The hot and cold form continues, we ran out of gas after 65-70 minutes, in the end we were lucky to get away with a point. The team is fatigued, and tired players just couldn't keep up with the usual standard. We didn't create a lot for the whole game, and few times we got the opening we couldn't get make the GK to put a save in. Defensively, once their second striker came on, we looked in all sorts of troubles. We tried to high press them, but it's mainly the front 3 and Kante, once they by pass it, it's lots of spaces with the back 4 dropping back. There are  obvious problems with the central defenders, Rudiger seemed to steady the ship recently, but against 2 strikers we were in lots of troubles ( just like the Southmapton game). I reckon more teams will try 2 strikers against us in games to come. Inconsistency is to be expected this season, I reckon it's a 6/10 for the festival season. We do need to get 1-2 players in quickly before the next loads of games come along.

It’s our inability to play controlled possession that costs us. Just watching luiz consistently getting arsenal moving. Night and day compared to the way we play out from the back. Then our midfield rushed things all the time. Willian, who has been great was clearly tired in h2 and might have been subbed at 60 minutes. 
 

On the positive side James was good in h1 and contrary to others I thought cho did well. Kovacic was stupid didn’t take it seriously enough. 
 

but the main problem is being more careful in possession, slow the tempo down, better movement off the ball etc. 

28 minutes ago, ozboy said:

It’s our inability to play controlled possession that costs us. Just watching luiz consistently getting arsenal moving. Night and day compared to the way we play out from the back. Then our midfield rushed things all the time. Willian, who has been great was clearly tired in h2 and might have been subbed at 60 minutes. 
 

On the positive side James was good in h1 and contrary to others I thought cho did well. Kovacic was stupid didn’t take it seriously enough. 
 

but the main problem is being more careful in possession, slow the tempo down, better movement off the ball etc. 

Yeah but have you seen his defending? I'm giggling at the prospect of Luiz trying to defend in such an open system. 

I thought we played out from the back okay for the most part. It was in the midfield things kept breaking down with lazy flicks.

Agree that Willian was tired he was gone from the game after halftime. Also agree that our inability to control the game in the second 45 led to an end to end that didn't suit us at all. 

49 minutes ago, ozboy said:

It’s our inability to play controlled possession that costs us. Just watching luiz consistently getting arsenal moving. Night and day compared to the way we play out from the back. Then our midfield rushed things all the time. Willian, who has been great was clearly tired in h2 and might have been subbed at 60 minutes. 
 

On the positive side James was good in h1 and contrary to others I thought cho did well. Kovacic was stupid didn’t take it seriously enough. 
 

but the main problem is being more careful in possession, slow the tempo down, better movement off the ball etc. 

Wow. You thought CHO did well!!!!  Can you expatiate on the things you thought he did well? 

 All I saw him do was lose possession ,not track back even though he was a sub and should have been fresh. I would say he needs to go on loan to work on his link up game with his teammates because all he wants to do is dribble but who can we loan him with that crazy pay cheque of his

3 hours ago, Sexyfootball said:

You're in the clear ... everyone is blaming Brutos ?

2 hours ago, axman2526 said:

Lol why?

It’s all his fault that’s why!

32 minutes ago, The Don Antonio said:

Wow. You thought CHO did well!!!!  Can you expatiate on the things you thought he did well? 

 All I saw him do was lose possession ,not track back even though he was a sub and should have been fresh. I would say he needs to go on loan to work on his link up game with his teammates because all he wants to do is dribble but who can we loan him with that crazy pay cheque of his

 

Bayern wants him, but Chelsea will have to eat half of his paycheck.

 

 

Lpool,citeh and foxes to finish in top three in whatever order ,that leaves one slot left and it’s been said on here a few times likes 

Of spurs ,man utd ,wolves are all having games as thou they are playing with dead legs just like cfc today ,but it’s the blades as in sheff utd that worry me the most for sole reason they always give 200+% no matter what .

at the moment chelsea ,Spurs,man utd, are way off the sheff utd bench mark of 200%+ each game 

2 hours ago, ozboy said:

It’s our inability to play controlled possession that costs us. Just watching luiz consistently getting arsenal moving. Night and day compared to the way we play out from the back. Then our midfield rushed things all the time. Willian, who has been great was clearly tired in h2 and might have been subbed at 60 minutes. 
 

