Chelsea dumpster fire

[IthacaMatt]

Well, this season has certainly turned to crap for Chelsea. To me, there are a number of problems:

• Ivanovic losing pace and constantly getting exposed at right back
• Hazard simply checking out and giving lackluster effort
• Terry not performing as well as last year.
• Baba Rahman not being a suitable back, in Mourinho's eyes anyway, for the Premier League yet
• Costa too focused on roughing up defenders and not enough on getting shots on target
• Mourinho unwilling to replace Fabregas with Oscar on more occasions
• Falcao not getting anywhere close to what he used to be
• Mourinho's lack of trust in Loic Remy as an alternative to Costa or Falcao
• Mourinho's father's apparent terminal illness hanging over him
• Lack of summer transfer dealings (especially how poorly they handled the Stones bidding)
• Mourinho not giving some more of the younger players a chance in the side
• Constant bitching by Mourinho about the referees, although you can't blame him with the lack of calls in Chelsea's favor
• Post-Season tour of the Far East, right after the end of a grinding season, then too short of a summer break before the grinding tour of North America in the preseason
• Injury to Courtois, although Begovic hasn't been terrible; it's more been a case of the back four permitting way too many shots on goal

Should Mourinho be given the sack? I'm still strongly against it. But he has got to loosen up and try to have some fun again out there. The siege mentality is weighing on his team. I think Chelsea should acquire a top striker, another young center back, another right fullback and Mourinho needs to start playing people like Kenedy, Traore, Loftus-Cheek, and they should bring back some of the other young guys out on loan, like Bamford, Piazon, Kalas and Izzy Brown and let them play.

The season is a lost cause anyway, as far as competing for the championship. If Roman lets him blood these young guys and is willing to forgo a year of champions league football, they will be a far better team for it in the long haul.

Hazard is beginning to remind me too much of the negative side of Lampard, who give intermittent effort in some of his later seasons, and played an active part in getting a couple of his managers dismissed. Drogba, too, started to phase out around 2011, 2012 in too many games. And What with the missed penalty against Stoke? Are you trying to make us lose? I read in the gossip rags today that Real is cooling on talk of bidding for Hazard, as they look at how terrible he truly has been this season.

 

[CanadianSU]

Kiev should win in Wednesday. Or a least I am hoping. Would that be the nail in the coffin ?

 

[CuseCPT]

John Terry is not a leader. Out of their golden generation of players they held onto the worst leader the longest. I would rather they had kept Drogba or Lampard. over Terry at this point.

E: Or Cech.

 

[IthacaMatt]

Kiev should win in Wednesday. Or a least I am hoping. Would that be the nail in the coffin ?

Sombody (I'm guessing Hazard) was indirectly quoted in a London publication as saying "I'd rather lose than win for Mouinho." I'm f#%cking furious about that, because that's exactly what he looked like against Liverpool before he was hauled off after an hour, and didn't seem like he was at all disappointed to be coming out of what was then still a 1-1 tie.

 

[CuseCPT]

I think somehow SU football and Chelsea have become psychically linked. Only explanation that makes sense.

 

[cmr27]

Well, this season has certainly turned to crap for Chelsea. To me, there are a number of problems:

• Ivanovic losing pace and constantly getting exposed at right back
• Hazard simply checking out and giving lackluster effort
• Terry not performing as well as last year.
• Baba Rahman not being a suitable back, in Mourinho's eyes anyway, for the Premier League yet
• Costa too focused on roughing up defenders and not enough on getting shots on target
• Mourinho unwilling to replace Fabregas with Oscar on more occasions
• Falcao not getting anywhere close to what he used to be
• Mourinho's lack of trust in Loic Remy as an alternative to Costa or Falcao
• Mourinho's father's apparent terminal illness hanging over him
• Lack of summer transfer dealings (especially how poorly they handled the Stones bidding)
• Mourinho not giving some more of the younger players a chance in the side
• Constant bitching by Mourinho about the referees, although you can't blame him with the lack of calls in Chelsea's favor
• Post-Season tour of the Far East, right after the end of a grinding season, then too short of a summer break before the grinding tour of North America in the preseason
• Injury to Courtois, although Begovic hasn't been terrible; it's more been a case of the back four permitting way too many shots on goal

Should Mourinho be given the sack? I'm still strongly against it. But he has got to loosen up and try to have some fun again out there. The siege mentality is weighing on his team. I think Chelsea should acquire a top striker, another young center back, another right fullback and Mourinho needs to start playing people like Kenedy, Traore, Loftus-Cheek, and they should bring back some of the other young guys out on loan, like Bamford, Piazon, Kalas and Izzy Brown and let them play.

The season is a lost cause anyway, as far as competing for the championship. If Roman lets him blood these young guys and is willing to forgo a year of champions league football, they will be a far better team for it in the long haul.

Hazard is beginning to remind me too much of the negative side of Lampard, who give intermittent effort in some of his later seasons, and played an active part in getting a couple of his managers dismissed. Drogba, too, started to phase out around 2011, 2012 in too many games. And What with the missed penalty against Stoke? Are you trying to make us lose? I read in the gossip rags today that Real is cooling on talk of bidding for Hazard, as they look at how terrible he truly has been this season.

Was just over in the UK for a few weeks and connected with some friends in Sw10. Dumpster fire, indeed. You are missing: a.) There might be friction between Ivanovic and Jose over off the field stuff; b.) Cudrado was a waste; and c.) Word is, Pedro really regrets coming to CFC. But I'm backing Jose all the way. He's the best manager we've ever had. We've got a Fernando Torres situation with Costa. He needs to go. That would fix some of the issues. They can't close in the last third because of him. On the plus side, Willian has been sublime.

