2 hours ago, carrickblue said:

Good. We need more drama. 

It will be a miracle if we get a draw considering everything going on. Lukaku should not be in the squad until he offers a public apology. Would he mean it is a different question.

So looks like those earlier reports were right and Rom is out of the squad and won't be at the Bridge Tomorrow. 

Werner is not fit enough to start and Havertz is deemed "lacking sharpness". Silva faces a late fitness test so our side is said to be:

With Silva:

 

Mendy

 

Chalobah

Silva

Rudiger

 

Dave

Jorginho 

Kante

Alonso

 

Mount

Pulisic 

CHO

 

Without Silva:

 

Mendy

 

Dave

Chalobah 

Ruidger

 

CHO

Jorginho 

Kante

Alonso

 

Ziyech

Pulisic

CHO

 

Either way...

Really don't see the point in leaving Rom out of the squad or even leaving him on the bench.  If he's fit he plays.  Leaving him is like cutting your nose to spite your face. You have a chance of winning with him playing and no chance without.  I am sure the message the club want to send him can be handled in a different way than leaving him out of the squad.    As I said, City will be over the horizon when we hit January, and we will be looking over our shoulder, and so it has come to pass. So with the title race being over for us due to our pathetic home form, I's still like to put a dent Liverpools hopes with a win or draw.

On a side note I really don't know what it is with our club, for years now we have bought centre forwards that are effective running into open space with the ball in front of them and we have yet to play that way to get the best out of them and then we call them sh*te.   Torres, yes he was slight crocked when we bought him, but his prowess was running into space and scoring goals; Morata, yeah OK he couldn't hit a barn door, but we hardly played to his strengths.  Werner scored lots of goals in Germany running onto the ball in open space and again we didn't play to his strengths, and here we are back full circle again with Lukaku. His strength is running into space and all we do is piss around in midfield, or tap dance around the 18 yard box for half the game and you wonder why our forwards, especially the CF don't score that often.   Clearly we don't know what was said to convince him to come here.  If it was that we would set the team up to play to his strengths, then certainly TT gets a big slap on the wrist for failure to do so.  IMO, if he is so unhappy and wants to go back to Inter, then send him back for the money we paid for him and buy players who's strength is playing to our current system....in other words get an attacking midfielder who likes to shoot from outside the box and more than 6 yards out, because no forward in the world is going to score numerous goals the  way we are set up.

 

Why wouldn't Lukaku play? He played the full last game and 45 min of the game before that. Seriously if nobody had problems just a week ago this old interview from 3-4 weeks shouldn't matter that much. Is Tuchel seriously going to stop playing him? In that case he's digging his own grave, we don't finish top 4 like that, I guarantee it.

I hope we handle the situation similar to how we did with Costa. Reach some kind of agreement with TT for rest of the season and move him out in the summer.

Unfortunately for Lukaku, his dream Top 3 teams in the world don't want him and also Inter cannot afford him now so he needs to downgrade. He really cut off his own feet here.

Match Day !

Come On Chelsea!!

I hope we don’t drop Lukaku, I cannot cope with another match with Pulisic up front. It’s so ineffective. Pulisic v VVD? No chance. 

It’s a shame we’ve got so many injuries, remember how we were robbed at Anfield? We owe them a spanking. 

Match day.....COME ON YOU BLUES !

32 minutes ago, JM7 said:

I hope we don’t drop Lukaku, I cannot cope with another match with Pulisic up front. It’s so ineffective. Pulisic v VVD? No chance. 

Problem is it won’t help if fans start booing him. I won’t boo my own players but I don’t know the strength of feeling. 

A big chance to catch up something and keep the running. 

We're Chelsea, we don't give up. GAMEDAY!!! COME ON CHELS!!!!!

The scene is set for us to lose today heavily. The PL wants Liverpool to win, Anthony Taylor is on duty. The mass media wants us to lose too.

Too many things are against us right now.

 

No Lukaku today. I agree with TT.

🚨 Romelu Lukaku 'out of Chelsea squad' to face Liverpool via @OneFootball. Read it here:

https://onefootball.com/editorial/34323348?language=en

Oh well, better than fans turning on him

Edited January 2, 20224 yr by Petworth Chelsea Fan

39 minutes ago, IliyaKrostin said:

A big chance to catch up something and keep the running. 

We're Chelsea, we don't give up. GAMEDAY!!! COME ON CHELS!!!!!

Yep it's going to be tough but the writing off our chances is actually embarrassing giving our big game record down the years. 

I thought Porto would have drilled that lesson home once and for all but clearly not.

So who is leading the line then? Hopefully not Pulisic.

10 minutes ago, bluesfan said:

No Lukaku today. I agree with TT.

🚨 Romelu Lukaku 'out of Chelsea squad' to face Liverpool via @OneFootball. Read it here:

https://onefootball.com/editorial/34323348?language=en

If that's true all TT has done is piss RL off even further and for future games to come as well as damage the teams chances in other competitions.  I swear to God the club can be a basket case at times.

The right call by Tuchel I think anyway. He will be scrutinised if Chelsea were to lose but even if they lost with Lukaku playing then he will be questioned too. 
 

If Werner is fit at all, I could see him causing Liverpool problems. Pulisic as a false 9 hasn’t really worked at all, so hopefully Werner and Havertz have recovered from covid sufficiently. 

Chelsea cutting their nose off to spite their face. There are ways to discipline a player without weakening an already depleted squad. 

1 hour ago, Gol15 said:

The scene is set for us to lose today heavily. The PL wants Liverpool to win, Anthony Taylor is on duty. The mass media wants us to lose too.

Too many things are against us right now.

That is mental given we had Taylor in the reverse fixture.

Imo dropping Rom will just add fuel to the media’s fire. They will be desperate for it.

Play him and let him play angry and do some damage. Best way to shut down the noise. Handle dirty laundry in house!

Honestly every time we win a major trophy our club turns to sh*t! Contracts expiring all over the place. Star signing being a diva. Poor form at home.

TT will be gone soon the way things are spiralling. Classic chels

Edited January 2, 20224 yr by Adamrb

Tuchel is damned if he does and damned if he doesn't.

If he plays Lukaku he's seen as weak and undermines his authority as manager.

On the other hand if he doesn't play him we are much weakened for the Liverpool game. 

Interesting to know how the club hierarchy see this situation. I think under most circumstances they would probably back the player, but I think because of the timing, the content of his comments and the cost of Lukaku, plus TT delivered the Champions League, TT is in a stronger position. 

The league title is gone, so I can understand TT taking the gamble in order to shore up his authority. 

I'm hoping this galvanises the players and fans today and we see a defiant performance. Liverpool have problems of their own, plus knowing the league is gone they might lose their edge.

24 minutes ago, Adamrb said:

That is mental given we had Taylor in the reverse fixture.

Imo dropping Rom will just add fuel to the media’s fire. They will be desperate for it.

Play him and let him play angry and do some damage. Best way to shut down the noise. Handle dirty laundry in house!

Honestly every time we win a major trophy our club turns to sh*t! Contracts expiring all over the place. Star signing being a diva. Poor form at home.

TT will be gone soon the way things are spiralling. Classic chels

No way Tuchel gets sucked. That would be the stupidest thing Chelsea would do.  He should be backed all the way. One of the best coaches we ever had besides Mourinho in his prime.