Champions League Final | Post-Match Thread

[hilts]

I'll guarantee you if he'd done that and we'd lost, everyone would be saying "Why didn't we change it for a team that have already beaten us twice" - last time they beat us Rodri and Ferdo started.

 

[Kippax77]

The mad scientist just wants the biggest stage to be madder

 

[The1nvisibleMan]

I agree it was werners fishing that kept the game at 1-0 his movement was excellent and Stones and Dias struggled first half stones especially.

Yeah like 1-0 flattered us first half big time

 

[Cheesy]

A DM would not have made a difference in that regard. We barely looked like scoring all night. In my opinion nothing would have changed. Only way we were scoring was by an individual piece of brilliance.

That's something that posters in here regularly slag off other managers for relying on.

 

[Keeper!]

If you’re a player, I would imagine the Ballon D’Or is far from a silly little title.

That's a political award no one other than Messi or Ronaldo apart can win it.

Stupid argument, I don't know why people are obsessed with best this, best that.

Chelsea are European champions this morning and it hurts.

 

[Elbow beards]

It's not the losing it's the way we lost. It was lost before we kicked a ball and said as much to my mate (jokingly saying we'll win if he doesn't play sterling, thinking there wasn't a cat in hells change he would get a game) absolutely gob smacked when I saw that line-up. Gutted.

 

[inbetween]

I am wondering if Pep, whilst managing us, has EVER made a change before half time? I don't recall it.

It's pretty unusual generally these days tbf but boy did we need it yesterday. Should have changed it after 10 minutes.

We had a defensive midfielder in the cup semi and we still struggled to create chances. We just have to accept that Chelsea are a very good team under Tuchel. Chelsea knew they had to defend well but like last time they would get a few chances and they took 1 of them. We never looked like scoring, in the first half we got battered whereas we dominated the second half but had less shots... Chelsea controlled the game perfectly.

I think we lacked a striker but a striker with presence to allow our midfield to drop deeper away from Kante and their wall of defenders. Instead they had a field day, they could mark the space around Phil and Kev, Bernardo had a poor game and didn't really get anywhere.

After that we are reliant on our wide play but Sterling didn't get a sniff past James and Mahrez was the same. Jesus started to have an effect later on but that's after Chelsea changed things to block it up. Our best player for me was Walker, he was our main attack really!

 

[burning blue soul]

Werner for all his faults puts in a lot of effort as seen by his movement and pressing yesterday. He’s been crucial to their set up recently. Sterling has not, there’s the difference

Most forwards that play against us always look better than they are, because we press high and give them space to run, turn and dribble into.
Our forwards, generally, don't have that luxury.
That's why "go get a number 9" isn't as easy as people think. It has to be a player like Sergio, who can manoeuvre in tight spaces, snap-shot and poach. Tricky!

 

[Kippax77]

Absolutely gutted by this. Team selection effectively negated 2 of our best attacking players. Before the game I was thinking the only way we will lose this will be if the ref screws us over or Pep comes up with a bizarre team selection. I just don't get it.

Couldn't bear to watch the post match stuff, was there any analyse of the handball?

Ditto mate

 

[Brightwell’s left peg]

Just watched the game back (thankfully I forgot the score after 10 pints). Absolutely fucking gutted man, such a sad way to end the season but fuck it. We go again next season. City

I was also thinking of watching the game back, but decided to have the wife remove my toe nails with pliers instead.

 

[BLUEMATT23]

Sense of perspective, 1st euro final, Rags & Dippers lost their 1st one.
I don't buy into the claim that we could be years off the next one. In fact I think we will make the final again a number of times over the next few years.
Sadly we saved out worst game for the final but overall it's been a fantastic season and the players have been brilliant.
We won't win every final we play in. Next time we will win it.

 

[Cornish_Blue]

Chelsea will employ those tactics in PL next season. We played right into their hands by leaving the defence exposed to get Raz into the team.
Bitterly disappointed with the change of team and tactics that beat Dortmund and PSG.
A final is not the place to ‘tinker’ with a winning team and tactic!

We will NEVER have a better chance to win the CL than yesterday. For me, that awful display and loss is all on the manager. We gifted the Rentboys a CL trophy.

 

[Keeper!]

I

You were one of the ones slagging him off to fuck back in November. If you think Khaldoon and co are going to have a serious word with Pep you are seriously deluded. Fuck me.

I was and rightly so, the response of pep and the players was amazing, an incredible turnaround.

The player that was a catalyst of that, Fernandinhio, a player who personally got the players together back in November and told them it was not acceptable, well in my humble, he was hung out to dry by Pep last night.

Not to play Fern or Rodri cost us badly.

We had the chance to create history last night and we blew it and blew it badly.

Losing is part and parcel of the game, but that was a weak surrender last night.

 

[Robinho's Subbuteo]

That's a political award no one other than Messi or Ronaldo apart can win it.

Stupid argument, I don't know why people are obsessed with best this, best that.

Chelsea are European champions this morning and it hurts.

Because City aren’t the the ‘best’ in Europe?

 

[Craig]

Same for VK he spent a lot of his last season sitting on the bench, Pep just doesn't trust players who could get injured, they fuck with his OCD planning.

I still think it is the reason VK left, his secret talks with Anderlecht owner will have been in the time period he wasn't getting picked and Pep wasn't being overly nice in interviews about him imo either when talking about injuries etc

Vinnie basically started every big game when fit. Unfortunately his body was fucked but he could still play to a very high level whenever he came back. Sergio could no longer stay fit either but even in his prime it used to take him a few games to regain his sharpness.

Two of our greatest players were ravaged by injuries unfortunately or they’d have played many more games. That is not Peps fault.

 

[jaiguruKun]

Sense of perspective, 1st euro final, Rags & Dippers lost their 1st one.

No they didn't. Rags won their first in '68. I don't think they lost one until '09.

 

[BurnCK]

I don't we had an alternative last night. Chelsea gave us nothing except half chances. One shot on target all night? Is a DM really changing that?

 

[Sky Blue]

I was and rightly so, the response of pep and the players was amazing, an incredible turnaround.

The player that was a catalyst of that, Fernandinhio, a player who personally got the players together back in November and told them it was not acceptable, well in my humble, he was hung out to dry by Pep last night.

Not to play Fern or Rodri cost us badly.

Fernandinho.

 

[Keeper!]

Because City aren’t the the ‘best’ in Europe?

clearly not, top trumps again?

 

[NewMoonRising]

surprised with team selection by Pep; Fernandinho should have started, Raheem Sterling is such an impact player, you cant sub him 2/3s in the game, all he needs is a bit of space and he can do the magic..