Haven't read anybody elses comments yet. Only heard from the 4 lads who were at the match in the car on the way home. The lads got it about right in their view of the game. First half I have to say, take MON out of the equation and that was a damn fine showing against a very good set of footballers. We played some really canny football and didn't reap any reward. AJ was giving Cole a hard day at the office. Chances for Gardner, Sess and others. Large spells of possesion and no way outplayed by Chelsea. Chelsea hit US on the break with a good goal from Torres, helped by a possible foul in the build up by Torres. The only other chances they had were when Larsson was giving free kicks away edge of our box. I would say we were doing very well, until Larsson gave away the stupid penalty. Lots of hard graft all over the pitch. Over the first half I would say we deserved to go in drawing minimum. How the **** was Mata not booked for the continuous niggling fouls? I have said before I think Wickham looks a bit ponderous. His all round play was ok, but he is standing like a statue whilst in the box he has to start making himself space to attack any crosses. By standing still he is making himself easy to mark. And it is going to be one hell of a cross to actually hit him. Second half Chelsea started much the better. Bardsley's mistake for their 3rd which I'm sure he will hold his hands up for, doesn't alter the fact the rest of the defence were ball watching. We then settled down again but had very little cutting edge AJ scores a hell of a goal. WTF was Cech thinking though? Commentator said he thought Colback would be coming on for Larsson, I couldn't have agreed more. But it turned out to be Bardsley? Was he injured? We were putting them under a lot of pressure, they always looked dangerous on the break. There defence did very well and once again a lack of a cutting edge let us down. A good save from Cech stopped AJ's free kick. Even though McC got a few good crosses into the box he still has a lot to learn, he can't just run through players. He put in a hell of a ball late on and neither Saha or Wickham were in the box to benifit! We were putting them under increasing pressure as the half went on a lot of fouls on Wickham not given. He had a good effort from the edge of the box late on too. Only clear cut chance they had was a long range effort by Lampard. Mata eventually got booked for his 30th foul. Gardner hits the bar and says everything about our luck right now. We have none! Overall 3-1 flattered Chelsea. We deserved a draw minimum. If Fletcher had been on it could have been oh so different. If we play like that against any of the other teams around us (and take our chances) we will win easily For the first time in ages I have checked the stats. Ours are first. Fouls 11 to 15, those 15 will have been mostly Mata. Shots 9 to 11 On target 5 to 5 Corners 11 to 1 <<<< Cards 1 to 3 Possesion 45 to 55. Surprised at this I thought it would have been closer to level. What would I have done different if I had been MON? Took off Larssen much earlier to bring on support for Wickham.
Good post, unfortunately some people have passed the point of looking at things rationally, and whatever happens is MON's fault. I'm confident though that he will be given time, and prove his doubters wrong.
There comes a time when the players have to start answering questions not the manager. We have played some canny football and haven't got the breaks that change games recently. I have said this before, we haven't been getting hammered in the games we have lost yet some turn round and say we were ****e. I'm going to have a browse now and I'm guessing there is going to be a lot of we were ****e posts. Opinions eh?
The games against Norwich, Everton, WBA and today Chelsea could have went so differently and had they went differently we could be sitting in the top half right now... And it's the smallest margins that define the games and had it went a little bit in our favour, everyone would be happy. But, they haven't and our poor starts certainly cannot continue, but it seems people only choose to remember the bad parts and say we're ****, it's quite obvious that if when we play our best (which isn't every few games, just for parts of the game) we are from from ****... What i cannot believe are the people who want Bruce back, deary me, when we had our win-less streaks we were awful consistently
Great post mr, MON the man 98% of people wanted and now 1yr on want him out! How long would POYET, MARTINEZ etc be given, 6months? Yes he is making mistakes but I am still 100% behind him and we as fans should get behind the team, we cannot keep sacking managers every year! Ha'way the lads
There's no doubt he is making mistakes mate. I wouldn't have expected us to play two up top against the likes of Chelsea. But we have to do it against teams below the top four. It comes down to our forwards not taking their chances, so stick two on and double our chances.
