kellzfresh

For a while, once we score, we then defend, keep it tight and stop pressing. We need to keep on pressing till we are 2 goals up before we sit back and counter.

We have enough points ahead to risk taking the shackles off hazard and fabregas and dominate teams as we did in the beginning of the season... Score some goals, even arsenal have now scored more than us by now if I'm not mistaken

If ivanovic knew how to block a cross, he'll be world class. He's as bad as bosingwa in this aspect, luckily he is a threat in attack

He is a right winger but his vision is very good so he can easily play behind the striker. If we sell him without even giving him a chance here, no attacking teenager will make it in our club. You won't find better talent than this at this age.

I just had a feeling he's too good. I've never been this impressed about our youth team player not even KDB impressed me this much. I'm so confident in his abilities that if he's given 5 straight games in front of Oscar or Willian he'll relegate them to the bench like zouma.

I hope the talk with the players was about how our attacking football has left us since the beginning of the year. And how we've been not been dominating matches for too long. Clear lack of goals

The thing is, because we're not a possession style team, hazard touches the ball less than other teams.For example, Ronaldo can afford to try to shoot from distance everytime because he knows he'll get the ball again very soon. But since we average 55% possession and even 43% against big teams, it means hazard sees the ball 20-30 times less than other attacking players so he has more chances to miss, more chances to dribble, more chances to assist. Edit: I don't know if you understood what I meant

Exactly. I have this feeling too that he's going to dump anyone who doesn't fit his style. No look at Liverpool, all their attackers shoot from outside the box, but we've become worse than arsenal at looking for the perfect goal instead of laying the ball off for a long shot. We have no risk takers, especially since fabregas stopped attempting through passes, and no one can shoot from distance, even hazard dribbles too safe, stops, doesn't want to take the shot. Mourinho hasn't had this profile of players who are weak physically and weak aerial before and he's trying to adjust his tactics but it isn't perfect so far especially defensively. We need an essien in midfield who can carry the ball into the box when the pretty passes aren't working. We have no proper shooters in our team, even arsenal have more players that can score from outside the box than us.

Most of the time, defenders improve under Mourinho. Far more than attackers hazard, Ronaldo, ozil, Milito, Sneijder are the only attackers I can remember who IMPROVED since he left us in 2008

The passion and energy luiz showed was exactly what we used to have in the big games last season. Sad to see us lose it

In the first half of the season, our attacking movement was there for everyone to see. The movement, chance creation and pressing energy was high. Now for the 2nd season in a row, the 2nd half of the season we are scared to attack, we don't press for more than 10 mins in a match and I think its becoming evident that we don't practice attacking movement any more, very frustrating because not many can beat us attack for attack Everton experienced this earlier in the season.

Lol Wish willian could be more ambitious with the ability he has

If he was at Chelsea, he'll probably be defending and we'll all complain of his lack of ability

But compared to a lot of our former CMs, he's physically weak

Spot on. I too get this feeling that this isn't his team yet. He is used to having physical players in the middle. This is the first time he has Fabregas Oscar Willian Hazard Ramires Even Azpilicueta All these players in the starting line-up can't win aerial duels or physically dominate people like ballack essien and lampard used to. Mourinho can't physically be dominant again, so if any team puts us under pressure and our passes are not going, we can't make powerful drives like essien and ballack used to do, we can't even score a goal from a cross and header from openplay. We are not direct, we hate taking shots unless we're infront of the keeper, We can't defend and prevent teams from getting chances again. So this type of team have not been used by Mourinho before, he must be worried.

On the match yesterday, I knew it was a disaster the moment i saw a red card. This meant our players didn't know whether to stick to the original plan of defence and counter or attack because the opponent had red card. Mourinho should have told them to stick with the pressing, stick with the quick play but he clearly told them to slow down. I don't know why, but that's what it is. If Mourinho's only tactics is to soak pressure and hit people on the break, then fabregas is useless to him. He can't defend and can't run on the counter so he should have been subbed off and not oscar. This is one of the reasons we've become worse than last season in the big games, we're playing with one less defensive player instead of the huge luiz - Matic pivot, we now use fabregas and ramires who are far smaller for midfield battle. PSG were big players and instead of having luiz or mikel to defend setpieces we now have fabregas or Ramires. Mourinho should get more physical players if he wants his current big game tactics to work. This team is the weakest team in defending, height and jump he's ever managed imo. As for the reaction, If we lose while playing well, the fans can have something to hold onto. But if we lose while playing terrible the coach has to take whatever comes to him so Mourinho deserves every criticism he gets.

Mourinho beats a lot of teams because he is the best at detecting opposition tactics and finding a way to stop it. This is how Mourinho always beats wenger, Ferguson and Rodgers. He knows what they will do, he knows how they'll play, he knows they'll stick to their philosophy. So Mourinho plans how to stop the philosophy and then give freedom to 3-4 players to do what they like (not what they practiced) The thing with mourinho is that he too has become predictable. Every top manager in Europe now knows he wants to sit back and let only 3 players counter. In a big match, I already know before facing him that he'll not practice the counter attack pattern, I already know that it's only the defensive shape he will train his players to do. So I don't need to stop the tactics, I just need to make the few players he gave freedom have a difficult time. This stopping of the attacking players is even more easy than it is supposed to be because the players are attacking with what they feel, instead of what they practiced. If they practiced a few attacking patterns, our attack will be faster since it is rehearsed. With this knowledge, I think Mourinho needs to hire an attacking coach. There is no shame in this, Ferguson the greatest manager did this, and a lot of other coaches. If Mourinho knows how to stop opponents tactics, imagine how much better we'll be if someone handles the attacking approach so that it'll be faster and look like something rehearsed. This is my opinion on how Mourinho can improve

I just don't get why we were so slow and without intensity in the 2nd half. We were walking slower than ibrahimovic went down the tunnel. See how PSG attack us with faster passes and making runs during possession, but we are slow and only costa made any runs even though his touch was horrific.

How poor was his passing today??? Fucking hell. He already can't win headers but at least pass the ball well.

Just poor. It was just left with the final ball in the first half, I thought he'll keep it that way but he clearly slowed down our play in the 2nd half showing clear intentions from Mourinho. I've never been so annoyed with him for a performance as I am now

Lmao. We were so good in the first half, then he goes and changed the formation. This defeat is on him

He might be a sloppy passer but his pressing is the key to our offensive style. No other person can replace his pressing effectively

Fabregas showing hazard how to scream when kicked

If we get the same ramires we got against westham, that's more attacking than Willian has ever been

Mostly injured every 2nd period of the season. But its a worry it has happened almost all through his career