There are times when your team loses but make you hold your head high in pride. Yesterday, the way we played, the performance of the players and the manager were all sub-standard and to some extent shameful.
Let me warn you before you read the rest of the article. I’m gutted to have lost, to have lost to Tottenham, to have lost in Wembley, to have lost in a final, to have lost when we had the full squad to choose from, to have lost when we had two extra days than Spurs to prepare for this match and to have lost in this fashion. So this article would sound negative to some of you, but that’s fine, atleast it matches with our performance yesterday.
A win for Chelsea would have been undeserved and would have been daylight robbery. Chelsea did not play it like a final. We did not do enough to deserve the trophy. Worst is, we did not seemed to have the desire or motivation to win the prize. Ramos outplayed Grant and more than made up for the shortage of the quality of his players. Just like the way we have been blessed with generous draws in cup competitions, we had the advantage of playing Spurs in the final, instead of Man Utd, Arsenal or Liverpool or even Everton. Lying at No.10 in the league table, you’d expect Spurs to play with their heart on their sleeves and lose the match, just like good underdogs do. Spurs took the game to us, gained territorial and psycological superiority very early and pushed Chelsea back.
Grant started with his 4-3-3 but could not resist the temptation of playing both Drogba and Anelka. That was the first screw-up. Drogba and Anelka are both alike in the manner they would drift away on the pitch, playing out of position and trying to create things rather than finish things. That left unutilised empty spaces and unwnted congestion at the same time in different areas. SWP got a start. The second screw-up. When we have a full squad to choose from, I really don’t know how SWP has merited a start in a cup final! SWP has always been found wanting in big matches and this was absolutely no different. So that makes the front three. No wonder we didn’t have a shot on goal for 40 minutes.
To start with Essien and Mikel in a three-man midfield was the third screw-up. When we have a fully fit first choice backline and a world class goalkeeper, I don’t know why we had to go for the double protection of Mikel and Essien. In the end, I saw one of Essien’s worst performances ever for Chelsea. Essien seemed to have been struggling with his role there on the pitch and ended up doing nothing. Lampard was bright in the first half, went missing in the second half and re-appeared when it mattered but was too late by then.
Belletti started the match on a wrong note and continued the same way all match. He was rounded up once too many and we might have conceded two or three goals from his end in the first 30 minutes. Carvalho was shaky but had Terry and Cech to make up when he stumbled. John Terry was the best player of the match for me, followed by Wayne Bridge. Terry absolutely showed why he should be picked above Alex. Even the whole argument looks so funny now. In a day of lacklustre performance, he shone right through and did his best to fire up his colleagues.
Only bright moment of the match was the goal. It came when I was expecting Spurs to score and take a deserved lead. It was against the run of play but a goal is a goal. I thought at least the goal should turnaround our performance and shut the match with some controlled aggression. I expected the Spurs heads to drop but credit to Ramos for instilling thet confidence and making them still go for it. I remembered what Ramos said before this match. He said he would make his teams truly believe that they can match and win the big teams, just like Sevilla came through against Real Madrid and Barcelona. He did just that yesterday.
I would put this defeat squarely on Grant. Yes the performance of the players were appalling but that’s what the manager should have stepped in. I’ve been saying this for many matches now. Grant is not showing up when it matters and it’s happening way too often. He got the team selection wrong. He got the formation for the selected team wrong. He got the timing of the substitutions wrong. The sight of Grant walking so slowly and scratching his head while Terry was screaming his heart out to his colleagues at the extra time break said volumes. Ramos cannot speak English but he communicated to his team better than Grant did to his.
Someone should tell Grant that we can make substitutions in the first half too. SWP’s horrendous display would have seen him out in the first half under any manager who knew how to win this match. Kalou came in and made the difference and created the closest chance for Chelsea. Ballack did not play because Grant wanted Lampard to play and did want to have both of them on the pitch. Still he could have played 4-4-2 with his classy strikers. Or he could have played the 4-4-2 diamond like Jose did, which accomodated both Lampard and Ballack and was not disastrous to say the least. Did someone count how many aerial passes were directed to Didier Drogba? I don’t have a problem with that if it fetches goals but let’s not fool ourselves that we don’t play long passes (we that’s what Grant meant by longballs) anymore.
Last few seasons, when teams score against us or take a lead against us, we would torment them with an array of attacks and won’t rest until we regain the advantage. There was some real fire in the belly. They had the burning desire to win and prove critics wrong. Yesterday, we woke up so bloody late that Tottenham had it so easy to shut shop. We lacked the urgency and I think that was more down to the lack of confidence of the players that they can win this match. I saw Chelsea resigning to defeat with a good 20 minutes to go. We started to attack late on only because Ramos wanted to take the win by defending. If Spurs had continued to play the same way, it might have been even more painful.
I have been saying this for many weeks now. Chelsea under Grant, have been poor against decent oppositions. Any team with a decent players or a decent manager would give a run for our money now and might even defeat us. You don’t need a world class manager for a Chelsea team to beat Fulham, Blackburn and the like. The manager’s signature is on the big matches such as the ones against the top rivals and also in the crucial matches such as yesterday. Chelsea looked like they had no ideas of how to play and what tactic to follow, especially after Spurs took the lead. Spurs scored their second goal in the 94th minute, which means we had 26 whole minutes to equalise and we came close genuinely just once. Grant looks so clueless sometimes that he prefers to watch the game rather than change it. Is he scared to making changes? I thought he was brought here to bring about ‘change’!
Now don’t ask for time to briong about ‘changes’. Ramos took charge in the middle of a season. He has turned around Spurs this season. They have beaten Arsenal 5-1 dammit and beaten Grant’s first choice squad in a final. Good managers don’t need time. They come, they see, they conquer.
Quadruple, my foot! Oh I’m sorry, we are still in three other competitions. In all these three competitions, we are going to face stiffer challenges from stronger oppositions. In Champions league, we still have teams like Barca, Madrid, Man Utd, Liverpool, Milan etc. To see this Chelsea team winning that competition ahead of these names is looking dreamy now. In the FA Cup, there is still Manchester United who are kicking everyone’s backside with fearsome aggression. In the league, I would like to believe that we are still in with a chance. But Sir Alex is a classic run and he knows how to get things done.
Where do we go from now? No idea. I’m nearly convinced that Grant does not make the cut as the manager for a club like Chelsea. For a man of his age and experience, I don’t see him changing or transforming in the short term. But the players would feel the hurt. They have got used to be champions, they have won trophies and they would know that Chelsea should have beaten a team like Spurs. This defeat can either dwindle their confidence and have a negative impact on the rest of the season or fire them up and show what they’re made of. I sincerely hope that it is the latter.
Have I gone overboard with this match reaction? Nah. I’m not just looking at this match. This match reaction is also influenced by the ‘transformation’ of Chelsea of late and the potential to win things under Grant. But you know what, Avram Grant can make a fool out of me by winning the champions league or the premier league. How I’d love to be the fool!
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tottenham deserved it no question about it. in the first 90min we had only the free kick on target on the other side cech was keeping the score respectable. woodgate had drogba in his pocket still we play long ball football (DROGBALL). no anelka invovement. swp a disgrace.
4-3-3 not good at all. i dont know about u guys but we played better without drogba.
men of the match:king,woodgate,berbatov,jenas,cech(kept the score down)
o i forgot juande ramos
Once again Grant showed his tecnical inept, and we were out played in almost every position on the pitch. Grant’s decsion making is getting worse.
Does he have any bloody idea what he is doing?
Guys now stop calling our players like Lampard,Ballack,Droba,SWP etc as world class…just a question,everybody knows Lampard can go out for free..tell me how many top clubs in Europe are in rat race for him…not one…simply because he is not a world class midfielder, may be a good one only…same goes for Drogba…he can only perform in Chelsea’s target man style…he will fail miserably with teams which play by moving the ball on ground….I am really not surprised at this defeat…any team which can pass and move with pace is always handful for Chelsea because our players are just not technically sound for such type of play…just have a look at no of slow players we have…Ballack,Lampard,Drogba,Sheva,Pizzaro,Ferriera…and then our wingers are also not awesome…its not that I am pointing to these flaws just because we lost…its a fact which any person who knows something of football can see….and then we are in English league where pace matters most..we lack both in pace and technical department…
now whom to blame…my mind goes to Mourinho…no one else…Grant is surely not a top manager but then this team is out and out Mourinho’s team….for a team like Chelsea you can’t spent time passing ball in ur own half and then relying on one-off chances to score..this mentality still shrouds our approach and style…..its not type of football which can launch you to top bracket in Europe….I can’t see which of our players can create and score field goals…
question is what needs to be changed…I think MF and attack need overhauling….we need to bring top class wingers…retain Essien…do away with likes of Ballack,Lampard etc and replace them with someone like Modric who knows how to pass and move…and then bring soemone like Eto in attack…if we keep restricting us to likes of Lampard and Drogba then we are doomed…and finally bring in someone like Rijkard as a manager who can change the mentality of our team..I hope Chelsea rules the world….
