Middlesbrough 1 Chelsea 0

[chara]

2 minutes ago, CarefreeMuratcan said:

 

Still not been transferred to Labour Ward yet. We are waiting in a room in the Antenatal Ward. As soon a space frees up in Labour Ward they'll hook my wife to the inducing serum and then hopefully we will make progress!!!

Thanks CarefreeM !.....if a boy can I assume he will have dual English/Turkish International choices as a star Chelsea player of the future?

Edited January 10 by chara

[Blue Moon]

21 minutes ago, chara said:

Thanks CarefreeM !.....if a boy can I assume he will have dual English/Turkish International choices as a star Chelsea player of the future?

Quite. By the time he’s old enough, we may be back in the PL. 

[Holymoly]

6 hours ago, martin1905 said:

We've seen it with our own eyes for quite a while now, it's what amazes me when people don't see it. 

Excellent post. That being said I have a few comments of my own.

When HM Govt decided to villify Abramovich and force the sale of the club many of us seriously considered that the jig was up entirely for our club so I am perhaps not the gloom merchant many of you are when I look at the situation in which we find ourselves today. Add to the mix that many of us had been calling for a root and branch revamp of the  squad for a few years even before the Americans rolled into town. So when Boehly and Eghbali went about ripping up the World Club Cup winning squad I for one was prepared to go with it. So far so good the plan seemed workable.

Then reality set in. First of all the entirety of Abramovich's back room staff either left or was let go.. This was the first step of destroying the ethos of the club. Then the acquisitions that were bought were all young, inexperienced players admitedly with high potential. The trouble with potential however is that it rarely develops at the rate or in the direction that is desired. We now have a squad with no inherent leadership beyond Thiago Silva who for whatever reason has eschewed the captaincy. Sterling is just a cancerous mercenary who has never shown any leadership skills in any of the sides in which he has played. Even Gareth Southgate has turned his back on him as the busted flush he has become.

I am probably in the minority when I say that I supported the owners when they sacked Tuchel. From all reports his behaviour had left them with no alternative. Yes we would probably be in a better state if he was still here however you can't have the tail wag the dog. Unfortunately at that point there were no outstanding candidates to take over. This is the point at which we began the death spiral. As soon as Potter was appointed we bacame a club holding no attraction for any world class manager to consider. We were effectively a brand new club. New owners, new back room staff, new untried manager, new players and thus no link back to the successful past history. Yes there appears to be money available to reinforce the squad however what is needed is leadership and an entire spine of experienced players from which can be added the young players with potential that are currently floundering in mid table mediocrity. Unfortunately that is not cheap even if those individuals can indeed be found.

So here we find ourselves. Sitting in mid table, playing inconsistently, a squad with a soft underbelly. Don't expect much to change in the short term, any by that I mean in the next two or three years. I look back on Liverpool when they found themselves in a similar situation, however they had retained the continuity and were able to attract Klopp. Success however was achieved slowly even then. City poured a fortune into the club and yet, even though they had best in class behind the scenes, it took the acquisition of Guardiola before they finally began achieving the heights. We're not going to become title contenders with Pochettino, a bunch of kids with no on field leadership and a transfer policy that takes no account of the mental strengths and weanesses of players..

Get used to our current lot in life as nothing is going to change until every aspect of the setup is dissected and changed as required if and when upgrades become available. This is no longer the club of the men of 2012 or even that of the boys of 2021. London is no longer even Blue. There is a long and torturous road ahead for those who choose to stick with it. Success and trophies will be a dim memory I believe before we once again see light at the end of the tunnel. We have lived through the Clubs' most successful point in their history, the future is uncertain.

[asvaberg]

One day you will create a profile for him/her in our forum with the nick "ToothfreeMuratcan" ? 😁

 

[chara]

35 minutes ago, asvaberg said:

One day you will create a profile for him/her in our forum with the nick "ToothfreeMuratcan" ? 😁

 

Ain't that the trufe !

[Blue Moon]

38 minutes ago, asvaberg said:

One day you will create a profile for him/her in our forum with the nick "ToothfreeMuratcan" ? 😁

Health minister Dame Andrea would disagree. Yesterday she said: "You have teeth from before you're born so if you don't get your supervised toothbrushing until you're three at a minimum, your teeth are about four-and-a-half years old."

So if she's right (and she's a member of the government, so she must be), he/she had teeth before she was even conceived.

[chara]

48 minutes ago, Blue Moon said:

Health minister Dame Andrea would disagree. Yesterday she said: "You have teeth from before you're born so if you don't get your supervised toothbrushing until you're three at a minimum, your teeth are about four-and-a-half years old."

