Chelsea 1-1 Birmingham

[Chelsea? 892]

According to Henry Winter (daily telegraph football correspondent) our fans wasn't singing 'Jose Mourinho' it was the Birmingham fans.

He also said he asked all the other reporters in the press box and they agreed.

well, i really hope avb knows this. Would have been nice if our fans could have out sang them with an AVB chant, but can't complain

[Kojo 4,676]

We need a new fucking midfield, and im not just talking about one player...

All we need is a playmaker, trust me, Ramires is a good player and should stay in the team, a DM is possibly needed however, not seen too much of Romeu recently and doubt he's going to stay at Chelsea, but then again who knows. That passer in midfield is vital, it would of changed the full team, changes the mentallity and adds confidence, because no one has ideas in the midfield, Meireles is also a good player but he's out of form because he needs a good player next to him, it's useless having two box to box midfielders next to each other, Meireles should never of been a starting player, he's not good enough, squad player at most.

[Kojo 4,676]

You saw a spark!

I saw nothing.

Two strikers that can't score for their life, but theoretical is not their fault. Is what we been saying over and over again.

Hence AVB and the board a bunch of fools for negating this problem.

Well to be fair it might just be me getting too depressed about Torres coming to think of it, he's just really doing my head in.

[chrismada9 1,948]

1) Mikel and Meireles were fucking useless.

2) Can't fault any of the defenders.

1) Exactly! First and foremost, you could clearly see the results as to why Mikel has been away from the squad for a while because of Romeu's participation, and I don't know why, but AVB just seems to love Meireles too much, even though he appears to do absolutely fuck all for this club! At Everton, he should have taken Meireles off for Lampard, but he took Essien off... and today, he should have taken him off for Lampard, instead it was fucking Mata!! It just goes to show that he has no logic in his changes at all!

2) Agreed! I think Cahill, despite some costly errors such as pointless tackles getting him booked in the process, he was pretty solid! Ivanovic can cross much better than "Boshitwa" can, and Luiz played like a true captain! Really good display from him! If Luiz can reduce the "cavalierism" in his play, and he learns some English a little bit more, I think he would be a fantastic captain for us!

[francozola 2,040]

Two things we can do:

• sack the manager, because he can't motivate this team, is tactically inept and clueless with his substitutions
  
• sack the squad, because they're fucking useless and if they can't be motivated by their wages and the prestige of playing for the club, they shouldn't be playing full stop. Plus they hardly help with their half-hearted performances.
  

One of the options is the easier of the two, but the bottom line is that neither our coach or our squad is good enough.

Thought his substitutions were okay today. Drogba for Torres - no explanation needed. Kalou for mikel also a good change because mikel was shit and Kalou is a better option than Malouda. Mata going off surprised me but I guess he was being rested for Napoli. Anyway I couldn't really see us getting a winner tbh so while controversial I understand why he was taken off

[Laylabelle 9,535]

Defence wasnt to bad until it came to set pieces..all went mental then.Everytime B'Ham had a corner or a free kick a bit eeeek here we go moment

[zolayes 14,489]

disappointing but not the end of the world or even the end of our cup run

[BlueLion. 21,491]

Thought his substitutions were okay today. Drogba for Torres - no explanation needed. Kalou for mikel also a good change because mikel was shit and Kalou is a better option than Malouda. Mata going off surprised me but I guess he was being rested for Napoli. Anyway I couldn't really see us getting a winner tbh so while controversial I understand why he was taken off

The Drogba-for-Torres one made sense. Mikel shouldn't have been playing in the first place.

[francozola 2,040]

Oh yeah, we've been seeing the same shit for the best part of 15 months now. I'm near the breaking point, as are many CFC supporters. HOWEVER AVB isn't helping himself with stupid team selections. Why play Mikel and Meireles today? Why not play them when defensive players are needed, like against Napoli? Why not play a more attacking midfield with Essien and Lampard? Why play the Useless Spaniard?

Okay agree on most points. Torres probably played as its gonna be his last game for a while. Drogba understandably 'rested' for Napoli. Lukaku was injured I heard???

Meireles is a complete joke I don't get it either. He is awful. Either lampard or Essien should have started in his place. Glad to see he's dumped Bosingwa, now it's time to drop Raul as well.

[francozola 2,040]

I've been pleasantly surprised by Cahill. Thought he would be an average player but in both appearances so far he's been calm, assured on the ball and made very few mistakes.

[gireesh 0]

Passing was so poor. We looked good for a few minutes when we played the ball quickly and zipped in some crosses.

