TorontoChelsea

I don't know if RDM is in charge of loan policy. Also, I don't get the criticisms of his subs. He has very limited choice in what he can do and usually makes the right choice (If we're down, bring on an attacking player, if we're up, bring on a defending player). Sure, it's conservative, but I don't think it's poor at all.

Absolutely a legit concern. Good post. I think this also might be a side-product of too much pressure on a manager which means that RDM might feel he has to put his best XI out every game. Sooner or later, Chelsea are going to need expand their rotation.

I think it would solve one problem (lack of width) but create others. 1) Going forward, we really want Hazard and especially Mata running our attack and they moving them to the wings de-emphasizes their importance. 2) A serious lack of central midfielders. Right now, we have a big lack at one spot with just Ramires and Lampard to cover it. We'd move to having a lack of depth at 2 spots with Oscar, Ramires, and Lampard to cover them. 3) In the 4-3-3 with Mata and Hazard, our natural width would need to come from our fullbacks. This is what's happening right now, but that's due to personnel rather than system issues. The 4-3-3 needs attacking fullbacks which means more risk in the back 4. My preferred fix is just moving Oscar back into the pivot. I think this would solve a few key issues 1) Width-It brings Moses into the starting XI which gives us naturally better spacing a well as some needed physicality. 2) Our biggest issue recently IMO has been in the double pivot. It's solid defensively but doesn't create anything, can't control the tempo of a game, and moves the ball too slowly and predictably. Having Oscar as a real deep-lying midfielder there would change that. 3) Combine the above two and it creates many different ways to score. Our main way to score has been on set plays This change would allow us to score more from crosses from Moses, from long balls from Oscar as well as the usual magic from Mata and Hazard.

Damn, and I was just about to start the following threads: 1) Which Colombian striker would best fit Chelsea? 2) Fernando Torres-is he to blame for everything? Yes! 3) We need to spend 50M on a striker with a proven track record from Athletico Madrid because there's no way that would ever not work out. If Torres does go, I wonder who will get the blame when we don't win. There always has to be a player or two that fans blame for everything. Last year it was Kalou and Malouda. This year, it was Lampard until he got hurt. Mikel is always a popular choice. If Torres goes, it will certainly be RDM to get the fans' fickle hatred. You can already see the signs.

Just saw the quotes on ESPN which were all about the pitch.

Wow, that's a horrible penalty. Worst thing about it though is that Neymar didn't even own up to it. He blamed the pitch. People make mistakes, just say "yeah, I missed it, it was horrible, I'll do better next time"

1. What have you made of the Chelsea start to the season? Very good start. This is a team in transition but the transition is going better than could have been expected so far. 2. What are your opinions on WBA's start to the season? Excellent start including in some tough matches 3. We've seen John Terry involved in a racism case, and of course, the recent allegations with regards to Clattenburg. What have you made of both situations and the way they've been handled? The Terry case was handled horribly by everyone. Terry should have just apologized and the FA should have dealt with it right away. The Clattenburg case is tougher. From what I can tell, it was Ramires who heard Clattenburg say something and Ramires' English is pretty poor but he does seem certain. Chelsea really had no choice to but make the complaint but I doubt it will go anywhere. 4. What are your opinions on West Bromwich Albion as a football club alongside it's supporters? Obviously a team with a long and excellent tradition. 5. Both clubs have managers which have figured for both clubs. What have you made of the work RDM has done with yourselves, and what Steve Clarke has done with us so far? Both are doing very well. 6. What are you expecting from Chelsea for the remainder of the season? Can you retain the Champions League? Retaining the CL seems unrealistic. I think a top-4 finish in the league and positive development of our style and players. 7. What do you expect from WBA from the remainder of the season? Do we have a chance of Europe? Possible, but unlikely. I'd expect somewhere between 7-12 in the league . 8. What players in our side do you fear and who should we be wary on Saturday? I worry about your strikers. Your system sets them up very well and they can finish. Our attack is lead by Mata. If he is allowed space, he's deadly. 9. What team is Roberto Di Matteo most likely to choose on Saturday? Hard to say. This is the first game of the season I feel like there might be some changes. We have Juventus on Tuesday and City next Sunday so we will need to rest some players. 10. And finally score predictions Chelsea 2-1 WBA

I never said that the board or the manager is faultless. This is a strawman that you've created. There are legitimate criticisms of our board and of RDM, but criticizing any manager for not being able to develop young talent after 10 games is ridiculous. Criticizing the same manager for not being able to develop talent despite the fact that the young talent is developing very well is even more ridiculous. Young talent takes years to develop. Cristiano Ronaldo took three-four years under SAF,Robin Van Persie took years. before he developed into an excellent player. Drogba took years. That's the way football works.

