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The last 30 days form are as follows...

Played 9 (L'pool-Hull-Sunderland-Roma-Blackburn-Burnley-WestBrom-Newcastle-Bordeaux)

Won 4

Drew 2

Lost 3

F 16

A 6

This is nowhere near good enough, start worrying.

Edited by coco



looks like we've gone full circle

the chelsea of old are back, win a couple draw a few lose a couple win a couple and lose or draw to a team we should be beating

think theres a few players that need to hold there hands up and say sorry we wernt good enough, not just the boss, but he'll get the brunt of the flack

bouncebackability with a good win aginst the arse at the weekend

the chelsea of old are back, win a couple draw a few lose a couple win a couple and lose or draw to a team we should be beating

We'd always lose to some Norwegian no-marks in the early reaches of the UEFA Cup, and then respond with a mysterious amazing performance against a big team.

May I refer you to the time we beat Man Ure 5-0 the season after they won the treble? <_<

I'm not going to panic just yet. But it dosn't look too promising does it. Still think we will have the EPL but I have great reservations about the CL.



I would happily take getting knocked out of the CL tomorrow if it meant winning the Premiership. The way our players are currently buckling to teams we should be, at least, competitive with doesn't fill me with any confidence that we will win the league.

I would happily take getting knocked out of the CL tomorrow if it meant winning the Premiership. The way our players are currently buckling to teams we should be, at least, competitive with doesn't fill me with any confidence that we will win the league.

Same here. It wouldn't matter to get rid of all our CL dreams when we're able to get the PL trophy back. My worries are that if we're out of the CL Roman/Kenyon is going to sack our manager again. Given what they've done to Grant and Mourinho I can't can't can't imagine they'll keep him when he fails to qualify for the CL. And when a new manager arrives whatever his pedigree might be we can't really suspect the first runs to be successful can we? So our PL-dreams will be shaken if we're out of the CL

I would happily take getting knocked out of the CL tomorrow if it meant winning the Premiership. The way our players are currently buckling to teams we should be, at least, competitive with doesn't fill me with any confidence that we will win the league.

seconded fully

we need new blood in this team asap, and somehow management has turned off the once free fountain of cash until it has become a dripping faucet. Its bizarre decision making

I feel as if the players have slipped into a zone of ambivalence and when they cant run a team over they just stop trying altogether. Its as if, when we cant win in style, we dont wanna win at all.

Technically, we drew with Burnley, but it did feel like a loss and we did get knocked out so point taken.

However, let's see how we do against Arsenal at home and then we can discuss this. I'm feeling underwhelmed but we're not doing too badly.

We're certainly short a Robinho from being just about unbeatable.

Cheers,

Butch



I think I will postpone my panicking until we know the results from the matches in the festive season. That horrible 4-4 match against Villa last year told me we were going to win sod all (and got told off by Yorkleyblue for my eternal pessimism :P )

Any doubt that Scolari's honeymoon period is well and truly over was dispelled when he brought on Paulo for Joe Cole. It doesn't exactly take a master tactitian to work out that Paulo just possibly may not be exactly the best option when you're in desperate need of a winner. So maybe Joe wasn't having one of his best games last night. But Paulo? Is a defensive full back, has scored once in all his time at the Bridge, is short of match practice .. even Alex who at least has attacking instincts, would have been a better option than Paolo, surely?

Ok, being extremely generous here, and if Paolo on for Joe Cole was the best available option, then it either speaks volumes for Scolari's squad selection, or for the strength in depth, or lack thereof at the club.

Scolari is beginning to make Grant look like a good manager, his last chance (for me) is this Sunday - fail to beat the gooners and he should be put under the Microscope.

BTW - wtf was Terry doing in the 1st half last night - playing left back and looking lost - maybe that c**t on the PA system made him spin-off

Any doubt that Scolari's honeymoon period is well and truly over was dispelled when he brought on Paulo for Joe Cole. It doesn't exactly take a master tactitian to work out that Paulo just possibly may not be exactly the best option when you're in desperate need of a winner. So maybe Joe wasn't having one of his best games last night. But Paulo? Is a defensive full back, has scored once in all his time at the Bridge, is short of match practice .. even Alex who at least has attacking instincts, would have been a better option than Paolo, surely?