[chrismada9 1,948]

• sack the squad, because they're fucking useless and if they can't be motivated by their wages and the prestige of playing for the club, they shouldn't be playing full stop. Plus they hardly help with their half-hearted performances
  

This point is probably the better of the two! I would just sell the likes of Torres, 'Boshitwa', Malouda, Kalou, Meireles and possibly even Mikel as well... bring in some much fresher and hungry talent with the money that we have behind us... those players I've mentioned especially are as painful to watch as squeezing a lemon with knife blades coming out of it!

[Chelsea? 892]

so why didn't AVB want Willian? I hope avb isn't what stopped us from signing willian cause he shouldn't have final say on transfers. he's probably too young and might become overwhelmed

[Slam Dunk 1,442]

I've been pleasantly surprised by Cahill. Thought he would be an average player but in both appearances so far he's been calm, assured on the ball and made very few mistakes.

As have I, think him & Luiz could become a solid partnership when needed.

[chrismada9 1,948]

so why didn't AVB want Hazard? I hope avb isn't what stopped us from signing Hazard cause he shouldn't have final say on transfers. he's probably too young and might become overwhelmed

Had to edit some of your post here!

[Chelsea? 892]

Had to edit some of your post here!

hazard didn't seem as likely as Willian

[YouNameIt 1,511]

There's always two sides of everything. First of all AVB isn't to blame for everything, but he is most certainly to BE blamed.

AVB:

1) His teamselection is horrible. The fact that he chooses to play meireles and mikel against Birmingham is absolutley clueless. Those two have no creativity what so ever and are an option when playing abit more defensive football.

2) I really doubt his team encouragement and motivation skills. Lately I really believe the players do not respect him and have little faith in him.

3) His substitutions suck bigtime. For instance, taking Mata off at that time is just stuipid. Mata rarely loses his creativity and pace and would have been needed for the whole game. Putting Lamps on for the last 9 minutes is just a no brainer. He should of started.

The team:

Even if our team isnt the strongest, the players are to blame for alot. They are paid like fucking gods and they are playing in the premier league, in a "top club" like Chelsea. Even if they perhaps arent happy with the manager or lose faith they should still play strong and keep themselfes motivated. How the fuck did we beat City to play this shitty against Birmingham, or teams such as Wolves and Swansea? The skills and play IS THERE but for some reason it doesnt show. Seems like they dont care (except for a few, Luiz, danny, mata etc)

Conclusion:

We are in dire need of some creativity in the team. The only player I have trust in the midfield is Ramires and possibly Essien to some part. The rest are pretty much utter shit and we would need 2 midfielders I think. Depending on what our gamestyle of choice will be one of those need to be a winger so that PERHAPS and depending on what happens with Torres and Lukaku maybe Danny could play as CF even. Either way, some type of forward is a must. Hopefully Mata can drop and take a position behind the striker(s) to feed more balls to.

Anyway, I expect us o get slaughtered by Napoli in all honesty. I expect us to have a 3-1 defeat and at home it'll probably be a horrible 1-1 display or alike. 4th i the PL isn't expected atm either. Our choice is to bet huge in the summer on new players and give AVB 100% trust in a long time view.

[chrismada9 1,948]

hazard didn't seem as likely as Willian

fair enough, but he was still a player I would have preferred in all honesty! The way we're going... poor performances and all that, I hardly think we're going to sign him in the summer! We should have tempted Lille with a legit offer last month while we still had the chance!

[The Big Drog 1,110]

The first half was shocking, absolutely shocking, compounded by chants of "Jose Mourinho" from our own fans and then booing the team off at half time.

If we never see Fernando Torres play for Chelsea again I wont be sorry. What a miserable excuse for a performance that was, Im not exaggerating when I say that I think you could pluck any semi-fit guy off the street and he could match that same performance that Torres gave in the first half, to describe it as piss poor would be doing it a compliment.

Didier came on second half and at least seemed to have energy, he fired the team up, he provided a physical presence up front, he pushed people, he made runs, he had a few clever flicks, it wasn't a great performance from Drogba but for a 33 year old, only back a day after an energy and emotionally draining ACON, it was a decent performance and a far better one than Torres. At 33 years old, the great man can't be relied on to drag the team out of a tight spot forever. However he should absolutely, 100% start against Napoli.

Mikel is shit. Meireles is average and shouldn't be a starter for a club with our ambition. I don't understand why anyone lets Frank Lampard hit freekicks, I thought, with that freekick late on, with the range it was at, with the position being right in the centre of the goal, it was ideal for Drogba to strike but up stepped Frank with his ridiculously bad freekicks that always seem to either hit the wall (the majority) or fly a long way over the crossbar.

On the positives, Ramires did very well having missed a few games with injury, Luiz continues his excellent form at the back and, once we got the ball to him in the second half, Sturridge did very well, a constant threat and a worthy goalscorer.

Bad result, pretty bad performance but at least we aren't out, it will have to be far better against Napoli.

[Chelsea? 892]

maybe next year we won't skrew around in transfer windows.