Our topsy turvy season continues. We've literally become the Chelsea of my youth in the 90s this month. Roll the big teams and then save our ordinary games for the gimees.

We totally lost control of the game in the second half. Connolly began to run the channels and they played around our high press as a result.  That and we kept giving it back to them. Here's a tip for our entire team when 1-0 up. Next time you think you want to try a flick with two defenders around you, don't. Lost count of the amount of times our front three gave away the ball trying to play a one touch with the outside of the boot and turned the ball over. It wasn't just the youngsters either it was everyone.

Some large lessons to be learned. First and foremost by Frank who for such a good game manager as a player couldn't get the team to put their foot on it and control the tempo. 

Reece the MoM for me. Gave them nothing and was great first half going forward.

2 minutes ago, loz said:

The CHO change I couldn't understand. I thought that was a mistake. Could understand Kovacic for Mount. Lampard can't be blamed for the fact Kovacic was dreadful from the moment he came on.

1 1 probably slightly more than we deserved.

765 posts having a go at Kante today but I'd wager we would have lost today without Kante playing. Jorginho offers very little when we see under pressure and was largely invisible once Brighton got on top. He did nearly gift a goal with a very sloppy pass but bizarrely nobody on here noticed that. Must have all been on the kitchen with Val at that point!

Go back to the early posts of this thread I was saying instantly that it was a mistake to start Kante. 

He's been out of form for a while now and we've lost more games than we've won with him in the side, when we were playing with Jorginho-Kovacic we were outplaying all these sides.

9 minutes ago, Gentian said:

Changing Mount was wrong in my view he presses all the time even if having a rubbish game.

Mount bar pressing offers no real quality  Creatively to be honest. 

Edited January 1, 20206 yr by ducavis

Lamps got it wrong for me today..

CHO should have started after a good showing last game to build on his confidence, can't just keep giving him scraps. 

Mount shouldn't have been taken off, without him we lose the ability to press the ball high up the pitch. 

Big signings needed to strengthen us but Lamps needs to do better.

Not going to overreact, we should of put this to bed in the first half, poor decision making in the box has ultimately cost us two points. 

Disappointed with Kovacic, he should of done a better job off the bench, got booked pretty quickly and gave away some stupid free kicks, we needed a strong head to come on, but he lost it straight away.

Just now, Andy2461 said:

Awful subs from the manager today

have to say the buck stops with frank not only today as well

The subs were poor, but he can't be responsible for some of the poor end product today. Basic errors in attacking positions are down to the players. All it would have taken was one decent pass in 20 difference situations and we would have won the game. The approach from the attackers is why we didn't win today, their overall game was lazy.

Lampard is breaking all kinds of records. Every time I hear before the game something like "This team has not beaten Chelsea in 20 years", you can surely bet we will lose.

Looks like many people on this forum are more tactically savvy than Lamps.

And I do not accept the argument of poor quality players - with the right system and game plan we can compete with anybody in the PL.

It just frustrates me when Frank makes mind boggling decisions.

 

I wonder why we're still playing Willian on the right. He's much better on the left. Put Willian left and Pulisic on the right. 

Subs were awful. You can't blame Frank for Kova being sh*t coming on but why take the most positive player off?

Kante is trying to be the extra No. 10 in attack, being the No. 8 in midfield and being the shielding No. 6 all in the same game is starting to backfire on us.

3 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

Another lazy and w**k performance from us. It's starting to become a chore watching us again, just like it was last season. We got into more than enough attacking positions to win the game today, but lack of care and concentration cost us. 

Seriously, why doesn't this team ever seem to get it into their heads that you need to fight for every game in this league? It's not Italy, you can't coast your way through any game, you have to force things and play with pace. Every team that has been successful in this league has played with pace. We got our result against Arsenal only a few days ago by playing with tempo and forcing things to happen. It's something that has been happening at the club for so long now and I just don't understand it. Surely the players ain't this f**king dense.

On the pitch leadership Scott, we lack voices.

Poor result, poor performance. People are really gunning for Kante on this sight. Definitely off form but people are picking up on every single little error while they ignore Jorginho had 6+ attempts at through balls today and not one was close to a Chelsea player and we’re easily cut out by defenders.

Got a feeling Spurs will only get a draw today, not sure on Utd.

6 minutes ago, Slojo said:

We are very lucky to be 4th place still, we have been awful for a while now, two good results don't change that, since international break it's all gone to sh*t. 

