6 hours ago, The Brit said:

Was a good buy from day one, just a shame it didn’t happen four years ago when it was all lined up.

mind you we would have had jumbo rom as opposed to slimline rom back then. My prediction is he gets at least 20 prem goals . I feel sorry for Tammy, but we needed a right now centre forward.

Credit to Zenit for being well organized and sticking to their game plan. If not for Lukaku they achieve the 0-0 they set out for.

Even though they made changes with subs they did not become more offensive after we scored, it was like their priority was not to be well beaten and hope something came off.

Neither keeper had a save worthy of the name to make, a very dull affair but a very important result, Juve will find it hard against them I think.

Overall was left disappointed with both wingbacks who I felt were rubbish going forward, but even more so the wizard who made himself disappear for the second game in a row, his replacement offered nothing again just like Villa and Mount, much as we love him, passed almost every forward ball to a Zenit player.

None of those 3 are doing anything worthy of keeping Timo and, when he is fit, Pulisic out for having a chance. Not sure what Timo has done to fall so far in TT bad graces.

43 minutes ago, axman2526 said:

Credit to Zenit for being well organized and sticking to their game plan. If not for Lukaku they achieve the 0-0 they set out for.

Even though they made changes with subs they did not become more offensive after we scored, it was like their priority was not to be well beaten and hope something came off.

Neither keeper had a save worthy of the name to make, a very dull affair but a very important result, Juve will find it hard against them I think.

Overall was left disappointed with both wingbacks who I felt were rubbish going forward, but even more so the wizard who made himself disappear for the second game in a row, his replacement offered nothing again just like Villa and Mount, much as we love him, passed almost every forward ball to a Zenit player.

None of those 3 are doing anything worthy of keeping Timo and, when he is fit, Pulisic out for having a chance. Not sure what Timo has done to fall so far in TT bad graces.

Aparently he's not fighting for his spot , he gave up on training.

11 hours ago, Valerie said:

I wish you hadn't said that.

Do you think that Chilli's alter ego is Aqualung?🙃

11 hours ago, evissy said:

Have you noticed Chilwell has a tons of snot in his nose. He shoots that out as much as Jorginho is pointing at things. 

This is the quote that I should have inserted, to put context to my 'Aqualung' statement.

Not the best performance, but found a way to win, and fully deserved. Zenit defended well, looked pretty ugly when they had guarding the box, but mighty effective. Issues with us were there was no real dribbler in the team to run at defenders in dangerous areas, nobody making runs in the final third, and no real pace in wide area to get to to the by-line. Still, when the chance came Lukaku took it, he is as clinical as a striker could be at moment. Defensively, we were never in trouble, which is becoming our routine.

5 hours ago, hephzibah said:

I've always said it that Mason Mount is such a weird player. His passes are poor. And it is such a bad news for an attacking midfielder to have poor passes. He can score goals in few occasions but that's everything about his game.

That's why, for me, he's not my first choice to start, I want someone who gives more to the striker. And I think that's why at times Havertz and Ziyech starts. And at times Pulisic. But it seems Ziyech is showing us that he doesn't deserve to start now. So sincerely I will choose Pulisic and Havertz as first choice in those two positions for now.

I feel anyone playing in those positions must be better than what Mount is giving us, especially to score by himself and create chances for the striker.

I get your point though think Mount will normally be picked due to excelllent work rate and good commitment. The others struggle to match that though technically may be on a higher level.

5 hours ago, kennypaul said:

mind you we would have had jumbo rom as opposed to slimline rom back then. My prediction is he gets at least 20 prem goals . I feel sorry for Tammy, but we needed a right now centre forward.

Yeah but don’t forget he would have been working under Conte, the coach who turned him into finished product at inter

13 hours ago, big blue said:

Not for me in games like today. In the big games id agree his movement in behind is great. No space for him today, and I think he wouldve struggled like we saw in these sort of games last season.

People will critise his finishing and no arguments there it's abysmal, but there's a reason we create so many chances to waste with him on.

Last year the correlation of bad/average performances and results to good under Tuchel directly correlated to whether or not he started. Thanks to Rom we're getting results without him (for now) but the performances in attack have been lacking bar the first half against Arsenal.

Zenit made us earn that win, so fair play to them.

Lukaku showing why a competent and reliable striker makes a huge difference to the team's fortunes.

