Napoli 3-1 Chelsea

[Kez 2,727]

If by some miracle we get through to the next round the embarassment will only get worse, this team isn't even capable of beating a championship side at home...

[MikeyBlue 11]

I struggle to see why I've got any optimism watching Chelsea over the past few months. I feel as though we don't have the same mentality as other top teams.

It's funny because I had high hopes after we took the lead, but to my suprise we lost that lead and the match! Don't really know why I get so frustrated at such a game, when at the end of the day if we can't beat Napoli, then what chance do we have with the barcelona's, real madrid's or milan's of the world? Shouldn't allow myself to get so wound up about it.

Never been this down, frustrated and angry at a Chelsea team that doesn't want to win games, move forward and prove that they are really among europe's elite.

God help us!

[Ollie 4,400]

I chose the right season to not renew my membership didn't i just.

We played ok today but the defence was awful and Drogba was worse. That's the back and the front of the team, how are you gonna ever win like this? Regardless of what the midfield do! I don't know what to say any more, it's the same every week. From having the best defence for 5 years we now have one of the worst, it's so weak and embarrassingly breachable and then to make matters worse, we have a striker whether it be Drogba or Torres that play so badly so often and do not show up or do fuck all. I don't wanna criticise Drogs as a true club legend but if he thinks he's fit and ready to play, he's gotta do a hell of a lot more than he did in this game. Anyway, as i said, we played ok, we dominated most of the 2nd half really but only Napoli looked threatening. Not too pissed off because i wasn't expecting much, happy with some of the football we played but just so pissed off with Drogba and the defence. This wasn't AVB's fault too much. The players are supposed to show why they are at this club, they are expecting to be given chances so if they get it, they need to prove why they deserve it.

Malouda did ok in patches but you can see he's almost finished, he doesn't have the burst of pace or the quick turn that you could see Sturridge has. He gave effort but that's not enough any more, he'll be gone in the summer for sure. Meireles.... All i can ask is why? Why is he playing ahead of Lampard and why is he playing every game? He's just a runner, a player with lots of energy but no quality what so fucking ever! Can't tackle, can't dribble, can't shoot, can't pass, can't score, can't play the killer ball...MEH!

Mata and Sturridge were very good. The back 4 was pathetic. Drogba was pathetic. Luiz is not NOT NOT NOT NOT!!! a defender FUCK SAAAAAKE somebody please see it, please for the love of christ! Essien is almost finished (Only played a bit but just aint got the power or speed anymore). Cech was good in the first half but does some strangeness too often.

There's very small hope now, our UCL dream is over for another year. It's not that 3-1 is insurmountable, it's the fact that Napoli will 100% definitely score here so we need to hope for a rare UCL penalty victory or something or score 4!. It's like Monaco again, not good.

[CHOULO19 24,332]

How could AVB get his tactics right when we had no defensive midfielders and Napoli were winning all the midfield clashes ?

What did anyone expect we started without a defensive midfielder in a tough away fixture in the CL. Ramires sucks defensively, he is good getting forward and missing/scoring chances and covering ground - but he gets out muscled by strong wind currents. Raul is an enigma, I don't know what his role is and I don't know why he is starting.

It would have been much better if we had started Essien with Romeu behind Ramires in midfield - at least give this defense some protection and play for the draw and counter attacks - away from home in a tough ground.

It was a naive starting 11 to say the least

We had two defensive midfielders in Raul and Rami. I know that this isn't the position they usually play, but tonight this was their role which they failed to do properly. Essien did not do any better when he came on and is obviously not back to form (if he is ever going to be) while Romeu is not ready for such a match especially that he has not been getting regular starts lately.

[Steve 10,227]

Downloads - Here

[cujo101 75]

We have one, he's called Daniel Sturridge. He's wasted out on that wing, he's only there frankly because we have nobody better. You can call him 'selfish', but the fact is he's played his whole career as a striker and is naturally looking to finish.

I would advocate us signing Cavani, however I think he's a dead cert to sign for Madrid.

Thank you - Sturridge is a striker and I don't blame him for complaining about not getting a chance up front. Do you really think he will do worse than Drogba/Torres?

[Bosnian Blue 2,471]

A positive: Meireles will miss the replay due to suspension

[CHOULO19 24,332]

Miereles-..... 4/10

That is an insult to the number 4!

[YouNameIt 1,511]

Thank you - Sturridge is a striker and I don't blame him for complaining about not getting a chance up front. Do you really think he will do worse than Drogba/Torres?

Agreed. Certainly he would do much better. Why not play something like:

Kalou - Danny - Mata

or

Kalou - Mata

----Danny-----

[Kajo 176]

Downloads - Here

I won't go through this nightmare once again!

