Jase

In superficial (not sure if that's the right word lol) terms, it's really annoying to see the football gods make other teams being super clinical with their chances while we struggle to convert ours. West Brom scored 5 fucking goals at the weekend from an xG of 1.5, for example, and now there's West Ham scoring 3 goals from an xG of 0.99!!!!!!!!!!!!!

FFS WOLVES! It's West Ham v Leicester this coming weekend...

Down to 5th. LOL

Is TAA the first person to be dropped from the NT over poor form? I just don't get this hoo-ha over his exclusion from Gareth Southgate's last England squad.

3 days later...

True but last season's stat doesn't exactly tell that story. My point with the context earlier is that 5 of Abraham's 12 goals this season have come against Barnsley and Luton, meaning he's scored only 7 goals against supposedly better opponents. Yes, goals are goals but it's just a little misleading to use it as something to brag about Abraham. Otherwise, we should brag about Jorginho being our joint-top scorer in the league as well. Looking deeper into his appearances this season and I don't know if Lampard had doubts about his abilities or whatever, lots of Abraham's starts and goal contributions have come against the lesser sides - WBA, Crystal Palace, Burnley, Sheffield United, Newcastle (although he did also score against West Ham and Arsenal). That aside, he either did not start the other games or started but didn't contribute anything, at least, in terms of goals and assists. Stats don't always tell the whole story of course but it's little things like that explain why people have doubts over him and as I said earlier, the #9 position is an unforgiving position, especially for a club like us and what we want to achieve. Also for the love of god, please don't bring Werner into this because (a) while he may have been used as the #9 for specific matches/opponents, he's not an out-and-out #9 striker and (b) there's enough discussions about his usefulness and what not already. Plus with Tuchel, it's clear that he, like many managers out there I think, looks beyond than just the goals and assists. He clearly wants his #9 to do more than just scoring. It's also another reason why pure goal poachers in general don't work anymore because managers of the top clubs especially want their strikers to do more.

NO SHIT SHERLOCK!!

4 seasons to be exact. 2017/18, 2018/19, 2019/20 and now 2020/21. In fact, if you have looked at our seasons since 2010/11, we have either been up there (win or challenge for the title) or struggle to finish in the Top 4. 2010/11 - Finished 2nd in the title race 2011/12 - Finished 6th, 5 points behind 4th (but qualified for CL by winning it) 2012/13 - Finished 3rd, only 3 points ahead of 5th 2013/14 - Finished 3rd in the title race 2014/15 - Won the title 2015/16 - The Mourinho Season... 2016/17 - Won the title 2017/18 - Finished 5th, 5 points behind 4th (Conte also gave up) 2018/19 - Finished 3rd, 2 points ahead of 5th 2019/20 - Finished 4th, 4 points ahead of 5th It's always been boom or bust for us over the last decade or so. There's just no middle ground with us!

Did he not only suffer that ankle problem at Leicester? If so, that was in the 25th league game and there were lots of games between his early 7 goals and that injury.

The one slight deceiving thing about that stat last season is that 7 of that 15 goals came in 3 games/236 minutes of playing time at the start of the season. He scored the remaining 8 goals in 1,986 minutes. The 15 goals aren't really spread out, if you like. And since people like to talk about big chances missed, Abraham missed 22 last season. I remember Costa, for example, used to score majority of his goals in the first half of the season before going AWOL in the second and someone else has to pick up the baton for getting the goals.

Before I answer, are you defending Abraham or not defending Abraham? And I don't get this...

This is not really Abraham's fault but part of the issue is also the #9 position is an unforgiving position, especially for a club like that wants to challenge for/win the major trophies. It will always require someone in their prime and/or clinical to be successful. Maybe Abraham will get there one day but he's not that #9 at the moment.

I wish there's a bit context used when people use the 'top goalscorer in the team' thing to defend Abraham...

How are people still getting confused over this when it's almost the end of the 2020/21 season!? Do people, especially these so called journalists, even do their homework? Not sure why Tuchel decided to use Werner as the ST against West Brom beforehand but that aside, Tuchel has only used him as the ST for specific opponents/matches - e.g. Atletico and Liverpool - where they suit his strengths. Otherwise, Tuchel has used Werner in a split striker role with Mount - you can argue that Tuchel should maybe go with 2 strikers instead - OR on the left/right of the front three with either Havertz as the False 9 or Giroud as the ST. After seeing the Matt Law article earlier and this, maybe people should look deeper into the stats (not just the goals, assists), analyze exactly what Tuchel wants from the attacking players etc to argue why Abraham should or shouldn't be playing. We all want the team to score goals, we all want our attacking play to be better and Tuchel has said it himself but he also talked a lot about other aspects of the game - e.g. work hard against the ball, to press and counter press. It's also another reason why Giroud hasn't been playing much.

It feels like some pro-Lampard journalists have been waiting for last weekend's results to pounce on Tuchel. Can feel the sharks circling around...