Need some big adjustments and please for the love of god drop Kante... 

Still unsure on your vendetta against Kante. He was just about our best today. Won the ball back so many times and covered everywhere. Problem was everytime he won the ball back and gave it to the front three they tried stupid flicks and gave it away again. 

2 minutes ago, TheSocialShark said:

This game was lost in the middle of the park. Kanté was dreadful and that left Jorginiho with too much to do on his own.

Disagree. This result was always in the offing. The care of the ball and the decision making in the final third by all of our players was appalling again. We only led for as long as we did because they were actually worse than us in possession. Kante may have been dreadful but Mount was like having a twelve year old on the pitch. Offered nothing and constantly had the ball taken off him. The only reason our defence wasn't exposed more was because they were woeful going forwards. As soon as they got a bit of momentum we folded...again.

Poor team, poor tactics and poor game mangement, imo.

19 minutes ago, Slojo said:

Said it from the start, I hate to be right about it but starting with the Kante-Jorginho pivot was just a bad sign to begin with. 

How? That 2 man with Jorginho is what got us all our points this season with mount and 2 wingers in front. It’s when kante cane back and we played 3 less offensive players that went downhill 

When it went to 1-1 the first thing I thought was that was coming and the second thing I thought was I don’t think we’ve got the players to retake the lead in the next few minutes.

Poor result, poor performance. People are really gunning for Kante on this sight. Definitely off form but people are picking up on every single little error while they ignore Jorginho had 6+ attempts at through balls today and not one was close to a Chelsea player and we’re easily cut out by defenders.

Yep. Umpteen misplaced passes. All ignored on here.

we got what we deserved today. a point was probably fair but I think we should feel thankful we didn't lose it. 

I'm looking forward to the weekend and hoping we take the FA Cup seriously this season. I think we are good enough to win the Cup this year - come on Chelsea!!

CHO is absoutely dreadful I’d get Sancho and let Dortmund have CHO plus 100m

6 minutes ago, Droopy said:

Kovacic for Mount should be a contender for the worst sub in the season. I have never seen such a negative influence. 

Yep,he wanted to protect the lead with our defence, totally wrong decision amongst others Frank.

14 minutes ago, Andy2461 said:

Awful subs from the manager today

have to say the buck stops with frank not only today as well

Can't really blame Lamps for CHO and Kovacic both being poor. IF they come on and play well and one of them scores a goal it's a masterstroke. But CHO just doesn't look anything like the impact sub / game changer we all hoped he could be this season. And as good as Kovacic has been at times this season, today he reminded us all of the player that no-one wanted to sign permanently. These things happen - harsh to blame Lamps when there are very few options at present. Of course that could change now the window is open and hopefully RLC comes back too.

It was negligible the first  few times but now I gotta say it must be a coaching problem. How often have we f**ked up against mediocre opposition.

He's a young manager still learning remember this is his second full year as manager so you may be correct it's a coaching issue I will give him time to learn and get better. I said in his thread he struggles to think his way out of difficult situations and today was another example none of the subs had the effect he hope it just appeared he was trying to see if anything would work

Just off to vomit after watching the post match love in.

1 minute ago, charierre said:

On the pitch leadership Scott, we lack voices.

Half of the team are in their first years in the PL. They haven't found it yet while the senior players are a mixed bag. We lack consistency in all parts of our game

2 minutes ago, coco said:

Not going to overreact, we should of put this to bed in the first half, poor decision making in the box has ultimately cost us two points. 

Disappointed with Kovacic, he should of done a better job off the bench, got booked pretty quickly and gave away some stupid free kicks, we needed a strong head to come on, but he lost it straight away.

Didn't have a good match. He was introduced 15 mins too late. We were already being run over by then. 

Just now, Spiller86 said:

Still unsure on your vendetta against Kante. He was just about our best today. Won the ball back so many times and covered everywhere. Problem was everytime he won the ball back and gave it to the front three they tried stupid flicks and gave it away again. 

Ahh the vendetta argument, well you're in the minority there then, because Kante was not good today at all, I agree that he wasn't the worst on the pitch but his distribution and even defensive play was lacklustre. He offered nothing on the pitch today, yeah Kovacic had a stinker, probably the worst I've seen him play, gave away needless fouls, but the tempo of the game was already set, the way we played was predictable.