Tomo

The thing with false 9 is they don't have to be that great themselves to elevate the set up, Firmino at Liverpool is the prime example of that, he doesn't hog the limelight like Mane and Salah do but I bet the latter pair would be worse off if they were flanking a traditional number 9, even Haaland. The fact we have shown how well we play without Rom means it's now up to him to adapt to us and not the other way round. On the ball I think a manager as clued up as Tuchel can find a solution but my main concern is off it, his pressing game is absolutely non existent, case in point being before his injury we were marginally better than Spurs in that regard and it's well documented how lifeless they were under Nuno. If Rom makes the most of his next chance(s) and earns his spot on merit like Callum has then fine, but I don't want him walsing back in and playing every minute unconditionally like what Lampard did to a wildly out of sorts Kante.

Well on the assumption Azpi is going we will need some cover/competition on that side.

This also shows we need to do all we can to get Livramento back next summer *just incase* something similar happens to James.

I can't find the article again but I read somewhere (just before Rom got injured) that we were marginally above Spurs at pressing at that point and we know how lifeless they were under Nuno. If Lukaku comes back and earns his spot like Callum has fine, but given how good we look without him it's up to him to adapt to us not the other way round.

I always see people say Jose's (first time) Chelsea and Ancelotti's Chelsea are so different style wise but I don't see it. The core of players and style of play were largely the same, the only huge difference is Mou would chose game management after 2/3 goals whereas Carlo would have us carrying on like we were still chasing something.

A lot of credit must go to Tuchel for his tweak allowing him to come inside a lot. We don't see this if he's playing as a pure chalk on his boots wingback.

If he's going to break into this team i feel it will either be as that or even a wingback. His direct competition for a place here either simply offer more (Werner) or are just better (Callum).

If, buts and maybe's can work both ways though. If we succumbed to Brentford or that first half vs Villa.....

I would say in this current system James and Chilwell are attacking players. Since the shift to inverted wingbacks they've practically been number 10s in possesion.

We may aswell keep him for the season if he's happy here but barring a spectacular comeback I think it's safe to say we won't be activating the buy back.

One of those deals which suited every single party down to the ground.

They have this recent week aside. Admitedly poor opposition but they were scoring for fun vs Malmo first time, Norwich and Newcastle and we were very poor between Villa and Brentford yet came out of that period top.

If he played today we created jack all and won 2-1 because he took what little we did create I'd have been happy we got the three points but worried going forward. It's not just how he doesn't mesh on the ball it's how he doesn't off it. Our stats for successful pressures were slightly ahead of Tottenham's a few weeks ago and I'd wager we have shot up the table in that regard since (and we look a much more solid unit collectively aswell). That's not to say he doesn't have it's uses but he needs to at the very least meet the system half way, he's simply not at the level to have a Hazard esque workrate exemption.

But we've seen already that this narrative doesn't really work in theory. Throughout September and early October with Rom leading the line we created fuck all bar the second half vs Spurs. Would Lukaku have scored once or twice if he was literally placed in the same positions? Almost certainly but would his movement and awareness have put him in these positions repeatedly? The reason we created as many chances as we did today is because everyone is heavily involved in the build up in a way Rom isn't. We go from hoping our team can score one or two of the 100 chances to hoping Rom takes one of two of the few chances, which is all well and good when he does (Villa, Zenit) but disatorous when he's anonymous (Juve, Brentford).

I'm frustrated af but not angry, performance wise we played better than times we won 3-0.

He's a lot worse, as bad as Lampard was in the end we did have some promising performances in season one going toe to toe with teams (although in hindsight the muscle memory from Sarri's tactics probably helped a fair bit).

No but there's a big difference between training (even under a manager like Tuchel) and match rythm.

Would rather be playing at Turf Moor, it's been our easiest away game of the season for the past three years. Also would be very out of character for Fernandes to make a key contribution tomorow, he makes Lukaku look like the ultimate big game player. Edit: Jase sort of beat me to it.

My opinion of Rom is not something I have mustered up over night. I didn't want him to return in 2016 or 2017, i just simply don't like his overall game. I'm not saying he's completely useless and there will be games where he will be useful. If he was being utilised in that way I wouldn't have that huge an issue but he's literally playing every game he's avaliable for even when the false 9 is more suitable to a certain game (City prime example).

Yeah I know but it still showed what can happen in this tournament. To use a similar match from a similar part of group phase would be Genk in 11/12 away.

Maybe but with Rom the question mark is, would we have created as many chances to waste? I said after the Norwich game with him I could have seen it being 4-0 with him netting two or three of them and the talk after the game would be how we would have struggled without him.

We played a scratch side at home to Krasnador last season and dropped points. Lose tonight and all of a sudden we have a fight on to get out of the group, especially if Zenit win. Simply not worth the gamble.

Thing with Conte though is his record isn't even average. He's only got past the group stage twice which for context is as many times as Lampard.

Yeah his record in Europe is a massive question mark hanging over him. He's got everything to prove on that score still.

The league cup was last week.