Problems. Problems. Problems.

[NishC300 1,865]

A 2-2 draw with the Baggies highlights many of the problems we’ve had. It was a late Eden Hazard penalty that saved us from embarrassment against the Baggies and also saved Mourinho’s might 100 games unbeaten at the Bridge in the Premier League. We have struggled to break down teams that ‘park the bus’ at Stamford Bridge and have scored most of our goals courtesy of defensive errors, counter attacks or the occasional moment of brilliance. Obviously we have to realize that most teams that will come to the Bridge will look to defend deep, we’re not going to play on the counter in most of our games. The question is what has happened to that football Chelsea played in the 1^st half vs Hull City or in the 1^st 20 minutes vs Aston Villa? The intricate passing and combination play, the trickery, the 1-2s and all the things that had characterised Chelsea last season, where has it gone? Even monochrome devices are more colourful than some of our attacks!

The midfield

It’s been quite frustrating to see Juan Mata and John Obi Mikel on the bench. Under Rafael Benitez, Ramires and Mikel had cemented a partnership. Mikel would barely put a foot wrong in the midfield, provide protection for the backline and that would give Ramires the incentive to make his infamous bursting runs- unfortunately those runs are now memories. Lampard had a more ‘subtle’ role. Lampard is a legend and no one denies that but at 35, it’s quite obvious that uh….. HE’S NOT LIKE HE USED TO BE! Mikel in 6 appearances this season has had 6 interceptions to Lampard’s 11 appearances and 8 interceptions. Basic math would say that Mikel has an average of 1/game and Lampard has an average of 0.72 (rounded to 2 significant figures of course).

What’s ironic is that ‘work-rate’ has been an excuse for not starting Juan Mata? It’s surprising how the player who was nominated for PFA Player of the Year has all of a sudden no place in his team. Juan Mata is the sort of player who makes players around him play better. He links up with other players and helps them combine. Last season he was given the role he dreamed of, the role of the no.10. He was given the freedom to thrive, to annoy defenders. He was a menace for all teams. So why’s he on the bench? A sight as painful as receiving an arm burn! Juan Mata in 7 appearances has created 11 chances and has a passing accuracy of 87%, Juan Mata hasn’t played a single entire game this season and has only started twice. Surely if Mikel is there, his defensive contribution will help the rest of the team going forward and that means Mata should be able to start?

So we demand our no.10s to be useful defensively yet our defensive midfielders are allowed to not be good defensively?

No width nor do we have a deep lying playmaker

A 6 year old child’s story for English has more creativity than our midfield pivot. We attempted to get Daniele De Rossi but once we failed to get him, did we really have a plan B or try to get someone else? By the looks of things Ramires’ is supposed to be the ‘orchestrator’ in our midfield, no wonder the orchestra sounds like nails scratching down a blackboard…………

So now we’re going to talk about the former in the title since this is one that has annoyed Chelsea fans a lot. It is no secret that the Blues’ lack any genuine wingers due to which they are unable to stretch defences. Arsenal suffer from a similar problem, Arsenal’s solution was to encourage their wingers to get forward, due to which Sagna bombing down the right is a common sight, that was of course the source of Arsenal’s goal at home to Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League.

THAT’S IT! WE FOUND THE SOLUTION! ENCOURAGE OUR FULL BACKS TO GET FORWARD! They’ll pump brilliant crosses into the box! Oh……….. we’ve got Ivanovic playing down the right……

Above we can see Ivanovic’s crosses. Absolutely horrendous for a player in a home game vs WBA, at a top club like Chelsea this has to be better. To be honest with you who can blame Ivanovic? He’s a centre back who’s being asked to play at right-back of course he will struggle. It’s no secret that he will struggle. In a 1-0 win at home to Manchester United in the 2009/10 season, Manchester United played a lopsided formation which allowed Ivanovic time on the ball because of his technical disabilities. Now everyone we play against is adopting that.





The above stats show us exactly what we saw yesterday. That Ivanovic was encouraged to go forward while Azpilicueta was supposed to be the 3^rd defender. The reason being Azpilicueta (being a right footer) was playing at LB and Ivanovic (also a right footer) was playing at RB. So why the more technically gifted full back was forced to play at LB? Imagine being on the field, defenders surrounding you and you look up to see who’s in open space…… oh it’s Ivanovic…….. got no other alternative so I’ll have to pass it to him. A few seconds later a cross hits a West Brom player and goes out for a throw in. There is the story of the game.
So shouldn’t it be the other way around? Let Ivanovic play at LB (Mourinho claimed the reason he was playing a right footer at LB will deal better with a winger cutting inside so Ivanovic who is excellent defensively should play that role of course!) and let Azpilicueta come forward down the right hand side! There you go! You’ve added 2+2 and it’s equal to 4, unfortunately some our fans think 2+2 is equal to sq root(9)*10*sin(27.5)/11. Overcomplicating things and then getting the wrong answer……..

