Jase

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.

How does that feel cautious? For starters, it's not as if the wing backs just camp in our half and defend. They join the attack way more often than not. One problem is that we have Alonso on the left at the moment while James still doesn't have any sort of consistency like say TAA at Liverpool. On top of that, at least one of our midfielders have the license to join the attack - be it Kante, Kovacic or Loftus-Cheek. Again, it's not as if they just sit in midfield and defend. Also, we created so many chances for at least 3 halves of those two games you mentioned and the issue was we didn't put enough chances away. Had one extra chance was put away in each game and we won, we would be having a different conversation here. Your point about us being cautious there would be more valid if we struggled to create chances at all. Our main issue in almost every game is converting chances, rather than creating chances. Yes but did Tuchel have any plan to switch to a back 4 anyway? I thought for sure he would move to a back 4 based on his past but he has stuck with the back 3 and it has pretty much worked. Maybe if some of the defenders leave next summer, it will give Tuchel the chance to restructure the system or maybe not at all and he will stick with the back 3.

Think the reason or at least the reason that was reported is that Christensen has supposedly agreed and then changed his mind over the new contract a few times. This obviously has annoyed the board and in Tuchel's case, maybe question where Christensen's head is at. With Rudiger, the situation is at least much more clear cut - he wants X amount of wages but the club are only willing to offer X amount and both parties just can't agree on it - and Tuchel probably knows his mindset is still clear and he still can get the max out of Rudiger. Is it really entire fault of the club? As mentioned, in Christensen's case, the club thought they had agreed the deal with him but Christensen has changed his mind a few times over the new contract. With Rudiger, the club aren't willing to give what he wants (which you can debate whether it's worth it or not). Silva at least looks a certainty to sign and god knows what's gonna happen with Azpi.

I see what you're saying but will a change to the back 4 really solve the issue? We have had managers in the past that played a back 4 and we still always had issues breaking down defensive teams. Back then, we relied on one player mostly and now, we seemed to rely on set pieces and penalties. We seem to have a chronic issue of breaking such teams down regardless of the manager and the system. And that's before we even question whether the players are suited to the back 4 system.

I would too but then Guardiola has been playing him on the RW as well.

But isn't there a caveat to how that goal came about? I mean, Villa were pushing for the equalizer and were always gonna leave spaces for us to exploit. Unless we suddenly start to play on the counter, Lukaku isn't going to get that kind of room to operate (pretty much like what Conte made Inter do) in general situations. Otherwise, agree with the notion that we tend to be slow in releasing the ball quickly. Werner and our other speedy players would also have more joy if we do it more often.