Top 5 or 6 slowly turning into the usual suspects ,some in unusual positions. Now is the time to fasten onto one of the top places, or conversely, a couple of poor performances could see a team drop back to 7th or 8th. Everton away might be trickier than we hoped if they can find their early form or we revert to ours. Suggested team to start, assuming fitness of all, Mendy James, Zouma, Silva, Chilwell Kante Kovacic Mount Pulisic Werner Giroud. Subs Kepa Rudiger, Dave, Havertz, Gilmour, Anjorin, Abraham, Jorginho. Looking at those players, we have a really strong squad now with subs of almost equal quality to regulars. Not a bad place to be.
Havertz is having a mare, cant complain about the penalty Mendy blew a gasket there there was little danger and he made a bad decision. Hoping for a better second half we can win this but Havertz needs to up his game. Referee is giving fouls against us for good challenges never liked Moss.
Havertz, Chilwell and Giroud have been awful, and Werner can't pass. Werner for me is either front man or sub, he's not worth 2 bob as a winger without Chilwell contributing, and Chilwell apart from one break, has been monstered by his opponent all game. Time for calm heads and a rejig, everything falling apart in the box, needs sorting.
Wimpish, sloppy play from too many "stars". Chilwell was bloody awful and almost cost us a second penalty, he's no great player. Giroud chose a bad time to have his worst game for months, and to see Tammy Abraham being used as a winger made me cringe, he's got no touch and no smarts. Again we couldn't do anything right in the final 3rd, mainly because no one ever tries going straight for goal, everything goes down the sides and gives heaps of time for defenders to fill the middle. Time Frank reassessed Werner's place, it's middle or nowhere for me, and Havertz was hopeless out wide as well. Both wasted, until, like Kante ,they are played in their best positions. Everton were faster, more direct, tougher and determined than us today and deserved their win. We were dreadful, and need to refocus and get some drive and urgency about us, we flap about too much.
Happy with the win. But that Reece James is some player.He was outstanding today and didn't deserve to be on the losing side.
I thought we’d struggle after realising all our wingers were injured. I’d have looked at a different system and maybe tried Werner alongside Giroud. James & Mount were our best players, which is becoming a weekly occurrence. Definite error for the goal, not really sure Mendy needed to come out at all, Silva had it dealt with. We didn’t do it enough to win but were worth a point imo, we’ll play worse than that and win.
Totally agree with this. We always lose at Everton and going there with three wingers out meant we had a poor line up havertz won’t be playing wide much when the sick note wingers ziyech CHO and puli are fit and hopefully Werner will get a much needed rest worrying thing is that all three wide men are v injury prone
The W-end wasn't a total write-off. Spurs and Pool dropped 2 points each...and they play each other Wednesday. Let's hope for a big improvement against Wolves on Tuesday !
Reckon Frank would have had a quiet word in a few ears, so expect to see a much livelier and better focused run out v Wolves.
I'd be looking for another left back especially if Emerson is sold. Chilwell is too iffy for me to be a walk up 1st starter, and Alonso looks history.
Have to disagree about Chilwell CP. He is imo nailed on for left-back for years to come. He is a top modern-day defender in that he can join attacks, score the odd goal, and most importantly, "do what it says on the tin"... defend !
Agree in theory, but he's not doing it on the pitch right now, except in dribs and drabs. Mind you he's not Robinson Crusoe there. Mount, Kante, Mendy, Kovacic, Reece James and maybe Giroud are the only players who always perform. Chilwell came with a lot of hype,"the next Ashley Cole " etc, but has been ordinary for me apart from one great game. Too many times he stops dead, turns back, and passes to a defender as his default option, rarely looking for someone in front to pass to. So often in fact, the front runners don't try to run into space, because no ball comes from him. Werner has formed zero partnership with him because Chilwell stops all forward motion, ( just like Jorginho in midfield). Pulisic fares better with him for some reason, so he can be more attacking . That said, in general I think the back 4 take far too long flapping about passing to each other, meanwhile our attackers stand around static, while opposition defenders have time to block the way forward. Maybe Stilwell and Co are under instruction to be more careful, if so it's working as they have been hugely better stopping goals.. But if you want to see the front runners explode and play to the level they can, they need much better, much faster ball, especially from the back.Chilwell for me, is one of our worst offenders and frustrates the bejesus out of me.
Fair enough, i suppose time will tell. Like a lot of new players to any club, he will need more time to adapt to a new set-up. The only recent player i can remember hitting the ground from day 1 was Costa. I think he had scored 10 goals in his first 10 games !!!