I wish we could do a hypothetical “you can only pass it forwards or take a shot if you have reached the limit of 2 backwards passes”

Looking at the other game tonight between AC Milan and Salzburg, I'd say there won't be any gimme from here on. It seems that even Salzburg are looking good tonight. We will need to really push now to make it out of the group. This was and should be a winnable game, but we fluffed it up. What looked like a kind group on paper is turning out to be not so. 

Edited September 6, 20223 yr by enigma

56 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

It's a culture problem. The hiring and firing culture at the club, the culture where we think throwing money at something will fix our problems. The culture where players can hide from their responsibilities the moment they hit a stumbling block and put it all on the manager. It filters through the whole club.

I do agree with this, but I think the culture issue does go both ways. Much of the set up nowadays, the players and managers attitudes are no longer built upon long term development. It's very much a contract length venture with those contracts themselves becoming tradeable commodities.

My issue currently, and I so want to be wrong over this, is that I am failing to see a vision, a plan, a blueprint for the future. Whilst saying it through gritted teeth, Arsenal were a joke club for a few years under Arteta, but he had a plan of sorts and restructured the set up of his side. I don't see that currently here. I thought I did but I am not sure now.

I think Trevor Calobah is a fair illustration of my thoughts currently. For a while in the early days I was a little surprised by TT's choices but I couldn't argue with them because he got everything tactically bang on. When he thrust Chalobah forwards I was like, err okay. Stony ground for Tomori, whose ultimate treatment for me was a majorly poor decision, but okay, lets see how this goes. Trevor ends up pretty solid. A few mistakes and a bit inconsistent but all kids are. I could see the long term objective. Good stuff.

Fast forward to now, we end up offering Azpilicueta a further 2 years out of blind panic I assume and I am sat here tonight watching a Croatian striker leave our 70m CB in his wake and behind him , a huffing, puffing wheezing Azpilicueta,  20 mins into the game looking like he is playing football in a sauna.

I am sorry to ruffle feathers because Dave has been a loyal servant to the club, but legend, please. Just being at a club for a long term and playing to a reasonably consistent level for most of it doesn't make you a legend in my book. He is a legend like Mark Noble. Average player been around for a long time. The fact still remains that he was showing Ivan levels of decline 2 years ago. But hey that's another thread in itself.

My point in a pretty long winded way is that I will happily take ups and downs, poor performances, the occasional errors, if there is a defined plan and style with us sometimes falling over whilst trying to execute it, providing we have the belief that we are on a path to developing a pretty special side.

In what world is it a correct tactical decision to reach out to Ziyech and Pulisic to get you out of a hole when just one week prior both players were trying to engineer moves away, or were at least engaged in discussions. Surely there has to be a bigger better picture than to throw these two into the mix. I am just starting to get the impression that as much as he twists the Rubiks cube it keeps coming up with the same wrong colour squares in the same wrong positions over and over again

I don't want him to go but I do want the masterful tactician back. I want the whole back room set up completely rinsed. We have inadequate fitness levels in the team, we have little if any pattern, we have a group of players who want to substitute hard work for infantile flicks, kicks and round the corners that rarely work, we have some of the worst set piece takers in the league and we have a group of players that are goal-intolerant and couldn't hit a cows arse with a banjo.

I don't know what Chelsea standard is, I'm not too arrogant to say we are above being sh*t now and again, but this brand of football isn't worth a cup of warm pi$$.

Goodnight one and all, see you at the weekend for more fun and games, god help us

2 hours ago, The Rising Sun said:

City won't attack.  We are so good that everyone parks the bus.

It's a compliment really on our team and our attacking prowess .

Attacking Prowess 🤣.

The fact is our attack is so impotent that teams just play deep to draw us out of our half then hit us on the break. They know we have no playmakers to penetrate down the middle , we  only cross and Insha Allah but have no physical presence in the box. The main problem with our game is our transition play. We get the ball and just hold it till the other team sets up defensively then we pass for passing sake with no peneration. Even city who have better attacking midfielders push the ball foward and dont just try to pass around a set defense.

If Roman was still our boss Tuchel would be fired and rightly so but we have new owners and its a new Chelsea so lets see what the future holds.

26 minutes ago, azpi28 said:

I wish we could do a hypothetical “you can only pass it forwards or take a shot if you have reached the limit of 2 backwards passes”

Haha, I used to do something similar when I was a youth team manager. If I felt we were getting bogged down, losing our way or overplaying a bit, I would call for a two touch game and if they took more than two touches they were chalked up and you owed it in press ups at the end of the match. Lol

Worked though. Simplified the game, got us moving off the ball again and got our rhythm back, ha.

Here’s a quick summary for you all: £350M spent in all transfer windows since Tuchel’s been in charge and we’re averaging 3 shots on target this season.

Boehly et al. are clearly trying to do the right thing by investing heavily in the squad. It’s a shame it’s being pissed away by the man selecting the transfer targets.

