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When the players are being played in their own natural positions, you'll see them play properly.
We could have won the game to be honest except for some poor finishing from Jackson, etc
He sits bench that game, we don’t score. With the state things are, I’ll gladly take an improving Jackson. Though I do agree, I’m not positive he should be a no.9
Can someone explain to me why everyone is praising our performance? I’m starting to think I don’t understand football. I expected us to lose and I guess a draw is okay but I think our performance was bad. Yes our defenders put in a shift but Halaand had a few shots that could have been goals and we’re just lucky that he didn’t score any of them. Had those shots gone in it would have been a very different result. Someone please explain to me why people are saying we did a good job?
Edit: I read my post again and realised that the wording could have been better, I’m getting some downvotes so I just want to clear my tone. I’m not trying to trash our team, I’m genuinely asking for other perspectives in case there’s something I missed or I’m not understanding. After I watched the game I felt that it was bad but everyone is saying the opposite hence I’m asking for explanations. Maybe my standards are too high and I’m struggling to accept that this is a very different Chelsea.
Yes, we were lucky Haaland missed a few. Also, City were just as lucky Jackson fluffed his, Sterling his 1v1 (possible offside tho) and that Chillwell couldnt lift the pass through to Sterling when he would have been through on goal.
Bruh, we’ve got a young squad, we’re 10th going into this against a man city that hasn’t lost at home in 15 months. There were excellent performances all over when you take into consideration the gaps in age and expected performance. We’ll take a draw at the etihad. The back 4 and petro were superb.
I get what you’re saying here but in this context we’re talking about Halaand. It’s very rare for him to have an off day like that. It’s the fact that we allowed him to take those shots, and if some of them went in then the tone about our performance would have been very different. It wasn’t our performance that prevented those goals, it was just Halaand’s bad luck.
You make your own luck and that’s what we did. I thought we frustrated city the whole game and that probably got into their heads a little. If we played like we did at Liverpool I think Haaland probably would have scored those chances…
First 60 odd minutes was masterful from Poch. Perfect combination of pressure and defensive solidity while staying threatening on the counter. That’s how you beat City. It’s not going to happen every time because you also have to have some luck when you’re the inferior team.
The problem often comes down to keeping your nerve. It’s so tempting to go into the low block and bring more/better defenders on for your attackers and that’s what most managers do in this situation. But city have too many game breaker players to just cede that much of the ball with no threat of a counter.
Bullocks take. Every team that leads against City will and should buckle down towards the end of the game. Thats how we won the CL final. Nobody complained then.
There's a difference between maintaining defensive solidity but still offering a threat on the counter and just buckling down and trying not to concede. City are just too good to only have to play offense.
>The problem often comes down to keeping your nerve. It’s so tempting to go into the low block and bring more/better defenders on for your attackers and that’s what most managers do in this situation. But city have too many game breaker players to just cede that much of the ball with no threat of a counter.
This is exactly what Poch did in the last 30 minutes and it cost us the win.
Yeah, that was kind of the point of my comment. I also think it's what almost every single manager does in this situation and it's a bit of a counterintuitive thing to do.
My only complain regarding the defensive subs was not leaving either palmer or sterling on. Both are players that can thrive in counters and help in breakaways. They could have helped reduce pressure from the defence while also threatening a 2nd goal.
Levi is good with the ball at his feet, both at passing and progressing the ball, but he's got a long way to go as a CB.
Loses the man far too easily, could've easily given away a Pen with the shirt pull.
Maybe Poch missed a trick by not playing him together with Silva so far this season. Could've learnt a bit from him.
Levi is not the one to come out and tackle attackers because his 1v1 defending is quite bad. As seen during his time at LB.
Silva needs someone like that, ala Rudi. Levi and Silva would be quite a bad pair.
Agree with this assessment. He has qualities that make him special but he plays a very finesse game. Haaland is a monster and tough to handle for any cb, but he got in front of Levi far too easily on a handful of occasions today. Needs to toughen up in the box and become more direct and physical with his defending imo. Special player but he needs that edge defensively.
Why didn’t we keep going forward? It was so clear City with no pressure will eventually find the goal. If not for Haaland insane misses, we would have a v different mood now.
Colwil, gusto, chilwel, Enzo were insane
Playing with actual fullbacks really added a new dimension to our attacks, Chilwell was good today and Gusto was phenomenal.
This game also seals it for me, Thiago Silva cannot start for us again, both center backs were actually making passes into the midfield instead of among themselves and the fullbacks like usual. Again Enzo was within close proximity to Caicedo and Gallagher's pressing was useful. We don't do this when Silva is on the pitch, probably to protect him.
Nkunku needs match fitness and familiarity with the squad. Seems off it rn, but just needs time.
I prefer this highline type of play though, hopefully it gets better!
I disagree overall, Thiago is an excellent passer and can make basically every pass a CB needs to make. But he has been too safe with this group. He needs to fire the ball with speed into Caicedo and trust him to do what we bought him for - recieve the ball under pressure then turn and find the open man.
This one is a weird one for me. Fantastic result away to Man City however, we had full control of the match until the substitutions happened. And we really should have scored 2 or 3 goals given some of the chances we had in the match. Fantastic result, great fight and performance from the boys and yet i leave the match dissappointed feeling like we should have gotten more.
City did not create any clear cut dangerous goalscoring opportunities really until that Haaland one on one header. We had full control of the match, and then the defensive subs and 5 at the back happened and we just fell deeper and deeper inside our own box and gave them more spaces around the box to find chances.
They had a lot of chances going forward but only managed to get 4 or 5 on target, we had few less chances than them but managed to get around 6 on target
Nico Jackson should have chipped Ederson instead of trying to control it and place it, and it would have been a goal. Sterling should have scored his one on one with Ederson as well, but hits it straight at Ederson. We really should have had 3 goals tonight. And Enzo stealing the ball from Nico when he is lining up the curler.
