Chelsea (A) - Sun 2nd Jan 2022 (4:30pm)

[Carvalho Diablo]

1 hour ago, etho said:

A midfield three of thiago and fabinho plus one other is fine, wins most games. Problem is if they miss games then you need to be able to trust the guys who come in, and clearly we don't. Milner at this stage shouldn't start a big game

100%

[an tha]

29 minutes ago, Scott_M said:

It depends what we want.

 

It’s a stretch to see us not being at least 3rd, so top 4 is significant rest in the league game, first 11 in the cups.

 

Challenge on all fronts obviously isn’t that. Given where we are in the League Cup, I think we should be all in and we’ll obviously be all in on the CL. 
 

IMO, we should still be going on all fronts, however, given where we are in the League Cup, the FA Cup should 4th in our list of priorities. 
 

I don’t want to sound defeatist, absolutely not, I fully expect our side that lines up at Arsenal to be stronger than the one that lines up against Shewsbury. 

We need to go as strong as we can for Arsenal Thursday - they will go full tilt at it.

 

If we fuck about too much we could find ourselves in trouble - so no daftness like Koumetio at centre half for example like we saw v Leicester.

[Scott_M]

6 minutes ago, an tha said:

We need to go as strong as we can for Arsenal Thursday - they will go full tilt at it.

 

If we fuck about too much we could find ourselves in trouble - so no daftness like Koumetio at centre half for example like we saw v Leicester.

100% agree.

[aRdja]

A decent result from a decent performance but ultimately wouldn’t be enough to properly challenge City. Midfield was where we lost it really. Fabinho is back in that horrible form he suffered at the back end of last season but sadly at the moment Thiago isn’t there to pick up the pieces. Hendo was anonymous, Milner despite the silly foul was by some distance our best midfielder. N’golo Kante though is arguably the best defensive midfielder to have ever played the game. What a player.  

[Carvalho Diablo]

1 minute ago, aRdja said:

A decent result from a decent performance but ultimately wouldn’t be enough to challenge City. Midfield was where we lost it really. Fabinho is back in that horrible form he suffered at the back end of last season but sadly at the moment Thiago isn’t there to pick up the pieces. Hendo was anonymous, Milner despite the silly foul was by some distance our best midfielder. N’golo Kante though is arguably the best defensive midfielder to have ever played the game. What a player.  

Souness would eat Kante for breakfast.

[aRdja]

Just now, Carvalho Diablo said:

Souness would eat Kante for breakfast.

Never watched him play but I doubt that.

[VladimirIlyich]

4 minutes ago, aRdja said:

A decent result from a decent performance but ultimately wouldn’t be enough to properly challenge City. Midfield was where we lost it really. Fabinho is back in that horrible form he suffered at the back end of last season but sadly at the moment Thiago isn’t there to pick up the pieces. Hendo was anonymous, Milner despite the silly foul was by some distance our best midfielder. N’golo Kante though is arguably the best defensive midfielder to have ever played the game. What a player.  

I thought Fabinho was still our best midfielder even if not at his best. This is the problem with the midfield now though.

[Captain Howdy]

1 minute ago, aRdja said:

Never watched him play but I doubt that.

Well he would so doubt away

[VladimirIlyich]

6 minutes ago, aRdja said:

A decent result from a decent performance but ultimately wouldn’t be enough to properly challenge City. Midfield was where we lost it really. Fabinho is back in that horrible form he suffered at the back end of last season but sadly at the moment Thiago isn’t there to pick up the pieces. Hendo was anonymous, Milner despite the silly foul was by some distance our best midfielder. N’golo Kante though is arguably the best defensive midfielder to have ever played the game. What a player.  

Kante is good but no he isn't.

[an tha]

9 minutes ago, Carvalho Diablo said:

Souness would eat Kante for breakfast.

After swilling 8 pints at the conti....

[Arniepie]

I never watched souness play but he wasnt 'just'a defensive midfielder was he?

He scored some absolutely cracking goals.

[Arniepie]

2 hours ago, Boss said:

 

Allison, Keita and Fabinho came in the summer after we lost the Champions League final - which is what I meant when I said that was the last time we invested. Jota, Tsimikas, Thiago and Konate cost £106m - that's been three years of spending, spanning six transfer windows, where we've brought in £80m from sales. So, that's £8m net per season. To put that in perspective, Chelsea spent £173m net in the 2020/ 2021 season. It's a miracle we're even competitive with these two. 

Wasnt that only after a transfer embargo?

[bossy]

5 minutes ago, Arniepie said:

I never watched souness play but he wasnt 'just'a defensive midfielder was he?

