Wouldn't put blame on Cahill at all our defensive shape actually suffered massively when he went off.

The blame simply has to go down to Conte.. Stevie Wonder could see the Fabregas Baka 2 man midfield was never going to work, the whole basis of our success last season was the 2 solid cdms covering up the backlines deficiencies and breaking up play. Fabregas cannot do that if he's going to play he has to be further forward. Get Kante back in there with Drinkwater or Baka and I'm sure wel look a lot better. UTC.

1 minute ago, Scott Harris said:

This is why Conte wanted another CM and didn't want to sell Matic. The board went over his head and sold Matic, sold Chalobah, loaned out Loftus-Cheek and waited until the last day of the transfer window to sign Drinkwater. He started the season with Bakayoko, who had played no pre season, just recovered from a knee injury and had just moved to a new country, Fabregas, who we all know isn't good enough for the 2 man midfield role, and Kante.

The problems were all caused early on by the board and we are paying the price for it now.

I personally think Conte will have no choice but to move away from his usual formation and tactics, he doesn't have the players to make use of it. I'm still unsure on Bakayoko, even with Kante beside him, he looks tired already this season ( probably down to not having a pre season and being rushed back into the team, which again is down to the mistakes of the board ) 

you're really cheering me up Scott 

Just now, abramovich said:

The only bright side is that Atletico dropped points, too. If we beat Quarabag in the next match, we're guaranteed at least a second place no matter what.

2nd place has been a death sentence the past several years for us in the CL. 

It's still not over however, we are still very much in this, I just can't wait for Kante to be back, I'm begging for no more injuries. 

4 minutes ago, cRyptic said:

We played great in the first half actually, we weren't clinical at all though and we payed for that. Second half was a total disaster. 

I don't think we were great. I think we were better than we were in the second half, with about 20 minutes of attacking purposeful football.

But all night our care of the ball was abysmal. No energy, no passion. Last season we hunted in packs and pressed all over the pitch. Tonight we were so lethargic, lazy and sloppy in possession.

If anything it was a disrespectful perfromance by most of our players against a team who are easily the match of us.

It may only be out by a few degrees, fractions in movement here and there, but when it goes wrong, jesus it looks rancid. An unbelivable amount of missplaced passes

this is how crazy football can be though. roma draw at home to atletico, we go away and dominate them, but then tonight we lose 0-3 to roma. quarbag draw 1-1 with atletico at home, we smashed them 6-0. so random. 

Not really much to say apart from disgusting and shameful performance. 

 alonso and fabregas were both poor today. apart from the two goals vs spurs alonso has been very mediocre this season, and fabregas' passing consistency changes like the wind. 

Edited October 31, 20178 yr by enigma

12 minutes ago, abramovich said:

Has anyone noticed that Cahill played on the right of the back three and Rudiger on the left? What the hell was that? Azpilicueta is useless going forward. The whole backline was shocking. Alonso hasn't had a single good game this season.

Fabregas, when his passing is off, is doing more damage than help. Bakayoko is still too raw and inconsistent and needs time and hard work to become the player he was bought to be. Kante is the only player in our midfield that combines speed, technical ability and intelligence to do what the role entails. I have some hopes for Drinkwater, too.

Hazard was the only bright spot in the first half, but he can't do everything on his own. Morata is still struggling in a lone role and Pedro does a lot of running, but not much else.

If not for Courtois, the score would have been embarrassing.

Conte deserves the blame, no question about it, this was his team out there and they were all over the place.

But more importantly, games like these may prove to be more useful than an odd win. At least it will force the board to realize that they failed to do their job and provide the manager with the backing in the transfer market he'd asked for. This is on them, too.

 

this board did the same bullcarp after our legendary 2012 campaign.... And we became the first ever european champions to be knocked off the UCL in the group stages... These incomptent wnakers should be sacked !!!!,

Tibo talking post match looked like he had been crying 

By the way, what i would give to see Dzeko playing for us at the momnet. Even if Morata is our main striker, we must have a top quality alternative.

2 minutes ago, carrickblue said:

you're really cheering me up Scott 

Sorry, i wish i could say something more encouraging 

5 minutes ago, Zola said:

Cesc was the weak link tonight. Might as well have been walking out there. 