So if she's right (and she's a member of the government, so she must be), he/she had teeth before she was even conceived.

THAT explains a lot!...... I on the other hand didn't know my A**s* from my elbow until recently...and I still get it all mixed up at times. Perhaps I should have gone in  to politics..or even the sports media...seems I was well qualified!

Edited January 10 by chara

[Sciatika]

55 minutes ago, Blue Moon said:

Health minister Dame Andrea would disagree. Yesterday she said: "You have teeth from before you're born so if you don't get your supervised toothbrushing until you're three at a minimum, your teeth are about four-and-a-half years old."

So if she's right (and she's a member of the government, so she must be), he/she had teeth before she was even conceived.

Generally, assuming ministers on both sides have their briefs in order is probably a mistake. 

[chara]

5 minutes ago, Sciatika said:

Generally, assuming ministers on both sides have their briefs in order is probably a mistake. 

Which is why, I suppose. they often get caught with them down!.

[blueandproud]

Crap performance, but will Boro fancy it at the Bridge whatever the weather?  Everyone used teams don't fancy a cold night in Stoke,  but teams like Stoke regularly got stuffed in London or the South East whatever the weather.  We cannot miss the chances Palmer did, but I for one fancy us to do them at the Bridge, the only thing Boro get from there is the team bus back home.  We're still alive.  Keep the faith and shut that anti-Chelsea prat Andy Hichcliffe up.

KTBFFH!!!!

[hallgalley]

Apparently there is no away goal rule so that at least is a bonus….

[CarefreeMuratcan]

3 hours ago, chara said:

Thanks CarefreeM !.....if a boy can I assume he will have dual English/Turkish International choices as a star Chelsea player of the future?

 

3 hours ago, Blue Moon said:

Quite. By the time he’s old enough, we may be back in the PL. 

We already know the baby is a she, we didn't want to wait :)

So future captain of Chelsea Women's team and future captain of England or Turkey (whichever she feels more connected to). 

But if I had been a footballer I would have chosen Turkey ;)

 

[CarefreeMuratcan]

4 minutes ago, hallgalley said:

Apparently there is no away goal rule so that at least is a bonus….

They used to have a weird format where it wouldn't count at FT but would count AET. 

But now it doesn't count at all. 

[Mark Kelly]

2 minutes ago, CarefreeMuratcan said:

 

But if I had been a footballer I would have chosen Turkey 😉

 

 

I think most of us would too. 

[chrisb]

2 minutes ago, CarefreeMuratcan said:

 

We already know the baby is a she, we didn't want to wait 🙂

So future captain of Chelsea Women's team and future captain of England or Turkey (whichever she feels more connected to). 

But if I had been a footballer I would have chosen Turkey 😉

 

 

Have you picked a name yet?

My daughter Chelsea-Ann says hi! 😉

[CarefreeMuratcan]

We dominate Boro and lose 1-0.

Liverpool get dominated by Fulham and suddenly end up 2-1 up from 1-0 down (and deserving to be 2-0 down).

Football. 

[Leo]

50 minutes ago, CarefreeMuratcan said:

We dominate Boro and lose 1-0.

Liverpool get dominated by Fulham and suddenly end up 2-1 up from 1-0 down (and deserving to be 2-0 down).

Football. 

mentality. 

[chara]

1 hour ago, chrisb said:

Have you picked a name yet?

My daughter Chelsea-Ann says hi! 😉

Sorry can't claim a Chelsea connection off spring..BUT...Dogs...Holly, Pedro. Chelsea, Catty...  Cats.....Butch..and a puppy my sister and I gifted my parents many years ago..Blue.

[Mark Kelly]

59 minutes ago, CarefreeMuratcan said:

We dominate Boro and lose 1-0.

Liverpool get dominated by Fulham and suddenly end up 2-1 up from 1-0 down (and deserving to be 2-0 down).

Football. 

Proper coach with a way of playing regardless who's in the side. 

[chara]

With the identifying with present day Chelsea issue cropping up on different topics hard to know where to put this.

As mentioned by many veteran and not so veteran guys/gals here there is a strange disconnect being felt...puzzling many of us but very real across the membership.

A thought or two...does anyone feel that,like me. the apparent lack of players actually showing any identifying with Chelsea have an impact?...Conor and Alfie obvious examples and a few others who do but in the main there seems to be no affinity by many to the shirt.

Looking back over the years many players have come in from.shall we say less,"popular" clubs but have assimilated and become fan favourites and for their time here True Blue..Joey Jones, Mickey Thomas even going way back to Tommy Baldwin...SFL JFH to name more recent examples..a lot to choose from but all identifying with Chelsea and by extension the fans who can tell every time.

