Jase

The two chances Werner got against Everton came on his weaker left foot and he squandered them both. All 3 of Havertz's chances today came on his weaker right foot and he's failed to convert any of them. All rather ironic.

Tuchel played him at WB before at Dortmund.

He is. He's just being pushed very high up the pitch. It's like a hybrid back 3/4 today.

But I thought Werner was blocking Pulisic's path to the first XI? 🤪

Pulisic has been extremely aggressive with his positioning more than CHO and James, operating almost like a forward upfront instead of a RWB. Also the only player who seems to be making runs in behind Leeds.

HE'S THERE TO PLAY DECISIVE PASSES! 🤪

It's only 1 game and in an open, crazy game but Pulisic is looking better at RWB than CHO and James.

The average position map suggests it's a back 3. The 2 WBs have been tasked to get forward aggressively, by the look of things.

On a random note, don't get why Tuchel feels the need to constantly to have Emerson and Chilwell/Alonso on the bench - basically 2 LBs/LWBs - instead of having Gilmour on it. Seriously, what was the point of us keeping him in January!?

Would be surprised if Tuchel suddenly changes to a back 4 now.

A number of surprising changes. Pulisic at RWB?

Looks like Havertz is starting.

Uncertainty growing over Tammy Abraham’s future at Chelsea https://theathletic.com/2445233/2021/03/13/uncertainty-growing-over-tammy-abrahams-future-at-Chelsea/ It’s finally clear that Tammy Abraham is struggling with more than Thomas Tuchel’s selection decisions. “Honestly, I am a bit concerned because it’s the same (ankle) pain from the tackle against Newcastle,” Chelsea’s head coach said when asked about Abraham in a press conference on Friday. “So it’s been a long time now where he’s not been 100 per cent free and comfortable in training. Even if he finishes in training, I can see he doesn’t have 100 per cent trust that he is totally free. So I am a bit concerned but at the same time I have complete trust in our medical department and they will take care of him now. “It was a bit of a setback (on Thursday) that he had to leave the pitch during the warm-up, but he will get all the time he needs. It’s most important he feels zero pain and then we can think about his comeback.” A more cynically-minded observer might argue Abraham’s enforced absence simplifies things for Tuchel. The challenge of getting Timo Werner scoring again has been his No 1 attacking priority since taking the Chelsea job. Olivier Giroud was the favoured No 9 against Atletico Madrid and Manchester United. Kai Havertz was the hub of this team’s most fluid and impressive attacking performance to date against Everton. All three are higher in the pecking order than the 23-year-old from across the road at Cobham. Tuchel made that much clear by playing down Abraham’s ankle injury as the reason why he was omitted from Chelsea’s match-day squad against United. “It was a hard decision,” the head coach explained. “It was about judging the alternatives that we have and we opted for Olivier Giroud to begin, Timo Werner on the bench. We have Kai Havertz who can play as a No 9 so there was no need to bring a fourth No 9 to the pitch. “Things are difficult for him. Things are not as easy as they should be for him in the moment and he will get full support. This was the decision.” Viewed within the context of Chelsea’s earnest pursuit of Borussia Dortmund scoring sensation Erling Haaland, every mention of Abraham seems to spark a referendum on his future at Stamford Bridge. His contract is not the pressing issue it was previously claimed to be; The Athletic reported in November that by scoring his 15th Premier League goal of the season against Liverpool at Anfield in July, he automatically triggered a two-year extension clause in his current deal that commits him to the club until June 2024. But even if the clock isn’t ticking just yet, Marina Granovskaia will have a delicate situation to navigate this summer. Haaland will have his pick of elite European clubs if he decides to leave Dortmund in the next transfer window, his list of suitors limited only by the vast financial commitment it will take to sign him and satisfy his agent, Mino Raiola. There is no obvious reason why Chelsea would emerge at the top of his wish list, even if last summer’s success in attracting Werner and Havertz will reinforce Roman Abramovich’s belief that Stamford Bridge is attractive to the most coveted young names in the sport. Giroud is also out of contract and if Chelsea opt not to bring him back for another year, Abraham could feasibly be the only true No 9 left on the first-team books. That isn’t a problem if all parties are prepared to buy into the long-term vision of him taking on the mantle of Didier Drogba and Diego Costa as Abramovich’s next talismanic, trophy-winning centre-forward. But the current reality is riven with doubt that such an idyllic scenario will ever come to pass. Beyond their interest in Haaland, Chelsea have already invested heavily in players who are now taking Abraham’s minutes, and Tuchel has made it clear that he is prepared to play without a conventional No 9 altogether. Abraham could be forgiven for not feeling properly valued by his club or his head coach, despite his 12 goals across all competitions leading the entire squad. The contract is understood to be a significant factor in this regard. Abraham got a pay bump when he triggered the extension last