KTBFFH…
@1…I second you..we play like shit when Drogba plays…
@2 the pic shows it all mate
i was expecting something shocking to happen………………….. its the same as the case with england the FA put Mcloser after the world cup couple of good results suddenly out of the EURO 2008.Mcloser sacked.same as with grant put in without any thinking couple of good results suddenly this blow.
F*** off Grant.
@BC
First of all spurs are not shite as you have been making them out to be.
Second,i m no longer doin anything to defend AG………but the fact is fact our team can’t attack…..Mourinho_Is_Boring has summed it up……….lampard is not wanted by a single club simply caus for clubs like barca,madrid or italian clubs he is not quality and only cfc fans don’t reliaze it………i went through rival fans community right now and have of them were just bashing avram[indirectly praising him on their count}for starting lampard over ballack........honestly even in the first season he was tolerable and with each season he is becoming a pain in the ass.........then drogba one 33 goals season and he thinks he is god or something and all the 33 goals just comes of the fact that sheva played unselfishly and lampard's playmaking[that's long ball] are suited to his type of play…….and then hoofing the ball to him.
we were playing much better without our african players and lampard and drogba…….the matches were atleast tolerable………that 3-1 drubbing of huddresfield is one of the most boring matches i have seen.
TBF
I’m not saying Spurs are shite but we are head and shoulders above them by quality of players. Player to player, who had the better chance of winning the final? Chelsea or Spurs?
Ok, if you think Lampard was bad, he was just one player, what about SWP, Anelka, Drogba, Essien… They are not bad in the first place, even if they are, not certainly worse than Spurs.
i smiled when tottenham took the lead now i want to cry. TBF is spot on.grant should realise and select the best combinations out of our player pool
@Mourinho_Is_boring : 3 -
ur logic is worse than Boularouz defending. No manager builds team which is suitable for his successor. Jose built team (read winning team) suitable to his idealogy. He (and nobody) cared whether Drogba will miserably fail in other teams. He just concentrated on how to get best of players.
Let just read thru ur statements & u will come to know what crap u have written,
*Guys now stop calling our players like Lampard,Ballack,Droba,SWP etc as world class*
– then who should we call as world class? Gilberto, Sisokko,Pizarro, Kezman, etc? if u dont think Lamps, ballack and drogs r world class, it seems u have been taught different meaning of words – world & class.
*he can only perform in Chelsea’s target man style…he will fail miserably with teams which play by moving the ball on ground*
- i have mentioned my comments at the start of my post.
*I am really not surprised at this defeat…any team which can pass and move with pace is always handful for Chelsea because our players are just not technically sound for such type of play*
- maybe u have not seen the matches chelsea played in last 3-4 years. Just check our record against so called passing & moving teams (Ex. Barca, Arsenal, Liv, Utd)
*now whom to blame…my mind goes to Mourinho*
- we all know where ur mind goes. (I blame myself for replying to ur post but i just couldnt keep shut after reading ur genius thoughts).
*for a team like Chelsea you can’t spent time passing ball in ur own half and then relying on one-off chances to score..this mentality still shrouds our approach and style…..its not type of football which can launch you to top bracket in Europe….I can’t see which of our players can create and score field goals…*
- if u think – this was / is our style, just keep in mind that we have won 2 EPLs back to back, FA & carling cups, been to semis of CL with same style & mind u we are already in top bracket in Europe. The same players u mentioned as not world class have scored loads of goals for us, one of them being midfielder has scored 100 goals.
*and finally bring in someone like Rijkard as a manager *
- for a change i agree with this.:)
BC u missed out on cech.. each time he kicked the ball it landed directly to a spurs player more over no inovation of starting a counter .Whenever i see even lehman play i see himm creating atleast a few chances with his quick throws .And when will he start stopping penalties? he is a great shot stopper , great on corners but few goal keeping skills are continuously getting depleated match by match… he used to be error prone!!
I think the loss of back ground coaching staff with jose has to do a lot with the dismal performance our team is giving. Anyone knows how good our back ground staff is these days… earlier i always used to hear praises for the goal keeping coach and the trainers.. nothing now!! Do we have a back ground coaching staff or not??
I am afraid to say but CECH is no longer worlds best goal keeper!! For goal keeper there is no scope of error.
siddharth most of them are true but look at SAF he is building the club for his successor.
we should take a leaf out of manutd,arsenal’s book, they try and kill the opponents after taking the lead but we sit back and defend. it works against lousie teams but backfires like yesterday against good oppositions.
*I would put this defeat squarely on Grant. Yes the performance of the players were appalling but that’s what the manager should have stepped in. I’ve been saying this for many matches now. Grant is not showing up when it matters and it’s happening way too often. He got the team selection wrong. He got the formation for the selected team wrong. He got the timing of the substitutions wrong. The sight of Grant walking so slowly and scratching his head while Terry was screaming his heart out to his colleagues at the extra time break said volumes. Ramos cannot speak English but he communicated to his team better than Grant did to his.
finally accepting this.
*as for lampard-yes everyone was poor on the pitch….
@king blues
Joses contract was till 2010 and do you think only manager decides which player to buy?? No dude… kenyon ,buck and other scouts all have a role to play. everything is well planned and drogba is a top top striker .. any club will take him .. i have not seen a person with a work rate like him.
In this match i had a lot of doubt on drogba .. why was he pulling terry back of the goal woodgate scored and why was a player experienced like him time wasting cribbing about time wasting… i saw some difference did u? was he frustated when he wasnt subbed or playing in some pain? or angry on grant for some reason?
@Siddharth
replying to your post
*ur logic is worse than Boularouz defending. No manager builds team which is suitable for his successor. Jose built team (read winning team) suitable to his idealogy. He (and nobody) cared whether Drogba will miserably fail in other teams. He just concentrated on how to get best of players.
fair and legitimate point.
*– then who should we call as world class? Gilberto, Sisokko,Pizarro, Kezman, etc? if u dont think Lamps, ballack and drogs r world class, it seems u have been taught different meaning of words – world & class.
except for ballack i don’t think lampard and drogba to a certain extent are world class…….by world class you meant world’s best i rate terry,cech,carvalho,essien among that bracket.
why aren’t they world class??????caus other players are better than him.ex-henry,etoo,ronaldinho,messi,kaka etc
*- maybe u have not seen the matches chelsea played in last 3-4 years. Just check our record against so called passing & moving teams (Ex. Barca, Arsenal, Liv, Utd)
ok we defeated barca 4-2 so what…………..they have won champs league…….they have won back to back league………world’s biggest talent prefers to go to your mentioned team anyday over chelsea……
apply the same for other teams
*- if u think – this was / is our style, just keep in mind that we have won 2 EPLs back to back, FA & carling cups, been to semis of CL with same style & mind u we are already in top bracket in Europe. The same players u mentioned as not world class have scored loads of goals for us, one of them being midfielder has scored 100 goals.
rather not comment on this simply caus it will nedd a big reply which i m not in mood at the moment
@TBF
Believe or not its a hard truth that players always prefer playing for real and barca or man utd even liverpool over chelsea. And its not just for the style of football. Its just not because of the style they play may be because these teams play in all big competitions, these clubs are rich, great history , huge fan base and increases the players popularity instantly. We are very new to this class just been 4 -5 odd years.
Many good players joined us because we had raneiri and jose as managers here and ofcourse great salaries.
the most recent example is pato!!!
siddharth most of them are true but look at SAF he is building the club for his successor.
we should take a leaf out of manutd,arsenal’s book, they try and kill the opponents after taking the lead but we sit back and defend. it works against lousie teams but backfires like yesterday against good oppositions
@king blues
- i totally agree with ur strategy, i dont mind chelsea doing it as long as we are successful, but if u look in Jose’s era, we SUCCESSFULLY used to defend 1 goal (even SAF complimented us for doing so after chelsea winning 1st EPL title). Yesterday thats precisely the problem we had. We could not defend 1 goal lead and Spurs could. Think about a situation when after taking 1 goal lead we try for another one and resulting in conceding goal to opposition and loose points. Will u accept that kind of situation just because we were attacking and the goal came against run of play? I dont know about others, but for me winning is first & foremost priority, style should come afterwards.
