The Hiddink Thread

[Azul 1,615]

You have no idea where I'm coming from? I have no idea where you're coming from by saying you'd throw a load of youngsters into the team at Old Trafford.

A load of youngsters? Baba isn't even from our youth and we bought him for 20m + he is way better than Brana.

Kenedy is ten times the player that Oscar is. He has impressed us when he has come on unlike Oscar.

RLC is better than Mikel and you know it. Don't need to explain why.

How do you not see this? Have you been watching our games this season mate?

[DYC. 7,542]

I would as well. But in more amiable circumstances. Old Trafford is a baptism of fire. The youngsters will get the chances they deserve if they earn them!

No, they won't. The same is said every single season.

I agree with your point but you can't deny there's something fundamentally wrong with Chelsea when it comes to putting even the slightest bit of trust in young, raw players. There's always an excuse. Haven't even been able to produce a mere squad-player in all these years.

[GodZola 630]

It's one thing to make those errors in your second match in charge, it's something entirely different to keep making those same errors months after months, defeat after defeat, poor performances after poor performances. It took Guus 45 mins to see that Cesc alongside Matic wasn't working. He acted swiftly and replaced him with Mikel. How long did it take Mourinho before he finally dropped Cesc? How many times did we have to watch Cesc get turned and our midfield sliced opened by the slightest of movement before Mourinho finally did something about it? I understand that some people on here who are strong supporters of Mourinho are desperate for some vindication. I don't blame you, after all it's human nature to want to be proven right. But to criticize Guus for making similar errors in judgement as Mourinho without acknowledgement that the former is only 1 week into his managerial tenure, is quite frankly the height of absurdity.

Good points raised. Would many managers, upon taking over a team mid season, bench a starter based solely on video analyses? I don't think so. I would think most managers would want to see how a player responds to their style/methods of coaching before deciding to replace them in starting line-up. I agree with you that Guus might never drop Ivanovic, but I also think it's important to bare in mind that he's taking over a team that's low in confidence and solidarity. I would imagine that for an interim manager walking into these circumstances, the first priority would probably be to try to lift the mood and unify the dressing room. I'm not sure if coming in and making radical changes right away would be the best approach to take to improve performances/results.

So it took Guus 45 minutes to see the ploblem with Fabregas but he failed to see in another 45 minutes that Ivanovich was a no brainer to be taken off - no? You could argue that José detractors were stating the exact same things after a few games this season, this coming off the back of a season where Ivanovich was voted by his peers & pundits alike as best in his position, moving forward they were indeed proved 100% correct, so it doesn't bode well.

I think he has replaced one problem with another by employing Mikel, whilst he offers security he also losses possession far too often in key areas, the opposition then recycle the ball and we are under pressure again. I'm not sure yet the change with Fabregas/Mikel was an astute piece of tactical knowledge or an enforced one due to an injury to Cesc as he didn't travel yesterday. However I concur with you regards the change as Matic always looks a far better player when Fabregas is not playing, I just hope he finds a better solution than Mikel.

I neither thought José being sacked was right or wrong, he became stubborn in more ways than one and had his favourites and made the mistake of sticking by them game after game, one poor performance after another, some players repaid that loyalty by throwing in the towel and I've mentioned many times this season how the board left him out to dry.

I hope Guus makes the necessary changes and quickly however I remain unconvinced, though we all have to remain patient and give the guy some time, in a couple of months or so we can review whether his appointment was a good bit of business or a desperate one by the board.

[BlueLion. 21,491]

A load of youngsters? Baba isn't even from our youth and we bought him for 20m + he is way better than Brana.

Kenedy is ten times the player that Oscar is. He has impressed us when he has come on unlike Oscar.

RLC is better than Mikel and you know it. Don't need to explain why.

How do you not see this? Have you been watching our games this season mate?

Form is temporary, class is permanent.

[Azul 1,615]

Form is temporary, class is permanent.

By that logic Falcao should be a world beater

[Belgiannutt 3,201]

By that logic Falcao should be a world beater

That's different. Falcao had a serious knee injury. After that he's never been the same.

[hjperdeath 2,226]

By that logic Falcao should be a world beater

Pretty sure the difference that Costa offers over Falcao is different from Ivanovic offers over Baba. He might not be the best we have, but there is a reason he is starting .Something he might do in training, or around the players, whatever it is managers aren't completely blind, they are like us, they have their reasons.

[LDN Blue 7,903]

Form is temporary, class is permanent.

After seeing this time and time again on the Torres thread, this is by far my least favourite phrase in football now

[Azul 1,615]

Wait wait are we seriously still making excuses for players like Oscar, Ivanovic and Fabregas?

I can't believe you guys are watching the same games I'm watching.

This mentality is what separates us from the world class teams, I hope our next manager atleast has more ambition than you lot.

[hjperdeath 2,226]

Wait wait are we seriously still making excuses for players like Oscar, Ivanovic and Fabregas?

I can't believe you guys are watching the same games I'm watching.

This mentality is what separates us from the world class teams, I hope our next manager atleast has more ambition than you lot.

