closed Man United 0-0 Chelsea

[cosmicway 1,333]

11 minutes ago, Magic Lamps said:

One of the worst games of footy I ever saw. It feels like Lamps is just sticking the finger to those who say he can’t coach a team to defend. 
also absolutely not surprised that pen was not given. I mean it’s Varchester. Abysmal call. Win this pen and we win the game easily. Var never were gonna let this happpen. This Corruption stinks to heavens. 

 

I watched from Spanish tv channel.
Their commentator said "penal" after the first replay.
There was no long time lapse before they saw it, making it impossible for VAR-Atkinson to come back to it.
I expect the commentators of SKY saw it likewise.

[Magic Lamps 11,668]

Also our midfield is just plain useless. Kante has fallen of a cliff and looks terrible every game. Jorginho is only suited to very specific situations. Kovacic or Mount are also lightweight and get overrun. Teams simply cut through us whilst we struggle to get balls upfield quickly enough. The team looks totally disjointed . The defence is performing miracles lately tho. I predicted all it takes is to have Mendy+Chilwell playing together to make us win clean sheets and I was right. But it is worrying we can’t really deal with any pressure applied in midfield. 

[Blue Armour 4,312]

23 minutes ago, Magic Lamps said:

Also our midfield is just plain useless. Kante has fallen of a cliff and looks terrible every game. Jorginho is o my suited to very specific situations. Kovacic or Mount are also lightweight and get overrun. Teams simply cut through us whilst we struggle to get balls upfield quickly enough. The team looks totally disjointed . The defence is performing miracles lately tho. I predicted all it takes is to have Mendy+Chilwell playing together to make us win clean sheets and I was right. But it is worrying we can’t really deal with any pressure applied in midfield. 

At least Kovacic can break out of a midfield press by dribbling. His passing is lacklustre.

Jorginho's passing game has regressed from his early season form last year. These days he is effective only against teams that sit back.

Kante I feel is underperforming. Not that he's worse than the other two, far from it. Its just that without someone like Conte or Sarri to apply pressure, he is letting his offensive game slip. He is so indecisive when in the opposition third.

Mount is too lightweight to play in a central midfield pair. He would fare better in a 3 man central midfield.

I would stick with Kovacic-Kante for most games and swap Kovacic for Jorginho only against teams that are sitting back. Against teams sitting back, I might even swap Kante for Jorginho, but that's not going to happen.

[Johnnyeye 7,445]

5 hours ago, Vesper said:

UGH

watching Giggs and Michael Owen

they both said it was criminal that no pen was gave to us (yes, GIGGS said that)

AND

they checked with the EPL and PGMOL

Stuart Atwell

the VAR ref

that fucker looked at it on replay

ONCE

for 3 seconds

and told Atkinson no pen

corrupt mother fuckers, bullshit of the highest order, im pissed as hell.

[bigbluewillie 1,859]

9 hours ago, Fulham Broadway said:

Sky woman cant control Evra v Hasselbaink. Evra moaning about when Jimmy gave him 9 stitches 

I thought ut was brilliant discussion, I was totally enthralled by it, dontcha just love Jimmi Floyd

[kellzfresh 7,229]

10 hours ago, killer1257 said:

Better defenders? I think our defense is good enough, it is our horrible midfield that can't transition from defense to offense.

Gesendet von meinem VOG-L29 mit Tapatalk
 

Our midfield is really a problem. Kante cant complete a forward pass and Jorginho controls the tempo with passes back to the defence. No matter how many runs Werner and Pulisic makes no one in our midfield plays a ball over the top to them. No one in the midfield finds Havertz in between the lines, only thiago Silva did this from defence.

Our midfield is limited and overrated.

[Stats 7,059]

The lack of physicality in midfield concerns me. There is no real dominating presence which Rice or to a lesser extent even Barkley offers. Although the defenders played well, in actual open play United scuffed a lot of clear cut chances and their finishing in final third was poor. Like I said before the game, having both Giroud and Tammy on bench was a waste of a sub as it was like 99% likely one of them would not come on. United were controlling possession and I think having someone like CHO to come of the bench would have been useful. Got some games coming up now where I hope we see the dominant team display we showed against Palace and hopefully get Kai back in his natural no.10 position and I guess we can really analyse how much progress we are making. 

[robsblubot 3,531]

Yes, perhaps the team is a bit soft, perhaps height is even more of an issue, but the idea was to keep possession given that most players are now skilled enough for that. We just haven't been able to do that yet. The whole team is doing better in defense and helping out closing down players and runs. You have those Silva moments, or a good header by zouma (good in the air), but defending is really the whole team.

