1-1. I could just end this post here. We begin the new year the same way we ended the last year, poorly. The scoreline says a lot. It in fact, sums up our current situation. This is not really the kind of result I expected prior to the match at Old Trafford. Is the stoppage time slowly becoming our new jinx like the penalty shootouts? We’re certainly much more than the results show. Scolari needs to fix things, somehow. It was not a stroke of misfortune. There’s a pattern to these things. It’s has become a trend now.
Nowadays we seem to draw more than we win. The post match interview could all be about on lack of sharpness in front of the goal. That was Southend United we were playing against. They’re not from the championship. They’re from league one. Good luck to Southend. They’ve got a replay at home. That means more cash to them. Good for them. We havent learnt much from our preious match – against Fulham at Craven Cottage. Absolute waste of chances created and a goal conceded at the stoppage time. What do we take from this match?
This match we should have certainly rested Joe Cole and Lampard. Even Kalou could have come in some time in the second half. Drogba and Carvalho should have played because it seems that they need some more match time. This is a match where players like Sinclair and Di Santo should have played. Mineiro should have played. Mancienne could have played for some time. All that Scolari needs to believe is that his team would be able to ’snatch’ a draw from this league one team. Because, as long as we get a draw, we’re still in the cup. Few things irked me today. One is, Scolari played a near full strength team instead of trying out some reserve/youth players. Another is, he waited until the 85th minute to bring on Di Santo and Sinclair. He could have certainly done better than that.
Our forwards had a bad day. 12 shots on target but could score only one goal. Drogba and Joe Cole were particularly guilty of not scoring. Southend’s goalie had a fantastic match. We should have certainly finished Southend off by the half time itself. The longer we were at 1-0 the riskier the situation would get. That’s what happened yesterday. Kalou scored in the 30th minute and Southend scored in 90th minute. For about 60 minutes, reportedly, we played with the same tactics and same set of players.
I don’t understand the significance of the late double substitutions. I thought they were bad, for two reasons. The time was not enough for the youngsters to prove anything. Secondly and more importantly, when you’re leading 1-0 with just 5 mins to go, common sense says all that you need to do is to protect the lead. Scolari could have made defensive subs and shut the match. Or if he was genuinely interested in giving some playing time for Sinclair and Di Santo, they should have been brought on by half time or by the hour mark.
While we I can join Scolari is asking questions to my forwards about finishing, I would also ask Scolari a question. We got 15 corners in this match. Yes, 15. And our goal came from a corner. Why is that we get 15 corners and we score just one goal? Why is the conversion ratio so poor? Why is that we are so weak in attacking corners and so generous in defensive corners? We seem to have no plan when it comes to set pieces.
Just happened to see the video of Southend’s equaliser. That should go down as one of the worst goals I have seen Chelsea concede from a set piece. It was a throw-in. Carvalho heads it in the wrong direction, towards the goal. Watch Clarke connect the header. There were Chelsea 5 players around Clarke but nobody, I mean NOBODY, even attempted to win the header. Just for that piece of effort alone we deserved only a draw. No matter how many chances we created. For that piece of defending we deserve to wait for the replay at Southend. Disgusting and pathetic.
There are no wicked tactics practised in the training ground to be used with telling effect on the pitch. We seem approach our set pieces with ‘hope’ more than any ‘tactics’. Scolari must be awfully upset because he knows that the buck stops with him – for our unbelievably poor home form, for the way we concede goals, for the way we don’t seem to care much anymore on the pitch, for our inability to get the results that we should get. I thought our playing style is too predictable but now, even our results get very predictable. A draw at home against Southend in a FA Cup is not really disastrous. We can go to Southend and smash them to progress ahead. It’s not about ‘this’ result. It’s about the pattern of the results. Surely, we have become weaker under Scolari. He cannot pass this on to anyone else. He inherited a great team, a team with amazing winning mentality and he and his staff have reduced this team to a very ordinary set of players.
The one notable change that has happened since Scolari’s arrival is the change in the mentality of the players. We are losing our winning mentality. Draws are seen one point gained than two points lost. Every single win deserve celebration. This season, not even once, we could win three successive matches. You can check the facts. Not even once we could complete a hattrick of wins. For every one or two good results, we have got a draw or a defeat. There is no consistency at all. This is why questions are being asked to Scolari and to Drogba or Joe Cole or Kalou.
