Given we don't have any Euro football one of the cups (especially this one) would have been high on the list given the advantage we have over the tougher teams but sadly our second string are not up to scratch. 

It's tough on those players as it's difficult to just come into first team football after weeks playing lower level football or making cameo appearances from the bench then be expected to perform at the highest level....that's not very realistic. However it's still dissapointing that we dug so deep against Leicster to then go out like that tonight.

Top 4 is priority of course but if anything tonight showed as a squad we are still a bit behind on overall quality 

Did I go too far?

 

49 minutes ago, MariaCFC said:

Rather go all out and win the league

What do you mean go all out? We have a 25 man squad are we supposed to not be able to handle 4 extra games in the season, a team like chelsea should be able to play in 4 competitions and challenge in them all, I know we had a bad season but ffs our top 4 competitors have the same competitions plus Europe we already have an advantage.

Why make all them changes? Can't the players play three games in a week once a month? Stuff the second string players, I care more about winning things than keeping them happy.

There was no reason for Conte to sacrifice a cup competition in order to give so many first-choice players a rest. 

Start the game with your near first eleven, go a couple of goals up, then you can rest the likes of Costa, Moses and Hazard. But to make seven changes was suicidal from Conte.

I still don't think he understands just how competitive English football is and unless you perform at your maximum, with your strongest possible side, you will get nothing from the game. 

Instead, he puts out a weakened side thinking we’ll find a way to win. It doesn't work like that unfortunately. 

 

 

 

 

Out of the three tournaments we are playing in, this is the least important......BUT...it's still a tournament. In a season with no Europe, I really wanted deep cup runs in both this and the FA Cup.

 

It was a very disappointing game. Defensively, we were shaky. JT didn't look right at all, and it seemed to make everyone around him a little uncomfortable. I don't know whether it was just lack of match sharpness, or unfamiliarity with the formation, or whether this system just flat out is unplayable for him. Aina on the left didn't work, he has to be on the right (if he's going to play). Azpilicueta needs to be one of the CB's, not a WB in this formation. Chalobah showed good signs, and bad signs (not the sort of outing you want to push your claim for a permanent spot). Oscar didn't do enough. Willian wasted his chances. Bats and Costa both misfired too.

 

A game littered with defensive frailty, and attacking blunders. We could have conceded several more, and we should have scored several more.

Tournaments like this are for us to test our squad, formations and tactics.

We lost, but it's not the end of it. As long as we have the correct squad on the pitch for the league and that enhances our top 4 finish, is our goal, I reckon.

Disappointing night...as far as selection goes, conte is damned if he does damned if he doesn't...has to give some players a chance, like Batshuayi, Aina and Chalobah to see what they can do...if he doesn't people will moan...that was still a pretty strong team he put out, but unfortunately we were clearly weaker at wing back in an attacking sense, while JT was way off the pace after injury and we were ropey defensively...still, we created plenty of chances, especially once hazard and Costa came on...we just didn't take them sadly and the biggest shame is that players like chalobah won't get another start for a while 

Disagree with the criticsm. I agree that we should be disappointed with being knocked out, but like I said before: You can't have it both ways. You want our youth to get a chance and moaned at Mourinho never giving chances, but then moan at Conte for giving them the chance... It wasn't a good performance, but we were right in the game and could have won it had Costa and Bats took their chances. While four extra games may not seem like a big deal, it is significant in terms of fitness levels near the end of the season and what's perhaps more significant is the extra preparation time we get for the Premier League. Let the man get a proper look at the squad too, let's not forget how new he is...

Sad to go out, but happy with how Conte approached it. Top 4 is a must! Lets push it all the way, and if we're there at the top near the end of the season, who knows what could happen!

Edited October 27, 20169 yr by Saru

Glad we are out of this stupid cup. its funny how Jose won the league and this worthless cup in 2014 but all people remember is that we won the league, no one even calls it a double. Last season pellegrini won it for mancity and what was his reward he got fired. All we need to worry about is the league,  wouldnt mind if we lost in the facup first round also. One thing people forget is that not only did leicester not have europe last season but they also went out of the cups early. The league is all i care about. we can worry about cups when we have a better squad of players

5 hours ago, DexterTCN said:

Who would be happy if we won the EFL but didn't get into Europe next year?

