9 minutes ago, OriginalS said:

A set style of play with progress over time would work.
We are still all over the place, sometimes we want to be all possession and slow play from the back, sometimes we hoof it, occasionally we press but more often we sit deep and look to counter.

Despite the two early goals I thought we were really poor before and after the sending off today against a really weakened Brighton side. If results shouldn't matter that much this season (like many are arguing) then this could be considered a step back because I thought Baleba & Gilmour ran the game all evening.

But again, the 3 points were important and we should be happy with those but I didn't think we were good by any account. And if anything we are going backwards in terms of style of play and general control of games and thats not a great sign either.

I kept hearing this was a massively weakened Brighton team, yet their bench had far more experienced options than ours.

Just now, forbzy said:

I kept hearing this was a massively weakened Brighton team, yet their bench had far more experienced options than ours.

They offered nothing until Colwill and Enzo decided not to close down that lad for Brighton’s first goal. 

31 minutes ago, Backbiter said:

They have their reasons, but yes, they hate us.

But people don't hate City who just won five premier leagues in six years. Maybe they hate us because we did well in the past 10-15 years.

f**k them, but we shouldn't allow it.

Edited December 3, 20232 yr by hephzibah

2 minutes ago, OriginalS said:

Whatever decisions he made got us a Champions League, Top 4 and much more. You'd take that wouldn't you? I would.

We'd also run over this Brighton side in any Tuchel season btw but thats beside the point I suppose.

This game reminded me a lot of the one against Leicester at home that we won with Tuchel in charge. Conor got a second yellow early in that one but we found a way to hang on and win.

1 minute ago, OriginalS said:

Whatever decisions he made got us a Champions League, Top 4 and much more. You'd take that wouldn't you? I would.

We'd also run over this Brighton side in any Tuchel season btw but thats beside the point I suppose.

I rate Billy, but it's difficult to say if he would've made it here. He was always very lightweight and I just felt he needed to go elsewhere to develop his game. I don't regret getting Enzo to fill that role instead. 

I love Tuchel, I think he made some bad mistakes in the market, Lukaku being the big one but he'll probably be the last elite manager we'll have for some time. Even though I'm backing Poch all the way to get the best out of these young players. I'll always remember our run under Tommy!

1 minute ago, Sconnie Blue said:

They offered nothing until Colwill and Enzo decided not to close down that lad for Brighton’s first goal. 

Agreed. Although I think it was Colwill and Badiashile?

1 minute ago, forbzy said:

This game reminded me a lot of the one against Leicester at home that we won with Tuchel in charge. Conor got a second yellow early in that one but we found a way to hang on and win.

Nice to see it's the same after a billion spent 

1 minute ago, forbzy said:

Agreed. Although I think it was Colwill and Badiashile?

Youre right. The exact complacency we keep seeing. 

2 minutes ago, forbzy said:

This game reminded me a lot of the one against Leicester at home that we won with Tuchel in charge. Conor got a second yellow early in that one but we found a way to hang on and win.

We have a 100% record when he gets sent off.

that man city goal...  so good

.

48 minutes ago, Gol15 said:

With all due respect, Enzo is MOTM here. He was playing really well even without the goals.

Totally fair. I gave it to Silva with a few of his interceptions, overall leadership, amount we had to defend, and all this coming on a day he was the PLs oldest ever outfield defender. 

But, hard to look past Enzo with his goals and overall play. Great game from him, and hopefully he builds on this with more goals!

Just now, Victor90 said:

I rate Billy, but it's difficult to say if he would've made it here. He was always very lightweight and I just felt he needed to go elsewhere to develop his game. I don't regret getting Enzo to fill that role instead. 

I love Tuchel, I think he made some bad mistakes in the market, Lukaku being the big one but he'll probably be the last elite manager we'll have for some time. Even though I'm backing Poch all the way to get the best out of these young players. I'll always remember our run under Tommy!

It's fine for anyone to remember the past Victor, but they can't continue wanting to live in it. Not unless they're Scousers.

And when.looking back it should also be remembered  that there were obviously big issues between Tuchel, the new owners, and some of the players. If Tuchel was here now, Levi Colwill probably wouldn't be.

12 minutes ago, just said:

I do recall you were always a big Gilmour fan. Very upset when Tuchel got rid of him and kept Jorginho.

