Fulham 0-0 Chelsea

[Clevemayer 764]

the worst thing ist, that from carlo's reaction you can see that everythings seems like it was the way I'm thinking about how on earth can he think this? read the bold-lines:

'We deserved to win this game but we could lose it at the end,' acknowledged Ancelotti.

'Petr Cech did a fantastic save from the penalty but our performance was a good performance. We did well in the second half and we put a lot of pressure on.

'We didn't allow Fulham a lot of opportunities to come out from their half and we had a lot of opportunities to score, but we were not able to and it was the one fault we had in the game.

'But the team showed good attacking play, good physical condition and a good attitude - but we could have lost it, and this is football.'

Explaining the selection decision up front, he said:

'I wanted to have control of the game in midfield by using Malouda and Anelka between the lines, and it was normal rotation because we have a lot of games coming and we want to maintain the players fresh. Drogba was a case of normal rotation as happened to Mikel and Kalou, and these players will play the next game.

[RX8 40]

This game is one more of the Awful season Chelsea are having.... And this is not going to end... I just hope That we do so much better at CL, and get at least 4 place in the table to return to CL...

However... The Special One showing at the Game is very disturbing......

[spuz 143]

Fulham had more shots on target and a penalty at the end. Not often Cech saves those. We were fortunate if anything.

[Peace. 4,352]

Lately, when I'm watchin Chelsea play, i got the feeling that I'm watching my France team in the South Africa Wolrd Cup...

[MetsajCFC 1,255]

This is already a huge thread so I'll try to keep it short.

Terrible. Terrible performance. No excuses tonight and we're running out of time too. Lampard, Essien, Malouda & Anelka were subpar.

Torres' touches were quite heavy. I'm all for giving him time but we desperately need something better now.

On the bright side. David Luiz will become my favourite CB in the future. What. A. Player.

I have a "man-crush" on that keeper with the helmet.

Ramires was surprisingly good. Not he's been anything but great in his last few games but today he was a level above our other midfielders.

Sums up my thoughts, well put mate.

[Styles 9,790]

I was saying it to myself during the game as well - how on Earth could Anelka hit him?? It was a promising counter and Anelka hit their laying player.

That video just goes to show just how dumb some of our players are. Why on earth did Anelka attempt a long ball across the pitch when Ramire is right there infront of him unmarked? Or why didn't he run into the acres of space infront of him with the ball? That was a brilliant chance of a counter attack wasted by the sheer stupidity of Anelka.That is the kind of stupidity that is costing us games, too many of our players play with their head down and fail to spot simple gaps to pass through.

[pachman40 357]

I dunno guys, part of me wants to come in here and bash the boring predictable football that was played last night but the other part of me thinks we're simply on the wrong side of the luck right now. People are saying that Torres didn't play well in our system last night and the tactics are wrong. I disagree and say Torres brought the wrong shooting boots, he had chances out the ass including that beautiful long ball from Luiz at halftime but Torres simply couldn't finish. People are saying we played terrible yesterday. Well I say we played better than we're giving them credit for and we simply couldn't put the ball in the back of the net. There were definitely negatives out there (Essien's behind a step, Lamps is lost out there, and Anelka was wasted in his role. That being said, we were 100% in control except for a couple of dangerous counter-attacks, we basically camped out in their half, and if we had 1 breakthrough I know I was feeling that the floodgates would burst open.

I will say that we seemed content with our control and looked uninspired. There was no urgency until the last 20 mins and there was too much standing around. I dunno, there were positives and negatives in the game, if we popped in a goal obviously the mood would be different around here and we'd have some more positive reflection but I guess that's natural.

By the way, didn't I tell you guys about Luiz????? He's a stud and will only get better once he settles into the team a bit more and plays within them instead of on his own. He tries to do everything himself though and I could see it kinda unsettled a couple of our players cuz he was all over the field and they kinda stood back and watched him do his thing instead of helping him out. They were like "who the F is this guy?". He is our future no doubt!

[steve5221 91]

I see your point, but feel that we are really missing a trick by not playing Drogba and Torres up front together. Torres touch was woeful last night but his movement was very good. I think if we combine that with Drogba's strength and touch we can really look to score some goals. If Carlo would just revert to a standard 4-4-2 with Malouda on the left and Kalou/Essien/Ramires on the right I think we will flow

[spuz 143]

I see your point, but feel that we are really missing a trick by not playing Drogba and Torres up front together. Torres touch was woeful last night but his movement was very good. I think if we combine that with Drogba's strength and touch we can really look to score some goals. If Carlo would just revert to a standard 4-4-2 with Malouda on the left and Kalou/Essien/Ramires on the right I think we will flow

:goodpost: I've made that point a billion times. Things will click with that one simple change. Carlo may even save his arse from the sack.

