Analyzing defeat to Stoke

[Jase 43,479]

Article written by @NishC300.

Inconsistency came back to hit the Blues as they stumbled to a shock loss after grabbing two good wins. From a situation where Chelsea were about to double their lead, the opposite happened in the scores becoming 1-1. The defending to concede that goal was dire like the result of the match. It was as depressing as seeing this baby elephant stuck in a drain.

Chelsea fans would have felt even more sick about their situation in the midfield pivot after yesterday’s game. A midfield of Ramires and Mikel had absolutely no passing ability. The sad thing is that our next best option Marco Van Ginkel is injured. Does this mean that we give Josh McEachran a chance? It would only benefit his development which in turn benefits us. Or are we a club that doesn’t put much faith in its youngsters?

Ramires action in the game (via FourFourTwo). Ramires completed 30 out of 41 passes

The above graphic doesn’t make you want to start comparing Ramires passing ability with let’s say Pirlo. Unless you’re trying to compare something similar to dystopia with eutopia. Ramires is a player loved by Chelsea fans, his enormous amount of energy is the greatest part of his armoury but his weakness is when he’s in possession of the ball and trying to pass it around.

When the Blues were in control in the 1st half. Ramires wasted a series of good opportunities as quickly as a IBM’s Roadrunner supercomputer processes information. But the problem is, even his partner is not famed for his passing ability either.

42 out of 46 passes for Mikel

Mikel was playing most square passes and his main aim was ball retention. He knocked the ball to his teammates. This led to Chelsea lacking killer passes from the deep. Mikel starts in the team because he provides protection to the back line and often gives other the incentive to go forward.

It’s clear that Chelsea have problems in the pivot and that the pivot is crying out for a deep lying playmaker. The passing quality is often as terrible as the idea of this alternate reality:

If the issue with the pivot wasn’t enough, the issue which I stated in a previous article on this site and many others is still there!

The above graphic depicts Ivanovic’s crosses. It is painfully obvious that this is not his strength yet we have not addressed this issue. I would merely be repeating myself if I again wrote what I mentioned in the previous article regarding Ivanovic in that position. Is it not good to start Bertrand and Azpilicueta in these kind of matches?

The striker situation at Chelsea football club is one that has been publically talked about. To be fair to the strikers, they have actually performed quite well so far this season. Eto’o has looked good so far this season, Torres has pulled off some heroic performances that have left us with our mouth gaping and Ba has been quite good too. Yet in the past couple of games Torres has struggled and vs Stoke all 3 of our strikers looked really poor. When the Blues were cruising in the 1st half, a top quality striker would have thrived and grabbed some goals. It’s something that frustrated us at times last season as well. We now face an enormous question in: What should we do in January regarding both the pivot and the strikers? I for one would like to say that we have some brilliant youngsters who should also be promoted.

How about this for a stat? Chelsea conceded a total of 6 goals (4-3 win v Sunderland and 3-2 loss v Stoke) against 2 sides with rubbish goal scoring records? What happened to all those Mourinho’s identity clichés? If conceding 3 goals (2 of rubbish corner kick defending and another of a rather weird deflected free kick to which the Chelsea players failed to react) wasn’t enough against Sunderland, the Blues respond by conceding such a ridiculous goal when they are on the verge of doubling their lead before half time!

The arrow shows the direction where Cech ran

Cech decides to run of his line to catch the ball. He ends up looking like a kid trying to get a better view behind a crowd full of adults.

The Chelsea defenders somehow manage to miss the presence of the tallest player on the pitch (6 feet 7 inches) and the ball drops to his feet as no one heads it away or clears it. Crouch scores a double nutmeg to pull Stoke back level. The defending at times has been almost as embarrassing as some of Real Madrid’s defending earlier this season or as embarrassing as getting spotted singing along to the radio:

To conclude, it was a game that should have been won and on other day maybe would have been won but some of the issues within the team need to be addressed. It’s not every day that Stoke City decide to score two long range curlers against you.

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[Jase 43,479]

*bump*

[hjperdeath 2,226]

My successor.

[Jase 43,479]

My successor.

You're losing your touch. I'm rather disappointed...

[hjperdeath 2,226]

You're losing your touch. I'm rather disappointed...

Look on the bright side, we won after you wrote a preview. Things at TC even out eventually...

[Special Juan 27,439]

How many shots on target did Stoke have ? 3, all of them went in
How many shots on target did Sunderland have ? 3, all of them went in
How many shots on target did Southampton have ? 1, it went in

[kellzfresh 7,229]

How many shots on target did Stoke have ? 3, all of them went in

How many shots on target did Sunderland have ? 3, all of them went in

How many shots on target did Southampton have ? 1, it went in

Unbelievable stat. Just plain bad luck in our defending

[Special Juan 27,439]

Unbelievable stat. Just plain bad luck in our defending

Is it bad luck or bad defending?

