Closed Singha All-Stars 0-1 Chelsea

[TorontoChelsea 4,064]

I'm guessing that that 'rant' wasn't really aimed at me?

On any account, judging players and hyping them is inevitable during preseason. We have nothing else to talk about, what do you expect?!

Not at you at all. You always have some perspective. Just a general rant looking through the the player threads with all the "you can tell (by a few good/bad passes/runs/tackles in one meaningless game) that player X is amazing/awful.

[Jase 43,479]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdkbnRVlELk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-b-eeSq8Eww

[nachikethas 1,149]

how was jamal guys? no mention at all.

[Ryan Fong 2,776]

how was jamal guys? no mention at all.

He rarely touched the ball.

[nachikethas 1,149]

He rarely touched the ball.

thanks

[NishC300 1,865]

Saw the game's recording yesterday since I was away when the game was live.

The new guys looked good. Wallace is an amazing dribbler and could be a really good back up since our only other right back is Azpi and that Wallace is a very different full back, so he would provide us another different type of 'weapon'.

Van Ginkel was good. He hit some good ambitious balls, but we did get a lot of time and space in the middle as well.

De Bruyune's gr8 for delivering set pieces.

Can't jump to too many conclusions since it was a friendly against a pretty shit side.

[SeB 1,281]

A minor tactical note: I think Jose is trying to customize that number 10 position judging by the roles Piazon and then Kevin played in the match. It looks like Jose wants whoever is playing in that role to drop off more often and play the ball from deep in the field to give us a numerical advantage in the middle when getting the ball out of defense. I predict to see a lot of Oscar and Kevin playing in that number 10 position and not Mata and Hazard.

Oh, and I think it's safe to say that we've been practicing set pieces in training.

That's what I've been expecting for months in that positions. Fact that we played 4-2-3-1 was an issue in itself as we should have a genuine midfielder playing on top of the double pivot, what Hazard and Mata failed "to be".

I liked De Bruyne's availability on the full width of the pitch to provide options, so that it's easier for midfielders and full backs to play the ball forward and be less predictable.

Beside the obvious work on set pieces, one of my satisfactions was also related to that very player in the hole (not having a player with the suited behaviour with/without the ball has been one of our actuall issues on the pitch for some time - let aside the little squad depth). It was about transitions, but not attacking ones

Last season we were 2v3 in midfield, our midfielders couldn't come out to press (because the opponent's deepest player was available in support) and couldn't sweep to block the angles toward the inside of the field. Piazon and De Bruyne's rigor to take steps back to come closer to the double pivot allowed Ramires to cut easily in Wallace's back because there was two players left in the central zones of the pitch:

Piazon and Essien fall back toward their goal whereas Ramires has cancelled the 1v2 Wallace faced in the channel:

The sequence ends as follows, Ramires blocks the cross and concedes a throw-in. The fact he, as a midfielder, covered Wallace resulted the back three not to be scattered and be able to protect the six-yard zone properly.

Essien and Piazon do end their run where they're expected to, at the edge of the penalty area to challenge for second balls on crosses ahead of the first line of defence (CB + opposed full back):