Closed Crystal Palace 1-0 Chelsea

[LeonDavis23 371]

[TrippingStep 336]

I'm really trying to find an ounce of progress made between our earlier performances against West Brom, Newcastle, and this one against Palace. Even if it's a smitten of progress. Just something for me to hold on to as solace for next season but the truth is, I don't see any change at all. We've made improvements overall, and the foundation of a system is in place (I guess that's the one solace) but against weaker sides the players look just as clueless on the ball as they did at the beginning of the season.

I get that the squad is not perfect and there are obviously weak areas but I'm worried that Mourinho has coaching weaknesses when it comes to setting up a team against compact defences. Maybe 'weaknesses' is not the right word but I don't think his coaching style/philosophy is one that favor sides that get men behind the ball. It was a similar story with his Real Madrid side.

Against sides like palace it just seems to me that we need better offensive tactics. Mourinho needs to take more risks right from the start. It would help if we had a player like Mata, Kdb etc in the team because we need that kind of skill set. Hopefully next season we can bring in someone like Kroos to play alongside Matic.

Title or no title there're many positives to take from this season but at the same time there're some red-flags.

Look at his first chelsea team with Prime Essien, Thiago, Makelele, Ballack, Gudjonhsen, Lampard, Deco in the squad for midfield, and still on many matches against average teams, it was too often a battle with ugly football.

And since then, the english teams have better discipline in their defensive positons.

[cosmicway 1,323]

Look at his first chelsea team with Prime Essien, Thiago, Makelele, Ballack, Gudjonhsen, Lampard, Deco in the squad for midfield, and still on many matches against average teams, it was too often a battle with ugly football.

And since then, the english teams have better discipline in their defensive positons.

Chelsea don't care about possession football. It's their all time system and when the gears are not functioning properly you see the kind of despicable thing you saw yesterday. However after the departure of the old guard you mention above, Chelsea looked like an amateur side. Compare FA cup against Everton in 2009 to previous year's champion league's effort. We won but looked like day and night.

[The Mak 4,459]

For next season:

Centre Midfield
More than ever am I hoping for a DLP next year to help break these sort of teams down, Mourinho must see it by now. We looked so clueless and disorganised, it would've been a massive help if we had a passing lynchpin to help build meaningful attacks.

Strikers

As for strikers, I pray to whatever divine forces that may be that Torres is not wearing a Chelsea shirt next season. I'm hoping that when we buy a big striker and get Romelu back that Mourinho sits Torres down and explains just how shit he is compared to his competition - that it would be best for everyone if he just fucks off as soon as possible so we can put this terrible, terrible transfer as far behind as possible.
Eto'o has been good as soon as he adjusted, but I'm not sure how fond I am of keeping a 2nd/3rd choice striker on such big wages. Honestly, I think Schurrle as 3rd choice would suffice - he does play there for Germany after all. So for next season I would hope for something like:

1st Costa (most likely)
2nd Lukaku
3rd Schurrle (but maybe Eto'o)

Defence

And of course, hoping we get Shaw so Azpi can lock down the RB position and Ivanovic can get the fuck out of there. I can't believe the people who were debating me at the start of the season saying Ivan was better.
However, I think ST and CM are more important. Putting off Shaw for another season (I don't think he's going anywhere else) and keeping Bertrand wouldn't be the end of the world.

[dee25 1,044]

Haha well usually when we're facing a smaller side like Palace that we're just expected to win against, the match isn't televised here (UK) and so the default time for it to take place is Saturday 3pm. So I guess we always seem to do bad at that time (which you miss) because it's when we play against the smaller sides, the type of game we fare worst in.

I'm not saying Guardiola is a better manager than Mourinho but you have to admire how after having won the Bundesliga in record fashion with the best team in the world, they followed that by a draw which left him demanding improvement (http://www.fcbayern.de/en/news/news/2014/hoffenheim-reaction-290314.php). That's not to say Mourinho doesn't want improvement, but he does seem somewhat stubborn in his approach; as you say not many risks have been taken from the start and as such there's been very little to no improvement in terms of our performance in these games. Not all that can be blamed on the lack of strikers.

Completely agree with the bolded part.

I like that Mourinho has at least instilled a recognizable style of football that has taken us from competing for 4th to competing for the title. That much has to be acknowledged.

Last season, we basically had no identity. Now at least you can say that we're a counterattacking team.

