Tomo

Im liking Ampadu so far very tactically switched on for his age. Musonda has been genuinely awful assist or not, if this is how he performs in training then there's no wonder he's not getting in ahead of Willian even in his current form. Batshauyi is a lot better in general play tonight aswell. Back 3 solid, Zappa really good, Drinkwater, Kenedy and Willian okay, overall good first half.

I think City and Spurs are almost nailed on top 2 in that order with an outside shot of us sneaking in there if we get our act together. I think United are finishing 4th possibly even 5th, i really am not getting the hype with them atall.

Can't recall many times i have been overly bothered when we lose in this competition, even the 2008 final i got over relatively quickly. Of course i'd rather win than lose, but i don't get in anyway worked up about it like i do with the other three tournaments.

Im not sure, the only decent performances i can recall was Kiev away, Arsenal at home and to an extent West Brom away. Porto, Tel Aviv, Walsall, Norwich and especially Villa we won because of how bad they were more than anything else.

Bit unfair, today doesn't change the fact he's been useless for most of the season , especially when starting. As already covered he's probably best being used when we are desperately chasing a goal, as today and Leti away proved.

I thought he was excellent between the Arsenal and Leti games, he's been a bit off since then tho. However we have to bare in mind he's playing in a 2 with Cesc, even Kante looked uncomfortable in the same situation and i personally believe it's 90% of the reason Matic crashed and burned so early, you have to do the work of two men. However i think Conte is aware he needs time to settle and recover from the injury from his comments at the start of the season, i think when Drinkwater is fit that plan might be back on.

This is nowhere near as bad as the Jose saga, we have to lose the next seven league games for thing's to be that bad, statistically at least. I think this player's downing tools thing is fantasy, the reason it went wrong under Jose was because he pushed the player's to the point of mental exhaustion with his intense behavior (and believe me, you can't give your best with a poor mental state no matter how hard you try). This season however it's a combination of many thing's, poor tactics by Antonio, injury's, player's off form, wingbacks getting found out. Unfortunately there does seem to be some truth in the player's not being happy with Conte but i certainly don't think they will start throwing games.

He's clearly not fully fit. Rest him for Everton, bring him off the bench vs Bournemouth and Roma and hopefully he will be ready for United.

I'd take out Alonso, put Azpi on the left and Rudi at right back, Marcos would be Bosingwa level tragic in a flat back 4.

Da fuq have i just read?

Your probably right, but desperate times and all that. I know it's a different planet of football but in my team last season we had a player of similar build at RWB, and prepared our shape for when he was wiped out defensively and reverted to a back 4 with two DM's infront and it worked well, the fact our RCB was a natural RB helped.

This is probably the Vodka talking but maybe Musonda is worth a go there? Maybe Rudi on the other side to balance out Charly's lack of defensive nous.

You can give Conte a pass for the wingbacks but he has perfectly suitable alternatives to Cahill yet keeps picking him. And our team are still better than what we have been producing most of this season. I really hope he turns this round but some of his decision making this season has been horrific, the board narrativecan only excuse him to a point.

15/16 we would have lose tonight and got washed away by City, not that im positive about the current predictament but we are still some way away from thing's being that bad.

The board deserve their fair share of flak, but are they picking Cahill?

15/16 was just unprecedented, we can't compare that to this in terms of shitness that season was on another galaxy. However the performances of late bar Atletico have been right out of the 10/11 textbook from the lethargy to the reapeated mistakes by the manager. Sure there is a problem with the players and board to a point, but they aren't making Cahill captain nor repeatedly picking him.

Conte needs to buck his ideas up fast because this season is heading dangerously into Carlo 10/11 territory.

Conte needs to buck his ideas up fast because this season is heading dangerously into Carlo 10/11 territory.

The point is there will be suitable managers out there, if i followed other leagues like i use too i could probably earmark a few, but i don't, that would be the job of Roman and his advisors. If you were big on Conte in 2015 fair enough but you were 1 off a very few, i remember 1 person on here suggested him and got (verbally) slapped down. Well i would imagine we would first look at the "obvious" contenders, which would mean Simeone, Allegri, Ancelotti etc sounded out. If we did have to think more outside the box, i would imagine Jardim would be considered, maybe Sarri or possibly Marco Silva if he keeps it up. But as i have already alluded too, it's not my job to pick names and and even if i personally couldn't think of any, there will be option's out there that paid employee's of the club can identify, plus manager's would be chomping at the bit to come here as it's a no lose situation.

Im not arguing most of that, i was on board with the sale at the time and i am not afraid to say it was up there with backing AVB as my biggest error of judgement as a Chelsea fan. The bit i am contesting is Georgey/Gullit's post that he buggered up the future of the club, which simply isn't true.

Would you have named Conte in 2015? It's not my job to identify managers. We won't, theres many top managers around, if the big names are unavailable it will require a bit of thinking outside the box like Spurs did with Poch. I hope Conte finds a way round this, but if the worst comes to the worst and his tenure collapses beyond repair, it's not in anyone's best intrest's to cling on.

I am not doubting Conte just yet but i always felt that "who can do better?" narrative to be quite simplistic. Two year's ago a lot of people wanted to keep Jose because apparently there was no one better but alas, there was. If Conte's tenure crashes and burns at any point ofcourse there will be better option's out there.

Even more so when you factor in he's played for two defensive team's that lack creativity and the fact Ike Ugbo is finding the step upto mens football very difficult. I actually think in the next 2 season's he will be the top scorer in this league save for Aguero, Jesus, Lukaku, Kane and Morata, maybe Sanchez and Eden too.

He very rarely actually has bad games, or even average one's, his run of form in the Jose meltdown period was an anomaly, and even then he wasn't as bad as made out. Most games when people think he is underwhelming he is still creating chances and making the team tick and doing the stuff no one really notices.

No im comparing how Kakuta was hyped back then to what's happening to Musonda now.