OneMoSalah

Im sorry but what? I am baffled. Honestly, what did you watch 😂 One of our best players again.

Hand ball? What the Varane (I think it was Varane) one? Obvious? Jesus that was never going to be given as a penalty.

Aye draw isnt the worst result. Could be on aye. Honestly should of been 2/3 goals up basically would have killed the tie though.

Well games fizzled out. Good job Rudi looks alright. Fair to say, if we dont go through next week, we really will only have ourselves to blame. How many chances did we have? Could have been 2/3-0 up very easily before their goal. Not surprisingly, Timo Werner big chances missed again. Not to say he will solely be to blame obviously that would be harsh but the scoreline would of been more comfortable if he did his job. I dont think we will have a better chance against Madrid when Ramos and Mendy return to boost their backline. I dont think they will go with a 3 at the back either. Refs been alright tbf. Bit card shy maybe with Marcelo but hardly been that bad. Cant say refs heavily influenced game. Hasn’t disrupted the flow of the game either.

Yeah. I think that’s how it works. Used to be 3 yellows and you missed a game. Now they wipe them after quarter finals and can only miss final if sent off in the semis 2nd leg by looks of it. “Yellow cards accumulated in UEFA club competitions from the beginning of the group stage were wiped out upon the completion of the quarter-finals. All players left in the competition now have a clean slate. That means a single yellow card for a player in one leg of a semi-final cannot lead to them being suspended for the final should their team qualify.” also states here. ”By wiping cards after the quarterfinals, the only way a player misses the final is via a red card. ” https://www.google.com/amp/s/the18.com/soccer-news/when-are-yellow-cards-wiped-champions-league-2021%3Famp see above

The rules are now I think if your sent off in a semi final first leg you miss the second leg only. You cannot miss the final unless sent off in the second leg of semis. I think.

Eden coming in for Real. Ziyech and Reece for us.

Chilwell. Waken up. Dillydallying there on the ball before realising fuck all was on. How many fouls is Marcelo getting away with?

Tbf the idea was ok, not so bad there but he really should be taking it first time. Much better positioned to put it across the GK I think. And means the CB cant get closer. Just shows his confidence/ability/decision making.

Are they though? I dont think his movement has done anything really. The only havoc hes wreaking is limiting our passing options in the final third as his runs are not great runs. He is going side to side more than in behind.

I know he missed some bit chances in Germany but he should be ironing that out of his game naturally as he gets older. May I remind you he is 25. Not 18. Those sort of chances don’t always come around every week in the PL or a CL semi final so he has to do better. And if not then is this really the sort of player to drive us on and improve our team? Even before people were saying his runs off the ball were digging him out as it stretched teams. His runs are infuriating 9 times out of 10, it hurts my head sometimes watching them. I would say its ok to have a bad game but after his game v West Ham, you’d think yeah surely he will be at it to a degree. But no.

Aye but look at some hes missed this season. A non professional footballer with one leg would probably have scored half of them. That is the harsh reality.

Jesus. Cut that across the box. Never scoring from there. Cant score from 6 yards out whys he thinking he can score from there?

100% agree. Not natural for someone with his goalscoring record to miss these sort of chances. If we go in with him as our main source of goals next season we wont progress simple as that. Even if our defence and midfield improves again, time and time again you need that clinical player in the final third. He is not that atm.

Thats why we needed a second. Benzema. Bastard. Why is Azpi marking Casemiro?

Second goal please.

Get in. Thank fuck he didnt pass to Werner, I am sorry but every time I see him miss I begin to think hes never going to ever be a success here. Cannot miss those chances.

Seems they’ve gone to a back 3 and wingbacks to match us. This will be interesting. Can see why he’s went for the same 3 at the back and also Azpi at RWB. Madrid have got 3 CBs in Militao, Nacho and Varane plus Casemiro and Benzema who are surprisingly strong in the air. Not only that it gives us more solidarity although Azpi at RWB may infuriate some people going forward. Suppose though it may give TT the option of changing a CB for Hudson-Odoi later on and putting Azpi back to RWB perhaps? Marcelo at LWB maybe why Azpi is staying at RWB too.

Think Lo Celso and Ndombele if you get them fit and playing every week its a good base to go from for a more expansive minded manager. Ndombele showed plenty flashes first half of the season. Their defence would be the biggest issue tbf. RB and CBs not good enough. The LB is the only one who you’d want to keep. Derailing post a bit but I am personally quite surprised how poorly Lo Celso has done as he was a classy wee player at Real Betis in that team that were playing great stuff under Setien. Similarly to Bielsa’s Bilbao team that season they put United out of the EL, Betis were of a similar mould, looked a real good team. He looked a really good technician, athletic, could take the ball under pressure, scored goals and got assists. Play deeper, box to box or as a 10. Re ten Hag: I do wonder if ten Hag can replicate his success outside of Holland though, they haven’t had the same success as they did in 2018-2019 season. He’s undoubtedly a good manager and their list isn’t exactly going to be huge for candidates who are of a certain calibre because theirs not many managers out there looking for work. Also looks like Sarri is likely to go to Roma to replace Paulo Fonseca so thats maybe another name off their list of potential targets alongside Nagelsmann. I reckon they’ll go for Hasenhuttl in all honesty, who probably isnt going to take them any higher than top 4/top 6 and would need time.

