The Hiddink Thread

[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 8,776]

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.

[Eidur the Spider 4,515]

In Grandpa Guus we trust!!!!

 

[Henrique 9,133]

Best performance I've seen from Chelsea since 2013. Team winning 1-0, 2-0, 3-0, and still exchanging passes in the attakcking field (many passes), instead of trying stupid long balls, and the team never stopped moving forward, instead of sitting back and trying counter attacks.

As a result, biggest win since January, and Palace suffered biggest home defeat since 2013. Palace was completely dominated during the 2nd half. If there was Hazard instead of Pedro, the result would be a 5-0 or 6-0.

I'm so glad the right decision was made weeks ago. It seems we will see some decent piece of tooball for the rest of the season.

[Stats 7,053]

I hope all those critics who said he will not be any different to Mourinho give him the credit he deserves. Clear difference he has made so far and the team looks so much fluid. Like I said, I am greatful for what Mourinho has done here but this change for the season should have been made a lot earlier.

[Clockwork 1,794]

I have been away for a few weeks, but not sure it has been discussed but we need better distribution from the back four. Especially CBs that are conferable on the ball. Watford and United showed, pressure the back four you are going disturb the flow of the team. I hope we address this need in the transfer window. 

[LDN Blue 7,903]

More like it from Guus, definitely built on the dire performance in Manchester a few days ago. Ballsy to drop Matic in favour of Mikel - That hasn't been done in years.