Rory Fitzgerald

3.20 to 4.10 explains team selection "To pass the ball, you need people closer...passes 15m it is easier for DEF to close down...but 2-3m is more difficult...I like it when when players are closer...and to do this you have to put ALOT of players there"

FFS thought that was in from Pulisic !

Imagine they had Mo Salah instead of Werner (not in a "they already had him" kinda way like they had De Bruyne). But you put Mo in some of those chances, and the chances he's had all season, and Chelsea could have done some damage.

Mason Mount off the left of their attacking midfield and looking to spring balls on a bit of a diagonal for Werner cutting across Zinchenko - though it will be coming in against Dias. Otherwise they try have him peel down alongside Stones but not out too wide that he's contesting with Walker.

A few tweets on the game

My passion for the game is to see City not win it. I understand that means Chelsea needs to win it and I have made peace with that. I am not sure about this game. I think Tuchel knows his best team but I am not sure Guardiola knows his best team - he cant play all 3 of Rodri, Gundogan, Fernandinho. Attacking midfield he has KdB, Sterling, Foden, Mahrez and needs to pick 3 or else all 4 if he is dropping Jesus. And then thats the question, does he play Jesus and if so, he drops one of the previous 4. That said, whichever combination of those he picks should have a higher ceiling than Chelsea. But I think Chelsea can win this if get enough early belief in the game and then get the 1st goal. [Edit: Wow, just seen the City team, very surprised]

Thats exactly how I am reading it. If Chelsea can score 1st and get a lead then I think they have the intensity, aggression and tactical nous to dog it out for the rest of the game - and I think they will get 2-3 quality moments. However, like you, if City win the early arm wrestle and play well enough to get the first goal then I can see them getting 2-3. I am fully against City for this final, thats my strongest feeling. By extension that means I am fully behind the other team and I am fully behind that team but I just dont feel comfortable writing that in such a way that it says I am fully behind Chelsea I think this is going to be a fascinating game and I am really looking forward to it.

If away goals wasn't a thing and UEFA decided to bring it in, we'd go crazy and think its a bloody mental idea. However, its been ingrained in the game for all our life times so taking it away changes takes something unique away from the game. It was something that had some unique value and that meant teams and managers had to factor that in to certain decisions on tactics and how to approach games. Something you only get with European football, as its not in domestic football. Ultimately, I would have preferred to keep it. If teams are level, they will ultimately be settled on penalties. So at any time over 2 games, when the tie is level, then if both teams become risk-off, its penalties. But away goals almost always keep a tie unbalanced meaning someone knows that they are going out if they don't get another goal. Its an element which actively impacts how teams decide to play across 2 games. My fear is that 2 games that are 2-2 (1st leg) and 1-1 (half time of 2nd leg), could see both teams take less risks. Whereas with away goals, one of the teams is losing and needs to get a goal.

Thanks, I recorded it all myself

The amount of times his team has gone behind is mad. I know they’ve been pulling it out of the fire but Poch in the 2018/19 season lost something like 13 games that season despite reaching the CL so the signs were there for a pops next season - that’s ahead of Utd. He’s never tackled the Pogba dilemma. Fernandes came in and became their new superstar. Cavani held down a spot eventually meaning Rashford moved wide. He then had to choose between 2 DMs and one of Pogba/Greenwood or pick the latter 2 and go with 1 holding player. I was surprised last night that with no Maguire he still went with Pogba to cram in everyone. If he gets another attacking player then we’ll see more of Pogba in a deeper midfield role which is not a bad thing for the opposition.

Nightmare efforts from United to play out before that free kick - nice all the same tho lads

Went the pub at 1.45pm with @doug_mac - we just wanted to make sure we got the best seats. Bought about 6 newspapers and 8 lucozades to get us through that painful afternoon (no one else got into the pub until about 4pm !!) and only started on the beer around 6.30pm. Great carnage with no sleep until about 8am the next morning and then on the chicken goujon rolls about 11am for a full replay of the match.