I suspect the penny won’t drop for most of you until about November, when we’re floundering in 7th place, but we’ve backed a dud, folks.

1 hour ago, WhiteWall said:

We're the white wall,

We're the white wall,

We're the white wall of the shed.

Different times for sure. Times when we used to hope for a big name in the cup so we could hold our heads up when we got beat by them, rather than the likes of bleeding Walsall

Middle, West side and tea bar! Those songs would go on and on!

Same pattern like the last couple of loses, started brightly but failed to do any damage, someone f* it up and concede at the first chance, then unable to turn the tide. Clearly players are lacking confidence, everyone is scared to shoot or take on players, which is why we had all the possession but no real shots on goal. In hindsight, mistake to start Auba as he's clearly not fit match and no cohesion between him and the rest. It's a gamble and clearly backfired. Silva an obvious miss, we had to rest him, and without him there we conceded one of the most stupid goal you could find at this level. Mentality wise , there's very little leadership, our captain and co-captain aren't good enough to start anymore, so hardly motivation or leadership required. It's similar to when Ashley Young as United captain, WTF is going to look up at him for inspiration? Biggest issue is still midfield, just not doing enough in both attack and defence, Kovacic is still in recovery mode, whoever we put next to him looks awkward. Again, we should no bet our whole season on Kante's fitness after last season. In terms of qualification, still a long way to go, last time we lost first group game we managed to recover well, so let's not go nuts abut this. We badly need inspiration and a bit of luck, right now it's hard to find either. Like the cliche, just have to work hard and get through this.

We go in to games expecting this really don't we? Boring football, all about keep ball, very few shots, even less goals, usually one is enough to beat us, maybe you need two.

not even mad about it anymore. I expect it.

27 minutes ago, The Don Antonio said:

The fact is our attack is so impotent that teams just play deep to draw us out of our half then hit us on the break. They know we have no playmakers to penetrate down the middle , we  only cross and Insha Allah but have no physical presence in the box. The main problem with our game is our transition play. We get the ball and just hold it till the other team sets up defensively then we pass for passing sake with no peneration. Even city who have better attacking midfielders push the ball foward and dont just try to pass around a set defense.

 

Its a little deeper than that.  This team has all the hallmarks of a team that is "over-coached" in the sense that there is a such fear of going off script and inducing coaching ire, that players lose their creative instincts.  I'll use one example to explain my point.  Against West Ham, there were multiple instances of an attacking player passing the ball back and then making an angled run to space on the outside of the pitch.  Pulisic must have done it 10 to 15 times, Stearling at least six, and there were others.  Each time that happened, not once was the ball played onto the open space for the attacker to go get, and thus have an opportunity to attack the goal with the defense off balance.  Instead, every single time, the ball was then played back into the center, just above the box.  Since there were multiple different players doing this, it was obviously a coached sequence.  In the abstract the play has merit, the angled run to the outside should drag a defender wide and create space for the ball to be played from the central position to a more central run.  However it only works if the defender does go with the initial angled run. If the ball never goes to the runner, there is nothing to keep the defender honest, and they will simply let the runner go and cheat to the center; which is exactly what happened.   No player appeared willing to break script and actually play it to the open space, when that was the play to make because the defenders were ignoring the runner.  I have seen this fear of pissing a coach off with many youth teams over the years, but never have I seen signs of it in professional ranks.  But the symptoms are all there. The result is very little creativity, and the appearance of players being mere "passengers," which in effect they are.   If you want aggressive movement of the ball up the field quickly, players must be given the freedom to take chances, break script, without fear of being berated if it doesn't work out. 

Edited September 6, 20223 yr by Voorhesian

Where does Tuchel go from here? The squad is what it is. Aubameyang and Zakaria were brought in as stop gaps. He’s been left with Pulisic and Ziyech who he is now forced to play even though they know the manager wanted them gone. We got rid of Ampadu, Gilmour and Hudson Odoi, who would all likely be useful squad players. In midfield, everything was gambled on Kante and Kovacic staying fit and that fell apart immediately. He’s tried all combinations of players in the pivot (Jorginho, Loftus Cheek, Gallagher, Mount). It’s not worked. Sides are sitting deep against us and we don’t look like scoring in a month of Sundays. We offer nothing going forward and are too easy to hit on the break. We’re a walkover. The scary thing is it doesn’t look like Tuchel has a plan or the players to change things. We’re going to need another window to fix the mess. In the meantime, Tuchel will need to make do without a functioning midfield, a badly exposed defence, and a stuttering attack. It’s not going to be pretty to watch. 

 

Advantage Zargreb in the race for the Europa league spot.

6 minutes ago, axman2526 said:

Advantage Zargreb in the race for the Europa league spot.

