OneMoSalah

Played very well in the first 2 games and in terms of using the ball, taking risks with it, not getting caught on it and carrying the ball under pressure, hes been good. We all knew that with his skillset he has huge potential to be a really good player. If he can just fine tune his positioning yet without the ball and maybe like I said get goals and assists, think the 40m is going to be seen as a good deal.

True again, maybe ahead of Emerson but would of expected Jorginho, Barkley, Mount, Tammy to be ahead of Azpi in the first 5 due to them having been regular penalty takers/very good from a dead ball.

Considering one is a CF, who scored 25 goals last season including penalties and the other is a fullback, I dont see the issue with him putting Tammy up there at all before the captain. If he put Azpi up and he missed then he would get crucified. Fullbacks traditionally arent very good at penalties. Or ahead of strikers in penalty shoot out line ups, although he went with Emerson ahead of him but I would of been intrigued to see who would have taken the 6th.

Unlucky to lose on pens. But a finals a final, you can play shit and win or play good and lose. Tammys pen was shite but hey ho thats penalties. He did ok when he came in but missed a huge chance in normal or extra time (cant remember) which any top level striker would definitely put away. Strikers scoring goals will be a problem if Giroud, Tammy and Batshuayi need 4 or 5 good chances to score per game. Lots of positives though. Unfortunate to get 2 goals disallowed although both definitely offside. Tomori looked settled too.

Perhaps hes nowhere near ready though? Hes only on the bench due to injuries I think despite still not being 100% fit. If Reece James was fit he'd be on the bench instead. I don't think Frank is gonna risk Rudiger.

Tomori is faster than Christensen, I'd imagine he wants us to be higher up the pitch and also with extra time looking hugely likely, a defensive change maybe not the worst idea.

Just me or does anyone else think 433 just suits us a lot better? I don't think its any surprise we have looked more compact and the gaps aren't anywhere near as big.

2 good subs to take on, for Pulisic though maybe Pedro would be better but I think Pedro has done well tracking back so maybe helped his case. Kepa what a save. Brilliant.

Fair to say the one thing Pulisic has been disappointing with tonight is deliveries from corners. Suppose that means him and Hazard have one thing in common then. Playing a lot better now after their goal, need another goal to capitalise though, they have the fire power to turn the game on its head in one transition.

Lots of talk of Lamps wanting Ben Chilwell when the transfer bans done, only problem is Leicester rate him at 70-80m. While I think hes a good player, he is certainly not worth that but I suppose getting 10 years service out of him will make it a good investment. The markets crazy though. Striker is a must too.

Pulisic has got Joe Gomez on toast. Keep giving him the ball. Good goal but offside so right call. Pedro also getting better of Robertson a lot too. Still a lot to do only 1 half played. Must get a 2nd goal.

But thats what people throughout England wanted last season, the pundits especially. Just shows. Very promising performance so far, goals needed though, nobody remembers the team that played well in a final, only the team that wins. Mentioning goals and theres Pulisic and Giroud linking up for a goal, class, Pulisic makes that goal. Superb. Get in.

True but the role is the same, hes free to go hunt the ball high up. He isn't fixed like many people want to see him be, which is ironic because hes never played as a fixed 6 in his whole career in the PL.

So I see Kante playing same position Sarri used him. In a game like this, absolutely, wonder if anyone has questioned Frank using him there yet? Pedro and Pulisic looking decent so far.

First I've heard of that. Guy was clearly deluded if that was his stance. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/chelsea/10484288/Jose-Mourinho-Romelu-Lukaku-likes-to-talk-but-he-wont-say-why-hes-at-Everton-and-not-Chelsea.html The article in which Jose questions him to say why he doesnt say why he went on loan. Turns out was before he made permanent move to Everton this quote did the rounds from Jose. "He wanted to play for Chelsea but wanted to be the first-choice striker. That's very difficult to promise." From this article: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/28569197 The rumor was that this was also the same after his season at West Brom when Everton got him on loan but its never been confirmed although Jose calling him out to say why he left to the media makes me think it was the same reason he left for Everton permanently.

I hope not. Christensen is better with the ball and was much better than Zouma v United. In the way of playing Frank is implementing, Zouma would be a weakspot. United targeted him. Other teams will do so too.

Imagine if he had scored. Mou might have had some faith in him. He was always gonna go, the rumor was he had basically said if he wasnt first choice after 1 season at West Brom, he wanted to go on loan. Hence why Mourinho said to ask Lukaku directly he wanted to go on loan to the press.

Loan fs, just sell him. Even for 20m. Even 15m.

Should lodge a seperate case to CAS or whatever it is. Surely FIFA cant hold one team to a different standard over the same offense? Ridiculous.

Silly move for Madrid I think. Yes Neymar is a great player but they havent offloaded Bale. They have that many players where LW is their preferred/best position too: Hazard, Vinicius, Rodrygo, Brahim Diaz and Asensio (think hes injured, could be wrong). RW is where they need to improve as they only have Bale (who isnt part of the plan) and Vazquez. Most of the others can play on the right but its just daft to overload their squad with another left winger.

