Post-match thoughts v Chelsea

davidwhitehead said:
I have a very strong hunch that we'll beat Brighton next week. After their momentous victory at Old Trafford yesterday, they now have another massive game on Thursday, their first-ever European match against Athens, in many ways the pinnacle of their history. I imagine this is going to be both a physically and emotionally draining match for them.

Then it's back to bread and butter with Bournemouth, a bit of an anti-climax...we can catch them on an off-day, I'm sure of it.
Click to expand...
Hope so!!

Thought we did well against them both games last season despite 2 defeats.

They do rotate players well and maybe only European football will stop them getting champ league spot this season.
 
Neil Dawson said:
Thought it was a bright game… weird in that while both teams got into good positions I never expected the net to ripple so didn’t either get as excited or as tense as I normally do on attacks. Credit to both keepers.

Iraolaball is taking shape but looks blunt through a lack of natural goal scorers. We have five finishers in the squad. Billing, Tavs, Brooks, Moore and Solanke. Everyone else’s record is appalling. If you don’t start two of these and play Billing withdrawn and take Tavs off you are relying solely on Dom who was misfiring today despite good effort. For me Rothwell has to start instead of Christie to release Billing forwards and Brooks needs to come in (unless Sinisterra is a finisher).

Else we will have a lot of effort and no goals like today. We would have won today with more finishers on the pitch. I’m assuming Moore was injured? He’d have been much better on the end of the crosses that came in.

Having the pace of Kelly at the back helped us sit far more comfortably up the pitch against pace than the lumbering Senesi and in turn made Zab looked less uneasy. The full backs were exceptional as was Cook. Dango is another one of a long line of why you shouldn’t give Hughes a 20m cheque and a driver. File in the same box as Traore, Semenyo, Kliuvert etc although the latter looked a little better when he didn’t start and it was less physical. Let’s hope Sinisterra doesn’t complete 100m of enigmatic non end result wingers….

Brighton and Arsenal will be tough, it all needs to click for the three after that but with no centre of midfield looking fit for awhile because of our strange decision to sign two injured ones it could be a tense month or so. Hopefully the board will remember their role in it and give Iraola time and assurances.
Click to expand...
You can't help yourself. Senesi comes on and saves us the point and you call him Lumbering. It's weird that you get so transfixed on something you ignore the reality in front of your eyes. I get it, you don't like him but.hes not slow and he's a superb defender.
 
We have a plan: win the ball on the edge of our box, playing quickly to a midfielder or winger and one touch into a forward.
It means the possession figures will be low because we need teams to come onto us.

Every defender played well, but the defensive unit did sometimes appear to leave players in space. But our attacks start at the back, so no clogging centre halves or ultra cautious players will ever get a look in.

Loads of positives, players coming back from injury.
Cook immense. Billing good whether deep or further forward. Kelly good. Loved the full backs and Kluivert the impact sub. But we need Christie (or Scott) for that quick transition).
We are going to click and hammer a team soon - we are also going to be hammered when a team take every opportunity against us.

Exciting times.
 
Druss_the_Legend said:
You can't help yourself. Senesi comes on and saves us the point and you call him Lumbering. It's weird that you get so transfixed on something you ignore the reality in front of your eyes. I get it, you don't like him but.hes not slow and he's a superb defender.
Click to expand...

Stopped reading when he shoehorned in a dig at Christie. Player of the season thus far, first name on the team sheet.

No one created more key passes than him on the pitch today. Barely misplaced a pass and that’s before mentioning how key he is in regards to the press. If you want Iraola’s philosophy to work, you pick Christie, clone him and pick him again.
 
Having watched the game from beginning to end I was overall impressed by our performance. However, I was ready to exit my seat down at my local if Chelsea had taken the lead as it would have been game over from that point on. I thought Kerkez was outstanding. With that said I still do not think that we would have scored even if we were still playing at this time tomorrow. But I have to put things into perspective in that we were playing Chelsea and so, we did surrender a large amount of possession of which was only to be expected.

We need more fire power in front of goal as we look woefully short in the final third. Defensively we looked reasonably solid, although a little slow and static at times. We need to get something at Brighton else, our efforts today would have been in vain.
 
Druss_the_Legend said:
You can't help yourself. Senesi comes on and saves us the point and you call him Lumbering. It's weird that you get so transfixed on something you ignore the reality in front of your eyes. I get it, you don't like him but.hes not slow and he's a superb defender.
Click to expand...
I was referring to his shaky slow game against Brentford (along with a few other starts last year) where his slowness killed our ability to push up and hold a high back line. Parker had to do the same to Cahill to help us after a sticky patch. Losing this meant we were much better today.
 
DJ said:
Stopped reading when he shoehorned in a dig at Christie. Player of the season thus far, first name on the team sheet.

