Closed Brighton Vs Chelsea

[BleedsBlue 1,549]

RDM fielded a strong starting 11 and there is no excuse for our pathetic 3-1 loss to Brighton.Yes,it was a pre-season game but the players should have contributed more and played for the win.Our goal came only because of a Brighton mistake otherwise things would have gone much worse.

[Tomo 21,751]

Im with @Liquidator, here, it was worrying signs of last two season's at its worse there but thankfully we have our best player and a fantastic young player coming in soon so hopefully that will change.

Hopefully the match was a bit of a reality check for people thinking we can jump from 6th to 1st, it just won't happen, this season is going to be about gelling these players together. Infact i expect our season to be similar to United's of 05/06, slow start, average middle but a strong end, leaving us in a great position to challenge for the title from 2013/2014 onwards.

The best we can hope this season for this season is 3rd, CWC, one of the domestic clubs and if were incredibly fortunate just maybe retain the CL, but the league title? a season to early for that.

[Kojo 4,676]

Fuck attractive football. Loan out all these technical players and replace them with 190 cm tall muscle men.

Playing ugly wins things. We should play a 9-0-1 all season.

Out

Mata

Hazard

Marin

Oscar

Lampard

In

Akinfenwa

Heskey

Bramble

Shittu

Twigg

[The Rising Sun 711]

We are simply too slow.... That is the ONLY problem.

In the entire pre season, i cannot remember even 1 clearcut situation where our player ran at the opposition at pace, except marin, who ATM is the only good thing that came out of pre season.

Hazard looks out of sorts and will not hit the field running, He will take time to adapt to the PL pace and style and workrate, which he hasnt exhibited this pre season. He doesnt know the language so that doesnt help. What bothered me during the Brighton game was to see him walking on the pitch for the majority of the match. WTF? anyways, dismissed as pre season, but unfortunately, i havent learnt too much about what we will be like this season from our pre season performances,

Right now, its just knowing that we have made big signings..... I just hope this Jigsaw comes together sooner rather than later.

there hasnt been much passion and endeavour in this pre season, and that is scary.

RDM has a very different job this year than what he had last season, i hope he can get the lads motivated and can command his players this time around, as we are starting fresh.

I wouldve said BRING ON MAN CITY. But ill lie if i say i am confident going into the season.

We have one player Mata coming back who might be completely burnt out, but will still have enough quality.

A new player in Oscar, who will take time to settle in.

And Sturridge, who no one knows where he will play, If he gets the striker position then he is on the bench.

Man City will be a true indicator of exactly what we should expect this season.

[Kojo 4,676]

We are simply too slow.... That is the ONLY problem.

In the entire pre season, i cannot remember even 1 clearcut situation where our player ran at the opposition at pace, except marin, who ATM is the only good thing that came out of pre season.

Hazard looks out of sorts and will not hit the field running, He will take time to adapt to the PL pace and style and workrate, which he hasnt exhibited this pre season. He doesnt know the language so that doesnt help. What bothered me during the Brighton game was to see him walking on the pitch for the majority of the match. WTF? anyways, dismissed as pre season, but unfortunately, i havent learnt too much about what we will be like this season from our pre season performances,

Right now, its just knowing that we have made big signings..... I just hope this Jigsaw comes together sooner rather than later.

there hasnt been much passion and endeavour in this pre season, and that is scary.

RDM has a very different job this year than what he had last season, i hope he can get the lads motivated and can command his players this time around, as we are starting fresh.

I wouldve said BRING ON MAN CITY. But ill lie if i say i am confident going into the season.

We have one player Mata coming back who might be completely burnt out, but will still have enough quality.

A new player in Oscar, who will take time to settle in.

And Sturridge, who no one knows where he will play, If he gets the striker position then he is on the bench.

Man City will be a true indicator of exactly what we should expect this season.

Spot on!, took the words out of my mouth.

Chelsea also has no spine, without that stability in the double pivot we are fucked.

Even with good attackers, and we might not even go into the upcoming season confident on the attack.

Nuri Sahin in please.

[Tomo 21,751]

Nuri Sahin in please.

or a time machine that will put RDM back in his prime.

[Kezza 1,965]

Not a good game to judge on. We had possibly the worst and slowest possible midfield 3 out there and no real wingers. Ramires is NOT a winger, he can't make high crosses for his dear life (yes I know about his cross to Drogba against Napoli, exceptions happen) and he can't dribble past a player. Cundy was right, he is only effective when he gets the ball in full flight, not when he's static. Hazard didn't look comfortable in that formation.

