Jase

I'll just leave this Tomo post here...

No clue. Shame I no longer have access to that stats site. lol But Mendy's save % is higher this season compared to Kepa last season - 71.2% to 54.5%.

There's that from Kepa and there's this from Alisson, for example...

You lot have really jinxed it...

Never mind Werner, you said it as if Havertz or Pulisic have been performing/scoring consistently when those two went AWOL against Arsenal last week, which the defeat has led to hole we're in now. The fact is, none of our attackers are reliable right now. They take one step forward and then two steps backward.

That Liverpool winner doesn't really change anything for us, does it? It just meant that we need to win both games instead of being able to win one + draw one. Better off just knowing what we have to do instead of being caught in two minds.

Aaaaaand Dortmund have qualified for the Champions League...

lol Having one isn’t suddenly going to turn Alonso and Azpi into WC wingbacks…

We wouldn't have won the FA Cup because our whole attack malfunctioned. None of the front 3 turned up and then we had Alonso and Azpi as the wingbacks. We didn't even create any chance of note.

Also wonder how much of advantage Tuchel gave Leicester by announcing Kepa will start the cup final 3 days early. Practically gave them time to work on their shooting from distance. They didn't get to take many but the one they did flew into the area where Kepa is most weak at.

That is true but think there are different ways to build a team. You can build it around one player like Spurs have done with Kane or you can build a more all-rounded team. I know which one I prefer.

All fair. But that's a few from like almost a decade. Can the club suddenly pull one out of the hat this summer? Wouldn't consider Alonso to be an unknown considering he had played for Bolton and Sunderland before we bought him from Fiorentina.

Fair. But what about outfield player?

Tell me about it! They only started showing the Chelsea fans on camera after we conceded. They so wanted Leicester to win it!

Sorry, my memory isn't working now. When was the last time we made an unknown signing that turned out to be successful?

God damn it, Tomo! At Dortmund, he had Burki as his #1 and Weidenfeller as his #2. In 2015/16, Burki started all their DFB Pokal cup games while Weidenfeller started 10 of their 12 Europa League games. Didn't play the other 2 due to illness. In 2016/17, Weidenfeller started the first two rounds of the DFB Pokal and Burki then started the remaining rounds all the way to the final. At PSG, he had Buffon and Areola in his first season and then Navas and Rico in his second season (not bothered with the third since he left midway)... In 2018/19, Areola started 7 of the 8 cup games across the two competitions and it's worth noting that Tuchel's usage of Buffon and Areola was wild because the former played 2,204 minutes and the latter played 2,805 minutes in all competitions. There was a lot of rotation between those two but judging by the minutes, guessing Areola was his #1? In 2019/20, Navas was Tuchel's #1 and Rico his #2. The latter started the first three rounds of the Coupe de France and first two rounds of the Coupe de la Ligue. After that, it was Navas who started the remaining games in each competition until the final. So going by history, it seems like Tuchel at least knows the importance of playing the best keeper once the club reach the latter stages of the competition but he "chose" to stick with Kepa all the way here...

Long story short...JUST WIN BOTH OF OUR FUCKING LEAGUE GAMES AND/OR THE CHAMPIONS LEAGUE FINAL!!!

Okay I don't 100% remember them but think there have been goals disallowed this season because the ball hit someone's upper body part along the way. All these dumb rules have been applied inconsistently. Was Silva (think it was him) not penalized for an accidental handball in the first half yesterday? What are the odds that we would have been penalized had we scored that Tielemans goal instead?

You must be living in another world if you think the club will just cancel Kepa's contract when he still has 4 years left on it. That's A LOT of money involved. Think we can forget about selling him when he still has that length of contract remaining. A loan is more of a possibility. If Kepa still has any playing ambition, if he wants to get back into the Spain squad (the World Cup is happening next year), then he will look for a move this summer. If he does, then it comes to Marina really. Will she set a low demand in terms of loan fee? Will she agree to covering perhaps half of Kepa's wages (how much is he on anyway?) etc?

It might have been harsh but how much of the decision was due to him being Kepa and the price tag as well as maybe politics from the board? I was just looking at our recent cup seasons and we have always switched to the #1 keeper once we get to the latter stages of the competition. In 2018/19, Caballero started the first two rounds of the FA Cup and League Cup but Kepa then played the fifth round in the FA Cup (which we lost) and from the quarter-final onward until the final in the League Cup. In 2017/18, Caballero started all the rounds in the FA Cup but when we got to the final, Courtois started it instead. In the League Cup, Caballero started the first three rounds but Courtois started in the semi-final first leg and would have likely done so in the second lag but missed it due to injury. In 2016/17, Begovic started the first three rounds of the FA Cup but when we got to the quarter-final, it was Courtois who started. Same case in the semi-final and final. In 2014/15, Cech started the first three rounds of the League Cup but then Courtois started both legs of the semi-final before Cech started in the final. Can't remember if Mourinho gave any reason for starting Cech over Courtois then but it was Cech.

He might have been referring to the players getting distracted ahead of the final. Tuchel himself said that he may have given the impression to the players that he had one eye on the final with his selection on Wednesday.

It's becoming all very Spursy. Are we supposed to feel good about that? We mock clubs like them, like Arsenal, like Spurs but we are becoming like them.

Did a little digging on our record (all competitions except the Community Shield) against the other top sides + Leicester since the start of 2017/18 and it's a little wonder why we have struggled to win the major prizes... So in our last 66 games in all competitions (except the Community Shield) against Man City, Man United, Liverpool, Arsenal, Tottenham and Leicester, we have won only 23 of those games and lost 25 of them, meaning we have a win rate of only 35%!