Man City v Chelsea (PL) Sat 15th Jan 2022 12:30 GMT

[just]

18 minutes ago, weetee said:

How many shots did City have? Not that many more I'd guess.

11. And 9 corners.

[Spiller86]

Top 4 is the target for this year then. 

Gonna say this upfront: Mendy with his longer arms saves that shot from De Bruyne. Simple as.

I didn't think we played badly, on another night a slightly more clinical team scores a couple of our counters and we win. That said, Lukaku must have just about kicked the door in when he went back to the dressing room. Everytime we could have played early to him we played safe and went back, we kept doing it too.  

 

[Spiller86]

27 minutes ago, just said:

11. And 9 corners.

Got to say just, that I think the numbers I are a bit skewed. Beyond Grealish there wasn't a lot that was threatening and as I said above Mendy saves that shot from KdB. 

I didn't think we played badly, we were just a bit conservative with the ball and disjointed with the final pass, we arguably created the more dangerous moments they just didn't end in shots. On another night with a bit more of a clinical approach, we win. 

[Trueblue76]

We just seem to be lacklustre up top, I am a massive fan of Tuchel, but we need a consistent front three week in week out, it's all well and good bemoaning lack of chances, the final ball being rubbish, but no amount of training will give that understanding the front players need unless in game time,  For me we should have started Mount, Werner and Havertz, I know Tuchel is sometimes too cautious with bringing players back from injury or COVID etc and states in his pressers they've only had one training session with us, but you start with your strongest three from the off and I don't think the three today were that... We need reinforcements and fast, get rid of Ziyech he's offered nothing since he's been here, get in a LWB and RWB with a bit of pace. If we're not careful we could quite easily slip out of the top 4.... and it will be down to not being clinical enough!

 

[Spiller86]

37 minutes ago, Trueblue76 said:

We just seem to be lacklustre up top, I am a massive fan of Tuchel, but we need a consistent front three week in week out, it's all well and good bemoaning lack of chances, the final ball being rubbish, but no amount of training will give that understanding the front players need unless in game time,  For me we should have started Mount, Werner and Havertz, I know Tuchel is sometimes too cautious with bringing players back from injury or COVID etc and states in his pressers they've only had one training session with us, but you start with your strongest three from the off and I don't think the three today were that... We need reinforcements and fast, get rid of Ziyech he's offered nothing since he's been here, get in a LWB and RWB with a bit of pace. If we're not careful we could quite easily slip out of the top 4.... and it will be down to not being clinical enough!

 

Some fair points in here. I think we looked a bit turgid compared to the incisive attacking play when we came up against City last year with Mount, Werner etc. moving the defence around.  It felt like we were trying to play with Lukaku as a focal point and use him to have Pulisic and Ziyech run off him. That didn't work and so we were left with all three looking isolated and trying to make a spark on their own. 

Lukaku remains the round peg in a square hole for a game like this. His salary and pedigree demands that he play, but the approach that has worked against City under pep of superb pressing and movement and interchanging positions just doesn't suit his style.

[The Brit]

Surely havertz starts up top v Brighton…then bring rom back in for spurs. Lukaku has his faults but think there is more to it than that…he just looks off…fall out from that interview is still going on I reckon.

[charierre]

9 hours ago, Trueblue76 said:

We just seem to be lacklustre up top, I am a massive fan of Tuchel, but we need a consistent front three week in week out, it's all well and good bemoaning lack of chances, the final ball being rubbish, but no amount of training will give that understanding the front players need unless in game time,  For me we should have started Mount, Werner and Havertz, I know Tuchel is sometimes too cautious with bringing players back from injury or COVID etc and states in his pressers they've only had one training session with us, but you start with your strongest three from the off and I don't think the three today were that... We need reinforcements and fast, get rid of Ziyech he's offered nothing since he's been here, get in a LWB and RWB with a bit of pace. If we're not careful we could quite easily slip out of the top 4.... and it will be down to not being clinical enough!

 

I agree, the continual swapping and changing of personal up front is stopping relationships developing up front. Lukaku quite rightly is getting a lot of flack, his first touch at times is comical. He does though need the ball delivered early to get the best of him, we had a lot of good chances yesterday in transition but apart from the one on one we fluffed the lot. This isn’t helped though when your strike partner is different every match, the telepathy doesn’t develop. Runs aren’t spotted and eventually you stop making the runs, you don’t gamble. In midfield we also lack a creative brain… all prefer a safer pass, we wax lyrical when one of them achieves just one  decent through ball in a match even though the opportunity is there several times. Injuries and covid plus the sheer weight of games has done for us the past six weeks…no club has had more games( City had 8days rest and Brighton wil l have had an extra day), Tuchel has tried to keep the squad fresh but the sooner we have a settled first eleven the better.

