closed Man Utd 2-1 Chelsea

[El P. 1,354]

Morata should have been benched either on HT or from the start. Conte should have reacted. There's no way back for Alvaro.

[Amblève. 4,995]

7 minutes ago, manpe said:

We used to enjoy lots of success with variations of 4-3-3 before and we never were a possession-based team.

We definitely were. Not like the Barcelona teams a few years ago mind you but our ball possession and circulation in midfield was one of the keys for us winning every competition. Lampard, Ballack, Essien, Mikel, and even part-time players for us like Deco and Belletti were comfortable in possession and could keep the ball for days if need be.

[Azpinator 2,325]

59 minutes ago, milan.cech said:

Taking off Eden Hazard. Serves us fucking right.

 

57 minutes ago, milan.cech said:

We have to enjoy the game in Barcelona. The last CL game for some time.

 

53 minutes ago, milan.cech said:

At least no nerve wrecking season finale for us. We know we are out of the Top 4 and playing for Europa League is exciting as fuck.

 

51 minutes ago, milan.cech said:

Losing to a weak, weak Man United team that were there for taking. Taking off Eden Hazard served us fucking right.

 

49 minutes ago, milan.cech said:

wowowow all hail the masterclass from MR. MOURINHO!

Is this second Christmas or what? We gifted Barcelona with that 1-1 draw and very nearly a qualification to next round. Today we gifted Man United with a victory. So generous from us!!!!

 

45 minutes ago, milan.cech said:

Say goodbye to Top 4 and Champions League football. Officially. But hey, we have plans for a new stadium!

 

41 minutes ago, milan.cech said:

Thursday nights next season. See you there.

 

39 minutes ago, milan.cech said:

It took some effort to lose to Man United today. It looked like they were happy with a draw. But taking off Hazard served us fucking right.

 

37 minutes ago, milan.cech said:

And don't forget - Man City away next weekend!

Today was the D-Day for me. We lost it completely and I made peace with finishing outside the CL spots. Sadly.

How many more of theses are you going to post? It's pretty annoying.

[Magic Lamps 11,446]

I said it before and will say it again. It was right to introduce the back 3 back then, now it is the right time to ditch it. We are not going anywhere with 5 defenders. Surrender midfield because we are most shit there and load the attack. Will this leave us exposed? Most probably but heck. No manager ever should be hailed a defensive tactics master when all he does is loading the defense with players. Any team in the league can do that. Great defensive tactics is assuring maximum protection with a minimum loss of creativity and offensive output. We are not scoring enough. That has been a consistent problem under Conte, even when we won the league. You can always lag the odd goal because of a defensive error or a just bad luck. That happens whether you have 1 or 6 defenders. But we could have scored more here and we could have score more vs Barca. In those training videos you always see the players scoring free shots on a mini pitch. What I would like to see us is training the players scoring after a lung-busting 60 yard run, on the stretch, between three defenders with one contact in minimum time and in no space at all. Or how to fucking play out a counter without hitting the defender with every pass. This requires loads of practics and we have been shit at that all season.

[Jase 43,479]

Think we can all sit down here and point the finger at Conte, the officials etc for all the shit stuff they did but what today's game has proven again is that this team just doesn't have players with strong character and mentality like we had in the past. Every time when the going gets tough, this team can easily get turned over. We've seen it so many times this season alone. Whenever our previous team - with Cech, Terry, Lampard, Drogba etc - were in trouble during matches, do you think the manager always came up with tactical solutions? No. The players were always ready to get stuck in and made sure we get some kind of result at the end. This lot? Meh. Imagine them going through our 2011/12 Champions League run. Would have ended up losing 10-1 in every single game!

[Strike 6,958]

It's a weird loss to take. Not much wrong apart from the goal conceded in the first half. Completely dropped off in the second. 

Have to question Conte about the Hazard substitution when the game was 1-1. Did the same vs Arsenal. 

[sainttourist 68]

this is quintessence of Mourinho football. A win. Still believe we move ahead in two years with Conte. Bad summer bite us every time. No way we lose this with Costa and Matic, who was mom to me.

[El P. 1,354]

Problem is - in the first 45 minutes the feeling was like we could win it, like we should win it. Like we were better side, and only bad finishing is separating us from a win. And after Morata went on that solo run and ruined it, I lost hope, I believe players did too.

I would really like to run psychological analyse on effect that so many clear misses and fuck ups by main striker has on team spirit and confidence.

Other problems are "normal" - Alonso being slow, Christy being inexperienced, Drinkwater being average. We are used to that and we have no better options really.

I will be really pissed at Conte if Morata starts next week. Really soar taste after this loss.

[Riquelme 4]

It's crazy to see Moses in space so many times and most of the time going for crash test with the defender when a pass earlier is better, has no composure in final third. Also thought Hazard was two yards off pace, but it's crazy how after the changes it was even worse, unable to keep the ball in midfield.

