Chelsea Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread 2013/14

GavRedKing

Our CM needs Luiz in there full time. Nobody else can seem to do a shift in there consistently enough.

Its gonna be interesting to see what happebs Sunday. I hope its Cahill/JT at CB anyeay witb Luiz in CM.

Duck Soup

That's a team looking like they're already playing out the rest of the season in second gear. Apart from Ba, nobody seemed to give a shít.

GavRedKing

We'll be fine for 4th. The only thing keeping us there is our away form.

If I was Roman id be scratching my head why the team isnt performing.

willmunny1990

Very poor result but the way things have been going so far i'm not that surprised.

All in all i'm not that worried, we should be good enough to finish third but we will defiantly finish in the top four IMO, it's just a matter of whether we finish 3rd or 4th.

If Rafa isn't kept on then who be a realistic candidate to replace him?

Caveman1

GavRedKing wrote: »

Our CM needs Luiz in there full time. Nobody else can seem to do a shift in there consistently enough.

Its gonna be interesting to see what happebs Sunday. I hope its Cahill/JT at CB anyeay witb Luiz in CM.

He played a couple of lovely passes during the game, I reckon more important passes than both Lamps & Ramires played combined.

I have to say I thought Azpi looked very good when he arrived but I think he's been really poor as of late, his positional sense is awful, although he probably still needs a bit of time to settle in.

Garzorico

GavRedKing wrote: »

Yup at 2-0 the players shoukd be professional enough to see the job out not let their heads drop when theh let one in.

We shouldn't have let one in against a team of Southampton's calibre. With the players we have they shouldn't be getting enough of the ball to cause us headaches.

Barr

Interesting special on betfair for Rafa to go .. worth a few quid


http://www.betfair.com/exchange/football/market?id=1.107588231

Duck Soup

GavRedKing wrote: »

We'll be fine for 4th. The only thing keeping us there is our away form.

If I was Roman id be scratching my head why the team isnt performing.

At a guess? They're out of contention in the league, so win a few, lose a few, pick up a cheque. Sleepwalk through the domestic cups on the assumption that the small sides are going to roll over at your awesomeness (until you get tonked by Swansea). Europa league? Probably a similar attitude to the domestic cups.

Depressing stuff, but they aren't scared of Benitez (can you imagine turning in a performance like that and facing SAF in the dressing room after?) and they know he's out the door in the summer. I just get the feeling that they've written off the rest of the season and are waiting for their summer hols. I hope it's somewhere nice.

weiland79

Meglamonia wrote: »

Not joking should we just sack Rafa now?He's a poisonous prick!

Rafa is not the root of the problem. It's down to the mentality of calling our manager interm from the get go. The mentality of having a player from the opposition having a good game against us and saying oh oh oh oh i want him to play for us, with no thought to the future.

It's all about the now, it's all about how many trophies can we win now and how quickly we can do it. No thought for building a legacy or even to building a squad that everyone can be proud of.

It's a load of BS, Abromovich has made his bed and fully deserves to lie in it.
Why any manager worth his salt would want to come to us is beyond me, and surely with time this mentality will begin to effect the quality of player that will want to play for us.

Garzorico

Duck Soup wrote: »

At a guess? They're out of contention in the league, so win a few, lose a few, pick up a cheque. Sleepwalk through the domestic cups on the assumption that the small sides are going to roll over at your awesomeness (until you get tonked by Swansea). Europa league? Probably a similar attitude to the domestic cups.

Depressing stuff, but they aren't scared of Benitez (can you imagine turning in a performance like that and facing SAF in the dressing room after?) and they know he's out the door in the summer. I just get the feeling that they've written off the rest of the season and are waiting for their summer hols. I hope it's somewhere nice.

jaysis I feel muuuuuch better now....:)

Duck Soup

Garzorico wrote: »

We shouldn't have let one in against a team of Southampton's calibre. With the players we have they shouldn't be getting enough of the ball to cause us headaches.

I was wondering about that too. If Benitez has any function, it's to drill into the players the kind of possession football RA wants. As is is, we're barely scratching 50-55% possession against the likes of Southampton and QPR.

Garzorico

Duck Soup wrote: »

I was wondering about that too. If Benitez has any function, it's to drill into the players the kind of possession football RA wants. As is is, we're barely scratching 50-55% possession against the likes of Southampton and QPR.

at home

Essien

GavRedKing wrote: »

If I was Roman id be scratching my head why the team isnt performing.

I wouldn't. His interfering as well as his itchy trigger finger will keep us in a permanent state of 'transition' which will ensure confidence stays low.