Any thoughts?

[kev61]

19 hours ago, Mark Kelly said:

One thing I have noticed and I am as far from a tactician as it's possible to be so maybe someone with more knowledge can explain this is that whenever we play the ball out to the winger , they're generally isolated and have very few options , occasionally the full back will pop in to help for a bit and then you have two players passing the ball to each other out wide with nowhere to go I have noticed many times that nobody in midfield and I'm especially targeting Caicedo here comes across and makes an angle for them to pass into the middle third of the pitch and we then end up passing the ball backwards towards our own goal and starting the farce again.

Last night Boro put two players on Madueke and Caicedo never showed for the pass once which would have opened up the middle of the pitch for us and helped us have some more meaningful possession where there was at least the off chance we could exploit the space to our advantage.

For me it's a coaching issue , one of not having any idea what to do , how to support your team mates or to show for the pass. 

When you add to it the constant personnel changes in defence , players being played out of position and poorly too , no help for the wingers , isolated forwards , glory hunters who do everything to make them look good and bugger the team and lack of application , spirit and desire , one has to conclude that Poch is taking the piss. 

Pretty well summed up.I said before you can't expect a winger or a centre forward to perform without any sort of strategic back up. 

For example - in the glory days of our last champions league success we had Mount and James tearing teams apart with their wide link up play.

A team without width will never win anything.When Mudryk receives the ball he is confronted by 2 and sometimes 3 players because our link up play has no strategy 

Is  Mudrk dumb?... possibly, but it shows the coaching leaves a lot to be desired.Let him take a defender on one on one.It doesn't happen because we have no fluency and usually bogged down in all areas of the pitch.

We looked good in pre - season (not a great marker I grant you)but it's  as if Poch has put player's names in a tombola and picked out players and their positions  at random  hoping to get a good outcome. 

I get 'the owners are morons'  'It's a young team'  'the problem lies deeper than the manager'..all valid,but the biggest problem we have right here and right now is the manager.

 

[kev61]

6 minutes ago, kev61 said:

Pretty well summed up.I said before you can't expect a winger or a centre forward to perform without any sort of strategic back up. 

For example - in the glory days of our last champions league success we had Mount and James tearing teams apart with their wide link up play.

A team without width will never win anything.When Mudryk receives the ball he is confronted by 2 and sometimes 3 players because our link up play has no strategy 

Is  Mudrk dumb?... possibly, but it shows the coaching leaves a lot to be desired.Let him take a defender on one on one.It doesn't happen because we have no fluency and usually bogged down in all areas of the pitch.

We looked good in pre - season (not a great marker I grant you)but it's  as if Poch has put player's names in a tombola and picked out players and their positions  at random  hoping to get a good outcome. 

I get 'the owners are morons'  'It's a young team'  'the problem lies deeper than the manager'..all valid,but the biggest problem we have right here and right now is the manager.

 

Just to add to proceedings - Tuchel was the best manager we ever had imo -a proper coach that outwitted  every other coach in our champions league winning team whilst playing the best football of any chelsea team I've seen in my lifetime. 

 

 

[Bert19]

4 hours ago, kev61 said:

Just to add to proceedings - Tuchel was the best manager we ever had imo -a proper coach that outwitted  every other coach in our champions league winning team whilst playing the best football of any chelsea team I've seen in my lifetime. 

 

 

I'll debate you for Carlo Ancelotti's 09-10 team on the bit i've highlighted, but I pretty much agree with your points on Tuchel overall - best manager we'd had in ages. 

[paulw66]

5 hours ago, kev61 said:

Just to add to proceedings - Tuchel was the best manager we ever had imo -a proper coach that outwitted  every other coach in our champions league winning team whilst playing the best football of any chelsea team I've seen in my lifetime. 

 

 

Interesting one. I thought under Gullit and Vialli in the late 90s we played some beautiful football, but had a soft underbelly. 

The 2004-2006 spell under JM, we just steam rollered teams. Loved being so miserly with goals against.

2009-10 was a great watch. Scored bucket loads of goals, even if not the best defensively.

2014-15 was pretty special, and I don't think gets enough credit. We were top from day 1 to the end.

2006-17 under Conte was great but he had the benefit of no European football. The 12 game winning run from November into January was quite special.

They all had one common denominator; a top class CF. 

Edited January 11 by paulw66

[Miguelito07]

3 minutes ago, paulw66 said:

Interesting one. I thought under Gullit and Vialli in the late 90s we played some beautiful football, but had a soft underbelly. 

There were some special moments too under Hoddle's reign.