I really enjoy watching us pass out from the back, but there are definitely occasions when some players get nervy and boot the ball up the field. I think Moses, Alonso and Cahill can all improve on this aspect our their play. Courtois i feel is definitely improving in that area considering up until last season he was playing under coaches, for teams who play a style of football which is similar and tended to require the long ball up to the target man for the most part. Pep Guardiola did mention when he spoke about playing the ball out how it can be risky as if you're pressed and misplace a pass, it gives the opponent the chance to capitalise. He also mentioned he doesn't like his defenders to hoof the ball up the field as it gives the opposition more chance of regaining possession. I agree with him on all this and do like seeing us play it out from the back, but still feel we can improve more on this. 

How do you feel about playing it out from the back?

Do you agree with it? 

Also, your general thoughts on possession play in general, do you think we need a couple more technical players to achieve a similar style of play to city?

Would you even want to play like city or improve our style much, if at all? 

Edited December 3, 20178 yr by enigma

I think we are fine until we slow down. We allow teams to close us down and then we panic and make a mistake. I don't know if it's because the midfielders aren't making the right movements or the defenders just aren't comfortable playing out from the back, but i think it's definitely a big weakness of ours. It's not just the likes Cahill that is struggling either, even the better ball players suffer too.

I think it's a problem with how we play as a team at times. We rarely start games at a good tempo, that continues throughout the game and results in this slow ball playing from the back. When we are moving the ball quickly, it's not an issue.

My view on playing out from the back is you need your players to be aware and looking out for each other as well as being comfortable on the ball. Not talking just about the defenders yet also the central and defensive midfielders to give the defenders an outlet. 

When done well we keep possession from deep all the way to attack, when we lump it up it's a lottery if we'll keep possession, Morata is good in the air but his hold up play is a bit mixed at the moment.
Against United he was perfect but most times the ball gets kicked from him and he falls over, he's no Drogba but hopefully he'll get better and play like he did against United more often.

I think we should continue to play out of the back as it has served us well and we do have the personnel for it, but when there are warning signs we should just kick it away, there were quite a few games where we persisted with it despite not being able to withstand the high press and got punished.

Another thing about lumping it forward is we should do it wide towards Alonso like we were doing last season, for some reason we stopped doing it but in my memory he used to win headers 90% of the time and finds another team mate with it.

All I see Chelsea do is try and pass it around at the back, nearly give it away and then smash it up field anyway. 

8 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

I think we are fine until we slow down. We allow teams to close us down and then we panic and make a mistake. I don't know if it's because the midfielders aren't making the right movements or the defenders just aren't comfortable playing out from the back, but i think it's definitely a big weakness of ours. It's not just the likes Cahill that is struggling either, even the better ball players suffer too.

I think it's a problem with how we play as a team at times. We rarely start games at a good tempo, that continues throughout the game and results in this slow ball playing from the back. When we are moving the ball quickly, it's not an issue.

We can't get a full picture of the pitch when we're watching on TV but that might be a problem, our defenders are certainly able and comfortable to play short or medium ground passes to midfield when there is no danger of interception, but it looks like sometimes they look up and everyone is marked or a pass is too risky so the defenders pass it between themselves to buy time and let the midfielders and forwards move around but before they know it the opposition is sprinting to close down and they have to make a quick decision which can lead to a mistake.

I don't know if it's a pride thing but there were points where some defenders just didn't want to pass it back to the goalie or lump it up, it always makes me nervous seeing Luiz or Cahill trying to shift the ball past the oncoming forward as the last defender.

It's a good tactic to negate high presses and as a way for us to dominate possession but playing this style needs extensive hours of training and drills on movement. It's really hard work and takes a lot of skill from everyone including the keeper because the passes need to be quick, clean and sharp and everyone needs to offer themselves as an outlet depending on the opposition's movement.

What we usually do is playing around with sideways passes before Thibaut punts it upfield. Conte could take a leaf out of Pep's book in possession play just as Pep did from Conte.

It's fine as long as the players recognise when it's appropriate and when it's not, and not just force it all the time. 

I hate when we do it, absolutely hate it. We have great defenders but they aren't great with the ball at their feet so I would much rather relieve ourselves of the pressure by knocking it up to Morata and hopefully we'll win a flick on or the second ball. It's definitely an Italian aspect of the game that Conte is trying to implement because I was watching Napoli-Juventus on Friday and they passed the ball out from the back almost every single time; punting the ball up the field was only an option when there was literally no possible way of getting the ball up the field on the ground. Vividly remember under Mourinho how Courtois used to lump the ball high up into the right hand side of the pitch where Ivanovic would try and win the header, just a personal thing but I much prefer that than nervously watching us try and pass the ball out while the crowd get uneasy and we eventually lump it out for a throw in.

I don't mind us playing out from the back when there is little pressure, but I doubt we will ever be good at it with our current defence/goalkeeper, only Christensen is good at it. It dosen't help that Kante, Bakayoko and drinkwater have a mediocre possesion game either. 

I personally hate it when the ball goes back to Courtois, he is close to the goal line and he sweeps it on to his weaker right foot. Makes me nervous every single time.

On 12/4/2017 at 10:23, drjonesy1994 said:

I personally hate it when the ball goes back to Courtois, he is close to the goal line and he sweeps it on to his weaker right foot. Makes me nervous every single time.

I remember in the past that players were told to never play it back to the goalkeeper if the goal is directly behind them. Play it away from the goal so that if the goalkeeper messes up his touch, it will go out for a corner rather than into the back of the net.

We just look so nervous playing it around the back, you can see the lack of confidence when we attempt it. I'm nervous watching it too.

Most of them are good ball players, but they all lack the confidence when put under pressure. They seem reluctant to attempt to pass through a gap out of fear of passing it straight to the opposition attacker.

Edited December 5, 20178 yr by Scott Harris