Just now, Brigadeiro Mk II said:

He's still lackadaisical but Havertz as a 10 just makes much more sense for the team as a whole. He just misplaced a pass and put us in trouble, but his link up play gives the team some momentum to go forward and at least we're looking able to create half chances. Shame about Chuk miss, would've been deserved imo. 

Kai is literally the reason why we even had a few attacking sequences in the whole first half, one poor touch where he failed to pass into space doesn't mean he's having a bad match.

Not sure why havertz is getting heat. Other than a few bad passes he’s had a good game imo

12 minutes ago, guddy69 said:

Andy Townsend just can't give a single word of praise to Chelsea ..

Because he is a c**t.

Not the car crash expected

At least we’re running today

Zakaria and Kova make a reasonable pairing

Chuka unlucky …shown some good touches

Auba reminds me of a badly programmed computer game player that moves 3 secs too late

18 minutes ago, enigma said:

We haven't even got another striker in place of Auba. Auba doesn't put in enough effort for me. 

Yes, he seems to be able to play as a false 9 even when he is the most advanced player.

Havertz does well when Mount isn't occupying his space. 

Edited January 5, 20233 yr by Sconnie Blue

1 minute ago, evissy said:

He was our best attacking player from 30-45. Nicely playing at 10.

Sorry, disagree on that. Can’t even lift his head up to look for an attacking pass. He has been the worst player on the park so far. Can only hope he has a better second half

2 minutes ago, enigma said:

Almost like we don't need Sterling and Pulisic. 

If we can get 100m for the pair I’d sell them. Don’t rate them at all, it’s actually pretty embarrassing for Pulisic that Chuk is already showing why he should be playing and he’s not even a winger.

Take Aubameyang off for Mount.

How much does this have to do with not having to face a low block ?

Much better performance, much more penetration  … is it simply that Jorginho isn’t playing?

The main issue so far (other than the usual inability to pass or create anything), is too much space down our left hand side.

Because they play with their fullbacks so high, they are basically wingers, it means Cucurella has to go out to Cancelo and that is leaving space for their midfielders to run into, and Kovacic isn't following them well enough.

When defending that, we need the LM to be back there covering runs as well, or they just overload the area.

3 minutes ago, enigma said:

I was going to say move Havertz centrally and take Auba off for Hutchinson, but then I remembered Auba has not been on long. Hope we get some mins from Hutchinson in the FA Cup. 

Have you not watched us for the past 18 months

1 minute ago, SimonH said:

Sorry, disagree on that. Can’t even lift his head up to look for an attacking pass. He has been the worst player on the park so far. Can only hope he has a better second half

I think Havertz is doing the basics right, which is genuinely all we can ask for. 

He isn't playing defence splitting passes or anything. 

Very, very positive half. We have unquestionably created the better chances and have passed the ball around with something resembling purpose. This was against the best team in the league by miles and by a team who were bullied off the pitch by Nottingham Forest not four days ago. Oh, and we had two of our attackers go off injured in the first twenty minutes (admittedly one of them was Pulisic).

God bless Pep and his hilarious experiments. He's playing the number of holding midfielders that he should have played in the Champions League Final, but he's playing half of one of them at centre-back.

P.S. It is both stunning and not at all surprising just how quickly Zakaria became our first-choice centre mid.

4 minutes ago, Frankie8Lampard said:

Not sure why havertz is getting heat. Other than a few bad passes he’s had a good game imo

A few nice touches and bit of link-up, but several timse we were counter attacking with players running into space begging for a through ball, and he just turns back into midfield because he either can't see it, or can't pass it.

Much better than expected. Hopefully we keep it up and nic the 3 points.

Would Hutch for Ziyech provide the key we need?

1 minute ago, Zeta said:

The main issue so far (other than the usual inability to pass or create anything), is too much space down our left hand side.

Because they play with their fullbacks so high, they are basically wingers, it means Cucurella has to go out to Cancelo and that is leaving space for their midfielders to run into, and Kovacic isn't following them well enough.

When defending that, we need the LM to be back there covering runs as well, or they just overload the area.

Can you  animate it in future?

2 minutes ago, dansubrosa said:

If we can get 100m for the pair I’d sell them. Don’t rate them at all, it’s actually pretty embarrassing for Pulisic that Chuk is already showing why he should be playing and he’s not even a winger.

Take Aubameyang off for Mount.

I'd take 30 bob.

No

2 minutes ago, dansubrosa said:

If we can get 100m for the pair I’d sell them. Don’t rate them at all, it’s actually pretty embarrassing for Pulisic that Chuk is already showing why he should be playing and he’s not even a winger.

Take Aubameyang off for Mount.

Although it would probably be an improvement Mount isn't in the squad

2 minutes ago, Sconnie Blue said:

I think Havertz is doing the basics right, which is genuinely all we can ask for. 

He isn't playing defence splitting passes or anything. 

He is a £90m player, doing the basics right just doesn’t cut it for me

2 minutes ago, PloKoon13 said:

 

God bless Pep and his hilarious experiments. He's playing the number of holding midfielders that he should have played in the Champions League Final, but he's playing half of one of them at centre-back.

 

He never experimented anything really, we just beat them in that final and 2 times prior to it as well.

beIN Sports' Andy Gray, Andy Townsend and Jason "Virgil van Dijk Virgil van Dijk" McAteer squandering what little footballing credibility Qatar managed to gain during the World Cup. A veritable cacophony of halfwits.

4 minutes ago, timetowaste said:

Have you not watched us for the past 18 months

Rather him than Auba in that striker role. Tuchel put him there and Havertz seemed to like it going by reports. Yeah he's not a striker really, but for me Auba just isn't doing it. We have no other ST on the bench and I'd like to see Hutchinson in that front 3 to see how he does.