Closed Southampton 2-1 Chelsea

[Ankit 3,176]

Arsenal play West Brom(Away) and Spurs play Everton(Home). Could well be banana skin for both the teams, we play Sunderland(Home). We are 4th with a game in hand. That game being Fulham(Away) which is a must win game now!

[Milan 17,958]

I hoped we would tick the first game of the mad week as won and done. Instead, it's lost and over. Depressing.

We won there in the FA Cup 5-1, 5 fucking 1 and then lost 5 five points to them in the League. God, we lost 5 points to them and 5 points to fucking QPR. 10 points lost to absolute zeros if you compare the squads

[The only place to be 11,313]

I hoped we would tick the first game of the mad week as won and done. Instead, it's lost and over. Depressing.

We won there in the FA Cup 5-1, 5 fucking 1 and then lost 5 five points to them in the League. God, we lost 5 points to them and 5 points to fucking QPR. 10 points lost to absolute zeros if you compare the squads

Three players who started all FOUR of those games??

Bertrand

Ivanovic

Lampard

[bushman 2,043]

No matter how one looks at the schedule. Chelsea are not ready to compete in EL, FA & PL.

Simple as that, as I already posted it here several times. Those who think Chelsea may win any cup or finish in top four places in PL are clueless.

[didierforever 7,349]

Fuck the board. This one is not down to Rafa.

u r correct. its the players fault that hazard dint start the match along with ramires-mikel pivot which is the only thing we have anywhere near to a good enough mid combo. not starting BA was another one of board's decision while not substituting fot the last 20 minutes was totally the board's decision while it had no affect by FSW. and also very suprisingly the same mata who was deemed fit to play on tuesday for spain, got "ill" and i can bet my ass that he will have a miraculous recovery for the united game, would probably be another one of the board's mishaps.

so all in all i can see what u r saying...

[CHOULO19 24,332]

I couldn't watch the match and after seeing the result, I'm kinda glad about that. I won't read through this thread, I'm sure it's all doom and gloom. Best to forget this game and concentrate on Monday, now.

[BlueLyon 9,359]

First half it was 60:40 in possesion for Soton and we are trying to play possesion football? The only two players that can do that are Mata and Hazard. Asul much Oscar is great talent, I dont understand why we.l bought him in first place? Alternative for Modric in DLP? Yeah right...

I wont go into pivot debate. Lamps is old and less mobile, Mikel needs someone else along (new Dlp, Rambo,...). Oscar is not a starter i this team. He is too weak to handle things required for his position. Moses wtf? His progress ended since he came from afcon. Marin should leave.

Buy DLP ala Moutinho, winger who can cross and add some speed and directness. Buy a striker. Lukakau? He aint gonna push us forward. Its fact. He isnt better than Ba and we know how Ba is doing.

[manpe 10,861]

The selection was fine actually, those kind of players should be winning clubs like Southampton 9 times out of 10. But it's not only down to players, the organization and tactics were shambles. I can't count how many times I buried my face in my palm seeing our midfielders (primarily Lampard) and defenders pumping the ball high and long... to who? We're supposed to be playing possession football, but how can you keep possession by lumping the ball to short and frail players? That is just, aarrgghhhh... It's clear as cloudless sky our midfield needs reinforcements, none of the players are good enough or fit the tactics we're trying to play. Our starters in midfield should ideally be rotational options at best. At about 60th minute in second half, when we were chasing the game, Soton had 60% of possession. This is just, I don't know.

If the team had more imagination, composure, organization and sense of what to do, we could have won comfortably. Any selection we put out should be enough against bloody relegation battlers, even without Mata. But looking at the movement and passing patterns, it's no surprise we're struggling against average sides. You add a bit of complacency and a clueless manager in the mix and you have the perfect recipe for a loss.

EDIT: One more observation. Did you notice how many quick breaks Soton had? A class team would have punished us much more than 2 times.

[didierforever 7,349]

What type of tactics were we playing with cech, ivanovic, lampard and terry pumping the ball anywhere foward anytime??

marin and moses were owned by clyne and shaw, everytime we gave them the ball it was like passing on a wall when the ball simply came back harder and southampton kept countering, plus both our fullbakcs had awful games. oscar played more as a 2nd striker than as a link up guy thus there being no connection whatsoever between our pivot guys and our forwards. the only option was to ping the ball ahead and hope for something to happen or pass on the wing and defend a soton counter. plus the soton pressing dint help us either and we were forced to long balls.

[didierforever 7,349]

now all i hope is that roman fires the bloody useless no-good FSW so that it fucks up his CV, the thing for which he fucked us up today...

please roman do something good... please...

