The one thing I'd have to add is that Conte wanted Sandro.

Better quality on the flanks pace and delivery, incisiveness wise.

And he wanted a Llorente type striker (even Benteke was rumoured)... Which means he wanted a target man / legit  aerial threat of a striker... Someone like that would have come on handy In a situation like this. 

 

In fact, those two were probably the most heavily recurring rumours which didn't materialise. 

Hopefully this result will price a point to the board that the squad is lacking in  those key players.

And Zappacosta seems like a decent guy, but let's be honest, he's making Ivanovic look like the Messi of right backs with his attacking 'quality'.

 

I thought we played well and see it as just one of those days when the ball just won't go in. 25 shots, 8 on target, a double goal line clearance - in normal circumstances we would have scored. Having said that we seemed to run out of ideas on how to get around the bus and became predictable when the pace dropped. Scoring goals is our problem this season, already we've had five scoreless games, two more than the whole of last season.

 

7 minutes ago, Womble said:

Because he's an old school English manager..."they don't like it up 'em Captain Manering...' 

Or is it because he's fergie's mate

14 minutes ago, Zeta said:

Problem is this false 9 thing worked quite well that one time against Bournemouth (?), so now it's been overrated in Conte's mind as an option.

This is the 1st game we haven't won when playing a false 9, and 4 out of the other 5 wins we scored 12 and conceded 1. 

 

7 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

They haven't struggled like that though. In those games, they were creating tons of chances, just not finishing them off until the last minute. City score a lot, but they miss a lot of easy chances too. We struggle to create attacks consistently. None of our chances created look clean, we need a lot of bounces to go our way.

fair enough, i never saw the game. this is certainly a game where fabregas needs to play. against teams who come out to play he's less needed, but against packed defences he needs to be in there. this result should fall on conte's shoulders in that case.

Unlucky today I thought on another day we score 3 of those chances.. Fat Sam needs to give his head a wobble getting his teams playing his dinosaur tactics in this day and age is pathetic.

I was watching thinking about which other sides in the Premier League could actually have broken down Everton today? We didn't play particularly badly, so the answer is not many, the only ones definitely springing to mind being Manchester City where De Bruyne, Silva, Sterling et al would have overloaded them with incisive passes and nimble footwork, maybe the likes of Pogba/Myhtyarian/Martial doing the same for Manchester United. You'd think Liverpool would be in the same bracket but they didn't exactly scorch them at Anfield a few weeks back.

Asides from Fabregas and Hazard however I'm not sure we actually have anyone at all that is of the ilk to make headway against Everton, and obviously we therefore have nowhere near enough of these kinds of players.

 

Mahrez in January is an absolute MUST.

The whole Batman stand off is a big problem for us.

 Clearly conte does not rate nor trust him to replace morata. So much so hazard is asked to play as main striker and sacrifice his best role imo, as a second striker in a free role to move freely. Given the space when a main striker pushes back the defense.

But the board bought him for a decent sum and seem to be like "if your such a good manager make use of him so we don't need to loan him out and spend more" while conte is basically willing to shoehorn poor options in rather than use the guy in anything other than the league cup. For all Willians running his final product is too poor to be anything more than a back up. Pedro also makes the wrong choice too often.

Batman probably has not confidence knowing his manager does not trust him. Morata is hardly in amazing form either so leaves us between a rock and a hard place. If Pedro, willian and co were pulling up trees fair enough but they are not.

For all those expecting a good january I think you will be disappointed. We normally don't do much dealing then. Bar our loan army.

Talk of sandro and mahrez is fantasy to say the least.

It is the type of match when often a set piece will settle it, like a corner or free-kick.

Interestingly a fit Luiz coming forward with one of his wonder strikes might have been useful.

Could have easily nicked a goal or two today but we were a bit too predictable and it is worrying how we are struggling to score.

Teams are finding it too easy to keep clean sheets against us and yet conceding for fun in other games. Wasted a sub putting Zapopercosta on - would have given young Hudson-Odoi 15 minutes.

This was a 0-0 thrashing.

Everton could have pinched it, cheeky !

We deserved it. But when Williams hit his own crossbar, you knew we were not winning today.

