16 hours ago, PloKoon13 said:

It was the first time in a little while that we saw the squad magic from earlier in the season. By that I mean the idea that Tuchel is able to throw in any random idiots from the squad and get a performance out of them.

 

On 05/01/2022 at 11:47, Jezz said:

I have a newfound respect for the way TT handled the Lukaku situation.

Very mature, calm, composed and not afraid to show his authority where necessary.

Me too Jezz.

The guy just oozes class. Might not always agree with teams selections and subs but trust him implicitly and he has worked wonders with the injury / COVID / Lukaku situation. Hope he says with us for a long, long time.

5 hours ago, Nibs said:

Me too Jezz.

The guy just oozes class. Might not always agree with teams selections and subs but trust him implicitly and he has worked wonders with the injury / COVID / Lukaku situation. Hope he says with us for a long, long time.

Amen to that.

On the flip side hopefully Lukaku moves on as soon as possible.

1 hour ago, axman2526 said:

Amen to that.

On the flip side hopefully Lukaku moves on as soon as possible.

Or integrates with the team and lives up to his price tag

Or we actually supply passes to him so that he can score.

The whole "not getting any service" argument is often a flawed one but in Lukaku's case this season there is a lot too it in my opinion.

In the league he's only shot 22 times, scoring five times. While that's not a lot of goals he's also taken less shots than for example centreback Laporte at City, midfielder McGinn at Villa and holding midfielder Partey at Arsenal.

His fellow forwards not to do a lot better. Mount is doing fairly well but he himself only have a set-piece assist since early December if I remember correctly. And the likes of CHO, Werner, Havertz, Ziyech, Pulisic have all failed to convince anyone. Hopefully we are at the beginning of something under Tuchel and he can build and shape this team as he sees fit. Because I remain unconvinced that any of the latter five will or should be here in a couple of years time. 

 

5 minutes ago, Sindre said:

The whole "not getting any service" argument is often a flawed one but in Lukaku's case this season there is a lot too it in my opinion.

In the league he's only shot 22 times, scoring five times. While that's not a lot of goals he's also taken less shots than for example centreback Laporte at City, midfielder McGinn at Villa and holding midfielder Partey at Arsenal.

His fellow forwards not to do a lot better. Mount is doing fairly well but he himself only have a set-piece assist since early December if I remember correctly. And the likes of CHO, Werner, Havertz, Ziyech, Pulisic have all failed to convince anyone. Hopefully we are at the beginning of something under Tuchel and he can build and shape this team as he sees fit. Because I remain unconvinced that any of the latter five will or should be here in a couple of years time. 

 

Our whole system is reliant on ball possession/retention in the oppositions half, the opposition is set up to defend, so we end up with less chances on goal, it's a price we pay for having a high defence. I was hoping Lukaku would be the key to us winning the league because i thought he would only need 1-2 chances to score, if we need to create 6-8 chances for him every game we may have a problem.

 

We create chances at will without him playing, that alone renders the service excuse redundant. Service is a two way street, he had 4 touches around the half hour mark against Spurs, he should be having more than that at that point in any match circumstance let alone one that was largely being played in one half.

There's only three realistic ways around this.

1. We both admit it's not working and go our separate ways.

2. He adapts to this system and gets himself involved more in general play (I'll leave out the dreaded p word for now).

3. We scrap what we've been working on for 4 years (the style of play) and revert to a compact counter attacking system and play through Lukaku, in other words become a modern version of Rafa's Liverpool gearing everything up towards Torres.

I'll be happy with either 1 or 2.

3 minutes ago, Argo said:

We create chances at will without him playing, that alone renders the service excuse redundant. Service is a two way street, he had 4 touches around the half hour mark against Spurs, he should be having more than that at that point in any match circumstance let alone one that was largely being played in one half.

There's only three realistic ways around this.

1. We both admit it's not working and go our separate ways.

2. He adapts to this system and gets himself involved more in general play (I'll leave out the dreaded p word for now).

3. We scrap what we've been working on for 4 years (the style of play) and revert to a compact counter attacking system and play through Lukaku, in other words become a modern version of Rafa's Liverpool gearing everything up towards Torres.

