Superblue

Bringing on Giroud was a mistake. He's just not mobile enough for the way we've been playing. Whilst the attackers weren't at their best, we had penned them in for the first 20 minutes of the second half. Once Giroud came on it seemed to shift momentum. Arsenal could push up a little higher and take the initiative back.

Of course he can but the more games you put into him the more likely that will happen. Especially when he's suffered a number of muscular injuries in the last couple of seasons. Tuchel has tried resting one crop of players for City and one for Arsenal to give everyone a rest. With the greatest respect, despite the changes, we still should have enough out there to be beating Arsenal at home.

The calamitous error aside, whilst we haven't played great we've played more than well enough to be level or winning this game. More than enough chances, but again no clinical edge to our game. The problem is now we're against a team who are set up to thrive like this - 10 men behind the ball, unwilling to be moved around. We don't make it easy for ourselves, we never have.

He'd get hammered on here if he didn't rotate and someone like Kante picked up a season ending injury.

I disagree his job would be on the line in that scenario. I think top 4 was always the requirement put to him at the start. A trophy to add to that just sweetens the work he's done.

If there is I think it'll be a real minority now. When fans are back in stadiums, I think there will be chants of Super Frank but I don't think it'll be in any way to oppose Tuchel, it'll be a means to show love and support for him. Particularly as fans have not been in stadiums since his sacking to show that. I think the majority of fans though are no different to on this forum, thoroughly impressed with Tuchel so far and fully in support, looking forward to seeing where and how far he can take our club.

Surely Benitez is the opposite of what you're trying to argue? The only reason he'd come here and put up with the hostility is the opportunity to win a trophy for his CV. I agree with @Tomo, anybody that wasn't affiliated with the club would know the club's history with sacking managers and therefore would much more likely use experience over youth. The idea that Lampard had to blood the youth is a myth as there were still experienced, alternative options at the club. Lampard currently is being made to look silly by Tuchel's success but I think over time, his tenure here will be looked at more favourably. Mount and James are almost certainly going to have massive careers here at Chelsea. Gilmour could well break through long term too. Even if Tammy and Tomori move on, they're now £60-70m worth of players between them now. And whatever the situation is with the new signings and whether they were his players (I think they all were, it was just that he wanted more to go with them. Mendy the exception as he said that was from Cech's recommendations), he has helped us bring some fantastic players to the club who will make a big impact here over the long term. Replacing Lampard was completely the right decision, and the trigger could and should probably have been pulled weeks sooner. However, I think the club stand to benefit from Lampard's time here and the decision to take a chance on him actually worked out pretty well.

I'd agree regarding the project idea but I don't think the demands are as great as they were at the club 8 - 10 years ago. I think as long as the club are still trending upwards rather than free-falling, and there are no issues or controversy between board and manager, I think there is a greater patience now. For example if we came top 4 next season but were much closer to first place, I don't believe that would cost Tuchel his job.

It's early days and we'll have to see how things play out when we go through a sticky spell at some point. Or if we win the Champions League will he start to view himself as bulletproof and start trying to push for more things a la Conte when we won the league. I think it's a blessing to be honest that he was at PSG before here and had to deal with Leonardo constantly talking to the media and having too much involvement on his area of the club, the coaching. Not much comes out from our club in higher positions which may well suit him and I think for our board he seems to be a perfect appointment, i.e. a world class coach that focuses on coaching the squad and letting the board deal with other club matters. He's extremely interesting to listen too, but also has a wit and charm about him without being controversial and winning the press over has been no small feat as most of us would admit that Lampard was and is a bit of a media darling. I think the club will appreciate that they were potentially sat on a PR disaster when they sacked Lampard, but Tuchel completely extinguished that notion. The expectation or thought process of a manager staying long term went a long time ago. However based on what I've seen so far, if Tuchel remained here for 3-4 years after this season I think he is one of the most suitable coaches out there to install a style and philosophy within the club and develop a crop of younger players, that could stand us in good stead beyond his tenure, like Jose did in his first spell with us. This feels a lot more than a new manager bounce. The likes of Di Matteo, Benitez and Hiddink may have made a few tweaks but ultimately kept things simple and lent on the experience within the group to go back to tried and trusted methods. Tuchel instead has completely revolutionised the formation and style of play and he's not just reaping rewards of that currently, but also essentially given himself now a 6 month head start on next season. He's taken the risk of making significant changes mid season and his belief and confidence in his methods has completely altered the landscape at this club.

That Christensen injury could be a killer if it writes him out the next couple of weeks. Silva will struggle to play such a workload which means we'll have to rely on Zouma to play more than you'd hope.

Just watching back some of the highlights on the Chelsea app and celebrating after the game. It's just such a massive shame there were no fans in the stadium. Who knows, with the chances we kept on missing, perhaps not having fans in the stadium might have helped keep the players calm but it would have been incredibly deserving for Tuchel, the new signings and the younger players to experience that. They got a little taste of the backing of the fans in and out the stadium Wednesday night and hopefully there will be many big nights to follow. I don't care what people say about Liverpool and others, but big European nights the atmosphere at the Bridge has always been electric and when we win and One Step Beyond kicks in the place literally shakes to its core.

