I said before here that Huddlestone makes clumsy challenges that in this day and age will cost us, hopefully those who said he was a great tackler/defender now agree with me.
Except as Dann Murphy pointed out, he really doesn't. In fact he hardly ever slides. Today's was a bit of a freak sending off. Dunno if he was pissed off or what but it was hardly a tackle, he just stood on the lad's leg.
We need to win the games we should (or could) and we need to lose the games we should (or might not) without losing our composure and concentration. It was better and maybe the loss of Hudds will be a period of renaissance and consistency in selection. Dawson is a loss, more so than Hudds.
SO i went today and frankly I'm pretty upset with Bruce. Feel really sorry for traveling fans paying £50 for that shower of s**te. Sure we ONLY lost 2-0 but we all expected to lose and Bruce had clearly said we would "go for it". f** off Bruce. 532 without a single winger is not going for it. What an absolute joke. I'm getting really sick of his team selections. Meyler is f**ing garbage. He's jogging and getting beat to the ball by mikel, I had to google Meyler's age just now because he runs like a 34 year old. Yet curtis Davies in the 85th minute sprinted 40 yards past schurrle who had been on 10 mins. How the f** does that work? Liver more and Huddlestone are really pissing me off. They compliment each other but we could really do with having one player do best of both. Huddlestone has nothing other than a good pass. He's slow, had a terrible touch today, can't tackle, never scores and Livermore's only attribute is determination and energy otherwise he can't pass or shoot for s**t. Yes he scored recently but that's hardly consistent. Why are we playing 5 at the back yet still making so many mistakes?? I don't f**ing get Bruce he clearly went hoping for 0-0 . Why aren't we playing 4 at the back in games like these when 1-0 down after 6 mins. why can't we have robbo and rosie as LB and RB and brady and elmo as wingers in front? Surely that's the best possible solution?? that would be like having 4 defenders on the wing but that can also attack. I don't f**ing get this performance. Feels worse than others. I don't want to hear "it was Chelsea what do you expect" . I expect to not give a s**t and go 3 up top and try and pressure them. JELAVIC was class. He did f** all but he had no service. I kept focusing on him and found space, he's definitely got the experience. He kept getting 3/4 yards of space between terry and cahill and not one of our midfielders could thread a straight through ball on the floor. always sideways sideways sideways. then cross with no one in the box. very frustrating game to watch live.
Can't agree with that. Dawson has hardly played for us whereas Huddlestone has hardly missed a game in a season and a half. We're perfectly well prepared for not having Dawson, the opposite is true of Huddlestone. The last game he didn't play we had an embarrassingly low possession stat (in the 20s if I recall correctly) and didn't have a serious attack all game.
I don't know what you watched but I thought it was a massive improvement performance wise today as did many fans sat around me in the upper. So we didn't score against the eventual champions, we gave them a good go and made them look pretty ordinary at 11 v 11.
Oh and I'm ****ing glad fattlestone has been sent off. Forces Bruce to try something else. This would be my team ---------------Mcgregor rosie---Davies----Chester-----Robbo ------------Livermore---------------- Elmo-----------Diame------------Brady ---------Jelavic------Hernandez
We gave them a good go? How exactly? we stifled them but we didn't do ****. Our only hope was 0-0 and has been for weeks it seems. You're judging our performance through Chelsea's? We were horrible. If you can't go to the best team in the league and say, "**** it, we're probably gonna lose so might as well have a real go and get some confidence in front of goal" I don't see many games other than stream and it certainly looks different on stream but I was shocked by the lack of quality. That has nothing to do with Chelsea. There were some good performances but we never looked like scoring and I don't understand that. Bruce blatantly lied when he said "we'll go for it".
You can only play the team put in front of you and, despite their diving antics, we didn't do half bad in that test. So we didn't score... Few teams are going to score against them this season. Easier run of games now.
The scoring thing is a bit worrying cos we struggle with it every week whoever we play. On MOTD they said we haven't had more than 2 shots in target in any of our last 6 games, and that was before another 0 on target today. It's forgivable at Chelsea, but over the last couple of months it's been very much the norm for us not to have anything like a decent scoring opportunity, and looking at MOTD, all the other bottom clubs seem to be able to create more than us, and some have a lot less firepower than we do 'on paper'.
To be honest, PLT, I didn't expect you to agree, we look at it differently. How often Dawson has played for us is not a measure of his quality or his impact, it's performance that does that. Huddlestone has hardly missed a game in a season and a half, I agree; the first half season the press bigged him up for England, the last year we have been poor. When he was decent he played high, but didn't score because his hair was too long; now he plays so far back he might as well be Rapunzels other half and have dreadlocks down his arse. His passing is his quality and he needs to be higher for it to be effective. Square peg, round hole. The last time he didn't play everyone else was great, of course. When he does play he makes little difference, except I have noticed him becoming less in control. How often do we have a serious attack?
People are focusing too much on the fact it was Chelsea. It wasn't even a good Chelsea. But it doesn't matter who we play at the moment we aren't testing the keeper. It's completely ridiculous that we can't hit the target. Why aren't we direct? what is Bruce's fear with direct passing. Jelavic was a in so much space at times huddlestone didn't even look at him and instead passed it to the wing. just give it to Jela\s feet and let him try and turn JT or Cahill, especially the latter being on a yellow card. Honestly I don't get it. There's some sort of fear in the team at the moment. Having a shot is almost a last resort.
Really! understatement of the bloody year, that, mate. It's not forgivable against anyone, is it; why? Goals win matches, nothing else, not a decent shift, not crossing the white line, not taking one for the team; all of them get draws at best without goals - the sooner we wake up to that fully the better. We are bolt- on relegation form and it is hard to see where the change is coming from; it's a bloody fact SB doesn't.
until the liverpool game we were scoring at least 2 goals a game for a long time !!- not sure whats different ?, one thing we are missing is a fit Diame , Another has been a mixture of Jelly or Hernandez being missing . we have the players , we have the ability we just need a rub of the green in games where it matters West Brom and Burnley were awful awful displays , with Swansea coming up we need Ramirez to step up to show what he can do
We need to play higher up the pitch. http://www.whoscored.com/Regions/252/Tournaments/2/Seasons/4311/Stages/9155/TeamStatistics/England-Premier-League-2014-2015 The three teams who average less than 3 shots on target per game (us, Burnley and Villa) also average 0 through balls per game. We also have the second worst % of time in opposition's third (23%) after Swansea (20%). Interestingly we seem to have the least number of inaccurate short passes (44.8 per game) which, given some of our sloppy passing, shows that it must be terrible across the league.
Chelsea were poor today and despite all their firepower could only manage 3 attempts on target. They could blame a midweek Euro game and the absence of Fabregas I suppose. We managed zero attempts on target and 2 Premier league teams managing 3 on target between them is pathetic. Also pathetic is Jose's attempt to excuse Chelsea's diving tactics. He has slipped a few rungs down the ladder of integrity for that nonsense.
The impressive nature of Swansea's season rather kills that stat's credentials as an indictment of us.
Agreed, but if coupled with stats on through balls, etc. . . . . . . . Can the stats come up with a formula for midfield impetus? Does Bruce understand what it is and why it cannot constantly begin at your box?
