Thank goodness for Mendy.

Great ‘backs to the wall’ first half. Let’s just hope we can hang on for another 45 minutes and steal a home win.

We’re not looking very coherent and are very fortunate to be winning, but that’s the kind of break having a quality centre forward and a quality goalkeeper gets you. Will be interesting to see if Saul comes out for the second half.

3 minutes ago, Frankie8Lampard said:

Saul is reminding me of when Jorginho first came here. He’s going to have to pick up to the pace of the premier league quickly if he wants a sniff at the starting 11

You can't be serious, Jorginho was nowhere near this bad when he came he played faster than most of the squad from the moment he came, all 1 touch passes, he even scored in his debut.

That debut from Saul is up there with some of the worse ive seen. Close to Bakayoko against Watford!

He is going to need to adapt. We need to play better 2nd half to see this out.

HT subs then or we concede probably …….

We need Timo to stretch them, and Jorgi to add some control, not being Harsh on Saul, first game, better debut than say Torres, lol

 

1 minute ago, Scott Harris said:

I don't know, Jorginho was never this bad. I remember him starting really well for us when he first joined. It was around the mid way point of the season where he started to struggle.

Jorginho was more defensive when he first came in. He kept to the basics and passed it short and fast. I remember he had a crazy amount of passes in the first few games

Saul is going to be having nightmares that McGinn is behind him.

4 minutes ago, RMCM said:

Between him and Silva for me as man of the match so far, Silva looks unflappable despite the circus going on around him in defence and midfield

Yeah, you're right. So Mendy and Silva each win a Half Man of the First Half award.

This games makes me an advocate for allowing 5 subs in the premier league because we definitely need more than 3 changes right now lol

2 minutes ago, Bob stark said:

You can't just run around like maniac as midfield two unless you are kante.

When I said jogging I was beeing kind, I wish I had the gifs ready to show you all the times he was just letting Villa players jog into dangerous positions close to him.

1 minute ago, Girish said:

This games makes me an advocate for allowing 5 subs in the premier league because we definitely need more than 3 changes right now lol

Tbh I don't even know why we still stick to the 3 subs rule. Small clubs should be loving 5 subs. How else are they going to give minutes to all their players

5 minutes ago, Deino said:

Jorginho was more defensive when he first came in. He kept to the basics and passed it short and fast. I remember he had a crazy amount of passes in the first few games

That was due to Sarri systems where everything run through Jorgi and he knew exactly how to run Sarriball

Once team started to understand Sarriball, game became much2 more difficult 

I don't think Tuchel should get away without criticism for that half either. It's not the first time he has approached a game like this in an odd way. His coaching in big games is great, but he still doesn't seem to have learned that you can't take a single game for granted in the Premier League. 

Jorgi on 

JORGINHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Well... I suppose you can't put out an XI like that and expect to maintain the usual level of structure. That was a mess. We are incredibly lucky to still be ahead - Mendy and Silva have been heroic.

Probably not the best idea to start Saúl in a game like this, and certainly not without one of Kanté and Jorginho next to him. He has been a serious, serious problem. He's given the ball away three times around the halfway line or deeper, and has offered nothing defensively. I would write him off in this game and make his acclimatisation to the league more gradual: start with sub and cup appearances and build up. It's quite remarkable that we haven't been punished for it considering some of the individual attacking talent at Villa's disposal.

Seems like a no-brainer to bring on Jorginho for Saúl at half-time. Presumably we will be seeing Azpilicueta on for one of Hudson-Odoi and Ziyech too (probably the former, and if so hopefully later).

 

Feel bad for Saul. Hopefully he just needs time to settle in

Good to see one of you is Tuchel. Thanks for changing Saul

We're a bit harsh on Saul but it was always going to be tough on him. Villa play a good, physical brand of football

That right hand side trio of CHO, Chalobah and Saul has struggled big time. Saul especially is having a stinker and doesn't look ready for this one at all.

Surprised how often we've resorted to long passes and not tried to retain possession when they've had us under so much pressure. 

Lukaku doing what he does best though. 

Saul needs to play with Jorginho or Kovacic needs to drop deeper because Saul isn't a DM. That's how I see it at least.

Just now, Deino said:

Tbh I don't even know why we still stick to the 3 subs rule. Small clubs should be loving 5 subs. How else are they going to give minutes to all their players

Because they have less quality throughout their squad. They may like bringing on the fresher players, but if those lower quality players end up going up against a bench from any of the clubs at the top of the table, they can become overwhelmed. 

I also think so many subs ruin the flow of a game and makes it too stop start.

WAHOOOOOOOO!

KOVA