£85m Less that £65m disappointing Between £65-£85m is my expectation Over £85m maybe higher than my expectation

Saving Private Ryan

Thats a relief because we've had plenty of games this season whereby we found out about an injury when the team is announced and I dreaded a "Salah picked up a minor knock in training"

I've genuinely got real nerves for this game ! "Its a cup final" gets thrown about, but I've got "some" of the anxiety feelings I got before the recent CL Finals and that I havent had at all this season before any of our games.

I've no idea what the finances are - but if they can get 5-6 extra games in their stadium with fans back in, then thats a few extra quid. Not material but its more gate receipts. Its also about £2m per place in the league and they could finish between 6th-9th. And there is the golden boot for Kane and the club don't need a hiding to finish the season with. I am not sure they'll be going out "strategically" to throw it. More that if there is a collapse, the players are not being professional on the pitch as their heads are elsewhere.

In terms of random things to mess it up, my irrational worry is a red card for us and we are playing 10 vs 11

Yep, we should do, they wont have a settled CB pair nor a midfield 3 that always play. Eze is a big miss also. Kouyate playing at the back robs them further in midfield or else they have a pick between Cahill (35) / Dann (34) or Tomkins (32) who is just coming back from injury. As much as we need to be mindful of them trying to catch us with a sucker-punch against Phillips/Williams, they have more to worry about coming to Anfield with that backline and a rotated midfield. I'm not into it but if gives you comfort, we'll win on xG just need them to put away the chances we'll (inevitably) create.

Yeah, I remember that. I was hoping Williams would go down and just take the sting out of the moment, let players heads settle and then defend the corner rather than let them just whip it in when the crowd and intensity was still a bit high. The trade off is that Williams goes off. That was just my thought at the moment but Fab is on the pitch and he wanted Williams on - fine by me. But yeah, for sure Fabinho was gripping him to his feet to stop him coming off.

Thats the league table after the 2 draws against Leeds and Newcastle. The next game was the Sunday match vs Utd which was one of the most low key build ups ever. After that was called off, Leicester lost at home to Newcastle, we then beat Southampton and then after that, Chelsea lost at home to Arsenal and then we went to Old Trafford. There was a massive difference in belief/possibility/probability of being able to get CL football between 3pm Sunday 2nd May and 7pm Thursday 13th May. I dont care if there is no way to prove it but I pinning the resurgence on Utd fans and saving our season and I think they'd like to (and should) know that.

They're Homer Simpson against Drederik Tatum looking for a knock out blow. We'll slap them around the pitch and should get chances and should win if we convert them. I think they're midfield 3 will be McCarthy / Kouyate / Riedewald (Schlupp if he wants to go more attacking), so they can just try and sit in pick moments to counter. WBA and Burnley didn't worry me too much with Phillips and Williams, but Palace have something that can work in moments. Pace behind and Benteke has scored 4 in the last 4. He'd be a nightmare for Williams but tends to prefer to play on the left side of the pitch so would clash more with Phillips. But on the whole, outside moments, we should be dominating them and they're midfield and defence have been rotated quite a bit so may not be too cohesive and might give us a few chances.

I threw a couple of Palace stats into a few tweets, their recent team line ups and few stats on Zaha and Townsend.

I find the emphasis on that game by non-Liverpool fans to be a bit bizarre. The killer blow was Chelsea - dropping points to Palace was disappointing but that feeling wasn't even the 2nd cousin of the feeling after that Sunday game against Chelsea. I held out some hope that the City game straight after which was away to Palace might provide some redemption but after that day, the massive buzz up to that day had gone. We had gone 10 games winning on trot, beat City to make it 11 and beat Norwich to make it 12. There was a lot of hype over those weeks and months. Letting the air out of that was a massive downer - the feeling after Palace, relatively, was a bit meh compared to that Sunday.

Their midfield 3 are anywhere but in midfield when the get the ball. They are playing around and over us, but not through us.