Chelsea (H) Post Match

[McDermotX]

I get defensive football, we've seen it under Houllier and in certain games under Benitez. But I'm extremely confident that we weren't time wasting from the first minute and playing in to the corner flags in the first half.

Mourinho holding on to the ball, Schwarzer taking forever, Cole leaving the ball behind ... that's just the tip of the iceberg. It was embarrassing and it's typical of the UK's media that it isn't highlighted for what it was.

What was especially annoying was how the officials seem to think any punishment is reserved for only the last few mins of a match.

It was clear about 1:20min in that Chelsea were going to not only disrupt the progression of the match during open-play with their negative approach, but more punishable, during breaks for set-pieces/throws.

Apart from holding his watch up, and having a word with their keeper, he didn't act until late in the second half. Ridiculous.
The rules are there for them for them to act on, to help them manage the flow of the game, and yet he didn't take the opportunity to sanction Chelsea's approach.
Baffling.

[Fierce]

Dropped a bombshell at the end

That's exactly how I read it!

Valid points, well written post, until that last line -

[Chris]

What was especially annoying was how the officials seem to think any punishment is reserved for only the last few mins of a match.

It was clear about 1:20min in that Chelsea were going to not only disrupt the progression of the match during open-play with their negative approach, but more punishable, during breaks for set-pieces/throws.

Apart from holding his watch up, and having a word with their keeper, he didn't act until late in the second half. Ridiculous.
The rules are there for them for them to act on, to help them manage the flow of the game, and yet he didn't take the opportunity to sanction Chelsea's approach.
Baffling.

That was infuriating, just smiling and pointing to his watch all the time then in stoppage time one of them finally gets booked for it, fat lot of ****ing use that is, they'd been doing it for 90mins their job was done.

Yesterday was weird, we've had some cynical teams here over the years, domestically and from abroad, Stoke like to kick us, Sorenson and Begovic take ages to take goal kicks etc I get all that but this was a team with a bigger budget, coming here time wasting from minute 1, taking the ball into the corner in the first half etc it was utterly bizarre, cant ever remember seeing something like that before even Stoke usually give it 20mins before starting all that!

[McDermotX]

That was infuriating, just smiling and pointing to his watch all the time then in stoppage time one of them finally gets booked for it, fat lot of ****ing use that is, they'd been doing it for 90mins their job was done.

Yesterday was weird, we've had some cynical teams here over the years, domestically and from abroad, Stoke like to kick us, Sorenson and Begovic take ages to take goal kicks etc I get all that but this was a team with a bigger budget, coming here time wasting from minute 1, taking the ball into the corner in the first half etc it was utterly bizarre, cant ever remember seeing something like that before even Stoke usually give it 20mins before starting all that!

Just wanted to disrupt our now traditional fast-start. Everything was done to wind up not just the team, but also the fans.
Pure plan for Mourinho, but not one to be lauded, which no doubt some of his media buddies are doing.
Brendan is right, it doesn't require great coaching and it doesn't require extensive planning. It's an unadventurous 'tactic' of a man who really knew his team were, 8 times out of 10, unlikely to leave that ground with anything more than a point.
There wasn't even any great outlet for this approach, with Demba Ba left to fend for himself, which he made a great fist of at times trying to win a corner - anything that might lead to a chance for them. But, in reality, we were comfortable and in control and undone by something which shouldn't happen.

I know some will point to the fact that in the end, his team got what they came for so job done, but it's a glib acknowledgment of nothing more than a piece of luck for a team which deserved none, and a crushing misfortune for a team that at least fought for some.

[Lecter]

Maybe we should have subbed Agger on for Lucas and thrown Skrtel up front.

I'm only half joking.

Ah you mean the "Huth Method"

[DKdan]

Bizarre analogy to make given the hugely different roles they play. The players were in the positions they were supposed to be in. The mistake was the slip, not the lack of positioning set up to cover it!

Pick a Chelsea midfielder instead of Lampard that makes you more comfortable with the analogy then!

I agree that our players were where they should be in Brendans tactic. Hence why I didn't like the tactic for that game.

I agree the mistake was the slip, but that a midfielder can slip in the middle of the pitch and have no one behind him to cover is what makes the mistake fatal. Thats one of the chances we take against most sides, but one I feel we shouldn't take against a Mourinho team.

[Cormack74]

Maybe we should have subbed Agger on for Lucas and thrown Skrtel up front.

I'm only half joking.

I feel dirty and Fat Samesque for saying this but in the absence of a discernible change in tactics I actually think it might have been worth pursuing as a plan b for the last 15 mins or so.

[Catrin]

I only caught the highlights on MOTD2 but from what I saw Chelsea defended deep and quite narrow. There wasn't much to be gained by using width as we were never going to get headed goals against that lot, not without maybe "doing a Huth." Our best bet, with the benefit of hindsight, seemed to be to try to get the ball to Suarez, Coutinho or Sterling on the edge of the box and get them to run at the opposition. There was little chance of getting through but they would have drawn a few fouls? Even if we hadn't scored from the free kicks maybe it would have forced Chelsea to push up a bit more, leaving a bit more space behind?

