Jase

If we are going to buy an attacker, at least get someone who for sure will be a success. Buying someone on the cheap for the sake of it is pointless if that person turns out to be a dud anyway. Mind you, we bought Ziyech for kinda on the cheap side when you consider how much we paid for Werner, Havertz, Lukaku etc and yet, he's turned out to be a dud and people want him gone.

Doesn't guarantee he'll be a success and not to mention, there's his very dodgy injury record.

The bar isn't set very high then, is it? Compare him with our current lot, it would look as though we are just throwing money at something and hoping it sticks without any actual thought put behind it.

So, you're saying you would want another inconsistent attacker? Why would a club buy him now when they can get him for free in the summer? And didn't he try to demand HUGE wages from Barcelona before this?

If Tuchel really did want Lukaku, then you gotta wonder whether he would make the right decisions when it comes to buying other players. Also, how badly do the club want to win the league or are they satisfied with just winning cup competitions? I don't mind the club backing the manager of course but the club's structure has been that they make the final decision on everything. Backing the manager fully means they would relinquish that control and power they have had so long. Will Marina and co. do that? There's also no guarantee that overhauling the squad and backing Tuchel would result in beating City to the title. It's not black and white like Matt Law is trying to make. Moreover, arguably the bigger issue here is less about backing the manager and more about the recruitment by the club, as has been discussed by others here.

I have only three words to describe last night - FUCK OFF LEICESTER!

Just read somewhere that apparently Lukaku got booed by the away fans at Brighton when being taken off.

He did just criticize Lukaku at the weekend.

It feels like we are always going in circles about this. I agree that dribbling is not Werner's strongest point but the other things you said there are grossly over-exaggerated. If he's really as bad as you said, then he wouldn't have attracted interest from other big clubs in Europe before we got him. If he's really as bad as you said, he wouldn't be playing and starting games for Germany. On top of that, I don't know if you don't remember or just don't want to remember but to say Werner had only one good game under Tuchel is hilarious. He had good games against Real Madrid (h), West Ham (a), Sheffield United (a), Fulham (h), Atletico Madrid (h) as well. I agree, overall, that Werner is not perfect and he has his flaws but it seems like you, in particular, always seems to have issues with him and then somehow turn a blind eye on one or two others when they have the same/similar issues. That is highly debatable. As I've said many times regarding Havertz, he's been here for 18 months and it's still hard to know what he's really good at after spending 70+ million on him. Still hasn't shown any sort of consistency - you know, something that you keep criticizing another German for - or the things that made people go gaga over him in the place. Doesn't score enough. Doesn't provide much in the way of assists or chance creation. Doesn't provide any X factor and yet to really dominate games for us, like Hazard did for us for example. As for Mount, well, I guess @NikkiCFC has addressed some of the issues with him. Also, it's funny how you could sit here and say who's good enough for us to help us win the league and who's not when all the attackers have basically been shit and not up to the standards that we want them to be.

I know the injuries and COVID haven't helped but the tiredness excuse really doesn't wash. While I agree that the constant changes do not help, Tuchel also hasn't helped himself or us if he wants to complain about tiredness. If the players are tired, then why start Lukaku for, I think, the fourth straight game last night? Why did Ziyech start again at Brighton? Why was Havertz on the bench? Why was Werner on the bench? Why is Saul suddenly just sitting on the bench after his recent improvement? On top of that, if we want to be successful, we are going to be playing a lot of games and there's a reason why we have a big squad. If we don't want to play so many games, if we want to keep moaning about tiredness, then start tanking the League Cup and FA Cup. Don't win the Champions League so that we won't have the Super Cup and Club World Cup in the middle of the season. Tank all these competitions and just play around 46 games every season!

The mental gymnastics that some people are willing to do for Lukaku is funny. Maybe Jacob Steinberg summarized it best here...

When the manager starts to say things like that, then you probably gotta start wondering... First half was rubbish. No better in second half. And yet, Tuchel waited till the 80th minute and he dared to complain about tiredness after that... Also, being reactionary against of all teams, Brighton!?

JFC!

Only pointed out the facts. They weren't scoring regularly like you claimed. They scored only in a few games within 3-4 weeks and that was it. Their output then dried up before their injuries. They clearly didn't sustain the form and they don't have a track record of scoring/assisting consistently in their career so far either.

Irrelevant to what I said.

This isn't exactly accurate. Yes, Chilwell and James are important to the way we play as wingbacks but by the time Chilwell got injured, he hadn't scored in 5 games. He had only that purple patch in October where he scored 3 goals in 4 games. Similarly, by the time James got injured, he hadn't scored in 9 games and again, he also had that one purple between late October and November where he scored 4 goals in 6 games. So really, by the time they got injured, their output had dried up (Chilwell had only 1 assist in that 5 games while James also had only 1 assist in that 9 games) and in James, he had also gone off the boil performance wise. They really couldn't sustain their output, something as well that they have not managed consistently in their career so far, compared to say Robertson and TAA at Liverpool.

Yes but imagine if we had signed Lukaku for Conte and then went through the managers that we did anyway - Sarri, Lampard and Tuchel. Might well have still ended up with the same problems anyway.

At this point, god knows which is right and which is wrong anymore. From my POV, I have said before that I think Lukaku was more of the board's signing and Tuchel just went along with it. The board have always wanted to sign him back since 2017/2018.

ExpectedChelsea's takes are daft. It's alright pointing out that Lukaku did this and that at Inter (and Belgium) but it's also worth pointing out that Conte literally configured the entire Inter side around Lukaku for him to do what he did. He literally had a system built around him to cover his flaws and achieve what he did (all for the grand total of one Serie A title, his only major title in his career) and it was in an entirely different league. Why should Tuchel copy exactly what Conte did? As Tuchel said the other day, football is not just about 10 players serving the other one player. It's a team game. Minus the finishing bit, we had a working system last season (notice how the system wasn't a big talking point then?) with the right players fitting in to make it work and it's BIG reason why we won the Champions League so convincingly but this season, with the addition of Lukaku, suddenly all the talk is about the system, how we need to build it around him etc and how the players suddenly look at odds with one another. Why we should become like a one-man team again!? If Lukaku is truly as great as he thinks himself to be, then he should or needs to adapt to the system that we play. If he needs an entire system to be built around him, to cover his flaws and all that, then he's not a world class player at all. And no, the club/Tuchel signed Lukaku because they very likely just look at the numbers. They likely didn't give much thought on whether he would actually fit into the system.

Then I must have totally forgotten about it. Gotta forgive the old man memory here. 😛

Yes but he still wasn't one of the main attackers back then.

These were the minutes played in all competitions under Tuchel last season: Mount - 2,112 minutes Werner - 1,803 minutes Havertz - 1,131 minutes Pulisic - 1,311 minutes Ziyech - 912 minutes CHO - 908 minutes Didn't realize that Pulisic had more minutes than Havertz but certainly when it came to the biggest games, Havertz started more with Werner and Mount.

If you want to talk about last season, then it's basically Werner, Mount and Havertz as the trio. Minus the finishing, we looked like we were onto something with them. They bring the energy, pace, movement, workrate etc that made us work last season. Have barely seen them play together with the inclusion of Lukaku this season.

Newcastle must have offered him A LOT of money for him to swap Sevilla, who are 2nd in La Liga and look like challenging for the title, for Newcastle and be in a relegation battle.

And Tuchel pretty much sat down in the dugout for much of the second half yesterday.