After a terrific start to the season, we have now lost the plot.

Will be travelling extensively during the festive season. Glad to know I won't be stressed with not being able to watch our team.

7 hours ago, enigma said:

 

I love Rudiger's mentality. 

So midway through the season we can sum up life under Sarri as follows: 'unless hazard does something extraordinary, we're fcuked'.

1 hour ago, The Brit said:

So midway through the season we can sum up life under Sarri as follows: 'unless hazard does something extraordinary, we're fcuked'.

Yes, and that appears to be the burden assumed by Hazard, who far too often dribbles first and asks questions later (usually after he’s been surrounded and dispossessed), in complete contravention of Sarri’s oft-stated princilples of vertical one-touch attacking football. Why that behavior continues is beyond me. I’m not sure Messi could cure what’s going on out there.

Watched the first half. Frankly it bored the a**e off me. We were Barca at their worst. All possession. Nothing done with it bar Eden hitting the bar and Willian missing that one good chance.

Second half I fast forwarded when we were passing the ball along the backline or the foxes had the ball. Needless to say that flew by fast.

What a waste beating city was. Well done Chelsea, we helped those damn kopites and lost to the likes of of wolves and the foxes. Rubbish.

Eden was poor, whole team was even worse.

Willian, hazard and Alonso all blew good chances to score. How many do we need? Who trains our players in the art of shooting because they need shooting!

Rubbish, boring football with no end product. 

Sarriball?  More like boreball. 

Merry Christmas from the boys in blue to us...

My thoughts:

1) Firstly, hats off to Leicester. Their plan was to come in, defend deep and hit us on the break and they did it perfectly. Ironic really because in the first Mourinho era we were masters of the counter-attack. 

2) I actually had no issue with the first XI. The false 9 worked well enough against Brighton and Sarri knew full well that Leicester would come to counter-attack, so he sought to monopolise possession by adding Kovacic and placing Willian rather than Hazard/RLC (since the former has a better work ethic) on Ricardo Pereira, who is a real threat going forward (which still didn't really work IMO, not least because Pereira did help create their goal).

3) However, the reason that the false 9 worked against Brighton was because Pedro managed to score an early goal, which forced Brighton to come forward and expose themselves to through-balls in behind their defensive line (as happened for our second goal against Brighton). That did not occur here and so Leicester were comfortable breaking from deep. What Sarri really should have done was make his substitutions (Giroud/RLC) at the halfway mark, not after Leicester had already scored.

4) The talk of us playing slow, sterile LVG-style football and not maximising the chances we can create by playing a faster tempo is valid, but what really killed us against both Wolves and Leicester was a lack of clinical finishing, while our opponents on both occasions were quite clinical despite having low xG for those games. Our xG for both games was roughly 2, which should have been enough to get something out of both games even with defensive lapses. To restate the old cliche, we need a reliable finisher badly. Hazard and Pedro unfortunately are the best finishers we currently have and so it wouldn't surprise me if Sarri persisted with the false 9 until we acquire one. 

5) I'm not sure how we can play so well versus Man City but yet play very poorly here. I feel at these times that we miss a captain like JT, who could effectively marshal his troops and remind them what they were playing for week after week (the glory of CFC). Azpi is a great, salt-of-the-earth guy but he's never struck me as having that level of motivational and organisational ability as a captain. Maybe Sarri is also too laid-back as a coach at times. Who knows?

6) Part of the reason why I don't especially wish to compete in competitions like the EFL Cup is not only because they don't act as a gateway to CL qualification, but also because our squad lacks the depth to properly negotiate so many games. Sarri wouldn't have the same issue in Serie A because secondary cup competitions like the EFL Cup don't exist in that country. With hindsight, Conte getting eliminated from the 2016/17 EFL Cup in October was a blessing in disguise because it allowed us to focus our energies exclusively on the PL. IMO We wouldn't have gone on a 13-match winning streak had we also been playing EFL Cup games mid-week. 

Edited December 23, 20187 yr by DaRick

I agree with any of your points........but whatever happened to managing your squad? You do with what you have and get the best of it, this is not it. We must be more clever and Work towards getting there at some point, instead of just saying its a diffirent style and it will take time. Adapt and be flexible.......if a said player aint doint the bits then bench him, have a plan b, play with pace etc. We aint doint none of that.

