I am usually very optimistic and I think we need reinforcements for that.

We will make reinforcements no doubt. I think the fans will be happy with the signings made too. The question is will they settle and adapt? Its pot luck imo. Utd struck gold with Martial, here's hoping we can strike gold too.

The amount of one upmanship on here is embarrassing 

The amount of one upmanship on here is embarrassing

Your upmanship isn't as nearly as good as mine.

We will make reinforcements no doubt. I think the fans will be happy with the signings made too. The question is will they settle and adapt? Its pot luck imo. Utd struck gold with Martial, here's hoping we can strike gold too.

 

They spent a sh*t load on martial lol, I'd expect more from him tbh. We can certainly find better value for money 

Your upmanship isn't as nearly as good as mine.

Nice one.

Nice one.

Nicer than any of yours!

Seriously though, I know what you mean. I'm all for detailed discussions but sometimes it turns into my dad is bigger than your dad argument.

Not at all. Going through many of your posts, I'm baffled an idiot spells better than you.

 

 

I see he's gone... never mind

Edited April 4, 201610 yr by barak81

I see he's gone... never mind

 

Oh well, we tried. Conte's in, fresh start and all that.

Oh well, we tried. Conte's in, fresh start and all that.

Yes please

They spent a sh*t load on martial lol, I'd expect more from him tbh. We can certainly find better value for money

They did but for 35 or so million it's certainly worth it imo. The extra 35m only comes into play if he wins the ballondor or something like that.

For that price we can find better value yes but that's my point. Pot luck.

So the unbeaten record is gone and that whole 'we'd be 3rd if he'd we'd started the season with him' thing is now 'we'd be 5th....'. More importantly it was a team and managerial performance up there with the worst of Benitez and Mourinho in confusing changes and lack of commitment.

 

What I thought was interesting though is that Swansea are probably the closest team in the league to us in terms of how the season has panned out, and they had more fight and just looked better than us all over the pitch.

 

We've both changed coaches and have both had strikingly similar changes in our fortunes over the course of the season which suggests that this idea we're a top four team is really very wrong. This squad is mid-table and the results bear that out.

 

Just for reference though, Chelsea and Swansea were 16th and 19th respectively when Jose was sacked and have risen to 5th and 9th in the form table since then (we've gained only 3 points more than Swansea in that period).

 

If you take our form from the time Guidolin was appointed then we're 4th and 5th on 19 and 18 points respectively. 

 

Make of that what you will but I really think this season was doomed from the start and Guus has done a decent-ish job with what he had available to him. Conte has a massive task though.

So the unbeaten record is gone and that whole 'we'd be 3rd if he'd we'd started the season with him' thing is now 'we'd be 5th....'. More importantly it was a team and managerial performance up there with the worst of Benitez and Mourinho in confusing changes and lack of commitment.

What I thought was interesting though is that Swansea are probably the closest team in the league to us in terms of how the season has panned out, and they had more fight and just looked better than us all over the pitch.

We've both changed coaches and have both had strikingly similar changes in our fortunes over the course of the season which suggests that this idea we're a top four team is really very wrong. This squad is mid-table and the results bear that out.

Just for reference though, Chelsea and Swansea were 16th and 19th respectively when Jose was sacked and have risen to 5th and 9th in the form table since then (we've gained only 3 points more than Swansea in that period).

If you take our form from the time Guidolin was appointed then we're 4th and 5th on 19 and 18 points respectively.

Make of that what you will but I really think this season was doomed from the start and Guus has done a decent-ish job with what he had available to him. Conte has a massive task though.

You'd actually seem quite pleased that we lost the unbeaten record yesterday. Maybe this is just a mid table squad, gus has done a good job to get them up to 5th in that case.

It was a terrible performance yesterday although it was a second string Chelsea side, weaker than any team mourinho has ever fielded for us.

Some fans wanted to see experimental teams put out for the remainder of the season, so there can't be too many complaints when we start losing more games and looking disjointed.

Yes Swansea out fought us, but they have had a full time manager in place for a while now. If conte had taken the job instead of when Hiddink did, I doubt we would've seen that sort of attitude from senior players.

Conte has a massive job on, I'm not sure the fan based has enough patience to bring though the youth players en masse, rlc, baba, and Miazga have all come in for criticism despite having played less than 10 games in the prem.

I'm pleased the unbeaten record is gone because it can now stop being held up as this odd stat about Guus.

It created a weird cloak to disguise just how poor we've continued to be since Jose left.

Ultimately changing managers achieved nothing.

I just hope we get our sh*t sorted in the summer and make some progress next year. I'm not expecting miracles, an decent attempt at getting back in the top four would be a great turn around.

You'd actually seem quite pleased that we lost the unbeaten record yesterday. Maybe this is just a mid table squad, gus has done a good job to get them up to 5th in that case.

It was a terrible performance yesterday although it was a second string Chelsea side, weaker than any team mourinho has ever fielded for us.

Some fans wanted to see experimental teams put out for the remainder of the season, so there can't be too many complaints when we start losing more games and looking disjointed.

