Real concerns

[YouNameIt 1,511]

You are saaying Sturridge deserves a chance ahead of Torres but to be honest have you though it through? Torres has more Chelsea goals than Sturridge, has performed better than Sturridge since Robbie has taken over, has worked harder for the team than Sturridge and has a better attitude towards the team that Sturridge.

The thing about Torres putting more effort in and working harder because hes playing and Studge isn't doing that because he isn't playing makes no sense. If Sturridge really wanted to play, he'd give 200% for 8 minutes, 2 minutes, 12 minutes, 28 minutes or however long hes on and quite frankly he hasn't when hes played.

Would you rather someone who is desperate for it to work, perhaps trying too hard (Torres) to continue playing or someone who hasn't given the slightest fuck since just before AVB got sacked to play in Torres' place?

I think everyone knows the answer.

Also its blatantly obvious Torres is better than Sturridge but right now their both terrible and we need at least 2 good/world class strikers to compete on all fronts for trophies.

Everything you said could be true, if Sturridge would actually have been given a start or two now.

We are playing with just 1 (ONE) striker, who is AWFUL. We arent rotating anything.

And what are u saying dude. I think Sturridge is doing all he can do when he gets playtime... the little he gets.

AND OF COURSE torres has more chelsea goals than sturridge does. Compare the minutes Torres played and Danny lately. What the fuck, u cant just compare them like that.

Im not saying Sturridge is better. Im not saying Sturridge is our Drogba. What Im saying is, we got a striker who is shit atm. We got another one on the bench who isnt getting any decent gametime. We arent rotating. I dont give a shit about how hard Torres works, because he simply isnt good enough.

I dont understand how u cannot agree on the fact that Danny needs a start or two now.

[Henrique 9,133]

You are being way to harsh...

You only mentioned those players because you know what they have become. They belong to a very mature and excellent era.

You cant compare us to 08/09, we are the new CFC. We are remoduling, just like 03/04. We are being built to acomodate future stars and leaders and this does not happen in 1-2 years or transfer windows. We will for sure buy experience in certain areas we might need, but the 20 years old policy is very important (we buy cheap and grow them to their full potencial). Besides, it is not like we are buying a whole team of 20 years old, we only bought a few players in that age. Where ever we have holes in the team, if they come, will certainly be for the present and not for the future.

We are in transition mode, we lack consistency, chemestry and experience. However, this is all a learning process...I am more than sure we will have one of the most balanced squads in 2 years!

You are also a magician.

[Henrique 9,133]

No, it's exactly the opposite. When you are a parent, you need to educate your children because you have more experience in life and because you know more than they do. All of us here know significantly less than RDM in every aspect of football. Yes, there are concerns we all have and but it's the combination of panicking and extreme arrogance as if we, who have vastly less knowledge of what's happening and infinitely less experience in football, we really know what needs to be done that's so bothersome.

And yes, everything is fine if you have the proper perspective. We are trying to build a team long-term and we are heading in the right direction. A year ago, the post-Mourinho core years looked like they would be a disaster. Now, if you look at Chelsea's future it looks bright. The spoiled kid aspect of it is infuriating. If the discussion were just "what I think Chelsea should be trying to do" it'd be different, but it isn't. It's always, "buy this expensive player" or "get this expensive manager" which is actually the opposite of a serious discussion of the issues we have. Look at this thread, there are some valid points, but there's also criticism of RDM because he isn't good enough at developing young players? That's just absolute nonsense and shows the incredible lack of patience and perspective too many Chelsea fans have. Hazard isn't the best player in the Premier League 10 games into his career so RDM isn't good at developing young talent? Don't people realise that having excellent potential does not mean that you will become a fantastic player immediately (or ever)? People think that every promising player we buy is going to turn out to be Messi or something. If you expected more out of Oscar, Bertrand , Hazard, and Moses at this point (like the author of this thread did) then the fault is down to you, not RDM.

If people want to have serious discussions about what they think Chelsea should be doing to improve the squad, then I'm all for it.Those are fun and engaging. However, there is very little of this. Instead, it's mostly just people ripping on the players they hate, trying to assign blame for everything that goes wrong, and attempting to construct fantasy lineups.

Future looks bright to you, so just leave this topic. People here thinks that the future is uncertain, because we are not magician to know whats is going to happen in the future. We are here discussing the current situation, nobody is saying RDM is a clueless manager or needs to be sacked, If you dont like this kind of discussion dont waste your time here.

