Chelsea - FA Cup SF | Post-Match Thread

[big gaz]

A bad day at the office.

So much strength on the bench that were utilised too little and too late.

The treble is still on and I hope you do it, but you have to play the best team you can at these stages of the competitions City are in now.

Even Pep makes mistakes, I'm sure he won't risk it again.

Still the best side in Europe when at full strength.

KDB was injured so straight swap with Phil, Gundog was the only lets try something different sub.

 

[jaiguruKun]

Pep said that it dose not look good.

Farking hell.

 

[shudabin10]

I don't get it. I'm not paid millions but I know enough not to make 8 changes like that - it was a massive game and we needed most of our best players to start...I feared for the worst and got what I feared.

 

[Xhavenjoe]

Still the best side in Europe when at full strength

When at full strength.

 

[Roachy]

Another game when after 10 mins you knew the outcome. The sooner the league is wrapped up the better as well. Shite performance all round that today.

 

[Saddleworth2]

All extremely strange. Very difficult to comprehend that performance. Front to back was poor. Foden and Gundo tried to make a difference but not enough effort or talent around them.

it was a semi final at Wembley and we have lost these in the past but never would I have questioned effort. I watched Raheem and there was no effort in defence. None. Going forward he lost the ball so many times. Other players are no longer hiding their exasperation at him. Is he having problems off the pitch? There has to be an explanation because he is just playing so so poorly. Add to that the individual performance from Torres And Mendy and you have a recipe for disaster. Our front three are so important defensively. Today Chelsea just avoided Gabby and played through the flanks.

please god Kev s just off as a precaution.

 

[mancity2012_eamo]

Can’t stand these Sterling haters. On form he’s amazing, but something has happened to his form lately and he has a habit of smiling and seeming unconcerned when his chances don’t come off. That’s annoying. Foden is furious with himself if he misses chances.

I don’t think he has the skills to play this much slower build up that we have employed this season.
He needs space to run behind a defence and needs pacey partners too to link with.
Think of how he was with Sane and Aguero.

Pep has adapted our game to conserve energy and eventually play through the tightest of defences.

Sterling doesn’t have the close skills and wit to do it, it would seem.
He isn’t a natural finisher. It all adds up and had got to the stage now with his confidence that even on one on ones, he takes about six touches and seem reluctant to shoot.
There’s a bit of that about Jesus too but he is consistently putting a shift in though.
I think with Sterling it’s a mixture of things as I say. We are not playing his natural game, he is trying too hard to impress at times. It leads to poor decision making. His confidence is low and he second guesses himself.

In short I don’t think he’s suited to our current game. He has pace. Apart from Walker the rest of the team don’t and it is not something we are relying on this season.

 

[brummie blue]

Unfortunately Torres, Sterling and Jesus are all much of the same. They are all about ten stone wet through and are contained and bullied too easily. They need four chances each to score once, if they are lucky. All three have been out of form for months now, playing all three together you got what we saw today. I have no idea what has gone wrong or what the answer is. They get game time but fail miserably everytime.

The problem seems playing them all together, three players all with different problems, Sterlings form has dropped off a cliff, Jesus is never going to be an out and out striker and needs to be used differently, and Torres is new to the league and should be integrated into the team on a gradual basis rather than expecting him to be ready from the off.

Individually you can play any of them with the inform players, but not as a trio.

The Rodri with Fernandinho partnership isn't helping the team, needs to be one or the other, we miss an attacking midfield with them both in.
If we are playing them both because the back four is effectively a back two because the full backs think or are told to be a midfielder or winger then we need to stop playing Mendy and Cancelo as an offensive pair, neither seem able to defend when asked to play this way. Walker and Zinchenko are the better option.

 

[Beanhead]

its going to happen a lot this summer with many clubs using players in deals as part of the deals

Haha.. it really won’t. Especially with elite players it never has and never will for one reason.

If you are an elite player you have choices. You are not cattle that can be moved around against your will. Top tier players will go to the options that suit their circumstances the most.

Of course a top level swap could happen but the chances of the stars aligning for two elite clubs and two elite players simultaneously are less than slim.. basically non existent.

This is not a panini sticker album mate.

 

[slick]

Gabby was a much better player when he first joined us. Its shocking the regression....maybe some of our coaching staff want a bollocking.

What sums the game up for me was cheslea's selection. They were able to do next to nothing and turn us over playing with bloody ziyech and werner...

Agree but Gabby was more of an orthodox striker playing off the shoulder of the last defender then and was constantly caught offside.

Pep now has him playing deeper and working more for the team which is great but not so great if we need to score goals, he did the same with Aguero but at least Aguero still managed to score goals.

I love Gabby and would love him to hit the highs of Aguero but I think we all know it's not going to happen, maybe pushing out wide instead of Sterling at the moment would be more beneficial to the team but then again that would leave us without a striker, although Torres didn't do so bad for us earlier in the season playing up front.

I'm not talking playing full strength here by the way but in games like today where Pep is rotating.

Going back to Gabby in his early days playing off the last defender, what happens if we buy Haaland? Do we expect him to track back too and run all over the pitch as well as score goals, because if we do I have a feeling we'll be very disappointed.