Match Day Thread Chelsea v Manchester United

Well those first 2 shots were clearly clear cut chances

And after that, the fact that De Gea didn't have to do anything because Chelsea missed some absolute sitters due to gash finishing, doesn't mean there weren't more clear cut chances.

They had 24 shots on goal ffs

 

The bad 24 shots and six on goal. Then scored a penalty! Exactly what I would define as huff and puff.

 

Bloody hell talk about a back handed compliment

 

Fred denied us the victory today lads. Onwards and upwards from here on!

 

Haha. Well, your analysis was spot on.

 

Go to bed Cy ffs

 

anyone could see we rode our luck today. Our 2 clear chances were ones gifted to us and we scored from one. They had 10 times more touches in our penalty area. If that’s not being dominated and riding our luck, I don’t know what is.

 

Yeh the way we are atm, we'll take that result all day long. But we were lucky today.... and we'll all take that too

I just hope that's not how we're going to approach the Arsenal game. Fck that, we need to be going out to win. Hopefull Rangnick will be in charge although I don't expect him to come in and make a massive impact in 3 days but it might make some difference.

 

My take on today.
Last week on one thread i said would be delighted with a 0-1 win and happy with a 1-1 draw. That was based on the fact i expected another humiliation like we got against City and Liverpool (forget Watford)
After the result today i am more than happy, Chelsea battered us pretty much in the same way the other two did but today i saw total commitment and fight from every player on the team. This has been lacking far too long and has gone a long way to the scorelines we have had, did we play "the United way", no but at least we had a base to start from.
It will take time but if we see that level of effort against teams other than the top 3 then we should start to improve our position drastically because we will earn the right to attack.

 

Yeh I'd agree. And if we can match that commitment and organisation with a system and style of football that brings the best out of our attack as well as defence, which hopefully Rangnick will bring, then it's a big step forward.

 

That’s why I don’t think it was a matter of luck today. It was a tactical game that Chelsea wanted to win at but they got nullified. I watched the game and it didn’t feel like a goal was coming but we invited way too much pressure which all played out at the edge of the box. That’s the direct result of the compact system and the commitment of our players to stay disciplined.

Was it pretty? It certainly wasn’t. But the tactics essentially ended up reducing Chelsea’s free scoring type of football. With the right frame of mind (which we don’t yet have due to damage control mode), I saw enough to be sure that if we needed to attack cohesively to a system, it can certainly be done.

Overall, the result was much luck but the actual mechanics of the setup. Heck, we could have actually won it if Fred didn’t “panic” as Christian put it. I guess we ultimately have to credit Carrick for that resolve as opposed to simply classing it as “luck”.

 

Come on man. This is trying to squeeze reality into your truth. I got accused of that when Ole was around. And now you are doing it (and you probably don’t realise it)

 

The bus was very heavy, Christian. That’s why Chelsea didn’t win. . They ultimately struggled to break down the defence. Similar to when we play smaller teams and they pack the bus and we would struggle to score. That was the setup today and it worked. Not because of luck per se, but by design of that system to frustrate Chelsea and they didn’t handle it well.

I didn’t enjoy it from free flowing football standing. But it good to see tactically and wasn’t exactly “rain fire on the goal” by Chelsea as the 24 shots would suggest. Which is why I said Chelsea were largely timid in the final third. Hence why they didn’t score from an open play.

I don’t see oddity with that message. But pointing out that the final was direct result of tactical clash with Chelsea couldn’t deal with.

 

This match raised some issues for me:

- where was all this hard work when Ole was around? Why now with Carrick who has been the field coach all along for many years alongside Ole?

- Surely the players and team must now have realised that against ANY premiership team, to have Ronaldo (lauded as the best player in the world) in the team is not enough, they still have to run, tackle, put in the hard graft and give 100%. Then your extra talent will make a difference. Ferguson has said this umpteen times. You can get away with this in Europe with moderate teams where they dominate but a last minute goal saves your bacon. Not in the premiership.

- The Ronaldo conundrum: Will he be adapted into the Rangnick system or will he have to leave or benched because as Ole has shown the rest of the team find it difficult/are reluctant to cover for him and now seemingly confirmed by this match? Can Rangnick solve the problem that Ole couldn’t and got him the sack?

- AND Carrick showed the objective of this team and club by saying he was disappointed with a draw. They have to set out to win every match and whilst a draw is not a bad result sometimes you have set very high expectations of your players. Ole pushed his niceness to absurd limits. Apparently after our defeat at young boys he praised the players for a good performance if not result. Some players were apparently flabbergasted. Not sure whether the story is just gossip but you have to set very high expectations and not accept errors or off days as one of those things. One can be too nice.

 

The whole Ronaldo thing is overblown, I’m my opinion. There is no problem with having Ronaldo in the team. At least, there shouldn’t be. He was first a midfielder! He knows all there of to know about kinky plays. He knows how to put defenders under pressure. He’s still played the linkup play yesterday. He did it for most of his career. And also, he knows where the back of the net is. If you can’t fit a player like that into your team, then I question what kind of football you’re playing to begin with.

Secondly, he is one man! yet everyone is talking as though Ronaldo is five players in the team. “How do they cover for him”. “What if he doesn’t tackle?”. “What if he refuses to play”. It’s like ffs!! He is a forward!!!

Yesterday was a tactical ploy to nullify Chelsea and play a very defensive match. That is absolutely not going to be the norm. And if it becomes the norm, then I guess we are in for a nasty ride.

This debate comes from the press always having to write something about United. And they will write anything to make it seem like they are actually putting in an effort to be analysts.

 

As for players playing better under Carrick, the team needed a chance to psychologically kick in. Removing Ole provided that. Same thing happened when Ole came in. History has shown that players generally respond well to that kind of change. The question is whether such change in effort can be sustained before complacency kicks in again. That is the job of a good manager.

Look at some of Ole’s interviews as well. He suggested that one of the Champions League games wasn’t a must win when we actually needed to absolutely win. Ultimately, Ole had the wrong mentality to lead the team.

 

Look, all that's important to begin with is playing with an identity. A system.

It's like worrying about how many apples we're growing when we haven't even fed or watered it the tree. The apples will come, just do the basics first.

 

We all think there shouldn’t be if there was an excellent manager with previous experience of managing world class egos and a candidate to be GOAT. Ole just couldn’t cope (I’ve said this months ago) he was completely overawed and the whole edifice crumbled whether it should or shouldn’t have happened. The stats show the difference between pre and CR periods. And this is something that Rangnick would have to deal with. Brushing it under the carpet pretending it’s not an issue will eventually poison Rangnick and I’m sure he’ll deal with it or try to,

 

Stats pre and CR periods? And the stats pre and Sancho period? How about the stats pre and McFred period?

Errrm... I think Rangnick will look at the way we've played over the past 18-24 months and know exactly what the problem's been and how it's progressively worsened. **** football, no coaching, relying on individual brilliance to save us, and the over dependence on a player we bought off Sporting to mask it all.

But yeh... Ronaldo. Fcking hell.

 

This is not Ronaldo’s fault. He is a great player and scores goals. That’s stating the obvious and I’ve said it many times, why can’t we incorporate him into our team FFS? Why is this such an impossible task? But somehow Ole couldn’t do it. He was caught like a rabbit in the headlights and had nowhere to go.