[Post-Match Thread] Chelsea 2 - 3 Real Madrid

I dont want to be negative but I'll post this today regardless of our result. I know i'll get downvoted but these are hard hitting truths. you can visit in a few months if you want to hold me to this. EDIT: Copied this in after the game. Cuadrado is better than Willian, Chalobah much better CM than RLC and Hazard once again the person to save some of these embarrasment of a team from being shown for what it is

*Cahill and Terry need to go. They'll stay but hopefully neither start for us. Both are too slow to keep up, neither play the ball forward or even dribble forwards to create space for others and the entire team has to drop deep to compensate for their lack of pace. You can play a high line with players like Terry but we dont press well enough and why bother when they offer fuck all else anyway? And before someone brings up set pieces they had 2 clear chances to score headers which wouldve made it 5-0 in the first half.

  • 4-2-4 doesnt work. We get over run in midfield. our CBs arent good enough on the ball to push up and help them like I said and when we do go back to them they rush their passes or go side to side before they hoof it up or pass to someone who is being pressed so we lose it.

  • 2 strikers doesnt work its shit. And especially with RLC who cannot press as intensely as we need from the front. Im not Costa's biggest fan but his pressing is world class and he helps us hugely in that respect. Batshuyai is a very good player hopefully we see him more and until RLC is fit enough to cope in midfield he should sit on the bench. I dont know why we persist with him when its clear he's not ready and dont say hes playing out of position, thats to cover for the fact that he cant play in his actual position. On the bright side Aina, Chalobah and Traore look promising on the youth front.

  • Willian is dogshit and I said this months ago. He constatly wants the ball to his feet, he doesnt move which makes it harder for his fullback (notice its a problem whatever side hes on). His first touch is so heavy all the time it almost looks like hes deliberately half assing it because he cant be bothered. And generally he offers not much else in attack. Also before the youth haters try blaming Aina today realise he had NO protection from his RWer (wont name who). The second Marcelo goal also came because Aina did the right thing and beat his man only for Willian to stay on his feet and not move out of his way or move for him. If Cuadrado is staying I'd happily sell Willian now while we can get something for him

  • Conte has said that he will use tactics to suit his players. In midfield in our own half we're ok on the ball but when we try going forward we have no way other than routine flicks or high balls over the top. That is not good enough and its so fluke based that it wont create consistent chances for us, especially v teams who press well and play on the front foot (Liverpool and Madrid).

  • Hopefully he realises this formation doesnt work and switches to 4-3-3 and plays Kante, Matic and Oscar/Fabregas. Play with 1 striker up top. Its worrying that we might continue with this as this is the only formation they've practiced. Its not too late to change and hopefully the board fails in getting that other striker if the rumours are true so we're forced into ditching this car crash 2 striker system

  • And if we need to sell players to fund transfers then we need to clearout all the deadwood. im sick of every tiny excuse for average players to stay. Mikel, Remy, Djilobodji, Ivanovic, maybe even some starters depending on who we can bring in. They all need to go. And then hopefully Zouma recovers quick so its only 1 CB we need instead of 2

  • I dont think its the end of the world and we have a lot of good players who can make us a good team. I think we've improved in our organisation too. Conte has taken this team as far as it can within this shit formation (hopefully he changes it soon), some players just arent technically good enough to carry it out. So hopefully we stop playing with 2 strikers and are ruthless with the deadwood which includes names people wont want to hear.

  • And finally this is the football a lot of you love. If you think this is what Chelsea is meant to be sitting deep grinding out wins and hoping for fluke wins by scoring headers off set pieces dont complain about this performance today. This is how we've played for month and its what intentionally or not a lot of you have hoped for. And we've seen just how bad it is when we make Real Madrid's B team look like the best team in the world. If people cant see the importance of having a technical defence then see Madrid just dominated us with 4 starting defenders and bench players ahead of them. Regardless of who plays us if any team presses intensely we will collapse because ONE. this formation is shit and relies on routine flicks from tight spaces and TWO. so many players are shit and shouldnt be at a club that aims to be at the top. Honestly I think our youth defenders have more technical ability than Cahill, Ivanovic etc

/r/chelseafc Thread