We've got the talented players they're just being played wrong and maybe by the look of things training doesn't seem to be up to much. We just need someone to come in and give the players a kick up the backside in training and have more passing sessions. Maybe Luiz could teach them how it's done.

By the way, didn't I tell you guys about Luiz????? He's a stud and will only get better once he settles into the team a bit more and plays within them instead of on his own. He tries to do everything himself though and I could see it kinda unsettled a couple of our players cuz he was all over the field and they kinda stood back and watched him do his thing instead of helping him out. They were like "who the F is this guy?". He is our future no doubt!

I feel guilty now that we've robbed Benfica getting him so cheap.

[dodojojo 510]

We should not be starting him, he should be coming off the bench to exploit tired defences, and it wouldn't cause so much pressure for him to have that immediate performance expectation.

But he'll come good......

He was exploiting the Fullham defense as he was in a couple of clear scoring positions. That Luiz hoof pass to Torres isn't all that different from what Torres did to Vidic in 2009. Problem is his finishing and I think that will improve with time on the pitch and confidence. Ancelotti should not have taken him off when Chelsea needed a goal and he was still involved. I'll take this back if Ancelotti believes Torres was tired and slowing down.

[steve5221 91]

Why does Carlo keep persisting with Anelka??. He keeps coming inside and leaving the right flank totally exposed. If he is hell bent on 4-3-3 then Torres can play on the right with Drogba through the middle. We need Drogba's physical presence centrally. Also Anelka is very slow mentally, always needs at least 3 seconds on the ball and doesn't release it quick enough. I think even Sturridge or Kakuta would be better than Anelka but that is for next season I guess

[dodojojo 510]

If Drogba and Torres are to be played together, Anelka should not be in the hole or the "10" role. He simply can't do it. Unfortunately, right now, there doesn't seem to be anyone else at Chelsea who can play this role.

[pachman40 357]

He was exploiting the Fullham defense as he was in a couple of clear scoring positions. That Luiz hoof pass to Torres isn't all that different from what Torres did to Vidic in 2009. Problem is his finishing and I think that will improve with time on the pitch and confidence. Ancelotti should not have taken him off when Chelsea needed a goal and he was still involved. I'll take this back if Ancelotti believes Torres was tired and slowing down.

I agree, once he gets a goal or two he'll be off to the races. Also agree that he should have stayed on to play alongside Drogba and cause some disruption in Fulham's back 4. Tactically we needed to change things in order to breakdown Fulham a bit more and it made no sense to do a like for like swap.

[steve5221 91]

If fit he should be on that pitch for 90 minutes, thats the only way he will regain his form and confidence.

[Tortilla9 390]

I hope for Torres, Carlo, and the team's sake, Torres scores soon. The longer he goes without scoring the longer the media will be on their feeding frenzy of negative Torres/Chelsea crap. It'll take pressure off everybody involved and hopefully the team can move forward.

[Term-X 7,891]

http://www.whoateallthepies.tv/chelsea/64982/david-luiz-looks-a-bit-special.html

[magicrico 175]

http://www.whoateall...it-special.html

I think this is spot on...Torres looks woeful....no confidence whatsoever.....I hope im wrong but i have a bad feeling about him, the team going forward are dreadful. We need to sort it out now. 4th place will be a massive task.

[GodZola 630]

My apologies if i have repeated a previous post but havn't got time to scroll through 33 pages.

Until Ancelotti starts playing a more attacking formation from the start of games then we will continue to struggle against teams that put 9 or 10 players behind the ball. We only need one holding midfielder not 2 or even 3 sometimes! We need a midfielder with vision that can unlock the door against sides that play for a draw, step forward Josh MacEachran.......oh forgot Ancelotti doesn't trust out younger players he f'in well ships them out on loan instead of putting them in ahead of some of the senior players that havn't performed all poxy season!

Why the fook did he take Torres off when we need to score?! You need your firepower on the pitch & not on the poxy bench with 20 minutes to go. Torres & co upfront won't stand a chance until Ancelotti starts getting the formation right as they will not get any service, sadly I think Carlo is setting us up not to lose rather than starting with an attacking lineup that can create chances thus going a goal up & then making these defensive teams come out which will then give us the opportunity to exploit them as they leave themselves open ay the back.