Closed Chelsea 2-4 Bradford

[dUMB 189]

For all those youth haters and mikel/salah haters, I'll just say that in 70 min. when it was 2-1 for us. Fabregas and Willian came in instead of Mikel and Salah.

Then 5 mins later on 2-2 Hazard came in for Remy. Stop posting shit. EOD.

[Barbara 15,149]

I was there. Were you?

I don't think you can look at the goals and describe the rest of the game. I've already posted, but personally I think Drogba should have never been on the field. He was limping from the first whistle. Visibly in pain for a lot of the first half (seemed alright in the second). Every touch he had was awful. Attempting on goal at 40 yds out, without any power. Soft passes. Passes to nobody. And he was on for the full 90! Madness.

Remy should have been in the centre. I liked a lot of his work on the ball, but out on the left wing it was wasted, there was never any real threat in the box.

Cahills goal was lovely, but his game was not. I've had enough of him backing off of players.

We were passing around the ball too much (and badly at that), when we should have been dribbling around them. Easier said than done, they're not all Hazards, but we should be bossing one-on-ones.

We should have utilised the bus at 2-0 up, even if its not pretty.

Anyway, thats my two pence. Peace and love.

I edited my post, I wasn't sure if you were there when I first answered as I was going through the thread and still 5-6 pages back.

When I finally reached last page I realized you were there. I wasn't being cynical, I was actually asking a question of how we were set up tactically, what could have possibly justify - from a tactics point of view - what happened.

I asked a few more question in my now edited post (the one you quoted).

I agree on the Drogba thing as you describe it. If he has no condition to play, just sub him off. I don't agree about the bus. We shouldn't park the bus against a third division side playing at home winning 2-0. If Mourinho did that some here would ask for his immediate dismissal... I think we should have continued to play seriously and it would have afforded appearance by Aké and RLC... there's no way we should park a bus winning 2-0, first half, at home against Bradford, but I respect your take on it.

Thanks for the explanation, although except for using Drogba (which is a selection mistake, not a tactical mistake) I can't see what Mourinho did so wrong for people who haven't even watched the match call his tactics pathetic...

[Laylabelle 9,296]

Tactics go over my head lok.whatever they were sure wasn't make Bradford look like the premier league team

[iceman 329]

So until you, @Liquidator, @Hutcho, @boshman or another fan who watched the match

.

when, when, when i'll be on this list?

Sorry, mate, but if Cahill can't lead a defense against a third division team, he's better off of the club. Maybe this was some sort of ultimate test for him and hopefully now that he failed miserably we'll see less and less of him in the main team

I hope it's just a isolated case

[Barbara 15,149]

when, when, when i'll be on this list?

I hope it's just a isolated case

were you there? sorry, I didn't catch it in the thread and I wrote that post while I was still 6 pages or so back - still filled with so many opinionated people that didn't watch the match

[Hutcho 8,443]

I'm not too sure how far you can go to blame tactics.

I would more question the effort level of the players at certain times. When we went 2-1 up we seemed to lack that spark we should have had. There was lots of individual efforts to do something but not much as a team.

Out back line was inexperienced with the exception of cahill and azpi and cahill didn't a good game with the exception of the goal.

Towards the end when fabregas and hazard were on we were playing the sort of football in the attacking sense that's great when your leading but when you are chasing the game is very time consuming.

The final goal we had zouma upfront (who missed a sitter btw, but i am not gonna be too annoyed by that) so we were out of shape and imo lacked leadership at the back.

Mourinho wanted to rest players which is fair enough. My only slight criticism was that 60 mins at 2-1 you could tell we were struggling so I would have brought on the big guns then, but the players we had should have been good enough then. Probably the fact those players haven't played together much didn't help.

[Daniel1980 1,425]

Yeah, goals were defensive errors than anything else, but I think Mourinho chose a wrong team too. I was pretty surprised by the amount of changes from our normal XI he made. The team he started had no proper dribbler who could take on the opponents, no good passer who could properly distribute the ball and keep possession, instead we had Ramires, Salah and Drogba who kept giving the ball away+two inexperienced young defenders+error-prone Cahill at the back. To add insult to injury, when Mikel had to be taken off, we were left without a proper DM (neither Ramires nor Fabregas is a DM). To add another insult to injury, Drogba was shit but wasn't subbed off, and apparently even Azpi and Willian weren't good defensively yesterday. So yes, our loss was pretty predictable because of the wrong selection of players by Jose--choosing players that haven't played much together + individual mistakes by our defence. It was a day when everything that could go wrong went wrong. Players aren't blameless but neither is Jose, IMO.

[Barbara 15,149]

I'm not too sure how far you can go to blame tactics.

