Chelsea Banter Archive December 18 2013

 

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18 Dec 2013 20:57:37
What do people think Bout playing with two strikers for the next few games to see how it goes. Against Southampton Ba and Torres were awesome at putting pressure on the centre backs. The only downfall I can see is not being able to have a number ten but to be honest it hasn't favoured us anyway so far this season.

My team would be:

Cech

Azpilicueta Ivanovic Terry Cole

Schurrle Ramires Oscar Hazard

Ba Torres

With two strikers we should target them by crossing the ball which both Torres and Ba seem to be best at. You look at man city and Liverpool for example with Suarez and Sturridge and aguero and Negredo. That system suits there strikers that's why they get more success.

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I agree playing two strikers but Nando and e'to . However I think we are going to have to settle that mata will not chase about but will provide those killer balls.

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Hazard, Ramires, Essien, Mata-midfield
Torres, Ba, Eto'o, Shurlle-strikers any 2 of them is ok.

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18 Dec 2013 19:40:01
dont think we even need to buy anyone. why the hell we now have to spend another flippin 100 mill on more players? its about bloody time we integrate our youths! get courtois back as our main GK. put van anholt as our LB. leave azpi as our RB. rotate our CB's with ivanovic, terry, cahill, Luiz and KALAS. hopefully by next year integrate van ginkel in the two cm roles along with ake, ramires, chalobah or ramires (mikel can gtfo and lampard would have to leave). and regarding our 6 amigos in the 3 AM positions, carry on rotating them. but our main man up front must be Lukaku and we should also allow shurrle to have a go a couple more times up front.

so the ideal youth lineup should be:

Courtois

Azpi/iva Kalas/terry Luiz/cahill V.Anholt/cole

V.Ginkel/chalobah Ramires/Ake

Oscar/KDB Mata/Willian Hazard/Piazon

Lukaku/Schurrle


. we don't even need to buy anyone. this team is definitely looking solid and future proof and also very exciting. who agrees?!

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Definately need a striker in January.

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Wallace and atsu back in squad

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18 Dec 2013 17:40:36
It's been 3 seasons Chelsea last won EPL.
3 managers have taken charge with mixed success. Chelsea ended last 2 seasons with a big gap to the top, a gap that must be taken into consideration in light of the recent criticism towards Mourinho as he's been asked to change the club's playing way.
Basically the team was asked to recover the ball back under AVB, RDM and RB.
AVB came with grand plans which were implemented too quickly without the team being properly adapted. AVB wanted to change the playing style through a possession based game; Chelsea surprisingly featured a high defensive block even before the necessary pressing being fully functional.
Chelsea regularly failed to control the space ahead of the defensive line under AVB. This was due to a lack of sync between the 3 midfielders which roles didn't appear clearly when they had to press and cover one another.
On the left and right side, Mata and Sturridge, being part of the first wave of pressure and duly tracking back afterwards, were unable to coexist attacking prowess and work off the ball which was the main explanation behind Ashley Cole and José Bosingwa's form, having been left to defend 1v2 pretty much all season.
AVB's lack of experience led to the appointment of RDM. Relying on very defensive tactics and togetherness, RDM lead Chelsea to an unlikely Champions League success. Despite adopting parking the bus tactics, Chelsea somehow won European glory despite conceding more than 20 chances per leg in the knock-out phase, with the 43 chances conceded over two hours of football at Munich.
Matteo's attacking of Mata, Hazard and Oscar had freshness, pace, trickery and made the headlines for a team winning 10 of his 11 first games. But Chelsea often looked like a team cut in 2 parts in all phases of play. RM asked his 4 attackers to press teams high up the pitch via high intensity closing down. Lack of structure and a questionable shape made often easy for opponents to get past that first wave, resting on the players left the task to sweep the entire width of the pitch; mostly to deal with crosses.
That proved to be efficient as long as the players were fresh and scored goals but no longer when Chelsea had to play twice a week.
RB appointment decision caused backlash with fans. For all that and given the urgency of the situation, RB immediate fixes proved to be relevant in a short term based approach. He asked his team to defend deep in 2 banks of 4, relying on Oscar and Hazard to block the sides in order to release completely Juan Mata of defensive duties.
Chelsea's zonal defending coupled with a deep block meant that the ball was recovered in the defensive third after having been funnelled centrally. RB's focus on Torres in counter-attack coupled to the fact the wide players were behind the ball allowed him to enjoy more space behind defenses, eventually ending the season with 23 goals in all competitions.
Without RB ground grid pattern being a sufficient platform to deal with in-games situations such as dealing with crosses, the constant 2v3 in midfield due to Mata's lack of impact on the opposition's deep midfield or keeping two-goal leads against promoted teams ; Chelsea still managed to end the season in 3rd place and winning a Europa League campaign.

