Chelsea Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread 2012/2013

Sgt Pepper 64

GavRedKing wrote: »

RDM has to rip into them really. Thats our 2nd UCL away game this season weve been under par. Shakhtar are a good team they proved it but we dont impose ourselves enough.

Sturridge should have come on to help Torres not replace him.

so much has been said about torres, but his performances speak for themselves

jan sales here we come

GavRedKing

Sgt Pepper 64 wrote: »

so much has been said about torres, but his performances speak for themselves

jan sales here we come

Theres no sales in January only hyper inflated prices for teams that are looking for a player.

Losing one match is hardly the end of the world. Id hate to see the reaction if we lose the next few games to Utd City and L'pool, I presume we'd be calling for RDM's head if it happens but were only 2 1/2 months into a long season.

Look at our performance against Atletico and Nords and tonight, 3 away games practically, and we were shocking in them.

It goes the show how many times we got lucky along tje way last year, yes we pit in some excellent performances, like Barca and Napoli at the Bridge but we have a lot to learn and it has to learned quickly or we'll ne playing Thursday night ball in a few weeks.

DazMarz

Here's a mad thought... probably me trolling more than anything. The only trophy Chelsea haven't won is now the UEFA Cup/Europa League... if we did get knocked out, we might go and win the Europa League... :P :pac:

Seriously, I wouldn't panic just yet. We've 3 games left, 2 at home and if we can win the two home ties in the group, we're still in a decent position and if we can get a draw in Turin I wouldn't be terribly upset.

GavRedKing

DazMarz wrote: »

Here's a mad thought... probably me trolling more than anything. The only trophy Chelsea haven't won is now the UEFA Cup/Europa League... if we did get knocked out, we might go and win the Europa League... :P :pac:

Seriously, I wouldn't panic just yet. We've 3 games left, 2 at home and if we can win the two home ties in the group, we're still in a decent position and if we can get a draw in Turin I wouldn't be terribly upset.

Yup, agree with this.

We have to beat shakhtar at all costs at home, Juventus have to play them away and if they lose in Ukraine we should hopefully be 4 points clear by the time we play in Turin, if we lose that then we have to beat Nords at the Bridge, thats assuming we beat Shakhtar at the Bridge first though, huge game in fairness, anything less then a win and I worry for us getting out of the group.

GavRedKing

We could make more history if we dont get out of the group stage, no holder has gone out in the group stage.

what a day

I taught Torres played well last night considering he had no service and was often the only player forward.

Right from the start we were gonna struggle, poor decisions by DiMatteo IMO. Our Formation was wrong as was our mentality. Granted we were unlucky with the first goal and Lampard picking up an injury but we started on the wrong foot and gave the intiative to Shaktar.

Why the hell did we start with a 4-3-3 with Oscar out wide and Hazard on the bench :eek:. Oscar had a terrible game last night and if it was not for Lampards injury surley he would have been replaced at half time.

We were over ran in midfeild right from the start and Torres was left adrift on his own. No taking away from Shaktar, they are a really good side with some quality players but we should have been going there to win. Embarrising performance from the champions!

GavRedKing

I've no problem giving up the UCL if it means we have a good EPL campaign.

I would rather if we put up afight and didnt give up the UCL crown without a fight though.

what a day

I agree Gav but we have to get to the KO stages of the CL first. We dont want to be paper champions! I have full faith in DiMatteo though, we have alot to play for the the CL and win our remaining 3 games. Any thing is possible!

GavRedKing

what a day wrote: »

I agree Gav but we have to get to the KO stages of the CL first. We dont want to be paper champions! I have full faith in DiMatteo though, we have alot to play for the the CL and win our remaining 3 games. Any thing is possible!

Oh ya, definitely, but we have to improve in our away games in the UCL.

Playing 4-3-3 from the outset was silly as its changed what the team is used to.

Now it didnt help that we went 1-0 down a fter a few mins and only a few mins later we lost Lamps to injury but Shakhtar dominated the game and were well deserved winners.

We have to beat them and Nords at the Bridge and and hope Juventus dont win in Donetsk, should see us still go through if we win 2 of our last 3 games.

S28382

I wouldnt worry too much about last nights result we can still go through and its the 1st defeat of the season so i dont think the panic button should be pressed just yet. The team are playing well they have a manager that they respond to and this is just a blip that was bound to happen at some stage and the players/manager will be ready to bounce back from it starting with a win against United.:D

ronsgonawin

GavRedKing wrote: »

Oh ya, definitely, but we have to improve in our away games in the UCL.

