1 minute ago, PloKoon13 said:

I can only assume that his decision to pair Fabregas and the French Veron together was influenced purely by fitness and injury...

I like to think that also, but surely Drinkwater was capable of playing? 

55 minutes ago, Slojo said:

A back 3 is never going to handle pressure like that. Roma were never pressured enough, Ferdinand actually brought up Fabregas's positioning and lack of covering which caused the first goal to happen. We are always going to struggle with diagonal balls in a back 3, which is why we need to close players down who cross the ball at the halfway line, it's hard to do that consistently when you're playing with 10 men, there is no balance. And let's face it, Fabregas is like playing with 10 men when the opposition has the ball, he's been the scapegoat for the past weeks for a  reason. 

I don't disagree that he is often a liability but just don't believe he was one of the main reasons for our loss today. At least through the first half, our midfield coped quite well and our attacking play was quite good.

If Manure beat us this weekend Antonio will be under massive pressure.

 

Don't despair though, because our inept board will never get the sack, no matter how badly they f**k up.

Lot of reminders here for me to Robbie. A great season followed by a poor start to the next one. A final straw was standing up to the board, dropping Torres at juve. We got completely out fought and out thought. Today poor tactics and same out come.

Not that I want history to repeat itself but am pretty sure conte's time is soon up.

Conte is a better manager than RDM so he'll probably receive more grace but like the rest of you I have an ominous feeling.

I don't want him sacked - our performance is mediocre but not 2015/16 bad - and he has shown in the past that he can turn things around. Additionally, he's been cruelled by multiple injuries and board inaction.

However, like Mourinho he's shown a little bit too much loyalty to established players who aren't cutting it anymore and it is costing him (Cahill and to a certain extent Cesc). 

Cahill and cesc are the easy players to point loyalty to as a beating stick for conte. 

How about willian? Or Alonso? Or dave? Or luiz? Or morata or basically any single one of our players this season bar Kante. The rest have been different degrees of poor. Cahill and cesc are the kalou and Mikel of this season. 

Is it that hard to understand that the board destroy the atmosphere in the team. They make the best manager in the world unhappy and all this is reflection. Conte probably think of his next job already, and he is no where near 70% of what he is capable. The team is fu**** thin and not good enough in quality. This incompetent idi**** make us far behind then most of the top team in terms of quality/quanity. It`s all their fault.

They was having just 1 f***** thing to do and to make the manager happy. We have all the money in the world from prizes and selling player to a huge price, and they f***** failed.

Even if we get Guardiola or whatever the manager some of you want, they will make him unhappy too and it`s a matter of time before he get frustrated and just like Conte will be matter of time before he goes away.

And stop saying b**** about Conte. He was always picking the best starter for the match. Or some of you think he lose his touch on team selection by night? How can someone be that s***** to think such a thing?

Conte never care what`s your name is. He is picking the best available players and that is. He show it last year. He dropped John Terry, did you think he can`t drop Fabregas or Cahill? He dropped a legend like Ivanovic, and also a player like Oscar, because they wasn`t perform good enough. How many manager in the world will drop players like Fabregas, Ivanovic, Terry and Oscar, like last year? How many coach will risk putting Moses a starter.

Moses has exactly no one when Conte decide to give faith in him. There is fu**** no reason he can`t do it with whatever the player you think deserve to play.

So if Christensen or whatever player you moan is not playing, it`s because of a reason or simply he is not good enough yet.

And so far neither Rudiger and Christensen show me they are the best. Both look bad in some matches, so it`s completely normal Conte to rely on the captain with so much experience like Cahill. Drinkwater is obviously not 100% fit and probably not fit to the team, system and style. That`s because idio** board buy him in the last f**** hour. No manager in the world deserve this s*** that Conte get.

So they break the atmosphere and it`s reflect to the team. So it`s 100% their fault. They have just 1 f******* thing to do and that was to make the best manager in the world happy. And they failed with that once again.

And for the people here who critisize Conte, can you explay, who exactly will replace him smart heads? Who will be that idi*** that will come to a team, that he will have almost no word in the selection and will get sack the first good option the board have ??????