We played good wining football(not stylish) without out lampard,drogba,african player’s and terry. In semi final we beat strong Eventon without these top player’s.Joe Cole was our best player for this season, and ballack was playing good for last serveral week’s.
Now it is clear this season we will not win anything,Because our Manager donot have the Tatical Strength to beat Big Team’s,In all the three big game’s under Avram grant (Arseanal,Manu,league Cup final) chelsea failed.So Now we have to think about next season….
As “True Blue Fusion” pointed drogba had only one 33 goals season,Please donot forgot about his first two season,he missed a lot of chance’s only scored 15 goal’s each.
Drogba is good player,but he is not a team player,but Anelka passes the ball ,sheva too ,So i think we should leave drogba next season.lampard should also go.
Ballack will be retiring after next season,so chelsea need intelligent creative playerlike Van Der Vaart, Modric for in future midfield ,Also need one more striker “Amauri” for replacing drogba.So Amauri,Anelka,Sheva,Kalou,Ben Shar, di santo will be our striker’s next season.SWP should also go and young Scott Sinclair will replace him.
In defence No change needed …
Before making all these change’s first step Remove Avram Grant bring Frank Rijkaard.
@Nihongo Blue @16 – spot on…. u stole words from my mouth.
@TBF – we can discuss Lampard and Drogba issue when u r in mood:)
i blame the match fully on Grant. first the line up, what was SWP doing in the team when we had Cole, and Kalou. why could we not play 4-4-2,with Essien holding midfield, Cole n Kalou on d wings, and Drogs and Anelka upfront if he was so bent on playing the two of them. i knew immediately we were goin to suffer once Lennon was swithed over to face Belleti. A good manager should have known better and countered the move by bringing may be ferreira. To me he is stil better in defense than belleti. And when all was goin wrong -bcos i thot it was very obvious-why couldn’t he make subsitutions. Cole jogged for about 30mins b4 coming in as sub. Lets face it we can’t count on Grant. we just lost our easiest cup, and with what we played yesterday we can be sure Olympiakos with their good passing tactic will reign fire on the bridge. If we are not gonna win anythin, i just hope we lose terribly enough so that Grant can be fired. he makes the funiest susbstitutions and he never subsitutes until after 75mins.
Well, I strongly beleive that no matter whatever the team is… If the manager is good then the results will come, consider giving this same Spurs side to Wenger or Rijkaard or for that matter even Jose. I am sure with the strategy with which we were playing, we won’t last to play the extra-time. We would defenitely have been ATLEAST three goals down by full-time.
By saying this I am not degrading Ramos, who did a wonderful job. He was probably being more cautious in his approach. I am somehow starting to like this guy, look at him….he has turned the same Spurs side into winners, its not by chance that you beat Arsenal by margin and beat a full-strength Chelsea in a Final. And moreover, in my honest opinion Spurs don’t have a single reliable player other than Berbatov (I am leaving out ‘World-Class’ here). I hope everyone would agree with me that these are the basic traits of a good manager.
But again I reiterate the point that, the players have lost the confidence in our GREAT GRANT…. (cfc will remember you forever…. I swear). I guess after their strategy discussions the players give him a boot and do what they want on the field……lol. And for that matter I am sure they have been doing this otherwise we wouldn’t have been at No.3 in league….lol. This probably is also an explanation why Avram is always scratching his head…..lol.
For @4, as your comment implies that Drogba, Lamps and others have learned this style of play through Jose and now they are not able to cope up with the ever entertaining style of Grant, I would just like to say that – Mourinho is not the manager who likes playing Long balls or dislikes fast moving football. You would never imply such a comment unless you have have just started watching football from last couple of years (u can neglect my comment if so). This same Jose Mourinho was responsible to make Benfica thrash their rivals Sporting when he took over as a manager for just four-five months. Then Porto made history under him, I hope we all are aware of what he made Chelsea into. Lastly, do you think if this so called Long ball approach was his patented style of play this would have been possible at all.
This style of play was probably adapted because it suits best for the bunch of players we have, this is the mark of a good manager to adopt the style which suits best to the team he has. Does anyone here thinks that if Mourinho is given likes of Kaka, Messi, Etto etc… he would play long balls. I defenitely don’t think he would simply because this is not the style which suits them. This no way means that any style of play is good or bad or entertaining or boring or whatever. Similarly, any player is a world class in his own style of play, do you think Messi or Etto can convert Long balls as Drogba does. Do you think Kaka or Ronaldinho can create long balls as Pirlo or Lamps does. Ultimately, what matters is winning with the players you have…. and atleast winning Finals when you play a team under more pressure than yours.
So, It’s high time we stop comparing Jose and Grant and discuss the managerial capabilities of Grant instead. Looking at the way he has been handling the bunch of players for Chelsea.. I feel sad to say that Grant has been aweful. Not even an average football manager will have Anelka and Drogba occupy the field at the same time. And what on earth made him start with SWP….. one small question, ‘Do we still have Joe Cole, Florent Malouda and Salamon Kalaou still with Chelsea?’. If the answer is yes, then why on earth SWP was preferred. I don’t even want to discuss what mess we created in the mid-field.
Overall, the game we played yesterday was an absolute disaster and we should be thankful to Ramos that he didn’t make us feel like minnows. Lastly, as BC mentioned I hope this fires up the players (I am afraid if Avram fires up what will we have in store……..lol) and we atleast hold our heads high end of season.
@10…
“ur logic is worse than Boularouz defending. No manager builds team which is suitable for his successor. Jose built team (read winning team) suitable to his idealogy. He (and nobody) cared whether Drogba will miserably fail in other teams. He just concentrated on how to get best of players.”…if a manager doesn’t build team for next one then that manager is a fool…and thats what i have been shouting u buffoon…this is a jose’s team….u can’ expect this team to attack no matter who the manager is..u said it urself..
“then who should we call as world class? Gilberto, Sisokko,Pizarro, Kezman, etc? if u dont think Lamps, ballack and drogs r world class, it seems u have been taught different meaning of words – world & class.”…if for u Lampard,SWP are world class then I am happy to have different definition of world class…
“maybe u have not seen the matches chelsea played in last 3-4 years. Just check our record against so called passing & moving teams (Ex. Barca, Arsenal, Liv, Utd)”…do u really think that if Mourino was up against current ManU team he would had won those league titles…I don’t think so…this was well proved last season..and he quit it without trying to evolve thats the biggest problem….his style was as unnatural as trying to push water up hill..and naturally sooner or later it got to come unstuck and thats what happened….
“if u think – this was / is our style, just keep in mind that we have won 2 EPLs back to back, FA & carling cups, been to semis of CL with same style & mind u we are already in top bracket in Europe. The same players u mentioned as not world class have scored loads of goals for us, one of them being midfielder has scored 100 goals.”…2 EPLs..when there was no opposition…the first time he got a stiff opposition he left…
dear Siddhartha do justice to ur namesake Lord Buddha…try to see truth…don’t try to ignore shortcomings of ur team..no harm in accepting ur flaws…I am a Chelsea fan but I can see why even lowly placed oppositions tend to dominate us..why we can’t create chances..am I wrong when I say Lampard is not world class when u know no big club is yearning for him…just because our players play for a rich club and they are paid in millions doesn’t mean that they are world class…if Lampard was such a great player don’t u think big clubs must had tried for him when he was in West Ham and we weren’t a financial power…Drogba?if he is world class then words fall short for Eto,Rooney and even Tevez..tell me how many times Drogba has been able to play in tandem with another striker…merely shooting ball with power doesn’t make u a world class striker…you also need to unravel defense and create chances for others…Drogba can’t run with ball for more than 5 metres..he only knows how to shoot…has he ever dribbled past defenders…
@Siddharth
Drogba is not a talent among the mould of henry,etoo,villa,torres…………..he has rather benifitted from our style of play during jose’s era more than anything……..there’s no difference between last year’s adebayor and this year’s adebayor except for the fact that probably le’arse had reliazed he needs to play the ball to him aerially if he is to benifit anything from him………add to that he has the most perfect long ball hoofer in lampard whose vision exactly meets his requirement……..drogba’s first touch is poor,i don’t think he can dribble…….another factor he has benifitted with sheva playing alongside him caus sheva has created too much space for him on his initial reputation and add to that balls being hoofed to him as if it is the only way we can score.
for lampard,i have posted enough
@22..”This style of play was probably adapted because it suits best for the bunch of players we have, this is the mark of a good manager to adopt the style which suits best to the team he has. Does anyone here thinks that if Mourinho is given likes of Kaka, Messi, Etto etc… he would play long balls.”…thats the only benefit of doubt I can give to Mourinho..I also manytimes think that all is finally down to players…but then question is that players are assembled by manager…so having such players puts blame on manager who assembled them….but still I think players matter most …so am eager to see Mourinho managing Barcelona or AC Milan…but then u see there r already rumours of Drogba and Lampard following Mourinho…so now who would you put blame on if Mourinho’s next team also plays like Chelsea when these players join him there….
