Jase

It's no secret that the club make the call on signings and while I don't know if Tuchel would have been able to persuade them to do otherwise, it's worth noting that Tuchel himself also went along with the Lukaku signing (he mentioned he spoke with Tuchel before joining). So, Tuchel isn't exactly innocent here.

Not exactly. He's started the last 7 games in all competitions and completed the full 90 in 5 of those games (he was taken off at HT for a rest against Chesterfield in one of the other 2 games).

Not much luck at the moment.

Well, the glass is pretty empty right now. So... 😐

Other players could easily have a few more assists if Lukaku knows how to move or put the ball into the net. 🙃

Plymouth is a League One side, which I guess makes it worse. And the football gods have a funny sense of humor.

How was the reception for them? And am gonna be a lame arse/a half glass full fella, at least one of them contributed to creating the winning goal. The other played did zilch and had only 31 touches in 120 minutes.

What do you mean? I thought it's a very fashionable thing to do! 🙃

This has been obvious in some of the recent games with this back 4. CHO is the only one doing the attacking bit on the left while we are trying to overload the right side with Ziyech, Mount and Azpi. It seems to be helping Ziyech but the whole thing just makes us look very predictable, especially with a statue upfront.

Not the time, Zaphod. NOT. THE. TIME.

Where can I see more of this beef? 🤣

That won't happen as long as Tuchel is trying to shoehorn Lukaku into everything. Fair enough to say they did F all today but Havertz and Werner did combine for the winner. It won't happen in this universe. Maybe in another one.

This is a new one.

Mount had what people call a "purple patch". And if we're being honest, the bar isn't set very high if we compare Mount with the other attackers.

I was just trying to find some positives about the game such as it was alright to play 120 minutes after like 2 weeks off but christ, that was 120 minutes worth of pain and against a League One side at that. Tuchel is really going all-in on Lukaku, huh? The way we're playing right now feels like 10 players who move about and then there's the 1 who's like a statue upfront. So many things, especially in the first half, was happening around Lukaku today and he did zilch. Maybe it's because he was the leading the line or maybe it's because of whatever grand plan Tuchel has, but so much of the game was just us putting hopeful crosses into the box for Lukaku and players taking shots from range (isn't that exciting!?). On top of that, it also means the others are getting moved around to facilitate his inclusion, even if it's to the detriment of the team (isn't that lovely!?).

That's what happens when the club don't have a clear idea of how they want the team to play and they just go buy every shiny toy out there without consideration.

If we sell them on the cheap, I'm sure some clubs would take their chances on them. They have either shown in glimpses what they can do here or at other clubs. There are reasons why some of those players were highly coveted by others before we got them. I don't think they suddenly became shit, especially when our attacking system continues to be confusing and no manager has been able to implement any sort of consistency over our attacking plays over the last decade or so. We have gotten away with it like 3/4 of the time because we had 2-3 individuals making the difference.

The problem with Sarr as the LB is he offers no attacking threat whatsoever, which means whoever is playing in front of him will have to a superhero job and provide all the attacking threat. Had Sarr still been playing at LB, that winner today wouldn't have happened.

Al Hilal 0-1 Chelsea PRE/POST-MATCH DISCUSSION, LIVE CHAT AND ANALYSIS 2021 FIFA Club World Cup Semi Final 9th February, Wednesday 2022 Mohammed bin Zayed Stadium 16:30 Kick Off (UK time)

Unless you have the info, you can't say for sure that Salah didn't want to stay in Italy or Conte didn't make the effort etc. Many point the finger at Mourinho because he was the one who set the thing in motion. Salah barely had the time to settle in England and then was just loaned out to Italy. Could hardly blame him if he really wanted to stay in Italy since he was doing well there etc.

But the change was clearly a reaction to the mounting injuries and COVID that we had. Otherwise, why didn't Tuchel play with a back 4 from day 1 this season? Whether or not Tuchel will stick with a back 4 remains to be seen. He could easily rotate between the two systems (which will present its own problems). The attackers struggling has more to do with how Tuchel has been using them. As much as they haven't been consistent, we have seen what we can do everyone is on it with the back 3. It's a case of getting the consistency out of them and that partly comes from Tuchel's management. So says NikkiCFC. We have tasted success and disappointment with the back 3 before. We have also tasted success and disappointment with the back 4 before. There's no foolproof system here. The same inferior side also beat City in the Community Shield a few months later. It's also the same inferior side that we steamrolled back in November with the back 3. Villarreal are hardly a rubbish side and the Super Cup was also the first competitive game of the season, on the back of the Euros. Do you expect the team to be on fire from day 1? And we heavily rotated the XI in the Carabao Cup games... All because we lost the game at Juventus or the defence had a shit day in Zenit. In case you have forgotten about it, we have been scrapping for a Top 4 finish over the last few years - with a back 3 and with a back 4. So again, no system is foolproof here.

The Athletic said the club aren't looking to replace Joe Edwards. And JT? Nah and not to mention, he recently landed himself in hot water again over the NFTs.

I can't be the only one who has been confused by Arsenal's transfer strategy under Arteta and Edu.

We struggled a lot with results because injuries - notably to Chilwell and James - and COVID all happened at the same time. Because we didn't have our two main WBs and the alternatives were so far off, Tuchel had to try something different and reverse the slide (it wasn't that long ago that we were steamrolling teams, notably Juventus with the back 3 that had Chilwell and James). Hence the use of the back 4 in the recent games but a lot of those decent performances came against a Spurs side whose manager has kept on moaning about not being at the same level as us while the other one was a poor performance at Brighton. Am sure it was also not lost on you that Tuchel reverted to the back 3 against City in between them. So the change to the back 4 hasn't exactly been a grand success and not set in stone either. Don't know why people like to obsess over formation so much to the point where people make it and results seem mutually exclusive. Tuchel has a history of playing with the back 4 but hey ho, he unexpectedly played the back 3 the second he got the job. If anything, Tuchel has shown that he's not wedded to a single system and that he's pragmatic enough to adapt (some times to the detriment of the team).

Roma had the option to make the deal permanent when we loaned Salah to them. So, not sure whether we could say no to that even if we want to keep him. Plus, Salah was probably more than happy at that time to stay in Italy rather than come back here.