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Original post by IBBOOM
'meh' game tbh. Strange one, would have loved both the first XI's to be fit and have a proper go at each other. Still think the titles open, especially considering how filthy the relegation fight will be this year.

2 points lost that were there for the taking in my opinion, at least not 8 behind as that I think would start to seal it up already. Long way to go yet..

Don't understand why MP played Lampard, obviously wasn't gonna score a winner, MP I think was naive here. Without Nasri and Toure, no way we were gonna make a proper chance through that wall at the 70min+ mark. Should have kept aguero on, always can score, Dzeko :rolleyes:

Also whats with Chelsea's constant moaning at obvious decisions like throwings, cheap fouls? Oscar in particular is starting to take the piss with his 'style' of play, its starting to resemble a typical United player at Old Trafford. Faces like smacked arses at every decision.

Zouma looks sick.

Thanks for that. Nice to see a different perspective on the game. Most people will just say Chelsea deserved to lose especially the neutrals. Yeah my post above, I doubt you're going to beat Barcelona, so will have no fixture congestion. That 5 point lead is quite even.

He probably played Lampard because of last time.

Chelsea do this a lot to try and put pressure on the referee, at home it works well because with circa 40k fans moaning at the ref they're going to be influenced and they'll get pressure into their heads, it's a bit scummy and Mourinho probably tells them to do it. It's part of being combative, fighting for every ball, getting the mental advantage over your opponent, the ref is who dictates the game ultimately, if he wants a free flowing game he'll allow it to happen, if he wants a stop start slow tempoed game he'll allow it to happen by calling loads of fouls, giving less advantages. You can basically dictate a game your way by getting into the refs head. It's pretty hard for the ref to stay rational in this case.
Original post by jam277
No. 9mmBulletz is right. It's way too defensive, and is only useful during away games. Even then you'd prefer to have energy in midfield because they'll be too slow to the ball, only advantage of that combo is the fact that it prevents Matic from covering the spaces of the whole midfield.

Matic was poor yesterday tbh, Mikel was injured anyway but he's been exposed recently by a defensively naive partner next to him. I don't even think it's defensive if you put your Oscar in front, gives you 4 men on the counter attack.
Original post by FellainiSucks
Matic was poor yesterday tbh, Mikel was injured anyway but he's been exposed recently by a defensively naive partner next to him. I don't even think it's defensive if you put your Oscar in front, gives you 4 men on the counter attack.

Tbf, I don't think we've tried that formation before. But likelyhood is that we end up with a defensive 6 and an attacking 4, nobody capable of making that transition from defence to attack. Matic may be used as a box to box player though, he's got the engine, got a good shot on him, capable of dribbling his way out of trouble. If he tried that further up the pitch he'd be so good.
Original post by jam277
Tbf, I don't think we've tried that formation before. But likelyhood is that we end up with a defensive 6 and an attacking 4, nobody capable of making that transition from defence to attack. Matic may be used as a box to box player though, he's got the engine, got a good shot on him, capable of dribbling his way out of trouble. If he tried that further up the pitch he'd be so good.


Yeah he's good on the ball, guy can drive forward like Yaya does. Tbh yesterday was a poor game simply due to tiredness and suspensions. Also I don't know why Drogba didn't start.
Yeah Drogba arguably should have started for his holdup play but I think the plan was to hit City with pace and force their backline a little deeper. City are at their best whenever they have pure possession and control against the other, their wingers are poverty when in comes to counter attacking so they rely a lot on their fullbacks overlapping which slows their game down. If you force their line deeper, they have less control, the spaces between the lines are higher so that allows your team time to play, the likes of Hazard will have a few more metres of space so they can accelerate with pace. Near the end of the game if we were still ahead we put on Drogba to hold it up at the corner flag and slow the game down.

Don't think Chelsea were that defensive yday all factors considered though. We could have full on parked the bus from first minute but this was just a lethargic performance that nobody is to blame for.

In away games I see Mourinho do the opposite, we would have started Drogba away vs City, so that we have a guy capable of keeping possession high up the pitch in the early stages, then using Remy later on as a pace threat when the backline are a little tired.
Original post by IBBOOM
'meh' game tbh. Strange one, would have loved both the first XI's to be fit and have a proper go at each other. Still think the titles open, especially considering how filthy the relegation fight will be this year.

2 points lost that were there for the taking in my opinion, at least not 8 behind as that I think would start to seal it up already. Long way to go yet..

Don't understand why MP played Lampard, obviously wasn't gonna score a winner, MP I think was naive here. Without Nasri and Toure, no way we were gonna make a proper chance through that wall at the 70min+ mark. Should have kept aguero on, always can score, Dzeko :rolleyes:

Also whats with Chelsea's constant moaning at obvious decisions like throwings, cheap fouls? Oscar in particular is starting to take the piss with his 'style' of play, its starting to resemble a typical United player at Old Trafford. Faces like smacked arses at every decision.

Zouma looks sick.


That's why I was so happy that Nasri was missing. Him, Silva and Toure combine well for those quick passes and would've created much better chances. City did dominate the second half, but didn't really get behind us completely. I remember two headers from City in the second half , and James Milner's shot that he flashed wide that was from a tight angle anyway. Apart from that, City looked short of ideas themselves
Why is Lampard coming on being questioned?

He was more likely to get a winner than anybody else on City's bench. Dzeko was really poor when he entered the fray.
Is Cuadrado not announced or did I miss that announcement?

We know his coach said its done but nothing from the Clubs...
De Bruyne is a strange one, isn't he?