To conclude, these were some of the problems that were evident in the game yesterday. It’s frustrating and makes you want to pull your hair. The sooner these issues are solved the better.
What do you think about our problems? I’d love to hear your opinion. Kindly discuss below.
Stats courtesy of Squawka.

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[CHOULO19 24,332]

Bump.

[Tomo 21,751]

Get by till January then go all out for Witsel. I don't want us to try square pegs in round holes before then either (ie, putting Oscar or Luiz in the pivot).

I think its underestimated the job Jose has got on, he has basically inherited a cup team who have been getting by on moments off individual brilliance since 2010, he has inherited a group of talented individuals and has to mould a formidable team, i think we can win the league this season purely because the competition aren't all that (City are on paper, but they don't seem motivated enough) and Jose's tactics will win us more points than Moyes, Wenger's and Pellegrini's will at our rivals but we won't be getting 95 points with only 15 goals allowed for the foreseeable future.

It was clear from the interview after Fulham that Jose eventually wants a high pressing game (which is why Oscar is going preferred to Mata, Mata is a great player but if our aim is to have a high pressing game then Oscar is the superior option, sorry but it's true) and you can quite clearly see to see now there is a long term plan going forward now.

It's easy to say we have benefited from mistakes from the opposition (which yes it's true) but if you don't buy the ticket you don't win the raffle, would Hildebrand or Ridgewell have made the error's they did if Eto'o didn't press them? (yes basically doing what Jose WANTS from us pressing high up the pitch) no they would have cleared quite comfortably, so in a way, the high pressing tactic is already working to an extent.

Basically to summarize, we do have the issue with the pivot that needs sorting and hopefully that will be sorted in January, but Jose has a clear plan and will stop at nothing to make it work, he is the best manager in the world, loves us and want to stay for the long haul, we are in safe hands, reckon Pompey would say no to our 'crisis'?

[kojak 2]

Could not put it better than Nish has--completely agree

[Hutcho 8,443]

I haven't read it yet. But i saw the thing on Ivans crosses which have been pretty bad all season. Which is something changed greatly from last season when we had Azpi playing at rb the majority of the time, who imo had better delivery and link up play with our AM's.

I also think Ivan consistently has the most attempted crosses of pretty much everyone. Well it seems like it.

[Mustafa 885]

November. November. November

[Sidzeret 2,257]

Couldn't comprehend the fact that De Bruyne's role so far this season has been on the reserve bench when he clearly is the superior option than Lamps to play in the pivot. He had been playing that role at Werder and is not alien to such a role.

If Mour can make Hazard and Mata to improve their defensive game, it's just a matter of game time for Kevin to improve his defensive game and fostering a good partnership with Rami.

Gundogan in the making, that lad.

[NishC300 1,865]

What do you think about the article guys? I tried an informal style.

MOREOVER WHO REMOVED THAT GIF!

[The only place to be 11,313]

So now we’re going to talk about the former in the title since this is one that has annoyed Chelsea fans a lot. It is no secret that the Blues’ lack any genuine wingers due to which they are unable to stretch defences. Arsenal suffer from a similar problem, Arsenal’s solution was to encourage their wingers to get forward, due to which Sagna bombing down the right is a common sight, that was of course the source of Arsenal’s goal at home to Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League.

Despite that, Sagna and Ivanovic both seem to average 0.7 accurate crosses per game despite Sagna probably having a better target man to hit.

[NishC300 1,865]

Despite that, Sagna and Ivanovic both seem to average 0.7 accurate crosses per game despite Sagna probably having a better target man to hit.

LOL. But still Ivanovic's strength isn't going forward.

[NishC300 1,865]

http://www.sportskeeda.com/2013/11/11/epl-chelsea-facing-lot-problems/

[coolhead23 1,147]

Apart from the double pivot we lacked penetration up front. We played the game ahead of the West Brom defense, didnt made an effort to penetrate inside the defense, drop in the ball in between the goalie and the defender .. make a run! Too much possession without much outcome.

