closed Chelsea 0-0 Southampton

[Sideshow Luiz 2,310]

9 minutes ago, BlueLyon said:

Yup, I said before 

Im willing to stick with Sarri but so far its just not working. Jorginho would be victim of circumstances if he was dropped, but the real culprits would be board and Sarri. Either we should continue Conte football and bring 1,2 players or get Sarri that would require 6 new players. 

Now we play Sarriball, but without proper players. We need to get players that fit this style or drop Jorginho, Sarriball and do the best we can with current lot. With Sarri or without.

That said Sarriball would always take at least two seasons to make some noise. But the current state is beyond worrying. I expected we will have problems with results, but play wise I thought our attack will be way more fluid and our defense full of holes. Similar to Klopp in Pool. That way you can work things out eventually. With us however, there are so many problems that its hard to see benefits of Sarriball at all. Bottom line, even when Klopp had shit defense and kept losing, their team was showing promise when they pushed forward. Entertaining football. What do we have? Possession on possession with zero creativity and end product. Its like the worst possible football style. Even gold Mourinho or Conte ball was more interesting because oppont obliterated us, but we survived and won.

And the worst part is that we actualy played well in august and september. With the very same players. So its not just down to bringing new lb or striker. Why? IMO Jorginho isnt as influental, Hazard is not as good and Sarri doesnt rotate one bit. 

I think the drop off coincides with us playing twice a week, every week.  This team needs time on the training pitch which is why the play looks (and is) slow and ponderous in the final 3rd.  Decisions need to be made quicker and then the ball will be moved quicker.  There is a lack of runs off the ball and 3rd man runs which was the staple of Sarri's Napoli.  2 more mid week matches against Spurs is the last thing this club needs.  EL starts up again in February, IIRC. 

[Sideshow Luiz 2,310]

Not exactly dominant, but good enough for the win:

 

[robsblubot 3,222]

1 hour ago, Jason said:

Who's talking only about the squads? 

Think you are implicitly making an assumption about the squad. By suggesting that a diff manager, like guardiola, would rotate more and tweak things by using more of the players in the squad even players with different characteristics.

I am merely suggesting that sarri may think this, what he’s been doing, is as much tweaking he can possibly do with the squad at his disposal.

That he may think, for example, that some players are just not good enough at passing to play for him. Something that would be akin to guardiolas thinking.

besides sarri has already tweaked plenty esp defensively. We are far more difficult to break these days.

attacking is a different matter because we just lack quality up front and I consider hazard not the fittest of players, but that’s just my take on his inconsistency. 

[Stats 6,980]

58 minutes ago, Jason said:

JINX!

And few games ago, we were 11 (ELEVEN!) points clear of United. Now, only 6 and they're starting to bang in the goals!   Thankfully(?), they go to Spurs next...

I just knew it which is why I posted it. Turns out I was bang on. Seems that we enjoy this cat and mouse game and want a really close point gap until we play them later this month.

[ccheongf 211]

Jorghino is useless now tht everybody knows what he doing ? Chelsea lacks playmakers to open , create  scoring chances in front of the goal. Whats the point controlling ,kicking ,keeping the ball around. The ultimate result is goal.Players ddidnt run to spaces and no feeder of balls wjen palyers do so. So Chelase will still be kicking the ball round and round in the mid field and hoping to win matches.

[Unionjack 7,531]

2 hours ago, Sideshow Luiz said:

I think the drop off coincides with us playing twice a week, every week.  This team needs time on the training pitch which is why the play looks (and is) slow and ponderous in the final 3rd.  Decisions need to be made quicker and then the ball will be moved quicker.  There is a lack of runs off the ball and 3rd man runs which was the staple of Sarri's Napoli.  2 more mid week matches against Spurs is the last thing this club needs.  EL starts up again in February, IIRC. 

Cracks me up but wasn;t it only a week or 2 ago when Sarri said we have too many in our 25 man squad?

The number isbnt the problem - its the amount of crap players we have making that number up!

