Jase

2 of the 3 draws have come against teams in rubbish form - Wolves and Southampton!

Southampton have ONE draw and EIGHT losses in their last NINE league games. That ONE fucking draw!

Oh...it looks like she protected her account. Anyway, she tweeted screenshots of Pulisic liking these IG posts...

So many of them are unrealistic. 😆

Any recommendation, @Vesper? 🤣

Yeah...would need Havertz to toughen up. Could do well like what Firmino does for Liverpool.

Am curious about Havertz playing upfront, since Tuchel mentioned he's somewhere between a 9 and a 10.

I swear people here are now just randomly mentioning Werner to get a reaction... 🤣

So much talk (or maybe even assumption) that we will sign Haaland this summer to solve our striker issue. But err, what's the backup plan if we are not able to sign him?

LOL

I just do what you always like to do - breaking down the numbers, anti Mason Mount PR.

The Premier League Big Six table this season...

Not sure if you have answered it before but I'll ask anyway - do you think Abraham is a title winning striker? Do you think Abraham is the striker that will lead us to major titles or at the very least challenge for them? And don't you mean 12 goals and 6 assists in 1500 minutes or so? Getting 15 league goals in his first season last campaign with us was a good return but if you just break it down, 7 of those goals came in the first 5 games, meaning he scored only 8 more in his subsequent 29 appearances. Add that tally with this season, Abraham has scored only 14 goals in his last 49 league appearances. His last league goal was 2 months ago, although admittedly he's played just over 200 minutes between the end of December and now. But the numbers may partly explain why the club aren't convinced with him to be the leading striker.

Chelsea are facing interest from Premier League and European rivals in top scorer Tammy Abraham with the club yet to open negotiations with him over a new contract. Abraham’s recent treatment by head coach Thomas Tuchel, together with Chelsea’s interest in Erling Haaland, will only encourage clubs that the 23 year-old might be lured away from Stamford Bridge during the summer. There will only be two years remaining on Abraham’s contract, which was last year extended by 12 months, at the end of the season and a number of clubs are monitoring the situation. It is expected to be a busy summer transfer window for strikers, with many of England’s top clubs, including Chelsea, Manchester City, Manchester United and potentially also Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur, looking at strengthening the position. Outside the traditional big clubs, West Ham United, who would certainly be interested in Abraham, Leicester City and Brighton are all looking at strikers, while Southampton may need a replacement for Danny Ings and Abraham still has admirers inside Aston Villa, where he spent a season on loan, although they now have Ollie Watkins. In Europe, Juventus are expected to be in the market for a striker, while Paris Saint-Germain and Borussia Dortmund may have to replace Kylian Mbappe and Haaland if they clinch big moves. That is expected to create plenty of movement and opportunities, and Abraham is expected to be heavily involved in conversations among clubs and scouts over strikers while his contract situation remains unresolved. Abraham has made it consistently clear that he ideally wants to stay at Chelsea, where he graduated from the academy, and become the club’s recognised striker for the rest of his career. But the club is yet to make a solid commitment to him, aside from activating the one-year extension option on his last contract that saw his wages increase to around £70,000-a-week. That is below the market rate for an England international striker and some way short of the £120,000-a-week contract Chelsea handed to Callum Hudson-Odoi in September 2019 to help fight off interest from Bayern Munich. It remains to be seen whether or not Chelsea respond to the outside interest in Abraham in a similar way or whether or not they countenance a sale. Tuchel’s handling of him so far would suggest the German is currently unsure of Abraham’s ability, despite the fact he is Chelsea’s top scorer and was also their main source of goals last season. Having been substituted at half-time against Southampton, Abraham was an unused substitute in the Champions League success away at Atletico Madrid and was left out of the squad for Sunday’s goalless draw against Manchester United. Abraham had initially presumed that his exclusion was because, while not injured, the ankle he hurt against Newcastle United had not been 100 per cent. But Tuchel instead suggested Abraham had simply been left out of his matchday squad that included two left-backs on the bench, Timo Werner, who has scored one goal in 17 Premier League games, and Kai Havertz, who Tuchel believes can play up front and has scored one League goal. While many of the country’s top managers have had to make difficult decisions regarding their matchday squads, it is hard to recall another instance of a club’s leading scorer being completely excluded. Abraham has started four games under Tuchel and has twice been substituted at half-time, against Burnley and Southampton. He scored the winning goal against Barnsley in the FA Cup. Last season, Abraham finished as Chelsea’s top scorer with 18 goals and this season he has got 12 goals, which is one more than Olivier Giroud and two better than Werner. He also has four assists. Speaking about Abraham after the United draw, Tuchel said: “We have 21 strong players and only 18 possible [to be picked]. It is my job to take hard decisions. “At the moment he [Abraham] is only struggling with my decision. We have a strong squad. We have only Thiago Silva injured – that means we have to make hard decisions. “It was also an unfair decision for Billy Gilmour because Billy played well in the Cup and he was very strong in training. “It was a hard decision. 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 number nine, so there was no need to bring a fourth number nine to the pitch. “Things are difficult for him [Abraham]. Things are not as easy as they should be for him in the moment and he will get full support. This was the decision.”