[OneMoSalah 8,611]

44 minutes ago, Jason said:

Think we can all sit down here and point the finger at Conte, the officials etc for all the shit stuff they did but what today's game has proven again is that this team just doesn't have players with strong character and mentality like we had in the past. Every time when the going gets tough, this team can easily get turned over. We've seen it so many times this season alone. Whenever our previous team - with Cech, Terry, Lampard, Drogba etc - were in trouble during matches, do you think the manager always came up with tactical solutions? No. The players were always ready to get stuck in and made sure we get some kind of result at the end. This lot? Meh. Imagine them going through our 2011/12 Champions League run. Would have ended up losing 10-1 in every single game!

Drogba played shit almost the whole season in 2011-12 but when it came to the big crunch, games against Napoli, Barca, Bayern, where we needed to do something, he did something. He was the ultimate big game player who had that mentality, ok I only need one chance, remember watching the CL final, some point after he scored that header we got a freekick about 40 yards out, he was like fuck it I'm having this, fair enough he punted it about 10 feet over the bar but he came alive in big moments in games. We've not got enough guys like that and it is frightening because you could always associate Chelsea with having that, big game players, maybe we'd be playing poorly but you knew we always had a chance because Drogba would dig you out of a hole, or Lampard would, or Terry would etc.

Not going to lie Matic was huge for them today, he was everywhere, we could of done with a bit of that to help Kante out. 

[BXL70 395]

I haven't watched the game. But I understand negative tactics again from Conte, and Hazard, our best player, was substituted.

Certainly, Conte got it wrong. But tbh, our team is not as good as last year: Matic was replaced by ... no-one (certainly not that fraud of Bakayoko, is he even a professional player? Drinklager or whoever else? Be serious/) and our world-class striker Diego Costa was replaced by .... another fraud: Morata who demonstrated why he was benched everywhere he was playing before. 

Our starting XI has lost 2 key players. We should have spent to buy at least 2 additional world class players. We now pay the price for all of these mistakes. 

 

[Tomo 21,681]

1 hour ago, Jason said:

Think we can all sit down here and point the finger at Conte, the officials etc for all the shit stuff they did but what today's game has proven again is that this team just doesn't have players with strong character and mentality like we had in the past. Every time when the going gets tough, this team can easily get turned over. We've seen it so many times this season alone. Whenever our previous team - with Cech, Terry, Lampard, Drogba etc - were in trouble during matches, do you think the manager always came up with tactical solutions? No. The players were always ready to get stuck in and made sure we get some kind of result at the end. This lot? Meh. Imagine them going through our 2011/12 Champions League run. Would have ended up losing 10-1 in every single game!

These same spinless players that won two titles under extreme pressure? And the previous lot had some embarrassing big game results after Jose left.

[Alabama 1,992]

11 minutes ago, BXL70 said:

I haven't watched the game. But I understand negative tactics again from Conte, and Hazard, our best player, was substituted.

Certainly, Conte got it wrong. But tbh, our team is not as good as last year: Matic was replaced by ... no-one (certainly not that fraud of Bakayoko, is he even a professional player? Drinklager or whoever else? Be serious/) and our world-class striker Diego Costa was replaced by .... another fraud: Morata who demonstrated why he was benched everywhere he was playing before. 

Our starting XI has lost 2 key players. We should have spent to buy at least 2 additional world class players. We now pay the price for all of these mistakes. 

 

not only that...our stubborn manager keeps playing the same formation when we clearly lacks quality wing backs..

[cfcs most wanted 657]

Let's just blame this on the players because that's too easy, the same players were playing so well in the first half, so what happened in the second? Mentality didn't change tactics did. I'm a fan of whatever Conte has done with this team, but give criticism where it's due, and it certainly isn't for the players, there was no reason to change tactics when you were playing well and we were in full Control

[Jase 43,479]

2 minutes ago, Tomo said:

These same spinless players that won two titles under extreme pressure? And the previous lot had some embarrassing big game results after Jose left.

Yes, I am aware of that. 2010/11 comes to mind, for instance. But on a whole, you would the trust the previous lot more to get stuck in and get a result when the going gets tough, no? This lot only seem to do it when it's against Spurs!

[BXL70 395]

Morata was really supposed to be an improvement on Diego Costa?

[Tomo 21,681]

12 minutes ago, Jason said:

Yes, I am aware of that. 2010/11 comes to mind, for instance. But on a whole, you would the trust the previous lot more to get stuck in and get a result when the going gets tough, no? This lot only seem to do it when it's against Spurs!

Wasn't the going tough in the run in to the 2015 title? And even last year to an externt. 2015 especially you could visably tell the players were exhausted and running on empty yet kept getting those results. Funnily enough they have made lighter work of it twice than our last team did in 2010.

Do i think they are as strong as the last bunch? No, but you don't piss two titles with a bunch of pussycats, especially given we were up against (on paper) superior sides.

[edetarod 2,155]

horrendous season, thank fuck it's almost over

roll on the world cup