Chelsea (A) pre match

[sacreblueits442]

10 minutes ago, Ric Flair said:

I think Praet will come in for this which hopefully will mean we shift Maddison back inside along with Tielemans in their usual role. Praet can operate as a narrow left sided midfielder and tick the diamond box for Brendan. We cannot leave Chilwell to conjure up all attacks down that left side, it would be ok if he was as good as Ricardo but he isn't, it's leaving us totally inept down one side of the pitch. This isn't an overreaction after one game, we saw it numerous times last season when Puel tried it and then Rodgers has seemingly taken over the baton after a superb first 7-8 games.

 

Harvey Barnes performance yesterday was so refreshing to see, I felt he ended last season a bit meekly and you sensed Rodgers wasn't quite as enamoured with him as Puel had been. He's now being challenged to earn his spot and I hope he forces his way in, we badly need his movement and ability to play wide left and drift across the forward line, he should suit Rodgers fluid style where his attacking midfielders all interchange. I noticed his first touch seems to be improving too in pre-season, this is key for him under Rodgers as he must be able to play those fast one two's.

 

Schmeichel

 

Ricardo

Evans

Boss Man (Soyuncu)

Chilwell

 

Ndidi

 

Perez

Tielemans

Maddison

Praet

 

Vardy

... surprising you have left him out of the team,! 

[old koppite]

I watched their first half yesterday and thought they looked good- didn’t deserve to be behind at ht. I just don’t get how anyone can say they’re crap.

Still a very difficult game for us, and if Kante plays I think we’ll be fortunate to get a draw. 

[Ric Flair]

42 minutes ago, sacreblueits442 said:

... surprising you have left him out of the team,! 

Hahahaaaaa the team I picked was the team I think BR will pick, not the team i'd like to see

[sacreblueits442]

3 minutes ago, Ric Flair said:

Hahahaaaaa the team I picked was the team I think BR will pick, not the team i'd like to see

.. fair enough 👍

[Danny Clender]

Schmeichel

Ricardo Evans Soyuncu Chilwell

Ndidi

Perez Tielemans Maddison Albrighton 

Vardy        

 

I'd just hold off on the introduction of Praet as I still think this team seemed to be the one BR was building up to during pre-season. 

For the left side to work Chilwell needs an overlap, Albrighton gives that. 

 

[KrefelderFox666]

2 hours ago, Sol thewall Bamba said:

Brendan is streets ahead of Lampard tactically, but they still have a very good squad. 

 

Not winning yesterday means we need to get something here, 1 point from 2 games isn't a good look even if it is from tricky opening fixtures. 

If we follow that up with 2 wins at Sheff and against Bournemouth, I wouldn't be too disappointed. 7 points by the international break must be our target. Anything less would be slightly disappointing but at least we have 34 games to go.

 

Yesterday, a win would have been nice but credit to Wolves who are a top team. We still have 37 games and lots of points to play for. A lot can change, not many teams impressed this weekend.

 

I think we'll nick a 2-1 win from this, although Chelsea will need to pick up a win themselves to avoid a disastrous start to their campaign.

[weller54]

Perhaps this was the game to start both Hamza and Ndidi.. Not yesterday! 

That really was a weird decision by Claude Rodgers. 

[That_Dude]

2 hours ago, old koppite said:

I watched their first half yesterday and thought they looked good- didn’t deserve to be behind at ht. I just don’t get how anyone can say they’re crap.

Still a very difficult game for us, and if Kante plays I think we’ll be fortunate to get a draw. 

The CBs particularly Zouma were crap, they had no experienced player starting and Lampard's gung-ho tactics cost them dearly with United exploiting the enormous gaps at every counter. They still played well the first half but then crumbled as soon as United got their 2nd goal.

 

I'm expecting a very different game next week though.