Playing 4-3-3 from the outset was silly as its changed what the team is used to.

Now it didnt help that we went 1-0 down a fter a few mins and only a few mins later we lost Lamps to injury but Shakhtar dominated the game and were well deserved winners.

We have to beat them and Nords at the Bridge and and hope Juventus dont win in Donetsk, should see us still go through if we win 2 of our last 3 games.

We didnt play 4-3-3, Last night, thats what came up on the screen at the start. Ramires was wide right until Lampard got injured, with Mata on the left and Oscar behind torres. The commentator even said it right at the start!

When Lampard got injured ramires went back beside mikel and Hazard went to the left.

GavRedKing

ronsgonawin wrote: »

We didnt play 4-3-3, Last night, thats what came up on the screen at the start. Ramires was wide right until Lampard got injured, with Mata on the left and Oscar behind torres. The commentator even said it right at the start!

When Lampard got injured ramires went back beside mikel and Hazard went to the left.

I didnt see the game until about 8:15, Lamps was gone off at that stage.

I thought we lined up 4-3-3, what makes it worse is RDM is using Ramires wide right, I'm sure we have better options to play there then Ramires.

greendom

S28382 wrote: »

I wouldnt worry too much about last nights result we can still go through and its the 1st defeat of the season so i dont think the panic button should be pressed just yet. The team are playing well they have a manager that they respond to and this is just a blip that was bound to happen at some stage and the players/manager will be ready to bounce back from it starting with a win against United.:D

When did you play Athletico Madrid ?

amiable

Phoenix wrote: »

I never bother with RTE and its "pundits"!

You have superior knowledge to them?

GavRedKing

greendom wrote: »

When did you play Athletico Madrid ?

Fixed.

Technically our first loss of the season was to City in the Charity Shield.

geeky

greendom wrote: »

When did you play Athletico Madrid ?

We don't count that as a defeat.

We just refer to it as 'the unpleasantness'.

GavRedKing

amiable wrote: »

You have superior knowledge to them?

I personally prefer Sky's coverage of a game, as in there actual broadcast of the game live.

I dont like the way prior to games the way Sky build them up so much but I suppose thats what they're meant to do.

S28382

greendom wrote: »

When did you play Athletico Madrid ?

The super cup and community shield are mickey mouse games they dont count in the context of competitive fixtures as who really gives a **** if they are won i highly doubt RDM and was really bothered about them games well except that Athletico outplayed Chelsea which i think was a one off.

ronsgonawin

GavRedKing wrote: »

I didnt see the game until about 8:15, Lamps was gone off at that stage.

I thought we lined up 4-3-3, what makes it worse is RDM is using Ramires wide right, I'm sure we have better options to play there then Ramires.

Yeh you are spot on, think ramires has proved he is wasted on the right and is far superior in the centre.

I would have actually preferred if we lined up 4-3-3 last night,I think we were over run in midfield.

amiable

S28382 wrote: »

The super cup and community shield are mickey mouse games they dont count in the context of competitive fixtures as who really gives a **** if they are won i highly doubt RDM and was really bothered about them games well except that Athletico outplayed Chelsea which i think was a one off.

Atletico Madrid top of La Liga so they obviously had a one off game in the Super Cup

GavRedKing

S28382 wrote: »

The super cup and community shield are mickey mouse games they dont count in the context of competitive fixtures as who really gives a **** if they are won i highly doubt RDM and was really bothered about them games well except that Athletico outplayed Chelsea which i think was a one off.

While we can say those games didnt matter, its still trophies and honours up for grabs and in the Atletico game especially we went down without much of a fight..

We havent had played well away from home consistently enough in the UCL which is the problem.

Atletico are a very good team and will be in the UCL next year, I'm sure of it and if they keep Falcao, they will cause teams a lot of problems.

the_monkey

Will last nights results for Chelsea and United have an effect for Sundays game ?

United coming back from 2-0 will give them a spring ...

its gonna be tough...

greendom

S28382 wrote: »

The super cup and community shield are mickey mouse games they dont count in the context of competitive fixtures as who really gives a **** if they are won i highly doubt RDM and was really bothered about them games well except that Athletico outplayed Chelsea which i think was a one off.

Well hopefully RDM took the result more seriously than you did. You were well beaten that night and should have caused concern.

