It might have been fun but......

[ethicalstrategy]

....we won't win the league playing like that and we sure as hell won't win the Champions League.

I'm all for playing positive football but I hope that Jose is smart enough to pick his games wisely. I guess we will see next Sunday!

I don't want to pass the ball to death without being able to score like Arsenal or go gung ho in attack like Man U and then find that top opponents can easily snuff you out.

I prefer the Nick Faldo approach - measured and sophisticated - rather than the John Daly "grip it and rip it", now let's find the ball approach

[Guest Brian M]

Not often I'm lost for words, but that post has gasted my flabber!

More sexy football for me, thanks! (ideally without the school boy defending though)

[Lofty]

Some people are never satisfied. And thanfully, Jose is one of them ... er I mean someone who is never satisfied.

[ethicalstrategy]

Not often I'm lost for words, but that post has gasted my flabber!

More sexy football for me, thanks! (ideally without the school boy defending though)

But the big question is do you want sexy football at the expense of winning anything?

And you don't think that there was any correlation between the fact that we were more attacking and at the same time less secure defensively?

[sergeyMS]

Not often I'm lost for words, but that post has gasted my flabber!

More sexy football for me, thanks! (ideally without the school boy defending though)

But the big question is do you want sexy football at the expense of winning anything?

And you don't think that there was any correlation between the fact that we were more attacking and at the same time less secure defensively?

Our defence is far from being optimal and condition is far from being 100 percent.

In the mid-season with JT we should be beating Birmingham 3-0.

[g3.7]

ethical, good post.

it's stupid to play one kind of football all the way through.

equally, playing for set peices with 10 men behind the ball at walking pace at home to birmingham will see people in the crowd begin to kill themselves.

the two goals came from a johnno mistake and a set peice. paulo will take care of the first, and JT the second (plus drogba helps there too).

the thing is we weren't measured and sophisticated last season, we were long ball. in the league we took 3 points off liverpool at home- that was our one win against other sides in the top 4.

but the earliy indication is good- we were lacking a striker in the community shield, but you could see how we played wa different to how he treated brum.

we won't win the league ONLY playing like that, but it's important we do play like that in games where we are on the front foot.

p.s. I don't think we were gung ho (birmingham never got behind us once), or orverplayed (the chances we made were proof of that).

[jack h]

I wouldn't be too worried about the goals from Birmingham we were without JT and Drogba for the cross and someone else said in another thread that it was the first time that defence had played together apart from the Community shield.

As for their second goal GJ should have made a better tackle but their wasn't much Cech or probebly any other keeper could have done about the shot.

[Jack]

Jose is not the sort of coach to adopt a style for any length of time - he even adapts the team during any one game to suit the situation. We went out to attack on Sunday and got caught a couple of times, big deal. His assessment that we could have scored 6 or 7 was pretty accurate and we'd all be singing his praises if it'd come off. The fact that the scoreline was so close was due to a combination of wayward finishing and poor defending on a couple of occasions. Having said that I don't think for one second Jose is a paid up member of the local looney bin - to adopt the same approach at Reading and Livertool would be madness, and I'm sure he knows it.

The main thing now is that we now have another dimension to confound the opposition with - we could conceivably go to Reading and play with two widemen and attack from the off, or play with a diamond and two strikers, or with a 3 in midfield. The players we have also allow us to put in a team sheet that keeps the opposition guessing right up to kick-off and even then we could adapt it as we go along. SWP, Malouda, Joey Cole can all play in midfield or wide. The Pizza Man can play off a lone striker while we have two wide men on the pitch - there are many, many permutations and I think Jose wants the ability to change formations and philosophies on command.

In summary I'd say that it's not all so black and white, Jose knows what he's doing and given the players will do what he feels is right for each game - I think we have to say he's been right 99% of the time these past 3 years so lets see how this new addition to his armoury pans out.

[MannyJello]

I prefer the Nick Faldo approach - measured and sophisticated - rather than the John Daly "grip it and rip it", now let's find the ball approach

what's not sophisticated about John Daly???

[callista]

Jose is not the sort of coach to adopt a style for any length of time - he even adapts the team during any one game to suit the situation. We went out to attack on Sunday and got caught a couple of times, big deal. His assessment that we could have scored 6 or 7 was pretty accurate and we'd all be singing his praises if it'd come off. The fact that the scoreline was so close was due to a combination of wayward finishing and poor defending on a couple of occasions. Having said that I don't think for one second Jose is a paid up member of the local looney bin - to adopt the same approach at Reading and Livertool would be madness, and I'm sure he knows it.

The main thing now is that we now have another dimension to confound the opposition with - we could conceivably go to Reading and play with two widemen and attack from the off, or play with a diamond and two strikers, or with a 3 in midfield. The players we have also allow us to put in a team sheet that keeps the opposition guessing right up to kick-off and even then we could adapt it as we go along. SWP, Malouda, Joey Cole can all play in midfield or wide. The Pizza Man can play off a lone striker while we have two wide men on the pitch - there are many, many permutations and I think Jose wants the ability to change formations and philosophies on command.

In summary I'd say that it's not all so black and white, Jose knows what he's doing and given the players will do what he feels is right for each game - I think we have to say he's been right 99% of the time these past 3 years so lets see how this new addition to his armoury pans out.