Doesn't the League Cup title guarantee a spot in Europe, or has that changed? 

Mildly disappointed that we lost, but not especially surprised since Conte was always going to rest much of our first team. Also, I do think that a Top 4 finish this season is more important than the LC, nice though it is to win. 

I am surprised, however, that he started Aina at LWB. He should know that in a 3-man formation, you need active wing backs who are effective going forward. It is much harder to be effective going forward on your wrong foot. 

Especially with JT, I would not personally have bothered with a 3-man formation if we were going to rest Alonso but instead tested out an alternate 4-man formation and played Aina as an RB, not only because we may need to change up formations in the future if key players get injured, but also because JT is unfortunately too static for a 3-man formation. 

Very poor performance.

Willian and Oscar were downright atrocious.

Michy just could not handle 3 defenders.

Aina was poor.

JT was Owned. I have never seen JT so confused and dazed.

I don't think conte can be criticized for the changes he made.. lets' face it, if it's not this very competition then when can he do it?  sitting on the bench too long would make players become rusty, conte has to do what has to be done..

The prestige as well as prize for winning this competition is very low, super low, it's better to use it as a window for testing out our squad.. unfortunately, it didn't work well but you know something.. 

 

After all consideration taken into account, it's totally understandable where conte is coming from.. if it's up to me, I would make almost a wholesale changes instead of just 7.. make no mistake, getting knocked out always bring disappointment but we have a squad of more than 20 players, can't just rely on the same XI - XV every time.. The risk is always there

Felt we didn't do that bad against West Ham but only when the big guns came on. The new system relies on Alonso and Moses the most and when we had Aina and Cesar it looked average. Several players had good chances to score like Kante, Willian and Costa after coming on. Even Michy and Chalobah but it wasn't our night. I wanted to stay in the cup for a bit longer i think we would get a good draw for the quarter finals. As Cicero said we are now sure that we can't make drastic changes, on the other hand Conte is a man of his word and gave youth a chance. Chalobah was decent but Aina didn't do as well in the new position. Michy was totally outnumbered with West Ham's big defenders and could do very little. Kante had an off game but he was okay in the first half, Azpilicueta also didn't do that well in the wing back position similar to his team mate on the other side of the field. From the back line Luiz did the best, saved our blushes a few time and had a tough night, JT was probably our worst individual in the defense as his pace could catch up, but he just came from his injury so that could be justified. Begovi? had a good game had a few really good saves and i think he couldn't do much for either goal. Overall we move on its not the end of the world, bring on Southampton away.

Edited October 27, 20169 yr by TrueBlueBIH

i'm not that disappointed yesterday but waking up it felt sucks, can't believe we lost to those inbred scums

and for personal selfish reason with no europe i need my chelsea midweek match fix, and now there's none until january, bummer

Our expectations have lowered if you think top 4 is a good season, only Arsenal think like that. Despite finishing 10th we still have a squad capable of winning the league.

Disagree with the criticsm. I agree that we should be disappointed with being knocked out, but like I said before: You can't have it both ways. You want our youth to get a chance and moaned at Mourinho never giving chances, but then moan at Conte for giving them the chance... It wasn't a good performance, but we were right in the game and could have won it had Costa and Bats took their chances. While four extra games may not seem like a big deal, it is significant in terms of fitness levels near the end of the season and what's perhaps more significant is the extra preparation time we get for the Premier League. Let the man get a proper look at the squad too, let's not forget how new he is...
Sad to go out, but happy with how Conte approached it. Top 4 is a must! Lets push it all the way, and if we're there at the top near the end of the season, who knows what could happen!

You can't win mate what ever you do

Our expectations have lowered if you think top 4 is a good season, only Arsenal think like that. Despite finishing 10th we still have a squad capable of winning the league.

I think based on last season top four first then take it from there our first 11 cab wipe the floor with the entire league which is why am quietly confident here

1 hour ago, MariaCFC said:

Our expectations have lowered if you think top 4 is a good season, only Arsenal think like that. Despite finishing 10th we still have a squad capable of winning the league.

This year there is six excellent teams all fighting for those four spots. Top 4 would be great considering that and that we are coming of our worst season in God knows how long.

Begovic - Came in, made some good saves, possibly could have done more with their first goal but overall fairly solid

Aina - Looked shaky in an unfamiliar LWB spot, think Conte put him there so he wasn't tasked with Payet all night which would have killed his confidence, can't be too harsh on him though.

