Closed Chelsea 1-0 Steaua Bucharest

[bushman 2,043]

Somehow, an underwhelming display from Chelsea against a team who offered a very little resistance.

In my view, plenty of spluttering performances are seen by Chelsea in recent weeks. This team, hopefully draws a weaker side, if there is one from now on, wins a game or two, but that´s about all I see from Chelsea.

The Blues will face either Milan, Zenit,Leverkusen,Olympiakos or Galatasaray.

As they say, perhaps luck will be on Chelsea´s side ?

[didierforever 7,349]

dont understand the bashing we are getting here. it was a professional performance. we did what was expected of us , and that is to get a WIN. or would people like us to play as good as we did against stoke but end up losing the game. after being a goal up, the onus was on bucuresti to do the attacking and press us for the ball, they dint and we dint need to do anything else than keep the ball among ourselves. so what the hell are people cribbing about? its time for some fans to really grow up!!!

schwarzer - dint have anything to do for about 80 odd minutes until bucuresti atlast had a shot on goal. still he should keep the GK spot for the next match. 7/10

iva - good performance. a couple of times he made a brilliant dash down the right only for willian to ignore him and once hazard put him thru but it was too wide for his liking. defensively it was a flawless performance. 8/10

DL-JT - brilliant performance from the 2 CBs. luiz was phenomenol. dint try anything fancy with the ball, but still put in more useful/critical balls than FL and Mikel combined, i think. defensively, too i think he was brilliant. booted everything out of the way if he was in 10% doubt and i just hope he can keep this up. JT was his usual self. 9/10

cole - had a lot to prove in this match, and i feel he did. start of the first half, he felt a little dodgy and slow and almost got caught on the ball in our own D, but i feel it was a decent performance. could have done better on a couple of occasions inside the bucuresti box. 7.5/10

mikel - horrendous. was he sleep-walking. his only role in the team would be to shield the back 4 and not give the bloody ball away when in possession but he did none of the 2. a woeful performance from our only recognized DM in the squad. high-time for a change. we need a DM in winter. no doubt. 3/10

lamps - nothing flashy. bucuresti were too deep and we in genral had no penetration for lamps to make his trademark late runs and effect the game. so attackingly he was simply left to taking 30 yard shots. defensively he was okay, put in some crunching tackles and sliding tackles. 6/10

hazard - tried hard but was double-tripled marked the enitre match. just get a feeling that he plays best with mata on the pitch. 7/10

oscar- seemed off the pace in the first half but that would be acceptable. but good closing down off the ball, good defensive work but again, those balls to break down defences from our main AM missing. 6/10

willian - the only forward/midfielder who was having an effect on the match. very dynamic, great on the ball, brilliant forward runs and movement too, but just his decision making was a little skeptical. 8/10

BA - got a goal but overall poor performance. but i would take that one goal ahead of torres' workrate and blah blah blah... could have so easily got a hat-trick. that ball from willian to find him 2 yards from the goal was orgasminc but at the same time, the miss gave me a de-erection. dint win aerial duels too and after watching DD play for GALA and again effecting the match from a mere head down of the ball. just shows u the poor-quality of strikers we have. unfortunately there is no immediate remedy and solving the problem of the mid should be our forst concern. 6/10

subs -

schurrle - was okay. a bit direct but the other 10 men around him barely wanted to play so even he gave up. 6/10

rambo - does what he does best. hope mikel can learn a few things from this guy. 7/10

kdb - felt he was great in the 12-13 minuted he got. that change of play from the left wing to find hazard on the right wing was just OH MY GOD!!! some of his runs were great too. dont think he will get game time in the next match but just hope he can rip sunderland apart in the COC. 8/10

[bushman 2,043]

dont understand the bashing we are getting here. it was a professional performance. we did what was expected of us , and that is to get a WIN. or would people like us to play as good as we did against stoke but end up losing the game. after being a goal up, the onus was on bucuresti to do the attacking and press us for the ball, they dint and we dint need to do anything else than keep the ball among ourselves. so what the hell are people cribbing about? its time for some fans to really grow up!!!

schwarzer - dint have anything to do for about 80 odd minutes until bucuresti atlast had a shot on goal. still he should keep the GK spot for the next match. 7/10

iva - good performance. a couple of times he made a brilliant dash down the right only for willian to ignore him and once hazard put him thru but it was too wide for his liking. defensively it was a flawless performance. 8/10

