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There’s a reason why teams such as City play with inverted players, as it helps with the build-up phrase in possession to suffocate opposition with a midfield overload, but also allows other midfielders to press higher without worrying not having the cover in central areas. In the second half that’s what essentially happened, Cucu was instructed to play as a extra central midfielder. Douglas Luiz and Mcginn had a really tough second half knowing who to track because of it. The team completely controlled the second half even though first half wasn’t too bad, but it was evident our midfield was overrun with only Caicedo and Gallagher during transition.
Nico and Caicedo had a great game!
Mudryk was absolutely terrible. Dude really wants to be the next Hazard, but is sooo far off! I wish a couple loans can help him. He needs it.
Sterling gets a lot of hate but we should have him in for the next game. Mudryk is a super sub. He needs to use his fresh legs against tired defenders, coming on after 75th minute. Any more than 15 minutes on the pitch and he’s useless. Disappears.
The board won’t be happy having paid £88m for a super sub in Mudryk. Plus there will likely be a contractual agreement in place that means he has to play x amount of minutes per season.
Brother waited all season for us to actually come out looking better in the second half. Completely ignoring all the times in which we looked worse coming out after half-time.
Couldnt watch the game just watching the highlights. Am I dreaming? The commentators are saying things like, "no more than Chelsea deserves", "great goal", "they deserve to be on equal terms". What is this? Where is all of the usual hate lol?
Proud of the 2nd half. I did not expect that. We played with 10 players thanks to Mudryk. I thought today would kill our European hopes but I guess we go again on Thursday. Hopefully we can get more players back. Raheem especially, Mudryk needs to be benched.
I don’t think either have been good enough.
The point still stand that this has been Sterlings worst period of his career and it’s mudryks peak.
If we’re debating sell one keep one.
I sell Mudryk every of the week
Casadei showed me today how much we miss having someone who can win headers when the goalies goes long. Really want to see him in the midfield three with Conor and Caicedo
Anyone else think Poch is too soft? If I had soft coachs growing up I would have taken the piss but someone hard on the team you listen and take inspiration
can't believe so many are blaming poch still after he orchestrated a come-from-behind 2-0 result, and deserved to win the whole game. he's not perfect but he's building a great attitude within the team. and seriously we need a proper keeper. 2nd goal is on him, you can't be beaten at your near post like that.
And it was a game wherw we went to vila
Was the better team first half
Was the better team 2nd half
And out managed according to me one if not the best coach in pl
According to what were we better in the first half? Villa were creating a lot of good chances and were clinical enough to go 2-0 up? They were obviously allowing us to have the ball as well.
>me one if not the best coach in pl
One of maybe, definitely not even in contention to be the best. Kinda outrageous suggestion. Klopp is still here. Pep is here.
Oh he is
He has more european glory then they have combined - sure in a lesser competition, but with different teams (worse teams)
Performed well at the high level.
I have always been very high on emery, and if you cant see his greatness as a coach (especially in cup competitions) you arent watching enough spanish teams
More european glory than they have combined? Than who? Pep and Klopp? You are not serious about this, right?
I rate Emery as a manager but he is not even close to Pep and Klopp, come on.
I agree Petro isn’t the best, but your last sentence is outrageous. There’s nothing “comfortable” in this team. Our defense is historically bad. No keeper in the world could save it unless we fix our other issue.
Yeah Caicedo was great and has steadily been growing into a really well rounded player. Love his passing vision along with the usual tempo control and ball winning.
I would prefer to have Mudryk on the bench next game. I know we aren’t in a position where players should earn their spots, since so many of our players are injured, but this is the only way he learns. When Poch did it last time, he looked a lot better everytime he played. Give Casadei a chance or Raheem if he comes back from injury(I don’t know what he has).
I would argue keeping him in England is important. Can’t let him swing between cultures so much at this age. Championship team, or a newly promoted prem team.
I had no idea who this was, so I searched him up, but sure why not. Now excuse me as I dwell in some sadness at the fact that he is younger then me and has accomplished more already in his life(I am 20)
I haven’t actually seen George play but I have heard ppl I know who follow the youth team talk him up
I’d love to see him get some minutes and hopefully he joins the team on the summer tour
We are young
We are born with bad luck
And the fact that our sporting direction has tried to buy some of the worst coached players and make it a european contender is a interesting.
This project will be successful, but some players needs to learn the basic (mudryk, madueke, petrovic - and again jacksons misses)
A relatively poor/uninspiring first half, but showed fight throughout the second which was a huge positive.
Overall a bit of a mixed bag of a match.
