BlueLyon

Reminds me of WC too when two best teams played in semis already and then the tournament would be won by whoever won that semi final (france, belgium). I get same feeling now. But Ajax impressed me more than Croatia and unlike Croatia, they eliminated two massive teams already while Cro had easy way.

I gotta say Im glad Im not so anti Pool as many others are. We are already having second bad season in a row which is bad, but if your super hated rivals also have amazing season on top of that, it has to be even worse. I will always appreciate teams that play good football, rivals or not. If they cheat, dive, have a team full of dicks or buy everything out there, thats a different thing then.

Btw can we buy him somehow? Kane is and always will be spuds loverboy and will play whenever fit. Maybe Son decides to move and what better than moving to club from same city with guaranteed starting #9 role

@Miguelito They got to a final last year already by playing super football. Pep chockes every year and they play like fucking mercenaries all the time. Nice football yeah, but I dont find any real passion in that team, bar maybe Aguero. They made it work with the likes of Wijnaldum, Milner, Henderson. Not that I like those players at all, but Klopp managed to make them work because he created a proper team. All Pep is doing is spending cash to have 2 world class players in each position and when it doesnt work, he spends twice more on new replacement. Klopp could do the same with Wijnaldum, Fabinho or Keita who sucked in the start but he actualy managed them brilliantly and now they are key players. I simply prefer Pool style over Pep style. I already was big fan when he managed Bvb (first time I actualy realy wanted another club to win CL beside Chelsea) and now he made Pool play that way if not even better. Their front 3 are a joy to watch, they came as good players, but together they evolved so much its crazy. Pep is plain and simple a choker on the other hand. I already disliked him after they defeated Chelsea in most cheated game ever. And ever since, he prooved he isnt anything truly special. In bayern, he won mickey mouse league, sucked big time in CL and same with City where he spent shitload of cash to dwarf the likes of burnley because he has two starts for each spot in attack. Just like a spoiled kid. Seriously dont understand whats so special about Pep City. Sure they did follow Pep philosophy well, but he bought the league and in CL where teams actualy try to fight back, he gets destroyed every year. Last year he lost to Pool, this year to Spuds. Tells you enough how strong he actualy is in tough games even against english teams. He scored those PL records because he beaten low table teams. Its pretty clear that Pool and even Spuds are better side in competition. Everything about Psg or City is whats wrong with football nowdays. Obviously money is key, but they are literaly buying all there is. Kudos to Klopp who actualy spends alot on couple players and makes them work to perfection. No backup superstars, no replacing them after a season if they suck. And they are reaping the rewards. That said, City plays nice too, tacticaly stupid but still nice. However there is no enjoyment in that team due to reasons mentioned above

No discussion, hopefuly they beat Spuds.

Its going to be super unpopular here due to Pool cuntish fans and league rivalry but credit where its due; Liverpool deserve either PL or CL 10 times over City. Any of Ajax, Barca or Pool had some fantastic matches in europe this season. May the best one win.

Also Laporte. A definition why I still prefer good ol' reliable CB over these modern ball playing defenders who fuck up everything in key moments. You have a couple with strong character like Pique, Ramos, Van Dijk, De Ligt,..that still perform reliably enoug but 80% of these ball playing CBs are some of the biggest frauds in football that cost their teams in key times. Bonucci, Laporte, Stones, Christensen,..

As I said a while ago, City will get knocked out again and they did. Perhaps the best english team my ass United 99, 08, Chelsea 05, 10, Liverpool 06?, Arsenal invincibles were all miles ahead because back then the PL was actualy strong and they had great CL runs too. Beating Burnleys and Stokes or piss poor Chelsea, United, Arsenal is peak of what Pep City can achieve. And even then they are likely going to lose title to Pool. Imagine if Spuds beat City in PL again, within a week they would literaly destroy whole City season haha. As for semis, fantastic pairs. Pool-Barca will be a massive spectacle and Ajax will have a nice chance against Spuds without Kane and Son in first match.

