10 hours ago, Munkworth said:

Need these in the Shed & MHL. 

Absolutely hilarious  Also, not long to spend in the virtual waiting room for ticket by the look of it.

6 hours ago, axman2526 said:

Would prefer Zakaria to anchor for Enzo and Kante in a 3 or Enzo at the base for Kante and Kova. Would make such a difference having midfield quality again in more than 1 player.

Then we would lose the shape of the front 3. Forcing either Felix wide or as 9. 

4231 looks promising, I wouldnt change the shape to force in Zakaria and Kante. Surely 1 is plenty, we were okay defensively with RLC! 

5 minutes ago, Valerie said:

Absolutely hilarious  Also, not long to spend in the virtual waiting room for ticket by the look of it.

It's even quicker than you think ... those are all the stewards !

9 hours ago, Frankie8Lampard said:

I wish Broja was fit, I think he would really flourish in this team.

When is he coming back?? 

The truth of the matter which we all know, even the give him time squad, is that put the right manager with those players we start to turn around the season instantly. 

GP was a football manager but I'm sure if he is honest with himself, he wouldn't have thought his managerial career performances will take him to one of the best clubs in the world never mind the league. That's where the conflict is and I keep talking about mentality. It really is a big deal. 

As good as Poch became and took spurs close to titles, we always criticised (well some football fans not just Chelsea ones) and questioned his mentality to get spurs over the line. There is a reason. 

I think GP could easily see out the 5 or is it 6 years of his contract and we will never get close. 

Edited February 16, 20233 yr by abister1

23 minutes ago, abister1 said:

The truth of the matter which we all know, even the give him time squad, is that put the right manager with those players we start to turn around the season instantly. 

GP was a football manager but I'm sure if he is honest with himself, he wouldn't have thought his managerial career performances will take him to one of the best clubs in the world never mind the league. That's where the conflict is and I keep talking about mentality. It really is a big deal. 

As good as Poch became and took spurs close to titles, we always criticised (well some football fans not just Chelsea ones) and questioned his mentality to get spurs over the line. There is a reason. 

I think GP could easily see out the 5 or is it 6 years of his contract and we will never get close. 

We've had scoring issues long before Potter. The only difference is all our past managers relied on boring football (which doesn't really bother me as long as we win) and defensive tactics to win games.

Pep could manage us and Havertz will still be a terrible footballer.

10 minutes ago, KonaKai Blue said:

We've had scoring issues long before Potter. The only difference is all our past managers relied on boring football (which doesn't really bother me as long as we win) and defensive tactics to win games.

Pep could manage us and Havertz will still be a terrible footballer.

I have never harped on about scoring issues. If you think that's our biggest problem, which it obviously isn't then you might not be looking at things bottom up, 360°. 

Sure scoring is important but even if the strikers aren't doing this and others are, as long as we score 1 more than them, wherever it comes from we are ok. Yes the football might be boringly tedious but in football matches, the first priority is always to get points on the board no matter how it comes. 

Last night gave me hope, in the team getting past dortmund with a slightly sharper attack. It doesn't give me hope in GP for the long term. 

Pep is famous for the false 9 and gets away with it because his play patterns gets different people in positions to score and the mentality he instills in the squad as a whole makes them function as a team greater than the sum of their individual parts. So no it isn't about Havertz. 

Edited February 16, 20233 yr by abister1

Just watched the highlights and a couple of things spring to mind.

We missed some sitters. Had some really good efforts at goal which their keeper dealt with and probably unlucky on the KK effort.

The ultra picky referee who booked anything that moved, chose to give Bellingham a miss when he wiped out Ziyech out at 0-0

Their goal though was incredibly poor to concede. Mudryk not alive to the threat on the edge of the area was poor. Even worse though was Thiago giving Mudryk a 10 yard start and a 10 yard beating over the 100 yard sprint that followed! Lazy fooker.

There's a sharp piece in the Guardian this morning. 

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2023/feb/15/graham-potter-and-chelsea-still-searching-for-a-plan-amid-the-chaos

I love the line that Cucurella is like a man who's just stumbled out of a house fire 

Edited February 16, 20233 yr by carrickblue
Extra bit

2 hours ago, abister1 said:

The truth of the matter which we all know, even the give him time squad, is that put the right manager with those players we start to turn around the season instantly. 

GP was a football manager but I'm sure if he is honest with himself, he wouldn't have thought his managerial career performances will take him to one of the best clubs in the world never mind the league. That's where the conflict is and I keep talking about mentality. It really is a big deal. 

As good as Poch became and took spurs close to titles, we always criticised (well some football fans not just Chelsea ones) and questioned his mentality to get spurs over the line. There is a reason. 

I think GP could easily see out the 5 or is it 6 years of his contract and we will never get close. 

Tuchel's 8th game as Chelsea boss

ATh Madrid Away - Last 16 of CL

The statign 11 as below.

Won 1-0. Giroud

Granted Potter's team hasn't been together for 8 games and Tuchel took on a team that had been together for some time. But the team we are putting out now, on paper is better than this one.

 

9 hours ago, Deino said:

The two paragraphs I singled out here contradict each other. If Potter's tactics were perfect, Enzo would have played better. The fact that he is slow from time to time and aren't as decisive in 1v1s is because of Potter's tactics and training. Simple as. 

 

Not sure about that Deino. I didn't say Potter's tactics were perfect but in general he had the right idea and it worked but unfortunately it doesn't count in the final score. 

Enzo's decisiveness has nothing to do with tactics. You can't just track back for like 50m without even trying to intercept, and there was a chance to do it because Adeyemi's ball control wasn't as perfect as it seemed. But he ends up easily overran in such a predictable situation. 

And yes I think he was slow in all three games he's played for us. But let's say that's probably due to settling in to higher intensity football.

Imo our performance was similar to west ham. It was better because Dortmund was crazy open (tbf both team were open) and we had chilwell instead of cucu. 

Both games were pretty much Felix show. He is clearly our best attacker since Hazard and he is balling. He make this team looks much better than it is. Because right now we look like a team playing at 50% of its caqpacity. There isn't much connection between players especially on the wide area. Bringing the ball forward is still very difficult against  basic press. Almost everything that is good right now with this team comes down to individual quality. 

I think the big question is how long Potter need to take this team playing at 110% of its potential and is he the guy to bring us there? 

On 13/02/2023 at 21:29, axman2526 said:

Maybe @CaitlinCFC

He hates me.

33 minutes ago, CaitlinCFC said:

He hates me.

Aw that cannot be true.

Me and @Valerie

19 hours ago, axman2526 said:

One more positive for you Mr. Wizard, second leg is in 3 weeks, chance Kante is back 🙂

We'll be a different team with him. He lifts our midfield by 1000%. Enzo won't know what to do with himself with Kante next to him. 

5 minutes ago, Spiller86 said:

We'll be a different team with him. He lifts our midfield by 1000%. Enzo won't know what to do with himself with Kante next to him. 

Certainly will. He can helps us make even more chances for Havertz to mess up 😉

2 minutes ago, axman2526 said:

Certainly will. He can helps us make even more chances for Havertz to mess up 😉

Yes he'll have to scored them himself too.

10 minutes ago, Spiller86 said:

Yes he'll have to scored them himself too.

Maybe we can sort ourselves out playing @USATim, I mean Pulisic, up front...