Thought the lads played well over all and were ultimately outclassed, no shame in that performance. I do agree though that I thought the midfield were sitting too deep all game, we just let the likes of Lampard, Oscar, Moses etc. run up to the edge of the box and shoot at will, we weren't hassling them high up the pitch like we did against Everton.
It was the move of a fool to play Ashdown full stop. It was the move of an idiot to play him when he was clearly injured too. Awful keeping for their equalizer, dreadful distribution and has a weak habit of parrying the ball away for simple saves that Kenny would have caught. Playing Chelsea isn't like some little occasion where the number two keeper gets a look-in like Oxford or Shrewsbury or Southampton. Warnock has to take responsibility for that. And Lees should have scored that absolute sitter as well, that should have had us two ahead.
While the performance was a decent one in the circumstances against a team we were very unlikely to beat, we were ahead and there's plenty of room for criticism. The equaliser should never have happened and that was the turning point of the game. Chelsea get their foot in the door and are allowed to make themselves comfortable in an arena that should have had them wishing they were at home for every last second. It's nice being able to talk just about the football and not have to have the miserable overhanging feeling that we're never going to perform while bates is in charge. There's some build up to tomorrow from the media and David Haigh, is something big going to be announced other than just the handing over of keys?
I didn't mind Ashdown playing and to be fair to him he played well other than their equaliser, its unlucky that it just so happened to be the game changing moment but I wouldn't leave much criticism on him if any because Mata shouldn't be allowed to shoot from there because he often scores from that sort of range. And to reiterate I think individually players played quite well (other than Peltier and Byram) but I feel the half time team talk would have been more one of congratulations from Warnock rather than him telling the players that if we do what we did in the last 5 mins of the first half we will get destroyed in the second. And guess what, we did exactly the same thing in the second as we did in the last 5 mins of the first and got destroyed.
The annoying thing is everyone keeps saying "I'm not too bothered, we were just outclassed". At the end of the day we went ahead and it was our game to lose and we played it all wrong from that point onwards. The Chelsea players didn't show just how tired they were because they didn't have to, they were in control of the game in the second half and were cruising. Had we had kept our lead for 15 or 20 minutes at the start of the second half, frustration would have kicked in and they would have begun to show fatigue, at which point the game would have been ours. I can't help but feel we played it all wrong from the moment our goal went in. Our defence was solid right up until we scored, and it was because we weren't giving them space. The fact our players didn't look exhausted by the end of it is enough proof that the game was played all wrong.
I agree Marko but at the same time it was a game that we wasn't expected to win, you can't be too harsh on the team
Of course not. I'm just enjoying being able to talk about football without having to turn everything into a whine about bates. I expected we'd lose, I just feel if the players had played a bit better we would have held out longer and maybe taken them all the way. The players tried to get back into it after conceding the equaliser, and should be commended for their efforts, but the game was over after that, as Chelsea relaxed and took control. It's a case of that same old feeling I get when we lose a league game for the same reasons - the players back off and get complacent and get punished for it.
Josh, thats a completely defeatist and wrong attitude. Being 1-0 up should have given the team a belief that they could win and they should have played like they expected to win for the rest of it. This is how "inferior teams on paper" win games most expect them not to - see recent top of premier league game between two teams from the same city just to the west of Leeds.
From last Saturday's programme- Tweeting The Stars: Question- Related to January 3rd Answer- "That was the strange thing, that year when i came here i thought that the team was incredible. And we went into every game thinking we were going to win. I'll never forget Simon Grayson before the game. He said 'I think we are going to win this game' and walking on the pitch i thought, 'we are going to get a result here'." (Paddy Kisnorbo) Fantastic attitude