15 minutes ago, the special one said:

And why not? Considering the lack of resilience in midfield yesterday perhaps we needed Mikel (or Luiz). Kante wasn't great tbh.

Kante was absolutely fantastic yesterday i thought. 

16 hours ago, bola said:

 

are you insinuating that I'm one of the JFDs by any chance?? lol...  

what's JFD? no, i just find it weird because our greatest manager ever is THE definition of that. not to mention the way we won the CL

46 minutes ago, the special one said:

And why not? Considering the lack of resilience in midfield yesterday perhaps we needed Mikel (or Luiz). Kante wasn't great tbh.

Maybe the TV pictures didn't show Kante in the best light, as a few people have said the same as you, but from the stands his contribution was absolutely immense. He had an excellent game, clearing up so many situations, covering a huge amount of ground and barely wasting a pass.

TV just doesn't show the off the ball stuff.

8 minutes ago, Backbiter said:

Maybe the TV pictures didn't show Kante in the best light, as a few people have said the same as you, but from the stands his contribution was absolutely immense. He had an excellent game, clearing up so many situations, covering a huge amount of ground and barely wasting a pass.

TV just doesn't show the off the ball stuff.

Watching on the TV, it looked like Kante had his usual decent, energetic game where he was nicking a lot of ball and clearing up. BUT as the game went on, I didn't notice him as much and he did seem to keep getting on the wrong side of the attacker and was trying to get a foot in from behind and not succeeding. And for the Swansea breakaway that led to the penalty he was nowhere to be seen - not saying that's his fault as it was a quick break, but you just get used to him being there in that situation.

 

1 hour ago, RIP Mourinho said:

 

Nah Mourinho would have brought Mikel on and try to hold onto the point. 

He'd have had to be very quick as we only had a point for about a minute before they went ahead. Then again JM probably wouldn't have started the match with two defensive midfielders and our most creative player on the bench.

Edited September 12, 20169 yr by Englishman

Late to the party I know.

Cech. Thibault, oh well.

 

And...refs are still not subjected to accountability.

 

But, Diego, lordy lordy , and the best is yet to come :)

58 minutes ago, Nibs said:

Watching on the TV, it looked like Kante had his usual decent, energetic game where he was nicking a lot of ball and clearing up. BUT as the game went on, I didn't notice him as much and he did seem to keep getting on the wrong side of the attacker and was trying to get a foot in from behind and not succeeding. And for the Swansea breakaway that led to the penalty he was nowhere to be seen - not saying that's his fault as it was a quick break, but you just get used to him being there in that situation.

 

 

We were pushing higher and higher as the game went on, even he can't be expected to cover for about 4 players at once if they're attacking the box. With Matic going off we also started to lose a lot more headers and flick-ons as a midfield of Kante/Fabregas/Oscar lacks in height. 

i understand the frustration at the lack of fabregas in our side, but i think a more nuanced discussion can be had about him rather than what i've seen so far this thread.

i think that first of all, it's important to understand and see that we played a very, very good game against what is after all a decent side. we created a bunch of chances, enough for three-four goals (even prior to fab's introduction and when we went all out). our midfield trio absolutely smashed swanseas to bits, and the only chances swansea had was through a sloppy cortouis and a horrible ref.

this is imo a game that 'any' other day is won by three-four goals, and i think it's important to understand that there isn't always a connection between performance and result. i really thought that the only thing seperating this game from the burnley game (which everyone agreed on was our best showing since forever) was lack of opportunism (not anything fab or conte could have done anything with) and a poor referee.

secondly, as i've mentioned somewhere on here before, i really think that physicality and athleticism at some point become so overrated (especially in england) that it is now underrated. with fabregas on and oscar/matic off we lose what imo has made us great against burnley and swansea, a strong core to build our attacks and defense from. i do get that people look to barcelona, bayern, real madrid and now city for their usage of small, technical players, but i think it's important to note that they play differently to us (i also think all of their 'smaller' players are better defensively than fabregas, but i have argued for that before). they press higher because they have a quicker defense. they don't have to set their defense line as low as us, and things doesn't become as much of a cluster and a physical battle in the middle.

there are other factors of course, but once matic went off we lost that midfield battle with a snap. saw this quote from bluelion just as i posted this and it is a perfect example of how having a tall guy in the middle maybe isn't such a bad idea after all. 

