Jase

Tuchel already said Lukaku is very unlikely to start and implied that he's still short of match fitness. My guess is that Havertz will start (although he had minor hamstring injury this past week). If not, Werner unless Tuchel wants to go with Pulisic upfront again or risk throwing our rhythm out of the window by starting Lukaku. Are people really still going on about the heavy touches? Jesus fucking Christ! Do people think the players don't work their shortcomings in training? Unsure finish? Yes, Havertz and Lukaku have been banging in the goals, haven't they? They haven't missed chances, have they? Tap-in or not, is it still not a goal? He just scored against Juventus in midweek. He also managed to score against Spurs last season (before they went shit) as well as West Ham and would have also gotten a goal at Anfield if it wasn't for stupid offside call. Furthermore, you're talking about a player who has played his part in helping us win big matches before, having contributed some vital assists. So while he may not have been scoring goals regularly, he isn't completely useless like you're making him out to be and by now, it should be obvious that we don't just create chances for the striker with the way we play.

Trust me, Tomo. I haven't been reading just the headlines. Obviously I am curious just as anyone else about how dangerous this new variant is but at the same time, given the state we have been living for almost 2 years now because of the pandemic, forgive me if I'm feeling fearful/paranoid about this new variant. Nobody fucking wants to see those tough restrictions imposed again!

This pandemic is really like a never ending nightmare. Just when you think things are getting better, a new, potentially more dangerous variant appears...

5 of those players there are sponsored by Nike (6 if including the club), just like Chiesa himself. He also followed a bunch of other Nike sponsored athletes like Lewandowski, Dybala and Kimmich.

At least ONE of Italy or Portugal won't make it to the World Cup...

The consultancy role would probably be Rangnick leading the charge of appointing the next manager and shape their squad building.

Tuchel just said what Matt Law reported about Chilwell. He has a partial injury on his ACL and will decide in 6 weeks if he needs to have surgery. Tuchel also said Chilwell has had a positive reaction to his first treatment.

He won't be in charge of the game due to work permit issues. His first game will be against Arsenal next midweek.

The same man that the club went for before turning to Tuchel. Gonna be interesting to watch. And at least Rangnick won't be in charge this weekend.

Really? The heatmap of his matches doesn't suggest so and to the eye, he has consistently stayed in the middle and provided a reference point, which has turned out to be easy for the opposition to deal with him. Earlier on you said Havertz and Mount don't work well with Lukaku but here, you are using a game that they did well. So, which is it? He caused havoc to Arsenal but his position was largely still through the center. On top of that, it was an Arsenal side missing some key players and an Arsenal side who didn't have a clue how to deal with him. Since then, every opposition we have faced have had a clue on how to deal with him. It's not so much we have looked awful with Lukaku. It's just we look less fluid going forward with Lukaku, which in turn affects our chance creation, and his inclusion also affects our pressing game. Yes, I agree our fixtures have been kind but that was up until the recent international break. The last two fixtures were not kind at all and we completely steamrolled them both without him. For sure he could have scored against the likes of Norwich, Newcastle etc but are we supposed to pat a striker, a supposedly missing piece in the jigsaw that we spent almost a 100 million on, on the back for scoring against relegation material teams? I don't think many here were really parading Lukaku before he got injured. So any doubts about him now is nothing new since they were already voiced before. With Ziyech, are you really surprised? One minute, he plays well and the next, he doesn't play well (e.g. losing ball cheaply either through his attempt or getting brushed off the ball). With CHO, it's not really about position. When we have had 3 managers who have questioned him, it's more than just about position. Good on CHO for doing better of late but you only have to look at what Tuchel said before he got this run of games. He mentioned how CHO cannot be satisfied with just one good moment, a good 60 minutes or one good game. He has to consistently produce it etc.

Inter's progression to the Champions League R16: under Conte - 0/2 under Inzaghi - 1/1

Pick your poison... GROUP WINNERS Man City Liverpool Ajax Inter/Real Madrid Bayern Munich Man United Lille/RB Salzburg/Sevilla/Wolfsburg GROUP RUNNER-UPS PSG Porto/Atletico/Milan Sporting CP Inter/Real Madrid Barcelona/Benfica Villarreal/Atalanta Lille/RB Salzburg/Sevilla/Wolfsburg

So, we bought a player that cost almost 100m to solve a problem but now we need another player to solve a problem with the problem solver? Even if we play CHO with Lukaku more, I don't see how that will suddenly make Lukaku roam around more. Tuchel's system is all about movement, interchanging and Lukaku doesn't really do that. And that's without even mentioning the part about our pressing with Lukaku in the side. That is such a lazy trope to keep on saying. How about yet to be convinced?

Both Telegraph and Guardian have so far stated it as ACL damage as opposed to tear. If we're looking at silver linings, that is good and hopefully it's not worse. *touch wood*

But the signs are that he will sign an extension. Even if he doesn't do so, not sure if Livramento would be content with rotating with James for the RWB spot.

Is this a serious post or not?

Who can we realistically buy that doesn't require us to spend big in January? Unless we're ditching Alonso at the end of this, I don't see the point in buying a LWB in January because when Chilwell returns, we would have 3 LWBs on our hands.

Not sure I'd agree with that. Lukaku hasn't played with Mount and Havertz every time and the last time all 3 played together was at Spurs, IIRC. If you look at the games, you'd find Lukaku mostly static through the middle and doesn't offer much movement compared to when Havertz or Werner lead the line. In fact, I don't see this width factor being brought up last season but it's suddenly an issue with Lukaku?

This depends. Azpi and Rudiger both had ACLs injury before and both have recovered well I'd say looking at their level over the years. The former was out for 169 days and the latter 135 days when they had ACL. So hoping for the best with Chilwell.

JFC! Our 4-0 Champions League wins this season have been costly!

Is it really that simple? We have always tended to look better without a traditional #9 - something Lukaku only is in the team - leading the line under Tuchel. Our attacking play is more fluid because there's constant movement and interchanging and the pressing is also much more effective (take yesterday's game for example). Not writing Lukaku off but there are definitely still question marks to be answered as to how he will fit in effectively to the team.

Am perhaps a tad more interested to see how will our pressing go. You only have to see yesterday's game, for example, at how effective and relentless we pressed Juventus from back to front. We constantly harassed and never allowed them to settle (until we went 3-0 up) and build any sort of momentum. We know pressing is not an issue with Havertz, Werner, Pulisic, Mount, CHO and Ziyech. But Lukaku? Would we have been able to press the way we did last night had Lukaku played?

They don't count. They came from corners.

Easy to say that based on paper but based on what we see on the pitch, debatable.

Are you sure that's really our best front 3?