Good afternoon. Well. That wasn’t very nice was it?
We were in all too many respects link a racehorse the handicapper got to. Bale’s wife went into labour. Dembele was injured and these two absences sent the dominoes inexorably falling. The worst of it was in the middle of the park. Sandro without his foil found himself drowning.
The first mistake was starting Brad. I really believe that we need to give Hugo a run of games now. He’s not some child, give him the shirt and let’s get on with it. This isn’t taking a punt. He wasn’t cheap. He’s one of the best keeper’s in the world. That’s not opinion.
Kyle Walker was finally busted. Not interested in how hurtful the Tweets were. He’s been gormless all season and we need to be thankful we spotted sooner rather than later. He might not need abuse, but he needs benching and it’s vital he’s dropped in favour of someone competent. The Forest Gump runs never impressed me and the headless chicken routine has just become depressing.
People were screaming for Gallas’ blood yesterday but with a no midfield in front of him and a lobotomised llama next to him he was never going to win the day. He did do some good work; but there seems a general undercurrent of unkindness toward him. His header out was powerful. It was blind luck it fell so kindly for Cahill.
Neither Caulker or Jan seemed to be quite at the races. Were they overawed? Well their performances against Manchester United suggest that wasn’t the case. But there were no runs, no dynamism. No sense of dynamism.
Huddlestone stepping in for Moussa wasn’t helpful. In fact it was equivalent of shoveling road gritting salt into a wound. He’s a sweet touch and that’s all he has. Like a comic trading off one good catchphrase. He struck several wonderful passes and then stood as if waiting for the applause. Desperately immobile. A desperate waste of a career.
Elsewhere we looked generally weak and a rather timid. The same old Lennon. Whizzing and skipping and zipping about but not really achieving all that much. It’s heartbreaking. Dempsey and Siggurdson were horribly unmemorable.
Villas-Boas is playing a risky strategy here with his choice of forwards and his seeming reluctance to make substitutions. Defoe is extraordinarily limited. Is Adebayor still not fit? If not, why not? This was a game where the midfield decided the outcome and we simply didn’t have one.
Fully agree with the author, poor decision to start with Friedel. The guy averages 2 goals a game. Okay doesn’t make too many mistakes but does not take many risks either from fear of making mistakes. My worry is that we undermine the confidence of a world class keeper in Lloris by not providing enough game time. There is a danger of doing this with Adebayor as well. I simply cannot see why we cannot play Defoe in the old VDV role just behind the lone striker or amongst the 3 pronged attack. JD is a decent footballer but limited in the lone striker role. Tactically, AVB should have switched Lennon to the left particularly with Walker who’s main strength is attacking the right flank which may have provided more of a threat going forward. Hud is too cumbersome and dare I say it was the weakness in mid field. AVB is new but should know the strengths and vulnerabilities of individual squad members by now therefore, he had no excuse for the tactical mistakes made yesterday. With his decision to allow Bale a day off when he was needed most was a strong indication that AVB is worried about upsetting players even more evident in his choice to start Friedel instead of Lloris who if played would have earned a point at least. AVB got it all wrong yesterday.
Spot on.
Author? That’s a bit strong.
How true. How many points will Friedel cost us before AVB gets the courage to bench the grandpa?
Disagree there about switching Lennon to left flank. Chelsea’s slightly weak on their left flank because Hazard hardly tracks back to cover for Cole, allowing, in theory, Lennon and Walker to overload that area. Of course, that opportunity is undone when there’s no proper midfield, allowing Chelsea more control of the game.
JD had hardly the qualities to put into the hole behind the striker.
Why do you think Hudd was put in? Can you name one suitable player on the bench to put in? There’s hardly anyone who could replace Dembele and that’s not AVB’s fault, he had to use the tools available to him.
An option would’ve been to rest Dempsey and play Defoe on the left, with Ade in the middle, once we knew Bale was out…
AVB used to play 2 strikers in a front 3 at Porto (Hulk played wide) and at Chelsea (Sturridge).
It would’ve been a risk, but Audere est Facere and all that…
‘His header out was powerful’,ridiculous assesment all he had to do was flick it on- the basic first rule of defending is always clear to the wings where you generally cant acore directly from and never to the edge of the box, Gallas did this twice yesterday and cost us dearly. Someone of his experience should have done much better and thats not being unkind to him its just blatantly obvious.
Agree.
I can’t understand how anyone can draw an accurate analysis from yesterday’s game. My overall conclusion would be that the difference between the two sides was the two chances we put on a plate for them. And the lack of first team players available. No1 would of fancied us to beat them with the players we had.
It was end to end, both teams banging on the door but it was Chelsea’s day.
I stand by my belief that AVB picked the right squad with what he had available.
the arse lost :-D ,it could have been worse
Pretty much agree with everything said here…sme people abit harsh on Ade…he gets 20 minutes and people blame his touch?? His first 20 minutes in about a month..how many times was Defoe moaning last year as he said he needed a run of 90 minute games to get up to speed. Ade should lead the line & Lloris shohuld be in goal!
Other than that, Modric leaving we all knew about, not finding a proper replacement was stupid but the thing that mainly p*sses me off was selling VDV a world class player & bringing in Dempsey…that was criminal! He wasn’t even bothered about going…we should have at least kept him for the creativity for one more season. For all of you that moaned that VDV was slow and couldn’t last 90…well pat on the back boys, we now have a Dempsey in his place!
VDV is a tactical anarchist that doesn’t like tactical strictness. He’s got bad stamina, it’s better to sell him off when he’d fetch a good price and get someone good. He’s good but will not thrive under AVB in the long-run. I agree with you that Dempsey isn’t up to par, but Spurs thought that they’d land Moutinho and Willian on the last day of the transfer window. That was Levy’s mistake. The former would have allowed Dembele to move forward into the hole behind the striker. The latter is very accomplished and can play as an advanced midfielder as well as the wide forward positions.
How can I argue with sensible statements like that! I like Levy but in this window…he really pissed me off! Leaving the deals until midnight doesn’t always pay off and he cocked up big time.