Champions League Final | Post-Match Thread

chedlee said:
Do you think he meant to screw it up? Do you think that the other titles were just lucky or he made the necessary decisions to ensure we won them ? Pep chose a team to win the game and whether 100% of people on a forum thought he was wrong it doesn’t matter. He’s the manager he makes the decisions and we win more than we lose.
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Why is it so difficult to accept that he screwed up?
 
Pep is our strongest asset but also our weakest. If pep had plotted the correct course for the final we would be champions. He did not and the players failed. He has improved each player with his technical knowledge but when he gets it wrong the player fails. So the question we need to ask is just how good or bad are the players? No blueprint no idea.

Pep installs a collective team effort but it was obvious after the first 10 in the final that we needed a star player to shine. Kev is the closest we have followed up by Foden. Individual moments of brilliance was absent.

On reflection, this season is all on Pep, the good and the bad. He needs help going forward with at least 2 new match winners.

Where did the ‘world’ class players go? why did the Chelsea players act with more aggression? Why did they seem to want it more? Don’t get blindsided by making pep the sole problem.

The players to a man bar walker did not want to win more than the Chelsea players. The occasion got to them imo.
 
We really lacked a proper striker last night on the pitch
Foden or de Bruyne up against three centre halves with their back to goal never got us a sniff of a goal

yes pep messed up but maybe it just wasn’t doable winning the CL with a team of midfielders
 
meltonblue said:
Annoying he didn’t change it sooner though.
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My thoughts overnight.
He had the whole of the first half to see his plan wasn't working. So at halftime he had the opportunity to go to another plan - he had FIVE substitute options so he could have made two for the start of the second half. Chasing a goal should have been the right time to introduce Jesus / Aguero and a DM to allow Gundogan to play further forward. A striker would have allowed KDB to move back somewhat so he could influence play.
But then I am just a very disappointed fan.
 
To many city players and fans thought it was going to be a walk in the park. Three up after 15 mins !!!! Read the pre match thread. Chelsea played as a team and kept to the script. City were 11 individuals and only read the back of the book ! Karma
 
Bluekiwi said:
My thoughts overnight.
He had the whole of the first half to see his plan wasn't working. So at halftime he had the opportunity to go to another plan - he had FIVE substitute options so he could have made two for the start of the second half. Chasing a goal should have been the right time to introduce Jesus / Aguero and a DM to allow Gundogan to play further forward. A striker would have allowed KDB to move back somewhat so he could influence play.
But then I am just a very disappointed fan.
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Kante couldn't believe his luck, all he had to do was focus on cutting out KDB with Gundo playing so far back.

One thing I'll point out is that Chelsea's goal was very well worked, they set it up a few minutes before and was clearly a plan. Think it was Mount trying to play Chilwell through with a back heel, they came down the same side again and our defence moved to the right to cut out the threat of Chilwell leaving that gaping, Fernandinho sized hole, for Havertz to run into.
 
Like many on here, Pep is either obsessed with Sterling or has no choice in playing him due to contracts and the obscene amount of money he is taking out of the club every week. The sooner we off load him and then reinvest in a proven striker the better. Either way the CL Final was lost the minute Sterling was included, not just because of his selection but the impact elsewhere I.e. no Midfield Fern “sacrificed” which in itself is unforgivable, and our ace card having to accommodate sterling, I.e. Phil being told to adapt to a non effective role………
 
I can't help but think the occasion or the moment got to Pep & the players. A lot of our players looked daunted by the occasion, and weren't anywhere near it. It didn't help that Pep named a line up that took away Fernandinho or Rodri who are vital to the link up play for us, but a lot of our players looked overwhelmed by it all. Chelsea settled quicker then we did, and we were fortunate not to be 2/3 down at half time.

The moves to introduce Fernandinho, Kun & Gabby came to late, Chelsea had what they wanted by then, which was a lead to sit on and counter, and that played into their hands. Foden not being on the left, and Mahrez being cut out of the game, killed us, and Kante dominated the midfield.

Going forward Pep needs to find a way to break down a back 5, Chelsea & others have had success against us playing that way, hopefully we have a good transfer window and this loss drives Pep and the players on to go one better next season.

I'm still absolutely gutted today like thousands of others, and just can't help but think we wasted our chance to crack the Champions League and win the bloody thing.
 
ROCKET80 said:
Kante couldn't believe his luck, all he had to do was focus on cutting out KDB with Gundo playing so far back.

