Closed Milan vs Chelsea

[Ryan Fong 2,776]

TBH, i agree with every thing you stated. But being gone for a month, it is typical for players to have terrible first touches.

I hope you are right about the "being gone for a month" thing and the players will shrug off their rustiness soon.

However, to be totally honest, out of all the top teams in Europe, Chelsea always has the poorest first touch and passing skill in general. Our successes were built on our fighting spirits and individual brilliance.

I sincerely hope the likes of Mata, Oscar and Hazard will bring us positive impacts in this aspect.

p.s. I'm not going to criticize our new players and youngsters because simply it's not fair to judge them after just few matches, but I have to say I'm extremely disappointed at Luiz. Reckless, stupid showboating, lacks of concentration. If he keeps doing that, Cahill + JT for me all day long.

[Stats 7,142]

Got to admit, am a bit worried with the way we have performed especially against a Milan team that lost Silva, Ibra and had no Ibra or Robinho in starting line up. Hopefully it is nothing major. Last time we lost consecutive friendlies in the 10/11 pre season we ended trophyless. But with this squad I believe these is much more to come, I still would like to see Maicon here and I am 100% for the idea of a new striker. Seeings us sometimes struggle with options going forward this is why I would still like Sturridge to have a big role at us. He is not afraid to have a go at the opposition and brings another dimension and trickery. Sturridge seems to be ignored about in regards to what will be the starting team but I would like to see a trio of Hazard-Mata-Sturridge.

But IMHO it is possible we can win the league but there is a lot of work to be done to take it away from Man City's clutches

[Kajo 176]

Who cares about pre-season game ? Get a grip ppl. Remeber last year pre-season where we haven't conceded a single goal but how our season later look like ?

[ZanSnake 1,211]

Hutcho has been the surprise package for me, could see him in the RB position.

[Blu4Lyf 46]

You're probably right, because on ESPN they showed we were playing 4-1-4-1

Never, ever, ever, ever, take the ESPN graphics as truth. They're almost always wrong, never have the formations correct and/or players in the wrong spots. Too many times last season I saw Luiz at RB, Torres at RW, etc. Even when discussing Oscar's arrival they put up the new projected lineup and 1. they showed us playing a 433 and 2. the MF consisted of Lamps Ramires and Oscar and he was lined up at the DM spot

[Tomo 21,751]

The longer you keep saying Hazard has no creativity, the longer you make yourself out to be an idiot Sloth.........

I along with most of the forum disagree with Sloth/Kojo's opinion on Hazard, but is there any need to bring it up on every thread, especially randomenly. Its bad enough the silly argument is all over the Hazard thread.

He initially voiced his opinion on Hazard days ago, time to move on.

[Tomo 21,751]

Boring game with very few chances..

Gotta admit, I'm a little worried about the Community Shield and the European Super Cup final, we're fucked if we continue to play like this.

There's little point using that logic.

If we played in Munich like we did in Anfield?

[Ankit 3,176]

May be you guys arent giving enough credit to milan. Yes, they were all rusty and playing a pre-season too. But Allegri is brilliant at putting a structure to any random group of players. Bonera played like a captain. Credit where it's due. We should be happy there were no injuries to the players and RDM will have a proper squad(crosses fingers) to choose from come Community Shield.

[Blue Armour 4,439]

May be you guys arent giving enough credit to milan. Yes, they were all rusty and playing a pre-season too. But Allegri is brilliant at putting a structure to any random group of players. Bonera played like a captain. Credit where it's due. We should be happy there were no injuries to the players and RDM will have a proper squad(crosses fingers) to choose from come Community Shield.

True..It isn't a god-given right for Chelsea to win every match.

[Tomo 21,751]

The only one's getting wound up about pre season are the one's who saw the first half against Seattle and just assumed it would carry on like that for the rest of the tour and beyond.

[KonohasOrangeFlash 2,607]

True..It isn't a god-given right for Chelsea to win every match.

Close to it though...look at the amount of Money we've spent. We should be winning games like these ones. Preseason or not...

[Billy. 2,742]

not having the best pre season at all dont seem to be flowing and we aint playing well either

[Pacquiao 1,834]

I dont think we stand a chance against Citeh without Mata and Oscar!

