g3.7

it is clear his confidence has completely gone. if he's dropped then perhaps we can forget about it recovering. I don't think the way we play should be change to accommodate a player who in the long term shouldn't be first choice, but then neither do I think we can afford to write him off for the season given the squad we have. we also have a situation where there is, IMO, a strong case for removing any or all of the four starters at the back. IMO I think azpilicueta is the only one conte should have in his long term thinking (as a first choice), but then JT is getting on, zouma is recovering from a serious injury and alonso may well not be the class of player we require. conte has a serious issue here. for me, for the rest of the season I guess I would want a back four of alonso, terry, zouma and azpilicueta, but there are so many issues to be addressed with whatever composition of defence we work towards this season. christensen alone won't be the answer either. not signing one of conte's choices for a new defender has hurt us already, whether or not you rate luiz and whether or not you think we had a realistic chance to do so.

lets sell him an replace him with someone worse, like butland. if we really want to consolidate ourselves as a mid table club we need to do things like this.

he's a quality manager and a quality coach. given time and the players he wants and we'll get a good team which plays good football. but there is no saying he'll get either.

hmm. how can we make this oscar's fault.

probably / hopefully with a view to giving chalobah more opportunities. been a while since we had a player manager.

played a huge part in the second goal too- between him and luiz on that side there was no communication as to who was picking up okazaki. initially he has him- its all well and good to assume that luiz will take him once he is in the middle as ostensibly he's luiz' man, but you need to talk to him, especially if you are picking him up in the first place. in the end neither of them did anything. with JT in that position that goes doesn't happen IMO. he did reasonably aside from the two goals (what a ludicrous thing to say, mind). I'd prefer us to play him than ivanovic as 1) ivan's finished as a fullback and we need to move away from him as a regular sooner than later 2) JT can help alonso through the games 3) azpilicueta can provide cover / solidity alongside luiz 4) azpilicueta could even drop in to allow luiz to get forward

I think so too and I don't think oscar is a player who necessarily deserves to be dropped (on the basis of the season so far, rather than just the liverpool game), but I think we missed a trick in not giving cesc a go with kante instead of matic last night. they were overrun, and overrun by a midfield two of drinkwater and king- that should be enough to tell us we can't play a 442 with those guys in midfield together again.

hopefully people have calmed a little since the liverpool game. my observations from that (and yesterday) is that it is still clear that a) the players haven't fully assimilated how he wants us to play (conte teams are not designed to be reactive to that extent- think about how aggressive italy were early on against belgium and spain this summer, and that is with a poorer front 6 than ours). we were stationed so deep and had so little of the ball. there was almost no combination or pattern play and the whole thing was antithetical to his style. the one plus is that we aren't conceding goals as a result of a bad defensive structure, but then we are due to persistent individual errors. and b) our players are still suffering from last season. conte had talked about it before the liverpool game on a number of occasions which I always found weird- surely you'd want to ignore it. but I guess we know why now- he looks them in the eye and probably sees fear. this is going to be probably a bigger thing to deal with than I, and maybe a lot of us, first thought. I must admit I thought it would be a done deal that we'd be past that brittleness, but the first 30 minutes on friday showed how reluctant we were to come out and meet liverpool in the middle of the pitch once they had started well. before cahill gave the ball away for the second goal ivanovic had done so at least 3 times. you could see a very clear collective lack of composure with the ball from every defensive player bar david luiz and to a lesser extent kante. I don't think it is a coincidence that they weren't at the club last season. on luiz he was poor last night along with cahill (and azpilicueta. AND alonso), but he was good for most of the liverpool game (bar the moment he ran into midfield in the second half and liverpool messed up a 4 vs 3 counter attack from which we were lucky not to be punished). he's been good with the ball in both games but we haven't seen him carry the ball forward yet and I wonder if that is by instruction? possibly not, maybe more a result of playing against 3 and then 2 narrow forwards so there is not enough space for him to do it. what is clear though is that neither he or cahill or ivanovic are organisers- JT really needs to be a first choice when he returns, whoever he is to play alongside. so far I don't think he looks a better player than he was, but nor does he look worse either. ivanovic and matic- big steps back for both of these. ivanovic we all know- his legs are gone and they won't come back. the lack of composure, or leadership against liverpool was extremely disturbing though, without that he would have literally nothing to offer us. I think matic started the season with little flickers of recovery but these bigger games will tell us if he can come back. on the evidence of this, he won't be at the club next season. as for conte- no real question marks about his selection from the start given they had been good up til then, but his subs came much too late to have any real effect IMO. I'm sure he's well aware of what he has to do, and a defeat isn't a bad thing in the long run if it helps him to form solid ideas about these players. I won't say it is a transitional year because it isn't- we have real targets, but I think it is clear watching us and watching city (under the supposed fraud manager with 1000 career trophies) that we aren't seriously in a title race.

I don't think he helped his case much yesterday. his quality with the ball isn't in doubt, and whilst he wasn't helped by playing in a two man midfield, I doubt conte was impressed with how ineffectual he was with the ball against 11 men- naturally he offered little without it as you would expect- but he also wasn't really able to establish control over the game. against 10 men it was a different story, and it speaks to his fitness that he was one of the players that really came to the fore later on, but I'm sure conte is well aware of what he is capable of. he was very clinical. perhaps he could be used as a second forward, especially with kante in the side, but I suspect his display will calcify the impression conte has of him- someone to break a game with his quality when the game is open rather than the type of player he can rely on to run them. p.s. cesc is also in a bind in that he doesn't have the energy (or dribbling skills) to play advanced in a 4231 IMO. he is best facing the play rather than on the half turn. under jose playing there would mean we were deep and defensive so he'd have between 1-3 players ahead of him to pass to. under conte that might be different, which would help, but I don't see it being an ideal fit. I've said it before but I find it hard to see where he fits into the type we're trying to apply, other than directly in front of our defence (which would require a lot of restructuring around him).

don't get me wrong, I like him and think he has something to offer us on a more regular basis. but the comparison with ruben isn't a fair one IMO.

to be fair, he's not playing out of position or against 11 men. he's done well but it is hardly a fair comparison.

and yet I still can't relax...

beauty of a goal. unfortunately I don't think it will mean much for cesc- against ten men is one thing, but for large parts 11 vs 11 he was ineffectual and we were overrun. I don't think conte is going to change his mind on the basis of this game.

this is what happens when you half watch a game whilst whinging on the internet like an entitled child.

should've been a straight red

christ

great, great save from begovic there

great pass, costa really should be taking those.

oh yes

he's in a bit of a difficult situation in that he will never be better than courtois but he probably still wants to be playing regularly. it probably means he's putting a lot of pressure on himself and it is helping no-one.

given the flight of the ball wasilewski will be disappointed not to catch that.

good from both cahill and luiz there for our goal. we started well, should've had a pen, inches from a goal from the long pass to pedro from luiz which was looking good, he was getting in quite well. then a couple of shambolic goals and we totally lost control. this is a clearly brittle squad still. we seem to still be suffering PTSD from last season. at the moment JT is therefore perhaps our most important player aside from hazard. however much protection he needs, we need to accommodate him.

get in

also: unless we get back into this or roman does his comedy thing and sacks another manager, cesc's chelsea career is hanging by a thread unfortunately.

there are 3 quality defenders at the club, one is nearly 36, one is injured and still learning the game and the other is azpilicueta. presumably he's got nothing to answer for on that one either.