5 minutes ago, Ernie_blue said:

That was the point.

Sorry I didn’t understand you. You said that defensively we are better, and that’s were I disagreed. 

The reaction is almost like we lost the game, we didn't.

I don't want to even think about how this thread will look once we actually lose a game for the first time... Looks like Tuchel has to end the season without losing a single game so that nobody turns against him, tough gig.

I put it in the match day thread, playing with wingbacks should give you the best of both worlds.

The way we play with wingbacks is giving us the negative aspects of the system.

Our defence still looks vulnerable, mainly due to Alonso being such a poor defender, and very rarely do we use the extra attackers to any effect when the formation is switched to attack.

We were all laughing at Spurs the other week saying how bad they are to watch, honestly we’re just as bad, we’re not using the system that we have set up to play to its potential.

The manager has to be doing better in game to change things, so far it’s been like for like, not good enough.

1 hour ago, Gol15 said:

The reaction is almost like we lost the game, we didn't.

I don't want to even think about how this thread will look once we actually lose a game for the first time... Looks like Tuchel has to end the season without losing a single game so that nobody turns against him, tough gig.

Yep, football's turning more political by the year especially in this country. When I am able to set off on my travels I'll probably just be watching the games and staying well away from the internet.

Edited February 21, 20215 yr by Argo

10 hours ago, Argo said:

I have bit my tongue for the first month or so because I understood people were still quite raw over the Frank sacking so I didn't want to rub salt in the wounds but to say there's been no improvement from those horror last two months is totally wrong.

In those times teams were cutting through our defense and midfield like they were nothing, the gaps between them was enormous, the most outrageous example being a header out in our opponents final third ending up being a clean through chance on goal something you shouldn't even be seeing in under 8s football, we were struggling to string passes together and even the times we won it was done in the most unconvincing manner possible and/or the opponents being down to ten. The fact James Madison came out and may aswell have said that we were piss easy to exploit says it all.

Are things superb under Tuchel so far? No, but apart from one horror show at Oakwell we are if all else fails mastering one thing we didn't get close to doing in those last month's (and even at times when things were looking good/promising under Frank like the two Sheffield games last season), the basics. Game management, stringing passes together and actually having a midfield (which has also translated to probably our best defensive performances for a while even when we've played Kepa and had no Silva) however chances creation needs improving I can't argue with that. Similar principal to when we brought Eto'o in and played him instead of Torres, was the former fantastic? No but if all else failed he got the bare basics right the vast majority of the time, there was also arguments lobbying the latter equally or favourably then.

For the record I thought he got his selections wrong today, he should have put Werner up top (if there's one game that can work it's this one given the space they leave in behind), took Alonso and Kante (instead of Kova) off and left Ziyech firmly on the bench but I'm not having this there's been no improvement from those December/January horror shows. If you said there's not much if any improvement from the Autumn that I could understand there's certainly not a million miles in it (but then if we maintained that level Frank would still be here) but from the complete collapse of the winter? Absolutely no chance has there been no improvement.

Thank god for you on here, that's all I can say. 

Some f**king pathetic posts on here. Every time we drop points it's going to be the same story, Lampard gets brought up, every single time. But don't you dare suggest that people revel in us dropping points. 

And in the cold light of day, he is still unbeaten, give the dude his props, well at least until we lose a few!

Agree he got the team selection wrong today, when rotation fails, it's not a good look. The sub of CHO just the accumulation of his frustration today, the guys stepped in didn't step up, and in the end he's not brave enough to sacrifice the point to go for all 3. We just don't have enough creative players on the field. The persistence of Alonso has not been paying off, he's playing way too narrow, and leave Werner on the touch line. Werner is NOT a winger by trade, he's not going to whip good cross in consistently. When the HT calls, he put on CHO when there are other attacking options on the bench, playing too safe in my mind. Could he add another attacking minded player in this team? Because right now we just don't have enough to beat good teams, or even ordinary teams on their good day

6 hours ago, Gol15 said:

The reaction is almost like we lost the game, we didn't.

I don't want to even think about how this thread will look once we actually lose a game for the first time... Looks like Tuchel has to end the season without losing a single game so that nobody turns against him, tough gig.

Drawing even Losing isn't a problem. We went down due to stupid mistake by Zouma in a game where Soton had 0 threat. 0 complain on Tuchel. 

The problem was we were chasing goals. We still keep the back 3 with Reece james not cho as rw. Plus he brought in Ziyech and jorgi late on with 0 impact. I was shocked with thr sub, it is easy to tell that it won't give us anything. Ziyech has struggled to play under Tuchel, Jorginho is a player you bring in to slow game down not when you are chasing game. 

