Tomo

The summer of 2019 was a unique situation. We were losing the heartbeat of our attacking play and were not allowed to replace him. The title and CL (bar a fluke of all flukes in the latter case) was out of the question that summer which immediately put the emphasis on rebuilding the squad, we needed a manager who would put the club before his CV and preferably knew the academy players and their characteristics well and Lampard and Jody fitted the bill (case in point when Jody told Frank that Lamptey would be able to handle coming on at The Emirates). Yes as it turned out Lampard wasn't equipped tactically to enjoy the full fruits of his labour and yes looking back there's an argument for saying we maybe should have been ruthless last summer (although then we'd have likely been stuck with the overrated Pochettino over Tuchel) but the appointment at the time was the right decision.

But that already feeds in to what I was saying. There was always going to be an element of learning on the job but there's a difference between raw promise and the tactical cluster fuck we saw in those last two months. I think he did a very good job in season one and I would debate anyone on that but it was pretty clear he just didn't have it in for him for the next phase of the process, he was so wildly undercoaching our top talent.

The sacking of Frank happened because there's levels as to what's acceptable even during rebuilds.

He also didn't score against Arsenal in 21 games so it took until his 58th game involving Arsenal in some way to score.

For all this talk of us being a poisoned chalice I think the total opposite, I don't think there's many if any clubs better equipped to build an era of success than Chelsea, the fact we haven't found that manager yet shouldn't distract from that. They arrive to the best academy in the world (in terms of volume of quality produced) and an owner who heavily backs them, that's pretty much the dream scenario for a manager. Yes ofcourse big results are expected but why they shouldn't they be? You shouldn't need X amount of season's to become good with these type of resources. And that's before we get into the fact the narrative around us and managers make us a free hit in terms of career damage, there's no risk for potentially unlimited reward.

In his position? Pedro.

Liverpool are the big concern, as poor as they've been they can quite easily shit out a run us 10/11 style. Moyes and genuine expectations just don't mesh, as soon as WHU started getting seriously talked about for top 4 it was game over.

Not sure why anyone is/was worried about West Ham. It's been obvious for weeks they don't have the bollox to see this through.

Conte but that also makes me put my feet on the ground a bit as we know what happened there eventually. Although that said I'm a little more hopeful as unlike Antonio TT tends to end up on the right side of disputes more often than not and, most crucially, seems firmly self aware that that's an aspect of his character that needs fine tuning.

Liverpool (when they were still a 70's points team) did them three times on the spin in 17/18.

Tuchel simply has to do an LVG and bring Kepa or Willy on.

I'm even more worried now (about a potential shootout in the final). He literally sat down again but thankfully Aguero didn't do his research

This feels a bit like an after the lord mayor's show and dress rehearsal for a big event rolled into one, is a bit surreal.

Yeah I made the post the other day that we needed to rotate in either this one or the Arsenal one. Good decision now City are doing the same.

Unfortunately I think the reality would be closer to Kaka and Sheva's returns to Milan. When was the last time a player lost form so spectacularly in their late 20s and came back?

You say that but tourist are exempt from the stay at home rules there. Apparently White Hart Lane is a possible host, my god please let that he true.

Don't fix what ain't broken is the wrong way to think in football, it leads to the kind of stagnation we saw under Ancelotti and Conte. Tuchel is known to change formations regularly in a season this is the first time he's really stuck to one for any significant length of time, so we could feasibly keep this up in the big games where it's working but do something else against the lesser sides. For all the incredible things he's done we have dropped a lot of points against teams we should be beating under TT and if we want to compete with Pep over a league season we really need to fix that.

They'll probably get Sarri and while they won't trouble the top of the league he'll get them consistent enough to be back in top 6 and possibly challenge for top 4 again. I genuinely believe there's a chance they'll go down in the not too distant future if they keep this chancer.

It ain't funny anymore, i'm genuinely worried he's getting sacked.

Hes going to have to pull off a masterclass or two to get in the CL or even FA Cup final lineup with the way Jorginho and Kante have been playing in these crunch games.

Oh it is definitely better overall but with the games coming up i feel there needs to be atleast one we rest the core players or we risk going too close into the Jose 15 run in territory where our players become tanked and ran on fumes. A CL semi on a Wednesday, Man City Saturday, London derby Wednesday, FA Cup final vs a top 4 rival Saturday plus potential top 4 decider vs the same team Tuesday/Wednesday is a mental schedule and i doubt even Mount will be able to play every minute here.

I think it's safe to assume Higuain would have stayed another year under Sarri. I wasn't as against it as most and i actually felt there were times last season where we could have done with his movement to stretch deep defenses (especially around winter time when so many fodder sides kept shutting us out comfortably).

I'm guessing Mount and James were shoe in's, not sure about the 3rd, possibly Tomori. I think he would have come to a similar conclusion with Tammy as to what Tuchel did.

Looking at our recent schedule combined with our upcoming fixtures we will probably have to heavily rotate in one of the games coming up and give most if not all the nailed on starters a rest. The way I see it there's one of two games we can do it. 1) We write off this weekend's game against City and throw our eggs into the basket of the last three games where maximum points will be enough for top 4. or 2) We do it at home to Arsenal next week and cross our fingers the Tuchel factor combined with their mediocrity will be enough. Which one's best?

I don't agree, Hudson Odoi and Loftus Cheek forced their way in, maybe belatedly but they still did. Furthermore I think Mount's mentality sets him up as an exception who would have made it though under any manager, even Mourinho.