dee25

....which was a substitution. Not understanding your point that Conte's subs made no difference....

Refreshing isn't it? No players going down easily looking for a handout from the ref, no Costa getting into petty squabbles. just..... football. I've missed that. Long may it last.

You stole mine. I think the last time we strung together 5 consecutive wins was 2013/14 season.

It's one thing to make those errors in your second match in charge, it's something entirely different to keep making those same errors months after months, defeat after defeat, poor performances after poor performances. It took Guus 45 mins to see that Cesc alongside Matic wasn't working. He acted swiftly and replaced him with Mikel. How long did it take Mourinho before he finally dropped Cesc? How many times did we have to watch Cesc get turned and our midfield sliced opened by the slightest of movement before Mourinho finally did something about it? I understand that some people on here who are strong supporters of Mourinho are desperate for some vindication. I don't blame you, after all it's human nature to want to be proven right. But to criticize Guus for making similar errors in judgement as Mourinho without acknowledgement that the former is only 1 week into his managerial tenure, is quite frankly the height of absurdity. Good points raised. Would many managers, upon taking over a team mid season, bench a starter based solely on video analyses? I don't think so. I would think most managers would want to see how a player responds to their style/methods of coaching before deciding to replace them in starting line-up. I agree with you that Guus might never drop Ivanovic, but I also think it's important to bare in mind that he's taking over a team that's low in confidence and solidarity. I would imagine that for an interim manager walking into these circumstances, the first priority would probably be to try to lift the mood and unify the dressing room. I'm not sure if coming in and making radical changes right away would be the best approach to take to improve performances/results.

I have no doubt that were it Mourinho in that dugout, a fair few of the people who are criticizing Guus would be singing a different tone. We'd be seeing comments like "crucial point gained at a difficult ground". Excuses after excuses would be thrown about as to why we were so poor in possession - "well we were missing Costa", "well Utd might be in poor form but they're still United", oh and the obligatory "would you rather have lost 4-0 like Arsenal?" It's funny how so much more is being expected from an interim manager who's only had a week to work with these players than the previous manager who had years to mold this team according to his vision. Hats off to Tomo who is backing Gus just as strongly as he did with Mourinho.

Silly me. I thought technical things like ball circulation, attacking patterns, ball recovery (things that are severely lacking in this team) were under the responsibilities of the coach. Yes it's Emenalo's fault that the players can't string together passes. No responsibility whatsoever should be placed on the previous manager who's been coaching these players for 3 years now.

That one time in the game Ivanovic's cross actually found a blue shirt....I had to pinch myself. Then there's this perpetual gapping hole in midfield that's always there. All the time. No matter how many men we get behind the ball. It never closes. It's just there.

The structure of this team is just so inherently flawed it makes me want to punch it in the face. We can’t play out from the back because we don’t have defenders comfortable with the ball so we end up playing it long, but neither one of Hazard, Willian, Pedro, Oscar or Costa have aerial dominance so often times we end up always losing possession. Add to the fact that we have no natural fullbacks. Watching our attacking players attempt to overturn a scoreline in this system is like watching someone try to swim against the tide.

Look, If you're going to respond to my post then I really wish you would refrain from using words like "vent". I think words like that ends up producing unneeded tension and overly defensive replies. It's completely unnecessary. If you're unable to construct an argument without resorting to straw man statements like "feel free to vent" then simply don't respond to my posts and I promise to return the favor. Deal? It will save us both so much hassle. Secondly, I'm off the opinion that when you pay 20M euros for a 29yr, you give him fair chances to adapt to a new league, build confidence and stake a claim for a starting position. Luis was not any worse than Ivanovic who, regardless of his continuous brainless defending, was allowed chance after chance...and that's exactly the issue – that under Mourinho, certain types of players are allowed time and patience while others are benched at slightest sign of a mistake. Thirdly, regarding your hindsight is 20/20 argument......the interesting thing is that there are several members on here who had concerns about certain decisions Mourinho was making. I remember one poster on here who wrote an extensive post that Benitez was on to something by building the team around Luis, Mata and Hazard and all Mourinho needed to do was bring in a few extra pieces rather than breaking down the whole system. So I think your whole claim that it’s easy to criticize Mourinho’s decision in hindsight is a baseless claim. Many posters having been saying these things for the past two seasons. In any case, you’re right that we won’t agree and I really don’t think you’ve contributed anything of note except make silly straw-man comments. So let’s just leave it here.

There're absolutely no signs whatsoever that would indicate that Mourinho was planning to leave a long-term legacy here, besides his lip service to words like "long-term". You don't sell Ryan Bertrand and bring in a 16 million 29 yr old as his replacement and then proceed to leaving him on the bench, if you're planning to leave a long-term legacy. I think this notion that Mourinho wanted to achieve longevity here is nothing but wishful thinking.

Spot on. Mourinho was coming out of a disaster season at Real Madrid. Everyone was questioning his managerial capabilities, wondering whether he was past it. He needed to quickly repair his reputation and he did so by sacrificing this club's future. His intention wasn't never to come here and build a solid foundation. No. He simply swept the dirt under the rug and used methods that would produce immediate returns with no consideration to the long-term impact (i.e not rotating players). People complain that the board didn't back him but this man had Filipe Luis sitting on the bench and still insisted on running Azpi to the ground! What did it matter to him if Azpi burnt out?

Well when you have a fanbase that treats him as one, you can hardly blame him for believing it....

You literally took the words right out of my mouth. How can anyone say the club is in shambles without acknowledging that Mourinho is essentially to blame for that? Is he not the one that mishandled the situation with Eva? The whole team has been atrocious, yes but he's the manager! He's the one that coaches these players, he's the one that selects them, he's the one that sets up the team.... yet there's this reluctancy to reprimand him. If the club is in shambles then it's because the manager himself is in shambles.

My definition of "efficiency" differs from yours then. Last season, how many games did we win against the top 4 sides? Playing rigidly doesn't always equate to efficiency. We dropped points from winning positions against Utd and City all while playing rigidly. Chelsea fans really need to stop propelling this idea that we're efficient against the top sides. If that were true we wouldn't have been outplayed in the champions league in the last 2 seasons whenever we came across half decent teams.

Not to put you on the spot, but are people still deluding themselves with this idea that we play better against top 4 sides?