Amateur level tactical mistakes from both teams Safe to say neither will win CL with this kind of defending

Well done Ajax. Amazing football, they completely owned Juve in the midfield. Imagine if Ajax went in this game thinking they dont have as good team as Juve and they can only get result if they park the bus. Still cant believe some were saying we dont have team good enough to match Pool and our only chance was to park the bus. Ridiculous.

I had hopes he will turn into what Etoo was for us, but he is just way too slow for any kind of serious impact. Watching him press is so sad. We desperately need a young, hard working, dynamic and quick forward. Doesnt even have to be very prolific right now. We can compensate that with buying someone like Pepe who can share goalscoring burden. Think Hazard(CHO/Pulisic?)-Lautaro-Pepe That would realisticaly give us 3 players that can score 20 per season in all comps, much better than having one goalscorer to do it all. We need to create a team with multiple scorers, so we become less predictable. I seriously dont want us to get a striker like Icardi who is slow poacher and would never fit this team. How would you rate Lautaro? He reminds me of Tevez. Jovic would be nice but he is probably a pipe dream. Maxi Gomez, Richarlison or Inaki could also work.

We should pick Chilwell. I dont even mind if we overpay for him. He is quick, good on both ends, quite intelligent and also english, used to PL tempo. If not him, then Mendy or Firpo. For RB, I hope we go with Azpi and James next season.

I havent been this unexcited about arriving player in a long time. I had bigger hopes for Schurrle back in the day.

Its because teams know that as soon they press us we look lost and start panicking. And they usualy start with blitzkriegs in the second half. When they do, I often expect us to concede in those phases.

Its obvious he will sell shirts, BUT it wont just happen and he will become star over there with everyone buying a shirt. If he flops big time, shirt sales wont be great and we wont make massive fanbase over there, with exception of the first couple ''hype'' months. We will either have to win stuff with him being important player or he will have to be individually brilliant (ala Hazard) to gain us massive popularity in USA in the long term. USA already hyping over Adams and McKennie, if Pulisic flops and those two rise, we can forget about creating Chelsea domination in USA. That said, I dont give a hell about our popularity in USA, would prefer if we actualy went for proven players that go along with our project.

Christensen is good on the ball, but he gets super nervous when under pressure and that not only happened this season, but last season when he was playing week in week out. Cant have a CB that loses his shit so easily. Those ball abilites mean nothing if he gets panic attacks. What I meant to say is that Id prefer Zouma in the backline who is reliable, quick and strong defender over Christensen ball skills. I prefered Zouma since the start prior to our Sarriball switch and from what I have seen I would still prefer him in any system. Defenders have to be reliable and Christensen is a ticking bomb. He will either make a ridiculous pass or he will get bodychecked by opponent in front of our goal. Id say he can improve his decisions, but his strenght is main question. Defenders dont have to be ridiculously big to be good, but Christensen didnt pack any muscle last few years and he is already 24. Rudiger looks skinny too, but he is strong. Christensen bounces off well balanced opponents. As for Cahill, I always thought he was decent on the ball. It was his style that didnt fit possesion type of football because he never pressed and always backed off from attackers.Zouma could be transformed to play under Sarri IMO, but next season is last chance to do so.

Our club is in dire need of goalscorers and instead of this guy who is scoring left and right we signed someone with same scoring rate as Willian. Nice one.

If Chelsea board did their job, we would have hell of a team now. It would be us rulling the PL, not Pool or City. Remember we also picked Cuadrado instead of Griezmann because he would cost 5m more or something. Kepa Azpi-Zouma-Rudiger-Filipe Luis Kante-Matic-Kdb Salah-Griezmann-Hazard I know its easy to say now, but this would be reality if we had competent board like Juve, Pool or City has. When you look at it and compare to what we have, you realize we sacrificed 5 seasons of long term consistency at the very top for two titles with zero european succees and bunch of average seasons ahead.

