Chuckso

No belief in this team they are getting anything out of this game - against a subpar Man city. This manager is a few notches above Poch but not the quality to fulfill our ambitions. I have seen enough from him.

Yeah…. Look at the comments above and how many are about the manager and how many are about the players. The set up, organization, tempo and attack / defense mindset is set by the manager. We were TOTALLY OUTPLAYED in that first half and all you have to say is Noni.

The manager is totally responsible for the poor showing. After a strong start using ORGANIZED PRESSING, we get a goal from that and Man City are really rattled. We then decide to sit back, mostly marking space and not been close enough to opposing players to put them under pressure when receiving the ball, allowing them to build confidence and take complete control of the game. It was happening in real time, the goal was coming, and the manager stuck to his reactive team’s stance. Very poor.

Still no intensity.

Yes. Agreed. However Reece’s injury concerns definitely has a factor in that. Even so, Cucu’s intensity, decision making and all round play is superior to Gusto, even though Gusto is the better footballer talentwise. He has just not settled in the premier league yet.

Zero intensity

Not the greatest fan of Cucu but in no way is Gusto ready to be benching him right now. That is a crazy decision. ManU are not following Newcastle’s playbook even though it is clear Maresca has told team to stop faffing about at the back with Sanchez quickly clearing the ball under semi-pressure. At least that is a positive.

No… Newcastle outworked Chelsea in the first half with an organized press. Grabbed two goals from mistakes then because it was virtually the same team that played 3 days ago, conserved energy by sitting back in the second half. They won the match tactically. This does not bode well because carbon copy of the game over the weekend and our manager could not see this coming and adjust. Watch as other teams start to press us and copy the number Howe has done on us.

When our players, especially in defense, lose possession, they do not immediately front the opponent. They start running back looking for a midfielder or forward player to take the initiative to tackle the ball, inviting pressure and psychologically telling our opponents we are afraid which is why catennacio is no longer in vogue.

From the Saturday game vs Newcastle and previous games, I knew we were going to lose this and have given the template for other teams to play us. This Italian (catenaccio) does not instruct his team to increase intensity and press opponents who press us - ceding initiative to our opponents. The same with what I complained about pochetinno last season. It is insane it is so obvious. This is our second string team who do not play often. They can and should run harder to close down than a Newcastle who have the same team as 3 days ago.

You do not have to read…. You can watch the games to see that is clearly the case.

So far, Cucu’s best game in a Chelsea shirt, I think.

Arguably our best half of the season. Controlled and aggressive. Not flustered. However, these things don’t give me confidence because the lack of organization means we’ll get pegged back by a very preventable goal. For example: we conceded a goal just a few games ago, I think Arsenal, when there was a corner and we had our one player marking two players, they were able to fashion a shot and goal. In this game, did we learn our lesson? No. Just that Tottenham we’re not able to fashion a chance but it was two vs one bearing down on our goal.

If you say so but he looks a boy next to Romero.

This is not even about zonal marking or any fancy initiative. This is simple man on man marking. And you put a young small guy on a big attacking defender. And it was not a mistake as Gilcrest was picking him up again in the next set piece.