In fairness I was very upset when  Tuchel got rid of his 4x4 Range Rover and kept Jorginho.

25 minutes ago, Sconnie Blue said:

Remains to be seen. Some fans are a little too overly jubilant atm with this hard fought win over Brighton/DeZerbi but in reality it was another performance where we shot ourselves in the foot due to our own complacency, naivety and lack of discipline. Could’ve been down to 9 men with 35 minutes to play. 
 

We need to see some cooler heads. This starts with Poch. Trying to fire up a team that's nice by essence but it usually results in that kind of avalanche of yellow cards. Coaching is going to be key in this period. 

I don’t think you can read too much into it.. it was a cagey match and the reds killed it.. we had a few moments in the first half before the goals.. but nothing to write home about and Brighton were toothless.. 

we conceded a lazy goal and the red card was stupid.. we take the 3 points and the spirit and move on. There have been far better performances where we got nothing so will take it.. 

Great win!! Against the adversity, this team has shown today resilience and managed to grab the three points despite playing with 10 for about 60 minutes. Good to celebrate at the end and two fingers to Brighton and the doom brigade that most likely put this down to luck and disregard the effort the lads have put in. Never gave up and kept attacking when we could get the break.

18 minutes ago, just said:

Yeah but what will it take to make you happy? Apart, obviously, from someone else taking over ownership of the club from Clearlake and re-instating Tuchel as manager?

I thought it was a fantastic performance. We were the more dangerous side before the sending off, and second half our players commitment, passion, fight and discipline was brilliant to see.

Sorry Just, generally I agree, but we were sloppy for the most part. We gave away the ball endlessly in our own half and the antics between the back 4 and Sanchez was pure comedy.  While Enzo grabbed a couple of goals, he was often caught far too forward leaving a big gap in the middle of the park where generally Brighton exploited with some nice one touch passing, putting pressure on our defenders, although their comedy act at times didn't help matters. 

You would have thought by now Jackson would have learned his lesson in regards to timing his runs, he hasn't; he still hasn't learned to angle his runs, and his dribbling ability is about as good as a 10 year old at the moment, he's very unbalanced and more often than not he loses the ball.   Mudryk showed flashes of brilliance and while he attracted a lot of attention from many clubs while at Shakhtar, he's has a lot to learn about Premier league defenders..they are not as dumb as they look, reminds me of a young CR7 when he first arrived at Man Utd; let's hope he develops in the same way.    

Perhaps this is a young team in terms of age, but the squad has a lot of experience including Gallagher, who has had a tendency to be running around like a headless chicken albeit with good intentions, but at times uncontrolled, today was a prime example, always chasing, always tackling from behind right from the start because more often than not he's out of position.  And if he's chasing and pressing and Enzo is too far forward who's left in the middle of the park?   IMO there is a lot of work that Potch has to do in terms of structure and game management; with this amount of talent (so everyone keeps telling me anyway) and his experience I'm wondering why we are not seeing consistency, after all we are 14 games in plus a couple of cup games.   I guess hopefully we will see a settled side that can be consistent when all the players come back...although that may cause more headaches and not solve the problems.   

I'd like to see us finish in the top 6 but I think we will end 7 or 8 when all is said and done which may not be enough for Todd and Co, but they should be lowering their expectations if they thought we would be fighting for a top 4 spot.

1 hour ago, CFCCAN said:

We needed the 3 points but what an awful game of football. We were shocking and I wonder what Potch does all week, because this is like treading water. I don't see any progress what so ever week over week.  Its like one step forward against City 3 steps back against Newcastle and even today Brighton were the better footballing side.   God help us on Wednesday against Utd  and at Goodison next weekend.  

We've played Arse, Spurs, Man C, Newcastle and now those mugs from the South Coast and got 8 points and scored 14 goals. Compared to last season that's a fantastic improvement. 

22 minutes ago, CFCCAN said:

Sorry Just, generally I agree, but we were sloppy for the most part. We gave away the ball endlessly in our own half and the antics between the back 4 and Sanchez was pure comedy.  While Enzo grabbed a couple of goals, he was often caught far too forward leaving a big gap in the middle of the park where generally Brighton exploited with some nice one touch passing, putting pressure on our defenders, although their comedy act at times didn't help matters. 

