Chelsea post match 1-2

[ARTY_FOX]

Chelsea weren't at their best yesterday and I think we were unlucky to be losing at half time. However we play slimani upfront with the intent on crossing it to him yet we play long balls for him to hold up, lay off to albrighton who then crosses it istantly at vardy who has absolutely 0 chance of getting it and doesn't allow slimani any time to get into the box. 

 

Then we have the substitutions at half time which I still can't  get my head around at all, it almost seemed like Shakespeare wanted to completely nullify our attack. Then with this extra midfielder we line them up on our 18 yard line, allow them to pass it across the box from 2 yards away and Kante has all the time in the world to look up and score a goal that was awful all round. So what was he point of the extra midfielder? 

 

Gray is nowhere near good enough to be playing every week no matter how much he throws a strop. If he wants to show he's ready and good enough then pass the ball. Cross it. Do something other than run into people. Yea, he looks great in cup matches against league 1 and championship teams but then what? Nothing. 

He even picked the ball up midway in chelseas half, turned towards our own goal under no pressure then ran to Kante to try and take it round him. Why? He walks around the pitch like a  mardy brat. Want to play? Then put some effort in and pass the ****ing ball. Right now all he's doing is showing he's nothing special. 

 

Credit to to mahrez for his 60 yard track back and tackle near the end. More of that please. Yet we get the ball and nobody's busting forward to help out the attackers. In fact we countered get the ball in their half with Vardy and nobody ran up to support him. The defence and midfield were still walking out the area and they should have been bursting out. 

 

The game was there for us and we gave it away. The initial set up was good, after that awful. Shakespeare has no idea what he's doing with his subs. I desperately want it to work for him and I really really hope it does but right now he's showing why he's a coach and not a manager. I said it last year and I'll say it again. He won't last the season. 

[NotTheMarketLeader]

14 minutes ago, AylestoneRaider said:

Failure to address the question as to why he creates more than any other option we have. The only way he can be benched is if we change formation. If we don't, he is our only real option to create anything when we defend from deep and rely on him beating players.  Hence why, if you rewatch the highlights you will see that he was at the heart of every promising passage of play that we put together yesterday.

 

The goal did not arise from a promising passage of play - it was Vardy's nous that won the pen after a disjointed move.

 

If we play 3-5-2 he should be dropped. If we are more adventurous and try 3-4-3 i would play Riyad and Gray either side of Vards. Either way I feel we need to look at 3 at the back and trying to meet be away from the deep-lying back four. The system is denying Mahrez the opportunity to express his wizardry and he is being blamed for our over-reliance upon him within a failing formation!

 

**** me - I'm boring myself - I'm gonna go and eat my roast dinner?

He hasn't done that though in the PL for over 12 months - "creating more than any other option".

 

Albrighton I believe had more assists than him last season (maybe Vardy as well?).

 

In open play he was 4 and 4 for goals and assists which Pro Rata per minutes played was LESS than Gray ffs. (Who for reasons only known to himself yesterday looked scared to take anyone on).

 

I totally agree that it's a change of formation that's required however, and my roast dinner beckons!

[AylestoneRaider]

1 minute ago, NotTheMarketLeader said:

He hasn't done that though in the PL for over 12 months - "creating more than any other option".

 

Albrighton I believe more assists than him last season (maybe Vardy as well?).

 

In open play he was 4 and 4 for goals and assists which Pro Rata per minutes played was LESS than Gray ffs. (Who for reasons only known to himself yesterday looked scared to take anyone on).

 

I totally agree that it's a change of formation that's required.

In the last 2 games, against top class players he has looked the only one likely to do anything - against Brighton he set up the goal with a dazzling run. The reason Gray couldn't take anyone on is because it's very difficult against top class players!!!!!! Gray is one of the most talented young players I've seen at the club and he did fine yesterday, but his performance shows how hard it is to be creative.  Mahrez created several great chances yesterday - the ball through to Vardy was exquisite - please watch it back. He is a genius.

 

We wont agree on Mahrez, but we can carry on talking about formations if you want?

