I know Hazard setup Ramires for the first goal, but that pass from Zouma was freakin' ridiculous. What was it, 75 yards? Then the control of Hazard. That first goal was simply marvelous. So far the Goal of the season for Chelsea!!!

 

Indeed, Zouma's pass was huge

Indeed, Zouma's pass was huge

 

Fabregas' one to Pedro was superb too, but a shame he couldn't finish.

I know Fab screwed up for the goal, but he had some really nice moments today. Couple of stunning passes and those dangerous early shots.

Name the six he would have subbed ......

Fabregas

Ivanovic

Zouma

Hazard

Matic

Oscar

??????

Why zouma? Why Oscar?

Agree Matic,Fabregas, Ivanovic and hazard though.

I'm not sure he meant six but if he did I'd say Remy and Pedro more than the other two named.

Only Dave,Begovic and Cahill could be completely excused I guess

That would be great.... but expect Matic and Fabregas instead

Why zouma? Why Oscar?

 

 

IMHO both were solid. When Oscar was subbed off for Ramires, I couldn't help think that maybe Cesc should have been the one. Then shortly after Cesc had to goto the sideline for treatment. I am happy that Cesc could finish the remainder of the match, but I thought it should have been him instead of Oscar.

Ramires to play next game.

That would be great... but expect Matic and Fabregas

It's hard to dig out the managers decisions for me, I thought the team he started was a good one and pretty much the one I'd have gone with, the only decisions on the edge were Remy or Falcao and if to trust Baba and give Ivan a rest but to be honest after seeing Baba last time out I'd have honestly stuck with Ivan.

 

once the game got underway I thought the players expected an easier time of it and expected a Newcastle team in all sorts of trouble would have more respect for the Champions...wrong, they played as a lot of us expected their best game of the season and got us on the back foot.

 

The changes Jose made again made me sit back and realise that it's a difficult job, firstly I was crying out for Willian as he usually busts a gut to get around the pitch and hassles people, something we could have done with, I expected the change to be Pedro and said to my missus that Matic or Fabregas should make way for Ramires or Mikel, I was wrong again as although I'd have kept Oscar on and probably taken Fabregas off, hindsight again proves that Cesc improved after the changes.

 

I thought Oscar was as good as anyone in blue and couldn't understand him making way but to come back to 2-2 away from home against a team that is playing with no fear (no mmatter their previous form) took some doing.

 

I'll give Jose that one as I really think the players let him down early on and he done well to get it turned round.

 

I'd sooner be eight behind UTD at this stage than eight beind City and Tottenham have proved today that anyone can beat anyone in this league...it's still all to play for.

Rambo man of the match ... changed the game.

Hazard a shadow of his former self ... Looks over weight and unfit ... should have been subbed.

Ivan Jose's Captain ... means he won't be dropped ... doesn't bode well for the future?

Jose is just not a risk taker and despite the indifferent start to the season sticks with more or less the same players all the time for Prem games.

Well, where do you begin?

 

For me Jose's biggest error was leaving Baba completely out of the matchday squad, because when you're chasing the game you need overlapping full-backs who can put in decent crosses. If we had taken Ivanovic off and put Dave on the right and Baba on the left, we would have been far more dangerous and far harder to contain. Ivanovic's delivery is really poor and Dave hardly offers anything at all going forward on the left. It is so obvious. Baba has to at least be on the bench in order to give us the possibility of changing things. Otherwise it's just like-for-like swaps every time.

 

You need to have options on the bench. That's the whole idea.

 

The real problem is midfield, we know this. Fabregas and Matic, we know this. Trouble is the opposition know it too. It's just not working, particularly away from home. In truth it hasn't worked for a long time, well before this season started. Jose's got a problem here. Sometimes he plays Oscar and Fabregas sometimes he drops Oscar and plays Ramires sometimes he plays Fabregas deep sometimes further forward. Truth is, he hasn't worked it out and midfield is the most important part of the pitch. No wonder he wanted Pogba. 

 

Diego's ban has cost us here and I hope people are less keen to congratulate him next time he acts the prat and gets a subsequent ban. Anyone who thinks Remy is a top striker is having a laugh. Yes he'll score goals but as a lone front man for a top side he's nowhere near the requisite quality.

 

Lastly, though we came back well and it was good to see that fighting spirit, we lack a little personality. Drogba, Terry, Cech, Lampard. That was personality. That was leadership. That was mentality. That was strength. We need a little of that back but I'm not sure where it's coming from. It was pretty awful today for the most part.

 

Pity that run from Hazard didn't lead to a goal. If he had scored that it would have kick-started his season and would have done wonders for us, coming back from 2-0 down to win. Never mind. Sure, it was good to come back and get a point but there's no two ways about it, they're crap and it's two points dropped, and too many of our players are underperforming and we're just not functioning well as a team.

 

We are so much better than them. We should have put them to the sword. Very frustrating game today.

Mourinho is clueless when it comes to attacking play. It's criminal how little we can create going forward, considering the talent he's got at his disposal.

So awful to watch since the start of the season. Like Fabregas always dawdling on the ball. Pedro's shooting was below par. Falcao spends more time with his face in the grass. Hazard looks like he's put a bit of weight on seems laboured and slow bar a few moments here and there. Made a great run with the ball past three or four players but shot was blocked. Was impressed with Ramires when he came on. Had the balls to shoot and scored. But once we got the score even I wanted blood and was so disappointed to see time wasted by the back four passing it around themselves.

