Jase

The Spanish press really going in on Hazard, almost making him the scapegoat...

You could argue that it's Pulisic or Havertz as well. At West Ham recently, the front 3 was Pulisic, Werner and Mount and then at Madrid, it was a front 2 of Pulisic and Werner. And the debate going into yesterday's second leg was either Havertz or Werner rather than Werner or Pulisic.

Demba Ba is happy...

You really hate Ziyech, don't you?

Just going back to this, not sure why are people making it Pulisic v Werner when they don't really play the same position of late. Tuchel has been using Werner more as a ST recently and it was only last week that Pulisic was starting games regularly and some of them with Werner in the starting XI too.

Who knows? Things could have gone differently for Lampard had he had Hazard available at his disposal but we sold him at the right time and if we hadn't sold him, we wouldn't have been able to buy the likes of Havertz, Werner, Ziyech, Mendy, Chilwell etc.

Don’t think he’ll come cheap for any club, despite his form.

I mean, they aren’t exactly the same type of players but Willian has all that ability on the ball but doesn’t score enough or create enough chances from open play to get assists while Werner has his flaws with the ball but is somehow racking up decent numbers, with the assists at least.

Firstly, pretty sure that’s BS and secondly, everything is so dramatic and ridiculous when it comes to Real Madrid.

Great games from the bench? Thought he was only so-so in those games and if you measure the other games against tonight, then those other games weren’t great at all. Forgot about Liverpool and Villa last season.

IMO, today was the first good game Pulisic has had off the bench this season. Last season there were the Ajax and Newcastle games. But otherwise, he started most of the games whenever he was fit. Giroud has also been used to waste time as a sub under Tuchel and the same can probably be said of Emerson. Tuchel knowing Pulisic can make an impact off the bench is probably not going to help his starting cause in certain games, I think, especially if the others aren't going to have that sub impact.

So, he's like the more efficient version of Willian? lol

You mean tonight or overall? In any case, I agree with the notion. It's just of course, having gotten himself into positions to score goals, the misses have been frustrating to watch. He could easily have scored 25 goals by now! The problem is, you have people only focusing on the numbers. Sure we and he want to score more goals but it should be obvious by now that he also brings more to the team than just goals. He would be great for us if he can just sort out the finishing problem. Also, notice how quiet this thread gets when he does well but when he misses a chance, it's all hell breaks loose. lol Although, he's not the first to have this sort of reaction here and won't be the last.

The whole thing with Havertz v Werner was more down to the finishing of the latter more than anything else, I think, but turned out he wasn't the problem tonight! We know what Werner offers to the team in terms of his pace and movement and there is a reason why Tuchel has consistently selected him, especially in the big games. Have seen people said Pulisic can also do the same things which is funny when they are different players. Sure, Pulisic can make runs in behind and all that but he's still someone who prefers the ball to his feet and dribble past players while Werner is someone more comfortable making off the ball runs, stretching defences, getting in behind etc and in turn, create space for the other attackers or midfielders to cause damage between the lines. Such selection also makes sense if we are going to play on the break and/or be more direct with our attacks. Think the conundrum for Tuchel is not all our attackers are great coming off the bench, at least based on what we've seen this season. Can't remember Ziyech, Havertz, Werner having any meaningful impact on games from the bench. Pulisic hasn't had many or any until tonight and given Tuchel also knew him from their time at Dortmund, he probably thinks Pulisic is the best one coming off the bench to make an impact, even more so if we have to chase the game.

I just don't get it. Wasn't tonight perfect in terms of the selection or what we want to see in general? The starting XI that Tuchel put out did the job and were brilliant and the subs who came on - specifically Pulisic - also did the same and had an impact. And the lack of sub impact last week in Madrid was probably also a reason why Tuchel went with the starting XI that he did.

Here here...

lol

We have also not lost to Real Madrid.

TBF, Kante did seem to have become injury prone back then. Was constantly getting injuries, minor or major. Tuchel using him more wisely has helped as well. And on the bigger picture, we really need to sign a backup or a successor to Kante. He's not getting any younger and we don't have any other DM in the team apart from him!

I wasn't aware of that stat but am sure everyone was more confident of Havertz's finishing than Werner's going into the game. Was that not why people wanted him to start over Werner?