Edited 12 August 2019 by That_Dude

[1884FoxInTheBox]

Maddison and Chilwell getting a lot of stick on here! I think it's important to remember that Maddison has never performed well out wide and in order for full backs to push on, they need a proper 'wide man' in-front of them to occupy the opposition's full back/midfielder. The defensive 4-1-4-1 (2DMs) is not designed to get the best out of these two players! That said, I do think Maddison and Chilwell could benefit in the long-run from knowing they're not un-droppable. 

Chelsea will be hungry to win at home and looked good on the ball against United - 4-0 was not a true reflection of their ability. I'm not quite sure we're ready to take our passing game away to the top sides yet, but I also don't think our defensive 4-1-4-1 offers enough threat going forward, so I'd play a compact 4-4-2/4-4-1-1 in defense with a direct pairing of Barnes and Vardy up top.

                      Kasper
Pereira    Evans   Soyuncu  JJ/Chilwell
               Tielemans   Ndidi
   Pérez          Barnes         Albrighton
                        Vardy

This formation would also work with Barnes and Pérez swapping roles, however Pérez has more experience at RM in a low block.
Could bring on Maddison to CM and shift Barnes to LW to transition to a 4-3-3. Would like to see Praet at some point too.

Wishful thinking though, we'll probably start with our defensive 4-1-4-1 again.

[STUHILL]

We missed wide players yesterday that could stretch the play. 

 

In theory Ricardo and Chilwell were supposed to provide the width but without support, neither could do much and were easily nullified by an well organised defence. 

 

I think we looked much better when Barnes and Albrighton were on and we were able to stretch the play and create spaces.

 

It's a tough one in terms of formation and selection, as I think our ineffectiveness yesterday was largely due to how organised and deep Wolves defended. This won't be the case against Chelsea and we will undoubtedly be given more space, so I think we could probably just start with one of Albrighton or Barnes for Choudary. I'd go with...

 

-----------------------Schmeichel----------------------

Ricardo-------Evans------Soyuncu--------Chilwell

--------------Tielemans--------N'didi------------------  

--Perez--------------Maddison----------Albrighton--

--------------------------Vardy---------------------------

 

N'didi to sit and shield the back four which is what he does best. 

Tielemans coming a little deeper than yesterday, so he can build the play from deep. Something we lacked yesterday as he was pushed so high up.

Perez and Maddison can interchange with Albrighton offering more on the left and allowing Chilwell to overlap. 

Barnes to come on at some point to offer us even more threat if needed. 

 

It's a game we can certainly win, but Rodgers has to correct some errors he made and have us much better organised and each player knowing their individual jobs. 

[1884FoxInTheBox]

5 minutes ago, STUHILL said:

 

 

-----------------------Schmeichel----------------------

Ricardo-------Evans------Soyuncu--------Chilwell

--------------Tielemans--------N'didi------------------  

--Perez--------------Maddison----------Albrighton--

--------------------------Vardy---------------------------

 

 

 

 

19 minutes ago, 1884FoxInTheBox said:

                      Kasper
Pereira    Evans   Soyuncu  JJ/Chilwell
               Tielemans   Ndidi
   Pérez          Barnes         Albrighton
                        Vardy

Great minds think alike!

I just think Barnes might offer more threat on a counter than Maddison?

[Claridge]

19 hours ago, sdb said:

They'll have a few big names back for next week, Kante included. 

Can’t see him making any difference,achieved very little in the last few years

[adejo92]

This will be an extremely tough fixture and I really can't see us coming away with anything. 

 

When you look at the score line against Man Utd it's easy to get excited however having watched the match, it certainly wasn't the match the score line resembled. 

 

Man Utd just happened to take advantage of every Chelsea mistake, something we won't do as we do not have the attacking quality. 

 

Man Utd have the strength in Midfield and defence to still commit to an attacking style of play. I fear we will go with Vardy as a lone striker and he won't get a sniff. Will likely be 90 minutes of passing the ball around to no effect. 

 

Chelsea have some very very good players, the likes of Pulisic, Pedro and Kovacic.... Mount and Abraham looked threatening and Kante is set to return and dominate their midfield. 

 

Vardy needs to put as much pressure on Zouma as possible - he's a liability. 

