Closed Chelsea 1-2 Basel

[Mong630 7]

What went wrong before this game:

1. Spending big on players like schurrle and willian when what we need are capable defenders
2. Loaning out our best striker, keeping 2 useless donkeys and signing a 32year old who hasnt played a single match on PL level for years.
3. Pre-season is only pre-season but it becomes totally useless when you forget everything you see and use it only for marketing reasons instead of creating a team you want to play when its for real

During the game:

1. 3 very bad substitutions. Hazard was awful, mata shouldn't even be on the bench and what's the point in bringing on Mikel? The only player that could have changed things around is KdB, have no idea what he did wrong to Jose for not getting any minutes to prove his worth.
2. 4-2-3-1 is no formation to play a team like Basel at home. Play 2 strikers (even when your strikers are shit) and it will be a much easier game.
3. Arrogance: just like people on this forum predicted a 5-0 win, the same way our players acted on the pitch. There are no CL-games that you can win by playing at 80% unless you have messi or ronaldo in your team.

[Sheva. 5,373]

I miss Torres-Mata combo, at least Mata would always score lol.

[Kinol 337]

I wonder what is the problem here ...

- We have good players, great players.

- We have one of the best managers around.

What the hell ?

A bunch of mediocre players that play like a team>A bunch of great talents who dont play as a team.

A front 3 with different types of players that have speed, technique, pace, creativity and gives with>Oscar, Mata, Willian, Hazard etc

Theres my 2 reasons why we are where we are.

[Chelsea Legend 11 4,062]

Absolute horse shit. If anyone can find one positive to draw from todays game I'm listening and I'll be ready to shoot you down.

Cole - back to back abysmal performances

Ivanovic - Not looking anything like a RB

Cahil/Luiz - Zero organization and no awareness whatsoever.

Lampard - I'd be surprised if he made one tackle today. every time he received the ball he turned around and passed it to the defenders... Useless

Van Ginkel - Probably the worst I've seen him play, poor first touches and late on almost every tackle.

Hazard - FLOPPED. He hasn't put in one decent shift in the Champions league to date. Zero influence and some of the most ridiculous decisions passing it.

Oscar - Ya he scored but his passes were awful, again the decisions just weren't there and when they were the pass was wayward.

Willian - He ran today... That's about it. I thought he was gonna inject some width we looked so narrow it was frightening.

Eto'o - never got involved and when he did just looked terrible. Had no endeavour or made any runs.

Mata - Still looks like he needs more time with the 1st team he just looked like he didn't know where to play the ball.

Ba - I back him to score today and truly he looked average. Held up the ball at least.

Jose Mourinho has no excuse today tactically he got it wrong today Salah had a field day down the flank and neither Cole nor Brana had the pace to deal with him.
We only got width from our FB's and when we turned it over our FB's were way too slow to get back and deal with the Salah. That was a tactical error...

The FB's need to stay home and allow for the width to come from our wingers. We look completely unorganized to call this a Jose Mourinho side. I'm VERY disappointed with the performance and lack of drive.

[The_Flash 1,144]

Sadly too many individuals they are not playing like a team. I really really hope for pod stuff but so far so poor, I dont get it, towards end of las season I thought we were very good and in preseason but now very worried and embarrassed.

[polo 18]

Mata is poor? He wasn't playing any match yet,maybe he had playing 30 in total this season

Mata has played two matches i think and he was shitttttttt

[Hutcho 8,443]

I think Mourinho needs to pick a best 11 type side and then make smaller adjustments and rotations from there. I know we have so much depth in certain areas that some players will miss out.

But even hazard and mata Wern't on the same wave length and last season those 2 effectively carried the teams attack.

I'm not saying don't make changes and rotate because it needs to be done. But some continuity needs to be there imo. Look at the other top teams. They make 1 or 2 changes each week. But they have a core team. I go into our games knowing that Cech cole and hazard will start. The rest i have no idea.

[Sidzeret 2,257]

Reiterating the fact that 4-3-3 is the way forward. With these narrow wingers, we are getting crowded out in the centre with little chances created for our strikers.

Mour still haven't found that winning formula this season.

[Mufassir08 2,400]

We'd be a LOT better, if we had some sort of resting point in the centre of the pitch. A player who can keep the ball and dictate tempo, it's so obvious.

