WNDS

I don't think that substitutions are an immediate necessity, but if things don't change in our favour early in the second-half, I'd be tempted to bring Oscar on for Fabregas and Willian on for Alonso. Oscar should tighten-up the midfield slightly, whilst Moses would switch to the left wing-back position to enable Willian to take-up a position on our right without compromising the balance of the team (Willian's good defensively for an AM, but he's not as good as Moses is; Pedro, Kante, and Azpilicueta should be able to pick up the slack).

Bah, I posted after the Hull game that I had very high hopes for the new system, and I'm absolutely loving what Conte's done with the team; I just wish I'd been able to catch more of these games live. We've been playing strategically/tactically/aesthetically sublime football for the last few weeks, and I've been missing a majority of it . ....And now an international break has come along at just the wrong moment. Hopefully we can keep this level of performance going for a while longer yet, although I would be surprised if we do. Nonetheless, the team's progress has been remarkable over the last month, and even if performance levels DO take a dip, the recovery seems to be occurring ahead of schedule. Superb work so far.

We'll have to wait and see what effect (if any) this result has upon our future performance levels, but I though we were alright tonight. Terry doesn't look comfortable in a back three (surprise!), and both Oscar and Batshuayi played like men who know that they're probably not getting into the manager's ideal strarting 11 any time soon, whilst Willian, Costa, and Hazard all failed to take advantage of some (very) presentable openings, but other than that.... not too bad. I liked a lot of what I saw from Chalobah when he was on the ball (although his off-the-ball work needs some serious improvement), and Aina showed flashes of promise, whilst Willian (despite some occasional sloppiness and a terrible miss) showed that the competition between him and Pedro is (hopefully) going to be quite fierce this season; these things can only benefit the squad. Azpi IS probably a viable option as an auxilliary RWB, but I hope that we don't find ourselves having to deploy him threre too often, as he just doesn't provide what Moses does in that position when we're attacking, and he was surprisingly suspect defensively on more than a few occasions. Luiz and Cahill were mostly solid throughout, whilst Kante and Begovic were probably our best players on the night.

The most complete performance I can recall us giving since the win over City at the Etihad in 2013/14; loved it. The team looks set to me. Pedro and Willian will probably be switched around in the starting 11 fairly frequently (dependent on form), and Zouma might end-up displacing Cahill at some point, but those are the only changes I can see happening any time soon (barring significant injuries, of course).

It was a team we needed to beat, simple as that. If we are to stand a chance of getting top four this season, then these games are absolute 'must-wins'; we're not currently playing well enough to shrug-off victories against the less 'impressive' sides in the PL as if they were actually League 1 outfits.

I love the potential that this new 3-4-3 formation appears to have when it comes to our current squad: it can provide the team with enormous tactical flexibility if we manage to apply it correctly. Using Hazard and Willian as genuine hybids between '10's and wingers could be a way of getting the best out of both of them, whilst simultaneously negating many of their weaknesses. Both of them have the pace and skill needed to operate as wingers, but their insistence on slowing play down to receive the ball into feet and assess their options ensures that neither of them is consistently decisive enough when operating from the flanks. However, both have also struggled to make a consistent impact when deployed as the 'number 10', as opposition teams have frequently congested this area of the pitch and denied them the space that they need to operate effectively; because neither of them (Willian in particular) possesses Fabregas' vision, they have sometimes been unable to find a way of dealing with this. In the formation that we used against Hull, however, they can share the responsibility of a 'number 10' with each other, whilst also doing the same thing in the context of wing-play with the wing-backs. I particularly like the Willian-Moses combo on the right, because I feel that they cover for each other's strengths and weaknesses very well: Willian has the technique, passing, and combination-play that Moses lacks, whilst Moses is far more physically imposing, direct, and effective on the outside than Willian. Meanwhile, Moses' defensive inexperience can be compensated for (at least in part) by having both our best 1-on-1 defender (Azpilicueta) behind him and Kante directly in-field from him. If we can get this formation working, the right side of our team actually has the potential to be extremely solid: Azpilicueta (right CB) - Moses (right WB) + Kante (right DM/CM) - Willian offers a huge amount of energy, and looks very well-balanced (on paper). Hell, even if this right side (or our central CB in the back-three) is having a difficult time in any given game, having Marcos Alonso as the left wing-back and then Azpilicueta as the right CB allows us to shift into a 4-2-3-1 formation with Alonso and Azpi as the FBs, any two of Terry, Luiz, and Zouma as the two CBs, Moses as the genuine RM/RW, Willian as the '10', and Hazard as the inverted LM/LW; if this isn't working, we can then sub in one or both of Fabregas and Oscar for one or both of Matic and Willian. So.... yeah..... I'm a big fan of the changes that Conte's decided to make. Although they may NOT end up working-out for the team, something had to be done after the Liverpool and Arsenal games, and full credit to the manager for actually doing something genuinely different; it's quite refreshing to see.

