MrExcalibur100

Just to throw this out there. One of Fabregas' weak points is that he doesn't have the close control and balls skills of a Modric, Iniesta, Gundogan or Xavi. It's sometimes difficult for him when the opposition gets in his face and puts pressure on him. Add that to his lack of quickness, it becomes a problem for him to shake off his marker. This is usually more apparent against higher quality sides who are far superior tactically to the smaller teams.

Neil Ashton is reporting that Costa's hamstring problem will eventually need surgery and when it's done, he could be out for 6 weeks. He doesn't need to have it now though. http://www.nbcsports.com/soccer/premier-league/diego-costa-some-point-will-need-hamstring-surgery

That says it all really. Jose needs to understand that this team isn't built to defend a lead against top teams despite our strong defense. It's not like the 2004-05 /2005-06 teams. We have too many flair, technically gifted players who aren't used to sitting back and holding a lead. Hazard, Willian, Fabregas, Oscar even. You could say we were unlucky with the foul vs Man United, but against City, no way we should have been defending deep when they had only 10 men. In the 2nd half vs Arsenal, we also sat back at home and waited on the counter, but they didn't have the quality to score against us. Jose needs to show he can make the team more proactive when we have the lead vs the top sides. Real Madrid vs Liverpool didn't sit back vs Barcelona until the final 10 mins and that was with a 2 goal cushion. Against Liverpool, they kept on trying to score more goals. I think this is a very fair and legitimate criticism of some of Mourinho's tactics.

It's likely he didn't get his head up in time to see the run after he had made that dribble.

He actually does that a lot. Messing up the weight of his ground passes.

What an absurd statement. Some Chelsea fans. SMH.

Maybe. High press, AM with more defensive duty and all, but it can work if Hazard alternates roles without the ball. The system is fluid enough to accommodate Reus. Apart from Hazard, I just feel that the other wingers and attacking midfielders flatter to deceive one time too many times. The difference in quality between him and them is staggering sometimes, they're not on his wavelength. Maybe absence of Costa made it more apparent, but still I want us to have another world class performer in those positions behind the striker.

The momentum, ball possession and initiative was with United from the moment Mikel came on and we started playing low-block. We should have either : (1) Kept on pushing for the 2nd to kill off the game. (2) Seen it out to the final whistle. We did neither. You have your opinion and I have mine. You've been going back and forth with every forum member who rejects yours. Give it a rest.

Mourinho sometimes tends to think of his players as chess pieces and not footballers. That, IMO, has something to do with Mourinho not being a player himself. It's almost impossible at 1-0 to go from total dominance with the ball, which it was from minute 45-69, to shutting up shop and defending in low-block from 70-90 and expect players to respond accordingly and execute perfectly.

So if he gets booked vs QPR, he misses the Liverpool game? That's bad.

I just got done watching a replay of the second half again minus the tension. It's now clear to me that we lost the control we had of that match when Mourinho made the defensive Oscar for Mikel swap. It's only then United came back into the game.

Amazingly we had 8 yellow cards and 1 red card in that game compared to United's 3 yellow (!) cards. And it's not like we were far more physical than them, most of our yellow's were very petty. The one on Fabregas was a joke as well as several others. It's almost as if Dowd wanted to send off one of our players.

Mourinho wasn't asked about his fitness at all? I hope he's okay for the QPR game.

Reus on left, Hazard through the middle? Why not.

Yeah, that was hilarious

http://www.footballorgin.com/2014/10/manchester-united-v-chelsea-post-match.html Starting from the 20 mins mark, Gary Neville gives his thoughts on the change in mentality in the last 20 mins and the Mikel sub. I think he's spot on. It's not criticism, it's just asking the question. Either see the game out or kill off teams by scoring even more goals. This team is built to do the latter not the former.

It's worth your time : http://www.footballorgin.com/2014/10/manchester-united-v-chelsea-post-match.html

Brilliant!

You could argue perhaps he could have been tighter on Fellaini for the first ball in the build up to their goal.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ It's not only the fact that Mikel was brought on, but the tactical message that was sent to the team. It's no surprise we retreated to a shell when Mikel came on. Those were the orders. We also had no problems dominating the game in the 2nd half when Oscar was on the pitch. Once he came off, we became more defensive and lost control. It was a premature (with 20 MINS to go and only 1-0) and ultimately bad substitution given the circumstances. It made more sense to bring on Schurrle.

Just brilliant. Hands down the best DM in the world.

Looked like he'd been in the team for 5 years.

He's technically very good and a hardworker for the team but his end product and contribution to our attack is unacceptable. He hasn't shown any signs whatsoever of improvement in this regard. His one skill is to stop the ball, do a fancy step-over then push the ball forward and run to it, trying to beat his marker for pace. That's not good enough for a starting XI player. We need an upgrade in the summer to both he and Andre.

Hazard is already a great player and the best player in the premier league alongside Aguero when he's in the mood. He's still only 23. This is what Hazard needs to work on to take his game to the level of Messi and Ronaldo. Like Mourinho said, "he has the legs to go there", if he can do the extra hours to work on his finishing then I personally believe he can become an all time great player. His peak is extremely high if he applies himself in the right way. http://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/video/videoid=2166528.html?autoplay=true Power, placement, curlers, chips..... These are not innate qualities, like say, Messi/Hazard's close control. The finishing technique doesn't even have to be as advanced as Messi's is. It just has to be good enough. Right now, it isn't and that's his biggest weakness.

This is also a good point made. Mourinho simply doesn't lose that many to the big clubs and with our fire power this season, we are sweeping aside the smaller clubs. It's a title-winning recipe and you can't argue with it.