One thing I'll point out is that Chelsea's goal was very well worked, they set it up a few minutes before and was clearly a plan. Think it was Mount trying to play Chilwell through with a back heel, they came down the same side again and our defence moved to the right to cut out the threat of Chilwell leaving that gaping, Fernandinho sized hole, for Havertz to run into.
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It wasn’t the Fernandinho sized hole that was the main issue, it was the free ball to Chilwell. They’d done it three times already before the goal came. We should have had Sterling and Mahrez pressing James and Chilwell and left their CBs to it. I get why Pep tried it, it just didn’t come off and had a lot of knock on consequences that weren’t worth it.
 
chedlee said:
Tinkering is not what he is doing. That implies he is seeing what might happen if he makes certain changes. Do you think he wanted to win the game? If the answer to that is yes then you have to believe that whatever decision he made on selection was with victory in mind. That is why we have been so successful, not because he tinkered.
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I can't speak for @argyle but imo he was thinking along these lines.
tinker - "attempt to repair or improve something in a casual or desultory way, often to no useful effect."
What football tactic book says put your leading scorer defensive mid so that when he isn't doing the job he's not really capable of, and rarely if ever has played there, wants to join the attack he has to do more running than anyone else on the pitch to do that, expending energy he really should be conserving to do the job our DM was not really capable of and was 30 yards behind the play when they scored?
or did he make that up?
regardless of everything else, that looks tinkery to me.
 
Ribchester said:
Like many on here, Pep is either obsessed with Sterling or has no choice in playing him due to contracts and the obscene amount of money he is taking out of the club every week. The sooner we off load him and then reinvest in a proven striker the better. Either way the CL Final was lost the minute Sterling was included, not just because of his selection but the impact elsewhere I.e. no Midfield Fern “sacrificed” which in itself is unforgivable, and our ace card having to accommodate sterling, I.e. Phil being told to adapt to a non effective role………
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Completely agree.
How many of our hearts sunk when we saw the line up.
Why, why, why times one thousand.

Fern on, a forward line of Foden Aguero Mahrez. I reckon we'd have scored goals.
 
meltonblue said:
It wasn’t the Fernandinho sized hole that was the main issue, it was the free ball to Chilwell. They’d done it three times already before the goal came. We should have had Sterling and Mahrez pressing James and Chilwell and left their CBs to it. I get why Pep tried it, it just didn’t come off and had a lot of knock on consequences that weren’t worth it.
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Agree on the pressing, I thought Sterling did well in the first half helping out and thought there was a noticeable shift in focus of their attack coming down their left as Mahrez was the weak link in our pressing game.

A missing DM may not have been the only contributing factor, and granted this is just hypothesising, but I believe with Fern or Rodri on the park they don't score that goal.
 
Bill Walker said:
Completely agree.
How many of our hearts sunk when we saw the line up.
Why, why, why times one thousand.

Fern on, a forward line of Foden Aguero Mahrez. I reckon we'd have scored goals.
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Exactly my thoughts.. to be be more precise why why why one thousand pounds in my case, if I’d suspected sterling was going to play I would have sold my ticket and stayed in the fan zone with my mates, got too pissed and forgot about the team announcement until I got in the ground and saw his face come up on the screens
The collective groans when this happened and the exasperated gasps when the idiot got the captains armband summed the whole evening up.
 
Chippy_boy said:
You can't have "heard it all", you've only been here for 2 fucking minutes. And here you are giving it "I'm a top blue" bollocks? What a useful username you have. Jogon indeed.
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There you go again billy bigs balls. 2 minutes on here etc etc. Blah blah blah

so you’re a Fanboi of the mega post fraternity?

I couldn’t give 2 fucks how many posts someone has on here if they raise a valid point.

you come across as Kevin the teenager, which is what you probably are (in your head at least).
 
Darker blue moon said:
To many city players and fans thought it was going to be a walk in the park. Three up after 15 mins !!!! Read the pre match thread. Chelsea played as a team and kept to the script. City were 11 individuals and only read the back of the book ! Karma
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I assume from your username you are chelsea ?

I thought you were by far the better "team", I don't think we played as individuals, but we just couldn't get into our game first half, you scored (after a heap of shit defending on our part) at a very opportune time almost on half time.

We played far better second half and with a bit of luck we might have equalised, had we I suspect we'd have clicked and won, but we made our changes too slowly for me.

Well done, you deserved to win.
 
ROCKET80 said:
Agree on the pressing, I thought Sterling did well in the first half helping out and thought there was a noticeable shift in focus of their attack coming down their left as Mahrez was the weak link in our pressing game.

A missing DM may not have been the only contributing factor, and granted this is just hypothesising, but I believe with Fern or Rodri on the park they don't score that goal.
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Yeah I think you’re right, think Pep was going for winning the ball higher up though but it was a trade off that didn’t come off.
 
cleavers said:
I assume from your username you are chelsea ?

I thought you were by far the better "team", I don't think we played as individuals, but we just couldn't get into our game first half, you scored (after a heap of shit defending on our part) at a very opportune time almost on half time.

We played far better second half and with a bit of luck we might have equalised, had we I suspect we'd have clicked and won, but we made our changes too slowly for me.

Well done, you deserved to win.
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Appreciate a decent response it was interesting that the Chelsea forums I didn’t see any of the 4-0 up in 30 minutes shit. Chelsea fans were actually more frightened of playing city then Real Madrid. For people to mouth off is ridiculous and shows they have no footballing brain and now Chelsea fans can take the piss because those comments have come back to haunt those city fans . It was a one off game and anything can happen. You will get your time just not when you play Chelsea again (joke).
 
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