I'll be happy with either 1 or 2.

Option 2, but i don't expect him to adapt to our system fully (just a bit of the p word), but i do expect him to take the chances that come his way, including the balls he should be on the end of, if only he had made the right movement to do so, it's the kind of skill you need to be a 6yd poacher who just pops up in the right place at the right time, especially as Lukaku has a lot of upper body strength and could be a nightmare for defenders in that 6yd box.

11 minutes ago, Argo said:

We create chances at will without him playing, that alone renders the service excuse redundant. Service is a two way street, he had 4 touches around the half hour mark against Spurs, he should be having more than that at that point in any match circumstance let alone one that was largely being played in one half.

He dragged Tottenhams CB's everywhere the other night when then opened up the space for Mount & Havertz. And we did create plenty of chances v them despite Lukaku being on the pitch for the entire 90.

 

27 minutes ago, coco said:

Our whole system is reliant on ball possession/retention in the oppositions half, the opposition is set up to defend, so we end up with less chances on goal, it's a price we pay for having a high defence. I was hoping Lukaku would be the key to us winning the league because i thought he would only need 1-2 chances to score, if we need to create 6-8 chances for him every game we may have a problem.

 

I’m not big into digging out stats Coco, I leave that to some of the keyboard warriors, but I thought 1-2 chances looked a bit tight. So checked out the Premiership stats for one of the worlds leading goalscorcers and it looks like he only scores from 5-6 shots with less than half on Target.

I’m not going to get into a whole Lukaku debate, haven’t the time or interest but many on this site detest him and I feel are looking him to fail. He’s not what I wanted but he’s here and I’ll support him. I see him working hard and making runs to get totally ignored time and time again. Give him the ball in the right places and he get goals, always has.

We all have our favourites in the team and those we think are sh*t. I’m probably no better. For all the Pulisic plaudits on here, I think he’s pish and have done since he came here. I find him hard to watch each time he’s on the team and see every mistake he makes and there are many, but he’s Chelsea and hope he comes good. Also hope he’s gone in the summer.

I’m sure someone will come up with sometime better with xg’s, og’s vd’s and sti’s.

6 minutes ago, goose said:

I’m not big into digging out stats Coco, I leave that to some of the keyboard warriors, but I thought 1-2 chances looked a bit tight. So checked out the Premiership stats for one of the worlds leading goalscorcers and it looks like he only scores from 5-6 shots with less than half on Target.

I’m not going to get into a whole Lukaku debate, haven’t the time or interest but many on this site detest him and I feel are looking him to fail. He’s not what I wanted but he’s here and I’ll support him. I see him working hard and making runs to get totally ignored time and time again. Give him the ball in the right places and he get goals, always has.

We all have our favourites in the team and those we think are sh*t. I’m probably no better. For all the Pulisic plaudits on here, I think he’s pish and have done since he came here. I find him hard to watch each time he’s on the team and see every mistake he makes and there are many, but he’s Chelsea and hope he comes good. Also hope he’s gone in the summer.

I’m sure someone will come up with sometime better with xg’s, og’s vd’s and sti’s.

Whats the criteria for 'big chances missed' ? For instance was the missed header against Spuds (which went just wide) in midweek a big chance missed for Lukaku ?

2 minutes ago, coco said:

Whats the criteria for 'big chances missed' ? For instance was the missed header against Spuds (which went just wide) in midweek a big chance missed for Lukaku ?

Haven't a clue, good chance, good header too. One of those that he has to go for the corner. I was certainly disappointed he didn’t score because I think it is a strength of his and I enjoy good powerful headed goals more than anything else. One of the reasons I found it hard to warm to Tammy. He’d many good aspects to his game but his heading ability was woeful.

Off topic but I’m sure many here would say Drogba as favourite header of the ball, for me it was Speedie. Maybe because he was bit of a short arse like me.

