Chelsea (H) 28.08.21

[Fredo]

Nah man, you just cannot let people support their team their own way. You trying to be the est monitor all the time is pathetic and condescending. Just leave it alone man.

We did not play well enough and blew a great opportunity to get one over on our rivals when they were in a weakened position. How on earth is that pathetic or hyperbole? Its the truth, nothing is a given ffs but having a team down to 10 men for half the game in a packed Anfield is a great position to be in and gives you a fantastic opportunity to take advantage.

How is that supporting a team if you constantly slate them? Please, you are relentless with your negativity, which doesn't really make sense when we've played 3 games and yet still haven't lost or aren't out of anything. But no, we still rely on Bobby who is ****, Mane who is awful etc, etc. How is that "supporting" a football team?

Beating Chelsea at this stage of the season is only a bit of a marker, and it doesn't give us any advantage for the rest of the season.

Anyway, have a great bank holiday week end and enjoy yourself in the misery.

[RedReet]

This is quite interesting

https://twitter.com/xGPhilosophy/sta...621172227?s=19

Seen that on MOTD.

Agreed with your take on the game, thought we were better team first half and they scored a nothing goal that could have been easily avoided. Alison could have prevented corner, but thought it was our ball and although a decent header, it wasn't an actual chance, just a hopeful flick on.

Think half time came at perfect time for them, gave them opportunity to regroup and shut up shop.

Disappointing result, no sugar coating it, but hardly worth some of the reactions.

[danperkins]

How is that supporting a team if you constantly slate them? Please, you are relentless with your negativity, which doesn't really make sense when we've played 3 games and yet still haven't lost or aren't out of anything. But no, we still rely on Bobby who is ****, Mane who is awful etc, etc. How is that "supporting" a football team?

Beating Chelsea at this stage of the season is only a bit of a marker, and it doesn't give us any advantage for the rest of the season.

Anyway, have a great bank holiday week end and enjoy yourself in the misery.

Not a bank holiday here Nigel

[Venton]

Looking at the game again we did have a few good chances to win it but as Lecter pointed out we squandered them. Salah and Mane both had good shooting chances they fluffed and Jota headed over from crosses where I've seen him score. Needed our shooting boots really. It's early days but it's disappointing not to take advantage of one of our title rivals being a man down for a whole half at home but there you go. I've a feeling those are the games we're going to need to win if we're going to get the title this year.

[danperkins]

Seen that on MOTD.

Agreed with your take on the game, thought we were better team first half and they scored a nothing goal that could have been easily avoided. Alison could have prevented corner, but thought it was our ball and although a decent header, it wasn't an actual chance, just a hopeful flick on.

Think half time came at perfect time for them, gave them opportunity to regroup and shut up shop.

Disappointing result, no sugar coating it, but hardly worth some of the reactions.

Fans are disappointed and thought we should have won, big deal. The over reactions to the reactions is interesting though.

[Lecter]

Looking at the game again we did have a few good chances to win it but as Lecter pointed out we squandered them. Salah and Mane both had good shooting chances they fluffed and Jota headed over from crosses where I've seen him score. Needed our shooting boots really. It's early days but it's disappointing not to take advantage of one of our title rivals being a man down for a whole half at home but there you go. I've a feeling those are the games we're going to need to win if we're going to get the title this year.

Hendo had a great chance 1st half also

One thing we did well when we won the League was raise the intensity and speed of our play when we needed a goal

Wasnt there for me 2nd half yesterday

[RedReet]

Looking at the game again we did have a few good chances to win it but as Lecter pointed out we squandered them. Salah and Mane both had good shooting chances they fluffed and Jota headed over from crosses where I've seen him score. Needed our shooting boots really. It's early days but it's disappointing not to take advantage of one of our title rivals being a man down for a whole half at home but there you go. I've a feeling those are the games we're going to need to win if we're going to get the title this year.

How good was Elliot's chance second half that he fluffed with his right? MotD didn't show it.

From my seat, both his and Hendo's seemed good chances, but on their weaker sides (although, having seen Hendo's again, he probably could have shaped body and used his right).

[danperkins]

Thought Thiago should have been on earlier alright. Hendo and Fab were moving the ball around way too slowly, made it easy for Chelsea to get a shape.

We seemed to run out of ideas and attacking options were too predictable. Reminded me of alot of games last season.