[TorontoChelsea 4,064]

It's obvious that Rafa's goals are different than Chelsea's. I used to think there was no point in sacking him, but appointing a manager just to play for the Premier League might make sense. Mata and Hazard need to be rotated like everyone else, but I'm sick of sitting our only two dangerous attacking players in the same game. The entire team was poor. Lampard and Mikel will get a lot of the blame because that's just where people have decided to lay it this year and while they were poor, but our front 4 was even worse than they were. No movement at all, lost possession easily, kept letting defenders catch up to them, and were beaten to almost every ball. Ivanovic and Terry were very at fault for the first goal, but aside from that actually played pretty well. Our fullbacks were also poor.

I've though Moses was looking like a future rotation player for Chelsea so far this year, but I'm not even sure he'll rise to that. He's been our worst fairly regular player by a fair margin this season. Maybe he needs to play regularly to improve, that's not unusual, but it's been a very poor first season with Chelsea.

[edetarod 2,155]

Have some perspective - we've still got a game in hand over Spurs and we've also got them at home.

that game looks like a nailed on defeat for me

they will knock us out of CL with AVB in our own backyard

some things are just written, and this one looks very much like it, you couldn't have set it up any better than this for them

[didierforever 7,349]

that game looks like a nailed on defeat for me

they will knock us out of CL with AVB in our own backyard

some things are just written, and this one looks very much like it, you couldn't have set it up any better than this for them

now that u say this it does seem so fucking obvious. avb WILL end up having the last laugh.

well we cant cry, can we? we had our share of luck last year, so it was bound to go bad soon or later...

[The only place to be 11,313]

It's obvious that Rafa's goals are different than Chelsea's. I used to think there was no point in sacking him, but appointing a manager just to play for the Premier League might make sense. Mata and Hazard need to be rotated like everyone else, but I'm sick of sitting our only two dangerous attacking players in the same game. The entire team was poor. Lampard and Mikel will get a lot of the blame because that's just where people have decided to lay it this year and while they were poor, but our front 4 was even worse than they were. No movement at all, lost possession easily, kept letting defenders catch up to them, and were beaten to almost every ball. Ivanovic and Terry were very at fault for the first goal, but aside from that actually played pretty well. Our fullbacks were also poor.

I've though Moses was looking like a future rotation player for Chelsea so far this year, but I'm not even sure he'll rise to that. He's been our worst fairly regular player by a fair margin this season. Maybe he needs to play regularly to improve, that's not unusual, but it's been a very poor first season with Chelsea.

Actually that would be Rafa. Or Torres.

Lamps and Mikel were appalling today and showed no composure in possession and no determination in defence. This isn't the first time that's been the case either and any team that puts pressure on that double-pivot will get some something out of the game.

[OneMoSalah 8,886]

We were pressed, nobody was calm or wanted to be brave/bold today. The fact that Rafa decided to put on Yossi instead of Demba too, just whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat the fuck man.

[Alabama 1,992]

as much as i dislike benitez for putting out wrong tactics and fair team selection....the players have their major share of blame....Lampard is no more a starter, he is just clueless kips giving Mikel a hell of work 2do...Moses Oh shit!!! So shitty 2day...d fact remains outside Mata and Hazard our starting linw will continue 2 struggle

[Alabama 1,992]

as much as i dislike benitez for putting out wrong tactics and fair team selection....the players have their major share of blame....Lampard is no more a starter, he is just clueless kips giving Mikel a hell of work 2do...Moses Oh shit!!! So shitty 2day...d fact remains outside Mata and Hazard our starting linw will continue 2 struggle

[The only place to be 11,313]

We were pressed, nobody was calm or wanted to be brave/bold today. The fact that Rafa decided to put on Yossi instead of Demba too, just whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat the fuck man.

This is Rafa - he doesn't change the system, but changes the personnel instead.

Southampton's players stepped up all over the pitch, whilst we lacked leadership despite having Cech, Lamps and Terry on the pitch. Yet you'll still get people on here saying that we shouldn't give young players a chance because they don't have 'experience'.

[didierforever 7,349]

Actually that would be Rafa. Or Torres.

Lamps and Mikel were appalling today and showed no composure in possession and no determination in defence. This isn't the first time that's been the case either and any team that puts pressure on that double-pivot will get some something out of the game.

i know that, u know that , any one who calls himself half a chelsea fan would know that, then how can u rest 2 of our most important players in the same game or atleast have a bloody plan B where we can simply ping the ball ahead because of our useless link up play with the wingers and the attacking mid guy, and thus play BA who can win atleast 1 aerial ball out 100 that we put today unlike torres, but no we had nothing. so the important question is y play these 2 together when we know we would get our asses kicked , also i dont think ramires played a single match in the last 2 weeks so let him have a run out.

mikel-lamps pivot is a disaster, but our team selection, our planning and everu bloody thing on whole was totally shambolic. nobody would dare raise a finger against azpi because he is our new blue eyed boy, when he could put a single decent delivery into the box despite being in a good position over and over again.

[bushman 2,043]

If Rafa is not to be blamed, then whom are we to blame when the key players are rested for some meaningless cup for Monday ?

All I read here about some fucking double pivot...change this....how do you remedy it if you got shitty Marin or Yossi on the pitch ?