Cesc Fàbregas

[Styles 9,790]

Simply because some of the mistakes he's done have absolutely nothing to do with all that. Again I'll use Everton's second goal as example because I have the images for that, but he's made that mistake type on a number of occasions already this season:

Choosing to make the run that Matic did in the image above rather than cover the area where Naismith (who he was originally tracking) is in and in which McGeady eventually runs into, has absolutely nothing to do with tactics or anyone. It's just a poor decision. If he has a "pressing instinct" then the run should have been towards the ball where he would have been able to fill the gap and stop the goal, not away from it.

I can forgive mistakes from being too aggressive in pressing, but more often so far this season, the mistakes from Matic has been that he has been too eager to cover and hence being too late to press. Again, I'm sounding too harsh on Matic, but that's only because we're analyzing his mistakes alone. On a lot of occasions his pressing has been excellent, but it's the mistakes we remember.

I'm not trying to absolve Matic of any wrong-doing because he certainly has his faults/limitations as a player.

The way I see the mistake you've highlighted there is: Ramires is pressing the ball so Matic tries to cut out McGeady's seemingly only available passing option. That obviously isn't the smartest idea considering Azpilicueta and Terry have that passing lane covered. Ivanovic also makes the same mistake that Matic does - he is distracted by Lukaku's run despite Cahill being best placed to deal with a through-ball - and that allows Naismith to ghost in and score easily. It's a bad mistake on Matic's part but the initial press is beaten easily, he has gambled* and the players behind him have made mistakes too, that was a collective breakdown and not down to Matic on his own.

*Pressing isn't just about pressing the ball, it also means blocking any passing lanes and it's high risk, high reward. Matic is one of the few players in the team that is consistent at doing that. If the people alongside him and behind him were on the same wavelength we wouldn't be so exposed all the time.

But I get what you are trying to say. We don't have the CBs to compliment our style of pressing. Neither JT nor Cahill are able to push up and cover any gaps that appear and play 1vs1 (Azpi for CB? ). Now THAT, for me, is an issue much more likely to persist in the future than pressing mistakes from Cesc and Matic.

I genuinely believe it is something that we can solve, or at least improve, on the training ground. I guess time will tell.

Fair enough, and Azpi at CB doesn't sound that crazy.

Here's the Neville analysis by the way:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjP9KVWA91U

[Supermonkey92 1,428]

Great pundits and good analysis.

Fabregas cannot play in the pivot. He is best suited to a 4-3-3 in this team. So

Much more balance and with a 3 man midfield and brings the best out of matic cesc AND Ramires.

I predict that 4-2-3-1 will become and secondary line up for us by halfway through the season

[Daniel1980 1,425]

On Fabregas in the double pivot and 4-3-3:
When he played for Spain NT a week ago, he looked much more comfortable playing in a three-man midfield, and he and Busquets totally bossed the midfield despite Koke looking shaky. I'm actually surprised with how well he's been doing in the double pivot for us. There's a lot of difference tactically between playing a CM in a 4-3-3 that he's accustomed to and playing a CM in the double pivot. To get the best out of him, he should be given a less restricted, more attacking role.

Yep. Becoming more Chels every game!

Only natural. The same thing happened to Ashley.

[bababoom 4,478]

You have to say Neville is a fantastic pundit, so much better than the MOTD lot.

[The Skipper 20,593]

I still think Fabregas will be fine for quite a few games in the pivot - what we really need to do however is sort out our pressing and positional game in centre midfield. What Fabregas is trying to do (as Neville said) is hunt down the ball - but you can't do that in the manner Fabregas is doing when he is playing in the pivot, especially against the 4-3-3 midfield Swansea played.

I still think Fabregas is fine in the pivot for some games (not the bigger games though, but I've said that from the start anyway), honestly do, he just has to tweak his positioning and when to engage in pressing. The effort is definitely there, he just needs to be smart with it. Fabregas is an intelligent player so I'm fairly sure he'll grasp it over the course of the season (last clip in the Gary Neville analysis where he swooped up the ball and laid it off to Matic before JTs own goal is a prime example - excellent defensive positioning).

IMO he can be that complete midfielder for us, competent defensively and great going forward.

[Shakez 755]

Fantastic analysis from Neville, a 4-2-3-1 atm currently is a no go in big games. But we need to find a solution for it, dunno if Fabrégas can get the discipline but that's something Mourinho should drill into him. Otherwise when are we ever going to play Oscar in the big games unless we put him on the wings (not his best position). For this reason i would like to see how we fare with the following line-up against high pressing opposition, with Willian as our most defensive winger (and a pretty capable presser), seeïng that Schürrle lacks some key defensive attributes atm and is a bad presser. I don't think we have seen that line-up yet this season:

Costa

Hazard - Oscar - Willian

Matic - Fabregas

Azpi - Terry - Cahill - Ivanovic

Courtois

[Barbara 15,149]

I think it is a great analysis by Neville and he's normally very fair. I just feel like that kind of mistakes were done by many players during the first 30 minutes of the match. I know he doesn't have time to cover everyone, but it seems like he singled out Cesc - although the pivot is a critical area for pressing.

He should improve, definitely, and I think he will, but others around him should and hopefully will too. The pressing and the midfield in general in the first 30 minutes was just a hot mess. and I can't for the life of me blame swans first goal on Cesc. He should have done a better job, but others made worse mistakes in that play. It wasn't his player who tackled Matic, it wasn't his player who's received the ball and although he slowly came back after tackling in the box, Swans passed the ball to a player ahead of him, he's trying to hunt him, but it wasn't his player imo. I don't know, he's one of the last I'd actually hold guilty for that goal. Matic shouldn't, under any circumstance, especially when he's as slow like that, hold the ball so long when pressed so closely by another player. Pass to someone to prevent exactly this kind of situation.