 

[IthacaMatt]

We've got a Fernando Torres situation with the big-bottomed Beglian, too, who hasn't scored now in 20+ games - a drought as long as Torres ever had at Chelsea. I also hate his lack of effort up front to win back the ball. Ruud Gullit was quoted in the papers yesterday, saying how he wouldn't make Hazard run so much, because it makes him too tired to play offense. Gullit then went on to say that Messi and Ronaldo don't have to run so much. But when Pep Guardiola was still coaching Barca, those guys ran like hell to win back the ball in their high-pressing defense. Guardiola used to have a rule - when they lost the ball, everyone (and I mean everyone) goes balls out for 5 seconds to win the ball back. They were the kings of the high press. When Jose was at Real, it should be remembered that Ronaldo scored his highest goal tallies in his career, and that Mourinho is not one to let someone completely shirk their defensive responsibilities. Gullit is just campaigning for Jose's job.

 

[cmr27]

We've got a Fernando Torres situation with the big-bottomed Beglian, too, who hasn't scored now in 20+ games - a drought as long as Torres ever had at Chelsea. I also hate his lack of effort up front to win back the ball. Ruud Gullit was quoted in the papers yesterday, saying how he wouldn't make Hazard run so much, because it makes him too tired to play offense. Gullit then went on to say that Messi and Ronaldo don't have to run so much. But when Pep Guardiola was still coaching Barca, those guys ran like hell to win back the ball in their high-pressing defense. Guardiola used to have a rule - when they lost the ball, everyone (and I mean everyone) goes balls out for 5 seconds to win the ball back. They were the kings of the high press. When Jose was at Real, it should be remembered that Ronaldo scored his highest goal tallies in his career, and that Mourinho is not one to let someone completely shirk their defensive responsibilities. Gullit is just campaigning for Jose's job.

Agreed. Hazard has 100% checked out and won't track back. He's never going to hit the Ronaldo/Messi level because he lacks the fight. But what do you think he's worth? I've read 80m GBP but think the real number is closer to 65m. I figure Oscar is worth 25m, Costa 30m with 5m to 10m for Ivan if they sell in the window. The Special One can work with that.

It was better yesterday. Matic is playing at a high level now. But we need 3 points, not draws, regardless of the opponent. Gullit isn't going to be able to manage this group. If they go with a "player's coach" to succeed Jose, it will be even worse.

 

[IthacaMatt]

Agreed. Hazard has 100% checked out and won't track back. He's never going to hit the Ronaldo/Messi level because he lacks the fight. But what do you think he's worth? I've read 80m GBP but think the real number is closer to 65m. I figure Oscar is worth 25m, Costa 30m with 5m to 10m for Ivan if they sell in the window. The Special One can work with that.

It was better yesterday. Matic is playing at a high level now. But we need 3 points, not draws, regardless of the opponent. Gullit isn't going to be able to manage this group. If they go with a "player's coach" to succeed Jose, it will be even worse.

If the rumors are to be believed, I think Roman is in desperation mode, and he is not only going to sanction moving out a couple big players to clean up the locker room, but it sounds like they are going to be big spenders, with decisive early moves early in the window. Cavani (42M), Stones (35M), Texiera (32M) would be a pretty good start and fix a lot of problems, and then add in another forward to provide a physical target man, like a Benzima or Klaas-Jan Huntelaar. I don't see a mid-season 100M E bid for Muller being accepted. Bayern are still thinking about winning Champions League and he's essential to that.

People are raving about Chelsea's performance against Spurs, but I was underwhelmed. I know Hazard had a couple chances, but we didn't seem that much of a threat and only got 1 shot on goal. We need a target man, and we need a young defender who can play out of the back. If we start talking crazy money for Stones, hell you might as well offer that crazy money for Rafael Varane, who I think is better in the air, is a bit more composed on the ball than Stones, and is fast as hell for somebody that tall.

 

[cmr27]

If the rumors are to be believed, I think Roman is in desperation mode, and he is not only going to sanction moving out a couple big players to clean up the locker room, but it sounds like they are going to be big spenders, with decisive early moves early in the window. Cavani (42M), Stones (35M), Texiera (32M) would be a pretty good start and fix a lot of problems, and then add in another forward to provide a physical target man, like a Benzima or Klaas-Jan Huntelaar. I don't see a mid-season 100M E bid for Muller being accepted. Bayern are still thinking about winning Champions League and he's essential to that.

People are raving about Chelsea's performance against Spurs, but I was underwhelmed. I know Hazard had a couple chances, but we didn't seem that much of a threat and only got 1 shot on goal. We need a target man, and we need a young defender who can play out of the back. If we start talking crazy money for Stones, hell you might as well offer that crazy money for Rafael Varane, who I think is better in the air, is a bit more composed on the ball than Stones, and is fast as hell for somebody that tall.

Agreed re the Spurs game. It was better but they needed 3 points - simple as that - and we have a hangover in the form of Costa's little hissy fit. They have problems breaking down teams in the final third. Hate to say it, but we really could use De Bruyne and Mata about now. Not sure about the love affair with Stones. Yeah, we gotta replace JT and Cahill but that's not the main problem. I actively dislike Costa. Word is, he spends a lot of time partying in Ibiza and you can see he gained a good amount of weight over the summer. Truth is, they have been out of sync since the second half of last season but they were so far out in front, it wasn't a big deal. Not sure I see a path to the CL. The ultimate panic move would be Vardy.