Swansea 1-1 Chelsea

[francozola 2,040]

^ In my opinion he wasn't as bad as the others. His crossing is still atrocious but I support a player that tries & gets things wrong more than players that don't give a fuck.

[Chels 238]

Haha you say that like hes been here for years. hes been here for 6 months. Im sick of fans wanting stability and as soon as a manager makes a few mistakes they start to suggest he should be sacked soon. dont know why you want jose hes a selfish prick who gets bored too easily. I say we give AVB at least 3 years and if we still havent improved then maybe think about a new manager. People are way too impatient

Calm down mate,

I didn't state I wanted stability, we've won more trophies in the last 6 years bar united not having stability with the same manager.

Not being impatient, but come on a few mistakes, I have yet to see him make a good sub lol, joking.

And with the Jose thing I agree he is a selfish prick I'm just having a panic moment mate.

[magicrico 175]

After lasts nights game, I woke up this morning and feel no different. We don't work the keeper, we have no idea about passing and we can't score goals. We have a manager who says he "didn't wanna upset the dynamic of te defence" but terry was out so surely that did upset the dynamic? We play so poor week in week out it's a joke. Don't expect us to beat utd. They will win easily. Big team coming to the bridge is a banker these days. IMHO we won't get top 4 either. And that will be due mostly to not having a striker who can finish and a team who can pass. This will have a knock on effect in money coming into the club and transfers. This season has been the worst since roman joined.

[Tomo 21,684]

i really do! he did alot of chelsea with C.A to be honest i think he did most the work. - Its not working at the moment is it?

If Ray Wilkins was superman Scolari would still be our manager.

[Severinb 309]

Sorry i was really drunk yesterday but i have to say i am really disapointed!

[KonohasOrangeFlash 2,607]

AVB go fuck yourself, Amateur. Bring Back Mourinho!

[lecter 84]

/rant-start

*Before people jump out to thrash me around, I did sleep over the result and am much more composed writing this. And this is a post meant only to point out the shortcomings and this does not mean I dont see the positive sides.

Truly abysmal display from the team (that is challenging for CL, is it?). Yesterday was just a preview of what can happen to our squad if we do get to face the likes of Barcelona or even, dare I say, Arsenal. Where do I start?! There are so many things wrong with this team.

Lets start with the most debated aspect--AVB! I have been very optimistic about him from the start and now I find the cynic in myself taking over after some really baseless, illogical and sometimes utter stupid decisions from the manager. I am on the verge of conceding to the point that AVB has pulled a major bluff on everyone of us and, most importantly, Roman.

Team Selection:

• As mentioned quite a few times already, why is Bosingwa still on the team sheet?! When it is obvious for even popcorn tacticians (and also some 'pundits') like us that he is the weakest link in the defence and the team in general, why does it seem hard for AVB to perceive it?! Even if he thinks Ivan is best suited for CB, does he not see that PF at RB might put in better performances than that piece of crap? He comes out as just adamant and plain stupid as far as this aspect is concerned.
  
• Playing Ashley in every single game of the season: The on-and-off performances by a player, who is still considered among the top three full-backs of the generation, were inevitable to culminate in what was an entirely ridiculous display and also a well-deserved red card, owing to the frustration triggered by the physical and mental tiredness of the athlete. Was that not evident to the great tactician?! What will be the icing on the cake as far as this issue goes is to not (or being able to, considering the game-time,) pick Ryan even for the Utd game!
  
• Role of Mata: The only creative figure of the team has lost his initial gloss and as games pass by looks more and more like a "true" blue. Even when we have the likes of Malouda on the pitch, it takes a surprisingly LONG time and sometimes forever for our young "genius" to realise that Mata is at his best in the CAM role and not in the wing position. I think our No.10 looks ragged already and it wont be too long before he burns out too. Fatigue is not just about running miles on the pitch but also affected by the kind of play and the mental freshness (some football playing members might help me out here).
  
• Bench and substitutes: I have never seen this man make a disparate substitution, when we are chasing a game and more often than not his substitutions are perfect examples of the phrase "too little, too late"! And as time passes by, I find him more and more like CA in his conservative approach. The only difference is AVB has his own starting 11 (or 15 max.) who are equally clueless as a team as under CA. I have not seen him being progressive as much as I'd expected. Please dont compare our team with the previous season but look at how it has changed/adapted over the season. It did not!
  

Training:

• What effect does his training have if our team was almost humiliated by a newly promoted team in something that is expected of a top European side: player co-ordination on the pitch? It was plain embarrassing watching our players run into each other trying to get hold of the ball and numerous times! We were made to look like a bunch of school-kids by Swansea (at least in the first half). I hate to imagine what new lows we would discover if we ever get to play Barcelona this season.
  
