Chelsea 0 Aston Villa 0

[Sabrina F.]

Let’s be honest though, the options on the bench are extremely limited quality wise. It’s not like we have some incredible game changers awaiting to completely influence a game. It’s not the City or Liverpool bench where you can bring in top attackers fresh to get advantage of tired legs. Or even Newcastle, heck Brighton can go from Joao Pedro to Evan Ferguson.

 

It’s just not a great squad. A couple of great to good players, and certainly Pochettino has done well to actually build an entirely new core of a new team, but outside of it, there are no true elite options. The rest of them have spent most of the season on the injury report.

[chara]

8 minutes ago, martin1905 said:

By the way love with you've done calling Petrovic Petr, think it tells me what you think of him as I don't think you would do that if you didn't rate him 💙

Very well presented sensible post..enjoyed the read.

Petr,.. wondered if anyone would pick that up!,,,I have purposely been a little low key about him but I have called him competent a few times...not the "damn with faint praise" it may seem but very high in my accolades for a keeper.

The final score was down to both keepers...Martinez getting more praise but the "competant" way Petr dealt with some difficult efforts pretty much sneaked under the radar but contributed immensely to the score line.

The great saves made by keepers are lauded and the howlers castigated but a keeper going about the match day business effectively but quietly is often overlooked...as ever watch the CB's,,,they are the "canaries" of the penalty area!

[Dwmh]

2 hours ago, CarefreeMuratcan said:

We had 3 chances on a plate one on one and still couldn't score. Back to normal then. 

My thoughts in a fraction of the words.  Back to the huge possession and xG stats, not goals.  I wonder if those 2 or 3 games where we took all the chances were just a flash in the pan.

Petrovic impressed me for the first time - a very good save and seveeral saves against probably the best opposition he has faced so far.

1 hour ago, Sabrina F. said:

First hour of the game was really, really good. Certainly one of our most complete since the start of the season. The pressing was terrific, we defended transitions really well, had a scare or two on setpieces (but Villa are so uniquely good at them it's hard to be even mad at that) but controlled them completely. Could have done better against their offside trap to create a bit more, but it was a positive step with this almost regular XI now starting to form legit chemistry and habits together. Doing it against a Top4ish side is also part of that, but this squad needs a signature win eventually.

Then after that, Villa's 10+ days of rest got them back into the game, and it was disappointing yet again that Poch isn't proactive enough with changes to not lose the control of the game.

Very good description of the first hour.  But we should be more honest - if any teams plays with the amount of aggression and chasing as our front 6 (without even the support or pressing FBs) they will collapse even if we had the 2 weeks off and Villa the 3 days.    JM makes the point - that if you put that much effort into a game and dominate then you must take the lead because otherwise you get killed at the end.

Yes Sterling and Madueke and Palmer put in huge amounts of work and unlike the midfield 3 they are not natural pressers.  But by 75 mins even Gallagher looked tired.  Indeed what I really took from that is that our front three all played a 60 min max game but it was still 77 mins before Poch dared bring on Broja and Mudryk.  What an insult to them.

We gambled all our energy on getting a lead in first 60 mins.  We failed.  By not making changes until 77 Poch ensured that the balance of play changed much more sharply than it should have done for the last half hour

 

 

3 hours ago, Ham said:

Notable that now he's not working for Sky, Martin Tyler is being fair to Chelsea.

Before kick off he defended Chelsea on the grounds of self reporting and thereafter acknowledged that if this squad really gels, we've got a side for a generation.  

He is nicer.  But i have to say that was one of the more ludicrous statements he has made.  When everyone is fit and gelled we will still only have 8 players worth planning around, we'd need another half dozen.

3 hours ago, Ham said:

I have a paid subscription which sorts the channels for me.  Yeah on firestick.  

Ah but I suspect the real secret is that you don't buy the Firestick from Amazon who make them.  You get ones with some kind of app pre-installed.

1 hour ago, Sabrina F. said:

Gallagher is on the cusp. He's made tremendous strides in possession and I feel crazy that people seem to fail to see it. When Mount developed that half-turn ability is when he was about to be really good for us, and Gallagher has that now in him. What a huge shame another club will get to benefit from his peak years, what a failure. At least with Mount we had seen his very best and gotten a big trophy out of it. Gallagher is going to be beloved by each one of his coaches for the rest of his career.

