what on earth went wrong under Scolari?

[Rmpr 8,977]

They all have their mistakes, egos are a huge Pep problem.

However he is a better coach, my opinion though.

[zolayes 14,489]

where did Ruud Gullit go wrong when he was our manager or Luca Vialli...?

or more importantly Tommy Doc

[Muzchap 8,966]

Gullit did nothing wrong IMHO - I certainly can't remember it being bad...

Viallia - again, sometimes tactically naive - but we played some great football under him....

We just need conistency now, stop bringing in different managers as they bring it lots of new players and then they are stuck on the wage bill - we need to commit to RDM for a good 3-4 yrs, or find somebody who we will commit too...

I dont think we'll ever see the likes of SAF, Arse-W & Moyes again - clubs just dont have the patience now, a string of bad results and you're out....

I just hope Spuds get relegated this year - already lots of people complaining about AVB - we did try and warn them

[OneMoSalah 8,886]

He did an AVB, dropped the more older players which was the right idea but never really got results to justify his decision. The fact he struggled to speak English too probably meant he struggled to present his ideas across as accurately as he would of wanted. Also player power raped him something crazy.

[TorontoChelsea 4,064]

where did Ruud Gullit go wrong when he was our manager or Luca Vialli...?

or more importantly Tommy Doc

None of them had the good sense of hiring Roman as owner. Rather short-sited of them.

[zolayes 14,489]

not sure Roman could have handled Tommy Doch check out the number of clubs he had

[Jase 43,479]

He did an AVB, dropped the more older players which was the right idea but never really got results to justify his decision. The fact he struggled to speak English too probably meant he struggled to present his ideas across as accurately as he would of wanted. Also player power raped him something crazy.

And he doesn't have a Plan B when things go wrong on the pitch. He has always looked clueless in countering the oppositions' threat.

[diskoviolente 425]

I just remember how flat we looked at times. Frustratingly toothless, no edge in the attack, that this weird signing of a free agent (can´t even remember his name). Goodness me, these scoreless draws were sooo awefull to watch. I think we got found out pretty quickly. Pushing the fullbacks back on the pitch, pressuring the DM (Mikel/Essien) and just put one big defender on Anelka...Hiddinks arrival truely was a breaze of fresh air, as he installed Drogba back in the attack. Obviously Hiddink and Ancelotti prolonged the ever needed transition with their success. RdM now has the unthankful task of doing what should´ve started 4 years ago.

[OneMoSalah 8,886]

I just remember how flat we looked at times. Frustratingly toothless, no edge in the attack, that this weird signing of a free agent (can´t even remember his name). Goodness me, these scoreless draws were sooo awefull to watch. I think we got found out pretty quickly. Pushing the fullbacks back on the pitch, pressuring the DM (Mikel/Essien) and just put one big defender on Anelka...Hiddinks arrival truely was a breaze of fresh air, as he installed Drogba back in the attack. Obviously Hiddink and Ancelotti prolonged the ever needed transition with their success. RdM now has the unthankful task of doing what should´ve started 4 years ago.

Mineiro or something? Some Brazilian?

[diskoviolente 425]

Mineiro or something? Some Brazilian?

Yes, exactly. Did he ever came on for us ?

Oh and the signing of Quaresma. Desperate.

[OneMoSalah 8,886]

Yes, exactly. Did he ever came on for us ?

Oh and the signing of Quaresma. Desperate.

I don't even know if he played. I liked Quaresma, useful player tbh. Never fulfilled all his potential though. At Porto he was class but couldn't do the same for Jose's Inter in Italy. Didn't he not assist Alex's goal vs Hull or something though when he was on loan here?

[Heisenberg 1,824]

Mineiro played a Carling Cup game i think.

[diskoviolente 425]

Mineiro played a Carling Cup game i think.

True Chelsea legend !

[Tomo 21,751]

The irony with Quaresma is he would have been usefull in 10/11 and 11/12

[OneMoSalah 8,886]

Bet you Big Phil took a massive shit, stunk the place out and got sacked for that. No other explanation....

[Henrique 9,133]

The problem with Scolari is not the players egos, or anything like that.

His tatics are terribe, his teams play really ugly football.

Only in Brazil a guy like that is considered a genius.

This is where Brazil must improve: we dont have good managers, perhaps 3 or 4.

I cant stand this Scolari guy.

[Rmpr 8,977]

The problem with Scolari is not the players egos, or anything like that.

His tatics are terribe, his teams play really ugly football.

Only in Brazil a guy like that is considered a genius.

This is where Brazil must improve: we dont have good managers, perhaps 3 or 4.

I cant stand this Scolari guy.

Henrique, you are the worst Palmeirense on Earth!!!

[Henrique 9,133]

Scolari relegated Palmeiras!!!!

Worst manager ever in Chelsea history, only AVB is as bad as him.

[Badboy 1,526]

Scolari relegated Palmeiras!!!!

Worst manager ever in Chelsea history, only AVB is as bad as him.

World cup winner 2002 when nobody expected Brazil to do anything. Maybe he's more suited to International football !

[wj818 25]

Was watching the 08/09 season review last night and I still cannot understand what went badly wrong under Scolari, we went from playing beautiful football to dire, predictable football in less than a month.

Pre season we won every game without conceding a goal (including a 5-0 thumping of AC Milan) and this looked really good heading into the new season.

