The Chels

Atletico 4-0 Real Madrid: their fourth win over them this season and it was complete domination - 17 shots to 4, and Real didn't create a single clear-cut chance. Simeone .It makes you really appreciate Barcelona's attacking talents (especially Messi) when they manage to beat this Atleti side 3 times in one month.

Not even simple questions like 'Jose, do you think Liverpol were able to bypass your team's pressing a bit too easily today?' or 'You managed to overload the left wing many times in today's game with Luis playing at LB [...]'? Surely they could be a bit more adventurous with what they ask (in the post match conferences at least) without getting banned.

could definitely imagine 'Arry doing that. I agree that they'd get nothing from Jose before a game but I don't think he'd be as relcutant to discuss tactics when the game's done. He used to in Italy I believe but the journalists here ask such dull, repetitive questions.

Even worse in that case. I wonder whether we were actually watching the same player/matches.

Haha right...If you say so, ESPN.

True. I wish they'd ask tactical questions or more daring ones instead of the same old dross.

This one

If we were in for somebody else Di Marzio et al would already be on it. We're almost certainly done.

Oscar obviously didn't write that himself. Great tweet though.

It is. https://twitter.com/GuillemBalague/status/562312447181484035

I don't think sitting back is such a bad idea if done properly but when we do it the defensive shape tends to be poor, the defending is completely passive and we essentially invite the opposition close to our box against our error-prone defenders. If we had 2 clear banks of four with all the spaces controlled and the front players pressed the opposition as soon as they got into our half then our defending in these games would rely less on individual ability (and hence fewer costly individual errors) and more on the system - which is how it should be. Hazard failed in his role, granted. But as a winger who isn't good defensively and who had just returned from injury, he should not have been given that role. Jose would have been well aware of the importance of FBs in Atletico's game and yet he somehow expected Hazard to single-handedly carry our entire attack and nullify the opposition attack by tracking the opposition FB relentlessly, all the way back into our box. Personally I consider this a tactical oversight on Jose's part which the opposition manager and team fully exploited (which does tend to happen to him very often in CL SFs...) while you consider it all Hazard's fault and I find that surprising.

If we had 8-9 players behind the ball and were compact with an initial press starting as soon as they got into our half (didn't have to be particularly aggressive) then there's no way they'd have been allowed to waltz so easily into our box like they did. Yes we might still have conceded but it would have reduced the chances and that's what football is all about - manipulating the probabilities in your favour. Take the Atletico home game last year: I assume you would just blame Hazard for 2 of the 3 goals we conceded because he switched off. Personally I would also look at the manager because it was he who was responsible for assigning a not-so-defensively-diligent winger the role of tracking a dangerous FB all the way back into our box and thus allowed for that individual error to be a big possibility. The bottom line is mistakes will happen regardless of the system, but I don't think that our current system (especially when we take the lead) gives us the best opportunity for those mistakes not to be costly. I feel like a broken record moaning about Mourinho's tactics so I'll happily agree to disagree with you on this one!

Hmm I still disagree. Against City, for example, why were they allowed to progress so far into our half and all the way into our box? When that happens it's inevitable that individual mistakes would prove costly. Schurrle/Ivanovic were obviously at fault but who is responsible for allowing that to happen, for deciding not to press a 10-man team and keep them as far away from our box as possible? The system/manager.

Of course it's natural that we lose the lead on occasions but it has happened a lot this season - too many times for it just to be a coincidence. If you look back at why we have conceded the lead in all the games we have, you will obviously find an individual mistake but they usually come as a result of a bigger issue. For example: City away - sitting too deep against 10 men, United - sitting too deep, Tottenham - huge spaces in the midfield. Personally I don't agree with always completely dissolving the system and the manager of blame when individual errors take place.

Apologies. Misinterpreted what you said & have edited my comment.

You would surely expect a team like Chelsea to overturn deficits, especially against teams of the quality you mention (we shouldn't lose the lead in the first place). You would not expect us to consistently lose 1-0 leads in the big games, however.

I like Koke but doubt he will leave Atletico any time soon.

Haha the first suggestion (Azpi-Luis & Cuadrado-Willian) is somewhat crazy I admit, but I think the second one (Luis-Willian & Azpi-Cuadrado) could work really well if we wanted to play defensively in a certain game. The opposition would have no joy from our wings as all 4 players are good at defending and they'd then have to go through the middle which we would obviously pack. Azpi, Cuadrado, Luis and Willian are are also all very pacy and proactive defensively meaning we could start a lot of counterattacks through overloading and pressing high against the opposition fullback/winger. It's obviously never going to happen but I like to dream

CL is still a possibility.

Imagine a right wing of Cuadrado-Willian and left wing of Azpi-Luis (or Azpi-Cuadrado & Luis-Willian - whatever variation with Hazard playing CAM). We'd be so defensively solid on the wings that it would essentially force the opposition to go through the middle where we could set up pressing traps. I'd love to see that but it will obviously never happen.

The throw-in decision is being used as an excuse but in reality they didn't exactly take it quickly, we had time to reorganise and nothing came from it directly. A poor decision from the officials but that goal is all on the players.

The 04/05 side was exceptional defensively but you don't need to be that good to maintain a lead. If we simply get plenty of numbers behind the ball, kill the spaces and play on the counter-attack when we go ahead against the big teams then the chances of us winning would obviously increase. I don't know why but we definitely have difficulties doing this - we seem to often continue playing as though it is 0-0 and look defensively open or we don't look to play on the counter attack and kill the game, instead sitting too deep. This season we've taken the lead against City (x2), United and Tottenham and ended up with only 3 points. That should not happen to a big team and I don't agree with your argument that we can't do it because we have creative players like Cesc/Hazard. Apart from them the rest of the team is definitely composed of more defensive and workmanlike players for whom defending a 1-0 lead should be easier than they've made out this season. Remember the second half performance against Tottenham at home - we had a clear defensive shape and played well on the counter attack. We don't see that enough though.

I think there is a lot to talk about with respect to Jose's set-up and philosophy for the big games but the single biggest issue is surely our inability to maintain 1-0 leads. If we were able to do that then towards the end of last season we would have beat Sunderland and probably won the PL, and we would have beat Atletico to reach the CL final. This year we'd have 9 points more in the league and would still be in the FA Cup. I know it is impossible to always maintain a 1-0 lead but such a lead should be a big advantage - it allows us to defend with numbers and play on the counter attack against a side that becomes more desperate to score and leaves more spaces for us to exploit. We often score first in the most important games but don't seem able to take advantage and often end up conceding without reply.

The defenders are excellent talents and France also has the the likes of Pogba, Griezmann, Schniederlin, Benzema and Lacazette. We should go for more French players and fewer Brazilian ones!