closed Aston Villa 2-1 Chelsea

[Jase 43,479]

22 minutes ago, Magic Lamps said:

For all his missed chances Timo had City on the ropes every time this season. The worrying thing is, his assists have dried up.

That was only like 2-3 games ago and if you count penalty as one, he helped won what turned out to be the match winning penalty in midweek.

[Magic Lamps 11,466]

2 minutes ago, Jas said:

That was only like 2-3 games ago and if you count penalty as one, he helped won what turned out to be the match winning penalty in midweek.

I think it was you who told my in the werner thread earlier this season that pens won do not count as assists.  Would you please make your mind up? 😂

[Jase 43,479]

1 minute ago, Magic Lamps said:

I think it was you who told my in the werner thread earlier this season that pens won do not count as assists.  Would you please make your mind up? 😂

Did I? lol

A penalty won really don't count as an official assist, if you go with the official definition (e.g. by Opta). But then you have sites (e.g. Transfermarkt) that count it as an assist. So yeah, go figure. 

And that's why I said "if you count penalty as one...".

[Ryebread 22]

9 minutes ago, Jas said:

You don't have to be a fan of Werner. It's a question of making tactical decisions that will cause City the most problems. City will absolutely love it if Giroud starts because of his lack of mobility and pace to run in behind.

We all agree pep is a tactical genius right? He has been thinking and preparing for some form of Werner, Mount, Ziyech or pulisic up top for weeks. Tuchel is full of surprises.. benching chill well for Alonso , switching azpi and RJ’s positions lately. Benching pulisic after first leg of Real Madrid game. You never know... if he did it and we won, everyone would say it was a stroke of genius.. he won’t do it. I just wonder why he hasn’t tried him up top. Like I said, I am not ashamed to say that I think Werner just brings speed and work rate right now. If we want speed and work rate out of a striker, play usain bolt up top. Both probably would have the same strike rate at this moment in time

Edited May 23, 2021 by Ryebread
Typo

[Jase 43,479]

3 minutes ago, Ryebread said:

We all agree pep is a tactical genius right? He has been thinking and preparing for some form of Werner, Mount, Ziyech or pulisic up top for weeks. Tuchel is full of surprises.. benching chill well for Alonso , switching azpi and RJ’s positions lately. Benching pulisic after first leg of Real Madrid game. You never know... if he did it and we won, everyone would say it was a stroke of genius.. he won’t do it. I just wonder why he hasn’t tried him up top. Like I said, I am not ashamed to say that I think Werner just brings speed and work rate right now. If we want speed and work rate out of a striker, play usain bolt up top. Both probably would have the same strike rate at this moment in time

But if Tuchel starts Giroud and it backfires, we would be screaming for his head. It's clear that Giroud is not suited to how Tuchel wants to play and it would be crazy to suddenly start him in a Champions League final, especially when he's played only about 134 minutes in all competitions since the end of February. It's a major cup final. It's not the time to start experimenting or throw nonsense curveballs. Play the strongest team and trust/pray/hope the XI selected turn up and perform.

[Superblue 6,331]

Werner is a must for the City game. His eagerness and subsequent offside regularity is frustrating at times, but he's the one player who will regularly look to play on the last man of defence and run direct. It's on a number of occasions been one of City's weaknesses (they struggle regularly with Vardy who does the same). There's regularly space behind the full backs and it's the one thing that Dias has looked uncomfortable with. 

For me, I would play Mount, Havertz and Werner next week with Pulisic coming on in the last 20-30 minutes. 

[Ryebread 22]

1 minute ago, Jas said:

But if Tuchel starts Giroud and it backfires, we would be screaming for his head. It's clear that Giroud is not suited to how Tuchel wants to play and it would be crazy to suddenly start him in a Champions League final, especially when he's played only about 134 minutes in all competitions since the end of February. It's a major cup final. It's not the time to start experimenting or throw nonsense curveballs. Play the strongest team and trust/pray/hope the XI selected turn up and perform.

So we are stuck with Werner as our pointy end... how did that work out today when we needed to win desperately? If you remove Werner from the equation, which I think was warranted ages ago. Then it comes down to Havertz,  Giroud or Tammy. I will take the experienced World Cup winner over our young Bayer Leverkusen acquisition. He’s not exactly setting the world on fire either. We need 3 goals. I don’t see that happening repeating the same thing. I hope I’m wrong. 