Madrid lost to Sherrif at home in their first game 

nothing is lost yet 

3 minutes ago, Socrates said:

Where does Tuchel go from here? The squad is what it is. Aubameyang and Zakaria were brought in as stop gaps. He’s been left with Pulisic and Ziyech who he is now forced to play even though they know the manager wanted them gone. We got rid of Ampadu, Gilmour and Hudson Odoi, who would all likely be useful squad players. In midfield, everything was gambled on Kante and Kovacic staying fit and that fell apart immediately. He’s tried all combinations of players in the pivot (Jorginho, Loftus Cheek, Gallagher, Mount). It’s not worked. Sides are sitting deep against us and we don’t look like scoring in a month of Sundays. We offer nothing going forward and are too easy to hit on the break. We’re a walkover. The scary thing is it doesn’t look like Tuchel has a plan or the players to change things. We’re going to need another window to fix the mess. In the meantime, Tuchel will need to make do without a functioning midfield, a badly exposed defence, and a stuttering attack. It’s not going to be pretty to watch. 

 

In midfield I suspect Tuchel will revert to caution first, and play Jorginho/Kovacic in the pivot until Kante is available again. Of course that assumes both of them are fit. Elsewhere I have no idea. Dave should be relegated to emergency cover only at this point. Even with Thiago needing regular rests we have other options, and Tuchel's lack of willingness to use Chalobah is mindboggling. I have no confidence he will improve our attack though. It hasn't improved over the 2 years he has been here and I don't expect anything to change. But I would say both Pulisic and Ziyech should also only be involved as emergency cover. Both look like they want out, and have been awful every time they have played this season.

 

8 hours ago, rtwelch said:

Ziyech taking the last free kick off Reece, f**k off you sh*t c**t 

His attitude was so poor. Even that poor effort of a free kick was blocked, on the rebound rather than attempt to pass it, he done some lazy selfish shot which was so half-hearted. Looked like a player who played for himself and was in a strop about his failed transfer move this summer.

The performance and result brings back memories of Viking, Hapeol Tel Aviv, St Gallan. Poor sides who outworked us and showed no interest in the battle and got embarrassed.

 

12 minutes ago, STATS said:

His attitude was so poor. Even that poor effort of a free kick was blocked, on the rebound rather than attempt to pass it, he done some lazy selfish shot which was so half-hearted. Looked like a player who played for himself and was in a strop about his failed transfer move this summer.

If he, or Pulisic, or anyone has such a poor attitude they need to be removed from the squad.

Our greatest strength is spending eye-watering amounts of wonga on non-performing assets...

la cucaracha is worse than Chillwell - and that's saying something. 
 

I hope someone collected Banana fana's jock strap from the pitch after he got destroyed on their fast break goal. 
 

Koulibaly is aimless and a constant double yellow threat. 

And how 'bout Ziyech... ouch.

I could go on...

Edited September 7, 20223 yr by TheRealDavidK

Hmm I have just watched the 1st 30 min. I am not sure I have any complaints. I have defended our attacker many times but not this game, this is not on Tuchel. We got into good attacking position again and again and it led to nothing. 

The CL is supposedly the main attraction for.many players, the big competition. How come pur players could not be motivated for for opening game?

1 hour ago, axman2526 said:

The CL is supposedly the main attraction for.many players, the big competition. How come pur players could not be motivated for for opening game?

Not sure motivation is the problem here. 

I was so angry the way we play against west ham. But against Zagreb, I don't know what to criticize. We got into good position again and again gazillion time. Our attacker simply need to play better. 

 

 

1 hour ago, Bob stark said:

Hmm I have just watched the 1st 30 min. I am not sure I have any complaints. I have defended our attacker many times but not this game, this is not on Tuchel. We got into good attacking position again and again and it led to nothing. 

Keep watching. It deteriorates rapidly

18 minutes ago, WhiteWall said:

Keep watching. It deteriorates rapidly

2nd half Tuchel made mistake bringing in Ziyech and ask sterling to play as cm. 

He should play sterling in Ziyech position and play kova/ruben in sterling position (bring either ruben/Jorgi for Azpi). Overload the right with Sterling, james, kova and st. But this is just hindsight. 

 

10 hours ago, loz said:

It's a lack of back bone. Neither the team or the fans really have any faith that we can come from behind and win a game. There is no belief and no real fight. We miss characters in our squad and we have done next to nothing to address that issue with our purchases. Silva aside I'm struggling to think of a signing in recent years who has a real sense of 'hating losing'. 

I know that's a bit too simplistic but you we have too many players who portray a sense of  'not that arsed' Coasting along as if the game doesn't matter. 

This might be the big miss from losing Rudiger, I felt he always showed a it more drive that the rest bar Mount under Frank.

I don't expect it helped Azpi playing with a new CB partner either and that should get better next time around if it is needed.

I think everything has been said already.., nothing to add.

Unaccaptable performance, some of the players don't really deserve to wear the Chelsea shirt.