Our CM's should be the backbone of the team, instead we look spineless.

Someone tell this to jose or emenalo.

[zolayes 14,489]

Did anyone smell Hydrogen Sulphide tonight???/

[yuvala 2,167]

This isn't about "we shouldn't have sent Lukaku on loan" or "We should've used KDB" etc.

This is about the team not playing well. This isn't individual, we were bad as a team. Can't put the blame on one player, nor can you put it on Mou.

We are not fluid, we don't create enough chances. we're playing wrong.

Something is not working, and it will take time and patience to fix it. There are no shortcuts, no quick-fix. I really hope Roman realizes this.

[Chelsea Legend 11 4,062]

What went wrong before this game:

1. Spending big on players like schurrle and willian when what we need are capable defenders
2. Loaning out our best striker, keeping 2 useless donkeys and signing a 32year old who hasnt played a single match on PL level for years.
3. Pre-season is only pre-season but it becomes totally useless when you forget everything you see and use it only for marketing reasons instead of creating a team you want to play when its for real

During the game:

1. 3 very bad substitutions. Hazard was awful, mata shouldn't even be on the bench and what's the point in bringing on Mikel? The only player that could have changed things around is KdB, have no idea what he did wrong to Jose for not getting any minutes to prove his worth.
2. 4-2-3-1 is no formation to play a team like Basel at home. Play 2 strikers (even when your strikers are shit) and it will be a much easier game.
3. Arrogance: just like people on this forum predicted a 5-0 win, the same way our players acted on the pitch. There are no CL-games that you can win by playing at 80% unless you have messi or ronaldo in your team.

We looked lost out there.

The reason Mikel was brought on was to allow us to get more people forward while he sits.

[Nero 1,794]

what the fuck ???

chelsea 1 basel 2!

shit happens

[chopchop 68]

Why can't De Bruyne get a game?

[The_Flash 1,144]

Why can't De Bruyne get a game?

God knows he was great in preseason and even for Belguim against Scotland I was at the game an he was great. He should have been on instead of Van Ginkel, he was rubbish

[polo 18]

we neraly beat the champions of Europe and we do nothing against a shit team

[polo 18]

nearly

[Barbara 15,149]

Obviously its hard for Mata to influence a game when he's rusty due a lack of game time, hes only going to get back to his best if he plays which means someone will have to miss out. Out of all the players we have Mata is the best, I don't get Mourinho not giving him starts against certain teams. Sure Bayern and United I understand but not Basel or Everton, ridiculous selection at times. Maybe it would be better for Mata if he were to leave and go to a team where he might be more appreciated by his manager (got a hunch for sure that Jose doesn't want him now for sure). One start in 6 games? Ridiculous.

you've missed my first post it seems. I said he destroyed the match because the formation killed our attack - in addition to him not being sharp and losing possession too many times - we stopped pressuring in the attack and that's because Oscar was moved to the wing where he's basically useless. It's not a criticism on him alone, it's more on Mourinho. Mata can't play in the wing and neither can Oscar. Mata isn't sharp and we completely lost control of the match once he was brought. It's not that he is this terrible player although he was poor. Has he been only poor and didn't compromise the formation (which isn't his fault) we probably wouldn't have offered so many chances to Basel because we would still be in control of the match as we were before Mata. It was a risk, one I wouldn't have taken because 1-0 was too dangerous as it proved to be. I said in his thread he needs the minutes, but his minutes are now costing us... Again I'm not saying he is the problem, I'm saying he creates a problem for us when he plays with Oscar, especially when we have so many good options to play as wingers - something we didn't have last year. I'm slamming the sub more than I'm slamming the player - although the player deserves criticism because his contribution in the match was mainly negative because of the many occasions he lost possession in 30 minutes...

Summarizing. If Mourinho wanted to play Mata he should have taken Oscar off, but that didn't make sense because Oscar was the best player in the pitch. What did Oscar create after Mata joined? Who continued with Willian's contribution? While Willian wasn't lethal or even that dangerous, he was creating things, holding the ball, keeping us in the attack. Winning 1x0 that's enough especially because in one of those moments a good chance can actually be created (let's not take the credit away of Basel's excellent defensive work). I'm complaining more about the sub than the player - although the player didn't do anything to justify his presence either. Or did he?