Greenlizard0 PL & Championship Football Thread ** spoilers ** [28th - 29th August 2021]

plus the subs and the time wasting in injury time.

30 minute halves with a stop clock please.
Said this many times before, independent time keeper with the clock stopping everytime the play stops like in Ice Hockey, everyone knows exactly where they stand then, at the moment it pays to timewaste as so many teams take an age over a throw in, goal kick etc.
 
Poor final 30 from us. The way we started the 2nd half, with a high tempo, pinning Chelsea back with attack after attack it looked only a matter of time before we scored but we seemed to run out of steam around the 60 minute mark. I was surprised how long it took for us to bring Thiago on because we'd lost control of the game and needed somebody just to put their foot on the ball and build. Equally suprising neither Keita or Ox came out - just having a bit more energy in midfield and somebody that would have run with the ball may have given us something we lacked.

Slight gripe with the lack of added time considering Chelsea's timewasting in the 2nd half - heck they wasted at least a minute of the 3 that were added. That said, the way that last 30 ended we weren't looking like scoring even if we had 10 added minutes.

edit: one big positive was VVD. A lot of questions about how good he'll be on his return and all the talk last week about how Lukaku was unstoppable. VVD won every battle with Lukaku today, as he typicaly does whenever he's come up against him.
 
30 minute halves with a stop clock please.

I've been asking for that for a number of years now, I remember a study from several years back which showed that the average match time that a ball is actually in play is something like 32 mins a half. The rest of the time is the clock ticking and no play actually happening. I'd be right behind the idea of mandatory 30mins a half, clock stopped in dead ball situations. Would go a long way to cutting out a lot of the acting and timewasting.
 
I've been asking for that for a number of years now, I remember a study from several years back which showed that the average match time that a ball is actually in play is something like 32 mins a half. The rest of the time is the clock ticking and no play actually happening. I'd be right behind the idea of mandatory 30mins a half, clock stopped in dead ball situations. Would go a long way to cutting out a lot of the acting and timewasting.

It instantly stops time wasting, well for the purpose of actually time wasting and not just getting your breathe back.
 
It’s harsh to judge Lukaku on this performance alone but I said at the time 100mil was a lot and I still think it is. He was poor today.

I hope this highlights to the board the need for another forward. I know he brought on Jota earlier then he liked but there was nothing after that.
 
I think it definitely shows that we still have trouble breaking teams down. Seems to have been an issue for us for years now.
It's the lack of goal threat from midfield which is the problem. If our front three are all marked and our fullbacks keep having their crosses blocked, there's little in the way of a threat in this team. Elliot might become a goal threat with experience, Ox and Keita can score but rarely do because they're always injured and that's it. We haven't really had a goal threat in midfield since Coutinho left but his lack of work rate probably wouldn't be tolerated.

Edit: Hasselbaink, another useless sit on the fence pundit.
 
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Lukaku made 2 amazing runs today and should have been played in.

There is no shame in losing a battle when you're the only attacker against three defenders.
 
Bobby has a hamstring tear apparently.

If its a serious one they have to look to the market now. We needed a forward before this.
Mikhail Antonio ftw!

Let’s face it, you’ve bought Danny Ings and Ricky Lambert before, so he’s certainly not out of the question.
 
30 minute halves with the ball out of play stops the clock, free kicks getting set up etc all stops the clock sounds amazing.

Would the injury time be similar to as it is now or would it be like rugby because we’d no longer need it.
 
There is no shame in losing a battle when you're the only attacker against three defenders.
How many times was he battling 1 vs 3? And fwiw, my initial comment wasn't a dig at Lukaku, more a small piece of praise for VVD. Like pretty much every CF he's come up against, VVD wins almost all physical battles. There were a number of people questioning how VVD will come back after his injury and Lukaku is probably the toughest CF you can come up against in terms of size and power but again VVD handled him as comfortably as he did 2-3 years ago.

On Lukaku generally, he'll score a load of goals for Chelsea but the best way to deal with him is to push high up the pitch - it's easier said than done though and not every team has a VVD. I was slightly surprised that Chelsea didn't start Werner instead of one of Havertz or Mount because it was obvious that we would push right up the pitch and his extra pace could have caused us more problems.
 
Such a frustrating match for us, chelsea were solid but we could have played a lot better, it was all too predictable. Wish Hendo, would take a shot every now and then, he and Fab can strike a ball well, but all game they just poked the ball wide, which just didnt work for us. Robbo was either unfit or he was told not to push forward enough. Defence was brilliant, Elliot looking very good and the bench is look quite strong. A draw agaisnt Tuchel isnt a bad result.

On the plus side, 1st big game at anfield with a full house, the atmosphere was tremendous. On the negative, Chelsea's play acting and time wasting, which started at the bginning of the second half, extracted the urine.
 
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