Real concerns

[TheCount 146]

I'm resigned to the fact Cole's leaving, cos if he hasn't signed now I just don't think it'll happen. Reminds me of Joe Cole all over again funnily enough.

Could be his time, he's been nothing short of a legend and a servant to the club, if thats what he wishes then i hope him the best, hope he dosent tho.

[Tomo 21,733]

Torres has been shit, but he's still shown more worth then sturridge. If you dont think so how about coming up with some reasons why.

If your talking about their overall career's then yes, but in a Chelsea shirt? hhahaahahahahahahahahaha

[didierforever 7,349]

Torres has been shit, but he's still shown more worth then sturridge. If you dont think so how about coming up with some reasons why.

i dont need to. show me how the fuck has torres shown more worth than sturridge,.

[Belgiannutt 3,201]

Everyone rating Pep so much over RDM. I think in the direct duel between the two of them, there was an comprehensive outcome, even though Pep had the far better initial situation with the far better team, RDM tactically outfoxed him completely.

Sorry but i just have to speak up.

While i don't want to take anything away from the players (their discipline en defensive efforts were brilliant) or RDM (who came up with a great defensive strategy) but i think you can't argue that luck was involved in our win against them. (to be clear i completely disagree with what was said by people afterwards "that it was solely due to luck" or"That we didn't deserve to win it " We deserved to win because of our amazing defensive effort however luck was involved. If we play that game 10 times we'd lose 9 out of 10.

How did RDM win the CL ? By playing defensive counter attacking football with old and experienced players.

What is our situation now ? We want to play open possession based football with young, inexperienced players.

Basically the exact opposite.

I think that the fans are to emotionally attached to RDM due to what happened last season.

RDM stepping in at a bad time for us and then winning the CL and FA cup(+ the fact that he used to be a Chelsea player) has made him untouchable to a lot of fans. Also making fans very hypersensitive about any sort of criticism towards RDM.

Imho Pep is a better fit for the project then RDM.

His style of coaching is the exact way we want to play.

I think he stands a better chance to accomplis the project.

Do i think he'll come in and just snap his fingers and voila Barca 2.0 ? No ofcourse not but i do believe he would immediately begin to work on the skillset that is necessary to make possession football work + teach the tactical off the ball movement that is vital for playing possession football.

Also about the tactically outfoxing comment. The way i see it. Both trainers prepared their tactics to the best of their abillities. Trying to use the strenght of their team to their advantage. Both teams went on the field, gave everything they got and with some luck we came out victorious. Saying RDM tactically outfoxed Guardiola is just incorrect and quite frankly stupid.

[CHOULO19 24,332]

Sorry but i just have to speak up.

While i don't want to take anything away from the players (their discipline en defensive efforts were brilliant) or RDM (who came up with a great defensive strategy) but i think you can't argue that luck was involved in our win against them. (to be clear i completely disagree with what was said by people afterwards "that it was solely due to luck" or"That we didn't deserve to win it " We deserved to win because of our amazing defensive effort however luck was involved. If we play that game 10 times we'd lose 9 out of 10.

How did RDM win the CL ? By playing defensive counter attacking football with old and experienced players.

What is our situation now ? We want to play open possession based football with young, inexperienced players.

Basically the exact opposite.

I think that the fans are to emotionally attached to RDM due to what happened last season.

RDM stepping in at a bad time for us and then winning the CL and FA cup(+ the fact that he used to be a Chelsea player) has made him untouchable to a lot of fans. Also making fans very hypersensitive about any sort of criticism towards RDM.

Imho Pep is a better fit for the project then RDM.

His style of coaching is the exact way we want to play.

I think he stands a better chance to accomplis the project.

Do i think he'll come in and just snap his fingers and voila Barca 2.0 ? No ofcourse not but i do believe he would immediately begin to work on the skillset that is necessary to make possession football work + teach the tactical off the ball movement that is vital for playing possession football.

Also about the tactically outfoxing comment. The way i see it. Both trainers prepared their tactics to the best of their abillities. Trying to use the strenght of their team to their advantage. Both teams went on the field, gave everything they got and with some luck we came out victorious. Saying RDM tactically outfoxed Guardiola is just incorrect and quite frankly stupid.

1) Luck plays a part in every football match. I'm not saying that we didn't get lucky at times, but so did they with the dive that the ref gave them as a pen, Cahill getting injured in the first 20 mins, Terry getting himself stupidly sent off...etc. Saying that we would lose that match 9 times out of 10 is an over-exaggeration.

