Chelsea Away Post-Match thread

[Ric Flair]

Fairly mediocre end product as always, Maddison is beggars belief in front of goal. However, he absolutely ran the show in that 2nd half and for that I'm content. Many irritations currently in team selection and composure but also plenty to be proud of.

 

Tielemans has been quite subdued by his standards in these two games and Perez has been anonymous. I'm left scratching my head how Barnes or Albrighton don't deserve to be in over him but when you pay £30m for a player they will be played, is right wing his best position though? If not, we literally don't play a winger and that is astonishing.

 

Soyuncu was brilliant and Fuchs was much better 2nd half after looking like age had caught up with him. Praet looks very useful too, technique and a quick brain. Will be a great asset from these early signs.

 

All in all, can't be too unhappy with a point away at Chelsea.

[Brooksy]

3 minutes ago, ian_marshall said:

Just seen the replay and he was off by quite a bit. Admittedly didn't look that way in real time but was definitely the right call. 

 

2 minutes ago, srex9 said:

Just off. Didn't work back hard enough otherwise he would have been in

Cheers

[pSinatra]

Rope a Dope tactic nearly worked for us

[kingfox]

Talk about a game of two halves  

 

After a shit first half, we come away from the game disappointed with one point. 

 

Our pressing game in the second half was absolutely magnificent, all starting with the defence or midfield nicking the ball off Chelsea, one or two passes then we constantly opened Chelsea up. Maddison was brilliant in the second half but I can't help but feel that he cost us a potential win, that miss and some of his decision making were atrocious.

 

Soyuncu impressed me again, MOTM for me, thought Ricardo was excellent too. Praet produced a great cameo, won the ball numerous times and started a few attacks.

 

Would have taken a draw beforehand, after that second half performance though I'm gutted we didn't take all three.

[StriderHiryu]

The proverbial game of two halves! Awful in the first half with piss poor passing but I thought we were superb in the second! I was sat in the away end with a restricted view but it felt like we should have bagged at least another if Maddison, Vardy or Tielemans took their chances. In fact I think that was a case of more dropped points, Chelsea are a shadow of their former selves and many teams will take points from them this season. 

 

The most pleasing thing for me in the second was the performance. I felt we upped several gears and took the game to them. Soyuncu was outstanding yet again and I’m delighted that Ndidi equalised. You can see how much it meant to him to atone for his mistake. 

 

What at is the consensus on Praet? Looked like a bit of a classic “welcome to the Premier League” for him as the pace seemed to surprise him. 

 

I’m glad we are unbeaten but yet again it’s our lack of a clinical edge that disappoints me. We had the money to bring in a clinical wide forward but didn’t and I just hope it doesn’t cost us come the end of the season!

 

COYB! 

[KingKoala]

Can't remember how many times my head was in my hands.

Edited 18 August 2019 by KingKoala

[CosbehFox]

4 minutes ago, BlueBrett said:

That second half was so entertaining. There's really nothing like watching Leicester. 6 long days til our next fix

This is it. When we are on it, we are brilliant to watch 

[fazzyfox]

In a game like this those ten minutes after the first goal are so important. We may have been very poor in that first half but every last scrap of work to prevent a second was key, it wasn't pretty but they were working bl***y hard and that allowed us to stay in it.

 

Chelsea's plan seemed to rely on them getting enough goals in that opening third to win the game, they couldn't keep up that tempo, if anyones system or approach failed it was Lampards, his team fighting to stay in it the last half hour, nothing left in the tank.

 

Edited 18 August 2019 by fazzyfox

[TrentFox]

We’ve gone to the home of the Europa League champions. A team

who lost only one home game last season. And apart from the first 30 minutes, we were the better team and probably should have won. Great team effort. Fabulous noise from the supporters at the ground. Some seriously embarrassing comments in the match thread, though. As per. Ninety minutes in a game - not ten. 38 games in the league. Not two. 

[Tom12345]

Well done lads. Great second half.