Terry - As controversial as it is, I think his days are numbered, especially as part of a 3 man defence, too slow, and not snappy enough in closing down the play. Very disappointing.

Cahill - Was okay, made a couple of mistakes but also a few good challenges, still poor with his ball distribution, overall 'meh' would sum up that performance.

Luiz - Looked better second half when he came into the middle of the 3, I think that's his nailed on position now, keeps him disciplined and stops him going on needless runs.

Azpi - Not a wing back, poor going forward, out of position a few times, looks good at RCB, lets keep him there please Antonio.

Chalobah - Some very good moments going forward, some bad ones at the back, not a bad performance, if he can take the errors out of his game he could be class

Kante - Did his job as he always does, maybe caught out a couple of times as he had to Cover for Chalobah on one or two occasions, not bad from him though.

Oscar - One of our worst performers, rubbish on the wing, didn't help Aina one bit, created very little, hard to see when and where he'll fit into this formation

Willian - Was poor first half & better in the second, Great dribbler of the ball but picks a decent pass one out of every 5 times, needs to work on the 'final ball'

Batshuayi - Looked like a man who's not had a lot of football. Service from Oscar & Willian didn't help him, but the chances he did get he snatched at, disappointing.

Subs

Costa - Snatched at chances but was getting in the right places and making good runs, class above Batshuayi and can see why he's our undisputed number 9

Hazard - Changed the game when he came on, took it to their defence and was unlucky not to get a penalty. Let's see that on Sunday please!

Pedro - Actually did alright at wing-back, definitely not his position but filled in well and has looked better these past few weeks.

 

Overall, poor performance. Could have easily let more in, or scored a fair few if we took our chances. Would have been nice to win but it is 'only' the cup and we shouldn't let it get to our momentum and hopefully carry on our good league form on Sunday at Southampton. Come on the Chels!

2 hours ago, didierforever said:

 

 

 

Aina was poor.

 

 

Was Azpilicueta better than him?

Don't forget that WH were 5th last season. So they are nod that bad as most of us thought. The team was ok - we could beat them easily if Willian, Batschuay, Costa, Hazard, Terry and Kante were more accurate. They missed 5-6 open goals, so.. just didnt like the risk with Costa. He was so close to yellow card which was going to be a huge problem considering where we are  going this weekend. 

Too many changes and poor performances from many who came in.City mand Spuds tried the same and also went out.The annoying thing is that the pikeys will go out weakly to the Mancs.

I can't really complain about the result. We did make a lot of changes, but I liked the look of the starting lineup when I saw it; I thought Conte had put together an effective blend of youth and experienced squad players who needed game time.

The League Cup has always provided an interesting dichotomy - on the one hand it is always great to win it, on the other hand I am never particularly bothered when we are eliminated (although ideally it wouldn't have been against West Ham). I think the biggest blow is losing further opportunities to give the youngsters starts - both Aina and Chalobah made their first full starts for the club in this competition this season.

Conte's reaction to going behind and getting largely outplayed in the first hour was interesting. In my eyes (and I accept I could be completely wrong) our formation was doing us no favours last night; our midfield were being pulled too far forward and leaving the back three exposed. That, combined with JT's rustiness (at least I hope it was rustiness), Luiz's general unpredictability, and the fluidity demonstrated by Lanzini, Antonio and Payet meant that our defence got picked apart time and again. I thought the solution from a tactical perspective was to bring on an additional midfielder for a centre back, meaning we would have a spare man at the back and our midfield would have been more capable of pressing Noble and Obiang (as well as leaving less space between the defence and midfield lines), however Conte stood firm with the formation. From a long-term perspective this may well have been a wise decision, to get the entire squad accustomed to playing a particular system with which many of them might not have been familiar, which will be necessary if he is going to brand it into the team's playing identity. Short-term it obviously didn't work.

To me it is encouraging that Conte is displaying this kind of long-term thought process which we really haven't seen from any manager under Abramovich to date: giving youth players appropriate amounts of game time, trying to build a lasting system from the ground up, genuinely demonstrating passion for the club/fans. I think we are still yet to see the very best of what Conte can produce at Chelsea (Man Utd result notwithstanding), but I do think we are onto something special here.