Thoughts for Bayern?

Here's something to criticise
Kepa
Dave, Rudi, Zouma, Alonso
Kovacic, Jorghino Mount
Reece James Giroud Willian

Subs Defence Christensen, Tomori
Midfield Billy Gilmour, Barkley
Striker Abraham. Bats

 

Same team as yesterday.

 

Can’t have Alonso in a back 4, painful to watch. I’d go with the 5 again but i think a couple of changes might be needed.

 

We could switch this to a back 3 and might well start that way. I think Bayern will be more savvy than Mourhino was and expecting a back 3. They play that way too switching from 3 to 4 depending on the opposition and sometimes how things go. Frank has shown pretty good nous so far, so I can't see him wandering too far from the team that controlled Spuds, but we will need to be faster, more direct and more accurate. Big test for our team, and hoping we test them as we have done twice to Liverpool. 7am start here in Oz, will go to the local Chelsea pub for breakfast and company.

 

Robben and Ribery may be gone, but would you want Alonso exposed in a back 4 v Kimmich and Gnabry?

Maybe play him in a back 3, possibly

 

As it turned out he was not the only one exposed, most of that team were exposed in one way or another.
Apart from Kovacic there was not an attack minded player in our team. Mount at least runs, but the rest?? How can Barkley sleep nights? Jorghino is again a liability and was run through ,around and over, all game. Reece James was hammered by Davies, and needs to be back in the position he plays well, but we were murdered all over the park by a sharper, smarter and much better team.
A case of a team that couldn't hold the ball, pass, defend or score against one who can do all of that. Willy kept us in the game until half time.
Hope Bayern don't send us a bill for the 90 minute lesson on how to play football.
Sobering night, top 4 now our main aim, plus getting players back from injury and rediscovering some attacking form. Return match a chance for us to show up and play with conviction.

 

We wasn’t embarrassed just soundly beaten by a far better, faster outfit. Which just serves to remind the whingers exactly where we are in our present growth and in the grand scheme of things. It’s easy to get carried away with our history and our present standing but most of us know we started this season on the ground floor and in my view will take two transfer windows get get back anywhere to where we came from.

 

Thank god we don't have to play that lot every week.No shame in being hammered by them,what a team.

 

Think you are right on the money there. Davies showed what a talented youngster can do when in a team of top players bang in form. Our youngsters have to play with the experienced players well down on the quality of past years. Next season should be a better one with a year of hard graft behind them and hopefully at least 3 seriously good imports. That will still put us behind the settled Liverpool and City, so 2 years for a proper go at titles is the best we can hope for.

 

Bayern were brilliant, weren't they. Absolute joy to watch even though they were rinsing us.

And yes Barkley is lame!

 

Still shows us how far behind we are the top teams. The real difference was the attack imo. They had pretty much a world class front 3 (4 if we include Muller) whereas we had Barkley, Giroud and Mount. Mount was probably our best player but I do feel he gets picked because his work rate is ridiculous, needs to become a bit more creative though.

They should get to the last 4 at least though, their team is outstanding and even their bench was strong.

 

That was hard to watch.

Think we played with fear and could barely string a couple of passes together. A lot of the players showed they were either not ready for this level or never will be.

Barkley, Christensen, Alonso were particular culprits. Abraham very frustrating as well when he came on. Constantly losing the ball and failing to anticipate those 2 brilliant cross the 6 year box balls from pedro and willian. Giroud was ok but then look at what they had up front in comparison.

What was more disappointing was for it to be shown so clearly how far we have fallen in the last few years.

8 years ago we played in the C.L final against Bayern and have only made the semi once since. Be interesting to see what we've spent in that time compared to Bayern. doubt they'd have spent more.

The general poor management over the years is now being exposed when we can't just buy our way out of trouble anymore.

Sobering night indeed.

 

Thoughts are with Chelsea...

R.I.P

 

Jesus. Cheer up mate!

It's not like we'll be playing Barkley and Giroud up front forever.

We'll have Hudson-Odoi and Pulisic back from injury. And Hakim Ziyech to come.

But yeah looked at our front three of Barkley Mount (who I like and did OK) and Giroud compared to Gnabry Muller Lewa etc and thought shiiiit, could be a long night!

Christensen lacks bottle IMO, sure he was concussed when Martial scored for United last week, but he bottles big moments. Tomori still makes mistakes but must be given a chance

 

I see both your points and they are both right.
We do have a depleted, young team, who were clearly playing a far superior and more experienced opponent.
Most of our players are either lacking experience, or past their prime.
We need a new striker and a new CB and should have gotten some in January, even if it was by using loans (ie Cavani)
As soon as we made no signings in Jan I knew this would be as far as we would go in this years CL, so its not exactly a surprise, though we did look particularly ****e.

This season was a write off as soon as we lost Hazard and had a transfer ban, and top 4 was always going to be the best that we could have hoped for, and that should be our main aim....we were never going to win the CL

Time to keep our heads down and see the season out and try to maintain a top 4 finish (or top 5 if City are going to be excluded).
Then we see what Frank can do in the window and what he can bring us next season.

 

Agree, that’s how to break down stubborn teams who come to defend and plunder. Pure pace down both wings and movement from the target men. Sounds simple but Bayern did it with clinical style.

 

Have to be honest, Bayern were simply brilliant. Their pace, power, passing, tight control, teamwork and clinical finishing were something to admire. What a great insight for the young players ,who now really understand how much they have to improve.They will take lots away from this hopefully, lose a bit of the natural tendency to swagger because of being 19 or 20 and earning 100 Gs a week. Those with the passion will know, unless they make a really big step up, this is as good as it will get. The Davies, Jadon Sanchos, Haarlands and M'bappes' are ahead of any of ours in their development, largely due to the better quality of the experienced players in their teams. Frank needs to identify the incoming players and walk if he doesn't get them, the Board needs to stop the instant gratification trip and plan for the next 3 years, not 3 months. Planning is a dirty word at Chelsea , but needs to become our catchphrase or we can watch the Bayerns and Liverpools disappear into the dust.

 

Don’t be too despondent it took Liverpool 30 years to come back via 3 owners and shed loads of managers.

 

In January you said more than once you wanted us to buy three players for the next three months to secure top 4.

 

We have a great chance of top 4, let's see if the new boys can do it