[Shakez 755]

I think it is a great analysis by Neville and he's normally very fair. I just feel like that kind of mistakes were done by many players during the first 30 minutes of the match. I know he doesn't have time to cover everyone, but it seems like he singled out Cesc - although the pivot is a critical area for pressing.

He should improve, definitely, and I think he will, but others around him should and hopefully will too. The pressing and the midfield in general in the first 30 minutes was just a hot mess. and I can't for the life of me blame swans first goal on Cesc. He should have done a better job, but others made worse mistakes in that play. It wasn't his player who tackled Matic, it wasn't his player who's received the ball and although he slowly came back after tackling in the box, Swans passed the ball to a player ahead of him, he's trying to hunt him, but it wasn't his player imo. I don't know, he's one of the last I'd actually hold guilty for that goal. Matic shouldn't, under any circumstance, especially when he's as slow like that, hold the ball so long when pressed so closely by another player. Pass to someone to prevent exactly this kind of situation.

I think it is more of a point that he's notorious for not beïng defensively disciplined throughout his career. This is also 1 of the main reasons he didn't replace Xavi in the Barcelona central midfield, these mistakes aren't random and they happened in almost every match we've played thus far. Mistakes where also made by Matic but he sticks to his role (marking and such) and is most of the time defensive solid (he was a rock last season). The way Fabregas leaves space open will be a huge issue when we play against the likes of David Silva.

I think it is hard to iron out these things so we probably need some alternative to circumvent his flaws because we can't miss him in the starting IX.

[Barbara 15,149]

I think it is more of a point that he's notorious for not beïng defensively disciplined throughout his career. This is also 1 of the main reasons he didn't replace Xavi in the Barcelona central midfield, these mistakes aren't random and they happened in almost every match we've played thus far. Mistakes where also made by Matic but he sticks to his role (marking and such) and is most of the time defensive solid (he was a rock last season). The way Fabregas leaves space open will be a huge issue when we play against the likes of David Silva.

I think it is hard to iron out these things so we probably need some alternative to circumvent his flaws because we can't miss him in the starting IX.

I agree he has problems about it. But imo we don't need to work around it that much. We need to give him (and the others) time. I have no doubts he'll fix those issues under Mourinho. Mourinho is one of the masters of football tactics and positioning. His teams look like rehearsed chess keys. Fàbregas isn't disciplined, but he'll learn to. I think it's easier for him to learn this than let's say someone like Hazard. Cesc is midfielder by definition, that's his natural and first position, later on his career it changed. Also as Skip said, he's smart and I think he will be able to follow Mourinho's directions. It'll make him a better player.

[Barbara 15,149]

Plain black boots will always be my fave.

Those Cesc is wearing in the training are class.

[iseah100 5,612]

Plain black boots will always be my fave.

Those Cesc is wearing in the training are class.

Pink and blue ones> black ones

[xPetrCechx 13,546]

Sex Fabregas.

[LAB 1,030]

Pink and blue ones> black ones

Black will always be class. One pink and one blue will always be "wtf?"

[Dion 2,476]

I'm not trying to absolve Matic of any wrong-doing because he certainly has his faults/limitations as a player.

The way I see the mistake you've highlighted there is: Ramires is pressing the ball so Matic tries to cut out McGeady's seemingly only available passing option. That obviously isn't the smartest idea considering Azpilicueta and Terry have that passing lane covered. Ivanovic also makes the same mistake that Matic does - he is distracted by Lukaku's run despite Cahill being best placed to deal with a through-ball - and that allows Naismith to ghost in and score easily. It's a bad mistake on Matic's part but the initial press is beaten easily, he has gambled* and the players behind him have made mistakes too, that was a collective breakdown and not down to Matic on his own.

*Pressing isn't just about pressing the ball, it also means blocking any passing lanes and it's high risk, high reward. Matic is one of the few players in the team that is consistent at doing that. If the people alongside him and behind him were on the same wavelength we wouldn't be so exposed all the time.

Fair enough, and Azpi at CB doesn't sound that crazy.

Here's the Neville analysis by the way:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjP9KVWA91U

Matic has made very very similar mistakes against Everton. I've watched us against Everton with Barbara and there were a few times when Matic left the player he should be marking to chase the ball just like Fabregas did in that analysis. The whole system of pressing is malfunctioning right now, a lot of times players are chasing the ball when they should be holding position. It was even worse there because there were times Matic would do it and other times Fabregas would do it, so they had unmarked players and spaces all the freaking time. Our midfield against Everton was even more of a mess than against Swansea as it seems Matic was a little bit more disciplined in the latter, maybe Mourinho has already spoken to them about it and is trying to fix it.

[Special Juan 27,103]

He looks unbelievably happy here, that is just as much apparent as his assists.

[Daniel1980 1,425]

He looks unbelievably happy here, that is just as much apparent as his assists.

Yeah. Makes Arsenal fans' conviction that he's unhappy at Chelsea even more hilarious.

The definition of an unhappy player, yep.

[Shakez 755]

Yeah. Makes Arsenal fans' conviction that he's unhappy at Chelsea even more hilarious.

The definition of an unhappy player, yep.

Where is that footage from?

[Daniel1980 1,425]

Where is that footage from?

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x260vfl_training-ground-report-monday-15-september-hd_sport