TorontoChelsea

Ugh...too bad. Well, I know better than to stay on this board after a loss.

It was a good shot by Sturridge, wrong footed, under pressure, going away from goal. It was just an excellent save. Myhill is playing very well.

Our attack is looking so dangerous right now...need to keep on pressing and something will click.

Sturridge's movement has been fantastic today.

The right substitutions...

1-1 half-time. Not a bad place to be at this point. We have a great bench and if the score stays the same by the 60th minute, we can make so big moves. We played much better after RDM moved Hazard to the left and Sturridge to the middle. Sturridge stays much further up which is what we need from the #10 and he had a good half with a couple of dangerous shots and some nice passing to boot. Azpilicueta and Bertrand both had a very good first half IMO but our central defence looks vulnerable.

Hazard!!!

Moses cross!!! We need more of that sort of thing. Action directly in their box with a chance to attack the ball.

We have the complete inability to get the ball to our attackers in dangerous areas. Our attackers are getting the ball way too wide or too deep to be able to do anything about it. The only way they'd be able to score is by running by a couple of defenders or having a fantastic shot from outside the area. Hazard is dropping off too deep and our central midfield is incapable of moving the ball with any authority.

Damn...

Moses and Sturridge have seemed to link up well in the brief time they've played together.

Two massive games coming up next week, RDM had no choice but to rest some players for this one. Not our best starting XI obviously, but we should still be able to get 3 points.

Worst signing? You've got to be kidding. He's almost certainly going to get 10-15 goals in the league for what 12M pounds?

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"

5/12 but have no idea which ones I answered correctly. They should tell you what you got wrong and what the right answer is.

Really pointless to get into this stuff on here. Nobody is going to change their minds about it. Better off sticking to football!!

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.