides to make that position their own, the central spot at CB is contested by Silva and Christensen and I dont think its up for grabs just that both players have done well and will be rotated. Similar state for the Midfield role where Jorginho and Kante will rotate for the CM role alongside Kova.

Tuchel will obviously tweak and rotate the team but the players above are the first few names on the team sheet if we were to play a CL final tomorrow.

i think its also a bit of what system Tuchel wants to use.. even in this formation with Kova and Kante he uses a double 6.. my personal preference is a Kante & kova midfield.. i also think come the new year we might revert to a back 4.. giving us more options on the attacking side..