Rudiger, Lukaku and Kovacic were the standouts for mine.

Zenit made it difficult for us with their set up and were disciplined enough to nearly succeed. However we seemed clueless at times with our pointless passing, passing, passing whenever we got nearly their box. There were a lot more opportunities to deliver crosses which were ignored for us to revert to backward and sideward passing. 
Lukaku is more than decent in the air and I’m not saying to knock in crosses every time but a bit more service please.

66% possession produced 11 shots with 2 on target and is just pish. 
 

Hope we can become more productive this season when we meet packed defences because we can be dire to watch.

Hello!

I hate to be negative with my first post but I have to be honest and say I do not enjoy the majority of the football being played under TT.

Far too mch is dependant on us keeping clean sheets game after game. This is not sustainable and we will not win the title playing like this.  

We've got to be braver and ditch this extremely negative back 5. Also, serious questions need to be asked about the productivity of Mount, Ziyech, CHO, Werner, Havertz, and when he's fit,  Pulisic. Apart from the occasional flash of quality from Havertz,  there's no   real improvement in any of them since TT arrived. Still seeing the same slow, disjointed play with passes not being played when the should be played and  endless misplaced passes. It's like they've never played together before.

If we carry on playing like this I can see another season of us struggling for 4th and I wouldn't be surprised at all if we drop 5 points in the next two games.

 

2 hours ago, wally said:

Hello!

I hate to be negative with my first post but I have to be honest and say I do not enjoy the majority of the football being played under TT.

Far too mch is dependant on us keeping clean sheets game after game. This is not sustainable and we will not win the title playing like this.  

We've got to be braver and ditch this extremely negative back 5. Also, serious questions need to be asked about the productivity of Mount, Ziyech, CHO, Werner, Havertz, and when he's fit,  Pulisic. Apart from the occasional flash of quality from Havertz,  there's no   real improvement in any of them since TT arrived. Still seeing the same slow, disjointed play with passes not being played when the should be played and  endless misplaced passes. It's like they've never played together before.

If we carry on playing like this I can see another season of us struggling for 4th and I wouldn't be surprised at all if we drop 5 points in the next two games.

 

Wally eh?

Seems kind of apt!

 

36 minutes ago, Nibs said:

Wally eh?

Seems kind of apt!

 

Predictable eh?

It"s easy to bury your head in the sand and think everything is fine when things are going our way and we scratch out results, like we repeatedly have done under TT. 

We still have only half a good team and getting away with it at the moment. In my opinion we still look a long way off from an in form City and Liverpool. We won't be near them come the fag end of the season because we'll drop too many points with too many 0-0 1-1 and one goal defeats.

Make a note of this and come back at the end of the season and see how right I am.

 

5 minutes ago, wally said:

Predictable eh?

It"s easy to bury your head in the sand and think everything is fine when things are going our way and we scratch out results, like we repeatedly have done under TT. 

We still have only half a good team and getting away with it at the moment. In my opinion we still look a long way off from an in form City and Liverpool. We won't be near them come the fag end of the season because we'll drop too many points with too many 0-0 1-1 and one goal defeats.

Make a note of this and come back at the end of the season and see how right I am.

 

It is still a work in progress and so far TT has not lost a game to Pep or Klopp and already has a CL trophy in the bag.

Not quite sure what your issues are (with the dippers currently trailing at fortress Anfield in the CL!)

34 minutes ago, Nibs said:

It is still a work in progress and so far TT has not lost a game to Pep or Klopp and already has a CL trophy in the bag.

Not quite sure what your issues are (with the dippers currently trailing at fortress Anfield in the CL!)

Well you certainly jinxed Milan there Nibs nice one...boooo

I do think he has some points though @Nibs, but I think he is way off in his prediction of 4th/5th.

I was hoping TT would move away from the 5 at the back and initially I think most people thought that he would prefer a back 4. I can see why he’s sticking with it as it’s getting results but we are sometimes passing the ball to death against weaker teams.

As far as our competitors go. City will be strong but will definitely prioritise the CL. Liverpool are only a couple injuries away from being average but they will play second string for League and FA cups to try and save players. Man Utd have OGS. So I’m hoping to be at least top 2 and with a few things going our way, Champions.

 

1 hour ago, Nibs said:

It is still a work in progress and so far TT has not lost a game to Pep or Klopp and already has a CL trophy in the bag.