GavRedKing

the_monkey wrote: »

Will last nights results for Chelsea and United have an effect for Sundays game ?

United coming back from 2-0 will give them a spring ...

its gonna be tough...

Hard to say really.

Its still worth remembering the old saying " theres no trophies handed out in December "

If we lose we lose, we carry on. Worse case scenario is we're a point ahead of Utd & City after the weekend.

Its long season and we wont go unbeaten and we will drop points when we're expected not to but we have to see how the season pans out.

Dont lose hope just yet.

S28382

amiable wrote: »

Atletico Madrid top of La Liga so they obviously had a one off game in the Super Cup

Dont get me wrong im not saying A madrid are not a good team im saying Chelsea getting torn apart like they did was a one off.

GavRedKing wrote: »

While we can say those games didnt matter, its still trophies and honours up for grabs and in the Atletico game especially we went down without much of a fight..

We havent had played well away from home consistently enough in the UCL which is the problem.

Atletico are a very good team and will be in the UCL next year, I'm sure of it and if they keep Falcao, they will cause teams a lot of problems.

Yeah i agree it was torture to see the team go down so easy but in reality it doesnt define our season i think the management and staff would be in the thinking of 'Ok that was embarrassing lets not play that poorly again' i KNOW winning trophies is the goal but i bet if we win the PL or retain the CL no one will really care about what happened in the Super cup.

S28382

greendom wrote: »

Well hopefully RDM took the result more seriously than you did. You were well beaten that night and should have caused concern.

I dont need to take the game as seriously as he does im not the one responsible for what happens to the team all i am is a supporter of a team that i would love to see do well.

Caveman1

greendom wrote: »

Well hopefully RDM took the result more seriously than you did. You were well beaten that night and should have caused concern.

I'm sure RDM took the result seriously but the fact is that the game itself is basically a glorified community shield.

greendom

S28382 wrote: »

I dont need to take the game as seriously as he does im not the one responsible for what happens to the team all i am is a supporter of a team that i would love to see do well.

Honestly as an Arsenal fan I'd love to be in your position in the league. But in Europe you've had 1 win in 4 matches. Tough opposition maybe, but hardly the form of Champions League winners.

Bartyman

greendom wrote: »

Honestly as an Arsenal fan I'd love to be in your position in the league. But in Europe you've had 1 win in 4 matches. Tough opposition maybe, but hardly the form of Champions League winners.

:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D

Couldn't resist !!!

Caveman1

I don't see why everyone is hitting the panic button after last nights result. Shakhtar are very good team on an unbelievable run of form at the monemt, plus playing away in Ukraine is never going to be easy.

I'm extremely confident we'll pick up maximum points from our home games, sure we might even get something away to Juventus with the way their home form has been.

My only problem with last night was the fact that Ramires started out on the right, we were finally looking decent in the middle with Mikel-Rami. why couldn't he even put Lamps in the middle and Moses or Sturridge out right. Ramires is simply a waste out there.

Looking ahead to the United game, the defeat last night could be a blessing, stop the team from getting complacent. Its looking like this is gonna be a game with a lot of goals, a win would be great for us to go 7 points clear so early on. Cant wait for it already.

S28382

greendom wrote: »

Honestly as an Arsenal fan I'd love to be in your position in the league. But in Europe you've had 1 win in 4 matches. Tough opposition maybe, but hardly the form of Champions League winners.

You could of said the way we played last year wasnt the form for champions league winners but hey look what happened we WON the CL.:) Arsenal play lovely football but you have to remind me when was the last time they won anything? Chelsea will get out of this group who cares if it is in 1st or 2nd place.

amiable

S28382 wrote: »

You could of said the way we played last year wasnt the form for champions league winners but hey look what happened we WON the CL.:) Arsenal play lovely football but you have to remind me when was the last time they won anything? Chelsea will get out of this group who cares if it is in 1st or 2nd place.

I think most Chelsea fans care

S28382

amiable wrote: »

I think most Chelsea fans care

Well i for one dont care as long as we get out of the group. We have shown that we are more than capable of beating any team that we play so finishing 2nd and meeting supposedly stronger 1st placed teams from other groups in the knockout stage is not really a big deal as the CL is now a really competitive tournament so every team 1st or 2nd placed has the potential to beat whoever is put in front of them.

GavRedKing

amiable wrote: »

I think most Chelsea fans care

I think now a days if you finish 1st or 2nd you're going to get a tough game regardless, now every team will want to finish 1st anyway and have the 2nd leg of the last 16 at home which is a huge advantage.