season but his salary, believed to be in the region of £70,000 a week, is relatively low within the Chelsea first-team pay structure. Sources have told The Athletic he has no interest in discussing a new deal while he remains on the fringes of Tuchel’s thinking and the club continue to chase attacking reinforcements but if he were to do so, Callum Hudson-Odoi’s weekly wage of £120,000 should be considered a relevant benchmark. An alternative path would be to sell Abraham for maximum value this summer to a club prepared to make him their main man. He would have no shortage of suitors, though it remains to be seen whether any could make an offer that would tempt Granovskaia in a transfer market still feeling the aftershocks of the COVID-19 shutdown. If they could, Chelsea might even be able to offset his loss by bringing back another academy graduate, Armando Broja, from a highly productive loan at Vitesse Arnhem to serve as squad competition next season. It would certainly be a timely statement of faith in the academy, if also a bold one. In order to commit to Abraham, Chelsea need to satisfy themselves that he is good enough to merit building around. That looked easier to do last season, when the advanced stats indicated that he was scoring at a similar rate to Harry Kane in his breakthrough campaign at Tottenham. So far in 2020-21 his attacking threat has declined, both in terms of quantity and quality. Smarterscout is a tool that uses advanced metrics to give players a rating from zero to 99 based on how often they perform a specific action compared to others playing in their position, or how effective they are at it. Here is Abraham’s profile from last season: And here is his profile for 2020-21. You can see that, while his numbers in possession and without the ball remain broadly comparable, almost every aspect of his attacking contribution has taken a noticeable hit: Abraham has gone from taking 3.57 shots per 90 minutes in the Premier League in 2019-20 to 2.74 shots per 90 minutes so far this season, and his non-penalty expected goals (npxG) rating per 90 minutes has also fallen from 0.57 to 0.5. Compare his shot map in the Premier League last season… … with his shot map so far this season… … and it’s clear that while he is still broadly shooting from good positions, he is doing so less often. Part of the reason for that is Chelsea as a team are threatening the opposition goal less regularly; they average 14.07 shots per 90 minutes in the Premier League this season, down from 16.29 in 2019-20. Another part of it is that last summer saw the arrival of Werner and Hakim Ziyech, two other high-frequency shooters at Stamford Bridge. Both are averaging more shots per 90 minutes in the Premier League this season than Abraham, as is Giroud when he plays. Chelsea's most frequent shooters PLAYER SHOTS/90 IN 2019-20 SHOTS/90 IN 2020-21 Tammy Abraham 3.57 2.74 Olivier Giroud 3.53 3.06 Mason Mount 2.45 2.3 Christian Pulisic 3.24 2.13 Callum Hudson-Odoi 2.29 1.93 Timo Werner 3.77 2.76 Hakim Ziyech 4.98 2.74 Kai Havertz 2.13 1.25 No attacker has found it easy to shine in a Chelsea team that has spent this season trying to establish a reliable identity in the final third, first under Frank Lampard and now under Tuchel. The stakes feel higher for Abraham, though, because he is an academy graduate competing against some of Abramovich’s shiniest new signings and because as recently as last season his career trajectory seemed so much more encouraging; when COVID-19 first brought the Premier League to a grinding halt in March 2020, he was in pole position to fill the injured Harry Kane’s boots leading the line for England at Euro 2020. A year on, now it is far from clear if he would even make Gareth Southgate’s squad for the delayed tournament. An indicator will be the forthcoming World Cup qualifiers against San Marino, Albania and Poland later this month. As well as Kane, Danny Ings, Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Marcus Rashford, Mason Greenwood and Patrick Bamford could all make credible arguments that they have a stronger claim for inclusion. If these decisions go against Abraham, they could further raise the temperature on the conversations regarding his future in the months ahead.

Thomas Tuchel has no qualms over calling out Chelsea players in matches

Tuchel was asked about that incident... https://www.goal.com/en/news/do-you-not-understand-tuchel-explains-why-he-told-off/b80a2js3rsrf1jqfguvtv98zz "It was very direct, and at the moment without spectators, things like this can get out there," Tuchel told reporters at Cobham Training Centre. "I was aware [of the video] because people around me showed me. "We reminded Timo to rejoin his position on the right because he was on the left too long. Switching positions is not a problem but we wanted Callum [Hudson-Odoi] on the left and Timo on the right side to make things easier for him. We reminded him but it was not an insult or aggressive. It was direct. "I know what you mean but in the end, if it is respectful and not insulting each other [it is fine]. I have no problem with the players being direct to me and sometimes on the sideline, the coaches are in a game mode where things are direct and meant to be clear. "Sometimes things are not pronounced in the most friendly or nice way. I agree but me and the players are in a game mode. I have the feeling that no one takes it too personally. It is about passing information. This is it."

