closed Man Utd 2-1 Chelsea

[Strike 7,217]

It's a weird loss to take. Not much wrong apart from the goal conceded in the first half. Completely dropped off in the second. 

Have to question Conte about the Hazard substitution when the game was 1-1. Did the same vs Arsenal. 

[sainttourist 68]

this is quintessence of Mourinho football. A win. Still believe we move ahead in two years with Conte. Bad summer bite us every time. No way we lose this with Costa and Matic, who was mom to me.

[El P. 1,354]

Problem is - in the first 45 minutes the feeling was like we could win it, like we should win it. Like we were better side, and only bad finishing is separating us from a win. And after Morata went on that solo run and ruined it, I lost hope, I believe players did too.

I would really like to run psychological analyse on effect that so many clear misses and fuck ups by main striker has on team spirit and confidence.

Other problems are "normal" - Alonso being slow, Christy being inexperienced, Drinkwater being average. We are used to that and we have no better options really.

I will be really pissed at Conte if Morata starts next week. Really soar taste after this loss.

[Riquelme 4]

It's crazy to see Moses in space so many times and most of the time going for crash test with the defender when a pass earlier is better, has no composure in final third. Also thought Hazard was two yards off pace, but it's crazy how after the changes it was even worse, unable to keep the ball in midfield.

[OneMoSalah 8,778]

44 minutes ago, Jason said:

Think we can all sit down here and point the finger at Conte, the officials etc for all the shit stuff they did but what today's game has proven again is that this team just doesn't have players with strong character and mentality like we had in the past. Every time when the going gets tough, this team can easily get turned over. We've seen it so many times this season alone. Whenever our previous team - with Cech, Terry, Lampard, Drogba etc - were in trouble during matches, do you think the manager always came up with tactical solutions? No. The players were always ready to get stuck in and made sure we get some kind of result at the end. This lot? Meh. Imagine them going through our 2011/12 Champions League run. Would have ended up losing 10-1 in every single game!

Drogba played shit almost the whole season in 2011-12 but when it came to the big crunch, games against Napoli, Barca, Bayern, where we needed to do something, he did something. He was the ultimate big game player who had that mentality, ok I only need one chance, remember watching the CL final, some point after he scored that header we got a freekick about 40 yards out, he was like fuck it I'm having this, fair enough he punted it about 10 feet over the bar but he came alive in big moments in games. We've not got enough guys like that and it is frightening because you could always associate Chelsea with having that, big game players, maybe we'd be playing poorly but you knew we always had a chance because Drogba would dig you out of a hole, or Lampard would, or Terry would etc.

Not going to lie Matic was huge for them today, he was everywhere, we could of done with a bit of that to help Kante out. 

[BXL70 396]

I haven't watched the game. But I understand negative tactics again from Conte, and Hazard, our best player, was substituted.

Certainly, Conte got it wrong. But tbh, our team is not as good as last year: Matic was replaced by ... no-one (certainly not that fraud of Bakayoko, is he even a professional player? Drinklager or whoever else? Be serious/) and our world-class striker Diego Costa was replaced by .... another fraud: Morata who demonstrated why he was benched everywhere he was playing before. 

Our starting XI has lost 2 key players. We should have spent to buy at least 2 additional world class players. We now pay the price for all of these mistakes. 

 

[Tomo 21,733]

1 hour ago, Jason said:

Think we can all sit down here and point the finger at Conte, the officials etc for all the shit stuff they did but what today's game has proven again is that this team just doesn't have players with strong character and mentality like we had in the past. Every time when the going gets tough, this team can easily get turned over. We've seen it so many times this season alone. Whenever our previous team - with Cech, Terry, Lampard, Drogba etc - were in trouble during matches, do you think the manager always came up with tactical solutions? No. The players were always ready to get stuck in and made sure we get some kind of result at the end. This lot? Meh. Imagine them going through our 2011/12 Champions League run. Would have ended up losing 10-1 in every single game!

These same spinless players that won two titles under extreme pressure? And the previous lot had some embarrassing big game results after Jose left.

[Alabama 1,992]

11 minutes ago, BXL70 said:

I haven't watched the game. But I understand negative tactics again from Conte, and Hazard, our best player, was substituted.

Certainly, Conte got it wrong. But tbh, our team is not as good as last year: Matic was replaced by ... no-one (certainly not that fraud of Bakayoko, is he even a professional player? Drinklager or whoever else? Be serious/) and our world-class striker Diego Costa was replaced by .... another fraud: Morata who demonstrated why he was benched everywhere he was playing before. 

Our starting XI has lost 2 key players. We should have spent to buy at least 2 additional world class players. We now pay the price for all of these mistakes. 

 

not only that...our stubborn manager keeps playing the same formation when we clearly lacks quality wing backs..