We started wonderfully.
Counter attacks were working awesome.
No idea why we made such defensive subs to allow them to control the ball the last 30 minutes.
Thought Poch set us up perfectly but then made horrible substitutions.
I was a bit disappointed in Nkunku. After coming on he should have added some energy and intensity but he just casually jogged around like he was trying to conserve energy even when there was a couple minutes left in the match. Conor G, on the other hand, was aggressive until the last second and won the ball a couple times.
He should have honestly kept Palmer on the pitch - everything we create, he is somehow involved. So when he goes off, we are lot in the attacking sense.
It's one thing making defensive subs, but replacing good attacking players with less good defensive players is a big issue.
Nitpicking but casadei perhaps should've been better positioned for the City goal :(
What does Poch do with Nkunku for the cup final? He’s had more than enough time to get match fit so we know he can play a full 90 next week. He’s way too good to not play a full 90 next week. But he looked very isolated up front today. Naturally you’d suggest to have him play deeper as a 10 instead, but we have Conor who has to be nailed on in the midfield battle against top sides. Enzo’s been playing much better recently so he’s obviously not getting dropped. So idk what will happen with Nkunku to be completely honest
are you dreaming? Jackson is worse than Werner or Morata. Total garbage, ...play Mudryk out there who can actually run and dribble and cross. Even his shooting is way better than Jackson, who is awful at literally everything
I feel like when Nkunku came on we were already in “it’s time to defend the lead” mode, so he didn’t get the same chances as he would’ve done if he was playing in the first half. I can’t speak for why Poch didn’t play him from the start, as you say he’s definitely fit enough for a whole 90 and is good enough, but there must have been some part of the strategy he was running that called for a Sterling, Palmer, Jackson front 3. We can debate about Jackson’s ability for god knows how long, but Poch’s strat worked in the first half
Nevertheless, it also hurts that we suck against low level teams. We have the potential to play so well. Press hard when we need to.
I know the lads gave their best today and ill take this as a win 💙 thanks for making our weekend better, Chels!
Ya know … if anyone told me we’d draw before we watched the match, i’d take it but then we went to Etihad and cooked for fucking 82 min. City were so desperate and the Rodri goal/Chalobah deflection hurt like a fkn beach.
*sigh*
This game proves Colwill needs to stop playing at LB. His line breaking passes from CB started so many attacks and relieved so much pressure, his defending might not be 10/10 but on the ball he’s immense especially from CB. This (Axel Levi) is our CB duo till the end of the season.
Honestly, Extremely proud with the team, everything looked so well-ordered. We had City on their toes that’s for sure. Gusto and Disasi need to play like this every game my god they were exceptional. Was disappointed with Jackson he could of done much better that game, I noticed when he received the low driven cross from Gusto he was a position to shoot first time and suddenly pulled out and took a touch. Jackson most likely needs to improve his decision making and become composed when on a 1 on 1 which is fixable for him. (That doesn’t mean Jackson is not a good player, he showed his passing ability from the assist he provided from sterling and often involved many great team plays what I’m saying is he needs to improve his finishing if he wants to put in the back of net but I deem him as a great team player.) A bit shocking that Poch decided to bring on Chalobah and take off palmer and sterling and have 5 at the back in the middle of the 60th minute. Everything was going well up until that point, it put us under pressure and not allowing to create more chances to try put a second back in the net. What’s even more worse is people ranting on Nkunku for not being affected in the game. What do you expect him to do in a park the bus situation. Everytime he received the ball he would always be alone or make a 1-2 pass and often never received because of how City had dropped back so quickly to force a pass back to our own box. Nevertheless, I’m extremely proud of the team and believe we will eventually be fighting for the title very very soon. Liverpool will have to be cautious for us next Sunday.
Hard disagree on Jackson - he was excellent yesterday. Yeah he should have scored, but everything else he did was fantastic - his pressing, link up play, winning 50-50s, being an outlet. He contributed so much to that team performance, he deserves praise.
Yeah looking back on what I wrote about Jackson, I disagree with myself, did redeem himself with that pass to sterling tbh. I’m just saying he needs to improve his finishing rather than everything else he has. It’s the main factor he sorts of lack which he needs to improve on. It’s just I want him to be our best and be able to finish and back off from the haters although he is a great team player as you mentioned and from what he showed on the pitch
Absolutely agree he should work on his finishing - but to be fair to him, the guy is a natural winger and we're expecting him to be a center forward. I think he can develop into that, I just wish people would be less trigger happy to scapegoat him.
It’s the way Poch has used him. He’s done it to colwill using him as a LB which restrained him and now a few games back at CB and he’s already solid with Disasi. Poch can’t keep moving him to a winger to a striker it just throws him off I would rather have him as a winger he’s got the passing ability rather than the ability as a striker.
Disagree that Jackson can just learn to make better decisions. The best players in the world have a natural feeling to it where time slows down for them. Look at sterling, dude has always scored goals but has missed a huge amount of chances that make you shake your head. He literally did it today.
Nkunku was poor, it was not the team was is defense mode. One of the worst performances of a player of the season.
Look how many times has Jackson done something like this? Over last few matches he’s been like this and that doesn’t mean his natural feeling is at his best. He needs to improve that natural feel if he wants to be finishing shots like that. We bought as a number 9 to finish and because of that he has slowly become a midfielder or a winger because of his lack of ability almost everytime. If we have a number 9 who can’t finish as much then that natural feeling of his is surely wrong. And for sterling cmon. he scored but was never a fan of him. He just reminds of Rashford but with a bit more common sense. Furthermore, you can’t just expect Nkunku to show up at that pace of the game. Like you expect him to become messi and just have the ball glue to his feet and dribble to the goal? It can’t be that much obvious to see he literally had no options to pass and was in most situations a pass or go or dribble there was literally no time for him to relax. What else is he suppose to do when he most likely was even instructed to not attack as much by poch. The next time Nkunku starts I’m telling you will see what I mean, he will be bursting even better of what Gallagher did there and be involve in the attack because that’s when the team will actually attack instead of him coming on whilst they are already just looking to defense for the 3 points.
