Superblue

You do realise that Liverpool changed their entire front line tonight.

Our most complete performance by an absolute mile this season was away at Burnley when Hazard was injured. For me there is a huge mentality problem in the squad relying on Hazard. The problem is Hazard himself lacks the mentality to go with his ridiculous levels of natural talent. After a promising start, it looks like he'll manage what he does every season for us, about 15 goals. Players need to step up and take on the responsibility because until the overall mentality of the squad changes we'll be lucky scrapping for top 4. And now it's clear that Hazard is very unlikely to score the volume of goals we all hoped he would, by god we need a striker.

I agree that such a formation shouldn't be a permanent fixture, but we cannot play like we did against Spurs away against the top sides because we'll get ripped apart every time. There has to be some compromise against certain teams. Guardiola adapted his approach this season to combat Liverpool. I want Sarri to trust his system and his principles but he also has to show a little flexibility also when its needed.

Agree with this, the best defence in the world still need protection in front of them. Our front three were hopeless yesterday pressing the ball and there was no urgency in our midfield. If Luiz is our best option alongside Rudiger (and I think at the moment he probably is) then he needs better protection. That means better pressing up top (I hope that Pedro gets a run of games because even if he's struggling to make an attacking impact he'll always run himself into the ground for the cause) and Sarri seriously has to consider an alternative plan in our midfield. In away games, certainly against the top teams Kante must play deeper to give us more solidity. Jorginho will get overrun time and time again against teams of similar ilk. And against the lesser teams who I believe will now look at a strategy to man mark or cover Jorginho, Sarri has to consider Jorginho pushing further forward up the pitch and trust Kante/Barkley/Kovacic to drop into the Jorginho space. We've really struggled the last couple of games moving the ball up the field and Sarri cannot be seen to be too stubborn. I'm happy for him to trust his philosophy and continue to implement it but even Guardiola learned at times things need tweaking against certain teams or in circumstances to help his team. Sarri must do the same and quickly.

I don't think his view is blocked, he's left flat footed because he's expecting Luiz to block the shot considering it is going straight at Luiz. We can argue about Kepa's involvement but the fact is when your centre back doesn't have the natural instincts a defender should have with regards to making tackles, making blocks, marking, positional awareness, etc you're in trouble and Luiz can be deemed liable at all of those things at times (he displayed them all to their worst in this match!).

Kepa could have probably done better with the first, although there have been plenty of instances where a ball is crossed in at speed and the smallest flicks are enough to deviate the ball away enough from the keeper. I am not blaming him for the second goal though. He got completely mugged off by Luiz diving out the way of the ball. Any defender with an ounce of defensive awareness and discipline would block that shot - you wouldn't see Rudiger or Azpi doing what Luiz did.

We cannot revert back to Cahill again and Christensen has regressed and it feels like he is too busy moaning in the media about game time rather than knuckling down and fighting for his place. He has to take his chances which he simply hasn't done so far because the talent is there, we saw that last season. At the moment I would argue, whilst raw, Ampadu is a hugely intriguing option who could grow into the centre back we need. It's whether Sarri would give him the chance. On a side note however, the performance from Luiz today I think was his worst in a Chelsea shirt. He managed to send the rest of the backline into a complete meltdown, and his part played in the second and third goals were nothing short of embarrassing.

I still think in the long run we need to upgrade up front, but the last couple of games have been far more positive and he deserves some credit for his recent performances. I felt he was one of the few positives against Derby, he seemed to be more prepared to hold the ball up and play with his back to goal. And today, I didn't think he was great. But what he did do was score two very smart finishes being where he should be inside the box. The miss at the end was disappointing but he does seem to have a bounce in his step and some confidence. And today and Burnley last week he has scored key goals which have helped us to 6 points. That is what we've been crying out for so long may it continue. I still think we could be short come the end of the season but the last week I feel far more confident that Morata could get 12-15 league goals this season if he can take this momentum with him and if Hazard can get 20+ and the likes of Willian, Pedro and Barkley all chip in we could sustain a push for the title.