2) I agree that what RDM achieved last season happened during special circumstances and it does not prove that he is a world-class manager or that he is capable of leading the current transition of the club. But the same could be said about Pep's Barcelona. The situation at the club is completely different from when Pep took over Barca. And despite us wanting to play more like Barca ( ) this is the same team it was last season with the addition of Oscar and Hazard. Two players cannot completely change the football we play, it takes time. You cannot judge if Robbie can implement the new style of play yet and I think he has earned a chance to prove that he can.

3) I said this before, but both Robbie and Pep are a huge gamble. We decided to gamble on RDM and we need to stick to it and give him time.

[Reddish-Blue 2,372]

If Ashley Cole stays that's great..but I would not be surprised if he leaves. I just hope he joins a club outside of England.

[Belgiannutt 3,201]

1) Luck plays a part in every football match. I'm not saying that we didn't get lucky at times, but so did they with the dive that the ref gave them as a pen, Cahill getting injured in the first 20 mins, Terry getting himself stupidly sent off...etc. Saying that we would lose that match 9 times out of 10 is an over-exaggeration.

2) I agree that what RDM achieved last season happened during special circumstances and it does not prove that he is a world-class manager or that he is capable of leading the current transition of the club. But the same could be said about Pep's Barcelona. The situation at the club is completely different from when Pep took over Barca. And despite us wanting to play more like Barca ( ) this is the same team it was last season with the addition of Oscar and Hazard. Two players cannot completely change the football we play, it takes time. You cannot judge if Robbie can implement the new style of play yet and I think he has earned a chance to prove that he can.

3) I said this before, but both Robbie and Pep are a huge gamble. We decided to gamble on RDM and we need to stick to it and give him time.

1) Your right luck does play a part in every game and they were lucky to get the penalty, get Terry sent off and the Cahill injury but our luck seemed to come at just the right time. They missed the penalty, there were multiple moments in the game where they could have scored if they had taken their chances meanwhile we were as clinical as you can get. Every chance we got we scored.

2) Disagree with you on the completely different situation. While there are indeed significant differences between the 2 situations there are also similarities that would work at pep's advantage. The fact that we also have a couple of young players with worldclass potential and the fact that the way pep has been coaching Barcelona for 4 years is almost the exact way we wanna play. I also disagree about the same team comment. Yes there have been only 2 new additions that have influenced us and your right those 2 alone won't change our way of play especially not in 3 months but at the moment i don't see any sort of development in our way of play. The only things RDM has done to transition us in comparison to the beginning of the season is

-put Oscar-Hazard-Mata in the starting eleven

-have our fullbacks push higher up the pitch to create width

-try and play from the back

But the thing is putting Mazacar on the pitch is kinda a given.

Having our fullbacks push higher up. Well okay that's good but it's not exactly rocketscience.

Try and play from the back and i emphasize on "TRY". It's easy to play from the back when there's no one pressing.

We've tried to play out from the back. Our 2 CB's going wide, our to backs pushing higher up the pitch but that's it.That where the trying stops.

The moment the opposition presses and our 2 CB are marked we hoof the ball long. Most people then complain about Cech hoofing it long but the thing is without any sort of off the ball movement from 1 of our midfielders in the double pivot there's just nowhere he can pass it to.

What i want to see is this.

In this video the guy explains how your supposed to play out from the back.

This is what RDM needs to teach to our guys and this is actually not that complicated. There's a lot more complicated moves that require more training and precision.

3)I agree picking a manager is never a 100% sure thing. (Which i think a lot of us our quite familiar with.)

However i feel that Pep would offer us a greater chance at succes then RDM. RDM just seems to give me the impression that he's got no idea where he's going with this team. He just seems to be improvising along the way.

I believe if Pep came in he would immediately set the tone from the moment he became our manager.

For example:there's no way in hell he would have played ramires or Bertrand as defensive wingers while sacrificing Oscar.

Just to be clear. I don't hate RDM or think that he's a bad manager. I think he has it in him to be a great manager. Just not an attacking minded one and that's exactly what we need an attack minded manager.

I feel he's being asked to let his team play in a way where he doesn't feel comfortable with coaching.

[CHOULO19 24,332]

@Belgiannutt, It seems we are saying the same thing but in different wording, except the part about about Pep. So we are in agreement about most of what you wrote above.

Regarding RDM, I too think that the team is lacking what you and the opening post mentioned. There are some serious concerns, especially for our attacking system, or rather lack of it. But I believe that, given time, RDM will get it right. But let's not forget that we are already exceeding expectations this season. Very few put us down as title contenders this season, me included, That is because we knew that this was always going to be a transition period. So yes, our system is not working 100%, not even 60% I'd say, but we have to put things in perspective: 6 months ago this team finished 6th in the toughest league in the world with a 25 point gap.

The transition needs time. The players need time to gel, to adapt to a whole new system and to build chemistry with each other. Even if you bring Pep or any other manager in the world, we have to be patient in order for everything to work properly. RDM witnessed first hand last season what a rushed transition will lead to, and he is keen not to repeat his predecessor's mistakes.