100%. People were going crazy when we won a few games in a row but it was obvious that we had the same issues. The problem has generally not been us being wasteful, it's in us not creating chances. For a few weeks, we were scoring on virtually every chance we got and that was simply not sustainable. Same thing with the Shakhtar game. If Moses doesn't score, people would have gone ballistic, but he does score, so they're overjoyed. Obviously, the goal changes the result, but it doesn't much change the analysis of what we did right and what we did wrong.

This is exactly what's so exasperating. Oh no, we don't know anything. We are all so ignorant. RDM doesn't know anything. he's an idiot. The board are all idiots. Only you, random poster on the internet, can see the truth and anyone who disagrees with you is blind....the truth is that you have no idea what you're talking about. You're saying that Hazard is half the player he was at Lille? Well, Lille is a massive step down from the Premier League. Drogba was a Chelsea legend and it took him about a year and a half to get used to the Premier League (and he was 24-25). Hazard is not anymore the dominant player on a poor side, he's just one player on a top side. On Lille last year, he had double the shots of anyone else on the team. The squad was largely built around him. He was never going to have that sort of role on any good squad. You think the Manchester teams would have built their team around Hazard? They wouldn't. You think he'd be some kind of unstoppable force if he were on a different team? What kind of player will Hazard be in England? NOBODY knows but he's developing very well. He's 21 and played 19 games with Chelsea and has 3 goals and 10 assists and you're whining about it. How do you know how good Hazard "can be"? You don't. It's based entirely on how good you hoped he would be which was obviously an entirely unrealistic expectation. You really think that if it were so simple to improve the team, Chelsea wouldn't be doing it? You think that with their dossiers of information and hundreds of hours of tape, they don't know what you know? There are problems, but they are not easily fixable. They are going to take time. There are legitimate criticisms of any coach, but criticizing RDM for not developing young players is borderline insane and based on nothing except a fantasy of what young players should be bringing to the game.

No, it's exactly the opposite. When you are a parent, you need to educate your children because you have more experience in life and because you know more than they do. All of us here know significantly less than RDM in every aspect of football. Yes, there are concerns we all have and but it's the combination of panicking and extreme arrogance as if we, who have vastly less knowledge of what's happening and infinitely less experience in football, we really know what needs to be done that's so bothersome. And yes, everything is fine if you have the proper perspective. We are trying to build a team long-term and we are heading in the right direction. A year ago, the post-Mourinho core years looked like they would be a disaster. Now, if you look at Chelsea's future it looks bright. The spoiled kid aspect of it is infuriating. If the discussion were just "what I think Chelsea should be trying to do" it'd be different, but it isn't. It's always, "buy this expensive player" or "get this expensive manager" which is actually the opposite of a serious discussion of the issues we have. Look at this thread, there are some valid points, but there's also criticism of RDM because he isn't good enough at developing young players? That's just absolute nonsense and shows the incredible lack of patience and perspective too many Chelsea fans have. Hazard isn't the best player in the Premier League 10 games into his career so RDM isn't good at developing young talent? Don't people realise that having excellent potential does not mean that you will become a fantastic player immediately (or ever)? People think that every promising player we buy is going to turn out to be Messi or something. If you expected more out of Oscar, Bertrand , Hazard, and Moses at this point (like the author of this thread did) then the fault is down to you, not RDM. If people want to have serious discussions about what they think Chelsea should be doing to improve the squad, then I'm all for it.Those are fun and engaging. However, there is very little of this. Instead, it's mostly just people ripping on the players they hate, trying to assign blame for everything that goes wrong, and attempting to construct fantasy lineups.

