TrippingStep

He was still only at 80% for me. Still missing the 20 % of huge burst of pace on the first 10 yards when he's at 100%

The biggest one when we outnumbered them was when Torres shooted while Hazard was alone on the left.

No. It's just that he doesn't fit. The players must run into space or can run quite fast with the ball in the counter and Mata is not able to do that. That's not the football I enjoy.

For Ramires, he was bit rash in his intervention, with the studs in the ankle of Götze but he's a bit unlucky. If Luiz doesn't push Götze, he was stopping his run to avoid being in a tackle with Ramires.

Schurrle was good at the right side. That's what I've wanted before the match against Manchester United. I think we could have won against Manchester if Schurrle had started at the right as Evra is not that good, often leaving players running in his back.

Otherwise, Götze was not that good for Bayern in a team having so much possession. Each time he had the ball, he was doing nothing.

Even putting him in the first five penalty takers was a mystake even if he wanted to shoot a penalty. He's not a very good penalty taker, his technic is quite bad and too easy for a good goalkeeper to read.

I want us to draw Schalke in the pot 2 as we wouldn't have Dortmund and Leverkusen in the pot 3. And in pot 4, I don't want Napoli.

But we are not that fit and with the ball, we have been clueless for more 240 minutes.

He had no pre-season, the squad very thin, and players that were tired and playing every three days. And It's not like we don't know how Mourinho's team usually play. In the pre-season and first three matches, it had all the general trademarks of Mourinho. Even his Real Madrid team against Manchester were boring, unimaginative while Real was a much better team and should have easily dispatched them.

Even on corners, set-pieces, I prefered what Benitez was doing. With the spacing, combination of runs to disturb the opponents.

Well, they seemed lost, not knowing what to do.

What worries me is the fact that Luiz, Azpi, Mata, Hazard, Ramires might be wasted with Mourinho's football philosophy. For me they were very important to execute the game plan of Benitez. They are the players with the most spanish dna that don't mix well with Mourinho way of playing.

Benitez was trashed here, the team was even younger, the squad thinner, in shambles when Di Matteo was sacked. The team was playing every three days but after two difficult first months, he changed many things and we were much better, playing some nice footballs. Just look at the differences between the first mach against West Ham and the second one. How we had wigan in our pocket. Only against Manchester City, we seemed out of depth. And here we have so many excuses for our lack of good play, since pre-seasons, the long balls from the back are way too much.

Come on. It's like we have seen genius work. We played Hull and were pathetic during 60 minutes letting them have the ball and doing nothing when he had the ball. Against Aston Villa, we created not many chances and Ivanovic could have been excluded. Against Manchester, Welbeck had a great chance and it was penalty for the hand of Lampard, the ball was going past him if he had not his hands, not like he was protecting his head.

I agree they were not good but the system was not good for them either. The build-up from the back is slow, very static. The opponents doesn't need to be a genius to disturb it and it can pack players on our creative players as no one from the back will move and carry the ball forward.

It could not happen but I'm sure that if we had Benitez, two midfield reinforcements, a striker, the loanees back that we would be champion this year. In the last 3 months, with a team playing every three days, we were the best team of the league, playing some good football. What worries me now is the fact that Mata Luiz Azpi ( the more vocal supporters of Benitez) have not played. And Hazard Ramires are not being used very good in those first matches.

It's this friday, the supercup I think.

I agree. We must not forget that against Hull(excepting the first 25 minutes), Aston Villa, we didn't play very well and were not creating many chances. And I laugh at some who said the children must learn but we have not the same squad and profile of players as the first Chelsea team. In the first Chelsea team, we had Drogba a beast, and by far the best midfield of the league. We could outmuscle everybody, that's not the case with this squad. And since then, the smaller teams have improved, they don't get caught on the counter as easily as back then.

At least the positive with Mourinho, it that we will have the calls from the referee. At least until now, we had good calls in this match and against Aston Villa.

That's what I don't understand. Why not give Lukaku some minutes as we played counter-attack. And besides that, except Schurrle and Lukaku, our other offensive players are not great counter-attackers (Hazard with Benitez but with a game plan and more on combination not on instinct and outmuscling, outpacing, playing like a forward), Ramires who is great at it is wasted sitting deep.

Well, I'm biased as I'm not a big fan of Mourinho as his teams are not great in possession of the ball. Just look how Real with a much better squad had difficulties beating Manchester last year while Manchester were just sitting deep and not that impressive defensively. With some intricate passing and movements, they should have easily beaten them. Just look at our back 6 when we had the ball, they were almost alway staying in their position, creating nothing and we have not big forwards that can outpace outmuscle the players in front. Lukaku, Schurrle with his pace. Ramires staying so deep is for me is a waste. But if we have 85 pts at the end of the season, great. But for me I would have liked to see what Benitez could have done with pre-season training, some midfield reinforcements as we had a good basis in our play in the last three four months.

Otherwise, like I said in the Aston Villa topic where you analyse with some fancy graphs. It was awful stuff when he had the ball.

Disappointed. Like we had no game plan when we had the ball, just waiting for an opponent mystake to gift us an opportunity. A bit lucky with Lampard's hand, for me it was a clear penalty as the ball was coming past him and not in front of him.

Reminds me of Chelsea the second year with Mourinho and why I was not a big fan of Mourinho. The central defense sitting so deep, not very intricate play in the build-up of play. What I don't undersand is why we play like that when excepting Schurrle, the rest are not that beasty and pacey to outrun or outmuscle the opponent. When we have the ball in possession, almost all the team seems clueless and we are playing very basic stuff.