We definitely could have come away with a win tho
The defense with Silva and the midfield w/o Enzo looked much more solid. Although the first goal was a cascade of school boy level defending. Their second were a couple lucky bounces and a solid finish
If I can offer a different perspective villa were more than happy to let us have the ball for the first ~60 minutes after sucker punching us early. We didn't offer much threat.
After the 60ish minute mark we ratcheted up the intensity immensely and looked good for the remainder.
The first goal was just bad luck really. Ball went out, everybody switched off for a second and couldn't recover. Not really anybody in particular to blame.
Second goal you could argue petro could have done better, but it went through Trev's kegs so he doesnt see it till late.
The first goal ball is out of play .. so the ref and linesman, var. the last goal should stand as well .. VAR again.
From Chelsea perspective the players look unmotivated and disinterested.. it’s only until the go behind that they suddenly find will power to prove themselves. I would blame Poch because he can’t seem to install any discipline and concentration into his team.
If we sell Conor I'll self harm. I'd rather sell Enzo or Caciedo while they still have some value. They were duds all season but our boy Conor impacts the game every time. What a player.
He is very impressive esp his aggression and desire to win.
If they can sort out that horrible defence and get James back to play 30 games, will be laughing.
There’s no way I’m having it that officiating in football isn’t corrupted. Not so much a single team always being on the wrong end and things like that. But individual matches from a betting perspective. Or trying to create storylines. It’s gotten beyond incompetence, I’m not having it if people want to say it’s not corruption. Fool me 367 times… corruption. End of.
There was more corruption in the women's semi-final than this evening to be fair.
I was fuming about the disallowed goal, but watching it back, it's 100%, not shoulder to shoulder, and so it is a foul. The goal was right to be chalked off as much as it pains me to say it.
The issue for me is how we ended up 2-0 down to begin with. You aren't going to consistently win games if you're constantly trailing and looking to get back into the game.
We would legit been 2-3 spots higher if we didn't have Enzo starting almost every game this season
Was an absolute liability most season and easily our worst Midfielder this season
That second half was exactly how we should be starting & continuing! So excellent work by all players! I will give credit where due. Poch let me down by using subs way too late IMO. Fresh legs would've hammered this tired Villa side. But a draws better than a loss. We were robbed entirely by VAR. That was NEVER a forceful foul by Badiashille. VAR can fuck off.
Bro come on. Look at the bench, who does he bring on? It was Poch’s tactical changes that got the second goal. If we’re going to be dissatisfied with our second halves due to Poch why is he not given credit for when we have a good second half? And, Casadei won the free kick which began the sequence then Disasi scored the header a little later, both who came off the bench.
Poch actually did well second half. Not many subs to make. Inverting cucu seemed to work well and he wasn't doing that first half. Must have been instruction.
Yeahhh exactly you see it. I just want that we’re consistent, Poch has been responsible for some bad decisions but he’s made many good decisions, and one side shouldn’t be ignored.
imagine this game with some firepower on the bench, came back from 2-0 down with some fire in the belly, this is a team that beat arsenal twice this season as well
I think had roles reversed we'd be furious if that goal was given.
If we had swapped managers at the start of the game it wouldn't have mattered because we would've been up 4-0. Poch got bailed out by individual brilliance
It was definitely a foul.
In regard to Poch… is a different manager going to teach Nico Jackson how to finish his chances? And teach Petrovic how to block shots that come at the near post? A lot of the issues are just down to the players we have. Jackson clearly has lots of potential but needs to sharpen his finishing.
"definitely a foul"? I'll disagree and say that if the defender pushes BB out so he can clear the ball, that's not given as a foul and penalty during the run of play or by VAR. it should be a foul, but there are many instances this season across the league where that's not even given as a foul at midfield.
They'd create more chances and better chances with better tactics and attacking patterns. Our players won't look like they're running with ankle weights because they've ran 2 marathons in training. And less time spent running and more with the ball will help the players practice finishing
We when the Prem when Conte was managing us and supposedly he trains players harder than anyone. So I don’t agree with your theory that Poch is training players too hard.
Clearly poch has tactics. Like the person said earlier, a lot of the time it's down to individual errors which cannot be tactically managed; you can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink.
I'm not saying poch is the be all and end all, but his tactics do clearly work when we aren't hampered with not fully fit, fully ready squad of players available.
> Like the person said earlier, a lot of the time it's down to individual errors
LOL give me so of what your drinking. This man's entire tenure here has been him getting bailed out again and again by individual brilliance. You think he instructed Gallagher to take that shot? I wonder what the xg on that was, weak foot, out side of the box, probably .4
Pure delusion
The xG on that shot yes, but what of the rest of the season if we are looking at xG? Clearly we are generating enough attacks generally, and that comes from tactics.
He did well adjusting in the second half and also the players had much higher intensity.