[McDermotX]

How good was Elliot's chance second half that he fluffed with his right? MotD didn't show it.

From my seat, both his and Hendo's seemed good chances, but on their weaker sides (although, having seen Hendo's again, he probably could have shaped body and used his right).

IIRC.....he kind of snatched at it, with his right. It was a decent chance even with the bounce, so you've got to be hitting the target. If it gets blocked, so be it, but you increase you're chances of scoring almost 100% by hitting it on target.
He probably would have fancied it more on his left, but was quite square to it to allow it to run across him.

[RedReet]

IIRC.....he kind of snatched at it, with his right. It was a decent chance even with the bounce, so you've got to be hitting the target. If it gets blocked, so be it, but you increase you're chances of scoring almost 100% by hitting it on target.
He probably would have fancied it more on his left, but was quite square to it to allow it to run across him.

Cheers.

[Doc_Piptorious]

Jaco is a terrible tipster but it’s certainly not a disaster

Come at me, mofo

[Rigadon]

Understand the disappointment but it was a point against a very good Chelsea side.

[Doc_Piptorious]

Understand the disappointment but it was a point against a very good Chelsea side.

Whilst getting a point was a disappointment given we were the home team, we did so againt a very strong team that has a talented manager who is getting more and more tactically astute season on season.

I cannot warm to Tuchel in the slightest as every time I see his face it prompts an uncanny valley reaction in me, but as a manger he is good, very good, and he is showing that he is adding more and more to his abilities as the years go by.

He gets called a chequebook manager and Guardiola lite at times, but I think he is nothing like Guardiola as he is far more pragmatic a manager imo and he reacts quickly to things that happen on the pitch and makes whole sale changes in game that more often than not are sound and work out. Yesterday when they went down to ten men is a prime example of that. They went defensive, changed their shape but always looked solid and capable of working their way out of transitions of play as a unit. He also has them drilled in the snider arts which showed in spades as well.

Think a point was a fair enough, though still disappointing, result as we had a few players that were misfiring a tad and on another day that could have cost us more than two points.

With any luck we get through the international break with no new injuries and have a few players fitter than they are currently and guys like Thiago ready to start games.


Still cannot shake that feeling I had all summer that we need someone like Martinez up front to compete with our current options and someone more dynamic to add to the CM options.

[Tribute]

Some immediate over reactions during and after the game understandably… but a point against a good Chelsea team who defended perfectly with ten men. Gave us little opportunity but at the same time, it was reminiscent of many games with the low block from last season.

Unless we learn to workaround teams who do that, we’ll be in for a shed load more draws that could have been wins like a few seasons ago…

Not having our shooting boots on for the third game is allowable, but if the trend continues we’ll find ourselves struggling to dig a result out like we did in our title winning season…

Frustrating but not the end of the world this early in the season…

[Doc_Piptorious]

Some immediate over reactions during and after the game understandably… but a point against a good Chelsea team who defended perfectly with ten men. Gave us little opportunity but at the same time, it was reminiscent of many games with the low block from last season.

Unless we learn to workaround teams who do that, we’ll be in for a shed load more draws that could have been wins like a few seasons ago…

Not having our shooting boots on for the third game is allowable, but if the trend continues we’ll find ourselves struggling to dig a result out like we did in our title winning season…

Frustrating but not the end of the world this early in the season…

Think you do have a point with regards to finding ways around teams that sit deep and use a low block, however I think there is a big difference between an elite team full of top class players sitting deep and using a low block (as was the case at times yesterday) and less talented and maybe less well drilled teams attemping the same.

Burnley at times attempted to go between pressing/spoiling and playing with a low block against us, and we put three past them, so for me being held by a top team playing a low block/defensive/spoiling game is a lot different to being held the same way on a regular basis by "lesser" teams.

Too early in the season to say if a low block or spoiling tactics is going to be our achilles heel this season, however if we keep turning over some of the lesser teams then they are going to become less inclined to fancy holding out for a result against us and that aura we lost last season will start to return again. IMHO of course.

Do also think the loss of our aura will be a a factor for a while this season. Last season we saw teams fancy their changes of snatching points from us as we had that quarter or a third of the season where we became toothless and a bit of a soft mark for any team that played with a low block and then went to hit us on the counter. We need to weather that for the first 8 or 10 games this season and put the lesser teams we meet during that run to the sword so that they get back to the thinking that a game against us becomes damage limitation for them rather than a chance of points.