[Ollie 4,400]

Very poor game. I know it's a friendly and the score doesn't apparently matter as it's for fitness and testing things out but that annoyed me a lot. We go to the USA to show off our team, Chelsea FC, big European giants, European champions, representing the Premier League and coming to show the American's what a real team is like. I don't think we've gained anything from this tour at all. We've been good in spells but surely we're supposed to be getting confidence, winning games and feeling good about ourselves. What was that shit? We've lost 2, drawn 1 and won 1 and the game we won was only good for 20 minutes.

There was no urgency at all yesterday, against let's be honest, a very, hugely poor AC Milan team that we should've beat comfortably. Forget their name and history, this is a shadow of previous years teams from them. I don't know what the first half was all about, i can barely even remember it it was so bad. We seem to up the tempo a bit in the 2nd half, Hazard had a good game to be honest, our best player by some distance for me but when we get in good areas we can't score, we don't even look threatening.

Plus points were that Torres came back and got some game time, looked pretty fit and sharp, Mikel was good, Hazard looked excellent at times and Sam Hutchinson is definitely fine, he was very good. He can attack well too, he should be our 2nd choice RB. I think he's benefited the most from this pre season and has proven that he can do the job.

Robbie annoyed me a bit tho because playing Meireles as a CAM was so pointless and bringing Malouda is also pointless. Neither are going to play much next season and Meireles certainly wont do anything as a CAM, he lacks almost every quality for that position. Feel sorry for Kakuta too because it wouldn't have hurt throwing him in in this game. As someone who is quick, skillful and suited for that position, as well as really needing to show a good performance, leaving him out for a Malouda or a Meireles is criminal. Yes, his Chelsea career is basically over but at least give him one last run out. There's much more to gain doing that than putting Meireles or Malouda on the pitch.

We looked good at times, first 10 minutes against Seattle and the 2nd half against PSG was the best period of play throughout the tour but the lack of a cutting edge seems a bit worrying as well as the defence when it's not at full strength. We've been cut open a lot when our top defenders have been taken off but that's mainly down to having no LB's i suppose, having Ferreira at LB isn't really gonna be great.

Back to England we go, maybe can batter Brighton as they are about 3 levels behind who we have faced, i don't know how that Brighton team would be able to cope with Hazard, Marin, Torres etc if they all play well. Disappointed with the US Tour tho, i expect to see us win games and show what we can do. Last season, Man Utd went to the USA. They beat Seattle 7-0 then beat the MLS all stars 5-2. That's what you should be doing when you go to the USA. Show how good you are and show off so you never get forgotten. The yanks must think we're pretty shite.

Anyway, Roll on Brighton and let the real stuff begin.

[BleedsBlue 1,549]

Don't understand why some people are so panicked with our pre season results.RDM wants to experiment things out and patience is the key for success.

[Melanicus 5,208]

Poor, poor game. Our squad is overrated, if we will think that we're European Champions and sleep on this glory then it will be deadly for us this season.

Our defence plays like they never played together... Bring Azpilicueta and Hulk.

[Pacquiao 1,834]

Poor, poor game. Our squad is overrated, if we will think that we're European Champions and sleep on this glory then it will be deadly for us this season.

Our defence plays like they never played together... Bring Azpilicueta and Hulk.

its not our defense that's the problem its the protection in font of it and we just don't have any.

[Ryan Fong 2,776]

Don't understand why some people are so panicked with our pre season results.RDM wants to experiment things out and patience is the key for success.

I think people here are concerned more than panicked.

I wasn't too bothered about the pre-season neither, but, after four matches there's no glimpse of improvement which makes me worried.

It feels like the guys don't know what to do on the pitch rather than some sort of gelling. I dunno it's their fitnesses let them down or RDM hasn't got a clue.

[KonohasOrangeFlash 2,607]

With the way we're going, we'll probably somehow lose to Brighton...

[Ryan Fong 2,776]

Based on the performance of preseason and Olympics (Mata & Oscar), the best line-up I can think of is:

Cech

Chalobah - Cahill - JT - A.Cole

Essien - Ramires

Oscar - Mata - Hazard (Marin)

Torres (Piazon)