Chelsea Home

[Liverpool]

Thursday 4th March 20.15 pm live on Sky Sports and Smooth FM.

Sadly the dream of Frank Lampard being abused for 90 minutes by a full Main Stand for being a fat Tory meff has been shelved for the foreseeable future.

He's been replaced by Tommy Tuchel who has happy memories of Anfield such as Lovren knocking his Dortmund team out in added time and not even a pokey in the eye stopping Firmino doing the same to his PSG side.

Tuchel has faced Klopp more than anyone other managed going head to head 14 times with a resounding record of 9 defeats, 3 draws and 2 wins.

As the race for the top 4 heats up a defeat for either side would not yet prove to be fatal as Rodgers annual collapse has began. Leicester still have to face City, West Ham and end their season with a run of 3 games against United, Chelsea, Spurs. Brendan has been waking up sweating covered in envelopes again.

Strong possibility of Liverpools bench containing some actual footballers.

Trent is going for his customary freekick goal against Chelsea.

[Doc_Piptorious]

Anything other than a win would be very damaging to us.

We are already 2 points off of 4th place and 6 points off of 3rd place.

Plus the two teams with games in hand over us are a bit closer than I would like. Everton are 1 point behind us with two games in hand, and Villa are four points behind us with two games in hand.

So we are in a position where we have to keep winning our games plus we need a team or two ahead of us to drop points and a team or two behind us to drop points.

[Mark79]

I wish Frank were still here for this one.

Tuchel has already made them hard to beat. Only 2 goals conceded in 9 games.
We can’t afford to be wasting any chances in this one.

[Buzzo]

Nervous about this one for sure. I would be well up for us breaking loose and scoring in the first half for example.

Feels quite Salah-ish this game. The great man is in a major drought with no goals in a two games now. I reckon he will respond.

[Doc_Piptorious]

I wish Frank were still here for this one.

Tuchel has already made them hard to beat. Only 2 goals conceded in 9 games.
We can’t afford to be wasting any chances in this one.

Tuchel is showing the difference between a tactically decent manager who understands how to set up a team and a blagger like Lampard who talks a good game but has very little substance.

Tuchel unfortunately does not have Lampard's habit of leaving out some of Chelsea's more effective players, like Rudiger, and he tends to play the best player in the role they are best at, again something Lampard did not do a lot of the time.

Tuchel is one of those guys that has a very punchable looking face (and personality) for me, but I would much prefer to be facing a Lampard led Chelsea than a Tuchel Chelsea.

One thing I do like about Tuchel is that when he plays Klopp he has a habt of trying to outKlopp Klopp in terms of tactics and has often tried to get his teams to play like a Klopp team when against a Klopp team. So if he sticks to that pattern then he may continue his poor run of form against Klopp.

[frank the tank]

Tuchel is showing the difference between a tactically decent manager who understands how to set up a team and a blagger like Lampard who talks a good game but has very little substance.

Tuchel unfortunately does not have Lampard's habit of leaving out some of Chelsea's more effective players, like Rudiger, and he tends to play the best player in the role they are best at, again something Lampard did not do a lot of the time.

Tuchel is one of those guys that has a very punchable looking face (and personality) for me, but I would much prefer to be facing a Lampard led Chelsea than a Tuchel Chelsea.

One thing I do like about Tuchel is that when he plays Klopp he has a habt of trying to outKlopp Klopp in terms of tactics and has often tried to get his teams to play like a Klopp team when against a Klopp team. So if he sticks to that pattern then he may continue his poor run of form against Klopp.

I agree Tuchel is a good coach. Would have been a good shout for United actually if they sacked off Dildo Bobbins.

I can see Chelsea defending really deep and then countering at speed. All of their attacking players would love to play against our make-shift defense right now.

Just hope we have our shooting boots on.

[Doc_Piptorious]

I agree Tuchel is a good coach. Would have been a good shout for United actually if they sacked off Dildo Bobbins.

I can see Chelsea defending really deep and then countering at speed. All of their attacking players would love to play against our make-shift defense right now.

Just hope we have our shooting boots on.

Aye he would have been. Would go as far as to say he would have been an upgrade for pretty much all the teams in the top ten save for Liverpool and City.

I think the fact he comes across as a prick leads to peple underestimating him as a manager at times. I know I am certainly guilty of that at times with regards to him.

[ntto]

watching them at the weekend, we should be pressing them very high up the pitch - they were passing around the back and were very split. If we're at our best pressing high (which seems to have disappeared from our game) we'll be able to knick the ball off them hopefully quite easily

[Robbie-9-Fowler]

Huge game.

Leicester have a points advantage but mounting injuries so we need to reduce the gap quickly as their fixtures are kind until the final 5.

Everton are a slight worry as they are picking points up with a good manager

West Ham should fall away

Chelsea are a serious contender

Winning would be great, put us in the driving seat with some momentum and players coming back.

Draw would be manageable

Loss could be the end

[Doc_Piptorious]

Huge game.

Leicester have a points advantage but mounting injuries so we need to reduce the gap quickly as their fixtures are kind until the final 5.

Everton are a slight worry as they are picking points up with a good manager

West Ham should fall away

Chelsea are a serious contender

Winning would be great, put us in the driving seat with some momentum and players coming back.

Draw would be manageable

Loss could be the end

A draw would be very damaging. It would allow the other teams in the top four scope to pull away more, and the three teams directly behind us in the league all have either one or two games in hand over us.


We need nothing but wins now as even with wins we are still relying on a coupe teams above us to slip up and we are still relying on those behind us not to win their gas in hand.

All we can do is try to win every game and hope the other teams in the mix all lose games.

[kev776]

My team:

------------Allison

TAA--Kabak--Philips--Robbo

------Fabinho--Thiago

Mane------Keita--------Jota

-----------Salah

Probable team:

------------Allison

TAA--Kabak--Fabinho--Robbo

--Milner---Thiago--Ginni

--Salah---Bobby--Mane

[Robbie-9-Fowler]

A draw would be very damaging. It would allow the other teams in the top four scope to pull away more, and the three teams directly behind us in the league all have either one or two games in hand over us.


We need nothing but wins now as even with wins we are still relying on a coupe teams above us to slip up and we are still relying on those behind us not to win their gas in hand.

All we can do is try to win every game and hope the other teams in the mix all lose games.

It's a race for top 4 for a reason, inconsistency. Teams around us aren't going to win all their remaining games, probably not even 75% of them. Maybe one team will, most likely Chelsea and that's why I don't see a draw being the end of the world.

The other contenders are Chelsea, Everton, Leicester, Spurs and West Ham. It'll continue to swing week by week as has been the case all season, we just need to manage our fixtures best.

[Norbs]

A win tomorrow and at the weekend could take us to within 2 points of 2nd if Utd lose to City.

Just mental how things are going this season

[Buzzo]

Just made the same point in the season thread. Utd have City next.

We win the next 2 and we are right in and amongst it.

[BigChief]

I'm actually confident of beating Chelsea. TAA and Mane look their old selves finally. And with Jota reappearing it's making Firmino play better again (finally).