closed Crystal Palace 0-1 Chelsea

[fmsch24 312]

I may sound pessimistic but that performance was horrendous. Yes all that matters are the 3 points, but for the majority of the game we seemed clueless. Unable to penetrate opposition easily like other teams. We’re Chelsea the first and only London to have won the CL. There are certain expectations that needs to be met. Our objective this season is to get top 4 but there needs to be a complete overhaul of the team. Personally the players I’d get rid of are: Alonso, Morata, Giroud, Willian, Drinkwater. I’m torn on Ross Barkley, once in a while he puts in a decent performance, unfortunately most of the time he is bellow par. Any way happy new year every one. 

[cosmicway 1,333]

17 minutes ago, communicate said:

Higuain is 31. I don't think we need another short term option. 

Saw him yesterday against Spal. Scored one goal -alone, empty net- then missed a good chance or two. I reckon he 's better than Morata but not a great deal.

[Yeboii 1,844]

Am I the only one thinking this was a game that Michy would have done well in? Maybe he can come back from Valencia and do a job for us for the second part of the season.

[communicate 2,703]

5 minutes ago, Yeboii said:

Am I the only one thinking this was a game that Michy would have done well in? Maybe he can come back from Valencia and do a job for us for the second part of the season.

If Giroud is badly injured then yes bring back michy 

[Alabama 1,992]

5 minutes ago, Yeboii said:

Am I the only one thinking this was a game that Michy would have done well in? Maybe he can come back from Valencia and do a job for us for the second part of the season.

Lol...Michy that can't get anywhere near Valencia team....apparently on his way back.... We have no striker.... Let the board sign a quality OE clinical finisher not tossing between two or three shit strikers

[Vesper 30,091]

22 minutes ago, fmsch24 said:

I may sound pessimistic but that performance was horrendous. Yes all that matters are the 3 points, but for the majority of the game we seemed clueless. Unable to penetrate opposition easily like other teams. We’re Chelsea the first and only London to have won the CL. There are certain expectations that needs to be met. Our objective this season is to get top 4 but there needs to be a complete overhaul of the team. Personally the players I’d get rid of are: Alonso, Morata, Giroud, Willian, Drinkwater. I’m torn on Ross Barkley, once in a while he puts in a decent performance, unfortunately most of the time he is bellow par. Any way happy new year every one. 

£620m in actual concrete offers turned down last summer

That type of quid buys you a complete overhaul (including Mbappe and Icardi for £350m or so) plus other truly WC players. Listed it all out on The Board part of the forum. None of it is FM bullshit, all were real offers.

We will now end up losing well over £200-250m or more of that due to dithering board, AND end up with almost NONE of the targets I laid out.

[Jase 43,479]

25 minutes ago, Tomo said:

Hey?

Well, you said you can tell which way a game is gonna go by looking at the opening period...

[Tomo 21,751]

We had/have about as much chance of signing Mbappe as Middlesbrough.

Firstly he was a die hard Paris fan and even if he wasn't many other clubs would be ahead of us in the que.

[Tomo 21,751]

Just now, Jason said:

Well, you said you can tell which way a game is gonna go by looking at the opening period...

You've taken that well out of context. I meant the pattern of the game is clear ie whether it will be a frustrating game where we create fuck all or an open game, not per se the result. For example it was evident early on against Liverpool the game plan was working well but against Spurs it, well, wasn't. In general the pattern of our game is often clear from the off which is the opposite to Conte's or Jose's era where we often would start well and suddenly turn shit mid way through the first half, or vice versa.

As for today, this will contradict my line at the top but i wasn't concerned really, i felt we were controlling the game and would grind them down sooner or later, which we did, felt the same vs Watford!

[mccg 1,528]

56 minutes ago, fmsch24 said:

I may sound pessimistic but that performance was horrendous. Yes all that matters are the 3 points, but for the majority of the game we seemed clueless. Unable to penetrate opposition easily like other teams. We’re Chelsea the first and only London to have won the CL. There are certain expectations that needs to be met. Our objective this season is to get top 4 but there needs to be a complete overhaul of the team. Personally the players I’d get rid of are: Alonso, Morata, Giroud, Willian, Drinkwater. I’m torn on Ross Barkley, once in a while he puts in a decent performance, unfortunately most of the time he is bellow par. Any way happy new year every one. 