Terrible defending for their first goal and a really poor performance by our central midfield completely did for us this game. The central midfield issue was particularly annoying because it appeared so easy to rectify; Kante and Oscar were flying all over the place attempting to win us possession, and were leaving massive gaps for Liverpool to play through. I get that Conte wants us to play proactively, but if the tactics are clearly not working so early on, he should make some attempt to change them. His subs were way too predictable (and far too late) as well, which is a shame, as he's done well with them up until now. I also thought we didn't attack Liverpool down their left anywhere near enough after we had scored; for all the criticism he's getting above (along with most of the other players, to be fair), Willian had Milner on toast whenever he faced up against him 1-on-1, and we should have tried to force that issue more than we did. Instead, we were increasingly prone to giving the ball to Hazard and hoping that he could magic something up for us, even though Clyne was clearly getting the better of him. Add to this that our central midfield was completely incapable of building play properly when we were in possession, and you had a match that resembled just about any one of those from last year rather too much for my liking.... The only positives I can take from this match are that Luiz still possesses the recovery pace that we've been missing in central defence for a while now, Willian has apparently remembered that he can be a very good dribbler when he actually attempts to take his man on, Kante remains brilliant at dispossessing opponents, and Costa continues to score freely. Anyway, our promising start has now faltered, and there's plenty of work to be done; let's see how it goes from here.

A very weird game for a whole host of reasons; I found it particularly strange how the performance-levels of almost EVERY individual player fluctuated wildly between poor and very good across different phases of the game. And I just have to laugh at those above once more calling-out their favourite players to criticise, even though few of them had much of anything to do with us dropping points today. Individuals lost composure at key moments, and aside from this there seemed to be very little wrong with our general play: Costa missed what should have been a nailed-on chance to kill Swansea off at the end of the first-half; Azpilicueta possibly shouldn't have rushed out onto the right when Swansea counter-attacked us in the lead-up to the penalty, Courtois shouldn't have committed to Sigurdsson; Cahill should have offloaded the ball to Courtois as soon as Fer closed him down. Sure, there were a few of these 'should have/shouldn't have' errors, but were we being dominated in the centre of the pitch like last season? Were we failing to mount coherent attacks? Did we look clueless in possession? Was our pressing poorly organised? The answer I would give to each of these questions is 'no'. So why are so many people throwing their toys out of the pram? We all knew that this process of recovery wasn't going to be complete after just two months, but the early signs are very positive. Appropriate changes could be made to the starting 11 in upcoming games, but I see no reason to go crazy and rip the developing blueprint apart just because of today's match. The only real concerns I have are Matic's impotence when the team is attacking (although I though he was mostly very good in the first-half), Courtois' poor decision-making when exposed, and Cahill's general nervousness. I see very little wrong with our patterns of play or general system at the moment.

The bench looks worthy of the very top sides in world football..... now we just have to do everything we can to get back there with them.

Whilst I get where you're coming from, I wouldn't quite start with that yet. As others have said, we should wait to see what happens if/hen Alonso and Luiz are integrated into the team. Fabregas simply isn't going to start in PL games if we are using our current back-line.