 

My takeaways:

 

- Maddison is much better when he drops back down a bit to roam around to help out with defenders getting the loose ball and playing it up. Not great as the man just behind Vardy as his decison making in that final third is suspect. He was great in the last 20 mins after a dreadful first 70.

 

- Praet looked good.

 

- Albrighton must start. He was so lively and brings so much energy to the team. May need to drop one of Hamza and Ndidi to accomodate.

 

- Perez is also better further inside so it makes more sense to have Albrighton on the wing instead of Perez.

 

- We need to bring Barnes in. Wasted talent on the bench.

 

- Fuchs. Once again he proved to me why he is still our best LB. Chilwell needs a spell on the sideline to get his act together and play better. Fuchs need to start for me.

 

- Soy. Wow. He is getting better and better. He is almost being cocky on the ball. Maguire who?

 

- Evans is as solid as ever and he seems to be forming a good partnership with Soy.

 

- Schmichel. Need to say that his distribution has gotten a lot better. Well done.

 

- Tielemans was not his usual awesome self today though I cant see Rodgers dropping him.

 

- Ricardo. Solid as ever.

 

- Vardy. He must have been very frustrated he didnt get the ball from Maddison (twice) and Tielemans (once) on three glorious occasions. Missed Mahrez.

 

- Barnes. He needs to be on as mentioned above. Not sure who to drop as I would prefer Albrighton at the moment (if we are to drop Hamza). If Maddison goes off again, I would drop Maddison for Barnes.

Edited 19 August 2019 by Tom12345

[The Guvnor]

11 minutes ago, Claridge said:

Thought madders was brilliant. Apart from shooting🙄

He was excellent, was referring to his goal effort, but on reflection the ball did 'sit up' as he struck it.

As he has just said however he should have buried his excellent chance when he sets himself such high standards .

[Deeg67]

I think people are living in the past with this “a point at Stamford Bridge is great” mentality.  Chelsea aren’t that great - they were there for the taking.  

Edited 18 August 2019 by Deeg67

[Gazza M]

Quite encouraged by the 2nd half. I have a feeling the players got to grips a bit with the new tactics Brendan is deploying. Can see why we weren't in a rush for an old fashioned winger or big target man. It is going to take them a while to get to grips I think. Chance for more points coming up. 

[vanity]

Slow, low energy start. Two DMs being relied upon to get the ball forward. Going down 1-0 in the first 15 minutes. High AF XG, but awful finishing. Great 2nd half adjustments. The only thing missing was Claude whispering confusion into the players' ears from the touchline.

 

I plan to watch the game again, but for the legion of you smarter than me, can you break down the changes we made at the half? Did we go more narrow? It looked as though Maddison adjusted his positioning, he tucked inside a bit more, sort of left-center instead of left, and he began finding the ball. As his confidence grew, he started to move further out left giving us some width, even got around the corner a couple times. The adjustments at halftime were terrific, but I gotta say, we sure AF don't score much for all the amazing chances we had. A good finishing team probably puts 4-5 goals up on Chelsea that 2nd half. 

 

Maybe somebody tell our players to just kick the ball as hard as they can when point blank in front of the goal? Because this guiding it crap doesn't work for us. Maddison especially, just belt it, we have Perez and Vardy to clean up. 

 

I noticed several times that Perez and Vardy were on top of one another looking for the pass. We need to figure out how to space them better to force the defense to defend a larger area of the pitch.

 

Chelsea's defense was shambolic. I'm happy we didn't lose, obviously, but that game was winnable AF, and gifting points in games that were winnable AF is how we missed Europe last season. Here's hoping we can get both Vards and Perez to open their accounts next game.

[Foxxed]

Soyuncu and Richardo were great throughout and Maddison finally came into the match in the second half. But I'd honestly prefer Albrighton to Perez based on these past two performances although we need to give Perez time. Tielemans was one of the least impressive players on that pitch: we'd have been better subbing him, playing Maddison in the middle and playing Barnes on the wing. Tielemans obviously has talent but following on the last match of last season he's been nowhere. Although he played decently I have no idea what Hamza's role is now.