It's going to be difficult to keep the players in the right frame of mind and in turn get good, consistent performances from them with the way the club carries on.

Caveman1

I suppose it wasn't all bad, the Youth team had a great come back from 2-0 down to win 3-2 after extra time against Charlton.

Maybe we should let a few of the 1st team players train with the younger lads, hopefully desire & fight is contageous.

grumpymunster

GavRedKing wrote: »

We'll be fine for 4th. The only thing keeping us there is our away form.

If I was Roman id be scratching my head why the team isnt performing.

There is no reason to scratch your head the team has no confidence and no heart. We are "managed" by someone who has been ignored by top clubs for a year and a half when he took over Inter they had won the league for 5 years on the trot he takes over AC win it. He is reputed to be a tactical genius and brings on a striker shot of confidence to play wide right, leaving a wide right player on the bench. When Saints scored the first goal the defence should have been shored up with JT and midfield reinforced but what does he do NOTHING.

If Roman is scratching his head he is a complete fool and that I doubt. When RDM was sacked we were 4 points off top now we are 14 with 1 win in 7 at the Bridge. Total disgrace no other description for it.

GavRedKing

The players mentality has to improve. It looks like it isnt good enough especially against lesser teams.

Caveman1

GavRedKing wrote: »

The players mentality has to improve. It looks like it isnt good enough especially against lesser teams.

This is exactly the problem too, I lost count of the amount of times Lampard, Ramires & Oscar gave the ball away in the first 15-20 mins, they were just wandering around the pitch.

The problem with the team is that they think once they show up that they'll get a result.

For me its time for Rafa to start dropping a few lads, give them a wake up call.

bullpost

Exactly.

And given the day thats in it heres a special request for Roman:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DB8EjjDfxiE

weiland79 wrote: »

Rafa is not the root of the problem. It's down to the mentality of calling our manager interm from the get go. The mentality of having a player from the opposition having a good game against us and saying oh oh oh oh i want him to play for us, with no thought to the future.

It's all about the now, it's all about how many trophies can we win now and how quickly we can do it. No thought for building a legacy or even to building a squad that everyone can be proud of.

It's a load of BS, Abromovich has made his bed and fully deserves to lie in it.
Why any manager worth his salt would want to come to us is beyond me, and surely with time this mentality will begin to effect the quality of player that will want to play for us.

Garzorico

Fulham 13th
Southampton 15th
QPR last

2 points gained against the above at home with considerable difficulty

Tottingham 4th
Everton 5th
Arsenal 6th

9 points gained from the above away from home at a relative canter

GavRedKing

Whats the option? We didnt really rotate tonight and we still dropped points.

Im fuming and I dont go to Stamford Bridge week in week out so I can only imagine how pi**ed off the regulars are.

Rafa will get the brunt of it but everyone at the club from Roman down needs to wake the f**k up.

Garzorico

GavRedKing wrote: »

Whats the option? We didnt really rotate tonight and we still dropped points.

Im fuming and I dont go to Stamford Bridge week in week out so I can only imagine how pi**ed off the regulars are.

Rafa will get the brunt of it but everyone at the club from Roman down needs to wake the f**k up.

Soft central midfield. Answer = Felaini.

Caveman1

As **** as recent results have been, I suppose we could be worse off than we are.

There was no way we were going to catch Man United, but if we beat Arsenal on Sunday & Spurs loose, we go 5 points ahead of them.

Realistically we should secure a CL spot, the main thing is that we are beating all the teams around us.

weiland79

Caveman1 wrote: »

Realistically we should secure a CL spot, the main thing is that we are beating all the teams around us.

But what good is a CL spot if we just go out in the first round again. I know it's a long way off but why should things be any different next year?

GavRedKing

The worse thig is though we should be clear of Spurs now and it shoukd be more on Sunday but it aint.

I dont want 50million players no more i want stability.

Caveman1

weiland79 wrote: »

But what good is a CL spot if we just go out in the first round again. I know it's a long way off but why should things be any different next year?

CL place = £££££

Caveman1

Lads as much as ive taken a turn off Torres I don't agree with fans booing him, even during the warm up it was going on.

Do you think he might realise his time is up here & jump ship?

weiland79

Caveman1 wrote: »

CL place = £££££

Don't we have enough of that?

MUSEIST

Caveman1 wrote: »

Lads as much as ive taken a turn off Torres I don't agree with fans booing him, even during the warm up it was going on.

Do you think he might realise his time is up here & jump ship?

