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Chelsea (H) PL - Thurs 4th Mar 2021 at 20:15


TheDrowningMan
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4 minutes ago, Supremolad said:

When we drew with West Brom and lost at home to Brighton and Burnley, those results weren't enough to let you know something was seriously wrong already?

Well clearly, but I kept presuming we would turn it around, unlikely now.

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Lets the be honest the odds of Klopp turning this around from here are slim. He deserves a chance for sure, and it's not a slight on him but when the rot sets in it is borderline impossible for any manager to turn it around. Really looking like its some very tough times ahead.

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It's almost exactly a calendar year since that fucking Watford game. 

 

In that time, we've played the equivalent of a full league season. Our record is as follows:

 

Played 38

Won 18

Drawn 10

Lost 11

Points 64

Goal difference +17

 

Now, given we were crowned league champions, while still reigning European and world champions, in that period, it's a pretty astonishing decline... 

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We need to start learning from the repeated lessons we are being handed. I am fine with a bad season klopp has more than enough credit on the board but we at least need to see him and his team managing the situation not just going again and again  us seeing the exact same game and results repeating like we are expecting things to change themselves.

 

The seasons fucked try something different.

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We can’t blame tiredness because they had 3 months off last year when covid kicked in. We’re not playing domestic cup games and the international footballs been knocked on the head for a while. This squad have probably played less games than ever. 
 

The managers got to take responsibility for this shit show. If he was trying different formations or mixing things around and

we were getting beat after having 10 shots hit the bar or cleared off the line then we could put it down to bad luck but we’re doing the same thing game after game and everyone’s worked us out apart from him.

 

For what it’s worth, we can criticise him without it being translated as sack Klopp or who would you bring in to do better. 

 

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3 minutes ago, Josef Svejk said:

It's almost exactly a calendar year since that fucking Watford game. 

 

In that time, we've played the equivalent of a full league season. Our record is as follows:

 

Played 38

Won 18

Drawn 10

Lost 11

Points 64

Goal difference +17

 

Now, given we were crowned league champions, while still reigning European and world champions, in that period, it's a pretty astonishing decline... 

How were we doing up until late-December when we lost Matip? I don’t get the Watford thing. Awful performance and we then dropped off a bit after clinching the title, yet were good enough to regroup and top the league this season until Christmas. There have been managerial errors, there have been players performing at an unacceptably low level, but it really boils down to FSG completely abandoning the club at a very obviously pivotal moment.

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5 home defeats in a row, for the first time in our history. That's pretty fucking low, I guess you can put an Asterix beside it as it's been in an empty Anfield. But no matter what type of spin you try put on it, it's a fucking disaster. I'm constantly wrestling with the idea of the credibility of this season, truth be told it's a fucking farce. But it feels a long way fucking back.

 

The Salah incident definitely spells trouble, his agent is a repugnant cunt and tonight's antics certainly don't bode well. Mane looks fucking awful at the moment and the less said about Bobby the better. Thiago's unfortunately been a fucking disaster.

 

I don't know where we go from here, very troubling times.

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4 minutes ago, TheDrowningMan said:

How were we doing up until late-December when we lost Matip?

I'm not disputing our previous excellence. I'm tracing the period of decline. 

 

The manager and players received and deserved massive praise when excelling. They deserve criticism for a sustained period of mediocrity... 

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Just now, Josef Svejk said:

I'm not disputing our previous excellence. I'm tracing the period of decline. 

 

Thd manager and players received massive praise when excelling. They deserve criticism for a sustained period of mediocrity... 

 

But that “period of decline” has massive caveats given that we subsequently clinched the title (almost every team drops off after it’s safe) and were then top of the pack this season until we had no fit defenders and owners without a jot of interest in spending when it was blindingly obvious that there would otherwise be trouble ahead.

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11 minutes ago, an tha said:

The biggest problem is our inability to play out and play through midfield way we used to...getting ball into dangerous areas quicker into players in space and with support.

 

Smash it long to a Salah with a man tight on him or pass it sideways and backwards for ages is about all we do now.

I disagree.  We tend to play out from the back  and through midfield very well.  I don’t know what game people are watching if they don’t see this.  It’s about the only thing we do well.  You can see we’ve trained it to within inch of our lives.  We’ve gone from Hendo in the No. 6 role firing the ball back to where it came from years ago to every midfielder we have taking it on the turn even when under pressure.  We work the angles to perfection every game.  We have loads of possession and it’s the reason why we hardly ever give it away and it’s lots of 2 touch and 1 touch passing which isn’t slow either.

 

What follows is a number of things.  We sometimes go long up the line, we sometimes hold possession going side to side, we sometimes push one of the full backs up the pitch and sometimes Salah or Mane goes to the touchline and gets it.  What they all have in common is that a player on the ball at that point is left in a situation where he needs to beat the man in front of him on his own.  Nobody overlaps the player on the ball out wide causing the full back problems.

 

It’s worked quite well over the years but every single team we come up against now clearly knows if they fill the middle of the pitch and you just double up on that man on the ball out wide and just allow crosses to come in from deep positions because they are never threatening ever.   Salah can’t beat one man most times never mind two.  Trent never overlaps which is fucking mental when you see how often he leaves us exposed.  He may as well do it.  On the opposite flank it’s Robertson on his own. When someone bothered to go out to the left I think it was either Jones or Firmino and he went down the line they just ignored him or used him as a decoy to play a cute pass inside which led to nothing every time because players got crowded out.  It’s the same thing every game.