[Ric Flair]

2 minutes ago, StriderHiryu said:

The proverbial game of two halves! Awful in the first half with piss poor passing but I thought we were superb in the second! I was sat in the away end with a restricted view but it felt like we should have bagged at least another if Maddison, Vardy or Tielemans took their chances. In fact I think that was a case of more dropped points, Chelsea are a shadow of their former selves and many teams will take points from them this season. 

 

The most pleasing thing for me in the second was the performance. I felt we upped several gears and took the game to them. Soyuncu was outstanding yet again and I’m delighted that Ndidi equalised. You can see how much it meant to him to atone for his mistake. 

 

What at is the consensus on Praet? Looked like a bit of a classic “welcome to the Premier League” for him as the pace seemed to surprise him. 

 

I’m glad we are unbeaten but yet again it’s our lack of a clinical edge that disappoints me. We had the money to bring in a clinical wide forward but didn’t and I just hope it doesn’t cost us come the end of the season!

 

COYB! 

I thought Praet adapted very quickly, that diving interception that set up a great attack was important as Chelsea looked to be on the break.

 

If we play this same personnel next week I'll not be happy, surely he can't?

[That_Dude]

3 minutes ago, GingerrrFox said:

Could have won it. Should have won it.

 

On the flip side we showed real bollocks and fight to get back in it 2nd half. Play like that 2nd half consistently from the start and we’ll do big things. 

See that's exactly what PL is all about. Fine margins.

 

We have to thank Lampard's naivety, their lack of clinical finisher  and their vulnerability on set-pieces for the draw. Under an experimented manager, they should've been out of sight after 30 minutes but didn't, and paid dearly for it. 

 

Delighted by the draw, especially after the awful start. Rodgers got the starting line-up wrong but thankfully amended it in the second half.

 

Anyone slagging off Pérez is nuts. it's obvious that we shouldn't play him out wide against teams like Chelsea. 

[vanity]

Just now, Deeg67 said:

I think people are living in the past with this “a point at Stamford Bridge” is great” mentality.  Chelsea aren’t that great - they were there for the taking.  

A decent finishing team scores 4-5 in that 2h. We aren't a decent finishing team though, we are probably one of the weakest finishing teams in the Prem.

[lcfc sheff]

Our defence was excellent, midfield far better second half and have something to try going into the next games. Vardy played well, could have done with barnes on.

 

praet looked decent I thought, got stuck in. Will be interesting to see where he fits as I was made to believe he’s more of an iniesta type midfielder but obviously didn’t get the chance to show that today.

[foxes_rule1978]

Evans and Soy look like a very good pairing. 

[justfoxes]

If only we’d played in the first half like we did in the second !!

some great over all performances some not so !!

[Vindaloo FOX]

6 minutes ago, Kinowe Soorie said:

Soyuncu my motm, getting better each game! Harry who?

The dude is a beast and still only 23.

He will learn a lot this season from Evans.

 

He will only get better.

[old koppite]

Exciting second half.

It seemed a bit weird after the final whistle singing about HM- did BR and Kasper  look a bit confused by it? 

[Tom12345]

1 minute ago, The Guvnor said:

He was excellent, was referring to his goal effort, but on reflection the ball did 'sit up' as he struck it.

As he has just said however he should have buried his excellent chance when he sets himself such high standards .

He was brilliant in the last 20 mins only. He missed passing to Vardy first time on two occasions which would have led to sure goal for Vardy. He was dreadful first 70mins. He is not a playmaker but is looking like a good connector between the defense and the forward 3. He is too indecisive and selfish in the final third.

[whoareyaaa]

Praet looked very good from the little time he had, would be good to see him from the start, impressed.

 

Vardy was offside so many times when we had chances to put him through although he performed pretty well.

 

Maddison class, defence looked pretty solid.

 

Can see us stringing some wins together now.

 

That Son/harry song needs binning, terrible.

Edited 18 August 2019 by whoareyaaa