1 hour ago, Gol15 said:

There is a clear difference there, you see Man City have been buying attacking players while still keeping the quality attackers in the team, look at the names you compare here, all attackers to help out Aguero vs 2 bench warmers Giroud and Morata while at the same time we lost a 20 goal per season Costa!

Things that Man City is doing not even Real Madrid does nowadays.

Also Man city spent £200m+ on defense as well, and then just cause they can they signed Mahrez as well cause why the fu** not since Pep got bored of his £45m Bernardo in the meantime...

So OK 2 league titles in the last 3 years in the making, big deal that result is pretty expected, but WE GOT 2 IN THE LAST 4-5 YEARS how is that not impressive?

Man City were buiding an elite side, along with having a specific vision in mind since the Shieks took over at the club. Gotta give them that. We could have had KDB and Aguero, but we fluffed up one of them and the other we bought Torres over him lol. One thing City are not, is a club without a clear vision. 

2 hours ago, Gol15 said:

There is a clear difference there, you see Man City have been buying attacking players while still keeping the quality attackers in the team, look at the names you compare here, all attackers to help out Aguero vs 2 bench warmers Giroud and Morata while at the same time we lost a 20 goal per season Costa!

Things that Man City is doing not even Real Madrid does nowadays.

Also Man city spent £200m+ on defense as well, and then just cause they can they signed Mahrez as well cause why the fu** not since Pep got bored of his £45m Bernardo in the meantime...

So OK 2 league titles in the last 3 years in the making, big deal that result is pretty expected, but WE GOT 2 IN THE LAST 4-5 YEARS how is that not impressive?

They are on super cheat mode......and unless they get done for all their fake sponsorships, image rights, threats, tax evasion etc, then they will keep on dominating this boring League.......teams just dont meet at up against them, we see it every week........the best teams between 2004-2009 in EPL would and could give them an ass whooping. Fat chance today.

26 minutes ago, enigma said:

Man City were buiding an elite side, along with having a specific vision in mind since the Shieks took over at the club. Gotta give them that. We could have had KDB and Aguero, but we fluffed up one of them and the other we bought Torres over him lol. One thing City are not, is a club without a clear vision. 

They have a clear vision and the Means to deliver......ambitious c**ts they are, and soon they will own this League like PSG do in France.

Lets get back to topic shall we ? 

I am also off the opinion that Sarriball needs a plan B. When we compare our selves to more comparable teams whose budget is contained like our ( Spurs / Pool ), I see that both their managers have shown a flexibility in their tactics. It is also now becoming obvious that man marking Jorghino and a counter attack on the left against Luiz + Alonso is the best way to score goals against Chelsea. We need to fix this situation.  I am not sure we have a like for like players in our squad to make a straight substitution. We will unfortunately have to be flexible and clever given the shape of our squad. And before you ask me - what it is  - I will confess that i dont know. Besides if the answer was so easy wont our Coaches figure it out already ? 

I disagree we need a plan b, at the moment. I would much prefer he concentrate training on getting his plan a as tight and perfected as possible, throwing in other styles or formations will just dilute the training. 

2 hours ago, dkw said:

I disagree we need a plan b, at the moment. I would much prefer he concentrate training on getting his plan a as tight and perfected as possible, throwing in other styles or formations will just dilute the training. 

And that means no real place for kante no. 

On 30/11/2018 at 12:30, atomis said:

They are on super cheat mode......and unless they get done for all their fake sponsorships, image rights, threats, tax evasion etc, then they will keep on dominating this boring League.......teams just dont meet at up against them, we see it every week........the best teams between 2004-2009 in EPL would and could give them an ass whooping. Fat chance today.

They have a clear vision and the Means to deliver......ambitious c**ts they are, and soon they will own this League like PSG do in France.

I like their attacking football, but unlike Chelsea,  they never earned their luck.. They had it all handed to them on a plate, even a new stadium.  They were a team going nowhere fast, with declining attendances and huge debt. As we know, Chelsea had built the club and stadium up from top to bottom, won major trophies and qualfied for the CL. They had turned the club around ready for a takeover. Big difference!

