Closed Man United 0-0 Chelsea

[Tomo 21,681]

I'm still disgusted about this.

As for the game - I was quite happy with the result. For me Moyes passed his first major test. Let's be honest too, we were the only ones trying to play football. Jose came for a draw. If the game would of been won, it would have been by us. Your team looked flat, and very out of ideas.

No mata = disjointed. A total lack of creativity in my opinion. Long may Jose leave him out.

Many times United have came to The Bridge and played a similar defensive game, the only difference is we (as the home team) attacked more.

[Jase 43,479]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owASMH6NcxQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xeSfNCMU0g

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvG1X8YMtoA

[Pacquiao 1,834]

I'm still disgusted about this.

As for the game - I was quite happy with the result. For me Moyes passed his first major test. Let's be honest too, we were the only ones trying to play football. Jose came for a draw. If the game would of been won, it would have been by us. Your team looked flat, and very out of ideas.

No mata = disjointed. A total lack of creativity in my opinion. Long may Jose leave him out.

LOL!!!

you came to play football? is that why whenever Chelsea got into your half you had 10 men behind the ball! even RVP was coming back to help defend! you were the home team and were scared to really go for the win and open up because you knew Chelsea would have ripped your team to pieces the moment you opened up!

Mourinho's tactics scared Moyes! when he saw our mobile front four he knew he couldn't let them expose your sluggish midfield and defence hence why United were scared to go for it and leave gaps in midfield and defence so in the end United settled for the draw as well! you hardly threw the kitchen sink at us, all your attacks were really half hearted and mainly pot-shots and aimless crosses into the box which you hoped would go to a United player!

Mourinho1 Moyes 0

[JayC 171]

Many times United have came to The Bridge and played a similar defensive game, the only difference is we (as the home team) attacked more.

I rate Chelsea highly - don't forget this. My recent posts look like I'm having a go. I am, for this game alone. I was disappointed in Jose's strategy. I can fully understand it though. This still doesn't change the fact your team looked majorly poor. I think it became clear Schurrle was played for one reason - more defence. I mean you can't really blame Jose, it is in fact like a lot of you said, he simply didn't want to hand us any kind of momentum. My point is, it would have been so much better to see us both go for it. Your team crowded midfield and also packed the box when we attacked. It was in effect the bus strategy. I feel a lot more confident in Moyes though if Jose felt he needed this much protection and basically massively limited his chances to score when playing us...

If I'm honest on the whole, this is a better result for Chelsea than us, and Mourinho got what he wanted. I won't argue with this it's one of the reasons I wanted him managing us. I actually would sacrifice some attacking play to grind out results. The fact is though Chelsea played very badly other than in defence which isn't hard with the entire team behind the ball... and you all know it. If I was watching that game as a Chelsea fan I would have been pretty bored.

Anyway, up to now for me - It's a Chelsea that needs to improve to win the league.

For us - it's a team with the same problem a lack of any real invention in Midfield - something world class. Wing play won't always work.

To sum up, it was the end of the world for nobody. We both march quite confidently on. With hope.

[Jase 43,479]

Many times United have came to The Bridge and played a similar defensive game, the only difference is we (as the home team) attacked more.

Find it hilarious that Mourinho is getting so much stick for this approach just because of his reputation and not looking at the bigger picture as to why he does it.

Alex Ferguson has done this so many times away against the big teams by sitting deep and hit them on the counter but yet never get criticized as much as Mourinho for doing the same.

[NishC300 1,865]

As I said - Jose came for a draw and brought the big blue bus with him. Be honest with yourselves - this wasn't a good footballing display. It was close to embarrassing in my opinion for Chelsea. The team looked awful..

I'm not trying to be funny - but I watched every minute of that game.

One more note - I don't think we were brilliant either. But we were better and we wanted to play.

and what did United do last season?

You struggled to even scrape a shot against us in last seasons matches.

From what I remember in the 3-2, no United player had possession in our half for 30-35 minutes.

[JayC 171]

LOL!!!

you came to play football? is that why whenever Chelsea got into your half you had 10 men behind the ball! even RVP was coming back to help defend! you were the home team and were scared to really go for the win and open up because you knew Chelsea would have ripped your team to pieces the moment you opened up!