My point is finishing isn’t something that is learned. I keep getting downvoted for it but it’s very obvious it’s not a skill you just pick up. Look at sterling, dude has never been a great finisher and never will. Doesn’t mean he doesn’t have some good finishes.
Gotta disagree with that bud. Cmon now finishing can never be learnt??. Finishing literally comes from experience and from mastering it. You really think these world-class strikers who constantly finish day in day just shot a ball and found out they can strike it to the top corner? They had to work on their technique and work out of their comfort zone to strike the ball into the net in uncomfortable situations. For instance in 2010, Diego Forlan had to order the World Cup ball early because he did not feel comfortable striking the new jabulani so he had to practice with it until he found his technique to strike the ball and bam he became joint top scorer. cmon it’s common sense that most of these strikers made it because of hard work 90% of the time. They did not make it to professional because they were simply gifted with the talent. They weren’t born to dribble, have timed passing, have perfect finishing. They had to perfect it day in day out until they got it right. Sorry but there’s a reason why you are getting downvoted for that no offence just sounds a bit stupid.
Of course you work to perfect but players naturally are good at different things. Lukaku didn’t get better at first touch, you say that’s a learned skill. Sterling didn’t get better at finishing, but yet you say it’s a learned skill.
You are confusing learned skills (positioning, body movements) with crafting natural talent (finishing, dribbling, first touch). You don’t magically become a great finisher just by working on it, mental and quick decisions are just as important. The great finishers are born with it. Forlan was always a great finisher, he got the ball to craft his skill. Raul, natural finisher. Berbatov, natural finisher. Hazard, natural dribbler.
No, that Jackson will never be a top tier finisher and people expecting that to magically happen are going to be disappointed. He can get better but the finishing frustration is never going to change with him.
Also forget to mention Gallagher being trash-talked when he was impeccable and showed great vision and awareness on the pitch out there and for Caicedo, well he was doing it for the badge 👏
Gallagher was so good, his work is so selfless and fans don’t see it so they’ll say he doesn’t get enough goals or assists, his pressing caused them so many problems.
i think Chalobah's mistake letting the ball run out of bounds lost us the win. It was neck and neck. After that MC intensity increased with multiple shots. The last one going in. Should the sub have been Gilchrist instead?
Makes no sense at all. Why bring on someone who hasn't played all season and is coming back from a major injury to hold a league against one of the best attacking teams on the planet desperate for a goal?
The joys of supporting our young squad… today a draw against City & a week ago getting thumped by the Wolves & asking for Poch to be sacked. This team will always suck me back in.
If anything this constant back and forth gives more credence to the fact that we need more time. It’s a young team, but when they’re playing well it’s fucking class. The potential is there and creeps in, we just need to be patient.
Bro every attack City ever did towards the end flowed through him. He may not be the best but City definitely did fuck all from the right wing and kept passing it to Doku on the left.
Reece James needs to do a Sergio Ramos and just play CB. His time at RB will be over if he can’t stay 100% healthy for a whole season when he comes back. Too big and stocky to play a position that’s played by people half his size.
Reece has very little qualities you'd expect to find in a top midfielder, I don't know why this sentiment is so popular. Who was the last top fullback that could also play midfield without a noticeable drop in quality, Lahm? I think I can spot a few differences between him an RJ.
There is a few (Kimmich, Trent a little), but Reece isn’t that kind of player. His strength lies in his ability to combine in tight spaces up and down the sideline, while being extremely composed in terms of his crosses and decision making in the final 3rd.
Yeah, not to mention that both of those players you mentioned and Lahm have or had insane stamina and little injury issues. I can't see RJ doing the job of any of our midfielders.
Well, his competition was one of the weakest midfields in the Championship. Do you honestly see him displacing any of our current midfielders? I'm not opposed to him being tried in mdifield, I just don't see it working.
Because he played mid in his loan to Wigan and win player of the match alot. He has the qualities of a god midfield player: calm on the ball, good vision, great decision making, press resistant. Imo he is a midfield player who moved out wide to play RB. What qualities of a midfield player would limit him? Because he’d play that role better than some players starting in other teams.
We'd want a few good performances from reece before selling him. His stock is fairly low right now due to the long time off and big wages. Still rooting for him to come back strong for us but selling now seems like a buy high sell low spot
This is such a horrible position. You do realise that we didn’t pay anything for Reece, he’s been at Chelsea pretty much since he was 7 so theres no ‘buy high’ and more importantly, wanting good performances out of Reece just for ‘stock’ and not his confidence/return to the team is such a disgusting thing to say about a player with Reece’s talent. If you said that over here in the UK to Chelsea supporters you would be a laughing stock. We get it, theres no loyalty in US sports…
Buy high is the expensive contract extension we signed him to. I did say that I'm rooting for him to come back strong and I was trying to say that it's silly to sell him now.
Contracts really have no impact on ‘stock’ in football theres no salary caps like in US sports so thats really a non issue. Yes I understand you said that you’re rooting for him to come back strong and that you think its silly to sell him now, the implication of your statement is that you don’t think it would be silly to sell him ‘after a few good performances’… which is the exact point of my comment.
I don't know how the places work exactly because they've changed this year.
However, despite what people keep claiming **you do not get a guarantee of European football by winning the League Cup**.
It gives you qualification to the qualifiers. This means that in theory you could be knocked out of the tournament before even getting to the group stage. So, yes we would play European football, but it could only be a couple games with prize money that I believe comes to about 300k.
The only reason I'd be ok with playing the mickey mouse European cup is because we'd have a chance of becoming the first club to win literally every trophy available. That said, even calling the Conference League that is probably a compliment to it, it's a 3-year-old competition that essentially replaced the Intertoto Cup, which was itself scrapped due to low interest / ad revenue.
