Blue Armour

Timo's confidence has been shot ever since the midway point last season (kind of like Morata). I don't think his conversion rate was ever the best, even in Bundesliga, but he was a much different player when he joined the club. Played on the wing, still worked hard and used to attack the goal with ferocity. Not the same player now. His shots are just so timid these days. Just hope Lukaku isn't a victim of that bug.

Yes...it needs to be a slow acting poison. Too fast and they will look for a cure

I agree that he isn't a target man and that's the part that's a bit confusing, the team seem to play like he's a target man. They use him to setup attacks for runners playing along side, kind of like how Giroud was used. And yes, agree that the 352 has got to go. We look much better with 2 attackers playing alongside Lukaku.

Not sure what point he's trying to make. Is he seriously trying to judge performance of a makeshift back line?

Please don't play 3 CMs in this game. Unless it's with a back 4. Want to see more fluid attacking football.

Encouraging performance yes, but what do you think of Tuchel's utilization of him? As the holding midfielder? Seems like Tuchel really saw the Ballack comparison and decided to give him a Ballack type role. A lot better than the false 9 role Conte tried to give him, but I would still like to see him further up the pitch like he played under Sarri. Remember the chance he created early on in the game, when he drove into the Brentford box? That's the stuff I would like to see more of.

Wonder whether Tuchel will expirement a little in one of the upcoming fixtures..like say drop the back 5 and maybe play Havertz-Mount-Werner behind Lukaku. Doubt it though..since our play from the back and beating the opposition press is built on our back 5 system.

Definitely not, but doesn't mean he can't improve some aspects. Like becoming more mobile, moving to the wing to draw out defenders. Attacking -the fullbacks..or just use his body better. I've seen a lot of instances where Mendy or someone lumps a long ball at him, but the defender gets to it first because of his mis-timed jump.

Rom needs to adapt. He can't always expect the ball to be played to his feet, and he should do better in the air. You look at this performance from Didier in 2010/11 season and you see what I mean.

Regardless of a static Lukaku, I hope we play more attack minded lineups in upcoming fixtures. Today's lineup may have been influenced by 3 things...a high flying Brentford, the international break & missing players so we could ignore this one. And after all it allowed us to remain top of the table. That being said, not a fan of playing 3 risk-averse CMs behind Lukaku & Werner. All the onus is on the fullbacks and Werners movement. As someone said, I would have swapped one of those 3 for a Mount (who sadly is currently below par) or Havertz for Lukaku-Werner to work. Maybe also compliment with a more attack minded fullback (looking at CHO or at least James.)

Good to see him show some courage and actually make the sub, but have a feeling that his reasoning will be that it was because of the international break and hence the excuse.

Even if you ignore conspiracy theories and the bias, the fact is like Vesper said, the guy has put in substandard refereeing performances. Not the person you would want in a tricky away game right after the international break. Like you said, it could be a tight game. Doesn't take much to upset the odds. Personally, I hope for something anticlimactic and we just blow them to smithereens leaving Taylor unable to mess it up for us. But that's just wishful thinking at this point.

If we had Fergie in charge, this guy would be 'Atkinson'ed into the championship already.

How does this fucker keep getting a chance to officiate all our banana skin fixtures? Fresh from a disastrous international outing in that Spain v. France game., too.

Considering how poorly run some of the other top clubs are, you can only agree.

Exact date/venue to be confirmed later this month (around Oct 20th as I recall) based on the reports.

And now the club world cup is being postponed to 2022. Because FIFA couldn't find an alternative to Japan.

Fifa club world cup set to be postponed to 2022 😡

Consolations..at least it's not the first fixture in the day. Hopefully Kante, Ziyech, James & Pulisic will be fit and ready for the game.

Well...he's at least contributed well most of the times when fit. And maybe another positive being he won't complain about not getting game time.

This. The team had been pretty poor at this in the last 3 games., but a bit better in the last game. Ironically the best pass he got, came from Rudiger who went on that mazy run. Shame Lukaku was offside. Lukaku is not like Drogba or Kane who will either drop deep or play wide if they're not getting the ball. Lukaku needs more direct passes. And it's a bit weird because it looks like Tuchel actually wants him to just stay up front for the most part (unlike how he played for Inter). You'd think the midfield would do a bit more work to get the ball up to him.

At the moment, I would say Kovacic is more forward thinking and plays better passes in the final third. Both of them need to improve end product. Maybe RLC will improve with game time. He used to have good combinations with Hazard under Sarri

This is my mood right now when I think about how VAR impacted this game.

Lukaku is also more static compared to our other players. And today we didn't play the ball to his feet enough. And when he finally got chances he bungled them. Tuchel should show more courage and tweak his gameplay as needed. Felt he should have subbed Lukaku for Werner. At least our chance creation would have improved. After all,...its these players who won the CL. Not Rom. I don't see why he would have to complain about being subbed.

DP