Mole

Yeah it just looks bad because of the not won any games away tag. But we have only lost one too. So it's not utterly awful, with that said hopefully we get the win on the board today.

The fact they all blamed the referee for Schar's goal instead of taking any responsibility whatsoever gave an inside look into their mentality IMO.

I love Iniesta but I agree, looked like he was going through people like they're not there at times but he couldn't control a game in the way Xavi could almost by himself. I don't find it a coincidence that they still haven't won the CL since his retirement.

Eden Hazard - Technically brilliant obviously, but flattered to deceive for most of his career and barely showed up in the huge games. His best ever big game performance for Chelsea was probably against a Man City team that were playing Demichelis in midfield which kinda says it all. To compare him to another Chelsea player in this thread in Didier Drogba who was a monster in big games, Hazard was basically everything he wasn’t from a mentality POV. I waited years for his impact to match his ability and reputation but it never actually happened.

The thread about "how do we challenge" well I think it's very simple (albeit difficult to pull off) Find more (or develop the ones here) players who can consistently take advantage of how much space he creates just by existing. This is a title winning striker with the right support.

I said this during the match day thread that he seems wayyyy more effective when doing this so I 100% agree. Which is strange considering what his strengths as a player are but so far he seems to have more success when doing this for some reason. Most of the good things he did last night and most of the time I've seen him quite frankly are when it comes inside.

Is it possible he or the people on his coaching staff just didn't watch many Newcastle games until recently? I guess with Woltemade here now that excuse is no longer relevant though.

I agree with this, I was surprised to see people praising him. For most of the game I thought he was one of the lesser performers (I don't think anyone was actually bad) on the team. His erratic movement off the ball lead to massive holes in midfield which fortunately for us Spurs didn't exploit. Decent cross for Woltemade goal but aside from that I didn't think it was a performance worthy of mentioning tbh.

Funny as fuck that Bruno and Tonali were passing rings around them so he felt left out and decided to just get a fight started

Crouch was neat and tidy for his size but he simply wasn’t able to do things that genuinely hurt a defence in the ways Woltemade does every game. It’s a very stupid comparison.

Not even sure he managed a fart tonight mind.

I remember there were graphics posted in the summer about this and before he got hurt for Villa initially only De Bruyne was doing it more often (was a stat from like 2-3 years ago) Which seems a promising trait to have alongside Bruno and Tonali.

Ah the classic “ I'm really upset so let’s make things up that have no basis in reality “.

That turn in the first half for the Barnes chance

Elanga is a weird one, I think he's looked more effective driving the ball inwards into the box than he has running on the outside like you would expect.

Taking the piss to end this one

The only comparison seems to be is they like running with the ball and he just seems better at it

Tbf teams have sit off us before this season but the CBs were not as high as they have been at times tonight.

I think Pope has been really good for the most part but it does make you wonder how things would look with a no 1 who is comfortable with the ball.

I've really enjoyed so far how high both CBs are, both have them have been class.

Thanks for this, took advantage of it immediately. I also do not have a TV licence

Surprised Woltemade is starting, they must really like where he's at from a conditioning perspective.

Yeah that's what I meant by "there is exceptions" But even Gordon, if he was consistently beating his man and putting in crosses or passes consistently in dangerous areas without them being assists I genuinely wouldn't care. If the team were scoring goals as a result of his work it doesn't matter to me if he gets direct credit for it or not.

I really don't get the Burn and Trippier criticism tbh, we've lost one game since Arsenal. Yes in possession they're struggling sometimes and ideally we would have better options but we just don't. Defensively they've mostly been solid, Burn's been caught out a few times but nothing too egregious. It sucks Hall and Tino aren't available but some are looking for solutions that don't actually exist.

Oh I know that but I noticed while typing the discussion had moved past it so decided to quote the closest message about it I agree with you btw.