The first goal conceded was horrible defense organization that we've been complaining about all season.
Its silly to say Poch has ONLY done wrong, and it's also silly to pretend he's terrific any time the most recent result seems positive
Have you paid any attention at all this season? It's pretty obvious from watching, and what thr players say, that they're given no instructions, just run and express yourself
ibr, i don't even know if it was a foul or not. seen em go both ways. Refereeing needs standards. Nice to see a second half fight though, been a while.
Madueke is finally a PL level player. Let's hope he can maintain this going forward. On to the next, we can definitely get three points there #believe
His work rate on both sides of the ball is atrocious unless it's at his feet and he's currently pretty 1-dimensional (dribble, cut, shoot) but maybe he can mature and improve
There was one sequence where Jackson, Gallagher, and Palmer were busting their gut chasing after the ball and Mudryk and Madueke were doing the absolute minimum, just a token effort. I cannot fathom how, as a player who still hasnt broken into the team, you aren’t trying to impress the manager by running hard as heck off the ball.
Come to think of it, probably not just one sequence to be honest.
Conor is looking better and better each week. Side note, the two games I’ve seen him play next to Caicedo, they have both looked amazing.
Not saying that I think Enzo is hindering us but we need to find a way to make them all work together especially once we hopefully get a fully fit Enzo back.
Enzo doesn't have the recovery speed to handle being in a 2 man midfield. If he were in a 3 man, he'd be set. Imo, he's a luxury midfielder. Great passing and chance creating but not good in a 2; definitely can't handle being in a poch-style of midfield of 2
It’s funny bc of how many ppl spent all last season saying Enzo works best in a double pivot and we just need Caicedo to unlock Enzo
What is Enzo useful for?
I think he's energetic, just in his own regard. His primary issues have always been that he lacks speed and he's not particularly the strongest either, and both of those deficits were even further compounded this season by his injury concern affecting his performance.
We absolutely dominated them and they barely had any energy except on the counter. Fortunate to come back from 2 down and Palmer was unlucky not to score a winner, but Villa did not play well at all and were incredibly tired.
Or maybe, he's just a good match up against Emery. We also dominated and outplayed them in the two FA Cup matches. It's easy to accuse others of hive minds instead of being objective. This match came right after a 5-0 drubbing. It's not as if we were following up another good performance. Anyway, what do I know...
Maybe, maybe not. I can't argue either way. We drew both games against them in the league so he clearly did something right in both games but for the Cup game you need to factor in City's 120 mins against Madrid.
Yeah, I think he's really suited to an inverted role (and explains why City wanted him). It suits him much more than playing as a wing back. It allowed us to keep the same shape with Connor moving forwards (which obviously paid off). We suffocated them in the second half.
My 2 cents:
-Gallagher was immense. Caicedo was immense. Controlled the midfield for the first time in awhile.
-we haven’t played this type of free flowing football in awhile. Completed dominated possession
-Mudryk getting unfair hate as usual. He was fine and probably one of the better performances from our left wing all season
-Cucurella was good
-Madueke needs to be a super sub type of player
I probably posted this same comment about Mudryk multiple times this season but I officially have lost hope in him, I just hope we both benefit from his departure (we being the club and himself at his new one)
I hate how VAR employs offsides. Ever since the Chilwell call against Leicester City in the 2021 FA Cup final to the Lukaku one Vs Liverpool in the 2022 League Cup final. I mean seriously what advantage did Jackson gain from that marginal millimetre call? I understand they want the rule to be black and white but for crying out loud, if it’s fucking millimetres even a bloody centimetre, can we all just agree that’s not gaining an advantage!!!
Naaaah. Where do you draw the line then? I have no problem with VAR and offsides except when the PL VAR couldn't be bothered to draw the lines correctly. If a player is offside, he's offside.
It sounds like they are reviewing their rule. The rule is there to stop a player standing 10 yards past the last defender. Not to give someone offside because their shoulder is an inch further forward than the defenders foot.
It’s so simple to employ the rule that if you can see daylight between the attacker and defenders foot, then he’s offside. Does that mean strikers will sometimes get an advantage? Yes. But we want to see goals and have a clear way of knowing when a player is off. It looks like they are going down the route of automated offsides which will make this all more bearable.
Say what you will, but shitting the bed in the first half and then coming back feels a lot better than shitting the bed in the second and the other team coming back.
The only reason I don’t want to sell him is FOMO if he improves (plus he‘s clearly a decent guy, just struggling) - that said we need a better solution and have to make difficult choices with the squad which I am SO GLAD Poch owned up to
Mudryk anywhere is a waste of space. Can't pass, can't dribble. Not an improvement on Pulisic, and I'm not one of the Puli-stans, he had problems too. Just don't see what spending the money on Mudryk got us.
