Christian Pulisic at AC Milan

Hard to watch. Everyone in blue looks poor.

 

Chelsea just does not have enough athleticism for these or any tactics to work as planned against Arsenal.

 

I know we say not to judge by the preseason, but Chelsea is going to struggle and I do not think they will make top 4. The squad has stayed too stagnant, and Sterling is not going to save them.
Smart money is on them to finish 5th or 6th

 

This really is unwatchable from a chelsea perspective. None of these variation of players and tactics from Tuchel worked and he should be concerned.
Pulisic can hardly get a whiff of the ball.

 

Attacking with 3 vs 8 each time they slowly work it up the pitch.

 

It’s crazy how posters on here are using this match to predict Pulisic’s place on the team this season and how Chelsea will finish in the table.

 

Everything is too slow so they never attack with numbers. They always attack against numbers. None of the top three have any space. Would have liked to seen Pulisic in the first half with the 4-3-3.

 

I see you're new to Tucheliban

 

Obviously,but holy shit are they dire tonight.

 

The thing is, with all the depth they have, Chelsea does not have a starting 11 that is one of the top four in the league.

 

Tuchel is the type of guy that might try to get whipped in preseason in order to convince the owner to spend more money. But I don’t think he has to try to get them to lose at this point.

 

Chelsea just look ponderous, predictable and without any serious team spirit.

Boehly has some serious thinking to do.

 

It’s too late. The thinking should have been done before they gifted Inter Lukaku. The smart play by the owner was always to hire a manager that could work with the talent available rather than try to assemble the talent this manager thinks he needs to win every match 0-0.

 

I thought Germans usually took August off.

 

No. It’s normal.

 

That is a good point.

 

Yikes! Chelsea looked disjointed and toothless with the ball. That didn't change when Puli came on. You'd think with the way Arsenal was pressing Chelsea would have had a few chances on the break but it never happened.

Puli could have had a chance for a tap in but Havertz tried to cut it back for Mount instead of crossing it.

 

Half the team wants to be elsewhere.

 

I wish Pulisic was one of them.

 

I didn’t watch, but I don’t think it’s that crazy or difficult to make predictions using how they did last year, what they’ve done with transfers, and how they’ve looked this preseason.

Chelsea was nowhere close to being a title challenger last year. They haven’t made major moves in the summer, and Tuchel has a history of pissing his employers off the longer he works for them.


With City and Liverpool almost certainly being top 4 (and possibly top 2 again), and Conte having a history of really improving teams, it seems like everyone else might be fighting for one spot. I would not read too much into one game, but United and Arsenal seem to have much more positive environments right now.

 

I thought Tuchel was going to move on this summer. Obv he didn't. But by Xmas he and Chelsea might both wish he had...

It pre-season, of course, but Chelsea had little ("top team") attacking bite last season. Doesn't look they figured it out for this season. My take: cause it's the coach/systems, not (just) the players.

 

All together now: Pre-season.
Also in pre-season mode: Whatever drunk producer is working on these broadcasts for ESPN. Cannot wait for NBC to return and with Peter Drury on the main mic.

 

I suspect the "tournament" organizers sell the feed and commentary package to ESPN intact.

 

The Chad way to watch soccer games is with the volume off.

 

Tuchel is the anti-offense coach. Some coaches have all sorts of brilliant ideas about defense and a real diagnostic certainty about that side of ball, but lack the same with respect to offense. The attackers cannot get a clear sense of their roles because the coach doesn’t really have one.