Jase

Isn't this down to the manager to make sure the team build consistency, to instill a winning mentality and not just win when they want to? As I said earlier, we aren't going to catch City or Liverpool if we don't build any sort of consistency over the course of the season. On top of that, this group has not won the Premier League title before, apart from Azpi and Alonso. So, they can't just turn it on whenever they want to and think they can just walk over anyone. If we want to be best, we should aspire to keep winning games regardless whether we can win the big prize at the end of it. That's what the top teams do. Since when league titles are won over a small period of games? You're nitpicking at that when I've said it's all about the consistency over 38 games. Also and more importantly, it's less about the points and more about the performances. If we maintain consistency over the performances, then the results will follow. Otherwise, we end up what we've been seeing this season (again) and over the last few seasons. This is kinda a daft example. It was one of those seasons for Lille, where everything aligned for them. It's like when Leicester won the league. It's great for them but we also know it was gonna be a one off and they aren't a big enough side to sustain it season in season out. Are you happy with success like, winning the league once every blue moon?

He has been playing on the LW since the Malmo home game. Only at Zenit he played at WB.

Kovacic also got COVID recently. People might not want to hear it but think it's hard to estimate or know the impact of COVID on the players, especially as each person's body can react differently to the virus etc. Some may take a short time to get back into shape, some may take longer and all that. It's partly why Tuchel has been complaining to the media over the last 1-2 weeks.

The guy said he's a multidimensional striker these days. So, he should be able to adapt to different circumstances.

Not saying I'm agreeing with MB but way too early? CHO has been playing in the first team for like 3-4 years now.

Why do people think that? Even if we don't win the title this season, it's still important to show progression, to build the foundation for winning the title in the future. You don't just suddenly bridge that 20 or 30-point gap to City in one season and win the league. Nikki pointed out the points total from 2014/15 to 2017/18 but also ignored the context. The meltdown in 2015/16 was an inexplainable anomaly but we were able to win the title again in 2016/17 because we had been champions in 2014/15 with the same group of players. The recipe for success was still there. But since then, the landscape has changed. Yes, you could point to City suddenly overturning the gap in 2017/18 after finishing far behind in 2016/17 but Guardiola and even Klopp have come in and really raised the bar. They have produced crazy consistency over the last 4 seasons or so, consistently gaining more than 90 points etc with win after win after win, season in season out. That's something that not even our best team in the past or Wenger's Arsenal or Fergie's United managed to do. Apart from the one successful title defence, it's always been a boom or bust with us when it comes to the league. Since 2005/06, whenever we have won the league, we have always followed it up with a bad season. That is why unless we build towards having consistency in our results and performances like Liverpool and especially City, we aren't gonna able to catch them over 38 games. Relying on others to have a meltdown for us to have success is not sustainable.

International football is different from Premier League football.

Only ONE league win at the Bridge since that 7-0 win over Norwich and even then, we needed a late penalty to win that solitary game.

Guardiola has really bossed the Premier League. It needed one bad season from them and a superhuman season from Liverpool to win the title.

And yet, they still had the better chances/moments and worked Mendy more than we worked Sanchez. They out-shot us and at one point in the second half, they had like 9 shots to our 0. The only thing that let Brighton down was their usual inability to put chances away.

Brighton are like mini-Chelsea. Can play good football but can't score enough to save their lives. Do wonder how Potter will fare at a bigger club.

Well, that was predictable in the end. We have had only ONE convincing performance (and win) against Graham Potter's Brighton since 2019/20.

But again, playing a back 4 is still no guarantee to success, is there? We have played a back 4 before under previous managers and did we necessarily score more goals, look more attacking etc? On top of that, our playing style doesn't seem to be as consistent as Man City's or even Liverpool's.

Never said it was a guarantee. Merely pointing out examples of players who recovered well from an ACL injury. And I have faith he will be fine...

I'd say that Kovacic has improved on the creative aspect this season. Don't know the exact numbers and comparison with past season but he already has a few assists. Otherwise, I don't know if there's a genuine creative midfielder like Fabregas out there. In any case though, you implied that we are defensive with this back 3/5 system but when we attack, we attack with at least 5 players - the 3 attackers + the 2 WBs and that is not really different from a back 4 system. With a back 4, teams generally attack with at least 4 players - 3 attackers + 1 FB or 4 attackers etc. You also said that our midfielders are primarily defensive players more than creative players. Is that really different from say Liverpool, who is often lauded for their offensive plays? They mainly attack with 4-5 players and their front 3 provide the goals and the 2 FBs provide the assists. Excluding penalties, the goals amount from Henderson, Fabinho, Thiago, Keita ain't too different from Jorginho, Kovacic, Kante. The one big difference is that they have reliable goalscorers but we don't. Our xG is kinda in between those clubs. City's xG is 46.6, Liverpool's is 45.4, ours is 36.3 and Arsenal's 28.8. But again, this goes back to the point that we don't have reliable goalscorers and I guess creators.

Will be hilarious if we get Tagliafico after all the LB debates last year.

Do we need another American in the team? 🤣

Everton reportedly want Barkley on loan. So... Maybe but Azpi and Rudiger, for example, had ACL injury before in their career and they bounced back strongly. But didn't Essien have multiple ACL injuries which effectively ruined him? This is only one with Chilwell and I believe he'll still be fine after surgery.

Great source...

What I meant by "on paper" is just looking in general terms. But yes, if you go deeper and look into the stats on paper, it's obvious others higher because their players perform consistently.

That is why I said on paper, we rival those teams but on the pitch, we aren't because our players don't perform to a high level that they can or should be.

Yes but a situational circumstance is different from an entire plan for a game altogether. It's not necessarily his fault but the results (don't necessarily mean only the score) with him in a counter-attacking setup in the few games for us has been mixed so far.

Kinda disagree. On paper, we have the talent to rival those teams but on the pitch, for one reason or another, they aren't performing to a high level that they can or should be.

Well, Tuchel does that a bit too but to not great effect.