Closed Everton 1-0 Chelsea

[Strike 7,489]

@Strike also said the same, and sorry to disagree, but which match did you guys watch? Oscar for Mata did nothing to our width as we changed the players in the center and when Lampard entered Ramires moved to the right wing. Maybe going with Kevin in a direct exchange would have been better, but don't give me this width BS. Ramires was in the RW at all times once the subs were done.

Did it work? No. But Mata was completely useless and André while one of the players who created more for us was in a bad day technically - so much for creating and not capitalizing. I said during HT and I'll repeat it: I would have brought Torres for Schurrle and let Samuel move to the right - where he likes to play and where he created a few things for us today. And then I added: if Torres plays badly it'll just be another guy who had a poor day for us. At the end of the day Lampard, Oscar and Torres were just as bad as the rest of team technically. The whole team tried, they fought, they worked hard, but their last touch was just poor throughout the whole match.

Lampard for Schurrle was the wrong choice.. Ramires is not a winger and it showed. He barely made a run down the channel. (Maybe once - The eto'o chance) Mostly stayed central. Even tried to poke in 1-2 of the crosses from the right but i thought, he should have been on the right putting the ball in

Only wide threat after the subs was Hazard, when he drifted to the flanks and Ivanovic on the right. Ivanovic tried but he's limited in what he can do

[Barbara 15,149]

Lampard for Schurrle was the wrong choice.. Ramires is not a winger and it showed. He barely made a run down the channel. Mostly stayed central. Even tried to poke in 1-2 of the crosses from the right but i thought, he should have been on the right putting the ball in

well I remember many occasions where he was just by Ivanovic's side or with Oscar approaching him. I'm not saying it was a good sub, I'm just saying that Mourinho's plan wasn't to make us lose width - which I don't even think we did to be honest, as I said I remember many times seeing him there with the ball. Mou had a plan - it may have been a bad one and I can agree with you, but we didn't play without width. We played technically bad all over the pitch.

Jose's still getting to know the players and right now he trusts a few guys more than the rest: Oscar, Ramires, Lamps, Ivan, Hazard. He'll play with the players he trusts more until others earn his trust as well. He's making a few mistakes, but he's just getting started.

[Strike 7,489]

well I remember many occasions where he was just by Ivanovic's side or with Oscar approaching him. I'm not saying it was a good sub, I'm just saying that Mourinho's plan wasn't to make us lose width - which I don't even think we did to be honest, as I said I remember many times seeing him there with the ball. Mou had a plan - it may have been a bad one and I can agree with you, but we didn't play without width. We played technically bad all over the pitch.

Jose's still getting to know the players and right now he trusts a few guys more than the rest: Oscar, Ramires, Lamps, Ivan, Hazard. He'll play with the players he trusts more until others earn his trust as well. He's making a few mistakes, but he's just getting started.

Ramires played 4 games generally playing in the centre. Has looked good there too. Why stick him on the wing, all of a sudden, when we had Schurrle on the pitch and de Bruyne on the bench? That was my major gripe with the substitution

[Barbara 15,149]

Ramires played 4 games generally playing in the centre. Has looked good there too. Why stick him on the wing, all of a sudden, when we had Schurrle on the pitch and de Bruyne on the bench? That was my major gripe with the substitution

twice now I think we took away the wrong players - who despite being not very good in the first half, were starting to peak in the second: Kevin (against Aston Villa) and André today. I would have given André a few more minutes and then replaced him if he didn't keep the crescendo. I'm not exempting him from guilt, but we didn't lose width because Mourinho purposefully decided to send the width to the skies. It didn't work as he expected. We remind me a lot of RM in the first two months playing under Mourinho. Then we improved a lot (we won in October by 6-1, 1-4, 6-1 and 1-3 - although two of those wins were against teams that ended up relegated), but it took another three months for the team to be sharp. Those were some long five-six months because despite the scores we've struggled and you all know how the weaker sides of La Liga are... shamefully useless and they give up on the matches against RM and Barça in the dressing room.

But tactically and technically it wasn't until around February/2011 that we started playing like the RM we were for the next two and a half seasons. I keep saying this season is transitional and a few people disagree because of the squad we have. It doesn't matter how deep the squad - if anything it will make Mourinho take longer to figure out the best players to play.

[Fulham Broadway 17,315]

All salient and relevant points, and the biggest obstacle we face is not having a recognised big man up front - someone to hold the ball up and lay it off to runners.

It didnt help them having Anelka in goal yesterday.

[Kezza 1,965]

What a game! Thought we played well. But our missed chances coupled with great defending from Everton let us down.

Mikel played well. Hard to choose a motm, but id go for Rami, put some great balls in and had great work rate once again.

[bushman 2,043]

This is the way I saw it.