Oh no, honestly, do some research. The whole were 1st now 5th thing, look at the results they had and points they dropped, majority’s without Tomori. He didnt play in the 3-0 loss v Atalanta. Didnt start v Spezia who beat them 2-0, he came on a sub when it was 1-0 at like the 64th minute. Didn't play in 3-0 loss to Inter. Didnt play v Udinese in the 1-1 draw. Thats 11 points lost in games he wasn’t involved in (okay 26 minutes v Spezia). They have only dropped 7 he has played in, not counting the 26 mins he played v Spezia because he was already subbed on when they were losing. Earlier in the season they’d also dropped points v Roma, Hellas Verona, Parma, Genoa, Juventus prior to Tomori going there towards the end of January. The damage was done before he signed realistically and Inter have went on a huge run only dropping 13 points. Milan never had the staying power to finish top of the league. They've dropped 27 points all season so only 10 when Tomori’s been there (including Spezia game although was 1-0 when he subbed on and he played 26 mins). Theres a reason why Romangoli was dropped. For your captain as well to be dropped it doesn’t exactly look good performance wise. Thats why they are saying Milan want to sign Tomori because he’s probably playing at a better level, obviously Romagnoli has quality but he had been making mistakes/playing poorly. Dont agree with the better than de Ligt comments from that guy but some of his individual defensive play has been very good over there, asking the question why Frank didn’t give him more game time last season and this before being sacked. Will fetch us €30m this summer unfortunately as they are keen so good luck to him, I think for a younger CB theres no better league for him to learn. And even then, overrated? Really? Were you not shouting Connor Gallagher was better than Mason Mount when he was playing at Charlton last season for about 2 months? Let me guess Guehi is better than Tomori now also 😂 ? I think people will never be happy with our youngsters. Was same with Lewis Bate being better/could be better than Billy Gilmour last season. Some folk will never be happy.

I think we will go through if we show up and play well like v Atletico, Liverpool and City also with Tuchel. Just have a feeling. No doubt Madrid are a good team, undoubtedly, but their not as good as some make out. Their experience counts for a lot though. I think if Casemiro, Kroos and Modric play we have to be playing at a high tempo, being relentless off the ball and pressure them. They are top players but Kroos and Modric are also 30+ and both have missed games due to injury so we need to crank it up and get about them. Standing off Kroos like Liverpool did will cost us, two goals directly came from Liverpool not getting close to him. Should be an intriguing game. Hopefully get a big Kante performance as well, if he plays well and we defend well, I think we will have a huge chance. Obviously we need to score goals but I think Mount, Pulisic, Werner/Havertz have the ability to test their back 4 also. No Mendy at LB for them so talk of Nacho playing there plus no Ramos so they are there to be gotten at. Militao is a good player but the drop off between Ramos and Varane to him is big.

Yeah it is infuriating at times. The best fullbacks know when to go first time, when to take a touch and put it on or when to recycle it. Chilwell is guilty of taking too many at times, his delivery is usually not bad but the extra touch or two ruins the momentum of our moves and allows people to close him down. Have been impressed with how hes bounced back though, Alonso at the beginning looked like he would be more regular out of the two but Chilwell is slowly growing into the wingback role.

Linked with Varane and also Kounde from Sevilla again. I would assume we will lose Zouma and Tomori this summer then as talks are Silva will be staying as we have a 1 year extension. We need a left footed CB though, not chasing Laporte a few seasons back was a huge error I think its crazy City have got both Dias and Laporte who are two of the best CBs in Europe and they dont even pair them up a lot. How he doesnt play for France is even crazier. Much better than Umtiti, although Umtiti is a good CB also but has regressed. If we go to a back 4 then we will be selling for sure Tomori and a CB. You probably need 4 CBs in the squad for a back 4, so Silva, Rudi, Christensen (selling would be a mistake now I think Tuchel has put huge faith in him and hes clearly delivered) and then one of Varane/Kounde/Sule? Plus the we have Azpi who can do the role even in a 4 as he did for Spain as LCB with Lopetegui if needed as well as obviously back up at LB and playing RB. Whoever it is must be dominant in the air as we lack height and prominent ability to attack the ball bar Rudiger and Zouma, although Silva and Christensen are capable but not as dominant in that regard. 40-50m for Varane would be a steal.

If we went to a 3 man MF and lost one of Jorginho or Ngolo I could see the need for him. Wont happen though. Plus I think if went to a 3 man MF, Kovacic is 100% on to start most games, Kante/Jorginho then for another position and Mount as the more advanced player. Or Havertz although I think his intensity isnt up to it for a MF role unless its a 10 and he also looks better off the front/false 9. If we keep with a 2 he isnt the sort of guy we need really. Unless he played ahead of Mount or whoever in the front 3 as a 10.

If we want Varane, I would expect then at least one of the current CBs to leave. Maybe two? Including Tomori I suppose. Maybe Zouma might be one to leave from the current guys. I think Christensen will stay now and get a new deal as when he has played centrally in the back 3 he has looked great and I think, even in a 4, Tuchel can continue aiding his progression. The clubs never going to bin Azpi seeing as he is the clubs captain and still has a tonne to offer at RCB also as well as can cover RB and LB. Players who can play 3/4 roles are always useful.