I think making the Champions League final is a good statement that we're back on the ascent and with a core of younger players, I think we could well be an even more enticing club for players to join than we were last summer. In my opinion a centre back isn't the priority this summer. If a top one is available then by all means, but I think under Tuchel every one of them has stepped up. Thiago Silva will need managing next season but we currently have 5 players for the 3 positions and there's the possibility of also having Tomori back still. I would say Zouma is the worst fit within the group now for playing out from the back and we could possibly look at upgrading him but I don't think it's a necessity. For me number one priority is actually a central midfielder. Gilmour needs to go out on loan for a season or two and play regularly. He definitely has the potential to replace Jorginho long term but currently he's definitely not there yet and needs experience. That leaves us short with only 3 midfielders. I saw talk a week or two ago that we might go in for Bellingham and if there's a chance, for me, he would be first choice target. I think he offers an alternative to the mix of Kova, Jorgi and Kante and would leave us with 4 incredible options to be able to rotate. And the other main area is a striker. Tammy could well go and I think Giroud will definitely go. I think we'll see an improvement on this season from Havertz and Werner next time, but I think we need an out and out centre forward in our squad as an alternative to them. I still think we should start at Kane and Haaland and then work backwards from there. However I also don't think the striker pool is deep for real proven quality. I don't think you'd need to go much further beneath Kane and Haaland to find Aguero being potentially worth a punt on.

Very possible though it could have been Tammy because if Higuain wasn't being resigned, we would have only been left with Giroud. So you almost would have been forced to bring back Tammy or Bats.

Pretty sure Zola said something similar too that they were planning to bring some back. Mount is almost a certainty, especially with RLC getting crocked at the end of the season.

Absolutely incredible what he has done since joining the club. I was sceptical about appointing him due to the bridges seemingly burned at Dortmund and PSG but he comes across so well, and I think certainly compared to PSG there's a better structure in place here for him. Very few managers talk so positively about their team in public. He said we'd be a team no one wants to play against and he said we were capable of winning now. He has instilled massive confidence and belief in this group and what we've already achieved this season bodes well moving forward. If we were to win the Champions League this isn't an end of an era swansong like 2012, this could legitimately be the first of multiple over the next few years. The nucleus is there and we've got a world class manager to boot.

Must admit, I don't think I've felt as nervous as this since the 2012 final. This is a massive opportunity, a position we haven't been in for years now. I just hope the players are fearless tonight and don't freeze.

Gilmour has a big job on his hands today anchoring that midfield.

Where we may be able to entice Spurs into making a deal for Kane is by offering Tammy within it. If Levy has any sense he'll realise there's a big overhaul needed at Spurs and they may have to strip things back and rebuild for the next couple of years. They have so much deadwood in their squad, and that 'young' team they had a few years ago was left to grow old together, most of them now in their late 20's/early 30's very few fully realising the potential that they may have had at one point. Tammy is clearly not on Kane's level but he would offer them a young, homegrown striker who has shown that he is capable of scoring goals in the Premier League and would likely be a low risk signing with the potential to kick on and develop. If we offered £80-100m + Tammy, it would be interesting to see whether Spurs would be willing to come to the table. I don't see an issue with Kane agreeing to join Chelsea. Recent interviews suggest that he wants to win trophies and if the opportunity to join Chelsea presented itself, I don't think he'd worry about loyalty to Spurs.

You don't think players feed off an atmosphere?

It'll be interesting to see what we do in the summer. It looks like clubs around the continent (besides PSG) simply don't have the resources at present to make big signings and remains to be seen whether the likes of even Liverpool and United will be prepared to invest heavily. It could very well end up like last summer where we get a bit of a free run to try and get a couple of our favoured targets. I can see Giroud leaving in the summer, so we need a striker. That has to be number one priority for me. Haaland is the obvious choice to make a play for, but if we have somewhat of a free run in the market I'd love us to slap a bid in for Kane and just see where it could lead. Levy won't want to do business with us, but if they don't get Champions League football they will be struggling financially with the new stadium and if the money was right I think they'd take it. Kane may prefer to move elsewhere as it's the most difficult move for him (besides maybe Arsenal) but ultimately if he had the choice of staying loyal to Spurs or moving to a club that is primed for him to spearhead to trophies over the next 3 or 4 years, it would be nice to put him in that position and see what he chooses.

I said this earlier in the season and I'll repeat it again now as I believe it still stands, whilst Werner is missing some very good chances (and the two against West Ham and Madrid this week have been really poor) it's not bringing his head down to where he's hiding in games. His confidence in front of goal might be fragile at present but he's not afraid to keep getting in those positions to try and score. For me Torres and Morata were both far, far worse cases. When their confidence took a hit they both hid, not wanting to make the runs to get into those goal scoring positions, not willing to battle defenders for the ball and space. It was literally like playing with 10 men a lot of times. I don't see that with Werner. His raw pace and willingness to run beyond and stretch teams makes him a threat regardless of his goal scoring output and that has been a vital part of our game against some of the other bigger teams in recent weeks. I certainly wouldn't be prepared to give up on him any time soon. Given the circumstances these last twelve months to change countries and culture in a lockdown scenario and playing in empty stadiums, I want to see how the likes of Werner, Havertz and Ziyech perform in a full Stamford Bridge. The way he plays I think once Chelsea fans are back in the stadium he'll be backed immensely and I could see him feeding off that boost.

How regularly do Madrid play 3-5-2? May play into our hands if they're not used to it.

Really not sure what to make of tonight's game. One side of me feels this Madrid side are there for the taking. An ageing side that could take us lightly and be shocked and overwhelmed as a result. The ease in which we dispatched Atletico and hammered Sevilla earlier in the season asks questions over the quality in La Liga, and there's question marks over how good their Liverpool win was given the wretched form they've been in this calendar year. However this is a wily, seasoned group of players. We know how important that experience can be when you reach the latter stages. That big game experience and know-how is a big worry.

That's exactly it. The general idea of the Super League isn't bad. It breaks the clubs away from the power of UEFA and Sky, to make more money for the clubs and introduce a bigger fund that filters down the football pyramid compared to what UEFA provides as they retain such a huge slice of the revenues. The current concept though without a system which allows clubs to qualify by merit and also clubs to lose their status if their not good enough makes it unusable. If these clubs are that 'elite' then they would back themselves to be good enough to remain in the competition year after year.