Jase

Atletico Madrid 0-1 Chelsea PRE/POST-MATCH DISCUSSION, LIVE CHAT AND ANALYSIS 2020/21 Champions League Round of 16 First Leg 23rd February, Tuesday 2020 National Arena 20:00 Kick Off (UK time)

It's still too early to tell but here's what I'd say, 1. Not sure if the board had any plan on what kind of squad they want to have when they bought these players, especially when they decide to take a different route from the manager. If you look at the squad, it's kinda mish-mash. For instance, we have a group of players who look better in a back 3 and another that look better in a back 4. And there's also the fact that the board buy their own players, which may not suit the manager, and buy players that the manager wants. There's not much a holistic view to the squad building, like at Man City or even Liverpool. 2. It's been difficult for the team in general to develop any kind of consistent playing style in recent years. We have gone from Conte's pragmatic football to Sarri's possession football to Lampard's freestyle football to now Tuchel's gegenpressing/possession football. Couple that with the turnover of players - players being bought, sold or release - it's difficult to develop the players and the playing style. It wasn't like back in Mourinho's first reign here, where he got to build and develop the team and then it went on to have success, not just under him but also under different managers while playing largely the same way. 3. I don't think the players we bought last summer are bad. They have their qualities. The problems here are (a) they haven't played long enough together to develop the chemistry/understanding with one another, (b) we do not having a consistent playing style as mentioned above for players to just immediately come in and easily make an impact and (c) none of the players we bought are in their peak and fully established players yet, except maybe Ziyech. All of our academy players are still in their early 20s and so are our recent signings - Havertz, Pulisic, and maybe Werner at a push although he's entering his peak years I guess at 25. Only Ziyech is in his peak age. We have been so used to buying players in their peak, established players in the last decade that this squad development process feels very frustrating and maybe even alien-ish. We are used to seeing players coming in and making instant impact - e.g. Costa and Fabregas. Now, we're having to live through the inconsistency that comes with these younger players and players that's come from different leagues, during a pandemic season no less, while trying to be successful at the same time.

At the risk of sounding like I'm finding excuses for Werner (lol), think Tuchel leaving him on was partly due to tactical reasons. It prevented or made Southampton think twice of pressing higher up the field because if they do, then there's space in behind for us to exploit. Had Giroud been on, there's every chance Southampton will just push up and press higher up the field knowing he won't have the pace to run in behind.

Think it's pretty obvious you already have a pre-conceived notion about Tuchel. Any time we don't win, it's just an opportunity for you to go all self-fulfilling prophecy on us here.

People said we shouldn't judge Lampard after 18 months at the club but the same people now want to judge Tuchel after only 1 month into the job. 🤣

We really are Charity FC. The perfect team to play against when you're on a bad run.

What DDA said. And people got caught up with Alonso's lack of pace? I swear we are trying to be the only big side in Europe that plays with a slow, snail-paced LB/LWB.

The problem here is the flaws of Christensen - physically and mentally. He might have better skill on the ball, positioning etc than Rudiger and Zouma but there's no point in having those qualities when he's prone to getting bullied by physical players or getting caught out for his lapses in concentration. It's like David Luiz. We know he can be great on his days but we also know that he's unreliable and prone to making mistakes. I'm not Zouma's biggest fan - nor am I a hater - but he was working well with Silva pre-Tuchel.

Still disagree with that assessment, especially when you are basically suggesting that Christensen will look better alongside Silva than the other defenders. Silva is a great defender but he is not some sort of savior who will turn others to be great. Christensen, first and foremost, should be looking after himself and his development. If he needs another kind of defender alongside to look good, then you have got a problem. Do we say the same thing about Silva himself or Terry? Christensen has been at the club for 8 years. Can anyone really say that he has improved? He also turns 25 years old this year. At some point, either you grow up and get better or you don't. Another thing with Christensen, which I mentioned in the previous post, is that he has looked better in a back 3 than in a back 4. In the back 3, he has played alongside Rudiger, especially, a lot and I don't recall him getting exposed as much as he does when playing in a back 4. In the back 4 system, he just does himself no favors and get exposed a lot more, even with some of the supposed good things you listed above about him, and it doesn't even have anything to do with who he plays with. Remember the red card he got against Liverpool earlier this season? All came about because of the lack of point #1 and #2 you mentioned above. Don't remember much of last season right now but there are probably other mistakes of Christensen that one can pick out from the matches. Also another with the Stones comparison is that, IIRC, he had off the field issues last season, which contributed to his loss of form and the poor performances. Otherwise, he played a good amount of games whenever he's fit. He didn't suddenly just play more because of Ruben Dias.

