closed Chelsea 0-0 Southampton

[Unionjack 7,531]

1 minute ago, Sideshow Luiz said:

I thought that Barkley or Kovacic would provide some and that Morata would be at least half decent (every other striker under Sarri scores for fun).  I was wrong.

Mate I'm pretty sure we all HOPED it (and I still have high hopes for Kovacic - just not for giving us goals) and many jumped the gun and tried to convince themselves it was happening after the media started with the 'Next big thing in English football' headlines about them both. But that just shows the sorry state of our national team.

 

[Johnnyeye 7,509]

we just couldnt win could we? ffs another 2 points dropped at home, no end product at all, just so typical of us not closing the gap on Spurs and City and with United and Arsenal right on our tails 

[cosmicway 1,333]

Sarri ball:

About Sarri ball a description is given here:

https://www.goal.com/en-in/news/what-is-sarriball-how-chelseas-tactics-could-change-after/pqijnswg5x3x1lpvp5yulnab2

It says this:

The concept of 'Sarriball' – or 'Sarrismo' – is essentially a fast-paced, possession-based style of attacking football often likened to a

 vertical tiki-taka. Much like the style of play made famous by Pep Guardiola during his reign at Barcelona, Sarriball features short and quick passes designed to move play as far up the pitch as quickly as possible.

The new Chelsea boss builds upon this method through pushing the ball out from his back-line, and depends heavily on his defenders holding possession to begin the first instance of attacking threat. Sarri's defenders are the first instigators of the attack – as seen through his use of defender Kalidou Koulibaly at Napoli last season, whose passing and ball control was integral to the Italian side's push for the title.

Essentially, Sarriball is a method of high-pressing play (though not to be confused with Jurgen Klopp's gegenpressing) that forces defenders into making mistakes, which are then punished by the attack.

 

 

So the tiki taka passing is meant to confude the defenders so they leave a gap somewhere, for the attackers to exploit.
As such it's not something new.
It's what Jose Mourinho said he was going to do back in 2014 (and he did win the premier that year in fact).
So it's Mourinho ball !

It does n't work because our players bar Hazard are slow like Thames barges.
So the vertical tiki-taka more often than not becomes the safe pass backwards, as if we are playing to slow things down.
In addition when the gap is finally found, it's Morata at the receiving end who has managed to place himself in an offside position.
With some other players or with some other level of opposition it might work.
From all those systems, I prefer the Conte system, when we also had Diego Costa in the team.

[Jase 43,479]

7 hours ago, Robchels said:

Think you are implicitly making an assumption about the squad. By suggesting that a diff manager, like guardiola, would rotate more and tweak things by using more of the players in the squad even players with different characteristics.

I am merely suggesting that sarri may think this, what he’s been doing, is as much tweaking he can possibly do with the squad at his disposal.

That he may think, for example, that some players are just not good enough at passing to play for him. Something that would be akin to guardiolas thinking.

besides sarri has already tweaked plenty esp defensively. We are far more difficult to break these days.

attacking is a different matter because we just lack quality up front and I consider hazard not the fittest of players, but that’s just my take on his inconsistency. 

No, you assumed that I was talking about the squad based on a previous discussion. Was mainly talking about Sarri's tactics, formation etc in this instance, as seen in my subsequent reply to OneMoSalah. 

[petre.ispirescu 4,928]

I agree with Jason I think we're the victims of our glory at this point. We cannot wait for every single manager to work miracles. There is nothing wrong with Sarri, just needs to be given time and players to suit his style. And frankly we're not idiots to judge him after half a season, we're better than that I like to think! 

If you think about it - remember Guardiola in his first season at City he finished I think 13 or 14 points behind Chelsea and had to sweat big time for a top 4 finish that season. It was down the tee and they would have (miss the top 4) if it wasn't for that stupid match Liverpool drew 0-0 at home I can't remember against whom though. 

Klopp - 8th in his first season, 4th in his second and 4th in his third. Now frankly as much as I hate them bloody scousers they really look like the real deal, first team to look that solid in all the areas since Chelsea in Mourinho's first stint. 

It's all a process and Sarri must be given time and resources, otherwise we'll scrap for top 4 finish for a long long time from now on. If the boards not ready to pump big money into the team at least I hope they ask Sarri of some players, maybe he can find the new Koulibaly, Mertens etc. 

