this team is so ********ing weird.. similar to Jose's reign, we have this one AMAZING stretch then from there on out its basically our baseline level of talent keeping us in the mix with no clear idea of what we're doing going forward or even at the back idk man. maybe they just get sick of over emotional hardass managers and are like yeah, no more. ********ing hell
Just based on this little showing I'd play Hudson-Odoi instead of Barkeley. Still, not exactly a long enough period to judge, is it.
I'd like to see some journalist put together a nice breakdown of our last 20 games Just seems like one thing has lead to another in a bad way. Not putting teams away, playing replays, paper thin squad leading to more and more injuries
Just a little bit embarrassing that when the 21 year old comes out of the center of the three man back line that all of the veterans look awful. Putting Cahill in the center was an awful idea, but I guess the only other feasible option was Rudiger. Wish Luiz was fit
Without a real and consistent threat up top we've just looked rather toothless and that means everything else has to work flawlessly. If the other team can frustrate us we look more and more twitchy. Quite honestly, having to play Hazard as a CF probably isn't a good sign
I think the thing about playing in the middle of a 3 is, you have to get used to doing it. You can't just throw somebody in there and hope for the best, more so if the teams struggling to develop any attacking play. I mean, did we get ANY shots or headers on target? Hard to think of many.
Worth noting after our unbeaten/winning run last season, Diego went cold and the team by and large struggled to score or hold clean sheets (you can count the amount we had in the new year that season on ONE hand FFS). The holes in this team go much further than depth. That is a surface issue and one that will bite for sure you in the ass but if your team does not have the fundamentals down and knows how to play cohesive football even when at full strength, then there are deeper issues. Eerily similar to how Jose's tenure went but the players clearly don't hate Conte so they've managed to hold it together for the most part (well.. not as much I should say.. I have serious questions over how much some leaders on the team like him given the Costa situation followed up by whatever seems to be going on with Luiz). Basically, squad depth is admittedly an issue but not our biggest problem. When you can't get a shot on target, what good is a little more depth going to do you?
Nor is having to start a guy at left wing that has been out of action for 9 months Just thinking about it, I think the major turning point was Norwich getting the last minute goal to force stoppage time. Forced Willian to play 120 , Luiz 120 possibly re-injured himself, Morata suspended and hasn't played since, Pedro red card led to Willian playing the next game and then him pulling hamstring. It's been snowballing since. Also should be noted if we could just score 1 goal @Norwich then we don't have to replay
truth, Christensen was proving more than able to keep the pace of the runs behind at bay. they forced him in to a few throw-ins but otherwise he mopped up well, that was just plain gone when he went off. that first Wilson goal i don't think happens with Christensen reading the game there. seriously that kid is good.
Did we lose 0-3 to Southampton at home the year before last? If only Bournemouth played us every week, they would be pushing to qualify for the Champions League!
I feel like this game is the story of our season... each time we have a chance to take ground and leap United while distancing ourselves from the pack we shit the bed.
Guys, the worse that can happen this summer is we lose our coach, Hazard, and Courtois and Willian and Pedro get older. Calm down.
I think he's trying to say they pressed us higher up the pitch because our forwards couldn't hold the ball up.