TrippingStep

I don't think Eden can't deal with being benched. I think the problem with Eden is more that we don't have a system and clear patterns in the final third. The fact that Eden and Mata clicked so well together is because they have great understanding and are reacting quickly to the moves of each other. they are like two great jazz musicians than can improvise to whatever the other is doing but still needs a basic structure to know what the rest of the band will be doing. And It's not like the other wingers and offensive players have been on fire. His problem is more than he is playing blind now, not knowing what the others are doing and is frustrated and doesn't react well to that. The fact that he was much better under Benitez, is that we had a system in place, know what basic tasks he had to do and could express himself more as he had much more confidence in the system, freeing his mind, more purpose on his actions, a clear idea of what he was trying to do when running with the ball. Under Benitez, it was the best of both world, classic structure with enough flexibility to allow some improvisation.

Positive: we won. Negative: still doesn't look right the way we attack the team sitting deep. On the second half, I noticed a change. Hazard was playing more like an outlet, a pivot in basket, back to the goal. I think the idea was to let him keep the ball, giving the ball to a midfielder that can release the ball to a player running in the back of the player staying with Hazard. And there was less interchange of position. But still I'm worried when we will have to chase game as our build from the back is very very cautious and slow.

WTF are we doing? Tell Mourinho that since his last time in premiership, the teams have progressed in defending sitting deep and that he have not Drogba anymore. I miss the quick passing from the back under Benitez, the triangles on the side that were followed sometimes by run from deep from Ramires. It's like he wants to destroy everything that was good under Benitez. Azpilicueta, Luiz, Mata not playing, the players that were the most vocal in their appreciation of Benitez.

WTF are we doing? Tell Mourinho that since his last time in premiership, the teams have progressed in defending sitting deep and that he have not Drogba anymore. I miss the quick passing from the back under Benitez, the triangles on the side that were followed sometimes by run from deep from Ramires. It's like he wants to destroy everything that was good under Benitez. Azpilicueta, Luiz, Mata not playing, the players that were the most vocal in their appreciation of Benitez.

The first two months of Benitez were shaky, the end of the Di Matteo reigns was a team knackered that were leaking goals. But I don't agree we were mediocre in the last three four months under Benitez. Against Swansea, Ivanovic costed us the first game and we should have scored in the first 30 minutes when we were much better and creating good chances with good movements. We were in control of that match and their only opportuniteis were gifted to them. Swansea is a very good team and very difficult to play when motivated. The second match agains West Ham was a demoliton and we didn't had the problems we had on the first match with us being beaten on the second ball after a Carroll touch. We played some very brilliant football against Arsenal, Manchester United, Wigan (neutralizing their game plan and countering them at will), Tottenham. Look at how we responded against Manchester early goals in the fa cup, we chased the game and pushed them without being countered easily. Not putting long balls like we have done this year against Everton and Basel where we gave huge countering chances and could have leaked more goals. Honestly, don't you think that with Benitez in charge, two midfielders for the pivot that were suited for his system, a striker that we wouldn't be challenging for the title this year. Benitez didn't have the midfielders that he would want but he still manage to have the team play decent football, have a balance and being dangerous when we attack without being inept defensively. And in a season when we played 70 matches. Dortmund trashed Real last year, always being in command. Real had difficulties to beat Manchester United and were not very imaginative to mess a Manchester United defense just sitting deep. I maintain that Mourinho is not a coach for a squad where the best players are suited for team controlling the possession, dictating play.