Not quite sure what your issues are (with the dippers currently trailing at fortress Anfield in the CL!)

You say it's a "work in progress" but I haven't seen the slightest bit of difference to anything he's tried to do since his first match in charge.

We don't win big matches like Liverpool did tonight. We don't crush teams like City do. There's very little swagger, style, flair or excitement with us. Everything is an ultra safety first pragmatic grind.  Cheer when a goal goes in and we win the game, but far too much in-between is zzzz. Jose mark 2. With our resources we should be capable of more than this.

 

 

39 minutes ago, wally said:

You say it's a "work in progress" but I haven't seen the slightest bit of difference to anything he's tried to do since his first match in charge.

We don't win big matches like Liverpool did tonight. We don't crush teams like City do. There's very little swagger, style, flair or excitement with us. Everything is an ultra safety first pragmatic grind.  Cheer when a goal goes in and we win the game, but far too much in-between is zzzz. Jose mark 2. With our resources we should be capable of more than this.

 

 

Think the last Chelsea managers to produce such style were Ruud and Luca, even managers like Scolari and Sarri tired and failed to bring in that sort of style.

Maybe at points Carlo did it.

Edited September 15, 20214 yr by axman2526

On 15/09/2021 at 10:43, Strider6003 said:

I get your point though think Mount will normally be picked due to excelllent work rate and good commitment. The others struggle to match that though technically may be on a higher level.

Please let's not bring this issue of work rate into football. If a player is bad, he is bad. What is the meaning of this work rate that we talk about. When Fernando Toress was why us, I think he didn't play so we'll for us for a lot of the time. So, will someone now say that he normally tracks back to tackle opponents, and that because of that he is good? 

My question is that is that his job?

21 hours ago, axman2526 said:

Well you certainly jinxed Milan there Nibs nice one...boooo

As soon as I wrote that I just knew the dippers would come back and win in the second half. Have to convince myself it would have happened anyway..............!!

20 hours ago, wally said:

You say it's a "work in progress" but I haven't seen the slightest bit of difference to anything he's tried to do since his first match in charge.

We don't win big matches like Liverpool did tonight. We don't crush teams like City do. There's very little swagger, style, flair or excitement with us. Everything is an ultra safety first pragmatic grind.  Cheer when a goal goes in and we win the game, but far too much in-between is zzzz. Jose mark 2. With our resources we should be capable of more than this.

 

 

Don't win big matches? We won the CL Final FFS!! Pep is yet to beat us under TT in f**k knows how many attempts.

I do get what you are saying - TT is more of a not lose coach than a must win. He is a bit negative (but nowhere near as much as Mourinho). I would like to see us be a bit more attacking and hopefully that will come. I was so against TT being appointed and if it was down to me Lamps would still be in charge but have to admit I was wrong and there is little to find fault with since TT took over, bar one or two hic-cups.

 

 

15 hours ago, Nibs said:

Don't win big matches? We won the CL Final FFS!! Pep is yet to beat us under TT in f**k knows how many attempts.

I do get what you are saying - TT is more of a not lose coach than a must win. He is a bit negative (but nowhere near as much as Mourinho). I would like to see us be a bit more attacking and hopefully that will come. I was so against TT being appointed and if it was down to me Lamps would still be in charge but have to admit I was wrong and there is little to find fault with since TT took over, bar one or two hic-cups.

 

 

I meant to say we don't win big matches in the style Liverpool do. Home or away against every opposition,  they play to win and play without fear.

Look at the recent game against the most woeful Arsenal team in living memory. We strolled to a 2 goal win instead of slaughtering them by 5 or 6 . City and Liverpool have changed the way teams win the league and our way of playing won't be enough and quite frankly, doesn't deserve to be enough.

 

Liverpool have changed the way teams win the premier league? 
 

WTF are you talking about? 

2 hours ago, wally said:

I meant to say we don't win big matches in the style Liverpool do. Home or away against every opposition,  they play to win and play without fear.

Look at the recent game against the most woeful Arsenal team in living memory. We strolled to a 2 goal win instead of slaughtering them by 5 or 6 . City and Liverpool have changed the way teams win the league and our way of playing won't be enough and quite frankly, doesn't deserve to be enough.

 

Well, that's just disgusting. Let's win with the most ruthless yet beautiful style of play seen in football ever, or out of principle refuse the 3 points when we've won ugly.