I would more question the effort level of the players at certain times. When we went 2-1 up we seemed to lack that spark we should have had. There was lots of individual efforts to do something but not much as a team.

Out back line was inexperienced with the exception of cahill and azpi and cahill didn't a good game with the exception of the goal.

Towards the end when fabregas and hazard were on we were playing the sort of football in the attacking sense that's great when your leading but when you are chasing the game is very time consuming.

The final goal we had zouma upfront (who missed a sitter btw, but i am not gonna be too annoyed by that) so we were out of shape and imo lacked leadership at the back.

Mourinho wanted to rest players which is fair enough. My only slight criticism was that 60 mins at 2-1 you could tell we were struggling so I would have brought on the big guns then, but the players we had should have been good enough then. Probably the fact those players haven't played together much didn't help.

my very first post about this tragic embarrassment had been something along the lines - if I had to take a guess I'd say it's more related to players not giving enough like they didn't against Villa, Sunderland, Palace last season. Of course, I had no concrete proof of that, was just taking a guess, but as you confirm it, I'm more convinced than ever that some players we have among reserves and first team players have no business playing here, if not for technical reasons, than for mental (and maybe even commitment and seriousness) reasons.

Thanks for the summary, Hutcho

Yeah, goals were defensive errors than anything else, but Mourinho chose a wrong team too. I was pretty surprised by the amount of changes from our normal XI he made. The team he started had no proper dribbler who could take on the opponents (no "Hazard"), no good passer who could properly distribute the ball and keep possession, instead we had Ramires, Salah and Drogba who kept giving the ball away+two inexperienced young defenders+error-prone Cahill at the back. To add insult to injury, when Mikel had to be taken off, we were left without a proper DM (neither Ramires nor Fabregas is a DM). To add another insult to injury, Drogba was shit but wasn't subbed off, and apparently even Azpi and Willian weren't good defensively yesterday. So yes, our loss was pretty predictable because of the wrong selection of players by Jose--playing players that haven't played much together + individual mistakes by our defence. It was a day when everything that could go wrong went wrong. Players aren't blameless but neither is Jose.

Daniel, this is a third division team, most people here were complaining about him not rotating enough and when he does against a third division team he's to blame? If we had won 2-0 no one would have this kind of claim about his changes. I don't blame him for rotating that much against a 3rd division team although maybe I'd blame him for not subbing first team players earlier - which again, is an embarrassment for all those players that were there.

Also if commentary is to go by, Oscar was doing a lot of good things in the first. You completely forgot he played 90 minutes... he's to blame for whatever he didn't do in the second, although it seems like he was a sparkle in the team in the first.

[CeleryFC 373]

I edited my post, I wasn't sure if you were there when I first answered as I was going through the thread and still 5-6 pages back.

When I finally reached last page I realized you were there. I wasn't being cynical, I was actually asking a question of how we were set up tactically, what could have possibly justify - from a tactics point of view - what happened.

I asked a few more question in my now edited post (the one you quoted).

I agree on the Drogba thing as you describe it. If he has no condition to play, just sub him off. I don't agree about the bus. We shouldn't park the bus against a third division side playing at home winning 2-0. If Mourinho did that some here would ask for his immediate dismissal... I think we should have continued to play seriously and it would have afforded appearance by Aké and RLC... there's no way we should park a bus winning 2-0, first half, at home against Bradford, but I respect your take on it.

Thanks for the explanation, although except for using Drogba (which is a selection mistake, not a tactical mistake) I can't see what Mourinho did so wrong for people who haven't even watched the match call his tactics pathetic...

Ah, yeah, I get what you're saying.

I guess I just include selection and tactics together. In that its a stupid tactic to play an injured striker in the central role, if at all. Its a stupid tactic to play inexperienced defenders with Cahill leading the line.

And maybe I'm wrong, but I'm a fan of the bus when it does the job. I'd have been ecstatic if we'd held the lead, and won on a day where so many other top teams went out. Beautiful football is nice (I mean look at the Swansea game ), but 'negative' football is sometimes necessary.

[CeleryFC 373]

Oh yeah, and I was really hoping Ake would feature. If you're gunna rotate [and lets be honest we had to!], I'd comfortably put my trust in him.

[iceman 329]

were you there? sorry, I didn't catch it in the thread and I wrote that post while I was still 6 pages or so back - still filled with so many opinionated people that didn't watch the match

no, i wasn't. it's only dream

[Dion 2,476]

Just gonna stop by and say I found the fourth goal cringeworthy, that should have never happened. Plenty of defensive mistakes watching the highlights however the fourth goal felt plain wrong, like I was watching sunday league or something.

[Laylabelle 9,296]

Wouldn't call it a upset based on that performance

[The Chels 2,502]

Tactics?

Sorry, but some people here need to shut the heck up about Mourinho in a match they haven't even watched.