There is very few easy games left in the UCL especially when it gets to the K/O stage.

All we know is that if we do qualify then we'll avoid an English side.

amiable

GavRedKing wrote: »

I think now a days if you finish 1st or 2nd you're going to get a tough game regardless, now every team will want to finish 1st anyway and have the 2nd leg of the last 16 at home which is a huge advantage.

There is very few easy games left in the UCL especially when it gets to the K/O stage.

All we know is that if we do qualify then we'll avoid an English side.

You'll likely avoid Barcelona and Real Madrid if you top the group and playing the home leg is a distinct advantage too IMO.

So saying that you don't care if you finish first or second in the group like the other poster did is silly IMHO.

GavRedKing

amiable wrote: »

You'll likely avoid Barcelona and Real Madrid if you top the group and playing the home leg is a distinct advantage too IMO.

So saying that you don't care if you finish first or second in the group like the other poster did is silly IMHO.

Oh ya I agree with ya 100%, I'd prefer to finish 1st it would more then likely avoid Europes 3 best team's in Real, Barca and Bayern but even last year we topped the group and faced a good Napoli side who we scraped through against.

Finishing 2nd and relying on luck of the draw might get us a favourable draw but as you mentioned it could and more then likely would back fire and we'd pull a huge team for the round of 16 draw.

If we fail to beat Shakhtar we'll struggle to qualify let alone get 2nd IMO and at the moment, its in Shakhtar's hands, they could finish top if they draw with us and avoida defeat to Juventus in Donetsk.

the_monkey

greendom wrote: »

Honestly as an Arsenal fan I'd love to be in your position in the league. But in Europe you've had 1 win in 4 matches. Tough opposition maybe, but hardly the form of Champions League winners.

1 in 3....

S28382

amiable wrote: »

You'll likely avoid Barcelona and Real Madrid if you top the group and playing the home leg is a distinct advantage too IMO.

So saying that you don't care if you finish first or second in the group like the other poster did is silly IMHO.

But what does it matter? we still have to play home and away so these days it dont matter one bit, what matters is how good your team is how good the other team is and how prepared you are going into the game.

GavRedKing

the_monkey wrote: »

1 in 3....

Think hes counting the Atletico game, making it 1 from 4.

GavRedKing

S28382 wrote: »

But what does it matter? we still have to play home and away so these days it dont matter one bit, what matters is how good your team is how good the other team is and how prepared you are going into the game.

It does matter though.

Looking at the other 7 groups so far the likely winners are going to be :

A - Porto/PSG/D Kyiv I'd go with PSG
B - Arsenal, we cant face them anyway so there ruled out.
C - Malaga
D - Real Madrid
E - Our group, looks like Shakhtar
F - Bayern
G - Barca
H - Man Utd, cant face them either so that leaves 5 possible games.

Look at the above teams, I'd rather avoid Bayern, Barca, Real, that leaves us with 2 options of Malaga or Porto.

So by finishing 2nd in our group we're givin ourselves a huge challenge, we have to push for 1st.

greendom

S28382 wrote: »

You could of said the way we played last year wasnt the form for champions league winners but hey look what happened we WON the CL.:) Arsenal play lovely football but you have to remind me when was the last time they won anything? Chelsea will get out of this group who cares if it is in 1st or 2nd place.

Early indications suggest that while the Prem is struggling with the way Chelsea are setting themselves up this season, teams on the continent are finding it easier to deal with. Bit of a role reversal from last season.

S28382

@GavRedKing. We shall agree to disagree on that so. I believe that it doesnt matter where we finish i think we will get through the group and push on to the semis.



and then i will awake from my dream

GavRedKing

greendom wrote: »

Early indications suggest that while the Prem is struggling with the way Chelsea are setting themselves up this season, teams on the continent are finding it easier to deal with. Bit of a role reversal from last season.

True, last year we were very slow on the ball and sat back and were very cautious with our approach.

We've blitzed the EPL so far but teams in Europe arent afraid of us and are basically slugging it out with us and they're winning because we're less rigid and disciplined then we were last year.

If an EPL teams outs it up to us and goes blow for blow they'll catch us, like Spurs last week when they went 2-1 up.

S28382 wrote: »

@GavRedKing. We shall agree to disagree on that so. I believe that it doesnt matter where we finish i think we will get through the group and push on to the semis.



and then i will awake from my dream

Semi's would be a huge achievement IMO.