[KonaKai Blue]

19 hours ago, Jangz said:

yeah man.. sterling kdb for Oscar.. give me a brick wall.. I hope we dont do the same mistake again and show patience with Havertz and Mount and also play them in their prefeered positions too FFS..

The difference is we never gave KDB or Salah a chance at all. Havertz has had plenty of game time like Oscar who was underwhelming in attack just like Kai is.

[Adamrb]

Only positive is we have now faced City and pool twice. If we can grab two wins against Brighton and Spurs we should be comfortably top 4 and can focus on grabbing some silverware 

[erskblue]

It seemed to me almost like a European away game. They had plenty of possession and we were hitting,or trying to hit them on the break. That might just have been the way I saw it. Disappointing.
 

Not the greatest ever match analysis-that I fully accept.

[hephzibah]

Christian Pulisic’s dad in response to Pulisic being on a list of players that haven’t improved by former Chelsea Stadium presenter Neil Barnett : 

“ It’s quite an easy answer if you look at the positional characteristics, and a somewhat easy fix "

If what this man is saying is that Tuchel's tactics is to blame for Pulisic's failures, then there you have it. If Tuchel's system and tactics are not good enough, we have to say it.

[Dean]

4 minutes ago, hephzibah said:

1 hour ago, erskblue said:

It seemed to me almost like a European away game. They had plenty of possession and we were hitting,or trying to hit them on the break. That might just have been the way I saw it. Disappointing.
 

Not the greatest ever match analysis-that I fully accept.

Better than most!

Edited January 16, 2022 by Dean

[Dean]

5 minutes ago, hephzibah said:

Christian Pulisic’s dad in response to Pulisic being on a list of players that haven’t improved by former Chelsea Stadium presenter Neil Barnett : 

“ It’s quite an easy answer if you look at the positional characteristics, and a somewhat easy fix "

If what this man is saying is that Tuchel's tactics is to blame for Pulisic's failures, then there you have it. If Tuchel's system and tactics are not good enough, we have to say it.

Are you saying that TT should be sacked and we should hire Pulisic’s dad as our coach?

[Scott Harris]

4 minutes ago, hephzibah said:

Christian Pulisic’s dad in response to Pulisic being on a list of players that haven’t improved by former Chelsea Stadium presenter Neil Barnett : 

“ It’s quite an easy answer if you look at the positional characteristics, and a somewhat easy fix "

If what this man is saying is that Tuchel's tactics is to blame for Pulisic's failures, then there you have it. If Tuchel's system and tactics are not good enough, we have to say it.

What about the player himself? Pulisic has been out of form since before Tuchel even arrived. 

[charierre]

4 minutes ago, hephzibah said:

Christian Pulisic’s dad in response to Pulisic being on a list of players that haven’t improved by former Chelsea Stadium presenter Neil Barnett : 

“ It’s quite an easy answer if you look at the positional characteristics, and a somewhat easy fix "

If what this man is saying is that Tuchel's tactics is to blame for Pulisic's failures, then there you have it. If Tuchel's system and tactics are not good enough, we have to say it.

Wonder what his Mum, Aunt, and pet rabbit have to say? Pulisic poor displays are straight down to the player, very easy to blame others when your not performing. There was a moment yesterday when he around four opportunities to put a cross in, dallied and the chance had gone. That is Pulisic all over, holds onto the ball too long, and frequently makes poor decisions.

[charierre]

5 minutes ago, Dean said:

Are you saying that TT should be sacked and we should hire Pulisic’s dad as our coach?

I heard is Mum is the better coach, Dad just likes to bitch.

[Trueblue76]

22 hours ago, Spiller86 said:

Some fair points in here. I think we looked a bit turgid compared to the incisive attacking play when we came up against City last year with Mount, Werner etc. moving the defence around.  It felt like we were trying to play with Lukaku as a focal point and use him to have Pulisic and Ziyech run off him. That didn't work and so we were left with all three looking isolated and trying to make a spark on their own. 

