Could have been comfortable in third place with a gap. Now Wolves and United are breathing down our necks and we could easily be sixth after next round!

Absolute shocker. Better have been a massive wake-up call to bin several of those who started this game. Start with defence and goalkeeper and go from there.
Rudiger should be sent to the reserves for how he's played this season. I have no idea how anyone still rates him. 

Just now, EdinburghBlue said:

Do you understand football? Do you understand who picks the team? Who sets us up defensively at set pieces? The players don’t pick who plays... the players don’t choose how to set up defensively. It’s done by the manager which is....

 

You guessed it - Frank. I’ve given him credit when he’s changed the game with his subs in recent weeks so I’ll blood well criticise him when he can’t set us up to defend a simple corner. It’s shocking how bad we are at it for a team at this level, there’s better defending in Sunday league games.

no i guess you have troubling breaking a play down.. ... how do you coach a defender to not give silly corners away or a goalie to not go jumping off... ? what is the alternative.. to this line up?? 

can you tell me one goal in today's game that was not down to individual error!!? reality is the back 4 we have is not good enough... 

7 minutes ago, MayosNoun! said:

None of the back 4 should be here next season. 

Dear god, this.   They've been dreadful all season.  Not sure why Rudiger plays anymore.  I understand that James has looked horrendous recently, but come on.  I'd get Tagliafico in here ASAP and then spend money on a reliable center back.  Hope like hell Tomori grows quickly. 

It hurts me to say this but I’m jealous of the way Man Utd are improving under Ole.  They pass and move quickly and look so dangerous while being solid at the back.  I worry about the FA cup game.

So frustrating. I am usually quite rational after a defeat but this really did my head in. We threw it away. Frank went for attack and underestimated their attacking threat. Give up playing Alonso in defence, he is a midfield player. Their first goal - our two central defenders were ball watching. Blame Alonso for their winner, he has not got a defensive bone in his body. Anyway, move on. Top 4 is still there for us. Up the Chelsea!

Cannot wait for Timo and Ziyech next season!

6 minutes ago, Munkworth said:

I wish we had a Dennis Wise character on staff at moments like this. Lock them in a room with him for an hour or two. 

Jody Morris ? 

Antonio literally got the better of both our centre backs.

1 minute ago, Jangz said:

no i guess you have troubling breaking a play down.. ... how do you coach a defender to not give silly corners away or a goalie to not go jumping off... ? what is the alternative.. to this line up?? 

can you tell me one goal in today's game that was not down to individual error!!? reality is the back 4 we have is not good enough... 

Mate....if you don’t know what you’re saying don’t keep banging on, it’s coaching, individual errors aside we can’t defend set pieces season long 

7 minutes ago, Zeta said:

Standard defensive performance. Awful all around, especially Christensen.

He was sh*te but if anyone is getting singled out it should be bambi playing beside him. Our whole CB unit is sh*te. Blows my mind we’re not being linked with CB’s and seriously f**king worrying. We NEED CB’s because ours aren’t good enough. f**k signing Havertz or anyone else. We have to sign a top class CB. On top of that though, the coaching needs to improve massively.

Just now, Jangz said:

if you are putting that on the manager i really dont understand you.

Frank will have to wear the blame. Same as he gets the praise for the City result. Getting caught with only two or three players behind the ball as happened constantly in the last 15 mins is always on the manager. Not that he was helped by Christensen being unable to win one challenge against Antonio. Last two games have showed Andreas' strengths and weaknesses well.

He also has to take the hit for our attacking organisation or lack thereof (noting that two goals should always win you a game if your defence is fair dinkum). We just passed it around the outside of the West Ham defence in that awful U Shape and then dumped in crosses. No one tried to make a run inside or behind the block for the midfielders to pass to. 

Frank's inexperience and Harry Redknapp naivete on show tonight. But he will get better too. It's like being back with 90s Chelsea this season. Beat the good teams and lose to the sh*t ones!

1 minute ago, Valpo said:

What I don't understand is that this far faced with these issues on the back end the management went and got two attacking players.

 

Given the only attacking threat of the match was 1 winger I personally don’t mind us investing in our attack. But yeah we definitely need at least 2 defenders this window

Utterly infuriating, and yet so, so predictable. Completely shambolic defensive performance.

Our worst centre back pairing since Kjeldberg and Erland f**king Johnsen.

Zouma on the bench. ZOOUMMMAA.

Edited July 1, 20206 yr by the special one

2 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

Losing 3-2 to a side like that, that didn't even play well, is really really poor. The win against City has been undone by that result. The defending was about as bad as I have seen it this season. It reminded me of all of those times I seen Arsenal's defence capitulate when somebody played counter attacking football with a physically powerful player up front.

Christensen is not a CB who will ever be good enough for a team hoping to challenge the top teams in this league. Any time he comes up against anybody with a little bit of strength, he pisses his pants.

Rudiger is too easily rattled these days and falls apart whenever any pressure is put on him. He was a bit of a hot head in his first two seasons with us, but it was much more controlled, these days though he has no composure. He was easily our best CB for a little while, not anymore though.

Our defending this season really resembles Arsenal, neither of them are good enough. 

It’s a set back.... and to lose to the pickeys hurts but still we are top 4 possible 3, heads up ‘come on !! 

I think it's pretty simple, really.

When we play teams from the lower part of the table they put everyone behind the ball and we have trouble breaking them down while our sh*t defence gets taken apart on the counter and set pieces. 

When we play the likes of City it's the other way around, the onus is on City to break us down and we hurt them on the counter while our fans salivate at how great Rudiger/Christensen are, forgetting that even average defenders may look impressive in a low block with a lot of help. 

 

Just now, SFL82 said:

Mate....if you don’t know what you’re saying don’t keep banging on, it’s coaching, individual errors aside we can’t defend set pieces season long 

i dont agree on the banging on .its a simple question - which of these are not individual errors ? I agree about the corners but they have been bad since Sarri was here .  My question is specific to the game.. how would any amount of coaching change that?

I only caught 30 mins of this match yet thought it was odd trying to see Kante win a header in the opposition D when we lose possession and they counter attack  with speed and numbers and our defensive midfielder is at the wrong end of the pitch.  ?

Edited July 1, 20206 yr by strider6004

3 minutes ago, DarkMata said:

It hurts me to say this but I’m jealous of the way Man Utd are improving under Ole.  They pass and move quickly and look so dangerous while being solid at the back.  I worry about the FA cup game.

Oh please... United shouldn't even be behind us in the first place, now you're just being ridiculous. 

Ole has spent more than anyone this season, United should be competing for the title with the quality they have. 

There's No Leaders In This Team Sadly

I'm raging and I just can't help it

I think we should move Azpi to one of the centre back positions.

We just can’t have these 2 together again.

2 minutes ago, Jangz said:

no i guess you have troubling breaking a play down.. ... how do you coach a defender to not give silly corners away or a goalie to not go jumping off... ? what is the alternative.. to this line up?? 

can you tell me one goal in today's game that was not down to individual error!!? reality is the back 4 we have is not good enough... 

You are clearly unable to analyse football games if you cannot see the sheer lack of organisation we have from set plays and defending in general.
 

You’re really struggling to understand this aren’t you? So for you, every single corner and set piece against us this season has been an individual error? So you don’t think there’s a flaw in the overall plan if that keeps happening on EVERY defensive set play?

 

If you want to bury your head in the sand and act like Frank and Jody’s grandma and defend everything they do, be my guest. But they’re at fault for how weak we are defensively at set pieces.

3 minutes ago, andy said:

Jody Morris ? 

I’d be more scared of Dennis, he’s a maniac.