Magic Lamps

tuchel got his tactics dead wrong the first time here. leeds have won the midfield battle too often. that being said we had chances to score a dozen

they should be converting chances this easy on either foot as pro footballers.

havertz had been unlucky not to score vs everton but incapable today. should have had a hattrick already.

Ziyech has been absolute pants for weeks now. no different today

crazy game...

the kind of frantic open game we all expected.

Leeds competition about who has the most ridiculous man bun has a new participant it seems. Roberts the favourite for me lol.

poor guy, schalke are incredibly lucky a man of his talents is willing to take the wheel of their raging chaos. returning to schalke for the umpteenth time. that club really must have a special place in his heart. Could take over a way bigger club.

Spot on. His fellow attackers must not leave him isolated. I can see him work with any combination of Mount/CHO/Werner/Puli but less so with Ziyech... we will see. Anyway, if he really can make this false 9 position his own and we manage to make this system work vs any kind of opposition, our long term striker problems could be solved. Far to early to say after one match tho. One final thought, I noticed how he takes a split second to compose himself everytime right before finishing when in on goal.(Obviously only when taking a touch prior to finishing so not for volleys or headers) Look at his hattrick in the cup, his offside "handball" goal vs Everton and his goals for leverkusen the on vs Inter for example. At first i thought it was infuriatingly casual to delay the finishing but it is incredibly smart. He recognizes when he has time to readjust his body, only delays if he actually has the time and thus picks the perfect moment to strike. This is an attirbute i have seldom seen in such a young player. A quality of top class finishers. Off the top of my head, the only other players I have consciouly seen doing this as frequently and ostentatively are Lampard and Messi, two of the greatest finishers in football history.

I see where you are coming from. I think his major improvement has been to be this comfortable in a sort of double pivot. All over, just do not like the type of player Jorginho represents. You have to admit that he was sloppier than usual in his last two experiences tho.

No that would be a bad idea. Giroud would allow Leeds to push higher which faciltiates their midfield play. I'd rather have Havertz as false 9 again. His awareness for spaces is superior compared to all of our out and out strikers and he will exploit the space leeds inevitably leave behind.

The opposite is the case. He has been the same weedy, slow-ass short pass metronome he has been for years with the occasional sloppy turnover and late challenge to mix things up. He is not Chelsea quality and should be gone once a superior replacement is found.

Mourinho might very well hand Spurs their maiden tinpot cup but destroy them for the long term. And if they indeed manage to not choke away that cup, they will find we won it multiple times already.

I do not even understand why any lending club should allow buy options. It completely cuts off our bargaining power. simply let the loan end and negotiate a sale afterwards.

That's true. he is still a great player butnot the dominating force he once was. Messi is still world class but a few players have surpassed him at the pinnacle. His era as the premier talent in world football is over.

thank fuck. about time their era is over. felt like an eternity.

Cronaldo is done on the highest level. the winner from porto actually went through his legs while he turned away. could have easily stopped the shot if he had not ducked away like a wuss

ok porto goes through. deserved. enjoy seeing juve drop out

Wtf. Just tuned back in a min ago and 2 goals

Nice goal. Not sure if deflection or goalie error or both

in isolation both cards were very harsh and more so in combination. punishment for kicking the ball away is very inconsistently applied and should in no way decide a CL k.o. game

the red card was a joke.

another game decided by a corrupted ref

I did not want a Modric type in the first place but someone wha can roam box to box, hold his position if needed and protect the backline and break the midfield line with passes or dribblings. both, rice and zakaria can do this. a Modric/verrati type would be too similar to kovacic and leave us physically even more exposed. I have not seen much of Bate, but Billy is the closest thing to Modric we have I guess

Rice, Locatelli, Camavinga or Zakaria. they can do what Jorginho does and some.