robsblubot

Would be a grave mistake if we brought him back now. It makes no sense with the kind of investment we are currently making: abundance of promising younger players who need to develop. We are also going for a high intensity game, which really does not fit Eden's style. He was already a bit overrated at his prime, nowadays, with his poor work rate and injury proneness... stay clear.

Maybe (def hasn’t been as good of late IMO) but OK won’t cut it for the final. we will need our best starting xi and a massive performance by at least a couple of players. suppose Chelsea won’t share any info on fitness until an hour before kickoff.

He looked ok when moving about after being subbed, but it’s difficult to say. hopefully just a knock.

Still can’t believe giroud wasn’t brought on against a super low defense line. So strange… btw I do agree we have other issues aside from striker position, but in today’s game the way villa defended asked for a giroud type of player.

Jorginho has played well this season - he is a limited player no doubt. He just lost form in the end and we don’t have a whole lot of options in the middle. Kante has been struggling with injuries and kova has been out forever (very rusty now). Tuchel has done a great job turning the season around and especially finding a formation that better fits the players we’ve got. the one thing I worry is that he does not seem to have a plan against low defense lines.

Well we did buy them young this time around, which as I recall was what most here wanted. They are only showing the normal lack of consistency young players have. Kai does look to have a very high ceiling tho.

Mount had a bad miss, but it’s pulisic. Nothing really going for him.

What a ridiculous performance. Need to do a 180 for the second because we’ve been so very poor.

yeah couldn't agree more - no Kante unless 100% fit (which does not seem to be the case). Kova looked super rusty against Leicester, so he needs lots of minutes. Neither move vertically (b2b) like Kante does, so it is something we lack when Kante does not play (understatement).

he's the only shooter from range we've got. 😟

and pretty much night and day claiming crosses (or any high ball inside the box) due to his height and reach. It all plays a part.

Correctly ruled out imo and a pretty standard call. Seen it ruled out every time when an offside player is "remotely" blocking the goalie's view. They are wrong btw. It's not only about the view, but also attention. It's a human condition that movement catches our attention esp if in proximity. The rule is such that an offside player should not provide any advantage. West Brom players were in bad positions and were also slow to react. They should know better.

He clearly works way too hard.

brain-dead squad management risking Kante in this match. Really worried about Pulisic form - pretty horrible showing and he seems to struggle in physical matches.

Despite his poor finishing, don't think our difficulties to score are solely down to Werner. Pulisic has been very poor - pretty horrible showing against Leicester today tbh. I liked mount in the FA cup final, but not today... poor passing. And unlike Kante, neither Kovacic nor Jorginho help up front.

clear handball and penalty earlier on Werner. Werner handball was really poor from him. That should've been a goal.

think you've answered your own question there. 😉

hmm so, you are saying that Mendy is so good, but so good that Kepa not being anywhere near that standard makes him still OK? 🤔 How about this: Mendy is indeed an excellent goal keeper. And most other top clubs have excellent goal keepers as well. They all have different strengths and weaknesses. however, none of them have this deficiency with long shots. It's kinda a deal breaker at this level. My personal take is that Kepa is one of the worst goalies I've seen play the game - especially at this level. Folks are being WAY too nice to him here. He hurts the team's defense in ways that are difficult to measure, but defending is consistently worse whenever he plays. Perhaps because players scramble to close down the opposition to avoid long shots? Mendy was one of the reasons we started defending better. heh, would be very surprised if Kepa plays under Tuchel again.

any chance you'd be saying the exact same thing had Mendy not stopped that benzema shot in the 25th minute (of the second leg Cl match)? I'd not have criticized Mendy for not catching that, and yet he did. The shot was far enough that I feel Kepa could have taken a step before jumping, which would have increased his reach. Better goalies seem to "guess" the flight of the ball better than Kepa does. He's just got low reach. So many long shots go in when he's in goal... that's not normal at this level.

Not a bad stat for an attacking minded mid. His job is not spin around 5 times like Eden used to do for the delight of many here. He's very direct, and I like that about him.

Yup good point. opposition players are encouraged when seeing kepa on goal. It’s not the first long range shot he does not go near. folks who are saying we’ve been harsh on him are missing that this is hardly the first time. Had benzema scored that goal in the 25th minute and nobody would’ve blamed Mendy, it would’ve been unsavable… but he saved it.

"being a cup keeper" sure, which is about value/money after all. Hard to get rid of him if no other club (he'd like to play for) wants him. That we will be paying his wages for a long while is a sure thing. What remains to be seen is if we can get him out of the club (and contention), and as a plus, have some of his wages covered. Kepa looked like a huge mistake by the time he signed and turned out even worse than feared.

sure, but single elimination games are often decided in a small detail, an action/inaction here and there. We reduced our chances of overcoming an insipid performance by starting Kepa. in hindsight, we did have an insipid performance, and Kepa did not deliver the great save we needed (the opposition goalie did).

that tells more about our superior quality than hunger iMO. Leicester had to be hungrier to match our play, and they did that by defending very well. While we mostly had the ball in midfield, we did not control actions there that comfortably. The surprise for me was how defensive our lineup and strategy were. I disagree with most folks here that taking Alonso off was the right move: we needed a goal and his goal tally speaks for itself. Chilwell could've been brought in while still keeping alonso (also adding giroud much sooner), to put some pressure in their defense. Remember it was a heavy pitch and once they scored, spaces behind their defense line became very scarce.

I also think Mendy, due to his reach, had a much better chance of saving that shot. T-rex kepa (just stole that) must go... the problem of having him in the squad is that he will end up playing and then becoming a liability. 👍I think you hit the nail on the head regarding the players. There was a clear hungrier side on the pitch today, and it wasn't Chelsea! We got a bit hungrier after conceding, but it's usually too late in these type of games. Ah darn sorry for the DP.