[bushman 2,043]

Is it bad luck or bad defending?

Chelsea screwed up & some calls it a bad luck ? Oh boy. Close but no cigar.

[NishC300 1,865]

My successor.

me lol no! You are the grand master. I'm not even good at tactics.

@ wants reps for my article

[NishC300 1,865]

http://www.sportskeeda.com/2013/12/09/schurrle-stars-in-a-dire-result/ This is the actual article guys

(@ man you forgot the add the picture of the Baby Elephant stuck in the drain or the gif of the 'head being destroyed'

[Jase 43,479]

http://www.sportskeeda.com/2013/12/09/schurrle-stars-in-a-dire-result/ This is the actual article guys

(@ man you forgot the add the picture of the Baby Elephant stuck in the drain or the gif of the 'head being destroyed'

I deleted it on purpose. It's a rather needless one..

[OneMoSalah 8,785]

Article written by @NishC300.

Inconsistency came back to hit the Blues as they stumbled to a shock loss after grabbing two good wins. From a situation where Chelsea were about to double their lead, the opposite happened in the scores becoming 1-1. The defending to concede that goal was dire like the result of the match. It was as depressing as seeing this baby elephant stuck in a drain.

Chelsea fans would have felt even more sick about their situation in the midfield pivot after yesterday’s game. A midfield of Ramires and Mikel had absolutely no passing ability. The sad thing is that our next best option Marco Van Ginkel is injured. Does this mean that we give Josh McEachran a chance? It would only benefit his development which in turn benefits us. Or are we a club that doesn’t put much faith in its youngsters?

Sorry stopped reading after seeing that 'statement'. We struggled due to poor defensive organization, not the fact we didn't create a lot of chances, as we did especially in the first half. It was nothing to do with Mikel and Ramires' passing, who did what they had to do, play the ball to the creative players and Ramires then joined in the attack when he could. We need to score more goals, going in at 1-1 at half time was ridiculous, we had been all over them, it gave them a little bit of belief and what do you know they end up winning due to some shocking defending from Ivanovic who has given away points already this season in the CL and PL with some dreadful games and an allround terrible defensive set play. Azpilicueta lining up against Walters was also a pathetic decision by Jose imo, Walters is a strong lad, Ivanovic would have been better suited to playing on the left side against him as opposed to Azpilicueta even though both are naturally right sided players. More or less every header between Azpi and Walters, Walters won, this was evidently something Stoke looked to use and exploit, similar with Newcastle against us with Sissoko drifting out to the right to challenge Cole in the air. Cechs ridiculous decision to try and punch a ball he was getting nowhere near was baffling, then to find Crouch unmarked basically, even more baffling.

[kellzfresh 7,229]

Is it bad luck or bad defending?

Sometimes our defending from setpieces was awful. But they scored every shot on target for 3 straight matches, cech didn't make a save to stop even one. if we score every shot on target we would be top of the league. That's where the bad luck comes in.

[kellzfresh 7,229]

Is it bad luck or bad defending?

Sometimes our defending from setpieces was awful. But they scored every shot on target for 3 straight matches, cech didn't make a save to stop even one. if we score every shot on target we would be top of the league. That's where the bad luck comes in.

[Barbara 15,149]

Sorry stopped reading after seeing that 'statement'. We struggled due to poor defensive organization, not the fact we didn't create a lot of chances, as we did especially in the first half. It was nothing to do with Mikel and Ramires' passing, who did what they had to do, play the ball to the creative players and Ramires then joined in the attack when he could. We need to score more goals, going in at 1-1 at half time was ridiculous, we had been all over them, it gave them a little bit of belief and what do you know they end up winning due to some shocking defending from Ivanovic who has given away points already this season in the CL and PL with some dreadful games and an allround terrible defensive set play. Azpilicueta lining up against Walters was also a pathetic decision by Jose imo, Walters is a strong lad, Ivanovic would have been better suited to playing on the left side against him as opposed to Azpilicueta even though both are naturally right sided players. More or less every header between Azpi and Walters, Walters won, this was evidently something Stoke looked to use and exploit, similar with Newcastle against us with Sissoko drifting out to the right to challenge Cole in the air. Cechs ridiculous decision to try and punch a ball he was getting nowhere near was baffling, then to find Crouch unmarked basically, even more baffling.

Good thing you did, I read the entire portion you quoted and it was suggested to bring McEachran to the pivot because it'd benefit both the team and the player and implying we wouldn't do it because we don't put faith in our youngsters. That's jumping the shark... so yeah, it gets worse than implying the problem was Mikel and Ramires...