[cfcs most wanted 657]

Let's just blame this on the players because that's too easy, the same players were playing so well in the first half, so what happened in the second? Mentality didn't change tactics did. I'm a fan of whatever Conte has done with this team, but give criticism where it's due, and it certainly isn't for the players, there was no reason to change tactics when you were playing well and we were in full Control

[Jase 43,479]

2 minutes ago, Tomo said:

These same spinless players that won two titles under extreme pressure? And the previous lot had some embarrassing big game results after Jose left.

Yes, I am aware of that. 2010/11 comes to mind, for instance. But on a whole, you would the trust the previous lot more to get stuck in and get a result when the going gets tough, no? This lot only seem to do it when it's against Spurs!

[BXL70 396]

Morata was really supposed to be an improvement on Diego Costa?

[Tomo 21,733]

12 minutes ago, Jason said:

Yes, I am aware of that. 2010/11 comes to mind, for instance. But on a whole, you would the trust the previous lot more to get stuck in and get a result when the going gets tough, no? This lot only seem to do it when it's against Spurs!

Wasn't the going tough in the run in to the 2015 title? And even last year to an externt. 2015 especially you could visably tell the players were exhausted and running on empty yet kept getting those results. Funnily enough they have made lighter work of it twice than our last team did in 2010.

Do i think they are as strong as the last bunch? No, but you don't piss two titles with a bunch of pussycats, especially given we were up against (on paper) superior sides.

[edetarod 2,155]

horrendous season, thank fuck it's almost over

roll on the world cup

 

[Jase 43,479]

14 minutes ago, Tomo said:

Wasn't the going tough in the run in to the 2015 title? And even last year to an externt. 2015 especially you could visably tell the players were exhausted and running on empty yet kept getting those results. Funnily enough they have made lighter work of it twice than our last team did in 2010.

Do i think they are as strong as the last bunch? No, but you don't piss two titles with a bunch of pussycats, especially given we were up against (on paper) superior sides.

Look, no one is discrediting the players for winning 2 titles in 3 years but doing it over an entire season is different from doing it in the big games or the key period during matches.

[mccg 1,528]

If the footballing gods and lady luck had been shining on us this week we would be sitting pretty with 2 wins against Barcelona and utd , the fine lines between winning drawing losing sums up were we are! Lets win against City nxt sunday !

[Special Juan 27,429]

This wasn't about football gods, this was about us being mentally weak and naive, with a coach who is mentally weak too.

[Fulham Broadway 16,858]

Positives - our support away is fucking immense - and the song ;

YOUR CITY IS BLUE, YOUR CITY IS BLUE, JUST LIKE LONDON, YOUR CITY IS BLUE

[BlueLyon 9,359]

Well this is what you get when you need "improvements" but you actualy end up with far worse players.

Morata for Costa, Drinkwater and Bakayoko for Matic and finaly Giroud for Morata. 

Cant believe people thought Drinks and Giroud will end up quality and useful players. I called it out, the bandwagon on those two players was funny. 

They are average at best, but people made it look like they can somehow put great shift, maybe everyone is just desperate and wants to convince themselves we actualy made smart transfers?

I mean Leicester wanted an update for Drinks and Arsenal bought two strikers to replace Giroud. 

But those two were supposed to be good for us? Yes as third choice striker and 4th choice midfielder, not anywhere near first 11. 

We fucking knew Cesc wont hold his own whole season and we need quality backup/possible starter because he would start alot, the best board could do was Drinks?

And also now we are not only stuck with one bad striker, but two. So much for Giroud to wake Morata and give him competition lol. Both are bang average. 

Morata should have goal today though if not for stupid ref mistake again. It just says we dont have luck sometimes, but that shouldnt be excuse. Players should do better. 

We had united for the taking, but the mentality of our team sometimes...sad, very sad.

Onto city now....I actualy was quite optimistic for Barca and United games, but for City, I think we have no chance, except for maybe another tactical defending that ends up with fluke goal and 1:0 win for us. But even then, that wouldnt mean shit, because it was fluke win and we will return to bad displays soon after. 

Barca camp nou game will decide if our season was again disaster or not. Hopefuly all the football gods work in our favour there.

And on side note, why the hell didnt Emerson start? Conte complains about lack of depth, but doesnt trust the players he gets. We could have 10 Emersons, whats the point in having them if Conte doesnt play them anytime, except for some cup games here and there where even good game means jack shit. On the other hand, he doesnt have problem fielding Drinks or Giroud at all. 

Just goes to say we are still that old team that relies on average players who are "reliable", but those who can actualy improve us longterm and are bit of risk dont smell the pitch at all (with exception of Christensen). 

Conte won us title last year,  but collectively, we havent improved one bit on any are. The first 11, the bench, the future players, the style of play. All goes sideways, one step up, two down. Then the odd shortterm title season, but nothing that would last.

The day this policy, when we stop getting trophies, the club will become average, because apart from trophies, there is nothing that would appeal other stars to join us. Sadly.