Like seriously, not ALL managers can get the best out of an average team. Some needs just the players that perfectly fits their pattern of play.
That's where the board will eventually let Sarri down. Meanwhile, Sarri should have known that before signing for us so he needs to find a way to turn things around.

16 hours ago, TheChelseaBlues said:

Giroud and RLC on with Willy and Pedro off. One of them can go permanently in the winter to open up some time for CHO and RLC, or to force to play Hazard wide and buy a striker. This is sad

Ye right, the only player Sarri's letting go is CHO. Good for managers like Favre and Nuno Espirito Santo to give Sancho and Gibbs-white a chance. Tbh even conte was willing to give youth a chance here and there. Ampadu is even furthur down the pecking order, and Christensen seems to maybe have a future now, but only because Barcelona came calling.

Rewatching the Leicester goal, it's frustrating to see how easily Pereira cut inside past Jorginho.

Fair enough Kovacic and Luiz were too distracted by the ball to the right winger, and it left Rudiger having to attempt the last ditch interception he missed. 

But with one swap - Kante in where Jorginho was - 99 times out of 100 he kills that break taking ball or at least man. Hell, he even overlapped Jorginho from 20 odd yards to track back, only too late to make the tackle. Did it in the first half too - only Kante somehow covered the distance to catch Madison on the edge of the box.

We have the world's absolute best defensive midfielder playing box to box, where he's nowehere near as useful half the time. And all to accommodate a deep lying playmaker that just isn't needed against the 3/4s of our league oppositon that don't press high. 

We need to leave Luiz to start plays from deep, he's excellent at it, and move Kante back into the hole (a very accurate description of what that space is for us when teams counter). That frees up Kante's spot for a midfielder with more attacking nous (Loftus Cheek/Barkley), which we absolutely need against teams sitting deep.

I really don't see why that can't work, and if we're willing to try 'false 9s' or whatever you want to call them as an experiment to break down sides like this, surely this fairly obvious swap is another setup worth trying.

Rewatching the Leicester goal, it's frustrating to see how easily Pereira cut inside past Jorginho.
Fair enough Kovacic and Luiz were too distracted by the ball to the right winger, and it left Rudiger having to attempt the last ditch interception he missed. 
But with one swap - Kante in where Jorginho was - 99 times out of 100 he kills that break taking ball or at least man. Hell, he even overlapped Jorginho from 20 odd yards to track back, only too late to make the tackle. Did it in the first half too - only Kante somehow covered the distance to catch Madison on the edge of the box.
We have the world's absolute best defensive midfielder playing box to box, where he's nowehere near as useful half the time. And all to accommodate a deep lying playmaker that just isn't needed against the 3/4s of our league oppositon that don't press high. 
We need to leave Luiz to start plays from deep, he's excellent at it, and move Kante back into the hole (a very accurate description of what that space is for us when teams counter). That frees up Kante's spot for a midfielder with more attacking nous (Loftus Cheek/Barkley), which we absolutely need against teams sitting deep.
I really don't see why that can't work, and if we're willing to try 'false 9s' or whatever you want to call them as an experiment to break down sides like this, surely this fairly obvious swap is another setup worth trying.

Kante has proved himself to be a world class player after spending just two seasons with us. Based on his performance in the last two seasons, lots of people who aren't even our fans can argue he is the best midfielder in the EPL.
But now, I think all that is about to become history. Am not a big fan of Sarri, but looking at Klopp and Pep, I feel if the board can equally support him this season to sign the players that fits his game plan, he MIGHT be able to upgrade our team with new players and make us one of the strongest team in the world while playing good attacking football.
But take note, I feel this will come at a cost, one of the positions Sarri will like to sign a player for is actually that RM where we have Kante. Am a great fan of Kante, but haven watched him closely under Sarri this season in an unfamiliar position, just like Alonso and the lack of a goal poacher is restraining this team from playing the way Sarri wants, Kante is also becoming a LIABILITY! Since Jorginho is Sardi's untouchable in that midfield and we are not scoring enough goals at the moment to win games, including the fact that despite playing Kante in the midfield though in the wrong position, I feel a midfield of RLC-Jorginho-Barkley suits Sarri's game more but Sarri is keeping Kante there for some time in order not to build tension with the fans. But by the time the board backs him, don't be surprise to see Kante playing only in away games or when we are playing against a top opposition.

