Superblue

Apparently this interview was done nearly a month ago before he caught covid and the quote about Tuchel was more to do with he felt he was fitter to play a bigger role than Tuchel and the medical department felt he was. It doesn't completely excuse the situation, the Belgians seem to be amongst the worst for talking publicly in the media, but probably a little bit more context given to it than it looking like he's just come out bitching at the lowest and most challenging part of the season. It is still, however, another headache to contend with. Why do we always have to self-combust every time things seem good?!

Luiz was almost a necessity at the time with the transfer ban (and to be fair we made a few million out of renewing him in the end) Willian I guess we'll never know for sure what we were prepared to offer as he never agreed to anything.

And your assessment is right. We have a good enough team to beat anyone on our day when everyone is fit and firing but the foundations don't seem to be there for a sustained title push throughout the season. Not with how the bar has been raised by Liverpool and especially City. The biggest question to the board is are they happy with where we are at, winning some trophies but quite frankly coming nowhere near the league title. Or do they want to try and lay some longer term foundations to try and build towards that. The signs would suggest in some instances that we are starting to look more long term. Our transfers in recent times have either been with long term in mind or they've been with the intention of improving the strongest XI rather than squad filling. The breakout of the academy players lends weight too to being able to grow stronger organically with a crop of players that haven't cost anything to take up squad spots, allowing us to focus on bigger and better signings. A longer term managerial reign at Chelsea remains to be seen.

The biggest issue with Rudi and Christensen is that they weren't regulars under Lampard with 18 months left to run. There was no way either would sign a contract at that stage and more than likely both would have been sold last summer in normal circumstances with a year left. But both having become integral under Tuchel shifts the goalposts, especially in Rudiger's case where its the last big contract he's going to get. Azpilicueta is a different story but we've had a one year extension for over 30 year old players for years. There are always going to be one or two that slip through the net as a result but I do think that the policy is a good idea that has worked well for us.

From the link: Chelsea spent £220.3million on signings in the financial year, headlined by the arrival of Kai Havertz in addition to Ben Chilwell and Edouard Mendy. The financial year concluded the day before the 2021 summer transfer window opened so the £100million cost of signing Romelu Lukaku from Internazionale is not factored in.

Agree with this but on the flip side both were given time, resources and influence greater than what our managers have been given. Under our regime would Guardiola have made a second season. Probably but I don't think he would have been afforded the transfer budgets that he'd enjoyed at City. There's no way we would have binned players off as quick as some he has and bought just as expensive replacements. Klopp definitely wouldn't have been afforded the time he got at Liverpool here. I genuinely feel like Tuchel needs time. Whilst the Champions League win puts credit in the bank, it also adds pressure on him that this squad is better than it is in the eyes of the media and probably the board. I can hold my hands up and say I'm guilty of this too. Some players are fine and can do a job like Alonso for 15 - 20 games a season being rotated in, etc but when they're required for a significant part of the season they are clearly not up to task. What Klopp and Guardiola have shown is that with the right manager, time and resources you can build long term success, something that we haven't really had since Mourinho's first team grew old and broke up. We've had patches like you said but nothing sustained. I do believe that Tuchel is the right manager to back and build something long term that can be sustained to regularly challenge City and Liverpool. It comes down to the board and Roman what they want...

Tripper isn't a bad shout but the problem will be that a team like Newcastle will likely be prepared to spend quite big on him. We have to be really careful here with what we do in January. It's clear we need reinforcements, especially at wing back, but short term fixes need to be as cheap and efficient as possible. There has been too many cases in the past of short term gain for long term pain in our squad and I do feel in recent times we've moved away from that mindset and set our sights on clearer targets, even if we've had to wait. If we could make deals to take Trippier and Digne on loans (even if we had to pay a couple of mill as a loan fee) then great, I'm all for that. If however, we need to be spending £20m to bring someone in I just feel it's worsening the situation in the future as with the greatest respect Digne isn't really much better than Alonso and Trippier is already 31 and never really cut it at the highest level. If the options were take a Trippier or Digne now for £20m or get through this season and pick up someone like Theo Hernandez for £50m in the summer then I'd rather make do and get the player in the summer that will significantly improve us. '

Aren't these figures based on the previous summer spending? I think the deals last summer come into effect next time.