He scored some absolutely cracking goals.

Souness was a defensive midfielder, a silky skills midfielder and a goal scoring midfielder.  

[Red Shift]

I think its probably fair to say that Klopp’s system hasn’t changed in the time he’s been here. What has changed though, is that once a club finds success like we have, basically winning everything that matters, in two seasons, there is then a massive amount of analysis from every other club looking to improve. We’ve been studied, and in some cases effectively countered.

 

The high back line is critical to our pressing and attacking strategy, but is now clearly leaving us vulnerable to teams willing to take advantage. With Robbo, Tsimikas & Trent all operating offensively, the onus is on the likes of Fab, VVD and Matip/Konate  to constantly have the energy, focus & awareness to cope defensively. This season, for whatever reason, we’ve shipped 18 goals, Chelsea 16 and City 13. That slightly less efficient high line I would argue, is at least partly responsible.

[aRdja]

1 minute ago, Red Shift said:

I think its probably fair to say that Klopp’s system hasn’t changed in the time he’s been here. What has changed though, is that once a club finds success like we have, basically winning everything that matters, in two seasons, there is then a massive amount of analysis from every other club looking to improve. We’ve been studied, and in some cases effectively countered.

 

The high back line is critical to our pressing and attacking strategy, but is now clearly leaving us vulnerable to teams willing to take advantage. With Robbo, Tsimikas & Trent all operating offensively, the onus is on the likes of Fab, VVD and Matip/Konate  to constantly have the energy, focus & awareness to cope defensively. This season, for whatever reason, we’ve shipped 18 goals, Chelsea 16 and City 13. That slightly less efficient high line I would argue, is at least partly responsible.

The whole experiment with Trent tucking in needs to stop IMO. It isn’t working.

[Arniepie]

4 minutes ago, bossy said:

Souness was a defensive midfielder, a silky skills midfielder and a goal scoring midfielder.  

But it's only been since the 90s when that type of defensive midfielder becomes fashionable (ie hamann for us)

[Mathewbet1]

VVD looked knackered today, the injury has definitely effected him this season. It's only marginal drop off, like 10% but thats enough at this level.

[Arniepie]

9 minutes ago, Mathewbet1 said:

VVD looked knackered today, the injury has definitely effected him this season. It's only marginal drop off, like 10% but thats enough at this level.

Hasn't he had covid?

[Red Shift]

31 minutes ago, Arniepie said:

Hasn't he had covid?

Yes he has, and that’s my contention. He’s not over it.

[m0e]

A one a million volley from Kovacic, and Milner gets the blame!

 

So every other silly foul (and there were plenty) we gave away around the box was fine, for the simple fact that they didn't have a flukey Jagielka/Wanayama type strike at the end?

 

Kinell

 

Milner should have never been taken off. It should have been Hendo, who I can't remember ever having a worse game since Klopp came in, for Keita.

 

Ox was brought on for too early, as well.

 

We were the second best team, but scored 2 excellent goals and could have had 2 of 3 more, especially at 2 all.

 

Had we beaten Leicester and Spurs, this would have been a fantastic result.

 

Chelsea played out of their skin. They were proper goosed at the end.

 

We're finishing at least second this season.

[Leyton388]

2 hours ago, Arniepie said:

I never watched souness play but he wasnt 'just'a defensive midfielder was he?

He scored some absolutely cracking goals.

He was fucking boss and everything Roy Kean and anyone else would love to be like. 

[Bobby Hundreds]

Felt like chelsea were desperate to win that. I'm thinking we're now the 3rd best side in the league purely because of squad depth and how we deal with conceding this last 18 months. That taking a 2 goal lead and still being worried about getting all points has resurfaced.

 

[HolyHank]

Van Dijk is still a class act, and is performing well. But I think most would agree that he hasn't entered Superman Mode after the injury yet. Maybe he will need this season to be his true self, or hopefully he will be back to his real level by March. 

[VladimirIlyich]

3 minutes ago, HolyHank said:

Van Dijk is still a class act, and is performing well. But I think most would agree that he hasn't entered Superman Mode after the injury yet. Maybe he will need this season to be his true self, or hopefully he will be back to his real level by March. 

As well as Konate is doing,Matip has been our best central defender this season and he has often helped VVD through his off days. 

[Grinch]

Konate needs a run of games to really tell but he’s been far from good.  Looks like a 1001 other centre backs I’ve seen that rely on their physical attributes whilst sorely lacking in the basics.  His positioning is dreadful.

 

The best defenders barely break a sweat.