Worst performance of the season by a country mile and does show up some deficiencies in the depth of our defence. It's deceptive because the stats will show we dominated possession but the vast majority was across the back line with none either capable or confident enough to pass through the press. Therefore we'd either have defenders taking way too many touches instead of one or two touch (Cahill I think truly believes he's a clone of Beckenbauer) and then rather than keeping short and passing into our midfield we banged the ball long. Luiz is not the greatest defender, never will be and will more than likely be the cause of some goals conceded this season. But immediately upon his arrival we did get a much firmer grip on the game and started beating their press and finding Fabregas and Kovacic. This game was the biggest example to show why Sarri plays Luiz currently. And the few I've seen who suggest Zappacosta should get a chance over Azpilicueta at right back. Sorry I don't see this myself. One of my very few positives from the game (besides winning of course, it was a cup game after all so result tonight was more important than performance) - I actually felt it was the best all round game Morata has played in a long while. He looked bright, lots of running and actually held the ball up well and brought others into play with his back to goal. He still has a lot of work to do and will come up against much better defenders but his change in attitude to this part of his game was a big plus and will make a big difference to our overall game if he keeps doing this.

Our backup keeper and defence aren't just defensively poor but are incapable of beating the press that derby are making. Its the reason why we are struggling to dominate the game. It's showing just how important luiz and rudiger are currently for this system.

I believe we've put down a huge marker today that we're genuine contenders and we have the quality throughout our squad to share the responsibility with Hazard out. If the players can continue stepping up in this way with Hazard back in the team we could put some big scores on teams this season.

It's gone from being arguably our weakest area a couple of years ago to our strongest area by a mile. Particularly against some of the teams in the lower half of the table, I'd be confident currently playing any mix of the 6 we have and dominating the game. The best part is also we will only keep getting better as all the players get used to Sarri's methods.

They are playing extremely well but their acid test will be over the next few weeks when they play the likes of Spurs and Liverpool. Will have a better idea of their credentials this season after that. Currently though they are riding an extremely impressive wave of momentum.

This is huge, players stepping up in Hazard's absence. We might not be that far away in this title race after all...

Really pleased for how things are going for Barkley. It could have been very easy to be labelled a flop and cast off all too quickly but he showed a lot of determination and application over the summer to get himself ready for this season and it can just go to show where some hard work can take you. A few people when we signed him were mentioning that he is essentially a blank canvas because he's never really held a set position in a team and i think that has also benefit him with Sarri coming in able to shape him how he sees fit. Loftus-Cheek could take a lot from what Barkley has done over the past 12 months and where he has ended up. Sometimes a step backwards is needed to move forward. I don't see Barkley as this 'Gazza-esque' special talent which he's been saddled with for years. I don't think he was ever that. What I see in Barkley now is someone who is becoming a consistent, reliable and trusted performer for the club. He won't put up crazy numbers of goals and assists but he's more than capable of chipping in with around 10 of each per season which is what we need in that position.

I can understand your point, but there's an argument that all teams play slightly different with different players, etc. It makes every single signing a potential risk that said player can produce what he has previously or hopefully better. I think your argument about styles is fair for last season but this season we are playing far more offensively and creating a number of chances and Morata is still struggling. To be honest I don't think Aubameyang provides a huge amount more than scoring goals but he plays to his strengths on the last line of defence with his pace and is intelligent with his runs to fashion chances. And as I mentioned in the previous post, he could be pretty ineffective throughout a game but when he carries a dangerous goal threat and scores solid numbers that is at present what we desperately need. That's the biggest problem with Morata, I'm not sure what his strength actually is (apart from being pretty good in the air with deep crosses and we don't play in that way) and whatever it is he certainly isn't playing to it.

Aubameyang is a significant upgrade if we're looking at goals scored. He already has more league goals than Morata in 18 less games. 14 in 21 is very good going and if we had someone scoring at that rate, there'd be no striker issue.