Mourinho's tactics scared Moyes! when he saw our mobile front four he knew he couldn't let them expose your sluggish midfield and defence hence why United were scared to go for it and leave gaps in midfield and defence so in the end United settled for the draw as well! you hardly threw the kitchen sink at us, all your attacks were really half hearted and mainly pot-shots and aimless crosses into the box which you hoped would go to a United player!

Mourinho1 Moyes 0

I'll answer fair statements not tripe.

Your mobile front whatever did nothing. Those tactics scared Moyes? Come on.

[NishC300 1,865]

Find it hilarious that Mourinho is getting so much stick for this approach just because of his reputation and not looking at the bigger picture as to why he does it.

Alex Ferguson has done this so many times away against the big teams by sitting deep and hit them on the counter but yet never get criticized as much as Mourinho for doing the same.

Hypocrites.

[Pacquiao 1,834]

I'll answer fair statements not tripe.

Your mobile front whatever did nothing. Those tactics scared Moyes? Come on.

they may have done nothing but Moyes was scared for his team to open up and go for the win! he knew giving them four space would have destroyed you!

[NishC300 1,865]

Analysis of Mourinho's decisions last night.

HERE

[jonaaibosk 191]

they may have done nothing but Moyes was scared for his team to open up and go for the win! he knew giving them four space would have destroyed you!

That's not fear then. It's being clever.

It works both ways. You can't say that Jose playing defensively so that we didn't lose was a brilliant plan and then say Moyes playing defensively was through fear because they'd get destroyed.

[Tomo 21,681]

I remember in 2004 when we played Man.Utd in our first home game, i remember Fergie saying something along the lines of it being a stomach punch to the team and it affected them for the rest of the season, that's why it was important for us not to lose last night.

[Barbara 15,149]

The plan didn't work as well as Mourinho wanted. It's too early, the boys aren't there yet. I think it's a mix of some myths this forum has and a few events in the match that resulted in the astonishing knee jerk.

I'm one of the first the say I was frustrated with our attack, but that was because we were poor - poor as in the players and their decisions in the pitch. Maybe not the best game plan, I can't judge because the boys played subpar and I don't feel like I can properly assess the game plan. So many stupid easy passes, bad movement at some points and just overall lack of inspiration. You know a plan doesn't work when the players play well and still you can't make things happen. I don't think anyone dares to say offensively that was the case last night.

I was frustrated because ManUtd was even worse imo if you take into consideration it was their first match at home in the season. They didn't play better than us - although their best player in the pitch Rooney did more (attack wise) than any of our players. But our defense was well prepared and frustrated the few attempts they had.

Now you add those match facts (a bit of inaccuracy in the pass, a bit of lack of inspiration, good marking from them on Eden, etc) to the TalkChelsea myths and you have the overreaction.

Myth #1 - Lukaku must play at all matches - preferably starting. The frustration in our attack in many posts here touches the Lukaku issue. While I think he could have played, I don't think it would have made much a difference because the problem was a bit before the CF imo. Whoever comes to this forum and reads things here must feel like Lukaku is the best thing on football since Zidane... the overrating is all over the place and I must agree with one or other brave mate that once in a while dares to say he hasn't proved anything wearing a Chelsea shirt yet. One might wonder he won us the UCL, EPL and EL given some of the posts.

Myth #2 - good performance defensively = parking the bus. This is so laughable I'm not going to cover

Myth #3 - Mourinho is defensive and we can't win titles like that. Mourinho knows how to set up a defense. It's a huge aspect of his team. He's not defensive by any means though. Someone who starts with 4 attacking players can't be called defensive. It just didn't work, I don't know if because we didn't train it enough, lack of chemistry, too early in the season, not the guys for the formation. The reasons could be many, but Mourinho isn't defensive.

Myth #4 - Comparisons between Mou, Robbie and FSW. It took a while for Benitez to improve (slightly imo) the team, Roberto, God bless him, is very weak tactically. This is the third official match with Mourinho in charge. How about we give him a few months and then we compare the team under Benitez and di Matteo because that's only fair. Comparing this match against Utd with the matches under Rafa after he was working with the team for months isn't fair. Mourinho is good, not god.