They made us so far behind the top teams this year, it`s just not real.

 

 

 

 

Reaction? What kind of reaction you are talking about, he's got no shot. What he put on the pitch yesterday, that was our best, out of Kante. What can he do, that's not the first time we see this team is not good enough. Even last year we had our moments of instability but mrs C decided to buy no one. Our not that classy squad got even shorter and to be honest, there is no an improvement in there, because the only two changes - Morata for Costa and Bakayoko for Matic- are nothing else but regress. So point your criticism towards the real causer - Mrs. C**T. 

 

6 hours ago, axman2526 said:

Lot of reminders here for me to Robbie. A great season followed by a poor start to the next one.

That season was one result away from being our worst under Roman.

Last season he turned a team that ended 10th into Champions, he changed things when they were catastrophic after our back to back defeats against Arsenal and Liverpool. He is smart enough that he knows this isn't working, he has to be given time to change things around again. I don't think that Roman will be that patient but i hope he will be.

Pray for that Conte doesn't put Fabregas in middle against MU. 

Like the team, Conte made plenty of mistakes last night.Questions need to be asked why he felt the need to change the positions of the defence, why have we persisted with Cesc in a two man midfield and why when chasing the result wasn't Zappacosta brought on at RWB reverting Azpi to his better position instead of moving Pedro there. Square pegs in round holes. 

 

10 hours ago, brakeit said:

Did you even realize he didn`t have a fit midfielder??? Who exactly you want to play in the midfielder? How to play 3-5-2 with total of 4 midfielder, and 2 of them are injured. Are you blind or what?

Absolutely insane haters in this thread. Are you that st***** to think it`s a manager fault everytime ? This is for the third time after Championship year. The board fu*****.

Conte is the best manager in the world and will show it again. But will show it in some other team.
Our sh*** board doesn`t deserve top manager like Conte to save their sh** ass**.

 

Drinkwater could have played. Luiz could have been pushed into midfield like against Atletico with Christensen dropping into the back line. Plenty of options, Conte chose the wrong one. 

Hope the big man can turn this around.

10 hours ago, didierforever said:

Trying to look all loyal and righteous on a footballing forum. How sad and pathetic must one's life be. Man I shudder even thinking about it. Hang in there dude.

You bet against the club, you don't watch the match and then give us the benefit of your huge footballing knowledge, and you attack our players in the foulest, most abusive terms.  Total new-boy plastic "fan".  

I wonder how you managed to choose Chelsea as the team to "support", and when that miracle conversion happened. 

I find it "sad and pathetic" that you have to bolster your fragile little ego by bullsh*t and bluster in a football forum, claiming to be a supporter of the club, but show no loyalty at all to the club, and can't even be arsed to watch the match, but still feel the need to give us all the benefit of your extensive football management expertise by telling us exactly what was wrong with a performance you didn't even see.

There you go, pick the racist comments out of that.  You are just a w**ker, nothing more and nothing less

like he already said, we've lost some big/experienced players. we are starting over with new players and trying to rebuild once again. it won't happen overnight as there's no quick fix. 

Spot on enigma. Conte said it would be a long road and he is right. Perhaps in some ways Atletico wasn't quite the win we thought. They're struggling more than us.

I'd love to see some leadership from some players. I feel like we don't always have great personality in a bad moment which is concerning. Not having JT in the room at this point really hurts us. Our policy of virtually no over 30s I think also contributes. 

Anywho hooray for Qarabag saving our bacon. Kante back on Sunday. All will be well again soon.

I kind of think the midfield changes this season kicked us where it hurt.

We let Matic go (let's be honest most CFC fans did not rate him) and recruited Baka who quickly got injured and then recruited Drinkwater who was also injured and as one became fitter then Kante the got crooked.

Hazard our talisman player has also been injured for most of his time.

You cannot plan for the injuries, how can our new midfield bed-in with injuries and hardly the same players together. 

Once we get our proper midfield two working we will improve and march on, though might find we can only realistically fight on a couple of fronts. 

 

 

 

 

23 minutes ago, Strider6003 said:

I kind of think the midfield changes this season kicked us where it hurt.

