Chelsea (H) | Pre-Match Thread

[Tb1981]

if city play like we did in the fa cup against them.

Then we lose in league and the champs final

Wow great insight
If they play like they did against west brom we score 12

 

[Mike45]

A sneaky 1-0 off John Stones cock will do - then we proper batter them in Istanbul as it looks like they may go through tonight at this stage.

I would like 2 goals or more for Saturday against them. Under Tuckel they have 18 clean sheets after 24 games which is huge. So i want to give them a lesson. :)
Btw i do NOT want the best squad of us to play in Saturday since if we do not win then CL final will be tricky. Will give them confidence.
I say rest 2-3 of the players you would have put in the CL final. E.g from Silva, Foden, Mahrez, KDB.

 

[eversince 76]

Because you have a squad to keep happy and motivated. We will win the league regardless of this result.

Sorry, but I find this whole “keep the squad happy and motivated” thing total nonsense.
We are talking about 25 professionals who so far all contributed to the succes we had. They fully well know they have to be ready every game. As a starter or as a sub coming on or not used. Players not happy or motivated we can easily do without. So far I doubt we have had a player that is not happy or motivated.

 

[Didsbury Dave]

I also believe our "second" team is better than their first team,. Just got us at a bad time last time out with all the fixture congestion.

Pep will have 3 solid days with them.

A team with Aguero, Sterling, Cancelo,. LaPorte, Mendy, Torrez, will play and will win.

No point in Pep showing his hand for the final.

+ We can win the league in the next few games.

A draw would even be a good result for us.

I don't personally think he'll go as far as picking Mendy, Torres and Aguero but I think the others will play along with Rodri. I think even Pep himself will agree that my team ticks all the boxes when he comes on here after training:

Ederson

Walker..........Dias...............Laporte............Cancelo

............................Rodri.................................

.............KDB............................Gundo

.......Mahrez............................................Sterling
...........................Jesus.................................

 

[Gavrosh]

Cant risk 8 or 9 changes back to the team that lost in the FA Cup, got to swap out three or four max. to keep the momentum. Its all about our confidence to beat them now. Sure , let’s rest Kev ( for Kun) and Fern ( for Rodri) plus maybe Zinchenko ( for Cancelo) and Stones (suspended) so for Laporte or Ake but no more than that.
Let Chelsea have to really push to secure 3rd place in the coming weeks and we can relax a bit with the Prem in the bag.

Very sensible 100% agree

 

[Tb1981]

Personally the last thing I would do on Saturday is play our champions league team or formation
They beat us in the game cup with an under strength team playing a different formation
Let Tuchel work out how to fix it at half time in Istanbul when they are 2-0 down not three weeks in advance

 

[Didsbury Dave]

Sorry, but I find this whole “keep the squad happy and motivated” thing total nonsense.
We are talking about 25 professionals who so far all contributed to the succes we had. They fully well know they have to be ready every game. As a starter or as a sub coming on or not used. Players not happy or motivated we can easily do without. So far I doubt we have had a player that is not happy or motivated.

You might find it "nonsense" but luckily for us it is massively important to Pep and one of the big contributing factors to this season's success which has been all about the team unit. If you don't think that the likes of Sterling, Laporte, Aguero and Cancelo would be utterly devastated to not be playing in a Champions League Semi Final or Final then you are not in touch with reality.

 

[eversince 76]

You might find it "nonsense" but luckily for us it is massively important to Pep and one of the big contributing factors to this season's success which has been all about the team unit. If you don't think that the likes of Sterling, Laporte, Aguero and Cancelo would be utterly devastated to not be playing in a Champions League Semi Final or Final then you are not in touch with reality.

I’m sure every player that doesn’t play a CL semi or CL final, or any of the big games in the league or domestic cup competitions isn’t happy. However it’ll motivate them. If they are the right professionals. And my guess is they are. All of them.
Btw going by your teamselection on here you might think Torres, Aguero and Mendy will be unhappy and not motivated. Doubt they will and I don’t expect you to think this either.

 

[blue wang]

I don't personally think he'll go as far as picking Mendy, Torres and Aguero but I think the others will play along with Rodri. I think even Pep himself will agree that my team ticks all the boxes when he comes on here after training:

Ederson

Walker..........Dias...............Laporte............Cancelo

............................Rodri.................................

.............KDB............................Gundo

.......Mahrez............................................Sterling
...........................Jesus.................................

There is no way he doesn't play Aguero,

He is looking fit and Sharp,. He has been patient. Pep will reward him for this.

