TrippingStep

I've never been a fan of Torres. And while he was scoring a lot at Liverpool in big matches, against the teams that were sitting deep, he was already not that great at Liverpool. Add to that he lost his acceleration after his knee injury and he is average.

I will not complain with the way we played. If we could have a left-back as dynamic as Azpi, it would be great and in midfield, more dynamic players also. Like many have said, we need a leftback, two midfielders and a central forward. The midfield is just ok if we sit deep but otherwise, we would be better with other midfielders that would be more dynamic, move to have the ball everytime to dictate the play. The opposition has only to care about Ramires potential run from the middle when we are 50-40 meters away from the goal. Some say that the pitch helped us but I think that in better condition, Hazard, William, Ramires would have been more a threat.

Have you a link?

I think he's a moody player. His trip to Lille to me I think was because he was a little bit depressed. It wouldn't surprised me if like David Luiz, Mata, he wouldn't stay that long at Chelsea, especially under Mourinho. Under Benitez he was good, I think that was because he was enjoying himself more and there was a lot more structure and patterns in our attacks. The ball was coming also quicker from defense, not the many many passes between the central defenders that we see this year.

I don't have problem with what you say. And for Azpilicueta, he's better at pressing and not easily outrun, only his aerial ability is less than Ivanovic. And under Benitez he was playing like a midfielder, nothing extraordinary but he was good at passing the ball, good position to keep the ball moving. The fullbacks I liked the most are the ones that were good in a midfield position. Zanetti, Sorin, the fullbacks of Ac Milan under Ancelotti that had a great connection with Seedorf and the other wide midfielders, Lahm, Alaba of Bayern Munich. I know that Lahm as defensive midfielder is surprising and not the greatest idea but it's not so stupid as many think as the likes of Zanetti, Sorin, Alaba (in his youth) played decent football as a defensive midfielder. Last year, Mata was maybe not working that much but the rest of the team was working quite hard when they had the energy to do it, the back four was pushing higher, Hazard was working much more than under Di Matteo, and in our possession of the ball, I knew what was the plan, was seeing patterns in the movements of our players. This year in possession, I don't see pattern, there seems to have no coordination between the players in their runs. And you've said it yourself, a team should defend and attack together. With Mourinho, his teams in possession of the ball has never been great and Terry Cahill sitting deep makes me furious. As the other teams are happy to let them the ball and is only slowing our play and making the connection between defence and midfield difficult.

I'm really not surprised. Watching Mourinho's team over the years, his motto has always been to wait for an opponent mistake. Just look at Real against Manchester United las year in the champion's league. Very boring matches, Manchester parking the bus and Real passing the ball in front of them waiting for a mistake. In possession of the ball, the central defenders are quite deep, the team set-up waiting for the other team to make a mistake in their pressing and leaving spaces. Problem is that this team has the worst midfielders of all the teams he has coached. In porto, first Chelsea, Inter, he had much better all-around and defensive midfielders. In possession of the ball, his teams doesn't play in a progressive way. His biggest merits as a coach have been to putting back old school defending and some fighting, dirty plays. The problem he has now in the premier league is that the teams are not so naive as they used to do, overcommiting players in attack and leaving huge space easily. And we don't have players that can bully other players if we are not playing well like his first chelea team who was ultra powerful. Just look at Schalke, like a lot of german teams that are not Bayern and Dortmund, they are easily countered as they leave huge space behind them.

It's not like Hazard and Oscar wasn't helping the fullbacks with Benitez. Hazard was working much more with Benitez than Di Matteo. The match against Tottenham, Hazard was working like he never did before and was still a big threat. Otherwise on the set-pieces, I think we play too much one on one, a mix of zone and one on one would protect us better. Even not great delivery is dangerous to us because we don't protect the first zone before the first post, if we did, failed delivery would be stopped before the ball is coming in the battlezone of one on one.

Manchester United and us have the easier draw.

AVB is paying for the awful transfer he did this summer. Ok we picked William but paying so much money for an average forward as Soldado was stupid. Not buying good wingers or inside forward was stupid as well. They have no one with cutting edge to unlock defences. Strong midfielders but with no pace, passing ability and driving threat.

AVB fucked his summer transfers. The spanish ghost (don't remember his name for 30 millions) and some waterboy players.

If you could explain the selection of Ivanovic as right back and Cahill Terry as central defender, I would be glad. Especially if we want to to press high, for me pressing high with a central defense quite deep is a big no. It was the worst combination of players for the back four last year. And the match against West Ham for me is not a great indicator as the back four of West Ham is rubbish, slow and inept with the ball at their feet. They're a hoofing ball team. And I would like to have an idea of what the possession system is when we have the ball as we struggle with no clear ideas and movements to alter the shape of the opponent. Mourinho's weak point is clearly when the opponents leave them the ball. Looking at the difficulties of his Real team to dispatch Manchester United that were not that great defensively. Even his first chelsea team were into too many fighting matches against average and mediocre team when the team had top3 in Europa midfielders.

Tip to English team owner, hire good coaches from the spanish league or spanish educated coach. Argentina and Spanish teams in the end of the 90's and 2000's have always been the teams I liked watching the most.