Ok, being extremely generous here, and if Paolo on for Joe Cole was the best available option, then it either speaks volumes for Scolari's squad selection, or for the strength in depth, or lack thereof at the club.

But we wereen't in desperate need of a winner.

I think at that stage, with us down to 10 men, Scolari was more worried about us conceding and losing the match than looking for a winner and to be honest, you can't blame him. A 1-1 draw, although not a great result, at least left us safe in the knowledge that a win in our last game and we are through (we can even possibly draw and still go through). If Bordeaux had scored and won 2-1 we would have been in DEEP sh*t!

Still doesn't excuse for the overall woeful performance. The more I look at our squad at the moment, the more I wonder where the real quality is?



The thing is Lofty, is that worryingly I don't think Scolari was even thinking about getting the winner once they equalised, and brought on Paulo to ensure we didn't lose, which is seriously embarrassing. To be hanging on against a Bordeaux team that had outplayed us all game is just not something a team of this calibre should ever be doing, however well the oppo play.

Ok, maybe to say we were desperately in need of a winner is a bit of an exaggeration, but that's how I saw it last night - before the game we were expected to win, expected to wrap up qualification to the next stage, and when it came down to it, the game itself - don't forget that Anelka's goal in the 60th minute, was our first shot of the night, either on or off target. Now that itself is an appallingingly embarrassingly woeful statistic. Put it another way, if our recent home domestic form is transferred to the Champions League, then beating Cluj at home is anything but a foregone conclusion.

Was Paulo brought on before or after the sending off? To be honest I can't remember. You can

blame that on the shock of sitting through a performance like last night's.

But we wereen't in desperate need of a winner.

I think at that stage, with us down to 10 men, Scolari was more worried about us conceding and losing the match than looking for a winner and to be honest, you can't blame him. A 1-1 draw, although not a great result, at least left us safe in the knowledge that a win in our last game and we are through (we can even possibly draw and still go through). If Bordeaux had scored and won 2-1 we would have been in DEEP sh*t!

Still doesn't excuse for the overall woeful performance. The more I look at our squad at the moment, the more I wonder where the real quality is?

Nib i totally agree with this. We didnt need to win last night, however losing wouldve been a disaster and wouldve changed the makeup of the group going into the last game. I dont blame him for that sub at all and i might well have done the same thing.

As you say its the performance that grates andw e were totally shocking. When Anelka scored i just laughed - i cant remember a team anywhere, anytime ever taking a lead so undeservedly.

I really am scared about Sunday and what the possible fallout could be, for us as fans, but most of all for Scolari.

We'd always lose to some Norwegian no-marks in the early reaches of the UEFA Cup, and then respond with a mysterious amazing performance against a big team.

May I refer you to the time we beat Man Ure 5-0 the season after they won the treble? :P

May i re-reffer you to the following week where we lost 1-0 to watford?



Scolari has failed to win a big game with us. Jose won them almost always, AG managed to beat Arsenal in the league and Lpool in CL. This weekend it has to happen, otherwise I'm starting to question Scolari and co.

If you put it into perspective:

-we failed to get the one player Scolari wanted (Robinho)

-we lost Essien and Drogba's been out almost all the time. Two names that would have played every game. Now we have Malouda, Anelka and Mikel instead of names mentioned above. They have done well but...

Scolari hasn't done too bad as we lead the league but this CL form worries me to be honest. They are so different games to domestic ones. I wonder if Scolari pushes himself and his men enough in these games.

I'm desperately hoping he'll manage it to beat the gooners. And although the CL title doesn't mean much to me personally I'm desperately hoping he'll manage to beat Cluj. Now just think of the point, Chelsea, the finalist of last year's CL season, mighty Chelsea, one of the biggest club in the world with some of the most talented players in the world must worry if they're capable to beat a team like Cluj. Not to underrate their quality, they have some. But it sounds incredible nonetheless. In every ear.

If he doesn't manage to beat Cluj then I think it's neither Drogba nor Malouda to enter the exit door first - it'll be most probably Scolari to take his coat over Christmas. Roman and Kenyon are keen on winning the CL, sometimes I have the impression nothing counts for them no more. If Scolari fails to do that - I cannot imagine them keeping him. Otherwise they needn't have sacked Mourinho. Needn't have sacked Grant. Neither of them have been doing worse than Scolari has done so far.

