Good performances vs. Good results

[stroey 2,525]

Nobody's right or wrong except me, so idk why there needs to be such vivacious defending of one's own opinion on this topic, but that said & sticking to the tune, my opinion is that I watch sport to be entertained - not to have satisfaction at the final numbers like "2-1" or whatever. Numbers don't mean shit, to me, I'm watching football and not a math lecture; and celebrating some math, which is what you're doing when you go "Yipeeeee!!!! 6 points ahead of City!!! Doesn't matter how we played!!!", seems bonkers to me.

It really just boils down to personality types which is why there's going to be no conclusion here & just endless opinions.

P.S. - If it's just the winning and the results that matter, what the fuck are you staring at a screen or sitting on a cold hard seat for 90 minutes for? Just check Yahoo results after the game if how a team plays isn't important to you, or check the highlights on MOTD if all that matters is the goals banged in at the end of the day.

That's what I do when I watch neutral matches like Barca VS Real, or Brazil VS Argentina in the worldcup. When it comes to Chelsea, all I care is winning. When it comes to Chelsea I'm a Chelsea fan, not a football or sports fan.

[kellzfresh 7,226]

:rant:

[Special Juan 27,103]

We've spent more than enough money to expect both.

A post that says it all, absolute spot on.

[coolhead23 1,146]

Balance of the both but performance is what is going make everyone stand and notice.

Someone mentioned above about the way we played under Ancelotti and I completely agree with.

We arent doing justice to the kind of quality we have at our disposal, teams have started to read us out, there isnt an element of surprise which will make the opposition thinking what's coming next.

We are more focussed on getting the title under our belt (get the goal and then defend) than performance. Not saying we dont want titles but now we need to get a style going for us.

[zolayes 14,489]

We've spent more than enough money to expect both.

I think that might be what Roman is thinking as well

[Laylabelle 9,296]

Both be nice.obviously rather results but still should be capable

[Blue Colored Sky 1,807]

Football is as about entertainment as is about winning.

But nothing beats winning in style, when you really put a stamp on your opponent with your approach and style of play.

Winning in style is like 10 times better for me than grinding out results, scrappy goals etc. It's a huge, huge difference.

If I was only interested in winning I'd be gloryhunter ...

I didn't start to follow Chelsea because we were winning, no I started because we had a players like Lampard, Gallas, Gronjkaer, Joe Cole, Gudjohnsen which I started to like very much. Because they looked good on the pitch, not good on teletext ...

Though regarding remaining of the season, I don't care anymore how we will win this shit. 1 goal more than opponent every match with a decider from questionable set-piece would do for me.

But next season I won't accept that at all. Hope that win this season really put a platform to sign awesome players to play awesome football for majority of the next season.

[BlueLyon 9,359]

I think our biggest problem is our response after we take the lead. If we had better strategy, we would win about 10 more games by now.

We were always good in keeping leads, but this season, its kinda disastrous. And the sad thing is that Mourinho or the players had the exact same tactic in that away game vs city few months ago and recently against psg for example. Not a single improvement or whatsoever to maintain the lead and win the game.

Also the tactical approach in games we dont need to win bothers me. For example if we lost vs psg this season or atletico last season, we would put top performance in second leg (like against psg last season). But we got those decieving away goal draws and performed terribly, condsidering we have Mourinho who is tactical expert. You burn once, but not twice and Mou should know better how to play vs PSG. There was also absolutely no excuse about tiredness, becuase we had free week and psg played TWO games in that time.

Mou certainly shouldnt leave, he made more improvement over any other coach we had recently, but he should improve.

[bluephoenix 1,125]

Also loved the way we played under Ancelotti in the double winning season. That team had no pace or natural talent like our current one but it still beat every opposition by sheer quality, power, determination and character. Drogba, Lampard well above 30 y.o. and still banging in goals for fun was a joy to watch. That team had three aspects we are direly missing these days: accuracy ,hunger and focus. We scored some team goals that season Barcelona in their pomp would have been proud of. That interplay esp between the Drog-Lamps axis was a joy to watch. It was no tiki-taka which is by the way not what I understand as "good performances".