[ARM1968]

Logically I think we have to put this one down as a free hit. Chelsea are a good, talented team. Any positive result is a bonus. I think we should go for it. A point would be a good result, but who knows, I mean, we’re going to win the league, so 1-3 us might happen. 

[fuchsntf]

UnterRate Chelsea at your peril....!!!    

its Not the gained plastics that worry me..but the OTT Plastic thoughts...

we are better,than last season,but still have to Mesh has a unit. We have had One just One competitive game!!!

Wolves are/were 2-3 weeks in Front of us....we were solid,it was our Trusted Periera, that got turned twice ,Chilwell

Not quite in it. Maddison,Tielemans,werent bad ,But a Bit wayward...Vardy Let One get away..but we wouldnt Think about

Dropping them...

 

Rodgers said in Interview we have to be crisper ,and our famous intensivity was lacking....he sees we have to up the front 6 levels.

Chelsea ,our 2nd game und away....Lets Not get carried away,and throw out nonsense frustrating posts.

Keep real..!!

 

Football Life will Never change,everybody has their own  Formation & selection preferences....but only One counts!!!!

A loss or draw,doesnt make your preferences better...Nor Not a Good idea..

We seem to Enjoy our know-all stance ,before the season Really gets started.....Same-o, same-o

 

 

[volpeazzurro]

3 hours ago, Danny Clender said:

Schmeichel

Ricardo Evans Soyuncu Chilwell

Ndidi

Perez Tielemans Maddison Albrighton 

Vardy        

 

I'd just hold off on the introduction of Praet as I still think this team seemed to be the one BR was building up to during pre-season. 

For the left side to work Chilwell needs an overlap, Albrighton gives that. 

 

Exactly,  it's this type of tireless work that Albrighton just gets on with that goes unnoticed by some sometimes.

[Guest An Sionnach]

No use having overlaps if you are just going to bang in pointless crosses , need to work their way into the six yard box always the chance of a penalty then.

[Danny Clender]

2 minutes ago, An Sionnach said:

No use having overlaps if you are just going to bang in pointless crosses , need to work their way into the six yard box always the chance of a penalty then.

Prioritising Penalties, this is an extremely modern approach to football, I like your vision.

In the 6 yard box I'd prefer an attempt on goal, but at least VAR will help with the clarity of your tactic. 

[KFS]

15 minutes ago, An Sionnach said:

No use having overlaps if you are just going to bang in pointless crosses , need to work their way into the six yard box always the chance of a penalty then.

With a support striker and inverted wingers we’d be more successful playing cut backs into the box. That’s why we looked dangerous when Barnes beat his man, got to the byline and pulled it across the face of goal.

 

Unless we get a target man there’s no use pumping lofted balls into the box. Especially against a back 3.

 

Many things cost us three points yesterday but our inability to beat a stubborn defence was the biggest issue.

 

Against Chelsea I’m expecting an open game.

[Hollyfox]

Brendan will make sure Leicester play out of their skin next week and play Chelsea off the park. 

 

Otherwise he'll have no chance of succeeding Lampard in the late autumn. 

 

🤐

[NasPb]

reckon we will draw 1-1, Chelsea don't seem to be able to score and their defence is poor. Still have a great midfield though. Hope they go to extra time and penalties in the super cup.

[moore_94]

Mike Dean on VAR

 

 

[Fox 4 Life]

Chelsea play Wednesday night in Istanbul, could conceivably be on the end of another hiding against Liverpool so will be looking for blood against us.

[weller54]

1 hour ago, NasPb said:

reckon we will draw 1-1, Chelsea don't seem to be able to score and their defence is poor. Still have a great midfield though. Hope they go to extra time and penalties in the super cup.

No chance.. 

Liverpool will smash them! 

[Chico1958]

Only from watching the highlights on MOTD, Chelsea were unlucky not to be in front in the first half hit the bar and post.

 

Stupid foul cost them and lack of concentration, I'd settle for a draw cos I think our Little French Guy will be back.

 

Still love him even though he wears the wrong badge on a blue shirt.