3 minutes ago, The Don Antonio said:

 

Nothing like finally getting a working stream in the 92nd minute haha

There's something special about seeing a massive unit like rlc being so silky

2 minutes ago, sonic90 said:

There's something special about seeing a massive unit like rlc being so silky

I wish he played more bullish though

1 minute ago, The Don Antonio said:

I wish he played more bullish though

He rode through challenges a fair amount, looked decent overall but probably doesn't mean much in pre season tbh

Good workout for 70 mins…we looked sharp

Kante sublime in the first half

Ziyech looks like a player who wants to be involved

Werner scored a ‘good’ goal and then looked like last year in front of goal

Second half changes disrupted play

Bakayoko deserves special praise for making his Watford cameo look the norm

Good pre season but a two goal win by Spuds against Arsenal will give them the mind trophy 

We need to be careful of Villareal in the Super Cup. Dirty tackle on Fofana from one of their players has put him out for the season it looks like. 

Spurs kept a lot more of their first teamers involved even at the end of the game compared with us so its not totally surprising that they came back into the game second half. Bakayoko was comically bad and I will be shocked if we see him playing in a Chelsea shirt again now that pre-season is coming to an end (at least I hope I am right about that). RLC had some nice touches and Zappacosta looked committed down the flank. A lot of the subs will probably be sent out on loan.

Overall a good pre-season workout and our first choice players are looking good.

I would be happy if Werner managed to make the correct choice 50% of the time in the final third, atm it's more like 20% of the time. He does do a good job pressing and dragging defenders out of the way, like he did for Ziyechs first goal.

Sarr looked very average and so our of position on a couple of occasions I thought he’d gone for a comfort break. Anjorin looked impressive, strong for a young guy and with a point to prove. Ampadu also ok. 
 

trevor Chalobah saw. Lot of minutes over the two games and didn’t do too much wrong. 

Bakayoko ...how bad was he...shocking from what I saw.  Hope we never see him again.  Definitely looked the better side in the first half and as usual many chances went begging and once again we are trying to walk the ball in the net; been like this for a few seasons now and has to stop.  Assuming we grab Lukaku the next player we need has to be an attacking midfielder who can score goals.  While Kante / Jorghino / Kovacic and even RLC are solid in defending and bringing the ball out, it all goes to pot 25 yards out when we are on the offensive.  Whether Havertz or Mount can play in that role constantly and become the next Lampard who knows, but we are going to need goals from the midfield this year.   With all the talent we have in this squad surely someone can become playmaker and score; if not then we need to find someone who can.

Spurs clearly nowhere near ready for the start of the season and whether the Kane saga is having an effect I don't know but I doubt they will make the top 6 this year.  More of a run out for fringe players in the 2nd half and we lost our way somewhat.  The result was not worthy of discussion but we were sloppy giving away those goals.  

Never pleasant letting 2 goals slip to Spuds lol.

Hopefully TT learned a few things today. Night and day difference between the quality of the first half team and the one that finished. Most of those are simply not good enough to survive in the PL.

The first half team looked really good, Tottenham didn't stand a chance. We could have lead by more than two goals and we would have had the Werner goal not be ruled out uncorrectly. The second half doesn't mean much, most of those players are not going to play for us next season. And even then Tottenham didn't look great and needed two individual errors to score.

What I don't understand is why TT is so against playing Pulisic on the left side, when he had by far his best performances for us there. It kind of makes sense when we have Mount or Werner are plaing on the left, but now even Havertz is being played on the left before Pulisic.

Oh and I don't want to see Bakayoko playing for us ever again, fortunately this performance will not have impressed Tuchel.

Trevoh Chalobah was fantastic although he pussied out of JTs 26 with a small downgrade to Cahills 24. 
 

I think the Kante brother have found a few more during the holidays, I counted 9 today. 
 

I thought Spurs had signed Ake on the quiet but it turned out to be Debbie Alley having a right fluffery buffery. 
 

Finally - I did not feel the ferocious heat of the white hearts.  

We were showing them levels with the first team out.

That's why i wasn't too upset about the prospect of no signing's, we have a fantastic talented squad who are very well coached

1 hour ago, axman2526 said:

Never pleasant letting 2 goals slip to Spuds lol.

Hopefully TT learned a few things today. Night and day difference between the quality of the first half team and the one that finished. Most of those are simply not good enough to survive in the PL.

We don't have enough depth for 38 PL games + CL run, Tuchel needs 2 more quality players.

Just now, Gol15 said:

We don't have enough depth for 38 PL games + CL run, Tuchel needs 2 more quality players.

He can have two of Ross Barkley, Bakayoko, Kennedy, Zappacosta, Batshauyi etc. 

9 minutes ago, Gol15 said:

We don't have enough depth for 38 PL games + CL run, Tuchel needs 2 more quality players.

Depth isn't our problem. With Mount, James, Chilwell, Jorginho, Azpi, Christensen and Silva back we're well set in that department. Actually today's game showed that our depth is fine. We were missing 7 potential first team players, 5 of which were defenders and we were still able to field the XI we did, with Pulisic, Abraham, RLC coming from the bench. 

