robsblubot

Andreas Pereira is considering a move to Palmeiras in Brazil, which is surprising to me. He’s their best mid on the ball.

Great save by Sanchez now! he’s actually doing good as a goalie of late. Not as good with the ball at his feet as advertised tho.

Wtf was that ouch! Sanchez

Neto has been working hard, but not one of his best games. Perhaps time to sub him after the yellow now.

Agreed. They are too dangerous in attack — we need a second goal at least. team is playing well; Jackson took a bit too long at times, hopefully he can be a bit sharper in the second.

I don’t care one bit about individual stats. I care about how a player makes the team better! Being with goals, assists, hard work, leadership… I don’t care. Rashford does not improve the team he plays for (at this level) — quite the opposite.

Rashford is just not a very good footballer, and age has not improved things one bit. Yeah noticed that. The original article did not mention age, but BBC always include players age in them, which I find very good practice; the intern got it wrong this time.

Never said it was easy. We've won quite a bit of silverware employing low blocks. It's certainly *easier* to defend with a low block than with possession: less space behind your D line to worry about. it's also far cheaper to play defensively, and defend with a low block, than it is to employ, successfully, a possession + attacking minded side. I think every time your team plays some is indeed shown to others who might be paying attention. Heard from multiple managers that it's common to be forced to switch strategies during a competition as other teams find ways to block your most effective strategies. How effective other sides will be at employing a low block against us? we will see soon.

Was reading that we had close to 70% possession and only 5 shots on goal. if that’s the case then the collective did not produce enough to win the match. That goes into strategy, team setup, player characteristics, and quality (roster). Teams will start playing with a lower d line against us, so this is hardly the last time we will struggle to find space.

You just can't risk injuries in this competition. We have the roster to rotate now, so might as well.

I'd go a bit further: there is no such entity as "the fanbase." There are no "fickle fans" as some like to address here. Fans are different and think differently about players and way to play, have their own preferences. The club should largely ignore fans and mostly does. This is the same everywhere.

Say what now?! hell no! He sure isn't. He's missing that all important skill side of the game. IMO, the club has already given up on him, and the manager has much better options avail, so he should not play much this season. What the club has said, and is saying, is likely just to retain his value... good luck with that.

Agreed, for me at the technical level, you have Mudryk and Bakayoko as complete blunders. The players simply did not have the minimum required skill at this level and for the role they were signed for. I called Lukaku as a mistake before he was signed and was right, unfortunately. I still think he could've done more with the right attitude tho. I just did not see him as a player for the type of football we wanted to play-contrary to Jackson for example whom I think fits that mould really well. Drinkwater was a last minute signing to fill the roster, but the mistake there was the club not doing its due diligence in finding about his professionalism, or lack thereof. If you go back in time, you have others like Ben Haim, but for me, yeah Mudryk and Bakayoko. 😅

There is no better role model.

Don't mind Thor, he is a fucking Troll. He does not work the idea, but the person. He's the squad police and official cheerleader for the billionaire owners. Nobody gives a fuck about his calling out. 😆 Not even the manager played Cucu until towards the end of the season. Players' form fluctuate a lot throughout a long season. Cucu played like shit for over a year, then he got better. It happens a lot. 🤷‍♂️ Thor the Troll.

I blame referees. They should, at some point, realize he's prone to that and start either punishing him or ignoring his rolling on the ground. It's just a bit hypocritical to go on and on about Neymar like folks used to do, when our own player does the same thing.

🙄 "just" Sancho/Neto for Mudryk... Neto and Sancho both started on the 3 nil against Villa. You were JUST mentioning that consistency is everything... and If you don't see any value in the quality of the roster, not the starting XI in league play, then letting go is indeed all I have left. How can you fucking have consistency if there is a huge drop in quality every time you are missing a player?! ffs If you think the roster from last season would've been in this position you lying or delusional. Did your beloved ownership then throw money away (over 200m + high wages) strengthening the attack?