At the same time I'm not sure how entirely comfortable I feel with a system that requires players to be better off the ball than they are on the ball. It's a system that maximizes results and performances only when we have less possession and something about that unsettles me. We have young talented players in the team that need to improve on their skills. How are they to do that when the manager's philosophy is one that doesn't demand quality on the ball from his players but rather work rate?

I mean you look at Hazard and here is an extraordinarily talented kid, future ballon d'or and all of that. But the kid literally has no idea what to do with fucking ball when we're the team with most of the possession.

That tells me that there is something not right with the way he's being coached.

Oscar and Hazard are players that are nowhere near being the finished products. If we're expecting those two to help us win the title next season then they need coaching on their offensive abilities because there is a lot they need to improve on. Are they getting that from Mourinho?

Like I said, lots of positives to take from this season but these questions need to be asked.

[The only place to be 11,313]

Some of the overreactions are hilarious. Are people honestly questioning Mourinho's coaching credentials now?? The guy is in a different league to almost every other manager currently coaching yet because we lose to Palace people are actually talking about red flags??

Fuck off.

We're a team without a striker. That's the truth of the matter. Without someone to stretch the play we're always going to be hamstrung and until that's solved we're not going to see the best of the rest of the players. But people demanding trophies now like little babies need to give themselves a slap because they are EVERYTHING that was wrong with this club over the last few years, prioritising short-term 'success' over long-term stability. We're a team who are still in the building stages, and some of the pieces simply aren't here yet. Players like Hazard and Oscar are still young so consistency is going to be an issue whilst others like Matic and Salah are still learning exactly what the coach wants from him.

All this requires patience. It's not too much to ask is it?

[Tomo 21,733]

Some of the overreactions are hilarious. Are people honestly questioning Mourinho's coaching credentials now?? The guy is in a different league to almost every other manager currently coaching yet because we lose to Palace people are actually talking about red flags??

Fuck off.

We're a team without a striker. That's the truth of the matter. Without someone to stretch the play we're always going to be hamstrung and until that's solved we're not going to see the best of the rest of the players. But people demanding trophies now like little babies need to give themselves a slap because they are EVERYTHING that was wrong with this club over the last few years, prioritising short-term 'success' over long-term stability. We're a team who are still in the building stages, and some of the pieces simply aren't here yet. Players like Hazard and Oscar are still young so consistency is going to be an issue whilst others like Matic and Salah are still learning exactly what the coach wants from him.

All this requires patience. It's not too much to ask is it?

Agree with all off that apart from i do think Eto'o will be a key player in the run in, but that's for another argument.

I remember saying in the summer off 2012 when we let go off half the old guard and brought in Hazard, Oscar, Moses and Azpilicueta that it would take a while for them to bed in being so young. From then i said last season we weren't winning the title, this season was 50/50 and next will be the time thing's start coming together.

[AndersonBLUE 819]

We are doing much better than I expected this season, and there are a lot of positives:

- Actually in a title race since 2010

- Hazard is a beast

- Solid back four and good defense

- Bought Matic (good business in general for Jan)

- Still in Champions League

- Mourinho Moments

- Spanking our rivals

And now we know what to work on for next year, beating the smaller teams. Roll on PSG can't wait

[GodZola 630]

We got what we deserved - nothing. There is some logic in José not setting us up correctly against bus teams but I've said that about every manager since he left in 2007, obviously something he knows he has to work on.

However, I counted 5 decent opportunities yesterday where we could/should of scored, Hazard's miss was a catastrophic miss, I said to my mates whilst watching that if we score even with 5 minutes to go we would go onto win the game and Hazards miss was pivotal at the time. Palace also deserve credit, their players kept their shape throughout the whole game, they also never stopped competing, there levels of concentration was phenomenal, I just hope they carry on this form against liverscum when they play them. Which brings me onto Aston Villa who got up for it against us & have been shit since!

We need to start games with a bang against bus sides - the longer the game goes on without us scoring the easier it is for these sides to counter us as like yesterday we didn't punish them with the opportunities we had and were made to pay.

Those blaming José also need to take a look at some of the piss-poor performances that have been put in recently, you simply cannot legislate for that, the world and his brother have got the knifes out for Torres - fair comment but Hazard prob had his worst game for us and you simply cannot blame that on any manager, Hazard is world class so you do not expect a player of his ability to perform so bad, same can be said of many other players.