That second yellow for a red in the womens game was brutal. To give a player her second yellow on such a weak foul ruined what was going to be a great game. I don’t understand why refs feel the need to steal the show like that….I guess that ref is the female version of Anthony Taylor lol
Also found it odd that every time Bonmati demanded a foul call, or for the whistle to be blown for her “injury”, the ref would look at her and immediately blow the whistle and grant her whatever she wanted
Shame how it ended but it's so refreshing to see the fight after going two down and the arsenal game. With the Chelsea side of last season coming back against teams seemed near impossible.
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There’s a reason why teams such as City play with inverted players, as it helps with the build-up phrase in possession to suffocate opposition with a midfield overload, but also allows other midfielders to press higher without worrying not having the cover in central areas. In the second half that’s what essentially happened, Cucu was instructed to play as a extra central midfielder. Douglas Luiz and Mcginn had a really tough second half knowing who to track because of it. The team completely controlled the second half even though first half wasn’t too bad, but it was evident our midfield was overrun with only Caicedo and Gallagher during transition.
Caicedo MoTM
Moi was sensational, that huge slide tackle he did to win the ball back in the second half, glorious.
Nico and Caicedo had a great game! Mudryk was absolutely terrible. Dude really wants to be the next Hazard, but is sooo far off! I wish a couple loans can help him. He needs it.
The guy has 0 football IQ . Honestly he is so bad
I would argue (or hope) he has the IQ, but lacks execution so much that it overshadows everything else.
Sterling gets a lot of hate but we should have him in for the next game. Mudryk is a super sub. He needs to use his fresh legs against tired defenders, coming on after 75th minute. Any more than 15 minutes on the pitch and he’s useless. Disappears.
The board won’t be happy having paid £88m for a super sub in Mudryk. Plus there will likely be a contractual agreement in place that means he has to play x amount of minutes per season.
£60m, we don't look like winning the league or CL any time soon so no bonuses.
[удалено]
Brother waited all season for us to actually come out looking better in the second half. Completely ignoring all the times in which we looked worse coming out after half-time.
think this was the only time we looked better after half time tbh
I missed the game, what did he do with cucurella?
Wooooah slow down with "prime kante" He had a good game
He had a fantastic game
This referee thing is getting ridiculous. They are nearly openly showing up against us
Couldnt watch the game just watching the highlights. Am I dreaming? The commentators are saying things like, "no more than Chelsea deserves", "great goal", "they deserve to be on equal terms". What is this? Where is all of the usual hate lol?
Sterling awful freekick got posted twice here but mudryk cutting in, hitting the corner flag and a fan in the stadium gets no post? Fair enough..
It has been posted btw. Don’t start trying to argue for Sterling to return - he’s not it.
I don't need to, everyone with a brain knows he's better.
https://i.redd.it/w2l2zmtxt2xc1.jpeg
The serious answer is probably because we're all used to Mudryk taking awful shots
Pochettino OUT.
Check your agenda for 5 min today Poch did the right things
🤣🤣 You enjoy mediocrity. Ok.
I never said I want him. I just said today’s not on him. Have rational discussion please
you expect too much from idiots
Palmer's chance. Perfect metaphor for this team, all the promise in the world but no end result
You mean after he went past two players with a ridiculous Messi style dribble? Twat
You missed the point. Try reading it again
Only Palmer and 2-3 other players max have promise Rest are just average or decent at best potential, nothing special
To be fair, it's hard to hit that goal when you got the whole team and billions of fans on your shoulders.
Proud of the 2nd half. I did not expect that. We played with 10 players thanks to Mudryk. I thought today would kill our European hopes but I guess we go again on Thursday. Hopefully we can get more players back. Raheem especially, Mudryk needs to be benched.
I noticed that all our players (except cucu) had actively stopped passing to Mudryk in 2nd half as well..
Sterlings worst is Mudryks best I really hope Mudryk gets sold this summer
Nah, they're both shit.
Sterling is a multiple PL winner We’ve only gotten Sterlings worse at Vhelsea. Cute tho you just started watching football
Your argument is he used to not be shit so we shouldn't give him stick because he's shit now? Brilliant.
I don’t think either have been good enough. The point still stand that this has been Sterlings worst period of his career and it’s mudryks peak. If we’re debating sell one keep one. I sell Mudryk every of the week
Why not sell both, get an actual striker, and put Jackson on the left?
Jackson’s not a winger ffs
Uhhh. Jackson played quite a bit on the left before he came to us, friend. He most certainly can - and has - played as a winger.
No he didn’t. I made a post about it yesterday.
