Jase

Tomorrow Friday at 11am GMT.

If those draws happen, I'll make you a TC mod for a day. 😝

The thing is, I'm not sure if Tuchel will ever set up to specifically play on the counter. He'll always want to dominate games and if we can create counter attacking situations, then great. Otherwise, he'll always try to be on the front foot as much as possible. Moreover, say Emerson had started on the LW yesterday instead of Havertz, would the first counter attack goal have happened? The overall team performance would also have been different because Emerson doesn't do what Havertz does overall. The second goal was just the perfect counter attack situation that rarely happens and even though he scored yesterday, let's not now act as if Emerson has great decision making or is pacey (compared to Havertz, Werner, Pulisic, CHO etc) or is this suddenly unearthed gem player we have.

Dortmund are really in a tricky position with Haaland. Try to sell him this summer and they could potentially get over 100 million for him, assuming someone is willing to pay that money. If not, then Haaland's release clause of just under 70 million euros (IIRC) will activate next summer.

James called up to the England NT squad, along with Trippier for the RB slot.

At least my optimism few months ago wasn't misplaced, even with the change of manager and all. 😆

One of the expectations achieved! Yay...

Like what situations exactly? His goal came about in the ideal situation - on the break and against a desperate, beaten 10-man side. Can he have the same impact in a full, proper/normal game? Clearly Tuchel just wanted to waste some time by bringing him and Chilwell (and maybe even troll Atletico a little).

Oh Milan. I see what you've done there. 🤣

Honestly...fuck it!

If we pay only Aguero's wages, you would still want a return of investment from him. The club wouldn't want to pay big wages for someone that could spend half of the time on the treatment table, especially when that someone is already 30+ years old and I believe Aguero is on big wages at City. Plus given how people usually complain and get frustrated about Pulisic's injury record when he does get injured, the same thing would just be happening here.

If Dortmund sell Sancho this summer, then I can't see them selling Haaland as well, unless they don't qualify for the Champions League.

Absence does make the heart grow fonder. 🤣

Wonder if United (again) or any other club would go for him this summer. Things have gone very quiet on the transfer front with Sancho.

Not confident of getting Haaland all of a sudden? 🤪 As I said though, Aguero has been injury prone. Is he worth the outlay, even as a free agent, even for a sub? Moreover, it always feels like Aguero needs to be playing a run of games to get really firing as opposed to someone who can just come in and make an impact. Also, we don't know if he's happy being a sub at this point of his career or does he still want to play week in week out. As for him helping youngsters and all that, not sure he's a leader figure like that, like Silva and Giroud.

But the problem with Aguero is that he has been rather injury prone. Do we really need a player like that, even as a backup never mind a starter?

There will likely be tougher tests in the next round and maybe I'm jumping the gun a little when I say this but it's nice to have a manager again that provides the tactical nous, a solid team structure and a playing style that gives us a chance to compete on equal footing with these big teams or even outplaying them. Lampard was sorely lacking in all of those. Conte was too rigid with his system. Mourinho was far too defensive despite his tactical capabilities. Ancelotti had the tactical capabilities but got outdone by Mourinho and Fergie in lame fashion. Hiddink in 2008 was probably the last time we had a great manager and played like an excellent, intelligent team in Europe. It's refreshing to have seen us play Atletico twice with a streetwise-ness not seen for a very long time at this club. We basically out-Atletico Atletico over two legs.

It helps that the German managers have a playing style that's in tune with modern football and they also have the tactical nous to go with the style.

By the way, to those who were complaining about Giroud not starting this game, here's what Tuchel said before the game about the selection: https://www.si.com/soccer/Chelsea/news/thomas-tuchel-explains-Chelsea-team-selection-to-face-atletico-madrid-170321 "We have Oli from the bench and we have five guys that we can use from the bench "We hope these guys can come on and have a huge impact, and Oli is one of them. We have Timo up front tonight, he brings a lot of speed, so hopefully we can create some trouble with quick runs to use his pace. "We just felt that Atletico might feel more comfortable to fight and get into a battle against a player like Oli, rather than against someone like Timo who has real speed."

It feels like a team or two will be on the end of a spanking from us one of these days if we can get it firing offensively. Defensively, we have looked solid. It's just the final pass, the final touch in front of goal that is lacking.

There was definitely contact but I don't think it warranted the reaction of Carrasco. He went down rather theatrically.

Does this mean that the board did the right thing by sticking with these players instead of listening to Lampard? lol

We can "force" Jogi Low's hand by playing Werner here really. I mean, you have Mourinho saying he will start Kane against Dinamo Zagreb even though Spurs are already 2-0 up in the tie and have a game against Villa on Sunday. Moreover, Germany will be facing Iceland (h), Romania (a) and Macedonia (h). Think they should be able to win those games without Werner starting in all 3 games. Am sure Low will also rotate his squad anyway to prevent any issues for his Euro squad later on.