[thekid9 418]

"The special one..Except against diddy teams "

[thekid9 418]

Some of the overreactions are hilarious. Are people honestly questioning Mourinho's coaching credentials now?? The guy is in a different league to almost every other manager currently coaching yet because we lose to Palace people are actually talking about red flags??

Fuck off.

We're a team without a striker. That's the truth of the matter. Without someone to stretch the play we're always going to be hamstrung and until that's solved we're not going to see the best of the rest of the players. But people demanding trophies now like little babies need to give themselves a slap because they are EVERYTHING that was wrong with this club over the last few years, prioritising short-term 'success' over long-term stability. We're a team who are still in the building stages, and some of the pieces simply aren't here yet. Players like Hazard and Oscar are still young so consistency is going to be an issue whilst others like Matic and Salah are still learning exactly what the coach wants from him.

All this requires patience. It's not too much to ask is it?

5 years since a title with the money we have spent..... I don't think a Trophy is too much too ask! Sunderland were in a cup final SUNDERLAND! and Wigan are still in it!!!! WIGAN!!

[The only place to be 11,313]

5 years since a title with the money we have spent..... I don't think a Trophy is too much too ask! Sunderland were in a cup final SUNDERLAND! and Wigan are still in it!!!! WIGAN!!

£50 million was wasted on the cunt in your avatar. Money is no guarantee of success, especially when it isn't focused spending. Now we actually have a coach in charge who is moulding the squad to fit what he wants.

[didierforever 7,349]

5 years since a title with the money we have spent..... I don't think a Trophy is too much too ask! Sunderland were in a cup final SUNDERLAND! and Wigan are still in it!!!! WIGAN!!

first of all its been 4 years at max. Considering we won the league in 2010, now its 2014. In that time, we have won a CL, an EL and a FA cup. Not bad is it. All this while, changing an aged squad with a dynamic bunch of youngsters. Again, not bad.

[Ollie 4,400]

We were all waiting for it to happen weren't we tbh. We were never going to win it with no striker and yesterdays game showed more than any other match how desperate we are for a proper number 9. We've done remarkably but it's now pretty much over. We need to focus on the top 3 now and really go for it next season. That was the plan anyway and nothing has changed from August in truth, just a shame we got so close and blew it against 2 bottom of the table teams.

Whether we expected to win it or not doesn't matter in this situation, i am gutted that with the run in we had we've somehow managed to bottle it. I bet Jose is looking for strikers as we speak though and my number 1 target is definitely Wilfried Bony. Every time i watch him he's absolutely fantastic and premiership proven. It's ok going for overpriced big names but they don't guarantee success. With Bony and Lukaku, i reckon we'd be alright and they are used to the league and both a good age.

Whatever Jose does, i'm sure it will be the right thing, we cannot go on like this. It's horrible.

[Chelsea Legend 11 4,062]

"The special one..Except against diddy teams "

El nino shit against every team not in the championship... Crossing the days off the calendar till the summer when Nando is sold for a pair of Adidas F50's and a tuna sandwich from Pret a manger.

[Chelsea Legend 11 4,062]

That game was dire... We had way too many people performing at a level that could be considered bottom of the table quality.

For whatever reason Chelsea seem to be playing to the level of their opposition, its actually frustrating but bodes well in big competitions. Jose set up the team terribly, I don't know why Lampard, Matic and Luiz were all deployed together, made no sense to me and to be honest I called draw when I saw the lineup. Too slow and no one for Hazard or Schurrle to play off of. Don't know why we set up to defend a team that has been struggling to score... We just have no idea how to break down teams when we're in possession and only look sharp when we're looking to get out and counter teams.

The title race is NOT over, we have to depend on help from a few teams but the Gunner vs City result may have saved us. I do feel the road to the title runs through Anfield though and we'll need Pool to beat city and for us to go there and win.

Can anyone explain to me what is the purpose of Fernando Torres? I'm just dying for the day to arrive when he's no longer a Chelsea player. Outplayed by a 34 yr old Drogba and now a 33 yr old Eto'o... So shit.

[Badboy 1,526]

The overreactions on this forum is ONE of the reasons I don't post that much. I hate the way people go high optimism after the City away result to wild pointless drivel..... If I ran this forum I would be doing some serious clamping down on some people.

[Badboy 1,526]

We have had a funny season but to be honest its been a brilliant learning curve for many of these young players. I am so proud of the fight our players have shown this season especially in the big games and I see a huge future for this squad. Oscar is one player I have some doubts about but a lot of these lads are going to be ruthless next season and when we get a striker in we will be even more imposing.