Mourinho: "The idea is to play always in a high block, recover the ball very very fast, have the ball the ball and build well, have the control of the game, be pro-active, not reactive."
Mourinho's first task for a more long-term based approach to what has been done by the 2 previous managers is to re-balance the defensive and attacking duties:
-A better sharing of duties without the ball: In order to recover the ball quickly and high up the pitch, Mourinho has removed all the licenses and wants every player to contribute to recover the ball. Chelsea's system wasn't viable as it did rely on Ramires or David Luiz's propensity to cover and sweep immense zones.
-A better sharing of duties with the ball: supposed to end the irrelevance of players supposed to hide to the team's attacking inefficiency by creating chances out of nowhere with isolated pieces of brilliance.

Mourinho's plan relies on a high pressing game in order to recover the ball as high as possible. Mourinho hasn't had a base to work on, so pretty much had to start from stage one. Pressing is the first stage to keep the ball. This requires sync from a collective point of view and actual defending abilities (athletically, tactically and technically).

Players should get to a level of fitness in order to be able to track back without for all that being knackered. That includes hitting the gym to be able to make a better use of the body in between the ball and a direct opponent. Mata apparitions showed his drastic improvement in terms of propensity to press and hold the ball under pressure.
Players should also be able to take advantage of space in order to maximize every move to the benefit of the whole pressing shape. Far from "just run straight at them" conception of pressing, blocking passing lanes through an awareness to get in between opponents and see what happens around is crucial. That's an aspect Mata and Hazard in instance had a massive room for improvement not so long ago. Progress on that aspect is quite obvious when the pressing shape is okay in terms of positioning, triggers etc. the last point is down to the actual defending, what is often related to recovering the ball from the opponent's feet in the attacking half. Some players are naturally more eager to get stuck in than others.

Mourinho's selections were questioned as people wondered whether he knew what his strongest starting line-up was. To start it is the first time for a long time a Chelsea manager has actual options and is able to rotate his squad week and week out.
Focusing on how players react to squad selections is a good way to get to know better his players. Despite Chelsea producing one of his finest performances of the season against Schalke at Home, Mourinho decided to change his plans to face WBA on the week end, without success. On the following game, he picked a Chelsea team which ran over West Ham. The same team, bar Willian for Hazard, was unable to prevent a defeat at Basel.
Willian, Oscar, Schürrle suit the game plan's requirements. Whereas for players such as Hazard, Mata, De Bruyne, it requires work in order to get on level.

Mata played 59mn against Cardiff, did not participate against City one week later but had a solid performance at the Emirates in League Cup. This probably explains why he had to start at Newcastle 3 days later even if the choice of players didn't look right in isolation. A tad similar to the situation encountered at Stoke where Mata had to play Willian's role and didn't impact the game at all.
All of that due to the need to rotate players as a close to 100% fit player is likely to have more sharpness than a 80% player, even if appear less suited tactically than what is wanted on paper.
The footballing interpretation of Chelsea's will to implement a high pressing games lies on the comparative tallies. The higher the ball is recovered, the less likely it is to be recovered in the defensive third.
The amount times the possession won is obviously a good indicator and the trend depicts a rise on the big picture, especially in recent weeks.
Chelsea's November slump appears as the plunge following the Manchester City game. If the City game's low tally reflects the 15-20 pts distance that separated the 2 teams on the table the previous seasons, the Newcastle performance was clearly sub-par. WBA happily conceded possession and Chelsea's struggles were as they weren't able to dictate a quick enough tempo to challenge their hosts.
But the West Ham, Southampton quite complete performances indicates a leveling off of Chelsea's standards.
The Sunderland and Stoke games indicates what appears as the issue related to that high intensity pressing: the ultimate aim of it is to reduce the distance to cruise with the ball in order to reach the opponent's goal, and is supposed to be the platform to get regular half or clear scoring opportunities which must be taken. As it hasn't been the case at Stoke, that raises the fact that the opposing team is likely to gain momentum and come back into the game with more mental and physical freshness than Chelsea if the Blues keep missing chances in quick succession.
The Sunderland game primarily highlighted the impact of individual mistakes on goals conceded to make the final scoreline not reflecting at all how the game turned.
This explains Mourinho pointing at the contrast between his side's production and lack of goals as if his team was able to get back at half time with a 2 or 3 goals cushion, it would obviously be a better situation to cope with an average home team's momentum in second half when trailed on the scoreboard.

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Cong. Perfect analysis.

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Why are you extracting text from a much bigger article from WAGNH and pasting it here? Why not point people in the direction as to where they can read the original article?

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Thought this was a banter page.
I bet your a right laugh to go out on the piss with.

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18 Dec 2013 23:31:14
Lol that's horrible, Mourinho tactics are not to press the ball or possession footy, in his all career he has played 10 players behind the ball & favours counter attacking footy & that's why he wasn't popular at madrid, at this moment chelsea have so much flair attacking players, no doubt his a winner but plays boring footy where modern footy is changing, nowdays many team play attractive-attacking footy where mourinho is still stuck in 2000s

Blueforever

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Rubbish article pointing out the short comings of our previous manager' s tactics but blaming the players under Jose. The fact is we finished as the #2 defensive team in the Epl last season(In a record scoring season I think) despite more matches and a smaller squad and the turmoil of the manager change. This season we can't keep a clean sheet. And the part about squad rotations, if a manager gets credit for picking a winning squad who gets the credit for the poor performing changed squad the following year. I thought all our players proved last season they can handle big minutes match after match if necessary. Not sure why fitness is suddenly our #1 issue.