One thing that has been a surprising disappointment so far this season, and I think points to a lot of our problems, is our lack of through balls. We don't cross the ball into the area much, we don't play long ball, and we are seemingly moving away from counter-attack football. If we want to play skilled, possession football, we need the through-ball to be a major source of goals. We have only 8 successful through balls this season from only 3 players. We've only even attempted 12. Compare that to a couple other passing Premier League teams-Man City have 16 successful through balls on 42 attempts and Arsenal have 19 through balls on 40 attempts. You watch us play and it's obvious to see this issue at play. Our pivot gets the ball and hands the ball off to Mata or Oscar who have to collect the ball way too deep. Then, they run at the defence and try to create something. Torres right now is playing more like a second striker, he drops deep to collect the ball. He should be positioned on the shoulder of the defence and Mata should be getting the ball in more attacking positions instead of having to set up the attack himself. We do have real issues. I do think there is a lack of offensive game-plan right now and too much of a reliance on skill to save us, we lack width which makes it too easy to defend us, but this will take time to figure out. We have some new players and a new system. Change doesn't happen overnight and making a coaching change now would do nothing except delay the change..

Don't really care if Anelka comes back to the PL. It's not like Drogba, Anelka has already played with Bolton, Arsenal, City, and even with Liverpool.

The problem is not their quality, it's that they, or rather Ramires, doesn't bring the needed skills to the double pivot. You need someone there like a Xabi Alonso or a Modric to be able to create chances and to open up the field. When Ramires gets the ball, he runs it up and hands it off to Mata or Oscar who have to drop back deep to collect the ball. If we are looking to play a ball-control, passing game, having a central midfielder who doesn't control the ball or pass well like Ramires is always going to be an issue. Mikel can play and play well in any system. Today, Mikel was very good in the first half and then had a poor stretch in the second half.

Have no idea why people were saying he was our best forward. He was our worst player in the first half.(His gamescore on whoscored.com was the worst on our team at that point-under 6) He gave the ball up easily way too often and his lack of physicality meant Liverpool players just took the ball off him a couple of times. He had a fantastic chance and missed the net by 10 feet. He had an excellent 10 minutes in the second half and then disappeared again. He was the right man to take off. Hazard was our most dangerous attacking player and Mata has been our best player all season. Not sure why Oscar's CL excellence hasn't really translated to the Premier League yet. It will happen, but it will take some adjusting.

Yeah, but these reactionary posts are ridiculous and frustrating. People overreact when we win and overreact when we drop points. How can anyone be complaining about RDM at this point? Less than a season as manager and he's won the CL and an FA Cup. This sort of thought process is the same as the "so and so had a bad game, so we need to go buy the best player in the world." We dropped points so we have to now get Guardiola? We can't keep firing managers every time they don't win a game. We can't keep spending ridiculous amounts of cash trying to buy a player who won't fit into our team just because he's a big name. It really gives us Chelsea fans a bad name when we act like spoiled children who are constantly demanding new, expensive toys every time something we don't like a result. Building a team takes time. There are ups and downs. We were sixth last season. Yes, we have things to work on, but we need to give the team and the players time to work on it. We're third in the league and alive in all other competitions. We're doing, quite frankly, better than anyone should have expected.

WAY too much negativity here after a disappointing match!! I think getting off to such a strong start let some supporters get their expectations way out of whack. Top-4 was always a realistic goal for this season and still is, RDM made the right substitutions, not really much else he could do. Our problems are the same problems we've been having all season-inability to create chances. We are actually, I believe, one of the best teams at putting away our opportunities once we get them, we just aren't creating enough chances. We also are in between styles. We're not really a counter-attacking team and we're not really a possession team. Out of our attacking three midfielders today, only Hazard played well. Our pivot was OK, but that's the best it ever really is. It's hard to play fluidly when your central midfield can't create. Our defence played well generally. Not sure why people are getting on Torres after this game. Is he supposed to get the ball at midfield and go past 4 defenders and score? Yes, he's been generally bad for us in the almost two years he's been with Chelsea, but not every instance of dropped points is down to Torres.

Cech saving us here.

Sturridge coming on.

That's the right move.

Damn....Ramires chasing the ball again instead of playing his man.

Ivanovic is having an excellent game. 5 effective clearances, 4 tackles, 2 offsides won.

Uh oh

Welcome back!

That was predictable and deserved.