Lukaku remains the round peg in a square hole for a game like this. His salary and pedigree demands that he play, but the approach that has worked against City under pep of superb pressing and movement and interchanging positions just doesn't suit his style.

I Agree totally, I genuinely do not think Lukaku's movement is good enough and Ziyech doesn't suit the formation, I'm also not sure why we constantly play with a back five when not every game needs it....we know the wingbacks available are not good enough for this type of game where city will dominate possession and use the pace of sterling etc...so why not suprise them and go with a 4-2-3-1 or something...you can still have your 2 deep lying midfielders and Azpi offers so much more as a conventional RB... Use Sarr as LB and mount in the middle of the 3 up top... With lukaka as the focal point...it was a must win game and we should be taking the game to them not sitting in hoping to hit them on the counter with the wrong personnel for that type of game.

[Bob stark]

On 16/01/2022 at 07:54, Spiller86 said:

Some fair points in here. I think we looked a bit turgid compared to the incisive attacking play when we came up against City last year with Mount, Werner etc. moving the defence around.  It felt like we were trying to play with Lukaku as a focal point and use him to have Pulisic and Ziyech run off him. That didn't work and so we were left with all three looking isolated and trying to make a spark on their own. 

Lukaku remains the round peg in a square hole for a game like this. His salary and pedigree demands that he play, but the approach that has worked against City under pep of superb pressing and movement and interchanging positions just doesn't suit his style.

We used Lukaku almost purely as targetman because our two 10 gave us nothing. 

 

[evissy]

On 16/01/2022 at 00:11, Spiller86 said:

Gonna say this upfront: Mendy with his longer arms saves that shot from De Bruyne. Simple as.  

 

Absolutely 100%. We would have been better of with City winning a penalty rather than that shot. 0,02 Xg for that chance. 

Kepa is Kepa in good and bad. 

[evissy]

Pulisic and Ziyech have the same problem. Their team mates have no idea what they try to do.

[evissy]

VAR?

[hephzibah]

On 16/01/2022 at 16:29, charierre said:

Wonder what his Mum, Aunt, and pet rabbit have to say? Pulisic poor displays are straight down to the player, very easy to blame others when your not performing. There was a moment yesterday when he around four opportunities to put a cross in, dallied and the chance had gone. That is Pulisic all over, holds onto the ball too long, and frequently makes poor decisions.

Joe Cole: "I think basically it's not about Lukaku.you can sign the hottest striker in the world and won't still score in this Chelsea team."

Joe Cole: "Take Timo Werner or Pulisic to a team like Liverpool where they transition the ball faster and midfielders don't ignore the runs of forward players and see how these guys will bang goals,Chelsea luck creative midfielders."

Joe Cole "Something has to change and quick enough.for Tuchel to reaffirm early this season that Signing Lukaku was not just the boards decision but his as well means he has no choice but to find the right balance in the team as well.it could be his success or downfall".

But you can't say anything against what Joe Cole said here.

 

[hephzibah]

On 16/01/2022 at 16:30, charierre said:

I heard is Mum is the better coach, Dad just likes to bitch.

Joe Cole: "I think basically it's not about Lukaku.you can sign the hottest striker in the world and won't still score in this Chelsea team."

Joe Cole: "Take Timo Werner or Pulisic to a team like Liverpool where they transition the ball faster and midfielders don't ignore the runs of forward players and see how these guys will bang goals,Chelsea luck creative midfielders."

Joe Cole: "Something has to change and quick enough.for Tuchel to reaffirm early this season that Signing Lukaku was not just the boards decision but his as well means he has no choice but to find the right balance in the team as well.it could be his success or downfall."

But you cannot say anything against what Joe Cole said here.

[charierre]

38 minutes ago, hephzibah said:

Joe Cole: "I think basically it's not about Lukaku.you can sign the hottest striker in the world and won't still score in this Chelsea team."

Joe Cole: "Take Timo Werner or Pulisic to a team like Liverpool where they transition the ball faster and midfielders don't ignore the runs of forward players and see how these guys will bang goals,Chelsea luck creative midfielders."

Joe Cole: "Something has to change and quick enough.for Tuchel to reaffirm early this season that Signing Lukaku was not just the boards decision but his as well means he has no choice but to find the right balance in the team as well.it could be his success or downfall."

But you cannot say anything against what Joe Cole said here.

Your point? Why is what his dad says relevant? Pulisic being devoid of a football brain, holding onto the ball too long etc is straight down to him. He is one of the biggest culprits for slow transition.