closed Man United 2-0 Chelsea

[MrExcalibur100 7,124]

4 minutes ago, bluephoenix said:

I appreciate Conte for one thing he has taken the blame upon himself. Unlike a certain someone *cough mourinho* who would have said that his players failed him.

In all fairness it was his fault, he changed way too much without properly thinking about it. He needs to practice these kinds of things with the players before he makes those kind of changes in a game( I am assuming he himself didn't anticipate these changes).

 

Alonso was ill the night before the game. Couldn't be helped. 

[MrExcalibur100 7,124]

It's interesting but not surprising that in both games we've lost recently, we didn't have our first choice wingbacks. Shows how important that role is to the system we play.

[Kieran. 6,317]

2 minutes ago, MrExcalibur100 said:

It's interesting but not surprising that in both games we've lost recently, we didn't have our first choice wingbacks. Shows how important that role is to the system we play.

Interesting point, I hadn't thought of that

[Yeboii 1,844]

2 hours ago, chelseawise said:

Spot on, that was exactly what messed up our structure and performance as whole. Why disrupt the poor kids progress at bournemouth and bring him back is something I will never know.

Ake should have replaced Alonso and that is that.

I think he couldn't replace him with Aké since Aké wasn't on the bench and he had turned in the XI and bench players when it was clear that Alonso couldn't play. Zouma was the only suitable replacement, and he did alright I might add.

[cosmicway 1,333]

52 minutes ago, Dahnald said:

There is no shame in losing to ManUtd at OT.

 

Especially when you miss Alonso and Courtois. The problem is however that certain players don't really seem bothered with it. To name one: Costa.

We all saw how easy he drops his manager. Last season proved that. He isn't fighting for Chelsea or Conte anymore because he knows he'll move away in the summer.

Mercenary players like him need to be avoided. 

There was no shame when we lost to Palace, the way it happened.
Also away to Spurs.
But with today's performance we cannot beat any first division team.

[cosmicway 1,333]

In MOTM the mod put the wrong keeper.

[Jase 43,479]

After more than 5 hours, the anger has finally set in. Fucking fuming right now!

[Dahnald 256]

Mourinho tapping the MUFC badge.

 

Who cares really? He's only in the game for himself. Always addressing how many titles HE has won, not he and his players/former teams.

If he was the ManCity coach he would've done the whole tapping the badge thing as well. ManUtd fans winding themselves up about this. Pathetic. 

[Jase 43,479]

United at Old Trafford was always going to be a tough game, even with their average form, and while I may accept the defeat, I just can't take the manner of the performance. It's one thing not to be playing well but it's another not to be showing any kind of hunger, desire, commitment to the cause. That performance against United was the one we saw against Liverpool and Arsenal back in September. It was the one we saw many times last season. It was spineless, listless, devoid of pride, devoid of fighting for the target. The fact that Cahill was more bothered about being Mr Nice Guy in the buildup for that second goal speaks volume of the mindset against United. We're so close to the title but do the players actually want to win it? Do they want to be remembered as title winners? Or do they want to be remembered as title failures, who had a 10-point lead with 8-9 games remaining? If the players throw away the title, they need to take a long hard look at themselves. If the worst happens, it'll leave a far worst taste, feeling and memory than last season.

[nono 791]

10 minutes ago, Jason said:

United at Old Trafford was always going to be a tough game, even with their average form, and while I may accept the defeat, I just can't take the manner of the performance. It's one thing not to be playing well but it's another not to be showing any kind of hunger, desire, commitment to the cause. That performance against United was the one we saw against Liverpool and Arsenal back in September. It was the one we saw many times last season. It was spineless, listless, devoid of pride, devoid of fighting for the target. The fact that Cahill was more bothered about being Mr Nice Guy in the buildup for that second goal speaks volume of the mindset against United. We're so close to the title but do the players actually want to win it? Do they want to be remembered as title winners? Or do they want to be remembered as title failures, who had a 10-point lead with 8-9 games remaining? If the players throw away the title, they need to take a long hard look at themselves. If the worst happens, it'll leave a far worst taste, feeling and memory than last season.

Bottling the title is bad enough but imagine doing it to Spurs. *Shudders*

[Beigl 1,387]

I wish we would have more characters and leaders in our team, like we had in the title race from 2010 for example. We suffered set backs against Spurs or Blackburn late that season, but we had a very strong core of players who would never back down no matter how big the occasion was. I don't want to downplay our current crop of players, but they don't have the same fire and self confidence in them compared to Lampard, Terry, Drogba, Ballack, Essien. We looked paralyzed and shocked when we were 1-0 down today and no one wanted to step up, as we have no real leaders in our team.

Could you imagine our former captain helping a United player to get up during a game? No, me neither. That was so pathetic by Cahill.