I would have expected a few weeks ago that Rudiger would be the only player we'd lose but it's now looking more and more likely that Christensen and Azpi could move on too. It's far from ideal that we'll need to replace 3 first team players automatically before we even look at improving a squad which has shown in recent weeks it needs refreshing. I can see the club moving for one of the players who's contracts are expiring this summer like Sule or Ginter and I wouldn't be surprised if Tuchel looked at recalling Colwill next season as a left footed centre back. That would probably leave us with needing one big centre back signing then to go with the above and Silva and Chalobah (bearing in mind Silva will be 38 next season though, he can't go on forever no matter how good he is). I feel with the system and Tuchel's coaching that any decent/good centre back would look significantly better. You only have to look at how much better Azpi, Rudiger and Christensen look in a back 3 compared to a back 4 (even going back to Conte's days). I would be more inclined to be spending money on (a) wing backs, (b) an attacking upgrade on the likes of Pulisic and Ziyech and (c) a dominant midfielder to take over long term from Kante.

If we are in a comfortable top 3 position with a good gap between us and those chasing fourth spot then I'm happy for us to rotate in the league at stages to concentrate on europe and the FA Cup if we're still in both later in the season. But 4th place year on year is unsustainable, it will come back to bite us eventually. We need to be positioning ourselves to take over from City and their dominance in the league over the next couple of years.

Agreed. Bar Lukaku, the same group of players played a back 4 under Lampard and that wasn't working. Our attackers are inconsistent, that's the biggest problem. Recent games have been a bit more difficult but usually we've created more than enough chances to score goals and win games and regularly we've been found wanting. Is having an extra inconsistent attacker on the pitch going to help things in attack at the risk of making our defensive shape significantly more vulnerable? We've already seen Alonso at full back, Rudiger in a back 2, Jorginho with less protection in midfield and none are a recipe for success moving forward.

Azpi at right wing back is the better option with the run of games we have coming up, especially the Liverpool and City games. The problem is with Silva and Christensen both injured and unsure how bad both are, we may not even have that luxury. Seem to be bouncing from injury crisis to injury crisis in different positions on the pitch (midfield to attack and now to defence).

Not a good watch tonight. I thought we'd rode the storm and when Kante came on we seemed to wrestle the game back. Arguably the equaliser came at a time when Brighton didn't really look hugely threatening compared to the best part of an hour beforehand. You can't argue that they didn't deserve a draw at least though. Unfortunately the schedule has just completely screwed us. From my calculations, us and City are the only two teams the whole of this schedule to play our whole quota of games so far (and a league cup quarter final to boot in there too) and City have been barely affected by injuries or covid, whilst we've been ravaged. I know games may catch up on teams later in the season but I'd rather take the chance later in the season of having more options available in the squad to rotate than ploughing through at the moment with a raft of absences and a number of those that are playing clearly not fit enough to be. Everything has caught up with us, some of the players looked completely out on their feet tonight. But then what are we expecting from them? Kovacic has been chucked into action pretty much immediately after weeks out with injury and covid, it will take him some games to get up to speed and fit again. CHO and Lukaku have been put straight back in after covid (Werner went out similar time to them and isn't even back in training yet), the likes of Mount, Pulisic and James have been completely flogged this period as there's nothing else available. I'm not surprised James has been injured now.

From what I understand Barca have to get rid of players and free up wages to make space for Torres to come in. If they're struggling to do this then we might be able to negotiate a loan move for Dest for the rest of the season with an option to buy. I don't like the idea of buying outright in January unless a really top deal came up. As some have said, Dest is still raw but in a wing back role, his attacking strengths can be highlighted and his defensive weaknesses masked a little easier. The flexibility of playing both sides will help too if James is unavailable or Tuchel wants to rest him. We already have Azpilicueta as the more defensive minded player who can play on either flank. What we desperately miss out on Chilwell is the pace and athleticism to get up and down the pitch and help back up the attackers when pressing the ball. We should get that with Dest. I don't think we'd get that with Digne if I'm honest.

Will need surgery and out for the season apparently.