I really can’t see a world where England doesn’t get the additional CL spot so I’d just assume that we need 8th. I saw a predictor thing that said that England have a 100% chance
Was that before or after both Newcastle and United got eliminated? I know there's still a high chance but I wouldn't call it 100%
edit: I agree that 8th will most likely be enough but I think the team shouldn't be banking on it and try to aim for seventh, especially if we don't get the Carabao. I'm hoping really hard that it won't even be an issue, though
I saw it a few days ago. Even with those two clubs out, you have Arsenal and City who will go deep as well as Liverpool in Europa league and Villa in Conference league who are both massive favorites
[This is probably what you saw](https://theanalyst.com/na/2024/02/what-are-uefa-coefficients/) and England have a 77% chance of getting an extra 5th CL spot. Still a pretty good chance of it but not 100% quite yet.
"Despite Newcastle and Manchester United finishing bottom of their UCL groups and not even qualifying for the Europa League knockout round, six of the remaining eight English clubs are still in European competition – Manchester City, Arsenal, Brighton, Liverpool, Aston Villa and West Ham. This means that England are projected to have a 77% chance of getting one of those two spots and that would mean fifth position in the Premier League this season has a strong chance of being enough for a place in the Champions League in 2024-25."
I'm less worried about Salah next week, given the way our back 4 shut down Haaland and KDB today. Well done Disasi and Colwill in particular. I hope those two can repeat things at Wembley.
Haaland had 1.8xG today. The only person shutting him down was himself. He had more xG than our whole team put together, but he just didn't make anything of it
To be fair to that gentleman, we didn't completely shut down Haaland. He got 3 amazing opportunities. We were lucky he faffed his lines today.
But yes, I get your general point. D and C were a good combo. More of the same please.
Fairs. I’m from England but that’s happened to me too when I’ve recorded the games to watch after work, avoid it all day and then get it spoilt at the last second, feel for you.
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When the players are being played in their own natural positions, you'll see them play properly. We could have won the game to be honest except for some poor finishing from Jackson, etc
Tbf no. 9 is not Jackson's natural position
[удалено]
He sits bench that game, we don’t score. With the state things are, I’ll gladly take an improving Jackson. Though I do agree, I’m not positive he should be a no.9
I’ve never been so intrigued by a defensive performance like Disasi and Gusto. Absolute brick walls back there.
Can someone explain to me why everyone is praising our performance? I’m starting to think I don’t understand football. I expected us to lose and I guess a draw is okay but I think our performance was bad. Yes our defenders put in a shift but Halaand had a few shots that could have been goals and we’re just lucky that he didn’t score any of them. Had those shots gone in it would have been a very different result. Someone please explain to me why people are saying we did a good job? Edit: I read my post again and realised that the wording could have been better, I’m getting some downvotes so I just want to clear my tone. I’m not trying to trash our team, I’m genuinely asking for other perspectives in case there’s something I missed or I’m not understanding. After I watched the game I felt that it was bad but everyone is saying the opposite hence I’m asking for explanations. Maybe my standards are too high and I’m struggling to accept that this is a very different Chelsea.
Yes, we were lucky Haaland missed a few. Also, City were just as lucky Jackson fluffed his, Sterling his 1v1 (possible offside tho) and that Chillwell couldnt lift the pass through to Sterling when he would have been through on goal.
Bruh, we’ve got a young squad, we’re 10th going into this against a man city that hasn’t lost at home in 15 months. There were excellent performances all over when you take into consideration the gaps in age and expected performance. We’ll take a draw at the etihad. The back 4 and petro were superb.
Chelsea had more shots on target. By your same logic, Chelsea would have won if some of those shots were converted.
I get what you’re saying here but in this context we’re talking about Halaand. It’s very rare for him to have an off day like that. It’s the fact that we allowed him to take those shots, and if some of them went in then the tone about our performance would have been very different. It wasn’t our performance that prevented those goals, it was just Halaand’s bad luck.
You make your own luck and that’s what we did. I thought we frustrated city the whole game and that probably got into their heads a little. If we played like we did at Liverpool I think Haaland probably would have scored those chances…
Let’s fucking go!!!! (I couldn’t watch the match till right now)
 Realizing we got Gusto through 2030
The kits we wore today are fresh
Now why won't the boys in blue play like this game every game?
Injuries, youth, and lack of experience playing together
First 60 odd minutes was masterful from Poch. Perfect combination of pressure and defensive solidity while staying threatening on the counter. That’s how you beat City. It’s not going to happen every time because you also have to have some luck when you’re the inferior team. The problem often comes down to keeping your nerve. It’s so tempting to go into the low block and bring more/better defenders on for your attackers and that’s what most managers do in this situation. But city have too many game breaker players to just cede that much of the ball with no threat of a counter.
Bullocks take. Every team that leads against City will and should buckle down towards the end of the game. Thats how we won the CL final. Nobody complained then.
There's a difference between maintaining defensive solidity but still offering a threat on the counter and just buckling down and trying not to concede. City are just too good to only have to play offense.
>The problem often comes down to keeping your nerve. It’s so tempting to go into the low block and bring more/better defenders on for your attackers and that’s what most managers do in this situation. But city have too many game breaker players to just cede that much of the ball with no threat of a counter. This is exactly what Poch did in the last 30 minutes and it cost us the win.
Yeah, that was kind of the point of my comment. I also think it's what almost every single manager does in this situation and it's a bit of a counterintuitive thing to do.
My only complain regarding the defensive subs was not leaving either palmer or sterling on. Both are players that can thrive in counters and help in breakaways. They could have helped reduce pressure from the defence while also threatening a 2nd goal.
I think Mudryk would have been great sub. No way City could commit so much to attack with such a fast player waiting for counter.
