Blue Armour

Well personally, I wouldn't have wanted him to start at all. Apart from the first half goal against Liverpool there hasn't been much to talk about. I was trying to look at it from Tuchel's perspective. More than him alone starting, I was more bothered about Tuchel opting for that front 3 combo against City.

If you look at Ziyech and Pulisic individually, yes, there seems to be merit in including at least one of them. As you mentioned rightly, Ziyech has some history against them. Pulisic too, with his speed has got behind the City back line before to score. It's the combination of having two of them together with Lukaku that bothered me, because like you said later, their work rate is poor compared to either Werner or Mount. And we know Lukaku doesn't press.

True. He has been a great performer for this club. But he looked even better because 1. JT alongside under Mourinho. 2. Conte's 3 man system.

Not sure if it's pronounced in remotely the same way, but "Slaughter-Back" would be quite the intimidating name for a CB 😄

The start of the article reads like something coming from a Lukaku apologist I doubt many fans could care less about what Lukaku thinks of the manager, especially when the striker has underperformed like he has. That said do agree that Tuchel's choice of front 3 for City was a bizarre one. Even if Mount/Werner/Havertz were below par in recent games, what made him think that Ziyech and Pulisic were a better alternative? They were horrible in the first half. And he refused to even swap one of them at the start of the second. Things like that make his judgement questionable at times. Thankfully these kind of bizarre moments have been few and far between, at least until now.

I would add Anelka too. One of the few "non-targetman" strikers to succeed here in recent times. Anelka at the age we got him played with a lot of intelligence. Scoring and assisting. That intelligence is lacking in a lot of our later big money striker signings.

Since so many people on here are saying the same thing, I can only hope that Tuchel sees it the same way., and opts for a simple back four with more attacking prowess up front. Would be a massive result if we can get maximum points in this game., given how they pegged us back at the Bridge.

Haha, that's why I was considering adding an asterisk next to the "lol" in my post. To be fair, he was the first choice RB at the time. The irony was that his injury ended up being a positive because it brought Ivanovic into the mix.

True. The fact that we're failing in the league is because of the shortcomings of the squad. And even if it's an excuse., losing a key player for 6 months is usually enough to create an under par season for any club. The last time we lost a couple of key players (Essien, Bosingwa lol) for an extended period and still came out on top was in 2010 when we had quality replacements ( a budding Ivanovic, plus Ballack and Mikel). And thankfully the rest of the squad (with lot of WC options) stayed fit throughout. And even that squad did not have to face completion from a ruthlessly consistent side like Pep's City. That month in December with Covid., hamstring injuries fucked us over. And City had barely any trouble during that time. Very difficult to recover in these situations. The fact that we're 13 points behind is because of that., and not because of today's game.

Seems like instead we need to invest in quality second choice full-backs like City did, instead of additional strikers/attackers. Else, we need to change up the formation and go to the back 4 like we did in recent games.

After dropping Lukaku for Liverpool and having those clear the air talks with him,, I'd hoped that Tuchel had stamped his authority., and wouldn't be afraid to drop him in certain games as needed. Lukaku following his goofed up interview didn't have a leg to stand on. Now it seems he's gone back to shoehorning him in every game., and Lukaku is back in favor. What gives?

Tuchel has messed up in two games against City this season. The first one where he opted for a 3 man midfield of Kante, Jorginho and Kova with a front 2 of Werner & Lukaku . And this one with the awful front 3 of Lukaku, Ziyech and Pulisic. Two completely different lineups., yet both inexplicable. Wonder why he can't just use the same playbook from last year, especially when he has the players for it (minus the fullbacks)

He's been with the team for more than half a year. Clutching at straws if he thinks he can improve his touch. With Lukakus horrible control we're playing with 10 men most of the time, which is why we need workhorses like Mount behind him to make up for it. Put Ziyech and Pulisic behind, and our front 3 were non existent.

Shambolic. I would also throw the United game in there too. Our big game management has been poor.

Well, its just down to recruitment. With our starting 11 fully fit we can give them a go. I'm sure with a prime Eden Hazard, this squad which is a great cast of supporting players would have been up there. We no longer have a marquee player in the ranks like City or Liverpool do.

And top 4 too. Don't want us to enter another rat race again like last season. Need to keep that points gap. Thankfully our two toughest fixtures for the second half of the season are out of the way.

Didn't expect much but a bit disappointed. If you look at how Arsenal gave them a go recently, our effort was woeful. Especially given how we seemed to be back on the rise after the Spurs game. The attacking lineup was also a weird one. Will never understand how he decided to go for Pulisic AND Ziyech to start this game when there were players in much better form on the bench. And then proceeded to keep them both on beyond the first half

Hah,,...I was actually thinking about your earlier comment about "short arms" Kepa when that shot went in. He did everything right in terms of positioning and his dive, but that shot was sadly outside his reach

Especially to Arsenal. POS team get an advantage every time.

It could change with Ragnick moving to the director role, no? Question is who they hire as manager to succeed him.

All for pragmatism in situations like these, so will agree. Infuriating stuff and I feel this will need revisiting in the summer, but if Tuchel himself has decided to stick with Lukaku, then why should us fans think any different.?

That entire game at the Etihad became a meme in my eyes. Conte's prematch comments about having to 'suffer'.. Fabregas standing like a zombie in front of an attacking City player. Nauseating stuff. I'm half convinced that this was the game that made Hazard 100% convinced that he needed to move.

3 in this leg. And 3 in the PL fixture at home.

I want to see more support for Tuchel from the clubs management. He deserves at least that much. I want to see how they react with the Lukaku situation. And with the contract situations. I'm writing off Christensen and maybe Azpi., but I want to see them reach a compromise with Rudiger. Offload Lukaku, and use that to boost Rudigers contract.

Get the fuck out of here. Can't believe some people tried comparing him to Drogba. What a narcissistic phony.