I guess our attackers have to be direct at times and start exploiting gaps ... I like what Jose is trying to do but we need that penetration inside the box to gain advantage of the system we are playing.

[╫rue Blue 47]

is all happen by mourinho decision,

and he just said this

'I can make mistakes, I can be unfair, for sure I am and for sure I do that, but I always give a lot of thought to my decisions,' - Mourinho

yes, i know you have become very reputable manager in europe, high experience, understand a lot of thing,

but please change mourinho, change how you set up the team, it isnt working well

which many of his decison should be change to improve the team

mourinho team selection and how the team approached the game, i didnt like

lamps playing regular

fullback doesnt bombing forward anymore and didnt provide proper width when we attacking

the slow build up, no penetration, slow passing from central midfield

im actually afraid if he still continue what he currently do

how he can be happy just because we have some clear cut chance but actually the team show piss poor performance

[TorontoChelsea 4,064]

A few points

1- Mikel/Ramires doesn't work as a partnership because neither can distribute.

2) You can't compare Mikel's defensive stats to Lampard's because they play different positions. Mikel is a defensive midfielder and Lampard is supposed to be a deep-lying midfielder. They are supposed to have different roles. Lampard has 14 key passes and 2 assists and Mikel has 2 key passes and 0 assists. We all know Mikel is much better defensively than Lampard

3) BTW, using Sqwaka stats, you'll probably notice that Lampard has our third highest overall score. I'm not saying that is accurate, just that the level of blame assigned to him is crazy. He's had a few excellent games (passing 90%, making key tackles, setting up chances, everything you could hope from your central midfielder) this season but I come on here and I'll see "Lampard let the game pass him by" or "Lampard was awful" It's almost pointless discussing it because people have gone blind to when he actually does good things which is fairly frequently. .

4) Azpilicueta didn't go forward also because he is right footed playing as a left back. It's very difficult to attack like that because you can't cut in like wingers are allowed to do so you have to cross while running on your wrong foot.

5) Look at the area of Ivanovic's unsuccessful passes. 5 of them were right in the middle of the box. He is not a great crosser but he's not nearly as bad as people make him out to be either.

6) You can also see by that chart how much better Ivanovic was sticking to his lanes than Azpilicueta was to his. He drifted in to the middle a fair bit and it almost cost us a few times when WBA got players by him on the left. Not his fault, it's a new position for him and being on his wrong foot, he has to cut inside, but I don't really like him on the left for those reasons..

[NishC300 1,865]

*random bump*

[NishC300 1,865]

A few points

1- Mikel/Ramires doesn't work as a partnership because neither can distribute.

2) You can't compare Mikel's defensive stats to Lampard's because they play different positions. Mikel is a defensive midfielder and Lampard is supposed to be a deep-lying midfielder. They are supposed to have different roles. Lampard has 14 key passes and 2 assists and Mikel has 2 key passes and 0 assists. We all know Mikel is much better defensively than Lampard

3) BTW, using Sqwaka stats, you'll probably notice that Lampard has our third highest overall score. I'm not saying that is accurate, just that the level of blame assigned to him is crazy. He's had a few excellent games (passing 90%, making key tackles, setting up chances, everything you could hope from your central midfielder) this season but I come on here and I'll see "Lampard let the game pass him by" or "Lampard was awful" It's almost pointless discussing it because people have gone blind to when he actually does good things which is fairly frequently. .

4) Azpilicueta didn't go forward also because he is right footed playing as a left back. It's very difficult to attack like that because you can't cut in like wingers are allowed to do so you have to cross while running on your wrong foot.

5) Look at the area of Ivanovic's unsuccessful passes. 5 of them were right in the middle of the box. He is not a great crosser but he's not nearly as bad as people make him out to be either.

6) You can also see by that chart how much better Ivanovic was sticking to his lanes than Azpilicueta was to his. He drifted in to the middle a fair bit and it almost cost us a few times when WBA got players by him on the left. Not his fault, it's a new position for him and being on his wrong foot, he has to cut inside, but I don't really like him on the left for those reasons..

So we should play Iva at LB and Azpi at RB?

[TorontoChelsea 4,064]

So we should play Iva at LB and Azpi at RB?

Cole at LB with Ivanovic and Azpilicueta both getting playing time at RB.

[Fulham Broadway 17,320]

The problem is the double pivot -whatever that is