DL-JT - brilliant performance from the 2 CBs. luiz was phenomenol. dint try anything fancy with the ball, but still put in more useful/critical balls than FL and Mikel combined, i think. defensively, too i think he was brilliant. booted everything out of the way if he was in 10% doubt and i just hope he can keep this up. JT was his usual self. 9/10

cole - had a lot to prove in this match, and i feel he did. start of the first half, he felt a little dodgy and slow and almost got caught on the ball in our own D, but i feel it was a decent performance. could have done better on a couple of occasions inside the bucuresti box. 7.5/10

mikel - horrendous. was he sleep-walking. his only role in the team would be to shield the back 4 and not give the bloody ball away when in possession but he did none of the 2. a woeful performance from our only recognized DM in the squad. high-time for a change. we need a DM in winter. no doubt. 3/10

lamps - nothing flashy. bucuresti were too deep and we in genral had no penetration for lamps to make his trademark late runs and effect the game. so attackingly he was simply left to taking 30 yard shots. defensively he was okay, put in some crunching tackles and sliding tackles. 6/10

hazard - tried hard but was double-tripled marked the enitre match. just get a feeling that he plays best with mata on the pitch. 7/10

oscar- seemed off the pace in the first half but that would be acceptable. but good closing down off the ball, good defensive work but again, those balls to break down defences from our main AM missing. 6/10

willian - the only forward/midfielder who was having an effect on the match. very dynamic, great on the ball, brilliant forward runs and movement too, but just his decision making was a little skeptical. 8/10

BA - got a goal but overall poor performance. but i would take that one goal ahead of torres' workrate and blah blah blah... could have so easily got a hat-trick. that ball from willian to find him 2 yards from the goal was orgasminc but at the same time, the miss gave me a de-erection. dint win aerial duels too and after watching DD play for GALA and again effecting the match from a mere head down of the ball. just shows u the poor-quality of strikers we have. unfortunately there is no immediate remedy and solving the problem of the mid should be our forst concern. 6/10

subs -

schurrle - was okay. a bit direct but the other 10 men around him barely wanted to play so even he gave up. 6/10

rambo - does what he does best. hope mikel can learn a few things from this guy. 7/10

kdb - felt he was great in the 12-13 minuted he got. that change of play from the left wing to find hazard on the right wing was just OH MY GOD!!! some of his runs were great too. dont think he will get game time in the next match but just hope he can rip sunderland apart in the COC. 8/10

No one is looking for pretty football only. I certainly look for much better than what I saw, last night.

Your analyses are somewhat too optimistic, in my view.

[BleedsBlue 1,549]

Happy with the 3 points but I just felt that we could have done much better.

[didierforever 7,349]

No one is looking for pretty football only. I certainly look for much better than what I saw, last night.

Your analyses are somewhat too optimistic, in my view.

maybe, but for me the MAIN thing is a win. no one is going to remember how we played against stoke in 2 weeks' time, the only thing people will remember is we lost 3-2 against a team who had scored 6 goal in 7 home matches before this (i think).

december is a hectic time, u need a few games like last night's where u can literally sail thru. this game was exactly that. so on the whole, i am not going to compain one bit about last night.

[bushman 2,043]

maybe, but for me the MAIN thing is a win. no one is going to remember how we played against stoke in 2 weeks' time, the only thing people will remember is we lost 3-2 against a team who had scored 6 goal in 7 home matches before this (i think).

december is a hectic time, u need a few games like last night's where u can literally sail thru. this game was exactly that. so on the whole, i am not going to compain one bit about last night.

Well, I agree with you on the win. However, these unconvincing wins can not go on for much longer. Soon, much better teams are coming & Chelsea just might get clobbered. Personally, I am not looking for a win at all cost only. I would prefer to see Chelsea playing football & not a hoof ball only.

[didierforever 7,349]

Well, I agree with you on the win. However, these unconvincing wins can not go on for much longer. Soon, much better teams are coming & Chelsea just might get clobbered. Personally, I am not looking for a win at all cost only. I would prefer to see Chelsea playing football & not a hoof ball only.

its not like all we are doing is putting in unconvincing wins.

whu - 3-0, one of the best performances this season

soton - 3-1, should be 3-0 without the first 10 seconds and another brilliant performance.

sunderland - 4-3, brilliant attacking display countered with hopeless set-piece liability.

stoke - 2-3, brilliant football but hopless defending.

after recent performances, we needed a steady display rather than a flamboyant one. after conceding 6 goals to 2 of the worst attacking teams in the PL, we needed to go back to the basics and do what was need-ful. this match was exactly what the doctor ordered.

