Chelsea Thread

[parkinho]

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.

First half Ivanovic tried to do this and received an earful for it. For the goal Cech made a rather tentative movement towards the ball which no doubt Ivanovic saw and left to the keeper. All from memory so I've probably remembered incorrectly!

[abigsmurf]

He deserved an earful too. The first bit of confusion was forgiveable but then he actively tried to force Cech out of the way to get to the ball which was a "what the hell are you doing?" moment.

He must've known where Cech was for the goal. He must've known from training that he should've cleared that ball because there was a massive gap next to him.

[nakamura]

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.

The differences aren't enough though. If you are talking as Anelka being a creator then Lampard does that perfectly. Essien can also do something similar though he is more an engine man.
The 3 forwards are all similar in their approach to play. The do not play as overlappers in wide positions, they are all down the middle players. The have no raw pace. Yes Torres can drop the shoulder and beat a man but is isn't something he specialises it. None of the players on the pitch in the first half for Chelsea can.

[abigsmurf]

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.

Outside of Maxi's chance which he should've put away and the goal, I didn't see a huge amount from Liverpool which troubled Chelsea's defence. Liverpool were by no means creating lots of chances and only a couple of their chances gave us problems.

Given how awful and disorganised our defence was, we should've been having far more trouble and worse teams have been giving us far more trouble. Liverpool didn't really commit to attacking, they were far more focused on (successfully) stifling Chelsea.

A focus on stifling play with attacking being secondary is focusing on the draw first with a win being a bonus.

[hudson]

Counter attacking, composed footy. Getting a result at the Bridge is pretty difficult, but the King has experience and nouce on that front. Just one of those days, I guess. A day where true football prevails.

[nakamura]

True football? What?
Liverpool were hardly playing football. Lack of creativity from both teams. Gerrard was so deep at times I thought he was a centre back.
Smurfy is right, Liverpool were setup not to lose, for a 0-0. Nothing wrong with that mind, Stamford Bridge is a hard place to go.

Both teams contributed to a dour game of football.

[hudson]

Sense the tone!

[nakamura]

Ha!!

Missed that then!

[rmoxon]

It was possibley the worst match I have seen this season, certainly the worst that I watched the full 90 minutes of.

Both teams were unambitious, its wasnt really like they stifled each other or anything, they just didnt bother at all for most part.

Chelsea have only ever played well in open games this season, when teams sit back or just simply defend decently they dont seem to have an ounce of creativity and just look lost on the ball.

They were only scoring lots of goals at the start of the season becuase they had a bunch of easy games to begin with.

[Supergoal]

It was possibley the worst match I have seen this season, certainly the worst that I watched the full 90 minutes of.

Both teams were unambitious, its wasnt really like they stifled each other or anything, they just didnt bother at all for most part.

Chelsea have only ever played well in open games this season, when teams sit back or just simply defend decently they dont seem to have an ounce of creativity and just look lost on the ball.

They were only scoring lots of goals at the start of the season becuase they had a bunch of easy games to begin with.

I almost choked on my cornflakes when I read this.

You must be new to football, and how it works

[hudson]

He's one of these poxy arrogant manc fans who would die before praising Liverpool FC. Theyre not all like this on here though. Glazza, Kongster, and a few more...

Kenny's plan was always to get 3 points yesterday and should be creditrd for the tactics used to achieve his objective. There were many times where we broke from our 1/3 on the counter. The formation was effective. The game was not the most entertaining, mostly down to the difficulty of picking up points at Chelsea.

[abigsmurf]

If he was seriously going purely for three points that game and not going for 'a draw with benefits', then he's taking mirroring what Mancini is doing. Mancini had/has a better squad of players and he's not only produced some of the dullest games in the league for the last 2-ish years, he's failed to get champions league places.

Anyhow, shockingly enough, despite this being a Liverpool topic, I'm going to talk about Chelsea.

We produced our worst football last season with the diamond formation. Why did Ancelotti think it'd get different results this time? Has he the memory of a goldfish?

Still confident we'll get 3rd or 4th as I don't think Spurs and Man City will keep getting the results but the FA Cup and the Champions League could humiliate us (further) at this rate.

[nakamura]

Kenny's plan was always to get 3 points yesterday and should be creditrd for the tactics used to achieve his objective..

Do I need to 'sense the tone' in this post too?

[arcnas]

Chelsea will get third or fourth but the biggest mistake of all , was letting Carvalio go to real madrid, chelsea look unstable at the back, and czech seems to be losing confidence, ive never rated Terry much , but they need a good centre half to play with him, and they sold the best they had.

[abigsmurf]

It's why we bought Luiz.

Hopefully he'll bring back some stability to our defence and we'll stop these embarrassing mistakes