I'd pick Zouma over Christensen any day of the week, even if he is average on the ball. The way Christensen bounced away of Salah is laughable for a CB and he doesnt look anywhere near confident and imposing to be rock solid CB in PL in the near future. Only reason I want to give him chance is because he is youth product.

Sarri needs to figure out what he wants from this team. If he wants pragmatic performance, then he can forget about Jorginho in first 11. If he wants attacking football, then he must never put Hazard in false 9 ever again because he is nowhere near as dangerous there. Most importantly he needs to make this team actualy play when we have possesion, not just pass around. And he needs to implement his style against any opponent. Variety yes, but not such extreme change like today by parking the bus and not even trying to play until being 2 down. All this can be achieved with current team, getting better players will bring better results, but core style can be implemented already and Sarri didnt suceed at it so far.

Season 2029/30, Sarri: We are almost there to match them.

Playing Eden there certainly is. Hazard is our best player and when he shifted him to false 9, he essentialy said to pool we have limited our best player ourselves, so you can attack us even more. Thats literaly what Mourinho would do. Sacrifice players to defend. And then he still keeps Jorginho in that holding mid role. Is he this big of an idiot? Play bunker and invite all pressure from pool and still play Jorginho there? Same guy who is about as useful in such system ad Henderson and doesnt have any pace nor strength to defend? In this first half setup, we might aswell hoof the ball because apart from front 3, no one moved forward. We have already beaten this same side with fair contest. In football, brave and bold are rewarded. If we had Conte, no one would blame him for parking the bus. But after season of training under Sarriball, two games against pool where we played equal to them and thats the best tactic he pulls off? Obviously everyone knows if you park the bus, you will concede against this pool side because they play dynamic football. Even more if your manager is Sarri and he plays Jorginho in holding role. Basicaly Sarri just went for lesser evil and parked the bus to avoid humiliation. Because at this point he knows he was read by about every team in pl and this is his response, to defend as long as he can. If he was bold, he would inspire the team to take Pool to the cleaners and win. Its 11 vs 11 and our team is wastly more experienced to match their quality. There were too many times this season when opponent was lucky and we were unlucky, thats no longer an excuse. We play like little insecure kids, no wonder nothing goes in, we panic in defence and cant create for shit. And Sarri is definately responsible for motivation. One thing is to say pool is the better team, but we come there to win vs saying they are better and we cant match them. Because that shit is literaly an excuse from Sarri after every defeat. No wonder it gets into players heads.

We are getting Wengered already mate. I remember Tottenham, City, Pool etc go toe to toe with us in many many matches and getting the result, even if we were the better side on paper. They didnt get scared. The two top teams that play bunker on regular basis were atletico and Chelsea. After Sarri arrived, I expected some heavy defeats, but I thought our attack will become more connected and creative. It didnt. And not just against the big sides. We played some shite sides with all the possesion in the world, but we couldnt do anything. If anything we have regressed even more this season.

Point is you have to go toe to toe if we want to play attacking football. We lose now, maybe next time, but you turn it around. Exactly what Pool did compared to past seasons. Or you never learn from the mistakes. You have to be bold to change style. Or you can be pragmatic and not give a shit about style like we did in the past. Sarri is somewhere in the middle. We dont win, we dont play entertaining. We dont evolve. This whole season looks a mess. I doubt just adding players will make us significantly better. Because in the end you need a team to win stuff and Sarri proven time and time again he cant make a team out of 11 players on field.

In our last title run, we had better team than Liverpool but in the matches they still tried to win against us and play their game. They could cry they dont have the players but they didnt and they went in games to win them. In recent seasons, when tables have turned, we parked the bus and let them roll all over us. Thats the difference between Sarri and Klopp. Almost a season passed and we revert back to bunker football against big teams. I guess some things never change.