Basle defender Behrang Safari said he was shocked at how easy it was to contain Chelsea and that Torres, who scored against them in the Europa League semi-final victory in April, was not in the squad. “Chelsea are a top team and you can’t relax for one minute but, of course, they’re not playing at their top level and you could see that,” he said. “We felt like while they were not on their knees, it could be a good time for us to beat them. We took advantage of the situation. “Were we surprised how easy it was to keep Chelsea quiet? Yes. During the whole evening, even in the first half when they scored, they didn’t create many chances. It was a surprise [Torres was not in the squad]. He is a great player and has good technique.” http://www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/chelsea-players-have-lost-confidence-admits-jose-mourinho-8826375.html

I have watched some matches from Chelsea at this period (to be fair i surely have missed some of the best matches) and I wasn't really a fan of the way Chelsea played. Especially when you think that Chelsea had a huge load of midfielders with Lampard, Makelele, Essien, Tiago, Ballack, Gudjohnsen, they were very complete but did not like that even again some weaker team, the team were sitting deep, and were scrapping results while they could have passed the other teams out of the park. But I have always been more a fan of the pass and move game than the physical combat. I read that at Napoli, they now play a more solid game when in possession, not only relying on counter-attack and that Hamsik, Higuain and Insigne had great link-up play between them.

I don't know but PSG has money and it's more a Mourinho squad with more physical players.

I hope we will have success but the more I think about it the more I see Mourinho at PSG in a not so long future.

I disagree, last year under Benitez, he was working quite a lot, asking the ball quite deep, but the big difference was the system. At the end, every player knew what they had to do, it didn't always worked but they could rely on a system.

The fitness. I think he needs a really specific training programme I don't know what he's doing but he should stop what he does, it's like he's doing a defender preparation where being strong is the most important thing.

Why do you say even under Rafa. Napoli won against Dortmund. And with him, I knew what we were trying to do. And with him, we were playing in much more methodical way in our build-up. He changed the way players were training to have them capable to play at a higher tempo. And I really think we could be champion this year if we had kept Benitez, he would have bought midfielders, the physical preparation would have been better and the players were used to his system.

Come on, Mourinho's philosophy is not suited for Mata, Oscar, Hazard, Azpi, Luiz, Ramires. His teams have never been great when they had to dictate the play. Against every big clubs, he's sitting deep and play a waiting game. And what physical preparation have we done. De Bruyne is slower than at Bremen, Van Ginkel was slow to react and had difficulties to control balls as if he had very heavy legs. And Hazard is the same like he's totally knackered and like he has only very heavy power training that slows him. What makes me laugh, was the graphs of one member after Hull, where he would find triangles everywhere while I thought it was just awful positioning from the team and the next matches against Aston Villa, Manchester United where we didn't even try to attack, Everton, Basle proved my point. And I don't understand why some chelsea fan were so angry for some comments Benitez made some years ago.

Forgetting we beat them in europa league last year, but it was the FSW so that doesn't count.

Well, I'm not a fan of Terry and Ivanovic as right back in our back 4, it means defense in the backfoot and not pushing while defending. And the reason while I say we should have kept Benitez is because if he was the Chelsea coach and had his wishes, I'm sure we would have bought central midfielders. And he did also a good job to give some pace back in some players like Torres and Hazard by changing a bit the physical training. And ok, you are making a lot of excuses for Mourinho but Benitez had to take a team during a season when we played every three days, with a very thin squad, with many players already in their knees and in a downward spiral. With so few days between matches that means not many long training sessions, he still changed a lot the way we played, we had good patterns of run and interchange of position in the finalt third of opponents and on corners, set pieces, very good patterns to free a man like the ivanovic goal in the final, the terry goal against Steaua and some others I don't remember. I didn't agreed with some of his initial selections in the first matches but in the last 3-4 months, I really liked the way we played and the many beautiful actions that were obviously rehearsed during the training sessions as the timing of runs and interchange of positions cannot be as clears as they were if improvised. What I like the most was that the defense was pushing higher and were not backtracking to their box as the first option, the way we dominated Arsenal in the first half with great pressing game, great off-side trap, I enjoyed it. Ronaldo is the best athlete in the game and for me Ozil was playing better in the German national system.

I'm wondering if it's because of our physical preparation that seems to be only good for big players, all players with pace seems with a few exception to lose their pace at Chelsea. The defense sitting deep and slow play from the back doesn't help either. And playing with Ivanovic and cole as fullback doesn't help either. Azpi playing last year helped a lot on the right side, Ramires playing as central midfield and drifting more to the right also helped. On the left, they were often no midfielders in support of Cole and Hazard. So far, the last three years, only under Benitez we looked quite good in offense and had some dynamism in the team, the defense pushing quite high and not looking ultra vulnerable like under AVB who playerd lot of older players.