[bushman 2,043]

its not like all we are doing is putting in unconvincing wins.

whu - 3-0, one of the best performances this season

soton - 3-1, should be 3-0 without the first 10 seconds and another brilliant performance.

sunderland - 4-3, brilliant attacking display countered with hopeless set-piece liability.

stoke - 2-3, brilliant football but hopless defending.

after recent performances, we needed a steady display rather than a flamboyant one. after conceding 6 goals to 2 of the worst attacking teams in the PL, we needed to go back to the basics and do what was need-ful. this match was exactly what the doctor ordered.

Well, the above teams are not the teams I would consider as strong teams. Those games the team like Chelsea must be winning, I feel. Then you continue about " steady display " when was the last time we have seen it, apart from a few sputters here & there ?

Yesterday´s match was what the doc ordered ? LOL.

[didierforever 7,349]

Well, the above teams are not the teams I would consider as strong teams. Those games the team like Chelsea must be winning, I feel. Then you continue about " steady display " when was the last time we have seen it, apart from a few sputters here & there ?

Yesterday´s match was what the doc ordered ? LOL.

strong teams like city? arsenal? well we won both our matches and we wiped the floor with schalke who were our main opponents in the group stage. so what are u cribbing about?

the doctor ordered a win, winning the group and a clean sheet. i saw all the 3 things happening, unfortunately people need to find fault in everything.

[WilsonMay 12]

Cole physical is not as good as before i can see, we really have to find a replace of that role. I would prefer AZP play as RB.

[bushman 2,043]

strong teams like city? arsenal? well we won both our matches and we wiped the floor with schalke who were our main opponents in the group stage. so what are u cribbing about?

the doctor ordered a win, winning the group and a clean sheet. i saw all the 3 things happening, unfortunately people need to find fault in everything.

Against Citeh = lucky win, Arsenal = not the strongest line-ups on both teams, Schalke = not the strongest team...not convinced here. Last night´s game, just a shitty team from Romania.

I am not looking for faults here. Perhaps, you & I have completely different view on Chelsea as to what this team should be all about. Personally, I feel there are 6 or 7 players on this team who are not performing well, at all. I would like to see them playing as Hazard had in recent games. These guys are paid well, but most of them are playing dick.

[Tomo 21,751]

1-0 win, not a great performance but a relatively comfortable win. If we could have done that more often in the league we would probably be top.

An average but comfortable 2-0 win against Palace would make my weekend. Give me that over a you score, we score 4-3 any day.

[didierforever 7,349]

Against Citeh = lucky win, Arsenal = not the strongest line-ups on both teams, Schalke = not the strongest team...not convinced here. Last night´s game, just a shitty team from Romania.

I am not looking for faults here. Perhaps, you & I have completely different view on Chelsea as to what this team should be all about. Personally, I feel there are 6 or 7 players on this team who are not performing well, at all. I would like to see them playing as Hazard had in recent games. These guys are paid well, but most of them are playing dick.

so citeh = WIN, arsenal = WIN. chelsea's main obejective is not to get fans convinced about themselves. we are joined 2nd in PL, topped the group in CL, QF of COC and we would have played a lot of good teams on the way to get where we are.

last night, there was just one person who dint play well - MIKEL. rest put in average performance. tell me one reason why we should have gone full throttle in this match. we have arsenal, pool, swansea, soton in this month but u want our players to complicate things by trying to attack and score 5 goals or somethin. infact i dont even know what u want out of this team.

like i said, last night all i wanted was a WIN, to top the group, clean sheet, and i got all of that with relative ease. i feel this team would go into every match with some expectations and tactics and all of them worked well last night.

[Jase 43,479]

[TorontoChelsea 4,064]

And play who instead?

I'm getting tired of people bashing him when we lack other options. Last night wasn't a vintage performance by any means, but it was measured and controlled. He's still the only one of our midfielders who can play the occasional ball forward and provide some attacking impetus from that position.

Every player was muted last night, but at least he didn't fuck up like Mikel did. How he gets caught in possession and nearly gifts Steaua a goal from nothing I don't know because the one thing he's supposed to be good at is 'shielding' the ball. Thank god we're being linked with Matic because this might signal the end of his Chelsea career.

All in all it was a shit game to be at. No-one seemed up for it and once again the lack of quality in key positions was evident. Happy for Schwarzer to get a game because he deserves it after a great career, nice to see Luiz back in the team and put in a mistake-free performance under no pressure whatsoever, nice for Ashley to get back into the swing of things and grow into the game and that's about it.

Not quite sure why Willian is getting so many plaudits because I thought he was pretty ordinary and wanted to see De Bruyne come on for more than 10 minutes. So we're through as probably the worst group winners in the competition bar United.