Watching the highlights we conceded four goals because of defense mistakes, what does tactics have to do with that?

Cech should have defended the first and the last three their players were completely unmarked. That second goal is a shame, absolutely embarrassing that a player is left alone a few yards from the goal in our box, completely alone. The third and the fourth are defense 101 mistakes. You always have someone covering the central edge of the box when opposition is attacking. Willian was a passenger doing fuck nothing in the fourth (I don't remember and won't be bothered to rewatch and say who should be there for the third). Ramires, Cesc, Oscar or Willian should have been there, they weren't (Willian actually was in the third, marking his mother's spirit it seems).

So please, don't talk about pathetic tactics when you haven't even watched the game and the highlights clearly show what a horror fest our defense has been - which can hardly be a tactics problem. Maybe we didn't have the right tactics for the game, you aren't qualified to answer, only who actually watched the game.

This is probably addressed somewhat at me so I feel I should respond.

I do think tactics were partly to blame. Look at how many times Bradford got in and around our box even though we were leading. That suggests that our pressing was non-existent or constantly overcome (didn't watch so can't say) and I don't understand why that should be the case. Our players should have been more than capable of pressing and preventing a League 1 side from advancing so deep into our half, and so I am led to believe that they were either not instructed to press or the pressing was disjointed (as usual). The issues with pressing and compactness have been recurring themes this season, even with the first team so I am not surprised to see them here.

My personal opinion is that we don't necessarily have a good or clear defensive philosophy. Instead we rely heavily on individuals - mostly Matic - to keep us defensively stable. And a system that depends too much on individual brilliance means that when that player has a bad game or doesn't play then the limitations of the system come to light. Obviously Matic is an exceptional player and it would be difficult to replace the qualities he brings, but the system doesn't allow him to be replaced IMO. Without his ability to cover the huge spaces that we often leave (generally because of the disjointed pressing) then we tend to be defensively very vulnerable. In this game we allowed Bradford to get into dangerous positions numerous times and we then made many individual mistakes, which really isn't surprising given the players we had out there. So for each goal conceded what do you blame - the individual mistake(s) right at the end of the passage of play or the tactical errors that allowed the passage of play to develop and allowed for those mistakes to be a (big) possibility? Personally I blame the latter.

None of these factors would be such an issue if our defenders were capable of defending for themselves but we all know that is not the case.

[akandeel13 34]

Salah just looked poor. The only great thing he did was his assist for Ramires' goal, but in general, he was poor.

If Salah's precision assist while sprinting at 33kmh+ is the only brilliant thing he did, it still surpasses what most others did on the pitch yesterday.

And it was 2-1 when he walked off the pitch. But no one here mentions that.

[Special Juan 27,103]

This is not me blaming Salah but just watch back that whole game and see his movement......His time here is fucked because he is not at the level we need.

[boshman 1,073]

were you there? Can you describe how we were set up tactically please? (edit: just reached this page, so yep, you were there indeed. so you wanted him to ask the team to sit deep winning 2-0 or he asked the team to sit deep winning 2-0? I'm confused).

I'm not defending Mourinho, I'm just against blind accusation that has been on this forum lately. they blame mourinho even for match they didn't watch and all goals we conceded were 100% defensive mistakes - some of them basic mistakes.

So until you, @Liquidator, @Hutcho, @boshman or another fan who watched the match comes here and says that Mourinho got the wrong tactics (better yet, describe which tactics he employed) I won't have an opinion about it like some here are do dead serious that it was his mistake. The team he got should have won, no doubt about it, no matter who he got there, only one youth player - that wasn't at fault at all in any of the goals - 10 main team players, squad members or not, shouldn't have allowed that load of BS to happen.

I'm tired of people jumping on Mourinho for everything. And I'm the least happy about him that I've ever been, I'm disappointed about a few things he's been doing, but still, I'm tired of the shit going on here about him. Either I'll block the usual suspects or I'll jsut avoid the forum altogether.

There was nothing wrong with Jose's tactics. There was no difference to the way we have played all season. This result is all on the players. Their performance in the 2nd half was shambolic.

Salah had a shocker. Drogba was awful. Oscar was anonymous. Christensen isn't ready for this type of high pressure football (see the Christensen thread for what I mean by that at 2-3)

The one thing I will criticise Jose on is substitutions as I have mentioned before. Bradford were on top from the 1st minute of the 2nd half but for some reason he waited until 65th ish minute to make a change.

For some reason Bradford wanted it more. Were first to every ball, were stronger in the tackle etc, etc. That for me is the players attitude not the managers tactics.

[Laylabelle 9,296]

Agree!Soon as it went 2-1 you could tell how it was going to end.Espically seeing how quick they were 2nd half l.