The next match is against Man Utd at Old Trafford. My expectations on this Chelsea team is considerably lowered now. I don’t expect us to beat Man Utd with a clean sheet. If we get a draw, I would be content with that. We have one week to make amends. I’m not saying the Old Trafford match would be the most important match of the season. But this match will truly show what this team and Scolari are made of. I’m still waiting for a reaction from Chelsea and Scolari.
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ahhh great now we conceded one
its 1-1 guyyzzzzzz
Southend REMATCH!! Shit this isn’t even a Championship League Team (We are talking 3rd Tier here). And talk about a game where we needed a 5-0 stomping to our opponets. Now we get to go to Old Trafford. I’m betting the bookies are not favouring us this time.
WTFFFFFFFFF MAN….. WHAT THE HELL IS RONG WITH US……. A TEAM OF LAZY / NOT-INTERESTED PLAYERS…. Alla that most of them care about is the paycheck they get at the end of the month…. How the hell are we going to win CL if we cant even dispose of Championship sides, this is simply getting f***ing ridiculous now…. Arsenal, Liverpool and Man Utd are the teams of dream to beat now for us because we cant even handle Southend a team that lost their last 4/5 fixtures and yet they can easily stroll in the bridge because their thinking, were only playin chelsea lads c’mon nothing to worry about, we might not beat them, but they surely cant beat us…. I bet that was the message given out loud and clear in their dressing room. This is just even embarrasing to talk about, at this rate i dont think we will qualify even for CL next year because i dont see a top 4 finish if we keep on going on like this. A great way to start the year chelsea and scolari…. Bravo!!
Draws and defeats at places that a side built to win things shouldn’t happening. One or two results throughout a season like this are fine – but this has been going on since the start of November (October if you include Roma).
i read that chelsea offer 15 million for Luis Fabiano..
Big Phil to be sacked!
I am calling for Scolari to resign the manager of Chelsea FC. Am I the only one who thinks we should get rid of Scolari?
I was really excited about the fact that Scolari to manage Chelsea. Because I thought he could get the best out of the team. We were flying sky high in first few months and the performances were terrific. Beginning with the United game, I started realizing that he can’t beat top teams. The Liverpool game and the horrible November proved his inability to deal with top flight. I can’t understand why he is trying to do same things over and over again while the other teams certainly have an idea to stop his ridiculously unsuccessful game plan. Enough. Time for change. Scolari had an enough time to change things around, unfortunately he didn’t because he is not brave enough or is afraid to the death to take a risk. He thinks what he is trying to do is right or suitable to the club. The truth is it is not. He thinks his world cup winning method is the best or the only one he could use while there could’ve been alternatives. I don’t think he is a man for this job. He may have pretty impressive records on his CV that other managers don’t. He may be a nice man who tries to seem nice to everyone. He tries to become a friend with his all players to be respected by them. He always says good things about the referees or the players to avoid the criticisms. These are not the kind of behavior that the manager of Chelsea FC should have. We need an aggressive manager who knows what he is doing at the same time brave enough to change his plan if it’s not working. We need a manager who is honest and big enough to tell the players if they’re underperforming or praise them if they’re playing well. We need a manager who knows/understands his job. Basically, we need the Mourinho kind of manager.
Now we could not beat a second division club at Stamford Bridge. I had a faith on Scolari. I have lost all my confidence in him. I really think we need a different manager if we are not to experience another a hearth-breaking trophyless season. Scolari can’t deliver a success. We’ve seen enough of him now.
I want the Chelsea spirit back. I want Chelsea to play their aggressive and ruthless game again. I want Chelsea to start winning games no matter it is played by beautifully or ugly, using long balls or Scolari’s sweet little passing play. I and we need a win, result and three points. At the end of the season, we need trophies. I am not convinced Scolari can do that. I can’t see Chelsea missing out an another opportunity to become the Champions of Europe after that night in Moscow.
dont expect anything forget about chelsea winning then i think results will improve.leave it alone just we need one big win and confidence will be there
I’ve defended Scolari long enough. Get your head out of your f***king ass Phil! It’s pretty difficult to stay positive when Chelsea produce results like this… I don’t know what to say anymore, but the Chelsea-Man U scoreline is beginning to look predictable also, and it doesn’t look good.
