What happened?

You're right that's not a bad record, better than I thought. And lets change "walloped" into outplayed ? They gave us a lesson in attacking football, and to score away goals at our place ,a man down for 90 mins, is not a good look for us ! What riles me is we can play much better ,but seem to go out with the brakes jammed on. Looking good for the PL, though yesterday didn't help.

 

I think we're struggling because we've played so many games. The players who keep playing look knackered and the players not playing are out of practice and it showed yesterday but more so in the Bradford game. I too would play Luis more at Full Back as Azpi is limited because he isn't left footed. It'd be Iva i'd take out though, aside from the assist yesterday he was awful and i think he's well off form. It's good to see Zouma getting some game time but i'd like to see Cuadrado get some more games too.

In the summer i'd like us to go for Khedira, he's a free and has worked with Jose before so he'll know what it's all about. Think he'd be a good addition and him with Matic and Fabregas would be an ideal midfield. I still think that's the area we're lacking in.

 

They were much better side but still required two set pieces to score against us though.

No shame to losing to a team on paper better than us

 

Here's where I think our problem lies and building upon what other people think:

1. Mourinho - He's an absolute legend but he's always been conservative. I don't know whether it's Mourinho's tactics, our slow central defence or both but we never seem to dominate a game in terms of decent possession and or incisive attacking play in the bigger matches (we play so deep and always need at least 1 dm to shield them). These are nearly always tense affairs and we never try to take the initiative which is so frustrating. If this is how he wants to play, by soaking up pressure then we need more direct and pacey counter attacking play as i feel we're stuck with personnel that aren't suited to this (we normally just hoof it to Costa, or pass it out wide to Hazard and expect him to run all the way). I guess if its been working for him all this time and he's getting wins they this won't bother him but maybe Jose could be doing more if he evolved.

2. People say we need a better squad (bodanki and a few others). For me it's not our backups, Remy is solid, Mata was one of my favourites, Cuadrado, De Bruyne, Salah who is killing it at Fiorentina, Schurlle. The list goes on. Jose just doesn't rotate effectively or integrate the reserve players effectively enough. He's pretty much played with the same core 11 and they are shattered.

3. We have first team players who maybe are tired or not talented enough at the moment. Dave is our best right back IMO. Luis our left back. Ivan's been great but for me he gets done too easily by tricky wingers. Maybe this is down to him attacking so much but i'd prefer Dave there, or if Ivan is there then we can't have Cahill as well who i feel doesn't have the 1v1 defensive ability to cover Ivan. Oscar for me never convinces me. Every now and again he will score a couple of goals but he's a very poor version of Super Frank. I know people aren't fans of Willian but I am. He was a box to box midfielder/free role am at Shakhtar and for whatever reason we've shoehorned him into a right wing position. He's got loads of pace to burn, an okay shot and has really high energy with a good pass. I'd try him in cm or am over oscar.

4. Cesc at CM. I'm not opposed to this at all as he's a great play maker and technically great. However, in the game big games, this leaves Matic with way too much to do. He isn't athletic enough to cover and the spaces and he's tackling, pace and strength just means people shrug him off so easily on the counter. He's often on alongside Hazard (he normally puts in a great shift but with all the dribbling he does towards the end he just gets too tired to defend properly) means that we cannot just park the bus which is Jose's default mentality. We can't do this effectively when we have these 2 plus Costa (we don't expect our striker to be defending all the time) are all on the field and I can't see why he doesn't see this. If we do have Cesc in i'd like us to give him a free role to do what he wants and play to box to box midfielders (matic and one other).

 

Agree BD. Said at start of season we needed second quality Matic type for big games instead of Rambo/Mikel.
Or we could go for a box to box man in Pogba and push Fab up.

Or heaven forbid promote from with: Ake, Loftus Cheek long term

 

I was wondering whether we need to give Hazard more of a free role behind the striker than just being put out wide (where he gets doubled up on all the time anyway). Means we don't have to worry as much about helping to cover the full back either. Then stick 2 from 3 of Oscar, Willian, Cuadrado wide or even Luis, who has a great cross on him..

Ronaldo and Messi both started in wide roles and have since excelled when given more central and free roles.

 

This is what I said, good to see I'm not going mad and on my own.

 

Last season Jose gifted the league to City - due to over reliance on Mikel + Lamps in DM/CM & Nando as striker.
May be he was too complacent and thought he could walk the league.

This season - there are parallels which is very disturbing. He needs to change and rotate our good squad players.

 

Ake is the man for me. Young ,quick, talented and just the type Jose doesn't like. Mata, De Bruyn etc not Joses type. He'll buy some hugely expensive player like he always does. Ivan has been one of our best but he's knackered. Rotation is all we need to do, not 3 or 4 every game, but far more than Jose is doing. Remy is more than useful but never gets a chance, Luis could even play alongside Matic in my opinion. Bet they're glad they joined Chelsea !

 

To be fair, Jose was stuck with Torres et al because the club failed to land him a top class striker. We were in for Rooney and rumours about many others as well such as Cavani, Falcao etc.

He also bought in Matic mid season to help the central midfield and we were favourites for the title for a while.

Last season we had weaknesses that needed addressing in personnel that finally caught up with us. This year it seems the problem is more reluctance to rotate or try something new. Different problem, hopefully not the same outcome.

 

Excellent post. Sums up both seasons concisely and accurately

 

IMO opinion,
On too many occassions, he went with Lamps + Mikel combo = loss. That is the primary reason.
Then, even though he had Ba who is more than capable of getting crucial goals, he toyed with Nando too long.