Beautiful football does not come from "philosophy", it derives from quality that is channelled by complementary tactics and teamwork. Which is exactly what we should learn from the double season. We did not need a Hazard to dribble past 4 players. It came down to the approach. Get your determination and spirit high and play as good as you can, always give it your best effort, play to your strengths, never lose confidence or concentration. The way you play should be functional. When you play functionally and with the qualities listed it will look easy on the eye automatically without having to give it that artificial "tiki taka2 pimping.

What was also remarkable about the football played under Ancelotti was its honesty. We were not nice like arsenal but bravely standin gup for ourselves, never giving in, ruthlessly finishing off our chances to get the result the game deserved. We were clinical but at the same time fair. No gamesmanship. We won because our approach was pure. Teamwork, confidence, focus, accuracy, effort, determination - for me those attributes represent, define football.

We should go back to the roots and concentrate on that. Within all those "clear campaign" mini-battles, the constant reshuffling of the team, the fatigue, the siege-mentality, I sometimes feel the players have lost clear sight on what football really is about. Recover that and we should be fine, cos we got it in us what it takes to win titles.

+1.

[Stingray 9,441]

Its like sex. The (male) point is an orgasm (and procreation/reproduction) from an evolutionary point). However, it gets a bit boring when its the missionary in a dark bedroom all the time.

Time for some reverse cowgirl, doggy style stuff, i say! [emoji16][emoji7][emoji16]

[BlueLion. 21,491]

Imagine if we were Man City and we weren't performing and we weren't getting results! Be thankful for what you have!

It makes me laugh how Sky are going all Billy Big Bollocks about Liverpool's 13 game unbeaten streak. Sure, it's a tremendous feat and they're doing great. But the nonsense about "if the league started at Christmas, we'd be top" is laughable. "Oooh look, we've got ten more points than Chelsea in the last 13 games". So what? We got about 20 more than them in the games prior to that.

My point is this - you can play gorgeous football and win matches. But can you do it over the course of a whole season? Its very, very difficult. There have been patches this season where we looked unstoppable, playing good football and scoring some sexy goals. But Liverpool, City, Arsenal, even United have had those same little patches over the course of the campaign so far. Nobody has done it consistently this season and I think that links, in part, to the fact that the PL is as competitive as its ever been. Be off your game for even 45 minutes and you will be punished, as City found out at the weekend.

Good results breed confidence, and confidence leads to improved performances. We've not quite got the results recently, and having also been knocked out of the UCL it is little surprise we're close to running on empty psychologically. A fault of Jose's is his relative lack of rotation, which again means we're running on empty from a physical point of view. But get one or two wins on the bounce and things will look a little rosier.

After going four years without a league title, I wouldn't mind if we 0-0'd and 1-0'd our way to the title this season, I really wouldn't. I can understand that people want to see more bang for their buck, but let's just win this league title, and next year let's try and defend it by playing some sexy football.

[tiby2979 175]

The ideal is to have a balance between good performances and results, but if i can only choose one: results.

But something that people should understand is that a good performance and dominate the opponent does not mean only have the possession and pressing up. Thinking this is a very serious mistake of people that have a limited view of football. You can have a good performance, parking the bus, if you defend well and create many chances to score through counterattacks. Unfortunately it is what we have lacked this season, we parked the bus without good defense and without counterattacks.

[bluephoenix 1,125]

After going four years without a league title, I wouldn't mind if we 0-0'd and 1-0'd our way to the title this season, I really wouldn't. I can understand that people want to see more bang for their buck, but let's just win this league title, and next year let's try and defend it by playing some sexy football.

But don't you think that has been the attitude for 4 years now ? If I am not wrong last season we had a good chance of keeping a lead and winning the league but we squandered it !

Why postpone some thing for tomorrow when it can be done right away ?