Hopefully, he has been given more than enough support by the club and fans. Time to go

grumpymunster

At this stage the main problem is RA I am certain he is a shrewd businessman but he does not seem to have much idea about running a football team. It's like football manager in real life, realistically his best route to salvation is to beg Jose to come back and let him get on a with it. As a club we have some fine players and facilities which he has sponsored and for that he deserves kudos but that is all we have at the moment. We have no heart we have no identity it is sad to think that just a few months after winning the champions league we are reduced to this.

It will be interesting to see whatvthevreaction will be when he next drops by for a match it may not be as nice as before.

Garzorico

Caveman1 wrote: »

Lads as much as ive taken a turn off Torres I don't agree with fans booing him, even during the warm up it was going on.

Do you think he might realise his time is up here & jump ship?

Our own fans booing Torres is an embarrassment. He shouldn't play for us again though. He is finished as a player (for us anyway). For everyones sake he should be loaned out until the end of the season.

GavRedKing

No player should be booed.

Its simply a by product of Rafa coming in. Rafa amd Torres are both getting , both barrels and in Torres case it isnt justified.

Caveman1

weiland79 wrote: »

Don't we have enough of that?

It's not what we have but what we make. FFP will be coming in shortly so we'll need to bring in as much revenue as possible,

MUSEIST wrote: »

Hopefully, he has been given more than enough support by the club and fans. Time to go

Who'll want to take him though? I can't see anyone really having an interest in him enough to pay us a fee for him.

GavRedKing

Nobody could have predicted that the night we won the UCL we'd be through another manaver, out of UCL and out of the EPL race, let alone Roman.

Garzorico

GavRedKing wrote: »

No player should be booed.

Its simply a by product of Rafa coming in. Rafa amd Torres are both getting , both barrels and in Torres case it isnt justified.

it isnt justified in anyones case. We should be saving the booing for the opposition, not our own players, managers, staff....no matter who is playing or managing us the team should be supported no questions asked. Does any fan actually believe that any player or Rafa are playing/managing badly on purpose? They deserve our unreserved support.

Caveman1

Rafa's reaction to the game

On the performance
'We started the second half and didn't manage the game or have the control we were expecting,' said the Blues manager. 'We didn't take our chances when we had them, which gave them hope they could score, and they did.

'At half-time I said we needed a third goal. We made a mistake which gave them a goal and we didn't take the chances we had.

'I spoke about us needing to be more clinical and tonight it was the same. We didn't score, gave them belief they could hurt us on the counter-attack and they did it.

'We should have won, but credit to Southampton, they played a good game.'

On our poor home form
'We can't be happy drawing at home, the next game has to be totally different, it's another challenge and we have to try to win the game.

'My idea is always to think about the next game, we have to be sure of getting three points in the next game against Arsenal.

'I'm disappointed; when you know your players and know what you can do it's difficult. We have to start thinking about how we will prepare for the next game, and that's what we'll do tomorrow.

'It's about analysing and trying to coach the players in the right way. We know the problems we have when the other team is well organised. We have to keep training and sustaining the ball.'

On where we need to improve
'You could see at 2-0, it's a question of experience and managing the game. We have to stay compact, then they would have had to come and try to find spaces.

'That's the point we were talking about, stopping them playing on the counter-attack, but that's what they did, and obviously we have to improve.

'We have to defend as a unit better, especially when you are winning, that's something we have to improve. At the moment we have good players, they have to carry on and try their best every day.'

On the introduction of Fernando Torres
'Torres is a professional; he concentrated and tried to give his best. I told him he had to play a bit towards the right, but also to get into the box. He was doing that, but I wanted him to leave space for [Juan] Mata between the lines.'

On the decision to leave John Terry on the bench
'Terry has no match fitness, and they weren't creating too much. It has to be the right time; the other day we were winning and I gave him the opportunity to play some minutes, but today wasn't the right game.

'He would have come on and had to play a high defensive line, which isn't good for a player who isn't fit.'

GavRedKing

Rafa will always be unliked, thats just the nature of football and its supporters.

grumpymunster

Garzorico wrote: »

it isnt justified in anyones case. We should be saving the booing for the opposition, not our own players, managers, staff....no matter who is playing or managing us the team should be supported no questions asked. Does any fan actually believe that any player or Rafa are playing/managing badly on purpose? They deserve our unreserved support.

No one deserves unreserved support you earn that like respect. That being said I would never boo a Chelsea player I may think they are acting the maggot but booing them only helps the opposition. Would I boo our interim manager I really don't know I would clap and cheer on 16 minutes as a form of protest.