We let Matic go (let's be honest most CFC fans did not rate him) and recruited Baka who quickly got injured and then recruited Drinkwater who was also injured and as one became fitter then Kante the got crooked.

Hazard our talisman player has also been injured for most of his time.

You cannot plan for the injuries, how can our new midfield bed-in with injuries and hardly the same players together. 

Once we get our proper midfield two working we will improve and march on, though might find we can only realistically fight on a couple of fronts. 

 

 

 

 

 It's a fair point but I think a bit too much is being made of Matic's departure. His presence in the team last night would have made little difference. We saw two seasons ago that he is just as capable of being all at sea when isolated and having to cover too much ground. 

In my view the issue is Cesc. He's a wonderful player but he simply isn't mobile enough in these situations. It's a shame because i suspect he is one of the few leaders in the dressing room but in my mind the role last year maximised his talents.

2 hours ago, Spiller86 said:

 

Anywho hooray for Qarabag saving our bacon. Kante back on Sunday. All will be well again soon.

Yes, Qarabag has certainly done their job with AM.  Win there and we are in.  Anything other than 3 points though and we will have a dogfight at the bridge!

4 hours ago, yorkleyblue said:

You bet against the club, you don't watch the match and then give us the benefit of your huge footballing knowledge, and you attack our players in the foulest, most abusive terms.  Total new-boy plastic "fan".  

I wonder how you managed to choose Chelsea as the team to "support", and when that miracle conversion happened. 

I find it "sad and pathetic" that you have to bolster your fragile little ego by bullsh*t and bluster in a football forum, claiming to be a supporter of the club, but show no loyalty at all to the club, and can't even be arsed to watch the match, but still feel the need to give us all the benefit of your extensive football management expertise by telling us exactly what was wrong with a performance you didn't even see.

There you go, pick the racist comments out of that.  You are just a w**ker, nothing more and nothing less

He'll pick something w**kist, you know that.

2 hours ago, Spiller86 said:

 

In my view the issue is Cesc. He's a wonderful player but he simply isn't mobile enough in these situations. It's a shame because i suspect he is one of the few leaders in the dressing room but in my mind the role last year maximised his talents.

Guardiola used Fabregas like a striker at Barcelona, alike in Spanish selection, because he didn't play in middle... So play in middle to 2 it's worse. Fabregas could play instead of Pedro or Hazard or only behind Morata, but it's Eden place. 

I am getting sick and tired of the 'He'll be sacked by Christmas' brigade, especially reporters or so ccalled pundits. The BOSS turned our season around last year and if the club had done the business in the summer we wouldn't be in the bit of a mess we are in now. We are still in four competitions so the season is not lost!

17 hours ago, brakeit said:

Did you even realize he didn`t have a fit midfielder??? Who exactly you want to play in the midfielder? How to play 3-5-2 with total of 4 midfielder, and 2 of them are injured. Are you blind or what?

Absolutely insane haters in this thread. Are you that st***** to think it`s a manager fault everytime ? This is for the third time after Championship year. The board fu*****.

Conte is the best manager in the world and will show it again. But will show it in some other team.
Our sh*** board doesn`t deserve top manager like Conte to save their sh** ass**.

 

Well said, the board are pissing me off playing making Cahill captain and repeatedly picking him while leaving defenders who are playing better on the bench just like they kept picking Ivanovic in 15/16 and ignored a young, hungry Sturridge and persisted with Malouda and Anelka in 10/11.

16 minutes ago, Argo said:

Well said, the board are pissing me off playing making Cahill captain and repeatedly picking him while leaving defenders who are playing better on the bench just like they kept picking Ivanovic in 15/16 and ignored a young, hungry Sturridge and persisted with Malouda and Anelka in 10/11.

He got hauled off last night and that's when all resistance fell away.  I'm not making a case for or against Cahill, but that 100% happened last night.  He is the leader and the team do get around him whether we like it or not.

Conte in all probability over performed last season and is struggling to match that this season with a couple of damning scorelines not helping.  But overall has been a real positive influence on results, the squad and the club and I'm confident he has the experience to implement some result stability from here on.