[Special Juan 28,141]

From not wanting a striker to now saying he needs more up front, and he wasn't talking about effort by the way.

And his comments on Pulisic tell me exactly what I have thought for years, this club buy who they think is right and not what the manager thinks.

[robsblubot 3,595]

58 minutes ago, Jason said:

No, you assumed that I was talking about the squad based on a previous discussion. Was mainly talking about Sarri's tactics, formation etc in this instance, as seen in my subsequent reply to OneMoSalah. 

Perhaps that's what you meant, but I don't know how else to interpret this:

Quote

All for backing the manager. But backing a manager who isn't willing to change things that aren't working, is stubborn and rigid in the way he does things? That's highly questionable. People talk about City, Spurs, Liverpool...thing is while Guardiola, Klopp, Pochettino have their way of playing, they are at least flexible.

I was replying to the bolded points. My point remains that he cannot be flexible with the squad he has: he's using the players who can best carry out his ideas. Some of the players folks here want him to give minutes to just don't have the technique (as in passing) to play in that system. Possession is working. It provides defensive solidity and is still improving making us more difficult to break.

The team lacks attacking quality and there is little Sarri can do about that. Short of moving Alonso to striker position, which would be a huge gamble on its own (and then buying a new technical LB), the club needs to go shopping.

[Stats 7,142]

9 hours ago, Jason said:

JINX!

And few games ago, we were 11 (ELEVEN!) points clear of United. Now, only 6 and they're starting to bang in the goals!   Thankfully(?), they go to Spurs next...

Saying that, I will be backing United against Spurs. If United win and we win, we close the gap to Spurs to one point. Id it is a draw and we win Newcastle, it is 2 points so yes, will defo be backing United.

[Yeboii 1,844]

1 hour ago, Special Juan said:

From not wanting a striker to now saying he needs more up front, and he wasn't talking about effort by the way.

And his comments on Pulisic tell me exactly what I have thought for years, this club buy who they think is right and not what the manager thinks.

The question is rather, what if Sarri would have given a "negative opinion" instead of a positive one when the club asked him. If they would have bought him even if Sarri had a negative opinion of him then that would be troubling for the manager, club and the player.

I think Sarri likes Pulisic. He has potential to be exactly what we need in this team, at least right now.

[manpe 10,861]

8 hours ago, cosmicway said:

And if the opponent is as poor as Southampton was, then in 90 minutes one or two sort of chances will come up anyway.

Southampton weren't poor, come on, they were resilient and worked hard in defence. They never looked like switching off apart from the Morata disallowed goal. It was the type of performance from them that if it was us playing Barcelona in CL and we needed at least a draw, the manager would be branded a genius like Mourinho always was for performances and results like that. They forced us to play poorly as they seemed to know very well how to neutralise our threats, it wasn't only because we were bad, it was also because they were good.

[cosmicway 1,333]

15 minutes ago, manpe said:

Southampton weren't poor, come on, they were resilient and worked hard in defence. They never looked like switching off apart from the Morata disallowed goal. It was the type of performance from them that if it was us playing Barcelona in CL and we needed at least a draw, the manager would be branded a genius like Mourinho always was for performances and results like that. They forced us to play poorly as they seemed to know very well how to neutralise our threats, it wasn't only because we were bad, it was also because they were good.

Good in parking their bus.
Okidoki.
Maybe PAOK also, had they not been left with ten men ...

[Unionjack 7,531]

2 hours ago, Special Juan said:

From not wanting a striker to now saying he needs more up front, and he wasn't talking about effort by the way.

And his comments on Pulisic tell me exactly what I have thought for years, this club buy who they think is right and not what the manager thinks.

100% agree. Specially with him saying he didn't lnow anything about us buying Pulisic.. That is scary. I thought one of the reasons we took Magic Box on was for him to be that buffer between Sarri and the board.

I know we all keep harping on about it but it just helps prove how much we need a DOF.!

[Special Juan 28,141]

3 minutes ago, Unionjack said:

100% agree. Specially with him saying he didn't lnow anything about us buying Pulisic.. That is scary. I thought one of the reasons we took Magic Box on was for him to be that buffer between Sarri and the board.

I know we all keep harping on about it but it just helps prove how much we need a DOF.!

This is were the derision comes from, the no in between of the manager, no middle ground or no correct identification.

Sarri says "I like him" the board says "No, we don't, we need him".....BOOOMMMMMMM negative words start in press conferences and it's rinse and repeat again.

