Jase

That's still no fucking excuse for him to just give up and moan his way through that second season.

Gullit's sacking didn't happen under Roman. Scolari was clueless. Conte forced out? lol He forced himself out by giving up in the second season. Like I said earlier, sacking Tuchel just because he doesn't get top 4 would be ludicrous. We'll never get anywhere if we continue to want only short term results etc. Unless we suddenly have a meltdown between now and the end of the season. Let Tuchel continue what he has started into next season. And also worth noting that Tuchel was talking about his transfer ideas in his presser last Friday.

Can't believe Newcastle are gonna get away with their incompetency...

LOL If that's the kind of money they want, no one is gonna pay for it, especially when clubs are still counting the cost of the pandemic.

I don't know/remember what happened in the past but in this case, I don't see what's really big deal about it. Rudiger went in late on a challenge on Kepa and the latter wasn't happy about it. Are you gonna tell me that this doesn't happen in football, even in training? This probably happens in training from time to time for every club but somehow this gets dramatized by Matt Law because of the result yesterday and whatever agenda he has against Rudiger.

It's a bit of a stretch to say they have improved drastically.

After that last fiasco with Rudiger from Matt Law, not sure if I believe this story from him (unless it also gets reported by The Athletic etc) especially after having read the story. I mean, a player (in this case, Kepa) reacting angrily to a challenge from another player (Rudiger) and two other players having disagreement (Azpi and James) are nothing new in football, is it? All parties have also resolved the issues according to the article. And yet, Matt Law felt the need to dramatize it by writing a lengthy a piece on it.

Unless we completely lose the plot and results go south in these last few weeks of the season, sacking Tuchel just because we don't get Top 4 would be a fucking stupid decision from the board...again. Yes, Tuchel was brought in to revitalize our Top 4 challenge but he was also brought in because Lampard didn't have a clue what to do with the team at all. Tuchel has already shown the opposite and given the team a solid platform at the very least to compete properly. Have the problems been solved? No. It's ridiculous to just expect a manager coming midway through a season to just solve all the problems, especially with basically no training time between games. On top of that, this team isn't a team at its peak or a team that can pilot itself regardless of chopping and changing of managers like during the Terry, Cech, Lampard, Drogba etc days. This team is a work in progress. We need to stop fucking about with all these changes and go with the process for once, especially when we have a proper coach in place instead of a novice.

I don't know if this Matt Law pushing the wrong button again on Rudiger but... Antonio Rudiger dismissed from Chelsea training early after Kepa Arrizabalaga bust-up https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2021/04/04/antonio-rudiger-dismissed-Chelsea-training-early-kepa-arrizabalaga/ Thomas Tuchel sent Antonio Rudiger in from training on Sunday after the defender was involved in a bust-up with Kepa Arrizabalaga less than 24 hours after the Chelsea head coach had warned his players not to lose their heads following their 5-2 loss to Wrst Brom. Tuchel saw his 14-game unbeaten run smashed by West Bromwich Albion on Saturday and responded by reiterating the need for calm. But tempers boiled over in training on Easter Sunday, as Kepa and Rudiger were involved in a heated argument that resulted in a pushing match between the pair before Tuchel sent the German into the changing-rooms five minutes before the end of the session to calm down. Sources claim the argument was sparked in a small-sided game, in which defender Rudiger went in late on Kepa, who reacted and the heated argument quickly escalated into pushes being exchanged. Tuchel reacted immediately and decided that Rudiger was not calming down quickly enough to take part in the final five minutes of training, so sent him in early to cool down with goalkeeper Kepa completing the session. Rudiger is understood to have apologised to Kepa off his own back later on and Tuchel is understood to be happy that the incident is now closed and there will not be any lasting resentment. Rudiger and Kepa were not the only players to fall-out after the West Brom defeat, as captain Cesar Azpilicueta and Reece James are also said to have been involved in a frank exchange of views in the dressing-room immediately after the game. James was partly at fault for West Brom’s second goal in their 5-2 success, while the Chelsea defence as a whole suffered a nightmare afternoon. But having been involved in an argument, James and Azpilicueta later spoke in private to settle their differences and there was no issue between the defenders in training on Sunday. Rudiger and Kepa did not play in Chelsea’s capitulation, instead watching the game from the substitutes’ bench, but Rudiger is one of the most passionate members of the squad and is known to take defeats particularly badly. Given he apologised to Kepa, it is not expected that Rudiger’s behaviour will be taken into account when Tuchel picks his team for Wednesday’s Champions League quarter-final first-leg against Porto. But the row, together with Saturday’s result, is not ideal preparation for what is the biggest game of Chelsea’s season so far and has perhaps given Tuchel an insight into some of the problems his predecessor Frank Lampard faced. Following his sacking, stories emerged that Lampard had been shocked by the speed at which the Chelsea atmosphere had turned after the club’s 17-game unbeaten run under him had been ended by Everton. And Rudiger has since repeatedly denied claims that he was a source of trouble, following numerous stories by different outlets - one of which was a Telegraph Sport report that he had clashed with Azpilicueta. Rudiger was frozen out of the Chelsea squad by Lampard at the start of the season, but he has been one of the club’s best performers under Tuchel and he was missed at the back against West Brom. In the immediate aftermath of tasting his first defeat as Chelsea head coach, Tuchel said: “We cannot, after 14 games, lose our heads and this cannot take away the trust in the players,” said Tuchel. “It was a moment to be calm and honest (in the dressing room) and it will be a hard afternoon and evening for everybody. “We have to accept the loss together and it is important to deal with it together, and I am part of it. Nothing will change, there was no scheduled group day off apart from for individual players who had travelled a lot, and nothing will change.”