Today really was another opportunity for us to make up for the sh*te performances we showed early in the season but it wasn't to be. 8 points the gap at the moment which isn't monumental but still could have closed it to 6 which would only help. Whatever's going on in that team Jose needs to sort it. Without the bs. Without the them against us rubbish fact of the matter is we've been awful and can't keep pointing fingers at everyone's else. Makes us look pathetic. And we're strikerless at the minute Remy was peripheral, Costa when he has played has been below par reluctant to score goals but happy to pick fights. And Falcao is Falcao.

Maybe Jose should give the players a rocket before the game starts. That first half was shocking.

I would just drop Ivanovic. Get it over with. Stick Terry in the middle and Zouma on the right if need be. Or just play Baba Rahman and start Azpi on the right where he belongs. Enough of this nonsense.

Midfield of Matic and Fabregas has had its day. Time for Jose to think outside the box.

Big opportunity missed today. Only Ramires and Willian did themselves any credit. And they were sitting on the bench for most of the game.

 

 

We are so much better than them. We should have put them to the sword. Very frustrating game today.

 

With Mourinhos defensive approach to almost every game that never happens, until its almost to late. You can tolerate it as long as it gives results, but we end up looking very stupid when it dosen't (Manchester City, PSG etc). Unless Mourinho can bring the results back, then I hope the club starts working on getting Klopp in. I think of the few avaiable coaches he would be the best choice. it would be interessting to see what he can do when he gets to keep his best players, I know it won't be a slow and defensive atleast.

As predicted a very poor Newcastle side upped their game against us but we allowed them to do that. We didn't press them enough at the start allowing them time to gain confidence into the game. Our passing was slow and predictable. Two individual mistakes cost us the game but yet again, below par performances from the majority of the team. It's very frustrating to watch at the moment because we are obviously so much better than this. Great to get the come back but why do we start playing so late? Still big concerns over our central midfield, our striking options and our current captain on the pitch who's best days are now sadly well behind him.

We have such good attacking players. But it's like they're stifled by the way we play.

Jose can talk all he wants, but he's the one who keeps picking out of form players. He's the one who runs all the training sessions, and yet we can't defend and we can barely create anything. We are so unbelievably slow to attack, it just lets the opposition get everyone back into position. No urgency unless we're losing by several goals. Just bloody awful week after week.

Edited September 26, 201510 yr by Zeta Orionis

Completely deserved criticism from Jose. Please don't let this comeback paper over the cracks, we have some serious issue to look at in our squad and Jose needs to start changing things up.

I think one of the issues we have is the formation, we used to have a holding midfielder and 2 cm who would break into the box when attacking and help out the defense when we were being attacked, we had Lamps, Ballack, Essien, Makelele, Ramires, even Mikel.

Now we have one cm and we put an attacking midfielder next to him, then we put another 3 attacking mids behind the striker, all we are doing is putting more players further up in the hope of scoring more goals, instead we are just creating a barrier and making it harder to score.

Let's go back to 4-3-3.

Matic holding and then you can play Fabregas if you want and partner him with Ramires or RLC, bulk up the midfield and get Fabregas and Rami to run into the box.

We keep putting out the same team and same formation every game in the hope that something will happen and all we are doing is making it easier for the oppo team to read our game.

 

Begovic

Rahman

Cahill / Zouma

Terry

Azpi

Matic

RLC

Fabregas

Hazard/Willian

Costa

Pedro

Edited September 26, 201510 yr by romansoldier1981

We have such good attacking players. But it's like they're stifled by the way we play.

We're set up to sneak wins on the break. Problem is we have an invisible midfield and a defence that's leaking goals. Which makes us look pretty stupid when we go 2-0 behind.

Our strategy is then to go gung-ho so we either end up losing by three or clawing it back as we did today.

All a bit of a shambles really and coming back from two down just papers over the cracks.

Edited September 26, 201510 yr by Socrates

Indeed, Zouma's pass was huge

Made up for his fcuk up in the first half for their first goal...but mistakes will happen with him...I'd rather have JT over Cahill though

There was a hairy moment between Cahill, Zouma and Terry against that awful team in the European game. It came through lack of communication. When you play in defence, good communication takes away so much potential threat. The one thing about Terry is he is vocal and does a lot of organising. With Cahill and Zouma, that isn't there. Not yet, at least. Need one of them to really be the leader. More than once there were players attacking the same ball, falling over each other, etc tonight.

Edited September 26, 201510 yr by GhostOfDembaPast

What did Fabregas do recently? sure he has 2 assists but does he fight for the ball? does he fight for the team or even run? so he made 100 crosses and 2 of them landed right so what? we need more than that the defence needs more cover Matic needs help!
Either play Ramires next to him or even better play RLC!!
Mourinho stubbornness might be the end of his career at Chelsea.

Edited September 26, 201510 yr by The new guy

I can understand people being knee jerkers today, we were horrendous at times, some of the comments were warranted. I can be a knee jerker myself, I said when Ramires came on what's the point, I felt pretty gutted at that stage to be fair, I did not see him scoring a wonder goal.

There was a hairy moment between Cahill, Zouma and Terry against that awful team in the European game. It came throughvlack of communication. When you play in defence, good communication takes away so much potential threat. The one thing about Terry is he is vocal and does a lot of organising. With Cahill and Zouma, that isn't there. Not yet, at least. Need one of them to really be the leader. More than once there were players attacking the same ball, falling over each other, etc tonight.

You'd hope it would be Cahill, he's been here long enough now and is experienced enough to to doing that. Zouma is going to make mistakes with his age he's going to need to be helped in his development and Cahill will need to do this if he's playing along side him.