Jase

If people thought playing Atletico away on Wednesday and then City on Saturday was bad, just wait till mid-November. Qarabag away on Wednesday and then away at Liverpool on Saturday.

He was never going to beat Walker with his snail pace, was he?

How do you know he set up not to lose? Against teams like City and with the players we got, we were always going to set up on the break. That's the intention all along but what didn't help was Conte's curious player selection (Willian over Batshuayi?, Moses over Azpi at RWB?!) and some players' piss poor performance (FFS WILLIAN!).

So bang out of form right now. Giving Torres' legacy a run for his money.

How has he not managed the squad better? He hasn't played the same XI for every game, has he? The main issue is our squad lacks quality, like proper genuine quality and Conte chopping and changing the XI is not going to hide that. You look at our strikeforce - take Morata off and we're left with Batshuayi. The attacking players of Hazard, Willian, Pedro hardly scream world class as a whole. Then we have average WBs and somewhat dodgy midfielders, especially when going forward.

1. That was just shit. I had expected us to defend, which we did reasonably OK, and play on the break. But where was even that attacking impetus? 2. Was Moses injured or something? It's well known that Delph was going to play at LB and yet Conte played the more conservative Azpi at RWB. Heck, where was Zappacosta? We needed width and yet we kept playing through midfield, which City didn't mind one bit. 3. Morata's injury was a big blow to us but where was the Plan B after he went off? Why did Conte bring Willian on? Literally took away any attacking presence for us upfront and all the more shocking that Willian is bang out of form right now. Even Pedro would have given a slight threat going forward with his attacking runs.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2017/sep/29/eden-hazard-antonio-conte-chelsea-decisive-moment-god-given-talent

You count that as bashing?

It was the off day for City players and no one could have expected Aguero to end up in car crash. Even Bakayoko had a minor one last week outside Cobham, of all places!

Have watched the Batshuayi winner at Atleti a lot and Moses was very close to screwing the moment as Alonso played the ball in. So very close!

https://www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/eden-hazard-hails-atletico-madrid-win-chelseas-best-in-champions-league-since-joining-in-2012-a3645531.html

https://www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/alvaro-morata-has-never-been-happier-as-antonio-contes-trust-pays-off-at-chelsea-a3646376.html

THIS! THIS!! THIS!!!

Don't think so. All the reports are saying they will go for Julian Nagelsmann.

It had been coming to be fair. Bayern's performances were never convincing and consistent under Ancelotti and the players weren't fully on his side.

Champions League goals for Chelsea: Batshuayi - 2 Costa - 2 Morata - 1

Yes but he is still a midfielder and if we have to drop deep and defend, it'll be more natural to him than asking someone like Hazard to do it. Plus, using Fabregas will also give Conte slightly more flexibility in midfield, like what he did at Atletico - putting Fabregas as the deepest midfielder and Bakayoko and Kante in front of him when chasing the game, and we may need his passing range to exploit City's high defensive line. I know he looks gassed at this point but think we're gonna need him for this one.

But Hazard is no midfielder, is he?

Hope we will be clinical with our chances on Saturday. Haven't watched City a lot this season but they have kept a lot of clean sheets, way more than expected.

But we wouldn't want to get overrun in midfield, would we?