I still think Nando looks depressed and for everyone's sake but mainly his it is time for him to move on

Garzorico

grumpymunster wrote: »

No one deserves unreserved support you earn that like respect. That being said I would never boo a Chelsea player I may think they are acting the maggot but booing them only helps the opposition. Would I boo our interim manager I really don't know I would clap and cheer on 16 minutes as a form of protest.

I still think Nando looks depressed and for everyone's sake but mainly his it is time for him to move on

in this context this is as embarrassing as booing your own players/manager. Protest to what? Why not just boo RA?

Crann na Beatha

This post has been deleted.

McDave

Things could seriously unravel at CFC if RA is not careful. At this point, with Guardiola out of reach, Mourinho is the only manager who can steady the ship. The best we can expect from Benitez is UCL qualification. But two or three bad results in a row and a collapse in player confidence could see us slide out of the top four in a jiffy.

Best outcome is for RM to exit the UCL, and JM to exit the Bernebeu straight to Chelsea. But the world isn't organised to suit Chelsea's wants, as Abramovich is hopefully learning.

McDave

Garzorico wrote: »

in this context this is as embarrassing as booing your own players/manager. Protest to what? Why not just boo RA?

RA can still redeem himself by bringing back Mourinho.

But there's always the fear that the magic is gone and maybe even Mourinho can't turn it around. Perhaps RA needs to show some humility at this point. How I don't know. Maybe big changes at board and technical levels. A lot of people are failing badly at this stage.

grumpymunster

Garzorico wrote: »

in this context this is as embarrassing as booing your own players/manager. Protest to what? Why not just boo RA?

Showing that you care about the history and heart of your club is embarrassing letting RA know that whilst he does own the club he has no right to rub our noses in the a dirt is embarrassing.

I did allude to the reception RA will get when next he is at a game, I think he may be in for a surprise

bullpost

I think the only way RA can now redeem the situation is to install someone credible , like Guus, as director of football. Get rid of Emelano (or whatever he is called) and let them get on with it.

McDave wrote: »

RA can still redeem himself by bringing back Mourinho.

But there's always the fear that the magic is gone and maybe even Mourinho can't turn it around. Perhaps RA needs to show some humility at this point. How I don't know. Maybe big changes at board and technical levels. A lot of people are failing badly at this stage.

Duck Soup

Phoenix wrote: »

Bring the great man back

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMyAh-8XtR8

My feelings on how the team are playing at home

We can talk about managers and tactics, but that's what the likes of Drogs, Terry and Lamps brought to Chelsea. Passion and pride.

Terry might be a turd as a human being, but he's never needed to be told to put a shift in wearing a blue shirt. Drogba might miss a few chances, but he was always looking for the next one.

Even Frankie tonight, didn't have the best game, but was disgusted to come off as he still felt he could make that crucial difference.

This is a team on autopilot.

MUSEIST

Phoenix wrote: »

Bring the great man back

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMyAh-8XtR8

My feelings on how the team are playing at home

I know drogba was embarassed with his antics there but looking back it showed just how much it meant to a grown man. He was/is a winner and I question whether some of th ecurrent team have the same mentality. You won't win much throwing away 2-0 leads away at home against southampton and juventus. Also this team has been defeated in 3 cup finals this season. The winning mentality left with drogba sadly.

:(bring back jose and you bring back some passion to this ****ing great club

Roman and jose parted ways because roman (who was new to football) thought he could better. The last few years have shown that nothing has come close to the jose years. Bring him back home roman.

GavRedKing

Carlo came close to doing a Jose but was turfed out on the back of a League and Cup double.

Roman mustsurely realie his best chance of success now that Pep is going to Munich, lies with Jose, problem with that is Jose will come back under his terms, which will probably be better for the club as a whole but will Roman be willing to hand over so much control to Jose?

Hopefully so.

peteeeed

very very frustrating at the moment , at 2-0 last night i thought , finally we can get the home win and ease the fans pressure before sunday but the truth of it was that southampton played us well. i thought they had the better of the midfield in the first half with some sloppy passing from frank and ramiries . once they scored the first goal the confidence just drained out of the team and the crowd. sunday is do or die and i almost wish the match was away where the team is playing with no pressure

GavRedKing

Team for Arsenal should be

Cech
Ivan Cahill JT Cole
Luiz Ramires
Hazard Mata Bertie
Ba


Theres a few names in that XI that havent been good enough recently but the players that could come in arent good enough for a game against Arsenal that we have to win to get some of the crowd back on side, a loss at home to Arsenal could be a disaster for confidence and what little faith remains in Rafa.

Neil3030

Jose returning could be an utter disaster imo. This can't be the only option.

Melion

Jose returning would ruin Mata, Hazard etc IMO