This performance worries me, clearly we can't play with alonso + azpi as wb but at the same time the state our midfield does not give me confidence to play back 4.

31 minutes ago, RMH said:

I can’t believe that Marega is beating Rudi a lot of the times. That alone shows how much we can struggle.

Maybe sign him 

3 minutes ago, dkw said:

Partly, yes. 

Fair enough if you believe that. Personally I think the players look like they have no unity, with only some playing for the shirt. Same thing has happened under most of our recent managers.  They certainly don't look like they enjoy playing with each other and Feels far more like a mentality thing than a coaching thing.

 

5 minutes ago, dkw said:

Try reading what I actually wrote before doing your usual bending over for Tuchel.

Tuchel deserves huge credit for delivering the Champions League last season, without a doubt. But if you look beyond that he has struggled to deliver any really consistency to the side, especially on the attacking side of things. Once he arrived the main thing he changed was to tighten up defense, and he did that well. But I would argue it has been at the expense of attacking fluently. Yes we have definitely been hampered by the loss of our 2 wing backs, and that partially explains why things have deteriorated in the last couple of months. But there has been no plan B.

Big bang theory on now. I have never laughed at a single joke when being forced to watch this show

Was a tough watch in parts. Still so sloppy in final 3rd. Lukaku will be the scapegoat but Havertz was no better and is really living off a handful of good performances in 18 months. 
 

On the positive side it’s another final to look forward to , I also recall Liverpool and Bayern struggling past teams in this comp over the last couple so it’s not a complete cakewalk for the European sides. 

1 minute ago, sonic90 said:

Big bang theory on now. I have never laughed at a single joke when being forced to watch this show

But arguably still more entertaining than our performance today? 😉

2 minutes ago, sonic90 said:

kepa motm and deserves the final, plus we dont want to use a sub if it comes down to pens

Indeed he does, will he get to though?

5 minutes ago, ducavis said:

Every single forward players? I just don’t see a situation where the club sells all of them at a loss, and I wouldn’t trust Tuchel in the market. Something has to give in the long term, and I am not suggesting sacking him. Today for example, there was zero reason to set up with 5 defenders against a team from the Arabian league.

Only reason I see was practice ahead of the expected final.

2 minutes ago, ducavis said:

Every single forward players? I just don’t see a situation where the club sells all of them at a loss, and I wouldn’t trust Tuchel in the market. Something has to give in the long term, and I am not suggesting sacking him. Today for example, there was zero reason to set up with 5 defenders against a team from the Arabian league.

Was no different under Lampard. Werner was sh*te, Havertz had flashes but struggled, Ziyech has been better under Tuchel, Mount is hit and miss, Hudson-Odoi was poor, Pulisic was terrible. The attackers are no better now than they were under Lampard, which suggests to me that it's a player problem.

We got through but it wasn’t convincing. We were largely in control bar a 10 minute period. Kepa made some good saves and I thought Havertz had a good game. 
 

We will need to be better win the final though. 

After all this time I’m still not sure what to think about Havertz, what is he exactly.

Should have been a couple of goals ahead before they improved in the 70-90 mins period and put us under pressure.

Kepa needed to make a couple of decent saves.

Was a period when a number of our players could not pass the ball, also Havertz stretching at the wrong times resulting in an unnecessary free kick in a defensive area.

If only Havertz had stretched offensively a couple of times we might had another

Rudi seemed to bottle it when out wide against Marenga.

Lukaku as infuriating as ever despite the goal. He did move more than normal though.

Good we are in the final though will need to play better, hopefully used to the climate by then. 

6 minutes ago, nonotnowjim said:

Fair enough if you believe that. Personally I think the players look like they have no unity, with only some playing for the shirt. Same thing has happened under most of our recent managers.  They certainly don't look like they enjoy playing with each other and Feels far more like a mentality thing than a coaching thing.

 

It's literally his job to sort that out. 

Tuchel needs to speak with Conte and find out how he got the Inter team to service Lukaku...he needs early balls over the tip and early crosses...we're just not doing any of that...we have the talent to make those passes from Silva and Rudiger but they won't do it, and Dave has gone, he's not delivering what we need...time to Pulisic or CHO as RWB and get them crosses in...otherwise we're wasting Lukaku 

3 minutes ago, dan_cfc said:

After all this time I’m still not sure what to think about Havertz, what is he exactly.

You can say that for our entire attacking lineup.

Well at least @dkw got the match he wanted, just for 3rd place instead of the final lol.

@coco will this thread morph in to a Palmeiras one or will you risk it and make a new one? 😉

8 minutes ago, dkw said:

No we didn't, and no I didn't.

Well on the 24th of November you said you "liked what he's doing now" so it couldn't have been too bad could it? That was coincidentally right after Chilwell got injured and our injury/covid horrors started. And we've suffered since but there are good reasons for that.

Just now, Nick05 said:

You can say that for our entire attacking lineup.

Not Lukaku, he is an statue of a none entertaining fat Elvis.

4 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

Was no different under Lampard. Werner was sh*te, Havertz had flashes but struggled, Ziyech has been better under Tuchel, Mount is hit and miss, Hudson-Odoi was poor, Pulisic was terrible. The attackers are no better now than they were under Lampard, which suggests to me that it's a player problem.

We need Gallagher to play the number 8 role...no-one else is doing it...time to sell Kante too...buy Yves Bissouma from Brighton...

2 minutes ago, Sindre said:

Well on the 24th of November you said you "liked what he's doing now" so it couldn't have been too bad could it? That was coincidentally right after Chilwell got injured and our injury/covid horrors started. And we've suffered since but there are good reasons for that.

That was in reference to how he was treating players.

I've not once been happy with his style of play attacking wise, if there even is a style.

Edited February 9, 20224 yr by dkw

Also @Valerie did you have ice cream during the game? 

1 minute ago, axman2526 said:

Not Lukaku, he is an statue of a none entertaining fat Elvis.

Its hilarious that he gets so frustrated when nobody passes him the ball. Its only later you realise that it really doesnt matter even if he got the ball.

6 hours ago, hephzibah said:

 

Wigan Athletic’s Kai Naismith on Reece James:

“It got to the stage where after two, three months of the season, no-one would go near him in training. If he got the ball, he was always given five yards of space. No one would try to tackle him.”

“It was like he was playing against kids and we had a lot of good players. But many would refuse to go near him.”

Says it all really,and Naismith has been Luton's player of the season,world class 

Not pretty,but into another final......UP THE CHELS !

The most impressive thing about Lukaku is that he's scammed clubs to pay an aggregate of 278.6 million pounds in transfer fees for him.