Against QPR, Rafa was rotating too much players. And if the majority was not liking Rafa, I liked what I was seeing after a difficult first two months with him. I was seeing improvements in the movements in attack, the way we defended in midfield, the defence pushing higher, we were not letting teams shoot and cross as much as we were doing under Di Matteo. In attack in possession, I have seen many plays that were like basket ball system, fixing a zone, like a set-up screen, pick and roll play that if the defense is not reacting well, release a runner to attack the box, if the defense is blocking it, it leaves space to the middle or the other side of the pitch. Our play from the back was quicker and more methodical to play quicly to the other side or to the midfielders. Luiz breaking first line of press was also good as it opened more passing options. In Europa league, we were only playing one match, resting the other game but in the game we were playing at 100%, we were creating many, many chances against Basel and Steaua. Look at our play against them this year, dull, slow with no ideas to attack. And remember that he arrived in the middle of the season, that the team were on his knee and still after two months, I was seeing a lot of progress. What I see now is seeing too much of the negative side of the Di Matteo team, the central defense staying too deep, the midfield easily bypassed when we lose the ball.

Except Ramires we don't have great runners in our midfield but with the way Terry Cahill are staying so deep, we would need three great runners in our midfield. I don't like that we have to fight the long balls so often near our box. Against a team like Stoke, our central defense should push higher. Stoke would have to make difficult passes, with the space we let them between our central defense and midfield, it was too easy for them and too much ground for our midfielders to cover.

Seems like we can't play three games in a row. I think our big problem is that Terry and Cahill play much too deep wich means too much running to do for our midfielders when we lose the ball. Against teams that let us have the ball, our central defenders should push a little bit higher, it's not like Stoke had speedy players upfront. I would also like more one touch passing from the back. Yesterday there was often quite obvious pass for Cahill to play quickly but he was taking 5 touches and letting him a more difficult pass to play. Against Newcastle and Stoke we lost because we let them too much space between our central defenders and midfield. Too easy for them to have outlets for their attack.

Bayern and Dortmund are much better teams than the rest of the german teams. Most of the german teams don't know how to defend.

I'm not a fan of Mourinho as I don't like watching his teams play but on this case, he is right, Lukaku is talking way too much. What I find funny is that empty words is working way too much in general. In school I hated when classmates were quoting things like Perroquet without understanding, just because it was hype or the politically correct thing to say. It was like listening to brainwashed people.

For Schurlle, I don't understand as for me he's more a Mourinho player that our other attacking midfielders.

But they had also patterns in our attacks, our back four were playing higher when we were playing against teams sitting deep and were moving the ball quicker to either side or to the midfielders as they were closer to them, David Luiz could also carry the ball forward and break a line of pressing. Against Basel, last year Mata didn't play that much, it was Oscar Hazard Moses behind Fernando and we were creating much more chances. This year we play much slower from the back and our players seems to lack pace compared to our best period last year.

Our attack is even worse than what i was expecting before the season with him as our coach. Against West Ham, we didn't play that good. Before the Oscar penalty, we were as usual creating nearly nothing when we had the ball. And Why didn't we bought central midfielders in the summer is still an enigma to me. As this Chelsea team have the worst midfielders that Jose Mourinho has had since he began as a coach (if you don't count his first job before Porto).

The match against West Ham wasn't that great. Many players were working hard but it was not that good. West Ham were so slow in their passing and we had enough players behind to deal with their long balls.

Mata is struggling this year. Silva had a difficult period at Manchester City where he underperformed and Kagawas hasn't performed at Manchester United. The style of play of a team has a huge influence. For me the Real Manchester United in the champion's league last year was a great example. Manchester was sitting deep and Real was playing a waiting game and wasn't putting great pressure on Manchester Defence, Manchester didn't have to make many clearances. The first game was very boring, there was maybe just 10 minutes of real pressure and not many good attacking moves from Real.

It was not great in the beginning but at least we were seeing improvements, he changed the back 4, our build-up from the back was more methodical and quicker to move the ball form side to side and into the midfield, as the season progressed, we were seeing patterns in the movements of our player with some adjustments for the opposition. Like in some games, Hazard would stay more on the left before coming inside or playing more like a deep playmaker in tandem with Mata agains West Ham. It was never an option because of the reactions of the fans but for me it would have been better to build on what we had at the end of last year and continue with Benitez. And He would have tried to build a central midfielder as he already wanted Mascherano in January. Even Lampard was scoring quite a lot at the end, him being in great shooting position after some build-up plays. The squad had the same flaws and was even thinner last year. Benitez changed the back 4 to play a higher line to play closer to the pivot players. We didn't see 4-5 players in the same line waiting for a cross with Benitez like we often see this year. Until now, for me the best football we have seen the last two years have been under Benitez.

Benitez is gone What happened to Luiz, Mata, to a lesser extent Ramires, Azpi, even Oscar lately has not performed very well. All the important players that were performing in the Benitez system are underperforming this year.

I have never been a fan of Mourinho and what is happening is what I feared before the season, we have played a lot of matches and we have perhaps scored only one or two goals in open play after a build-up play, all the goals have been counter-attacks, set-pieces or keeper's mystake by the opponent. We have the right to say it, especially after the abuse that Benitez received and where no excuses was tolerated while he arrived in a much more difficult situation with players not in great shape in the end of the Di Matteo reign, leaking goals easily, letting the other team shoot and cross way too much. we were much more balanced at the end with Benitez. I still think Mourinho was not the right choice with the players we have in our squad. His former chelsea team had great midfielders, poweful players and his team was already not playing a great passing game, relying more on players bullying opponents. Many scraping matches back then against average opponents, this time we don't have the players to bully the opponents.