My thoughts, for what they are worth.

A. We seem so precious that one unfortunate result this season and last season (both Swansea games) seem to have sapped any confidence whatsoever.

B. I struggle to see the worth of Matic, it's almost like Conte doesn't trust him at CDM so he's moved him forward. If you contribute very very little how do you start every game is a mystery to me. He doesn't pass incisively, he doesn't tackle effectively, he is never in the right positions and the game passes him by the majority of the time. 

C. Ivanovic and Cahill playing together are tactical suicide. Ivanovic's ability went off a sheer cliff since last season, Cahill is in some shocking form. I've never been a big Cahill fan but he's playing well below what his Chelsea peak performances have been at the moment. Our defense seemed to have little tactical displine or intensity, at 3-0 I would expect some sense of urgency. 

D. The thing that scares me the most is I feel a repeat of a season ahead of us unless you make some serious improvements as a team. The fact remains that the team has underperformed under JM, GH and now AC. There are some serious issues that need resolving or we will continue to repeat the same problems. 

 

5 minutes ago, CFCCAN said:

Don't buy that any longer..Pep hasn't lost a f**king game and he has never managed in the league either.  Conte has been slow to realize that he has not got the players to play like Juventus...so guess what..play some other way because this is a f**king shambles tactically and the players look like Fred Carno's army on that pitch,

to be fair, Pep has a much more talented squad and of the games City have played only United posed anything of a challenge (and were very predictable in how they approached that game)

i think a couple of things are happening firstly Conte is trying to show faith in his players (understandable, before Liverpool things looked kind of ok) and secondly better quality sides and managers (Klopp, Ranieri and Wenger) know our players inside out and after watching us for years know exactly how to unsettle us. The way to fix that is to start doing things differently and I would like to see us try a different combination at the back and to try to give Costa more support  

15 minutes ago, EmeraldBlue said:

Cahill made an awful mistake but at least he tries.

I couldn't careless if he tries personally, he's made another decisive mistake that changed the dynamic of the game.

He's the gift that keeps giving. Worse than Ivanovic.

Edited September 24, 20169 yr by the special one

Other than about 3 players today I think we should switch the whole lot of them out and see how it goes with whoever we have, anyone, just try it, nothing can be worse than this performance.

3 minutes ago, the special one said:

I couldn't careless if he tries personally, he's made another decisive mistake that changed the dynamic of the game.

He's the gift that keeps giving. Worse than Ivanovic.

Or the stick in the arse that keeps on twisting from our perspective. 

 

the man is livid

his reaction when asked about our title chances 

Yeah he's fuming. Written all over his face. 

The man has suddenly realised the size of the task he has ahead of him. He knew we were weak defensively, the board delivering Luiz and Alonso coupled with the injury to JT must be so deflating.

I personally don't think it's just players that need changing but more a change of philosphy. Don't get me wrong Branna was terrible last season and even worse this year, Dave is not a natural attacking full back but would be better suited on the right side as a more conserved full back.  Branna can't cross and had no positional awareness. Matic has lost a lot of presence in the middle but I believe he would be better suited to playing the Kante role in front of the back 4 if he has to play. Kante should be a ball winning midfielder further up the pitch which brings me onto the philosphy part. We seem obsessed this day and age with counter attacking style football, what we need to do is move the whole team up a notch and actually press teams higher up the pitch. Players like Costa, Willian, Kante all have a fantastic work rates which should be utilised further forward by pushing teams back and forcing errors. Rami was another one that wasn't the most talented of players but had great energy and could get around the pitch. We need more players like this. We have such a talented squad on paper yet when we start a home game and want to play on the back foot from the word go. Let's go at teams and hunt teams down in packs, win the ball back higher and quicker instead of sitting on our 18 yard box. Common sense to me. Just my 2 cents. One last thing to mention, Cech had one save to make and made it, courtois for a so called world class keeper is not commanding enough, terrible with his feet and doesn't save enough one v ones due to his poor starting position. When he is further out his goal his decision making is terrible hence the pens he seems to give away when he decides to come rushing out like a clown.