Quote

" With Matic going off we also started to lose a lot more headers and flick-ons as a midfield of Kante/Fabregas/Oscar lacks in height. "

there are arguments for fabregas' case, but i don't think this game should be used as an example of how fabregas is needed. costa missed an open net at 1-0 and swansea should have had at least one player sent off before cortouis had a sudden moment of brainless-ness.

i fully expect the same midfield to start against liverpool and i can't say i would fault conte for it. after all he plays the same defense that looked like 4 doug rougvies last year and the goals we've let in this year is 1 dream strike from collins' left boot, 1 dream strike from capoue's wrong foot, 1 moment of tourettes for courtois and 1 clear as day refereeing mistake.

Edited September 12, 20169 yr by opinionsarelike

1 hour ago, Nibs said:

Watching on the TV, it looked like Kante had his usual decent, energetic game where he was nicking a lot of ball and clearing up. BUT as the game went on, I didn't notice him as much and he did seem to keep getting on the wrong side of the attacker and was trying to get a foot in from behind and not succeeding. And for the Swansea breakaway that led to the penalty he was nowhere to be seen - not saying that's his fault as it was a quick break, but you just get used to him being there in that situation.

 

I too thought Kante was good overall, particularly in the first half.

An interesting thing I did notice in regards to the breakaway goal, when the ball was played out to the wing and the last man (possibly Dave?) chased him out there, a replay showed that JT (pretty sure was JT, could possibly have been someone else) was actually in front of Sigurdsson around the half-way line, but slowly jogging back towards goal, while Sigurdsson ran straight past him and ultimately won the penalty.

Edited September 12, 20169 yr by Jonty

2 minutes ago, Jonty said:

I too thought Kante was good overall, particularly in the first half.

An interesting thing I did notice in regards to the breakaway goal, when the ball was played out to the wing and the last man (possibly Dave?) chased him out there, a replay showed that JT (pretty sure was JT, could possibly have been someone else) was actually in front of Sigurdsson around the half-way line, but slowly jogging back towards goal, while Sigurdsson ran straight past him and ultimately won the penalty.

To be honest mate that was actually JT sprinting. Absolute hero but never been able to get his legs moving. 

1 hour ago, Englishman said:

He'd have had to be very quick as we only had a point for about a minute before they went ahead. Then again JM probably wouldn't have started the match with two defensive midfielders and our most creative player on the bench.

What would you have changed in the middle? Kante has to start because he's the main man in this squad in my opinion and without Matic in the middle who would have had the height to compete with Fer, Cork and Ki who are all over 6 foot. 

2 hours ago, havelschayes said:

refs aside, need to be more ruthless in front of goal, should've put the game to bed in the first half, perfect example :

seeing it again jeez that was torres level bad, idk if its because of our sh*tty luck or just pure human error from diego, should've gotten a hattrick

Torres wouldn't have even been there to miss that...he would have been hiding somewhere

46 minutes ago, bluelion111 said:

We were pushing higher and higher as the game went on, even he can't be expected to cover for about 4 players at once if they're attacking the box. With Matic going off we also started to lose a lot more headers and flick-ons as a midfield of Kante/Fabregas/Oscar lacks in height. 

Easy in hindsight and I know we were pushing for the second goal which would have killed the game off but surely someone like Kante should be the man left back around the halfway line for such an eventuality? Even more so with our lack of pace at the back when teams hit us on the counter. I can't quite recall how the move broke down and they turned it around so quickly but to be as open at the back as we were was pretty poor. A 1 on 1 with JT - even I would still fancy my chances. Hopefully it's a lesson learned.

 

 

Easy to blame the ref - the truth is, we should've been 3 nil up by half time and we didn't put the game out of reach.

Hazard went through 1v1 to possibly make it two nil, and he fluffed his chance. Those are the ones (for a player of his quality) he should be burying. 

29 minutes ago, Elliott said:

Easy to blame the ref - the truth is, we should've been 3 nil up by half time and we didn't put the game out of reach.

Hazard went through 1v1 to possibly make it two nil, and he fluffed his chance. Those are the ones (for a player of his quality) he should be burying. 

He should have scored but then again so should Costa when the corner fell right to him and he had an open goal with not even the keeper to beat. 

