closed Brighton 1-1 Chelsea

[Jase 43,479]

1 minute ago, Pizy said:

Liverpool lose their two best players to AFCON and will get them back in a BETTER position league table wise than when they went away.

Forget about Liverpool. We will be lucky to even finish 3rd at this rate!

[Stats 6,988]

Body language was also interesting. Looked like players were fed up Lukaku. Players seemed to often avoid playing him in and when he complained at both Ziyech and Azpi, they both bit back, which you don't usually see.

[cosmicway 1,262]

At least that was n't like Burnley or Everton.
Under more normal circumstances I would consider it as a small loss (don't tell me that Porto who has the same colours as Brtn are better).
I was about to search the Amex stadium phone number to suggest to some of you to call Ziyech, when at that moment he scored the goal. But apart from that nuts from him.
Between him and Pulisitch I prefer Pulisitch.
Lukaku was isolated again and our long range shooters who found some opportunities always went for the roof (CHO=Kante=Kovasitch).
Kai is certainly not ready, that being the reason he is not starting.

About Lukaku again I don't think he is fundamentally different from Diego Costa.
The difference was that back then we had Hazard who was opening defenses with his solo runs and feeding Diego. Also Cesc.
In the end we did n't like Costa, because he was a heavy man and we did n't like heavy men. But with Lukaku we changed our minds and splashed 100 mil.

 

[Superblue 6,331]

I'm not at all surprised that Brighton have now played us off the park twice in a couple of weeks.

They play brave and they look to get on the ball and the front foot. Games against that type of opposition this season have proven that Lukaku playing in those games leaves us with a passenger that you cannot afford to have. It's not a coincidence that our performance against Liverpool was significantly better than these when you have mobility in the attacking positions to press and stop them playing, in exactly the same way as Brighton tried to do to us tonight.

Ironically Lukaku will possibly be a better fit to play against Spurs who are more likely to sit deeper and not look to wrestle control of possession away from us, but I would just rather he didn't play at this stage. 

I can accept players not playing well, or out of form so long as they show the right application. The lack of pressing and mobility in our attack when he's playing is wearing thin.

[cosmicway 1,262]

1 minute ago, Stats said:

Body language was also interesting. Looked like players were fed up Lukaku. Players seemed to often avoid playing him in and when he complained at both Ziyech and Azpi, they both bit back, which you don't usually see.

But I never saw him in a good position really to be utilised. Except for that once when Ziyetch made that wrong pass to him.

[Pizy 17,861]

3 minutes ago, Jase said:

Forget about Liverpool. We will be lucky to even finish 3rd at this rate!

If any of the clubs behind us can simply get a run together of a few wins on the bounce we are in trouble.

[milka 3,308]

One of either Lukaku or Tuchel is going to get sacked from Chelsea at this rate and we all know which one who will be .

 

 

 

 

Edited January 18, 2022 by milka

[OneMoSalah 8,617]

4 minutes ago, Jase said:

That's not the point. The point is you make changes so late in the game and it's almost dumb that you expect them to make an impact with just 10 minutes. And it's probably made worse by the fact that Tuchel trotted out another system that we have rarely used and then placed square pegs in round holes. 

It doesn’t matter if its the point or not. He could have thrown on Pulisic, Havertz, Werner or Gary Goals with 20-25 minutes to go and 95% chance they wouldn’t of came up with a winning goal. We were that poor in the final third and our attackers are that inconsistent. They don’t do enough and 2 of the 3 players I named there definitely aren’t good enough to play here. Sick of mentioning them, they shouldn’t be Chelsea players based on the last 18 months or so. 

And on the systems people were complaining end of last season for a back 4, then again in pre-season clamouring for a back 4. Then when the games started going iffy before the turn of the year people wanted us to use a back 4. Now we use a back 4 and people complain about using a back 4…. It is not rocket science to see this team is much better suited a 343. 

[cosmicway 1,262]

4 minutes ago, Superblue_1986 said:

I'm not at all surprised that Brighton have now played us off the park twice in a couple of weeks.

They play brave and they look to get on the ball and the front foot. Games against that type of opposition this season have proven that Lukaku playing in those games leaves us with a passenger that you cannot afford to have. It's not a coincidence that our performance against Liverpool was significantly better than these when you have mobility in the attacking positions to press and stop them playing, in exactly the same way as Brighton tried to do to us tonight.

