Closed Stoke 1-1 Chelsea

[cosmicway 1,255]

We are slow.

10 months now, the same thing.

At first I thought it was a Mourinho tactic. Let time fly rather than go fast. Also we were in front early most matches.

But it's not. It's a problem.

Typically the midfield situation is sticky wicket and we see many back passes, when we expect forward movement.

When at last we make a forward move, the final recipient, be it Hazard, Diego or someone else has to fight the battle of Stalingrad and win it before getting into a shooting position. 95% loses the ball - end of story. That was not so with Eto-Torres as also before, in Didier Drogba days.
At the same time we seem to have a problem in defense too, with 10-12 goals conceded from set pieces plus that the no 1 goalkeeper Tibaut is injured. But the big deal is midfield-attack where things are not as they should.

This is therefore what we need.
Speed and sustained speed.
Forget about all remarks concerning individuals, except in relation to running.
We have become a team of pedestrians and it's the source of all the current troubles.

[cosmicway 1,255]

I know this thing about speed from myself.

At the age of 20 I played in a college match after a long absence. During that absence I also had injections for back pains.

For the first 5 minutes I ran up and down as fast as I could, mindful of the offside trap too. I managed a through ball to the right winger who missed it from close range.
Then nearly collapsed. I stayed in but doing things real slow now. Rubbish. Best thing was when I took a corner kick later on.
The next time the same feeling. But now my metabolism adjusted during play and I could do it.
So it's like this. You move fast, you play well, you do useful things, spectators are excited. You move slow, they throw eggs.

[Muzchap 8,966]

At least you can eat the eggs