2 minutes ago, forbzy said:

I think many were anticipating it could have been much worse. At least we created a decent amount of chances, but as usual we wasted them. Last season we suffered 2 soulless 1-0 defeats to City last season when we created next to nothing.

I think because it was so easy for them they could afford to play wide open with virtually no midfield

We need to start playing some of these players like Hutchinson in games like this or that's the end of us poaching players. 

We are quickly becoming a second rate club so we aren't going to be able to cherry pick players for long.

3 minutes ago, Zeta said:

The final decision and final pass in this team is probably the worst in the PL. How many times do we utterly waste a chance with a sh*t pass in the final 3rd, or the wrong decision? Players like Havertz, Pulisic, Mount, etc... haven't got a footballing braincell between them.

Not probably we are the worst and it’s not a recent thing either this has been happening for a long while.

Last time I remember us having good final pass was first season under Conte and second half of Sarri season. 

Just now, Sconnie Blue said:

Is this true? Awful from Potter. 
 

 

It’s been widely reported and confirmed everywhere. 

He was set to join Jamaica for training/friendly. We said no, and for what?, not even 5 minutes.. unbelievable. This is the biggest scandal tonight. 

Just now, El regreso said:

Not probably we are the worst and it’s not a recent thing either this has been happening for a long while.

Last time I remember us having good final pass was first season under Conte and second half of Sarri season. 

Yep it's shocking, we have literally nothing going forward and it's being highlighted even more when our best player Reece James isn't bailing us out. 

The performance tonight was actually decent at times and with a bit more luck or precision we might even have got something out of the game. 

 

Mendy - 7 - Made some good saves.

Loftus-Cheek - 5 - Looks better at RWB, which isn't saying much given how bad he is as a CM.

Chalobah - 6 - Did alright until he gave away a stupid free kick that led to their goal.

Koulibaly - 3 - Rubbish. Couldn't be bothered to jump in the wall from their free kick, and they scored from it. 2nd goal he was way too slow to react. He's finished and a waste of money.

Cucurella - 5 - Better than he was against Arsenal, still nothing to get excited about though.

Hall - 6 - Defended well and bought the ball out of defence well at times, had two great chances to score though which he should have scored from.

Zakaria - 3 - Looks like another player that struggles when pressed.

Kovacic - 3 - Well off his game. Took too long on the ball and ended up presenting chances to City.

Pulisic - 6 - A mix of some decent and some incredibly frustrating pieces of football. Missed a sitter again early in the game.

Ziyech - 5 - One brilliant piece of skill, but other than, pretty much standard Ziyech.

Broja - 4 - Sloppy in possession, too one footed.

Subs:

5 for all of them, tried to push to get something out of the game, but quality was lacking.

 

4 minutes ago, enigma said:

I'm not sure on the hype of Hutchinson. Looks no different than Musonda or Hudson-Odoi, so hardly what we need right now. People were calling got Broja and he hasn't shown much in the past games he's played, so I'd slow the roll on these youngsters. 

This was the chance to find out. Going out of a smaller cup there was nothing to lose by giving him a run out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5 minutes ago, Argo said:

No we weren't, City's best player was their keeper.

Yeah people are kidding themselves if they don’t think we didn’t play well. 
 

It only turned sh*t when our starters came on…

City tonight where playing in 4th gear if they had stepped up and put more of the 1st team on we would have got battered

4 minutes ago, Term_X said:

It’s been widely reported and confirmed everywhere. 

He was set to join Jamaica for training/friendly. We said no, and for what?, not even 5 minutes.. unbelievable. This is the biggest scandal tonight. 

How many times are you going to post the same thing. I would of liked him to get a run out. But why is there a pointless international friendly now. We kept him because he was an option. Doesnt mean we had to play him. I couldnt care less about a pointless friendly over the needs of the club.

2 minutes ago, Term_X said:

It’s been widely reported and confirmed everywhere. 

He was set to join Jamaica for training/friendly. We said no, and for what?, not even 5 minutes.. unbelievable. This is the biggest scandal tonight. 

The worst thing is when I saw Sterling about to come on followed by Havertz, I knew we wouldnt score. At least with Hutchinson, we would have had some unpredictability. Hopefully Potter learned a thing or two from Lewis Hall being our best player tonight, somehow I doubt it

Just now, AndyDowsleftflank said:

The worst thing is when I saw Sterling about to come on followed by Havertz, I knew we wouldnt score. At least with Hutchinson, we would have had some unpredictability. Hopefully Potter learned a thing or two from Lewis Hall being our best player tonight, somehow I doubt it

With Chilwell out for a while, I am hoping Hall can be used a lot more this season. Certainly he is a much better option than playing a winger out of position. 

We are an incredibly poor attacking side, poor finishing coupled with poor decision making

Given our attack our defence needs to be top notch…it isn’t 

Koulibaly showing beware of gifts from Italy…another product of serie A who can’t cut it

Hall had a good game…two big chances though define his performance 

Mendy made some good saves, his distribution though is very patchy

Why bring Hutchinson and not play him?

Only positive less games after the World Cup after going out…the season though maybe over come February!

I’ll take Kalou and Malouda right now over Havertz and Sterling. 

Played okay 1st half. Had the best 2 chances. 

Cane out 2nd half and Kovacic giving the ball away set the tone for the following horrible 10 minutes that cost us the game.

Created and wasted more chances after that with 4 "big guns" 😂 coming on the play citys second string. 

City didnt really have to play well to win comfortably. 