@24….I second you word by word…
@Mourinho_Is_Boring …
“this is a jose’s team….u can’ expect this team to attack no matter who the manager is..u said it urself..” Do you really think if Grant is given the current Barca, Milan, Arsenal or MU…. he would have won this match….. please don’t answer yes…..lol. A good manager is one who inspres the team by following their style of play. Look at Ramos what other example u want…. what do u say about Spurs?
I used to be a Chelsea fan from Port Harcourt, Nigeria but now I am clubless because I just cant understand why Abramovich cant seperate business from personal strife. What is good for the business give Mourinho the maximum support now that you know that he is a trophy specialist then after about 22 trophies in ten years, (yes that is what it comes out to if you get the mathematical analyses right) you can start looking for style. At this time you have a culture and you have instilled real fear into the opposition, at least then they know that you dont care but you will surely beat them if they allow you score even a scrappy goal. Well, let us see how many trophies ‘style’ is going to fetch us and also how the other teams will respect us and FEAR us like before.
@True Blue Fusion
“add to that he has the most perfect long ball hoofer in lampard whose vision exactly meets his requirement”….. so when we have such a perfect combination of players… why not use them for the benefit of atleast winning a Final game. Who do you blame for this….. Lampard?… Drogba?
@27…did i eulogise Grant anywhere in my post…infact I asked for replacing him…so how can I say he would win with teams u metioned…just because I criticise Mourino doesn’t mean I praise Grant…I don’t take sides just to be politically correct…I find Mourinho wrong so I said it…I also find Grant not a manager material so I also agree with it…but u expected me to support Grant and it shows ur flawed thinking…
@25, @Mourinho_Is_Boring
It defenitely is upto players finally… If Lampard and Drogba go to Barca or Milan, I feel they will be on bench as long as ‘Pippo, Kaka and Pirlo keep winning the matches for them. For a change though Jose will defenitely try Lamps and Drogba but that day the style of play will be so called Long balls…..
Talking about Milan, Pirlo is probably the best Long ball playmaker in the world and Pippo Inzaghi compliments him well. On the other hand Kaka, Seedorf, Gilardinho and now Pato are a perfect team for playmaking and moving football… Similar combination of players work very well in Barca as well. I again mention its upto the manager to decide what kind of play he wants that day to compliment the opposition. Here is where managers come into picture.
Even in Chelsea if we play the combination of Ballack, Malouda, Joe Cole and Kalou… do you think we will play Long balls.
@30…
Then shall we have Mourinho back next season….. hehehehehe…lol. I agree to your post…. Somehow, the sacking of Mourinho is still on our minds and we tend to compare the two….
BC the picture is superb. i wish the “ordinary one” doesnt get bald.
@MIB
*this is a jose’s team….u can’ expect this team to attack no matter who the manager is……..*
Ok going by this theory then we should been able to defend 1 goal lead as we used to do it in Jose era even against very good teams. If this is Jose’s team why couldnt they defend lead in the Cup final? How many times u have seen Jose’s team surrendering the lead to loose / draw the match? I think u are aware of we r called 1-0 team by some people.
Going by ur theory that there r no takers for Lampard means he is not world class, what about Drogba? Barca and AC milan are rumoured to be interested in him, as per ur logic doesnt this prove he is World class. World class does not only mean u have to have buyers. Look at Sheva & Ballack arent they world class, do u think there will be clubs lining up for these two? If u r in market who would u prefer to buy, around 30 player or around 20 player?
I dont count SWP as world class, but the rest of plauyers u mentioned are world class for me.
@TBF – i almost agree to whatever u r saying, but atleast give Jose credit to assemble Lampard nad Drogba in one team and bring the best out of them along with winning trophies. whats the harm in playing the way we were playing if it gives results. (I dont want to go into Long ball topic, i dont agree that Drogba can only score thru long balls and lampard can only provide long balls).
@34…”what about Drogba? Barca and AC milan are rumoured to be interested in him,”…Drogba will go to Barca iff Mourinho is manager there…I am damn sure Rijkard will never want him…and its Drogba who is making ‘get me’ noises…
we all are commenting on grant and his great selections. but think from his side his mindset 20 first team players,internationals
who is he going to select by form or the one who runs more on the training ground or is it for the name sake. at the moment even he doesnt know where to select from so its the number and the fans(pay ticket prices to see a perticular player) which are playing a part in his selections.
nihongo blue i saw it. drogba is experienced great striker getting into a mess with tainio …….. if he is so experienced when he knows he is the focal point of all longballs he should have an eye on his position if he was not offside we would have got a penatly(woodgate all over him) and tell me if he would have played in the 4-4 villa game or 4-3 leicester match what would he do? i will tell u we would have lost both
@Siddharth
I completely agree with you and Mourinho was the best that could have happened to Chelsea… and he and only he could have done what he did with players like Lamps and Drogba… were they even famous Jose came into Chelsea and made them into winners?
@MIB
If you want to criticize Jose for not creating a team which could be handled successfully by his successor then you don’t understand the meaning of criticism… No manager ever bothers for his successor.
Consider this, if we would have given this team to Rijkaard and may be we would have been successfull and at that time… I am sure many of us would have been praising Jose for building such a wonderful team, which again would have been wrong. The performance of the players is subject to the manager and its the good managers who take the best out of their players, I am sure Rijkaard wouldn’t have played moving or fast paced football with Drogba and Lamps around..
@ siddharth
dude manutd runs on RONALDO ROONEY TEVEZ defence only FERDINAND VIDIC.
i dont think evra is defencively great and brown is trash. when they can defend and attack why cant we do it with ALEX or CARVALHO TERRY COLE belletti(no great) at the back,lampard drogba anelka(or someone else) bombing in attack
@Khalid
@Siddharth
Going by ur theory that there r no takers for Lampard means he is not world class, what about Drogba? Barca and AC milan are rumoured to be interested in him, as per ur logic doesnt this prove he is World class. World class does not only mean u have to have buyers. Look at Sheva & Ballack arent they world class, do u think there will be clubs lining up for these two? If u r in market who would u prefer to buy, around 30 player or around 20 player?
see drogba is rumored for both milan and barca caus jose is linked with the job……..world class means u have buyers………as far as ballack is concerned real almost had him had he accepted fees cut.and for sheva adrian galliani[ac milan ceo]has admitted officially he is one of the options.
#39 TBF
I never mentioned that Lamps and Drogba are not world-class or anything for that matter.
In their own respective playing style they are defenitely top class. For the discussion about the blah blah rumours about Barca and Milan… who knows they may end up or not with Jose or without Jose… but that won’t make Drogba a Messi…. or Lampard a Ronaldinho. We are simply forgetting one pojnt here, that a player is world-class in his own style of play. Drogba can’t dribble like Messi and Messi can’t use body weight and force defence like Drogba. Both these players are class in their own acts.
3. Mourinho_Is_Boring
Yes Mourinho_Is_Boring they are JM players, however with those players JM instilled such a believe of invincibility that thay managed 5/6 troffies in 3 1/2 years.In finals it is the job of the manager to motivate and place players according to their playing characteristics. AG was completely lost, I have been saying this since he took over, he had been very lucky with the draws and the EPL fixtures he has had, hen ce the reason he went so many games with only 3 defeats. Really the inept attitude and lack of motivation rested entirely with AG.
It was JT and lampard that were trying to motivate the players in extra time, whilst AG were strolling like an emperor surpervising his troops.
C’mon lets face Spurs deserved the win, but if you compare like with like they are EVER so inferior to Chelsea players, however they have a top manager that can make the difference. I have been writing in here that since he AG, took over we have played and won matches on luck, but everytime we play a team well organised and with slightly better players we struggle, WHY???
