Firstly, we should have won against Atletico. We had plenty of chances but came up short. For pretty much all the game they passed better, were more direct, looked quicker, were technically better than all but Hazard and Morata, but hardly ever looked like scoring because they just don't have what's needed at the sharp end of the pitch, the opponents goals. We sat back let them fart about all over the pitch and pretty much always repelled their final assault on our goal, pretty comfortably. That's become our strong point, our defence does that part of their job very well. So what happened? Here's my take. Absolutely nothing STARTS from our back 3. Everything is sideways, or with Cahill, backwards, before a longish ball to a wing back who then races down the line and crosses, usually into the closest opponent. Sometimes Hazard gets the ball in the opponents half and he races forwards until they take it off him. I believe that Bakayoko is just not good enough yet. He doesn't know whether to defend or join in the attack, does both OK but neither brilliantly. There is no link from back to front other than a long ball over the midfield. Fabregas needs to be just behind the front attackers, but struggled with the pace needed. His passing and effort were excellent, but only Hazard or Morata benefit. Hazard and Morata cannot do it alone but are having to. Moses is not good enough, Zappa isn't yet either though he is really lively. We are playing with 3 groups, the defenders, the mid field and the front 2. There is not enough meshing of these groups and our football is boring and predictable unless Hazard is involved. We need a serious quality upgrade of a ball playing defender, a more destructive midfield and numbers in attack, or we will simply continue to struggle.. What we desperately need is a rampaging midfielder and a Captain to drive us forwards. Right now we have neither. We are doing as well as we can with our squad but don't have enough pure quality throughout the on field 11.
Some fair points. Bottom line is we qualified out of a tricky group. For all Atleticos good points, they didn't qualify. Coming 1st or 2nd doesn't;t really matter these days as there are so many good teams in the comp. It'll ultimately come down to the draw. Win the group and you can get the likes of Bayern, Real or Juve. Come 2nd and you could then get Besiktas.
Been saying that for a while about not having much going forward. Not sure how to resolve this properly. One thing is to get rid of Cahill as he cannot move the ball quickly or well enough but he has been really good defensively recently. I really like Zappacosta and think it's just time before he adds an end product as he can literally do everything else. Bakayoko unfortunately for him is very poor technically. I just really hope he develops that part of his game but unless we play a team that's wide open, we might be better of with drinkwater. I really like Cesc and what he brings, but it might be worth having Willian for him if we want more runners. Pedro is one of my favourites and i feel he brings lots of energy up front and great moves. However, we can't have him playing if its not 3-4-3 and i think we've evolved away from this formation. It's generally a case of him or cesc as i would never play cesc in a 2 and if we play in 3 in the middle there is no room for pedro. Maybe its a case for 4 at the back? Enough about forwards and formations, i'm more annoyed that Conte played our first team. You cannot go whinging about fixture build up and too many games if you play your first team in what is essentially a nothing game. We've qualified and we'd have loved to get 1st. We didn't get first and now all our players are knackered.
Played the first team cause we wanted 1st, should've got it really, dominated from start to finish. I thought Atletico were rubbish, no cutting edge, slow and sidewards and no pace at all. Morais should've scored his one on one and Christensen should've stuck one of his headers in. Several other chances that could've resulted in a goal too. I actually thought we played really well until it came to sticking the ball in the net.
Agree, we played alright. Morata is poor finishing one on ones: his biggest weakness. We had a couple of 4 on 3s at the end when we should have scored when Willian's final ball let us down.
I like Christensen. We are third in the league, in Carabao QF, CL last 16. If this is us struggling, I will take it every season! In our last 8 Prem games, we have W7 D1 L0!
I like Christensen too. What I am saying is not that we are struggling everywhere, but we are gradually falling behind the leading teams, and not being able to put away Atletico with our best 11 shows our underlying problems. We are actually doing very well with the squad we have, but if we want to compete with City, PSG, Bayern, Real etc into the future, we need to fill just a couple of positions with players of the highest quality who will greatly improve the Team. Bakayoko, Drinkwater and Zappa have not yet done so. Morata and Christensen have. Imagine if Hazard and Courtois leave for Real, and Morata gets injured again.
Problem with Baka is he tries too many things and fails miserably. He cannot too cute in our own box. He need to be strong in opposition box. If he does that he can only get better. Drinky & Zappa are solid performers even though they don't have exceptional talents they can compliment our first 11. We can only get better and honestly think some Italian team will come in for Cescy during Jan and then title isn't too far.
.......I just knew you’d mention Cesc. My take on the current situation is that we’re flying and Eden Hazard is hitting some really good form that’s making us great to watch.
We can’t compete with Barca Real Bayern every season, we are a level below them. We can, however, win the odd Prem title and hopefully win another CL in our lifetimes. What a brilliant time to be a Chelsea fan. We are certainly very fortunate
Love your optimism and upbeat take. I think we can compete with Barca and Real etc. We need to buy the right players, bring through the best kids as our back ups, and stop buying solid but mediocre squad fillers. That might be over simplistic, but that's my optimism showing !!!
Reading some of the comments here it seems some people think we have a God given right to win everything. Bakayoko is in his first season and will benefit from this. Rudiger started slowly and has now adjusted and is bringing something to the table. Cesc just gets better and Morata will also benefit from this season. What’s wrong with some people?