...Aaaaaand they aren't. lol

Got away with one there... Only West Ham can overtake us this matchday if they win at Wolves tomorrow.

Very Mourinho this... Newcastle also have 21 shots to Spurs' 10.

We have dropped 11 points since Tuchel took over. On a whole, is that really mental? Only Man City have dropped less during that same period - 3. When Tuchel took over, we were only 4 points behind Spurs and I don't think we really opened up a big gap on them. And the fact of the matter is, we left ourselves with little margin for error after that bad winter run under Lampard.

I can't tell if you're being hopeful or clutching at straws. 😛 Agree with your points there but pretty sure Pulisic isn't the only player around that can do what he does. Since people like to talk about swap deals, I saw some suggestions elsewhere about doing a Pulisic-Sancho swap. If doable, would you take it? Not saying we should give up on him yet and I don't think anything is gonna happen with him this summer but if injuries continued to plague him over the next year or so, then we might have to start thinking of alternatives. Yes, 3 excluding penalties (6 otherwise) under Tuchel and that's still more than anyone in that same period, I think. He may have played more than Ziyech, Pulisic and Havertz but less than Mount. So... 🤷‍♂️ Does playing Pulisic on one side and Ziyech on the other really work? I remember Lampard tried to replicate the Quincy Promes(IIRC)-Ziyech combo with Werner-Ziyech earlier this season. Ziyech would look to make the passes or crosses(!!!) from the right while Werner makes the runs from the left to get on the end of those balls.

Should have known an essay-esque reply was coming! Okay, he might not be the most brilliant of players but how do you expect Werner to even affect games if we don't play to his strengths? How many times have we seen make the runs forward but isn't spotted with an early pass for example? If you look back and think through the games, how many chances do we even create overall and/or specifically for Werner? It's not as if all the teams we play just sit back and camp in their own box against us by the way. You have games where teams come at us and there's space to exploit and then games where, okay, teams sit back a bit more but there are still moments of transition to exploit, for example. I really wish we have a peak Fabregas in this team instead of Jorginho/Kovacic because I want to see what would have happened. Werner is part of the attacking problems that we have but how is he made like he's the only one not making chances for others from open play? If you're gonna criticize an attacker for not creating chances from open play, then maybe you should look at someone like Mount instead, someone that @NikkiCFC has constantly ranted about. Werner is not a creative player and yet, he has the most assists in all competitions this season (8 excluding penalties; 11 otherwise), is second on our list for shot creation and first on our list for goal-creating actions (e.g. passes, dribbles, drawing fouls) - both from open play - in the league. He was bought to score goals but somehow, has actually outperformed the supposedly more creative players in the team when it comes to creating chances. I said this in the match thread yesterday, I do not know if he was scared to take the shot or did he make the right, unselfish decision to pass it to Mount because there's a defender and keeper closing him down. You can imagine the headlines if he had gone for the shot and failed to score. That might just destroy him completely, especially after the Macedonia game. A 100% confident Werner would have gone for himself, I suspect, but as it transpired, you could argue that he at least still has the clarity of thought to control the ball and pass it to Mount (the pass wasn't exactly the best either) instead of completely shitting himself in front of goal. See my points above on this. Not going to sit here and say Werner has been brilliant under Tuchel because he hasn't but when he's contributed to goals - be it scoring himself, albeit only one, assisting others or winning penalties - it's hard for Tuchel to really drop him, especially when our attack has hardly been brilliant and we have been winning some games because of those contributions. On top of that, it's not as if the others were playing good in any shape or form to deserve to be in the XI. Havertz, Ziyech, Pulisic were all in their own bad form and had their injury problems to boot. For the most part, think Tuchel has made the right selection to play Werner upfront against certain teams/matches like Liverpool at Anfield or the CL second leg against Atletico Madrid. Abraham or Giroud wouldn't have been able to do what Werner did in those games. So really, apart from such games, Werner was competing with Pulisic, Ziyech etc for one of the left/right positions in the front 3. I do not know why Tuchel hasn't tried to play Werner and Abraham alongside more upfront considering they seemed to have formed a decent partnership earlier this season and Werner was in goalscoring form back then. But Tuchel doesn't fancy Abraham and on the other hand, let's not also pretend Abraham is a great #9 either. Even you have doubts over him. As for Giroud, if he doesn't score, he really contributes next to nothing. He hardly has assists or any sort of goal and shot creation stats to even back him up. Plus, it's getting obvious that Tuchel prefers someone with mobility, pace, link-up play etc to lead the line, especially when he has gone for Havertz as the False 9 of late.

