chrismada9

I miss our boring football... because at least we knew how to defend and keep the ball! Every time we use the high line tactic, we're as good at defending as I am wearing a clown suit and riding a unicycle!!

What the fuck is our defence playing at... we can't fucking defend!

We got opened up there!! De Bruyne could have easily placed that around Cech because he was in soo much space! Genk look a lot more threatening now...

very poor from Torres there, just gets completely outnumbered...

second half now underway!!

Half time... 1-0 Chelsea... Ramires scores, Meireles hits the bar, Luiz misses a penalty.. should really be 3-0

promising free kick for Genk here... :unsure:

Torres has never taken a penalty during his time in England... not even for Liverpool... and Anelka is shit at them anyway, so someone had to take it...

Oh for fucks sake why did Luiz take it?? That was piss poor... *sigh*

PENALTY CHELSEA!!

Meireles off the bar!! What a strike...

I can't fault Romeu at the moment... he is just pure class!

Decent shot from Torres there! Only wide though...

GET IN THERE RAMBO!! Sorry I haven't posted in this thread yet, I'm here now!

I agree...

Great post... and it's just as I was trying to explain earlier about how bad it is for the club trying to chop and change managers, resulting in different philosophies! It's not good for the players who try and develop their game which resolves around one strategy conducted by the manager. Ferguson and Wenger have drummed their philosophies into their United and Arsenal squads respectively for many years now, so they're used to it. All we seem to do is change manager when the one we have fails to win trophies... then rinse and repeat... it's not good for our players, and, more often than not, it slows down their development. No wonder our youth policy has deteriated over the years!

welcome to the forums dude!

AVB needs to learn from his mentor Mourinho! I mean, FFS it was Mourinho who started the so-called "boring and patient" football with us in the first place, surely he has some idea of the philosophy that he interpreted from that!

Amen!

Our defenders are the right sort, it's the idea of a high defensive line that's the problem. AVB needs to understand that you don't go into matches against big clubs with a high defensive line because you are going to get caught out. I seem to notice that, particularly in home matches. Every time the opposition attack, we look sixes and sevens at the back and there's so much space for them to pick one of their team-mates out for a pop at goal. Patience is the key. We've been so successful in matches where we have played a patient passing game, and making the opposition feel tired trying to take the ball away from us. We benefitted that from our days under Mourinho, and during Carlo's first tenure as manager where we won the league. It may not have been free-flowing football we had coughed up, but free-flowing football doesn't mean anything if you're winning trophies! But, this season under AVB, rather than playing our usual patient game, we've been the complete opposite. We get to a stage where we have so many players going forward, trying to make quick decisions a la Malouda/Kalou/Drogba that doesn't materialise because they are being pressured, then suddenly in a split second, we get caught on the break... I'm not just talking about Arsenal here... there have been many times where the opposition have been swimming around in space inside our half because either our marking is terrible, or our defensive line is too advanced. I honestly think AVB needs to understand the ideas of patient football, because that's what the vast majority of our players are used to!

He was giving the examples of what people say, just because he didn't mention those terms you mentioned doesn't mean to say they're ones that don't apply! I'm sure those terms are applicable to what LDN Blue was trying to say!

Try explaining that to the Chelsea board!

We're always lucky in Blackburn away matches! I seem to remember last season to be exact when they took the game to us early on and we could have easily been 3-0 down in 15 minutes! Now that we've lost to QPR and Arsenal back to back I'm not taking out of form sides lightly anymore!

Pretty hard to make that a reality when you know he's signed a new deal recently... :unsure:

Planning to make changes within the team is only winning half the battle. The other half is going out on the pitch and actually making it count... and if they can't do that, then we've got problems... but petty things like this can only be solved through careful strategy, which is paid off through time! Slating the manager and wanting him out is just childish and unimaginative... it speaks volumes about the sort of person that they are... they're not Chelsea fans, but instead glory hunters, and I have no time for them!