I mean what do you think would change from now and winning the title and later playing sexy football ? I doubt we are going to have a major over haul in terms of buying and selling players that the start of new season we will be any more promising than what it is right now. In fact if we win this way I think there is no way Jose is going to change the way we play. He would just say " it worked for us last season, we are champions and no one else is !"

[BlueLyon 9,359]

But don't you think that has been the attitude for 4 years now ? If I am not wrong last season we had a good chance of keeping a lead and winning the league but we squandered it !

Why postpone some thing for tomorrow when it can be done right away ?

I mean what do you think would change from now and winning the title and later playing sexy football ? I doubt we are going to have a major over haul in terms of buying and selling players that the start of new season we will be any more promising than what it is right now. In fact if we win this way I think there is no way Jose is going to change the way we play. He would just say " it worked for us last season, we are champions and no one else is !"

It works in league because opponents are relatively shit.

It doesnt work in CL. It didnt work last year and it didnt work this year. While we got far last year, I think we could put better performance against atletico. This year, we lost in 1/8, something we rarely did in past.

And we might play similar style to that one from 2004-07, but the efficiency and tactics are alot worse than back then.

My ONLY real question is; why buying players like Cesc, Willian, Cuadrado etc if we will never use them properly. If Mou wont change to more offensive, then he should target physical, efficient players, not lightweighters with flair. Logic fails me here.

[Myself 793]

Imagine if we were Man City and we weren't performing and we weren't getting results! Be thankful for what you have!

It makes me laugh how Sky are going all Billy Big Bollocks about Liverpool's 13 game unbeaten streak. Sure, it's a tremendous feat and they're doing great. But the nonsense about "if the league started at Christmas, we'd be top" is laughable. "Oooh look, we've got ten more points than Chelsea in the last 13 games". So what? We got about 20 more than them in the games prior to that.

My point is this - you can play gorgeous football and win matches. But can you do it over the course of a whole season? Its very, very difficult. There have been patches this season where we looked unstoppable, playing good football and scoring some sexy goals. But Liverpool, City, Arsenal, even United have had those same little patches over the course of the campaign so far. Nobody has done it consistently this season and I think that links, in part, to the fact that the PL is as competitive as its ever been. Be off your game for even 45 minutes and you will be punished, as City found out at the weekend.

Good results breed confidence, and confidence leads to improved performances. We've not quite got the results recently, and having also been knocked out of the UCL it is little surprise we're close to running on empty psychologically. A fault of Jose's is his relative lack of rotation, which again means we're running on empty from a physical point of view. But get one or two wins on the bounce and things will look a little rosier.

After going four years without a league title, I wouldn't mind if we 0-0'd and 1-0'd our way to the title this season, I really wouldn't. I can understand that people want to see more bang for their buck, but let's just win this league title, and next year let's try and defend it by playing some sexy football.

Nobody is asking for that though. That's an unrealistic expectation, an impossible feat. What we're asking for is that we at least try to play nice football. We've parked the bus against EVERY big team this season (bar Everton, or Arsenal if they count ), and for the last few months we haven't attacked well against even the Leicester's and QPR's of the league.

Another big thing that people don't always take into consideration from their armchairs (no offence intended, I also watch most Chelsea games from my sofa ) is how the match going fans feel. People that cough up thousands of dollars, travel thousands of miles to watch their team play. How do you think the fans at Stamford Bridge felt after the game at PSG? And then getting shit on fans on the tube on their way back home? Spending likely 150+ to watch us not be able to pass a ball 10 damn feet?

There's a reason our best attacking players have seriously declined since January. For the last few games, our main outlet of goals has been set pieces. Yes, it's understandable considering we've got monsters in the air, but when you've got genuine world class players like Costa and Hazard in your team its very dissapointing.

As for the second point, don't you think we'd already have that confidence, that boost, if we hadn't seriously lowered our attacking expectations? If you look at our results list this season, I'm sure you'll notice we've scored more and conceded less in the first half of the season.

Food for thought, that's all.