[Red_Polo]

Pick a Chelsea midfielder instead of Lampard that makes you more comfortable with the analogy then!

I agree that our players were where they should be in Brendans tactic. Hence why I didn't like the tactic for that game.

I agree the mistake was the slip, but that a midfielder can slip in the middle of the pitch and have no one behind him to cover is what makes the mistake fatal. Thats one of the chances we take against most sides, but one I feel we shouldn't take against a Mourinho team.

The tactic makes **** all difference. Whatever formation you play, someone is the deepest outfield player and they can slip letting the opposition in.

Curious to know, how would you have set them up to prevent that and what is it particular to that game that you felt we ought to have altered our set-up just to be more slip friendly?

[Venton]

I only caught the highlights on MOTD2 but from what I saw Chelsea defended deep and quite narrow. There wasn't much to be gained by using width as we were never going to get headed goals against that lot, not without maybe "doing a Huth." Our best bet, with the benefit of hindsight, seemed to be to try to get the ball to Suarez, Coutinho or Sterling on the edge of the box and get them to run at the opposition. There was little chance of getting through but they would have drawn a few fouls? Even if we hadn't scored from the free kicks maybe it would have forced Chelsea to push up a bit more, leaving a bit more space behind?

That's pretty much it I think. They were very well marshelled though, it was always going to come down to a mistake and we made it first. It's horrible to say but they did an ugly job beautifully.

[Slinky Skills]

Don't worry about the time wasting, our time will come to do the same to them and screw them up the way they did us.

Brendan won't have forgotten and neither will the players either.

[ntto]

I hate to say it but what worried me more is the insistance that we need to go out and win games.

Our game management hasn't been good for me - there are points in a game when you need to slow it down, speed it up, change tactics, change formations etc and while we do some of that well (changing formations seamlessly for example) we didnt cover ourselves in glory either.

Our coaching staff knew what was coming in terms of what Chelsea were going to do and we had a full week to prepare and I was disappointed we ran out of ideas so early. Yes the goal changed things and we had to push on but what stands out for me was what Brendan said post match - it was something along the lines of we only play one way and thats attacking and with agression.

Hopefully on reflection he takes on board what happened yesterday - he was right when he said Mourinho can wave his CV in his face with all the success but I'm not so sure it was right when he said he'll never play like that.

Under Houllier (and Rafa to a lesser extent) we were awful at times and hearing "attack attack attack" from the crowd was an indication of that. We've gone too far the other way now.

Yes we've had the attitude this season of we'll score 5 if we conceed 4 but if the strikers are having an off day thats not necessarily going to win us games. Rafa was good at shutting up shop and protecting a 1 goal lead. It's something we need to pick up under Brendan - we kept doing the same thing yesterday in the hope it would pay off (and on a different day it might have done).

Back to my first sentence - I hate to say it but what worried me more is the insistance that we need to go out and win games. We perhaps should have setup yesterday not to get beat first and foremost. Imagine next seasons Champions League when a second leg home draw is enough to put us through - other managers would nail but Brendan hasnt had that experience yet.

Playing nice freeflowing attacking football cant be at the expense of winning - we're close to finding a perfect balance. We need to get ugly and dirty when required.

[Red_Polo]

Do people not think to some extent our gung-ho approach this half of the season has been a pragmatic move based on our available assets, rather than a style we are determined to adopt at any cost, especially given the clear departure from earlier on? Given the ample rewards it has brought, I'm not inclined to criticise it either way. Everyone wants something to blame, but sometimes you eat the bar and sometimes, wull...

I don't think we're guilty of being tactically inflexible or naive, particularly. It was just the way the cookie crumbled.

[McDermotX]

Do people not think to some extent our gung-ho approach this half of the season has been a pragmatic move based on our available assets, rather than a style we are determined to adopt at any cost, especially given the clear departure from earlier on? Given the ample rewards it has brought, I'm not inclined to criticise it either way. Everyone wants something to blame, but sometimes you eat the bar and sometimes, wull...

I don't think we're guilty of being tactically inflexible or naive, particularly. It was just the way the cookie crumbled.

I think ntto made some worthy comments in the post above, but it's important to keep in mind, that without Stevie's slip, we could have just as readily been sitting here lamenting the fact that we couldn't break them down, but we'll more than take the point and push on.

It's the single defining moment of the defeat.............we might have gone on and just drew, we might have won with a deflected shot etc etc. We approached the constant defending somewhat naively IMO, and would have hoped to see a bit more from our FBs, Sterling, Suarez etc, but I don't believe we were anything other than comfortable before the error, and that goal just gave Chelsea the excuse they needed to leave Ba on the half-way line and do **** all else.

[Lecter]

One thing is that the run had to come to an end sooner or later

Its the law of averages and all that crap, you cannot go on adinfinitum winning game after game

We had a great run of results and it came to an end against Chelsea

Tactically they set up well and they nullified our attacking play

Hats off to them on that score