Myth #5 - Mourinho is god. This one also happens here often but hey, if I have to join any bandwagon, that might the one. (Actually I'm part of the Brazilian bandwagon, silly me )

I also believe we all misunderstand each other very often. So if we say we're frustrated because we could have won, it doesn't mean we are saying the draw was such a bad result. In a 38-match season long a point at OT is nice. 3 points would have been better. Newsflash, sometimes we have the chance and don't win.

I remember my first post (or second) in the fixture thread... I said it was great to play Utd at OT so early in the season because both teams would still be a work in progress and I don't think once Moyes has a grasp of the team playing there would have been as uncomplicated as it was yesterday. That right there is something positive.

Another misunderstanding is when one complain doesn't mean they can't see the positives. They just decided to focus on the negatives. There were negatives and positives last night - just like basically 96% of football matches.

Personally despite the negatives - and I posted more about them I guess - the defense is one of the things I was looking forward the most once Mou was announced. In the past we parked the bus in some matches to a T, but many times in the last two seasons, under AVB, RDM, FSW we were poor defensively and conceded stupid goals, against weak sides sometimes, despite trying to play defensively - sometimes parking the bus, others not. Mourinho always starts his work defensively. That's where he fixes problems first. I'm actually impressed that only 3 matches in the season and we already look like that. Ivanovic, Cahill, even Ramires were the guys playing for us in some of the horrid defensively matches we played only months ago. It impresses me because it feels like magic. I'm not saying for example our defense won't look horrible let's say in three days against Bayern. It could for Mou's work is still too early and there will always be - regardless of the manager - matches when a poor individual performance will give away a match (hi Ivan x Swansea), but I'm quite happy with the progress we made there.

So the defense is where he starts his work, but I expect in months to see the team progressing offensively and God help us, that pivot will improve because it's still bad.

[Sidzeret 2,257]

The plan didn't work as well as Mourinho wanted. It's too early, the boys aren't there yet. I think it's a mix of some myths this forum has and a few events in the match that resulted in the astonishing knee jerk.

I'm one of the first the say I was frustrated with our attack, but that was because we were poor - poor as in the players and their decisions in the pitch. Maybe not the best game plan, I can't judge because the boys played subpar and I don't feel like I can properly assess the game plan. So many stupid easy passes, bad movement at some points and just overall lack of inspiration. You know a plan doesn't work when the players play well and still you can't make things happen. I don't think anyone dares to say offensively that was the case last night.

I was frustrated because ManUtd was even worse imo if you take into consideration it was their first match at home in the season. They didn't play better than us - although their best player in the pitch Rooney did more (attack wise) than any of our players. But our defense was well prepared and frustrated the few attempts they had.

Now you add those match facts (a bit of inaccuracy in the pass, a bit of lack of inspiration, good marking from them on Eden, etc) to the TalkChelsea myths and you have the overreaction.

Myth #1 - Lukaku must play at all matches - preferably starting. The frustration in our attack in many posts here touches the Lukaku issue. While I think he could have played, I don't think it would have made much a difference because the problem was a bit before the CF imo. Whoever comes to this forum and reads things here must feel like Lukaku is the best thing on football since Zidane... the overrating is all over the place and I must agree with one or other brave mate that once in a while dares to say he hasn't proved anything wearing a Chelsea shirt yet. One might wonder he won us the UCL, EPL and EL given some of the posts.

Myth #2 - good performance defensively = parking the bus. This is so laughable I'm not going to cover

Myth #3 - Mourinho is defensive and we can't win titles like that. Mourinho knows how to set up a defense. It's a huge aspect of his team. He's not defensive by any means though. Someone who starts with 4 attacking players can't be called defensive. It just didn't work, I don't know if because we didn't train it enough, lack of chemistry, too early in the season, not the guys for the formation. The reasons could be many, but Mourinho isn't defensive.

