Norwich Vs Chelsea (FA) Sat Jan 6th 2018 17:30 UK

[sabin6912]

Sometimes I wish I was less arsed so I wouldn’t have to sit through such dismal performances. We never even looked like scoring.

[Scott Harris]

2 minutes ago, Spiller86 said:

Totally agree. He was being asked to play a different role at Monaco. Protect the back 4 and let Fabinho get forward. He is actually being asked to contribute offensively with us and he just doesn't have it (yet??).  

If we may criticise Batshuayi for his lack of movement today he received next to no service. That was more than a little down to Bakayoko and Drinkwater being hopeless in midfield. 

This is a guy on the loan train for me come the end of the year. Be very careful buying players from France on big money on the back of one season.

This is a squad that still needs major work. A glimmer of hope provided by the injection of energy from the young lads Musonda and Sterling at the end. 

 

 

It's the same with Lemar too. One decent season and there is talk about a big move coming in for him already. Arsenal tried to sign him and there is talk of us and Liverpool being interested. I don't want us to go anywhere near him though, he is having a poor season this season just like Bakayoko is.

[Sexyfootball]

I'm starting to think a few of our recent signings were simply an unwitting part of some elaborate money laundering scheme ... can we have a full refund, and RLC, Chalobah and Ake back please ?

[Zeta]

From the front back:

Batshayui - 3/10 - Poor, his movement was non-existant and didn't put himself about. He can't complain about not getting changes with performances like that. HOWEVER, Morata also did nothing when he was on, as the service to both of them was very poor.

Willian - 5.5/10 - A few decent runs and shots, but overall his usual frustrating self. Too many attempts to run across the pitch, instead of releasing the ball.

Pedro - 5/10 - I'd let him go in the summer. He pops up with the occasional goal, but his overall game is below standard.

Zappacosta - 6/10 - Did all right. One of the few really trying to win it late on so I'll give him credit for that, and he's energetic. But f**k me he can't cross to save his life.

Drinkwater - 6/10 - Quite a few misplaced passes. Showed why for a top side he would only ever really be a squad/backup player.

Bakayoko - 4/10 - I'll be visiting the Bakayoko thread shortly.

Kenedy - 4/10 - Why is he still here? He's no good. He gets about 5 appearances a season in the early cup games and he never even really does much in those. Please just get rid of him, he's such a waste of a squad place.

Cahill - 6/10 - I don't really remember him doing much of anything

Luiz - 4/10 - Back to his old self in the first half. 

Rudiger - 6.5/10 - Reasonably solid, though a few moments where he was beaten down the Norwich left.

Cabellero - 4.5/10 - Didn't think it was possible for a keeper who literally had no saves to make to get below a 5, but that punch from the corner was dreadful so I'm docking half a point.

 

Subs:

Morata - 6/10 - Didn't get involved much
Musonda - 6/10 - Awful shot at the end, but at least he was trying
Sterling - Not on long enough to rate, but I'd have had him starting over Kenedy

 

Conte - 4/10 - Poor selection. Poor motivation in the first half. Obviously got them going at bit at HT, but waited far too long to change things. The amount of changes and the 1 senior player on the bench leads me to believe he thought this was going to be much easier than it was, which is on him for not giving them enough credit.

 

[enigma]

these games happen. i find it quite bemusing that premier league sides (and the fans) are arrogant enough to think going away to a championship side, who will be hungry to win, will be a simple task and that it's a guaranteed win. 

[strider6004]

5 minutes ago, Nibs said:

The Final is Early?!!!

Yep, I posed too quickly yet am pretty sure this is not the first time under Antonio that he has replaced too many first XI players that have cost us.

We are in danger of becoming the new Arsenal all about methodology rather than results. 

[dan_cfc]

1 minute ago, enigma said:

these games happen. i find it quite bemusing that premier league sides (and the fans) are arrogant enough to think going away to a championship side, who will be hungry to win, will be a simple task and that it's a guaranteed win. 

Wasn't expecting it to be an easy win but you expect a certain level of commitment and desire which the players showed none of today.

[Deino]

3 minutes ago, enigma said:

these games happen. i find it quite bemusing that premier league sides (and the fans) are arrogant enough to think going away to a championship side, who will be hungry to win, will be a simple task and that it's a guaranteed win. 

The thing is, neither side showed hunger to win. Norwich players were auditioning with idiotic tricks and flicks and our players looked like they couldn't care less until the final 10 minutes

[charierre]

@Zeta  think you've been a bit kind to a few of those.

 

This is the result of not upgrading the first eleven in 3 years. If you continually buy players that are at best like for like or of lower quality, guess we're you end up? Lesson to the board.

Edited January 6, 2018 by charierre

[Nibs]

3 minutes ago, Strider6003 said:

Yep, I posed too quickly yet am pretty sure this is not the first time under Antonio that he has replaced too many first XI players that have cost us.

We are in danger of becoming the new Arsenal all about methodology rather than results. 

Sure you're not getting mixed up with Jose when he played a weakened side and Bradford dumped us out of the cup at The Bridge 4-2?

[enigma]

Just now, dan_cfc said:

Wasn't expecting it to be an easy win but you expect a certain level of commitment and desire which the players showed none of today.

these games happen. we can't act like these results don't and haven't happened in previous seasons. the players tonight had a poor night, but equally norwich played and defended well. the team now has a chance to right their wrongs in the return game. 