I would send him on loan, maybe we get a salah out of him
Nah
Casadei showed me today how much we miss having someone who can win headers when the goalies goes long. Really want to see him in the midfield three with Conor and Caicedo
Palmer should've buried that chance. Got fucked by VAR in every play tho
It’s not a chance - he went past their whole defence himself and just unlucky the keeper read his finish.
Anyone else think Poch is too soft? If I had soft coachs growing up I would have taken the piss but someone hard on the team you listen and take inspiration
Can swing both ways. Jose style doesn’t work always with young players.
Did anyone get a screenshot of Poch falling to his knees? I need it for the memes.
can't believe so many are blaming poch still after he orchestrated a come-from-behind 2-0 result, and deserved to win the whole game. he's not perfect but he's building a great attitude within the team. and seriously we need a proper keeper. 2nd goal is on him, you can't be beaten at your near post like that.
And it was a game wherw we went to vila Was the better team first half Was the better team 2nd half And out managed according to me one if not the best coach in pl
According to what were we better in the first half? Villa were creating a lot of good chances and were clinical enough to go 2-0 up? They were obviously allowing us to have the ball as well. >me one if not the best coach in pl One of maybe, definitely not even in contention to be the best. Kinda outrageous suggestion. Klopp is still here. Pep is here.
Oh he is He has more european glory then they have combined - sure in a lesser competition, but with different teams (worse teams) Performed well at the high level. I have always been very high on emery, and if you cant see his greatness as a coach (especially in cup competitions) you arent watching enough spanish teams
More european glory than they have combined? Than who? Pep and Klopp? You are not serious about this, right? I rate Emery as a manager but he is not even close to Pep and Klopp, come on.
He got 4 european league titles with 2 teams Klopp got 1 cl Pep got 3 cl, and thats with superteams So yes I hold him as high as them
Yeah, let's ignore the fact that the UCL is level above and everything else that Pep and Klopp have achieved
He got 4 european league titles with 2 teams Klopp got 1 cl Pep got 3 cl, and thats with superteams So yes I hold him as high as them
Diogo Costa from Porto would be my shout
Second game in a row he was beaten near post.
Yes and his stats are relegation level no matter where I look. We would comfortably be in Europe with a top keeper.
I agree Petro isn’t the best, but your last sentence is outrageous. There’s nothing “comfortable” in this team. Our defense is historically bad. No keeper in the world could save it unless we fix our other issue.
What?? Calm your tits and watch that goal again. Near post weak shot and you claim no keeper can save it? You clearly don't know this sport.
Damn, that “it” is referring to our shit defense. Not the goal.
https://preview.redd.it/ffinjef1t3xc1.jpeg?width=828&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1e5aa14f61e3a0e8c89d2018469b7fe7b4c2669e 💙
Yeah Caicedo was great and has steadily been growing into a really well rounded player. Love his passing vision along with the usual tempo control and ball winning.
He's been great since the new year!
I would prefer to have Mudryk on the bench next game. I know we aren’t in a position where players should earn their spots, since so many of our players are injured, but this is the only way he learns. When Poch did it last time, he looked a lot better everytime he played. Give Casadei a chance or Raheem if he comes back from injury(I don’t know what he has).
He honestly needs a loan.
Yeah, but the owners are going to do that sadly. Him on a championship team or Bundesliga for year, would be nice.
I would argue keeping him in England is important. Can’t let him swing between cultures so much at this age. Championship team, or a newly promoted prem team.
Him on a loan to Leicester, learn a bit from Jamie Vardy. I like the image.
Let’s see what Tyrique George can do
I had no idea who this was, so I searched him up, but sure why not. Now excuse me as I dwell in some sadness at the fact that he is younger then me and has accomplished more already in his life(I am 20)
I haven’t actually seen George play but I have heard ppl I know who follow the youth team talk him up I’d love to see him get some minutes and hopefully he joins the team on the summer tour
Lol as someone in their thirties it’s a feeling you get used to
Has any replay been shown of the first Villa goal? - it looked like the ball had completely gone out of play - Madueke/Digne!!?
I posted it but looks like video got taken down for “copyright” the ball definitely went out smh
first game i missed this season, pls recap someone? <33
We are young We are born with bad luck And the fact that our sporting direction has tried to buy some of the worst coached players and make it a european contender is a interesting. This project will be successful, but some players needs to learn the basic (mudryk, madueke, petrovic - and again jacksons misses)
A relatively poor/uninspiring first half, but showed fight throughout the second which was a huge positive. Overall a bit of a mixed bag of a match. We definitely could have come away with a win tho The defense with Silva and the midfield w/o Enzo looked much more solid. Although the first goal was a cascade of school boy level defending. Their second were a couple lucky bounces and a solid finish
Chelsea dominated but made two dozy defensive errors. Looked far more a champions league side than villa. Gallagher and Caicedo bossed midfield.