Players IMPLEMENT the system. How well they do it plays a big part in how effective the system is. Pulisic instead of Mount or Timo? He's more similar to Timo (less defensive which would've been risky), and very different from Mount. Replace Mount in either of the games and we'd be missing a goal to go through--not to mention the D aspect against strongest opposition. Once again you move the goal posts. For the league you choose to consider the quality of the opposition, but in CL you completely disregard the quality of the opposition. 🤷‍♂️ 🤣 all three would be excellent options right now; if you think Mudryk is as good as any of them, then I will have to question your sanity. Honestly, there is a point you should just check your bias and stick with accomplishments alone. Kai alone would've been an amazing aerial option (a Giroud type) we currently don't have in the squad. This squad has won jack shit. It's a very promissing squad with excellent players everywhere given the cost of building this team. Maybe Liverpool stutters and we win the league this season, given City's struggles; or maybe the squad will drop form and struggle later on. Maybe these players will do well in CL, or maybe they will struggle against different styles... we do not know this yet. I'm looking forward to seeing this squad play CL--very curious to find out what type of player Cole is, but his Euros play was reassuring.

This is a similar point I was making in a diff thread: players have different characteristics, so if we replace Jackson with another player, who may even be more clinical in front of the goal, you lose certain qualities that Jackson has. Jackson is really quick and difficult to take down. He's a surprisingly good short dribbler, and have gotten better at releasing the football at the right time when he makes his runs, which was the only real critique I had of his game (no he's not a great header of the ball). He's a good high presser, and seems to link up well with a number of players including Cole. It's easy to imagine Cole struggling a bit more if we'd replace Jackson with a more static striker, for example.

I'm actually surprised he was mentioned today against Brentford; I thought he had a strong game, and that single hand save from very close range was superb. No, he's not my fav goalie either, but I think people's dislike of him may also be for what Maresca asks his D and goalie to do. That's what that system requires, and so the manager uses the goalie as sweeper/passer, which can be nervy at times. Any goalie would appear just as nervy doing that especially considering it takes time to sync with the defense to make this work better.

I thought we were talking about individuals and individual stats, now you bring up team stats and I need to "fight them?" 🤷‍♂️ Hmm how about different team setup w/ different manager, different strategy, different players with different characteristics, different coaches at the club, different fitness plan and fitness coach, different owner, and finally, one won the CL against the toughest opposition and the other jack shit!? That team won! Even somewhat comfortably considering the level of opposition. It shouldn't matter if you disliked something in that team, I mean if you are a Chelsea fan and not a fan of some players. Mount's influence in the semi and final is undeniable; some players have that quality, to deal with tough matches better than others (Eden could not). It's easy to speculate others could've done Werner's job, but that's guesswork. The fact that a super defensive team can sometimes surprise and go far in cup competitions such as CL and WC does not negate the fact that in the VAST majority of times, the best wins. It sounds like you don't value beating the biggest club in the world in CL semis and then beating City (the strongest PL team by far) in the final, which is super odd tbh. Pep was heard saying Chelsea were favorites prior to the final and I was feeling pretty confident for that match. No, I don't think Werner's poor finishing has anything to do with mentality. He is a high concentration player who will not let opponents walk past him for the entirety of the match. His poor finishing is entirely due to poor technique--his first touch isn't the greatest either which is what limits him as a player. His first touch is the same as Mudryk -- they have similar technique. Timo is better at pretty much everything else (maybe Muddy is quicker). Mount in the 21/22 PL, 11 goals and 10 assists (bet that with these numbers he got a few MotM too). Mount has very good technique -- the only skill he's really poor at is dribbling, which IMO explains some of the hate he got.

Not a fan of Cucu constant play acting. Goes to the ground too often holding his face on the slightest touch or pull. It will get old as refs will know his antics.

Yeah stole the football in such a casual way lol