closed Watford 4-1 Chelsea

[cosmicway 1,326]

We were down to ten.
I saw the second half and we were awful, but Hazard managed to equalize and I expected us to win.
Then the collapse, before we even regained the ball.

There was an element of bad luck -today- but overall the team has become unwatchable.

[CFC-Hazard10 19]

How some of these players are deemed professional and worthy of playing for the reigning champions is beyond me.

Bakayoko - What honestly has he done since joining Chelsea? Played in one of Monaco's most exciting teams and okay I understand some players may need a season to adapt to the Premier League, but this guy cannot even pass to a blue shirt. When he loses the ball, he doesn't try to win it back, strolls back. On the rare occasion he does run back he clatters into the player who dispossessed him. Awful signing, flop of the season.

Pedro - Headless chicken. I love Pedro when the team is on form, but he is useless when we need our forward players to create and hold up the play. Hudson-Odoi would have been able to have put in a better performance tonight. 

David Luiz - You can tell he and Conte fell out. He just doesn't 'care' anymore. Back to his bull in a China shop ways. 

Cahill - No words.

I can name many more in this side who are not Chelsea standard. It seems a distant memory where we had leaders in our team. Terry, Cole, Lampard, Ballack, Drogba, with players around them like Carvalho, Ferreira, Makelele (my favourite 'recent' player), Robben, Joe Cole, Cech.... only Hazard from now would get in that team. 

Conte has made mistakes, sure. He even admitted that tonight with his selection. But he needs to have a plan B when it's not going right. At 0-1, we didn't need 3 central defenders. We was creating nothing. Why not take off Moses, switch to a 4-2-3 with Hudson-Odoi replacing him. Okay, he may not have sparked a comeback, but we saw from the Bournemouth game that he is willing to take on his man and try, something our players are not doing at the moment. With just Giroud & Hazard, we was getting crowded out, needed that 3rd man in attack.

Speaking of Giroud, I was glad we got him, I think he would do well. But why did we not play to his strength when he came on? He had one opportunity to attack the ball with his head, which ended up with good defending from the Watford attacker.

Our season is over. We should from now use our youth to get them more match experience and who knows, even unearth a gem. Hudson-Odoi won't do any worse than current form Pedro/Willian. Sterling won't do any worse than Moses/Zappacosta. As much as he is the main scapegoat for some, Cahill will play as he is captain...

It will be an absolute miracle if we somehow progress against Barcelona.

[bohops 7]

Couple things,

1. Wat & Bour go man for man tactical & look better. This should show the quality at the club, outside of Eden, Kante, Azpilicueta & Courtois (today) it's a push position by position at best. 

2. Last 2 goals should show why Fab didn't & shouldn't start for a team wanting to compete for titles & may be top four. (Other top team don't have a player that they have to change formation to cover for him)

3. I like Conte hope he makes it through, but I understand if he's broken with high expectations but low quality. Don't see a good out come if they axe him. (who would want to step into this, so many holes to fill)

4. Morata will be critical going forward, he gives us something no one else does that's at the club.

5. Teams needs CM that can keep the ball & link the D to O, this is the biggest problem. But quality upgrade is needed in about 4 to 5 positions.

[BlueLyon 9,359]

I have zero idea why Conte again played Eden as striker which clearly doesnt work instead of either Giroud or Pedro. 

And our so called transfers that were brought to add dimensions to our bench, we have Bakayoko in first 11 who I would drop immediately, but there is not single player that can effectively replace him in 3:4:3. Bakayoko.

You need good options to rotate, our first 11 isnt great, but when we need to rotate, our bench players make absolutely disaster performances.

We now CAN rotate, but we prefer not to because the board bought players that are too shit. 

105 million on Drinkwater, Bakayoko and Zappacosta. Let that sink in. 

What a ridiculous mess the club is in right now.

[manpe 10,861]

Missed the game, take it we played well but were unlucky. 

[Special Juan 27,429]

2 hours ago, manpe said:

Missed the game, take it we played well but were unlucky. 

Our physical condition was poor.

[Fulham Broadway 16,863]

Watched it again and a lot was down to shit refereeing as well. Two definite free kicks should have been awarded to us which led to two of their goals seconds afterwards. Bakayoko shouldn't have even had a yellow let alone two -Mike Dean has sent off more Premier Lge players than any other referee. So my summary was, yes, underperforming players, not helped by an abysmal refereeing performance and foaming mouth journalists.

[Special Juan 27,429]

6 minutes ago, Fulham Broadway said:

Watched it again and a lot was down to shit refereeing as well. Two definite free kicks should have been awarded to us which led to two of their goals seconds afterwards. Bakayoko shouldn't have even had a yellow let alone two -Mike Dean has sent off more Premier Lge players than any other referee. So my summary was, yes, underperforming players, not helped by an abysmal refereeing performance and foaming mouth journalists.

