Is RDM the next Ferguson ?

5.5 months in Charge of Chelsea and can't think of a single 50/50 that has gone against his team.

He's signed a pact with the devil .....Next Ferguson in that instance

Torres was offside ......Reading deserved at least a draw.

Chelsea sitting at the top of the table atm,newcastle will be their first big test Saturday

Chelsea are the new Man U.

Decisions going their way, offsides not given, keepers having stinkers against them...fully expecting Di Matteo time soon

Can Devil possibly have pacts with 2 managers ?! maybe he is cancelling his contract with Fergie

Hazard to keep RDM employed for a long time and keep them in CL football

Unlucky Reading.

Ganso wrote:Chelsea sitting at the top of the table atm,newcastle will be their first big test Saturday

Only until Swansea win their next

TOTAL. FOOTBALL.

Took a huge gamble and bringing on Oscar and Sturridge for Ramires and Mikel.

GOAT manager

Hazard FC saving his ass once again.

Hows that Knee of yours Sepi?

Sepi's right though, since he took charge Chelsea have had a lot of decisions go their way ( mainly ones that should have gone to the other team)

Anyway i wouldn't go nuts atm, they are struggling against poor teams and relying heavily on Hazard atm.

Better teams will exploit that their midfield and defense don't like playing expansive football.

Either they change the way they are playing atm who they drop those players for players who are more suited to an expansive game.

As sitting and countering will limit Hazard and Mata's influence not to mention Oscar.

Interesting to see how Chelsea's defense went from being as impenetrable as Helm's Deep, to being flimsier than eeyores house.

Lets see how they stack up against the better offensive teams.

The team is clearly still a work in progress but there were some promising signs today.

Azpi will solve alot of problems on our right side of defense from what I've heard. Ivanovic is a good defender but he doesn't have the pace to keep up with most wingers. He's a CB.


Cahill looked solid out there tonight even in possession, encouraging stuff. Thought Cole was solid as well despite having to mark 2 players at once at times.

Ramires was exposed today. Never a RW and he's useless when he's double teamed without any space to exploit.

The most glaring problems with the team at the moment aside from our shat defense are Lampard & Torres though.

Torres did well when in his own half or deeper but was shockingly poor in the final third. Awful, awful movement from him today. Not sure him dropping so deep was a tactic to create more space for Hazard and Mata but I hope that's the end of it. Get into the box ffs.


Lampard is the biggest problem though. Playing like Song out there instead of supporting the defense & was outplayed by Mikel. Needs to stop goalhanging hence leaving Mikel isolated against 2/3 players and stay back leaving the playmaking to the front 3.

All in all though I thought we played well.

First 20 minutes we were incredible, passing and movement was perfect. After their first goal we got sloppy and started giving the ball away and looked static. Their second goal was a howler by check and just pure luck but it gave them the mentality to get on top. We deserved it, despite some periods of poor play they only got into the game due to luck.

They're gonna get their arses handed to them soon. Just wait and see.

Gil wrote:The team is clearly still a work in progress but there were some promising signs today.

Azpi will solve alot of problems on our right side of defense from what I've heard. Ivanovic is a good defender but he doesn't have the pace to keep up with most wingers. He's a CB.


Cahill looked solid out there tonight even in possession, encouraging stuff. Thought Cole was solid as well despite having to mark 2 players at once at times.

Ramires was exposed today. Never a RW and he's useless when he's double teamed without any space to exploit.

The most glaring problems with the team at the moment aside from our shat defense are Lampard & Torres though.

Torres did well when in his own half or deeper but was shockingly poor in the final third. Awful, awful movement from him today. Not sure him dropping so deep was a tactic to create more space for Hazard and Mata but I hope that's the end of it. Get into the box ffs.


Lampard is the biggest problem though. Playing like Song out there instead of supporting the defense & was outplayed by Mikel. Needs to stop goalhanging hence leaving Mikel isolated against 2/3 players and stay back leaving the playmaking to the front 3.

All in all though I thought we played well.

So basically your midfield and defense struggle defensively in a expansive game...

Nothing we don't already know and they are area's better teams can exploit.

I look forward to Saturdays game anyway, it will be a big challenge for us an vice versa.

You will probably win but we will definitely ask more questions than Wigan or Reading have.

Having flashbacks of the goal that was scored against Spurs in the FA cup that never went in.

I'll have to see if I still have that tin foil hat in my closet...

The losing will begin on saturday, brace yourselves blues... defense is not even close to being solid and attack doesn't really have a proper direction. Unless we get lots of Hazpens.

I think the reason Chelsea looked so exposed is because in the second half Reading sat back on the edge of their box and let chelsea throw lots of bodies forward which left more gaps at the back, against a side that has more of the ball we'd wouldnt have so many players up the pitch so we'd be a bit more secure at the back

Of course what mole and others said about our team not being totally comfortable at playing expansive football is also true, although with Luiz in the backline and a bit more time i think we can fix alot of that up

fatman123 wrote:I think the reason Chelsea looked so exposed is because in the second half Reading sat back on the edge of their box and let chelsea throw lots of bodies forward which left more gaps at the back, against a side that has more of the ball we'd wouldnt have so many players up the pitch so we'd be a bit more secure at the back

Of course what mole and others said about our team not being totally comfortable at playing expansive football is also true, although with Luiz in the backline and a bit more time i think we can fix alot of that up

We also subbed Mikel off for Sturridge in the 68th minute so obviously we're going to look bare in defense after that. My worry is that we will be exposed when not playing as deep as we did when parking. I'd like to see how Cahill/Luiz fairs when we played further up the pitch.

lszanto wrote:We also subbed Mikel off for Sturridge in the 68th minute so obviously we're going to look bare in defense after that. My worry is that we will be exposed when not playing as deep as we did when parking. I'd like to see how Cahill/Luiz fairs when we played further up the pitch.

true
JT is still solid defensively but when we've got the ball hes just not sharp enough for the short passing game, and to be fair he never will be but he John Terry, and John Terry would never drop himself

personally id like to see Ivanovic-Luiz, i know it hasnt worked in the past but still id like to see it again

It was for a period of 15-20 minutes in the 1st half in which we looked exposed. Lampard totally ignoring his defensive/midfield duties was the sole cause of that. Can't see that stopping until he breaks Tambling's record either.

Aside from that we were pretty dominant yesterday. No idea what you guys are on about we had 71% possession ffs.

Only Reading I know but it no longer felt like a chore watching Chelsea yesterday. Encouraging stuff tbh.


As long as we don't revert back to hoofball I'm happy.

Gil wrote:It was for a period of 15-20 minutes in the 1st half in which we looked exposed. Lampard totally ignoring his defensive/midfield duties was the sole cause of that. Can't see that stopping until he breaks Tambling's record either.

Aside from that we were pretty dominant yesterday. No idea what you guys are on about we had 71% possession ffs.

Only Reading I know but it no longer felt like a chore watching Chelsea yesterday. Encouraging stuff tbh.


As long as we don't revert back to hoofball I'm happy.

We still just weren't sharp enough in parts which gave them dumb chances, like you said Lampard seemed to just roam around and before the foul by Terry their attacker ran through 3-4 of our players who seemingly did nothing which lead to their second goal.

That said when we were passing a moving we were great, especially at the start. The passing and movement leading up to where Ramires should have passed to Torres was incredible.

Sturidge should start on the RW against newcastle

I would give anything to have Hazard now..