Ideally I would want 4-3-3 tested out with Mikel/Romeu, Ramires and Oscar in midfield and Marin and Mata/Hazard on wings. Playing both Mata and Hazard on wings in a 4-3-3 would be too narrow... Marin, as a natural winger, would provide us some genuine width.

The game against Brighton wasn't really an ideal game to judge the formation, it was more of a judgement on the players in that collective, which was not a surprise as it was not different from what we saw regularly last season.

Yeah true, wasn't the team for it. As soon as I saw the line up I instantly thought of the Napoli first leg game.

It was exactly the same team under AVB except with Hazard swapped with Mata and he was confused as to what to do in a 4-3-3. Postioned on the left wing, played on the right.

David Luiz back with his blistering runs up the field, they get the ball, we are wide open, boom goal

CTRL + Q to Enable/Disable GoPhoto.it

[capriccioso 2,545]

Why don't one of our DM's drop back to cover when David Luiz thinks his name is Franz Beckenbauer?

[The Skipper 20,609]

Why don't one of our DM's drop back to cover when David Luiz thinks his name is Franz Beckenbauer?

Mikel usually does.

[Kojo 4,676]

Mikel usually does badly.

I agree.

[Kezza 1,965]

Here we go..

[OneMoSalah 8,886]

Why don't one of our DM's drop back to cover when David Luiz thinks his name is Franz Beckenbauer?

Mikel does but he isn't naturally as good as a center back compared to a certain Oriol Romeu who has experience as a center back.

[nachikethas 1,154]

im just chilling... alll izzz welll

[AndersonBLUE 819]

Pre - season, all I'm gonna say. Even the community shield is a friendly game. All that matters is fitness before the league starts.

[xPetrCechx 13,571]

Almost EveryOne is saying that it's just friendlies matches....

after we will not win City & wigan, you will say something different.

[Peace. 4,352]

The one thing which really piss me off about this game, this is the way we conceded the third goal.

What the players were thinking ? That they were the ref ? They should stop "wave their hands in the air like they just don't care" as if it was them who were making the decisions. The game stop when the referee whistles. Even if the ref got it wrong, it's him who decide whether there's a foul or not. If you think there's a foul, and the ref doesn't whistle it, then you wait once the game has stopped to go and protest if you feel like arguing with the ref.

I know it was "only" a friendly, we were already loosing and there were only ten minutes left. But what kind of mentality was it ? Plus, if I am not mistaken, it wasn't the first time we conceded a goal this way. And, unfortunatly, this one action summarizes our last two years (bar the time when RDM was the caretaker).

[The Big Drog 1,110]

If you really think about it the side that played against Brighton was essentially the same side as last season, thus the problems we had last season were the same as we had in the game, only with Hazard filling in for Mata and Torres for Drogba.

We wont get the true result of our new style of play until we see Torres, Mata, Oscar and Hazard all play together with players like Marin, Sturridge and (hopefully) Moses on the bench.

[Tomo 21,751]

If were going to persist with the double pivot it might be worth sticking Romeu and Mikel there, get Oscar to drop back get the ball of them and start the attacks that way, with the fullback's bombing forward.

Not ideal but Lampard, Essien and Meireles in a double pivot is asking for trouble.

[Ollie 4,400]

At least all the goals were mistakes. They didn't exactly cut us apart and outclass us. We had a bad day (another one) which all 3 goals should've been easily avoided. Rather do these mistakes now than when it really matters. 5 or 6 were going through the motions, Meireles played.... and yeah, we got no Injuries. Man City lost to Oldham with a very good team out, that was worse. Both teams were simply looking to get out of there unscathed. They were training matches for us, FA Cup finals for our opponents.

We need to just forget about this game now. What's done is done. We have a comfortable start to the premiership season until we go to the Emirates. We should be taking at least 13 points from our first 5 games. If we lose a couple or get less than 11 points, we can worry a bit but worrying over pre season is very premature. I expressed my annoyance after the game but it always takes a few days to sum everything up and be more rational.

The defeats, as well as Robbie being pissed off with the performances should be a blessing in disguise. We'll not be taking anything for granted and will be more determined to beat City and start the league campaign well. It's ok beating shit teams 6-0 and 8-1 etc but you learn nothing from your team this way. We've had tests, we're on a losing run. Time to put it right when it matters most and let's go and win the Community Shield!

[Kinol 337]

I wouldn't be so worried about the 3rd goal. I and pretty sure that wouldn't happen in a real game