5 minutes ago, erskblue said:

Very good points.

Real Madrid played as a team and like a team should last night.

I felt we lost two soft goals. However, they could have scored a couple more goals.

We never really looked that confident or comfortable in possession and only really threatened them on a couple of occasions

Agreed. We can't blame Frank for not having an alternative striker in the CL squad but it was evident to me that we hadn't really worked much on a false 9 strategy.  We had a couple of early breaks but that was more to do with neglect by Real rather than any particular pattern from us.

The goals were indeed soft and we say it week in week out, how you play is secondary because it is goals that change the complexion of a game.

Play poorly and get overrun and then score. Suddenly confidence starts to increase for us and the opposition take stock and start to change their strategy.

Fail to do that and then concede rubbish playground goals and the reverse happens.

Real could have done more against us, but why. Against a team that barely musters three shots on target in a game are they really concerned that a 2 goal lead isn't enough.

Not a terribly bad result. I expected worse. 

When I've heard in the past how people say things like the owners have ruined the club, I never understood what they meant. 

Thanks to Boehly I'm seeing it first hand now. 

What a tool. 

Nothing was broken, nothing. Yet he's ripped and gutted and took us down this path. What a state. 

Edited April 13, 20233 yr by abister1

Shows how far we've fallen that I'm quietly relieved Real Madrid didn't completely smash us.

Edited April 13, 20233 yr by Jezz

1 minute ago, Jezz said:

Shows how far we've fallen that I'm quietly relieved Real Madrid didn't completely smash us.

They just do as much as needed to advance, not the first time they would be saving their best for the final stage. Routine win for them which makes it a bit sad from our point of view.

We completely battered them for the first 3 minutes. If only Felix had found the corner....

Tbh Frank picked pretty much the team & formation I would have. I can't complain - i thought we'd lose 3-0 before the kick off. Simply isn't SFL's fault we have no quality striker in our squad.

Another ragingly obvious difference was the keepers. Kepa always looks likely to concede, Thibaut was a colossus in their goal. Kepa was no replacement for him, not even half the keeper. We badly need a top class goalie, that second goal would have been saved by Courtois, no doubt.

And on the sending off, that effectively ended the game - f**king CUCARELLA again! The man is a walking disaster, pushes to far forward, gets caught out and Chillers gets dealt a sh*t hand. FFS please never, ever let him near a shirt again. The worst signing (value for money) ever in my 50 years.

2-0 wouldn't be too bad normally, but where the hell are we going to find 3 goals at the moment.

Edited April 13, 20233 yr by ChumpX

10 hours ago, Blue Pete said:

A lot of our "fans" don't support the club regardless how long. You've only got to look at some of the comments on these forums and social media in general 

100% - There were a couple of total bell-ends on TalkSport - One "supporter," "Lawrence" said he was happy we got beat. He can just f**k off right back to the pram he jumped out of. Proper fans don't do the dirty in public. If you want to complain do it on forums etc, but never, ever say your happy your team lost anywhere, never mind on national radio you twat,  If anyone recognized him - give him a slap and remind him what it is to support a team.

 

Edited April 13, 20233 yr by ChumpX

in reality an interim manager does not work . watching that match last nite chelsea players had no leadership they are in limbo, imagine being in a job with no manager , one of blokes stepping in telling you what to do, not knowing when permanent manager was coming . if your honest you would not be anywhere near giving or thinking 100% on job in hand. thats what i saw last nite, players half heartily passing , not chasing lost ball, not playing in any team plan. we need manager picked soon.  VERY SOON.

9 hours ago, Droyman said:

I see we've now become 'free scoring' since we sacked Potter!!! He was obviously the problem!

Hence why some people were hesitant about sacking Potter. It's never just one reason things are going badly. 

11 minutes ago, ChumpX said:

100% - There were a couple of total bell-ends on TalkSport - One "supporter," "Lawrence" said he was happy we got beat. He can just f**k off right back to the pram he jumped out of. Proper fans don't do the dirty in public. If you want to complain do it on forums etc, but never, ever say your happy your team lost anywhere, never mind on national radio you twat,  If anyone recognized him - give him a slap and remind him what it is to support a team.

