Football The 2011/2012 Season Thread

[Embattle]

Facepalm, that is all.

Lets be honest and say most Chelsea supporters had a bad feeling once it went to 1-1, Chelsea just looked uninterested again tonight.

 

[Raven]

I wonder who the Chelsea fans at work will blame tomorrow.

 

[Keitanz]

Rafa Benitez will be managing you by xmas, don't worry.. all your worries will be gone!

 

[Everz]

Chelsealol.

The old guard aren't interested, feel sorry for AVB as he stands no chance.

 

[Vladamir]

Good move from Abramovich if he pays 35m to hire and fire AvB in the space of a few months. Still think something has to change but it isn't the manager.

 

[Raven]

What you need is another 50m striker

 

[Everz]

Clear out tbh. AVB has got the stuff, it's known that he has the ability as a manager it's just Chelsea are stuck in there way and are still 'Mourinho's boys'. A clear out needs to happen but that won't happen as too many would be uproared at losing fan favourites.

Says something but i'll be disappointed if we don't get something off you at the weekend.

 

[soze]

I heard Chelsea will be getting Cahill in the January window, I am not sure he is the right guy but John Terry is deffo the wrong guy for the new Chelsea defending style. Terry has looked past it in the last few games.

 

[megadave]

Rafa Benitez will be managing you by xmas, don't worry.. all your worries will be gone!

why would we pick benitez? there's 0 chance of that

Same old tonight, shit tactics, shit defending, shit all effort, shit referee. Starting to wonder how much more my faith in AVB can plummet but i'm sure i'll find out at the weekend

Our defenders are fine, we have the same personnel as last season when we had the joint best defence, it's the fucking retarded way they're set up that's the problem.

 

[megadave]

Clear out tbh. AVB has got the stuff, it's known that he has the ability as a manager it's just Chelsea are stuck in there way and are still 'Mourinho's boys'. A clear out needs to happen but that won't happen as too many would be uproared at losing fan favourites.

Says something but i'll be disappointed if we don't get something off you at the weekend.

about as wrong as you can get from mr massive internet football knowledge

 

[Bahumat]

Lol at Song's dribbling. Where did that come from?

 

[Everz]

about as wrong as you can get from mr massive internet football knowledge

Saying as I saw mr i cant think of anything.

If your going to play high line then your old guard aka Terry/Cole can't cope with that. As for Lampard.. bleh?

 

[Ch3tan]

Saying as I saw mr i cant think of anything.

megadave is right though, you can't fit a square peg in a round hole. Change has to be gradual, AVB is trying to force a system onto players that it doesn't work with. Common sense would say use the players you have and change gradually.

 

[megadave]

I'm not going to type the same shit after every game, we've had the same problems since fixture 1 of the season and nothing has changed.

 

[Everz]

megadave is right though, you can't fit a square peg in a round hole. Change has to be gradual, AVB is trying to force a system onto players that it doesn't work with. Common sense would say use the players you have and change gradually.

Hence my statement that a clear out would be the best option given that AVB seems set to play a high line? The way of defending hasn't changed since Mourinho, change has to be gradual but they can only adapt to that system by consistently playing it or the latter and being shipped out.

 

[Ch3tan]

But they aren't having a clear out, you don't change a system during the season. It's incredibly naive and put's all of AVB's early achievements with Porto out of mind.

 

[Everz]

So the option in order to get the way of play across would be to... consistently play it?

 

[megadave]

Who ever has complete clear-outs anyway? We're in transition and phasing out players, it's happening already. Look at our first team from last season and look at it this season, there's 5 or 6 different players in our first team, our front 3 is entirely different.

I don't understand why we're suddenly going from a tight deep backline that suits our defence to a very high open backline that suits nobody, Terry is too slow and playing offside doesn't suit Alex, Ivanovic or especially Luiz. I understand why in theory, keep the team tight, pressure the opposition and retain the ball better, except we don't retain the ball better, infact we're less in control of games than ever before and we suffer in all areas of the pitch.

It just seems like we've sacrificed everything we had going for us before so that we can play nice attacking, one-touch football against relegation battlers, except when they play easy balls over the top forcing us into last ditch challenges and getting red cards.

 

[megadave]

So the option in order to get the way of play across would be to... consistently play it?

I'd say compromise our tactics a bit, gradually phase in the new tactics as you gradually phase in the players that the tactics suit.

Also we play exactly the same against every single opposition, whether it's Man Utd away or Swansea at home, it's so easy for opposition managers to set up against us.

 

[Everz]

To clarify if he's insistent on playing it then a shipout is needed to happen. That said I feel sorry for him as he doesn't seem to be learning and there is a lack of effort from players (personal opinion) to adapt. Some of his decision that said are a bit bizarre.. Mikel sub for example.

 

[Everz]

Who ever has complete clear-outs anyway?

We did when we were up shit creek .

 

[megadave]

Doesn't make sense to me, got 4 quality defenders, play to their strengths, don't spend many millions bringing in a bunch of new players that might not even work out. In all honesty you need a midfield that's far far better than ours to play that style of defence.

 

[Everz]

Yeh should have made it more clear that I was originally talking as if he is intent on staying with the current tactics.

 

[megadave]

And I think our whole problem lies with him stubbornly refusing to change tactics

 

[Everz]

Agreed.. thus why I will still be disappointed if Mick doesn't highlight this and we come away with something on Saturday .

 

[CorNokZ]

No talk about Valencia?

Okay..

 

[Raven]

He's no Nani but I think he will develop into a great player.

 

[ileks]

Why does it say chelsea need a goalless draw to progres? Won't any dort of draw do considering they have better goal difference?

 

[Shagrat]

Mata seems lost (or wasted) out wide, and Chelsea just looked ragged all game

Arsenal the only English club guaranteed a place in the next round so far, who'd have thought that after 5 games.

 

[Everz]

Why does it say chelsea need a goalless draw to progres? Won't any dort of draw do considering they have better goal difference?

They are ahead because they scored away.. if Valencia score then they will leapfrog Chelsea. so 1-1 for example is bad.