[Rmpr 8,977]

Future looks bright to you, so just leave this topic. People here thinks that the future is uncertain, because we are not magician to know whats is going to happen in the future. We are here discussing the current situation, nobody is saying RDM is a clueless manager or needs to be sacked, If you dont like this kind of discussion dont waste your time here.

You are also a magician.

Typical knee jerk reaction. If you cant accept diferent views or dot have decent arguments, just dont quote!

[Strike 7,490]

The problem with this squad is the lack of experience and strong characters. I was really worried went Terry got injured. Even players like Mata are not the kind of players to lead a team, we had many players like that in the past, with the likes of Ballack, Lampard, Terry, Ricardo Carvalho, Essien, Drogba.

In my opnion the board is not doing a smart job when they are only buying players with 19, 20 years old. This team need a little bit of experience, otherwise it will become the new Arsenal. Good players, attacking football and lack of trophies.

yes. we needed to sign a few players in the 25-30 bracket. i hope when the club buys a centre-back/striker, they sign someone in their prime rather than youngsters

[BLionheart 516]

Some posters are just unbelievable , i have always chosen to ignore some posts but the amount of posters who are plain ignorant , reliant on the fact that Di Matteo has more experience so he must have more football knowledge than you all combined is ridiculous.

Why don't we just admit the fact that the only players who we are seeing the best of are Mata & Ramires , Hazard can be miles better than that if he was given encouragement & guidance on when to dribble , to improve his finishing.

Oscar should be encouraged to shoot more and instructed to take places right in-front of the box waiting for a rebound (you always find Mata doing that but he is very wasteful from that position).

The team's off-the ball movement is purely instinctive and obviously based on no specific instructions , which is why we have rarely scored from the impressive link-up play as in most cases players get to the question of what's next , their instincts can't answer all of the questions on field.

Those are just examples , i don't know how a manager should handle and develop them into world-class substance because it's his job , and as a fan when i watch games i want to see this improvement on field.

My biggest concern is that a player like Hazard for instance is not half the player he was last year for Lille or at this season's beginning , to say he is slowly improving is the real non-sense.

[Henrique 9,133]

Typical knee jerk reaction. If you cant accept diferent views or dot have decent arguments, just dont quote!

If you dont get my point, dont quote. I'm not asking anything, I'm just pointing how things are right now.

Really dont know that you are talking about.

[Rmpr 8,977]

If you dont get my point, dont quote. I'm not asking anything, I'm just pointing how things are right now.

Really dont know that you are talking about.

Read all the posts beforing trying to comment on something...

[TorontoChelsea 4,064]

Some posters are just unbelievable , i have always chosen to ignore some posts but the amount of posters who are plain ignorant , reliant on the fact that Di Matteo has more experience so he must have more football knowledge than you all combined is ridiculous.

Why don't we just admit the fact that the only players who we are seeing the best of are Mata & Ramires , Hazard can be miles better than that if he was given encouragement & guidance on when to dribble , to improve his finishing.

Oscar should be encouraged to shoot more and instructed to take places right in-front of the box waiting for a rebound (you always find Mata doing that but he is very wasteful from that position).

The team's off-the ball movement is purely instinctive and obviously based on no specific instructions , which is why we have rarely scored from the impressive link-up play as in most cases players get to the question of what's next , their instincts can't answer all of the questions on field.

Those are just examples , i don't know how a manager should handle and develop them into world-class substance because it's his job , and as a fan when i watch games i want to see this improvement on field.

My biggest concern is that a player like Hazard for instance is not half the player he was last year for Lille or at this season's beginning , to say he is slowly improving is the real non-sense.

This is exactly what's so exasperating. Oh no, we don't know anything. We are all so ignorant. RDM doesn't know anything. he's an idiot. The board are all idiots. Only you, random poster on the internet, can see the truth and anyone who disagrees with you is blind....the truth is that you have no idea what you're talking about. You're saying that Hazard is half the player he was at Lille? Well, Lille is a massive step down from the Premier League. Drogba was a Chelsea legend and it took him about a year and a half to get used to the Premier League (and he was 24-25). Hazard is not anymore the dominant player on a poor side, he's just one player on a top side. On Lille last year, he had double the shots of anyone else on the team. The squad was largely built around him. He was never going to have that sort of role on any good squad. You think the Manchester teams would have built their team around Hazard? They wouldn't. You think he'd be some kind of unstoppable force if he were on a different team? What kind of player will Hazard be in England? NOBODY knows but he's developing very well. He's 21 and played 19 games with Chelsea and has 3 goals and 10 assists and you're whining about it. How do you know how good Hazard "can be"? You don't. It's based entirely on how good you hoped he would be which was obviously an entirely unrealistic expectation.

