BlueLyon

Brilliant game. Despite we didnt control the game that well and had little possesion in first half, I was not nearly as nervous as usual, because the players seemed to know what they are doing. Let Soton play and hit them on breaks. Great work from Conte and players. Also what a fantastic fans. Cheered whole game. If players didnt get sheevers on that pitch, I dunno...atmosohere was amazing. Unlike some, I think our wingbacks were realy good. Perhaps Alonso isnt best in defending, but he definately makes up with direct play, running 90min, physicality and most importantly, even if he loses challenge, he follow the opponent all the time. He puts alot of pressure and kills space, very nice. Moses, Kante, Eden, Tibo, Cahill, Azpi, Costa and Luiz were fantastic. Pedro and Matic had few bad moments, but still strong performance too. On fun note, how ridiculous would it be if Conte sent Iva to taste the game in last minutes because he will start him next week. I would kill someone haha.

Nah, Moses is just a no nonsene player. Very direct. What most should be. He sees run, he passes in space. Simple. Unlike Willian and many others we had who want to dribble the grass on every ocassion because they think they are world beaters (and litteraly just waste time and opportunity 80% of the time.

That said if we will insist on 3:4:3 While I think 3 man defenses today are outdated (Conte didnt get far with juve in CL, Guardiola experimented in bayern and city with no effect etc), BUT we play much much better with that formation. I definately look forward to see more of it, but I still have few questions. Will it work once opponents get prepared well? Did we establish it because its Conte's best formation or just best formation for current players? Alot will depend on formation we play. We cant go in january and summer buying players for 3:4:3, and then switch to 4:x:x next season because things wont work. Also, assuming we do play 3:4:3, few years pass, Conte decides to leave for whatever reason and next manager is your typical 4:x:x and all he has are players for 3:4:3... (ok thats long term and if we are successful under Conte, it wont be a problem). Im probably complicating alittle bit, but if we go 3:4:3, we go heavy for it. If we switch at some point soon, we will basicaly waiste few years. Personaly I like 3:4:3 alot, but needs to pass more games to create valid opinion. Im not sure if I like the system because what it is, or because how much of improvement it is over 4:1:4:1 we played before. Certainly we play much nicer football, we look well on both ends, with or without the ball and if we bring 2 or 3 more players, I think it could be it. Also, it could be the formation, but soon as we replaced Iva and Oscar with Alonso and Moses, we instantly performed much much better. I dont think its coincidence. That gives another possibility that formation wasnt changed to 3:4:3 because it was better, but simply because it fits different players who are better than those that can play in 4:1:4:1. And perhaps with few better new players that fit well in 4:3:3; we could play even better than we do in 3:4:3. Now if we could get same 11 be able to play 3:4:3 and 4:3:3, equaly well, that would be amazing, but I dont think football can work that way. If it would we would probably revolutionize football world.

Normaly I would be bit worried, but if we play with three tall CBs behind, no problem at all.

Brilliant CB. Probably most underrated in PL right now. Soton definately knows how to grow defenders. Great stuff from them for a while now. Fonte, Alderweireld, Lovren, Dijk... I remember him playing for Celtic along Denayer, but didnt realy impress me. However since he came to Soton, he was realy consistent and improved alot. He is a no nonsense CB, very strong, not shaddy on the ball either. I would love to have him here.

Honestly I would just take Baker and sell Oscar.

Tough tough match for us, but maybe we can nick small win like 1:0 or 2:1 if we play like against united and luck on our side. But yeah, smells like a draw or if we are not carefull they can do us on counter.

He is just digging the grave for himself with these comments. There is no way United fans see him as one of club greatest and with these comments he makes, the Chelsea fans who generaly still believe he is club legend, will sooner or later start to liking him less and less. I will be forever grateful for his time here, he created one brilliant team in first spell, but recently he has been showing the true colors more and more. I never saw him talk shit about Inter, or aboout joining their rivals, yet here he thinks he can do anything and still get away on behalf of the history with us. No way Jose.

I like the lad, but sometime his inefficiency lets us down...

Like his confidence. He is quick and strong, good on the ball, but it shows he is inexperienced. Needs to work on decision making and defending, but I think he could definately make it here. Maybe on right side he would feel more comfortable tho.

