Chelsea (H) - Sat 15th Jan, 12:30 | Pre-Match Thread

Match Result Prediction

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domalino said:
it made sense to anyone who listened to it.

He makes logical decisions. Not all of them pan out, sometimes they’re irrelevant (Gundogan playing vs Liverpool made no difference to the game), but the overwhelming majority of the time it helps us win.

This is what’s so frustrating, firstly the fact that 99/1000 he makes a change and it leads to a win but those 99 are ignored in the other game.

Secondly the prevailing sentiment that he’s just had some sort of ego rush and decided to make a change for the kick of it which is complete bollocks.

He makes these changes when it has been shown our plan A won’t work and we will likely lose again if we try it again.

And yet half the forum would rather he just played the same XI and lost in the same way.
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That’s the entire point though. He didn’t play 433 with a proper holding midfielder in any of the games against Tuchel last season, and he lost all 3.

He played novelty formations or novelty personnel out of position in all 3 games.

He may well have had explanations for all 3 selections, but all 3 times we got beat, so the book stops with him.

Everyone agrees he’s the best coach in the world, and we’re very lucky to have him. But he’s not divine, he’s capable of getting it wrong - and to think otherwise is just taking fandom / being star-struck too far for me
 
alexmcity said:
Pep makes mistakes, that's true. He's human! But we also make mistakes when we try to identify his mistakes. Have you thought about that? We don't really know what would have happened had he picked the team we wanted to see. It is far from certain that if Pep had started with Ferna in Porto, the outcome would have been better. How could one still believe this, seeing this season that Ferna's legs are gone? Don't tell me Ferna got (much) worse over the summer. He was already 36 in May.

Try to imagine in detail the process behind Pep's decisions. Imagine how much more he understands the game than the average fan (the gap is huge, imo), imagine the wealth of information he has (about the condition of our players and their strengths and weaknesses, about the strengths and weaknesses of opposition players, etc.), imagine that he thinks days and weeks about the game. To assume he could make a cheap, blatant mistake by dropping Ferna/Rodri is a bit daft, if not mental. Ferna is 36, ffs, he wasn't that good vs PSG at the Etihad, he was terrible vs Chelsea at Wembley before that...Rodri lost form, it was pretty obvious...

In short, sometimes we can't know whether a loss is due to a (bad) tactical error or to poor form of some players or just to chance. Had Foden scored in Porto, or Mahrez with his shot in the final seconds, we might have won, who knows? Even with perfect tactics and a perfect first XI, Chelsea still would have a chance to win. That's football.
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Fair points, but talking about form - Sterling was the most out of form player at the club and he started the game out of absolutely nowhere.

He may have started as a curveball to shock Chelsea, or maybe Pep had other reasons, but based on form at the time, Sterling got nowhere near that starting 11
 
You guys know there is a topic about Pep, no?

As for the game tomorrow, it’s hard to predict a line up. Even moreso with new COVID-19 victims as it seems. Still think we can put together a team able to beat Chelsea. And imho anything other than a Chelsea win would see them off and leave just Liverpool to contest for the PL-title.

So I am quite confident we will win tomorrow. Great chance to bring the race to the title back from 3 to 2 teams.
 
Hopefully, Rodri and Bernardo are available. With these two, at least a point looks relatively certain.
 
Shaelumstash said:
Fair points, but talking about form - Sterling was the most out of form player at the club and he started the game out of absolutely nowhere.

He may have started as a curveball to shock Chelsea, or maybe Pep had other reasons, but based on form at the time, Sterling got nowhere near that starting 11
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I think Sterling was showing signs of improving in May, plus he did well vs Chelsea at the Etihad: scored the goal and should have won a penalty for an obvious foul by Rüdiger. Personally, I'd have started with Jesus and Rodri instead of Sterling and Mahrez. However, Mahrez scored 3 goals in the semis, it was difficult to bench him. And Rodri wasn't in top form...

Generally speaking, I think our main problem in Porto was that most of the players had lost a bit of form: Rodri and Cancelo are the obvious examples, but Dias, Gundogan, Bernardo, Mahrez, Kevin and even Foden weren't at their best compared to say February or even April. Only Walker and Jesus (from the bench) did well.

I know the theory that Pep's mistake ruined the balance, but I think that the players did wonders from December to March/April (21 wins in a row!) and weren't in top physical (or mental) condition in Porto. Their performances in the Euros weren't good either: Dias and Bernardo struggled, Foden and Gundogan weren't at their best either. Only Sterling was in top form for his country, and that was logical, given he wasn't tired.

Edit: I'm sorry, my last post on Pep in this thread.
 
As long as we have available 2 from Dias, Laporte and Stones, and 2 from Walker, Cancelo and Zinchenko, we should be fine in defence (I assume Rodri is fit). Feel confident about tomorrow. We'll put in a very good performance.
 
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