You really think that if it were so simple to improve the team, Chelsea wouldn't be doing it? You think that with their dossiers of information and hundreds of hours of tape, they don't know what you know? There are problems, but they are not easily fixable. They are going to take time. There are legitimate criticisms of any coach, but criticizing RDM for not developing young players is borderline insane and based on nothing except a fantasy of what young players should be bringing to the game.

[Rmpr 8,977]

@TorontoChelsea, do you agree that if it was 2-1 we would see totally different posts?

I mean, if we had scored one of the many chances we had I think we would see positive reactions: "really close to manurre, nice job RDM", "transition mode and 1 point behind", "a striker shy of a perfect team", etc.

People tend to direct their opinions by the outcome of the game, they forget to impartially analyse the aspects of the team. Of course it is not everyone, but some members do it all the time. We cant be doing great at one end and not so good at ohters. It is either everything or nothing...

[TorontoChelsea 4,064]

@TorontoChelsea, do you agree that if we had scored from our many chances we would see totally different posts?

I mean, Chelsea 2-1 Loserpool. I think we would see positive reactions: "really close to manurre, nice job RDM", "transition mode and 1 point behind", "a striker shy of a perfect team", etc.

People tend to direct their opinions by the outcome of the game, they forget to neutrally analyse the aspects of the team. Of course it is not everyone, but some members do it all the time.

100%. People were going crazy when we won a few games in a row but it was obvious that we had the same issues. The problem has generally not been us being wasteful, it's in us not creating chances. For a few weeks, we were scoring on virtually every chance we got and that was simply not sustainable. Same thing with the Shakhtar game. If Moses doesn't score, people would have gone ballistic, but he does score, so they're overjoyed. Obviously, the goal changes the result, but it doesn't much change the analysis of what we did right and what we did wrong.

[Rmpr 8,977]

100%. People were going crazy when we won a few games in a row but it was obvious that we had the same issues. The problem has generally not been us being wasteful, it's in us not creating chances. For a few weeks, we were scoring on virtually every chance we got and that was simply not sustainable. Same thing with the Shakhtar game. If Moses doesn't score, people would have gone ballistic, but he does score, so they're overjoyed. Obviously, the goal changes the result, but it doesn't much change the analysis of what we did right and what we did wrong.

We really were with an unsustainable convert ratio, but last game Oscar and Mata had to score those chances. It would have killed the game.

I think our problem lies defensively, but not individual performance, group work instead. We do not have a clear defensive role for everybody (if we do we are not performing it). This leaves our midfield vunerable to any width or possession team, making our defense extremely overloaded. It also makes our attacking trio to be out of position in the counters. I am too lazy to post pretty pictures to show off, but you can clearly see the disorganization in our transition.

There is also the identity crysis, are we a possession (Barcelona) or a speed killer (Real and Bayern) team?

The problem is I do not know how to solve this. It might be by playing wingers with a passing and ball control pivot, one formation for attack and defense, not enough training, lack of leadership, bad coaching, etc. Maybe it is a bit of everything, I have no clue.

[communicate 2,703]

100%. People were going crazy when we won a few games in a row but it was obvious that we had the same issues. The problem has generally not been us being wasteful, it's in us not creating chances. For a few weeks, we were scoring on virtually every chance we got and that was simply not sustainable. Same thing with the Shakhtar game. If Moses doesn't score, people would have gone ballistic, but he does score, so they're overjoyed. Obviously, the goal changes the result, but it doesn't much change the analysis of what we did right and what we did wrong.

Excellent post.

I think I had similar discussion with somebody in this forum a couple months ago.

Somebody posted number that showed that we were actually average in term of chance creation in EPL but

we have been very clinical in term of converting our chances.

[didierforever 7,349]

This however is truly stupid. Least the other lad is in some sort of denile about it.

no, your comment that torres is better than sturridge was stupid. tell me what is the playing time that sturridge has got this season especially when u take out that 1 carling cup game. and still u said torres is better than sturridge, how? as i see it sturridge has one start in this season and got a goal in that match, can u say the same of torres.

and then u said something about EFFORT.torres puts in more EFFORT than sturridge. how did u make that assessment. and what effort are we talking about. this stat will show u his true effort : Torres touched the ball 42 times against liverpool, 26 of them directly resulted in a turnover, goal kick, or opponents throw. he plays for himself not the club.

[nachikethas 1,154]

this is when u realise the need for old stars... getting rid of lampard will be a huge blow...

[Styles 9,790]

Some posters are just unbelievable , i have always chosen to ignore some posts but the amount of posters who are plain ignorant , reliant on the fact that Di Matteo has more experience so he must have more football knowledge than you all combined is ridiculous.