 

[cosmicway 1,252]

1 hour ago, ccheongf said:

Jorghino is useless now tht everybody knows what he doing ? Chelsea lacks playmakers to open , create  scoring chances in front of the goal. Whats the point controlling ,kicking ,keeping the ball around. The ultimate result is goal.Players ddidnt run to spaces and no feeder of balls wjen palyers do so. So Chelase will still be kicking the ball round and round in the mid field and hoping to win matches.

Just like under Jose.
Where is the "Sarri ball", or attempted "Sarri ball" ;
And if the opponent is as poor as Southampton was, then in 90 minutes one or two sort of chances will come up anyway.
I found myself drifting many times today as I was watching this match and thinking about other things.
The "boring-boring Chelsea" chant we were hearing many years ago.
This type of display is 100% the manager's fault.

[Sideshow Luiz 2,310]

7 minutes ago, Unionjack said:

Cracks me up but wasn;t it only a week or 2 ago when Sarri said we have too many in our 25 man squad?

The number isbnt the problem - its the amount of crap players we have making that number up!

 

Yup.  Look at our bench, no attacking players apart from RLC.  If Moses was healthy, that pretty much sums up what Sarri thinks of him.  Barkley improved a lot at the beginning of the season, but he seems to have stagnated, I hope that's related to our lack of practice time.  You or I have a better chance of making the match day squad than Drinkwater. 

[Unionjack 7,531]

2 minutes ago, Sideshow Luiz said:

Yup.  Look at our bench, no attacking players apart from RLC.  If Moses was healthy, that pretty much sums up what Sarri thinks of him.  Barkley improved a lot at the beginning of the season, but he seems to have stagnated, I hope that's related to our lack of practice time.  You or I have a better chance of making the match day squad than Drinkwater. 

Buddy a deaf,blind,mute omniped has a better chance of scoring than Morata or playing like the Waterboy!

[Sideshow Luiz 2,310]

6 minutes ago, Unionjack said:

Buddy a deaf,blind,mute omniped has a better chance of scoring than Morata or playing like the Waterboy!

Yes.  The bar for Morata has been set so low that just not falling over and not making anyone cry is seen as a pretty good game.  You were right back in the summer.  We don't have enough goals in the team.  I thought that Barkley or Kovacic would provide some and that Morata would be at least half decent (every other striker under Sarri scores for fun).  I was wrong.

[Unionjack 7,531]

1 minute ago, Sideshow Luiz said:

I thought that Barkley or Kovacic would provide some and that Morata would be at least half decent (every other striker under Sarri scores for fun).  I was wrong.

Mate I'm pretty sure we all HOPED it (and I still have high hopes for Kovacic - just not for giving us goals) and many jumped the gun and tried to convince themselves it was happening after the media started with the 'Next big thing in English football' headlines about them both. But that just shows the sorry state of our national team.

 

[Johnnyeye 7,414]

we just couldnt win could we? ffs another 2 points dropped at home, no end product at all, just so typical of us not closing the gap on Spurs and City and with United and Arsenal right on our tails 

[cosmicway 1,252]

Sarri ball:

About Sarri ball a description is given here:

https://www.goal.com/en-in/news/what-is-sarriball-how-chelseas-tactics-could-change-after/pqijnswg5x3x1lpvp5yulnab2

It says this:

The concept of 'Sarriball' – or 'Sarrismo' – is essentially a fast-paced, possession-based style of attacking football often likened to a

 vertical tiki-taka. Much like the style of play made famous by Pep Guardiola during his reign at Barcelona, Sarriball features short and quick passes designed to move play as far up the pitch as quickly as possible.

The new Chelsea boss builds upon this method through pushing the ball out from his back-line, and depends heavily on his defenders holding possession to begin the first instance of attacking threat. Sarri's defenders are the first instigators of the attack – as seen through his use of defender Kalidou Koulibaly at Napoli last season, whose passing and ball control was integral to the Italian side's push for the title.

Essentially, Sarriball is a method of high-pressing play (though not to be confused with Jurgen Klopp's gegenpressing) that forces defenders into making mistakes, which are then punished by the attack.