You would have thought by now Jackson would have learned his lesson in regards to timing his runs, he hasn't; he still hasn't learned to angle his runs, and his dribbling ability is about as good as a 10 year old at the moment, he's very unbalanced and more often than not he loses the ball.   Mudryk showed flashes of brilliance and while he attracted a lot of attention from many clubs while at Shakhtar, he's has a lot to learn about Premier league defenders..they are not as dumb as they look, reminds me of a young CR7 when he first arrived at Man Utd; let's hope he develops in the same way.    

Perhaps this is a young team in terms of age, but the squad has a lot of experience including Gallagher, who has had a tendency to be running around like a headless chicken albeit with good intentions, but at times uncontrolled, today was a prime example, always chasing, always tackling from behind right from the start because more often than not he's out of position.  And if he's chasing and pressing and Enzo is too far forward who's left in the middle of the park?   IMO there is a lot of work that Potch has to do in terms of structure and game management; with this amount of talent (so everyone keeps telling me anyway) and his experience I'm wondering why we are not seeing consistency, after all we are 14 games in plus a couple of cup games.   I guess hopefully we will see a settled side that can be consistent when all the players come back...although that may cause more headaches and not solve the problems.   

I'd like to see us finish in the top 6 but I think we will end 7 or 8 when all is said and done which may not be enough for Todd and Co, but they should be lowering their expectations if they thought we would be fighting for a top 4 spot.

That's a long post but a good read. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a minute suggesting we were excellent before the sending off, but I did firmly believe we had been the more dangerous team up to that point. I partially agree with others who have said we took our foot off the gas after our second goal, but I think that was probably down to us trying to keep our shape and control the tempo. 

There's no doubt the sending off changed everything and nearly everyone predicted we would fold. You can look through most matchday threads from this season and the last, and the one thing this team, these players, are repeatedly criticised for is a lack of commitment and lack of fight. Well, they certainly showed buckets of it in that second half today. And with so many young players in our team it was fantastic to see.  Particularly when de Zerbi threw on all his big guns in one go.

For sure we are most definitely a work in progress. And we still need to find a striker worthy of the name. There is still a few missing pieces and too much inconsistency to be mentioned as a top team. But for anyone to suggest that we haven't shown ANY signs of improvement and progress under Pochettino this season is just plain wrong and overly negative IMO.

One key thing to note, from a tactical point of view: Put a player on the post for corners and we don't concede that 2nd goal. I don't know why we don't, or why we do this weird zonal marking.

1 hour ago, dkw said:

Wear your Chelsea shirt.

Too late.

2 hours ago, hephzibah said:

The world is over. People hate chelsea a lot. Immediately Gallagher got the first yellow, I started hoping the referee will not give him the second yellow out of hatred for Chelsea. 

That was what he did, why do people hate Chelsea, people just hate us for no reason.

I agree, it was pure hate to give the second yellow.. and people DO hate us for no reason,  whereas we Chelsea fans don't even hate anyone, its so unfair.

 

 

 

2 hours ago, Scott Harris said:

Horrible to watch, I was going to loss my sh*t with the refs if they gave them a penalty. I don't even know how they got to the point where they had the ref go over and look at the screen, it clearly hit Colwill's head. Thankfully they caught themselves at the last second.

The ref gave the penalty.

Good job VAR told him to look at it again on the monitor.

 

 

2 hours ago, forbzy said:

Actually the way things are with the bottom 3, 30 might be enough this season. Everton should have no issues staying up even with -10

I'd say we've likely mathematically done enough already given the promoted sides but it's irrelevant, relegation wasn't a remote possibility last season or this.

2 hours ago, hephzibah said:

But people don't hate City who just won five premier leagues in six years. Maybe they hate us because we did well in the past 10-15 years.

f**k them, but we shouldn't allow it.

I'm with you, we shouldn't allow people to hate us. It should be a PL rule that outlaws it like racism and homophobia. 

But the PL hate us , so it would be difficult I reckon, .

I think Todd and Clearlake are clearly haters too and I don't know why

It's a right conundrum for sure 

 

2 hours ago, Sconnie Blue said:

They offered nothing until Colwill and Enzo decided not to close down that lad for Brighton’s first goal. 

We outfought and outspent them.