8 minutes ago, Dixon said:

I like their attacking football, but unlike Chelsea,  they never earned their luck.. They had it all handed to them on a plate, even a new stadium.  They were a team going nowhere fast, with declining attendances and huge debt. As we know, Chelsea had built the club and stadium up from top to bottom, won major trophies and qualfied for the CL. They had turned the club around ready for a takeover. Big difference!

Huge difference.......they cant even fill their stadium....and they want to extend it further lol. Of course its just a way to circumvent the rules even more.....that way they can cheat and say we have sold 60K tickets every match and claim its not their fault people dont show up. They are getting away with all their BS Scott free and no one says anything.....not fifa, uefa etc. Footy has been corrupt for ages and ages.

Go easy here, but as my interest in football is generally diminishing with age, can someone please explain what exactly 'Sarriball' is? The reason I'm asking is that so far this season from what I have seen (and it's certainly not every game) it just looks largely like generic vanilla football. We pass the ball about, we sometimes go down the middle, sometimes the flanks. We appear to pass the ball from the back and sometimes lump a ball down the park. I haven't noticed any particular emphasis on sitting deep and counter attacking. Not really noticed a tikka takka thing happening and we I haven't really got the impression that we're going hell for leather in all out attack nor crashing about kicking lumps out of the opponent. From what I saw/listened to of yesterdays game we seemed incredibly lethargic. Largely in control of the game but not looking like we were up to a lot other than doing just enough to beat the bottom side. Is lulling the opposition into thinking that it's only a friendly part of the Sarriball philosophy?

Ok, that last comment sounds like I'm having a dig, but I genuinely don't get what this Sarriball is. To the casual observer it doesn't look a whole lot different to what we've done under several previous managers.

3 minutes ago, Snedger said:

Go easy here, but as my interest in football is generally diminishing with age, can someone please explain what exactly 'Sarriball' is? The reason I'm asking is that so far this season from what I have seen (and it's certainly not every game) it just looks largely like generic vanilla football. We pass the ball about, we sometimes go down the middle, sometimes the flanks. We appear to pass the ball from the back and sometimes lump a ball down the park. I haven't noticed any particular emphasis on sitting deep and counter attacking. Not really noticed a tikka takka thing happening and we I haven't really got the impression that we're going hell for leather in all out attack nor crashing about kicking lumps out of the opponent. From what I saw/listened to of yesterdays game we seemed incredibly lethargic. Largely in control of the game but not looking like we were up to a lot other than doing just enough to beat the bottom side. Is lulling the opposition into thinking that it's only a friendly part of the Sarriball philosophy?

Ok, that last comment sounds like I'm having a dig, but I genuinely don't get what this Sarriball is. To the casual observer it doesn't look a whole lot different to what we've done under several previous managers.

It's essentially vertical passing triangles, as opposed to someone like Pep who has emphasis on horizontal passing triangles. Coupled with a high midfield press and playing out from defence

Thanks for the answer, but it'd be a lie if I pretended to know what vertical and horizontal passing triangles are. Sounds very technical.

So to try and get a reference, did Conte and Mourinho not play passing triangles, press or play from the back? What did they do in comparison?

Edited December 3, 20187 yr by Snedger

5 hours ago, Snedger said:

Thanks for the answer, but it'd be a lie if I pretended to know what vertical and horizontal passing triangles are. Sounds very technical.

So to try and get a reference, did Conte and Mourinho not play passing triangles, press or play from the back? What did they do in comparison?

This video explains it fairly well

Very interesting video and explains it very clearly. Leaves me thinking that he's going to need two or three transfer windows before he's going to get it to work here. And of course that will depend a lot on whether the club wish to help him achieve it or whether they'll just crack on with their current transfer policy, whatever the hell that is. There certainly won't be a video available to explain it.

