Closed Man City 2-0 Chelsea

[Jase 43,479]

Were you guys really surprised we lost? Man City top to bottom individually is probably better and their bench is loads better. Also, even if Lampard had scored, I'm pretty sure City would of score a goal, since we barely attacked anyways.

Probably not but it was the manner in which we lost that has annoyed many. There was hardly any fight, desire and determination. We were just going through the motions and hoped for the best.

[Yeboii 1,844]

Kylian Hazard was angry that his brother got subbed off

[MHL 47 378]

Its obviously not his fault...there's something wrong with the way this team plays. Now that Ba's there, they only see him as a targetman for aerial passes..

In other words, this team doesn't do enough to feed their striker.

What I believe you'll find is that for the majority of the last 8 or so seasons we've primarily played with one up front.

That in itself causes issues of creating enough chances for them, marked by multiple defenders, outnumbered. We've had two golden boot winners in that period Anelka and Drogba, no surprise that they won those in seasons where we switched tactics from a lone striker to working a pair together.

On Sunday at Man City Frank Sinclair sat two rows in front of me, he called it 20mins into the game. Not supporting Ba quickly enough, too much possession surrendered too quickly and our holding midfielder not moving the ball on quickly enough and having too many touch's and not defending the edge of the box tightly enough.

[Blue Armour 4,168]

What I believe you'll find is that for the majority of the last 8 or so seasons we've primarily played with one up front.

That in itself causes issues of creating enough chances for them, marked by multiple defenders, outnumbered. We've had two golden boot winners in that period Anelka and Drogba, no surprise that they won those in seasons where we switched tactics from a lone striker to working a pair together.

On Sunday at Man City Frank Sinclair sat two rows in front of me, he called it 20mins into the game. Not supporting Ba quickly enough, too much possession surrendered too quickly and our holding midfielder not moving the ball on quickly enough and having too many touch's and not defending the edge of the box tightly enough.

Tbh, I'm surprised Rafa hasn't opted to try Ba and Torres together more often. It worked well in the first FA cup fixture against Brentford this season.

[Bigchelsea1 2]

W

[Bigchelsea1 2]

We lost because Ivanovic was played at RB instead of Dave. Has anyone noticed how Ivanovic allows wingers to get space around him to get a good cross in? The Toure goal came from Ivanovic side and the second goal would have be shielded by Dave if he was playing. Ivanovic opened up again and cech was beaten. Dave is our best RB and we should be playing him there in Big Games.

Another big reason why we lost was because of Lampard's hunger for 200 goal. Ba should have taken that penalty. I guess we Chelsea fans love our super Frank too much to criticize him. I see many people blaming the coach whiles they should be holding the players accountable. I don't know if people have noticed this but majority of Lampard's penalties are shot in one direction. Hart is an English player who knows him well and I think he has noticed it too. when a goalie knows you that much, you have to change you technique or let a goal scoring striker like Ba to take it. Selfishness cost us the game not the coach. (My favorite team is a group of overpaid individuals not a team.)

[zolayes 14,489]

What I believe you'll find is that for the majority of the last 8 or so seasons we've primarily played with one up front.

That in itself causes issues of creating enough chances for them, marked by multiple defenders, outnumbered. We've had two golden boot winners in that period Anelka and Drogba, no surprise that they won those in seasons where we switched tactics from a lone striker to working a pair together.

On Sunday at Man City Frank Sinclair sat two rows in front of me, he called it 20mins into the game. Not supporting Ba quickly enough, too much possession surrendered too quickly and our holding midfielder not moving the ball on quickly enough and having too many touch's and not defending the edge of the box tightly enough.

4 2 3 1 is driving me to distraction

[MHL 47 378]

Tbh, I'm surprised Rafa hasn't opted to try Ba and Torres together more often. It worked well in the first FA cup fixture against Brentford this season.

4 2 3 1 is driving me to distraction

The only rationale I can lay against TFSW one up front policy is that's what he knows best and lacks the skills to do anything much different than that.

When he has brought on a second striker, when we've chased games one of the two drops wide and deeper. The substitution on Sunday when he brought Torres on (and I don't blame Torres for this) just unbalanced the side. It honestly looks as if they don't prepare much pre-game in training of a system using a second striker.

Just my opinion but I think we could buy whoever the 'hot' striking property is in world football and they'd not get more than 15 a season on average, as long as we persist with the one up-front. The trade-off is we generally have got more goals from midfield than most other sides in the PL.