https://www.chelseafc.com/en/news/2021/02/19/three-premier-league-games-in-march-moved The league game at Liverpool has been brought forward to March 4, just 4 days after our game against United. So our next 7 games look like this... Feb 20 - Southampton (a) Feb 23 - Atletico (a) Feb 28 - Man United (h) Mar 4 - Liverpool (a) Mar 8 - Everton (h) Mar 13 - Leeds (a) Mar 17 - Atletico (h) Welp...

Even if that's the case with Rudiger, Christensen is not a big name player and don't think the board are invested in him either but for whatever reason, Lampard decided to have him ahead of Tomori in the pecking order.

I used to believe that the one thing Lampard excels in at the very least is his man management but seeing some of the stories that emerged after his sacking, not sure if that's really the case anymore. If he is lacking with the man management, the tactical management etc, then he might well struggle to have a successful managerial career.

Pushed for amazing buys but also pushed Tomori and almost CHO out of the door. 🤷‍♂️ Depending on what you want to believe, one of The Athletic's sources claimed that of all the summer signings last season, only Chilwell was Lampard's target. Lampard pushed for Rice, who like Chilwell divided opinion among the fans, and reportedly Burnley's James Tarkowski (is he an amazing buy?). Werner, Havertz, Ziyech were reportedly already long term targets of the club. Silva was an opportunistic signing. Mendy was recommended by Cech/Lollichon. If our history is anything to go by, it is that the manager won't have a complete say on transfers. They may get 1 or 2 of their targets but the board will be the one deciding who to buy.

I totally get what you mean but the ironic thing is, given we have so many options now and the back 3 system that Tuchel is currently playing, Pulisic's absence impact feels minimal.

Tomori on what happened under Lampard... https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2021/02/19/fikayo-tomori-exclusive-confusion-Chelsea-axe-zoom-calls-maldini/ “I was suddenly out of the squad and I don’t really know why,” said Tomori. “I just thought I needed to work hard. Then I went to speak to the manager and he said you’ve just got to train harder, so I took that on the chin and thought that’s what I had to do. “Mentally, it was difficult because you just want to be playing and on the pitch, and feel part of the team. And it was difficult for me because I wasn’t really feeling part of the team and I was wondering what had happened. I was trying to do extra and push myself more but, at that time, nothing seemed to work and nothing was explained to me. “It was so frustrating. 2020, football-wise, was very, very difficult, especially after the way 2019 had gone for me playing games. From being at 100 to literally going down to zero and then not knowing the reason why it had gone to zero, it was very challenging.”

Just for the record, Tuchel said Pulisic is not injured. Just said he stopped training yesterday after feeling something in his calf to make sure he doesn't get injured.

Tuchel on Tomori today... "To be honest, I did not spend too many minutes thinking about him. Every minute I spend here is for the guys here. It is tradition at Chelsea that many players are on loan. We will have this talk in the next weeks and months about the guys who are on loan but I have a general impression of Tomori which means he has, of course, high potential."

Tuchel once again reiterated that Mendy is the No.1 keeper and deserves to be the No.1. Said the position is not one to mess about and it's important to have a clarity over the main choice.

Abraham back in training today. If all goes well, he'll be in the squad tomorrow. Silva back in training but will still be out. Pulisic has calf issues. Nothing major. Just tight. Out as a precaution. Havertz is back and will be in the squad tomorrow.

It's not just Hoffmann. There was also something about Sule and I think another German player the other day.

Well sure. If you look at just this season, then stats do look great but less so if you look at the overall stats since he's been here. I don't see what Jorginho has done this season, whenever he's played, that is different from past seasons.