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9 minutes ago, TheDrowningMan said:

 

But that “period of decline” has massive caveats given that we subsequently clinched the title (almost every team drops off after it’s safe) and were then top of the pack this season until we had no fit defenders and owners without a jot of interest in spending when it was blindingly obvious that there would otherwise be trouble ahead.

I'm not defending the owners. And there are various factors aside from ownership that explain our record over the past 12 months. 

 

But we have undeniably been mediocre for a prolonged period and worse than that of late. If that's fine with you, good for you. But I think it's worthy of comment and indeed criticism. 

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18 minutes ago, J-V said:

7 without a win at Anfield that's some piss poor management.

Yeah I actually don't mind losing. No, really. Its not that bad. I'm not that spoiled and entitled that I can't accept a bad run of form after a title winning season with a massive injury crisis. 

 

I can't accept that we don't look like scoring and aren't scoring. I can't accept the utter cluelessness in the final third and near total lack of goal threat from midfield. I can't accept our players chipping balls into the box because they don't have any better ideas. Sorry. Klopp needs to be held accountable as far as that goes. 

 

We are not entitled to success but we are entitled to feel like our team is poses a significant goal threat or what is the point in any of it? Management and the wider coaching staff need to make sure we are at least above that standard. 

 

Onwards in the Champions League then. 

 

Toi answer the questions "why are some people looking forward to the Champions League" the answer is because its still on as a viable competition for us. Hope that clears that one up. 

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On paper we have a relatively easy run to the end of the season, keeping our faint hopes of 4th alive. Problem is, I cannot see this team making those fixtures easy for us. It looks like all the belief the players had has drained out of them with every loss since Christmas. Idont think we're finishing in the top 5 this season, never mind top 4.

 

And what implications isthat going to have for Mo and Sadio? One or both of them will surely want to move on if we arent in the CL.

 

To think the team was sat at the top of the table around then, it's incredible the way results have just plumeted.

 

While I wouldnt say we got what we deserved, we didnt really deserve much. I said after chelsea played city, we needed to make sure we bombed in a few shots at Mendy because he looked a flapper. We didnt fucking trouble him once. Yet again, everyone wanted to square the ball into the box rather than have a dig. Mind you, having seen Sadio and Curtis' efforts, I can maybe understand why.

 

How the fuck does a professional footballer of Sadio's quality fucking air shot that chance in the first half? Even after he took a swing at it, he thought the fucking thing was behind him. Curtis gets the ball out widenot long after and has a shot from the corner of the box that ends up like a recent cross from Trent. That is high and wide.

 

Really, are none of the coaching staff having the players try some shots from 18 to 20 yards out? What makes it worse is that mount is in a similar position toCurtis in our box, cuts inside and has a dig from just inside the box.

 

It's starting to piss me off that Sadio is going down under the slightest touch everywhere on the pitch except the box. Again when clipped, he tried to stay on his feet in the box. OK, maybe the ref doesnt give it but how about asking him the question?

 

Im not in favour of our players diving. I just dont get why Sadio goes down everywhere except the box. Speaking of which, what's happened to the link up between Robbo and Sadio? Looks to have gone the same way as the link up between Mo, Sadio and Bobby.

 

It was another one of those games where we looked like we could play for 4 hours and still not get a shot on target never mind score. Neither is Jota going to turn things around on his own. Doesnt bear thinking about.

 

I feel for Kabak, he must be thinking WTF have I let myself in for here? 1 win and a draw is it out of 6 games?

 

Not sure why Jurgen didnt change things at half time. Whatever we were doing wasnt working so why waste 10 minutes of the 2nd half until you change something?

 

Mo wasnt happy at coming off and I cant say I blame him. Maybe Jurgen took him off because he didnt want a grumpy Sadio moaning 'why me?' OK Mo wasnt getting much change out of rudiger  but he was far more livelier than Sadio or Bobby.

 

Whatever we're doing, Trent is getting hung out to dry. He cant get forward and be back in a defensive position at the same time. And bringing Milner on? If Origi isnt the answer may be Shaq is but again, he isnt used.

 

I hate saying it but the team has run it's course. It's just a bitch we're now going to limp through the rest of this season.

 

Can anyone tell me why Kovacic didnt get a yellow card for deliberately kicking the ball at Sadio's head when he was on the deck?

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It was the wrong sub taking Salah off as others have said - problem is even if he stayed on the pitch we weren’t scoring. 

Once we go a goal down in games we look void of confidence and ideas of how to score or even generate shots on goal.

 

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1 minute ago, Mark M said:

It was the wrong sub taking Salah off as others have said - problem is even if he stayed on the pitch we weren’t scoring. 

Once we go a goal down in games we look void of confidence and ideas of how to score or even generate shots on goal.

 

When you take off your only creative threat we certainly wern't going to score.

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Just now, J-V said:

When you take off your only creative threat we certainly wern't going to score.

We didn’t have a shot on target for the 65mins he was on the pitch for.

 

it doesn’t look like an individual issue but collectively the whole team look leggy/ and out of ideas.
 

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