Yes Swansea out fought us, but they have had a full time manager in place for a while now. If conte had taken the job instead of when Hiddink did, I doubt we would've seen that sort of attitude from senior players.

Conte has a massive job on, I'm not sure the fan based has enough patience to bring though the youth players en masse, rlc, baba, and Miazga have all come in for criticism despite having played less than 10 games in the prem.

Your right about the criticism of players, youth players and others like Baba and Miazga need a good amount of games before there judged, taking the CB of at half time was a terrible decision and what must that do to the players confidence.

You'd actually seem quite pleased that we lost the unbeaten record yesterday. Maybe this is just a mid table squad, gus has done a good job to get them up to 5th in that case.

 

 

I'm not happy we lost, and I'm even less happy with the level of performance and some of the decisions but I'm not that surprised either. We've had a relatively favourable schedule away from home so I thought we might struggle against a team who are roughly around our level and that's pretty much what happened.

 

I think we'll see just how representative that 3rd place (and now 5th place) actually was of our quality over the next few weeks where we face teams either above us or close to us rather than in the bottom five. 

 

It was a terrible performance yesterday although it was a second string Chelsea side, weaker than any team mourinho has ever fielded for us.

 

 

A valid argument although the changes Guus made were a bit strange (Oscar, Begovic and Pato in when there were other options, two of whom started the match last week).

 

Like everyone else I can't wait for Conte to come in and it's great to see us trying to get our business done early so we've at least learnt from the mistakes of last season. Unlike some I'm not going to miss Guus in the slightest though. I think his record over the last few years is average at best and he's not really done much in his time here to suggest his decision to retire is the wrong one.

I'm pleased the unbeaten record is gone because it can now stop being held up as this odd stat about Guus.

It created a weird cloak to disguise just how poor we've continued to be since Jose left.

Ultimately changing managers achieved nothing.

I just hope we get our sh*t sorted in the summer and make some progress next year. I'm not expecting miracles, an decent attempt at getting back in the top four would be a great turn around.

I'm not happy we lost, and I'm even less happy with the level of performance and some of the decisions but I'm not that surprised either. We've had a relatively favourable schedule away from home so I thought we might struggle against a team who are roughly around our level and that's pretty much what happened.

I think we'll see just how representative that 3rd place (and now 5th place) actually was of our quality over the next few weeks where we face teams either above us or close to us rather than in the bottom five.

A valid argument although the changes Guus made were a bit strange (Oscar, Begovic and Pato in when there were other options, two of whom started the match last week).

Like everyone else I can't wait for Conte to come in and it's great to see us trying to get our business done early so we've at least learnt from the mistakes of last season. Unlike some I'm not going to miss Guus in the slightest though. I think his record over the last few years is average at best and he's not really done much in his time here to suggest his decision to retire is the wrong one.

Give me a break. Do you want to start youth or not? Do you want to experiment or not? Would you rather we stick with the old boring lineup when we have nothing to play for, or would you prefer that we use this "nothing to play for" situation as an opportunity?

When you start two youth players and sub on two more, and have players not used to playing with each other in such a formation, of course you raise the risk of mistakes. Mistakes are opportunities to learn.

I for one am happy that players whom we've seen little of this season have gotten minutes in the last two games.

As for Conte, do you honestly think it was Guus's idea to switch to 3 5 2 in the middle of the game? Was it mere coincidence that Begovic started amid talks of Conte wanting to sell Courtois?

It was blatantly obvious that Conte had told Guus that he had some ideas and/or wanted to give an audition to some players (which they failed miserably...), and Guus made that happen.

Edited April 10, 201610 yr by offside

A valid argument although the changes Guus made were a bit strange (Oscar, Begovic and Pato in when there were other options, two of whom started the match last week).

Stupid old Guus, playing Oscar when there has been serious talk about selling him, playing Begovic the day after reports that Conte may want to sell Courtois, playing Pato when the club has to make a decision soon about whether to extend the loan/offer him a contract next year, switching to 3 5 2 in the middle of the game when that's Conte's most common setup. What a silly old man that Uncle Guus is.

As for Conte, do you honestly think it was Guus's idea to switch to 3 5 2 in the middle of the game? Was it mere coincidence that Begovic started amid talks of Conte wanting to sell Courtois?

It was blatantly obvious that Conte had told Guus that he had some ideas and/or wanted to give an audition to some players (which they failed miserably...), and Guus made that happen.

 

See I thought we switched to a 352 but as the game came on it seemed to become a conventional back-four of Azpi, Mikel, Ivanovic and Baba. Occasionally you'd see a Oscar dropping back very deep but I'm still not convinced it was a 352. It may well have been and it was my first thought but who knows?

 

You may think some things are blatantly obvious, I'm not sure.

 

Stupid old Guus, playing Oscar when there has been serious talk about selling him, playing Begovic the day after reports that Conte may want to sell Courtois, playing Pato when the club has to make a decision soon about whether to extend the loan/offer him a contract next year, switching to 3 5 2 in the middle of the game when that's Conte's most common setup. What a silly old man that Uncle Guus is.

 

There's been serious talk of selling Oscar for four months now and he's been here for four years so I'm not sure what your point is. That we're trying to inflate his value? What I think is more likely is that he finished the game well against Villa well, Kenedy had a tough game so Guus chose based solely on that.

