The Chelsea Thread

[Tyton]

The ball boy was obviously going to time waste. The same would have happend if Chelsea were 2-0 up and at Stamford bridge. But a professional footballer should not show coolant conduct. Hazard and lampard should've just had a quick chat with the ref appealing for extra stoppage time.

Yeah. What the kid did was really lame, because away team has no real means to protect themselves from something like this, not within the rules anyway. Its not like ref is going to red card the ballboy. He might have added time, but the opportunity for quick attack was lost.

Which is why i can sort of relate to what Hazard did, these guys are professionals, they are determined to win, they play for a lot of money, and then something like this happenes...well. This is not Cantona going kung-fu on a rude fan. It was very stupid to resort to kicking but i fear Hazard is going to get a lot more **** for it then he deserves.

 

[Subtle]

Tbh though, I don't give a **** about what Hazard did. It was ill advised to try and get the ball in that manner, but the "boy" is 17. He's not a little child, he is fully capable of realising what he was doing and he should be the one taking a lot of the stick.

What it shouldn't cover up is the fact that we go done like kippers last night. Swansea sat deep and packed the centre very tightly and we just couldn't pick the lock. Mata looked dangerous but to be fair to the guy, he had to drop deep to receive the ball and by that point he had to find a pass through 2 banks of players. The result was a tendency to play the ball wide and hope for a cross, but the box was too packed for a low cross to do anything, and our midgets too short to do anything with a high ball.

Really it just highlighted the need to get an exceptional striker and a regista. Mata shouldn't have been dropping that deep, but he had to because the pivot's distribution was, well, ****. With the wide players effectively neutralised by the aforementioned problem with crosses, it was last year all over again: shut Mata down and win the game. If we had a regista, not only would we have had a playmaker able to operate in between the lines (rather than in front of them) we also would have had another central passing threat.

 

[CJACKO11]

Someone i know who is more qualified in football than me take on Rafa Benitez: Thats been Rafa's style from day 1 though...he sets them up like chess pieces, awaits for the opponent to make the first move and hopes his knights and bishops can make the killer move. Unfortunately like chess, a better opponent will be 3 moves ahead of you..."

 

[Subtle]

Tbf though, he's basically playing with 4 pawns, 2 knights, 3 bishops, a King and no rooks. Kinda hard to win a game of chess when you start with an unbalanced board, you need that tactical versatility.

Or to put it another way, we're trying to build a car with 8 doors, 3 mirrors, 2 wheels, 3 radios and no engine.

 

[GodCubed]

Look at it from this angle and the ball boy looks like even more of a ****.

 

[Tyton]

Someone i know who is more qualified in football than me take on Rafa Benitez: Thats been Rafa's style from day 1 though...he sets them up like chess pieces, awaits for the opponent to make the first move and hopes his knights and bishops can make the killer move. Unfortunately like chess, a better opponent will be 3 moves ahead of you..."

Wait, i thought clinical striker was supposed to fix everything, Ba starts games, yet Chelsea is still ****, what's going on? Could it be possible that your season is not being ruined by Fernando Flopes, but terrible midfield shape, one-dimensional attacks and lack of bench?

 

[Athe~]

In your chess analogy Torres would be the king, right? Terrible movement, completely useless both defensively and offensively yet the whole game is built around him.

 

[GodCubed]

In your chess analogy Torres would be the king, right? Terrible movement, completely useless both defensively and offensively yet the whole game is built around him.

I was going to suggest Mata as the queen, but that has other connotations.

 

[Tyton]

Only JT can be the Queen.

 

[CJACKO11]

My latest article for people without a life....

Swansea: Now lets talk about the football side of things first as it should be the most important topic of the lot. 180 minutes against a mid-bottom half Premier League side and we tested the goalkeeper what 3-4 times? That quite simply is not good enough; Swansea nullified our game plan in both legs especially the 2nd​leg because we were far too predictable and unable to change. With no Moses in the side we have very little width especially when Hazard plays wide left because he will naturally come inside on his stronger foot and in Oscar and Mata you have two number 10’s who like to occupy the same space through the middle. Swansea recognised this so they packed the middle of the field with the back 4 and then Britton and Ki (who were sensational) and made it almost impossible for us to break through. The most disappointing thing from a fans point of view is that over the two legs Swansea for me fully deserve their place at Wembley and for a side like Chelsea that is not good enough. We showed no urgency to win the ball back when Swansea had possession, sloppy when in possession then when we couldn’t find a way through we would try a hopeless long ball which would normally end up running to the keeper or straight out of play. The fact that Cech was our best player on the night says it all for me and that is now 5 of the 7 trophies we had available to us at the start of the season lost. I will end this by saying congratulations to Swansea and as much as a fairytale it will be for Bradford to win it I would love to see Swansea in Europe next season.

