Yes and we are unbeaten in top 4 games again. We'll strengthen next season and Should have a squad capable of 90 plus points. Good to see some reasonable posters here
You are starting to sound like Arsenal fans, but they did not spend £150m to have no plan B in big games. I hope LOng Ball Louis does not become an expensive Wenger, stubborn, in denial and no plan B. If he does, at least fans like you are ready with the excuses, like the Goons
Very simple. CBs pass it back to each other 20 times and then hit it long. Voila! You have 70 per cent possession and win the Arsene Whinger trophy £200m later
Good job you won tbh. Probably earned Jose one last season to show he actually knows what football is. Imagine you had lost. Those jose put shouts would be loud.
To be fair to Katie, she has a pretty reasonable understanding of football. I don't think even she genuinely believes it's possible to achieve 70% possession by playing long ball football (30% yes, 70% no). She has to stick to the Long Ball Louis nickname as it would be a bit embarrassing for her to admit that United play more entertaining football than Chelsea!
When your keeper has more of the ball then your striker you can shove possession stats!! Don't worry, like Liverpool, there's always next year. Least LVG can start to plan for his retirement in 13 months time. #lastjobforLVG
Indeed. I think both parties are happy here. You guys can take the faux moral victory, we can take the ACTUAL victory and the 3 points that come with and we can get on with our seasons
That bus must have been parked even further back than usual! It's going to need a proper service before it moves on to the Emirates!
I don't think anyone is taking a faux moral victory. I think a lot of us were pleasantly surprised to see United dominate the champions at their own ground. I wasn't expecting it, especially when news of the injuries came in on Friday and it became obvious that the defence would be patched up and our key striker would be playing in midfield. The team definitely still needs work but there aren't many (any?) teams that have gone to Stamford Bridge in the last ten years and achieved 70% possession and 15 shots (I accept that because Chelsea won it's fashionable to say that United never looked like scoring but obviously that's not true). Things look positive for next season which wasn't the case a few months ago. I suspect a number of non United fans can see that and it worries them. Of course had Chelsea not managed the break away goal then I think the Chav view of the game would be one of relief that you got away with a draw and a sense of disappointment in Jose for parking the bus against a make shift, under achieving, long ball team. But you got your goal and, as is the way with football fans, you look back on the victory as a stroll in the park and an easy win that went according to Jose's plan (not sure why he was looking so worried during the first half, maybe he thought he'd left the iron on).
And Jose, the master, will need to plan more than one route this week. Wenger will offer more of a tactical challenge than LBL. And Arsenal will offer more creativity than overlaps from their left back (who was excellent btw, gave Iva the toughest match since PSG until Jose brought Ramires on to stop him: it was at this point you expected LBL to make a tactical change after no goal threat from United all half). "It was less difficult, than you think," the Master said. "Control their direct football to Marouane Fellaini and control the wingers from making crosses on the inside foot. "When we know Wayne Rooney plays in midfield, we control his progression into the box. Control set-pieces and don't give away direct free-kicks as they have three specialists. "Wait for a mistake and score a goal. We were able to make their important players disappear. Nobody saw them. They were in our pockets." Don't think LVG will be happy with Jose basically saying he owned Louis tactically. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/32370432
This. They are champions as they got more points than anyone else. But honestly i cannot see any other manager doing what Jose did. That's probably why he won so many titles but was hated at Madrid, got sacked by Roman. Would SAF, Ancelotti, pep put 10 players behind the ball and defend for 90 minutes against a side that was decimated with injuries in key postions with a makeshift defence and midfield, and a replacement striker? In the end you could say the end justified the means. But FFS he never needed to go to that extreme to gather the points. Unless he really thought that United was a much better team than his.
Well if you see any of my posts in the week leading up to the game, this is exactly what i said would happen. It was only doubly confirmed to me when the team was released and I saw Matic AND Zouma had been picked. Two DM's I guessed the exact formation he would play with them too and got it spot on. I will concede, If I am true to myself, that this, to me atleast, shows a lack of belief from Jose in the team that we cannot go out and match you playing how we normally play. What I will not accept though, is the notion that Jose did not set this team up to play exactly as we did, because it was totally his plan, I said it would be as much as 5 days before the game. 6 games left with us so far ahead? To most coaches that would be a license to let loose, seeing as it wasn't exactly a must win game. But Jose, he won't let anyone budge an inch until the title is sewn up. Thats his nature, always has been......ever the winner!
I find it hard to believe that United fans truly saw that as a dominant performance. Letting you have the ball is not the same as not being able to get the ball. It's the same way we beat Arsenal year after year.
Exactly. And I'm not for one minute saying it was the best or only way to set up, but some people are trying to pass this off as some sort of smash n grab. In fact it was essentially the same performance / set up we did at Anfield last year, for which many United fans (UIR notably) slaughtered Brendon for. We played tight counter attacking football, let Liverpool / United / Arsenal have possession, wait for inevitable mistakes and break. Sometimes it works, sometimes like PSG it doesn't. Pretty much like any system.
I agree that Jose set Chelsea up to play that way and it worked out for him. I don't think he, you or anyone thought that United would have so much of the possession though. Do Arsenal usually peg you back so far into your own half for so much of the game? Rooney should have scored in the first half (a lot of people thought he had!), Terry put a great block in on Falcao in the second half and Falcao also hit the post. It's not like we were plugging away 30 yards from goal and it's revisionist nonsense to suggest that was the case. Very easy for Jose to come out after the game and say it was exactly as he planned it. It was definitely partly as he planned it but in private I suspect he was mightly relieved to have got away with it as the opposition turned out to be better and more dominant in possession than he expected. Had PSG not got a second goal I'm sure he would have said his plan worked in that game as well but as their finishing was better than United's he was ultimately ridiculed for parking the bus at home. Narrow margins!
That was the mother of all smash n grabs! Thanks for that by the way. Perhaps the issue here is that you don't want to admit that Jose/Chelsea do play smash n grab football in the big games? It works out well for you more often than not and it's become part of Chelsea's identity. Some admire Chelsea for it, others think it's anti-football. As long as you're winning I doubt you really care about the quality of the football!
