AVB has just fronted up and admitted that he screwed up with preparation for today's game. At least he got that right. However, credit to Everton, they deserved their win, and their win was more down to what they did right than what we did wrong. I want AVB to succeed, but I don't think he will. Maybe with time, and the players that HE wants - but not like this. This was the worst performance by a Chelsea team in a long, long time. Possibly since RA took over the club. What makes this performance worse is that it follows a string of poor performances throughout this season. Seriously torn about what we should do about all this - yes, AVB must take some of the blame (like I said, he did tonight) but as always, the men running the clubs rarely take the blame. A lot of what has gone wrong lies squarely at the feet of Roman; maybe he knows it and for that reason he may give AVB some leeway. Of course, so much of our success is down to RA, and I will never forget the success enjoyed so far but things started going wrong when he forced Shevchenko onto Jose. He didn't learn from that mistake. We are where we are now, and we have two options; fire AVB and bring in either Jose, Hiddink or Capello. Anybody else shouldn't be considered, as I think it would be equally as much a gamble as the AVB appointment. The "new" man must be given free hand with transfer decisions, or at least (as with Carlo) he should be made aware of transfer policy beforehand, and must be able to work under those conditions. I assume AVB was told about that beforehand and cannot therefore understand why he has only picked Cahill for 1 out of 4 matches given our defensive frailties. The other option is to back AVB to the hilt. Bring some stability to the situation by making it abundantly clear that his job is to reshape and reinvigorate Chelsea. Anything on top of that is a pleasant bonus, although a top 4 place is expected. Bring the wage bill down, as well as the average age of the team. Find a new breed of hungry, ambitious players who want to play for Chelsea. Not another footballer whose main concern is the terms of his contract. So far, he has shown Anelka and Alex the door, and I don't have a problem with that if he felt that they were either not pulling their weight or being disruptive, or even at an attempt to cut the wage bill. However, I would also expect to see an improvement in performances over the season after their replacements had been brought in - i'm not seeing it. Right now, I think the club is leaning towards the second option. AVB will go if he doesn't produce 4th place, and too many more performances like today will have the same effect, but I think (hope) that Roman has realized that a stable dressing room is vital and that the incredible successes that we've had so far have been achieved when players wanted to play for their manager and for the club. There a a few players in that dressing room who still wish that there was someone "special" leading them, and seem content to allow AVB to take the fall for performances. That's wrong. Recently, the team "bonded" with a trip to some exotic place. That's fine, as long as the team bonded - there didn't seem to be much of a bond out there today. Right now, I hope there are huge amounts of shouting and shattering tea cups going on. I'm furious at that performance, and I expect everybody involved today to be equally as passionately pissed off with themselves, and itching to get back out onto the pitch to set things right. I expect us to beat Birmingham, and beat Napoli over two legs. If we don't, AVB will be on borrowed time; he either goes straight after the Napoli game or at the end of the season. I also hope (hope, not expect) us to qualify for the CL next year given the strength of the squad. Arsenal are seriously after that 4th place and we cannot afford to be as complacent as we were tonight again.... ever. Makes me appreciate the genius of Jose even more. Who is to blame if we don't qualify for the CL?
Players and manager. Players for not being worthy of the shirt for the most part, and AVB for being too much of a pussy to admit it and grow some balls and make changes where they need to be made!!
AVB can be blamed for many things, but surely not for a lack of cojones... He felt - rightly or wrongly - that Anelka and Alex weren't worth hanging on to, and hasn't been afraid to put Lampard on the bench. He also refused to give Torres a game while Drogba was still there, as well as playing Branna instead of the newly bought Cahill in the centre of defence. No, I don't think he's missing the necessary balls for the job - it does take quite a sizeable pair just to agree to take the Chelsea job on! What is in question is his decision making.