He undoubtedly thrives being in a team where he is the main man - as I'm sure Schurrle will - but was he even given a fair crack by Mourinho? He impressed me during your pre-season games, along with Victor Moses oddly enough, but clearly there was something behind the scenes causing tension between him and Mourinho,

It just baffles me that you are getting rid of Schurrle, Salah and De Bruyne when your bench yesterday had four graduates on it yet to make their mark on the senior team. I know Mourinho likes a small, trusted squad and core nucleus of players which play week in, week out.
Also, Cahill firmly in the doghouse. Zouma's started two huge games now.
De Bruyne wasn't hard working enough for Mourinho to use him at AM over Oscar, while he's not fast enough to work on the wings as Mourinho likes to have pace on the flanks.

Mourinho probably felt that Oscar could play 90mins in the role he liked him to do, where when the opposition are in possession he's marking a deep lying playmaker, while when the team are in possession he moves from flanks to flank linking up with the winger who works as a ball carrier, he probably felt that KDB wasn't good enough to actually do that role for 90mins as it requires a lot physically. He also had a few problems with Mourinho as well. I feel that we should have kept him though but FFP also bit us in the arse. KDB was sold for similar reasons to Mata.

It's as simple as that. He didn't fit the system at the time and we needed money to fund areas that we were much weaker in. We needed a CM and a long term CB to challenge Cahill and Terry as Luiz clearly wasn't a good enough CB.

Salah is terrible anyway so nothing of importance was lost, while Schurrle would have been a pretty good guy to start against City.
Cuadrado will be a good signing - an old-fashioned winger, able to run directly at players and cause problems. It's a surprise United weren't in for him during the summer after his World Cup performance. He hasn't been performing as highly at Fiorentina by all accounts, but maybe a move will breathe life into him.
Original post by Mackay
Cuadrado will be a good signing - an old-fashioned winger, able to run directly at players and cause problems. It's a surprise United weren't in for him during the summer after his World Cup performance. He hasn't been performing as highly at Fiorentina by all accounts, but maybe a move will breathe life into him.

He's been playing as a no.10 this season and is putting up good numbers, he's easily our second best winger and he works hard too.
Original post by jam277
He's been playing as a no.10 this season and is putting up good numbers, he's easily our second best winger and he works hard too.


Him and Remy look like they should be in Papa Doc's crew in 8 Mile.
How is Willian doing? I haven't watched Chelsea much this season, but last season I thought he was excellent technically with a good work rate but no end product. Has he improved? And is he going to get any game-time now that Cuadrado is going to be first choice RW?
Original post by amoled
How is Willian doing? I haven't watched Chelsea much this season, but last season I thought he was excellent technically with a good work rate but no end product. Has he improved? And is he going to get any game-time now that Cuadrado is going to be first choice RW?


He has a knack of splitting opinion, doesn't he?

He's scored just three times this season all in comfortable victories against Watford, Villa and Schalke. He only has two assists, too.
Original post by amoled
How is Willian doing? I haven't watched Chelsea much this season, but last season I thought he was excellent technically with a good work rate but no end product. Has he improved? And is he going to get any game-time now that Cuadrado is going to be first choice RW?


He has regressed in form going forward.
However that is down to Mourinho's defensive approach in pretty much every game. He has to bail out Ivanovic 4-5 times a game and then some. If we had a competent RB, Willian would flourish going forward. It's hardly surprising when he isn't able to find that final pass/shot after running his legs off all game... it's unfortunate. When Cuadrado plays over Willian it will be a joy to see us getting slaughtered and conceding goals on the right side. Maybe Mourinho will learn then.
(edited 9 years ago)
Defensive approach in every game? We play a formation with 3 attacking mids, a creative centre mid with at least one full back pushing forward with the most goals scored in the PL this season. You dont have talk some *******s man.
If that were true then surely you'd expect the quality of Willian's final ball to drop as the game went on...when in reality it's poor from minute one.

Willian is capable of some great passes but more often than not he fails to perform in that aspect. Even when you look at his time at Shaktar where he was given much less restricted role his goals/assists tallies are not particularly impressive. He's decent at beating his man but more often than not there's no end product or he chooses the wrong option, often because he's delayed on the ball for so long said option is no longer available.

Having a more effective attacking player in Cuadrado on the right should lessen the need for Ivanovic to be quite so kamikaze in his attacking runs anyway. Though Cuadrado is also fast and good defensively so he shouldn't have too much difficulty covering for Ivanovic should the need arise.
Honestly think that Ivanovic is in the squad because of his aerial ability as we score a shed load of corners and rarely concede from set pieces. He pushes forward because when we have weaker creativity that side it's easier to just double up on the opposition and it provides a non Hazard outlet. Matic plays on the Right side a lot now to cover for that doubling up when earlier in the season he was playing on the left with Fabregas.

Last season he was also an outlet for goalkicks. Remember City at the Etihad where every single goalkick was Cech to Ivanovic.

Tbf we don't really play attacking football for majority of the game so I see what Adam is saying. We attack for about 20mins then the rest of the game it's pretty slow tempoed passing to conserve our energy. Which is what he is trying to say. During that 20min spell which is usually early on we get a goal or two, kill the oppositions confidence and we don't bother trying to score goals after unless it's gifted on a plate to us(e.g. Swansea game).

Also I disagree on the Willian being knackered score, may be some truth in it but his final product is still shocking regardless. It's not even inconsistent like Oscar's it's full on non existent.
(edited 9 years ago)