I thought Hazard, Oscar, and Kante were mostly excellent, with Costa and Azpi also playing very well. Willian put in his first decent(ish) performance over the last 3 matches, creating more genuine openings and doing a great job of winning the ball back in the middle-third; he clearly benefited from the use of a 4-3-3 rather than the ultra-defensive 4-4-2 that we have been starting games with. Additionally, most of the subs did well enough when they were on, with Pedro probably being the least impressive of the lot despite his goal. Fabregas did his usual thing of playing well when we were in possession and doing the opposite when we were out of it; it's unlikely that this will change any time soon, and it's very much a take-it-or-leave-it deal at this point. I was disappointed with Matic, however, as he'd played very well in our previous game, but fell right back into bad habits against Bremen; with Kante buzzing around and winning possession effectively, I had hoped to see Matic play with more positional discipline, but he was frequently in no-man's-land when Bremen attacked. I think that Matic and Fabregas are competing against each other for a single place in the starting line-up if we use the 4-3-3 formation, and I'm really not sure which of them I favour; Matic is generally more solid defensively and should be able to give Kante a better platform to do his thing, but our possession game is just so much better with Fabregas. We can possibly get away with using Fabregas if we sign a higher quality, more proactive CB, but otherwise we should probably go with Matic (one-footedness, slow decision-making, and all). Oh, and on that subject: we NEED a new starting CB. Urgently. It really shouldn't be a matter of 'if' we sign one; almost all Chelsea (and many non-Chelsea) fans know this; opposing managers will know this; Conte must have realised this as well. The club has to act, even if we are unable to acquire the desired big-name player that we have (hopefully) been targeting.

I think that there are big questions about the viability of 4-4-2 as a starting formation because the two strikers become ineffective if we struggle to get our wingers involved in attacks from open play (as we have done in each of the last three matches). This seems to happen for two reasons: 1) The wingers are made to take-up extremely defensive positions when we are out of possession, and this low defensive block means that we are unable to use them as an effective outlet to exploit turnovers; 2) The two CMs in the middle of the pitch are almost always outnumbered, and the large gaps between players in this system prevents them from engaging in passing combinations and building play effectively from central areas. Subbing Kante on (and the change to 4-3-3) caused our game to improve massively because the subsequent high press that we adopted enabled our wingers to position themselves much more aggressively and stretch Milan's back line. At an individual level there were good displays by Kante, Hazard, Oscar, Cuadrado, and Chalobah off the bench, whilst Azpilicueta and Matic were probably the pick of the starting players; Costa, Fabregas, Willian, and Aina were rather more disappointing despite each managing to contribute a few good things here and there.

Having waited a while to process what happened in this game, I still haven't really changed my initial opinions. The bad: Matic (in the first-half) and Oscar were awful; Willian, Pedro, Terry, and Cahill were also very poor; Traore worked hard but isn't quite as advanced in his development as I thought he was (he's probably still a good back-up option, though); RLC will need a long time to become comfortable as a striker. The good: Hazard might well be a viable option as the second-striker, particularly if Costa leaves; Chalobah looks ready to make significant progress this season; Moses and Cuadrado showed that they could be very useful players under Conte (although Cuadrado's lack of strength/balance will probably prevent him from being a viable candidate for the starting 11); Batshuayi looks the real deal (if still a bit raw). For the next game I'd like to see: Batshuayi and Hazard be allowed 45 minutes up front together; Cuadrado, Chalobah, and Aina given starts; Kante play at least 20 minutes from the bench.

Not a single player is playing well; Matic has been particularly poor. We're SO BAD at playing through the middle of the pitch, and Matic's slow play in possession (plus his one-footedness) is a huge reason for this. Oscar is showing his inexperience in a deeper midfield role, RLC has a long way to go before he is anywhere close to resembling a striker, and Traore doesn't look as ready as I thought he was (that run he made when Willian stole possession in the final third was AWFUL, and his link-up play is sketchy).