 

 

[Edingleyfox]

I think we are getting into a pattern of worrying too much about the opposition rather than playing our own game. When Ranieri left last year we seemed to play with pace and freedom and to some extent we did that in the first game against Arsenal.Having got hit for 4 we seem to have gone back to avoiding risk taking and these defensive substitutions which are not only unpopular with fans but send out a message to the opposition that we are not coping.

To add to this we have sold Drinkwater who was our playmaker and so we are not spraying the ball around and creating runs for the wingers/strikers so much.Gray and Albrighton we pretty quiet but service was lacking.Of course we have played excellent sides but suspect it is going to be tough we need a result asap.

 

 

[Countryfox]

52 minutes ago, AylestoneRaider said:

I'm gonna go and eat my roast dinner?

 

41 minutes ago, NotTheMarketLeader said:

and my roast dinner beckons!

 

And on the 'Hows your day'thread Col has just said ..     "so been walking the dogs in the beach, then prepared and ate a smashing roast dinner with thick gravy and roasted tatties." ....    well you can all fook off !    cus I'm home alone and had a ham bloody sandwich ! ...         (And the bread was stale).

[Realist Guy In The Room]

In a strange way, it may have served us better for Mahrez and Vardy to have left.

 

As good as they are, whilst they're in the team, we'll only ever play one type of football.

 

Just imagine:-

 

                     Kasper

 

       Dragovic   Huth   Maguire

 

Albrighton  Ndidi Iborra Silva Gray

 

                     Iheanacho 

 

                       Slimani

 

 

[Countryfox]

1 minute ago, Realist Guy In The Room said:

In a strange way, it may have served us better for Mahrez and Vardy to have left.

 

As good as they are, whilst they're in the team, we'll only ever play one type of football.

 

Just imagine:-

 

                     Kasper

 

       Dragovic   Huth   Maguire

 

Albrighton  Ndidi Iborra Silva Gray

 

                     Iheanacho 

 

                       Slimani

 

 

 

Controversial ....    thats the most polite way I can think of putting it ...

[Bluetintedspecs]

21 minutes ago, Countryfox said:

 

 

And on the 'Hows your day'thread Col has just said ..     "so been walking the dogs in the beach, then prepared and ate a smashing roast dinner with thick gravy and roasted tatties." ....    well you can all fook off !    cus I'm home alone and had a ham bloody sandwich ! ...         (And the bread was stale).

I feel for you CF , anyway gotta go my Sunday roast is about ready 

[Countryfox]

Just now, Bluetintedspecs said:

I feel for you CF , anyway gotta go my Sunday roast is about ready 

Git ! ...  she still aint back ...   I can feel another ham sandwich looming ...

[Buce]

42 minutes ago, Countryfox said:

 

 

And on the 'Hows your day'thread Col has just said ..     "so been walking the dogs in the beach, then prepared and ate a smashing roast dinner with thick gravy and roasted tatties." ....    well you can all fook off !    cus I'm home alone and had a ham bloody sandwich ! ...         (And the bread was stale).

 

18 minutes ago, Countryfox said:

Git ! ...  she still aint back ...   I can feel another ham sandwich looming ...

[Countryfox]

8 minutes ago, Buce said:

 

 

You've got a small one mate ...

[the fox]

On 09/09/2017 at 17:03, HankMarvin said:

Self explanatory  

no doubt mahrez will start the next game though

Hank, let's be real here, whoscored isn't the most reliable source for a performance and you know that well, unless you are ready to say that he was one of our best players vs arsenal.

 

 

[Sampson]

3 minutes ago, the fox said:

Hank, let's be real here, whoscored isn't the most reliable source for a performance and you know that well, unless you are ready to say that he was one of our best players vs arsenal.

 

 

whoscored is hideously biased towards dribbling players and this always tends to overrate Mahrez so the fact that even they give him such a low rating says it all.

[Buce]

23 minutes ago, Countryfox said:

 

You've got a small one mate ...

 

Have you been talking to my missus?

[HankMarvin]

5 minutes ago, the fox said:

Hank, let's be real here, whoscored isn't the most reliable source for a performance and you know that well, unless you are ready to say that he was one of our best players vs arsenal.

