cosmicway

Goalkeeper dived out of the way half an hour before the ball was kicked - Hazard hits the roof. Oh Chelsea !

City went down with a dull thud. They may progress but yet another sad story from them. Not for Europe definitely. Cuadrado I think was much better with Juve.

Mourinho's certain failure was in transfer decisions (buys-sells).

Well, everyone is worried when things are not going well and remedies are sought. We wrote 29 pages last year after PSG, as Chelsea myth of near European supremacy got busted. Costa is slower than a barge in the Thames these days, that's where troubles start imho. Pity. I always knew he was a Gert Muller-Hrubesch type of player at best, but he is not even doing what those two were doing. I can't figure out a solution except experiments until a sort of shape is reached. Now we are a blob. We need to find some shape and then proceed to develop a new squad.

The Israelis scrounged a draw at the bridge some years ago.

Iva is a Chelsea hero. There should be Drogba goodbye scenes in the stadium when he leaves. Pity he is treated this way. It tends to become the case with defenders unfortunately. I remember the great Kostas Linoxilakis (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kostas_Linoxilakis) who died last December. Difficult to find more accomplished footballers - Torino was after him in those years but Panathinaikos were not selling. Yet in his last season he made terrible mistakes and everyone poured venom. In his latter life he became a highly respected statesman, but we talk about his football years. Iva then was a hero last season. More praise for him for his appearances with Serbia national team in June. Then this. But in sport everything comes to an end - can't be avoided.

It's a Titanic situation. Probably like MUTD of 2013-14. Yesterday we started with a furious pace but again it never looked as if we were really doing something at the business end. Eventually our only goal came from a long distance effort - from 35 yards out. The once impenetrable defence gave away two in rapid succession. The weakest links were Ivanovitch and Costa, imo. Did n't Mourinho anticipate any of it back in June-July ? He is an able manager, albeit with some notorious failures in transfer decisions. Whether he is to blame or not, the present team has reached the end it's lifespan. We all have seen this happening many times in football, the ultra-rapid decline. Occasionally the club's empty budget is to blame but it happens in other ways too. Looks very much like the Greek predicament. In the summer of 2014 Greece did reasonably well in Brazil as you know. Then defeats from Northern Ireland, Faroe islands - both legs ! In the case of a national team money and transfers offer no instant remedy, but it shows what happens when the players have reached their limit. In football we have also seen some come backs. This can be done with youngsters but takes one-two years and some massive transfers are needed alongside. In any case a honest approach is needed from those concerned. No more daily lie - bunker propaganda. The key words should be "we build anew - support the team". Also this situation does not in any way diminish the achievements of the past - like last year's championship. It's a disease we 've seen before.

Your attention please, if there is a football manager in the terraces please report to the Chelsea office.

You will never see anything from Costa the way he is deployed now. He is not the speedy nippy type. He wants to be up front and someone to give him the final pass. That way he is a killer. I 've seen one such player who could not even play football when outside the box. But he had a fleet of Toyotas (!), the prize for becoming first scorer.

We are too predictable. No speed of movement. Typically Willian takes the ball down the left. Hazard-Costa are closely marked and whoever else is happening to move along the axis. Sometimes the solution is a back pass to Courtois, more often than not it ends with Hazard or Costa losing the ball after a hopeless and furious battle against two or three well positioned opponents. Have all the other teams become so fast or have we slowed down ? We look vulnerable in the back too !. We conceded 9 in four matches, I can't say that one of those was a giveaway but 9 in 4 is too much. Fabergas-Ivanovitch don't belong to the division the way they play now. Matic is a worker and no more than that. The unhappy thing is all this came about all of a sudden -after we became champions- and I don't see any remedy coming soon. It's just impossible to revitalize an organism when irreversible processes have taken place. Renewal is the only answer. In my opinion the situation was not approached as carefully as it should from Munich afterwards. The team's average age is too high.

We are too slow. In the days of glory you just knew when CFC was in possession one wrong step from the defenders of the other team and the ball was in the net. Now it's slow motion.

Iva and Fabregas are useless. We are right in the middle of a disaster area situation. Also Costa is useless or he needs someone to feed him. As is he is not performing any function whatsoever.

Crystal played well. But horrible result once again. Nothing in the scoring department.

I doubt Juve will sell the player. They reached the final last year. With a bit of luck they could have won it (Buffon gave a goal uncharacteristic of him, the 2-1). The Italians after a lean spell want to bounce back. We should look elsewhere.

Charlie Cooke too. It happens with young players. There is a rumour we had Karl Heinz Rummenige in Greece. Another German player, Wagner, brought him. But the AEK Athens supremos said send this skinny youth back home in Germany !

No it was going wide if Costa was not there.

Ill yesterday. A glimpse of the goals in youtube only I think Pedro might have had two and Diego pushed in what was already a goal. Or maybe that video I saw was bad ? Meanwhile City are 3 x 3 now.

Great name. Let's see if he can make it true.

Ha ! It depends on speed of reaction. I mean even now we see goals disallowed as offsides and then on second thought count. Look, when it is dead time all the wrong decisions can be changed. Also the goal line technology. That was an easy one, that's why they accepted it. Sometimes it won't work. In Greek cup semi final last year a strange goal was scored - possibly hand ball. Of the three cameras only one could illuminate but a flag pole obscured it's view ! It depends on speed and offside decisions are difficult to re-evaluate.

They already do it in water polo, don't they. It can be done. One needs to carefully define a hierarchy in the decision making process - not an impossible task. Thus for instance the video ref can readily change a throw in decision if given to the wrong side. In the case of offside decisions I 'm afraid it has to be the linesman on the ground who decides. How can you tell the players, you go back and stand there, you take the ball and run again ?

That one is difficult for the playback technology. The defenders will say we stopped after the flag was raised and they scored in dead time.

Panathinaikos of Greece comes to mind. In 1968 their grand team was dissolved, because of old age as well as some huge internal problems they had. So they started all over again with youths plus Mimi Domazos, the great no 10 who stayed. They could n't buy new players because there was a total ban but managed to gain special permission and sign one or two Panathinaikos was readied again by Ferenc Pushkas and reached the champions cup final in 1971.

Can't expect things to get any better. If those players are good for say 3d-4th-5th place, when they know they are part of a declining side they can only underperfom. It might be a different story if they were playing for let's say Southampton or Sunderland. The only answer is rejuvenation now, no matter how you look at it.

Chelsea are traditionally good starters. Sometimes things go wrong from December and afterwards. Now it's 16 of August (!) and we are on the doledrums.

I like Remy. You forgot Schurle. When you sell that German, it means you have Messi and Neymar at least.