15 Sep 2021 09:35:39
Was at the match last night and thought the atmosphere was pretty good throughout despite the poor, unexciting and slow-paced first half.

Not sure if Raver heard the anti-Spurs chants 'Stand up if etc'. Of course Spurs fans have never been able to sing 'We know what we are, we know what we are, Champions of Europe, we know what we are' which if CFC were playing Spurs would have last line as 'You'll never say that'.

Lovely to see all those UEFA individual award medals handed out in person by UEFA chair before the game to Kante, TT, Jorginho and Mendy. Brilliant stuff.

But yes we were poor an unimaginative in first half, with quite a lot of chants for Super Frank. Surely not aimed at TT who rightly got a great reception when receiving his medal, but a sign of fan frustration at ultra cautious tactics perhaps and boredom that resulted. Zenit seemed quite comfortable facing predictable movements from our 3421 formation, with Lukaku largely starved of good service. Like some others, was hoping we might switch to two up top. perhaps Timo on for Ziyech at half time.

But we did move the ball more quickly in the second, and should have scored more - would have loved Rudi to have got the ball into back of Zenit net after his wonderful charge forward! - but then Zenit almost caught us on the break. Thought Kova looked our best midfielder overall on the night, Rudi impressive at the back and injecting some energy, and Lukaku taking the one really good chance he had in Didier/ Costa fashion.

Anyway, main thing was to get the win and we did.

1.) 15 Sep 2021
15 Sep 2021 09:56:41
It’s always a good sign to win when you’re not playing well.

2.) 15 Sep 2021
15 Sep 2021 10:30:12
I didn’t go last night but I was at the Villa game and Lamps got his usual chant at our end.

Good summary JBS. I think we sometimes forget to give credit to the opposition and I thought they were a hard working and we organised outfit who nearly got what they came for.

We also didn’t play brilliant against Villa and that was down to there ability and game plan as much as our tactics and performance.

3.) 15 Sep 2021
15 Sep 2021 12:43:07
Agree Obinna that it is a good sign when your side can win when not playing particularly well.

But Tom your point is well taken that it is often the good disciplined game plan of the opposition that can be a large part of making this happen as in last night's game and v Villa. I think this becomes easier to see when at the game as you can look beyond the point of action to see how or whether players are working hard to keep the game plan shape etc. Zenit were highly impressive in this way, if especially in the first half.

Question is how you can rattle disciplined opposition out of shape, or get them to move the bus a bit if parking it and springing the odd counter attack is a major part of their plan! One way is obviously to try to move the ball around a lot faster, but with the need for pinpoint accuracy to make the breakthrough, and we mostly lacked this accuracy last night, especially first half. Or another might be to change your own tactics/ shape perhaps with changing players on pitch accordingly.

But you are right, often we can be slow to appreciate the difficulty of overcoming really disciplined well-drilled opposition and Zenit for much of last night put on a master-class of defensive resilience.

4.) 15 Sep 2021
15 Sep 2021 13:22:36
I’m a creature of habit JBS. So, I record all of our games regardless if I’m going or not.

I come from watching a game at the ground and often then watch the recording, particularly if we have won!

Sometimes I think I watching two different games as you you see so much more than watching the game at the Bridge rather than on TV.

5.) 15 Sep 2021
15 Sep 2021 18:56:35
Absolutely Tom, nothing better than watching the game live: I have a great seat lower West Stand on the halfway line.

6.) 15 Sep 2021
15 Sep 2021 19:52:01
Matthew Harding Lower :-) When I first started going 35 years ago we stood in The Singers in the Shed, now MHL is the place to be. if you don't want a voice in the morning! Love the rail system, my feet not so much! Got the win is the main thing. Lots of chants, the most common for Jorginho! Come on The Chels.

7.) 15 Sep 2021
15 Sep 2021 21:14:58
For years I was in The Shed upper but now in the Mathew Harding upper. So far very pleased to have made the change Jimbo.

Sadly, I’m now generally only going to the Premiership games!