Son's delivered as the lone striker, and he's delivered when he's had Kane or Llorente holding up the ball for him - the issue is that he's currently playing up front with Lucas, meaning he's neither the focal point nor does he have someone capable of holding up the ball to allow him that half second to make a run Realistically there shouldn't be an issue if you look at the way Chelsea were set up in 2014-15 Courtois; Ivanovic, Terry, Cahill, Azpilcueta; Ramires, Matic; Willian, Fabregas, Hazard; Costa On paper that would put Son in the same role as Hazard, in the freer role on the left flank where he can cause problems for their right back while ghosting into the area as the striker holds up the ball - but with Harry Kane out he's been drafted into the forward role, and at present let's just say DGC was wrong with his repeated assertions last season, and we're also being reminded how Son would deliver when Poch played him as a focal point rather than as one of a pair of ersatz strikers
I count five players in our penalty area (six if that arm on the right of the picture is Aurier's), two closing down the left flank, one on the edge of the penalty area, and one near the centre circle My immediate thought: were we defending a corner? please log in to view this image
The Good 1.We kept a clean sheet 2. We did not lose 3. We fought for the whole game The bad 1. The fact that the sbove is condidered the good! 2. We have not scored a league gosl since kane was injured (3 games). 3. The continued lack of consistency in refereeing...does my head in to be honest. The Ugly 1. Troy Deeneys cheating...thought Robbie Savage was playing. It is a very small step in the right direction imho...not great or pretty but important. We have had no resilience bar the Man City away and Southampton home matches in the premier league in the past 12 months. As a team we have been guilty of throwing in the towel but today we didn't. I ain't JM's greatest fan but for all the criticism I throw his way ... *cough* where's Parrott dumbass *cough* ... I think I should accept the signs that maybe we have started to turn a corner. The second half v Liverpool, beating boro and a lot of our play in that game and today's defending against a team on the up indicate that we are going to be harder to beat and might grind out some results. CL qualification should be long gone but Chelsea's loss means it is not totally out of the question. Wednesday is very important...wish I was going! COYS
Today, Mourinho set the team up to dig in for a positive result and the players responded with a lot more fight. There was no Dier lumbering around the pitch like the ****ing honey monster... Eriksen ducking out of challenges in central midfield; Rose waddling after forwards travelling at twice his pace. He knew that we'd be facing pacy wide players, so he picked Tanganga on the left and it just about worked at the back and we could have scored on a few occasions with a bit more composure. It wasn't great...or even all that good...but it was, finally, a start at facing up to where we actually are. If he's going to pick sensible teams and motivate them to compete, then we can can start to move forward. Some of his selections and tactics last month were absolute crap. Maybe we can get a couple more players in and get a bit further up the table?
A bit more bite is a step in the right direction...but we need to keep that up for ninety minutes, but today (and the other night against Boro) we lost control of midfield as the second half went on, and that's always costly While a DM will fix this, there's something else that would help: being clinical at the right time Against Boro we were 2-0 up in twenty minutes, but if we scored a third early in the second half we'd have killed the game off...but we didn't and they got back into it. Similar can be said for today: if Dele scored his header that would've taken the wind out of their sails, instead he missed and they started pushing (in terms of pressing, rather than shoving our players which they'd been doing all game...) and not only get even more foul-happy but won the penalty Of course, being clinical is an issue, and has been since...I don't know, maybe when Klinsmann left?
Fair result but you did dominate the start and end of the game. We had the middle part! Close calls for both sides.
Now go count the number of CM combinations we've tried this season. Wouldn't surprise me if it's already double figures.
Let me think... Ndombele/Winks/Sissoko Alli/Ndombele/Sissoko Ndombele/Sissoko Ndombele/Winks Dier/Winks Dier/Sissoko Dier/Ndombele Winks/Sissoko Winks/Eriksen Dier/Eriksen Winks/Lo Celso Skipp/Wanyama ...and that's just from starting lineups
Well, plus points were: 1) I got to tick off another ground 2) I thought defensively we were pretty sound throughout and it follows a strong defensive performance against Pool, so maybe Jose's finally getting the defence to work at the very least. 3) Toby probably had his best game for about 10-12 months. 4) Aurier even looked half decent at times. 5) Good penalty save by Gazza, he seems to enjoy a penalty save against them! 6) Gedson and Eriksen done well in their cameos and offered more than the rest of the midfield and attack did the whole game. 7) The night out in Watford was pretty decent! Negatives: 1) Playing Tanganga at LB, he just about got away with being torn a new one by Sarr but playing a right footed CB at LB made zero sense to me when there were two left-footed players in the squad who could've played there, the few times Tanganga managed to get in their final third he was unable to cross the ball. 2) Winks, Dele, Lamela, Son and Lucas were bloody terrible. 3) Lo Celso done 'OK' but I am starting to think that if the club thinks he's going to be a direct replacement for Eriksen, they're wrong. A brilliant player in his own right and will grow to be better than he is but he's not an outright playmaker like Eriksen, the best I can describe him is a "linker" who can grab a goal or two, he doesn't have that ability to actually playmake. I think we need to switch our style and formation once Eriksen definitely goes (or do it now!) because we're not going to be getting a player to even remotely imitate what a prime Eriksen can do. 4) Without Kane we're so toothless up front and without a striker in general we just look poor. We NEED a striker this window, no ifs or buts. Three league games in a row we've failed to score, that's terrible for any club, let alone one with our aspirations.
My only disagreement would be Winks. At least he kept his position and didn't let them come straight through us. He wasn't great but he was a whole lot better than Sissoko or Dier. He's not a deep lying defensive midfielder but for now, he's our best option. Spot on with Lo Celso. He's no Eriksen and best coming from deep on the right hand side. He's great at running with the ball and passing inside. He's also got a decent scoring record, gets stuck in and adjusts his position when Aurier goes beyond him. However, he's going to be at his best in a three, as is Gedson and possibly Ndombele. They're all pretty similar, which is a bit of a worry for now, when we lack players in numerous other positions. We need a Scott Parker type to give some balance. In his absence, Winksy is the best that we've got.... ...unless Mourinho loses his mind completely and plays Skippy, who is a natural fit for the position.
Pity about the 2 lost points. Everyone continues to beat up on each other with great help to Liverpool....and if we had the sense,us too! But we obviously don't want to take advantage. Chelsea in a rut,even Leicester have lost their last two.Shame really!