Belgiannutt

Some Chelsea fans need to learn how to read properly. I said "He started the majority of those games because Ramires wasn't 100 % fit." The majority. I didn't say he started all of them because of Ramires not being fit. We don't play a 4-3-3 we almost always play a 4-2-3-1. Fabregas goes into the number 10 role. Ramires and Matic are the 2 players protecting the back four. Agree with Lionden, he was good in the first half today. Second half difficult with the game being so stretched.

Not to be pedantic but it's actually four big chances. Costa's 1 on 1, Ramires hitting the post, Ramires header and Willian open goal chance.

He started the majority of those games because Ramires wasn't 100 % fit. If you recall Ramires has been struggling with his fitness for the entire first part of the season. It took Ramires until the 27th january to be fully fit again. That day Mourinho stated "My Ramires is back". There's nothing ridiculous about it. If a big game comes up and Ramires, Fabregas and Matic are fit ( and aren't banned) Oscar simply doesn't get into the starting eleven.

Hazard Interview before the cup final. http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/fa-league-cups/eden-hazard-exclusive-interview-all-is-rosy-in-the-garden-of-eden-10076588.html

Think it's best if we just agree to disagree. We've both said what we wanted to say but we simply aren't gonna see eye to eye on this.

Yeah we'll have to disagree on that. Just because Ivanovic is instructed to bomb forward doesn't mean it's acceptable for him to make basic defensive errors. Magically appear ? You're acting like he has to travel around the world to get back into position. It takes him like what 15 to 20 seconds to get back into position ? Like i said before, and Jason said it too, the majority of the mistakes Ivanovic makes are when he defends deep. Yes i did write that he bombs forward but he only bomb's forward when we have the ball, when we lose the ball it takes him about 15 to 20 seconds to get back at which point he's defending deep. Even if we try and press at times when we don't have the ball we usually drop deep and keep everyone but our striker behind the ball.

Don't get why you're bringing up proactive defending. Ivanovic isn't a proactive defender and the mistakes he makes don't come from proactive defending. Yes every player makes mistakes even the best but there's a limit. Ivanovic has made more mistakes then you expect an experienced defender to make. The majority of Ivanovic his mistakes happen when we're defending deep and you just said it yourself "Low defense line reduces the spaces behind them and makes judgement calls easier to make" So even with the space reduced and the judgment calls easier to make he's still making too many mistakes. "Iva will get beat again and he will make these mistakes again." Well that's kinda the problem... That's why people are criticizing him and why some people want Luis to start because he'll keep making them. Again, "the way we setup on the right" and "Ivanovic bombing forward" has nothing to do with his mistakes. The majority of his mistakes happen when he's defending deep. So you can't use his bombing forward or "the way we use him" as an excuse for his mistakes.

Yeah he injured himself against Aston Villa after he ran from the halfway line all the way to the byline. After the ball went out for a corner he grabbed his hamstring and game over for him. Yeah JT missed the game because of an ankle injury if i remember correctly. Well Torres his performances in the Europa league were quite good in general.

hamstring injury kept him out.

Well i do agree with you and DYC that there are goals that get scored where a defender can do everything right but the pass/cross and movement is so inch perfect that the defender simply can't intervene however the examples i gave of Ivanovic his mistakes don't fall under that category. He didn't do everything right and there's plenty he could have done to stop or at the very least made it more difficult for the player to score. Lampard's goal : He 's marking Lampard, ball gets switched to Milner, Ivanovic turns his back on Lampard and seems to completely forget about Lampard who makes a smart run into the back of Ivanovic, Milner passes to Lampard, goal. Okore's goal : He completely forgets about Okore and turns his back on him. When the cross comes in he has absolutely no idea where Okore is. Goal Chadli's goal : Again he seems to be completely oblivious of Chadli's run. He decides to double mark Kane leaving Chadli completely free and Chadli takes full advantage of that freedom. Goal I don't really get what defending as a team has to do with Ivanovic failing to mark players in his own 18 yard box.

Think you're misunderstanding the criticism Ivanovic gets. Noone is criticizing him for bombing forward and leaving space. It's clear that he's instructed to do that by Mourinho. People criticize him because he has a tendency to switch off in defensive situations. (Lampard's goal, Okore's goal, Chadli's goal) Kind of a no-no for defenders wouldn't you agree ? All these situations happened when Ivanovic was defending deep. I honestly don't understand why people get so defensive when someone criticizes Ivanovic. It's valid criticism. The mistakes he made aren't little mistakes. Failing to mark a player in his own 18 yard box. Deciding to double mark a player while his man was completely free. These are really big mistakes. Mistakes you don't expect such an experienced defender to make. Ivanovic has been excellent in attack but defensively he really hasn't been good this season.

