Closed Chelsea 1-1 Schalke

[Stats 6,982]

Think majority of us were very surprised to see Drogba start. It was clear he was very rusty and ineffective but Mourinho decided to keep him on and only subbed him off 70th minute. Normally if Mourinho sees a player/striker playing below par he would have no qualms in subbing them off half time. But with Drogba I can't help but think that because of the sentimental factor that evolves around Drogba he feels he almost owes him something. Drogba was returning from injury so if Mourinho decided to rest Costa, Remy should have started 100%. This is not in hindsight and I think a lot of us expected us to see Remy starting as he is much more fresh and should be our 2nd choice striker. We got a point so there is no catastrophe but it irritates me that Mourinho underestimated Schalke and decided to sub Drogba after the 70th min mark. I just have the gut feeling that if it was another striker they would have been off in no time.

On the positive note it looks like Hazard is reaching that level everyone wants to see him perform at. Shame he could not score but he is at times, simply unstoppable.

[Barbara 15,149]

THIS was ONE of his poorest games ever . he looked OLDER than Me

you made me laugh so hard now, Ron. LOL

[kellzfresh 7,226]

No Costa, no goals. Very worrying. Willian and Oscar are useless except running and tackling.

That's how important a finisher is. We underestimated Costas importance in our team and this match will put things in perspective. That said, we need fast proactive CB'S rather than slow backing off ones so that we reduce goals on the counter

[puri 6]

We were better but only scored one goal which shouldn't even count. Shows you that you should take every opponent serious.

[Jase 43,479]

Positives:

1. Luis' performance. Those crosses were 'delicious'.

2. Going forward and actually creating chances. Much improvement from last season.

3. Saved by Maribor's stoppage time equaliser against Sporting Lisbon. Everything still the way it is in the group (sort of).

Negatives:

1. Mourinho starting Drogba and not Remy, at least. Feels like the former was chosen because of sentimental reasons.

2. Defensively still look a suspect and way too open at times. Team not pressing as a unit and getting bypassed way too easily at times.

3. Missing chances galore. That was so like the 2013/14 Chelsea.

Random Stat: Third consecutive Champions League campaign for Chelsea under Jose Mourinho in which they have failed to win their first group game - DLD.

Random Stat 2: The two times Jose Mourinho started the UCL campaign with a draw, he ended up winning the competition - Porto in 03/04 and Inter in 09/10.

(he did start with a draw in 06/07 with CFC but left the club soon after. So, not counted...)

[Sidzeret 2,257]

We needed this. Now Jose could work on the holes in our defense. That's me being positive after almost breaking my remote.

[bababoom 4,478]

Cesc was great today apart from getting intercepted for their goal, yes he should have done better but for the whole 90 minutes he was one of our better players, along with Hazard and Luis.

[Azpinator 2,325]

Me and my mates thought about having a drinking game. Drink a shot every time someone says "Where's Ivanovic?".

Should be fun.

[Hutcho 8,443]

Meh. Not ideal start. Shouldn't be any real harm done though.

Disappointing result. But the group is still ours and we showed that today even if the score that matterred was 1-1.

[Jase 43,479]

Cesc was great today apart from getting intercepted for their goal, yes he should have done better but for the whole 90 minutes he was one of our better players, along with Hazard and Luis.

Think that's a bit overstating TBH. Offensive wise, yes, he was great and he has been so far this season but defensively though, he still need to improve, a lot.

[BlueLion. 21,491]

Is it just me or does Ivanovic seem to be caught out of position for every terrible goal we've conceded this season so far ? all the fucking time and has to rely on Ramires or Matic to bail him out of the shit?

Fixed.

[Barbara 15,149]

I also have a problem with Ivanovic's stick here.

It should get inside people's skull that we've changed styles, we are a more attacking team, like most of you begged us to be. Ivanovic is one of our best players going forward. He can't be at two places at the same time, so OF COURSE, he's going to be caught out of position if he was supporting the attack. Our defense and midfield should supply him coverage for that. That's what teams around the whole world do, but we've been failing.

Matic shouldn't be all over the place so much. He should hold position more often. With Cesc, the three AMs, the striker and the FBs taking turns in the attack, he should be deeper nearly at all times when we're attacking. Ivanovic has a lot of business going forward - especially given his special moment attacking - is Matic who has none. He should be more conservative in his positioning and I think he's been tackling all over the place too. I've been criticizing him since the season started and I'm waiting and will continue to for him to improve, but I still believe he's the main reason why we look so fragile defensively.

We could ask Ivanovic to hold position more often in the second third as well as Luís. We could also bring Luiz back to the team and play in the pivot, we could also sell Cesc... we could be 2013/14 all over again. Yes, Ivanovic is being caught out of position. It's part of the new style - it doesn't give us an excuse to look so bad. Yes, goals came from his side, but most of them were with plays that started in the middle... our main problem continue to be there. Even pub teams offer coverage to their FBs when they support the attack. It's one of the most basic things on football. Still on Chelsea the FB is actually blamed for the goals when no one covers his advances properly... I don't know, maybe I'm reading the game completely wrong, but I don't see anything wrong with him there. And even then he's been running all the time, covering the midfield a few times, being solid defending set pieces... I don't know if the problem is how I view football or people's view, but I can't agree with the criticism he's been receiving.

[thehappyone 140]

Hey guys I just came back from work, what the hell happened? I see the beast was rested!

[Madmax 9,219]

Cesc was great today and Didier came back. Legend! But we were unlucky. Read all about it in my blog! Link in my bio

[LegenTerry 263]

Sell Oscar,buy Draxler

[nono 791]

Fixed.

Thanks. I was going to bring it up in the earlier games and have been surprised that more hasn't been made of this. Even if you go back to the Swansea game Ivanovic is at times playing right with the striker ! I hope Mourinho does something about it. I would honestly start Luis and Azpilicueta but we might miss the leadership Ivanovic brings. Worrying times though that out of our back four only Azpi is the one who currently does not seem like a liability.

[Barbara 15,149]

I guess I was the only one to see Cesc pressing well most of the time and putting a shift defensively. I saw him tackling on many occasions, intercepting balls, pressing in sync with others... He's made mistakes - the biggest one being the goal he's missed, but defensively, I didn't see him making mistakes today... he was well positioned most time, he wasn't running behind opponents like a headless chicken, so the things Neville pointed against Swansea didn't happen today or happened rarely... still he's getting stick for his defensive presentation. Also, most of chances created passed through him at one point or the other...

I'm sorry, I think I'm too pissed to think properly, so I'm coming off too blunt now. Somehow I feel like I've watched a different match to everyone. I feel like Cesc and Iva are getting far more criticism than they deserve whereas the guys who really could improve are barely mentioned. I'll re-watch the match later this week... maybe I'll come to the same conclusions seemingly everyone did...

[Term-X 7,891]

Still not sure how we only had 3 mins added on, the amount of time wasting warranted at least 5 or 6.