Jase

We clearly had a plan of what we wanted to do - we wanted to change our playing style, we bought a group of technically exciting and brilliant players to play a more expansive brand of football than we had in the years before. Whether we wanted to be Barcelona 2.0, hire Guardiola or not, we definitely had decided the direction going forward. Then, we went and brought in Mourinho - the manager who prefers reactive/defensive approach to football as opposed to proactive/offensive approach that's more in line with the kind of players we had then. Yes, he won the league but that's one of the only few things he did in his second time here. Why? (1) Our squad depth and quality is now way worse than what we had 2-3 seasons ago - he actually ditched the footballing types for a bunch of players who run around the pitch and aren't good in much else - (2) he didn't instill any sort of positive playing style especially when he constantly talked about staying for the long haul - we're so bad at football now that it looks like an achievement if we can string more than 5 passes! - (3) he constantly created drama and chaos within the club and with the media - his need for controversy, his need to create 'us against the world' mentality is pathetic. he has used those methods all throughout his career and any fella with half a brain can see through his ploys. it's like he has no other ways to motivate the players and to thrive, (4) he talked about bringing youth players, he talked about academy day bla bla bla and yet, we've seen nothing about that in 2 1/2 years. Mourinho constantly banged the drum about creating a dynasty, staying for many years but he always used the same short-term management methods that he's been using all these years. He didn't change, he didn't do anything differently to suggest that he can adapt, he can build a team and stay for years to come. He kept doing the same things and when it didn't work out, he had no clue how to turn things around. And blaming the board is only valid till a certain point because at the end of the day, the manager is the one managing the players, tasked with getting the best out of them, making progression year in year but in the 2 1/2 years that he was here, we made only the slightest bit of progression. If we are to take a cynical view though, then we regressed quite a bit under him. We're so far behind the likes of Barcelona, Bayern Munich etc that it's quite depressing to watch.

About 3 years ago, we looked to have a clear direction or idea of what we want to do and how we are going to do things going forward as a club. Then, Mourinho came back and almost everything has gone shit since then.

Honestly, the club can seriously go fuck off if we let Remy leave in January, on loan or not. We are already in a mess, our squad is pathetically weak, we can't score goals and we're going to allow a proven goalscorer leave?!

Man City's Premier League away results this season... First 3: W 3-0 West Brom W 2-0 Everton W 1-0 Crystal Palace Subsequent/Last 6: L 1-4 Tottenham D 0-0 Man United D 0-0 Aston Villa L 0-2 Stoke L 1-2 Arsenal D 0-0 Leicester No wins in last 6 with only 2 goals scored. That's quite appalling for the kind of squad they have. City might be only 3 points off the top but how Pellegrini isn't under more pressure is beyond me. He has the best squad in the league and yet City are involved in a slugfest with the others.

Why bother with a short-term deal in Ibrahimovic (especially when Mourinho is no longer here)? The players that we have didn't even pick up a thing or two about leadership from Lampard, Drogba, Cech and even Eto'o from the last 2-3 years.

Say what...?!

Bamford can't play against Palace apparently... http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/dec/28/crystal-palace-swansea-city-premier-league-match-report

Bamford on cancelling his loan deal... http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/dec/28/crystal-palace-swansea-city-premier-league-match-report

Changing your tune now, aren't you? You could have chosen Essien, Ballack, Drogba or even Terry but you went with a player who you called Judas/traitor?

Bamford scoring the winner against Palace would be funny.

Yes but some perspective would be nice.

Wait, you're using a Lampard avatar now? Didn't you use to call him Judas, traitor etc?

You want Hiddink to sort out the right side of our defence, that's fine but what really are his options? You take out Ivanovic and put Azpi on the right side and then you have a gaping hole on the left side instead. We have Baba Rahman for that position but lets not forget how shaky he has been in his previous appearances in the starting XI. He could do better than Ivanovic on the right or hell, do even worse. It's really a double edge situation and there's no obvious solution right now. We would have more/better choices if it weren't for Mourinho and his appalling squad management.

What could have been. What should have been. :cry: :cry:

I'm not trying to be positive but rather looking at things from both side. You're not wrong with what you said but I just think that you can't expect miracles (even with research etc) after 1 week, not after what happened with Mourinho and the damage he caused to the side (god really knows what's going on there). Give him a week or two more and we'll see how things go. As for the game today, well, you can't exactly blame him when you have players like Matic, Pedro, Azpi, Terry all missing good goalscoring chances.

1. Our last 6 results when starting without a recognized striker: Man United 0-0 Chelsea PSG 3-1 Chelsea Arsenal 0-0 Chelsea Tottenham 0-0 Chelsea Chelsea 0-1 Bournemouth Man United 0-0 Chelsea (one goal scored and that was from the penalty spot...) 2. The last 4 results between Man United and Chelsea at Old Trafford: Man United 0-1 Chelsea Man United 0-0 Chelsea Man United 1-1 Chelsea Man United 0-0 Chelsea (just 3 goals in 4 games...) 3. Chelsea's league results in first half of 2015/16 season: 1 win in August - 3-2 against West Brom 1 win in September - 2-0 against Arsenal 1 win in October - 2-0 against Aston Villa 1 win in November - 1-0 against Norwich 1 win in December - 3-1 against Sunderland (consistent...)

Thank god their home form isn't as good as as their away one. We might just have a chance.

Not IMO. Thought Terry was the best.

But how can he know and come to conclusion after just 1 week?! We have 5 days till Palace away on Sunday and a week before the Scunthorpe tie. By then, he should know more about the players and it's better to judge things from there, not after a few days which saw us play twice.

This thread is pretty quiet for someone who fucked the best chance of the game!

Even if he has watched our previous matches, do people really expect dramatic changes from him after 1 week and 2 games? And regarding the underperforming players, who can he drop them for? There's only so many he can drop and playing the youngsters won't guarantee instant improvement. They might do better or heck, even worse. It's going to take some time for Hiddink to get this team into decent shape.

You both made fair points but it's worth trying to understand from where Hiddink is coming from. It's like what Peace said after the Saturday match... If Hiddink is still doing the same things say this time next month, then I think he deserves to be criticized. But for now, any criticism is a tad harsh. He needs a bit of time to sort this out. We're in a huge mess - perhaps some are underestimating the magnitude of it after Mourinho's sacking - and Hiddink doesn't have a magic wand to just solve our problems. Throwing the kids in now won't exactly improve matters either - as much as we all want to see that happen. Think we fans are prone to or have a tendency to assume youth players have suddenly become world class and the finished product when things go pear shaped in the first team.

1 win and 2 draws in our last 3 games - our longest unbeaten run in the Premier League this season!

SERIOUSLY MATIC, FUCK OFF! JUST FUCKING FUCK OFF!! THAT WAS FUCKING ATROCIOUS!!!!!

To be fair, Hiddink only has a week to work with the players and has 2 games in 3 days. Can't expect him to work miracles and certainly not when this squad has so many flaws and has been badly managed/damaged by Mourinho.