The "completed" Chelsea side and attractive football.

[Shakez 755]

The reason that i start this topic is because i want to know the opinions of the other members on this forum. Alot of people hate us because we play in the "neutral" viewers eyes "anti-football". I didn't give a damn the past few seasons because there where alot of gaping holes in our squad, namely the center midfield and striker positions. Since the return of José our squad has drastically changed (imo for the better) with the signings of Schürrle, Willian, Fabrégas, Matic, Costa... If i look at our squad now on paper, Im like dayum "where gonna be unstoppable". But i still have some doubts in HOW we will play.

Namely the signings of Matic and Fabrégas will help a ton in the midfield battle, most matches are won this way in current football. Adding in Oscar/Schürrle/Willian and Hazard should give us little to no trouble in retaining possession and pressing.

But the question is if Mourinho can create the same magic like what we saw from City and Liverpool last year. Results come first i agree, and against top sides it is no shame to play the counter-attacking game (Barca, Real, Bayern). But i think we deserve an entertaining Chelsea side with the players we currently have, and it shouldn't be that much to ask for.

Opinions?

[Sidzeret 2,257]

All of them are just jealous. Fuck em

[Daniel1980 1,425]

I can't deny that I would like us to play a more attractive football. With the players we currently have, it'd be a shame if Jose can't accomplish that while keeping the team defensively sound. That said, results matter the most, of course.

[manpe 10,861]

I expect us to play on level terms with the likes of Bayern, Real, Barca and City eventually.. Before we could expect bus purking/ultra conservative (call it what you want) tactics when we played them away, we knew we would take a pounding and rely on counter-attacks only, but I want to see us be able to dominate periods of the game in such fixtures. It was fine as clear-cut underdogs, but coming out of that would establish us as definite equals among the elites.

In open games I expect us to be attractive, but it remains to be seen how open teams are willing to play against us. Could be a rare sight.

[boshman 1,073]

Agree with both of the above ^^^

Fuck whatever anybody else think. They just look for an excuse because they get outclassed tactically (the game at Anfield last season sticks in my mind more than anything else, wow the amount of moaning i heard from that scummy lot after that game).

Yes it would be nice to play attractive football every game and win 4/5/6-0. But at the end of the day i couldn't give a fuck how we play. As long as we win games and trophies i couldn't care less!

[Viper22 2,418]

Last season we scored more goals (71) than every other team in the league other than Man City and Liverpool, who both went for outright attack (and in Liverpool's case a complete lack of defence).

The cries of boring or anti-football are genuinely jealous insults thrown by fans of teams who can't defend to save their lives (see: Spurs, Liverpool, Man U, Newcastle).

Honestly, just view the comments in the same way you view the comments about us/City buying the league: with the disdain they deserve. No team has won the title in well over 30 years without buying players because it's just not possible any more.

As a side note to that buying the league nonsense, look at the top 20 transfer fees of all time - Chelsea and City only have 1 each, and ours is Torres ffs.

Our football last season was a joy to behold for me. Us destroying City and Liverpool towards the end of the year was a tactical masterclass. It's not negative, it's just clever. Mourinho used tactics to beat their style of attacking football, same as rock crushes scissors. Tactical superiority is cyclical, and you need to be able to be malleable with the tactics you use to be able to beat teams using different styles of play and tactical approaches to the game. Last season we were tactically the best team in the league (due to Mourinho), but due to a few mistakes from the Special One himself and more so to a lack of a creative midfielder and prolific striker we failed against the smaller teams who played with a tactic we couldn't deal with. Simple as that.

[The only place to be 11,313]

It's overblown and always was. Jose is a manager who wants to stop the opposition from scoring first, but once he's got a team capable of doing that with relative ease then his teams become as exciting as any other going forward usually in his second season.

In 05/06 we were amazing to watch at times and in his second season at Real he set a scoring record so it's quite frankly ridiculous.

Mourinho isn't a one-dimensional attacking coach like Rodgers who is simply a reheated Keegan.

[Sidzeret 2,257]

Roman's roubles have only levelled the playing field in the English turf which was dominated by rich teams like United, Arsenal and Liverpool in the past. They're just blind to accept that.

[MrBlueGuy 1,552]

We will never play 'attractive football' under Jose, it is just not his mentality. Also it depends on your perception of it, if it means free flowing high scoring games like Dortmund, Liverpool, City, Real, Barcelona last seasons then it will just never ever happen under Jose. He will never instruct the team to go to City and 'enjoy yourself' but rather 'if we don't win, we don't lose as well'.

It is just something you cannot change, he has been following this structure his whole career and it brought him a lot of success, he won't and probably cannot change it. Last season for example we tried it but the results were starting to go bad so he reversed back to his usual style. The best we can hope for is to emulate Atletico last season, that is what Jose is really aiming for imo. That Atletico side was pretty much a Jose style side, resilience, hard to beat, winning a lot, defend well. So don't expect record breaking goals or something like that, but most clean sheets is entirely possible.

That is what you get with Jose, this is something that won't change.

[HD3D 1,038]

What exactly is attractive football? The beauty of how a team plays is pretty relative. For example, Guardiola's tiki-taka is hailed by many as one of the most beautiful ways to play. Yet the other half of the people think it's boring and ridiculous.