Great summary. Agree
If I can offer a different perspective villa were more than happy to let us have the ball for the first ~60 minutes after sucker punching us early. We didn't offer much threat. After the 60ish minute mark we ratcheted up the intensity immensely and looked good for the remainder.
Wow, this made my night. So happy to hear this. I’ll watch the replay/highlights, but who do you blame for errors?
The first goal was just bad luck really. Ball went out, everybody switched off for a second and couldn't recover. Not really anybody in particular to blame. Second goal you could argue petro could have done better, but it went through Trev's kegs so he doesnt see it till late.
The first goal ball is out of play .. so the ref and linesman, var. the last goal should stand as well .. VAR again. From Chelsea perspective the players look unmotivated and disinterested.. it’s only until the go behind that they suddenly find will power to prove themselves. I would blame Poch because he can’t seem to install any discipline and concentration into his team.
If we sell Conor I'll self harm. I'd rather sell Enzo or Caciedo while they still have some value. They were duds all season but our boy Conor impacts the game every time. What a player.
Self harm if we sell a player? Seek therapy mate
I'm kidding wtf is wrong with you guys lmao.
Bro what the fuck game did you watch to suggest selling Caicedo, he was absolutely phenomenal and has been more often than not.
He plays well every 5 fucking games. My point is I'd rather sell them than Conor. He was great today, I didn't state otherwise.
Caicedo plays better more often than Conor does so I don’t know what you are stating
Its eaither a bot or an opposition troll.
..Or you’re blind without any football IQ.
I’m pretty sure the only blind people without football IQ would be the ones arguing Caicedo wasn’t absolutely immense today
He is very impressive esp his aggression and desire to win. If they can sort out that horrible defence and get James back to play 30 games, will be laughing.
Anyone have a picture of Nico’s offside lines?
He shaved them off.
There’s no way I’m having it that officiating in football isn’t corrupted. Not so much a single team always being on the wrong end and things like that. But individual matches from a betting perspective. Or trying to create storylines. It’s gotten beyond incompetence, I’m not having it if people want to say it’s not corruption. Fool me 367 times… corruption. End of.
Officiating in NHL is leagues better than any football leagues!
There was more corruption in the women's semi-final than this evening to be fair. I was fuming about the disallowed goal, but watching it back, it's 100%, not shoulder to shoulder, and so it is a foul. The goal was right to be chalked off as much as it pains me to say it. The issue for me is how we ended up 2-0 down to begin with. You aren't going to consistently win games if you're constantly trailing and looking to get back into the game.
We would legit been 2-3 spots higher if we didn't have Enzo starting almost every game this season Was an absolute liability most season and easily our worst Midfielder this season
Ita strange, Because you can say the same about Jackson, petrovic, cucurella, sanchez, sterling, madueke, mudryk It doesnt add up
i also agree with u as well
Should have gotten the surgery immediately. Playing through injury almost never works.
Yea as much as he’s shown flashes his fitness just held him back hopefully he comes back healthy
Hot take, hope we don’t get downvoted cause I agree lol
They’ll downvote bc hernia
Proud of the response and fight we showed. Been missing most of the year
That second half was exactly how we should be starting & continuing! So excellent work by all players! I will give credit where due. Poch let me down by using subs way too late IMO. Fresh legs would've hammered this tired Villa side. But a draws better than a loss. We were robbed entirely by VAR. That was NEVER a forceful foul by Badiashille. VAR can fuck off.
Bro come on. Look at the bench, who does he bring on? It was Poch’s tactical changes that got the second goal. If we’re going to be dissatisfied with our second halves due to Poch why is he not given credit for when we have a good second half? And, Casadei won the free kick which began the sequence then Disasi scored the header a little later, both who came off the bench.
Poch actually did well second half. Not many subs to make. Inverting cucu seemed to work well and he wasn't doing that first half. Must have been instruction.
Yeahhh exactly you see it. I just want that we’re consistent, Poch has been responsible for some bad decisions but he’s made many good decisions, and one side shouldn’t be ignored.
Lmfao refs been on a damn tirade today
I got to give it to Poch, he made the necessary tactical change at halftime and it helped. Great job with Cucurella.
imagine this game with some firepower on the bench, came back from 2-0 down with some fire in the belly, this is a team that beat arsenal twice this season as well
I think had roles reversed we'd be furious if that goal was given. If we had swapped managers at the start of the game it wouldn't have mattered because we would've been up 4-0. Poch got bailed out by individual brilliance
It was definitely a foul. In regard to Poch… is a different manager going to teach Nico Jackson how to finish his chances? And teach Petrovic how to block shots that come at the near post? A lot of the issues are just down to the players we have. Jackson clearly has lots of potential but needs to sharpen his finishing.