It was going to be next to impossible to create much today. Wolves had 2 banks of 3 in the centre of the park, the only space for us was out wide where we don't have effective attacking players and there's about 1% chance of Pulisic winning a ball in the middle against 3 Wolves centre backs well over 6 foot. That Pulisic chance had to go in as chances were always going to be few and far between. We just have to accept where we are at the moment, literally decimated by injuries and Covid and from what it appears Chalobah and Ziyech both came off injured today too. The only way it may stop is if either the Villa game is called off (bearing in mind there game yesterday was postponed due to a Covid outbreak you wouldn't expect is cleared up by Boxing Day) or there's a break now over Xmas. We could end up finding ourselves this season in a position in between everyone else where we're ahead of the pack chasing top 4 but not close enough to challenge City and Liverpool. That might not be the worst position to find ourselves in the latter part of the season if we're still in cup competitions and Europe as for once it may give us an opportunity to rest and rotate to concentrate on them instead of having to go full pelt in everything at the end of the season.

Only penetration from one flank, nobody in midfield capable of controlling and dictating the rhythm and tempo of the game and no one capable of playing the central striker role properly. I think anything out of the game today will be a positive to be honest.

Would be interesting to know how many covid cases other teams have had for games to be cancelled. If we have 7 or 8 out with it as its being rumoured it seems ridiculous to still be forced to carry on.

I wouldn't be against taking Digne on loan for the rest of the season whether Chilwell needs surgery or not. Alonso's form at the start of the season was fine, but he's looked shambolic since Chilwell got injured and Chilwell's form before his injury highlighted just how important the wing backs are to this formation. I would actually seriously consider putting in a loan offer for Hazard too. I wouldn't risk buying him given what has happened over the last couple of seasons but if Madrid just want to get rid, I'd be inclined to take a punt on him and see whether any type of form could be rekindled. People said similar about Bale going to Spurs last season and although they had a poor season, Bale actually didn't do too bad. It would be interesting to see if a signing like that could have a buzz and reaction within the club, fans, etc and get the fire burning again within Hazard. To be honest Hazard at 50% would still probably be a more creative output than most of our attacking players at the moment.

No he's not going to press as relentlessly as the likes of Mount and Werner but I think he would press as part of a team press. There's a difference between attacking players working hard and pressing from the front high up the pitch compared to attacking players being expected to track back defensively which is what Conte and Mourinho had more of a problem with Hazard about. To be fair I feel that in recent weeks, whilst the quality isn't always there, the work rate of Havertz and Ziyech has increased significantly to what it has been in the past, so who knows? A more progressive team trying to win the ball higher up the pitch might have seen more from that side of the game from Hazard.

Sarri's system was nowhere near as flexible as Tuchel's though. He put up with it like Jose and Conte before him, because Hazard could create or score in tight games, whereas I think Tuchel would have embraced a player like that. I think being one of the three attack minded players in Tuchel's system and given the freedom to drift and play across the pitch would have benefited him.

Yeah hasn't gone well! I don't agree with the house falling down just yet though. We've not just been ravaged with absences but they seem to be bunched into the same areas of the pitch. Look how vulnerable Liverpool were last season when they had a similar issue with their defence. People talk about squad depth but there's players vital to our system and the replacements in the squad just aren't good enough. Losing Kante/Kovacic and Chilwell has taken a significant chunk of energy and drive from our midfield/wing back positions which for me is the most critical area of the pitch with the way we play under Tuchel. We have legs to swarm and press, but also quality with the ball to control and dominate a game. With those players out we've looked completely one paced and lacklustre. No press resistance, and not good enough to press without the ball.

It's no surprise that individually his best season was probably under Sarri where he played for a manager who was at least trying to play a higher possession, more positive style. The Hazard before he left for Real Madrid would be the X factor for this team and just help open everything up. Unfortunately a player like Hazard doesn't just come around on a regular basis.

People said it for years, but ironically this group and manager are what Hazard could really have done being surrounded by. And on top of that, this group needs the player that Hazard was at Chelsea.

I think if you decimated Liverpool and City's midfield and attacking options they'd find it significantly more difficult to break down a team prepared to sit in and camp 11 men behind the ball. We showed when we held Liverpool at bay with 10 men how difficult it can be to break a team down so deep, and with the lack of options tonight it was always going to be difficult to do so I felt. I think this is the type of game we actually bought Lukaku for where we could push a ball into him through the centre, or get wide and spam crosses into the box. With Pulisic the central striker it left us far too one dimensional against a side setting up like that. What is unforgiveable however is having finally taken the lead, we've blown it within a couple of minutes with a comedy of errors leading to a free kick and then woeful marking for that set piece. The worry is, if we have to play this weekend with these options, I don't see us winning.