The same players played against the same teams, under different manager and won convincingly, yes under JM we played sometimes dull,negative, “shut shop” football, but Chelsea won, now we play dull, negative, “cant shut shop” football and if the opposition is slightly better we lose (i.e. MU, Arse, Spurs).
Regarding your comments about Lampard, DD etc etc, wait until summer comes and watch many top teams go after them.
Do you guys REALLY belive that world class players, like Patos, eto’os, etc etc will really want to play for a manager like AG? What can AG teach them?? to play mediocre football when they are world class??? World class players play for world class managers, unless they come for the huge wages, like some players at the twilight of their careers. The world of football is small and players and other managers know that AG is an inept, talentless manager.
@40…but if these players and their style is not doing good for the team anymore(even if they wonus trophies in past)then y not look for other options, whether in style or players….
@king blues
i totally agree with u, player by player i think we are at par with united (they r strong in attack, but we r better in defense and midfield). we can do it but i dont want to risk points for this reason. do u want us to go thru ‘transition period’ the way arsenal went for almost 4 years? But i agree we should be able to do it.
@TBF – i respect ur opinion on buyers but still feel this is not THE criteria.
@41….I agree with u …but then tell me do we need to continue with Mourinho’s players and philosophy…I know Grant is not the stuff we need and its a mistake to have him as manager but I also think that current set of players is also not the one we need if we aspire to beocme Europe’s best both in terms of trophies and style…and u must know that we were well behind Pato when Mourinho was manager and still we couldn’t win him and u know money couldn’t be a problem for us..infact Eto also didn’t arrive even though Mourinho met him secretly as Eto confessed recently….what could be the reason…most evident that seems to me is our style under Mourinho…
@AGFriend
good to see that someone finally accepted we played”we played sometimes dull,negative, “shut shop” football”……….though 90 percent or more constitute majority not sometimes
@43….”we r better in defense and midfield”….can’t disagree more as far as MF is concerned…that’s the main area where we really lag behind likes of ManU,Arsenal,Barca etc…I tihnk we are not even in top 6-7 in Europe…except Essien no one of our MFs can be in playing 11 of top 5-6 teams of Europe…
Have you guys read the article about AG asking for a Director of Football??
makes me laugh that request, JM did it on his own, SAF, AW, RB, also on their own, director of footbal my arse, AG knows he hasn’t the talent to LEAD the quality of players he has inherited, even Harry Red. was not happy when AG went to portsmouth, because really good managers want to do their way and no second opinions,Ten Cate that is a much better coach than AG, must be wondering what on earth is he doing under AG the same goes to SC.
No doubt if they are asked about AG’s characteritics of man management they will be nice, polite and politically correct, thats all.
If you guys compare the fixtures and games that JM had when he joined cfc with the AG since he took over, you have the reason why he has managed to lose only 3 matches, thats a fact.
Every sibgle player in cfc squad AG has inherited is world class
and internationals, but unfortunetely the manager is a conference league coach. Guys look at his body language when at the games, the man is LOST, looks like a monkfish out of water.
I would love to interview RA and ask him why AG was chosen? with so many english and foreigner managers available, though i am pretty sure that the ONLY reason was to get rid of JM, not even about the dull, negative football, I dont buy that.
Another thing to the ones that say money bought troffies under JM, well the same players are there and AG cant bring troffies.
Once the likes of olympiakos, bransley etc, are gone I want to see the opposition, God forbid that we draw MU, Barca or even for that matter Liver, hmmmmm .
FR of barca, though I would like to see him in SB will not be coming, can you see FR being the manager and AG the director of football? LOL whats going on here? would you be operated by a surgeon or by a butcher?
Just remember Capello a very very successful manager was kicked out of Real not because of results or type of football, but because the RM fans were voting with their feet, the attendances drop drastically in the end he had to go, and it is the only way I can see AG being sent back to Happoel if the fans vote the same way if attendances drop to around 20/25K then RA has to make up his mind.
have to go now.
45. True Blue Fusion
Yes sometimes, sometimes not the majority of the playing style of JM.
I would say about 10% of the matches that JM managed were dull, thats all.
Just prove me wrong.
MIB @ 44
Poor logic. If Eto’o did not like JM’s playing style, why did he meet him? Admit that we are not a big club like barca, milan etc despite our successes.
@49…so what makes a club a big club…money and style both…we had money but not style and hence he didn’t arrive…
@Nihongo Blue
*Believe or not its a hard truth that players always prefer playing for real and barca or man utd even liverpool over chelsea. And its not just for the style of football. Its just not because of the style they play may be because these teams play in all big competitions, these clubs are rich, great history , huge fan base and increases the players popularity instantly. We are very new to this class just been 4 -5 odd years.
Many good players joined us because we had raneiri and jose as managers here and ofcourse great salaries
It’s really an excuse dear…….first of all no one loves to go to liverpool except for spanish players due to rafa…………..caus u mentioned pato…..99% of chance is that he joined milan due to presence of ronaldo,kaka and other brazillians as ronaldo and kaka are his idol.
*Yes sometimes, sometimes not the majority of the playing style of JM.
I would say about 10% of the matches that JM managed were dull, thats all.
Just prove me wrong.
90% were dull.prove me wrong…….lol
Big club = club with continued and consistent success for long periods of time.
*I think the loss of back ground coaching staff with jose has to do a lot with the dismal performance our team is giving. Anyone knows how good our back ground staff is these days… earlier i always used to hear praises for the goal keeping coach and the trainers.. nothing now!! Do we have a back ground coaching staff or not??
actually cech has got the coach of his choice.
@Everyone
The point is we need change in manager as well as in squad.
manager:Juande Ramos or Frank Riijkard
Squad
———–
Out
—
*Didier Drogba
*Frank Lampard
*Claudio Pizarro
*Steve Sidwell
*Shaun Wright-Phillips
*Andriy Shevchenko
*Paulo Ferreira
*Florent Malouda
In
——-
Buy
——
*Karim Benzema
*Rafael Van Der Vaart
*Giovanni Dos Santos
*Luka Modric
From Academy
————
*Sam Hutchinsom
*Jack Cork
*Miroslav Stoch
*Franco Di Santo
Next to Next Session
———
Ballack And Makelele become free agent
Gael Kakuta/Sergio Tejera and Liam Bridcutt From Academy
If Bridge Wants Out,then we can promote Ryan Bertrand From Academy
In Out
——–Ben Haim
The Next Year Squad
———————
Goalkeepers
————-
Petr Cech
Carlo Cudicini
Henrique Hilario
Right-Back
———–
Branislav Ivanovic
Juliano Belletti
Centre-Back
———–
John Terry
Ricardo Carvalho
Alex
Sam Hutchinson
Left Back
———
Ashley Cole
Wayne Bridge
Midfield
———-
Michael Essien
John Obi Mikel
Michael Ballack
Rafael Van Der Vaart
Giovanni Dos Santos
Jack Cork
Claude Makelele
Wing
——–
Joe Cole
Luka Modric
Scott Sinclair
Miroslav Stoch
Strikers
——–
Nicolas Anelka
Karim Benzema
Salomon Kalou
Franco Di Santo
it may look like i am on a high overdose of fifa manager or something but it’s not the case.we will actually be gaining from transfer market if following transfers take place and we will be bringing down the inflated salaries we have been paying.
What happened? Didn’t we beat Spurs 2-0 about a month ago with a depleted squad? It just seems like everything is going downhill ever since we got our stars back…
Guys alot of the games with JM were dull but we WON them. Can anyone really say we are a more attacking positive side now ??? No we are not.Look at are last five or so results apart from the FA cup. Grants honeymoon is over and we are not going to win anything with this playing style. Grant does not have the knowledge as we all suspected. We are on a slope and it downhill. And to say are players are not world class is F!#$%n stupid. These players won us two championships and more. WE have a greeeeeeat team but the wrong coach.I was in the boozer in Bangkok surrounded by Tottenhem boys and I felt ashamed coz we were outplayed. It was even worse against Liverpool.. I just hope Mr ABRM will wake up and see what is happening. Maybe when we win nothing and next season we are fighting for fourth place he will get the message.
Jools blue forever
I wonder why there was no mention of Wayne Bridge’s handball and his appalling performance in the Final. He’s just not good enough for Chelsea as a defensive full-back. The BACK four are there primarily to defend – you wouldn’t know by watching Bridge play, mind! He is extremely over-rated and Grant made a terrible mistake to drop Ashley (who is a way better Defensive LB) and picking Nico ahead of Joey. Chelsea should play 4-1-4-1 with two wingers, Drogs, 1 attacking midfielder (Lamps), and two central midfielders (Essien & Obi) and a DEFENSIVE Left-Back (Ashley).