The far-fetched goal would be to retain the UCL but thats even less likely then us winning it last year IMO.

Its all about the league this year and we have to improve on that 6th place finish which to be fair to RDM and the squad looks like it could be possible.

MUSEIST

greendom wrote: »

Early indications suggest that while the Prem is struggling with the way Chelsea are setting themselves up this season, teams on the continent are finding it easier to deal with. Bit of a role reversal from last season.

So far it appears we are taking the PL more seriously. All the closing down, high energy and work rate we showed against spurs was completely missing last night and we never got out of first gear. It's frustrating to watch but we need to improve our league position on 6th last year.

amiable

MUSEIST wrote: »

So far it appears we are taking the PL more seriously. All the closing down, high energy and work rate we showed against spurs was completely missing last night and we never got out of first gear. It's frustrating to watch but we need to improve our league position on 6th last year.

I wouldn't say Chelsea are taking the EPL more seriously.
I would say it's more down to Chelsea came up against a tough test in Ukraine last night.
Atletico Madrid in the Super Cup would have beaten a lot of teams that night too.
To be fair to Chelsea they are bedding in a few new players too and a relatively new manager it's just they seem to have got going faster in the league.
It's just the way it happens sometimes.

I think the mistake some fans can make is thinking because Chelsea beat Barca last season that those tactics if used again would just work again. They may work again but I'd prefer Barcelona's chances at the moment.
Chances are Chelsea may have improved further by the latter stages

DazMarz

Chelsea are in an imperious run of form domestically. The form in Europe since the Super Cup has been ropey at best. Throwing away a 2-0 lead against Juve, despite the final score against Nordsjaelland it was not as easy as 4-0 would make you think, and last night was awful.

Whereas in the PL, Chelsea have started with flair and panache. 22 out of 24 points, beating both Spurs and Arsenal away... Arsenal and Spurs were also on good runs themselves and could have been very tricky opponents, but Chelsea prevailed. The Spurs game was especially excellent; the mental strength shown to claw it back after going behind was superb.

The difference in the form being shown in Europe and the form domestically is a gulf.

But there is really no need to panic at all. Man United on Sunday is a huge game. But even if Chelsea lose that, there is still no panic. It's a long way to go until May...

GavRedKing

DazMarz wrote: »

Chelsea are in an imperious run of form domestically. The form in Europe since the Super Cup has been ropey at best. Throwing away a 2-0 lead against Juve, despite the final score against Nordsjaelland it was not as easy as 4-0 would make you think, and last night was awful.

Whereas in the PL, Chelsea have started with flair and panache. 22 out of 24 points, beating both Spurs and Arsenal away... Arsenal and Spurs were also on good runs themselves and could have been very tricky opponents, but Chelsea prevailed. The Spurs game was especially excellent; the mental strength shown to claw it back after going behind was superb.

The difference in the form being shown in Europe and the form domestically is a gulf.

But there is really no need to panic at all. Man United on Sunday is a huge game. But even if Chelsea lose that, there is still no panic. It's a long way to go until May...

Agree, we're only 8 games into the season and theres another 90 points to play for.

Long way to go lads, loads of ups and downs between now and then, enjoy the Roman roller coaster. :pac:

blue-army

DazMarz wrote: »

Nordsjaelland it was not as easy as 4-0 would make you think, and last night was awful.

We scored 8 goals that night! They were awful. If the current Champions League holders can't beat them at home then there's something seriously wrong!

I don't think defeat in the Ukraine is the end of the world. As previously said, they're unbeaten in almost a year, so even a draw would've been a great result.

The defeat though should bring the players back down to earth after the recent winning run, and could even fire them up more for Sundays game.

DazMarz

Hold on, as much as we scored "8" goals against them, they held us scoreless for 33 minutes, then it was kept at 0-1 until the 80th minute. They put it up to us, defended very well (until the last 10) and were denied an equaliser by the woodwork. We were very poor that night, and only thanks to the crossbar and their eventual collapse did we put a gloss on the result.

I don't think that a Chelsea win was ever in serious question, but at the same time it was not easy for us until the last ten minutes when the fitness told and they started to wilt.

I agree, yeah... We had the ball in their net 8 times, but 4 of those times were correctly disallowed for offside or whatever.

We have not been convincing at all in Europe this season. 3 games played, 1 win, 1 draw, 1 loss. Not a good return at all.

Crann na Beatha

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