Michael Oliver has been bad, really bad. Just keeps letting City get away with everything. No way is that a foul by Havertz.
Soooo...., to be clear, when Havertz makes contact with their keeper when they 'come together, (not like that), it's a foul but when someone clatters into the back of Silva in the box when they 'come together', (again, not like that), it's NOT a foul and thus a penalty. Yeah, that seems straightforward enough
Felt Azpi at the end could have been called. He was undercut....but evidently the announcers didn't agree either.
It could have been but would have been a bit harsh on them but I thought the Silva one was a stonewall pen tbh. The guy just took him out 'by accident'.
Really got what we deserved. Tuchel was absolutely out coached. Not the end of the world but we go on. Mount is far to valuable to this side. His pressing and tempo were missed. Havertz made a difference when he came on but it was all to late. Our best player today was Ruben who played 20 minutes and showed more than anyone else how to move the ball forward.
We lost. We deserved to lose. I would like to see us try some other formations. Well, we actually did today have a different formation with two up top in Romelu and Timo. But I feel we needed super fast wing backs to supplement that idea. Alonso, has been decent so far this year, but against Citeh, the pace of Ben would have been better. I'd be happy with 4 at the back and an extra body in midfield sometimes. I think TT needs to be a little bit more experimental and a little bit less risk adverse.
Yeah, he was tactically bossed by Pep. We beat them 3 times last season by actually playing against them rather than the Conte 11 behind the ball we played today. We fully deserved to lose and that's on us.
I think it probably depends, tbh. If the guy is behind you and you're watching the ball and don't see him and back into him it can be an 'accident' but the thing is Silva appeared to be directly in front of the fella and just ran into the back of him to stop him getting the ball. How is that 'accidental'. But I think the truth is we had important people out and, more generally, just weren't 'at it'.
Went to watch the replay but Peacock now has a 24 hour delay on those...? What is that all about? Guess I get to save 90 minutes Looks like I didn't miss much. That lineup screams fear and I can only imagine the kind of service Rom was(n't) getting today. Getting the feeling that we're going through another natural cycle of "our midfield isn't actually reliable." Shoring up a midfield that already does next to nothing offensively isn't going to make for much fun. Not sure where this will take us but I sure hope we aren't in for more 5-3-2. That's what I used to do in FIFA to keep all the kids playing as Barca at bay. We've got the personnel to be a bit more enterprising. I'm likely projecting a fair amount of this - how were we in reality? Would appreciate a summary from anyone!
On the way home from the game via the pub. I have a sore neck from looking one way in the first half. RLC made a difference when he came on that was just like watching Sari ball Have to show more ambition in midweek against Juventus.
Negative first half. Negative result. Mendy kept us in it. This game needed a dynamic presence like Pulisic. RLC looked great.
Agree with others. Our defense has been a signature since TT took over, but this was too defensive. No progressive play at all. Looked like we were playing with 10 for most of the game until we switched up with the Havertz sub. And the Werner/Lukaku pairing up top didn’t have a great showing. Tough game to try it out. I’d forgotten how big RLC is. He was shedding tacklers like an American footballer. It’s one game and we only have to play them twice. Maybe that’s defeatist, but it’s all about the points in the end.
2nd best most of the match. Not sure if Tuchel was out-coached or just that City wanted it more. I think the last 3 losses really sparked them today. No shame to lose to this City team.
For me, the main difference in this game vs the UCL final were the wingbacks. We lacked pace and the ability to carry the ball there today. We were always going to lose some intensity and control of the game with Lukaku as the front man compared to Werner, in exchange for more clinical finishing and directness. This much we have to accept. Not just against City, but against most opponents.
We made a choice to not carry forward with the wing backs. And they used a holding midfielder. Disappointing.
Also, the idea of losing intensity with one of the most effective strikers on the planet leading the line is a questionable concept... Either we keep (mostly) winning or we have to set the bar a little higher for what we expect from our center mids in their ability to transition the play. I kind of like losses like this in the sense that it exposes the flaws that were already evident. Ideally, it will lead to Tuchel adapting and we'll see this team continue to evolve. If we managed to win playing with 10 defenders, we'd be doomed to watching more of it.
I missed this game, my ma fell over and broke her arm! Looks like a good game to miss, I've heard we were bloody awful. Actually apart from Palace, Arsenal and the second half against Spurs we've actually been pretty 'ordinary' particularly of late, some of these boys needs a rocket up their a*se. First real test for TT I think?