 

 

The assist helped otherwise would've been 6 something.

 

i think getting a 6.01 against Chelsea explains how piss poor he was give that it's considered a generous scoring system for attacking players

[the fox]

Just now, Sampson said:

whoscored is hideously biased towards dribbling players and this always tends to overrate Mahrez so the fact that even they give him such a low rating says it all.

So, when they give him a high rating, he is being overrated but when they give him a low rating he deserves it, isn't that right, Sam?

 

He wasn't good, but he wasn't bad, he was meh! Lost many balls but created the two most important chances and put a great defensive shift, hope you don't take this the wrong way but I can't help but feel that you are fishing here.

[the fox]

2 minutes ago, HankMarvin said:

The assist helped otherwise would've been 6 something.

 

i think getting a 6.01 against Chelsea explains how piss poor he was give that it's considered a generous scoring system for attacking players

They value dribbling a lot, and he lost many balls so that's why he was that low! Like I said, he wasn't very good nor very bad, he pretty much created the two most important chance and vardy/slimani failed to convert them, plus, he put a great defensive shift! I say 6/10 is the kinda a performance he put yesterday.

[Sampson]

31 minutes ago, the fox said:

So, when they give him a high rating, he is being overrated but when they give him a low rating he deserves it, isn't that right, Sam?

 

He wasn't good, but he wasn't bad, he was meh! Lost many balls but created the two most important chances and put a great defensive shift, hope you don't take this the wrong way but I can't help but feel that you are fishing here.

No! That's not what I meant.

 

But whoscored is well known for being skewed towards dribbling players in its rating system so much so that they're worthless. It's a great site for individual stats but it's average ratings are complete hoeseshit and anyone putting any stock in them is crazy.

 

It was supposed to be a criticism of whodribbled.com more than Mahrez.

[HankMarvin]

1 minute ago, the fox said:

So, when they give him a high rating, he is being overrated but when they give him a low rating he deserves it, isn't that right, Sam?

 

He wasn't good, but he wasn't bad, he was meh! Lost many balls but created the two most important chances and put a great defensive shift, hope you don't take this the wrong way but I can't help but feel that you are fishing here.

The thing is he missed controlled the ball 8 times and lost possession, that not through being tackled.

 

for a bloke that was POTY I don't think that's a meh performance, it's below average yes he could've had an assist, but how many times to we see him be over elaborate and run into about 4 players.

 

He set the bar high for himself, people expect more.

 

The only time he looked good defensively to me was in the last few mins when he chased down a ball, probably because he was still full of energy.

 

you can constantly see Simpson shouting at him to cover at throws on etc.

 

 

[ZeGuy]

20 hours ago, Realist Guy In The Room said:

Sick of hearing how our season wont be defined by results against the top teams.  We're a premier league team.  We cant continue to just write these games off.

 

Look at Stoke.  You wouldn't say they were any better than us but in two games against Arsenal and Man Utd, they've taken 4 points.

 

We are far too negative in these games.

Not having the full squad doesn't help too. I agree that Shakey got it wrong against Arsenal who were really beatable, but we never could have beaten ManU or Chelsea with this midfield. 

[ZeGuy]

20 hours ago, trabuch said:

The criticism for Slimani for missing his chance in the match thread was bizarre. He won the ball off Kante on the edge of the area, played a perfect pass to Mahrez, absolutely bust a gut running nearly the entire length of the pitch and then forced an excellent save out of Courtois. And yet there were people asking for him to be binned.

And he really needed to be on the pitch at the end of the match when the crosses were going in (this seems to be a recurring theme).

Don't ever ask for sense or fairness on FT when it comes to Slim and watch him get the worst rating for this game.

[ZeGuy]

19 hours ago, foxhateram said:

I don't want him to be binned, but it's the way he tried to dink it. Vardy and Mahrez were both waiting back across goal. Power it back across, hopefully scoring but giving them a chance for rebounds if not,  rather than a dink that was easily parried away to safety. 

 

Our decision making in the final third was darn right awful today. We need to fix that. 

