Champions League Final | Post-Match Thread

[SidJames]

My only fear for losing this game tonight, before the game.

Was that Pep would sabotage us.

And he did just that.

Only he knows if it was deliberate or not.

But i am seriously struggling to understand the logic behind that team selection and system.

The only way Chelsea win that game is if we play with a light weight midfield with no defensive midfielder.

And we did just that.

 

[Blue Feather]

Is every one of the massive backroom staff a yes man because surely to goodness they thought the same as most of us....

 

[Luke The Blue]

Gundogun has got goals this year, agreed, when he's played forward. Which is a far cry from what he's been able to do the last 4 Years. How goals this year have come because of the dirty work that cancelo and Bernardo have been doing behind him, that he was supposed to do originally

I don't get where your going with this? What's your point? It doesn't matter about the dirty work from players who allow other players to have freedom, its important yes but you still have to be in the right position and finish your chances, its like your having a go at Gundogan for being a better player in an advanced midfield role?

 

[madloaf]

Right. Dark side of the moon is on. See you tomorrow guys. CTID.

 

[Petetheblu]

Tuchel is the luckiest man, had Pep not fucked around in the 2 matches, they'd had gone into this match with total different mindset.

 

[Bluemoon_420]

Got back from the stadium but can’t sleep. Feel utterly deflated.

I think we all knew what was coming when the line-up came through. Sterling was gash but that was to be expected, what wasn’t expected was the rest of the team bottling it so horribly, but the biggest offender has to be Pep. Why just fucking why would you fuck about with a winning formula!?! Criminal not to start with Fenrnandinho or even Rodri. We lost that game due to lack of control in the centre.

Players looked nervous and our support wasn’t much better, outsung by the chavs throughout the game. There was a handful of us that tried, but it waned as the game progressed. Regardless we didn’t deserve that performance and the fact most of us spent 1k upwards rubs salt into the wounds even more.

Gonna be a shit journey back home and will take a few days to get it out the system.

 

[WestGorton]

My only fear for losing this game tonight, before the game.

Was that Pep would sabotage us.

And he did just that.

Only he knows if it was deliberate or not.

But i am seriously struggling to understand the logic behind that team selection and system.

The only way Chelsea win that game is if we play with a light weight midfield with no defensive midfielder.

And we did just that.

Unbelievable from the manager. I don't normally have a go but it was a mess. The players looked baffled when they got off the bus

 

[onceabluealways]

The thing is on paper it was one change, but in reality it changed everything.

We missed everything that dinho offers, defensively, breaking things up early on, playmaking from deep and his leadership.
By playing gundo as the holding midfield we then lost what he offers as the 8, controlling the game, keeping the ball and his goal scoring exploits ( I mean he’s our top scorer this season ffs).
We started de bruyne as the false 9, which we probably would’ve done anyway, but that’s fine when you’ve still got creativity in midfield, but by putting gundo deep and kev further forward we’ve taken our two best creators out of our midfield.

Then there’s sterling, completely hung out to dry starting and hasnt done anything to warrant a place in the eleven in recent weeks. He’s out of form and by playing him anyway it meant we then had two wingers cutting inside, which completely played in Chelsea’s hands, for both mahrez and sterling to be effective they have to cut inside, chelsea stocked the middle of the pitch and even with the fullbacks both doing a number on them anyway, even when they did get past them (which was rarely) they were met with a very tight narrow chelsea back 3 and a double pivot in midfield that was blocking the entrance to goal.

sterling and mahrez have a history of not playing well together, and starting with them two it took Phil out of his best position, fodens most threatening when running at players and stretching fullbacks wide getting around the outside, and he was played in such a way that wasn’t possible for him tonight. He’s been a revelation this season in the big games so why oh why oh why not play him where he’s been doing the business

foden and mahrez gives us excellent balance on the wings which transpires to the rest of the team. perhaps another consequence was that zinny wasnt able to move into midfield too much, which along with everything else ive previously mentioned maybe explains why we struggled keeping hold of the ball and creating anything.

I know this is a very long winded post but to believe it’s mainly on the players and pep didn’t tinker and ‘it was only one change’ bladdy bladdy blah is just bollocks, the entire system changed and our game massively suffered because of it

Couple more paragraphs than me but what I’ve been saying this all night and said the same before the game started. pep is a genius but can be very flawed at times

 

[Bluekiwi]

After the 1955 FA Cup Final which we lost to Newcastle the manager said we will be back next year.
We were and we beat Birmingham.
So next year will be our year.

 

[coolcity]

I'm not actually that arsed, as far as I can tell all the player's put in full effort and that's all you can ask for. I just think abusing the players and managers on the back of a one off game is a shithouse trick some you win and some you lose.

Agreed. Wondering how many of this lot coped when we were in Div. 2? We've become what we hated, conceited enough to think that we have a right to win every match.