This season I expect us to be able to break small teams apart. But aside from that, we will still be playing counter-attacking football and we will still be playing for a specific result in a lot of key games. That is a characteristic of Jose as a manager, it won't change.

[Kieran. 6,317]

Winning is pretty attractive to me.

[Stats 7,056]

As known he is not a gung-ho type of manager but the level that people criticise him for his football is OTT. Sometimes we have looked very dull but we have not had the players. This season are team looks more complete. Natural full backs. Excellent playmaker. Also when we went to City, we outplayed them. You can't call that defensive football. When we went and beat City at the Etihad, a lot of our fans and neutrals would hav expected to see more defensive football but we really set the tempo and played excellent stuff. I was impressed. We didn't beat Arsenal 6-0 for nothing as well. Before the red card excuse is used by Arsenal fans we were 3-0 up when it was 11 against 11. Gibbs was sent of when it was 2-0 but if he was kept on it would have been 3-0 as Hazard scored the resulting pen so that is my reasoning behind why I said we were 3-0 up when it was 11 against 11.

Like I said I am not going to lie and say he plays very attractive football but what he does when he has the right players for his sytem, you see an effective counter attacking play which is a joy to watch. Arsenal game last season was a prime example.

[Sidzeret 2,257]

What exactly is attractive football? The beauty of how a team plays is pretty relative. For example, Guardiola's tiki-taka is hailed by many as one of the most beautiful ways to play. Yet the other half of the people think it's boring and ridiculous.

This season I expect us to be able to break small teams apart. But aside from that, we will still be playing counter-attacking football and we will still be playing for a specific result in a lot of key games. That is a characteristic of Jose as a manager, it won't change.

Spot on.

Beauty obviously lies in the eyes of the beholder. For me, there's nothing in football like taking in the pressure and hitting them on a fast counter.

Pep's Tiki taka the sort of style that bores the opposition with their triangles and passing and slowing going for the jugular. I'm not arguing its not attractive but Barca fans branding that sort of football only as attractive is kinda deluded.

[MichaelDance 552]

We're always the best, the only issue this year is we've lost Frank Lampard and Ba (they are some of our best players in my opinion) but on the positive side we've got some fresh young players who are just as good they just need to get used to our system, and we've got our Drogba back this year which is the best and cheapest transfer we've done.

[BlueLyon 9,359]

Chelsea 05/06, 09/10 and Bayern 12/13 are three teams I think played best football on club level in recent years. Maybe Bvb 12/13 too. I cant stand Pep Bayern or Barca for some reason though.

Its all about balance, going too much forward will result digging own grave and parking bus was never nice to watch.

What we saw last years wasnt great, but I expect that to change. I only hope Mou will keep trying to score no matter the result and wont close after we lead 1:0,thats terrible, unless its realy crucial game.

We will play around 8 big match derbies in PL and 7 elimination games in Cl (if we reach final) and there I dont care how we play, as long we win.

For the rest 30/35 games, I want us to play proper football, goals, possesion, give some freedom to our attackers etc.

[Sidzeret 2,257]

[DANILA 290]

My main problem with Jose is when Chelsea is up 1-0 or 2-1 he wants to go in complete defense mode for some reason, even against small clubs! Then like times last season they would pressure us and score near the 90th minute and we would draw or lose. IMO, the best form of defense is attack (to a certain level) and Jose really does not agree with that. Hopefully he learned his lesson from last season that we cannot just 'defend' for the rest of the game when one lucky fluke could take away 2/3 points from us.

[DYC. 7,542]

I do expect better and definitely a proactive approach, taking the initiative. Last season Mourinho would have the team soak up the pressure too much imo. Defending very deep, which led to the players having to bridge a lot space before reaching the opposition goal once the ball was won. No top team should have to result to such tactics too often. And this mentality of having to play defensively or in a reactive manner whenever the team faces a quality side also does not suit a club of this stature. I'm not saying that's always the case but it does happen quite a lot.

Ball circulation was a major issue troughout the season as well. It was simply too slow, giving the opposition far too much time to set up defensively. This should improve with Fabregas in the middle but it's not that simple. This is where the work done in training shows. The coach should allow his team to take more risks, allowing players to get forward more, instead of staying behind the ball, so there are more passing options. Players like Oscar and Willian also need to step up as they tend to slow down play, especially Willian (drives me crazy), without having any ideas on what to do with the ball.

I'm not going to lie, the neutrals are right about the style of Chelsea throughout the years. If you're not a fan, watching Chelsea won't do much for you or can simply be boring. That said, it does not matter how Chelsea play, they'll always find something to criticise or to complain about.

And saying Chelsea's style of play doesn't matter is simply not true. An attractive brand of football attracts fans. The people in charge at Chelsea want that, Abramovich wants that, every club wants that. And attractive, attacking football does not mean having to sacrifice winning. Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern, Milan etc. have all shown it's possible to combine both. It's not easy but Chelsea do have the resources to do so.

As for next season, I'm not sure what to expect. This is Mourinho so I don't think anyone should expect Chelsea to be one of the most exciting sides around. But like I said before, I do expect better.