Closed Southampton 2-1 Chelsea

[juko 19]

i love eden(he's my favourite player) but man of the match is not allowed

[Rupert 130]

The team was not good enough today. It needs to hire Rafa on a 5 year contract, to clear out the dead wood, to bring in the right kind of players - a strong aggressive defensive midfielder and a genuine winger - and install zonal defending. Southampton have been playing well lately and have a number of impressive scalps, but they scored from a free kick which is unacceptable. If Rafa is given support he will bring on the youth, recruit the best in Europe and get them playing with hunger and aggression. He can do only so much with the left-overs he found on his arrival.

[zolayes 14,489]

Knowing our board we will most probably sell him to leverkusen in order to sweeten the deal for schurrle or atleast thats the rumour right now.

And GIVE Courtois to Atletico so they will take Torres

[The only place to be 11,313]

The team was not good enough today. It needs to hire Rafa on a 5 year contract

How about nobody rises to this rancid bait today?

Everyone knows we were shit and there's enough discord without having some troll come in on the wind-up so if we starve him of the oxygen of vitriol he looks to elicit, he'll eventually die.

[OneMoSalah 8,616]

If we sell De Bruyne we might as well sell Hazard, Mata and everyone else and replace them with average players like Schurrle, Marin and Fellaini........

[Special Juan 27,104]

It seems that every time we take to the field of late, away from home, and against teams of this ilk it's just a matter of time before we go a goal down.

[Hamilton 2,118]

WTF happend?

Didn't watched the game, but wtf..

[Jase 43,479]

Other than Benitez's horrendous rotation of players today, there's one thing I cannot understand about his sub. Why on earth did he decided to bring on Ramires for Mikel and then asked him to play the latter's role in the pivot? I know Lampard offers the goal threat in the team but other than that, he doesn't give much else and yet Benitez kept him on instead. Mikel might not have the best of games today but partnering him with Ramires makes much more sense than the Ramires-Lampard combo as already illustrated in the difference in performance at OT recently. By asking Ramires to just sit in the pivot basically takes everything away from him. His biggest strength is making those driving runs at the opposition's defence and create chances for us, which is similar to what Lampard does but yet Benitez stick him in the pivot and continue to allow Lampard to get forward when it was hardly even working when playing alongside Mikel. Should have went with Mikel and Ramires in the pivot, ask Mikel to sit and then allow Ramires to make his marauding runs. Furthermore, Southampton were playing with a high line and having someone running deep from midfield can cause major problems but we didn't even look to exploit it!

[Special Juan 27,104]

WTF happend?

Didn't watched the game, but wtf..

Shit attitude, lack of commitment, wrong starting line up and a pathetic performance.

[TrippingStep 336]

Other than Benitez's horrendous rotation of players today, there's one thing I cannot understand about his sub. Why on earth did he decided to bring on Ramires for Mikel and then asked him to play the latter's role in the pivot? I know Lampard offers the goal threat in the team but other than that, he doesn't give much else and yet Benitez kept him on instead. Mikel might not have the best of games today but partnering him with Ramires makes much more sense than the Ramires-Lampard combo as already illustrated in the difference in performance at OT recently. By asking Ramires to just sit in the pivot basically takes everything away from him. His biggest strength is making those driving runs at the opposition's defence and create chances for us, which is similar to what Lampard does but yet Benitez stick him in the pivot and continue to allow Lampard to get forward when it was hardly even working when playing alongside Mikel. Should have went with Mikel and Ramires in the pivot, ask Mikel to sit and then allow Ramires to make his marauding runs. Furthermore, Southampton were playing with a high line and having someone running deep from midfield can cause major problems but we didn't even look to exploit it!

Nothing made sense today.

Everyone know Southampton is a high energy team who runs a lot and yet he starts the game with Terry Ivanovic Lampard Mikel.

With Luiz Ramires, we could have players that can run from deep and break their pressing organisation.

The same with Hazard who can draw defenders away.

And cole has much more composure on the ball than Bertrand.

Ba has scored three goals against Southampton this year and he didn't start and even play one minute while in the last 20 minutes, we were around their box.

With his movements he could have forced an error from them, scored a header or cutting a pass inside the box.

Torres is awful in the box.

[Jase 43,479]

Nothing made sense today.

Everyone know Southampton is a high energy team who runs a lot and yet he starts the game with Terry Ivanovic Lampard Mikel.

With Luiz Ramires, we could have players that can run from deep and break their pressing organisation.

The same with Hazard who can draw defenders away.

And cole has much more composure on the ball than Bertrand.

Ba has scored three goals against Southampton this year and he didn't start and even play one minute while in the last 20 minutes, we were around their box.

With his movements he could have forced an error from them, scored a header or cutting a pass inside the box.

Torres is awful in the box.

That somehow slipped my mind.

It was crazy to see him bringing on Benayoun instead of Ba while he continue pumping crosses into the box without any sort of a big physical presense upfront. As you said, it made no sense!

[bushman 2,043]

Rafa´s plan to protect Chelsea stars ahead of the fucking FA Cup tie backfired today.

I believe he should be fired asap. This man will prevent Chelsea from reaching top four places in PL.

As I wrote earlier here, Chelsea do not have the squad to play in all three competition now.

Even though, it´s not his fault only that the team is short on players but this dimwit was clearly told to secure top four PL places.

Is he totally clueless or is he doing it on purpose ?

I do not wish the team to lose games but one thing I believe Chelsea would be better off to lose on Monday. Otherwise, this Rafa is going to fuck it up royally.

[didierforever 7,349]

How about nobody rises to this rancid bait today?

Everyone knows we were shit and there's enough discord without having some troll come in on the wind-up so if we starve him of the oxygen of vitriol he looks to elicit, he'll eventually die.

thats one of the best reason y to put him in your "ignore preferences" page. atleast i dont have to read his mind numbingly idiotic posts...

[Martina 210]

Is he totally clueless or is he doing it on purpose ? I do not wish the team to lose games but one thing I believe Chelsea would be better off to lose on Monday. Otherwise, this Rafa is going to fuck it up royally.

Exactly my thoughts.

He knows he'll be leaving soon and he is obviously aware of the Jose rumours. And he has never ever taken any responsibility (not once did he acknowledge he might somehow be involved in the bad results) - it's always excuses. Blame the fans, the players, too many matches, bad weather… Very similar to Torres in this respect. He probably thinks he's doing a great job.

So why should he care at this stage? If we don't finish top 4 he'll come up with new excuses so it won't hurt his future prospects too much. Either he really is a bad manager and cannot read the game (his subs, not playing Ba today etc.) or he simply doesn't care whether we qualify or not. Perhaps the FA club means more to him = personal trophy.

[Sideshow Luiz 2,310]

Lampard was awful today. The press don't seem to write about these performances from him. But, when he scores, it's all "Chelsea are mad to let him go".

[xPetrCechx 13,548]

POOR!!!

[Strike 6,968]

Lampard and Mikel were not the issue today. Our two full backs are and were a joke, Marin and Moses are playing as Chelsea players because there was no manager in charge last summer. Oscar is not ready to play the role the the midfield maestro...So no, I really dont see this joke of line up winning more than a couple of games in PL.

This squad lacks depth, and I dont think we won any matches when RDM or Benitez thought this squad was good enough to rotate so many players.

last time we rotated these many players was at home to QPR.

[Strike 6,968]

It's sad that the 2-1 scoreline flattered us more than Southampton