Struggling Dortmund’s problems are far bigger than the Haaland circus https://theathletic.com/2483828/2021/04/04/struggling-dortmunds-problems-are-far-bigger-than-the-haaland-circus/ The two biggest clubs in Germany went into season-defining games on Saturday without key performers. Robert Lewandowski was missing for Bayern Munich, Jadon Sancho for Borussia Dortmund. Both matches were edgy affairs that might have gone another way but in the end, the gulf in performances and results couldn’t have been much more obvious. Whereas Bayern expertly fought and scrapped their way to a 1-0 win at RB Leipzig that all but guarantees a ninth title in a row, Dortmund were lacklustre and crashed to a 2-1 home defeat to Eintracht Frankfurt, with Edin Terzic’s team staring at the abyss. “Missing out on the Champions Leaguewould be a sporting and financial catastrophe,” defender Mats Hummels said in view of the seven-point gap between them and Frankfurt in fourth. On the evidence of Saturday, Dortmund may stand a better chance of qualifying for next season’s Champions League by winning this season’s tournament. It was the usual, deeply unnerving combination of disembodied, half-baked attacks and lack of focus at the back. Dortmund had enough opportunities to win the game twice over, but their “technical deficiencies” (Hummels’ words) and propensity to make the wrong decision rendered their attempts hapless. Every one of their 10 Bundesliga defeats this season has followed the same pattern. Lucien Favre is no longer around to carry the blame. Successor Terzic has righted some wrongs since taking over but there are too many fundamental problems with the way the squad performs and how it’s been put together to make the new manager bounce sustainable. Again, the comparison with Bayern is instructive in that regard. The champions didn’t wait for a third season to replace an ill-fitting manager and the make-up of their team, a collection of proven winners and top players enabled Hansi Flick to get hugely improved performances with just a few tactical and psychological tweaks. Terzic, 38, a novice at this level, didn’t just have to radically alter Dortmund’s passivity without the ball but also instil a “win-at-all-cost” mentality that too few of the many talented youngsters in the squad seem to possess. He wasn’t able to do so, which is less a reflection on him than on the natural drawbacks of the club’s policy to surround a small core group of seasoned pros with a dozen “high potentials” destined to reach their peak performance levels elsewhere. The team’s transient nature is the enemy of consistency. The hope is that incoming boss Marco Rose can overcome that structural deficit by the force of his charisma and tactical input. In the meantime, though, there’s a danger that things will fall apart. Captain Marco Reus made a big show of his disappointment after his 80th-minute substitution. Terzic excused the petulance as “human” but a bit more positivity and regard for the greater good wouldn’t have gone amiss as the hosts were chasing a winner. Erling Haaland, fresh from a disappointing week with Norway, spent more time berating his team-mates for misplaced passes and general incompetence than troubling Kevin Trapp in the Eintracht goal. Dortmund are relatively sanguine about Mino Raiola and Alf-Inge Haaland taking their travelling transfer market circus to Spain last week — they believe the €150 million-plus valuation of the striker will keep the vultures at bay — but the timing of Team Haaland’s sales trip, just before season-defining games against Frankfurt and Manchester City, was insensitive to say the least. The rest of the squad can put up with the noise as long as Haaland does his job on the pitch but resentment will grow if column inches start outpacing goals. The forward’s body language in recent weeks has been shouting out “I’m too good for the Europe League”, a factually correct statement without a doubt but not the sort of message that will necessarily endear you in the dressing room when things go badly. Privately, Dortmund are adamant that missing out on the Champions League will not change their stance over Haaland’s possible departure. Whether the most exciting young centre-forward in world football will accept life on the lesser stage next season is uncertain, however. In financial terms, Dortmund are looking at a minimum hit of €30 million if they finish fifth instead of fourth (unless they somehow win this season’s Champions League, which would guarantee qualification). The real difference could well be more than double, though, depending on performance. BVB are currently on course for receiving €82 million in prize money from this season’s Champions League. Bayer Leverkusen, knocked out in the last-32 stage in the Europa League, will receive a paltry €10.6 million in contrast. It’s money that Dortmund, as a publicly traded company, can ill-afford to lose in COVID-19 times. Last season saw them post losses of €43 million. Estimates suggest it could be a little more in 2020-21. That’s not enough to put the club’s liquidity in question as they have secured a €120 million credit line with the banks, but the well-overdue reengineering of the squad, especially in defensive positions, will be much harder to get right under these circumstances. Dortmund are still well-placed to win the DFB-Pokal. They have a semi-final against second-tier Holstein Kiel, who knocked out holders Bayern in January. A first trophy in four years would bring some solace at the end of a hugely frustrating season, if not much financial reward. But before that, their sporting regression could come into sharp relief once more. If they play as poorly against Manchester City on Tuesday as they did against Eintracht, their involvement in Europe’s top competition will be over before the second leg has even kicked off.

Don't think so. Said this before, if we had gotten Conte's transfer targets, we would have ended up with more duds on top of the duds we already have or his duds over the club's duds. He may have wanted the likes of Lukaku and Van Dijk - we didn't want to pay the huge fee for the latter but he didn't want to join us anyway - but he also wanted the likes of Fernando Llorente, Candreva, Nainggolan, Perisic etc.

If that happens with us, TC would crash for days!

El Clasico is next weekend and Atletico still gotta go to Barcelona next month.

14 points dropped in the last 10 league games.

Atletico had a game in hand and were 10 points clear of Barcelona and Real Madrid on Feb 1. 10 games later, they could be only 1 and 3 points ahead of both respectively...

If Barcelona win their game in hand tomorrow, they will be only 1 point behind Atletico and 2 ahead of Real. And El Classico is taking place next weekend...

Atletico are bottling La Liga...