Closed Man United 1-1 Chelsea

[chelseafc9010 224]

Is this a bad thing though? you keep going for it you might make it 2-0, or they opposition have a better chance of making it 1-1 earlier on and with the momentum with them a good chance of winning. Whilst trying to defend the 1-0 is risky, the best Mourinho teams have always been able to shut up shop at 1-0 and bar some poor officiating and very very late goals at City and Utd we would've won both. Obviously in hindsight its easy to say we shoud've gone for it, but you'd expect us the defend the last cross of a game. We need to get better at keeping the ball and picking teams off, too many times we kicked it long back to them when we could've kept it; putting Mikel on sures up the defence but he needs to do more to keep possesion. Sometimes seems like mentally the player lose their nerve late on, up until that last corner they never looked like scoring from one

But this is the modern game, back in Jose's spell it was different. Now teams are more adventurous and will go for goals no matter what, and Jose should of known that being 1-0 up at Old Trafford and United had nothing to lose. Their defending was always poor, but because of our poor attack they were allowed to bring on more attacking players and attack. Surely we should have brought on people to counter that, instead we brought on defensive players, and basically said to United show us you can score a goal against us, that is not being in control at all.

[Jase 43,479]

ofcourse it was the players fault. notable ivanovic and Zouma. but it's Jose's job to keep keep them out of situations like that. if we had kept attacking we wouldnt be in that situation

No. That free kick situation could have happened even if we had taken an attacking approach. In fact, that can happen at anytime and anywhere on the pitch. It's nonsensical to say that situation came about because of our approach in the final quarter of the game.

You said it's Jose's job to keep them out of such situations. I could easily turn around and say, it's Jose's job to think of the best approach, adopt it and trust the players to carry out to perfection. Instead, the players switched off and it cost us the goal.

Had we seen the game out at 1-0, would anyone even complain of what Mourinho did? Doubt it.

[ParNolio7 285]

So united dint have the ball when oscar, hazard and willian were on the pitch? They were as dominant or as dangerous with them on the pitch as without. Hazard and willian were doing nothing but trying to defend the fullbacks. How many counters or hold up plays did they have combined? In the dying minutes it made sense to take them out and put in fresh legs and more defence minded players as their was only one way traffic anyways.

We shared the ball when Oscar, Hazard & Willian were on the pitch. I'm not claiming we were dominating like some here do. But if you replace Oscar by Mikel, Hazard by Schürrle & Willian by Zouma you just surrender and hope to avoid the deathblow.

[ParNolio7 285]

On another note, just imagine what the score would've been like with Costa in our ranks. His presence or absence already has such an enormous impact. With Hazard on current form, he would've put two or three past De Gea I'm quite sure.

[Chelsea? 892]

No. That free kick situation could have happened even if we had taken an attacking approach. In fact, that can happen at anytime and anywhere on the pitch. It's nonsensical to say that situation came about because of our approach in the final quarter of the game.

You said it's Jose's job to keep them out of such situations. I could easily turn around and say, it's Jose's job to think of the best approach, adopt it and trust the players to carry out to perfection. Instead, the players switched off and it cost us the goal.

Had we seen the game out at 1-0, would anyone even complain of what Mourinho did? Doubt it.

I'm pissed we lost but that's not the basis of my argument. I'm sick of sitting back whenever we're up 1-0. if you allow the opponet to attack all day ofcourse they are gonna get 'freak chances'.

especially considering how united are built, they would love for us to just sit back and allow them to attack all.

yea it is Jose's job to think of the best approach and trust the players. sitting back against a team that has 0 defense and a great attack is not the best approach

[DH1988 1,193]

Is this a bad thing though? you keep going for it you might make it 2-0, or they opposition have a better chance of making it 1-1 earlier on and with the momentum with them a good chance of winning. Whilst trying to defend the 1-0 is risky, the best Mourinho teams have always been able to shut up shop at 1-0 and bar some poor officiating and very very late goals at City and Utd we would've won both. Obviously in hindsight its easy to say we shoud've gone for it, but you'd expect us the defend the last cross of a game. We need to get better at keeping the ball and picking teams off, too many times we kicked it long back to them when we could've kept it; putting Mikel on sures up the defence but he needs to do more to keep possesion. Sometimes seems like mentally the player lose their nerve late on, up until that last corner they never looked like scoring from one

I wouldn't say its a bad thing if it had happened once in a big game, or even a smaller game but its not the first time, with our team make up being different than Jose's first era when we can lock the shop up then go home.

With hindsight side yeah of course but as above its not the first time and I mentioned it in other threads, surely someone else has picked up on it, alot of the time after we go 1-0 up and we get a 10 minute of pressure we seem to step off? It only takes a bad decision, a lucky bounce, deflection or lapse in concentration to take it to 1-1.

I'd expect us to defend the RVP goal yeah, Cahill was actually like a cm away from heading it clear but as I said it only takes that to result in 1-1 so I'd rather push when they were there for the taking. Blind and everyone started to lose possession and they were at 6s and 7s after the goal, even most of the first half from 45th minute to when we sat right back.

Bringing on Mikel is not a bad thing as Oscar is rash with his tackling, should of given us the stability we needed for a game plan to push back.