Even if he didn't sink it in people are slating him for creating the ONLY real chance we got in the game, besides the penalty which came from Azpi's shitty backpass. Unbelievable.

[Sampson]

27 minutes ago, ZeGuy said:

Don't ever ask for sense or fairness on FT when it comes to Slim and watch him get the worst rating for this game.

He had 50% pass rate (by far the worst on the pitch) - he gave 9 of his 18 passes straight back to the opposition. Which for the link up man is shocking.

 

I actually agree that shot was a tough one given how well Coutois narrowed the angle but Slimani absolutely was the worst player on the pitch yesterday.

 

That's not to say its necessarily his fault - he's been playing out of position - he's just not a link up man and doesn't work with Vardy. He should be a number 9 - The goal poaching forward without doubt.

 

I don't know how many more times we have to see it to see that Vardy and Slimani just doesn't work as a strikeforce as they both want to be the main man. The problem for Slimani is that he's just not as good as Vardy in that role so he's always going to be a substitute here or else he has to learn to adapt to this link up role in a way he really hasn't so far.

[ZeGuy]

Just now, Sampson said:

He had 50% pass rate (by far the worst on the pitch) - he gave 9 of his 18 passes straight back to the opposition. Which for the link up man is shocking.

 

I actually agree that shot was a tough one given how well Coutois narrowed the angle but Slimani absolutely was the worst player on the pitch yesterday.

 

That's not to say its necessarily his fault - he's been playing out of position - he's just not a link up man and doesn't work with Vardy. He should be a number 9 - The goal poaching forward without doubt.

 

I don't know how many more times we have to see it to see that Vardy and Slimani just doesn't work as a strikeforce as they both want to be the main man. The problem for Slimani is that he's just not as good as Vardy in that role so he's always going to be a substitute here.

You bring a pass completion for a striker as back-up? You serious? Of course his pass completion isn't great since he gets it in the opponents area and tries to pass forward which is more prone to fail. And he's still head and shoulders above Shinji when it comes to link-up play. I'm waiting for Nacho once he'll gain more game time, to make a real comparison.

 

Every single time Slim was on the pitch he found himself in a position to score. Every. Single.Time. He doesn't bury them every time sure, but at least he does have shot. He runs around like a mad man and people who say he's slow are either blind or biased. The counter yesterday is here to remove any single bit of doubt about his speed. I agree his partnership with Vardy is very unlikely to be a success but the abuse he's having on this forum is unreal.

 

If it was a Vardy miss nobody would've bat an an eyelid, but because it's him everybody loses their mind. 

 

Gimme a break.

[Sampson]

20 minutes ago, ZeGuy said:

You bring a pass completion for a striker as back-up? You serious? Of course his pass completion isn't great since he gets it in the opponents area and tries to pass forward which is more prone to fail. And he's still head and shoulders above Shinji when it comes to link-up play. I'm waiting for Nacho once he'll gain more game time, to make a real comparison.

 

Every single time Slim was on the pitch he found himself in a position to score. Every. Single.Time. He doesn't bury them every time sure, but at least he does have shot. He runs around like a mad man and people who say he's slow are either blind or biased. The counter yesterday is here to remove any single bit of doubt about his speed. I agree his partnership with Vardy is very unlikely to be a success but the abuse he's having on this forum is unreal.

 

If it was a Vardy miss nobody would've bat an an eyelid, but because it's him everybody loses their mind. 

 

Gimme a break.

But he wasn't playing that role at all yesterday. He was playing as a target man/link up man in which case of course his ability to find his man is relevant! And him constantly losing the ball when he was supposed to be the creative link up man was frustrating and made his role as a target man pretty much useless.

 

He had one shot all game and won one header all game and wasn't constantly in goal scoring positions his average position was with the midfield - he was clearly playing as the link up man and his passing and heading and creative stats make for horrible reading for the performance of a target man and it was just as frustraing to watch as the stats suggested.

 

Again. I'm not sure he's got the attributes to succeed in this role so it's not necessarily his fault but he's never going to be the main striker while Vardy's here so he has to learn to br creative and try to adapt to the target man role rather than just being a goal poacher if he's ever going to succeed here.