Wow if you want to kill a party atmosphere just bring on our journey men from around the world!!

from Kante and Kova bossing the game to Bakayoko and others second half was unbelievable.

Second half shape looked wrong, it all looked off the cuff street football. The loan players I think have made it easy for T T.  The young boys looked ok but would need loans as even Billy’s gone out on loan and he could handle the pressure.

Is there something in Bakayoko’s brain where he puts on a Chelsea shirt and he plays like a midfield Ali Dia? Absolutely shocking. Thought Anjorin looked class when he came on, he definitely needs a full season loan to show what he can do.

46 minutes ago, Munkworth said:

He can have two of Ross Barkley, Bakayoko, Kennedy, Zappacosta, Batshauyi etc. 

Not sure if any of them can make a real impact, maybe Barkley or if Bats is lucky a bit but that's almost no quality there, Tuchel will play them in the FA Cup and we won't reach the final...

34 minutes ago, True Blue23 said:

Depth isn't our problem. With Mount, James, Chilwell, Jorginho, Azpi, Christensen and Silva back we're well set in that department. Actually today's game showed that our depth is fine. We were missing 7 potential first team players, 5 of which were defenders and we were still able to field the XI we did, with Pulisic, Abraham, RLC coming from the bench. 

Tuchel doesn't really count on Tammy so our front line is all about Kai and Werner, that's not enough for a long PL season and CL football if you ask me.

2 hours ago, Argo said:

We were showing them levels with the first team out.

That's why i wasn't too upset about the prospect of no signing's, we have a fantastic talented squad who are very well coached

Exactly. People forget that even though we totally dominated Tottenham in the first half, we still had 6 players who started the UCL final and havent played this pre season

2 hours ago, Munkworth said:

He can have two of Ross Barkley, Bakayoko, Kennedy, Zappacosta, Batshauyi etc. 

Very nice Munkworth. 

 

Seriously of the returning players Trev Chalobah can be a new signing for him, one who plays both positions we wanted Declan Rice for.

As for who could be the other player to keep as a "new signing", that is a bit tougher. I would have said Broja but not if Lukaku is coming, Broja would have no chance for minutes then.

My take on the game.

Until the substitutions we bossed the game and should have scored more. Ziyech seemed hungry and determined, which is a welcome change from his usual 'lazy, indifferent, couldn't be bothered" body language. Hopefully this is going to be his break out season at the club, he's looking sharp. Chalobah was pleasantly competent at the back. CHO was struggling on he right, so much time and space and yet wrong decisions almost every time. Werner was back to his usual self, did everything very well except finishing, and what's worse, when he did finish, the footballing Gods laughed at the miserable German and denied him a perfectly legit goal. Havertz, Kovacic, Rudiger, Zouma and Alonso were fairly good given the amount of training they've had so far. Kante was MOTM, the man is superhuman. I thought Mendy could have done better for the second goal, but it was from close range, so it's easier said than done.

The drop off in quality after the subs was understandable. Spurs kept their first teamers, while Tuchel gave loanees and youngsters a chance to impress. Bakayoko was once again a subject of envy and a beacon of hope to all the dreamers out there that you don't have to be any good at what you do for a living to become a millionaire. Young Sarr took the hint and immediatel;y followed the lead. Those two gave their absolute best to help Spurs equalize and were well on their way to gifting Tottenham another goal scoring opportunity to finish the job but alas, the final whistle put an end to that. Well, until the next preseason then, boys, keep the dream alive.

 

A grade: Ziyech, Kante, Kovacic, Chalobah, Anjorin, Tuchel 

B grade: Havertz, Werner, Alonso, Rudiger, Zouma, Pulisic, Ampadu, RLC, CHO, Zappa, Miazga, Kenedy

C grade: Tammy, Mendy

No chance grade: Sarr, Bakayoko 

All in all we would and should have won this with comfort. We just subbed the whole side and made two individual mistakes that uncharacteristically cost us two goals. Sarr and Bakayoko were horrendous. No other words. Mendy let in that second goal. Looked bad. He has had lapses of concentration in these two games. 

I was very pleased with our midfield and especially Ziyech. He is an excellent player. You can see us creating 10-15 great chances in the match and we only finish two of them. Both by an excellent finish by Ziyech. This is why we absolutely need him. He is also winning back balls high up the field. Best player for us in these Mind series games for us with Kante. 

I have never seen us this fit and ready in pre-season. Tuchel is really putting the lads in good shape. Starting strong is a good thing. Gather momentum for the season. 

I am a bit worried for Ruben. Tuchel said before this game he really needs to push Ruben to see his true level. Now he fielded RLC in a very unfavourable time next to Bakayoko. He had no chance to look good and he didn't. If we don't sign Rice which looks more than sure we need one of these lads to step up. Looks like it is Ruben. If Tuchel don't trust him we might make a late buy and we know what those look... 

Edited August 5, 20214 yr by evissy