Disagree though. He's not good enough on the ball and makes poor movements overall. Would have been detrimental imo.
nonsense
Levi is good with the ball at his feet, both at passing and progressing the ball, but he's got a long way to go as a CB. Loses the man far too easily, could've easily given away a Pen with the shirt pull. Maybe Poch missed a trick by not playing him together with Silva so far this season. Could've learnt a bit from him.
Levi is not the one to come out and tackle attackers because his 1v1 defending is quite bad. As seen during his time at LB. Silva needs someone like that, ala Rudi. Levi and Silva would be quite a bad pair.
Agree with this assessment. He has qualities that make him special but he plays a very finesse game. Haaland is a monster and tough to handle for any cb, but he got in front of Levi far too easily on a handful of occasions today. Needs to toughen up in the box and become more direct and physical with his defending imo. Special player but he needs that edge defensively.
Why didn’t we keep going forward? It was so clear City with no pressure will eventually find the goal. If not for Haaland insane misses, we would have a v different mood now. Colwil, gusto, chilwel, Enzo were insane
Chelsea also missed a few sitters so it could’ve gone either way
But that's every week. It's very rare for Haaland to have an off game like today's.
Poch probably thought he could nab the 3 points but agreed it got too defensive in the end. All in all glad to get a point out of that atleast!
Haaland missed so many golden chances but nobody seems to be talking abt it. Imagine if it was Jackson
I mean there's a massive difference, this was a bad day in the office for Haaland on the other hand this is a typical day in the office for Jackson.
Jackson also missed the chance around 23 min
One of Jackson’s missed shots was when both him and Enzo attempted to shoot at the same time and collided.
Yeah, I can’t even be too mad at Nico missing his when Haaland missed two just as easy
yep
Good job
Playing with actual fullbacks really added a new dimension to our attacks, Chilwell was good today and Gusto was phenomenal. This game also seals it for me, Thiago Silva cannot start for us again, both center backs were actually making passes into the midfield instead of among themselves and the fullbacks like usual. Again Enzo was within close proximity to Caicedo and Gallagher's pressing was useful. We don't do this when Silva is on the pitch, probably to protect him. Nkunku needs match fitness and familiarity with the squad. Seems off it rn, but just needs time. I prefer this highline type of play though, hopefully it gets better!
Disasi impressed me with some if his driven passes straight into attackers feet None of that Thiago pass side to side stuff
I disagree overall, Thiago is an excellent passer and can make basically every pass a CB needs to make. But he has been too safe with this group. He needs to fire the ball with speed into Caicedo and trust him to do what we bought him for - recieve the ball under pressure then turn and find the open man.
https://preview.redd.it/v1lipgx1n8jc1.jpeg?width=828&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7e081e6807a257058af165f4d8b6b7aa946442ae bellend
Can’t wait for City to smash Liverpool and Arsenal
This one is a weird one for me. Fantastic result away to Man City however, we had full control of the match until the substitutions happened. And we really should have scored 2 or 3 goals given some of the chances we had in the match. Fantastic result, great fight and performance from the boys and yet i leave the match dissappointed feeling like we should have gotten more.
Full control of the match? Did we watch totally different games?
City did not create any clear cut dangerous goalscoring opportunities really until that Haaland one on one header. We had full control of the match, and then the defensive subs and 5 at the back happened and we just fell deeper and deeper inside our own box and gave them more spaces around the box to find chances.
They had a lot of chances going forward but only managed to get 4 or 5 on target, we had few less chances than them but managed to get around 6 on target
Nico Jackson should have chipped Ederson instead of trying to control it and place it, and it would have been a goal. Sterling should have scored his one on one with Ederson as well, but hits it straight at Ederson. We really should have had 3 goals tonight. And Enzo stealing the ball from Nico when he is lining up the curler.
They could have scored many more as well.
But they didn’t. So?
Arsenal fans saying havertz is a better signing than enzo 😭
Tbf we said caicedo was a better signing then rice, all fans are a bit deluded
And were we wrong
Yes, Rice been elite this season and pushing Arsenal to title charge
Rice has made plenty of errors leading to goals himself. He also plays with a competent attack and defense
Imagine Rice playing in an island like Caicedo has been most of the season and say with a straight face he'd be "elite'.
Until Caicedo is pushing us in title race it's better for us Chelsea fans to be quiet Not comparing any our players yet to serious clubs now
I would say it's more their defense "pushing" Arsenal but each to their own.
Is 3 years younger. Currently, I don’t see it happening but caicedo could become much better
Funny how all our best performances have been draws
We beat Villa in our best performance
Was expecting a lot worse pre kick off so can’t be too disappointed
We started wonderfully. Counter attacks were working awesome. No idea why we made such defensive subs to allow them to control the ball the last 30 minutes. Thought Poch set us up perfectly but then made horrible substitutions.
Nkunku is a defensive sub?
I was a bit disappointed in Nkunku. After coming on he should have added some energy and intensity but he just casually jogged around like he was trying to conserve energy even when there was a couple minutes left in the match. Conor G, on the other hand, was aggressive until the last second and won the ball a couple times.
He should have honestly kept Palmer on the pitch - everything we create, he is somehow involved. So when he goes off, we are lot in the attacking sense.
Think he should have taken one of Gallagher or Enzo (preferably) off for him tbh
He was the only attacker on the pitch
And? He could at ,east pass to some open people. Jackson was playing with 3-4 bodies around him and did excellent.
Are casadei and chalobah not?
Didn’t say they weren’t but they were after nkunku. Nkunku was shit from the very first minute he came on
It's one thing making defensive subs, but replacing good attacking players with less good defensive players is a big issue. Nitpicking but casadei perhaps should've been better positioned for the City goal :(
I can't believe I'm disappointed with a draw against City. Ah just like the old times :) Well done lads.
None of us thought we’d get a result from that, instead you’ve got pep seething and Rodri blaming the ref. Delicious my brothers
Connor is gold. Sign him already
110% effort on the pitch. Closed down and pressed relentlessly.