Another day that would have been 4-0 and Swansea's heads would have dropped before they had a chance to get back into the game. That said, at least we got a point. When Fabregas made that clumsy challenge right near the end, I've seen softer penalties given and that really would have ruined the weekend.

 

http://m.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/37334869 

Is this real life? Must have been Mou after all 

Enjoyed the match even if we did not get the result we deserved, still, there was some relief that we git a point as Swansea's confidence was up after their magical three minutes.

Courtois will have to get that headless chicken moment out of his game, it's not the first time. Hazard, a few chances notwithstanding, was a bit on the quiet side. I also thought Kante was less impressive but someone has pointed out that to doesn't do justice to his contribution.

Thought Matic was very good and Oscar, who missed a few chances, laid on a terrific pass for Diego's first goal. Talking about the man - he was just terrific, inspirational and displaying leadership that seeps into the team as a whole.

I also thought that Cahill was caught lumbering but he was a victim of cruel fate. His interview was terrific btw.

Great to see the team working again.

8 hours ago, Nibs said:

 

Got to say I didn't think there was a lot in that challenge. Even Costa was grinning after. Totally different to Courtois on Sig as he clearly missed the ball and tripped him.

 

if you look closely you can see DC tell fish finger hands that it was a foul & it wasn't a dive

I was watching MOTD2 & even they said it was a foul - crazy now CFC fans want to disagree w/ the MOTD pundits when a foul was committed on a CFC player & the foul wasn't given 

5 hours ago, Backbiter said:

Maybe the TV pictures didn't show Kante in the best light, as a few people have said the same as you, but from the stands his contribution was absolutely immense. He had an excellent game, clearing up so many situations, covering a huge amount of ground and barely wasting a pass.

TV just doesn't show the off the ball stuff.

 

I watched the match on TV & IMHO Kante was everywhere - he was a definite spark plug in the match

Edited September 12, 20169 yr by robdog

23 minutes ago, robdog said:

I watched the match on TV & IMHO Kante was everywhere - he was a definite spark plug in the match

kante being everywhere doesn't necessarily mean that he's played a good game. it's a reason why makelele defined that role and played world class football there until mid 30's. compared to what maka used to do for us week in and week out, kante's game yesterday reminded a lot more of coquelin game (ie being everywhere, but not always where he should have been at the right time).

for the record i think kante is this seasons purchase, but he had a pretty undisciplined game vs swansea i felt. i thought he got majorly exposed when his main plow matic (who for 65 minutes was his dominant self of two years ago) went off, and even though he managed to save most situations by being the best runner on the pitch i've ever seen (the amount of sprinting he does is absolutely incredible) his performance didn't live up to the quality he showed last year and our previous few matches imo. 

Problem with this kind of result is the psychological side of it. The players felt they were robbed and anything they did was not gifted. That can leave a mark. These guys need to be mature about it which doesn't look like it seeing Cahill's tweets. He is a senior member and opening up in social media for a thing that doesn't really concern him. 

 

Kante would of been my MoTM if Costa didn't get that 2nd goal.  Lost track of how many times he took the ball from the opposition let alone just stopped the flow of the oppositions attack.

2 hours ago, evissy said:

He is a senior member and opening up in social media for a thing that doesn't really concern him. 

How does it not concern him? We've just signed a new defender and his place under pressure then a ref robs him like that. If course it concerns him.

F* international break, had that feeling we were going to drop the ball heading into the match, and we did. We never played with the required intensity required, thought we would walk to a 1:0, then mistakes creeped in. For the first goal, why didn't  we have anyone near the half way line? Tibo was at fault, but I guess he made up his mind to go for it when he saw JT was struggling catch up with the attacker. Second goal was laughable, it could be a fault but Cahill should have never got himself into that position. Towards the end, there was no coming back as the likes of Hazard/Costa completely knackered. In hindsight, Conte should have made the subs as soon as we were trailing

8 hours ago, icecoolguy22 said:

 In hindsight, Conte should have made the subs as soon as we were trailing

I completely disagree with this, the last thing a team thats conceded should do is change players immediately. The opposition has its tail up and will attack again, so bringing on 2 players that then need 5-10 minutes to get up to speed in the game is a disaster waiting to happen, coupled with their team mates having to adjust to 2 new players who will more likely play differently and the manager wanting a more attacking emphasis. Ive always hated when a manger panics after a goal and makes wholesale changes.