Jase

There are enough rumors circling around to suggest that it has some merits. Don't see why Guardiola wouldn't want Haaland, who before we forget is only 20 years old and has tons of room for improvement. Don't see why Guardiola wouldn't be able to improve him. I remember when Guardiola went to Bayern last time, people said that Lewandowski is not his type of player and all that but he made it work. People thought the likes of Ribery, Robben wouldn't suit Guardiola's playing style but again, he made it work. I also seem to remember that Aguero's time under Guardiola didn't start out smoothly because his game didn't quite suit the style but eventually, they were able to make it work.

Had a few dodgy moments yesterday when being pressed by Atletico but that aside, it's another clean sheet in the bag...

Was just about to say the same thing. There are also other points to consider. All that money we spent last summer will be reflected in the financial record and put together with the financial impact from the pandemic, god knows what that record is gonna look like when it is released. On top of that, if you look at our recent big money signings, they all have been offset/funded by sales. Half of Kepa's purchase was offset by the sale of Courtois. The buys of Havertz, Werner, Ziyech, Chilwell, Mendy were offset by the money gained from the sales of Hazard and Morata. I assume that we will sell the deadwoods this summer but how many can we sell and how much money will we get to raise some funds? Also from Haaland's point of view, does he want to come here and be part of another potential successful project aka part of a developing team (similar to Dortmund) OR would he prefer to go to an already established side and taste instant success (like Man City)?

Cox: Was Tuchel taking Hudson-Odoi off a message to his team? If so, it worked https://theathletic.com/2408307/2021/02/24/cox-was-tuchel-taking-hudson-odoi-off-a-message-to-his-team-if-so-it-worked/ In Chelsea’s 1-1 draw at Southampton on Saturday, Thomas Tuchel did something managers simply aren’t supposed to do — he substituted a substitute, for purely tactical reasons. Callum Hudson-Odoi’s early departure, Tuchel explained, was because he “was not happy with his body language and counter-pressing”. It seemed odd reasoning. Analyse the footage — as, for example, Jamie Carragher did on Monday Night Football — and Hudson-Odoi’s energy levels seem perfectly fine. But what if we were focusing on the wrong thing? What if Tuchel wasn’t making a point about an individual, but making a point about a particular concept? Diego Simeone’s Atletico Madrid have, over much of the past decade, often been the best side in Europe at attacking transitions. A manager happy to sit back and contain the opposition before pouncing suddenly on the break, a notable feature of Atletico’s game is that, for underdogs who play deep, they don’t like making clearances. Clearances are about hoofing the ball wherever possible, whereas for Simeone’s Atletico, it’s the perfect moment to play an intelligent pass out of defence to launch an attack. That was always likely to be the main part of their approach against Chelsea, playing on the counter. So Chelsea had to press the counter — they had to counter-press. Sure enough, Chelsea’s counter-pressing against Atletico last night was superb. They barely allowed the Spanish league leaders to launch any notable counter-attacks. So here’s an analysis of Chelsea’s counter-pressing — specifically, moments when they lost the ball after a good spell of possession, with multiple players inside the opposition half. The warning sign came in the first minute. Mateo Kovacic passed infield and Luis Suarez nipped in to intercept… …before Atletico transferred the ball across to Joao Felix, their main counter-attacking weapon. This was a bad situation for Chelsea to find themselves in so quickly. The only solution was for Mason Mount to dart back and make a tactical foul, earning him a booking and ruling him out of the return leg. But that was very much an exception. In general, Chelsea were outstanding at blocking Atletico from playing forward after they won possession. Take this moment, when Marcos Llorente cleared a cross, in the direction of Angel Correa… …both Mount and Marcos Alonso shut down any possible way out, meaning Chelsea conceded a throw-in rather than a counter-attack. Boxing Atletico in towards the touchlines was a common feature of the counter-press. Here, after Hudson-Odoi lost possession, Olivier Giroud and Mount quickly shuffled over to back him up… …and, with Hudson-Odoi forcing Thomas Lemar to retreat, both players were congesting that corner of the pitch. Cesar Azpilicueta, meanwhile, nipped in front of Felix to win possession. Here’s a similar example. Atletico again regain possession in their left-back zone and work a combination out to Lemar… …but Chelsea’s players are alive to the danger. Timo Werner moves over to block a backwards pass, Mount presses the passing lane towards Felix, and Azpilicueta runs up behind him. Hudson-Odoi, meanwhile, makes the tackle on Lemar and forces the ball out for a throw. Chelsea also counter-pressed well in central areas. Here, Suarez is on the ball and there’s a danger that Atletico can quickly switch the ball to the near side, towards Llorente. But Alonso rushes in to close down Correa, while Werner tracks backwards quickly to cut out any ball towards Llorente… …and this is nearly very effective. Alonso holds up Correa, who decides a pass out towards Llorente isn’t actually possible. Werner is trying to cut off that pass… …and then, when Correa actually goes backwards to Stefan Savic, Werner is caught by surprise and misses this interception, the ball nutmegging him and reaching its intended target. This counter-press nearly resulted in a promising attacking situation. But the primary aim wasn’t about creating attacking opportunities, it was about avoiding Atletico breaks. Chelsea dealt particularly well with Felix. Here, after Atletico win possession, Saul Niguez finds Felix towards the left… …but Azpilicueta closes him down quickly, Hudson-Odoi and Kovacic crowd the space around him, and Chelsea prevent him breaking. It wasn’t uncommon to see three Chelsea players surrounding the man receiving possession. Here, Suarez gets on the end of a headed clearance, but Andreas Christensen presses from behind, Jorginho does so from the front, and Kovacic moves in to join them… …and it’s the second man, Jorginho, who wins the ball and knocks it to the third man, Kovacic. Again, a counter-attack is avoided. This approach can be difficult to sustain into the second half, with tired legs and the game becoming more stretched. At times, it seemed Atletico would find their way through more quickly. When Werner misplaces this pass, for example, it seems simple enough for Atletico to push forward quickly, with men around the ball… …but look at the situation three seconds later — Chelsea have congested that area again. Once more, it’s Hudson-Odoi who directly stops the break, blocking Lemar’s ball up the line towards Felix. Here’s a particularly good example, because Mount found himself on the floor after dribbling straight at Mario Hermoso. The ball runs loose to Felix, and again Atletico seem to have space and men in attendance to work the ball out… …but, five seconds later Mount is up on his feet and pressing Koke, Giroud has pressed backwards to pressure the man on the ball, Saul, while the midfield is pushing up and Azpilicueta has moved forward to confront Felix. Atletico have to play backwards. In fact, the only way Atletico had any joy was when playing backwards after winning possession. In the first half, Christensen’s ball towards Giroud is intercepted by Felipe… …who knocks the ball forward to Saul, who plays it back to Hermoso… …who then has space to feed the ball into Felix. On this occasion, his touch let him down. Here’s another example. Jorginho’s ball towards Werner is intercepted by Savic, who finds Felix. Chelsea quickly press him from both sides, but Felix is able to go backwards to Hermoso… …who can then play the ball out to Lemar… …and Atletico are in a rare promising position on the break. And here’s a very similar situation in the second half. A Mount pass towards Werner goes astray, Savic again finds Felix, who attacks Azpilicueta… …and he knocks the ball back for Hermoso, who has Lemar sprinting forward into space… …but Hermoso’s pass is overhit, and Christensen acts as the sweeper, making an interception. But that, really, was it — four major incidents where Atletico allowed themselves to break. The opening minute, when Mount was forced to make a foul, and then three times where they were forced to play backwards before going forward. Notably, these incidents all came at 0-0. After Olivier Giroud’s bicycle kick put Chelsea ahead, Tuchel barely risked conceding a counter-attack, sitting deeper and not losing the ball with men in the opposition half. They looked comfortable against an Atletico side who had seemingly planned only to play on the break. It’s difficult to be certain of Tuchel’s motivations for substituting Hudson-Odoi at the weekend. But it’s perhaps telling that he picked on a player who had actually been a huge “winner” of the German’s appointment, having shown great form as both a wing-back and, in the win over Tottenham, a right-sided forward. It seems highly conceivable that Tuchel wasn’t making a point about a player, he was making a point about counter-pressing, and its importance ahead of this game. If so, he can feel justified in his decision.

