This was about as weird as football gets. Ajax were faster, sharper, hungrier, luckier, technically brilliant and 3 goals to our 1 up at half time. Then they were 4 -1 up before Chelsea suddenly hit top gear and put Ajax in the shade for the next 40 mins. Alonso had a bad game, Willian looked like he'd had an engine transplant, Zouma made a stonking 70 mtr run, goals and red cards rained like confetti. Then it ended 4-4. Easy to say the 2 reds to Ajax turned the game, but it had already turned by then, it did quicken the rate we scored our goals. Many great performances, Reece James swung things our way, only Kepa and Alonso looked shell shocked, Frank hooked Alonso for James. Have to say I haven't enjoyed a game as much for a hell of a long time, hats off to both teams who really earned their draw.
Was that what you'd call a cup-tie?.......Reece James needs a few starts would be well deserved imo.Why not leave Dave on the left?...Don't think Frank is overly happy with Alonso or Emerson.If Ajax were to win it this year i don't think anyone would be surprised.We've done very well to take points from them.COYB'S
Mental game. Can't believe that Ajax were still trying to win it at 4-4 with 9 men! Which shows both the good and bad side of a young team I guess as we should have won it in the end really. Ajax were of course very fortunate to score 3 goals in a half they only had 1 shot on target but a draw probably a fair result in the end. Group looks far too tight for my liking and we're going to need a point in Valencia at least I suspect.
The £35 tickets for that game were an absolute bargain. One of the most exciting games of football I’ve ever seen. I just feel sorry for the hundreds of Ajax fans I saw wandering around Fulham before the game - I’m not sure why UEFA banned them from seeing the game. There just seemed to be only about 100 of them in the ground in the West Stand middle tier. Their loss and my gain because I was in the Shed Upper in what should have been the Ajax section.
Think emerson is being eased in after injury. Big fan of emerson and gives us the width and energy and attacking threat. I wouldnt want dave there, hes bad enough attacking down the right let alone on the left
It really is a tough choice. Dave for consistency, reece for more x factor stuff and development. Its hard though as dave is club captain but given the choice of emerson dave or dave dave i would definitely opt for the former
Maybe it's as simple as more rotation?? Before too long Frank will have RLC and Rudi, plus Kante back. Then he'll have the problem of an abundance of worthy players, each bringing something to the team, for virtually every position, except maybe Goalkeeper. He'll almost certainly have to rotate them a bit, otherwise we end up with almost 2 different teams, not ideal for consistency. Not a position I expected at the start of the season !!!
Agree with that,i'm all for Frank having headaches.....But in the case of Reece James i think we've got something very special on our hands.
Seen the ref get a lot of **** but I don’t think he did an awful lot wrong...Blind was a nailed on red card. The handball was never a penalty but he had to give it under the new rules, same reason why our winner was disallowed. The only thing he got wrong was the Veltman red card, If it was for handball anyway, although I feel like he was sent off for dissent with the amount of time it took to show the card. We were getting back into it 11 vs 11 and were dominating the second half, at 11 vs 10 I’d have still fancied us for a draw. I think overall a draw was fair, it was nice to see two young just go at each other really, was a great game to watch and defensively we still aren’t great but thoroughly enjoying this season. I do think James needs more football but the issue is Azpi being the captain. I wouldn’t put him left back permanently because then we won’t have a left footer on the pitch so we’ll lose balance. It’s a tough one but I’d go with Emerson on the left and then rotate James in with Azpi more. He changed the game when he came on and it’s rare you see that from a full back, he really was that good.
Yep, he's really something, and looks so relaxed about it. Think a lot of teams will be looking at us and Ajax and thinking mmmmm... maybe something in bringing a couple of kids through !!!!!