Torres looked good last time out, I believe he will get the nod.

 

[St.Pauli support]

Because you have a squad to keep happy and motivated. We will win the league regardless of this result.

I think Pep often talked about playing for City means caring for yourself to be "happy and motivated". It's a basic request to all our squad players. Pep clearly said he is not being responsible for that.

Pep's 1st idea is to find an XI good enough to win the next match.

If rotation is necessary to rest players he would do it,
but Tuesday-Saturday is not the biggest problem,
esp. given Chelsea have a day less. We just don't know exactly.

IMO the "happiness" point doesn't exist anymore at City.
You have to earn the next match in matches or training.

 

[Akpowell]

Cannot understand people saying make loads of changes.
Win this game then we can rotate all we want until Istanbul

Agreed, why should we make changes, fair enough if they're injured, chelsea played a full team yesterday i can't see them making changes they want top four.
Play our strongest side, we won't be giving any secrets away Tuchel knows how we play anyway. I mean it could benefit us, if Chelsea play to neutralise and frustrate us, we will have time to rectify this if they use these tactics in the final

 

[St.Pauli support]

Given the tough fixture list compared to Hammers or liv,
even 1 point actually isn't enough for Chelsea.

I hope we'll make a nice statement though. Score 1st and look if Sergio is in a good mood...

 

[Didsbury Dave]

I think Pep often talked about playing for City means caring for yourself to be "happy and motivated". It's a basic request to all our squad players. Pep clearly said he is not being responsible for that.

Pep's 1st idea is to find an XI good enough to win the next match.

If rotation is necessary to rest players he would do it,
but Tuesday-Saturday is not the biggest problem,
esp. given Chelsea have a day less. We just don't know exactly.

IMO the "happiness" point doesn't exist anymore at City.
You have to earn the next match in matches or training.

Why do you think Pep put those three subs on for the last ten minutes on Tuesday?

 

[Didsbury Dave]

There is no way he doesn't play Aguero,

He is looking fit and Sharp,. He has been patient. Pep will reward him for this.

Torres looked good last time out, I believe he will get the nod.

I don't think he'll play Aguero until when the league is won. I think that would be unfair on Jesus and whilst Sergio got a good goal, I don't think he's anywhere near mobile enough for this game.

 

[jimmygrimblesboots]

I wonder if Aguero will start. He was starting to look better by the end of his game on Saturday. He loves scoring vs. Chelsea and it would give them something to worry about.

Jesus is always really bad against 3ATB sides - not entirely his fault because he's left on his own, but Sergio and Jesus together would fare better.

Good shout , Jesus and Aguero or even Torres would keep their centre backs occupied , never rated Rudiger or Cristensen and Silva is past his sell by date ,would be interesting to see how their defence fayres against two out and out strikers harrasing them at every turn , also think Rodri will be back for this and he will be a good match up for Kante.

 

[LongsightM13]

I’m pretty sure the very last thing Pep and Tuchel would want is to be playing each other this weekend.

 

[jimmygrimblesboots]

Here's my two penneth worth

Ederson
Walker , Dias , Laporte , Cancelo
KDB , Rodri , Gundo , Foden
Aguero , Jesus

Aguero hat trick to remind Pep to get him to sign for another 12 months.

 

[jimmygrimblesboots]

Why do you think Pep put those three subs on for the last ten minutes on Tuesday?

Mainly because the dirty French bastards were tryng to maim our players , some career ending challenges were red cards should have been issued , the surrender monkey twats should have ended up with eight men on the pitch.

 

[Blue_eyes]

A chance to win the league and gain some confidence for the cl final, as well as forcing the chavs to field strong teams for the remaining games prior to the cl final(inc fa cup final) . Go for it please Pep, then we can relax for the rest of the season and prepare for one of the biggest games in out history.

Another "brucie bonus" is that even if our heavily rotated team in the final pl game vs everton gets beat, it might cost the dippers a place if everton can do well prior.

I only say this last bit because I suspect that one of the reasons there is no outpouring of dipper complaints about that cancelled game is because they were relieved in that they might have "won" us the title.

Also hope that when that game finally gets played that we have already won the title and dippers cant make top four, effectively rendering it a dead rubber, which would deservedly just about sum up both clubs current season.

 

[Ballymagash Blue]

Mainly because the dirty French bastards were tryng to maim our players , some career ending challenges were red cards should have been issued , the surrender monkey twats should have ended up with eight men on the pitch.

Seven. Verrati, Kimpembe, and Danilo should all have walked after DiMaria. Terrible refereeing.