Ironically Lukaku will possibly be a better fit to play against Spurs who are more likely to sit deeper and not look to wrestle control of possession away from us, but I would just rather he didn't play at this stage. 

I can accept players not playing well, or out of form so long as they show the right application. The lack of pressing and mobility in our attack when he's playing is wearing thin.

Only Norwich are worse than Spurs.

Edited January 18, 2022 by cosmicway

[Jase 43,479]

2 minutes ago, Superblue_1986 said:

I'm not at all surprised that Brighton have now played us off the park twice in a couple of weeks.

Brighton have played us off the park for like 2+ seasons now. Our last convincing performance and win against them was the 2-0 victory early in the 2019/20 season!

[Jase 43,479]

2 minutes ago, OneMoSalah said:

It doesn’t matter if its the point or not. He could have thrown on Pulisic, Havertz, Werner or Gary Goals with 20-25 minutes to go and 95% chance they wouldn’t of came up with a winning goal. We were that poor in the final third and our attackers are that inconsistent. They don’t do enough and 2 of the 3 players I named there definitely aren’t good enough to play here. Sick of mentioning them, they shouldn’t be Chelsea players based on the last 18 months or so. 

Yes, our attackers are shit but better chance of potentially changing the game, making an impact with more time to do so than just 10 minutes! It's not as if we were doing anything for much of that second half or first half for that matter! At least try something different, try making the changes earlier!

[Superblue 6,331]

1 minute ago, Jase said:

Brighton have played us off the park for like 2+ seasons now. Our last convincing performance and win against them was the 2-0 victory early in the 2019/20 season!

They do seem to have our number somewhat (albeit I don't think they've ever beaten us).

But the games against them these last couple of weeks have played right into their hands to give them easy possession and retention of the ball.

We may have been wasteful, but I'd rather see a Lukaku-less attack at the moment with some mobility, movement, aggression. 

[Seymop 81]

Don’t think it’s been mentioned, but I think another problem is The Board . We have relied on solid defense, but due to injuries we are having to play way too many players at the back who are coming out of contract. They cannot be 100% focused when half their thoughts are where they will be next season ( Rudi is an exception to this).  The Board must take some of the blame for the shambles we have become 

[Fulham Broadway 16,428]

26 minutes ago, MoroccanBlue said:

The smug faces they had as they were subbed off. 

Honestly how highly do they think of themselves? I'm glad Halilhodzic didn't select Ziyech for the national side as his attitude is everything that's wrong with modern footballers. 

I honestly thought he'd hit the side netting. He couldn't have looked less interested

[cosmicway 1,262]

2 minutes ago, Seymop said:

Don’t think it’s been mentioned, but I think another problem is The Board . We have relied on solid defense, but due to injuries we are having to play way too many players at the back who are coming out of contract. They cannot be 100% focused when half their thoughts are where they will be next season ( Rudi is an exception to this).  The Board must take some of the blame for the shambles we have become 

Look let's face it.
The attack is Sahara desert - Gobi desert.
And it was n't 0-0 to blame it on them parking the bus. It was 1-0.

[Jase 43,479]

So, Tuchel basically admitted that he was being reactionary with those subs and then complained about tiredness...again. 

[Jase 43,479]

Also, funny that the English media made all the hoo-ha about Mount after he didn't start on Saturday and he went and put in an average/a poor performance today. Where are those journalists now!?

[Superblue 6,331]

5 minutes ago, Jase said:

So, Tuchel basically admitted that he was being reactionary with those subs and then complained about tiredness...again. 

To be fair I can understand the tiredness argument.

Our schedule has been relentless, especially when you factor in Carabao Cup games and whilst near on every team has had a form of "covid" break during the last few weeks we're actually getting more games crammed in earlier rather than later in the season to factor in the Club World Cup. Juggling a lot of injuries, covid, etc during this period has stretched the squad to the brink at times. 

Azpilicueta and Alonso looked completely dead on their feet tonight. Towards the end Azpi was struggling to even track back. But unless we play wingers at full back, there isn't much by way of alternatives right now.