If Chelsea lose at Old Trafford, Scolari should bounce. Just get out, I tried to see things in a more positive way, I tried to remain confident, but I’ve had enough. Look at the motivation issues these players are having. Drogba is daydreaming each game, probably wondering what life would be like at Internazionale. Lampard is playing amazing but he’s struggling getting his teammates on his level. Deco is playing poorly but figures he can put on subpar performances and still keep his starting spot, so why give an all out effort? Scolari publicly said he doesn’t have players who can dribble, I’m sure Joe Cole is full of confidence and motivation after hearing that.
Scolari says he needs a playmaker, his team needs 1 or 2 more players, etc.. its sending all the wrong messages. This team is already a European championship caliber team, that added Deco and Bosingwa. What more of a team do you want to inherit?? I now realize I was wrong to defend Scolari, I was previously placing the bulk of the blame on the players’ efforts. Well Scolari influences the players’ efforts. Maybe I’m just upset right now and I may change my mind later on, but I don’t think so. I’m giving Scolari the match at Old Trafford to turn things around. Its a MUST WIN game for Chelsea, if we fail to produce a strong result then he needs to go.
Surely this cannot be Scolari’s fault when everyone in here has been begging for him to play with two forwards! You got what you wished for as we played a very strong team considering the opposition. This was not a tactical error but of the players faults for not taking their chances as we literally walked all over this team today! Drogba should have done a lot better with numerous chances as half of you are all about singing Drogs name for praise yet when he does absolutely nothing in front of net the crickets can be heard well throughout this site!
Now I have become particularly fed up with people on this site blaming Scolari for every single thing that goes wrong and would at some point like to see someone expect the players to take responsibility for the opportunities they waste! If you are seriously blaming Scolari for this blip then you are in need of mental rehabilitation as we had God knows how many chances and DROGBA.. the man that most of you are singing and chirping about DID NOT use his chances the way a top forward should be doing!
Enough is enough with the Scolari bashing! The man has not made the last two months easy to praise him but there comes a time when he must take responsibility and there is also a time when the players should take responsibility! How many of you were begging for a 4-4-2… well, YOU GOT IT! How many of you were calling for Deco to be dropped (including myself)? Well, we got it! It is up to the bloody players in order to do the job on the field as Scolari cannot do it for them! Maybe our forwards need to get their act together… NAMELY DROGBA FOR THE AMOUNT OF CHANCES HE MISSED TODAY AND FOR NOT GETTING HIS NAME ON THE SCORE SHEET!
Oh and shouts out to Kalou haha… BC… I guess he just added to those stats you were mentioning lol
guys to tell you the truth Im not that upset … I said it week in week out I dont expect shit from scolari, he is over rated old hag, even is he had win that wouldn’t have moved me one bit.
Thus old man has not convinced me yet, I hate Wilkins … he reminds me of Kenyon, these guys are fucking up chelsea so bad!!!!
why cant they see this!!
@ Vinton Lindo – If Drogba was so bad, why wasn’t he subbed? Whose job is it to make subs?
CHANGE HOME JERSEY, IT IS JINXED, RIGHT FROM CHAMPION’S LEAGUE FINAL. LET’S TRY IT AND SEE. LET’S TRY ANYTHING PLEASE.
Vinton – We blame scolari because he is the manager. I’ll tell you, he is a tactical disaster. Tell me, when you’re 1-0 up at 85 mins what’s the point in making two attacking subs? And what’s the point in wasting one sub (by not making one more sub)?
@Trever
Drogba has not been playing for almost the entire season so he needs as much match fitness as he can get! THAT IS WHY HE WAS NOT SUBBED. And please… please don’t make any excuses for a player that we all know can perform better and has be known to be a crucial finisher. Or maybe he is just a one trick pony and 2007 was the only big year we will see out of him. I don’t know, but as far as I can see, it sure looks like it! He played the whole match and DID NOT SCORE ONE BLOODY GOAL! Like I said before, the players need to take responsibility at some point and people such as yourself need to take a look at the entire picture and realize that Scolari changed formations, changed mentality for this game with two forwards and Drogba, who I will hold responsible came up with NOTHING!