 

Liam 

Edited September 24, 20169 yr by LiamCraney

He's not happy those "sighs" are telling i think he's protecting the players well not blaming anyone so it then baffles me these players are not performing when the manager is not throwing you under the bus. He may just be realising that he can't trust certain players and I think he will solve the problems we have

@havelschayes, a good interview. Exactly what I want to see after a game like this. 

If the players had half the passion as what Antonio's just showed we wouldn't have a problem. 

Definitely one of the worst performance in years. Although the final score is a beat up, can't help to feel we just gave it away with a needless goal. Our past success was built on discipline and defence, we rarely even let arsenal has a free shot on goal even when we were terrible like last season. Cahill just gave them the game, it's as simple as that. Second goal took place when we were still trying to figure out what and why just happened. The passing from the back was atrocious , and our players didn't have the skills and composure to deal with pressing . There are players just don't belong to the team right now, Cahill / ivanovic / Matic, even Willian should be dropped for the next game . We all knew this season wasn't going to be easy, now we are getting some reality checks . Conte was helplessly let down by his players , and we all have seen it coming 

13 minutes ago, LiamCraney said:

I personally don't think it's just players that need changing but more a change of philosphy. Don't get me wrong Branna was terrible last season and even worse this year, Dave is not a natural attacking full back but would be better suited on the right side as a more conserved full back.  Branna can't cross and had no positional awareness. Matic has lost a lot of presence in the middle but I believe he would be better suited to playing the Kante role in front of the back 4 if he has to play. Kante should be a ball winning midfielder further up the pitch which brings me onto the philosphy part. We seem obsessed this day and age with counter attacking style football, what we need to do is move the whole team up a notch and actually press teams higher up the pitch. Players like Costa, Willian, Kante all have a fantastic work rates which should be utilised further forward by pushing teams back and forcing errors. Rami was another one that wasn't the most talented of players but had great energy and could get around the pitch. We need more players like this. We have such a talented squad on paper yet when we start a home game and want to play on the back foot from the word go. Let's go at teams and hunt teams down in packs, win the ball back higher and quicker instead of sitting on our 18 yard box. Common sense to me. Just my 2 cents. One last thing to mention, Cech had one save to make and made it, courtois for a so called world class keeper is not commanding enough, terrible with his feet and doesn't save enough one v ones due to his poor starting position. When he is further out his goal his decision making is terrible hence the pens he seems to give away when he decides to come rushing out like a clown.

 

Liam 

Sounds like you are advocating Gegenpress that Liverpool is doing right now. The problem with the method you have suggested about the quick press is that you need players with the energy to press and also be able to run when they are on the attack. Kante and Willian seem to be the only 2 guys in our team who seem like energy machines, the rest are too slow and can be caught or can tier quickly and will contribute nothing when the game is closer to finishing. I am looking at this team and I honestly don't see the squad being able to win back the top 4 without a major makeshift.

2 minutes ago, icecoolguy22 said:

Definitely one of the worst performance in years. Although the final score is a beat up, can't help to feel we just gave it away with a needless goal. Our past success was built on discipline and defence, we rarely even let arsenal has a free shot on goal even when we were terrible like last season. Cahill just gave them the game, it's as simple as that. Second goal took place when we were still trying to figure out what and why just happened. The passing from the back was atrocious , and our players didn't have the skills and composure to deal with pressing . There are players just don't belong to the team right now, Cahill / ivanovic / Matic, even Willian should be dropped for the next game . We all knew this season wasn't going to be easy, now we are getting some reality checks . Conte was helplessly let down by his players , and we all have seen it coming 

I agree with most of what you say except the bolded part. I don't think Conte was let down - I think, that is as much as our team is capable of. We simply don't have the mental fortitude or the physical presences or the tactical skill to fight against adversity. Take a minute to think about it - being down 3 nil to Arsenal, who do you see on the bench and what tactical change can you make on the field that will guarantee us changing our fortune ? I see none. The only positive for me is that as good as Arsenal are, they still will not win the title and in a few years time we can rebuild and win the title before they ever will.