We couldn't handle their pressing because the amount of uncomfortable players on the ball we have is scary. As for the referee, he isn't any different to others refs in this league, they are all piss poor now, they can't even get the basics right, and not only that you had a game at 4:30pm on Sunday at Anfield where the ref spoke to his official and said "I don't know" so he guessed and gave a penalty, he actually asked for VAR that wasn't there

We have serious, serious problems at this club right now.

[Mufassir08 2,400]

7 hours ago, BlueLyon said:

105 million on Drinkwater, Bakayoko and Zappacosta. Let that sink in. 

For me there in lies the biggest problem. Conte has made blunders for sure but you don't spend more than a 100m in a window and only go backwards in terms of quality of players. I was fine with Matic leaving the club but to replace him with Drinkwater and Bakayoko was a farce and I have been saying this from day one. Seriously the guy who put forward the signings of both of them needs a good whipping.

[Special Juan 27,429]

In all of this, and I'm a football fan no matter what level it's played at, and as bad as we were last night, Watford were tremendous. The fucking energy levels they played at for 90 minutes was superb, something we aren't doing. Yeah, they will probably get beat by Stoke, Swansea or whoever in the coming weeks but it really did show our lack of aggression and fight. The panic in the team and on the ball was incredibly evident, which leads me to pointing out, there are players hiding in this team, no guts or spine to step up like JT, Lamps and Drogba did, nobody to get them by the scruff of the fucking neck and say "Wake the fuck up" The closest thing to a leader is Azpilicueta, the closes things to footballers are Hazard and Kante.

My son asked me this morning why we can't play like City, my answer simple, the fat of the players we have are levels and levels below what City have, in fact a huge gulf, not even close. We have Pedro, they have Sterling, we have Morata they have Aguero, they have Mendy we have Alonso, they have Walker we have Moses, they have Stones(and he isn't that good) but we have Cahill...The list goes on and on, and the gulf in class reflects exactly on the PL table, I mean even Liverpool have turned things around and have some unbelievable players.

When a dog has a shit it tries to kick grass over it, it doesn't cover it, it just merely masks it, the truth being it's still a load of dog shit and that's what has happened with this squad. We try to mask holes in the squad with stop gaps and infills, cheap versions of the real thing but sooner or later we actually realize they players are middle of the road dog shit.

[Iggy Doonican 4,186]

11 minutes ago, Special Juan said:

we have are levels and levels below what City have, in fact a huge gulf, not even close.

They have unlimited finances we don't. They got a new stadium that was gift wrapped to them by Manchester council. Take away the money and Man City would be fuck all 20 years ago Stockport were in a higher division than them. No point comparing us to anyone else we are Chelsea and have a history of imploding. I can't think of any team who are champions and in the top four and still get thrashed by Bournemouth and Watford. 

[Fulham Broadway 16,863]

2 hours ago, Mana said:

I was happy Bakabambi has been sent off

I find that statement very hard to equate with being a Chelsea fan

[Fulham Broadway 16,863]

7 minutes ago, Iggy Doonican said:

They have unlimited finances we don't. They got a new stadium that was gift wrapped to them by Manchester council. Take away the money and Man City would be fuck all 20 years ago Stockport were in a higher division than them. No point comparing us to anyone else we are Chelsea and have a history of imploding. I can't think of any team who are champions and in the top four and still get thrashed by Bournemouth and Watford. 

Yup any team owned by a country or has 'royal' patronage like Madrid or PSG is going to be ahead of the pack

Chelsea imploding -we got our proper Chels back last couple of games

[Fulham Broadway 16,863]

Just now, Mana said:

So...you'd rather have him on then? Even when he has gifted Watford chances to score 4 times under no pressure?

I don't think many Chelsea fans ever, ever,  applaud one of our own getting sent off

[Fulham Broadway 16,863]

Just now, Mana said:

That's because we never had a player that is bad as Bakabambi.

Mate we've had worse, believe me

[Fulham Broadway 16,863]

1 minute ago, Mana said:

I usually don't wish players to be sent off, but this was an exception.

That's mental -basically wanting us to lose

[Duppy Conqueror 1,494]

Just now, Mana said:

Like...? And even if you can name 1 or 2 players in the Roman era, that's barely a handful.

Nonetheless, Bakabambi was gifting Watford chances. We were in deep danger. And Conte just stands there, doing nothing. Things wasn't going to get better, it was going worse. I usually don't wish players to be sent off, but this was an exception.

 

you said we never had a player as bad as him but now switched it to in the Roman era..haha..you missed out 98 years of our history. 

[Fulham Broadway 16,863]

Just now, Mana said:

WTF. He was GIFTING Watford chances! If Watford were City, we would be 3-0 down already. Please.

When he was off, while Watford continued to press us, they were no longer gifted.

I know emotions run high, and on TC some people seem to try to outdo each other with how outraged they are. But wishing one of our players sent off  ? -well I think you just need to think that through for a minute