BlueLyon

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.

But do you see any glimpses of that football under Sarri? The difference between average and great players are results. The style can be applied to either as long they fit the technical demands and we certainly have them in this team. Take Kovacic for example. Wonderful player, but Sarri made him look like Henderson on his worst day.

This. We are predictable as hell. Thats why it worked in the start, but no more. Ever since we looked like shit. Had two or three good games against average teams and bunch of one goal wins we barely survived. If you are predictable, you will never make nice entertaining football because they will read you like a book. And you have to play relaxed, but determined. Sarri is the exact opposite of all that. Our players look predictable as hell and they dont look relaxed nor commited. The results are what they are.

Yeah it was everything against us. But thats to be expected when team pussies out before the match even starts. We defended well in first half. We managed to do that with previous managers. But there was zero determination to score against that lot. They kept attacking us and we let them. Same we did under Conte or Mou. The games in october last year, we at least tried to score. If Sarri isnt trying to implement that in this team, why was he even brought here? I have no idea what Sarri tries to do. At one point he is hellbent on playing Jorginho in bid to play posession football, on the other he tries to fix it so that we dont get embarassed and he loses the job. So we end up playing bunker with Jorginho which makes no sense. I agree we need couple players, but even with this team, you can make them play entertaining football, althrough you can expect some heavy defeats. What we do is choke every such game and still lose.

Overall Liverpool is above us, but we could do much better tonight. United is on same level as us though, but I bet we will look clueless again. "Sarriball" apparently, but they will roll all over us until they score and then we will wake up for a bit, Sarri brings on Barkley and another defeat. I have nothing against a loss if that means development for the future and brings positive to the whole picture. What was positive here? Where were hints of "Sarriball" that will bring us to next level? Klopp was in same boat in the beggining, but at least he played entertaining football and while their defence was shite, they had clear plan forward and needed reinforcements at the back. We play like crap bar couple games and we still lose left and right or barely scrap one goal wins. We are shit in everything. No attack plan, except for pass it to Hazard. No defensive stability because as soon they press us harder, we look completely clueless. Midfield is nonexistent and lacks any dynamic or creativity. We played conte esque bunker tonight. Almost whole season after Sarri arrival. Where is any development of better playstyle? And dont tell me we dont have players because Klopp managed to play entertaining football with Henderson, Moreno, Wijnaldum and other "average" players. Last but not least, for a football under attacking manager, i havent seen such shite attacking organisation. Forget the goals or wins. Check Guardiola, Klopp even in their first seasons etc when they attack, there is chance left and right. When we attack, we manage to do it for 5-10 min and thats it. Then all creativity, determination just dissapears and we rely on individual quality in Hazard. When he leaves, we are fucked for at least 2 seasons. (And this isnt just based on tonight performance, but whole season). All Sarri "realised" is that we apparently cant compete with top dogs unless we park the bus. Duh, we knew that years now. But he was brought to create attacking football. I would understand loss after loss if our phylosophy actualy developed on pitch, if we became more connected in attack, but there is zero improvement since november and we play even worse than first couple months.

The fuck are you lot on about that we cant compete with them tonight? We played miles and miles better with SAME team back in october (?). Same applies to City games. If anything we turned much worse ever since. Barkley is average, not even good for the bench. Christensen and Jorginho are simply too weak for PL. They play in physical positions and they have strength of a 13 year old, so unless they bulk up, they are complete liability for our defense. If we can, a striker, new DM and LCM (to rotate with RLC) are absolute must asap.

Adapt yes, but not play bunker for entire first half haha. And if you do, certainly you dont play bunker with Jorginho then.

Also Jorginho and Christensen getting bullied by every midget there is. Those two never hit the fitness or what.

We created 3 great chances against them but only decided to attack after going 2:0 down. If anything Sarri doesnt believe his style could win vs liverpool. The fuck is the point of manager like that. Also if he planned to counter attack, whats the point of Jorginho? He is absolute liability in defensive system.

Higauin is a fucking idiot. Doesnt even know where the ball is.

With false 9, its almost pointless for CHO on RW. He thrives in beating his marker, then cross or pass in the middle, but today there is no one in penalty area to pass to. Giroud will be necessary in second half.

Salah diving to win the penalty. Fucker.

Jorginho master passer

Remember they were linked with Alexis, Fred and Jorginho, two ended up beyond crap in new clubs while Jorginho is only decent. Pep dodged 3 giant bullets there.

50 million for a backup holding mid after very average season with us is even dumber. Its totaly going to happen with our current board.

We sold Costa at the right time? That would be true if we brought a proper replacement. Instead we spend twice the cash and still dont have a proper striker, so might as well kept Costa who even in decline is no worse than current strikers we have. Same applies to Matic and Bakayoko.