Sack him get someone else im ....it's not working no such thing as Sarri Ball ..all rubbish

13 minutes ago, Brutos said:

Sack him get someone else im ....it's not working no such thing as Sarri Ball ..all rubbish

Of course we dont want him sacked......you cant throw anything at him otherwise its beacuase we want him gone, thats silly man. But so far im not impressed at all, sure we were great the first what 8-10 games and its been going the other steadiliy and surely every since. Its clear we are too slow, we still play that way. Its clear we have been found out, still the same formation and players and tactics. Its clear some players need a f**king sit down, they still play. I really want him to do well but he aint making it easy is he. And the board handicapped him as well. He is the manager, so manage with what you have until you have the means to implement this Sarii ball. You cant be stubborn or 1 dimensional in this league.

Remember when Klopp had a worse starting record than Brendan Rodgers.

Klopp is a better manager.....his footy suits epl...he had far worse players that what we have now.......and the competition not as hectic. And you could see the players running all over for him. Lets hope it turns for the better cuz if we finish outside top4 we are f**ked. This aint Napoli or seria A........you cant have 1 plan only no matter the opponent.

19 minutes ago, atomis said:

Klopp is a better manager.....his footy suits epl...he had far worse players that what we have now.......and the competition not as hectic. And you could see the players running all over for him. Lets hope it turns for the better cuz if we finish outside top4 we are f**ked. This aint Napoli or seria A........you cant have 1 plan only no matter the opponent.

Klopp is a fine manager, but he finished 8th in his first season and took some seasons to turn Liverpool into the juggernaut that they currently are. 

It's also a bit harsh to suggest that Sarri only has 'one plan'. He has rotated the starting lineups somewhat, most specifically the front 3, and he has experimented with a 'false 9' (to polarising effect admittedly). 

I think that Sarri has been held back to a degree by a lack of competent finishers - in both the Wolves/Leicester games our xG was around 2, so we had enough chances to get something out of both games. 

If his side plays lifeless, limp, directionless football for many months then his position needs to be reviewed, but we're not at that stage yet. 

We have one player in the squad capable of scoring and assisting regularly, and he missed two good chances yesterday, it wasn't to be our day. We need two players brought in who can score goals, A striker and a winger, so that the opposition can't just stick 3 players on hazard every time he gets the ball. Sarriball looks like it has potential to me, but we have serious weaknesses in our squad when it comes to trying to score

 

spineless performance yesterday, a loss at home against leicester is unacceptable, i know its been said many times but we are so missing the leader ship qualities of previous players  

50 minutes ago, DaRick said:

Klopp is a fine manager, but he finished 8th in his first season and took some seasons to turn Liverpool into the juggernaut that they currently are. 

It's also a bit harsh to suggest that Sarri only has 'one plan'. He has rotated the starting lineups somewhat, most specifically the front 3, and he has experimented with a 'false 9' (to polarising effect admittedly). 

I think that Sarri has been held back to a degree by a lack of competent finishers - in both the Wolves/Leicester games our xG was around 2, so we had enough chances to get something out of both games. 

If his side plays lifeless, limp, directionless football for many months then his position needs to be reviewed, but we're not at that stage yet. 

Yeah but you could still see that they were up for a fight, they were running for him. He adapted.....his defence was the reason they were here and there. Andyou are right regarding we aint clinical, thats why I said the board handicapped the sh*t out this team. Im just seeing too many limp performances......putting Eden in false 9 is not adapting, its a necessity atm. We still play the same team and same formatin etc. We all would love for Sarii to work, but we are not exactly getting better game by game like Arsenal for example. I wouldnt be surprised if even utd go above us if we dont do something. Patience is good.....but only if visible improvements can be seen.

Edited December 23, 20187 yr by atomis

Hey, guys, I want to try to give you my point of view: as a Napoli's fan, I'm able to recognize differences beetween Sarri's Napoli and Sarri's Chelsea.

