Blue Armour

Hope that means he can start playing a deeper midfield role with us. He did play there a few minutes in the last FA cup game, so hopefully that's a start.

More so because of his positioning on the pitch as an attacking outlet, unlike Chillwell who still doesn't get into advanced areas as often as he should. And this is strictly about their performance as a WB. I think Chillwell trumps Emerson as an outright FB. If Chillwell improved his positioning (just like he said in the article above) he would be the best option for us.

Interesting that he played as the WB, while Emerson played as the left CB in the last FA cup game. IMO, Emerson is the most clueless defender we have (even more than Alonso) and he failed to play the Sheffield United attackers offside during the 2nd half, when they kept trying to play the long ball over his head. Neither Emerson or Chillwell are dominant in the air, but at least Chillwell has more defensive nous to play an offside trap correctly. Conversely, I think Emerson is better in attack.

He does bear a slight resemblance to the winter soldier (Sebastian Stan), no? [img]https://images.app.goo.gl/58MVgUVJC53FNKLz9[/img] https://images.app.goo.gl/58MVgUVJC53FNKLz9

Shades of Jorge Jesus and his comments about our tie against Benfica in 2012...

Clean shaven Pulisic >>>>> Bearded Pulisic

reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Indeed, and that has been our problem too, in the few seasons we won the title. I have no idea why we didn't bother to strengthen significantly in Mourinho's 3rd season following the title win. Same happened with Ancelloti's second season. No signings of note. Just an ageing Benayoun of all players. (I'm not mentioning Conte's title win here, because his second season transfers were mucked up by him). It's as if management thinks that the same group of players are a bunch of machines that can reproduce the exact same results year after year. Just illogical. Liverpool are suffering from the fact that there is no challenge or respite being offered to either of Salah/Firminho/Mane from their bench, besides Jota. Minamino and Origi are below par.

The positive for me from this match is Havertz's improved performances in 2 consecutive games. His finishing may have been sub-par today, but at least Tuchel has got him playing with more energy and decisiveness on the ball again.

No.., it started out a bit more attacking today. But for some reason he decided to go a bit more defensive late in the second half by bringing on another defender in James on. Then we lost all impetus, and ironically conceded more chances to Leeds in the process.

Sigh... Another week in which we have to hope results go our way. Looks like Leicester will pull away from us again.

Our play deteriorated with his subs today. Settled for a draw by bring on Reece James., and leaving Giroud

He was playing RW. But I still question his decision to restore Pulisic to the starting 11 without merit. It felt like he was reacting to all the negative articles in the press about Pulisic.

Played for a draw really. Returning to a back 5 with Reece James, and opting not to bring on Giroud showed that he wasn't pushing for a win. All his subs ended up making our play worse. Easily the worst match under his charge so far.

This question maybe out of left field, but given how much of an impact Tuchel has had on the midfielders (looking at Jorginho/Kovacic mainly) especially with how they deal with the press, and their off the ball movement.. Can he revive Ruben Loftus Cheek's Chelsea path next season?

So furious about the Werner offside. The commentators also called it onside at first look. A goal like that against big opposition would have done wonders for his confidence. VAR rears its ugly head again. And this time the pitch referee couldn't do anything about it.

The United fixture was definitely the more winnable fixture among the two, and we let that one become a draw. Can't afford to lose this one under any circumstance.

Or our general results against Kenny Dalglish's Liverpool. We have bogey teams and bogey managers.

Kante and Kovacic were stellar.., and for that matter even United's CM's were very good at shielding their defense. Mount and Ziyech were forced to run ragged just to make their way to the final third. I think they did better than their counterparts in Bruno and Rashford., but still not enough to make a telling contribution. I think Ole's decision to play Bruno in the Thursday fixture might have backfired. He looked lethargic. Mount on the other hand was full of energy even up to the 90th minute. I think it was a good idea to trade Giroud for Pulisic to give Lindelof and Maguire trouble, but Pulisic hasn't been Pulisic for nearly a year now. That last shot he took and skied, after he wriggled past the defense was telling of his current form. In retrospect, draw isn't the worst, but we very much needed a win. I was less worried about this fixture, than the next one at Anfield. Only saving grace was Arsenal doing us favor and knocking out Leicester earlier today.

Wonder if this Tuchel's own method of mind games 😄 He made similar remarks about Luis Suarez before the Atletico game, and it seemed to work

I also like the idea of Mount dropping deeper into midfield, and James replacing Azpi. I particularly like the idea of James playing as the RCB, because he can push up and make deadly right hand side combinations with Ziyech and CHO if needed. Opponents defending in the box will struggle to deal with that, because they won't be able to predict where a cross is going to swing in from. I think its a logical next step if Mount and James are becoming more mature players, with Mount dropping into CM and James becoming an actual defender instead of just being a wing back. As you said, if Tuchel sticks with 3 atb formation, this is something we could expect to see in the future.

I agree that Ziyech looked better for the first time this year, when he came on Atletico. Wouldn't mind seeing him the lineup. That being said, I'm pretty sure we're going to see the same front 3 we saw against Atletico. Don't quite agree with the calls to drop Mount, even if he needs rest. As someone previously mentioned, this is one of our most important fixtures for the top 4 race, and a must win game. Tuchel will not want to rest one of his best attacking players for this kind of fixture. Maybe against the likes of Burnley, not Man Utd.

Yes, Jorginho and Kovacic aren't going to cut it. They can circulate the ball just fine, but there's no decisive passing or goal threat from either of them.

One of the ESPN pundits, in this case our former player Frank LeBoeuf, for once seemed to offer a decent thought as to why our attack breaks down in the final third of the pitch despite maintaining so much control up to that point. His reasoning was that we don't have enough players playing up front right now that carry the ball for an extended period and try to 'unbalance' the opposition. He felt that Mount is the only player that does it to some extent. I can see where he is coming from. CHO for example also tries to do take-on's , but CHO is also a very direct winger as opposed to someone like Pulisic or Hazard, and doesn't necessarily drag defenders out of position. Long story short, we really need players like Pulisic to find their form sooner rather than later. Even Ziyech, whose passing ability can make up for the lack of dribblers in the front line. Ziyech looked a bit better in his cameo appearance against Atletico, so I hope he isn't too far off

I'm pretty sure our players won't fear them either. Just need to ensure that the lack of fear doe not turn into callousness. They are a shitty side that has managed to get the better of us in recent games through shithousery.