There was no need to take the high horse really. You have an opinion, you just got to agree to disagree. We are all Chelsea fans, what are you going to get by questioning our ambition when everyone here wants the club to be successful. You think X should play over Y with Z reasons, good for you man, your opinion back it up. Others have their reasons too, which surprisingly to you has been backed by two managers who have a history of winning ( atleast so far) , why so much hostility.

[Azul 1,615]

There was no need to take the high horse really. You have an opinion, you just got to agree to disagree. We are all Chelsea fans, what are you going to get by questioning our ambition when everyone here wants the club to be successful. You think X should play over Y with Z reasons, good for you man, your opinion back it up. Others have their reasons too, which surprisingly to you has been backed by two managers who have a history of winning ( atleast so far) , why so much hostility.

No hostility on my part, if I offended you I apologize. I'm just curious. How in the hell do people still manage to think about these players as first team contenders? That's what I'm curious about.

But I guess it's your opinion, so let's leave it at that.

[hjperdeath 2,226]

No hostility on my part, if I offended you I apologize. I'm just curious. How in the hell do people still manage to think about these players as first team contenders? That's what I'm curious about.

I don't think Ivanovic should be a nailed down contender for the first team spot.Chelsea could and should do much better than him, especially in a spot such as right-back, considering how much we try to shift it to the wings. But right now our hands are tied at the back considering what the situation is, atleast Hiddink's is. He can come in and either stick with what he thinks he is right or experiment with Baba. In a time like this where interim managers come in, reputation often precedes any other characteristic, especially considering how Hiddink would love to play the "Old Guard" card and stick with good ol' term of experience right now. The fact is Baba could do much better than Brana or he could do much worse, as an interim manager Guus wouldn't want to take risks. Simple thing to do, is wait until the end of the season, lay down our priorities and chase a different way of how we want our defensive line to look like.

Also I'm pretty sure when Alex said "Form is temporary, class is permanent" kind off pushes the reputation agenda, something, which I say again, carries more importance in the current climate.

[kmk108 1,186]

I wasn't expecting wholesale changes immediately.

I'm sure Hiddink is doing his own analysis of the players. He's been in charge for all of one week. He needs more time with the players in order to see their work-rate in training and see how they all work during match days.

[Parky 739]

Let's judge him by the end of this season not by one week in charge...

[Rhino's Skin 972]

Let's judge him by the end of this season not by one week in charge...

Bugger that...let's judge the old dinosaur now.

Oops, I just have ;-)

[11Drogba 2,000]

If results don't improve there will be palpable discord among the players this time. Hiddink better makes the right calls quickly.

[OneMoSalah 8,886]

Lets be honest, he is an interim manager, on a 6 month contract, not 6 years... he will use mainly the same players Jose did, the same formation and probably just make tweaks to certain things like Benitez did when he took over from Di Matteo. If your expecting him to turn Chelsea into Barcelona/Ajax, using academy products every week then please wake up, it would be suicide for him to rip apart a team that won two trophies a year ago and put trust in unproven and potentially not good enough players.

PS. I am still confused as to why RLC wasn't sent on loan, which is mainly Mourinho's fault as he wanted to keep him in the squad despite blasting him in pre-season and subbing him after 25 mins in some game, get him on loan somewhere, you see guys like Solanke and Nathan Ake playing every week and its painful that we have an inferior player in our squad rather than on loan enjoying himself playing every week.

[Belgiannutt 3,201]

It's going to take time to fix this team.

For me the main problem was/still is that this team has been playing reactionary football for the past 2 and a half years. We always adapted ourselves to the opposition.

The defensive side seemed like the only thing that was actually coached and was focused on taking as little risk as possible and giving as much protection to our back four as possible.

(just think about Willian/Ivanovic where willian had to act like a wingback and constantly drop extremely deep while Ivanovic was just standing there on the edge of the box, hands behind his back, watching Willian do his job for him.)

Our attack in those 2 and a half years was primarily focused on individual brilliance. Relying heavily on our attacking players improvising on the spot without any rehearsed patterns of play to help them.

When the majority of our attacking players were in form we played well but that only lasted for about 4 months. After that the majority of our attacking players form dipped.

Luckily Hazard's didn't and we were able to rely solely on his individual brilliance for our attack while going more defensive to compensate for the lower attacking output (as we were only relying on 1 player instead of 5 to create, score )

We simply don't have an actual system (attacking wise) in place to which our players can fall back to when they're not in top form. That's why the team collapsed the way it did.

We just pass the ball around aimlessly because none of our attacking players are in good enough form to force the issue on their own.

I'm not expecting any miracles from Hiddink i just hope he will instill the basics, for attacking football, into this team again.

Lay the foundation so another manager can come in and not have to start from scratch like Hiddink has to now.

[kmk108 1,186]

If results don't improve there will be palpable discord among the players this time. Hiddink better makes the right calls quickly.

I'm sure there is discord among the players right now anyway. I'm sure not all of the players wanted Jose gone and I'm sure there's players that are looking at others and dissatisfied with their level of effort. Anytime stars get in the kind of mess, there is going to be discord.

I think one of the reasons Hiddink was brought in was to unify the dressing room. Just as he was in 2009 and RDM did in 2012.

[DYC. 7,542]

Uncle Gus, I don't know what you did, maybe you put something in the drinks (don't care), but you and your team made me very happy today. Thank you.

Lucky Guus is still alive. He hasn't lost.