closed Chelsea 0-0 Southampton

[Blue Armour 4,439]

Sounds like we were robbed by the linesman again.

I know its like clutching at straws, but when you face a team that just sits and parks the bus, even one chance like that can go a long way.

Plus, I hate it when linesman make decisions in favor of the defending team in close call situations.

Cowardly approach, for the cowardly style of football favored by majority of the teams in this league today. That's why they won't bring in VAR for things like this.

[Jase 43,479]

Just now, DDA said:

Wolves?

GET OFF THE ALCOHOL, YA BASTARD! 

[DDA 9,941]

Just now, Blue Armour said:

Sounds like we were robbed by the linesman again.

I know its like clutching at straws, but when you face a team that just sits and parks the bus, even once chance like that can go a long way.

Plus, I hate it when linesman make decisions in favor of the defending team in close call situations.

Cowardly approach, for the cowardly style of football favored by majority of the teams in this league today.

It's a disgusting truth that 80% of the teams in the Prem play against us with the sytle Mourinho introduced to us. Karma.

[DDA 9,941]

1 minute ago, Jason said:

GET OFF THE ALCOHOL, YA BASTARD! 

I wish, unfortunately I am about to start am 8 hour shift. 

[Jase 43,479]

Just now, DDA said:

I wish, unfortunately I am about to start am 8 hour shift. 

And I will only be back at work on Monday.  

[Blue Armour 4,439]

Just now, DDA said:

It's a disgusting truth that 80% of the teams in the Prem play against us with the sytle Mourinho introduced to us. Karma.

Yeah that's true.

And apparently, the entertainment factor comes from the small team sticking it to the big team, even if it means a 0-0. Nothing to do with scoring goals.

Anyway, we kept a clean sheet. I'm grateful for that.

[DDA 9,941]

1 minute ago, Jason said:

And I will only be back at work on Monday.  

[Jase 43,479]

Just now, Blue Armour said:

Anyway, we kept a clean sheet. I'm grateful for that.

GTFO! 

[Blue Armour 4,439]

2 minutes ago, Jason said:

GTFO! 

I'm Sarri man.

 

 

Aright. That was my cue

[Jase 43,479]

On 1/2/2019 at 3:19 AM, Stats said:

We like to do cat and mouse with Arsenal so I am expecting dropped points. For some weird reason, we don't like developing more than a 3 point gap over Arsenal for long.

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...

[Sideshow Luiz 2,310]

9 minutes ago, BlueLyon said:

Yup, I said before 

Im willing to stick with Sarri but so far its just not working. Jorginho would be victim of circumstances if he was dropped, but the real culprits would be board and Sarri. Either we should continue Conte football and bring 1,2 players or get Sarri that would require 6 new players. 

Now we play Sarriball, but without proper players. We need to get players that fit this style or drop Jorginho, Sarriball and do the best we can with current lot. With Sarri or without.

That said Sarriball would always take at least two seasons to make some noise. But the current state is beyond worrying. I expected we will have problems with results, but play wise I thought our attack will be way more fluid and our defense full of holes. Similar to Klopp in Pool. That way you can work things out eventually. With us however, there are so many problems that its hard to see benefits of Sarriball at all. Bottom line, even when Klopp had shit defense and kept losing, their team was showing promise when they pushed forward. Entertaining football. What do we have? Possession on possession with zero creativity and end product. Its like the worst possible football style. Even gold Mourinho or Conte ball was more interesting because oppont obliterated us, but we survived and won.

And the worst part is that we actualy played well in august and september. With the very same players. So its not just down to bringing new lb or striker. Why? IMO Jorginho isnt as influental, Hazard is not as good and Sarri doesnt rotate one bit. 