Drogs is wise enough to think before he acts. Thanks2 KB has made considered comments which I mostly agree with. We are in a really bad place, especially with the CL 4th place. That should become our sole aim. Play the reserves in the FA, play the reserves in this CL, they couldn't be worse than the shambles we put out against Everton. Concentrate on that 4th place. So where are we ? What did we learn at Everton that we didn't know before?? Nothing. So why make the same mistakes ? Who knows? Cech Poor game especially his distribution, must be close to worst in League at this aspect. Boswinga. Hopeless. Can't defend, can't cross. Brana Our best right back, out of position. Luiz Again one of our best Cole Finished. Past it.Does absolutely nothing but stop and pass backwards. Merieles Not the answer Lampard. Should NEVER again be picked to run the midfield. Slower than a sloth on prozac. Constantly caught in possession and giving the ball away. Mata Looks as if he's tired of doing everything. Needs to be central midfield. Essien No more rampaging runs. Injury has made him an also player. Not bad by any means, but unlikely to again be a match changer. Sturridge Like Mata, had enough of running in circles out of position Torres Dire, and beyond hope. Thought he would step up ex Drogba, but if anything, worse. AVB Not a pretty sight. Mata off, Malouda on ??????? You have to be kidding. It is clear that, Boswinga, Malouda, Lampard, Cole Merieles and maybe Cech should go. If it were up to me, add Terry to the list. Disruptive influence,no integrity, despite still playing well. We can all see these players bring little to the team, Terry excluded. What we can't see is , who can, because they never get played. Now do we really think AVB is so dumb he can't see whats in front of him ??? Or is he being forced to play high wage earners ?? Either way, it's not a good situation. My suggestion ?? Bring in Guus to help him, move AVB sideways, forceably if need be. If not Guus then Wilkins or someone who can gee up the players. Get through to seasons end, secure 4th place and then reassess. To fire him now would be suicidal, to let him go on alone would be utterly stupid.
So when you say Terry is a "disruptive influence with no integrity", what are you basing that on? Media reports? First hand experience? Yes, JT has made mistakes - but probably not half the mistakes we (or the media) assume he has. Read this account from Sam Tillen (former CFC youth player). (Edit; whoops, forgot the durned link) http://theshed.chelseafc.com/chat/posts/thread_classic.shtml?29484317#29484317 Read it, doubt you've heard about that side of him from too many of his detractors. On reflection, we were poor. Bloody awful. We did all seem to accept that this season was going to be a season of transition, but we were all over the shop yesterday. No single person deserves singling out for criticism yesterday, as they were all equally terribly sub-par, AVB included. I think he can turn it around, especially with the return of Terry, Drogba, Ramires, Romeu, and some kind of defensive system - any kind - to be introduced, because we simply prooved Gary Neville right yesterday. If we don't make 4th place though, I think he should be shown the door.
I have to say my big concern about AVB are some of the wierd team selections he makes , followed by equally wierd substitutions. As a bloke he's a nice guy--but there is great suspicion he does not have full command of the dressing room! OK he's young and will hopefully learn from his mistakes, but we cant afford for him to be on a long learning curve. The likes of AVB have historically earned their spurs at lesser clubs and brought in when they are ripe for high office! It seems odd to me that a great performer like Carlo can get his P45 after finishing "only" 2nd, in order to make way for Morinho's tea boy! If we had Carlo supported by Wilkins at the moment we'd still be title contenders!
Team selection is one thing and we all have our own opinions who should be starting and who shouldn't etc. There is however a few things that really concern me: - - Lack of motivation in the players. We are right in the **** at the moment and seeing a lot of heads dropping and lack of any real urgency or leadership (on and off the pitch) - Lack of ability to make chances. AVB said yesterday that we failed to create chances at Everton which we normally do. Really?!!? What games has he been watching. Barring the 3 goals v United (of which 2 were own goals practically), we have created about 2 chances a game on average. Dire doesn't even begin to describe how lacklustre we have been going forward. - A reluctance to given the youth a try. Lukaku, Josh, Bertrand, Piazon to name a few. I was shocked he replaced Cole with Bertrand at the weekend. I'm suprised he didn't bring on Cahill and reshuffle the back line and have Bos at left back again! - Simple poor performances. When was the last good game we had? Spurs away maybe? That was 2 months ago!! Yes Bos and Malouda etc are not cutting it but with a squad like ours, how can you go 2 months without playing well once?? It beggars belief. As it stands, we will not make top 4 it's as simple as that. Arsenal aren't great but they are picking up results now. Can't believe there are still 13 games left. This is going to be a long season. Lets pray we win the CL as it's the only way we're going to be back in it.