Subs: I did a bit of research and games in which we have struggled since Rafa got the job (City, Fulham, West Ham, Corinthians, QPR, Southampton and Swansea x2) I counted 12 of Rafa’s 19 subs in these games were like for like subs. When I say like for like I mean player coming on will play same role as player coming off when quite clearly it’s the system that needs tweaking i.e. striker on for midfielder or midfielder on for defender. As poor as that is that is not even the worst part of Rafa’s subs, lateness of the subs is constant and must be a contributory factor in losing us games. He averages his first sub around the 75th​ minute mark and with it normally being like for like its too late and not effective at all. All this criticism about subs wouldn’t be that bad if he showed signs that he was changing but he is not, he has a way he likes to manage and will not change. Pat Nevin also questioned this after our win against Arsenal last Sunday saying he waits far too long to make the first change.

Ball Boy Gate: I didn’t really want to talk about this because the incident has taken any blame away from the team and manager for the defeat. Lets start by saying this red card did not lose us the tie, 80 minutes were already gone and the damage had already been done. My personal view is that both are in the wrong but Hazard should know better. Yes the lad is too old, yes the lad shouldn’t have laid on the ball, yes the lad shouldn’t have time wasted (although I would have done if it was me) and yes the lad shouldn’t have rolled around I would say like a girl but my 19 month old daughter wouldn’t have reacted like that! But Hazard should know better not to get involved in things like that and yes most players would have done the same and I probably would have but that doesn’t make it right. The only thing that is suffering from this is Chelsea F.C’s already tarnished image and the team on the field as we lose a key player for 3 matches. I think most of the anger is due to the lad’s tweets suggesting he will time waste but what do we expect? I remember an Everton game years ago (can’t remember the opponents) but 15-20 minutes before the end of a game they were winning someone went round collecting the balls off the ball boys so the ball in play was the only ball knowing when it went out of play it would eat up more time getting it back. It’s on the same line as teams pushing their advertising boards closer to the pitch when Stoke come to play and not giving them towels to dry the ball. That lad was a Swansea fan and to eat up some seconds to assist his side in reaching their first ever major cup final it’s a no brainer! Not condoning it but I can see why he did it, if it was me in that position I would have popped the ****** thing to waste time! Anything to assist my team to a final of a competition.

4-2-3-1: A formation that has really come to light in the past 2 seasons and is being used by a host of teams and with the correct players it really is one of the best around definitely. Now unfortunately in this topic I have to compare us to them…..yes that’s right Spurs. S***s are showing us how this formation should be played and its more proof to me that the men at the club do not understand football. Now lets try to break down this formation comparing us to S***s. The goalkeeper and the back 4 have no real relevance in this, obviously pick your best 5 but attacking full backs would be better. Now to the two in midfield, one needs to be ball winning which we and S***s both have in Mikel and Sandro respectively. The other should be a deep lying playmaker, he should be able to spot a pass from deep to start an attack or drive forward with the ball looking for an opening. Spurs did have Modric for this but now have Dembele where as we have no one. Players such as Modric and Moutinho should have been at the top of our summer transfer list or even keep Essien/Meireles/McEachran who all have the attributes to play this role better than Ramires, Lampard and Luiz. Now to the three behind the striker where you need two interchangeable wingers where Spurs have Bale and Lennon where we only really have one in Moses. I know Hazard can go wide but he genuinely likes to come inside and get a shot away. The only position we differ in the number 10 role where we have more of an all rounder in Mata compared to Dempsey who is more like a false striker getting in the box more often. As you can see S***s have the correct players for this formation it hurts to say this but we should learn from them or change the formation to something that may suit us better.
Thank you for taking the time to read this.
​

 

[Montanaro]

so this 17 year old is like 5'5"....no wonder hes an attention *****...

 

[Nick Chelsea]

Where are all of you who defended the 'poor kid' that 'almost died' last night? Yeah, do hide, and don't show up.

 

[GodCubed]

Ah, Carl, please tell us. What formation would you rather Chelsea play?

 

[Athe~]

Jacko, calling Swansea a bottom half team is harsh. Calling them mid table is reasonable, but they're certainly a team that can cause problems to anyone. I understand your frustration but you shouldn't underestimate them.

That said, the focus of your criticism, as with most Chelsea fans, is Rafa. I'll be honest here, I don't like Rafa, neither as a person nor as a manager. I don't like his style, I think his squad selection has been poor and his subs are questionable. But you can't deny his achievements, both at Valencia and during most of his time at Liverpool (he was ***** at Inter, though), which in short means that whether I like it or not, his style works. The problem here lies in the fact that his style require certain types of players which you don't currently have, and his squad selection and subs are affected by this as well.

