OneMoSalah

I think De Ligt would be the best choice but would also be the most unrealistic and difficult to get unless Juve goes to shit with these allegations against them but thats all very much up in the air. Kounde is probably most likely but I have to admit, still unconvinced by him, more so this season than last but did think he was a bit overrated.

I think depending on whether or not Lewandowski wants to stay at Bayern or not, he could end up there as an outside bet but would be unlikely as the rumours are Lewa is happy to renew now after the rumours he wanted to move/considered moving the other summer. If that changed, I think Bayern could pull a deal off though. They've given Kimmich and Goretzka huge wages for new contracts and offered Alaba huge wages as well as reportedly going to be on verge of giving Gnabry a big salary also to get him to renew. Would say Madrid probably be the most obvious one though if things remain as they likely will at Bayern. I get the feeling he’s not that worried about playing in the PL or if a club can give him 500k a week or whatever they think it’ll cost.

Think he could be a risk. At least the club are monitoring and waiting to see and not just spunking their load on him. I think to replace Rudiger we need to go for someone who’s maybe played a lot more games at the same sort of level although thats not necessarily easy to find.

This has to be the game where the rot stops. I know we are looking a bit light in MF but still think some will play through the pain barrier if needed. A clean sheet is also a must to get things back to normal.

https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11899/12491726/erling-haaland-mino-raiola-says-there-is-a-big-chance-striker-will-leave-borussia-dortmund-this-summer Haaland more than likely on move this summer, Raiola quoted mentioning Man City, Bayern, Barcelona and Real Madrid in that article. Someone gonna get an absolute steal for £64m. Particularly if they can get the wages into some sort of reasonable figure, which I’d imagine they will do because I reckon Haaland will want a certain move to a certain club meaning Raiola wont be able to try and out manoeuvre him/action him off. Martial also looking likely to leave Man United in January.

Whatever the thinking on Azpi if he starts or is a rotation/squad player, losing him, Rudiger and potentially Christensen without even mentioning the fact as well we don’t know what will happen to Thiago Silva as well in the summer would be as close to a disaster as there is. Azpi, Rudiger and Silva have huge masses of experience and are big characters in and around the place. You cannot simply buy to replace all of those guys at once, obviously they will be phased out individually and the coach would bleed/rotate the replacements in (possibly like Chalobah - but again if Kounde came in the chances are he’d have the same minutes Sarr has this season) but their experience and leadership is something that is difficult to replace. We have to be careful because its not as easy as just buying 2 or 3 CBs and it automatically clicking. Plus its going to be difficult to get 2 high quality level CBs in if we decide to keep using 3 at the back and clubs will know we will be desperate to get CBs in also if thats the case. Also I’d be curious to see what Tuchel would do if we lost those all in one go because we’ve seen events with him when his teams have sold/released key players/experienced players and it hasn’t gone down well. For example, Dembele, Gundogan and Hummels at Dortmund and Cavani and Thiago Silva at PSG. And he’s been pretty dependent on those guys too since coming in, playing them a lot.

Would say this is pretty much a huge huge huge overreaction, especially to say he’s fucked our CL up already when he’s only played one game this season in it. People seem to forget we lost to Juventus basically full strength which if we won we would of topped the group.

Club world cup? Surely win that. Seasons still only half way in, the current form likely wont be out current form in a few weeks and you’ll be back to waiting for shit to go wrong before piping up again.

Been waiting for this sort of performance for god knows how long. 2 goals and an assist. If he can do this/more consistently, he may have a long term future here. At present he still has a lot to show for me.

Surprise surprise results start going to shit and you start posting nonsense again. We have already won a trophy this season.

The talk of Xavi’s tiki taka revolution is really baffling. Football’s moved on since then. Even Pep’s developed and adapted his philosophy and made it more applicable to how modern day football is now. Its the same as Man United and the Man United DNA people go about 24/7 when discussing them.