Don't get me wrong I'm neither defending Scolari nor am I supporting him and keeping my eyes shut before reality. I just hope he won't get sacked because if left the CL aside we have hope in competing well in the EPL, and when Scolari goes in Christmas how shall we manage to keep us as a competitive side?

Reality Check required...

Not disagreeing that the honeymoon period is over... but pre-Jose which manager in the premier league would have been expected to win anything in their first year (or even first few years) ? .. it was un-heard of.. the only club daft enough to want that level of success in the world was Real Madrid.

Added to this. Scolari has had far less to spend than Jose and Grant.

Also injuries most of the season to Essien, Carvalho, Cole, Drogba, Deco, Ballack.. Important players.

Fair enough, times have moved on and instance success seems to be standard, but I certainly wont be judging him to harshly until he has been through at least two more transfer windows. Think he is doing a fine job.

Players have to look at themselves for perfomances away in the CL's this season, been odd !!

But we wereen't in desperate need of a winner.

I think at that stage, with us down to 10 men, Scolari was more worried about us conceding and losing the match than looking for a winner and to be honest, you can't blame him. A 1-1 draw, although not a great result, at least left us safe in the knowledge that a win in our last game and we are through (we can even possibly draw and still go through). If Bordeaux had scored and won 2-1 we would have been in DEEP sh*t!

Still doesn't excuse for the overall woeful performance. The more I look at our squad at the moment, the more I wonder where the real quality is?

Nibs, Palo was brought in after we conceded the equalizer but before Lampard was sent off.

That's why it made no sense.

Edited by abramovich



Reality Check required...

Not disagreeing that the honeymoon period is over... but pre-Jose which manager in the premier league would have been expected to win anything in their first year (or even first few years) ? .. it was un-heard of.. the only club daft enough to want that level of success in the world was Real Madrid.

Added to this. Scolari has had far less to spend than Jose and Grant.

Also injuries most of the season to Essien, Carvalho, Cole, Drogba, Deco, Ballack.. Important players.

Fair enough, times have moved on and instance success seems to be standard, but I certainly wont be judging him to harshly until he has been through at least two more transfer windows. Think he is doing a fine job.

Players have to look at themselves for perfomances away in the CL's this season, been odd !!

I disagree on couple of points. Grant had even worse injury crisis to deal with and as for money, he only got to spend in January (Anelka + Ivanovic = 24 million). Our biggest problem last season at the right back position was resolved with Bosingwa(16 mil) before Big Phil had even arrived.Scolari brought in Deco(8 mil) and was going to get Robinho(28 mil). Don't know where all that stuff about Scolari being denied transfer money in the summer comes from, it's simply not true.The money was there and he identified the players he wanted to add and subtract, and with one exception, he got what he wanted.

Add to it the fact that unlike Grant he had the preseason to assess and prepare the squad and many here weren't willing to give Avram any time to prove himself considering the timing and difficulty of the situation he was thrown into.

I'm not lobbying for Grant all I'm saying is that every manager should be treated the same when it comes to praise or criticism. I don't mean you in particular, just trying to point out how differently we look at the same things depending how we feel about the man in charge.

Edited by abramovich

People talk about the calibre of this Chelsea team, but I've started to wonder what exactly is the calibre we're talking about? Yes, we've got loads of talent in the squad, but it's not a very balanced squad. We've got loads of quality defenders and central midfielders and top quality keepers, but our options up front are thin to say the least. Kalou's and Malouda's shooting is poor and Joe Cole is nowhere near the level we've come to expect from him. As for our strikers...our best and pretty much only option at the moment is Anelka who can't seem to be able to score in big matches. Drogba is not match fit and to be honest I fear he's more motivated on finding a new club than getting back to his best at Chelsea. Di Santo is still too young to be relied upon to win us big matches yet and there is no one in the Ressies who would be good enough to play the lone striker.

I have serious doubts about Scolari's man management skills, especially his skills to motivate players. Sure, the injuries have made it difficult for us but a bit too often the players don't really seem very interested in winning the match. I'm not sure if it's just a coincidence that during Scolari's reign we've only signed or been interested in signing portuguese speaking players. It might be that when there isn't a lot of money to buy new players he wants to play it safe and get players he knows well, but I have to say I found it a bit weird that only Robinho was good enough for Scolari, especially when you look at our "wingers". We seriously need new attacking players, but it seems that we haven't got the needed money to purchase the player(s) we need.