I don't think you can defend his squad selection against QPR or his decision to start Torres regardless of his shitness, but you can't put all of the blame on Rafa. The problem is simple - di Matteo "built" -for lack of a better word- a squad he liked, but when he got the boot, he was replaced by the only half decent manager around that was willing to take a big fat pay cheque and the chance to win some silverware in 6 months - and you can thank Tim Roth's russian evil twin for that. If you consistently sack a manager or two every season, being honest, who'd want to take the job? And don't get me wrong, my previous statement wasn't meant to make Rafa sound like a moneygrabber. He took the only available job around to try and get his career back on track - and as previously stated he was the only good manager around willing to take such a job. Neither club nor manager had much of a choice here.

And while I think we can all agree that he may be trying to fit square pegs into round holes -having to play a Lampard-Ramires double pivot, for instance- it's not his fault that he's only got square pegs. He inherited this squad and he's trying to make do with what he has at his disposal, which will obviously not yield ideal results, but that's what Rafa is stuck with, just like Chelsea are stuck with him. You may not like Rafa, I certainly don't, but if you think sacking him would change anything, you're right, it would, but for the worse. Who on earth would take the Chelsea job then? All I can say is be patient, get behind him and hope for the best. Me, on the other hand... well, I'll still enjoy watching you guys get done by QPR and Southampton and Torres' lousy attempts at being a forward.

 

[Tyton]

Eh, i think i'd try playing 4-3-2-1 actually, with Cole and Apli providing width thanks to increased cover from 3 central mids, Ramirez and Luiz as dynamic midfield enforcers making occassional forward runs and Mikel wrapping it all up. Hazard , Mata and Oscar all seem to feel most comfortable if they're allowed to roam rather then being forced to the wings, plus then you can actually rotate them instead of playing Mata into exhaustion.

Armchair general Tyton at your service.

 

[GodCubed]

Eh, i think i'd try playing 4-3-2-1 actually, with Cole and Apli providing width thanks to increased cover from 3 central mids, Ramirez and Luiz as dynamic midfield enforcers making occassional forward runs and Mikel wrapping it all up. Hazard , Mata and Oscar all seem to feel most comfortable if they're allowed to roam rather then being forced to the wings, plus then you can actually rotate them instead of playing Mata into exhaustion.

Armchair general Tyton at your service.

Main problem with that, and Christmas Tree variants in general, is that if the opposition restrict your full-backs with their wingers - or even just let them go and stay in counterattacking positions - they've totally destroyed your width. That's hardly something Chelsea need right now, given their current struggles with it.

 

[Tyton]

Main problem with that, and Christmas Tree variants in general, is that if the opposition restrict your full-backs with their wingers - or even just let them go and stay in counterattacking positions - they've totally destroyed your width. That's hardly something Chelsea need right now, given their current struggles with it.

You cant destroy something that already barely exists. If fullbacks can push high up the pitch more often and make overlapping runs, attacking mids can cut inside (as they all prefer to do anyway) and then you at least have 2-3 attack options instead of just hammering everything through the middle.

Both options are quite flawed, obviously, because its a deeply flawed team (cant really hope to compete for titles in todays football without proper regista) , but i figure christmas tree would fit their current squad better.

Although, they completely don't have backup players for Luiz/Mikel/Ramirez trio if set up in this manner, so that idea is propably out too, heh.

 

[GodCubed]

You cant destroy something that already barely exists. If fullbacks can push high up the pitch more often and make overlapping runs, attacking mids can cut inside (as they all prefer to do anyway) and then you at least have 2-3 attack options instead of just hammering everything through the middle.

Chelsea barely have any width, but it's that barely that actually allows them to score goals. See Azpilicueta's assists for Mata against Arsenal and Ba against Southampton, as well as Mata's clever outside-to-in run to stretch the defence against the same.

You said "If fullbacks can push high up the pitch more often and make overlapping runs" but my entire point was that when they're up against two diligent wingers - for example, United's - they're totally nullified. Moreover, even if the opposition has lazy wingers, the opportunity for quick breaks up the flanks to the wingers who had loitered in position is too great a threat to be taken lightly. It happened in Serie A a couple of years back: the odd fetish the league had for 4-1-2-1-2s and the like led to the teams who still played with two wingers being at a distinct advantage. Looking at a formation's weaknesses and going 'welp, it's already broken, might as well just break it further' has pretty much never worked as a method for improving teams in the entire history of football, it'd be stupid to start now.

Although, they completely don't have backup players for Luiz/Mikel/Ramirez trio if set up in this manner, so that idea is propably out too, heh.

Mmhmm, that's another huge problem. As I've said, the problem here isn't the formation. It has worked before and it has the capacity to work again. The problem here is the personnel.

 

[Cai1234]

Main problem with that, and Christmas Tree variants in general, is that if the opposition restrict your full-backs with their wingers - or even just let them go and stay in counterattacking positions - they've totally destroyed your width. That's hardly something Chelsea need right now, given their current struggles with it.

To counter that problem couldn't you drop Luiz further back into defence and then push terry and Cahill further out onto the wings, therefore stopping the counter attacking movement.

 

[zzeezzy]

Is this the right moment to have a good old laugh again about sending Essien out on loan for the season with no clause to be able to recall him?