Why have someone lying down in the wall if all the players are not jumping? Awful from Koulibaly.

Shouldve played Hutchinson and maybe 1 or 2 others. Hall was one of better players, just a pity his finishing fits perfectly in with the 1st team. 

Seriously I've never seen a Chelsea team that finish this poorly, we barely see a the killer ball, on the odd occasion we do, and the pass is decent, we end up scuffing shots.

Another game where I feel like this isnt Chelsea, I'm tempted to stick a score on Newcastle at the weekend, but we are so far off it, the odds probably arent even worth it. 

Just now, forbzy said:

With Chilwell out for a while, I am hoping Hall can be used a lot more this season. Certainly he is a much better option than playing a winger out of position. 

Honestly, I thought he played well enough to be considered our first choice left wing back until Chilwell (hopefully) comes back in top form

18 minutes ago, enigma said:

I'm not sure on the hype of Hutchinson. Looks no different than Musonda or Hudson-Odoi, so hardly what we need right now. People were calling got Broja and he hasn't shown much in the past games he's played, so I'd slow the roll on these youngsters. 

True, makes more sense to continue to play the 30+ year olds who have no future here and don’t perform any better than the youngsters instead of investing in inconsistent young guys with talent that could develop into top players.

 

Personally I’d rather watch Hutchinson, Broja, Hall etc play every week and lose the big games than watch Koulibaly, Aubameyang and co…. And still lose the big games.

2 minutes ago, big blue said:

Played okay 1st half. Had the best 2 chances. 

Cane out 2nd half and Kovacic giving the ball away set the tone for the following horrible 10 minutes that cost us the game.

Created and wasted more chances after that with 4 "big guns" 😂 coming on the play citys second string. 

City didnt really have to play well to win comfortably. 

Why have someone lying down in the wall if all the players are not jumping? Awful from Koulibaly.

Shouldve played Hutchinson and maybe 1 or 2 others. Hall was one of better players, just a pity his finishing fits perfectly in with the 1st team. 

Seriously I've never seen a Chelsea team that finish this poorly, we barely see a the killer ball, on the odd occasion we do, and the pass is decent, we end up scuffing shots.

Another game where I feel like this isnt Chelsea, I'm tempted to stick a score on Newcastle at the weekend, but we are so far off it, the odds probably arent even worth it. 

Over the last couple of seasons we have relied more and more on goals and assists from defenders. Look at our appalling stats for goalscorers last season. Without Chilwell and Reece are goalscoring seems to have got worse too. Most of our current attacking options need replacing as they are not good enough.

19 minutes ago, LongtimerLurker said:

Say what you wanted about Werner, but Tuchel's system meant he got chances now it feels like none of our attackers consistently get clear cut chances like turbo Timo. That team won the UCL a slight tweak to positions but it was that 11 plus Christensen, Pulisic and whoever else came on.

Timo did not get chances because the team wasn’t set up to play to his strengths, same as Lukaku. Both of those players needed quick passes from midfield,in behind the opposing centre backs. Our midfield weren’t (and still aren’t) capable of it.

As for the rest of the forwards, the lack of creativity from forwards has been apparent for years.

Potter doesn’t have us playing good football but, equally, I won’t crucify him while he's stuck with a squad Thomas Tuchel sculpted.

Without Kante mopping up in front of the defence it just shows how frail we are at the back and in the middle.  If we are going to  have a complete rebuild, then have a complete rebuild and stop playing the dross and the older players, change the formation change the tactics at least we could see something different, same type of manager same sh*t.  Not sure when we will see anything different and only maybe when GP grows some balls...emotional intelligence my arse. 

4 minutes ago, EdinburghBlue said:

True, makes more sense to continue to play the 30+ year olds who have no future here and don’t perform any better than the youngsters instead of investing in inconsistent young guys with talent that could develop into top players.

 

Personally I’d rather watch Hutchinson, Broja, Hall etc play every week and lose the big games than watch Koulibaly, Aubameyang and co…. And still lose the big games.

Agreed. I enjoyed watching us a lot more in Lampard's first season when we had no signings and he included all the younger players. At least there was some hunger in the younger players.

I think I will watch the warm up on the 27th instead of sitting in Dixon’s so I see some goals when we practice our shooting!!

Potter happy with performance 

Just now, forbzy said:

Over the last couple of seasons we have relied more and more on goals and assists from defenders. Look at our appalling stats for goalscorers last season. Without Chilwell and Reece are goalscoring seems to have got worse too. Most of our current attacking options need replacing as they are not good enough.

I think some of the attacking players couldve flourished had we built the squad better after the transfer ban. 

Sterling, Werner, Lukaku, Havertz, all had great scoring records at previous clubs. 

We have had 5 different managers in 6 seasons. The squad has been rebuilt. The problem is we have no identity, and instead of bringing in a core of players that fit a philosophy and style the club want to play. We sign in vogue players with no system or style for them to thrive in. 

We have just spent £300m again, and the spine of the team is not good enough. 

Surely as a club you look at the most successful systems across the last 20 years, and it's all 433, or an incarnation of, yet we seem hell bent on spunking hundreds of millions on players to force them into a 3atb setup. 

We need a solid centre back pairing, and we need 2 centre midfielders of the highest quality. All 4 of which need to technically excellent, physically capable of playing a possession based, high press, high line system, then maybe the attackers we bring in have something to actually fit into.

Until we fix the spine, the best we can hope for is decent cup runs, and maybe squeeze into top 4, which is looking harder with teams around catching up.