I hope that when we are discussing the midfield here, we are not only talking about Kante and Jorgino, because if we are, then we'd be the only team in the world who plays with a midfield duo... Yes they are the CMs on paper, but midfield is every player who roams in midfield during the game; and that's typically (at least) 5 players at any given time these days - possession sides tend to have even more players in that area at all times.

When luiz played for us he joined the midfield often, even if most folks don't see that as important ability for a defender, it can help a side esp with transition. Zouma cannot do that, but I think Silva can and will be able to help more than "just defending." His passing is really good even under pressure (yes I worry about zouma's passing but he does bring height and power which we may lack atm). it's the same with Kai and the wingers.. they will learn how to move in and out the center midfield area and without spending as much energy.

I'm optimistic that once the players trust themselves in the defensive tasks, and start jelling, these tasks will get easier and they will start producing more up front. They might be overtight with the effort to stop the bleeding right now, which was very important to do.

I also don't understand what the mandatory Abraham sub brings, esp because despite his height, he's pretty poor in the air and at winning that second ball. Giroud would be a far better option to close out the game and/or just hold the ball up front as it is something he does often for france. Maybe Abraham is suppose to counter, but Timo is better at that. Oh well.

 

[Muzchap 8,966]

10 hours ago, Vesper said:

he is shit at passing all over the field, not just near the box

not picking on you at all

its the same thing every week now

I love the 3 out of 4 clean sheets

but now our offence has basically went into the shitter

something has to give

I think if Arse and Leicester draw, that we have a shot at being 11th after all teams are level on 6 games

bottom half of the table is NOT acceptable

main thing tempering me atm from going completely off on the tactics, Lamps, etc is that stolen pen

I am just drained tbh

 

 

Yeah maybe I don't pay enough attention until the final 3rd - and then it is glaringly obvious.

We do need to improve and yes that Penalty is crazy.

So is Shaw handballing and not being given a second yellow.

The tackle on Pulisic 

The ref was just a joke it is so corrupt it is untrue. 

We would have more luck winning an election against Putin  - that's how bad it was 😳

[Special Juan 27,439]

Mendy is number 1 no doubt about that, followed by Willy, Cech and then Mount

[Jase 43,479]

14 hours ago, NikkiCFC said:

Sevilla another loss. 

The stats seem to suggest they were on the wrong end of a smash-and-grab...

https://www.whoscored.com/Matches/1492044/Live/Spain-LaLiga-2020-2021-Sevilla-Eibar

[Milan 17,859]

Edouard Mendy is the first Chelsea goalkeeper to keep a clean sheet in his first two Premier League games since Petr Cech in August 2004.

[Atomiswave 6,072]

12 hours later and im even more fuming here, our game has been stolen from us its that simple. VAR was brought in to decimate these issues but its been hijacked. If I were the manager I would bring it up big time, the refs must answer why that was not deemed a pen.. Maguire on Azpilicueta no check done at all....But when Silva brushed Rashfords foot....The incident was checked from all angles trying to give you a penalty. Thats clear evidence something is going on, and its only 1 out of million others we have witnessed. This is not football anymore, clear match fixing by FA and PGMOL. Results constantly being manipulated.

[Johnnyeye 7,445]

25 minutes ago, Milan said:

Edouard Mendy is the first Chelsea goalkeeper to keep a clean sheet in his first two Premier League games since Petr Cech in August 2004.

May it continue, feels like a good omen, long time ago in season far away a GK from Rennes signed for Chelsea and the rest is history 

[Johnnyeye 7,445]

4 minutes ago, Atomiswave said:

12 hours later and im even more fuming here, our game has been stolen from us its that simple. VAR was brought in to decimate these issues but its been hijacked. If I were the manager I would bring it up big time, the refs must answer why that was not deemed a pen.. Maguire on Azpilicueta no check done at all....But when Silva brushed Rashfords foot....The incident was checked from all angles trying to give you a penalty. Thats clear evidence something is going on, and its only 1 out of million others we have witnessed. This is not football anymore, clear match fixing by FA and PGMOL:

preach brother, disgusting scenes

[Jase 43,479]

This is only our 2nd clean sheet in 22 Premier League away games under Lampard.

[Atomiswave 6,072]

4 minutes ago, Jason said:

This is only our 2nd clean sheet in 22 Premier League away games under Lampard.

Sadly we have no structure, no balance, cant do well at both ends at the same time, one has to suffer. At this level thats not good enough, then you have line-ups and formation, gets changed game by game basis, players getting frozen out, players playing out of position, wrongs subs at the wrong time etc. Not good enough by half imo. Still have hope we will do better by xmas but its not looking dandy atm.

[Milan 17,859]