Watching that train crash hurt like hell! I don't think even getting the opportunity to punch Wenger in the face would cheer me up. We got well and truely shafted by L'Arse. OUCH. Our players need some blue blood transfusions sharpish

Edited September 24, 20169 yr by Zola Mio Fratello

Tried/not completely useless today:

Azpi

Luiz

Matic

Kante

Costa

I have serous concerns about Conte He trains the team he picks the team he decides the formation and the tactics
and after being torn apart but liverpool , found wanting in the frst half aganst Lecester ,  Conte puts out the same player ,

formation  and tacticsat Arsenal  i mean FFS man we dont have a defence so bloody attack , Tell Hazard and Willian to come in of the touch line

and bloody play as there to easily put out of the game in there current positons hugging the white lines  and Matic  and Kante will never make runs into the box to support Costa

So come on Conte stop the PR bit telling us we must work  we need shape and a system the player believe in first and formost

 

 

13 minutes ago, Kante Conte said:

Tried/not completely useless today:

Azpi

Luiz

Matic

Kante

Costa

Azpilcueta was hopeless today, some of his passing was up there with Ivanovic, his first touch was on par with Cahill, and his wandering out of position is only second to Luiz.

He always seems to escape criticism, mainly because of Ivanovic being far worse on the other wing.

2 hours ago, carrickblue said:

to be fair, Pep has a much more talented squad and of the games City have played only United posed anything of a challenge (and were very predictable in how they approached that game)

i think a couple of things are happening firstly Conte is trying to show faith in his players (understandable, before Liverpool things looked kind of ok) and secondly better quality sides and managers (Klopp, Ranieri and Wenger) know our players inside out and after watching us for years know exactly how to unsettle us. The way to fix that is to start doing things differently and I would like to see us try a different combination at the back and to try to give Costa more support  

I don't think the City squad on paper is more talented than our lot...they are just organized and have a manager that has some balls to drop players who don't perform.

4 minutes ago, coco said:

Azpilcueta was hopeless today, some of his passing was up there with Ivanovic, his first touch was on par with Cahill, and his wandering out of position is only second to Luiz.

He always seems to escape criticism, mainly because of Ivanovic being far worse on the other wing.

He was rubbish, yes. When he's rubbish he still tries harder than most - hence why be escapes criticism.

10 hours ago, The Brit said:

Will be setting off soon...must admit, I'm a lot more nervous nkw that we know Jt isn't fit and in the team...our defence has forgotten how to keep a clean sheet

I was right to be nervous, but fcuk me, never did I think I was going to see that shambolic, embarrassing, spineless performance...thought top four a possibility this season, but playing like that? Lucky to get 10th again...only ones to turn up were the fans

What hurts most is we have lost to two rivals in just over a week and they didn't have to be that good (despite the praise they're getting) to do it...it was gift wrapped to them by our terrible defence and Sheer lack of desire

Love Conte's comments here. Give him time and support and the man will solve the problems. But will he get time? That is the key question and our main challenge as a football club. 

Apart from individual errors, the thing at both ends of the pitch trying to support attack or get back is Pace! Costa on his own, Pedro through on goal gets caught. If the opposition break we can't catch them. Reminded me when we played a high line under AVB and got caught. That back line hasn't changed apart from Dave and now Alonso. We can't afford a mistake because we can't track the runners. We had some good chances but didn't take any which may help highlight the score line and the performance.

Ultimately, I think Chelsea is trying to play a slow-paced game in an increasingly fast-paced league, and it just isn't working anymore. We aren't trying to press our opponents and win the ball high up the midfield, but are content to sit back and invite pressure, which we obviously can't handle. When we do have the ball, we pass it back to our defenders way more than we should, which results in a lack of creative play and more on-the-ball errors that lead to goals for our opponents. The slow, possession-heavy game that we seem to want to play has lost its place in the Premier League - whether football supporters like it or not. Because of this, we need to change our attitude. Outrun the other teams. Put the pressure on. Do whatever you can to win every ball. Don't give anybody more than a few seconds in possession. This is how we have to think if we want to keep up with the likes of Manchester City, Liverpool, and yes - even Arsenal (as much as that hurts to say).

I'm not a master tactician, and I don't pretend to have all the answers that will ensure a Chelsea finish in the top 4 this season, but I'm tired of seeing us get completely outworked by the teams that we play.  We either need to be an incredible counter-attacking team (which we aren't), or we need to be the hardest working team in the league. Until one of those options becomes a reality, I don't see us challenging for the title.

Edited September 25, 20169 yr by brantleypollock