Yes, it is down to individual's decision making but at the same time, you also need movement in the final third to create space to shoot. The last thing we want is for Werner - or anyone for that matter - to constantly cut inside, run into traffic and shoot into bodies. Pretty sure we have seen Ziyech done that a few times on the other side this season.

Yes, agree with the sentiment but the one big difference here is Liverpool lost the first leg last season and we won it. Atletico should have some key players back for the 2nd leg but unlike last season, they will have to come out and play, instead of just focusing on defending.

Weren't you talking about Werner in the latter part of this? Am fine with him going down the byline and play a cross in etc (we saw the reward of it against Sheffield United and Newcastle for example) but otherwise yeah, I'd like to see him cut inside a bit more and have a shot or two at goal. Thought there were opportunities for him to do that against Newcastle but he didn't take them. All part of the attacking problems for Tuchel to solve!

Agree but that seems to be a big issue with everyone in the team - the end product, no consistency with that. When you talk about Mount passing to Werner, which game are you referring to? Because I don't remember Mount playing Werner in at all at Southampton. There was one yesterday and Werner did poorly with the final ball. Fair enough there. If I'm getting the right situation about the Ziyech, he did get a shot away from a tight angle although I think he was looking for the support run from the other side and when he saw there was none, he took that shot.

TBH, not sure if the performance at Southampton was really different than yesterday's. The game played out the same way against Atletico - we dominated the game, got into final third a lot but became braindead - but the only differences were we didn't concede a silly goal and we scored something out of nothing. Had this game ended 0-0 instead of 1-0, we would have been screaming in frustration about our malfunction in attack once again.