But of course, ultimately we are both speculating. My bet is that RDM will get it right in time while your's is that Pep will do a better job. I guess we'll have to agree to disagree on this one.

[Belgiannutt 3,201]

@Belgiannutt, It seems we are saying the same thing but in different wording, except the part about about Pep. So we are in agreement about most of what you wrote above.

Regarding RDM, I too think that the team is lacking what you and the opening post mentioned. There are some serious concerns, especially for our attacking system, or rather lack of it. But I believe that, given time, RDM will get it right. But let's not forget that we are already exceeding expectations this season. Very few put us down as title contenders this season, me included, That is because we knew that this was always going to be a transition period. So yes, our system is not working 100%, not even 60% I'd say, but we have to put things in perspective: 6 months ago this team finished 6th in the toughest league in the world with a 25 point gap.

The transition needs time. The players need time to gel, to adapt to a whole new system and to build chemistry with each other. Even if you bring Pep or any other manager in the world, we have to be patient in order for everything to work properly. RDM witnessed first hand last season what a rushed transition will lead to, and he is keen not to repeat his predecessor's mistakes.

But of course, ultimately we are both speculating. My bet is that RDM will get it right in time while your's is that Pep will do a better job. I guess we'll have to agree to disagree on this one.

I agree with the bolded part but if i might pose 1 final question. Do you think the fact that we are doing better then anyone expected (including me for that matter) is to be credited to RDM or to the new players settling in quicker , performing better and being more influential then anyone expected ? (Not taking anything away ofcourse from the other players like Mata for example who has been our best player this season.)

[Styles 9,790]

Sorry but i just have to speak up.

While i don't want to take anything away from the players (their discipline en defensive efforts were brilliant) or RDM (who came up with a great defensive strategy) but i think you can't argue that luck was involved in our win against them. (to be clear i completely disagree with what was said by people afterwards "that it was solely due to luck" or"That we didn't deserve to win it " We deserved to win because of our amazing defensive effort however luck was involved. If we play that game 10 times we'd lose 9 out of 10.

How did RDM win the CL ? By playing defensive counter attacking football with old and experienced players.

What is our situation now ? We want to play open possession based football with young, inexperienced players.

Basically the exact opposite.

I think that the fans are to emotionally attached to RDM due to what happened last season.

RDM stepping in at a bad time for us and then winning the CL and FA cup(+ the fact that he used to be a Chelsea player) has made him untouchable to a lot of fans. Also making fans very hypersensitive about any sort of criticism towards RDM.

Imho Pep is a better fit for the project then RDM.

His style of coaching is the exact way we want to play.

I think he stands a better chance to accomplis the project.

Do i think he'll come in and just snap his fingers and voila Barca 2.0 ? No ofcourse not but i do believe he would immediately begin to work on the skillset that is necessary to make possession football work + teach the tactical off the ball movement that is vital for playing possession football.

Also about the tactically outfoxing comment. The way i see it. Both trainers prepared their tactics to the best of their abillities. Trying to use the strenght of their team to their advantage. Both teams went on the field, gave everything they got and with some luck we came out victorious. Saying RDM tactically outfoxed Guardiola is just incorrect and quite frankly stupid.

The fear I have with Pep taking over is he may not like A LOT of the players we currently have and there would be too much upheaval.

It could happen that he arrives and says OK I need 5, 6 or 7 new players to fulfil my vision of the game. He may think guys like Ramires are not good enough for his style of football. What do we do then? Get rid of a valuable player like Rammy or tell Guardiola no he stays? He may think Cech can't distribute the ball well enough and want him out. Get rid of Cech then?

That is what scares me. I like our guys too much to just get rid of them for a manager who might be sacked by Christmas if it's all going wrong.

[Belgiannutt 3,201]

The fear I have with Pep taking over is he may not like A LOT of the players we currently have and there would be too much upheaval.

It could happen that he arrives and says OK I need 5, 6 or 7 new players to fulfil my vision of the game. He may think guys like Ramires are not good enough for his style of football. What do we do then? Get rid of a valuable player like Rammy or tell Guardiola no he stays? He may think Cech can't distribute the ball well enough and want him out. Get rid of Cech then?

That is what scares me. I like our guys too much to just get rid of them for a manager who might be sacked by Christmas if it's all going wrong.

Well i don't think Pep would do that. At Barcelona he didn't have a lot of squad depth to work with so he's had to deal with putting players on unfamiliar positions and reforming them.

I think If Pep was manager i wouldn't be suprised to see him try Ramires as our attacking rightback.

At the very least he would use Ramires as a utility player.

