He was winning more but today he didn't not because of Zouma but because he had to deal with many players who are excellent in the air. Zouma for most part was a non entitiy, was only seen when he pushed Fellaini from the back, won the ball and won the throw in later. He won 1 aerial duel in the whole game.
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He was winning more but today he didn't not because of Zouma but because he had to deal with many players who are excellent in the air. Zouma for most part was a non entitiy, was only seen when he pushed Fellaini from the back, won the ball and won the throw in later. He won 1 aerial duel in the whole game.
Chelsea was droping deep, because its what they do if they realize they can't win possession battle.
They did that under Di Mateo, they did it under Benitez, they're doing it now. But hey, we can attribute it all to Mourinho's brilliant tic-tacs, I mean tactics.
And yeah, man-marking Fellaini was the key thing here. United's attacks became too one-dimensional and they couldn't break the bus down.
I'm sort of amused it took Mourinho to figure it out. Captain Rodgers and Pellegrini didn't do **** to counter the big man, even though it was right in front their noses. Both vs. Liverpool and City the centerbacks would break formation to try and fight Fellaini and then all **** broke loose.
They did that under Di Mateo, they did it under Benitez, they're doing it now. But hey, we can attribute it all to Mourinho's brilliant tic-tacs, I mean tactics.
And yeah, man-marking Fellaini was the key thing here. United's attacks became too one-dimensional and they couldn't break the bus down.
I'm sort of amused it took Mourinho to figure it out. Captain Rodgers and Pellegrini didn't do **** to counter the big man, even though it was right in front their noses. Both vs. Liverpool and City the centerbacks would break formation to try and fight Fellaini and then all **** broke loose.
It's not something genius or only Jose figured it out, City don't have anyone who can win battle with Fellaini as Yaya is not a defensive runner, Liverpool have only midgets. Chelsea have team of giants so it's easy for them to deal with Fellaini.
No one is complaining about the game.
1 aerial duel but 3 tackles, 1 interception and 4 clearances. That's quite effective from someone who is not playing in their natural position.
I think this is what most people are forgetting: United's inspiration in recent games has come primarily from that channel with Young + Fellaini and from Mata. Dave took care of the latter and we took care of the other two by playing such a defensive pivot and packing midfield. With those three out of the picture, United just looked flat and entirely reliant on Rooney to create in the middle or Shaw to make something from the space Oscar gave him.
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Eh its not rocket science, just put another centerback on him. That's what Mourinho did. It doesn't matter that he'll be out of position since he's man-marking all game anyway.
He also did a lot of things that can't be measured by stats. Having him in the middle made it more congested and stopped United from just throwing the ball out to Young and swinging crosses in for example.
Out of 5 he won only 1 aerial duel vs Fellaini. In total Zouma won only 17% of his aerial duels and that's one of the main strength and purpose of Zouma. Fellaini was still available was outlet and created 2 chances which IIRC is the average number of chances he created in last few games.
If that counts as good performance then good for you. If it was United player, I wouldn't have been happy with that performance.
Yeah its not as much that he dominated Fellaini in the air. I don't think anybody in the world of football can really do that, he's too strong and tall to be played out of the game completely.
Its just that Fellaini was engaged and tied up by people in pivot, so even if he wins possession there's still the backline in place to clean up. In City/Pool games Skrtel and Kompany would run up the pitch and try to contest the longballs which was obviously idiotic.
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Well fortunately for me he's not a Utd player, he was one of the players who is receiving good praise from the other Chelsea supporters.
United's main chances came from wings with Herrera, Mata and Valencia combining on right side with Blind, Young and Fellaini combining at left side. With Herrera pushed back and Rooney having to play unconventional role killed us more than anything. Not sure about killing space with double pivot, Smalling, McNair, Herrera had acres of space with a simple dribble. Young, Shaw combined well to create openings. It was final ball that killed us. United had more joy on the left wing with Young and Shaw combining well but like I said lack of final ball was frustrating.
Exactly. Reason Fellaini was not effective was because he had more than 1 player to battle against. He won against Zouma but that's about it.
Legend Incredible
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As you said, herrera wasn't as influential as he normally is because he was too busy tracking back, trying to help rooney out...
Like I said can't complain if you guys are happy with that. Didn't look impressive for me.
Also it's a welcome change from using Fellaini to man mark some player to opposition adjusting their team to negate Fellaini. For all the stick he got last season, he is growing in stature and opposition are more worried about Fellaini than any other player in out team.
He was playing Carrick role, so the right wing didn't look as dangerous as it used to.
Good experiment though, it looked like Herrera was well capable of playing that role.
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Let our opponents find acres of space outside of the area and only lightly press possession in wide areas. We've done this to so many teams this season that you can't deny that it's clearly Mourinho's plan. It might have have been the lack of a final ball that killed you, but you'd be amazed at how many teams seem to have this exact complaint vs us.