Point is we aren't some pauper team beating big expensive man u. It's a disingenuous point to make. We didn't spend 150 mil, we spent 112, o wow aren't we defying the odds.

Edited February 12, 20179 yr by Stim

I don't really feel that it's very helpful at all to get caught up in a rather futile debate as to whether or not we can properly be described as 'defensive' or not or 'very defensive' or just 'defensive'. But let's not kid ourselves: against Arsenal at times in open play we adopted a position where we were defending with seven players: the back three & Kante & Matic obviously but also with Moses & Alonso dropping back. Now the reason why we've been so effective on the counter this year is because of its sheer speed and breadth on the counter - which on many occasions involves the wing-backs racing back up the park to provide options. Apparently, as at least some of the players have explicitly acknowledged in interviews - this Chels team is fitter than never before - Conte has demanded it. And, in that regard I'd like to see some of the mileage stats racked up by the wing-backs over say the last 4 months.

Edited February 12, 20179 yr by youlots

24 minutes ago, Stim said:

Point is we aren't some pauper team beating big expensive man u. It's a disingenuous point to make. We didn't spend 150 mil, we spent 112, o wow aren't we defying the odds.

yeah - it's a blind alley really: we're both big clubs - they're bigger in that their revenues are that much bigger. When you look at the figures you mention it's really about the same as a proportion against respective revenues so it's pretty meaningless.

Jose can't be talking about us, we are third highest goalscorers this season, with just 3 less than Arse and Liverpool, don't you know.

Oh and we've got a game in hand over them too. 

Just as we were under Jose, we can play all styles and do so when it suits us.

On 2/11/2017 at 05:43, bola said:

 

1st game after jose was sacked was against sunderland and we won that game with style.. 3-1 the scoreline, it was some performance after all the dull crap games before in that season.. You could see the team spirit was lifted...  In fact, the difference in performance was too eyecatching that some (jose's) fans actually booing the players calling them rats.. That might have played in the players mind, a change in a dramatic fashion is just maybe too give a away.. 

 

Lets face it, the players wouldn't want to show their masterplan in the obvious manner to the public, would they? Had the fortune changed dramatically then there would be no argument that they 'down tools' but because it hadn't, well the argument is there and here.. Our quality has always been there under roman abramovich era, when it didn't show, it's because the manager lost the dressing room, not the 1st time that happened..

 

 We did win vs Sunderland and in style the next game, very true. But as the season progressed we did lose/draw a lot more games, we did not win the FA cup not get in the top 7 which at that time was mathematically possible. Also as the season progressed Vs the same Sunderland against whom we won the first game, we lost the next one despite having the lead. More proof that our defense really was not holding up and need of strengthening.

1 minute ago, brownindian said:

 We did win vs Sunderland and in style the next game, very true. But as the season progressed we did lose/draw a lot more games, we did not win the FA cup not get in the top 7 which at that time was mathematically possible. Also as the season progressed Vs the same Sunderland against whom we won the first game, we lost the next one despite having the lead. More proof that our defense really was not holding up and need of strengthening.

Well, being contention for europa league is hardly motivating.. As for not winning FA cup, that's not something we could win easily by just turning up, let alone under such situation last season.. We did go unbeaten long run... Under jose last season, I'd say the team only gave it 10% effort, under holland 90%, and under hiddink, it's more like 60%.. my 2 cents with the percentage..

4 minutes ago, bola said:

Well, being contention for europa league is hardly motivating.. As for not winning FA cup, that's not something we could win easily by just turning up, let alone under such situation last season.. We did go unbeaten long run... Under jose last season, I'd say the team only gave it 10% effort, under holland 90%, and under hiddink, it's more like 60%.. my 2 cents with the percentage..

 

Oh i dont disagree with you at all on that - We did much better in the latter half of the season and a big reason we were not relegated .. LOL. The attacking players did eventually get better the later half of the season - but our defense was still drab which is why we were struggling a lot last year and looking shaky this year until Luiz and Alonso joined the ship along with Kante.

On February 11, 2017 at 04:57, brownindian said:

Fair points - But think about this, the arrival of Hiddink did not radically change our fortunes as well. We did win more games but we were still an above average team, not the title winning team of the year before. We started slightly better and we were confident of finishing close to a Europa spot as it seemed mathematically feasible, but then we saw too many draws anad loses and we ended up 10th. For me, not only Mourinho but even Hiddink struggling to get us to play to the level that we were playing a year before seems to indicate that the squad we had was not good enough. After looking at the squad this year, It is more evident that we were badly in need of squad strengthening. 

To make it clear, I am not absolving Mourinho - Part of a managers job is to try and make the team play to their capabilities and his squad did not live up to its potential, but make no mistake that squad was badly in need of some strengthening. And while i type that, I feel the same with this squad. Our lack of midweek games is allowing Conte to play the same first 11 and improve and take his time to tweak things, but if he do not get quality added to this squad this summer we will not be winning many trophies.

Hiddink improved the team a lot, a lot of draws maybe but up to the Villa game we were unbeaten and actually not far off the top if you used the table from when he took over.

18 hours ago, just said:

Superb. Agree 100%. Factually spot on.