[Kev56]

6 minutes ago, enigma said:

these games happen. i find it quite bemusing that premier league sides (and the fans) are arrogant enough to think going away to a championship side, who will be hungry to win, will be a simple task and that it's a guaranteed win. 

Nothing to with arrogance or expectation, people / fans on here are rightly pissed off with the players piss poor performance and attitude.

[charierre]

Conte just called Jose a little man. I'd have called him a little c**t.

 

[Kev56]

3 minutes ago, charierre said:

@Zeta  think you've been a bit kind to a few of those.

 

This is the result of not upgrading the first eleven in 3 years. If you continually buy players that are at best like for like or of lower quality, guess we're you end up? Lesson to the board.

Unfortunately it seems the board skip these sort of lessons.

[Kev56]

1 minute ago, charierre said:

Conte just called Jose a little man. I'd have called him a little c**t.

 

?

[enigma]

2 minutes ago, charierre said:

@Zeta  think you've been a bit kind to a few of those.

 

This is the result of not upgrading the first eleven in 3 years. If you continually buy players that are at best like for like or of lower quality, guess we're you end up? Lesson to the board.

we won the league last season and we sit in 3rd place one point behind man utd. we are also in all four competitions still. there is always a huge overreaction after a less than desirable result. quite honestly, i am more concerned about our league form, which at the moment is as good as can be. i have never been that fond of cup games, apart from the european cup. it's nice to win obviously, but the league is far more important. 

[charierre]

@Kev56  BT asked about the war of words

[Munkunku]

Just now, enigma said:

we won the league last season and we sit in 3rd place one point behind man utd. we are also in all four competitions still. there is always a huge overreaction after a less than desirable result. quite honestly, i am more concerned about our league form, which at the moment is as good as can be. i have never been that fond of cup games, apart from the european cup. it's nice to win obviously, but the league is far more important. 

3 competitions. I don’t think anyone expects us to pip City now! 

[Richard P]

BT now going to discuss Bats and Bakayoko for an hour!,

[EdinburghBlue]

31 minutes ago, yorkleyblue said:

Aww bless.  A shot that injures the scorer doesn't really put the player in a good light, technique-wise, and a goal in a pre-season friendly is just that.  But bless you for trying.

Not sure why you’ve got an attitude, you asked for one thing that hinted at his potential, that did. The injury was caused by contact with another player as I recall so had the square route of hee-haw to do with technique.

[charierre]

1 minute ago, enigma said:

we won the league last season and we sit in 3rd place one point behind man utd. we are also in all four competitions still. there is always a huge overreaction after a less than desirable result. quite honestly, i am more concerned about our league form, which at the moment is as good as can be. i have never been that fond of cup games, apart from the european cup. it's nice to win obviously, but the league is far more important. 

We have a good first eleven but a poor squad.History tells  us teams who don't strengthen end up not staying at the top. As for the cup ,I like many love the FA Cup, the moment we decide if isn't worth bothering about is a sad day for football.

 

 

[Deino]

We don't have to gut the entire squad but our subs needs to be better than what they are showing us today.

Can they get better? Possibly, but those opportunities need to be fought for and when they do come, fight like hell and show how good you can be. Today was piss poor. It's not like the fans love the negativity either.

[TheBluesBrother]

6 minutes ago, enigma said:

we won the league last season and we sit in 3rd place one point behind man utd. we are also in all four competitions still. there is always a huge overreaction after a less than desirable result. quite honestly, i am more concerned about our league form, which at the moment is as good as can be. i have never been that fond of cup games, apart from the european cup. it's nice to win obviously, but the league is far more important. 

Not reallu. Our squad is too weak as was shown today. Man City have an excellent squad and we are sadly lacking. Investment is needed a.s.a.p.Conte isn't happy with the squad he has and he's right. Apart from the first team we are poor. Arsenal and Man Utd have better squads than us. The boards decision to not spend money on top players and buying crap, is coming home to roost.

[Spiller86]

27 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

It's the same with Lemar too. One decent season and there is talk about a big move coming in for him already. Arsenal tried to sign him and there is talk of us and Liverpool being interested. I don't want us to go anywhere near him though, he is having a poor season this season just like Bakayoko is.

Spot on. Emenalo had some great signings but he missed the mark on a lot too.

[abramovich]

I think it was the case of too many changes at once. I can understand Conte wanting to give his key players some rest but this time it worked against him. 

If anything, this is just another reminder of how thin our current squad is in terms of individual quality. It made sense that the players lacked understanding but given the opposition you'd expect a few moments of brilliance to decide the game in our favor. Problem is, with the exception of maybe Willian, no Chelsea player looked a level above their opponents today. I don't know how many misplaced passes there were today, but there must have been a new record.

There's a bunch of players that aren't CFC level and shouldn't be anywhere near the club. Kenedy and Batshuayi have no future here. Bakayoko signing remains a mystery. I remember saying he seemed very raw to me when were linked to him back in his Monaco days. Well, he's still very raw and I'm not sure how much improvement can he possibly accomplish because the distance between what he is now and what we need is huge. The guy is too static, technically poor, awkward, indecisive, is never in the right place and makes too many wrong decisions. I just struggle to see what was it that Emenalo (or whoever else that singled him out) saw in him that made him our transfer target.

 

Edited January 6, 2018 by abramovich