kellzfresh

Six years ago today, Eden Hazard was sent off against Swansea for kicking a time-wasting ball boy

We need a new talisman. Regardless of whether he stays or goes, this cannot be the mentality of the best player in our squad. I know people like making excuses for Eden, I like him as a person too, but that quote in my opinion should not be uttered in public. Our best player of the old guard (Lampard) would never have this kind of mentality, and this is why this chelsea side are inconsistent. Because we play well as a team when we're in the mood to put in more effort. See? Sarri wasn’t making this up.

Too many touches. Too much hesitation. Too slow, and all around quite boring. A win against Newcastle, yeah, but it highlighted the worst of our forwards and advanced midfielders. At times there’s a distinct lack of awareness from our attackers as to how much time and space they really have. And that was only exasperated against Arsenal when things went from bad to… bad. We can’t pretend that the signs weren’t there before this weekend’s game at The Emirates™. After a ‘heroic’ loss at Wembley the lads took their foot off the pedal. Again. Putting in one of their worse showings in recent times against Newcastle Arsenal. But we should be more concerned with the mentality of the team as a whole. Not so much in the cliché ‘machismo’ sense, but more in terms of being positive on the ball, taking responsibility, and showing some semblance of awareness. It’s a process. Sure. But with the risks we take playing the way we do, and margins in a game of professional football so thin, we need more in the 'final 20 metres' to make it worthwhile. But we don’t see enough of these sort of risks from other players further forwards. Maybe Jorginho. It sticks out like a sore thumb when Jorginho tries to pick a similar sort of run, but the key thing is at least he is trying to be incisive. To get back to what I was talking about above. These passes from Luiz and to some extent Rudiger serve a clear purpose. And outside of the obvious poor finishing we’ll see there’s more that we’ve failed to take advantage of in these moments. It might be harsh to be looking at this frame by frame and bashing them for it, but as professional footballers in the top flight of the English game this is the speed at which they have to make their decisions. Margins are thin. The tempo of passing has to be quick in order to unsettle defences. The game has moved on from 15-20 years ago when the 10 had space and time to dictate and make decisions between lines. Most of the gaps we create in defences last less than a second. And when no one takes responsibility throughout the entire move we get the same boring and frustrating tippy-tappy nonsense without a true end goal in sight. An obvious issue then. The need for invention and to move the ball quickly. All while getting bodies into the box. It doesn’t always have to work out. It's more that the previous incision and will to force things to happen has been slowly slipping out of our game. I’m sure Sarri is alright with his players losing the ball while playing at a high tempo. It’s better than the alternative of taking more touches for a safety first approach (that poses more of a danger to us in the long term). We’re living with the worst of both worlds. Risky build-up play without the end product to make it worthwhile. That's a lot for one Higuain to solve, but with Hazard moving back out wide and having a threat in behind... A lot of maybes. It's on to Sarri to sort this.

Why dont our midfielders run into space? I notice this a lot, they have no football intelligence to notice they have space to run into in attack. Thats why we have few bodies in attack all the time.