Again it is easy to do. I agree. The first half as you said, if we took our chances or the final pass was better, the likes of Tammy, Mason and Frank would be getting huge praise. And with the ban, injuries etc yeah using younger players is going to be common this season, no doubt, a 4-0 beating off United as well as possibly another similar result if we play anywhere like that defensively against Liverpool who are arguably the best counter attacking team on the planet though can make or break youngsters. I do think though, in the first half, both played well enough and generally the team played well bar the penalty incident and maybe 10 mins after that. I can see Mou's point although wouldn't necessarily agree not starting them was the issue, perhaps in the second half they could have been changed earlier. I don't think anybody can safely say subbing Barkley off and keeping Mason on who was very very anonymous 2nd half was the right move and thats me being brutally honest. Giroud offers more of a target man than Tammy I feel too but Lamps made the change not too soon after anyway. True but United played on the cohnter attack, Liverpool like mentioned above, best counter attacking team in the world (for me) will exploit us time and time again if we give them that same chances or more. I'd like to see us better as a collective, the defending and pressing in blocks comment for me is bang on the money. Pressing is pointless unless the whole team do it, teams can beat presses, players like Pogba can ping passes through the lines, Henderson, Fabinho etc all can too so we need to do it all together and keep the distance between the midfield and backline small to recover the ball. For all of last seasons difficulties I think under Sarri our press was very effective at times and maybe with the change of shape and manager it will take time to build it up again. I think in the modern game you need that, as most good teams are very happy to build up in their own half, even the not so good ones. Fair enough we wont always play United or Liverpool or City but theres no doubt the smaller teams will have looked at that game and though well if we can even get one or two of those big chances against Chelsea, we fancy a chance. Personally the defence is gonna be a bit all over the joint still, based off pre-season not just the game yesterday, Rudiger back in is a big plus as well as Kante but still with Azpi and Emerson being advanced theres huge spaces there for players to exploit and isolate the CBs.

Yeah thats true. I thought Christensen was the best defensive player on the park for us despite playing average. Didnt think Emerson was that good defensively despite looking decent going the other way (dont think Emerson is good enough or ever will be for where our club aspires to be) and Azpi and Zouma sucked big style. Think maybe his comments regarding Mount and Abraham were also maybe regarding starting them in such a game when he had Giroud and Pulisic on the bench who are experienced at a higher level too. It was brave from Frank, regsrdless of Willians injury and Christians lack of PL experience and weve all expected and hoped for the use of younger guys in games but Man United turned Arsenal, who played a younger team, over 8-2 with Wenger under Ferguson and he got slaughtered for it as well. Im sure on here back in 2011 there was plenty of it going about and saying why did Wenger persist with so many youngsters in such a high magnitude game despite having more experienced players on the bench. Its swings and roundabouts, Chelsea getting beat 4-0 by United was always gonna be a issue, regardless of team. Mount and Abraham struggled 2nd half to impose themselves in the game and maybe a more experienced manager would of withdrawn them earlier or not have subbed Ross. Who knows. I dont think Jose was out of order to suggest in a game of that magnitude that maybe the 2 of them could have been changed. I think if we had Willian fit he would of played ahead of Mount anyway with Ross inside. Even if the experienced players havent performed well, theyve been there and know how to do it, I dont think you can underestimate experience going to the likes of Old Trafford, Anfield, Etihad etc. The Liverpool game will be interesting, I do hope we see 2 wingers and only 1 number 10 then.

In all fairness in regards to what Mourinho said about Mount and Abraham being too inexperienced for a game of that magnitude wasnt actually that out of order. The 2nd half Mount and Abraham offered next to nothing (Barkley off for Mount I felt was a mistake looking back on the game) and Abrahams rather poor attempt at holding up the ball, looking for a foul where a more seasoned player would of likely stayed up, started off a move than ended in a goal although its not directly his fault as it was littered with team and individual errors which relates to the next thing Mourinho said. Mourinho was also right about not defending or pressing as a block and too much space between the lines, as he put it. Interestingly enough, not seen many complaints about that, both comments I felt were very true and a nice change from what usually comes out on sky sports. If anyone else said it bar Mourinho it wouldnt of been as much of an issue I feel personally. The thing is with Mourinho's general knowledge of the game will be overlooked by our fans purely based on what happened in his last year here. For sky sports its a very good appointment as a pundit, I think he will give better insights than Carragher and Neville, who are already pretty good.

It was the same with Sarri and Conte, it will also continue to be with other managers. Thats just the reality of football. Personally I think if we lost in the manner we did today with Sarri in charge this thread would be 500 times worse. 😂

Very true but the backline even with Rudiger in it as a 4 arent in sync and thats a huge issue. Especially if teams beat our press or we sit off. Christensen for me has looked not bad today. Maybe few things here and there but solid enough.