3 Cup Finals against MU, Arse & Red Scousers and we won all of those 3 (with several 1st team players injured) and in the first Cup Final under Grant, with all players fit we lost against Tottenham. Horrible day…
nicely explained BC you are always saying the right things and you always pick the right formations for games etc… i just wish grant gets sacked for rikjaard or he reads this blog and implements your amazing strategies and formations. Your the best BC
apparently TBF benzema has been tagged 70M!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
so david villa in place of him
if only grant plays fifa manager and goes through blogs like these to get an idea what fans want and get their views ……….. if only something like this would happen
We don’t have loyal fans here at chelsea. I trust man utd or west ham fans, Grant will not be alive by now. This is the kind of embarrassment you get when you sack a world class manager and bring an old stupid buffoon in as the coach. I didn’t see any enthusiasm in the players playing yesterday as the foolish israelite cannot motivate our team. If you recall, it was steve clark who was talking and motivating the players after normal time while grant was sitting on the grass and smiling to himself.
The substitutions were so stupid and late. How will you be subbing mikel for jcole in extra time when you had full 45 minutes, Swp for kalou after 70 minutes, essien for ballack. The subs were so late and stupid. I would have subbed anelka for Joe cole after 50 minutes, I wouldn’t have started swp but ballack. Sidwell performs better than swp. I wouldn’t have started anelka but Shevchencko and i’m 90% sure that shevchencko would have scored yesterday.
I’m 100% sure that we cannot win anything this season because this is the easiest final we have gotten since 2002 and we have won all our previous finals since then except this one. I can’t imagine us playing barca or real madrid right now, i’ld love to see what robben, messi, robinho, eto’o, raul, henry and other football greats will do to our defence. How did we ever let robben go? shame.
Everyone was calling Grant “the lucky one” but where was the luck yesterday? I believe there is nothing like luck; once you can achieve something, then you will achieve it. How can a foolish, clueless, crazy, daft, inexperienced, third class, illiterate, barbaric, ugly isrelite who cannot win an ordinary carling cup against…omg this is sad…tottenham win the champions league?
This chelsea team is going nowhere unless we get a good manager like redknapp or martin o neil or even if we can have mourinho back.
Someone said wayne bridge was poor but i think he’s a brilliant defender and he’s great at counter. The hand ball was an error and if it was a manchester utd defender that did that, the referees would have overlooked it.
Final verdict: Our season is over. Sack Grant.
Wow,I thought i was bad the football managerness i see?!hehe.Nah blue champion mate,glad u wrote the article as you did.No excuses and you spoke the truth.Great stuff!wish more fans could be like you.And guys benzemas ours!lol!Fearsome aggression?I like!peace out.Do us a favour and batter the arsenal at the bridge…
Benzema in an interview in the french press showed interest to join a club with a world class manager, that rules us out LOL.
Can you imagine AG coaching benzema, or messi, or eto’o or robinho or quaresma LOL LOL, nan I am telling you even Dagenham players would find him suspect.
It’s still so painful so I hardly can express my disappointment, but here all I see is the
“I told you so” smart ass that you are
God you just waited for that to happen – some I feel are happy with the lose
Moyo –”I’m 90% sure that shevchencko would have scored yesterday.”
If it wasn’t so dumb I would have laughs, I’m glad you are only 90% sure and not 100%
And the Absolute Moran A friend with about 10 “I told you so” posts
With the fantasy story of top players won’t come and all that rubbish (just like Anelka)
I understand it was so hard waiting for so long for those 16 damn games
Out of 35-36 games only the 2ed time you can come up with the Bla Bla Bla usual shit
And toping on your usuall filthy mouth again
Any ways a reminder AGfirend
Game1
Game2
Game3
Game4
Game5
Game6
Game7
Game8
Game9
Game10
Game11
Game12
Game13
Game14
Game15
Game16
Wow you must be relived, you can come up like a wolf.
I only wish you will het your heart out waiting 16 or more games before next time
Hey Israeli dont get it personal, even Bella is out of this contest, Im understand to be wrong but you isreali tried your best, no bad feelings.
Although AG is a “big ass” as you say it in Israel.
Even Bella will agree.
@44. Mourinho_Is_Boring
The fact is even AG must go to bed and think I hope that damn russian owner would not interfere with the selection of players, I bet he thinks that.
The reason I arrive to this conclusion is simple, even I, not a UEFA qualified manager,would have bring a better team selection, a better tactic team selection and a, lets face , a better winning team as simple as that.
Now as i know Ten Cate reads it, so I believe, I am going to start taking on him, since he has been taken out of FR team (Barca) for his confrontation with FR, and the players using intimidating methods rather than persuation and good man management, here I am waiting for his alias to write in this blog.
C’mon TC shows us your dutch or spanish for that matter.
I have been a Spurs fan since 1952 when I was only 6 yrs of age. Seen some good times and a lot of bad. I have a lot of respect and admiration for Chelsea….you are a good club with a great team….your results against us have been painful for us to bear. But you have got to get real. Christ! some of the comments I have read on this and other blogs you would think you had been relegated!
This is a good blog….most comments are mature and well crafted…not full of childish insults like many others. So please do not take offense at what I now say.
The main reason you guys feel bad about losing to us is simply one of respect. Or more correctly, lack of respect.
In your opening article you say Chelsea should have beaten “a team like Spurs”. Why? Are we that bad now? You are so superior in every department? You can pack a side with world class players but it ain’t gonna guarantee they will play together as a world beating team.A bit of respect and grace in defeat will do you no harm. Grant is no Mourhino…a big step backwards for you…..Ramos is a big step forward for us. And lets face it…you are not as good as you think you are. Better than us? True maybe, but not always. When your level of European success matches that of Man Utd and Liverpool then you can rightly regard yourselves as a great club. You can’t buy the European Champions Cup.
Last point: I was at the final and was surprised at how quiet the Chelsea fans were.Hardly any singing etc.(This ain’t a dig)At half time it was announced that Carling would make a donation to a cancer charity for all those back in their seats promptly before 2nd half kick off. 5 mins to go Spurs end full, Chelsea end about third full.We reckoned it was because of corporate seats/entertaining at your end. If that is the case I feel sorry for the genuine Chelsea fans who could not get tickets. At least they would have sang the same song at the same time!
Thanks old timer. Your comment was mature and enlightening. By the way, Israeli, i’m sure you’re not a real chelsea fan. You only joined us because Avram Grant ( an israelite like you ) is our coach. We don’t need fake fans here at our club, we need true blues, real fans so i’ll advise you to get the hell out of this blog and join gunners.com or reddevils.com or any other stupid blog out there. We don’t need any isralite at chelsea. Avram Grant, Ben haim and….you…..yes you, Israeli should leave our club alone.
@70…ur mind is full of shit…get it cleaned or be doomed….
Israeli
let’s not talk about other blogers. tell me what you feel about the final match? how did chelsea play, how did spurs play, what’s your comment about avraham’s team selection, substitutions, influence on the game?
yitzhak there is nothing much to discuss the beauty of our football, the tactics of the great man,selections
Old Timer @ 70 – My apologies if that has hurt you. My point is, let’s be fair, Spurs are not Man Utd or Arsenal or Liverpool. Chelsea would always start as the favourite against Tottenham, even pre-Roman. When a fully fit complete squad is available, Chelsea should 9 out of 10 times (that’s the record so far) against Tottenham but we didn’t on Sunday.
“Teams like Tottenham” are the non-big four teams such as Everton, Villa, Man City…
@67. israeli
Hey israeli keep taking the tablets, or better
still double the dose.
Thank you for your replies. Good Blog, keep it that way.
BC, you wrote a perfect article. It perfectly reflects what I think of Grant and Chelsea at the moment.
Keep it up!
Yitzhak
As you asked I will talk a little about the game.
Team selection- I don’t see any bad selection ,I was trying to think about it over and over and put my self at AG sit and I would change my mind over and over again ,as BC called it
“The problem of plenty”
Some said here why he picked FL before ballack because FL was shit and I say the same goes for JT and he was our # 1 player, the game at Greece FL didn’t play and we felt he was needed, we can go player by player and see they where all great players that should have played better ,the one thing I totally agree is that AG subs are bit to late and I would love to see this subs 20 minutes before.
The game started with 2-3 huge mistakes by balleti that gave spurs the momentum even more that they could use, it took us 15-20 minutes to get back on track.