• I would love to appreciate the great mind that came up with the long GK when we have FT, JM and Studge as our front three! I have seen it happen SO MANY times and the ball just comes back for obvious reasons.
  
• Our set-pieces have been ineffective, to say the least. Mata does not seem to me a specialist "corner-man". There seems to be no purpose for our free kicks anymore. Is that not part of the training?!
  

Team Spirit:

• As much as we'd love to talk tactics and skills (and be pseudo-football pundits), the basic love of sport arises from the speculation and expectation of witnessing some great moments. And these moments arise only when there is grit and commitment shown on the pitch/court. We support all these players not because we can relate to their high-class celebrity existence but because we believe we support the same cause named "Chelsea Football Club". That is the only reason we tolerate their antics and support them in bad-times. Now, in this squad, there are a very few players who warrant wearing our badge on the criterion of determination for the club and "the team", in particular. Its outrageously obvious how many players are just indifferent! I really think its the manager's job to instill the motivation in the players to win matches and to perform well, in general. The Majorca trip turned out to be of zilch help!
  
• Though AVB's retorts to the press have been great, his post-match interviews and opinions on team performances have been dissatisfying. It casts additional doubt when the team turns up with an uninspiring performance even after a sapless display that resulted in dropping points or just scraping through!
  

I now think AVB has everything to prove and earn the trust of fans (at least me) and he has half a season to turn in some decent displays. I am not demanding a trophy or the title. Just put in performances that actually foster the pride we carry for being a Blue supporter.

:blue scalf:

/rant-stop

*And yeah I do believe AVB is not the only one to blame. The dissing of players is to follow, in all probability.

[francozola 2,040]

Very good post and I agree with mostly everything. I am very disillusioned after yesterdays performance.

I think the biggest problem is that a lot of these players know that they won't be here next season and so they have nothing to prove anymore. Hence the desire to win games is gone. I include the likes of Torres in this. He has given up. He is simply waiting to go back to Spain in the summer. Say what you want about Liverpool and their below average shitty signings, but they show more desire in one game than what we've shown in 18months. (it kills me to say this btw because I hate the scum more than anything)

I just want to fastforward to the summer when AVB will be able to make some proper signings and a lot of these twats will be gone.

But like you, I am getting less and less optimistic about AVB. I was very, very supportive of him up til the last month or so. He has done some really idiotic things and I can't get past them. Not playing McEachran and Bertrand, stupid substitutions, etc.

But I'm still willing to give him more time because this team is absolutely awful and he's inherited it so it's not really his fault.

[5354 204]

Just when you thought that last season was shite. This season was worst than shite!

[Santiago. 1,500]

Last season was just shit, hopefully at the end of the season, it will become gold covered in shit

[Hamilton 2,118]

One thing to remember tough, it only can get better, worse is impossible..

[Krypt 241]

AVB go fuck yourself, Amateur. Bring Back Mourinho!

Seriously no need.

I loved the Mourinho era but honestly if he came back , could you see him dropping the likes of malouda ? AVB has shown us glimpses of the Chelsea he could build. he simply does not have the players to play the way he wants and i would like to see anyone here manage big ego's like malouda , cole etc he has already shown he will drop under performing players like Frank when he was shite earlier this season.

He inherted an overpaid underperfoming sqaud and didnt have time or the money to rebuild the side completely so he has had to use what he has got , we saw last season this team was on its way out. The team should have been refreshed around 2 seasons ago but wasnt because Carlo won the double etc so is that AVB's fault.

I think we have all been spoiled by the success over the last few years and fail to see this club has come on leaps and bounds since Roman's arrival , yes this season has been shite and maybe the worst team of the Roman era but things can only get better and i think we need to give Andre the chance to build his team not a bunch on jose/carlo rejects.

[Kez 2,727]

AVB go fuck yourself, Amateur. Bring Back Mourinho!

Grow up & stop living in the past.

[Fernando 6,376]

Grow up & stop living in the past.

It's funny, and then some of these people accuse of Liverpool living in the past, when they are the same......

[True_Blue 469]

haha what should we do? "o you pld poor but it was good to watch" we are going to hate or moan if a team you love watching plays shit! i dont get fans who dont moan about the team? if we finish 19th for example are you going to say nevermind we pld well in 1 out of 38 games,

strange?

If we finish 19th we would be relegated.Would you stop supporting Chelsea then?

[Santiago. 1,500]

[lecter 84]

But I'm still willing to give him more time because this team is absolutely awful and he's inherited it so it's not really his fault.

I understand that he has a tough task with the set of players he has, but the points I made are totally under his control, irrespective of the team he has at disposal, and he definitely should have done better. And I surely do not want an impulsive change in the management like we have had for the past few seasons but hes got to mend his ways to see through Chelsea into the CL next season. Missing CL would be disastrous for us, considering our financial health and the future.

[zolayes 14,489]

I was there when we werent as good as that