Chelsea aren't playing very well. Maurizio Sarri warned everyone back in September that he felt Chelsea were a year or two behind their rivals and it looks like he had a point. Former manager Jose Mourinho summarised things nicely on a rare TV appearance over the weekend: "I'm not saying Chelsea's an easy team to play against... but it's an easy team to analyse". With that in mind, what's going wrong? How Sarri-ball works As has become all too apparent in recent weeks, Chelsea are predictable and easy to shut down. Sarri's team lineup in a 4-3-3, play a high defensive line and patiently wait for opportunities to score by passing, then passing some more, then passing even more, then passing even more than that. The whole thing is structured around a deep lying playmaker, or 'six', acting as a link between centre-backs and midfield. On either side of him are two central midfielders - 'eights' - who play from box to box and operate in the halfspaces. The wingers are instructed to move inside the pitch, full-backs play high and overlap and the striker has to be able to attack crosses, run onto through balls and link play. In defensive phases the shape can change to a 4-5-1 if the wingers do the defensive work required. The setup is very structured and depends on players who understand the tactical demands and are suited to their individual roles. Everyone knows how Chelsea play now. Marking Jorginho Curbing Chelsea's creativity The arrival of Sarri was good news for David Luiz, who has become one of Chelsea's most important creative players. Centre-backs aren't usually man-marked, which means they are free to distribute the ball as they wish - Luiz's long range passing is superb. David Luiz is one of Chelsea's most important playmakers This exact pass put Pedro clean through on goal, played onside by Arsenal's left-back Sead Kolasinac. A possession-based side like Chelsea would usually depend on the creativity of the attacking midfielders to find openings, but a midfield of N'Golo Kante, Mateo Kovacic and a man-marked Jorginho needs a bit of help from someone with ideas. Luiz is perhaps the only footballer in the team prepared to hit direct, vertical passes to catch out teams defending against Chelsea's never-ending horizontal passing. The solution to this is obvious too: force Chelsea to pass the ball to their right flank, away from Marcos Alonso and Luiz, towards Cesar Azpilicueta, Antonio Rudiger and Kante, who are less artistic distributors of the ball. That's exactly what Arsenal did. Possession without penetration Opposition teams are entirely happy to let Chelsea have the ball because that's the best way to defend against them. With buildup play spoiled because Jorginho is marked and without a striker capable of causing damage, they're so predictable in the final third that teams can defend patiently behind the ball until Chelsea run out of ideas, try a shot from 20 yards or cross the ball into nobody, turning over possession. Chelsea's attacking shape leaves them vulnerable to counter-attacks, which makes sitting deep and waiting for the ball a safe option for success. Eden Hazard is best when allowed to roam from his starting position on the left of a forward three but when stationed as a false nine, doesn't see enough of the ball. When he drops deep to get involved, Chelsea are left without a player to aim crosses to in the box and his natural inclination to drift to the left side means the centre of the pitch is left vacant. And so, Chelsea work the ball wide either by choice or forced to by the defending team, reach the end of the corridor and then have no option but to pass backwards, then sideways, then backwards. Chelsea's players are being marked out of the game, which means the most creative are being neutered by the entire team's predictability. We've seen this happen to other managers in recent seasons. Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool employ the same shape as Chelsea, but move the ball through the lines more quickly and employ a more frantic forward press. It took Klopp several transfer windows and three seasons of coaching to get his side looking the way he wanted. In the days before Naby Keita and Virgil van Dijk Liverpool had similar struggles in the Premier League, with teams like Burnley sitting back, denying space and coming away with 1-0 wins. With time Sarri can construct a starting XI in his own image too but that in itself is a problem to fix - will he be given time and money to buy new players to fit a system, or does he need to change the system to fit the players? Is N'Golo Kante out of position? Kante is one of the world's great midfielders. He won the Premier League with Leicester and Chelsea as a central midfielder in a midfield two, running around the pitch with such energy and making so many tackles and interceptions that Claudio Ranieri remarked it was like there were two of him on the pitch. Sarri's midfield three fundamentally needs a player who to set the passing tempo and who is able to receive the ball in tight spaces, turn a corner and bring others into play, hence Jorginho. The two eights must be in position to link passing through the middle, cover in defence and attack the halfspaces in the final third. Kante can't play as a six so he has to be an eight. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2019/01/21/chelseas-tactical-headache-deconstructed-problems-facing-sarri/

We are supposed to be taking advantage of the space other teams leave when they overload the center just to mark Jorginho. But our players don't know how to play quick one touch football, they love hugging the ball and we have poor players on the wings to exploit the space when the center is overloaded. Sarri has to buy his Alba and Alves to combat this because Jorginho is his Busquets, they maintain the tempo of possession and control the whole game for the team. Every coach that has Jorginho in their team will start him 9 times out of 10, I don't think he's as bad as people are making him out to be.

Sarri complained that we are taking too many touches of the ball instead of one/two touches then pass. He complained there is no motivation/determination from the players, which means we don't run enough. And from my personal observation of the game the players refused to press high enough and there was no compactness from the team. The distance between the lines of defence, midfield and attack were too far apart, spaces were everywhere to exploit. This must be very frustrating for Sarri, almost like the team betray his tactics anytime we face small difficulty for 10mins in a match. That is why he said we don't know how to suffer or be dogged. We may have to wait a long time for Sarri to let out the duds and get his own players like Pep did with (Navas, Toure, Hart, Sagna, Clichy, Zabaleta, Fernando, Mangala, Bony, etc) and Klopp did with (Lallana, Sturridge, Moreno, Clyne, Toure, Mignolet, etc) Attacking football managers take longer to implement and need support from the board and fans while defensive like Conte and Mourinho can do it in one season. Patience is needed guys.

Conte said the same thing and so did Jose.. These Chelsea players if they aren't fighting for the title.. they just play as if they are not interested.

Good servant to the club. Wish him all the best in future

I've been wondering why we're not in for him. Set piece specialist, dead-ball specialist, Creates a lot of chances and can score goals, has played in the left of a midfield three before under Ancelloti and got 15 goals and 15 assists. Proven, why we're not even linked with him boggles the mind really.

Look at the speed of play, look at the runs off the ball, pass and move, first time passes. We never do that here, everyone wants the ball to feet and holds it for 10 minutes and no one wants to make some effort (runs) off the ball

Look at the speed of play, look at the runs off the ball, pass and move, first time passes. We never do that here, everyone wants the ball to feet and holds it for 10 minutes and no one wants to make some effort (runs) off the ball

Juventus Want Emerson On A Permanent Deal

Unfortunately Sarri never rotates his lineup unless the player threatens him with a transfer move. So Alonso stays put

To support your statement Jorginho is No. 2 on through balls in the premier League

I don't trust the daily mail, but please let this happen, please