No one created more key passes than him on the pitch today. Barely misplaced a pass and that’s before mentioning how key he is in regards to the press. If you want Iraola’s philosophy to work, you pick Christie, clone him and pick him again.
Click to expand...
Christie has been a revelation. Always figured him for a decent squad player over the last couple of seasons, but he's undroppable in this system.
 
Last edited:
DJ said:
Stopped reading when he shoehorned in a dig at Christie. Player of the season thus far, first name on the team sheet.

No one created more key passes than him on the pitch today. Barely misplaced a pass and that’s before mentioning how key he is in regards to the press. If you want Iraola’s philosophy to work, you pick Christie, clone him and pick him again.
Click to expand...
Without doubt, Christie is the first name on an AI team sheet.
 
DJ said:
Stopped reading when he shoehorned in a dig at Christie. Player of the season thus far, first name on the team sheet.

No one created more key passes than him on the pitch today. Barely misplaced a pass and that’s before mentioning how key he is in regards to the press. If you want Iraola’s philosophy to work, you pick Christie, clone him and pick him again.
Click to expand...
Not doubting Christie and it’s hardly a dig saying Rothwell coming in and Billing going forwards offers us more goals. Christie’s goal and shooting record is abysmal he can’t play at ten. At a push he could with three goal scorers ahead of him but we don’t have that.

I think we’d have won today with Billing free and around the box. Look at his record last season. Christie has played well but sometimes you have to construct a team around end product not effort.
 
Reality and Realism said:
Having watched the game from beginning to end I was overall impressed by our performance. However, I was ready to exit my seat down at my local if Chelsea had taken the lead as it would have been game over from that point on. I thought Kerkez was outstanding. With that said I still do not think that we would have scored even if we were still playing at this time tomorrow. But I have to put things into perspective in that we were playing Chelsea and so, we did surrender a large amount of possession of which was only to be expected.

We need more fire power in front of goal as we look woefully short in the final third. Defensively we looked reasonably solid, although a little slow and static at times. We need to get something at Brighton else, our efforts today would have been in vain.
Click to expand...
You said we would definitely lose.
 
Neil Dawson said:
Not doubting Christie and it’s hardly a dig saying Rothwell coming in and Billing going forwards offers us more goals. Christie’s goal and shooting record is abysmal he can’t play at ten. At a push he could with three goal scorers ahead of him but we don’t have that.

I think we’d have won today with Billing free and around the box. Look at his record last season. Christie has played well but sometimes you have to construct a team around end product not effort.
Click to expand...
But Neil, if Christie was also an excellent finisher he wouldn't be a £2.5 Million player signing for Bournemouth.

He plays on the left,
He plays on the right,
Ryan Christie,
Is shooting is shite.
 
Reality and Realism said:
Having watched the game from beginning to end I was overall impressed by our performance. However, I was ready to exit my seat down at my local if Chelsea had taken the lead as it would have been game over from that point on. I thought Kerkez was outstanding. With that said I still do not think that we would have scored even if we were still playing at this time tomorrow. But I have to put things into perspective in that we were playing Chelsea and so, we did surrender a large amount of possession of which was only to be expected.

We need more fire power in front of goal as we look woefully short in the final third. Defensively we looked reasonably solid, although a little slow and static at times. We need to get something at Brighton else, our efforts today would have been in vain.
Click to expand...
Brighton score is irrelevant re the point today
 
afcdibby said:
But Neil, if Christie was also an excellent finisher he wouldn't be a £2.5 Million player signing for Bournemouth.

He plays on the left,
He plays on the right,
Ryan Christie,
Is shooting is shite.
Click to expand...
I get all of that and think he has been great this year. Sometimes though in forward positions you have to value goals and assists. Be different if he was further back. We are coming away from a game where we’ve played well, including Christie, but haven’t scored with him occupying a key scoring position with an incredibly poor scoring record.
 
Reality and Realism said:
Having watched the game from beginning to end I was overall impressed by our performance. However, I was ready to exit my seat down at my local if Chelsea had taken the lead as it would have been game over from that point on. I thought Kerkez was outstanding. With that said I still do not think that we would have scored even if we were still playing at this time tomorrow. But I have to put things into perspective in that we were playing Chelsea and so, we did surrender a large amount of possession of which was only to be expected.

We need more fire power in front of goal as we look woefully short in the final third. Defensively we looked reasonably solid, although a little slow and static at times. We need to get something at Brighton else, our efforts today would have been in vain.
Click to expand...
You've absolutely no credibility on this board anymore so I'm not sure why you even bother posting. If I were you I'd knock it on the head and go back to the Echo as nobody takes your posts seriously.
 
RobTrent said:
Kelly oozed class today. Thought Aarons and Kerkez were great. Also brilliant stuff from the others in the team.

Overall, this season has been so much more enjoyable. Enjoy what we're watching.
Click to expand...
Indeed Mr Trent. I saw you leaving the main stand today, tried to get over to say hello, but alas, the waiting crowd blocked my way.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

;