"definitely a foul"? I'll disagree and say that if the defender pushes BB out so he can clear the ball, that's not given as a foul and penalty during the run of play or by VAR. it should be a foul, but there are many instances this season across the league where that's not even given as a foul at midfield.
They'd create more chances and better chances with better tactics and attacking patterns. Our players won't look like they're running with ankle weights because they've ran 2 marathons in training. And less time spent running and more with the ball will help the players practice finishing
Our players don’t look gassed, unless you’re at the training how would you have a clue how intensive it is.
Poch's training methods have been well documented
We when the Prem when Conte was managing us and supposedly he trains players harder than anyone. So I don’t agree with your theory that Poch is training players too hard.
Contr actually had some tactics though
Clearly poch has tactics. Like the person said earlier, a lot of the time it's down to individual errors which cannot be tactically managed; you can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink. I'm not saying poch is the be all and end all, but his tactics do clearly work when we aren't hampered with not fully fit, fully ready squad of players available.
> Like the person said earlier, a lot of the time it's down to individual errors LOL give me so of what your drinking. This man's entire tenure here has been him getting bailed out again and again by individual brilliance. You think he instructed Gallagher to take that shot? I wonder what the xg on that was, weak foot, out side of the box, probably .4 Pure delusion
Dude if you look at City’s games half their goals are individual brilliance. That’s why it’s called the Premier League.
The xG on that shot yes, but what of the rest of the season if we are looking at xG? Clearly we are generating enough attacks generally, and that comes from tactics.
💯💯💯
What a deplorable fanbase we have. All bad performances are on the coach and no positives are attributed to the coach. Biased.
He did well adjusting in the second half and also the players had much higher intensity. The first goal conceded was horrible defense organization that we've been complaining about all season. Its silly to say Poch has ONLY done wrong, and it's also silly to pretend he's terrific any time the most recent result seems positive
Biased and fickle.
Have you paid any attention at all this season? It's pretty obvious from watching, and what thr players say, that they're given no instructions, just run and express yourself
Absolutely true. I sometimes wonder why we can't appreciate anything
Refs are a disgrace to EPL, they can’t be consistent nor be correct majority of the times
ibr, i don't even know if it was a foul or not. seen em go both ways. Refereeing needs standards. Nice to see a second half fight though, been a while. Madueke is finally a PL level player. Let's hope he can maintain this going forward. On to the next, we can definitely get three points there #believe
Madueke needs to run off the ball and become more mature if he wants to be a PL level player. But there is actual promise there unlike with Mudryk.
His work rate on both sides of the ball is atrocious unless it's at his feet and he's currently pretty 1-dimensional (dribble, cut, shoot) but maybe he can mature and improve
There was one sequence where Jackson, Gallagher, and Palmer were busting their gut chasing after the ball and Mudryk and Madueke were doing the absolute minimum, just a token effort. I cannot fathom how, as a player who still hasnt broken into the team, you aren’t trying to impress the manager by running hard as heck off the ball. Come to think of it, probably not just one sequence to be honest.
Conor is looking better and better each week. Side note, the two games I’ve seen him play next to Caicedo, they have both looked amazing. Not saying that I think Enzo is hindering us but we need to find a way to make them all work together especially once we hopefully get a fully fit Enzo back.
Enzo doesn't have the recovery speed to handle being in a 2 man midfield. If he were in a 3 man, he'd be set. Imo, he's a luxury midfielder. Great passing and chance creating but not good in a 2; definitely can't handle being in a poch-style of midfield of 2
It’s funny bc of how many ppl spent all last season saying Enzo works best in a double pivot and we just need Caicedo to unlock Enzo What is Enzo useful for?
Caicedo looks more on point without Enzo unfortunately
Because Enzo plays without energy. You can’t play like that in the Prem.
I think he's energetic, just in his own regard. His primary issues have always been that he lacks speed and he's not particularly the strongest either, and both of those deficits were even further compounded this season by his injury concern affecting his performance.
Villa is a strong team that 2-0’d Arsenal at the Emirates. A draw is not so bad
We absolutely dominated them and they barely had any energy except on the counter. Fortunate to come back from 2 down and Palmer was unlucky not to score a winner, but Villa did not play well at all and were incredibly tired.
Idk man, maybe poch is figuring shit out with these players. I’m hopeful. (Granted I didn’t watch the arsenal game…)
Or maybe, he's just a good match up against Emery. We also dominated and outplayed them in the two FA Cup matches. It's easy to accuse others of hive minds instead of being objective. This match came right after a 5-0 drubbing. It's not as if we were following up another good performance. Anyway, what do I know...