It makes me laugh to see that Luiz Mata Hazard under Mourinho are bad, Azpi not playing, Ramires sitting very deep too often and not with his best asset, his runs from deep while they were essential with Benitez and performing well.

Ok but on the successfull Mourinho Team, he had better defensive midfielders. And at Inter, he had three forwards who could run quite a lot, Eto'o and Milito or outmuscle opposition with Pandev. Cambiasso Motta in midfield were comfortable sitting quite deep and are good passers. Except Schurrle, who have we who is glad to run a lot after the ball. And our midfield is the shittiest Mourinho has had. And we play with a central defense sitting deep who puts more pressure and work on our midfield, they have to run a lot more. It's not a squad for Mourinho. Mata and Hazard will not play like they were under Benitez where the team was more compact and with quicker movements around them. The defense sitting so deep is a huge problem for me as it slow our build-up too much and is making easier for the opponents to close down our players. Luiz breaking from defense integrated in a system is a plus , not like Saturday where it's improvised and because he was pissed.

Best Libero: Valerie Courtois (Belgium) http://www.fivb.org/viewPressRelease.asp?No=42763&Language=en Thibaut Courtois ‏@thibautcourtois 17 h My big sister @ValrieCourtois awarded as best libero of the European championships!!! So proud! Well done!! #eurovolley2013 Thibaut Courtois ‏@thibautcourtois 20 h Great win of @ValrieCourtois and the #YellowTigers!! Bronze medal on the #eurovolley2013 ! Proud of my big sister!!

His sister Valerie has won a bronze medal at the volleyball european championship.

I disagree. The first two years of Barcelona under Guardiola was a beauty. I agree there is more way of good football than tiki taka but for me except Inter who was a super display of defensive intelligence, I'm not a great fan of Mourinho's brand of football. I prefer pro-active football than reactive football, And I like triangle passing, pattern of runs, methodical build-up to create space as it needs a lot of work to perfect the spacing, the timing of the runs to mess the opposition defense. I'm in the "we should have kept Rafa". As we only needed three signings, two in midfield, a striker to be champion this year. Luke Shaw the year after to have a good balanced team with depth with the loanees back.

4-4-2 with Gerrard Lampard was such a bad idea. At their clubs, they had Mascherano and Alonso behind for Gerrard, and Makelele Ballack or Essien behind Lampard.

Of course, but he had no pre-season and we were playing every three days. Changing the physical preparation and tactics without many trainings was a huge task. When Di Matteo was sacked, the players were already on their knees, just making them more fit took time. What is a bit bothering is that Azpi, Mata, Hazard, Ramires, Luiz knew their role and were the key man in the Benitez system but the on the first three, two are not playing much and Hazard looks more like he was under Di Matteo.

One question, do you think that with Benitez we would have created more problems to their defense. For me the answer is yes. The things you said about moving the ball quickly from side to side would have been used more with Benitez. The back 4 was much more pro-active, Azpi was very good to add width and a threat and still keeping the ball moving with simple but effective passes. We were very good to fixing defense to a side and creating space for runs to the other side and stretching defenses. I know Everton have better players but Wigan last year was unable to move the ball to the other side and we were trapping them and countering them where we wanted to. We play at a slower pace this year and I don't like that as we don't have Drogba or other big man in midfield that could outmuscle players like in the first Mourinho period.

Why does he play a backline with Terry and Ivanovic as right back. I'm still disappointed we didn't give a chance at Benitez as we had a good foundation and two three players, one striker, central midfielders, the loanees back and we could have challenged for the title this year. There was much more dynamism in our back 6 last year, more movements, players pushing to break midfield oppositon line, opening angle passes, more triangles, good patterns in the runs to stretch defenses. I knew what the plan was during the matches, this year I have not this feeling so far. Just more caution, waiting game like against Manchester United where it was boring to see us not trying to attack them.