Problem #0

The recent past of Chelsea: Conte's teams think football in a way far far away by Sarri's teams. Marking zone with the ball as only one point of reference is completely different by marking the opponents, so changing the defensive phase, especially in negative transitions, is a very long term job and honestly it could have been worse so far. The offensive phase is also a lot different: Conte loves to play moving the ball in width rather than in depth and medium-long range passes, while Sarri loves his players touching the ball one-two times (so a very quick build-up) ,moving the ball forward and backward, so using mainly the depth of the pitch, and short passes. In Napoli, Sarri was lucky to find a team ready to think like he wanted, as he admitted. Time is the only solution for this problem.

Problem #1

Sarri's 4-3-3 needs at least an important offensive fullback, for example last year we suffered a lot for the injury of Ghoulam and we lost something like 10-15 goals at the end of season. Faouzi was one of the secret of Napoli, he gave us width on the left and the quality of his passes and crosses was superb, I'm sorry but I don't see any fullback there like him, and here marketplace is the right way.

Problem #2

Central midfielders don't fit the system at now: Allan is more comfortable on possession and playing beetween opposite lines than Kantè, while Hamsik was a master in first touch and helping Jorginho in build-up, they used to think football like they were a single player, so if opponents used to mark Jorginho, there wasn't any tactical problem for us (thanks to Hamsik). I think that Sarri will improve the team with training from this point of view, I don't think it's necessary to sign a new midfielder at now.

Problem #3

The central striker. For Sarri it's the biggest one, as he's forced to try Hazard in this role, while everyone prefer Eden could see always forward on the pitch, but Morata and Giroud are really awful solutions and it doesn't seem they can do better. A new striker is necessary, in Napoli Sarri had three strong central strikers, like Higuain, Milik and Mertens and without them he could have been in trouble.

Our problem was winning games at the beginning of the season when everyone else was blowing out the cobwebs; had we had a stuttering start and be where Utd are now sat, but seeing some progress we would have probably accepted it.  Then we raised the bar with the winning streak and raised everyone's expectations; now that the other teams are fully up and running our weaknesses have shown through, the biggest having no one to put the ball in the net on a regular basis, a problem that has existed since Costa left and before he arrived.  I expect to see to this roller coast continue unless in January some significant changes are made to the squad, and if not in January certainly the summer.......but by that time Eden may well have buggered off to sunny Spain.

This result was owned by the manager, there are obvious flaws in the setup of this team which have been exploited over and over in the last couple of months, but he's still persist with it. Granted in long time he could be right, but Chelsea job is not like Spurs or Liverpool, you don't get many games to trial out a system. Alonso is not good enough as a LB at moment, he' been ripped apart week in week out yet he got picked again. His replacement is not world class, but definitely deserve a game after some solid cup games. Every opposition knows once you get winger one on one with Alonso, chances are there will be running unopposed or a easy cross at the end of it. He's not defending, not doing his primary job and needs to dropped, it's simple as that. There was no wonder he missed that chance at the end, his confident was rock bottom from being ran over for 90 minutes. Kovacic doesn't provide enough in the final third, although he's a good player in possesion, we need a more attacking option there, it's been proven. The Hazard false 9 worked in one game against City, after about 45 minutes of complete failure. We got away with it against a weak team, and we were asking for troubles against a decent team. Hazard was great, but he's not going to hold up the ball against big central defenders, win headers, so when you play him in that role it's pointless to move to ball wide and try to cross it. Granted we don't have high quality strikers, moving Hazard from his natural position, play Willian/Pedro every game ( they aren't consistent performers by any mean) is not solving anything. Giroud has been in decent scoring form, start him and have Hazard play off him doesn't take anything away from Hazard, and add a different dimension in our attack. It's ironic all the managers in the last 3 seasons tried Hazard as false 9, and gone back to a normal striker after 3-4 games, what's the point of keeping trying? We are such a nice and soft team these days, no player wanted to take a yellow for the team to stop that counter attack, I counted at least 3 could have done something. Sure, you took a dirty yellow card for shirt pulling and ankle tap, you do it because the team needs it. I'm not going to talk about where Kante should play, he's lost in the final third and not winning tackles in front of the back 4.

On 22/12/2018 at 16:17, enigma said:

Won't matter, we aren't challenging this season.

If we won and do our job against Watford today we would have been within 1 point of city, how you can say doesn’t matter is beyond me