Too lazy to do it now. 🤣 The constant use of the back 3 is becoming questionable but it's obvious that Tuchel has made us more defensively solid by implementing a structure in the team on and off the ball that Lampard never quite managed to do in 18 months. We have also looked more tactically competent and less likely to shit ourselves the second we come up against a half decent opposition, but obviously, there are still lots to improve on. Part of the reason why I posted the goals scored stat comparison is that I have seen talks of us being more boring under Tuchel than under Lampard (more so elsewhere than here) even though the goals scored are very similar, based on the last games under each regime. The players' decision making is still crap and it's enraging but seems like there are people out there who would rather watch the basketball-esque games and an attacking plan that just revolves around spamming crosses into the box that we used to have under Lampard.

Erm...

Managers say a lot of BS stuff. Err, so? Any player could have a purple patch of form and awards of like Player of the Month mean zilch. You have someone like Mourinho had been successful in the Premier League for most part and had won the Manager of the Month award like only 3-4 times, same amount as or less than some other average joes. And we were talking about performances, not using some awards, nominations etc as barometers.

Last 9 games (all under Tuchel) - 10 goals in 9 games Last 9 games under Lampard - 15 goals in 9 games, including the 7 scored against Morecambe and Luton If we take the FA Cup games (Morecambe, Luton, Barnsley) games out, then it's... 9 goals in 8 games under Tuchel 8 goals in last 7 games under Lampard If only league games are considered... 8 goals in 7 games under Tuchel 8 goals in last 7 games under Lampard

Haven't noticed this but...

Last 9 games (all under Tuchel) - 10 goals in 9 games Last 9 games under Lampard - 15 goals in 9 games, including the 7 scored against Morecambe and Luton If we take the FA Cup games (Morecambe, Luton, Barnsley) games out, then it's... 9 goals in 8 games under Tuchel 8 goals in last 7 games under Lampard If only league games are considered... 8 goals in 7 games under Tuchel 8 goals in last 7 games under Lampard

Abraham under Tuchel: Wolves - 13 mins appearance as sub Burnley - Subbed off at HT Spurs - Unused sub Sheffield Utd - Unused sub Barnsley - Played full 90 mins; scored a goal Newcastle - 20 mins appearance as sub Saints - Subbed off at HT Atletico - Unused sub Man Utd - Not selected in matchday squad The beginning of the end?