Why don't we just admit the fact that the only players who we are seeing the best of are Mata & Ramires , Hazard can be miles better than that if he was given encouragement & guidance on when to dribble , to improve his finishing.

Oscar should be encouraged to shoot more and instructed to take places right in-front of the box waiting for a rebound (you always find Mata doing that but he is very wasteful from that position).

The team's off-the ball movement is purely instinctive and obviously based on no specific instructions , which is why we have rarely scored from the impressive link-up play as in most cases players get to the question of what's next , their instincts can't answer all of the questions on field.

Those are just examples , i don't know how a manager should handle and develop them into world-class substance because it's his job , and as a fan when i watch games i want to see this improvement on field.

My biggest concern is that a player like Hazard for instance is not half the player he was last year for Lille or at this season's beginning , to say he is slowly improving is the real non-sense.

You talk about encouragement and guidance but you're neglecting experience and self-motivation too.

For example Oscar missed a good chance against Liverpool with his left foot. He didn't look entirely comfortable taking the shot. I believe a player as smart as him knows he will have to work on that. But things like that take time. You can't do it over a weekend.

You make valid points but you're also impatient. Transition and improvement aren't just buzzwords, they're very real stages in a club and players development. Hazard and Oscar will be better at 23, 24, 25 than they are at 21 if they can avoid serious injuries.

Players don't reach their full potential at 21. Just be a little patient and enjoy watching them grow. I'd rather watch the journey AND the final product as opposed to just watching players/clubs at their peak. It's much better that way, trust me.

[ulsterchelsea 3,221]

Double post

[ulsterchelsea 3,221]

I love Robbie, think he's a legend, hell he is a legend. He's a great man manager and seemingly a great motivator BUT tactically I think hes being found wanting. His substitutions are predictable and often too late in the game and he seems unable to change us when necessary. We seem to have a real problem dealing with any sort of pressure and no lesson was seemingly learnt in the shaktar game when we should have known what was coming our way.As the original poster said we have 3 outstandingly talented midfielders who link well together at times and in time and with games they will get even better but there does look to be a lack of direction for them at times. I'm also concerned with robbies hesitation to take off under performers the next game. David luiz is a real liability at times and big gaz is a more solid defender and greater goal threat and would be my starter every time. As for torres ,sigh, not much we can do till January. Still think we need to stick with Robbie but just think a defeat or 2 or a few more draws will see big Rom down at cobham for "talks". Should remember though that this is essentially the progress from joses Chelsea to the new Chelsea, the flair playing Chelsea and we are still only 3 behind the scum and joint top of our CL group. No panic needed yet

[RamiCFC9 258]

There's a difference between football legend, a nice guy and a good manager.Some people just yet can't see it, well you will and I bet it won't be long time in future.

[BLionheart 516]

This is exactly what's so exasperating. Oh no, we don't know anything. We are all so ignorant. RDM doesn't know anything. he's an idiot. The board are all idiots. Only you, random poster on the internet, can see the truth and anyone who disagrees with you is blind....the truth is that you have no idea what you're talking about. You're saying that Hazard is half the player he was at Lille? Well, Lille is a massive step down from the Premier League. Drogba was a Chelsea legend and it took him about a year and a half to get used to the Premier League (and he was 24-25). Hazard is not anymore the dominant player on a poor side, he's just one player on a top side. On Lille last year, he had double the shots of anyone else on the team. The squad was largely built around him. He was never going to have that sort of role on any good squad. You think the Manchester teams would have built their team around Hazard? They wouldn't. You think he'd be some kind of unstoppable force if he were on a different team? What kind of player will Hazard be in England? NOBODY knows but he's developing very well. He's 21 and played 19 games with Chelsea and has 3 goals and 10 assists and you're whining about it. How do you know how good Hazard "can be"? You don't. It's based entirely on how good you hoped he would be which was obviously an entirely unrealistic expectation.

You really think that if it were so simple to improve the team, Chelsea wouldn't be doing it? You think that with their dossiers of information and hundreds of hours of tape, they don't know what you know? There are problems, but they are not easily fixable. They are going to take time. There are legitimate criticisms of any coach, but criticizing RDM for not developing young players is borderline insane and based on nothing except a fantasy of what young players should be bringing to the game.

Thanks for pointing those facts out , i don't know what i was thinking !! this is Chelsea FC so their manager must be faultless so does their board , who are we to doubt any single decision of a CFC manager or board , madness right , i mean what's next ..... there may actually come the day where people start criticizing one of the 3 maestros !!!!

Pathetic