The biggest issue Sarri seems to have right now is the bit about intensity. We seem about as intense as a heavily sedated sloth.

46 minutes ago, Snedger said:

Very interesting video and explains it very clearly. Leaves me thinking that he's going to need two or three transfer windows before he's going to get it to work here. And of course that will depend a lot on whether the club wish to help him achieve it or whether they'll just crack on with their current transfer policy, whatever the hell that is. There certainly won't be a video available to explain it.

The biggest issue Sarri seems to have right now is the bit about intensity. We seem about as intense as a heavily sedated sloth.

I agree, and I think the outstanding start to the season we have had will work against him somewhat with certain sections of our fans who simply will not show any patience with our club.

14 minutes ago, dkw said:

I agree, and I think the outstanding start to the season we have had will work against him somewhat with certain sections of our fans who simply will not show any patience with our club.

The vast majority of us want Sarri to be given the correct tools for the job (for the want of a better phrase), this will take several transfer windows to achieve. But the problem wont be the small mindless minority of fans with zero patience, it's the club/players that we should worry about, will they continue to buy into Sarriball when the going gets tough ? Will the club readily and wholeheartedly back him in the transfer windows ? History says no on both accounts.

18 minutes ago, coco said:

The vast majority of us want Sarri to be given the correct tools for the job (for the want of a better phrase), this will take several transfer windows to achieve. But the problem wont be the small mindless minority of fans with zero patience, it's the club/players that we should worry about, will they continue to buy into Sarriball when the going gets tough ? Will the club readily and wholeheartedly back him in the transfer windows ? History says no on both accounts.

If intensity is really the key that means most of our team including the youngsters probably don't have it, Conte had the same problem.

I like the fact that the players we are being linked with appear to have high intensity like Pusilic and Lozano (earlier) yet it will tak a number of season for this to happen.

Said it before and slag me if you want....this Sarriball nonsense is like the Kings new clothes, apart from the formation line up of 434 all I'm seeing, and it appears that I'm not the only one, is the same as type of game of Sarri's predecessors; Alonso can't defend worth sh*t and we all know it, so he spends most of his time in the oppositions half and box than he does ours, leaving 3 at the back.  Take Jorghino away and replace with Cesc and you have more or less what you had last year with Kante still running all over the place cleaning up everyone's mess; can't sort our strikers out so now being forced to play with a false 9....same as the previous manager, yet everyone knows Hazard doesn't want to play there; if anything has changed its how poor we defend at times and buckle under pressure, rarely seen in Chelsea team over many years primarily because we are out of shape...maybe the mentality of players has changed, as the so called 'technical' players don't want a put a 90 minute shift in, or don't want to get into tackles, I don't know but its frustrating watching it.  Even in the few minutes he has had recently, RLC has shown why he should be selected over Kovacic, yet the stubbornness of the manager persists with a player who can't or won't shoot, and has not in any of the games I've watched stamped his authority in the middle of the park; why we want to buy him when you have RLC and Barkley is head scratching when clearly we need to spend on a recognized striker .....our previous manager was stubborn too and look where that got him. 

The game today seem to suggest we were cruising, yet for the most part, despite having most of the ball we were out of shape when Brighton did have the ball and had Brighton been a slightly better side today's result could have been different.  Had we had a proper referee it may have been different too. Don't get me wrong I'm very happy with 3 points, but I'm certainly not getting carried away with so called 'Sarriball' though and will take each game as it comes.