I am a great believer on the dynamic of the game spicily in a cup final match.
What my eyes sow was up since our lucky goal up till the penalty they got the game was totally in our control and with a bit more faith we could have attack more, but our players liked it that way
Then came bridge hand ball witch happens once in a million times,(talking about luck)
Correct me if I am wrong but 80% of refries wont call on this one as the ball was in no danger what so ever to our net ,and that ball touched his arm totally without intention.
There was again the change of momentum for the spurs.
Extra time: one big mistake by our defiance witch can happen to any one after 4 minutes in ET and all you have got left is running around your tail.
Out of 30 minutes of ET there where 8 minutes of playing, the rest was stilling time!
All that won’t cover a bad game by our team and late Subs by AG.
All the stories I read here and the 10000s words are way too much for what AG deserve after 35 games or so
Our friends here forget that this team are playing there pre season matches for the 3ed time in on season
First with JM then with AG coming to replace him and all the injuries and now for the 3ed time when all the players are coming back
It took AG to adjust the team 2-3 matches when he took over, it took him no time to adjust to all our missing players, and it seems as it will take 2-3 games to adjust to our full squad again
I know it’s my wishful thinking but I expect of any true fan to have that wish as well.
What I really want to see now when the team is back with all players is to see what AG really wanted at first place and that is a more attacking football then we used to see, we have the players that can take it from there.
I ask AG to let there talent get free on the pitch
With this kind of talent we will not don’t need to spend so much energy and hate!!!! As I see spent in this blog in the very few loses AG had since taking over.
Still painful from the game and result
Israeli
I agree with this
a Chelsea fan from Port Harcourt, Nigeria but now I am clubless because I just cant understand why Abramovich cant seperate business from personal strife. What is good for the business give Mourinho the maximum support now that you know that he is a trophy specialist then after about 22 trophies in ten years, (yes that is what it comes out to if you get the mathematical analyses right) you can start looking for style. At this time you have a culture and you have instilled real fear into the opposition, at least then they know that you dont care but you will surely beat them if they allow you score even a scrappy goal. Well, let us see how many trophies ’style’ is going to fetch us and also how the other teams will respect us and FEAR us like before.
We dont drive fear into the hearts of other teams any more!!!!! Grant will never acomplish that!!
the fact is he cant show up when we need him (arsenal, man u carling cup final) we need a MANAGER !!! Mr. Roman made a big mistake he destroyed our season with that move, ten Cate would do a better job, but im not saying give it to Ten Cate….
OUTs
Pizzaro—-just not up to our standard (too slow)
Maka—–just old now thats all, loved what he did ni our mid field
*** SWP—– o my god this guy is poor!(***- means we must sell him)
Ben haim—- not of our class plus we have Ivanovic
Sheva—– if we mean him good we should let him go
Sidwell— just not of our class but i dont hate him
INs
Modric
van der vart
Dos Santos
Taiwo
benzema
anthony annan
The Next Year Squad
———————
Goalkeepers
————-
Petr Cech
Carlo Cudicini
Henrique Hilario
Right-Back
———–
Branislav Ivanovic
Juliano Belletti
Centre-Back
———–
John Terry
Ricardo Carvalho
Alex
Left Back
———
Ashley Cole
Wayne Bridge
Taiwo
Midfield
———-
Michael Essien
John Obi Mikel
Michael Ballack
Rafael Van Der Vaart
Jack Cork
lampard
Modric
Attacking midfielders
——–
Joe Cole
Giovanni Dos Santos
Scott Sinclair
Miroslav Stoch
Strikers
——–
Drogba
Nicolas Anelka
Karim Benzema
Salomon Kalou
Franco Di Santo
How art the might fallen? Sir alex, wenger, Rafa, name them used to quake in their boots at the sound of jose’s blue army. at the moment, even derby fancies their chances when they are meeting us. Why were all those teams scared because they know we had a manager who can outthink them. The aura of invincibility is gone.
We never once lost a final under Jose- it was not by accident- it was because the man knew how to deliver platinum performance when it mattered most.
but now, see! O, roman, what bug has bitten you? Roman succumbing to the stupid propaganda of boring boring chelsea has been our woe. Boring boring chelsea? What does it matter when we the fans were amassing silver ware and having bragging rights over the manures and the loserpools of this world?
@69. AGfriend,
How do you know that Ten Cate reads this blog???
Mourofessien,
I know that you are a big fan of Jose, and I accept that at Chelsea he was miles and miles better that Grant, because he is much better manager than the Israeli. But the problem with Jose’s football is he would never win the Champions’ League with Chelsea. That’s my personal view, and I’m ure you have your own which differs from mine. I’m not going to debate on this but will underline the fact that in the past 5 years all the Champions League finalists reached the final by playing attacking football, even Liverpool, who in the last 3 years managed to beat (even if on penalties) Chelsea, Milan, Barcelona, Juventus and now Inter while all of those oppositions were stronger than them on paper. Jose’s Porto of 2004 maybe shown as a rare exception who beat (3-0) in the final a very attacking side – Monaco, who in my opinion, were the best attacking side in Europe in 2003/04 season and deserved that trophy much more than Porto, but back then nobody expected such a surprise from Porto as they were a clear underdogs in all games till the final, who were masterminded by tactics of Jose and helped by Lady Luck. As for 2005 semi-finalists Chelsea led by Jose, they surely played very fast football thanks to Ranieri’s wingers in Duff, J.Cole and creativity of Gudjohnsen but that was not enough against Rafa’s Liverpool, and after that season I never saw Chelsea play that football again as Chelsea slowly turned into Mourinho’s dull machine. To conclude, with Jose’s philosophy Chelsea were never going to win the Champions League, let alone to reach the final when there are such teams as Barcelona, Liverpool (who are absolutely different in Europe) and Milan (yes, I consider them an attacking side who can both attack and defend whenever it’s needed).
thank god u shifted back to a more mature theme BC, no offence but the previous one was so childish that i spluttered my coffee when i saw it…….lol!!
Grant is not even qualified to coach in premiership, i hate fifa for allowing this to happen.
What on Earth was he doing with his McClaren impression, picking a mess of a line up. We can come away with 1 trophy but even still.
We need something big this summer,
Manager- Grant is not qualified, nor accomplished, him and Abramovich obviously share something special but even Rom has to admit, change is needed, bring on Rikjaard. If Abramovich truly cared about his money, he would sell his soul to satan or do anything it took to bring back Mourinho
Attack- Why spend 30 mil on a 30 year old striker? keepers mature with age, not strikers. Drogba is useful, we should keep him even though he really winds me up (see him try to use his hand in cc final?). Sell Scheva and Pizzaro. Give Sahar and Sinclair more opportunity, what of Di Santo? will we ever see him? Anelka can use his feet but we need another striker – aggressive, position discipline.
Midfield- Joe cole is the closest thing to a playmaker at current. Lampard and ballack are good, but not class, i agree. Ballack is good but past prime as is Lampard. Malouda cannot replicate lyon form in premier league, we miss robben, the ronaldo of the left wing. we need a true attacking midfielder, pace, dribbling, shooting, preferably someon early 20′s to be nurtured a little
and yes, our wings (except joe) are flairless, employ someone on the right with abit of trickery and pace to open up the wing and stop drogba/anelka having to leave the box to pick up the longballs we don’t play anymore
defence – branislav ivanovic could solve our rb problem that ferreira and belleti didnt, we need to see him play, even if its just the last 20mins of a match. we should look into bringing in a right back this summer, a pacey, no nonsense player – micah richards? daniel alves? alex will adapt given time, he is making a jump from psv to be fair.
I hope change will come this summer
israeli @ 79
let me tell you, the team selection by grant was awful. how can he leave joe cole and ballack out for this match?? what was the need to play both essien and mikel? how can anelka play in th left wing for the first time for chelsea in a cup final?? why was wright phillips given the starting place?? if you have anelka and drogba the best formation is 4-4-2, nothing else. the old man completely lost it.
bridge handball was not one in a million. i guess you know football rules. if a player stops or controls the ball with this arm, inside the penlty box, the penalty is awarded. no matter if the ball going for goal or not. bridge controlled the ball using his arm not once, but twice and that was a 100% penalty and it happens so often in football. as often as the type of goal drogba scored for us.
you’re just joking mate. the game was never in chelsea’s control. we were only chasing shadows. which game were you watching?
if you keep saying one mistake can happen to anyone, then you’re not trying to be champion. and there was no ‘stilling time’ in the extra time. ramos very intelligently shut shop and neutralised chelsea. we had 25 minutes in a cup final to score a goal against a tottenham defence and we had one shot.