Whats new, he isn't DM and in a 2 man pivot you need a CM that can defend. 

Fabregas and Willian has regressed. Fabregas can't ever play in a 2 man midfield and especially not with Bakayoko.

Willian, I don't know what happened to him but nowadays all he does with the ball is run towards our goal and pass backwards. Any forward passes will be unsuccessful. I can't believe some on here actually wanted him on the field considering his poor form

13 minutes ago, cRyptic said:

We played great in the first half actually, we weren't clinical at all though and we payed for that. Second half was a total disaster. 

Dropped shoulders , fire and will to fightback was missing.

3 minutes ago, Donny Blue said:

Tibo talking post match looked like he had been crying 

He should, considering how poor he (for the 3rd goal) and the rest of the team was

If this continues, we need a squad overhaul, certain players can't be expected to be play regular first team football week in, week out for a team such as ours if they continue to perform like this. 

 

Just now, Deino said:

He should, considering how poor he (for the 3rd goal) and the rest of the team was

Thibaut was probably our best player. 

from the BBC website - I'd say every game is a hard game because we can't play the way we want to with Cesc and Bakayoko in the middle.

 

Thibaut Courtois speaking to BT Sport: "I'm not sure how he scores that screamer but after 50 seconds you are a goal down.

"I shouted 'away' for the second goal but there was a lot of noise in the stadium and Cesar Azpilicueta let the ball go.

"I thought we played well in the first half but in the second half we seemed to drop our fighting spirit and I don't know what happened.

"It is hard to say what the problem is. This season every game is a hard game. We have to find that balance again.

 

 

 

6 minutes ago, carrickblue said:

I know BQ, I think the last time we looked so inept was the 3-0 defeat away to Arsenal last season. Fittingly for Halloween, we provided a horror show tonight.  

Fortunately for me I missed that match. I can take losing but there was just so much wrong tonight. Who actually looked like they were playing at full pace with full commitment? No-one at all. And apparently they couldn't even be bothered to applaud the fans until Dave told them to and even then Will Ped and Batsh*t couldn't bring themselves to go over. Depressing.

Our defence has been a shambles and no backup from our midfield. Losing 6 goals in 2 games to Roma is unacceptable.

3 minutes ago, Deino said:

He should, considering how poor he (for the 3rd goal) and the rest of the team was

To fair I don't think there was much he could do about the third it was hit so hard the speed beat him, and he made a couple of super saves, he was probably our best player and at 3-0 that says a lot. 

10 minutes ago, enigma said:

this is how crazy football can be though. roma draw at home to atletico, we go away and dominate them, but then tonight we lose 0-3 to roma. quarbag draw 1-1 with atletico at home, we smashed them 6-0. so random. 

Which is why we shouldn't overreact too much imo, I can definitely understand the aggression, I'm angry. I'm mostly angry with circumstances which are out of our control however, nothing we can do. 

Conte isn't stupid, he'll know he can't play Fabregas in the midfield anymore and he took Cahill off for an attacker, he knows Cahill is our weakest defender. 

7 minutes ago, Deino said:

Fabregas and Willian has regressed. Fabregas can't ever play in a 2 man midfield and especially not with Bakayoko.

Willian, I don't know what happened to him but nowadays all he does with the ball is run towards our goal and pass backwards. Any forward passes will be unsuccessful. I can't believe some on here actually wanted him on the field considering his poor form

Agreed. To me Willian loos like he is just playing a Five-0 with aimless dribbles around players and chops only to either lose the ball or end up back where he started. My overriding thought whenever i watch him play is....Why??

35 minutes ago, The Don Antonio said:

OMG OMG OMG.. QARABAG GAME IS OVER f**k YEAAAAHHHHHH.. THEY ACTUAKLLY TIEED.  f**k yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa..

 

THIS IS SPAAAAARTAAAN. I AM ACTUALLY BUZZING.....  GOTTA FIX THIS TEAM ASAP. CAHILL AND FAB HAVE PASSED THEIR SELL BY DATE

I'm sorry to say that this result was all too predictable given the team Conte selected...playing Febregas without two defensive midfielders surrounding him was borderline madness...I get a sense that Conte had written this game off and was really concentrating on the United game at the weekend...