On the positive side James was good in h1 and contrary to others I thought cho did well. Kovacic was stupid didn’t take it seriously enough. 
 

but the main problem is being more careful in possession, slow the tempo down, better movement off the ball etc. 

Agreed on Willian. If Lamps had the time again I would hope he would put of Lamptey for him and let him or James take the more offensive spot. It would have strengthened us. 

Mind you so should have Kovacic but he did not.

The away kit for this game really looks ugly to me. No wonder we couldn't win.

8 hours ago, dkw said:

Ah, the old players should never be tired argument is back, what fun.... 

Them being tired is understandable but shouldn't be an excuse if we lost. So what if they're tired? Either sub them out or improve their training regime. To use fatigue as an excuse means you (not you specifically, the general you) are intentionally overlooking several areas of the field where we're lacking whether it'd be training regime, tactics, player nutrition etc.

This isn't the first game where we've seen the players run out of gas by the 70th+ minute. Something needs to be improved on.

6 hours ago, Gol15 said:

The away kit for this game really looks ugly to me. No wonder we couldn't win.

We should bring this classic away strip.

Please Nike !

Edited January 2, 20206 yr by erskblue

Disappointing, thought when we scored in the first half it would be a comfortable win.

A couple of cracking saves by Kepa to help get us the draw to be fair.

We seemed to run out of energy and that seemed to give them the initiative.

A game we should have won.

7 hours ago, Gol15 said:

The away kit for this game really looks ugly to me. No wonder we couldn't win.

The collar on our black kit looks crude and ugly. And although I like the contrast of the orange socks, we need to keep playing in the blue socks. The kit man should sit Frank down and have a tactical talk with him. If I see it, why can't our coaching staff!

Edited January 2, 20206 yr by Valerie

We definitely looked tired and that is going to happen with younger players (teenagers) who have not yet fully developed. The bigger concern for me was the complete lack of ideas. We looked very predictable, with too may lazy passes into space or passes to players often man marked or double teamed. It seems to me that we (Pulisic, Tammy, CHO and Willian) may have been sussed out by the oppo. They set up mostly with the two banks of four, the forward of which presses high when we have the ball and  which our tactics seem completely unable to break down.

I hope that Frank and his coaching team can come up with a game plan that can work against this. I love Frank to bits, wouldn't swap him for any other Manager (except maybe Guardiola) and pray that he succeeds at Chelsea, but I must admit to being a little concerned that ANY side that sets up to defend against us, rather than trade punches in an open contest, seems to beat us. This needs to change and quick !!

9 minutes ago, coombsie said:

We definitely looked tired and that is going to happen with younger players (teenagers) who have not yet fully developed. The bigger concern for me was the complete lack of ideas. We looked very predictable, with too may lazy passes into space or passes to players often man marked or double teamed. It seems to me that we (Pulisic, Tammy, CHO and Willian) may have been sussed out by the oppo. They set up mostly with the two banks of four, the forward of which presses high when we have the ball and  which our tactics seem completely unable to break down.

I hope that Frank and his coaching team can come up with a game plan that can work against this. I love Frank to bits, wouldn't swap him for any other Manager (except maybe Guardiola) and pray that he succeeds at Chelsea, but I must admit to being a little concerned that ANY side that sets up to defend against us, rather than trade punches in an open contest, seems to beat us. This needs to change and quick !!

I also think we have been found out a bit. I noticed we scored from a set-piece against Brighton and that may be in part because Rudiger is back and gives us more of a presence in the box. I just looked at the Southampton stats and we had 8 corners to their 1, surely we need to score from set-pieces when you get that many.

In previous seasons we have had RLC or Barkley introduced to give us a new blood and that seems to have worked, not sure how either are fixed currently though Forest in the cup would be worth trying something different.