[Jase 43,479]

7 minutes ago, Ryebread said:

So we are stuck with Werner as our pointy end... how did that work out today when we needed to win desperately? If you remove Werner from the equation, which I think was warranted ages ago. Then it comes down to Havertz,  Giroud or Tammy. I will take the experienced World Cup winner over our young Bayer Leverkusen acquisition. He’s not exactly setting the world on fire either. We need 3 goals. I don’t see that happening repeating the same thing. I hope I’m wrong. 

Funny thing is Werner wasn't the one who was missing chances today.

In any case, we can debate till the cows come home about this but Giroud is not going to start the final, for the reasons already mentioned by me and others.

Based on how Tuchel has been setting us up, especially in the big games, he'll start Mount and Werner. It comes down to Havertz/Pulisic/Ziyech for the final spot.

[Ryebread 22]

1 minute ago, Jas said:

We can debate till the cows come home about this but Giroud is not going to start the final, for the reasons already mentioned by me and others.

Based on how Tuchel has been setting us up, especially in the big games, he'll start Mount and Werner. It comes down to Havertz/Pulisic/Ziyech for the final spot.

I know. I made it clear that I accepted this fact. Don’t see enough goals. Simple as that. Hope I’m wrong

[Ryebread 22]

Just now, Ryebread said:

I know. I made it clear that I accepted this fact. Don’t see enough goals. Simple as that. Hope I’m wrong

...and I like the idea of surprising pep and destroying all his prep work

[Jase 43,479]

1 minute ago, Ryebread said:

I know. I made it clear that I accepted this fact. Don’t see enough goals. Simple as that. Hope I’m wrong

If we can keep it tight at the back, we may need only 1 goal.

[Ryebread 22]

6 minutes ago, Jas said:

If we can keep it tight at the back, we may need only 1 goal.

I agree. I see our back as a total separate entity though. I think the front three is crying out for a real number 9 with some hold up play. Tuchel’s system would be brilliant if Werner were half the player he was at RB Leipzig, but he just ain’t. Not right now

[NikkiCFC 7,610]

7 hours ago, Pizy said:

Ironically, Tammy in last seasons form probably would’ve been enough.

Tammy if you count both seasons played minutes less than one full season. 21 goal in PL for Chelsea, goal every 155 mins. Plus 4 assists and some pens won. Very good overall stats, but we all know something is missing in his game.

[Magic Lamps 11,466]

Just now, NikkiCFC said:

Tammy if you count both seasons played minutes less than one full season. 21 goal in PL for Chelsea, goal every 155 mins. Plus 4 assists and some pens won. Very good overall stats, but we all know something is missing in his game.

I still think he would have been useful in a lot of games were we simply wasted too many chances. For all his faults Tammy is more clinical than Timo while being fast enough for the opposition not being able to press us high like when playing Giroud. 

[NikkiCFC 7,610]

2 minutes ago, Magic Lamps said:

I still think he would have been useful in a lot of games were we simply wasted too many chances. For all his faults Tammy is more clinical than Timo while being fast enough for the opposition not being able to press us high like when playing Giroud. 

Yes, definitely more clinical. Tammy and Timo both scored 6 goals but Tammy just 4 big chances missed. Timo 18.

About Bamford on previous pages... He had very good season. He has all in his skillset. 17g, 7a but his biggest problem is like with Timo. Big chances missed. He is top of the league with 21. 

So if he improves there he could be 25+ goals player.

[Jase 43,479]

3 hours ago, Magic Lamps said:

I still think he would have been useful in a lot of games were we simply wasted too many chances. For all his faults Tammy is more clinical than Timo while being fast enough for the opposition not being able to press us high like when playing Giroud. 

Maybe so but on the flip side, Abraham missed 22 big chances in the league last season, second only to Jesus. He might have ended up with more goals then than Werner did this season but he had a nice purple patch at the start with 7 goals coming in the first 5 games and then scoring just 8 more in his other 29 appearances. 

[cosmicway 1,262]

Now that the dust has settled, both matches were fixes.
I know that people who make such scenarios are fools. In addition if you have a friend like that you should beat him up from morning till night - this is the advice I 've been giving you for years.
But I am looking at the fait-accompli now, I 'm not making theories.

Here is what happened:
We fix a deal with the villagers for a 3-0 away win.
We do that but some wise guy props up and says "hey, Leicester know of this like open book - why don't we do the other thing, home win here, away win there ? if we can get them to condenscend of course".
Leicester having nothing to lose enter the deal, the ref also enters the deal and they all live happily ever after.

Edited May 24, 2021 by cosmicway

[Strike 6,986]

Any explanation for Apzi at wing-back lately? Loss of pace and directness down the flank - not sure what TT is playing at here. Reece is perfectly good in that role