I would argue Morata's problem is less physical and more mental. He doesn't have the mentality of a top striker because he has absolutely no belief in himself. He doesn't need to be the strongest striker, there are plenty of examples of top strikers who aren't. If he wants to play with his back to goal then he has to back himself to hold the ball up. The only way a defender can win the ball is going through him which will be a foul, but this involves Morata inviting them to do this not assuming that's what they'll do and fall over. If they don't and simply hold their ground, then he can lay the ball off and spin them. Otherwise he doesn't play like this and instead he plays on the last man looking to get in behind all the time. But again, you wonder if he's intimidated to do this given the amount of chances he's missed previously. The top strikers will all go through goal droughts and bad performances but they back themselves to keep going and trying, and the fans can see that too. Hasselbaink, Drogba, Costa. It's what made them bonafide first choice strikers for the club and the same reason players like Morata and Torres simply haven't been up to scratch.

It would depend on the terms of the loan. I would imagine a relatively high profile player like batshuayi would command a reasonable loan fee and therefore a recall option would not be available or a penalty clause would probably involve us paying back most of a fee for him to come back.

I find that extremely disrespectful to Azpilicueta. People always talk about how criminal its been for hazard to play for so long under defensive minded managers but Azpi should have similar gripes having spent his whole career being shunted across the entire Chelsea back 4/5, yet has been consistently our best and most reliable defender during this time and an absolute model professional who has given their all for this football club.

Sarri mentioned over the international break that he was tempted to look at Hazard up front this season. I wonder if he tries this out soon if our strikers continue to struggle.

Whilst I agree they can all be improved upon, Sarri can't really take the blame for them. Luiz and Alonso are better than other options we currently have in their respective positions. Willian - I would expect Pedro is actually Sarri's preferred choice and in my opinion the better option but has been coming back from an injury. Morata is terrible but we can hardly flog Giroud every game.

My takes on today's game: 1. We are hamstrung with Morata up front. Gary Neville got it spot on in commentary saying he is always looking to go down with his back to goal. He just isn't cut out for playing as a link striker. If Giroud could guarantee 12-15 goals a season we would be fine because his contribution in the last 15 minutes was far better than Morata's for 75. The problem still remains without a goalscorer we will struggle to keep pace this year. 2. We saw the best and worst of Luiz today. When Jorginho is being man marked, Luiz has an important role to start attacks and particularly in the first half he showed that we can cope with someone trying to shut down Jorginho because we've got him so accomplished on the ball. But United's second goal was criminal. He's so rash into tackles and it will cost us points at stages during the season. 3. I'm really happy with the keeper. He had no chance with the goals but he is very good on the ball and that confidence and ability on the ball gives a huge boost to be able to play out from the back which I do believe wouldn't have been anywhere near as effective with Courtois between the sticks. 4. After Mourinho and Conte, I find it refreshing that Sarri is so honest and humble. If it was Conte, that thing at the end would have resulted in days of paper talk and negative press. Sarri squashed it immediately, and was completely honest about the game. We were the better team in the first half and completely lost any and all rhythm in the second.

Agree to this. I think there are a lot of similarities to their moaning attitudes and general petulance but Morata does seem more mobile and better in space than Torres. Lacazette would be ideal. Just to think that we've spent similar money on batshuayi, morata and giroud to what arsenal have spent on lacazette and aubameyang is pretty poor.

I don't think he's much different to Torres in terms of performances and production for the team. To be honest there's quite a few similarities in both with regards to style, attitude, etc. The biggest problem with Torres was that the money paid for him at the time was huge and once Drogba left, we were in a position where we had no other option but to play him. At least with Morata he's proven to be dispensable and droppable, and for that reason I think it doesn't become quite as infuriating. To be honest I think he's a pretty good option to have as part of a striking group and I think he would thrive far more being under the radar as opposed to the main man, the pressure which he clearly struggles with. The fact still remains though that a top striker that will score us 20+ a season is the biggest need at the moment.