Yes.  I think Mount and Gallagher have always been much closer in style, ability and energy than most accept.
Just as Mount seemed to be learning another new trick each week under TT to receive turn and go past defenders, Gallagher is pulling out different stops each game.  Gallagher's secret skill is not so much passing as knowing exactly where all his colleagues are so being able to stick a foot in and toe poke it more or less accurately into the run path of a colleague.

I remember being told that Kante had a super 6th sense of knowing where the ball was going to go, so afterwards whenever i watched him the lightening speed started to seem more mortal and his intuition became amazing.  Gallagher plays with a perfect picture of where everyone is.

 

1 hour ago, Sabrina F. said:

Very happy to see both Enzo and Caicedo at this level. Fantastic footballers.

And @martin1905 and his comments

They are clearly very good players, well worth at least half their price.  I still think we aren't seeing the best of them yet though (Fernandez last season was often a lot better).

I keep saying player prices > player value > player performances > team performance > xg-xgA > G -  GA > points achieved.
The players, or at least Disasi, 3CMs, Palmer & Sterling and James or Chilwell if available, are not the problem.
It is all the other reasons for sub performing + the simple fact that we have 7 decent players ( Silva for now)  backed by players who should be out on loan.

 

5 minutes ago, Sabrina F. said:

Let’s be honest though, the options on the bench are extremely limited quality wise. It’s not like we have some incredible game changers awaiting to completely influence a game. It’s not the City or Liverpool bench where you can bring in top attackers fresh to get advantage of tired legs. Or even Newcastle, heck Brighton can go from Joao Pedro to Evan Ferguson.

 

It’s just not a great squad. A couple of great to good players, and certainly Pochettino has done well to actually build an entirely new core of a new team, but outside of it, there are no true elite options. The rest of them have spent most of the season on the injury report.

See you had said it already.

Strictly speaking it is not even a squad.  It is 20 o21s of which  4 are GKs, and Fofana and Nkunku were injured from before the squad was announced.
It is an insult to the manager (and fans)

[Ham]

14 minutes ago, Dwmh said:

 

Ah but I suspect the real secret is that you don't buy the Firestick from Amazon who make them.  You get ones with some kind of app pre-installed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not at all. Amazon bought and all formatted and set up by me. 

It's time consuming but worth it.  

Just as easy to set up on a mobile. 

[Dwmh]

6 minutes ago, Ham said:

Not at all. Amazon bought and all formatted and set up by me. 

It's time consuming but worth it.  

Just as easy to set up on a mobile. 

Interesting.  I'd heard of them being pre-installed.  DIY Fire stick.   cool

[boratsbrother]

10 minutes ago, Dwmh said:

 

The players, or at least Disasi, 3CMs, Palmer & Sterling and James or Chilwell if available, are not the problem.
It is all the other reasons for sub performing + the simple fact that we have 7 decent players ( Silva for now)  backed by players who should be out on loan.

 

I's certainly as Petrovich to those names! I'd also put money on Gusto and Chuck making it here!  

In next to no time at all, we're already  seeing a solid core to move forward with and maybe a few more night start to blossom next season too. Of course, there will be players bought over the last 18 months who won't ever be good enough but they'll ve sold and new ones signed. 

Still a long, long way to go but imho we are making progress at a significantly faster rate than i thought we would be making. In just 6 months Pitch has turned an absolute shambles of a team into one that has played well and got results against all the top teams bar Utd and are now beating teams we should beat as well. None of this was the happening last season!

 

 

[boratsbrother]

11 minutes ago, Ham said:

Not at all. Amazon bought and all formatted and set up by me. 

It's time consuming but worth it.  

Just as easy to set up on a mobile. 

Aren't the Bill knocking on the doors of people using firesticks to stream footie?

[Dwmh]

21 minutes ago, boratsbrother said:

I's certainly as Petrovich to those names! I'd also put money on Gusto and Chuck making it here!  

Early for Petrovich.  The club have put money on Gusto and Chuck making it.  and on several dozen others.
 