TBH, playing Werner upfront is useless as long as those behind him are incapable of finding his runs and play the early passes to him. They couldn't even do it against Southampton in the second half and there were so many moments to do so!

🤣 Don't you think I'm not aware of all that? I was just curious about the numbers and hence why I went to just dig up. The numbers are never going to be comparable given Mount has been used a lot ever since breaking through the first team and since there's all the notion about he is our best player etc, that stat just sort of reinforces that notion! Am assuming that's for others because I wasn't even comparing Mount with other players!

According to The Athletic, Abraham is not interested in discussing about extending his contract with the club while they are looking for a new striker like Haaland.

La Liga clubs have had a stinker in the Champions League/Europa League first leg... L Barcelona 1-4 PSG L Sevilla 2-3 Dortmund L Atletico 0-1 Chelsea ? Atalanta ?-? Real Madrid L Real Sociedad 0-4 Man Utd W RB Salzburg 0-2 Villarreal W Granada 2-0 Napoli Wonder which Real Madrid will turn up tonight...

Since Mount will miss the 2nd leg against Atletico, did a little digging into the numbers... When Mount STARTS: P 74 W 42 D 12 L 20 56% win rate When Mount DOESN'T START (including sub appearances, no sub appearances): P 18 W 9 D 5 L 4 50% win rate

Tuchel's full quote: “No, it was not [that we saved Giroud for Atlético]. We thought long and hard about putting him in [against Southampton]. It was clearly a possibility that he starts against Southampton [after scoring versus Newcastle], then we analysed them and they are a very aggressive team and they press and play high up the pitch. So we expected more spaces behind the last line and we wanted more runs from deep. “I had only three changes because in our league it is only possible to have three changes. I wasn’t too happy in my decisions in the game against Southampton. “Maybe we missed the opportunity to bring him on at the end. But then I can say I saved him for today.” @OneMoSalah I was right. 😛

Did you say Mount scores regularly? 🤨

Emerson playing in a domestic cup game is hardly a surprise. Worth remembering that when Tuchel switched to a back 4 in the second half against Barnsley, he took Alonso off and moved Emerson to LB. That seemed to suggest that Tuchel knows Alonso doesn't work in a back 4 and that Chilwell will come in more into play when we play the back 4. Chilwell may be a Lampard signing but am sure the board also didn't sign him for 50 million to just sit on the bench. If we are serious about building for the future, then we've gotta stop fucking around at some point and choose the player that is for the future. One is 24 years old and the other is 30 years old god damn it! Moreover, it's fair to say Alonso has not been heavily tested under Tuchel so far? Almost all the teams we have played in the last month, for one reason or another, happily let us dominate them and did not bother to attack us much. Don't think the same will really happen against Man United, Liverpool, Everton and Leeds, especially when they have pacey players. Also unless Tuchel decides to run him into the ground, Alonso can't be playing every game. He has to rotate at some point and Chilwell isn't going to get back into form if he's just being left on the bench either. Managers often say things and then do the complete opposite but here's what Tuchel recently said about Chilwell... https://www.goal.com/en/news/tuchel-i-asked-chilwell-to-trust-me-after-we-dropped-him-for/1qsqsx4r5kqtg10n9sta3lu0vx "Yes, if he is [worried] I can understand," Tuchel told reporters ahead of Monday's clash with Newcastle at Stamford Bridge. "He has had some difficult decisions against him, where they were tight choices. "I took the choice for Marcos [Alonso] where we played with a five because he was more familiar with the position. He played there under Antonio Conte and we opted for Marcos against Burnley for his strengths in the air for headers to defend and attack set-pieces. "Marcos had a really good match where he scored a decisive goal and from there it was hard to come back for Tottenham. We didn’t make changes in this position. I spoke to him before the Tottenham match and said you have to trust me now that I see your talent and potential. "I see also with Chilly a very nice guy, reflective guy and an intelligent guy. I maybe felt it in the first days that it is possible that he thinks a lot about this situation but hopefully not too much because he can trust himself and us as a staff that he can keep pushing and we will find possibilities to reward him. "He showed a good performance in Sheffield United and it was important for him and the team. Sometimes it takes a little time and there are hard decision at the moment, at a club like Chelsea, with a squad of 22 players. "Hopefully, we don’t have a lot of injuries but we have to deal with these situations. It is my job not to lose these players and to help them not lose trust. If he keeps on going, as a fantastic guy, he has a lot of potential and we will find possibilities for him on the pitch. "At the same time, we wanted to give a fair start to everybody and not judge the amount of money that the club has spent but give everybody a feeling of a fresh start. Yes, Marcos is at the moment is a guy who took advantage of this situation but it is not the end of Chilly’s development. That’s for sure." So, make that of what you will.

Not the point here.

The point is, Giroud's impact has been minimal when he doesn't score.