 

Begovic deserves games because he's been a good soldier, but I'm not convinced Courtois deserved to be dropped after a clean sheet.

 

Pato was a bad signing and you're absolutely right about why he was picked. My issue is that Traore did nothing to fall behind him in the pecking order and is exactly the type of young player we should be playing.

 

Great posts though mate. 

Give me a break. Do you want to start youth or not? Do you want to experiment or not? Would you rather we stick with the old boring lineup when we have nothing to play for, or would you prefer that we use this "nothing to play for" situation as an opportunity?

I'd like to see the younger players given a fair crack in these dead rubber games but with the exception of RLC who exactly has been a chance?

Traore appears to have slipped behind Remy and Pato in pecking order inexplicably?

Miazga got hooked at half time? Why, to protect him? Protect him from what exactly, risking losing a game that means nothing?

Kenedy got dropped in favour of Oscar despite his underwhelming season then bought on midday way the game when we were lacking any sort of cohesion in out play.

As the senior players return from injury I'm fairly confident in saying that the youth players will find themselves on the sidelines once again.

Edited April 10, 201610 yr by ForeverCarefree

To those complaining about yesterday's decisions, how do you think Guus could most help the club transition?

Now that there's nothing to play for, I don't think it's much help for Conte to see the same old stuff.

Instead, Guus can help Conte by giving him more "data" upon which to make his decisions.

Starting youth, playing players who haven't gotten many minutes, seeing how youth players handle new situations, assessing the game fitness of players, observing the "chemistry" between different players, seeing how well players communicate with each other on the field when they aren't accustomed to playing with that particular lineup, testing how the first choice goalkeeper handles being dropped for a game, seeing if a young player can bounce back from being subbed, watching how well players can shift between formations when alongside those they usually don't play with....

I have a feeling Conte prefers what Guus has done the last couple games rather than seeing Guus do the same things over and over.

Keep being told by the media and people outside chelsea what an amazing job Guus has done...sure it's better compared to results under Jose first half of the season but that doesn't say much does it? seven wins out of 16 league games, plus a tame exit to Everton in fa cup, is nothing to be proud of

To those complaining about yesterday's decisions, how do you think Guus could most help the club transition?

Now that there's nothing to play for, I don't think it's much help for Conte to see the same old stuff.

Instead, Guus can help Conte by giving him more "data" upon which to make his decisions.

Starting youth, playing players who haven't gotten many minutes, seeing how youth players handle new situations, assessing the game fitness of players, observing the "chemistry" between different players, seeing how well players communicate with each other on the field when they aren't accustomed to playing with that particular lineup, testing how the first choice goalkeeper handles being dropped for a game, seeing if a young player can bounce back from being subbed, watching how well players can shift between formations when alongside those they usually don't play with....

I have a feeling Conte prefers what Guus has done the last couple games rather than seeing Guus do the same things over and over.

And you think it's Guus decision to play youth? Guus decision to drop Courtois? Guus decision to play reserve players? Haha Some of it is he has no choice with injuries But most of it has come from the new manager and higher above Guus. We had nothing to play for a good while ago but Guus hasn't changed it till recently when he most likely has been told to. But taking youth players off all the time and the CB at half time is really great, let's see how a player deals with it rather than keep playing the CB and let him make amends in the second half, abit weird that.

And you think it's Guus decision to play youth? Guus decision to drop Courtois? Guus decision to play reserve players? Haha Some of it is he has no choice with injuries But most of it has come from the new manager and higher above Guus. We had nothing to play for a good while ago but Guus hasn't changed it till recently when he most likely has been told to. But taking youth players off all the time and the CB at half time is really great, let's see how a player deals with it rather than keep playing the CB and let him make amends in the second half, abit weird that.

That's my point. He's getting criticism for some decisions yesterday when he was probably advised by Conte/Roman/board to do that. He didn't have to, they're not going to sack him, and if he cared that much about his unbeaten streak he would have gone against their wishes. But he didn't and now he's getting criticism for his lineup and decisions when in fact he's helping the future manager.

Edited April 10, 201610 yr by offside

I doubt very much that Guus has spoken to Conte or been given instructions relating to Conte's appointment.

His managing of the match yesterday was in keeping with the way he's managed the team since he arrived.

Manly underlined by bemusing substitutions.

That's my point. He's getting criticism for some decisions yesterday when he was probably advised by Conte/Roman/board to do that. He didn't have to, they're not going to sack him, and if he cared that much about his unbeaten streak he would have gone against their wishes. But he didn't and now he's getting criticism for his lineup and decisions when in fact he's helping the future manager.

I wouldn't criticism Guus for playing youth or fringe players but theres also people praising Guus which is abit stupid because it has come from the board or whoever and once they ask Guus to do that he has no choice really, it's the club that pays his wages.

But then he don't play Traore or Kennedy, I've seen him take youngsters off at half time and Guus will generally always sub the youngsters most. Then you don't sub your CB at half time. I wonder if Guus is trying to make up for all the times he has to be woken up at the 80min to be reminded he can make a sub.