Chelsea Thread

[Nu-Eclipse]

We're fighting for the title and champions league

Corrected?

[Kongster]

A picture is worth a thousand words...

[hudson]

That Glen Johnson one however was a clear penalty

Would of been a soft pen. Ivanho was off the floor anyway, so Johnson was standing up strong to protect himself.

[glazza]

Have to say Torres looked like 50p today never mimnd 50 Million lol,and thought(although it pains me so much to say)Liverpool were outstanding today all over the pitch and Chelsea want to thank there lucky stars there defeat wasnt by a bigger margin.

[hudson]

Actually smurf i just saw the replay of Johnson foul and apologise. Looks like a foul. Would of been harsh on our result.

[abigsmurf]

What a lifeless crap performance overall. Those wins we've had recently weren't returns to form, they were blips against sides that gave up, it now looks like. There were what, 20 attempts on goal and we never once looked like scoring. I don't think a single shot by us had to be saved.

Our defence was once the best organised in the league and look at it now. We gift a goal every game. Liverpool would've been happy leaving with a point, they weren't making great pains to come at us. We decided to make it easy for them and fell apart during a cross that should've been cleared without any problem.

Ivanovic should be benched after that performance, I blame his antics and lack of ability to work with Cech for the goal.

Was Ray Wilkins the one managing Chelsea? Were the players managing themselves? Either way, Ancellotti needs to stop what he's doing and try something different. Bench players who aren't performing (Drogba in particular), stop with this "only make changes past the 70 minutes mark". How about *gasp* putting on players at half time?

Liverpool predicted how we'd play and were perfectly happy to cancel us out and make the odd break. A tactic that was brutally effective in the end. Apparently Ancelotti thought more of the same would somehow make Liverpool crack.

As I said, we had huge amounts to play for and almost the whole team looked like they didn't even care. Back to fighting for 4th. FA Cup and Champions League will be fun...

[hudson]

It looked like Torres was setting the tone for your team. No emotion.

[abigsmurf]

More the rest of the team rubbing off on him really

[nakamura]

What a lifeless crap performance overall. Those wins we've had recently weren't returns to form, they were blips against sides that gave up, it now looks like. There were what, 20 attempts on goal and we never once looked like scoring. I don't think a single shot by us had to be saved.

Our defence was once the best organised in the league and look at it now. We gift a goal every game. Liverpool would've been happy leaving with a point, they weren't making great pains to come at us. We decided to make it easy for them and fell apart during a cross that should've been cleared without any problem.

Ivanovic should be benched after that performance, I blame his antics and lack of ability to work with Cech for the goal.

Was Ray Wilkins the one managing Chelsea? Were the players managing themselves? Either way, Ancellotti needs to stop what he's doing and try something different. Bench players who aren't performing (Drogba in particular), stop with this "only make changes past the 70 minutes mark". How about *gasp* putting on players at half time?

Liverpool predicted how we'd play and were perfectly happy to cancel us out and make the odd break. A tactic that was brutally effective in the end. Apparently Ancelotti thought more of the same would somehow make Liverpool crack.

As I said, we had huge amounts to play for and almost the whole team looked like they didn't even care. Back to fighting for 4th. FA Cup and Champions League will be fun...

This sums it up smurfy. Ivanovic had no place on the pitch, diabolical. He seemed totally clueless at times and for a right back, well he played there today, he has nothing to offer in defense of attack.

Anchelotti also blundered with the formation. No width, pace, guile, or depth on the pitch and no passion from the players. Why he thought 3 strikers of the same style would work is beyond me.

If you pay 50m for a striker, you should be building the team around him. Not trying to fit in all of your top rated over 30s.

[JU!]

Seems like Ivanovic forgot how to play centre back as his positioning was all wrong. At times he was shoved to right back it seemed as well. Thought Torres did o.k. Poss peno against Johnson interested to see what MOTD make of it. Thought we did o.k Liverpool were very organised.

[parkinho]

For me it was Cech's communication (or lack thereof) that was to blame in the two incidents with Ivanovic. Of course as an neutral I was only watching via Sky, but first half it appeared Ivanovic received no call from the keeper so he tried to clear it twice before Cech bollocked him. Second half, again no communication except this time Chelsea were punished.

For a supposed world class keeper I would have expected him to be taking charge of both the aforementioned situations.

[Kongster]

He hasn't quite been the same keeper ever since he had that life threatening head injury. Understanable really - it would have to take someone truly amazing not to come out of that a changed man.

[abigsmurf]

The amount of possession we had and the number of shots without ever even forcing a simple save from the goal keeper wasn't acceptable really. If we'd hit the post a couple of times and forced some wonder save it would be frustrating but at least you'd get the feeling we'd tried. We just didn't push hard enough.

Liverpool getting 3 points possibly flatters them a bit, or at least, the press and pundit reactions will be completely out of touch with the way the game went. Liverpool played for a 0-0 and were it not for our suicidal defence, they would've got it.

But meh, I'm getting really downbeat with Chelsea. We're playing poorly and even worse, we don't seem that bothered by our performances.

We can't get rid of ancelotti but we need to sack the rest of the coaching staff. Get some passionate people behind the scenes and next to Ancelotti. We need to drill some passion into these players and get some new tactics sorted.

On the Cech thing... Terry doesn't have a problem with communicating with him, Carvalhio didn't, Alex didn't. Ivanovic should've dealt with that ball regardless, if he didn't know Cech was there, he clearly didn't know there was a Liverpool player there either which means he wasn't aware at all. If you're not sure, you clear it.

[hudson]

To say we played for a nil-nil is blind and bitter.

We should of had more than 1. 2 for defo if Maxi had better composure.

You can't look at our current formation as a sign of negativity, but one of intelligence and attacking prowess. We played it at home last week against Wolves. Our lack of out and out of wingers and pace at the moment kind of dictates it.

[Adrock]

Anchelotti also blundered with the formation. No width, pace, guile, or depth on the pitch and no passion from the players. Why he thought 3 strikers of the same style would work is beyond me.

Hang, on. Drogba is like nothing Chelsea have in their squad. He is a big commanding front man who can be used as a target for any kind of long ball. Neither Torres nor Anelka have that ability, that was clearly shown on Torres' part when he played under Hodgson.

Anelka and Torres are maybe the most similar of the three, but I would still say they have marked differences. Anelka has the ability and skill to play passes and make the ball stick to him. Both have pace and both like to take players on but I think thats about as far as the comparisons go. Torres is an out and out goalscorer, he doesn't offer anything else to the team, but what else do you need? Anelka definitely seems a lot more capable of creating chances for team mates.

I'd also like to suggest that whilst Liverpool played a system with 3 centre backs that doesn't mean they went to Chelsea to sit back and hold on for a draw. Johnson and Kelly were both getting forward at every opportunity and if Maxi could have scored it could have highlighted that more so.

However, I do concede that after the goal the wing backs sat very deep to make a flat 5 man defence. But then to hold onto a lead at a club like Chelsea is pretty much your best bet when they pile on the pressure like they did.