3 hours ago, evissy said:

What a brilliant tie ahead! Win or lose I love seeing Chelsea play top European matches against top sides. The football is also much more tactical in CL. I kind of wish Prem was a bit more like that. Prem is all energy. 

We are clear underdogs here. Simeone will say we are the favourites here but we all know it is bullsh*t. They have a matured, experienced CL side with great players. 

Anyway the key to our successful is to play the best football we can and to have some luck. We are not scoring right now and Atletico is one of the best defensive sides in Europe. 

It could be a fresh start to some of our players so I am hoping someone like Pulisic is really up for it. 

Right on. Great post. We can’t score against crap teams and they have a defensive mind set for years but it will still be a great exciting European match. We have a good  side, that will need to show up and play for the badge. I might start chillwell and I hope havertz can make the bench. 

 

It's games like this that this man comes to the forefront. 

 

My XI for this one would be

                 Mendy

        Dave - Silva - Rudiger

James - Kante- Kovacic - Chilwell

     Mount - Giroud - Werner

 

But I expect that Tuchel will go with Jorginho and Alonso over Kante and Chilwell. 

I can tell you the score now.....

3 1......

32 minutes ago, dkw said:

So thats what, 6 games in total? 15/6, 17/18, 19/20?

Also 14/15 against Paris when we lost on away goals.

Thiago Silva not ready.

Havertz and Pulisic both in the squad.

4 minutes ago, Sindre said:

Thiago Silva not ready.

Havertz and Pulisic both in the squad.

2 hours ago, Slojo said:

Still though, not a single win... Terrible that. 

But f**k me do we get unlucky in draws. 

When something happens consistently I think it could be more than bad luck.

27 minutes ago, Sindre said:

Thiago Silva not ready.

Havertz and Pulisic both in the squad.

I think the reason Zouma was picked late on at Saints was to save Andreas for this, knowing Silva was out.

23 minutes ago, dansubrosa said:

Lol

On the one hand I'm sceptical about this back 3 vs Athletico but if we remain resolute and disciplined we may have a shot at keeping a clean sheet. Here's hoping for a cheeky 0-1 win or a draw where we get an away goal(s).

Either way we have to score, the away goal is too important. Not sure if we can shut them out completely at home but if we can go into the game with something it could be the difference maker.

45 minutes ago, axman2526 said:

When something happens consistently I think it could be more than bad luck.

Yes I agree with that I don't think we had the rub of the green in terms of the draw however with the exception of Bayern Munich last year we've always drawn teams who were at a similar level to us and failed to progress.

However having said that we have had elements of luck go against us in those fixtures and had we progressed in any of the fixtures you couldn't argue against that because the ties were so close, it wasnt a case of us being Arsenal and getting spanked out of the CL year after year. Against PSG in 2015 we went out on away goals, probably the most painful exit playing against 10 men in the 2nd leg at home and conceding 2 goals from set pieces, at the same time we were denied a stonewall penalty with a foul on Costa.

In 2016 we went out against PSG again however with the tie poised nicely at 1-1 at the Bridge we had Costa go off injured in the 2nd half and shortly followed by Hazard which pretty much blunted our attack completely.

In 2018 we went out against Barcelona where we absolutely dominated them at the bridge, arguably Willian's best performance for us where he scored and hit both posts. Barcelona didnt have a sniff until Christensen decided to switch teams and play a suicidal ball across our box to Iniesta. The early goal in the 2nd leg completely killed the game plan, Conte went to set up with the low block and conceding a goal in under 5 minutes took the wind out of our sail.

Regardless of how things turned out we have not been good enough to challenge for the CL since we won it in 2012, I think the round of 16 stat is slightly misrepresentative of our exploits as we could've easily got one of the inferior teams and progressed but like I've stated we've been nowhere near the level we need to be in order to be considered Europe's elite.

Edited February 22, 20215 yr by Imran_CFC

 

On 21/02/2021 at 14:53, Brutos said:

You realise we attack with 5 and defend with 5 that's the whole point of the formation to make sure we don't get caught at the back. Sometimes the outside right CB joins along with one of the 6 in the middle. So 7 attacking 3 defending so where is this 8 behind the ball come from!!!??

This framework has great potential we are just sloppy around the 18 with our passing it's either over hit under hit infromt or behind. We are just missing that final bit.

If we had gone into this match under Lampard we would have two chances zero and none at least now there is hope however slight it might be.

I think the new formation gives the team a decent structure defensively and we look a lot more solid on the transition, in theory having 5 attackers and 5 defenders make's sense and should give us balance in both attacking and defensive phases. The problem mainly lies with the personnel being deployed, Werner still appears hit and miss, Mount is still young and I struggle to see him hit double digits in terms of goal any time soon and Pulisic/Ziyech are completely out of form. Maybe in a season or 2 when the said players are more established, Werner more acclimatized to the league and Mount & Pulisic have physically developed and are closer to their peaks we could make the system work but currently we seem more defensively biased.

For Example we finished our game against Southampton with 3 CB's and no genuine CF which is quite puzzling considering we were chasing the game in the 2nd half, I think the view in general is that we should look to sacrifice one of the CB's (Azpi in my view) and either play Tammy/Giroud or bring in Kai to play in the pocket behind the striker. (This is obviously based on the assumption that Tuchel preferred front 3 are Werner, Pulisic & Mount). In this formation you play James as a conventional full back which would most likely help Ziyech as Right Wing is his preferred position and in the new system I struggle to see him flourishing and he is arguably our most creative outlet in attack.