Just the runners up medal to play for in the league now, can't say we didn't put the effort in. Its always difficult when you run into a brick wall and the opposing team has no intent on doing anything except play for a draw and frustrate the team with the talent; lets hope Leicester can do us a favor later today.  Arsenal and Liverpool didn't gain any points on us, Spuds looking at beating Burnley on a dive, so 6 pts and even a point at the Emirates won't be a bad Xmas period..........will it? 

do we ever score from corners

Disappointing result given the performance and domination. However I would say a point away at a resurgent Everton isn’t a bad point. Yes it’s frustrating we didn’t win but I don’t think many teams will win there under Big Sam. 

Now that Utd have drawn too, it's not been a bad 24 hours for us in race for top four finish...of the four teams we're competing against, only Spurs won and they were the furthest behind...no matter how sh*te Everton are, we have ticked off one of the tough away trips with no damage really done...today was frustrating but not a disaster

Said it before and I’ll say it again, we’re not lethal enough going forward.

We need Mahrez, we need a back-up striker. The board failed abysmally when they failed to sign Llorente, a player our manager wanted. Our board also failed abysmally in the WB department. We have good WBs in Alonso and Moses but Conte wanted both upgraded. Instead, for the second season running, they have absolutely no competition. If I were Hazard I'd want to leave. He needs more quality around him. We're completely reliant upon him going forward. Pedro and Willian are good players but they're nowhere near the level of Liverpool's attackers, City's attackers, even Arsenal's attackers. As EdinburghBlue says above me, we just don't have enough going forward. Forget Christmas, soon we'll be playing Barca over two legs, City and United away, Arsenal over two legs, Arsenal away in the league and possibly a Carabao Cup Final, all in the space of a few weeks. It's all going to go badly wrong and we've put ourselves in a position where we absolutely have to buy this winter. Our failings in the summer window are really coming home to roost.

Yeah hazard is so far ahead of every single one of his team mates, bar Kante, it is unreal. He does deserve far better than this team.

10 hours ago, Scott said:

Sorry just rolled out of bed.

Come on Chelsea!

Should have slept in.

8 hours ago, Londonisblue said:

to those complaining about Bats .... WHAT ABOUT PEDRO AND WILLIAN BEING IN THE STARTING TEAM AND BEING UTTERLY DROSS!!!!! Bats should have started and then this game would have been a guaranteed three points... But hey, Willian hates tottenham so he could get a pass even if he's been bad for the last 2 months !!!

2 months, at least 2 years lol. Everyone loves moaning about Bats without using any common sense, if he got the belief of his manager and the chances like Pedro and William do then the same people might have a point.

27 minutes ago, axman2526 said:

Yeah hazard is so far ahead of every single one of his team mates, bar Kante, it is unreal. He does deserve far better than this team.

I know its bad but i was thinking the same, i was watching the El Clasico at the same time and seeing Hazard drifting past players and thinking he could play in both teams. Imagine Hazard playing with Suarez, Iniesta, Messi, Busquets and Rakitic, its just wow.

3 hours ago, gazza said:

do we ever score from corners

I hate short corners 

3 hours ago, Ernie_blue said:

I know its bad but i was thinking the same, i was watching the El Clasico at the same time and seeing Hazard drifting past players and thinking he could play in both teams. Imagine Hazard playing with Suarez, Iniesta, Messi, Busquets and Rakitic, its just wow.

Is he the eventual successor to messi? 

Obviously we value our team more than other teams but hazard now is like Zola then. In his pomp that man was as great, if not better, than cantona or bergkamp  but he did not have the team around him to achieve all he could.

Hazard could go the same way if we don't sort ourselves out.

We would be 7th in the league based on goals scored but equal second on goals against despite some stupid mistakes. 

We really have wasted enormous attacking resources in the past few years, de bruyne, Salah, cuadrado, mata and then failed abysmally to replace them, particularly this season. 

The second time we play false 9 against good team - second disappointment. Keep ignoring Bats..

Zapacosta for Moses was the most ridiculous subs I've seen from Antonio.It was THAT bad. 

Edited December 24, 20178 yr by Pendergast