 

Some of those bellends are residing here. Every loss is a step towards a New Jerusalem, donchaknow. 

8 hours ago, JJ8 said:

I don't deny that we need a striker or two. But like as i added in my post , look at Arsenal's Midfield - they have scored more goals than all of our players.

That was my point, you can't have a striker these days who can score more than 20 goals per season. In that case you need others who can score too.

Even Haaland had games where he didn't score and others were there to score.

In modern football you can't rely on one or two people. Back at day Drogba also wasn't a player with many goals. So we have to find the balance, no to trough money for nothing.

But it is not about them as individuals scoring 20 goals every season.  Having that striker ENABLES the players around them. The draw defenders to them and create space. They hold the ball up and buy time. Big physical strikers like Drogba, Kane, Halaand win a very high percentage of aerial balls which ENABLES the players around them to run on to. All 3 of the strikers I have name checked here could also create chances themselves.

We need a frickin striker simple as. And ANY manager we bring in will suffer the same fate until we get a striker, (or two), who can do the job properly.

55 minutes ago, abister1 said:

When I've heard in the past how people say things like the owners have ruined the club, I never understood what they meant. 

Thanks to Boehly I'm seeing it first hand now. 

What a tool. 

Nothing was broken, nothing. Yet he's ripped and gutted and took us down this path. What a state. 

Personally, I don't quite agree with that. Despite even winning the CL, I feel that we'd been a house of cards for some time. The forced change of ownership is what brought it finally crashing down. But Boehly and Clearlakes ownership could probably have even brought down an underground nuclear bunker made of 6 foot thick reinforced concrete.

Edited April 13, 20233 yr by Snedger

12 minutes ago, just said:

We need a frickin striker simple as. And ANY manager we bring in will suffer the same fate until we get a striker, (or two), who can do the job properly.

We signed a striker in January though. Looked decent for 45 minutes, hooked at half time and banished to the development squad ever since.

1 hour ago, WhiteWall said:

Agreed. We can't blame Frank for not having an alternative striker in the CL squad but it was evident to me that we hadn't really worked much on a false 9 strategy.  We had a couple of early breaks but that was more to do with neglect by Real rather than any particular pattern from us.

The goals were indeed soft and we say it week in week out, how you play is secondary because it is goals that change the complexion of a game.

Play poorly and get overrun and then score. Suddenly confidence starts to increase for us and the opposition take stock and start to change their strategy.

Fail to do that and then concede rubbish playground goals and the reverse happens.

Real could have done more against us, but why. Against a team that barely musters three shots on target in a game are they really concerned that a 2 goal lead isn't enough.

They very probably realised we weren’t very confident in possession or that likely to threaten them. They then built possession and began to dictate the game. They must feel confident about going through. Can’t see them being concerned 2-0 isn’t enough.

Real Madrid is the best side in the Champions League in the last decade. Their core is mainly the same. Modric and Kroos running things, worlds best Tibo in goal and Benzema who is the current worlds best player is in the attack. And they are the current champion.

If our team was in any shape or form we could have won that Team in their own backyard. Hell, even yesterday if Tibo didn't make save of the season for Sterling shot and Cucu didn't compromise Chilly for the red it could have been 1-1. In actuality we could have won with some luck and we are basically shambles in terms of basically everything. 

We are still in the tie. We go back to the Bridge and everyone will be behind the team. One mistake from them leading to red card, goal we are driving the tie suddenly. It happens. 

The pressure on Real to deliver anything on this season is basically on this CL. Ancelotti could leave and he wants to leave on a high. 

 

7 minutes ago, OriginalS said:

We signed a striker in January though. Looked decent for 45 minutes, hooked at half time and banished to the development squad ever since.

True. He looked very raw and obviously not the finished article. But he seemed to be a natural centre-forward, worked hard, bit of pace, and physically he was handful. No idea why he hasn't been used further. Unlike Aubameyang. I can totally understand why he has been ignored. Every time he has been on the pitch it looks like we have 10 men.

Edited April 13, 20233 yr by just

7 minutes ago, just said:

Unlike Aubameyang. I can totally understand why he has been ignored. Every time he has been on the pitch it looks like we have 10 men.