Edited February 21, 20215 yr by Bob stark

44 minutes ago, Bob stark said:

Drawing even Losing isn't a problem. We went down due to stupid mistake by Zouma in a game where Soton had 0 threat. 0 complain on Tuchel. 

The problem was we were chasing goals. We still keep the back 3 with Reece james not cho as rw. Plus he brought in Ziyech and jorgi late on with 0 impact. I was shocked with thr sub, it is easy to tell that it won't give us anything. Ziyech has struggled to play under Tuchel, Jorginho is a player you bring in to slow game down not when you are chasing game. 

I think that is doing Southampton a disservice. They broke up our defensive line nicely such that Alonso was dragged out of position, needing Kovacic and Rudiger to cover him.

As per usual Alonso neither won the ball (or fouled him, which is what he should have done if he couldn't win the ball). Saints then have acres of space to play in because there is a big Kovacic shaped hole in the midfield. That is well worked by Southampton and for me a carbon copy of a goal we've been conceding regularly for three seasons now.

Matter of fact I reckon if you were to count the number of goals we've conceded over the past 3.5 seasons from teams sucking us into pressure towards the touch line. Breaking that pressure and then waltzing through the middle to score, it could be more than a quarter of the goals we've conceded I'd say. Maybe as high as a third.

7 hours ago, Gol15 said:

The reaction is almost like we lost the game, we didn't.

I don't want to even think about how this thread will look once we actually lose a game for the first time... Looks like Tuchel has to end the season without losing a single game so that nobody turns against him, tough gig.

Just see how it looks as we go through a run of Atletico, United, Liverpool, Everton, Leeds, Atletico. Think it is going to get pretty ugly.

One thing I think we can all agree on is we are sick on the ineptitude of our forward players, Mount excluded that is. The rest make wrong choice after wrong choice and lack quality in the final ball and move. Is like watching a bunch of strangers just guessing.

56 minutes ago, Spiller86 said:

I think that is doing Southampton a disservice. They broke up our defensive line nicely such that Alonso was dragged out of position, needing Kovacic and Rudiger to cover him.

As per usual Alonso neither won the ball (or fouled him, which is what he should have done if he couldn't win the ball). Saints then have acres of space to play in because there is a big Kovacic shaped hole in the midfield. That is well worked by Southampton and for me a carbon copy of a goal we've been conceding regularly for three seasons now.

Matter of fact I reckon if you were to count the number of goals we've conceded over the past 3.5 seasons from teams sucking us into pressure towards the touch line. Breaking that pressure and then waltzing through the middle to score, it could be more than a quarter of the goals we've conceded I'd say. Maybe as high as a third.

Amazing how can you say all this and not even give an inkling of blame towards Zouma... I'm sure if was Christensen though you would be saying it's due to his lack of physical presence there or some bollocks. 

50 minutes ago, axman2526 said:

Just see how it looks as we go through a run of Atletico, United, Liverpool, Everton, Leeds, Atletico. Think it is going to get pretty ugly.

One thing I think we can all agree on is we are sick on the ineptitude of our forward players, Mount excluded that is. The rest make wrong choice after wrong choice and lack quality in the final ball and move. Is like watching a bunch of strangers just guessing.

In our last 18 games, we have failed to score 3 times, scored once 9 times, and scored twice 3 times. The only games we have scored more than twice are the "easy" FA Cup games against Morecambe and Luton, and the 3-0 win at home against West Ham, that flattered us a bit. The collective performance of Havertz, Pulisic, Ziyech, Abraham, CHO, Werner and Giroud is simply not good enough, and so far below the ability "on paper" over such a long period as to make me question whether my "on paper" perception is deluded.

Credit to both the managers that we are still in the mix for two trophies and a top 4 finish !

 

Edited February 21, 20215 yr by Sexyfootball

Chelsea’s next six games:

Atletico Madrid (A)
Manchester United (H)
Liverpool (A)
Everton (H)
Leeds (A)
Atletico Madrid (H)

All in a 23 day period. Big test for Tuchel and Chelsea.

18 minutes ago, JM7 said:

Chelsea’s next six games:

Atletico Madrid (A)
Manchester United (H)
Liverpool (A)
Everton (H)
Leeds (A)
Atletico Madrid (H)

All in a 23 day period. Big test for Tuchel and Chelsea.

Let's look at the form guide :

Atletico Madrid : last 4 in La Liga. D W D L - they are now being caught rapidly by the worst Real Madrid and Barcelona sides in several years.