No Grealish. No party. I think Villa are out of the Top 4 reckoning...

You say that and yet, our league finishes aren't too different from Liverpool under Klopp in the same period at all: Liverpool - 8th, 4th, 4th, 2nd, 1st Chelsea - 10th, 1st, 5th, 3rd, 4th Each won the league only once and Liverpool would have won 2 had it not been for the crazy City side in 2018/19. Liverpool of course also reached 2 Champions League finals and won one of them under Klopp. Don't think the squad building Klopp started years ago was bad. Had the right idea and built the right squad. His problem is not refreshing the squad in the last year or so. Then again, I suppose not everyone is Fergie.

The point is, it's not as if Mount, Pulisic or CHO have been clinical when they have gotten their own chances. They have had their fair share of misses as well. It's just that they get less chances to score - or miss - than Werner. Even if I did not include the Atletico Madrid game, it still doesn't change the point that I was making. But if you want to include the Atletico game, then I would include the Barnsley game as well. You can say Werner was poor against Atletico but so was Pulisic against Barnsley. Forget the team playing badly that night, Pulisic did himself no favors whatsoever in that game. The point with listing those games is that Werner made an impact in 4 of those 9 league games, 3 of them in consecutive games. When you have someone contributing goals, it's hard to drop that player, even if the performances aren't always consistent. Combine that with Pulisic suddenly missing 1 game through family issue and 1 through calf issue, he was always gonna end up in a disadvantage spot, which Tuchel alluded to in his presser today funnily enough. Why does it have to involve changing the system? Tuchel has constantly rotated the front 3 and found ways to fit the players, even if they aren't comfortable in a back 3 system but he hasn't included Pulisic much at all. Why? SEE WHAT I MEAN WHEN I SAID WE WOULD JUST GO BE GOING CIRCLES RIGHT FROM THE START!?

Not transfer news but...

As much as Werner's finishing has left a lot to be desired, there's nothing to suggest that Mount, CHO and Pulisic are better finishers themselves at the moment. Otherwise, one wouldn't be on only 5 goals, another wouldn't be on only 2 goals and the other wouldn't be on only 1 goal right now. Not saying Werner has been consistent but let's just break down the league games under Tuchel for a second: Wolves - Werner didn't play (Pulisic could have started but Tuchel went with Ziyech and Havertz behind Giroud instead) Burnley - Werner started but did nothing of note (Pulisic came on at HT and played with Werner upfront) Spurs - Werner won the penalty that led to the winning goal (Pulisic came on in the second half and again, played with Werner upfront) Sheffield United - Werner assisted the first goal and then won the penalty for the winner (Pulisic missed the game due to family reason) Newcastle - Werner created the first goal and then scored the second Southampton - Werner started but nothing of note (Pulisic missed the game due to a calf issue) Man United - Werner started on the bench (Pulisic again could have started but he was also on the bench) Liverpool - Werner started and was played to exploit Liverpool's high line; would have had a goal as well for the silly VAR/handball rule (Pulisic came on in the second half but played with Werner upfront again) Everton - Werner started (on the right) but did nothing of note Out of 9 games there, Werner didn't start in 2 games, started but did nothing of note in 3 games and made an impact in the other 4 games. Even if the general performance hasn't been great, it's kinda hard for a manager to drop someone who's at least making something happen in the final third, especially when we're still finding our fluency in the attacking third. Plus, Pulisic missing a game here and there for other reasons has probably not helped his cause either. Not interested in going into another lengthy debate here but just pointing it out. Werner would be under pressure to get things right next season, regardless of whether we sign a new striker or not. He needs to be converting more and missing less chances in front of goal. Isn't this why I have precisely been saying what I said? There's nothing stopping Tuchel from tailoring our game plan to fit Pulisic in, be it on the left or right, from the start and especially when he already knew him at Dortmund but he hasn't done that. The decision to not play Pulisic of late has more to do with whatever Tuchel thinks of him as opposed to just Werner completely blocking Pulisic's path. To quote you "That is what we're here to discuss". 🤪 Let's not forget that we did see Pulisic come on for Ziyech in the second half and he played with Werner and Mount. The plan of using Ziyech to feed passes to Werner sounds logical but funnily enough, it only happened on 3 occasions in that Liverpool match. That's the same amount of passes as Kante made to Werner, less than Rudiger to Werner (4), and Mount to Werner as well as Chilwell to Werner (each on 6).