[bluephoenix 1,131]

The real kick on the nut was we couldn't get a shot on goal.  #Abysmal 

WTF are the players getting paid exorbitantly for?

Mourinho knew pretty too well Hazard was the only caring the team given Costa is still searching for his ****s and he shut him out well.

I can't believe Conte didn't come up with a counter strategy for that. I mean from an outsider point I could have ordered a bunch of newbies on the field to suffocate Hazard. 

 

WTF was Cahill doing for the second goal. 

[El P. 1,354]

Good thing we played against United. Because, with this kind of performance we would lose against anyone, or at least draw.

We are not good, but we are good enough to take 13-15 from 18 points from our remaining games, which should be enough.

[Tomo 21,751]

1 hour ago, Beigl said:

I wish we would have more characters and leaders in our team, like we had in the title race from 2010 for example. We suffered set backs against Spurs or Blackburn late that season, but we had a very strong core of players who would never back down no matter how big the occasion was. I don't want to downplay our current crop of players, but they don't have the same fire and self confidence in them compared to Lampard, Terry, Drogba, Ballack, Essien. We looked paralyzed and shocked when we were 1-0 down today and no one wanted to step up, as we have no real leaders in our team.

Could you imagine our former captain helping a United player to get up during a game? No, me neither. That was so pathetic by Cahill.

While I am not doubting the character of those players there is a lot of convienent abnesia going on with nostalgia hindsight. Back in the 2010 title run in the performance at White Hart Lane was every bit as bad as what we saw yesterday, if not worse. 

[Blue Armour 4,442]

3 hours ago, Tomo said:

While I am not doubting the character of those players there is a lot of convienent abnesia going on with nostalgia hindsight. Back in the 2010 title run in the performance at White Hart Lane was every bit as bad as what we saw yesterday, if not worse. 

I was thinking back to that WHL game in 2010 as well.

Back then United were the ones chasing us, and Spurs tripped us up, JT got sent off. Just role reversal atm.

And back then, we were trying to defend a 1 pt lead and had to play the penultimate game of the season away to Benitez's Liverpool.

If you compare that title defense to this one, we were just about edging it back then (although we were thrashing teams towards the end).

Just need to remind the players of the position of control they still have.

 

EDIT: To steady the ship, it would be good to have more leaders on the pitch for the next few games. Right now its mostly Hazard trying to direct and do everything on his own. With Diego in the mood he is in right now, I would go with Fabregas to start the remaining games (even at the risk of losing some steel in midfield), simply because he's another player that tries to take charge.

[Jase 43,479]

3 hours ago, Tomo said:

While I am not doubting the character of those players there is a lot of convienent abnesia going on with nostalgia hindsight. Back in the 2010 title run in the performance at White Hart Lane was every bit as bad as what we saw yesterday, if not worse. 

Looking back at the game, not sure how we lost that only 2-1. Could have easily lost it by 5 or 6 that day.

[bluephoenix 1,131]

10 hours ago, MrExcalibur100 said:

It's interesting but not surprising that in both games we've lost recently, we didn't have our first choice wingbacks. Shows how important that role is to the system we play.

He could have played Ake in one of those cases though.

[manpe 10,861]

Felt Conte made mistakes choosing his team, especially defenders. I understand when we have 2 injuries for key players (Courtois and Marcos) we will never be as good as with our regular XI, but that defensive line didn't make much sense to me:

Azpi - Zouma - Luiz - Cahill - Moses

I mean why play Moses on the left when Azpi has more experience playing on that side? Why play Zouma at all when you know Zlatan isn't starting and you can replace Alonso directly with Ake and keep 4/5 of your regular line intact instead of 2/5 like above.

Moses - Azpi - Luiz - Cahill - Ake

I get the annoying feeling that if he had just trusted Ake to start this game in his somewhat natural position, we might not have conceded 2 goals and looked generally so lost. It's annoying that he doesn't seem to trust young players like Michy and Ake, while giving RLC rare short cameos that I can't understand (he is never going to inspire a comeback). When Marcos is out, PLAY NATHAN PLEASE instead of makeshift right-footed wingers.

[manpe 10,861]

5 hours ago, Beigl said:

Could you imagine our former captain helping a United player to get up during a game? No, me neither. That was so pathetic by Cahill.

Now you're just clutching at straws to bash GC for no reason. Nothing wrong with helping somebody up and not doing so doesn't show amazing leadership or whatever, get a grip.

[the wes 7,212]

1 hour ago, manpe said:

 Nothing wrong with helping somebody up and not doing so doesn't show amazing leadership or whatever, get a grip.

Helping someone up when the ball outta off play yes but helping someone up why the other team attacking is no no