Jase

Err, Leicester have gone 1-0 down to Slavia Prague...

Err, did you quote the wrong person or...? Because I wasn't even talking about the development of Mount/Abraham.

Chilwell wasn't tearing up trees yes but was he a complete disaster? One also gotta ask, what has Alonso done to just walk back into the starting XI? His last act before Tuchel came in caused us to be 3-0 down at HT against West Brom and then decided that he was better off being in the team bus than sitting in the stands to try and back the team. The only reason Alonso is even back in the XI is because of the change in manager. You can point out that Alonso is better in this and that but how do you expect Chilwell to get better if he's just sitting on the bench? The annoying thing here is that we're supposed to be building for the future by playing players that were bought for the future but instead, we have suddenly gone back to using the players that aren't our future, should be sold and would have been sold if it wasn't for the pandemic. Said it in another thread, it's a bloody shame that Lampard was tactically incompetent/out of his depth because he had the right idea of the squad personnel for the future. Now? God knows where we are again under Tuchel. Moreover, having someone more dynamic and quicker than Alonso would also help out our general play. You see what we have on the right side with CHO/James and you see what we have on the left with Alonso. CHO/James both have pace and the ability to beat players and get forward. Alonso isn't capable of that. He doesn't have the ability and pace to beat and get past players, not even one on one. If you don't play him into space, he's not going to create anything. We are seriously the only top side around that are obsessed with playing a slow, snail-paced FB.

This is funny. You just mentioned about Chilwell's lack of game time under Tuchel the other day and now you're suggesting someone else who is not a FB or WB at all and is horribly out of form to be played ahead of Chilwell at LWB.

LMAO

But have you forgotten what the club did with Luiz and Willian? They gave the former a 2-year deal and then tried to give the latter a 2-year deal as well. If Azpi is happy to play as backup, then I don't see any harm of keeping him around. He's well settled in London, well liked/respected in the dressing room and done overall a good job as captain on and off the field.

Here's what Azpi said recently when asked about his future... https://www.goal.com/en-us/news/kepa-backed-to-clear-Chelsea-bumps-contribute-a-lot-as/kzue9rhtx7eo1djo3yp1zgk5q “I am very happy at Chelsea. I don't like to look too far ahead. “I enjoy the moment, I have the ambition to leave the club at as high a level as I can and I am going to train and play with the hope of continuing to do important things. Hopefully that lasts a long time.”

Could end the season in 8th if he plays all the remaining 13 league games or 13 games in all competitions.

I mean, he gets into goalscoring positions but it doesn't change the fact that he has only 13 goals in 87 appearances for us. That's 1 goal every 6.7 games. Way too demanding on him? He plays for Chelsea, not Derby County and if anything, it's probably a testament to him that people are saying he should be doing better, because he can. No one wants him to turn into another Willian that does all the hard work but becomes braindead in the final third.

Just find someone who isn't an anti-forward passer!

Isn't Lampard's wife gonna give birth soon or something? Doubt he would take the job right now, even though it would be interesting to see it happen.

We also need better passers in midfield. We need a Fabregas in midfield. Too often we would just pass backward or sideway, thus allowing the opposition to get back into their defensive shape and making it hard for us to penetrate. Even having a dribbler would find it difficult to do anything if they have to beat 2-3 players every time, as already seen in some instances with Mount.

TBF attacking midfielder or no attacking midfielder, am sure Tuchel and Mount himself expect the end product in the final third - both have said so about creating chances and scoring goals. Otherwise if we take yesterday's starting XI for example, only 2 players would get the goals and no one else would score them and not many others would even create the chances. If Mount can get better with his end product, he would likely go on to be among the best, and I also think he has more potential to improve than Wijnaldum had anyway.

Both. I could but am lazy to do it now. I only checked the stats because I was bit bored. I am well aware of the holes in that stat. There's no need to take it seriously.

So, you're like Mana but with friends who are Man United fans instead. 🤪

LMAO

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.