Good performances vs. Good results

[bluephoenix 1,131]

After going four years without a league title, I wouldn't mind if we 0-0'd and 1-0'd our way to the title this season, I really wouldn't. I can understand that people want to see more bang for their buck, but let's just win this league title, and next year let's try and defend it by playing some sexy football.

But don't you think that has been the attitude for 4 years now ? If I am not wrong last season we had a good chance of keeping a lead and winning the league but we squandered it !

Why postpone some thing for tomorrow when it can be done right away ?

I mean what do you think would change from now and winning the title and later playing sexy football ? I doubt we are going to have a major over haul in terms of buying and selling players that the start of new season we will be any more promising than what it is right now. In fact if we win this way I think there is no way Jose is going to change the way we play. He would just say " it worked for us last season, we are champions and no one else is !"

[BlueLyon 9,359]

But don't you think that has been the attitude for 4 years now ? If I am not wrong last season we had a good chance of keeping a lead and winning the league but we squandered it !

Why postpone some thing for tomorrow when it can be done right away ?

I mean what do you think would change from now and winning the title and later playing sexy football ? I doubt we are going to have a major over haul in terms of buying and selling players that the start of new season we will be any more promising than what it is right now. In fact if we win this way I think there is no way Jose is going to change the way we play. He would just say " it worked for us last season, we are champions and no one else is !"

It works in league because opponents are relatively shit.

It doesnt work in CL. It didnt work last year and it didnt work this year. While we got far last year, I think we could put better performance against atletico. This year, we lost in 1/8, something we rarely did in past.

And we might play similar style to that one from 2004-07, but the efficiency and tactics are alot worse than back then.

My ONLY real question is; why buying players like Cesc, Willian, Cuadrado etc if we will never use them properly. If Mou wont change to more offensive, then he should target physical, efficient players, not lightweighters with flair. Logic fails me here.

[Myself 793]

Imagine if we were Man City and we weren't performing and we weren't getting results! Be thankful for what you have!

It makes me laugh how Sky are going all Billy Big Bollocks about Liverpool's 13 game unbeaten streak. Sure, it's a tremendous feat and they're doing great. But the nonsense about "if the league started at Christmas, we'd be top" is laughable. "Oooh look, we've got ten more points than Chelsea in the last 13 games". So what? We got about 20 more than them in the games prior to that.

My point is this - you can play gorgeous football and win matches. But can you do it over the course of a whole season? Its very, very difficult. There have been patches this season where we looked unstoppable, playing good football and scoring some sexy goals. But Liverpool, City, Arsenal, even United have had those same little patches over the course of the campaign so far. Nobody has done it consistently this season and I think that links, in part, to the fact that the PL is as competitive as its ever been. Be off your game for even 45 minutes and you will be punished, as City found out at the weekend.

Good results breed confidence, and confidence leads to improved performances. We've not quite got the results recently, and having also been knocked out of the UCL it is little surprise we're close to running on empty psychologically. A fault of Jose's is his relative lack of rotation, which again means we're running on empty from a physical point of view. But get one or two wins on the bounce and things will look a little rosier.

After going four years without a league title, I wouldn't mind if we 0-0'd and 1-0'd our way to the title this season, I really wouldn't. I can understand that people want to see more bang for their buck, but let's just win this league title, and next year let's try and defend it by playing some sexy football.

Nobody is asking for that though. That's an unrealistic expectation, an impossible feat. What we're asking for is that we at least try to play nice football. We've parked the bus against EVERY big team this season (bar Everton, or Arsenal if they count ), and for the last few months we haven't attacked well against even the Leicester's and QPR's of the league.

Another big thing that people don't always take into consideration from their armchairs (no offence intended, I also watch most Chelsea games from my sofa ) is how the match going fans feel. People that cough up thousands of dollars, travel thousands of miles to watch their team play. How do you think the fans at Stamford Bridge felt after the game at PSG? And then getting shit on fans on the tube on their way back home? Spending likely 150+ to watch us not be able to pass a ball 10 damn feet?

There's a reason our best attacking players have seriously declined since January. For the last few games, our main outlet of goals has been set pieces. Yes, it's understandable considering we've got monsters in the air, but when you've got genuine world class players like Costa and Hazard in your team its very dissapointing.

As for the second point, don't you think we'd already have that confidence, that boost, if we hadn't seriously lowered our attacking expectations? If you look at our results list this season, I'm sure you'll notice we've scored more and conceded less in the first half of the season.

Food for thought, that's all.