NikkiCFC

It is during international break. Group stage now and knockout phase in May-June. I posted this because it probably means Reece will not go to EURO with senior squad.

EXCLUSIVE: Reece James, Mason Greenwood and Callum Hudson-Odoi set to star for England Under 21s at the European Championship next month as senior boss Gareth Southgate gives Aidy Boothroyd the green light to pick his best young players

Kenedy should be in NT. After all, why not, Willian was there for years...

When you play for a team that has 70% possession and is one of the best in the league and you are AM you have to be there 😁 I mean Havertz is there too and he played just a couple of games as number 8. Barkley right there on top as well because he plays as AM in 4231. How many attacking midfielders are there in the league? 5? 6? And also I saw Mount had 5 key passes against Newcastle. Does anyone remember just one? Really curious how they measure that? Are stats everything to you? 😄

Funny how both Pep and Arteta started using Portuguese RBs as LBs. Also ESR never impressed me. Why are they playing him every time?

Kenedy goal and assist already against Napoli. He is on fire lately. Scored against Barca and Villarreal as well. Amazing goal against Valencia.

Looking at Barca the other day and now Sociedad and we know what happened to Real against Shakhtar, I think that Atletico is nothing special just all others are so bad. With Lampard I did not have any hope against them but now with Tuchel I think we have great chances. We need to attack them, they dont score a lot and away goal in Romania is essential next week.

Make it happen!

I didn't like what I saw, basically everytime I watched him.

At least he gave them title. And Lyon was no joke. They knocked out City later. I didn't saw Pep getting sacked and City is probably more desperate for CL success. About boring football... Well, even here he said that he needs 2 years to make his football work. Napoli was playing better season by season... In his last 3 jobs he got replaced by managers who did worse. Ancelotti, Lampard and Pirlo. First two got sacked fast and Pirlo is not that far away by looking at results. Now they can enjoy Conte taking title from them. If that is what they wanted 😁

Why did Juventus sacked Sarri again??

Bayern is always on top. They won CL before and after him. Not with him. Barca was also great before and after him with Enrique. City also won titles with two previous managers. City bought him to get CL and 4 times in a row he losses against inferior side.

Looking forward to watch Italy on EURO. Jorginho-Verratti-Barella midfield works very nice.

I am not trying to devalue it. But we spoke about creativity and set pieces does not tell anything. I mean we can even argue should Mount be our set piece taker. Silva goal came after Ziyech set piece and one of the Zouma goals after corners came after Chilwell taking it. So they have 1 assist from set piece and Mount has 3 but he took probably ten times more set pieces. So they have better percentage. I do not remember Emerson taking any corners but he also has assist from corner last season. Mount is good set piece taker, definitely better than Willian. This is no issue but when we count assists it is worth mentioning that his assists are mostly from set pieces. Ofc not. And is depending on position. If Kova plays every game like last one he can finish the season with zero goal contributions there would be no issue. He had 2 great passes that should resulted with goals but did not and it is not his fault. I really do not remember Mount making those passes, maybe once in ten games. He is apparently high on key passes but does anyone have that impression? They must be counting set pieces or something. Zero issues with Mount, I look at him with different eyes now when we have Tuchel. I called Puli and Ziyach shit today because of their performances lately and that is way worse then whatever I said about Mason last couple of months. He is outperforming mentioned guys and deserves to play over them at the moment. I just predicted what will happen in the future because I do not think he has in his locker to deliver regularly in the final 3rd. In this new formation like I said he is one of the 3 most offensive players, we have 3 defenders, 2 wing backs, and 2 midfielders who are all not likely to score so who is going to score if not those guys up front? I am sure when Thomas picks a team he do not choose attacking players because of the balance. Mount is now playing because Kai is out and is better than Hakim and Pulisic at the moment. Pochettino just played Kean, Mbappe and Icardi against Barca. He picked them because he wanted goals and has 7 players behind to provide balance just like we have. It does not matter the name. Olie, Puli, Kai, Timo, Tammy whoever plays up front... If they have a couple of quite games in a row and are not helping us to score they should be benched. For the next games Timo is obvy number one and lets see who Tuchel picks for 2 other positions. I have full trust in him.

Mbappe hattrick.

Liverpool up.

No Neymar is huge blow.

Actually he has more. Kai 5 goals and 5 assists (all open play). And Mount 4 goals and 5 assists (3 corners). In the PL they both did very little in terms of numbers. Kai 4 from 5 goals scored against 2nd and 4th division clubs. Mount if you take away corners and teams that will get relegated is on 0 and 0 😔 People made excuses how he is a DM or something like that but now he is one of the 3 most offensive players on the pitch. He absolutely has to deliver in the final 3rd or he will lose his place. I mean it's just a matter of time before Kai or Puli or Hakim take his place because they are more likely to deliver and all have been shit last couple of months. Mount deserves to play over them now but in the long run he will lose. I mean look at Willian or Oscar, they were both having season with around 10 goals and 10 assists but were never good enough for us. Can Mount ever be better than that? Again, he is no longer MF but one of the 3 most attacking players in the team. Now everything changes. And funny stat is that Kai has more open play assists than Mount in less than 1500 min played for Chelsea. Mount played more than 6000 minutes. For Kai it's starting next season. I absolutely expect 20 goals per season at least and 15+ assists.

Matt Law is most reliable Chelsea source and it was proven that what he said about Rudiger was not true.

Yes, Willian 🤭

But what is that role for Timo? 442? Pep wanted to sign him so I'm curious what position he planned for him. Klopp as well. With Frank it was clear. He wanted Rice and that is it. But Tuchel doesn't. He already tried to sign Jorginho and Kante. Kova is playing very well. You may be right about safest option but if this is his ideal midfield what is stopping him from playing them in front of back 4 system? Let's say we get new top CB and new striker, do you think he will say: oh, now I can change system. We will most likely go for CB and striker. I don't see any new players that will make him change formation. He already said we will try to find a role for Chilwell. He played CHO and Pulisic as wing backs. As I said it suits most to German boys. So if it works well till the end of the season I can't see him changing it full time. Ofc sometimes we may change but this will be main I think.

@Jason I know you said you don't expect this formation to be our main formation for the future but I'm not sure about that. One of the reasons Tuchel was appointed are definitely Werner and Havartz. So he will try to get best of them. It looks like with Timo is already working. As you also said many times Werner is not a winger or number 9 either. And he would have to play that in 433 or 4231. So 3421 or 3412 is the way we will go I think. Respected journalists reported that we are after Haaland so probably the plan is Kai playing behind him and Werner. Or Werner and Kai can both play behind striker. Even Germany is using this formation because for these players it is the best by far.