Lampard had a 95% passing rate last night. He shot too much in the first half but overall was fine. Like you, I am sick of people attacking him when he's ordinary when everyone else is also ordinary. Like you, I also don't get the love for Willian's game yesterday. He played very well for a while but then was really poor for a long while too and gave the ball away really carelessly a number of times. Our attacking midfield has gotten away with getting almost no blame for a couple years no matter what happens. When they don't track back, the central midfield gets the blame for being overrun. When they don't create, strikers get the blame, when they don't move properly, the central midfield and RB/LB get the blame, etc...and yesterday was a perfect example for me. They were absolutely ordinary. Their spacing was poor, their movement was atrocious (there was one moment later in the game when Luiz had the ball at the centre line as looking to go forward for about 10 seconds and there was just nothing so he turned and passed to Terry which summed it up.) and they didn't really create very many chances against what was a very poor side.Yes, Ba missed a great chance, but how many times did we get the ball into him in dangerous areas? Once? Twice? Ba had 2 shots all game. Against a team like that, he should have been getting 5 or 6 good chances. And you can't blame the central midfield because our attacking midfielders had the ball constantly. It wasn't a case of not getting the ball to them. It was a case of them having the same attack plan which was to try to dribble the ball past the entire defence.

[y10edn 185]

There is definately a problem that goes beyond `JOM with the team, there is no connection between the back and the attackers: I can't remember a worse game than yesterdays. When the keeper tried huffing it Ba was out muscled, there was no creativity for most part of the game, despite having over 12 corner kicks. Mikel should not be the one seeing most of the ball in a game we had close to 65% possession at home. we lack a play maker that can pick the ball consistently and draw 3 opposition players to create room for the team like Silva for MUFC anytime we initiate an attack Oscar is front tucked on the left or right with his height disadvantage, Hazard with all the flicks and leg overs lacks the finish consistently. this disconnection has been on going for a couple of seasons now but never worse than the last few games how we are still well position in all competition beats me.

[bushman 2,043]

so citeh = WIN, arsenal = WIN. chelsea's main obejective is not to get fans convinced about themselves. we are joined 2nd in PL, topped the group in CL, QF of COC and we would have played a lot of good teams on the way to get where we are.

last night, there was just one person who dint play well - MIKEL. rest put in average performance. tell me one reason why we should have gone full throttle in this match. we have arsenal, pool, swansea, soton in this month but u want our players to complicate things by trying to attack and score 5 goals or somethin. infact i dont even know what u want out of this team.

like i said, last night all i wanted was a WIN, to top the group, clean sheet, and i got all of that with relative ease. i feel this team would go into every match with some expectations and tactics and all of them worked well last night.

Why Chelsea should have gone a full throttle...lol ? when was the last time Chelsea had done it ?

I do not need to see Chelsea scoring 5 goals per game. I want to see them playing football & not some erratic passing, struggling to penetrate..& missing on clear chances, that´s all.

[Special Juan 28,141]

Did enough but far from convincing. What was massively noticeable to me was how poor 90% of our teams first touch is. It takes us two touches before the ball is set from the player and allow him to move it on. Watching Bayern on Tuesday was a lesson in one touch control regardless of the finishing the result, the technique was sublime.

Also our poor pass selection is something that needs huge work. We countered a few times last night with Oscar and Hazard and the player who had the ball had easy out-balls to slide someone in and either chose to take the man on when the easier option was there, or, make the wrong pass to someone in a poor position. Finishing again was poor IMO, I really don't know why our cutting edge is so poor.

A win is a win but a lot of work to do.

[BlueLion. 21,491]

Lets play crap and keep grinding out results. Would love to swap an attacking midfielder for a striker of note.

Don't complain. That's what good teams do. Last year we'd play crap and get thrashed.

[bushman 2,043]

Did enough but far from convincing. What was massively noticeable to me was how poor 90% of our teams first touch is. It takes us two touches before the ball is set from the player and allow him to move it on. Watching Bayern on Tuesday was a lesson in one touch control regardless of the finishing the result, the technique was sublime.

Also our poor pass selection is something that needs huge work. We countered a few times last night with Oscar and Hazard and the player who had the ball had easy out-balls to slide someone in and either chose to take the man on when the easier option was there, or, make the wrong pass to someone in a poor position. Finishing again was poor IMO, I really don't know why our cutting edge is so poor.

A win is a win but a lot of work to do.

Once again in Juan we trust ?

Well said. If any other Chelsea fan feels this team is ready to challenge for a major trophy, he ought to review all Chelsea´s games again, I feel. There is no comparison to the top teams like Bayern, Real, even Atletico plays much better.