Blue Armour

I think so too. Honestly, if Kepa costs us another game again., I will fucking swear that Lampard did the right thing by giving the board the middle finger.

Those reports from the Athletic ARE true. Maria wants Kepa to be the starting goalkeeper they spent 70mill on. Absolutely ridiculous.

I think Alonso's has crept his way in only because of 2 reasons: 1. And this is the main one. Chillwell's indifferent form. His 'audition' under Tuchel against Wolves was terrible. His form has been deteriorating mid season, and he really needs a kick up his backside to know that his starting 11 spot can't be taken for granted. He is no doubt the better fullback, but he needs to show it. Same goes for Ziyech who has also lost his starting 11 spot due to poor form. 2. Back 5 and LWB, enough said. Jorginho on the other hand, is a bit more frustrating. I can't throw too many complaints his way yet, because he definitely has made improvements under Tuchel. But I don't think he adds much value other than his John Obi Mikel type metronome passing. While he is a bit better on the ball when being pressured, he does not have any defensive nous. The fact that he isn't ambitious with his passing means, we are more reliant upon players upfront to create something. Its no wonder we are struggling to break down teams despite having better 'control' of the game these days. It doesn't bode good when facing teams like West Brom or Athletico.

Yep, we expected him to be like Mikel but with better, quicker passing. Now we have someone with Mikel like passing, but with none of the defensive nous.

Okay. Now its getting interesting

Either Leeds win convincingly or they crumble horribly. There's no middle ground with them.

Well, considering he almost went out on loan in January, I'm just glad that he is still in the frame.

Exactly my point. Even if there is an opening to play in someone like Werner in the final third, Jorginho 7/10 times opts not to do it and passes sideways. He has made improvements under Tuchel no doubt, especially with the way he dealt with the Sheffield United press in the last league game, but his passing game leaves a lot to be desired.

No jinx!! 😡

Liverpool's defense gone bonkers. Control of the game up till 1-0 and then collapse.

Happy now? Lol

Allison redeeming himself somewhat..fantastic save from Vardy

Allison...what a dumby

I'm never sure what to expect from him in any game really. He never takes full advantage of his height when getting to crosses, because he either arrives too early (eg: his reaction to Reece James crosses in the home game vs Spurs) or more often than not, too late and out of position. With his physique he should be doing a lot better. In some ways he seems to have regressed from his early season form from last year. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5fp7FV8_3M In the Wolves match where he scored his hat-trick., he showed better ball retention and awareness.

I'm hoping we can learn to be more successful with a different type of striker. The problem is that currently our supporting players are not able to make decisive passes quickly enough in the final third. A striker like Torres or Timo need to be fed quickly enough with passes directly to their feet, because you can't expect to lump the ball to them and make something of it. I've seen Havertz do it on occasion (but he has a whole bunch of issues I don't want to bring up in this topic), and I'm hoping Gilmour can become better at it., same with Mount.

I still have mixed feelings towards Atkinson. Remember all those matches he was in charge of when we faced Fergie's United? Not to mention this beaut.. 😆 a lovely combination of Atkinson + JT crashing into the Tottenham back line)

Haaland. Or at least someone like him. There's a reason why only strikers like Drogba & Costa have succeeded at Chelsea in recent years.

Both him and Ziyech have been pants since their second injury break (or maybe third in the case of Pulisic?) Neither of them are starting 11 quality at the moment.

Thanks for showing this. The BBC commentators were adamant that we got away with robbery., that I was almost convinced.

I too hope that Havertz does well, but making a system work for one or 2 players should NEVER be the objective. We need to have a set playing style that works, and if some players work better than others, then so be it. Case in point, CHO starting over Pulisic (although the CP has enough talent to reclaim the spot), and Alonso over Chillwell. I think part of the reason why Lampard did worse in December and afterwards is because he suddenly had too many talented players fit and available, that he tried to tinker with his lineup every game trying to get most of the big names into the starting 11.

When I saw him get hooked after a poor performance during the Wolves game, I knew it was only going to be a matter of time before Tuchel would restore Alonso to his place in a back 5 formation. While I think we can manage with Alonso as a LWB for a while, its up to Chillwell to re-secure his place in the starting 11. His performance has dipped a lot from his early season form. Hope the loss of his starting 11 spot will motivate him to do better in the future games. We won't be playing back 5 forever, and Alonso will get caught out in any other formation.

Wonder how much of that is on Lampard though. According to the Athletic, his personal signing of the summer was only Chillwell. The rest were dictated by the club. Granted, as a manager he would have had a hand in convincing them to come, using his reputation as a player. But I doubt he was the one who convinced the club to cough up the amount of money we did for Havertz.

I agree. I think the only real curveball that can come their way, when facing those teams, are the midweek fixtures, notably Champions league. Thankfully for them, their first opponents are Borussia Monchengladbach. Don't think their squad will be too badly stretched. Plus they'll have KDB (and possibly Aguero) returning within a couple of weeks.

Its funny how a lot of journalists are seething at the fact that they couldn't get a straightforward United-Liverpool title race. I just saw an article on the Mail describing how they think its possible for City to slip up in the upcoming fixtures

Recently heard that he has a connection with Tuchel too, on his aunt's side. 😉