Chelsea were all over the place last night. They did play very poor tactics. You can see my post at the start. They were literally all over the place so much it was hard to know their shape. It's still a bad decision to sack him but perhaps Abramovich watched that display last night and had enough
To be fair it's very similar to what they played in the Champions League final, and it's the same to what they've played all season... Earning rave reviews up until this sticky patch.
Juventus did make it look very easy though. I was very impressed with them last night. Chelsea looked dangerous at times but it was always a question of when Juventus would score not if!Can see Real giving City a pasting tonight as well!
People are starting to perk up and realise Juve are no mugs. They have one of the best central midfield trios in world football, a rock solid back line, one of history's all time greats in goal and whilst they haven't got any world beaters up front, Vucinic, Giovinco and Quagliarella are good players. Then add to that they're winning mentality, organisation, structure and team ethic, one of the best home records in Europe... Very good team. No shame in Chelsea losing to them, the manner they did was a touch shameful, but without the steel of Terry, Essien, Makelele, Lampard, Drogba etc., the players of old that are gone or on there way out, their talented youngsters were never going to match up well with Juve at home without a touch of magic. Shakhtar are also a very underrated and dangerous team, all in all, Chelsea got a very tough group with teams you really don't want to play against. Ask any team in Europe to name the places they'd least like to go to right now, Juve and the Donbass would be right up in the top five or six. Young team, young manager, no disgrace in them falling at the first hurdle, disappointing and they should have done better, but not a shocker by any means for me. And it's not exactly like they'll crash out bottom by 10 points, if they beat Nordsjaelland which you would obviously expect, then they would only have missed out by a point or less. As for City, well they've had a very tough group too, but they really have had a shocker. A defeat from Real would cap it off.
They've been playing 4-2-3-1 most of the season with Torres as striker. Last season in the champions league Drogba would stay forward in a proper striker role with a more defensive 4-5-1 or 4-1-4-1. But last night I really don't know what they were trying to play most of the game. They had to start with Torres. I know Hazard technically led the line but it was almost strikerless at times. It was almost a 4-6-0 with a very unorganised midfield that didn't really know what their roles were.
I think he sent all his players out there in positions he can reasonably expect them to play, Hazard has played up front numerous times in the past, Azpilicueta has also played right-mid in the past. It wasn't exactly what they'd been playing this season or last, but very similar, although they did just come undone by Juve and their shape ended up falling to pieces. But it's not exactly like he went out there with players thrown into random positions and asked them to play an alien formation. They just came up against a team that is entirely based around organisation and a strict team ethic, and got shown up.
Mourinho said: "I think they can win tomorrow, of course they can, and they can also win in Dortmund, why not, but eight points is not enough. "I think they are out for a second time and that must be difficult for them." You have to love him! Wonder if Mancini will use that to motivate his players!
IF Montpellier Real Madrid Borussia Dortmund AC Milan Paris SG Din Zagreb Olympiakos All win, I win £39K
I much prefer watching R Madrid than Barcelona, the pace of their game is frightening. Do we reckon Ronaldo could have scored from that chip if he had followed up on it?