 

 

So the tiki taka passing is meant to confude the defenders so they leave a gap somewhere, for the attackers to exploit.
As such it's not something new.
It's what Jose Mourinho said he was going to do back in 2014 (and he did win the premier that year in fact).
So it's Mourinho ball !

It does n't work because our players bar Hazard are slow like Thames barges.
So the vertical tiki-taka more often than not becomes the safe pass backwards, as if we are playing to slow things down.
In addition when the gap is finally found, it's Morata at the receiving end who has managed to place himself in an offside position.
With some other players or with some other level of opposition it might work.
From all those systems, I prefer the Conte system, when we also had Diego Costa in the team.

[Jase 43,479]

7 hours ago, Robchels said:

Think you are implicitly making an assumption about the squad. By suggesting that a diff manager, like guardiola, would rotate more and tweak things by using more of the players in the squad even players with different characteristics.

I am merely suggesting that sarri may think this, what he’s been doing, is as much tweaking he can possibly do with the squad at his disposal.

That he may think, for example, that some players are just not good enough at passing to play for him. Something that would be akin to guardiolas thinking.

besides sarri has already tweaked plenty esp defensively. We are far more difficult to break these days.

attacking is a different matter because we just lack quality up front and I consider hazard not the fittest of players, but that’s just my take on his inconsistency. 

No, you assumed that I was talking about the squad based on a previous discussion. Was mainly talking about Sarri's tactics, formation etc in this instance, as seen in my subsequent reply to OneMoSalah. 

[petre.ispirescu 4,928]

I agree with Jason I think we're the victims of our glory at this point. We cannot wait for every single manager to work miracles. There is nothing wrong with Sarri, just needs to be given time and players to suit his style. And frankly we're not idiots to judge him after half a season, we're better than that I like to think! 

If you think about it - remember Guardiola in his first season at City he finished I think 13 or 14 points behind Chelsea and had to sweat big time for a top 4 finish that season. It was down the tee and they would have (miss the top 4) if it wasn't for that stupid match Liverpool drew 0-0 at home I can't remember against whom though. 

Klopp - 8th in his first season, 4th in his second and 4th in his third. Now frankly as much as I hate them bloody scousers they really look like the real deal, first team to look that solid in all the areas since Chelsea in Mourinho's first stint. 

It's all a process and Sarri must be given time and resources, otherwise we'll scrap for top 4 finish for a long long time from now on. If the boards not ready to pump big money into the team at least I hope they ask Sarri of some players, maybe he can find the new Koulibaly, Mertens etc. 

[Special Juan 27,103]

From not wanting a striker to now saying he needs more up front, and he wasn't talking about effort by the way.

And his comments on Pulisic tell me exactly what I have thought for years, this club buy who they think is right and not what the manager thinks.

[robsblubot 3,222]

58 minutes ago, Jason said:

No, you assumed that I was talking about the squad based on a previous discussion. Was mainly talking about Sarri's tactics, formation etc in this instance, as seen in my subsequent reply to OneMoSalah. 

Perhaps that's what you meant, but I don't know how else to interpret this:

Quote

All for backing the manager. But backing a manager who isn't willing to change things that aren't working, is stubborn and rigid in the way he does things? That's highly questionable. People talk about City, Spurs, Liverpool...thing is while Guardiola, Klopp, Pochettino have their way of playing, they are at least flexible.

I was replying to the bolded points. My point remains that he cannot be flexible with the squad he has: he's using the players who can best carry out his ideas. Some of the players folks here want him to give minutes to just don't have the technique (as in passing) to play in that system. Possession is working. It provides defensive solidity and is still improving making us more difficult to break.

The team lacks attacking quality and there is little Sarri can do about that. Short of moving Alonso to striker position, which would be a huge gamble on its own (and then buying a new technical LB), the club needs to go shopping.

[Stats 6,980]

9 hours ago, Jason said:

JINX!

And few games ago, we were 11 (ELEVEN!) points clear of United. Now, only 6 and they're starting to bang in the goals!   Thankfully(?), they go to Spurs next...

Saying that, I will be backing United against Spurs. If United win and we win, we close the gap to Spurs to one point. Id it is a draw and we win Newcastle, it is 2 points so yes, will defo be backing United.