robsblubot

Shamelessly quoting myself.

Completely disagree. if Cahill needs that much time on the ball then he simply isn't good enough at this level. didnt his body language after the mistake tell you all you needed to know?! He did not complain or open his arms to Iva complaining about the back pass (it was fine) he just realized immediately it was on him.

I have to disagree. as bad as ivanovic was, and he was, goals change games and cahill's gift made a difficult game a hell lot more difficult. wasnt good enough in the second staying too far away form the player as sometimes he does. He seems to only tackle/show aggression inside the box.

And yet were the results any different?! Are we aiming for 10th place again by chance?! To your point, the players determine the characteristics of the how. You can't ask fabregas to be a dinamic kante the same way you can't ask Cahill to move up and join the middle. Players have their own characteristics and having a small squad drives the manager to a particular style of play. e.g. How do you move the defense line up with slow defenders?

Not my fav player, but he's been poor this season. Looks like he is lacking power and pace, getting easily outmuscled out of plays. what was infuriating to me was his slow walk to the sideline when subbed off. Should be fined for that big time. Disrespectful to the club and teammates.

Of course not. but this is hardly on the manager at this time... He's doing what every fucking manager does when starting a new job: play the established staring xi.. At least initially. however, the lack of aggression and ball watching STARTING from the frontline (except Costa) has little to do with the manager that's just players not pulling their weight. yes the midfield was also overrun because the tracking players did not do a good job harassing arsenals defense line. Arsenal attacked us with too many players... I never liked Cahill as a player, but at his moment we just can't play him because we start the games losing with him on the pitch. and yet conte does not have many options in the back line... Some of us have been warning about it during the very lackluster transfer window.

The one game where I think Oscar would have been important - his aggression and work rate - and we start dead beat fabregas because oh his performance midweek against Leicester reserves...

Completely agree jose, tampon, and now conte and nothing... Maybe just maybe the squad isn't good?!

Well that's because he's been shit

well it did not work before Kante... suspect it might with him in there, or Chalobah too. It's a long season and I suspect we will see several variations in the midfield trio. For me, as long as Chalobah stays ahead of Mikel I am happy, as he will get minutes for sure.

good points and yes, it is also undeniable that everything gets more difficult when under pressure. Fabregas IMO is more susceptible to pressure because he lacks athleticism/physique. I remember DL making pretty good runs when under pressure in midfield back then. He has already played in CDM and CM for very long stretches, so it's certainly not an experiment or unheard of. I do agree that at this time we have FAR more cover in midfield than defense, so it's natural DL will be far more needed in defense.

or does Mikel ever?! Agreed. His passing is excellent because it is - his technique is excellent. That's really undeniable. Personally I think his technique and movement allow him to play well in multiple positions, including midfield. He has proven already to be a competent midfielder - helped winning important tough away matches by himself (before matic arrived in jan) and then along with matic. At the moment we just don't have options in the CB area to even think about using DL anywhere else. Even when and if Zouma actually plays regularly this season, he will prob end up partnering DL more often than not.

Oh shit I guess kante ain't playing then?! seriously though, this was Leicester 'B' team, so comparing that to liverpools starting XI is naive. i personally don't care if Oscar or fabregas start tbh, very different players, but whether hazard and Willian (the fuck Moses will start:) turn up in a big game finally... I mean it's been a while.

The problem with Fabregas isn't only that he can't run; as stated above matic is slow too. However, Fabregas is slow and weak, and can't tackle, and can't win aerial duels, and has little work rate and tires easily, and on occasion, lacks concentration. Reminds me a lot of Mata. It is quite evident that Fabregas' deficiencies lie in mental and physical areas, not technical. It's the manager's prerogative to be willing to deal with a player of such characteristics or not. He may change his mind or not, but I personally don't feel not playing fabregas is something crazy.

Aside from leaving 3 Liverpool players onside to score the first you mean?! Watch it again - our line is clear and well done aside from Cahill being asleep. While I agree he want terrible he wasn't good either.

Matic is actually big and slow but what's fabregas' excuse?! Big fat ass?! Sorry but that's been taken already... Iva

yeah perhaps the subs did not have that much time to do anything. I thought he should have changed right after we lost the momentum mid second half. I can certainly understand not to change when we scored and were playing better, but that died out later. Yeah getting worried again... second game in a row for hazard who looked pretty much like beginning last season. Hope he turns it around though. The irony of this game was that with all the talk about Luiz coming back, and it's Cahill who is involved in both goals (making a clear mistake in the first).

On the game: good second half - worst after the substitutions. Disgraceful first half though - there is no excuse for that kind of display. However, we don't have to concede 2 goals every time we play poorly. Either the team is great and then Conte is not good enough by employing his so italian and defensive tactics, or the team is weak and conte is going to be a genius if he gets top4. Remember that the club signed Conte knowing how he plays.... I personally don't think it had that much to do with tactics as the players were just not working hard enough off the ball and that directly affected passing - more difficult to pass when no one is close to receive the pass. Our squad may not be worse than Liverpool's (I think it is), but it is certainly not better. Coutinho is also in a far better moment than Hazard, which makes us a bit predictable atm as he is our only player with creativity and flair in the squad - notice that this is not detrimental to the other players as they don't build the squad do they? Oscar and WIllian are little workhorses, and it's not their fault the club built the team around them both; for me it's too much of the same thing. We missed hazard in the second half though. The team was better, passing better, but hazard was average... so he had another poor game in my book. His crosses/passes into the box were pretty bad. Most of the time they they didn't even clear the first man. Aside from the flick to matic, can't really remember anything remarkable he did. BTW, Ivanovic is currently in the unplayable category (Mikel has been there for years).

players have gone back into their shells - momentum is gone.

keep playing like that and we will tie this shit

get in! fantastic play by matic good pass by hazard as well

yeah I am so sorry, forgot he's completely useless if Oscar doesn't pass the ball to him.

yeah he's been decent, but I think he can do better too. That was the worse passing I've seen in a while. All midfield players failed big time. kante and Oscar look more alive but are just as poor when it comes to passing. Hazard has been absent again - need to move more and participate more. If middle is struggling you drop back and help. Forget the goals, this was very very poor... complete domination. Looks like what we did against swansea in the first half. I don't think much of this squad to be honest. Don't think it's that much to do with tactics because the players should be able to pass the football, no matter how much pressure they have on them.

not a single chelsea player is playing well for me - not even Kante. We can't do anything with this quality of passing.

Goal was mostly chaills fault playing 3 lpool players onside. but we've been very poor - struggling in all areas. need to do better