Not realy dissapointed with loss, we experimented and still made decent performance. Nate did very well, Aina was on and off, Bats and Oscar were completely invisible tho. Azpi should never play on RWB again, he is not fast enough to return in defence and doesnt offer enough in attack for that role. Other than that, bit more luck and we would still gone through. Hopefully we dont lose the momentum in the league and return to best vs Soton with first choice 11. On another note, Oscar has been bellow any decent performance. Physicaly just doesnt cut it and he isnt excellent in other areas that would cover that problem either. Bullied of the ball everytime and that just doesnt cut it in PL for me. I wonder with all this free time, why doesnt he bulk up a bit. He is not a winger or fullback to fear he would lose alot of speed or sth. Having all these professionals in the club would surely make him grow healthy and at same time keep good fitness levels. Because its clear he cant cope with strenght of other players and I have seen many players who got stronger after few seasons, but Oscar is still same he was in 2012.

I think Moses should get some rest to be fully fresh for Soton. Same with Alonso, but sadly we dont have replacement. On another note, I see youngsters do well under Conte and if Aina plays, Im sure he will do his job well. Aina might well be our future and this kind of games would be perfect for him to play. Its still early stage in cup, so I would play mixed squad and then see how they do. If we reach semis or final, then we might play with stronger lineup or even then trust youngsters if they played well in earlier games. With all respect to Whu, we should be able to win the game with mixed lineup or simply bring top dogs in second half to wrap it up.

He wants to win CL with Paris, so I think it would be difficult to take him. Unless Psg does realy poor, Im not sure he will go soon. Luiz and especially Conte might be great plus tho, if we start playing realy well.

IMO he is in the class of Arfa, Balotelli etc. They play well when not under pressure, but ultimately fail in big club because of their arrogance and thinking they have nothing else to learn. Not saying he isnt playing well, but I would avoid him.

Tuchel is ok boss, and their team is good quality, they have simply so many injuries to fill whole starting lineup and therefore no consistency. Still should get more points by now.

Whats going on with german clubs these days? I always saw them as balanced, well run organisations. But Stuttgart, ex champion now in second league, Werder and Hamburg in bottom for years now, ane it seems Bayer, Schalke and Wolfsburg have no better future. Did other teams realy improve that much or have the "top" teams so poor these days? Coach changes every few months dont help the clubs either.

costa been in super form but tomorrow Im certain Bats will start.

i hope Aina, Nate and Bats start a game, we will need fresh players at the weekend.

We already have Costa and Luiz, now imagine we had the likes of Pepe and Verratti. The collection of thugs would be almost complete. On another note we would be even more hated haha

I think all this talk about him in first 11 is a bit overrated. Atm we play 3:4:3 and I would play Azpi, Luiz and Zouma ahead of him. Not to mention Conte could go for another top CB. Christensen has a long way to go, but I feel people started to judge him on his passing ability. He is CB first and foremost and what matters is his defending. Secondly, there will be huge physical jump from buli to PL (just take a look at Baba) and things could go either way. Personaly, I prefer stronger, no nonsense CBs like Zouma, Baily ahead of Stones and Christensens, but we will see. The lad plays well and deserves a chance next season no doubt. But a starting spot? No. Not yet atleast.

To be honest, Juve looks bit lost this year without him. Certainly they are missing something and Pjanic cant replace it.

Relax. Once he fucks up United, he will move to Spuds or City or Pool. And so on. He realized he cant make Chelsea stronger, so he will help making our opponents weaker. Its clear he loves Chelsea

Thats what I said mate :). Instead of being Ronaldo, he should train more to be better CM.

He is the victim of the money market, he was never worth that and IMO he cant be guilty of not performing like Messi because the fee was unfair and people should never expected so much from him. He should though train to become more allround player instead of playing second coming of Ronaldo which he never will be. He will come good though, Im sure. Probably not under Mou tho.

I think the results dont even deserve such attention What I realy like is that after things went south, he actualy changed formation and the players. Its been so long the manager changed traditional lineups and experiment. He adressed both issues we had. On and off the ball. When off the ball, we now press effectively and when on the ball, new formation confuses opponents how to press us. We have more players open to pass, more runs, quicker play. We had it in first two games too, then it collapsed. I hope this time, we manage to be more consistent. Initially I was getting bit upset with Conte as he was keeping Iva in squad and those late subs, but he then changed to 3 CBs, moved Kante to b2b, benched Iva. To play Moses was brave decision too. Shows he learns from mistakes and thats realy promising. Perhaps pool and arsenal defeats hit us at perfect time to change things, we certainly learned the lession then. Its long season, but things are promising so far. Just one point from top, if we keep playing like this, we will definately put others to test.