1 minute ago, the special one said:

Clearly at fault for Barca's 2nd, yes Christensen could perhaps have bailed him out with a technical foul against Messi but it was Cesc's inability to control the ball (under no pressure) from Christensen that led to the situation in the first place.

Spot on.  It's not like he relies on pace and has lost it, as that can never be recovered, but vision and passing stays with you until the end - Pirlo being testament to that.  So I don't understand how he is unable to pick out those passes that we bought him for.  Before the second goal he got the ball just outside the halfway line with moses in acres of space to the right, yet passed it back.  Absolutely baffling. 

I know what Conte was saying to Messi at the end.

"I'm leaving this bunch of misfits for PSG in the summer, fancy playing in Paris with Neymar?"

2 minutes ago, big blue said:

By the letter of the law maybe you could argue it was a foul, but what is given as a foul outside the box, rightly or wrongly, isn't necessary enough to be given a pen. 

I'm not sure if I remember the Willian one, but wasn't it more of cynical pull back to stop them breaking? 

@coco Its hard to say whether messi would've gotten that decision with this ref, who didn't really pander to the crowd tonight. 

We've been absolutely robbed on many occasions, especially in Europe, but tonight wasn't one them occasions. 

Re; the Willian one - it was just at the left hand corner of there box, it might not have been Willian or Umtiti - I’m just going off who I think it was. 

 

I think what what makes it harder to take for me is the fact you seen Kane gets these every other week on MOTM. Someone breathes on his arm as he goes by them - he’s falls down & gets the pen!

Fair result. We’re pretty sh*t - they’re not. Roll on next season when the board treat us to Moyes or Pardew. Maybe we’ll have Glenn Murray up front. 

 

41 minutes ago, bluedave said:

 

You missed all those times we hit the woodwork then?

 

Not aimed at you particularly but, I've read this woodwork thing so much in this thread and yet at the end of the day, the woodwork is a miss as much as hitting the corner flag. I appreciate it looks and sounds good, but the goalkeeper might as well have popped to the toilet as he didn't need to save it.

I was unable to watch this tonight but wasn't fussed as it was all so inevitable. If we'd gone through it would have been miraculous. We're not sh*t by any stretch of the imagination but, we've clearly fallen a couple rungs or three from the top of the ladder.

Perhaps replacing your 20 million pound Xmas panic buy Arsenal second string striker with your 75 million pound Real & Juventus substitute striker when the game is already over suggests something isn't very 24 million pound up and coming goalscoring machine Drogba any more.

I've been willian's biggest critic for a few seasons but I'm eating humble pie tonight. Some of those surges with the ball are phenomenal and it clearly means a lot to him to wear the badge. Im sure Barcelona would have taken notice of his performances...

Possible difficult times ahead for us. Likely to miss out on top 4 this season, and next year will be no guarantee. Purse strings will be kept tight due to the new stadium, and our clubs revenue doesn't give us any advantage in transfers over arsenal or liverpool, and leaves us considerably behind united and city.

Our management and transfers which was previously our strength has become our weakness, with poor dressing room management and awful transfer policy.

The good news is that it should be easier for youth to get through. Would love to see loftus cheek, mount and hudson-odoi playing regularly in a year or two.

Exciting times ahead.

2 minutes ago, ivorycoast said:

Possible difficult times ahead for us. Likely to miss out on top 4 this season, and next year will be no guarantee. Purse strings will be kept tight due to the new stadium, and our clubs revenue doesn't give us any advantage in transfers over arsenal or liverpool, and leaves us considerably behind united and city.

Our management and transfers which was previously our strength has become our weakness, with poor dressing room management and awful transfer policy.

The good news is that it should be easier for youth to get through. Would love to see loftus cheek, mount and hudson-odoi playing regularly in a year or two.

Exciting times ahead.

38 minutes ago, southlondonblue said:

His fault, should have done better then bizarrely admitted shots between his legs are a weakness

I have been saying this for a while now. I'm sure i am going to get caned for this but I really don't rate him technically as a keeper and never have done. He has always been susceptible to low balls particularly near his body. I don't know if its the international volleyball from his parents but he has always dived upwards and does not collapse his legs.

This problem of his occurred again for the first goal. Came too far past the post and gave Messi the only option available. Because of this his natural gait and starting position is all wrong. He crouches with his hands too low so that when the second shot is hit (rapidly, granted) within his reach his hands are in the wrong starting position and therefore he is having to make a recovering dive upwards for the ball, whcih he duly fcks up.

The third goal, same old story.

Throw in a Christensen mistake in the first game, a Fabregas cock up and a Dave error is it any wonder that we crash out of the competition. Anyway let's not any of this prevent Hoddle, Lineker and the rest sucking Messi off for every touch, pass and movement.

40 minutes ago, Fendieta said:

Spot on.  It's not like he relies on pace and has lost it, as that can never be recovered, but vision and passing stays with you until the end - Pirlo being testament to that.  So I don't understand how he is unable to pick out those passes that we bought him for.  Before the second goal he got the ball just outside the halfway line with moses in acres of space to the right, yet passed it back.  Absolutely baffling. 

