yup. This is the worst game frank has had. We looked good and then he decided to fuck it all up just to leave Tammy out there. So bad today from frank.
I’m not wild about this Giroud sub and the subsequent formation we are playing. Especially when we pulled a couple back playing as is.
Frank selected a horrible team, fixed it, then fucked it up again. Rare for a manager to fuck up his team twice.
They were checking the touch from Kai which was a borderline handball but he didn’t know anything about it. right call; right check IMO.
That finish was sublime too. That’s the guy who Bayern wanted to buy; not whoever came back at the end of last season.
THIS was CHO playing well. He can’t play on the right. The issue is CHO and pulisic really lose a lot playing on the right and Werner can’t play on the right either. You can only play 2 of those 3 and 2 of 4 if you add Abraham to the mix. I’m starting to think more and more that kovacic can’t fit into this team and that kante can play a pivot with a true DM or mount/havertz can play in front of a true DM but kante/kova pivot is broken. Really need declan rice in here. having a real LB in chilwell will also help. Reece James need to wake up defensively. Maybe Reece can play some midfield. Could also be another option. This current team can only play with maybe 5 of the 8 most talented players at any one time. Do some accept bench roles or do we need another cycle of players in and out to get this going?
To be fair that's kind of why I don't hate Lamps trying some wacky shit at the end there. We're young into the season and not likely to win the league this year, so I don't mind trying out some weird ass formations to see if things come off. It looked like it didn't.
He can experiment some. He had werner and CHO at wingback. That formation was incredibly dumb. No issue with the setup after halftime. The sub at 70 minutes to play 3 strikers together with 25 min left down 1 when we were dominating was poor. Only positive from this game is that CHO took his chance. Not just the goal. It’s nice to score but he was the one making plays and creating fear in the defense. He just can’t seem to do it on the right. This will be big for his confidence and help him moving forward.
Totally with you on Kova. If Chelsea re gonna play the super aggressive 4-2-3-1 or 4-2-2-2 then there NEEDS to be some defensive discipline from the two central midfielders. Kante is amazing but he’s amazing because of his movement, tackling, and interceptions. While he’s often super successful at it, when he fails, the whole thing blows up. Kova can break a press better than anyone but he’s too anonymous in the defensive phase and his passing is too limited. Jorginho is probably the right type of player but he clearly can’t keep up physically in the league. My guess is Frank sees Gilmour there long term but not having someone there now is really hurting.
declan rice is the guy chelsea want. I think he plays some next to kante in 4-2-3-1, some instead of kante with 2 attacking 8s in a 4-3-3 and some in a 4-3-3 with kante playing in a more advanced role with a more attacking minded 8 in a 4-3-3 against really good teams. We need a true DM though.
This is a huge problem w/ playing Reece and Alonso (and frankly why I'm a bit concerned about Reese and Chilwell going forward). We're trying to split the difference between the old way of having one attack minded FB (Ivanovic, Alonso) and one defensive one (Cole, Dave) and how Klopp plays w/ both FBs bombing forward. The difference is that 2/3 midfielders at Pool stay very deep allowing the CBs to track the wide runners. Kante and Kovacic are too far behind the play to make this work.
More from Nouman here. I had no clue West Brom’s right side had been getting torched. What do we do? Attack the left side the entire first half.
Timo getting off the mark is good but Mendy punching away a corner and then catching another cross is the highlight for me so far.
Holy shit a fucking keeper. genuinely happy for Werner. CHO has skills but his decision making is sus imo Mount is a fucking lunch pail workhorse
Havertz as the number 10 playing off giroud would be a great move to make 10-15 min into the second half.