Good OP. Just about to watch footie first but at the end of the day only one thing counts. 1-3 Norwich,Everton,WBA,Chelsea. Norwich, no point giving a team a 2 goal start before we wake up. WBA, no point giving a team a 2 goal start before getting into them, Chelsea,no point going 3 down before showing some grit. Everton, No point missing 2 glorious chances to go in the lead as you know what will happen. Zero points from 12. Lucky or unlucky, played well or played ****e. Zero points. WBA
Can't argue against most of that mate, but... Yes there's always a but, the players should be taking more stick not just the manager. They are all highly paid professionals and some of them aren't earning their wages. Makes me wince everytime a cross goes to waste and no one has bust a gut to get on the end of it.
Without a doubt. I blame the players more than the manager. Long time since I watched a schoolboy team pass a ball as poor as us, have so few chances as us, be as boring as us. The manager takes the rap and ok some of his tactics/formations have looked strange, at the end of the day its about the players on the pitch.
Re Wickham. He gives the team a target man and he allows us to play higher up the pitch. Him and Fletcher up front for me. Re our form. For me it is coming down to stupid individual errors costing us games. Mig v west Brom O'shea v Everton Larrson and Bardsley today.
Can't argue with either of you. I'm not going to string Bardsley and MIng from the nearest tree because of the odd mistake. Even the best players in the world make mistakes. I have had worries about Larsson all season, today compounded those worries. What other teams are doing that we aren't though is recovering from mistakes. Look at Man U bloody hell their whole team has had a mare but they have managed to turn it round and come back and win. Same with City they play like a **** team but go on to take the points through individual brilliance.
Agreed Mackem' to be fair I think we all forgave MIG. He has been so great for us that one error, well you just gotta say unlucky keep going. Bardsley, he's not great going forward but he is usually dependable at the back. Never seen him do what he did for their third goal? Even to the point of ball watching. I forget which was the goal where O'Shea just wandered about with his hand up for offside another stupid error! Some really basic stupid errors that no manager can account for and once in a season errors from players seem to be coming along like buses!
O'Shea could have attacked the ball with his head and put it out for a corner on Torres goal/ For some unfathomable reason he was trying to reach around with his foot to hook it away? Methinks Rose who tried to get across to block Torres shot gave O'Shea a funny look when it happened as if to say WTF? hahaha
Good to read some rational posts instead of the knee jerk MON out which seem to infest this board. It takes time to build the team. Changing manager then involves starting over again. Supporting the team for 50 years brings patience.
We played some great stuff at times but conceded 3 bad goals. Although they could have been 2 or 3 up in the first 6 minutes were it not for MIG, I thought after we lost the first goal we had a 20 min spell where they were rocking. Then larsson decides to throw it away with a pointless lunge. Definate penalty. Half time team talk went out the window 5 mins into second half with another defensive comedy show and then again we put them under pressure. Men of distinction were Rose, Wickham and Mig. Honorable mentions in to Johnson and sessegnon. Our problem is central midfielde. Too slow, no invention and no creativity. Unless this is rectified next month this is going to be a hard season. Rose is class wherever he plays imo but the second if moved to midfielder, we suddenly had pace and looked slick and fluid. We need a huge injection of pace in the team and We need so play Wickham WITH Fletcher on Tuesday and move sessegnon out wide. As much as I want Mon, a loss on Tuesday and the crowd will turn. That's a definate given. We simply cannot fail to beat Reading in a must win affair. A draw would represent a defeat imo.
Can't argue with any of this mate, i thought Danny Rose was outstanding and head and shoulders above anyone else on the park (Chelsea included), Mig? well, he's been class all season and has kept us in the game yesterday. Rose has to be our first signing in January.
i thought johnson was the main man yesterday, was mugging ashley cole (best left back in prem) all game and scored a cracking goal to give us a bit of hope. thought mclean was his best all season aswell.
He has to really go all out for the win and im talking crazy tactics that got Boro to a European final. We need to players in the centre who can go forward, Rose and Sess, neither are cm's but these are desperate times now. Bardsley and Larsson need to sit this one out unless we'll be 2-0 down before we get going. Jack Colback showed what I already knew, he's really a left back. My craaaazy team to beat Reading. .........................Mignolet................... gardner........Cuellar.....Oshea......Colback Johnson.....sessesgnon..rose........mcclean ...................fletcher....whickham............... Think Gardner, Aj and Sess would make for some great triangles down the right as would the three on the left. Two upfront is a must.