Great post Jack, I enjoyed the game against Birmingham and liked our style of play there (and so did the press by the looks of it), I still could have done without the heart in the mouth ending wondering if Birmingham could stick another goal in the back of our net before the whistle went.

As you say, Jose is too sophisticated a coach to just play one style over another, I doubt we would play the same way against Reading and Liverpool as we did against Birmingham. If Reading turns into a 3-3 thriller then I will be very surprised.

Still, I wouldn't mind seeing more play like that - a lot more but we have to tighten up our defending. Although if we do play more attack minded this year, I think fans have to accept there is bound to be some trade off in goals conceded.

[Kev123]

Jose is not the sort of coach to adopt a style for any length of time - he even adapts the team during any one game to suit the situation. We went out to attack on Sunday and got caught a couple of times, big deal. His assessment that we could have scored 6 or 7 was pretty accurate and we'd all be singing his praises if it'd come off. The fact that the scoreline was so close was due to a combination of wayward finishing and poor defending on a couple of occasions. Having said that I don't think for one second Jose is a paid up member of the local looney bin - to adopt the same approach at Reading and Livertool would be madness, and I'm sure he knows it.

The main thing now is that we now have another dimension to confound the opposition with - we could conceivably go to Reading and play with two widemen and attack from the off, or play with a diamond and two strikers, or with a 3 in midfield. The players we have also allow us to put in a team sheet that keeps the opposition guessing right up to kick-off and even then we could adapt it as we go along. SWP, Malouda, Joey Cole can all play in midfield or wide. The Pizza Man can play off a lone striker while we have two wide men on the pitch - there are many, many permutations and I think Jose wants the ability to change formations and philosophies on command.

In summary I'd say that it's not all so black and white, Jose knows what he's doing and given the players will do what he feels is right for each game - I think we have to say he's been right 99% of the time these past 3 years so lets see how this new addition to his armoury pans out.

Great post Jack, I enjoyed the game against Birmingham and liked our style of play there (and so did the press by the looks of it), I still could have done without the heart in the mouth ending wondering if Birmingham could stick another goal in the back of our net before the whistle went.

On the other hand, prior to this we had many 1-0 games where i sat the last 10 minutes heart in mouth praying the other team would not score, and we didn't have anything to watch except long ball tactics all game.

Or how many games last season which we won right at the death, in the final few minutes, when if we'd attacked continuously we'd probably be 3-0 up.

Personally I can happily take the heart and mouth moments (which we get anyway playing defensive, just a little less frequently) in exchange to watch Chelsea play good attacking football.

[callista]

Jose is not the sort of coach to adopt a style for any length of time - he even adapts the team during any one game to suit the situation. We went out to attack on Sunday and got caught a couple of times, big deal. His assessment that we could have scored 6 or 7 was pretty accurate and we'd all be singing his praises if it'd come off. The fact that the scoreline was so close was due to a combination of wayward finishing and poor defending on a couple of occasions. Having said that I don't think for one second Jose is a paid up member of the local looney bin - to adopt the same approach at Reading and Livertool would be madness, and I'm sure he knows it.

The main thing now is that we now have another dimension to confound the opposition with - we could conceivably go to Reading and play with two widemen and attack from the off, or play with a diamond and two strikers, or with a 3 in midfield. The players we have also allow us to put in a team sheet that keeps the opposition guessing right up to kick-off and even then we could adapt it as we go along. SWP, Malouda, Joey Cole can all play in midfield or wide. The Pizza Man can play off a lone striker while we have two wide men on the pitch - there are many, many permutations and I think Jose wants the ability to change formations and philosophies on command.

In summary I'd say that it's not all so black and white, Jose knows what he's doing and given the players will do what he feels is right for each game - I think we have to say he's been right 99% of the time these past 3 years so lets see how this new addition to his armoury pans out.

Great post Jack, I enjoyed the game against Birmingham and liked our style of play there (and so did the press by the looks of it), I still could have done without the heart in the mouth ending wondering if Birmingham could stick another goal in the back of our net before the whistle went.

On the other hand, prior to this we had many 1-0 games where i sat the last 10 minutes heart in mouth praying the other team would not score, and we didn't have anything to watch except long ball tactics all game.

Or how many games last season which we won right at the death, in the final few minutes, when if we'd attacked continuously we'd probably be 3-0 up.

Personally I can happily take the heart and mouth moments (which we get anyway playing defensive, just a little less frequently) in exchange to watch Chelsea play good attacking football.

Point taken about the 1-0 - just as agonizing and not half as entertaining!

I'll join your "lets have a more entertaining Chelsea" club then.

[clubhappy]

I dont see us being that poor at the back when J.T. returns . He's such a great organiser and reader of the game , and you could see Carv missed his presence.

I can see Jose being far more cautious v Pool and sitting back , but we all know how dangerous that is. If we control the midfield and get decent passing movement to wide players i think they will struggle to cope. SWP has to start , get as much ball to him and if he can take on the full back with his pace we will create chances .

Joey on the other side and i think they will be frightened and wont push forward as much as they would like .

[ethicalstrategy]

I acknowledge a lot of the points that have been made, but the fact remains that if we play with two wide men and two strikers then we will leave more space defensively. Of course it helps if JT is back and we have a more secure right back but it doesn't change the fact that we will be likely to concede more especially against the better teams in the PL and more particularly in Europe.

BTW I can think of some very sophisticated games that we played last year - Valencia in the 2nd Leg, Man U in the Cup Final both spring to mind.