Athletico have a very potent attack so I suspect we will approach the game quite defensively. First goal will be key. If we can edge ahead,, then hopefully we can create further chances on the counter. If Athletico score first it could be a long night.

Without T.Silva in the first game we must focus on not conceding and hopefully we will get him back for the second game. Without him I fear that kid Felix will tear us apart...

We can pretty much be sure of the keeper and back 3 for this one, ahead of that though could be any number of combinations. For me I would go with the expected 4 and then with:

 

Mendy

 

Azpi

Christensen

Rudiger

 

CHO

Gilmour

Kante

Emerson

 

Havertz

 

Giroud

Werner

 

Emerson as Chilwell has not looked good at wingback and Alonso was hopeless on Saturday and does not merit a start.

CHO as James was useless on Saturday, does not merit a start and am hoping CHO responds to the insult on Saturday with a blistering display.

Gilmour as we need midfield creation.

Kante as he is likely the best to cover for Gilmour.

Havertz as Mount needs a break for me and a slow paced European game seems a good fit for Kai imo.

Giroud as we need the expierence.

Werner in the hope he works is socks off and wins us a pen.

Edited February 22, 20215 yr by axman2526

4 of the back 5 have survived the 4-1 Barcelona knock out and 7-1 Bayern thrashing, span of 3 years... we’ve spent peanuts compared to our rivals on CB’s for starters, Marina’s got even more power and here we are again with these failures all starting. It doesn’t bode well, here’s hoping Atletico’s short woes leading up to this are worse than ours and we can somehow nick an away goal.

3 hours ago, Sindre said:

Thiago Silva not ready.

Havertz and Pulisic both in the squad.

 

Maybe this is the game TT finally released the beasts? 

?

 

34 minutes ago, axman2526 said:

We can pretty much be sure of the keeper and back 3 for this one, ahead of that though could be any number of combinations. For me I would go with the expected 4 and then with:

 

Mendy

 

Azpi

Christensen

Rudiger

 

CHO

Gilmour

Kante

Emerson

 

Havertz

 

Giroud

Werner

 

Emerson as Chilwell has not looked good at wingback and Alonso was hopeless on Saturday and does not merit a start.

CHO as James was useless on Saturday, does not merit a start and am hoping CHO responds to the insult on Saturday with a blistering display.

Gilmour as we need midfield creation.

Kante as he is likely the best to cover for Gilmour.

Havertz as Mount needs a break for me and a slow paced European game seems a good fit for Kai imo.

Giroud as we need the expierence.

Werner in the hope he works is socks off and wins us a pen.

Kante Gilmour, Havertz over Mount, Emerson, those are some bold choices... but I do like the idea of throwing CHO right back in there!

I think it's time to give Werner a rest, I worry he might begin to get frustrated with himself. I'd play him against United again, ideally up front next Havertz... For Atletico:

------------Giroud-------------

-----Pulisic--------Mount------

Alonso-Kovacic-Jorginho--CHO

--Rüdiger--Christensen--Azpi--

------------Mendy-------------

 

I think Chilwell will get used to LWB, but maybe this isn't the right game to start that process

With absolutely nothing to back this up, I'm going to say we will play better against a top team than against rubbish like Saints and Villa. And Spurs.

expect a sparkling , attacking all action performance from us.

come on you BLUES !

Now we get to have a real test against one of the best teams in the world.

I expect it to be a very low scoring affair with maybe one or two goals in it either way over the tie.

Big night for Tuchel. I suspect this tie will have a big impact on his future prospects with us. I actually can't recall us beating anyone of substance in the CL since PSG when Demba scored. Feels like we've not won a knock out game since then either. Would be nice to change that.

I think the opposite, this could be a very wild open game and TT should go for the offensive in this match.

 

Definitely can’t play Zouma as the middle of back three. Needs to be someone comfortable with the ball being able to bring it out and look left and right. Also need to keep an eye on Dracula’s movement, making sure he doesn’t find or create gaps at the back. 

3 hours ago, Term_X said:

4 of the back 5 have survived the 4-1 Barcelona knock out and 7-1 Bayern thrashing, span of 3 years... we’ve spent peanuts compared to our rivals on CB’s for starters, Marina’s got even more power and here we are again with these failures all starting. It doesn’t bode well, here’s hoping Atletico’s short woes leading up to this are worse than ours and we can somehow nick an away goal.

We really need a new world class CB, specially once T.Silva leaves.

We can't continue to rely on Christensen and Rudiger, as much as they were capable of producing some solid performances they would be backups to any title winning team. 

I was more worried about the Southampton game than this one it's odd. 

3 hours ago, Luiz4Chelsea said:

Kante Gilmour, Havertz over Mount, Emerson, those are some bold choices... but I do like the idea of throwing CHO right back in there!

I think it's time to give Werner a rest, I worry he might begin to get frustrated with himself. I'd play him against United again, ideally up front next Havertz... For Atletico:

------------Giroud-------------

-----Pulisic--------Mount------

Alonso-Kovacic-Jorginho--CHO

--Rüdiger--Christensen--Azpi--

------------Mendy-------------

 

I think Chilwell will get used to LWB, but maybe this isn't the right game to start that process

Fortune favours the bold lol