closed Valencia 2-2 Chelsea

[Atomiswave 6,072]

We just need to beat Lille and take it from there. Lets hope we are doing better by the time CL comes back again. Hopefuly no injuries, a settled defence and all of them roaring to go big.

And JM was right, we need to be more compact in the big games, you cant count outscoring every team, no team is that lucky, not even pool and they are good and supremely jammy/lucky.

FL himself can surely see he must adapt a bit better in the big games regarding tactics and shape, im sure we will get there.

Even if we do all that we still need quality players coming in, we will need to spend and spend good......then and only then will we get closer to the finished article.

[Special Juan 27,103]

Lille are brutal, we will beat them.

[bigbluewillie 1,806]

imho

Lamps needs to sort out this defending of ours, it's truly shocking, it has to be a priority we can't continue defending like this and be successful our luck will run out.

With better finishers Valencia could of had 4 or 5 goals, we can''t can't keep a clean sheet anywhere.

Yeah I know we're in transition but fucking hell very time an oppo attacks I shit myself it always looks like the possibility of a goal, oh and don't get me started on Kepa did we really spend £76M on this muppet?

 

[OneMoSalah 8,614]

15 hours ago, Tomo said:

It depends on the night.

I feel it's a little harsh to say if we play like we did tonight or at home Vs Ajax we would get hammered, while that's technically true I can flip that round and say if we play like we did in Amsterdam and Istanbul we have a chance against almost anyone, which is also true.

The reality is we're an inconsistent team right now and we won't be troubling Liverpool and City in the title race for that reason, however if our 'on' nights can fall on CL ties you just never know, if Tottenham's stagnant side can make the final it's certainly not completely beyond our reach.

Tottenham last season had the one thing we dont this season though, a solid shape and settled back 4 with 2 proper CBs who are leaders and organisers. Alderweireld and Vertonghen (even Sanchez is decent although he has regressed I feel) are very good CBs, aging but very good, but their team shape also helped them and although Moussa Sissoko was a bit of a joke for a few years his physicality and energy in there undoubtedly helped them in that CL run. Yes Rose and Trippier werent brilliant but they were reliable too. Throw the likes of Eriksen, Kane, Lucas Moura (who has surprised me since coming over because I thought he was overrated) and Son in any team that has good defensive stability and you have every chance of beating the likes of City and Ajax of last season. They even had a high chance v Liverpool.

If we can sort out defensive aspects of our game out, we can certainly hurt top teams, I agree but I am not fully convinced with Zouma and Tomori as a pair or as I alluded to in another post, our team shape, we seem to defend well for a few games then look really open the next few. Rudiger has to come back yet though and I feel he is better suited to playing than Zouma. Zouma is good in the air though, probably better than Tomori in that aspect but again Tomori is better with the ball imo and despite not playing as well as he has, I think we should persist with him as theres huge potential there (shocked he wasnt loaned but the Luiz sale made it an absolute certainty he stayed) if he can iron out those wee things. Christensen looks a shadow of the player he was for 5 months under Conte but again Luiz excelled for Conte in a back 3 in his first season back, I said with Luiz then that I felt the system helped him because he had the 2 wide CBs who would engage players more and allow him to step out with the ball with less risk and perhaps the same can be said for Christensen.

[Tomo 21,681]

1 minute ago, OneMoSalah said:

Tottenham last season had the one thing we dont this season though, a solid shape and settled back 4 with 2 proper CBs who are leaders and organisers. Alderweireld and Vertonghen (even Sanchez is decent although he has regressed I feel) are very good CBs, aging but very good, but their team shape also helped them and although Moussa Sissoko was a bit of a joke for a few years his physicality and energy in there undoubtedly helped them in that CL run. Yes Rose and Trippier werent brilliant but they were reliable too. Throw the likes of Eriksen, Kane, Lucas Moura (who has surprised me since coming over because I thought he was overrated) and Son in any team that has good defensive stability and you have every chance of beating the likes of City and Ajax of last season. They even had a high chance v Liverpool.

If we can sort out defensive aspects of our game out, we can certainly hurt top teams, I agree but I am not fully convinced with Zouma and Tomori as a pair or as I alluded to in another post, our team shape, we seem to defend well for a few games then look really open the next few. Rudiger has to come back yet though and I feel he is better suited to playing than Zouma. Zouma is good in the air though, probably better than Tomori in that aspect but again Tomori is better with the ball imo and despite not playing as well as he has, I think we should persist with him as theres huge potential there (shocked he wasnt loaned but the Luiz sale made it an absolute certainty he stayed) if he can iron out those wee things. Christensen looks a shadow of the player he was for 5 months under Conte but again Luiz excelled for Conte in a back 3 in his first season back, I said with Luiz then that I felt the system helped him because he had the 2 wide CBs who would engage players more and allow him to step out with the ball with less risk and perhaps the same can be said for Christensen.

That's the thing, i don't think present day versions of Vertonghen and Alderwierld are very good atall, they look like caricatures of their best selves. Rose reliable? His fall from grace has been even worse, he's relegation fighting material at most these days.

Furthermore it wasn't Tottenham's defense that got them to the final, it was being clinical and getting the right breaks at the right time. Liverpool a year back got to the final with Karius in goal (granted they lost it because of him). On our best days i honestly believe we can beat any side, if we get past Lillie then two performances like Istanbul and Amsterdam could be all it takes to make the semi.

[OneMoSalah 8,614]

1 hour ago, Tomo said:

That's the thing, i don't think present day versions of Vertonghen and Alderwierld are very good atall, they look like caricatures of their best selves. Rose reliable? His fall from grace has been even worse, he's relegation fighting material at most these days.

Furthermore it wasn't Tottenham's defense that got them to the final, it was being clinical and getting the right breaks at the right time. Liverpool a year back got to the final with Karius in goal (granted they lost it because of him). On our best days i honestly believe we can beat any side, if we get past Lillie then two performances like Istanbul and Amsterdam could be all it takes to make the semi.

True but they also had a settled team, they didn't get many clean sheets but in key moments in games they remained solid enough to withstand pressure spells, the Man City and Ajax games for instance despite playing or not playing  well in spells of it. That comes from having good players, collective shape and organisation in key moments. Obviously the ideal thing would be for us to be really solid but I understand that with this way of playing, Rudigers injury and as well as arguably having 2 CBs who havent really kicked on in Zouma and Andreas and still not being able to balance Kante in the midfield while keeping Jorginho and Kovacic in, it is hard. I mean when we play bad we cant seem to stop conceding chances far too easily, there was times where even if we didnt play well or were under pressure in a period of a game we had enough about us to be solid and not concede chances.