closed Chelsea 1-1 Man United

[kellzfresh 7,229]

30 minutes ago, Jason said:

All goes back to what I said initially - we aren't starting games on the front foot. But this isn't just a problem under Hiddink. It's been an issue under previous managers as well. I mean, how many times have we heard Tony Gale talking about our slow starts on commentary?

But I don't really know where this our mentality is coming from. It seems that not even the coach can change it. Anyways let's hope for better next season. 

[communicate 2,703]

On 2/7/2016 at 2:57 AM, Jason said:

Hiddink deserves criticism for the starting XI he put out today, especially with Oscar starting on the left side and leaving Hazard on the bench. Should have been the other way round. Having said that, I can also understand in some ways why he did what he did. Hazard has played tons of matches in recent years and judging by the number of injuries he's picked up this season alone, the fatigue and exhaustion have clearly caught up with him. So, I can understand why Hiddink is taking precaution and slowly building him up to full fitness again rather than rushing him back and risking him getting injured again or worse, becoming an injury prone player.

On the game, I thought the point was the very least we deserved. In fact, I thought we should have won the game. I know we weren't great by any means, especially in the first 20-25 minutes, but when one look at the overall match, we still created the better chances and definitely should have scored more than the one. The fact that De Gea had so many saves to make - more than Courtois for that matter - says it all really. If we had better luck and been better with the finishing, we would be talking about another huge result here.

Regarding the point made about not wanting to see Matic and Mikel play in the pivot, I can understand why Hiddink has been going with that duo. Granted, it doesn't look great in any way but to put things into some perspective, we have been extremely vulnerable defensively in the previous matches whenever the opposition attacked. You only have to look back at the Scunthorpe, West Brom, Everton and even MK Dons games to see that we've been giving away too much space between the lines and chances and players have been given free runs at our defence. In this game against United, we barely gave anything away from the central area, forcing them to go wide instead with the team dealing with most of their threat very well. This squad definitely needs some major surgery in the summer but right now with the options that we have, I think Hiddink is clearly trying to utilize the players in the best manner possible to ensure that we are balanced as a team and not being too gung-ho or too vulnerable defensively. He can only work with what he was given and I don't think it's fair to criticize him for every little thing.

Excellent post, everybody complained about mikel n matic partnership but when fabregas play in midfield defensively we are leaking space plus goals like crazy. IMO best option is ramires but we sold him, so pretty much we have to wait till summer before we can have good midfield play

Regarding Hazard, I think hiddink said in his interview, he has been injured a lot and we have plenty important game ahead (UCL) hence he want to bring him slowly.