[Special Juan 28,141]

What the fuck do this lot do in training about the quality of delivery from corners?

Absolute shite again last night. Willian floating it in, and Hazard with the one step run up. No conviction in getting the ball whipped in at pace to be attacked. Should be told to watch video of Ward-Prowse and how to deliver a ball.

[Unionjack 7,531]

1 minute ago, Special Juan said:

This is were the derision comes from, the no in between of the manager, no middle ground or no correct identification.

Sarri says "I like him" the board says "No, we don't, we need him".....BOOOMMMMMMM negative words start in press conferences and it's rinse and repeat again.

You would expect that a club would be run like any company/office.

You have regular meetings where you all sit down and give each other your needs. What the team needs in what positions. What they dont need etc.

You would expect the heads of departments to all be there. Scouts etc and all go thru what they need to put across.

Then they go away to think about it and then the main peeps get together to say what they have decided.

But as we dont have that central DOF who hopefully has good football knowledge and been in the job at a high level so has important contacts at various clubs, then it causes us a fuck off big problem to begin with.

I dont doubt that Granny is a good number cruncher with balls bigger than many men but she knows less about football than me.

 

[manpe 10,861]

39 minutes ago, cosmicway said:

Good in parking their bus.
Okidoki.
Maybe PAOK also, had they not been left with ten men ...

We, as Chelsea fans, are really in no position to ridicule or criticize others for employing a tactic that we ourselves introduced and employed to great success (and unsuccess). It is only the first season in which we are trying to break out from this mould.

[Blue Armour 4,439]

10 hours ago, manpe said:

We, as Chelsea fans, are really in no position to ridicule or criticize others for employing a tactic that we ourselves introduced and employed to great success (and unsuccess). It is only the first season in which we are trying to break out from this mould.

Yeah can hardly blame Southampton for yesterday's result.

Maybe the jackass referee, but not much else.

[cosmicway 1,333]

17 hours ago, manpe said:

We, as Chelsea fans, are really in no position to ridicule or criticize others for employing a tactic that we ourselves introduced and employed to great success (and unsuccess). It is only the first season in which we are trying to break out from this mould.

Incidentally we never played that way !
Only against Atletico in the semi of 2014 in Madrid.
Against Barca, the 2-2, we were down to 10 men after Terry was sent off.
I do not criticize, but that does n't make Soton a team worth talking about. Look at their table position.

 

[manpe 10,861]

3 hours ago, cosmicway said:

Incidentally we never played that way !
Only against Atletico in the semi of 2014 in Madrid.
Against Barca, the 2-2, we were down to 10 men after Terry was sent off.
I do not criticize, but that does n't make Soton a team worth talking about. Look at their table position.

 

You say we never played that way, then proceed to bring two examples.  You are either confused or haven't seen us play enough these past 15 years. We have parked the bus MUCH more than only those two times, heck the saying "park the bus" was coined after us.  For example just look at last season against City, it was much much worse than what Soton was doing. You are making it sound like they played only defence and nothing else, I however remember quite a few instances being nervous when they got too close to our box and goal, I actually thought we would bottle the draw. So I really don't understand what you're talking about, I guess our subjective views and opinions are just very different.

[cosmicway 1,333]

22 minutes ago, manpe said:

You say we never played that way, then proceed to bring two examples.  You are either confused or haven't seen us play enough these past 15 years. We have parked the bus MUCH more than only those two times, heck the saying "park the bus" was coined after us.  For example just look at last season against City, it was much much worse than what Soton was doing. You are making it sound like they played only defence and nothing else, I however remember quite a few instances being nervous when they got too close to our box and goal, I actually thought we would bottle the draw. So I really don't understand what you're talking about, I guess our subjective views and opinions are just very different.

Against City last season was two tearful affairs.
Against City couple of seasons ago we won 1-0 at the City ground after the defense performed heroics but it was n't parking the bus ! We hit the woodwork 3 times and failed to make it 2-0. You call that parking the bus ?
I missed very few matches the last eight seasons,
The only cases where we indeed parked the bus on purpose were those two & with 10 men in the case of Barcelona.
But that's neither here nor there. When a team has to approach a match that way they should do so. I did not comment against our opponents of two days ago for doing that but because they are a very poor side and we should be winning 5-0 against such opposition. 
About Leicester I did not say the same things, because they put up a very good performance.