I have found the problem that you may have overlooked. I've highlighted it for you!

We used to have men, now we have boys.

 

6 years ago we were played off the park by Barca but we came back from 2-0 down with 10 men at their place to draw. That's because we had men.

 

We played well today, didn't get the breaks, but football is about winning, and too many times this season we've seen we're brittle. That's because we have boys.

 

Courtois is not a man. He's a little boy. Go away and sign for Real. We won't miss your bleating.

 

Morata? Can we swap him for Andy Carroll? Will anybody be stupid enough to take him?

 

Fabregas? Not a man, really is he? A far better natural footballer than Lampard but Lampard was a man. Etc etc.

 

Willian and Kante deserve a lot of credit. Hazard was quiet unfortunately. The best thing we can say about Giroud is that he's not Morata. Mind you, that's the best thing you can say about anybody. I thought Giroud did quite well, but he's not a man. Didier Drogba was a man.

 

Our WBs aren't good enough. They're good, but not good enough. They're not men. Ashley Cole was a man. Ivanovic, now there was a man. 

 

I think we need to sign some men, and start playing Ampadu. Ampadu's a man even though he's a boy. I hope you follow.

4 minutes ago, WhiteWall said:

I have found the problem that you may have overlooked. I've highlighted it for you!

Based on today's performance - Cesc was a bigger pain than Moses, Moses atleast put a shift. Moses never put his own defense in danger.

I made my first post on here after the City game a few weeks back and was heavily critical regarding our desire and attitude towards that game, going as far as to say it was the worse I had seen. Tonight was a million miles from that,i thought we played without fear and intimidation and deserved a lot more than we got.

Poor goalkeeping, and a mistake cost us dearly as it did in the first leg, I thought our approach play was excellent, but as all season, we've got no striker or focal point to finish off our smart play. Hazard awol again when it really matters and the sooner we get a creative midfielder to replace Fabragas the better. Kante and Willian both outstanding.

I don't like losing, but when we perform like we did tonight its a whole lot easier to swallow.

I appreciate that comment, Osgoodwasgood.

Bad

Courtois - Worst performance he's ever had in a Chelsea shirt

Moses - Awful, needs to be replaces ASAP

Fabregas - Hopelessly past it

Hazard - Did he get replaced by a sh*te clone after 10 minutes?

Dave - One of the worst performances he's had for us

 

Good

Kante - Fantastic, if only he could pass he would be the best CM in the world.

Alonso - Worked hard, got in to some decent positions but still slow and not a great defender.

Willian - Phenomenal 

My Thoughts on this game:

+ Did we just play a good spell of attacking and possession football against Barcelona ? Everyone where saying we could not do that we can only play negative football. Wow! If we can get an offensive minded coach and tweak our squad just a little bit, we can play some fun football.

+ Based on our display vs Barcelona i am absolutely confident that we have the squad to get us into the top 4 with the rest of the games underway. The only thing that remains to be seen is if we bring this intensity into everygame. 

+ All the goals scored against us was due to individual pieces of errors. Cut the errors and we would have had a game that goes to penalty.

+ Replacing Giroud with Moratta effectively ended our possession spell. Morata experiment needs to be ended. 

+ Cesc - he needs to go. I have been a staunch supporter of him so here i am eating my own words. For his salary it is not fair to have him be a squad player - he better contribute or take a pay cut. He seems to struggle to keep possession of the ball when threatened and struggles to track back against moderately pacy players and cant win balls against moderately physical players. He is a spent force. 

+ Courtouis - A horrible performance today. And it is not just today, he has been letting in goals more frequently now. I know he can still get better but no way will i feel terrible if he leaves.

+ Overall Squad - The first thing we all would have noticed when we saw the bench was damn - if things get difficult we have no game changer. For all the money spent we are a team of average players - quantity over quality and the big money signings so far have not worked at all. Can anyone name me one player who we bought this year that has clicked ?  We need to fire some scouts.

 

1 hour ago, Zeta said:

Player Ratings

Courtois - 2/10 - Poor for all 3 goals. Passed the ball straight to Suarez to try and get help them out even more. Looked like conceding at every shot.
Rudiger - 6.5/10 - Fairly solid, though he gave away a lot of fouls going for headers and it was his position where Dembele ran in for the 2nd
Christensen - 5.5/10 - Looked a bit shaky on the ball and missed the key challenge for the 2nd goal
Azpilicueta - 6.5/10 - Showed leadership, but again he missed a key tackle with the 2nd goal and - though it was a shocking pass from Courtois - was caught on his heels by Suarez
Alonso - 7.5/10 - Caused them problems down the left and should have got the ball out there more toward the end instead of giving it to Moses and Zappacosta, but he was probably knackered
Kante - 8/10 - Not great first half, but he was basically playing midfield by himself against 2 midfielders and Messi dropping deep, and he still managed to win the ball back and bring it forward many times
Fabregas - 3/10 - Awful, awful passing. Slow, lethergic. Should be a bench player, but we've got f**k all options this season. Bakayoko, Drinkwater and Barkley are hardly world class.
Moses - 4/10 - Terrible crosses, as per every game. Completely done by the run for the 3rd goal.
Hazard - 5/10 - A few good runs, but went missing for large parts of the game. Aimless flicks for the cameras going nowhere. Needed to stand up and be counted and he didn't.
Giroud - 5.5/10 - Won a few headers, didn't really do much else
Willian - 8/10 - Everything good we did came through him