Although...to be fair, it hasn't been easy for Scolari with all the injuries and it certainly won't make it any easier when he hasn't managed a club in a long time and has never done that in Europe, let alone in England which quite a different ballgame to anything he has experienced during his long career. The weird part is that I expected him to do a "Benitez" and suffer in the domestic league and do well in the UCL, but so far we've done better in the Premiership, but a lot of it has to do with us having our bad matches in different competitions and we've been lucky that our nearest rivals have dropped points in the league as much as they have. We really should've capitalised on last weekend's results, but it seems that the players just aren't up to it at the moment. I'm not sure if it's lack of motivation and/or confidence or are they just physically and/or mentally drained from having to play so many matches due to injuries.

Whatever the case, at the moment the future does not look bright.

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Last nights draw may not be a disaster, but our form over the last month (9 games all comps) has been.

For me, the problems have been covered up, with resounding wins against Sunderland & West Brom.

We need to look at the bigger picture, its no good saying 'but were top of the league', look at the start Manure and Ars have had this season, its no wonder were in front of them, even Lpool have not exactly set the prem alight, with some stuttering form.

In a masochistic way, I hope we lose our lead in the prem, at least then we wont be kidding ourselves were world beaters.

Yes the honeymoon is over, and the seven year itch is very close.

Nibs, Palo was brought in after we conceded the equalizer but before Lampard was sent off.

That's why it made no sense.

You're right! It all happened pretty quickly - they drew level, we made a sub and then Lamps was sent off.

That said, even with 11 men on the pitch, I think we were better to try and shut up shop and settle for the draw (as Jose would have done) than go for a win and perhaps shoot ourselves in the foot.

The fact we were almost immediately reduced to 10 men and Scolari had already brought on an extra defender could be seen as a masterstroke!! ;)



Add to it the fact that unlike Grant he had the preseason to assess and prepare the squad and many here weren't willing to give Avram any time to prove himself considering the timing and difficulty of the situation he was thrown into.

I'm not lobbying for Grant all I'm saying is that every manager should be treated the same when it comes to praise or criticism. I don't mean you in particular, just trying to point out how differently we look at the same things depending how we feel about the man in charge.

Fully agree here. I'm not sure if it has something to do with JT, or if it's just a coincidence or how much JT has an impact on the situation now. When Avram Grant took over Chelsea underwent a sudden crisis, as usual when the coach is sacked surprisingly mid-season. That's why we've lost in Old Trafford last year. But then Chelsea suddenly came back with a fighting brillance against Valencia in the CL and JT had a great impact on that game and his team mates especially playing as the iron man in the mask. The team would't have stood up to quickly without JT as he played a mjaor role in "integrating" Grant. And now as we've all seen JT isn't at his best. Could JT have such an impact on the team? OK I know the two situations aren't comparable but I just wanted to say that we had enough big problems last year this time and managed to get quite well but not so this year. We don't suffer as much as we did last year but the results don't prove that.

We seriously need new attacking players, but it seems that we haven't got the needed money to purchase the player(s) we need.

I have my questions over what Scolari was doing in the summer. OK he had to play Portugal in the Euros, but after that, despite having signed Deco I'm asking myself seriously if he's spotted enough players. One of the major jobs as club manager is to spot new additions to the squad. Maybe he didn't do it that much being a national coach he's been in Portugal but until today I'm asking if he had really gotten himself an overview about available players in Europe, their opportunities, the finance and how they'd fit in the system. That's also what hints he's just plan A, not B (and sometimes like yesterday no plan at all) - he didn't have enough opportunities left when his first desire imploded. I mean come on it was obvious that Real wasn't keen in selling Robinho to us. But instead of looking at other alternatives (e.g. Arshavin could have been one and he was eager to leave) he seemed to be sure that Robinho would change sides. So I really hope that he will do his research on his possibilities more carefully this January, especially given the situation Kenyon doesn't want to release too much cash. This would limit our possibilities even further. At least the rumour of Love is a good beginning.

Edited by Kerry

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