Mourinho, for whatever reason, never got the reinforcements he asked for. Asked for repeatedly. And that, IMO, was the overriding factor.

 

He asked for Begovic, Falcao and Pedro, got them all!!!!! 

On 09/02/2017 at 21:06, brownindian said:

It is a wee bit unfair to compare Mourinhos Chelsea from last year with Contes Chelsea this year. Ignoring all the managerial differences let us just look at the player changes. Mourinhos Chelsea were leaking goals like crazy. Matic-Cesc combo was under performing, Ivanovich and Terry were very slow. Costa was not fit to start off with and the only reiforcement last year was Papy Dildobobby. 

Now let us look at what happened after Conte came in. We then bought Kante to help support Matic and put Cesc in Bench. We also brought David Luiz back, Marcos Alonso that made Terry and Ivanovich expendable and Batshuayi as a back up striker. While these may not be Contes first choice, we did reincorce the squad to the tune of millions - Reinforcements that Mourinho was already demanding last year.

Will this same squad under Mourinho be in the #1 position now as we are currently under Conte ? I dont know, but what i do know is that perhaps a bigger reason for our under-performance had more to do with upgrading an ageing squad that badly needed to be upgraded. 

Lol I remember the doom and gloom on this board after the summer transfer window. Luiz was a panic buy, Alonso average with Kante being the only positive. The crux of it though was that just like Mourinho, Conte wasnt backed and was shafted by Emanalo. Funny seeing comments like these though attempting to turn the whole argument on its head just because Conte has been good enough to get the best out of the side again. 

11 hours ago, brownindian said:

 

Oh i dont disagree with you at all on that - We did much better in the latter half of the season and a big reason we were not relegated .. LOL. The attacking players did eventually get better the later half of the season - but our defense was still drab which is why we were struggling a lot last year and looking shaky this year until Luiz and Alonso joined the ship along with Kante.

We also looked shaky this season. The only difference is Conte had a plan B and was not afraid to drop players who were letting him down.

We really need to paying less attention to what Jose (allegedly) said about us, I'm sure Conte doesn't give a crap of what Jose said. The way I see it, he's just stirring to pot ( as he's get paid to do), and divert attention from his own players. 

United fans goading us because they got our bitter washed up old manager who we sacked twice is like Burnley fans teasing Barcelona because they have a fat 40yr messi playing for them who Barcelona released. 

Do they actually think we care they have Mourinho? We sacked him twice and he's only there because we didn't want him anymore. If we did he would still be managing Chelsea. 

I can definitly see him becoming absolutely unbearable when we are in a close race with United(and City) for the title next season. Thats what i think will happen anyways and that, that will lead to many of us having a problem with him at the end of next season.
 

Arsenal fans did the same when they got Cech, thinking they had stolen our player when in fact we didn't want him anymore. Now they hate him. 

The second tweet is serious bs but the first one is spot on.

I don't know about us being defensive but there's certainly a lot of defending going on in this thread for our ex-supremo!!

 

2 hours ago, Ivanov87 said:

United fans goading us because they got our bitter washed up old manager who we sacked twice is like Burnley fans teasing Barcelona because they have a fat 40yr messi playing for them who Barcelona released. 

Do they actually think we care they have Mourinho? We sacked him twice and he's only there because we didn't want him anymore. If we did he would still be managing Chelsea. 

Are you obsessed with Mourinho?

12 minutes ago, Ernie_blue said:

Are you obsessed with Mourinho?

You're asking me if I'm obsessed with Mourinho in a thread dedicated to Mourinho. Sure, I could talk about the weather instead or perhaps Brexit.

27 minutes ago, Ivanov87 said:

You're asking me if I'm obsessed with Mourinho in a thread dedicated to Mourinho. Sure, I could talk about the weather instead or perhaps Brexit.

You just sound like a broken record slagging him off constantly. Have a go at the defenders but bloody hell you don't stop going on about him.

1 minute ago, Ernie_blue said:

You just sound like a broken record slagging him off constantly. Have a go at the defenders but bloody hell you don't stop going on about him.

f**king put me on ignore then and stop bothering me. I'll keep slagging him off.

Perhaps we need a "Mourinho appreciation thread"  safespace so all his supporters who get upset at anyone who dares to criticise him can worship him in peace. 

As for me as long as he keeps slagging this club and it's fans I'll respond in kind. Sorry if it offends you.

6 minutes ago, Ivanov87 said:

Perhaps we need a "Mourinho appreciation thread"  safespace so all his supporters who get upset at anyone who dares to criticise him can worship him in peace. 

As for me as long as he keeps slagging this club and it's fans I'll respond in kind. Sorry if it offends you.

There's a difference between slagging of Chelsea and people like you jumping on every single word he says and believe it always has to be against Chelsea. Mourinho just puts out that fishing line and his reeling you in haha.

I'm glad he's reeling me in. Quite enjoy slagging him off. Haha

It's not like it's hard to reel you in. Mourinho could say something positive about Chelsea and your still twist it into some slagging off Chelsea rubbish.

Most people have moved on but the haters watch every word said from Old Trafford more than anyone. You act like he bullied you at school and you have a vendetta for the rest of your life.