 

22 minutes ago, boratsbrother said:

In next to no time at all, we're already  seeing a solid core to move forward with and maybe a few more night start to blossom next season too. Of course, there will be players bought over the last 18 months who won't ever be good enough but they'll ve sold and new ones signed. 

No it is a vanguard.  it'll take 3 years before we make players out of the U21s.  Meanwhile our solid core is playing against squads.

[Ham]

1 hour ago, boratsbrother said:

Aren't the Bill knocking on the doors of people using firesticks to stream footie?

No they're more interested in the people who run the IPTV businesses that provide the services to people with firesticks.

Plus, nobody knows who is using a firestick for streaming IPTV thanks to VPNs. 

Edited January 27 by Ham

[kev61]

1 hour ago, Dwmh said:

Interesting.  I'd heard of them being pre-installed.  DIY Fire stick.   cool

You can get them pre -installed but not worth it.As Ham said it is a bit time consuming,but worth the effort 

If I can do it anyone can.Let YouTube take you by the hand.There is nothing more satisfying than watching a live match that you have paid nowt for(except for 5 quid a month for your VPN)-heck,it even gave me the confidence to put up a shelf!.

[xceleryx]

Only got done watching back the match now. Thought we put in a pretty good performance overall, dominating quite a substantial period of it at that only to be let down once more by our efforts around goal.

Hard game to really influence much in from a coaching perspective because of not only our options from the bench, but because of the tempo and nature of the game itself. Which was evident once subs were made and none of them really made any telling impact for either side. That said, bringing Chilwell on was disruptive for us  and Villa begun to expose the left hand side further because of Chilwell sitting higher pitch the pitch trying to get involved. I said this against Middlesbrough but Villa did a better job of making more of that space being left and getting in behind us more. Thankfully it didn't cost us but it is a concern moving forward, putting extra strain on the CB's and wingers to get back or shuffle across when he's upfield and not able to get back defensively. 

Probably should've won, and an away replay isn't ideal, but we at least have it in our own hands to progress still. 

[kev61]

4 hours ago, chrisb said:

Well I think we were by far the better team considering we played 3 nights ago and they’ve had 12 days off. On the balance of chances we should of won but we’re still in this.

Fair comment.To be fair to Poch he did switch Palmer into a more creative role - bringing on  Broja i didn't get.Imo he should have switched Sterling to a more central forward role.

Broja frequently looks like a big oaf with little or no ball skills.

The other thing that worries me is Mudryk looks like a poor man's Werner.

[xceleryx]

38 minutes ago, kev61 said:

Fair comment.To be fair to Poch he did switch Palmer into a more creative role - bringing on  Broja i didn't get.Imo he should have switched Sterling to a more central forward role.

Broja frequently looks like a big oaf with little or no ball skills.

The other thing that worries me is Mudryk looks like a poor man's Werner.

Mudryk had a tough time of it but in fairness none of the subs either team made had any real impact, was just one of those games where the rhyme was hard for bench pieces to step into and be positively involved.

Chilwell also didn't help the cause out on the left, he's not a good fullback for interchanging and working with his wide man, he's more an off the ball nuance with making his own runs in behind and creating confusion with match ups on who should track him. This basically means the winger has to drop back to protect the space he leaves. When we played a back three this was generally the job of the LCB but in a four it falls more on the left winger, and at times the DM to shift across himself.

Broja thought I agree. We were nuts not cashing in on him after he returned from Southampton, he looked so far off it and nothing has really changed. If anything, he's gone backwards after injury. 

[kev61]

4 hours ago, Sabrina F. said:

Let’s be honest though, the options on the bench are extremely limited quality wise. It’s not like we have some incredible game changers awaiting to completely influence a game. It’s not the City or Liverpool bench where you can bring in top attackers fresh to get advantage of tired legs. Or even Newcastle, heck Brighton can go from Joao Pedro to Evan Ferguson.

 

It’s just not a great squad. A couple of great to good players, and certainly Pochettino has done well to actually build an entirely new core of a new team, but outside of it, there are no true elite options. The rest of them have spent most of the season on the injury report.