Manchester United: won 2 drawn 3 lost 1 in their last 6 in the PL

Liverpool : lost their last 4 PL games ; lost their last 4 PL games at home as well

Everton: won 2 drawn 1 lost 3 in their last 6 in the PL

Leeds: won 3 lost 3 in their last 6 in the PL

 

Is there really anything coming up in this run of fixtures that means we need to sh*t the bed ? 🙂

9 hours ago, just said:

But, but, but..... when Frank was in charge so many people on here were saying the squad was great and it was all down to his lack of management and experience!!!!!! Now they're doing a complete 360!!!

I know what you mean fella,but it is true we are bang average and to be totally honest I don't know where we actually go from here,to many positions need sorting.

9 hours ago, Gol15 said:

The reaction is almost like we lost the game, we didn't.

No, we didn't. But we needed a penalty to rescue a point against a side that had conceded fourteen goals in their last three games and lost their last six matches which included a 9-0 drubbing against United. 

If ever a team was there for the taking it was Southampton. 

We mustered just three shots on target all game. A 40 yard hit and hope from Rudiger, Zouma with a header from a set piece and Mount's penalty. 

Add in Tuchel deciding to throw CHO under the bus for no apparent reason and knowing we play league leaders Atletico Madrid next there was exactly a stream of positives to take away from the game yesterday. 

43 minutes ago, Sexyfootball said:

Let's look at the form guide :

🙂

We were all looking at Southampton's form going into yesterday's game and they came pretty close to embarrassing us. 

This group of players has shown nothing to suggest they can rise to the occasion. 

Whenever presented with a challenge they almost always fail to deliver. 

This isn't a management problem, it's a player problem. The team is riddled with average players. 

2 hours ago, Spiller86 said:

I think that is doing Southampton a disservice. They broke up our defensive line nicely such that Alonso was dragged out of position, needing Kovacic and Rudiger to cover him.

As per usual Alonso neither won the ball (or fouled him, which is what he should have done if he couldn't win the ball). Saints then have acres of space to play in because there is a big Kovacic shaped hole in the midfield. That is well worked by Southampton and for me a carbon copy of a goal we've been conceding regularly for three seasons now.

Matter of fact I reckon if you were to count the number of goals we've conceded over the past 3.5 seasons from teams sucking us into pressure towards the touch line. Breaking that pressure and then waltzing through the middle to score, it could be more than a quarter of the goals we've conceded I'd say. Maybe as high as a third.

If zouma was in his spot there is no way in hell Takumi can score. It was just dumb individual mistake. Other than takumi chances and that header from corner, I don't remember us conceding any chances

1 hour ago, Slojo said:

Amazing how can you say all this and not even give an inkling of blame towards Zouma... I'm sure if was Christensen though you would be saying it's due to his lack of physical presence there or some bollocks. 

Thag goal 100% on Zouma. It wasn't even a dangerous situation. 

Selamat 

6 minutes ago, ForeverCarefree said:

 

This isn't a management problem, it's a player problem. The team is riddled with average players. 

But we have splash 200 m on top 4 team

Edited February 21, 20215 yr by Bob stark

26 minutes ago, Bob stark said:

If zouma was in his spot there is no way in hell Takumi can score. It was just dumb individual mistake. Other than takumi chances and that header from corner, I don't remember us conceding any chances

Well he had moved across as Rudiger moved over to where Alonso was. Dave hadn't and so a gap opened up. Issue is as much that there was no pressure on the ball in midfield. Not absolving Zouma just saying he wasn't the only one to blame. Similar tactic that has bought us undone for years. If it was an individual mistake then the pattern wouldn't have been repeated with multiple different defenders over the years.

And as for only chances we conceded, our issue for about 3 seasons is we don't concede many chances but the ones we do concede are big chances and we normally let a goal in. Combined with not taking your chances (Alonso should have scored after about 5 minutes) you don't win games.

Tonight was a wakeup call. A team pressed and harried us and it didn't go as well. Others will have been watching that approach.

That Minamino goal was pretty much perfect. However I have a feeling if Silva was playing there instead of Zouma we would have never conceded that goal. 

Get rid of the back 3 Tuchey.

3 hours ago, Slojo said:

Amazing how can you say all this and not even give an inkling of blame towards Zouma... I'm sure if was Christensen though you would be saying it's due to his lack of physical presence there or some bollocks. 

Yeah it was definitely zoumas fault. And I'm a Zouma fan boy. 

I'm nowhere near as stressed by yesterday as everyone else seems to be. We were facing a team on a horrible run of form, obviously we don't win! Can't wait for the liverpool game when we get them post 4 home losses in a row. 

1 hour ago, coco said:

Get rid of the back 3 Tuchey.

Don't know about that, have you seen our next 7 fixtures? I would keep it for the time being.