1 hour ago, coco said:

Our whole system is reliant on ball possession/retention in the oppositions half, the opposition is set up to defend, so we end up with less chances on goal, it's a price we pay for having a high defence. I was hoping Lukaku would be the key to us winning the league because i thought he would only need 1-2 chances to score, if we need to create 6-8 chances for him every game we may have a problem.

 

He had 8 PL starts and from 8 shots on target he scored 5 goals and had 2 big chances missed.

In comparison Havertz had 12 PL starts, 8 shots on target and 2 goals with 5 big chances missed. Werner started in 6 matches, 6 shots on target, 1 goal and 2 big chances missed.

Pretty sure Lukaku is our best striker this season. Nobody even expects Kai and Timo to score goals anymore.

2 minutes ago, Gol15 said:

He had 8 PL starts and from 8 shots on target he scored 5 goals and had 2 big chances missed.

Sounds great, but the 'shots on target' could be shots of zero danger, straight into the keepers arms, and the shots 'off target' are not included when they could of been chances he should be hitting the target with.

3 minutes ago, coco said:

Sounds great, but the 'shots on target' could be shots of zero danger, straight into the keepers arms, and the shots 'off target' are not included when they could of been chances he should be hitting the target with.

That's why I always prefer underlying metrics over one dimensional stats when it comes to spotting trends and seeing how player's are doing and will likely do. 

People seem to push back against expected goals/assists/points etc like we're trying to rewrite the results but that's not what's it about at all. 

1 hour ago, coco said:

Sounds great, but the 'shots on target' could be shots of zero danger, straight into the keepers arms, and the shots 'off target' are not included when they could of been chances he should be hitting the target with.

Well he does have 2 big chances missed but apparently when he does manage to shoot on target he has a good conversion rate to goals that suggests that he doesn't need 6-8 chances to score a goal but rather 2-3.

4 hours ago, goose said:

Off topic but I’m sure many here would say Drogba as favourite header of the ball, for me it was Speedie. Maybe because he was bit of a short arse like me.

Munich alone sets Didi apart.

However I would also add Gus Poyet and the obvious JT.

6 hours ago, goose said:

I’m not big into digging out stats Coco, I leave that to some of the keyboard warriors, but I thought 1-2 chances looked a bit tight. So checked out the Premiership stats for one of the worlds leading goalscorers and it looks like he only scores from 5-6 shots with less than half on Target.

I’m not going to get into a whole Lukaku debate, haven’t the time or interest but many on this site detest him and I feel are looking him to fail. He’s not what I wanted but he’s here and I’ll support him. I see him working hard and making runs to get totally ignored time and time again. Give him the ball in the right places and he get goals, always has.

We all have our favourites in the team and those we think are sh*t. I’m probably no better. For all the Pulisic plaudits on here, I think he’s pish and have done since he came here. I find him hard to watch each time he’s on the team and see every mistake he makes and there are many, but he’s Chelsea and hope he comes good. Also hope he’s gone in the summer.

I’m sure someone will come up with sometime better with xg’s, og’s vd’s and sti’s.

Who is this ? Mo Salah ?

Edited January 10, 20224 yr by Sexyfootball

28 minutes ago, Sexyfootball said:

Who is this ? Mo Salah ?

Sorry, yes.

21 hours ago, Argo said:

That's why I always prefer underlying metrics over one dimensional stats when it comes to spotting trends and seeing how player's are doing and will likely do. 

People seem to push back against expected goals/assists/points etc like we're trying to rewrite the results but that's not what's it about at all. 

xG > Shots on target. Not Goals. And it clearly is a better metric.

If a pundit / manager came out and said "we had more shots on target than the other team and should have won the game" no one would bat an eyelid. Put xG in there, when it's a much more relevant stat for that sentence, and people go bananas.

 

Dooo what you need to doooo!

Since he joined around this time last year, we haven't been knocked out of any cup competition apart from the FA Cup final loss vs Leicester... won two of three finals, another one just round the corner now. Obviously it won't continue forever, but it's a pretty decent effort that!

What a manager