The reality is we have a squad  that is still developing.The main issue is whether Poch is complimentary to the the development of the squad..

In all honesty I'm seeing some good things.I'm no fan of Poch but I see improvement -whether it's  by accident than design is another matter.

We faded badly in the second half - but we played Tuesday night!.It's fucking madness that we played 3 days later!

[Dwmh]

1 hour ago, kev61 said:

We faded badly in the second half - but we played Tuesday night!.It's fucking madness that we played 3 days later!

2 games in 3 days seems pretty normal to me.

[My Blood Is Blue]

6 hours ago, Ham said:

No they're more interested in the people who run the IPTV businesses that provide the services to people with firesticks.

Plus, nobody knows who is using a firestick for streaming IPTV thanks to VPNs. 

Do you have  ‘how to’ guide anywhere?

[kev61]

1 minute ago, My Blood Is Blue said:

Do you have  ‘how to’ guide anywhere?

 

1 minute ago, My Blood Is Blue said:

Do you have  ‘how to’ guide anywhere?

I posted 'how to' and was ignored.The problem is people don't listen.They are too busy following the pack.

[kev61]

42 minutes ago, Dwmh said:

2 games in 3 days seems pretty normal to me.

There are many things 'normal' to you droy that beggars belief.....with the upmost respect of course 

[My Blood Is Blue]

56 minutes ago, kev61 said:

 

I posted 'how to' and was ignored.The problem is people don't listen.They are too busy following the pack.

Where is it posted?

Edit - don’t worry, have worked it out. 

[chrisb]

1 hour ago, Dwmh said:

2 games in 3 days seems pretty normal to me.

But it didn’t have to be. There’s no reason we couldn’t have played this fixture today.

[kev61]

41 minutes ago, My Blood Is Blue said:

Where is it posted?

Ham will tell you how it's done.He is far more  listened to than me.

[Miguelito07]

19 minutes ago, chrisb said:

But it didn’t have to be. There’s no reason we couldn’t have played this fixture today.

At least it gives us a couple days extra over Liverpool - not that it’s done us much help in the past

[east lower]

6 hours ago, xceleryx said:

Only got done watching back the match now. Thought we put in a pretty good performance overall, dominating quite a substantial period of it at that only to be let down once more by our efforts around goal.

Hard game to really influence much in from a coaching perspective because of not only our options from the bench, but because of the tempo and nature of the game itself. Which was evident once subs were made and none of them really made any telling impact for either side. That said, bringing Chilwell on was disruptive for us  and Villa begun to expose the left hand side further because of Chilwell sitting higher pitch the pitch trying to get involved. I said this against Middlesbrough but Villa did a better job of making more of that space being left and getting in behind us more. Thankfully it didn't cost us but it is a concern moving forward, putting extra strain on the CB's and wingers to get back or shuffle across when he's upfield and not able to get back defensively. 

Probably should've won, and an away replay isn't ideal, but we at least have it in our own hands to progress still. 

With respect, Chilwell barely got near the halfway line, never mind across it.

Villa took control of the midfield as we struggled to keep possession of the ball. The coach’s substitutions did what they usually do and made us less than we were before them.

Matty Cash spent more time in our half after Chilwell came on than he had done all game. That’s not down to Chilwell though. Broja came on and that was our press from the front jiggered. But the funniest moment was his second touch that put the ball into the MHL stand, must have knocked some poor soul out.

[Dwmh]

19 minutes ago, chrisb said:

But it didn’t have to be. There’s no reason we couldn’t have played this fixture today.

Apparently Fulham are at home today, so one of us had to play Friday or Sunday.
Then Villa are playing Tuesday.
And Fulham played Wednesday and will play again next Tuesday.
And being FA cup this game was arranged after the villa game.
So it did have to be our game moved and it did have to be Friday

(otherwise one club would have to play 2 games 2 days apart and @kev61 would define that as completely bonkers)

So yes I feel pushed about needlessly by bigger clubs too,  I guess much of the prem is well used to that.

[kev61]

56 minutes ago, My Blood Is Blue said:

Where is it posted?

Edit - don’t worry, have worked it out. 

Good stuff...,enjoy!