We started the season playing a flashy brand off football we've never seen before, the Pompey, Villa and Middlesborough games were un-real and after the latter match at the Riverside i honestly believed we would have walked the league that season and at the time Jose Bosingwa and Deco looked like superb signing's, Scolari looked to have got the best out of Belleti aswell and he (Scolari) really looked like he cracked it and i thought we would walk to the title in superb style.

But in came Rafa off all people who came to SW6 with a tactical master plan, double up on the fullbacks and put Mikel under pressure and give him no time on the ball, it worked a treat and meant Liverpool walked away from Stamford Bridge with a 1-0 win, although we kept winning in the league for the next few weeks their was clearly something not clicking as shown by a worrying thumping in Rome and a Carling Cup exit to Burnley and then we had the week from hell that clearly shown the honeymoon period was well and truly over.

A 0-0 home draw to Newcastle where we looked toothless and devoid of ideas followed up by a awful performance in Bordeux and only a defensive howler on their behalf gave us a goal and we were in danger of going out of the competition and then came the real hammer blow, 1-0 up at half time and cruising to probably the most easiest 1-0 win for a long time RVP hits a quick fire double for the Gooners as the come out of Stamford Bridge with a 2-1 win, Scolari and the Chelsea faithfull were shell shocked and after they went 2-1 up we didnt look like equalizing.

December started with a comfortable win at whats slowly turning into our 2nd home (the Reebok) after that we went through to the last 16 of the CL depsite a nervy win against Cluj but after that followed un-inspiring draws against West Ham and Everton, a routine 2-0 win at home to WBA followed on Boxing Day and 2 days later 2 more dropped point down the road at Fulham, despite not losing this month there were still some pretty worrying signs and rumours of Scolari's sacking were getting louder.

The new year could not have possibly started any worse, a home draw in the cup to Southend and then a humiliating defeat at Old Trafford, the 3-0 defeat flattered us in all honesty it could have been 6, and although we won the FA Cup replay at Roots Hall (4-1) 3 days later, we were outplayed by a Southend side mid table in league one for the 1st half and were lucky to into the break 1-1, i would probably say that was the most underwhelming victory since ive supported the blues, fast forward another 3 days and we found ourself's 1-0 down at Stamford Bridge to a Stoke side that aint won away all season, a loss would surely have seen Scolari out of the door but Franco Di Santo and Miroslav Stoch off all players inspired 2 late goals scored by Belletti and Frank Lampard and Soclari's job was briefly saved.wins against Ipswich and Boro followed but another hammer blow at Anfield saw Scolari hanging on by a thread.

The Hull game was the one that saw Scolari get the chop, the players looked laboured, unfit and we could quite easily have lost that game, i went from thinking we would walk the league to worrying about our place in the top 4 in the space of 4 months, what i still can't work out to this day is how it went from one extreme to the other so quickly.

As you mentioned, Rafa was the first one to find a defect in our till then flying system, not only they won that game, if im not confused, they won at the bridge breaking our 64 or so unbeaten run, btw it was a deflected goal, sigh!!!

but anyway, It seem ages ago, but if i have to quiz myself, i guess his timeline would be like:

- Scolari started out with a 4-1-4-1 formation and used other variations (like 4-2-2-2) in his short reign, but basically, he tried to pack the midfield (why not? since we had loads of talented midfielders, and players like ballack and deco were just bought.) that's why he chose to make the midfield really narrow and leave the space out wide for our full backs to attack, and again we had players like cole, balleti and bosingwa, players who could play like a wingback, and provide the attacking width to our narrow system. (We didnt have decent wingers either).

- And we quickly adapted to the system didn't we?, with the quality of our midfielders, we controlled possession and dominated in midfield, at least against weaker teams. As we forced the opponent to play narrow to match our strength in midfield, eg: the other teams fullback would be sucked in the center to help his teammates out, leaving spaces out wide for our fullbacks like cole to bombard forward, and they did that with amazing efficiency, creating goals, if not scoring them, and started playing a vital role in the system, not just defending but attacking too.

- When liverpool came at the bridge, Rafa knew he couldn't let us dominate possession and give time for our fullbacks to make runs, so he played 4-4-1-1 to get an equal footing in midfield (4 vs 4), and used doubleup to pin our fullbacks at the back. The midfield being packed, we couldnt really dominate the midfield as we wouldve liked too, with the like of gerrard, alonso, mashcerano in the center, giving our players no time to rest, and specially i remmember, keane and kuyt taking turns to put pressure on mikel from distributing the ball, while our fullbacks were neutralized by their wingers who tightly marked, Our dominant midfield was matched as our midfielders fail to hold the ball long enough for our fullbacks to get into decent attacking positions, the two attacking strength, we had relied so much under Scolari, was subdued by rafas tactics. (the first domino fell)

-Usually a plan B, wouldve been in place, for times like these, but Due to drogbas injury at first and later a rift between drogba and scolari, he never got to use a system with a target man like drogba (well not as much as he wanted to). Eventually, unable to change the tactical weakness exposed by rafa (stop the fullbacks, stop chelsea's attack), and the lack of plan b, turned out to be the main reason Scolari got sacked.

-Lack of European club experience, unable to speak English, losing control of senior players (as always), unable to show tactical versatility, might be other reasons...