Myth #4 - Comparisons between Mou, Robbie and FSW. It took a while for Benitez to improve (slightly imo) the team, Roberto, God bless him, is very weak tactically. This is the third official match with Mourinho in charge. How about we give him a few months and then we compare the team under Benitez and di Matteo because that's only fair. Comparing this match against Utd with the matches under Rafa after he was working with the team for months isn't fair. Mourinho is good, not god.

Myth #5 - Mourinho is god. This one also happens here often but hey, if I have to join any bandwagon, that might the one. (Actually I'm part of the Brazilian bandwagon, silly me )

I also believe we all misunderstand each other very often. So if we say we're frustrated because we could have won, it doesn't mean we are saying the draw was such a bad result. In a 38-match season long a point at OT is nice. 3 points would have been better. Newsflash, sometimes we have the chance and don't win.

I remember my first post (or second) in the fixture thread... I said it was great to play Utd at OT so early in the season because both teams would still be a work in progress and I don't think once Moyes has a grasp of the team playing there would have been as uncomplicated as it was yesterday. That right there is something positive.

Another misunderstanding is when one complain doesn't mean they can't see the positives. They just decided to focus on the negatives. There were negatives and positives last night - just like basically 96% of football matches.

Personally despite the negatives - and I posted more about them I guess - the defense is one of the things I was looking forward the most once Mou was announced. In the past we parked the bus in some matches to a T, but many times in the last two seasons, under AVB, RDM, FSW we were poor defensively and conceded stupid goals, against weak sides sometimes, despite trying to play defensively - sometimes parking the bus, others not. Mourinho always starts his work defensively. That's where he fixes problems first. I'm actually impressed that only 3 matches in the season and we already look like that. Ivanovic, Cahill, even Ramires were the guys playing for us in some of the horrid defensively matches we played only months ago. It impresses me because it feels like magic. I'm not saying for example our defense won't look horrible let's say in three days against Bayern. It could for Mou's work is still too early and there will always be - regardless of the manager - matches when a poor individual performance will give away a match (hi Ivan x Swansea), but I'm quite happy with the progress we made there.

So the defense is where he starts his work, but I expect in months to see the team progressing offensively and God help us, that pivot will improve because it's still bad.

Nice thought....getting better from defence to attack step by step!

Considering that we are gonna lose out on Rooney, might want to make the transition faster.

[Zoro 151]

The only problem I had with the squad was when Torres came on.

[robdog 2,084]

Again JT & Supa Frank are up to the task, despite what fsw thought. Did rvp play or did JT put that punk in his back pocket? 'JT is not good enough for CFC'....Rubbish!!! JT is still the Captain Leader Legend & I still believe both of these guys should have played in Wembley vs Man City in the FAC Semis.

[GodZola 630]

Would like to say that I'm surprised at the pessimism regarding last night's selection/performance but I've seen it all before, most of those posts have been defended vehemently so not going to waste my time but will just add some logic.

First of all I can understand some frustration as we all know we can play much better and criticism is fair when it is justified, however Imho some members are being far too impatient in condemning the selection and performance, we simply could not go to OT gung ho and get carved open with the most lethal finisher in the league possibly in Europe ready to be supplied, our team is in its infancy and finding its feet, I have no doubt as the season progresses we will get better and better and by the time we face Utd again we will see a different Chelsea, by then the team will be in its stride finding its rhythm and jose will start to let the brakes off a little, then and only then will I understand some criticism.

Now as for the flack Frank's been getting, his role was to play as a DM to provide a shield to stop the supply to Rooney amongst other responsibility's which for the large part I thought he done admirably, his passing could be better but then he wasn't alone, let's not get confused with his role as an AM.

Neither side wanted to lose and a game that was ruled by defences, going into the season I was more worried about central defence than a striker that is obviously paramount but that performance fills me with some confidence which is a positive to take away from last night.

Patience people please........

[Goemaere 131]

rafa had 2 points in his first 3 matches while we have 7 (5 more) which includes a trip to the champions.

Have you even read what I wrote. Besides Benitez football > mourinho's aesthetics wise. All in all after seeing about 500? mourinho matches the last 9 years i'm sure he is the best manager in the world but not the best for this squad. Laundrup would get more out of them than mourinho.

Other remark, no clue why we are getting Willian while our pivot is so weak. Should of bought de rossi, witsel, etc