Jase

One week before the FA Cup tie...

This is exactly why Ancelotti has won only 4 league titles in 20+ years as a manager. Can galvanize his teams for one off games or big games but can't do the same against smaller teams. Everton have beaten Spurs (twice), Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea this season but contrived to lose to Newcastle (twice!), Fulham, Burnley etc.

Atletico's starting XI tonight against Getafe...

We'll just win the Champions League and qualify for next season's edition that way. Easy!

But the point I'm making is the composition of our front 3 in those games and basically how it affects the way we attack the opposition. You can't have an XI where the attacking players only want to come short for the ball, players who are slow and don't make runs in behind. Otherwise, everything becomes predictable and easy to defend against. You need to have variations. Alonso being better at WB is hardly a surprise considering he is a WB while Chilwell is a FB being asked to play as a WB. But again, this isn't such a striking issue considering we have won with Chilwell in the starting XI when the front 3 isn't one of those I mentioned previously.

I guess apart from Mendy and Silva, not everyone is happy with our other signings. 🤣

International breaks are always BS but the next one can't come soon enough, TBH.

You're confident that Arsenal will take points off Spurs?

Was he rested for Atletico or was he dropped? The ironic thing is we could have done with him in the frontline - or Pulisic there and someone else at RWB - because that front 3 of Mount, Havertz and Ziyech wasn't much of a threat. Havertz had 3 chances and missed them all while Mount and Ziyech did nothing to threaten Leeds. We had no runners off the ball to stretch them apart from Pulisic and at times, Havertz. Given Leeds' open football style, this was the ideal game to just start Werner and then leave him out against Atletico.

Not really, I think? Leicester are in 3rd, have a game in hand and we play them later this season. If they win, they go 5 points clear of us. West Ham, Everton and Spurs each have 2 games in hand and can easily overtake us if they win both. Just like the last 2 seasons, we're gonna need other teams to fuck up a little bit in the run-in (AGAIN!).

Unless there's a typo, that article from The Athletic said his contract expires in 2024 (not 2023 that was previously, widely talked about) and if we're really concerned about him becoming great next time, maybe we should just include a buy back clause.

Not sure why Chilwell is even mentioned here when he's not even the point and he also started in the wins at Liverpool and Sheffield United by the way. Plus if I'm getting the chance you mentioned about today right, it was hardly a clear chance for Chilwell to score, was it? Outside of his foot, under a challenge etc. And if we want to get picky about missing chances from a LWB, then Alonso also missed one very early on against Southampton, a chance that you would expect him to put away but he didn't.

TBF, he did play at Liverpool along with Mount and Werner and at least he had Werner to make the runs and play passes to. God knows about the other 3 games though. Otherwise in terms of his performances, he hasn't done much at all.

He was playing as a RWB but super high up the field in a hybrid back 3/4 system today. The bar isn't very high but at least Pulisic looked lively for a change today, for the first time this season!

Would gladly take the most boring 0-0 draw ever from this game.

Worth pointing out that in the 3 games that we failed to score under Tuchel (Wolves, Man Utd and Leeds), the front 3 selection all comprised of players who are slow/prefer ball to feet/not going to make runs in behind to stretch teams. Wolves - Ziyech-Giroud-Havertz Man Utd - Ziyech-Giroud-Mount Leeds - Ziyech-Havertz-Mount At least one of Werner/Pulisic/CHO is needed in the front 3.

Chelsea 2-0 Atletico Madrid PRE/POST-MATCH DISCUSSION, LIVE CHAT AND ANALYSIS 2020/21 Champions League Round of 16 Second Leg 17th March, Wednesday 2021 Stamford Bridge 20:00 Kick Off (UK time)

Mendy vs recent first choice keepers in their first season: Cech - 28 clean sheets in 48 games Courtois - 16 in 39 Kepa - 23 in 54 Mendy - 19 in 31 ***

But on the other hand, is the constant chopping and changing actually helping us or being a detriment to us? Let's not forget that we criticized Lampard for basically doing the same thing earlier. Tuchel has admittedly given the players better clarity, clear tactical instructions on what to do but it's hard for the players to develop any sort of understanding or chemistry if we're constantly changing the front 3. Plus, it also doesn't help that all our attacking players are young and not the finished article. It's not like 10-12 years ago when we had players at their peak and they could just come in and immediately make an impact.

We still looked dangerous even with the lineup that turned out today. Havertz had 3 chances and didn't convert any one of them. Pulisic also got into some good positions but the final ball to him was lacking.

We lost any semblance of control as the second half went on.

Us under Tuchel vs: Top Half Teams: W Spurs D Man Utd W Liverpool W Everton Bottom Half Teams: D Wolves W Burnley W Sheffield Utd W Newcastle D Southampton D Leeds 4 of the next 5 PL games are against bottom half teams.

The game was a bit more chaotic but otherwise, it's no different to past games under Tuchel. Usually we had someone putting a chance or two away. Had enough decent opportunities to score today but no one took them.

lol Am just saying it's funny/ironic that we work ourselves into situations like those. But in all seriousness, the finishing or lack of it is a real problem filtered through the team. It's not just one player. Plus, the fact that our top scorers are on 6 goals and one of them has scored all from the spot says it all.

I know but the chances are higher to score if it's on their stronger foot. Just ironic we always work ourselves into situations like those.