Tomo

Yeah he's in over his head.

Yep, it so cringe when people say "we'll never beat team A because we didn't beat team X". We won the UCL less than two months after Big Sam rolled up to The Bridge and hit us for 5 for god sake.

That time there was mitigating circumstances, we were juggling multiple competitions while they in the three and a half months prior only had the league to bother about. Next week we will have had 8 days off (effectively as we can half arse Wednesday) while they have today and have a top spot to play for Thursday. No excuses.

Not bullshit the entire fanbase and toe the party line? But I don't think that was the case, Tuchel is a great coach but his one big weakness is the market and unfortuently it came to fruition and then some in this case.

Even if that was true he lost the "he's not my player" tax when he sucked him off repeatedly after arrival and played him constantly for 90 minutes even after it became clear it wasn't working. https://www.chelseafc.com/en/news/article/tuchel-excited-by--perfect-addition--lukaku#:~:text='We're very happy to,us and an excellent addition. If he genuinely didn't believe those words and felt pressure to constantly play him, then wouldn't he then fall into the "yes man" category to which you're saying he isn't?

Ever since the Sarri season there's been the won't make top 4 sweeping statements after a bad result and/or performance and every time we've made it alongside atleast one cup final.

Sterling's performances at the start have been a lot better than what Pulisic has done in the last 2 and a bit seasons. Hudson Odoi was a lot better last autumn for a sustained ish period were a lot better yet it never resulted in the sheer volume of love Pulisics has got for two cameos.

I've got to say im finding it quite hilarious how two decent cameos have led to people forgetting how crap Pulisic has been for over 2 years.

If we win this would we be allowed to use Hutchinson etc vs Zagreb or is it only registered players allowed? Would be really handy to be able to rest every single player that would be heavily needed in the league until the break.

The Plymouth keeper who faced us last season in the cup. They're top due to him pretty much being the keeper (and league one) version of Suarez 13/14. To give a taster here's his last minute save vs Ispwich to win it for them (their main promotion rivals).

Bold statement but I feel the best English keeper is in the third tier. Obviously he has to play top flight to make the England squad but still.

People will laugh at my suggestion of a replacement (if Mendy goes) but I'd love for us to take a punt on that Plymouth keeper that single handedly took us to extra time last year (not basing it just on that I live near there and go and watch them when I can). I'm convinced he's not only a PL keeper in waiting but a future England number 1, he's been a cheat code at League 1 level and that cup tie with them was a 5-1 stroll if it was a bog standard EFL keeper there instead of him.

Think his MOTM was a bit OTT last night. His save from Toney was top class but everything else he had to do I'd expect any half competent keeper to save/sort. Villa was a disaster and he saved our backside but last night was a disappointing but not even close to disastrous performance.

That's easy to say in hindsight but if we go back to the summer of 2019 we were being laughed at for getting a transfer ban while losing Hazard and as a result given little chance of top 6 let alone top 4. Potter won't have close to the obstacles Tuchel did last season. He won't have to juggle 5 tournaments while the two teams chasing us have just the league, he won't have to deal with one of the most unprecedented events in sporting history which would turn him into a defacto politician, he won't have Lukaku here causing chaos (atleast not this season) and he (hopefully) won't have a similar injury crisis to what we did in the winter or have to play on during multiple covid cases in the squad (when one of our rivals for the top 4 positions got a prosponment for as little as one case). We have an improved squad to last season depth wise. K2 is a downgrade on Rudiger but everywhere else is upgraded. Forfana is on Christensen, Gallagher is on Barkley, Cucurella is on Alonso (well in the first 2/3rds), Sterling is on Werner and both Auba and Broja are on Lukaku, whoever is going to be emergency 6th CB will surely be an upgrade on Sarr, not to mention wildcard players like Chukwuemeka (who came within a millimetre of winning it for us last night) on the rooster aswell. Add that to the absence of those obstacles above and there's no excuse for us to end up worse off than last season in my opinion. The only mitigation would be if there's a crazy consistent season where it requires 80s points tally to achieve it but that is highly unlikely. Yes we can't replace James and Kante like for like but that would be the case regardless, some players just can't be replaced, even back in the prime of old guard we couldn't replace players of that calibre. Our squad maybe (barring a 10/11 or 15/16 esque best of the bad bunch type) season too flawed in terms of competiting for the title right now (hopefully in time that changes with Carney, Casadei, Colwill, Slonina, Hutchinson eventually coming in alongside Mount, James etc hitting their prime) but there's more than enough for top 4 and if they don't achieve it there should be an enquiry for me.

We will have Silva, Chilwell, Sterling and Auba reasonably fresh (Mount aswell to an extent) while United will (i think) remain unchanged or at the most draft CR7 in for Rashford. Absolutely must take advantage of that.

We hear this every time we have a poor performance and/or drop points since the Sarri season and everytime we make it. If we don't make it then Potters job should be under review.

Happy with that bar Ruben's selection because i was hoping he'd be rested to play wingback vs United.

What's the alternative we change our system to something which isn't really "the trend" at the top in the present day (hence Mou's decline) to accommodate a good but not great defender? Apart from Lampard all our post Mou managers did manage the situation properly. Conte and Tuchel loaned/sold him at the first avaliable opportunity while Sarri let him go before he even kicked a competitive ball for him.

I didn't want this at the time because I genuinely thought we had a title chance in 21/22 but looking back maybe cashing in on both Kante and possibly even Jorgi post Porto would have been the right move.

My bad I forgot about that. It was a lot worse with Lamps and Tuchel for me though because by then it was already clear Jorgi and Kova was more than fine vs 80% of opponents.

I actually blame Lampard and Tuchel for his injury record. Apart from Tuchel in the first few months both have just shoehorned him in most games when it was obvious his minutes and fitness needed managing carefully.

Solid enough defender but when he was tasked with ball playing and ball carrying responsibilities he was all at sea.

Beating Salzburg and effectively wiping a fixture off the calendar would come in very handy.

On a slightly related note I always laugh when people make Harry Kane a victim of his trophyless career. He chose to sign big new deals knowing what Levy is like, no one else.

Ironically that's the one thing i've always staunchly defended him on. It was a clear misunderstanding in the heat of the game.