7 minutes ago, CFCCAN said:

Said it before and slag me if you want....this Sarriball nonsense is like the Kings new clothes, apart from the formation line up of 434 all I'm seeing, and it appears that I'm not the only one, is the same as type of game of Sarri's predecessors; Alonso can't defend worth sh*t and we all know it, so he spends most of his time in the oppositions half and box than he does ours, leaving 3 at the back.  Take Jorghino away and replace with Cesc and you have more or less what you had last year with Kante still running all over the place cleaning up everyone's mess; can't sort our strikers out so now being forced to play with a false 9....same as the previous manager, yet everyone knows Hazard doesn't want to play there; if anything has changed its how poor we defend at times and buckle under pressure, rarely seen in Chelsea team over many years primarily because we are out of shape...maybe the mentality of players has changed, as the so called 'technical' players don't want a put a 90 minute shift in, or don't want to get into tackles, I don't know but its frustrating watching it.  Even in the few minutes he has had recently, RLC has shown why he should be selected over Kovacic, yet the stubbornness of the manager persists with a player who can't or won't shoot, and has not in any of the games I've watched stamped his authority in the middle of the park; why we want to buy him when you have RLC and Barkley is head scratching when clearly we need to spend on a recognized striker .....our previous manager was stubborn too and look where that got him. 

The game today seem to suggest we were cruising, yet for the most part, despite having most of the ball we were out of shape when Brighton did have the ball and had Brighton been a slightly better side today's result could have been different.  Had we had a proper referee it may have been different too. Don't get me wrong I'm very happy with 3 points, but I'm certainly not getting carried away with so called 'Sarriball' though and will take each game as it comes.

Sarii can be great if he is willing to play to our strenghts......and if he gets backed. He needs to play players on merit........we give too many chances away and too often way too easy to just walk right through us. I hope we get there soon enough but we really need quality freash players coming in. You need to be solid in epl or you will suffer.

Fans need to be patient, he needs time & at least 3 more transfer windows to get the right players in. We are about 6-7 starters short of what he needs to get the team firing.

Too early for this talk. 

No sign of a definite alternative plan - other than David Luiz long balls from time to time which often work well.

first 10 mins against arsenal was absolutely awful exactly same as Spurs away - lack of mental prep or application and other teams know we will play from the back from minute 1 So they really press from the start.

so is it the system ior the players who haven't the skills and nouse the system needs or is it both these and sarri dictate which doesn't allow the players to vary the play based on what's happening.

cant avoid the fact folks that our two best players are out of position. Higuin will make a positive difference offensively but overall game plan now obvious to the other teams.

oh and sarri also very fixed on his squad - so no gazza or Moses or drinkwater all of whom have one the PL in past 3 seasons

i am not hopeful tbh but hope he can flex his philosophy a tad starting on thursday

Ignore the headline on this https://www.football365.com/news/one-liverpool-player-has-become-an-expensive-hindrance

I don't know who these guys commenting on Chelsea are but I think we all believe their analysis is on the right track

Good bit on Skysport website by GNev on player power, and his experiences of witnessing it, why do we believe that the Chelsea hierarchy let this happen, the stories are only going to gather momentum now Sarri has publicly bollocked (correctly) the team, and could ultimately 'lose the dressing room'?

https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11613188/gary-neville-surprised-at-chelsea-player-power-after-maurizio-sarri-outburst?basketId=29326

Edited January 20, 20197 yr by Ballack & Blu
Missed a vital link off my post

Yes agree with most of the article content.

especially the criticism of the players who aren't playing well but still get picked.

the middle 3 and Barclay don't score enough goals and tbh their shooting is poor so onus on front 3 and Willian overall game has been below par this season. 

A lot of our attacking play reminds me of arsenal last few years under wenger - predictable but cup winning not PL winning

On 20/01/2019 at 21:51, Ballack & Blu said:

Good bit on Skysport website by GNev on player power, and his experiences of witnessing it, why do we believe that the Chelsea hierarchy let this happen, the stories are only going to gather momentum now Sarri has publicly bollocked (correctly) the team, and could ultimately 'lose the dressing room'?

https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11613188/gary-neville-surprised-at-chelsea-player-power-after-maurizio-sarri-outburst?basketId=29326

Spot on

The problems we have is so obvious, dont need a Neville to spot it, most of us have complained about the midfield for months. Unless Sarri changes the formation or drop Jorginho, there's not much alternatives, and he won't be dropping Jorginho. I believe he will just live or die by the sword, and hopefully lives.