Chelsea (A) - Thu 5th Jan, 20:00 | Pre-Match Thread

[madloaf]

Any eleven you like with the instructions of "play the ball forward quickly."

When you have some of the best footballers in the world, why make them go slow?

 

[Fordyboy46]

Ederson
Walker
Stones
Laporte
Cancelo
Rodri
De Bruyne
Gundogan
Alvarez
Foden
Haaland

De Bruyne and Gundogan mate, I'd pick one of the two

 

[Fordyboy46]

Any eleven you like with the instructions of "play the ball forward quickly."

When you have some of the best footballers in the world, why make them go slow?

Exactly, when we used to start games at a high tempo we were unstoppable, blew teams away. Now you know how a game is going to go in the first five or ten mins if we start off at a snail's pace. We lack energy badly

 

[richards30]

De Bruyne and Gundogan mate, I'd pick one of the two

Worked against Leeds mate? I think gundogan brings a huge amount of control and discipline to the midfield and allows Kev to be Kev?

 

[blueparrot]

Any eleven you like with the instructions of "play the ball forward quickly."

When you have some of the best footballers in the world, why make them go slow?

Because the other team are trying to make us go slow and recycle and setting up to do that, to give them a chance to get a turnover and get in behind our high line. We are trying to keep possession to open up a chance without losing the ball and the opponent countering. This isn’t new, just more oponents realising it’s the only way to beat us.
To be fair more team are setting up against liverpool like that too to stop their fast attacking. Which is why games between us and liverpool end up so open.

 

[madloaf]

Because the other team are trying to make us go slow and recycle and setting up to do that, to give them a chance to get a turnover and get in behind our high line. We are trying to keep possession to open up a chance without losing the ball and the opponent countering. This isn’t new, just more oponents realising it’s the only way to beat us.
To be fair more team are setting up against liverpool like that too to stop their fast attacking. Which is why games between us and liverpool end up so open.

I know "why" we're playing slow, it's just it works both ways. We create more chaos and take advantage of our superior footballers when we play at pace and play more direct. You risk something for the reward.

 

[JWCH-99]

Worked against Leeds mate? I think gundogan brings a huge amount of control and discipline to the midfield and allows Kev to be Kev?

Gundogan was at his best against Leeds. I’m not sure he lost the ball once and some of his turns under pressure were class personified. I think gundogan at his best offers more cutting edge threat and ability to break the lines than Bernardo also with his goals. We shouldn’t be outworked in that midfield so I’m not sure we need Bernardo. Chelsea’s midfield is very low energy and centred around keeping the ball.

 

[Crooked_rain]

Not panicking i just don't think a traditional CF suits us really - i mean Haaland is likely to get injured at some point, he has a history of long lay off's. You can't expect us to revert to the old pattern of deep lying midfielders to attack the box at the right time as we have in prev seasons. Takes some work getting those patterns of play going. Just think in the long run may not be the best way to play for us (having a CF). Hope i'm wrong..I am a big Haaland fan though of course, his attitude is refreshing one of the most confident and hungry players we have ever had.. Trevor Francis on par re confidence. If we had the right manager TF would have saved us from the dross and driven us on, our recent history could have been very different

I don’t see how it doesn’t suit us. We have scored way more goals than last season after 16 games and only two points behind what we were on.

It’s the defence that needs sharpen up. I’m not even sure what our best back line is but we should at least try to get a settled one. And also we need to stop relaxing after going ahead, thinking the job is done.

I don’t think having a centre forward like Haaland is a problem because the numbers show we are much better in attack. We just need to get a more settled defence and start managing games a bit better.

 

[blueparrot]

I know "why" we're playing slow, it's just it works both ways. We create more chaos and take advantage of our superior footballers when we play at pace and play more direct. You risk something for the reward.

You can do but Pep will never sacrifice much control for chaos, Klopp will. Pep has sacrificed some control for the chaos of Haaland. He explained countless times tough why he prefers the extra pass of Greealish to Foden forcing it. That won’t change and I for one won’t argue with Pep over that because most seasons he’s proved right.
Looking at where I expect Pep and Klopp to finish in the league this season I think he’ll be proved right again.
Arsenal are the one, teams haven’t quite caught on to doing the same to them, they will though and it will be interesting how they try and cope with it.

 

[blueparrot]

I don’t see how it doesn’t suit us. We have scored way more goals than last season after 16 games and only two points behind what we were on.

It’s the defence that needs sharpen up. I’m not even sure what our best back line is but we should at least try to get a settled one. And also we need to stop relaxing after going ahead, thinking the job is done.

I don’t think having a centre forward like Haaland is a problem because the numbers show we are much better in attack. We just need to get a more settled defence and start managing games a bit better.

True, but one of the reasons we aren’t managing the game as well is because we have one less ‘manager’ with Haaland over a false 9 or Jesus.