Having a 'defensive' winger (be it Willian, Cuadrado, Moses etc) who has to see to an entire flank themselves will be a disaster for our game when in possession and trying to attack. With two strikers, no 'number ten', a midfield two who MUST hold their central positions, and almost no attacking by the FBs, this winger will simply become ridiculously isolated when we have the ball. A 4-4-2/4-2-4 requires that both wingers get on the ball as much as possible to stretch the play and the opposition; we'll be far too easy to defend against if we end-up attacking down one flank much more often than the other, and this problem will be compounded by having no 'number ten'. If we're going to play this formation, then the wingers have to play as part of the midfield and attacking lines almost exclusively; they should NOT be dropping into the defensive line as well, and the FBs should NOT be tucking-in to become CBs; this completely neutralises the 4-4-2/4-2-4 formation and turns it into a really defensive setup.

I really liked our defending from set-pieces this game; we looked a lot better at it tonight than we have done for almost two seasons. Fabregas was our best player until getting himself sent-off, although Azpi and Aina were also very good, and Chalobah did well off the bench. And this brings me to what I really DIDN'T like: that Conte made our FBs play so conservatively, with Aina actually tucking-in to become a third centre-back when we were defending. This system simply demanded far too much of our wide players, as they were being asked to take almost complete responsibility for an entire side of the pitch; Willian was a genuine RB when we defended, a RM when we had possession and were trying to build attacks, and a wide-forward on the rare occasions when our attacks succeeded in penetrating deep into Liverpool's half (and Moses didn't have it that much better on the left). Add to this that our midfield two was completely outnumbered in the centre of the pitch, and it's hardly surprising that we struggled badly when in possession. It should definitely be something for Conte to take into consideration, I feel. I'm also not a fan of the RLC-as-striker experiment. I'll give it more time, but I'm not finding the initial signs to be positive.

If Pedro is used as a second striker, then I don't see the need for the big-money purchase of a striker... unless Costa is going to leave. Costa (PL-proven high-level goal-scorer), Pedro (hugely experienced and technical, with good finishing), Batshuayi (all-round prospect with huge potential), Traore (similar to Batshuayi, but at an earlier stage of development) appear to cover most of our needs up front; and yeah, you could maybe even add Hazard to that list as well.....

Why not use Pedro as one of the second-striker options? Pedro is more of a wide-forward anyway, and it doesn't look like he's going to be able to provide Conte with what he wants from his wingers (genuine width and some physical robustness). Pedro's main attributes are his attacking movement and finishing ability. Costa paired with one of Pedro/Batshuayi could work, particularly with Traore being an additional option as a sub.

A huge improvement on our previous game; Aina was superb, as was Moses (with his Hazard-like dribbling). Really encouraging stuff from Loftus-Cheek, Chalobah, and Batshuayi when they came on, with Oscar and Willian also playing well. The passing and movement was much faster (yet more controlled), and you (unsurprisingly) got a better sense of what Conte is trying to do with this team; I AM left wondering how Fabregas fits into this system, however (even with Kante in the midfield). The only slight disappointments for me were Djilobodji (some poor decision-making), Baba (poor passing), and Costa (disappointing link-up play).

He's just not a signing that we have genuine need of at the moment, despite his undoubted quality. We currently have Hazard, Willian, Oscar, Pedro, Moses, and Cuadrado as part of the squad, and whilst Mahrez at his best is probably superior to every one of those players I've listed except Hazard, the fee we will have to pay to acquire him is going to be too large to justify the signing; we have SERIOUS need for a new full-back and centre-back, and the money that we would have to spend on Mahrez could possibly cover most of that cost. Sure, I suppose we could try to sell any two of Oscar/Pedro/Moses/Cuadrado to finance a deal for Mahrez, but it would probably take too long to arrange all of these transfers (including those involving a new FB and CB); someone else will get hold of him before we can.