I don't like a Ramires Fabregas central midfield. Ramires doesn't have the positional awareness to play as a holding midfielder and Fabregas is too slow to effectively protect our central defence. Ramires would constanly get dragged out of postion leaving Fabregas to fend for himself against quick and skillful players. Imo it would be a recipe for disaster. Whatever Mourinho decides to do it'll be dangerous.

I think it's gonna be this : Courtois Iva-Zouma-Terry-Luis Ramires-Azpi Willian-Fabregas-Hazard Costa We're gonna park the bus and hope Fabregas or Hazard come up with something.

My reaction : Only thing i would agree on with him is the first foul of Barnes only getting a yellow card but otherwise it's all bs tbh. First penalty phase : it's a handball whether it hits his thigh first or not is irrelevant as his arm is in an unnatural position and ball hits his arm. Same thing with the "he's not looking". So what. As if you can only intentionally block the ball when you're looking at the ball ? Second penalty phase : Honestly since when is it alright to push a player inside your own penalty box ? Mild or not, you're supposed to keep your hands off the other player. Penalty all day long. Barnes legbreaker : "Coming together at an unusual angle" "Aftermath of a pass". Are you fucking kidding me ? I've given plenty of passes on a football pitch, i've never ended up almost breaking someones leg in the aftermath of one. Also since when do the reactions of other players and supporters have anything to do with how a tackle should be judged. By that logic if a tackle is fair but the players and crowd react badly to it it should be a foul and a red card ? The reason why our players didn't react is because they didn't see the tackle. All our players were watching the ball not Matic and Barnes. Sorry about the rant. I know i'm kinda preaching to the choir here but this s*** pisses me off. It's one thing not to throw your own players under the bus, which i get but it's a whole other story when you try to justify their actions and act as if the referee didn't just royally f*** us over. It's disgraceful, shameless. I hope they get relegated.

That's just not true. There's plenty of times where Hazard rides challenges and carries on. Hazard doesn't need to do anything it's the referees that need to do their job and realize that they have to start pulling out the yellow card sooner. You say look at Messi and CR but those two get plenty of protection from the refs.

It's not Fabregas his fault that he's less effective against the big teams. It's the way we play against the big teams that's the problem. He needs the ball to work his magic and in the big games we usually don't see much of the ball. He also needs runners, players in front of the ball, to pick out. Hazard and Willian are always defending deep in the big games so it takes them some time to get into a forward position again and by that time the opponent is right on top of Fabregas and he can't pass the ball anymore.

Think you're the clueless one here.

What exactly do people expect ? With the way we played you're already limiting the amount of times he can get on the ball in the oppositions final third and when he finally did get on the ball and tried to make something happen he got fouled (9 times).

“He is a fantastic player, the kid was always a good kid, easy to have him in the group, easy to like him, easy to feel loved by everyone, so the kid was never a problem,” said Mourinho. “He was always a fantastic kid, his evolution has been very, very good, speculation when a talent like him doesn’t sign a contract - it’s normal to have speculation around him. But I think at this moment it’s end of story because nobody signs a five-year contract without being absolutely convinced of his happiness and his future, so good for him and, obviously, very good for the club.” Mourinho :heart: Hazard, better love story then twilight. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/chelsea/11416876/Jose-Mourinho-PSG-wanted-me-as-manager-but-the-timing-wasnt-right.html

This. He wasn't pointing at Mourinho.

yes.

http://www.vipleague.me/football/283424/1/chelseatv-friday-night-live-live-stream-online.html

They don't have to defend though. Messi just walks around the pitch until his team have the ball again and Ronaldo the same.

The odd thing is his mistakes aren"t because of him overlapping all the time. Most of his mistakes happen when he's back defending. The most worrying thing about Ivanovic is that he gets caught ball watching a lot. Too many times he just switches off and doesn't seem to have any idea of what's going on behind him. Take the Okore goal for example. Great that Ivanovic scored the winning goal and he deserves credit for that wonderfull strike but he also deserves to be criticized for the goal. Okore was his man and he just completely forgot about him. Failed to mark him in his own 18 y box. That's just unacceptable for a FB. Imo the criticism (stick) is justified as while his attacking performances have been great, his defensive performances leave a lot to be desired.