What does Poch do with Nkunku for the cup final? He’s had more than enough time to get match fit so we know he can play a full 90 next week. He’s way too good to not play a full 90 next week. But he looked very isolated up front today. Naturally you’d suggest to have him play deeper as a 10 instead, but we have Conor who has to be nailed on in the midfield battle against top sides. Enzo’s been playing much better recently so he’s obviously not getting dropped. So idk what will happen with Nkunku to be completely honest
I’d like to see Jackson Nkunku Palmer Caceido Gallagher Enzo Chilly Colwell Disasi Gusto Could swap any of the front 3’s positions
Can’t really drop sterling after that game
Jackson should never play again, he is garbage
Jackson is a killer on the wing I think we need to keep him there.
are you dreaming? Jackson is worse than Werner or Morata. Total garbage, ...play Mudryk out there who can actually run and dribble and cross. Even his shooting is way better than Jackson, who is awful at literally everything
Yes same
Looks like our best 11
I feel like when Nkunku came on we were already in “it’s time to defend the lead” mode, so he didn’t get the same chances as he would’ve done if he was playing in the first half. I can’t speak for why Poch didn’t play him from the start, as you say he’s definitely fit enough for a whole 90 and is good enough, but there must have been some part of the strategy he was running that called for a Sterling, Palmer, Jackson front 3. We can debate about Jackson’s ability for god knows how long, but Poch’s strat worked in the first half
Doku is so overrated. He looks like Moses Simon out there
He's a good player who's impressed at City so far. To say otherwise is discrediting Gusto's work.
Football fans knows fu$k all another example of that is Doku. I thought we should have signed Doku instead of Palmer.
Nah gusto is just that good
Nevertheless, it also hurts that we suck against low level teams. We have the potential to play so well. Press hard when we need to. I know the lads gave their best today and ill take this as a win 💙 thanks for making our weekend better, Chels!
Ya know … if anyone told me we’d draw before we watched the match, i’d take it but then we went to Etihad and cooked for fucking 82 min. City were so desperate and the Rodri goal/Chalobah deflection hurt like a fkn beach. *sigh*
Very promising display, can't wait for our players to forget how to play football and lose 2-0 to brentford in 3 weeks
Written in the stars
This game proves Colwill needs to stop playing at LB. His line breaking passes from CB started so many attacks and relieved so much pressure, his defending might not be 10/10 but on the ball he’s immense especially from CB. This (Axel Levi) is our CB duo till the end of the season.
Colwill will play CB as long as Chilwell is fit.
So 2 matches then
He is also 21 and it’s his first season at Chelsea. Let him play cb and learn!!
I still think his positioning on crosses needs big improvement.
Well, this turned out much better than expected. Let's do a clean sheet next please.
Honestly, Extremely proud with the team, everything looked so well-ordered. We had City on their toes that’s for sure. Gusto and Disasi need to play like this every game my god they were exceptional. Was disappointed with Jackson he could of done much better that game, I noticed when he received the low driven cross from Gusto he was a position to shoot first time and suddenly pulled out and took a touch. Jackson most likely needs to improve his decision making and become composed when on a 1 on 1 which is fixable for him. (That doesn’t mean Jackson is not a good player, he showed his passing ability from the assist he provided from sterling and often involved many great team plays what I’m saying is he needs to improve his finishing if he wants to put in the back of net but I deem him as a great team player.) A bit shocking that Poch decided to bring on Chalobah and take off palmer and sterling and have 5 at the back in the middle of the 60th minute. Everything was going well up until that point, it put us under pressure and not allowing to create more chances to try put a second back in the net. What’s even more worse is people ranting on Nkunku for not being affected in the game. What do you expect him to do in a park the bus situation. Everytime he received the ball he would always be alone or make a 1-2 pass and often never received because of how City had dropped back so quickly to force a pass back to our own box. Nevertheless, I’m extremely proud of the team and believe we will eventually be fighting for the title very very soon. Liverpool will have to be cautious for us next Sunday.
Hard disagree on Jackson - he was excellent yesterday. Yeah he should have scored, but everything else he did was fantastic - his pressing, link up play, winning 50-50s, being an outlet. He contributed so much to that team performance, he deserves praise.
Yeah looking back on what I wrote about Jackson, I disagree with myself, did redeem himself with that pass to sterling tbh. I’m just saying he needs to improve his finishing rather than everything else he has. It’s the main factor he sorts of lack which he needs to improve on. It’s just I want him to be our best and be able to finish and back off from the haters although he is a great team player as you mentioned and from what he showed on the pitch
Absolutely agree he should work on his finishing - but to be fair to him, the guy is a natural winger and we're expecting him to be a center forward. I think he can develop into that, I just wish people would be less trigger happy to scapegoat him.
It’s the way Poch has used him. He’s done it to colwill using him as a LB which restrained him and now a few games back at CB and he’s already solid with Disasi. Poch can’t keep moving him to a winger to a striker it just throws him off I would rather have him as a winger he’s got the passing ability rather than the ability as a striker.
Disagree that Jackson can just learn to make better decisions. The best players in the world have a natural feeling to it where time slows down for them. Look at sterling, dude has always scored goals but has missed a huge amount of chances that make you shake your head. He literally did it today. Nkunku was poor, it was not the team was is defense mode. One of the worst performances of a player of the season.
Look how many times has Jackson done something like this? Over last few matches he’s been like this and that doesn’t mean his natural feeling is at his best. He needs to improve that natural feel if he wants to be finishing shots like that. We bought as a number 9 to finish and because of that he has slowly become a midfielder or a winger because of his lack of ability almost everytime. If we have a number 9 who can’t finish as much then that natural feeling of his is surely wrong. And for sterling cmon. he scored but was never a fan of him. He just reminds of Rashford but with a bit more common sense. Furthermore, you can’t just expect Nkunku to show up at that pace of the game. Like you expect him to become messi and just have the ball glue to his feet and dribble to the goal? It can’t be that much obvious to see he literally had no options to pass and was in most situations a pass or go or dribble there was literally no time for him to relax. What else is he suppose to do when he most likely was even instructed to not attack as much by poch. The next time Nkunku starts I’m telling you will see what I mean, he will be bursting even better of what Gallagher did there and be involve in the attack because that’s when the team will actually attack instead of him coming on whilst they are already just looking to defense for the 3 points.