Another player that was handled in a shambolic way by Potter in my opinion alongside Datro Fofana and many others. At the start he looked like exactly the kind of striker we needed - someone that could put the ball in the net. With Tuchel at the club I am 100% sure Aubameyang would be our top scorer this season with 20+ goals.

20 minutes ago, evissy said:

Benzema who is the current worlds best player is in the attack.

11 minutes ago, OriginalS said:

With Tuchel at the club I am 100% sure Aubameyang would be our top scorer this season with 20+ goals.

I loved Tuchel, but even he wouldnt be able to get anything out of that completely lazy prick.

1 hour ago, Jezz said:

Shows how far we've fallen that I'm quietly relieved Real Madrid didn't completely smash us.

Buckle up. It’s only half time.

pretty typical to see the opinions im seeing. A few weeks ago it was all on potter, but when lampard is doing even worse lets not blame the manager and blame the players instead (except mount)

how absurd

8 hours ago, Argo said:

We won the super cup before Lukaku arrived and yes got to two finals but if the striker is the be an and end all how do you explain we lost lost those finals to a team that was playing a winger up front on both occasions? One of which Lukaku played for 85 minutes and did the square root of f**k all.

We also won the UCL (and made top 4) without Lukaku the year before. City won the league without a out and out 9 twice (and now maybe surrending it despite having the best one around to a team that guess what? Don't usually play with an out and out 9), Liverpool won the league and UCL with attacking midfielder Firmino leading the line.

We made 3rd due to runs of form we had when Lukaku was injured (in the autumn) and finally benched (after his 7 touch masterclass vs Palace). Had we persisted with him all season we probably wouldn't have made it.

Im not saying its the be all end all, I said we’d be higher up the table with a few strikers, we still need a good manager. 
 

The year before we still had Giroud and Tammy. 
 

Liverpool won the league with Salah and Mane, we have Sterling and Ziyech. If youre going to play without strikers you still need players who can get you 20 goals a season, we dont.

 

I also remember how awful we played with Hazard playing up front and with Willian and Pedro on the wings. It just never worked for us. 

Next week is the biggest game of the season. Failing that then we might as well bring in the new manager for early pre-season

10 hours ago, Vialli96 said:

Won the super cup, Finished 3rd and made 2 domestic cup finals. Hence why I said we finish in the top 4 with a striker. Youve just proven my point you numpty.

If you cant value or see what a striker brings to the table you are someone who hasnt played the game, not even to a local level. 
 

‘Antonio’ without Costa Chelsea dont get anywhere winning the league in 16-17.

we did that with basically Kai at CF. Lukaku had a bit part role. Did he contribute? Sometimes but it's not like we were reliant on Lukaku

18 minutes ago, Deino said:

Next week is the biggest game of the season. Failing that then we might as well bring in the new manager for early pre-season

I think this changing managers on quarterly basis is a good thing. Roman never had the balls to do so. Boehly is still learning but soon it is a reality. As a corporate man he knows the world is measured in quarters. 

I've watched the first goal again this morning.

OMG what an absolute cluster f**k that was from the entire midfield and defence ... 

First frame : we have a three man midfield and you can practically throw a hoop over them ... I'm no coach, but that "shape" relative to the pitch looks terrible to me. It's like they're all ball-chasing.

Second frame ... ball is played across to the huge space that Carvajal can move into. James and Fofana are in horrible positions here (red circle) - both wrong side of the two Madrid players 

Third frame : thee ball is about to be played forward. Fofana has realised the danger and started to shift. James has hardly moved.  Silva and Koulibaly, with Fofana,  have about 2 yards on Vinicius and Benzema at this point. 

Fourth frame :  but now the defence has been completely out-paced and both Madrid players are ahead of them.  Chilwell has hardly moved, just stood there watching Benzema move into position A for a potential rebound. James just jogging slowly into the penalty area. A long way away from the main action now.

 

No way we should have conceded this goal. Terrible positioning, and poor reactions to a threat all round. 

Someone like Ashley Cole would have been scampering back to where Benzema ultimately scores from ... and would either have booted it out for a corner when Kepa spilled it, or have been on the goal line to attempt a block.

 

 

Edited April 13, 20233 yr by Sexyfootball