[DYC. 7,542]

Popped over to Redcafe and I consistently see praise for Blind yet I thought he was their weak link yesterday? Lost the ball 4-5 times in really bad positions + lacks any sort of pace but positionally higher than average to make up for it.

Not seeing where the hype is, not just because im a blue!

Yeah, it's weird. He's a very decent player but he gets way too much credit. He's basically Utd's very own Arteta.

I can't believe he's the guy that is supposed to protect the back four. People give Utd's backline a lot of stick but their midfield is too easily passed by.

[thekid9 418]

Must say, was my first time at Old Trafford, and for all their talk.......It's a pretty shit stadium IMO, no real big atmosphere or anything, no big screens....

and as for their fans...they didn't even make a sound until they scored....They were like sitting statues!

there were 70,000 cockney accent's and in that ground and only 3,000 were chelsea fans!

[Kieran. 6,317]

I was so infuriated at that equaliser and celebration by RVP that I had to wait til today to post.

6 points clear of City with both Manchester away games out of the way, sucks that we're not 8 points clear but at least we're not celebrating a tie at home as if we won the Premier League.

[beyondinvisible 47]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2809469/Manchester-United-defenders-headlocked-Branislav-Ivanovic-corner-rages-Chelsea-captain-John-Terry.html

[calculatingInfinity 1,443]

Popped over to Redcafe and I consistently see praise for Blind yet I thought he was their weak link yesterday? Lost the ball 4-5 times in really bad positions + lacks any sort of pace but positionally higher than average to make up for it.

Not seeing where the hype is, not just because im a blue!

I think they are just over the moon having a semi competent central midfielder. Which he is, although not much more than that. But considering the rest of the rest of their players in that position, it doesn't surprise me they are very happy with him.

[petre.ispirescu 4,928]

The result itself isn't too bad. It's the repeating issue behind it that most (I assume) are annoyed by. Why do we sit back at 1-0 and give the opposition the momentum rather than dominating the game and killing them off? If we're going to go for a more defensive approach then surely it'd be better to press and harrass them all over the park instead of letting them create chances. Stop the attacks at source - don't rely on them missing chances and us being perfect defensively.

Naaaah, can't agree with that. Late goals are not about tactics, it's something else you know - bad luck, deconcentration etc., even pressure from your own head because it is inevitable not to think about the prospect of being equalized in the very last minute when you are defending the last set piece. I can assure you that every one of the Atletico Madrid players that was defending that set piece in Lisbon in May was thinking: "Man, we are screwed if those fuckers score now, just don't fuck this up now.".

There are all kinds of things going through your mind at that moment that have nothing to do with the tactics you used for the last 30 or 40 minutes. Chelsea allowed a goal in the last minute because of a poor defending of a set piece, not because of the tactics Jose chose to implement after he went one goal up.

But the question here should be - did that tactics stop Chelsea from scoring another one and kill the game? With that I can agree, but that's not important imo, the most important thing is the way City and United have celebrated these results in their own yard. It speaks volumes and it shows the stature of this club (Chelsea) right now and the direction this club is heading in. We are disspointed with a draw, they are happy with a point. Everyone is afraid of Jose and Chelsea, every single club in this country would take a draw before the game if offered. RVP and United's celebration was epic, it just shows what a draw against Chelsea means these days. The future is bright I can tell you.

[Whiskey 173]

Yes, poor refereeing but we could have and should have killed off the game. Had several chances to do so, for instance Hazard should have scored after that linkup play with Drogba. Really poor finishing.

With that said, we are still top of the league, still unbeaten and ahead of City. We are safe for now.

But yes, it both sucks and hurts not beating those scums!

[The Chels 2,502]

Some interesting analysis on MNF about the game. LVG ran our midfield ragged in the first half but Jose fixed it in the second half. Neville said we should've gone for the kill (like many of us have said) but he thinks it's more the players' mentality than Jose's, which is debatable.

[Special Juan 27,099]

I'm just delighted the positions we are in right now, we still look really good and I think a lot of all the debate is far too much over analysis.

[cosmicway 1,250]

Football is a game of chance.

What might have happened if there were 30 minutes left after their equalizer ?

All three possibilities had true chances, but more likely than not we were going to have a second.
You can eliminate chance only in the long term.

[Chelsea Legend 11 4,062]

in regards to the game Gary Nev put it perfect, we do not go for the neck, we sit at 1-0 in big games and hope for a counter attack, mistake or set piece to go 2-0 to kill it when we are in the ascendancy.

for the record he also said we were well in control of the match right up until the goal...

[Chelsea Legend 11 4,062]

So next big game we should just have our players shoot from 40 yards at every chance and our CBs to keep passing it between each other for as long as possible so that the stats show that we controlled the match by your definition? Because that is what united did for most of the second half.

Yes, you are control when you have the lead and your opponents are having zero chances to score. But any team can concede from set-pieces, especially after having a man sent off. You can never have 100% guarantees that you won't score you can only take the approach that gives you the highest likelihood of success and we did that.

hey man! the stats don't lie!!! Utd Dominated us in the second half!!!

hahahaha