Slojo

I think selling Matic was the right thing to do at the time, he was on a big decline. But the problem was is that we didn't upgrade or replace him, Bakayoko was a severe downgrade and after that we just didn't bother getting a DM. Obviously right now our problems lie with creativity, but we're still getting cut open very easily.

Literally mentioned the other day that we haven't replaced Matic still, and that's likely why we've been so far away from titles. But you won't see me mentioning it in every post and having an agenda against any player that's below 6ft. Stick with the "ToMmY tAcTiCs" garbage.

I never thought I would see myself saying this. But play Alonso over Chilwell. Chilwell just hasn't been good enough lately, he's turning into Emerson.

And a straitjacket

We were sh*t last game, have to see some improvements this game.

Analytics are not meaningless, but they're not that important. They're used in football for managers to get a good perception, but managers will go by what they see in training and on the pitch. You have a big tendency to go overboard with the graphs and charts and whatnot. Like Havertz for example, the sad reality is, Havertz has been crap so far. Still time for him to improve but no amount of graphs or charts is going to prove that wrong. And the thing is with data, it can be manipulated on purpose to suit an agenda.

Football is a fickle game, and I'm definitely guilty of being fickle. But only with Lampard, I stuck by Mourinho, Ancelotti, Di Matteo and never wanted them sacked. But you do have a very simplistic view of football. The word "physical" appears in about 90% of your posts on here.

How on earth has someone read your posts and classed you as an elder?? I would've put you down as no more than 12.

Tbf you have got a point, he's stuck in the 80's. If you're over 6ft or get stuck in, you're highly rated by Just.

25, but yeah. I do think you got a bit daft about Lampard sometimes, with the mercenary comments, the constant excuses, but I can understand it. You're passionate about it and again, it's a dream come true to have Lamps as the gaffer. I believed it myself, even though I always had reservations about him due to his lack of experience and CV. It was only over a month ago I said Lampard was doing a good job, and he was. But as soon as the players just stopped playing for him, reality slapped me in the face and I remembered why I was skeptical to begin with. I don't want to get on a managers case all the time and be gloomy "it's going to fail, only a matter of time", I would rather give them the respect they deserve and the credit where it's due when things are going good. Last season was the most fun I had in years following this club and I didn't even go to any games last season, it was something different, youth players coming through, Lampard the manager. It felt so much better, especially after all the doom and gloom beforehand and how everyone had us picked for a disaster season.

At first he did, afterwards though he lacked the discipline of staying back.

I've noticed that tbf, it's a lot of the elder Chelsea fans upset about it whereas the new breed aren't. No denying the new breed of fans are far more fickle though, including myself. But that's to be expected, I grew up through the glory days, I don't know much different. Managers coming and going is very common for me, even though there have been heartbreaks, Carlo and Mourinho twice.

And who had the best chance of the game?

But we're always prone to counter attacks, and in the big games we cut wide open in that midfield. It's probably why we're so afraid of taking risks, because as soon as we misplace one pass the other team can cut us wide open.

Just want to raise one more point before I start work. Every time we play it's always an argument about "Who's going to protect the backline", I think we have to just accept it here and now. We don't have any players who are capable of it, we haven't actually replaced Matic since we got rid of him. Not even Kante can do that job, we soon learned that. It's no wonder we've been so far away from the title since we got rid of Matic (even though I think Matic was on a rapid decline himself). Best we can hope for in the midfield is distribution anyway, so I would save all the moaning an whinging about the lack of physiciality or defensive cover in the midfield every time you see the teamsheet. It isn't going to be rectified until we get the right player in.

Actually I thought we played great in that game, the scoreline was terribly misleading. As bad as it was, I saw lots of positives in that game, we actually dominated them.

I must admit, I did want to see a game without him starting, but he made a difference when he came on, a lot more than Havertz did in that time. I think we just have to accept the fact that we've got no players to protect the backline, not even Kante. We haven't actually replaced Matic since he left. So no matter what, we aren't going to get a solid defensive midfield, I say we just play with who's best on the ball for the time being.

Can't remember many people being this impatient with Frank after his first game, even after we got thumped 4-0. Sure there were many doubters but it's not the same thing. Like it or not, Frank got 1 and 1/2 here. That's more than what most managers get here, I think people need to calm down a bit if they want to get on Tuchels back out of spite of the Lampard sacking.

Stab me in the heart why don't you?

I mentioned this about 3/4 times in the Match thread, Chilwell seriously needs dropping and reassessing. He doesn't link up well with his winger, but he kept flat out ignoring Havertz when he had acres of space to run into. This is the Chilwell Leicester fans were warning us about, the one who drifts with the ball into the centre and completely ignores his winger.

Context is important though. It's not like we haven't been piss poor for weeks now, don't get me wrong that match was f**king awful to watch but come on, we've been absolutely w**k since the Leeds game. All our football has been just like that, lots of possession and about 3 shots towards goal. And realistically, James has got an injury, Azpi has been playing for a while now. Abraham has been rotating a lot this season, it was only Mount who got dropped, CHO started and played the full 90. Under Lampard that was very rare. I think people are really missing a lot of context. Talk about mercenaries, Lampard, Drogba, Cole, Cech, where they all Chelsea youth? Yet they're still Chelsea legends aren't they. Players will come and go, we'll get new legends in the future, and they can be from France, Brazil, Ghana, wherever, it doesn't matter. I loved the whole Youth process but let’s be honest, it was a pipe dream, the last thing I wanted to be is like Arsenal, look how that project went under Wenger once the invincibles went and he started this new Youth project. 13 years and 3 F.A. Cups, that's it. Compare that to what we won during that period and if you would prefer to have Wenger I would want you institutionalised.

Where have I heard that before.

I thought he was good but again, but it's the same story with Kovacic, has all this ability but very rarely takes risks. Remember that assist he gave to Abraham 2 months ago? Why can't he get involved in the play more like that? He seems to just like playing conservatively.

Surely you're getting them though? Remember how when Bakayoko was afraid to touch the ball because every time he got it he gave it away. It's getting like that with Havertz. 7/10 he gives the ball away when it comes to him, it's ridiculous...

Wait so you rate Kovacic now? I can't tell which personality mode you're in. Jorginho hasn't played well for quite some time, and I'm actually quite disappointed in his lack of risk taking. At the start of last season under Frank, Jorginho was constantly floating balls over and trying killer passes, now he's gone back to sideways mode, same with Kovacic. But Kovacic does get forward more and has better retention, so I would prefer to have him in the starting lineup over Jorginho right now.