Tuchel as Chelsea manager: 54 games, 33 wins, 13 draws, 8 losses. Di Matteo as Chelsea manager: 42 games, 24 wins, 9 wins, 9 losses. Either way what a very strange comparison to make after a run of bad results… very suspect

The interview itself your taking a bit out of context, he never actually said he wanted Drinkwater and Bakayoko specifically in the interview. Just that they came in and gave more options being able to play 343 and 352. I definitely think Drinkwater was like Barkley, someone who was more than likely signed by the club more than the manager. Bakayoko I am not so sure about as he burst onto the scene as part of that Monaco team and they were a team with many exciting talents. This is the transcript: “Compared to last season, we changed players. We bought two central midfielders, Bakayoko and Drinkwater. For the characteristics of our players, to play with three midfielders is a good option. For me to be able to alternate two different systems, 3-4-3 and 3-5-2, is great. "When we play against a big team, it's very important to have more solidity with the three midfielders and two strikers, and to give more freedom to Eden,' adds Conte. "And I am very happy because I have seen my players show great ability at adapting themselves, and changing to a system by finding new solutions and memorised play. It was great for me to understand that this other option was good, and also fantastic that my players can do it."

You’d think so, granted he played poor but in the match thread there was a lot of OTT comments. The contract situation probably doesn’t help and clouds peoples judgement also, same with for Rudiger but as you’ve said he’s done more than enough the last 12 months to get away with one poor game. He will bounce back. He wasn’t the only one tonight, Azpi and Sarr were also horrible as were most of the players bar Kepa.

But why make the comparison at all then? Lots of our managers have hit poor spells this time of year. It just seems stupid and hardly relevant to compare him to RDM unless you’re hinting at the chance that he may be a few results away from maybe losing his job. I mean if you can’t see that then I don’t know. I mean how often is any Chelsea manager compared to Di Matteo result wise ? Or any manager? Plus Di Matteo was sacked in November so technically Tuchel isn’t a few results away from being like him because its December and he’s still here 😂

I don’t think any manager worth their salt at a big club would of wanted Drinkwater. I also don’t think he specifically said anywhere he wanted him. And if he did want him, he hardly used him so that contradicts any real notion he wanted him because if you want a player surely you play him no? Bakayoko signings questionable but Conte also said he wanted to keep Matic, not sell him and the club sold him.

I think Bayern are an exceptionally good team but they aren’t unbeatable. I don’t think its necessarily all been smooth sailing for Nagelsmann although they are on a very good run at present. They look very top heavy at times. Just have to wait and see.

You are getting a bit too excited. In fact far too excited. Di Matteo’s fate like Lampard’s was always going to be sealed early due to not being number 1 choice (RDM was warming the seat for Pep although never happened) and not having a great deal of experience at a big club as a manager (both Frank and RDM). Where as Tuchel is arguably of the leading coaches in the top tier of coaches around Europe, having also managed at Dortmund, Paris and now Chelsea, having a lot of experience and success at each club. We need to pick up more points and improve the performances after some bad games/dropping points v Burnley, Man United and West Ham as well as tonight but I don’t think we need to panic yet about a few results away from changing managers. Thats just extremely over the top.

True enough but better to be in the draw finishing second than not at all. I think either way, if things went well, we would of ended up playing the likes of a Bayern/Madrid at some point so if we get early, we get them early. Just the beauty of knockout football.

Bayern surely put the hurt on Barcelona tonight. They’ve only got 4 goals from 52 shots in 4 games under Xavi. 2 of them have been penalty kicks.

Least we qualified to be fair 🤣 Last time we won the CL, we got knocked out in the groups the following season with a group containing Juventus, Shakhtar and Nordsjaelland. Finishing second is a bit of a fucker because we could get tougher teams but just means we play a bigger team a round earlier than we normally would. Also means if we go through and put one of the big boys out earlier, strategically means that perhaps the draw could get easier/not as many big teams will be in it (as theres always one or two slightly smaller teams who go on good runs too)? Also works same way if we get put out.

James ball watching whilst that area outside the box had 2 Zenit players there waiting for a knockdown…. Great… Also who else was playing in CM with Reece because every time we lost the ball they were nowhere to be seen. Kepa perhaps could get more on the shot but also maybe harsh to say he could of done a great deal more to keep it out. Didnt deserve anything tonight so to get a draw is more than we deserved.

Great goal. About time Timo did something like that, only been waiting about 12 months.

This is why we need to keep him here at all costs. People act as if we can just replace him with ease… That left side has been fucking horrendous tonight though.

Don’t care what anyone says re the injuries etc, if this team has shown two things so far v Zenit its a piss poor mentality and severe lack of quality. Embarrassing. Not as if this is a poor poor team either.