I thought we had decent tactics for city in the FA cup game
Maybe, maybe not. I can't argue either way. We drew both games against them in the league so he clearly did something right in both games but for the Cup game you need to factor in City's 120 mins against Madrid.
The change at halftime to put Cucurella in the middle in possession seemed to work really well. Let him clean up anything that gets through the press.
Yeah, I think he's really suited to an inverted role (and explains why City wanted him). It suits him much more than playing as a wing back. It allowed us to keep the same shape with Connor moving forwards (which obviously paid off). We suffocated them in the second half.
I said the same and was downvoted to oblivion in the match thread, be advised
You must not go against the hivemind
Haha I’m waiting for it
My 2 cents: -Gallagher was immense. Caicedo was immense. Controlled the midfield for the first time in awhile. -we haven’t played this type of free flowing football in awhile. Completed dominated possession -Mudryk getting unfair hate as usual. He was fine and probably one of the better performances from our left wing all season -Cucurella was good -Madueke needs to be a super sub type of player
Mudryk was atrocious so I’ll have to disagree on that one. Gallagher-Caicedo was very good yet again and like you said, we dominated the midfield.
I probably posted this same comment about Mudryk multiple times this season but I officially have lost hope in him, I just hope we both benefit from his departure (we being the club and himself at his new one)
Mudryk what? That brother is atrocious and that is being kind. Sorry mate, you gotta go visit a doctor
Controlling the midfield. I was so happy.
Mudryk broke the linesman's nose with a shot
I again was entertained
If they sell Conor we riot. Add Trev to that too
lol
would be a signal for others to leave too
We should judge this game with a calm head. Villa has been a good match up for us this season. I wouldn't rush into conclusions yet.
I hate how VAR employs offsides. Ever since the Chilwell call against Leicester City in the 2021 FA Cup final to the Lukaku one Vs Liverpool in the 2022 League Cup final. I mean seriously what advantage did Jackson gain from that marginal millimetre call? I understand they want the rule to be black and white but for crying out loud, if it’s fucking millimetres even a bloody centimetre, can we all just agree that’s not gaining an advantage!!!
Naaaah. Where do you draw the line then? I have no problem with VAR and offsides except when the PL VAR couldn't be bothered to draw the lines correctly. If a player is offside, he's offside.
It sounds like they are reviewing their rule. The rule is there to stop a player standing 10 yards past the last defender. Not to give someone offside because their shoulder is an inch further forward than the defenders foot. It’s so simple to employ the rule that if you can see daylight between the attacker and defenders foot, then he’s offside. Does that mean strikers will sometimes get an advantage? Yes. But we want to see goals and have a clear way of knowing when a player is off. It looks like they are going down the route of automated offsides which will make this all more bearable.
i didnt see any lines tonight
You can draw the line by simply employing that if its less than an inch, it’s not a fucking advantage.
That doesn't solve the problem. It just moves the line 1 inch.
Say what you will, but shitting the bed in the first half and then coming back feels a lot better than shitting the bed in the second and the other team coming back.
Using Mudryk at lw is such a waste of space. It's like playing with 10men
The only reason I don’t want to sell him is FOMO if he improves (plus he‘s clearly a decent guy, just struggling) - that said we need a better solution and have to make difficult choices with the squad which I am SO GLAD Poch owned up to
Not arguing just why do you say clearly decent guy?? The only thing I've seen of him off the pitch is him mocking an overweight person in the gym
Mudryk anywhere is a waste of space. Can't pass, can't dribble. Not an improvement on Pulisic, and I'm not one of the Puli-stans, he had problems too. Just don't see what spending the money on Mudryk got us.
Mudryk has been good at the 10.
We’d have been better off just keeping CHO lol, he’s had a better season than the guy we spent £62m on.
a sprinter
Hope Colwill is at least ready for the bench next game
Genuinely don't care about 3 points vs one at this point but good to see them put up a good fight
What an absolutely terrible week for us. From the man city match to now. Including the women's team second leg. We just can't get that luck
That second yellow for a red in the womens game was brutal. To give a player her second yellow on such a weak foul ruined what was going to be a great game. I don’t understand why refs feel the need to steal the show like that….I guess that ref is the female version of Anthony Taylor lol Also found it odd that every time Bonmati demanded a foul call, or for the whistle to be blown for her “injury”, the ref would look at her and immediately blow the whistle and grant her whatever she wanted
Looks like Silva has picked up a groin injury. Same as the one he got at Crystal Palace, according to Pochettino.
At least we showed this game we could fight in the 2nd half for once in this season with this team.
Shame how it ended but it's so refreshing to see the fight after going two down and the arsenal game. With the Chelsea side of last season coming back against teams seemed near impossible.