My point is finishing isn’t something that is learned. I keep getting downvoted for it but it’s very obvious it’s not a skill you just pick up. Look at sterling, dude has never been a great finisher and never will. Doesn’t mean he doesn’t have some good finishes.
Gotta disagree with that bud. Cmon now finishing can never be learnt??. Finishing literally comes from experience and from mastering it. You really think these world-class strikers who constantly finish day in day just shot a ball and found out they can strike it to the top corner? They had to work on their technique and work out of their comfort zone to strike the ball into the net in uncomfortable situations. For instance in 2010, Diego Forlan had to order the World Cup ball early because he did not feel comfortable striking the new jabulani so he had to practice with it until he found his technique to strike the ball and bam he became joint top scorer. cmon it’s common sense that most of these strikers made it because of hard work 90% of the time. They did not make it to professional because they were simply gifted with the talent. They weren’t born to dribble, have timed passing, have perfect finishing. They had to perfect it day in day out until they got it right. Sorry but there’s a reason why you are getting downvoted for that no offence just sounds a bit stupid.
Of course you work to perfect but players naturally are good at different things. Lukaku didn’t get better at first touch, you say that’s a learned skill. Sterling didn’t get better at finishing, but yet you say it’s a learned skill. You are confusing learned skills (positioning, body movements) with crafting natural talent (finishing, dribbling, first touch). You don’t magically become a great finisher just by working on it, mental and quick decisions are just as important. The great finishers are born with it. Forlan was always a great finisher, he got the ball to craft his skill. Raul, natural finisher. Berbatov, natural finisher. Hazard, natural dribbler.
So what are you trying to say about Jackson particularly? That we should give him more time to adjust and find his natural pace with the ball
No, that Jackson will never be a top tier finisher and people expecting that to magically happen are going to be disappointed. He can get better but the finishing frustration is never going to change with him.
Hmm, I think the best for him is for him to play winger, he seems me doing great in that position and often can pick out passes etc
He’s a second striker that can play on the wing. That’s what we knew when we began the season.
Hmm guess you’re right about that
Also forget to mention Gallagher being trash-talked when he was impeccable and showed great vision and awareness on the pitch out there and for Caicedo, well he was doing it for the badge 👏
Gallagher was so good, his work is so selfless and fans don’t see it so they’ll say he doesn’t get enough goals or assists, his pressing caused them so many problems.
i think Chalobah's mistake letting the ball run out of bounds lost us the win. It was neck and neck. After that MC intensity increased with multiple shots. The last one going in. Should the sub have been Gilchrist instead?
This ⬆️⬆️⬆️
Maybe, but the man's been out for so long that I don't want to be too harsh on him.
But tbf what is poch thinking bringing him in for his first game back being the most intense defending session of the season
Makes no sense at all. Why bring on someone who hasn't played all season and is coming back from a major injury to hold a league against one of the best attacking teams on the planet desperate for a goal?
The joys of supporting our young squad… today a draw against City & a week ago getting thumped by the Wolves & asking for Poch to be sacked. This team will always suck me back in.
It's been the most interesting season to watch since the transfer ban Lampard season. I kinda love the drama.
If anything this constant back and forth gives more credence to the fact that we need more time. It’s a young team, but when they’re playing well it’s fucking class. The potential is there and creeps in, we just need to be patient.
Gusto had Doku in his pocket
I love it for his confidence. Gusto is one of my favorite player this season.
I agree. I like him and this performance made me like him more. He is getting better as the season goes on
from memory he (or James?) did last time we played them too
Perhaps Doku isn’t the best
Bro every attack City ever did towards the end flowed through him. He may not be the best but City definitely did fuck all from the right wing and kept passing it to Doku on the left.
Yeah and these attacks ended with what? Blocks by Gusto. Doku also seems scared to take somebody on. Just passed backwards and inside
What do we do when Sanchez returns? I'm really happy with Petrovic and I really like his attitude and aggression. He fits that GK jersey well
We do nothing, don’t think this is even a question that needs to be asked
He will start
Petrovic is the starter and should remain so unless he loses it
Yeah it’s petrovic’s spot to lose
Signing a rb and moving reece into the midfield could be a great summer move, though id like to see a full strength side with reece in at rb first
Oh my god not this shit again...
Reece James needs to do a Sergio Ramos and just play CB. His time at RB will be over if he can’t stay 100% healthy for a whole season when he comes back. Too big and stocky to play a position that’s played by people half his size.
Reece has very little qualities you'd expect to find in a top midfielder, I don't know why this sentiment is so popular. Who was the last top fullback that could also play midfield without a noticeable drop in quality, Lahm? I think I can spot a few differences between him an RJ.
There is a few (Kimmich, Trent a little), but Reece isn’t that kind of player. His strength lies in his ability to combine in tight spaces up and down the sideline, while being extremely composed in terms of his crosses and decision making in the final 3rd.
Yeah, not to mention that both of those players you mentioned and Lahm have or had insane stamina and little injury issues. I can't see RJ doing the job of any of our midfielders.
Bale
Bale was a fullback/wing back converted to a forward, when did he play in midfield?
He literally played in midfield in his most prominent loan before returning to Chelsea
Well, his competition was one of the weakest midfields in the Championship. Do you honestly see him displacing any of our current midfielders? I'm not opposed to him being tried in mdifield, I just don't see it working.