Chelsea cannot win on the road, so far one draw & a loss. Winning away from home is much needed to aspire for PL title.

A lack of goal-scoring from strikers, why has Lukaku joined Everton, Luiz wandering too far, Hazard has no place on the wing, Mata was not match ready, Cech made a mistake...

Recently, I had read " Chelsea is not a physical club " says Jose. Sometimes, I wonder whether Jose will be capable to play with so many skillful players. To me, there are still too many players on the squad.

[Mong630 7]

Well done Jose, just keep KdB on the bench, Only player who could have changed the game.

[Special Juan 28,141]

Feel sick to the pit of my stomach with this result, sick and tired of us struggling to convert chances on goal.

[kellzfresh 7,229]

Willian must start the next match, teams doubling up hazard on the left flank because he's our only dribbler is a disaster.

Mou must tell ashely cole to make runs ahead of hazard and provide some width or he can piss of to the bench for bertrand.

Mata needs to find his tempo somehow unless I don't see mou risking another match for him instead of playing oscar from the start.

Eto was good but the keeper and barry made nice saves, but he was lacking small match fitness like mata.

Schurrle was good but needs to work on his finishing, its horrific just shoot on target FFS

Ivanovic was good

Mikel was good

I hope mourinho knows now that ramires on the flanks is horrible. We should have managed on with schurrle like that and hoped he finally scored, because we were getting more chances then.

We had plenty chances, it wasn't as bad as people slating mourinho are making it out to be.

We had 22 shots 6 on target. But the on target chances didn't include eto's miss from a header, schurrles 3 blatant misses, mata's miss in the box, and garreth barry's block.

Stupid match, move on.

[Special Juan 28,141]

Schurrle was horrific.

[kellzfresh 7,229]

Schurrle was horrific.

He was horrific for missing chances.

But I can't remember one chance we created after he came off, we became too narrow

the mistake was putting ramires on the wing instead of KDB. I'll rather keep schurrle on for width.

[Special Juan 28,141]

What the fuck was Luiz doing for their goal.

[bushman 2,043]

Mata didn´t play for several weeks, but Jose decided to start him. Wrong decision, in my view. Hazard is stuck on the wing, wrong position for him. Too creative to be there, I feel. Players jerkiness to convert clear chances will always cost them to win.

Some say, Eto´o was reasonable. To me, I didn´t see much.

As I already said, there are still too many players on the team. Willian is still waiting to be played. I still can not understand why was he bought, 32m spent for what ?

[Gappy 130]

After watch Eto'o play I suddenly feel Torres was a joke ...

Even Eto'o can't find the net last night but overall he's lot better than Torres Positioning ,Passing ,Dribbling ,Defending even agility and pace

Luiz was too scurry he try to create a chance but it's always a poor pass from him

Mikel seem to lost some weight he's quicker and that a good sight

Ramires look great in MC Energetic in both DEF and ATK

Hazard sometime I feel he's dribble too much even 1 vs 4 situation he's still try to dribble

Overall our Attack Tempo seem to hugely increased and that make the quality of finishing was poorly drop

Hope that They practice the finishing or we need to reduce the tempo down

[kellzfresh 7,229]

How ironic that the match we created the most clear chances out of all our matches this season is the one we lost

[BlueLion. 21,491]

Looking through some of the posts in this thread, I don't want to live on this planet any more. We were supposedly "embarrassing" - people should look at themselves before criticising the team. Some utterly cringe-worthy posts in here

So many people over-reacting. Everton are what I would call a "bogey team". Remember when we lost two years in a row away at Middlesbrough under Mourinho the first time around? Nothing to see here, folks. We played relatively well - if we'd have been shit and created no chances at all and been dominated by them then I'd be concerned. They completed a smash and grab and scored with their only real chance.

Not to worry - we'll demolish Basel, Fulham and Swindon and then go away and hump Spurs, and no-one will really care about this one.

We have two issues at the moment - our finishing, and the fact Mourinho doesn't know what his best team is. Both will be rectified with time, so be patient. The amount of people going crazy is absolutely hilarious; we've lost to Everton, not fucking Scunthorpe

[King11Didier 916]

I forget to mentioned that our 3rd kit is awesome!

[edetarod 2,155]

some of the overconfidence people seem to have since Jose returned is staggering, apparently we're going to walk the league

they seem to still be living in 2005

[diskoviolente 425]

Thank you @Alex. A voice of reason, coming across solemn and almost lost.

I thought we weren't that bad, the finishing was awful but to be fair, our team was stretched out all over the place in the latest farce of the "international break" that they just looked tired. Schurrle apart from his finishing yesterday looked really good and will develop into one of the best players on his position i am sure. Everton away is always a tough place to go and especially yesterday when they had a big point to prove.

Not concerned. Mata started to shut up all the rumors i am afraid. Clearly not match-fit yet.