I think our squad is very good. Only thing i would add is a defensive midfielder comfortable on the ball, a first class striker, a back up striker and maybe a young central defender to eventually replace Terry. That's 4 transfers and we'd be set for years.

Most of the other players are already "Pep quality" or are young enough to be reformed.

[RamiCFC9 258]

Sorry but i just have to speak up.

While i don't want to take anything away from the players (their discipline en defensive efforts were brilliant) or RDM (who came up with a great defensive strategy) but i think you can't argue that luck was involved in our win against them. (to be clear i completely disagree with what was said by people afterwards "that it was solely due to luck" or"That we didn't deserve to win it " We deserved to win because of our amazing defensive effort however luck was involved. If we play that game 10 times we'd lose 9 out of 10.

How did RDM win the CL ? By playing defensive counter attacking football with old and experienced players.

What is our situation now ? We want to play open possession based football with young, inexperienced players.

Basically the exact opposite.

I think that the fans are to emotionally attached to RDM due to what happened last season.

RDM stepping in at a bad time for us and then winning the CL and FA cup(+ the fact that he used to be a Chelsea player) has made him untouchable to a lot of fans. Also making fans very hypersensitive about any sort of criticism towards RDM.

Imho Pep is a better fit for the project then RDM.

His style of coaching is the exact way we want to play.

I think he stands a better chance to accomplis the project.

Do i think he'll come in and just snap his fingers and voila Barca 2.0 ? No ofcourse not but i do believe he would immediately begin to work on the skillset that is necessary to make possession football work + teach the tactical off the ball movement that is vital for playing possession football.

Also about the tactically outfoxing comment. The way i see it. Both trainers prepared their tactics to the best of their abillities. Trying to use the strenght of their team to their advantage. Both teams went on the field, gave everything they got and with some luck we came out victorious. Saying RDM tactically outfoxed Guardiola is just incorrect and quite frankly stupid.

Take a bow.

With the current squad at disposal RDM vs Pep is not even debatable.

[Reddish-Blue 2,372]

Well i don't think Pep would do that. At Barcelona he didn't have a lot of squad depth to work with so he's had to deal with putting players on unfamiliar positions and reforming them.

I think If Pep was manager i wouldn't be suprised to see him try Ramires as our attacking rightback.

At the very least he would use Ramires as a utility player.

I think our squad is very good. Only thing i would add is a defensive midfielder comfortable on the ball, a first class striker, a back up striker and maybe a young central defender to eventually replace Terry. That's 4 transfers and we'd be set for years.

Most of the other players are already "Pep quality" or are young enough to be reformed.

I think we already have 2 young central defenders with alot of potential. Kalas (on loan at Vitesse) & Chalobah. In the case of Chalobah, he'd make a great midfielder or defender, he just seems to have that maturity beyond his years type of personality.

[Belgiannutt 3,201]

I think we already have 2 young central defenders with alot of potential. Kalas (on loan at Vitesse) & Chalobah. In the case of Chalobah, he'd make a great midfielder or defender, he just seems to have that maturity beyond his years type of personality.

I see well as long as we have a young capable replacement for Terry when he retires.

[Bosnian Blue 2,471]

I am not aware if this has been mentioned before, but my main concern is the lack of a true leader in this new young Chelsea team. Actually, it's a lack of leaderS. We don't have characters like Ballack or Didier in the team, and problems happen when the legends JT & Lamps are out. We miss Drogba's presence more than anything, more than we miss his skills. We now do not have a player who will carry the others and be the engine of the whole team. With that we also lost the power to turn the momentum on our side. It will take a lot of time for this generation to implement a certain mentality, a Chelsea mentality. Sometimes it doesn't matter who much flair and tricks they have, it's about the character, charisma, mental strength.

Cech is a goalie, our future captain should definitely be an outfield player.

I expected a much better response after Clattenburg's massacre, especially when we beat them three days after in the cup game. Stuff of champions is to rise from the ashes and we are unable to do so. I believe it's mostly because of this. Quality is there, potential is there, talent is there... But I am really concerned and at the same time very impatient to see who will become our main player.

This is not something Robbie can change, players have to discuss and solve this between themselves.

[Henrique 9,133]

we should stop using Mata, Hazard and Oscar together. or we will keep losing matches or getting stupid draws.

[Reddish-Blue 2,372]

we should stop using Mata, Hazard and Oscar together. or we will keep losing matches or getting stupid draws.

I like the idea of playing Mazacar...but we're 1 player short in midfield.

With Lampard ageing & the fact that Romeu is still learning, Meireles would of come in handy this season.

[Henrique 9,133]

I like the idea of playing Mazacar...but we're 1 player short in midfield.

With Lampard ageing & the fact that Romeu is still learning, Meireles would of come in handy this season.

Mazacar? wtf