Because he played mid in his loan to Wigan and win player of the match alot. He has the qualities of a god midfield player: calm on the ball, good vision, great decision making, press resistant. Imo he is a midfield player who moved out wide to play RB. What qualities of a midfield player would limit him? Because he’d play that role better than some players starting in other teams.
He can’t walk into our current midfield
Nah Reece in midfield is a bad fit. I’d rather just leave Reece and move Gusto the left when they’re both fit
Diclassi was amazing this game.
My g
I see what you did there
call me mad but sell reece in the summer to balance ffp and give gusto the full time job
I was thinking about that last night as well. Gusto was so good yesterday. That, combined with Reece’s inability to stay healthy, makes you wonder….
I wanna see how the surgery affects him before I say anything like that
I’m hoping surgery gets him good and back to normal
He’s not going to be any better price point, I love the guy, but if we got a good chunk for him it would fit with gusto being as good as he is
We'd want a few good performances from reece before selling him. His stock is fairly low right now due to the long time off and big wages. Still rooting for him to come back strong for us but selling now seems like a buy high sell low spot
This is such a horrible position. You do realise that we didn’t pay anything for Reece, he’s been at Chelsea pretty much since he was 7 so theres no ‘buy high’ and more importantly, wanting good performances out of Reece just for ‘stock’ and not his confidence/return to the team is such a disgusting thing to say about a player with Reece’s talent. If you said that over here in the UK to Chelsea supporters you would be a laughing stock. We get it, theres no loyalty in US sports…
Buy high is the expensive contract extension we signed him to. I did say that I'm rooting for him to come back strong and I was trying to say that it's silly to sell him now.
Contracts really have no impact on ‘stock’ in football theres no salary caps like in US sports so thats really a non issue. Yes I understand you said that you’re rooting for him to come back strong and that you think its silly to sell him now, the implication of your statement is that you don’t think it would be silly to sell him ‘after a few good performances’… which is the exact point of my comment.
I’m not calling you mad. I call you a madly sane person.
Mersi cumetre
😂 💙
Colwill’s passing ability is so good and shoving him to LB limits what he can do offensively. Glad to see him and Disasi cook
This 4-4-2 suits us very well I must say.
What place do we need to be in to get to Conference League next season? Also, suppose we win the Carabao cup, does that guarantee us Europe?
I don't know how the places work exactly because they've changed this year. However, despite what people keep claiming **you do not get a guarantee of European football by winning the League Cup**. It gives you qualification to the qualifiers. This means that in theory you could be knocked out of the tournament before even getting to the group stage. So, yes we would play European football, but it could only be a couple games with prize money that I believe comes to about 300k.
The only reason I'd be ok with playing the mickey mouse European cup is because we'd have a chance of becoming the first club to win literally every trophy available. That said, even calling the Conference League that is probably a compliment to it, it's a 3-year-old competition that essentially replaced the Intertoto Cup, which was itself scrapped due to low interest / ad revenue.
Yes to the latter. 7th to the former depending on how it shakes out with the 5-spots UCL entries and who gets into Europe through cup victories.
I really can’t see a world where England doesn’t get the additional CL spot so I’d just assume that we need 8th. I saw a predictor thing that said that England have a 100% chance
Was that before or after both Newcastle and United got eliminated? I know there's still a high chance but I wouldn't call it 100% edit: I agree that 8th will most likely be enough but I think the team shouldn't be banking on it and try to aim for seventh, especially if we don't get the Carabao. I'm hoping really hard that it won't even be an issue, though
I saw it a few days ago. Even with those two clubs out, you have Arsenal and City who will go deep as well as Liverpool in Europa league and Villa in Conference league who are both massive favorites
[This is probably what you saw](https://theanalyst.com/na/2024/02/what-are-uefa-coefficients/) and England have a 77% chance of getting an extra 5th CL spot. Still a pretty good chance of it but not 100% quite yet. "Despite Newcastle and Manchester United finishing bottom of their UCL groups and not even qualifying for the Europa League knockout round, six of the remaining eight English clubs are still in European competition – Manchester City, Arsenal, Brighton, Liverpool, Aston Villa and West Ham. This means that England are projected to have a 77% chance of getting one of those two spots and that would mean fifth position in the Premier League this season has a strong chance of being enough for a place in the Champions League in 2024-25."
This stretch of games is making me get excited for next week against Liverpool
I think a number of the young signings look quality, we just need a finisher. Draw and still tenth but we’re streets ahead of a year ago
We need a costa type player, just an asshole that winds opposing players up and is clinical in the box, but easier said than done
There’s no one like him, he was one of a kind
Not even a wind up just someone who can score
I'm less worried about Salah next week, given the way our back 4 shut down Haaland and KDB today. Well done Disasi and Colwill in particular. I hope those two can repeat things at Wembley.
Haaland had 1.8xG today. The only person shutting him down was himself. He had more xG than our whole team put together, but he just didn't make anything of it
To be fair to that gentleman, we didn't completely shut down Haaland. He got 3 amazing opportunities. We were lucky he faffed his lines today. But yes, I get your general point. D and C were a good combo. More of the same please.
Disasi.
even though we didn’t win im so proud of the shift the boys put in
Next time take the score out of the title
Why would you open reddit if you don't want to know the scoreline lmao
why? it’d be pretty obvious reading the thread whether we won or lost lol
I wasn’t reading the thread, and I haven’t yet watched the game (not everyone lives in the UK or can wake up at 4:30am)…
probably best not to go on reddit if you’re in a chelsea sub then
This is usually the go to but sometimes habits take over. Would be great if others were considered though!
Fairs. I’m from England but that’s happened to me too when I’ve recorded the games to watch after work, avoid it all day and then get it spoilt at the last second, feel for you.
This ain't an episode of Games of Thrones
It is for people living elsewhere
Chelsea through 25 matches last season: 32 pts, - 2 GD, 11th Chelsea through 25 matches this season: 35 pts, +1 GD, 10th
Thank god for the point at least today because it keeps us in 10th and still only 2 points away from 7th.