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I just can't fathom how almost the same chelsea sides can destroy shalke, west ham and then play how that did against steau/west brom

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18 Dec 2013 17:39:37
It's clear for us to see and it must be for Jose and Chelsea., we need a spine for team, . Terry is doing his part but won't be forever so we need a big strong Fiery hard tackling energetic midfielder who can pass as well as tackle, then we need our own aguero Suarez. Someone who when playing bad can nick a goal, tough thing is a striker to suit us and way we play. The dare a say negative way we need a big powerful player like the one we loaned out, I think a player like aguero Suarez falcao would be ruined by us like the other strikers, cavani a good shout as has it all but his only gone PSG 6 months ago
Jose without right players needs to change his way of playing I think.press and attack and not focus in counter attacking.

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I agree, we have to commit more to attack throughout matches because most teams are using all 11 to defend. In our build up play it looks like we are outnumbered 2 or 3 to 1, even when we try to play wide our strikers seem to always be surrounded by 2 or 3 defenders. I'm not sure if it's due to our attacking shape or not enough movement on the part of our strikers but opposing strikers seem to regularly find space against us.

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Teams are doing what we do and have done to barca bayern etc, m sit deep defend and hope to nick a goal,, ironic hey, the *******s are parking our bus lol,

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18 Dec 2013 10:47:42
Chelsea players simply missed to many chances until 60min.had to be at least 0:3.
When you miss so much you have to be punished.
Whereever JM came he didn't won any trophies in his first season.
So, people be patient results will come. Just takes time.

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He won the league in his first season first time round.
Honestly trig, you are clueless.

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And the league cup.

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18 Dec 2013 14:21:54
Yeah honestly Ness you probably do your home work before you post, always quick to fly to jose's defence, seriously dude.

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But not at Porto, Inter and Real Madrid. And Chelsea didn't have competition so strong as now.

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He did in his first season at inter.
Clueless.

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You can't compare EPL with Seria A.

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Didn't have competition as strong. Arsenal had just won the league going the whole season unbeaten, Liverpool won the champions league and Manchester United weren't to shabby either.

Our squad is definately weaker than it was back then, but I do believe mourinho is the man to get us back winning titles.

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But you're the one who compared then first.

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18 Dec 2013 07:45:03
I feel Mourinho is just enjoying a sort of immunity of records created over time esp wit us in his stint. He's d problem with Chelsea failings dis season. Anoda coach would have been under pressure by now. He can't just play 2 d strenght of our players rather he insist on 'win it anyhow' style. Our games have been so boring, can't play as a team, etc. I'm sure Benitez would have done better with these boys, sentiment apart. Mou wants 2 take us back 2 an outdated style and I'm sure we ont enjoy it. Again, we shall still struggle even wit Suarez in January if d proper approach is not adopted 2 suit our players and strikers. I bet Torres will pick up if he leaves now and our new ones will start struggling. Wenger would be playing a breathtaking football wit dez our boys. We sit too deep and opponent chance to attack. We try 2 soak up pressure and catch on d brink instead attacking teams from d start. It puts dem under pressured and unable 2 score many goals 2 kill off a match.Mourinho should change his style and allow those boys 2 express themselves. He should also quit ego and select players on merit. We no longer bliv we can win any team now until it's done. Pls your objective thoughts

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Iol I totally respect your opinion but I don't agree on some stuff last 5 games are games should of been won by half time and teams put to bed and we've failed to score. We are creating chances and the football at times is good just not consistant but that will come. Also mourinho has never played football like arsenal barca try and play not even when at real madrid his style is his syyle and I didn't think he would be any different when he came back. People moaning about how were playing yet we had a decent forward or even one of the forwards hit abit of form and all these posts would change. Jose won't change his style ( you no the one that's got him success and gave chelsea success) he won't change. I think most people would like us to lose 6-5 than win 1-0 do you think we can go all out attack with how were defending at minute. think we all need to just get behind TSO and chelsea and let him buy who he wants and let go who he wants and when he has his squad his players then judge him.

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17 Dec 2013 22:32:36
Ed please tell me opinions have changed we MUST buy a striker

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{Ed002's Note - I have no idea what you are referring to.}

Sorry ed you said right price right player then chelsea will buy we just need to buy now even if its over odds ( for the right player of course) we need goals

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Chelsea needs midfielders who are going to create quality pass for strikers.

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Chelsea needs midfielders who are going to create quality pass for strikers.

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Ness you said on another post chelsea players missed to many chances so the midfield are doing there job ( though we could still improve in that area) we need someone to put the ball in the back of the net I thought eto would do that just a natural finisher in the past but been I bit of let down for me. Class centre forward needed

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Midfielders like hazard, mata, Willian, Oscar, schurrle, lampard ness?

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