[cchuka 99]

I think we can all agree never to sign LFC players again. Current or ex. Cite Torres, Meireiles, Benayoun

[Las7 951]

We had two defensive midfielders in Raul and Rami. I know that this isn't the position they usually play, but tonight this was their role which they failed to do properly. Essien did not do any better when he came on and is obviously not back to form (if he is ever going to be) while Romeu is not ready for such a match especially that he has not been getting regular starts lately.

Just because you ask Samba to play a striker doesn't make him one simply because he is playing up top. Essien and Romeu are actually natural defensive midfielders, Essien might lack the power but it's a guarantee that he doesn't loose the ball like Ramires did on a couple of occasions and Romeu actually knows what he is supposed to do when he is played as a defensive midfielder while Raul just looks lost out there whatever position AVB decides to play him.

I personally though Essien played a lot better than either Ramires or Raul when he came on, Lamps on the other hand failed to make any sort of impact apart from wasting possession with hopeful efforts.

[Santiago. 1,500]

Would Mourinho lose the locker room? Would Benetez? Shocking to think

[YouNameIt 1,511]

I think we can all agree never to sign LFC players again. Current or ex. Cite Torres, Meireiles, Benayoun

Torres was a panicbuy prolly a demand by Roman.

Raul was bought basically because not much else was available.

How about: Lets fucking never buy players without really thinking it over.

[Azpinator 2,325]

We all know this team can't win the CL, so we're gonna leave the competition sooner or later. AVB made a huge mistake with choosing midfield players.. In this type of games you HAVE to have players like Essien and Mikel (Remember the 2-2 at Olimpico di Torino?) but instead he starts with the ever-underwhelming Meireles. And Bosingwa as LB while Ashley's available? Let's all imagine how bad it would have been if Ashley didn't play and save the whole team from conceding that 4th goal.

[MikeyBlue 11]

A positive: Meireles will miss the replay due to suspension

Yep I gave a massive fist pump when I heard that. The only positive from the game!

Avb's probably crying now that his talismanic Portuguese isn't available- will probably put a useless fucker like Mikel in instead mind!

[BlueLion. 21,491]

My greatest fear is that Mata leaves in the summer.

[cujo101 75]

That game is in 3 weeks. He may not be there in 3 weeks.

[Krypt 241]

Well we had a good innings at the top who would have thought we would see 3 prem titles here. The worst thing about this team is the lack of passion. Least we could loose with some pride. No throwing money at this

[The Big Drog 1,110]

On a night when big performances were required, far too many were found wanting. Credit to AVB, his team selection was brave, clearly the battle lines between him and certain players have been drawn, I hope its AVB who wins this war, not the players.

We started slowly, Napoli had the better of the first 20 minutes, we got a lucky break for Mata's goal, played far better after that and controlled the game until Lavezzi's equaliser completely changed the game, more bad defending via Ivanovic allowed Cavani in for their second. I just cant wrap my head around how we are leading and playing well only to throw it all away in the space of 7 minutes, this caving in has become a far too regular occurrence at Chelsea. Second half we tried, we had a period of good play but a mad Luiz mistake and Napoli get the third. We then fail to find the class to break them down to score an important second away goal.

I'll start with the positives. AVB's team selection showed bravery.

Juan Mata was excellent, the only outfield player who performed anywhere near expectations (Cech did well in goal).

Then the negatives.

The defence is a shambles, remember the Terry/Carvalho/Makelele triangle? What the hell has happened since then? Cahill was all over the place, Luiz wasn't much better alongside him, Ivanovic had a shocker, Cole was decent and in front of them Ramires and Meireles combined to create the least effective shielding midfield performance I've ever seen at this level of football. Ramires has been excellent for us this season but this was easily his worst game this season, he looked entirely uncomfortable playing as part of a sitting 2 man midfield. Meireles meanwhile looked lost, his attempts at "defending" would have been laughable except they made me want to cry more than laugh.

It was an open game, Napoli are no great shakes, 6th in Serie A, their defence was almost as bad as ours, the difference was that they had the quality to capitalise on our frailties, we didn't have the quality to capiltalise on theirs. Mata played very well, Drogba had a few good moments but simply didn't get the ball enough, Sturridge struggled to influence the game much and Malouda was practically invisible. I get why AVB wanted to play a 4-2-3-1, the problem is that it means that we have to play Malouda out wide and he just isn't good enough.

Defensively it was awful. Creatively it was poor. So what exactly do we do well? I still think that AVB is the right man for the job, I've stuck by him this whole time because I know that the squad he is working with is both not good enough and some are not responsive to his philosophies. Given the chance, I believe that he can change that structure and philosophy of the club. However that still doesn't stop me from being bitterly disappointed with tonight. 1-0 up, away at Napoli and we end up losing 3-1? It is just so un-Chelsea like.

We aren't out of the tie yet, we still have a slim chance but I don't think we will be able to break them down to score twice while not conceding at the other end. Bad result, bad performance which pretty much summed up the season so far, depressing.