FrankLampard8

Football is interesting isn't it? I would argue the complete opposite, at least in theory. Werner makes much more sense against City who you imagine would play a high line and push up their fullbacks giving Timo loads of space to run in behind and work the channels. Juve basically played like a champagne Burnley at times last night - deep block and everyone behind the ball that's where you need to pick up clever pockets of space to pull people out of position and be great technically in the tight spaces which is exactly what Havertz should be doing. Tuchel may have made some mistakes but these selections aren't it IMO.

I think since Roman took over the "Chelsea way" would be a lot closer to Atletico Madrid's gritty style than tiki taka, free flowing football in most people's mind. I don't care how we play as long as we win - that's the name of the game. With that being said - we won the CL with the fluid front free of last season. Maybe I didn't communicate it well but my point was less about style and more about being unpredictable, hard to mark and all the players looking comfortable in their role.

I can't help but wonder if moving away from our fluid front 3 to a more static number 9 was a backwards step tactically. Not an enditement on Lukau's ability, he's great at what he does, but we just felt so much more unpredictable and exciting before.

I can't think of many players in world football less suited to playing as a floating 10, inside forward or right winger (whichever you are envisioning) than Jorginho.

I'd find the temptation to play Werner in this one massive. He has caused havoc against City before and surely gives them a head ache if they want to play a high line and push their fullbacks on. I'd still start 3-4-3 because I wonder how much of the turnaround at Spurs was just them getting tired and N'Golo Kante being a world class player rather than a tactical masterstroke - I text my mate at half time saying there was no way they could press like that for 90 minutes. Kepa (Mendy if fit) Azpilcueta - Silva - Rudiger James - Kante - Jorginho - Alonso Mount - Lukaku - Werner

I think I'd play something like: Bettinelli (or Kepa if Mendy is ready for the weekend) Chalobah - Christensen - Azpilicueta James - Kante - Saul - Chilwell Ziyech - Havertz - Werner I'm wary of playing Kante because it would be devastating if he got injured before the weekend so I'd be just as happy to play Kova or Jorginho.

When picking a team for this it really shows how important Rudi is to this team. Who else would play LCB if we wanted to rest him? Azpi as he's played LB before? Christensen?

We are a big side but I do miss having Zouma in the box at set pieces. I felt like he would score every time he went forward!

I would argue you've answered your own criticism in this post already. Zenit sat very deep with a lot of men behind the ball - what space did Rom have to run in to? As you say, once the game opened up he attacked the spaces and channels more but before that it's on Ziyech and Mount to get around him and make things happen when he has the ball at his feet and is occcupying defenders surely?

Difficult because I feel like this game might be more suited to bedding Saul in... but I don't tihnk you can drop Kova after the weekend.

Well obviously this is why he's injured all the time!

Interesting a couple of people seem to be suggesting Saul as more of a forward option. I think we would be much more likely to see Werner, Pulisic, Ziyech and even CHO before that happened personally. For me we will only ever see Saul as part of that midfield 2 and maybe as a LWB in a pinch. Mendy Azpilicueta - Christensen - Rudiger James - Jorginho - Kovacic - Alonso Mount - Lukaku - Werner Perhaps Silva gets some minutes if he isn't banned after missing internationals and Chilwell could play to get some minutes in his legs but Alonso is playing so well it's hard to drop him. Also... I've never heard of Kung Flu either.

Such a shame if true. I genuinely think he could be a star in this league but he has to stay fit enough to fight for minutes and find some form - and at the moment that seems like a big ask. Also, hi Seb (it is Seb right?) - Craig here, we went tosome games together YEARS ago.

The truth is probably somewhere in the middle but if you pressed me to pick one I'd say £90k is more likely than £9k. What motivation is there to sign a £9k p/w contract for someone like Michy? There are Championship players making that. I don't rate Michy at all but are you really suggesting he couldn't get £9k p/w somewhere as a free agent next year if he hadn't signed a contract? Because to me that's laughable.

The player retains some value to the club - they might get a loan fee and there is still the possiblity of a transfer fee at some point rather than losing the player on loan. The player gets the security of another year on their contract, when let's be honest their stock isn't very high and would probably have to take a big wage cut to go elsewhere. Plus there is the incentive that if they don't sign, the club might let them rot for a year/duration of their existing contract.