I'm sure Spurs + Arsenal would have taken a win over a "horrendous" lol performance (not considering palace took 7/9 last 3 games,nor a london derby, nor xmas period madness and away  lol is a wee bit of footie ignorance on your behalf imho )

[mccg 1,528]

1 hour ago, Johnnyeye said:

stupid injury, all he had to to was stop the play, he was offside and still decided to shoot the ball, great finish btw but at what cost? Palace defender made a tackle and fucked Giroud up.

Think if it is bad, he wouldn't  have went to the bench after being subbed , modern day football players go out on crutches with a sprain ffs 

[Johnnyeye 7,501]

3 minutes ago, mccg said:

Think if it is bad, he wouldn't  have went to the bench after being subbed , modern day football players go out on crutches with a sprain ffs 

dont forget the oxygen masks, most players nowadays are too soft imho

[Stats 7,136]

Good win and thoroughly deserved. Dominated that game. MOTM is a tough one. For me it has to be out of Luiz, Kante and Jorginho. All three were top class. Luiz won everything in the air and that assist was just top class. If Van Dijk put in that performance today, you would hear all about it but because it is Luiz, this won't be discussed much. He was literally sensational. Kante was back to being Kante. Recovering possession and making constant interceptions. Jorginho was class. Dictated that game and not sure if he missed a pass. Sensational. We have the most clean sheets in the league after Liverpool in the league with 9. Quite impressive and more than City now too. 5 points ahead of Arsenal and only 2 points behind Spurs with our next 2 games, ones we should be winning comfortably at home too. We should make the top 4 chances more secure. Nice way to end the year.

[Clockwork 1,794]

2 hours ago, Pizy said:

This is nothing like Conte-ball at all under Sarri. Second half of last season we would regularly allow even small teams to dominate the run of play for large stretches of games. We often had no clue whatsoever positionally. Under Sarri, the ball retention, the pressing, the winning of the ball back, and the positions our players take up to receive the ball and form passing triangles is miles better than it's ever been.

The problem is we have literally one player in attack that scares anyone. Giroud is a good backup option but when he starts like today and has two CB focused in on him it's very difficult. When Morata plays he's soft as butter. Willian scores once every 15 matches it feels like. Pedro is clinical when he gets a good sight at goal but that doesn't happen often enough. Both Kovacic and Barkley seem scared to shoot most of the time.

Compare this to Liverpool, City, Spuds, and even Arse who each have at least THREE attackers who teams worry about,

 

Our issue goes beyond our forwards, we have a very stale midfield lack the creativity to break teams open. City has the creativity of David and Bernardo Silva, Liverpool has a hard working midfield but they compensate that with two really good FB that exploit team out wide. And City have good FB when healthy.

We lack the creativity in midfield to break team open, we have absolutely no threat from our FB to stretch the opposition. 

 

Sarri has to make hard to choices to fix those issues, and quite frankly i am not confident. The fact that Alonso has been dog shit for so long, and he has not even given Emerson a single start league play tells me a lot. 

 

[fmsch24 312]

44 minutes ago, mccg said:

I'm sure Spurs + Arsenal would have taken a win over a "horrendous" lol performance (not considering palace took 7/9 last 3 games,nor a london derby, nor xmas period madness and away  lol is a wee bit of footie ignorance on your behalf imho )

If you think narrowly scrapping a win against crystal is an indication of progress than I’m afraid you’re the one who is in denial. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to come to the conclusion that if you block hazard our entire attacking tempo goes flat. The Premier League has become extremely competitive and unpredictable these past couple of seasons. As I said before I’m happy with the 3 points but I’m not going delude my self and assume that everything is back on track. Changes need to be made in order for us to go to the next level and compete for the league. If you’re content with reaching top four like spurs fans every season that’s your point of view.