AG looked completely clueless on what was to be done. he was just loitering around without any ideas. he didn’t know what to do. simple. i’ve seen that back in israel. it’s not new. and what is this pre-season thing you’re talking about? so you think for every such thing grant will take 2-3 matches to rest and re-coup? then we cannot win even one trophy under grant. this pre-season comment by you is one of the funniest i’ve ever read.
AG does not know how to manage a big team. period.
I read in some paper that if grant what he did on sunday had submitted those as his work assignments for UEFA license he would have got a D -.
lol
Hi JoeBlue,
Its been a while. hope all is well.
M_D@83, i have never had any doubts that all you wanted was chelsea winning by playing attacking enetertaining football. When it is that we can get that, I would not be sad cos all i really want is to win as many trophies as possible and have more bragging rights when debating fans of arsenal, manure and loserpool.
M_D, let me explain why i prefer Jose’s style- my other great passion is boxing. I have over the years realised that the greatest boxers are not those who pack a fantastic punch and know how to swarm their opponents through sheer power and speed- the greatest are those who first and for all know how to absorb, contain and outmaneuver such pulverising fighters and know how to see openings and finish them off. that is what made ali greater than Sonny liston, foreman and frazier-
that is what makes holyfield a thousand times better than tyson. that is what recently made Floyd mayweather much better than Ricky hatton.
That is what Jose has. that capacity to outthink his opponents and get the better of them.
The narrow definition of entertainment in terms of sweet flowing passing football, deft touches, one twos and all those eye pleasing movements aroung the opponent’s area leading to a goal must be looked at again. the best entertainment, if you ask me is the one that consists in outmaneuvring gifted players like messi, ronnie on a consistent basis. the one that enables you to beat the manures and the arseys on a regular basis.
Would jose have won the CL? that you know depends on so many factors? Like you say porto was not considered favourites. liverpool was not rated the following year. barca won it deservedly. but milan last year should have crashed much earlier too. So like every cup match, so many factors come into play and some of them are variables that one cannot really control. luck plays some major part as well.
but one thing i know for a fact. Jose’s chelsea would have triumphed in a league that features all those teams. the league does not lie. a league with chelsea, liverpool, milan, barca, manure etc would invariably have been won by Chelsea- you know why, those teams could be lucky against him in one off matches but in a league format, they will not.
M_D, when a team uses one pass from goalie to Centre forward to score, i call that class. when a team instead of having 50 passes to reach the last third can use a quick three pass on a break to do so, i call it brilliant.
I feel, Jose should have been allowed to win us more silverwares- boost our bragging rights- make us have the pedigree as winners. then we can experiment with other managers who want to make us “entertain like barca or arsenal”-
Bottomline M_D, we both want the same goals but we have different approaches to attaining them.
Where we playing attacking football under jose? I will say yes. proof- in his first two seasons, he outscored all opposition in the EPL. he was a master at going on fast breaks and killing the opposition when they are committed.
And the only reason why in his third season, he struggled in attack was the virtual season long injuries to robben and joe cole who were the only two quality wingers- this coincided with fact that both ballack and sheva were struggling in their first year to adjust. with that situation, any team will struggle- let ronaldo have a season long injury and see what will happen to manure for instance?
@mourofessien or formely mourofjose
brilliant post. u were speaking from the heart.
and @89 ill say see the winning rate of man utd when rooney is not available.. all there defeats and draws have been when he was not available… winning formula has several elements.. u take out one and its no longer a wining formula
KTBFFH!!
86. Yitzhak
I have read you post and let me say once again to make things clear
1.if you look about the game in overall I agree the spurs controlled It,
I was saying that after our goal to that penalty kick we did controlled the game for that 30 minutes or so. And our goal was in no real danger for that30 minutes,
the penalty kick witch I still call “one in a million, changed the game and its momentum.
Then came ET and that goal made by a combination of mistake and luck.
Any ways 25 minutes where left and I agree we could have done better but there where 3 chances to score so when you say there was only one shot you either forget or lie .
If you go back to the video you would see it with your own eyes.
Now a bit about hypocrisy: when the team wins 25 games out of 34 its either luck or the players or JM or SC or HTC, not AG
But now you all give AG the credit, so that is well noted and I feel much better that finally we all agree AG is responsible for wins and losses. Or it’s only one way
Now a bit more about hypocrisy
Team selection –look back at the posts and see for your self how many where in favor of playing with both FL and JT from so many good reasons, the facts are that FL were not in his best and JT was our number one player. Any coach would keep FL on the pitch expecting his spirit to make a change.
There is to much talking about this as all the players who did play could have done the job, being smart after is so easy
What’s funny the most is that in order to establish you point you glorify Ramos as he just invented football.
Where where you when we wan the spurs only few weeks ago? I forgot it was JM spirit above SB
Yitzhak , I don’t take you as a fool so please don’t take me as one when you ask what was this pre season matches I mention in my post, my point was (I am sure you understand)that this season the team had to do 3 tune ups along the way, how can you find this funny?
Isn’t that a simple fact??
The problem here is that some fans forget there job and that is supporting there team and confused themselves as football managers not having a clue what it takes.
As for you Yitzhak I got another problem,
Some how I can understand (not agree) the fans that was here all along the way since AG took over ,I see you as one of those ppl that here only do dance on the blood of what you smell as blood.
I wish that you will eat you hat!!!
.
israeli you’re post was full of air and no substance. better luck next time. credit was not given to grant earlier because he was simply continuing the earlier tactics. even if grant had never been born in this world and chelsea had no manager since jm left, chelsea would have got those wins. now where grant had to make decisions of whom to play, what formation to play etc he is piss poor. he was piss poor in back in israel, so i’m not surpried but only annoyed.
a goal made by a combination of mistake and luck. you can say it for any goal. drogba scored because of the defensive wall’s mistake and he was lucky that robinson did not cover his left. if you still say that the penalty is ‘one in a million’, i can safely conclude that you don’t know football enough. 3 chances to score? taking the ball to the box does not amount to a chance. spurs were defending with ease. they had no trouble in keeping us out. there was only one worthwhile shot that was from kalou, very well kept by cech.
why don’t you talk about zokora’s dreadful miss? they would have won the match in full time, deservedly so. even in extra time, they had a 4 vs 2 situation which again they missed. spurs could have gone 3-0 ahead in the first half itself. we were lucky, weren’t we???
sorry israeli, i have a big problem of understanding you. your last two paragraphs don’t make any sense to me.
grant was the biggest fraud in israel and now he has creeped into england. he will be exposed very soon! then you’ll eat your hat.
@83. Midfield_Decider
I am glad it is only your opinion, what a rubbish opinion though, BTW it is my opinion.Porto was one of the 3 favourites to win the ECL that year.Yes ManU was behind them. See the stats.
@91. israeli
Well what can I comment,
The reason AG won so many games ,1- the spirit of players that he just inherited
2-the fact that he did not interfered with a machine that was used to win, if not broken dont repair it
3-professional and player’s pride
4-Injuries was a good omen, not much to chose from,
5-very poor opposition, yes even ManCity were finding their best way of playing, Valencia were in turmoil and the players were not with the manager, they wnated him out
6- 4/5 games were lady LUCK was the biggest ingredient of the chelsea play.
Now when cfc played a better organised with slightly better players but with a more savvy, astute manager, chelsea were always 2nd class and lost or drew.
However when cheslea need the info of the manager, and it is usually in finals where managers are most important AG failed, showed us, what we, the fans, always knew his shortcomings, his lack of knowledge, inexperience at the highest level, hey israeli he did the same with Israel team, extremelly deffensive, he played NOT LOSE, even against Malta he went deffensive.
Just go back and look at dvd of the final, the man did not know what to do, he was clueless, he can not even motivate a 5 years old
it is not hipocrisy at all, it is a FACT.
The players KNOW that he got the job ONLY and ONLY because of his friendship and faith with the owner, thats all, for THAT ALONE players do not beliece him, or for that matter do not even accept, they know he (AG) is a FAKE.
When he is demoted, sacked or otherwise, AG is unemployable at any level superior to Conference League, if AG was so goo how come no other team ever went for him? the man is a backstabbing opportunist,thats all, at THAT he may EXCELL.
Players respect WINNERS not OPPORTUNIST managers, managers that can read the game as it is develloping rather than EXPECT lady luck or a genial moment from a player.