Kante-Kovacic axis perfect for snuffing out Chelsea’s dangerous opponents https://theathletic.com/2417398/2021/03/01/kante-kovacic-axis-perfect-for-snuffing-out-chelseas-dangerous-opponents/ For a frantic few seconds in the 90th minute of a match that had felt destined to end goalless for the best part of an hour, the door blew wide open for Manchester United to hand Thomas Tuchel his first defeat as Chelsea head coach. Reece James’ deep free kick overran a crowded United penalty area and was gathered up by Aaron Wan-Bissaka, who slipped it infield to Fred. As he did so, Marcus Rashford, Daniel James and Scott McTominay turned on the turbo boosters one final time to join substitute Anthony Martial in racing upfield. One incisive pass later, Chelsea were faced with a nightmare transition attack from arguably the most dangerous counter-attacking team in the Premier League… … until N’Golo Kante shut the door, flicking McTominay’s low cross away from Martial, behind Rashford and James and out of Chelsea’s penalty area to safety. Rather than a dramatic late winner for United, it became just the latest addition to a unique career showreel of potentially decisive moments that never actually happened because of his presence. Kante looked like Kante again on Sunday, restored to the “double six” role that saw him scale Premier League-winning heights in back-to-back seasons with Leicester City and Chelsea. He led his team in tackles (seven) and interceptions (four), playing a key role in limiting United to less than a handful of good counter-attacking opportunities at Stamford Bridge. In partnership with Mateo Kovacic, he also provided the foundation for Tuchel’s side to dominate possession against opponents determined to disrupt their passing rhythm. Kante touch map vs Man Utd He might not have admitted so afterwards, but Tuchel was clearly surprised by the aggression of United’s pressing. Had he anticipated their desire to push so high up the pitch in a bid to force Chelsea mistakes close to their own goal, there is no way that he would have left Timo Werner and Christian Pulisic on the bench in favour of an attack totally devoid of speed or vertical running. In the event, United’s high defensive line made Olivier Giroud isolated and virtually redundant for long spells, while Hakim Ziyech and Mason Mount had to make do with more compressed pockets of space. United’s pressing succeeded in throwing Chelsea out of their normal game; in the first half they had a mere 50.7 per cent of possession, which would have been comfortably their lowest share in any of Tuchel’s seven Premier League matches in charge. The main reason the visitors’ unexpected strategy didn’t cause more damage was the effectiveness of Kante, working in tandem with the excellent Mateo Kovacic, at maintaining midfield control under severe pressure and stifling the vast majority of opposition attacks at source. Before it was brought back by Tuchel against Southampton, the Kante-Kovacic central midfield pairing hadn’t been seen since Chelsea’s disastrous first half against West Brom at The Hawthorns in September. Yet from the opening minutes against United there were signs of an improved understanding between the two men, primarily in terms of their positioning within the team’s broader tactical structure. They were almost always in close enough proximity to support one another in winning the ball and using it to get Chelsea on the front foot. Here, as Andreas Christensen shapes to dink the ball out to Callum Hudson-Odoi from inside his own six-yard box, Kovacic and Kante are next to each other and primed to help the team play around United’s press: Kovacic receives the ball from Hudson-Odoi, draws in Bruno Fernandes and then plays it to Kante… … who then slips a pass beyond Fred into the stride of Hakim Ziyech, ready to lead a Chelsea counter-attack: In the second half Chelsea’s share of possession went up to 63.3 per cent. That was partly due to the intensity of United’s press dropping off a little, but it was also because Tuchel’s side did a better job of winning and keeping the ball higher up the pitch. Once again, Kante and Kovacic worked well together to make this possible. Here, Kovacic opts to go to ground to try to win the ball from Rashford, while Kante stands poised for the second ball: It bounces loose to McTominay who tries to play it forward first time, but Kante pounces upon it and gets Chelsea on the front foot again with a progressive pass out to the left flank: Late in the game, Kovacic again presses to win the ball, this time from James. He cushions it back to McTominay, who looks to move it quickly forward to the feet of Martial: Kante anticipates the pass and leaves Fernandes to go and cut it out, ending a United counter before it has a chance to gain momentum: Kovacic has an excellent understanding with Jorginho too, and Tuchel has built most of Chelsea’s early performances — including the signature win over Atletico Madrid — around their passing combinations and possession instincts. That decision has sat rather awkwardly with his repeated gushing praise of Kante in public, describing the France international as a world-class water-carrier and insisting that he has wanted to coach him for years. Perhaps we will see Tuchel start all three at some stage but, as long as he remains committed to the “double six”, he will face a difficult selection decision that goes to the heart of this team’s identity. It seems obvious that Kante-Kovacic has more to offer Chelsea defensively, purely by virtue of having Kante in it. In the first 10 minutes against United, he helped stifle this hugely promising counter-attack… … by slowing down Rashford, denying him a clear path to goal and ultimately forcing him to attempt a difficult pass through for Mason Greenwood that Ben Chilwell intercepts: In the second half he had a similar effect without ever touching the ball, confronting Fernandes on the halfway line and compelling him to hit an early pass towards Rashford that didn’t find its target: Equally, the Jorginho-Kovacic midfield axis is probably a little more useful when it comes to meeting Tuchel’s most urgent need. Chelsea are less than thrilling to watch right now because they have control without much in the way of creation. There is plenty of cause to be optimistic that this problem could be solved with a little more collective chemistry and training time, both of which have been in desperately short supply during this unique season. Until then, Tuchel will have to be content with the control he has brought to this Chelsea team — and in the Kante-Kovacic midfield pairing, he appears to have found another option to help tame more dangerous opponents.

Yup, there seemed to be less furore about those incidents than yesterday's penalty incident...because Man United were the victims. What a surprise!

How is the price very high? 🤣