Subs:

Zappacosta - 6/10 - Should have started over Moses probably
Morata - 5/10 - Didn't really do anything
Pedro - N/A

Antonio Conte - 5/10 - Could he have started Zappacosta? Could he have put someone else in instead of Fabregas? He can't legislate for individual mistakes or horrendous goalkeeping, but I still feel he could have done better, if he's this so-called tactical genius that people seem to think he is.
 

5 for Morata ? Whats with the generosity ? 

1 hour ago, Snedger said:

Not aimed at you particularly but, I've read this woodwork thing so much in this thread and yet at the end of the day, the woodwork is a miss as much as hitting the corner flag. I appreciate it looks and sounds good, but the goalkeeper might as well have popped to the toilet as he didn't need to save it.

 

Gary Lineker once said he used to try and aim his shots at the post, then if you are lucky they go in, if not they don't, that way the goalkeeper usually has no say if it goes in or out. 

Just hope after all the dust has settled Conte is gone, Hazard stays and the likes of Hodson Odoi, RLC and Mason Mount get their chance in this squad...

7 hours ago, Osgoodwasgood said:

I made my first post on here after the City game a few weeks back and was heavily critical regarding our desire and attitude towards that game, going as far as to say it was the worse I had seen. Tonight was a million miles from that,i thought we played without fear and intimidation and deserved a lot more than we got.

Poor goalkeeping, and a mistake cost us dearly as it did in the first leg, I thought our approach play was excellent, but as all season, we've got no striker or focal point to finish off our smart play. Hazard awol again when it really matters and the sooner we get a creative midfielder to replace Fabragas the better. Kante and Willian both outstanding.

I don't like losing, but when we perform like we did tonight its a whole lot easier to swallow.

Almost exactly what I wanted to say.

Kante & Willian were fantastic last night. Rudiger was also great in defence. And that's it! Courtois is an atrocious goalkeeper who lets in far more than he saves. Moses can run and run and run............. Giroud and Morata can f**k off to the Championship were they might get a game. And as for Hazard! For a supposed "World Class Player", the guy needs to step up once in a while and show it!

 

Go for the FA Cup now and play some of the youth in the league. Look forward to the World Cup and then next season we start again! (Almost typed "We go again", but that sounded to slippy!) 

The only positive I can take from last night is that maybe Hazard realised he's not quite 'there' to play for the likes of a Barca/Real and signs that new contract and sticks with us.

I think everyone is pretty clear on our players we can rely on, One hell of a rebuilding task for the new season.

Willian should be offered a new contract to end the Man U speculation. If we sell him we're in for a world of hurt.

Edited March 15, 20188 yr by Luca Vialli

Despite the result I'm proud that we didn't just sit back, we took the game to Barca went foward and tired to create. We just weren't clinical enough in the final third, that coupled with individual errors cost us but we gave a good account of ourselves. This can still turn into a good season if we make top 4 and win the FA cup. We still have something to play for, it's not beyond our reach. 

Something else I want to bring up about last night as well. How often Barca players cheat and get away with it! It's hugely frustrating and nobody does a thing about it. f**king UEFA probably laughing away watching Messi fall over clasping his face and Rudiger brushed passed him! I can see it now:

UEFA Top Dog 1: "Ha ha, Messi does it again, I don't think he was even touched that time!"

UEFA Top Dog 2: "Yes it's all going to plan, the Refs bonus is getting bigger and bigger for this match"

UEFA Top Dog 1: "I told him I would double it if he denied the enemies of football a stonewall penalty too! I think I'll treble it now!"

Edited March 15, 20188 yr by Old Shaggy

 
 
Are you confident that if it was Messi who got pulled back in our penalty area that it would NOT be given ?

I wouldn't be but that's another issue - in that case it would be the wrong decision.

For me the criteria for whether or not something is a foul is not 'would a random football fan watching on TV believe it would be given to Barcelona", for several reasons.

30 minutes ago, Luca Vialli said:

The only positive I can take from last night is that maybe Hazard realised he's not quite 'there' to play for the likes of a Barca/Real and signs that new contract and sticks with us.

I think everyone is pretty clear on our players we can rely on, One hell of a rebuilding task for the new season.

Willian should be offered a new contract to end the Man U speculation. If we sell him we're in for a world of hurt.

Not jumping on Willian’s bandwagon anytime soon; could be a purple patch, the World Cup is just a few months away & he is due his last big contract. He has been here for 4 solid seasons, only had one decent season when everyone else was piss poor and this 2 month stretch.

To put things into perspective, could easily name 7 players who have outperformed him in the last 2/3 years (De Bruyne, Ozil, Mahrez, Sanchez, Sterling, Son, Eriksen and Alli).