I think the drop off coincides with us playing twice a week, every week.  This team needs time on the training pitch which is why the play looks (and is) slow and ponderous in the final 3rd.  Decisions need to be made quicker and then the ball will be moved quicker.  There is a lack of runs off the ball and 3rd man runs which was the staple of Sarri's Napoli.  2 more mid week matches against Spurs is the last thing this club needs.  EL starts up again in February, IIRC. 

[Sideshow Luiz 2,310]

Not exactly dominant, but good enough for the win:

 

[robsblubot 3,595]

1 hour ago, Jason said:

Who's talking only about the squads? 

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. 

[Stats 7,142]

58 minutes 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...

I just knew it which is why I posted it. Turns out I was bang on. Seems that we enjoy this cat and mouse game and want a really close point gap until we play them later this month.

[ccheongf 211]

Jorghino is useless now tht everybody knows what he doing ? Chelsea lacks playmakers to open , create  scoring chances in front of the goal. Whats the point controlling ,kicking ,keeping the ball around. The ultimate result is goal.Players ddidnt run to spaces and no feeder of balls wjen palyers do so. So Chelase will still be kicking the ball round and round in the mid field and hoping to win matches.

[Unionjack 7,531]

2 hours ago, Sideshow Luiz said:

I think the drop off coincides with us playing twice a week, every week.  This team needs time on the training pitch which is why the play looks (and is) slow and ponderous in the final 3rd.  Decisions need to be made quicker and then the ball will be moved quicker.  There is a lack of runs off the ball and 3rd man runs which was the staple of Sarri's Napoli.  2 more mid week matches against Spurs is the last thing this club needs.  EL starts up again in February, IIRC. 

Cracks me up but wasn;t it only a week or 2 ago when Sarri said we have too many in our 25 man squad?

The number isbnt the problem - its the amount of crap players we have making that number up!

 

[cosmicway 1,333]

1 hour ago, ccheongf said:

Jorghino is useless now tht everybody knows what he doing ? Chelsea lacks playmakers to open , create  scoring chances in front of the goal. Whats the point controlling ,kicking ,keeping the ball around. The ultimate result is goal.Players ddidnt run to spaces and no feeder of balls wjen palyers do so. So Chelase will still be kicking the ball round and round in the mid field and hoping to win matches.

Just like under Jose.
Where is the "Sarri ball", or attempted "Sarri ball" ;
And if the opponent is as poor as Southampton was, then in 90 minutes one or two sort of chances will come up anyway.
I found myself drifting many times today as I was watching this match and thinking about other things.
The "boring-boring Chelsea" chant we were hearing many years ago.
This type of display is 100% the manager's fault.

[Sideshow Luiz 2,310]

7 minutes ago, Unionjack said:

Cracks me up but wasn;t it only a week or 2 ago when Sarri said we have too many in our 25 man squad?

The number isbnt the problem - its the amount of crap players we have making that number up!

 

Yup.  Look at our bench, no attacking players apart from RLC.  If Moses was healthy, that pretty much sums up what Sarri thinks of him.  Barkley improved a lot at the beginning of the season, but he seems to have stagnated, I hope that's related to our lack of practice time.  You or I have a better chance of making the match day squad than Drinkwater. 

[Unionjack 7,531]

2 minutes ago, Sideshow Luiz said:

Yup.  Look at our bench, no attacking players apart from RLC.  If Moses was healthy, that pretty much sums up what Sarri thinks of him.  Barkley improved a lot at the beginning of the season, but he seems to have stagnated, I hope that's related to our lack of practice time.  You or I have a better chance of making the match day squad than Drinkwater. 

Buddy a deaf,blind,mute omniped has a better chance of scoring than Morata or playing like the Waterboy!

[Sideshow Luiz 2,310]

6 minutes ago, Unionjack said:

Buddy a deaf,blind,mute omniped has a better chance of scoring than Morata or playing like the Waterboy!

Yes.  The bar for Morata has been set so low that just not falling over and not making anyone cry is seen as a pretty good game.  You were right back in the summer.  We don't have enough goals in the team.  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.