Should be a great signing. I can see us starting the season with a 4-3-3 formation, given the way that our squad seems to be shaping-up. Matic to hold and provide physical presence; Kante and Willian (on the right wing) to supply box-to-box energy and the ability to break the opposition middle-third; Fabregas to aid in possession and chance creation; Hazard to provide spark and unpredictability in the final-third. Pedro can replace Hazard/Willian if and when they are off-form, and Oscar (or maybe Loftus-Cheek) can do likewise with Fabregas. We definitely need to get the defence sorted now; the team can't handle another season of Ivan, Cahill, and an ageing Terry all starting together.

That was back when Oscar was more consistently on-form (and under different management to boot); he hasn't been displaying the required level of consistency for almost two years now. He only missed the 2015 Copa due to injury, but he can have few complaints about having being cut from the latest Brazil squads; over this past season he was extremely poor in the WC qualifying games he played in, and his club form wasn't exactly outstanding either. Additionally, that final statement of yours simply isn't borne-out by the facts; without Willian (2 goals/3 assists) and Douglas Costa (2 goals/4 assists), Brazil would be in a significantly worse position in their WC qualifying group than they currently are (6th, but only one point off a qualifying spot and four points off 1st). Willian scored the two goals that gave Brazil the win (3-1) against Venezuela, set-up the opening goals against both Peru (3-0 win) and Uruguay (2-2), set-up the last-minute equaliser against Paraguay (2-2), and was comfortably one of Brazil's best players in the other games (a 2-0 loss to Chile and a 1-1 draw with Argentina). Compare and contrast this with Oscar (2 very poor performances against Chile and Venezuela that saw him dropped from Brazil's starting 11) and Neymar (0 goals/1 assist, and only a single good half of football (against Uruguay) over all the games he has played in so far). I've watched the majority of the games that Brazil have played since Dunga was appointed manager, and to lay team-wide tactical and strategic failings at Willian's feet simply because he has happened to be in the right place at the wrong time is ridiculous. Anyway, Dunga has now been fired, and it will be up to the new manager to decide how to re-formulate Brazil's squad. Just as at Chelsea, this might be a big opportunity for Oscar to put his career back on track, and could also result in Willian's role being reduced..... or maybe not. Whatever happens initially, it's up to the players to convince these new managers that they deserve regular starts. If they are unable to do this, too bad for them; past performance under different management counts for very little in these circumstances, particularly when you are talking about performances from two or three years past (e.g. Oscar in the 2013 Confederations Cup and 2014 World Cup).

It's not about SCORING, it's about being allowed to participate in any meaningful passages of play whatsoever. Willian's off-the-ball movement was uncharacteristically good during the match against Peru, but he was almost never picked-out by his teammates (Alves in particular). And by 'some', do you actually mean the majority of the club's fans and playing staff (hence double player of the year)? What he did for us in the CL this season was the very definition of carrying a side. I'm with you when it comes to suggesting that he shouldn't be a guaranteed starter going into next season, but then I don't think that ANY ONE of our players should have such a guarantee; each and every one of them should have to earn their places under the new manager, whether they were last season's player of the year or not.

Totally. It's not as if he has 2 goals and 3 assists in 6 games in World Cup Qualification against these same teams. He also played fairly well in the first two games of this tournament. Against Peru, he could have done a bit more if Dani Alves actually, you know, bothered passing to him; the only occasions when he received the ball from Alves were when Alves literally had no other choice.

Fabregas was superb, the younger players all did very well for the most part, and Willian gave a textbook Jekyll-and-Hyde performance (awful in the first-half/very good throughout the second). Terry, Ivanovic, and Azpilicueta were merely 'sub-par', whilst the rest of our players (Courtois, Cahill, Mikel, Oscar, and Remy) were varying degrees of poor to terrible. In many ways, it's impressive that we didn't lose given how many of our players underperformed in this one. Oh, and again: our DM/CM needs sorting out in a BIG way in the summer; the amount of space West Ham were able to find in front of our back-line was unacceptable (even with Fabregas playing very well).