At the risk of starting another debate of the quality of leagues, think it's easier for Bayern to get away with those injuries to Robben in the Bundesliga than we will with Pulisic in the Premier League. We know the talent is there with Pulisic but given his injury record, it's debatable whether we can build the team around him or build the team with him being a key figure in the starting XI, because we can't keep having someone who plays 5 games, gets injured, misses 10 games and then takes I don't know 5-10 games to get back into some sort of form. I'm sure the club were aware of his injury record when they bought him and the physios etc are trying to figure out his injury problems but whether it's truly fixable is another question. Part of the reason why he was bought was also down to his nationality. Some players, unfortunately, are just injury prone in their career. If it can't be solved and he becomes like Robben, then we'll have the issues I mentioned above. Have we really looked devoid of ideas without Pulisic? I know we have been crap in the attacking third but I don't think it's gotten to the point where we can't make do without Pulisic. We have had good games this season under Tuchel and even Lampard without Pulisic playing. Let's not also forget that he played a lot of games from December till Lampard got the sack in January, for example, and nothing really changed then. And we were over reliant on Pulisic last season because he caught a purple patch and that Lampard started prioritizing short term results after the restart but I'd hate to see us being so reliant on one player again. And this is not an excuse, a praise or whatever but it's funny that Werner is not a creator and was bought to score goals but has more assists in all competitions than anyone in the team this season - 8 or 11, depending on whether you want to count penalties - while being the third highest goalscorer in the squad.

The thing with Pedro is that we bought him when he was already 28 years old. He was going close to 30 and supposedly at the wrong end of his peak age. As for Werner, think he can fill that role under Tuchel and we can argue about his current inconsistency till the cows come home again etc but I don't know why you're picking him out for yesterday. As you alluded to in the match thread, he did nothing outstanding but he did nothing horrible either. He did OK in linking up the play and did not even getting any meaningful service to do damage (or to miss chances!) despite West Brom giving us opportunities to let him thrive in transitions. There were others who were far worse and cost us goals but I haven't seen you said anything about those players.

Our Premier League record this season: VS Top Half teams under Lampard - W2 D2 L5 = 8 pts under Tuchel - W3 D2 = 11 pts VS Bottom Half teams under Lampard - W6 D3 L1 = 21 pts under Tuchel - W3 D2 L1 = 11 pts Not every team have played yet this weekend...so, the stat may not reflect the table accurately but only 2 teams' position can be switched around - Leeds and Villa. If Villa win tonight, then that stat looks like this instead: VS Top Half teams under Lampard - W1 D3 L5 = 6 pts under Tuchel - W3 D1 = 10 pts VS Bottom Half teams under Lampard - W7 D2 L1 = 23 pts under Tuchel - W3 D3 L1 = 12 pts Either way, our results against the better and worse teams seem to have gone in the opposite direction since Tuchel took over. We're better against top half sides now but have gotten worse against the bottom half sides.

Don't think anyone is really doubting his talent but the point is, how can we rely on a player that is injury prone? How can we rely on a player that somehow has injured himself twice this season alone by the most innocuous of sprints? The severity of this latest injury remains to be seen but the last time this happened at Burnley, he was out for a month and then it took him months to get back into some sort of form.

You're hilarious.

Tuchel’s quotes on Pulisic’s injury (via the 5th Stand)... 'Christian did a sprint when he came back out for the second half and said that he felt his hamstring would not survive the game if he continued. 'So we had to make the decision to substitute him straight away.'

https://www.chelseafc.com/en/news/2021/04/03/statement-on-racist-abuse CHRIST! Here we go with the racist idiots again...

Feel like it will only come to that point next year, when Pulisic would only have 2 years left on his contract.

lol Sounds so casual after getting spanked by one of the worst teams at home...