Not impressed!!!!!! This was a big game for us, not top against bottom, but a big London derby And Rafa Benitez decides that he wants to rest Mata, Cole, Ramires and Hazard. Rotating out 3 of our best attacking players and in his post match interview he has claimed that some of the players have been tired, well why did he drop the players that havent been playing a lot such as Hazard and Ramires Here is a list of the amount of time played by each outfield player (barring Nathan Akes 90h minute appearance) over the festive period against Aston Villa, Norwich and Everton [table="width: 700, class: grid, align: center"] [tr] [td]Player Name[/td] [td]Time On Pitch Over Festive Period[/td] [td]Position(s)[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Cesar Azpilicueta[/td] [td]270[/td] [td]Right back[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Branislav Ivanovic[/td] [td]270[/td] [td]Centre Back[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Gary Cahill[/td] [td]270[/td] [td]Centre Back[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Ashley Cole[/td] [td]270[/td] [td]Left Back[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]David Luiz[/td] [td]270[/td] [td]Central Midfield[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Fernando Torres[/td] [td]248[/td] [td]Striker[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Juan Mata[/td] [td]248[/td] [td]Central Attacking Midfield[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Victor Moses[/td] [td]184[/td] [td]Wide Midfield and Striker [/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Eden Hazard[/td] [td]176[/td] [td]Wide Midfield[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Frank Lampard[/td] [td]168[/td] [td]Central Midfield[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Ramires[/td] [td]119[/td] [td]Central Midfield and Wide Midfield[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Oscar[/td] [td]118[/td] [td]Central Midfield and Wide Midfield[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]John Obi Mikel[/td] [td]73[/td] [td]Central Midfield[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Lucas Piazon[/td] [td]16[/td] [td]Wide Midfield[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Marko Marin[/td] [td]0[/td] [td]Wide Midfield[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Ryan Bertrand[/td] [td]0[/td] [td]Left Back[/td] [/tr] [/table] Stats dont lie do they How can Rafa Benitez claime that players like Eden Hazard need a rest more than Victor Moses, they play the same position, are around the same age and Victor Moses has actually played more minutes than Eden Hazard And onto Ramires, the guy has played less than a 35 year old Frank Lampard and the same as Oscar yet neither of those players were rested And Mata and Cole were rested tonight but fair enough they have played a lot of minutes over the last 3 games, but then why wasnt Fernando Torres rested, he has played all but 22 minutes over the festive period and only scored one goal in a rout against Villa in a period that we managed to score 11 goals, and he is our main striker, if Mata is to be rested then Torres should have also. But onto the rotation aspect of Rafas policy, he played Marko Marin and Ryan Bertrand, two players who havent even played a game in the last three, and Marin in his first derby game, baptism of fires arent for games like this when we arent at the end of a long injury list In fairness maybe Rafa could have rested Juan Mata and Fernando Torres and Ashley Cole. But in my opinion he should have either went with our srongest line up and brogut players on when the game might have been won or went with the side that finished the last 20 minutes against Aston Villa with four goals and had Ramires, Hazard, Piazon, Oscar supporting Moses. Simple tactics and Benitez won be given the excuse that players needed a rest when some certainly didnt
Wow JCC those stats you've produced are very impressive! I take your point though--the team selection tonight, forgetting injuries, was crap! Bring back RDM!
Rafa used to make this same mistake at Liverpool. you would have thought that he would have learned by now. This is the problem with a foreign manager, they do not understand local pride!
Stan "the man" Collymore said, in his pre-match build-up to his commentary on Talk5hite, that QPR's only real chance against you tonight, was if they drank in the derby atmosphere deeper than Chelsea. They did, and they won. By the way, QPR were 14-1 for the win tonight. I wish I'd put a score on the match, because I had a feeling they'd do you.
That's not completely true. RDM did hence the reason why his record in London Derbies was Played 7, Won 4 Drawn 3, Lost 0. That man knew Chelsea inside out and would never have fielded that team against QPR or any London side for that matter. Ancelotti was the same. JT and Lampard gave him a pep talk on London Derbies (in particular the Arsenal, Spurs and West Ham fixtures) and he never fielded weakened sides against any, same with Mourinho.
Like I sai we should have either played the best XI or the side that finished the game against Villa, one is the best XI and if beaten we can have no complaint, the other is a team without the players that have played so much, and that depite defeat would be understandable, but a mixture with a few players rested and some of our best players in that, this defeat cant be acceptable. We have five big games coming up, Southampton in the cup and the Swansea double header, we can not afford defeat in whilst Stoke away will be tough, but we have form for being a good away side against the tougher teams this year (Arsenal, Spurs, Everton) and a win in that game and I think we can then go on and beat Arsenal
Is anyone else concerned our 2nd string can't beat QPR ???? We even had our almost top team in up to the front 4. I sure am, and thought we had "world class' back up for every position??? We sure paid for that kind of back up, but it was not evident against a piss poor team like QPR.
Apart from our striker We paid more for him than United and Liverpool paid for Robin Van Persie and Luis Suarez combined, currently the top two strikers in the league with 31 league goals between them Thankyou very much our incompetent scouting system The one game I regret over the last few years was losing 2-0 to Liverpool with a double from a very out of form Fernando Torres, probably the game that got him onto the radar of Romans transfer advisory team Just imagine if we had bought the other two, we would have walked this
