[Archived] Chelsea Vs ROVERS

[ultrablue]

No fault on Salgados part for that first goal.

Samba was yards away from Terry on the first header, Pedersen messed up the clearance.

Second goal no great blame to lay on anyone (except Samba gave away the corner with some awful football)

[BPF]

Not wishing to carry on Jim et als crusade to discuss the pros and cons of Sam and Kean, but did anyone else feel from watching today's game that we had a better chance of getting back into it under Kean than we would have had under Sam?

Under Sam, you knew they'd score everytime they went up. Even at three nil we used to invite pressure on us.

[Exiled in Toronto]

Lowe had a good Pl debut, but he was a bit too keen to give the simple ball to MGP, which is tantamount to giving it away. I think every one of MGP's blind first-time dinks forward resulted in a dangerous Chelsea counter-attack. Not a centre-mid, not a good winger, not long for the 1st team IMO.

[cn174]

Rubbish about no effort under Sam.

I think we were 6 minutes away from a draw last time out under Chelsea. Today they were wounded, and we didnt get at them as much. Hands down, they were better than us though.

Yes they were better than us, they're Chelsea, it is to be expected. However last year at Chelsea we just rolled over and let them walk all over us, whether that is effort, tactics or what I don't know.

I thought today we were better than that. For the most part we defended well I thought - Givet's tackle in the first half was a good example of this. However, the goals we gave away were sloppy especially the second one. Silly mistake from Samba to allow the corner.

We didn't offer a great deal going forward. Kalinic was back to his bambi-like style, getting out muscled and not keeping hold of the ball. We did have a couple of decent chances though in the first half.

Second half we couldn't get the ball enough to do anything with it. Hopefully when Jones comes in we'll have more of a ball winner so that the likes of Olson and Hoilett have more chance to run with it.

Overall, weren't expecting to win this one, but was better than a lot of what we've seen away from home recently.

[Teacup]

I think to be fair, the change to 4-3-3 made it worse for us. We could have probably got a goal, maybe two if we had wingers, but playing through the centre of Chelsea's midfield with no wingers in a strange 4-3-3 formation was a complete no-go. Lowe seemed to drift into the defence, Ollson seemed to take a central midfield attack role and Gamst just stayed on the left wing. It was not how they was suppose to play, I think they just all got a bit confused lol

Up until that point though, I think it was a positive, nice football, we looked good, it was just waiting for the chances to come up. I am sure Roque would of scored if only he had been given more of the ball in better positions. I doubt that Kean will do 4-3-3 again as it clearly just cannot work with out current squad. That change alone made the last 35 minutes a complete walk-over for Chelsea.

[jim mk2]

Someone commented that Salgado was at least partly responsible for one of the goals when he drifted away from his position on the line.

However good he is going forward, his poor defensive qualities have resulted in our conceding more goals than we needed to.

Most goals comes from mistakes - don't think he was particularly culpable for either.

Good player - love his attitude. Wish we had more like him.

[Blue n White Rover]

Don't think you can take too many positives or negatives from todays performance.

Yes we fared a lot worse last time round at Stamford Bridge but we had a team struck down with swine flu and were playing a Chelsea team who were in good form at the time, rather than one who've been in their worst form since Abramovich took over.

First half we did reasonably well but a lot of it was down to Chelsea not getting into full gear.

Second half we offered very little and Chelsea eased to victory in the end.

Overall disappointed we didn't offer anything more against a team who are in very poor form, but losing 2-0 at Stamford Bridge is still acceptable.

Chelsea may well be in a poor run of form, however, they still have the 2nd best home record in the League, only bettered by Manchester United. I now make that 8 wins, 2 draws and 1 defeat for Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. Nothing to be ashamed of.

[Gav]

Supine performance from Rovers - weak defending and no attacking threat.

Seen nothing today that is an improvement of any of Sam's team away from home.

The anti-Sam brigade on here were quick to criticise on any setback - but they don't like it now the ball is on the other foot.

Kean has it all to prove and justify the decision to replace Sam.

As for Santa Cruz, he wandered around to no effect but will be happy with another £90,000 in his back pocket.

Weak defending and no attacking threat was probably one of the reasons Allardyce was sacked.

Kean is trying to mould the team into playing a more passing style, which isn’t going to happen overnight, and probably isn’t possible with the current crop on the books.

If memory serves me correctly we got hammered at Chelsea last season, today was hardly a hammering, and I thought again we looked promising in spells.

The difference from Allardyce to Kean is, I wouldn’t have taken time to watch an Allardyce side at Chelsea, but today I wanted to watch, from home granted, but I wanted to watch.

Onwards and upwards.

Ps - Roque hasn't played for a while, give the lad a chance.

[Stevo]

Salgado was our best player today imo

[Tom]

You're quite obviously an Allardyce fan first and a Rovers fan second. Please take your petty ramblings somewhere people would give a damn - like the nearest Dingle forum.

Pretty much spot on, his infatuation with Allardyce is confusing, Sam is gone for better or worse and some people just can't let it go.

[steo]

Thought Givet was excellent today but Kalinic,diouf,Pedersen and Olsson were absent,Lowe has good technique but has no upper body strength,we need a essien type player that drags the game by the scruff.essien was immense today.Roque should start next game and i'd drop olsson and play peds left wing.with dunny injured maybe we will stick a bid in for adam.

[brian_gallagher85]

Don't think you can take too many positives or negatives from todays performance.

Yes we fared a lot worse last time round at Stamford Bridge but we had a team struck down with swine flu and were playing a Chelsea team who were in good form at the time, rather than one who've been in their worst form since Abramovich took over.

I take on board what you're saying about it being completely different circumstances from both camps today compared to last time out, but to say that we can't learn/have learnt something from today's game simply isn't true.

a ) RSC is so much better on the ball than ANY of our other players.

b ) Kalinic is much better up front with a partner.

c ) MB Diouf is a fantastic player and gets through so much work all over the field.

d ) We need a CM who can break up play.

e ) Samba isn't worth £15m+.

f ) Personally, I think we're a much better side under Kean than Sam.

[magicalmortensleftpeg]

Supine performance from Rovers - weak defending and no attacking threat.

That's 7 points out of 18 for Kean including a a very fortunate victory at West Brom.

Rovers held their shape in the 1st half but looked disjointed in the second period after poor substituions by the manager .

Kean has it all to prove and justify the decision to replace Sam.

As for Santa Cruz, he wandered around to no effect but will be happy with another £90,000 in his back pocket.

You're pathetic. You care more about point scoring on the messageboard then point scoring on the pitch. I'm not even going to waste my time trying to argue against those points you've just made.

Encouraging performance 1st half. Desperately need a proper CM which hopefully will arrive next week. Hoilett and Olsson looked handy but Chelsea were just too powerfull. No shame from today. Bigger games ahead.

[yellowsubmarine]

Form is temporary, class is permanent. I'm talking about Chelsea. They are afterall the champions.

Sad we lost, but was it unexpected. But performance wise, i thought we were good defensively. There was a whole in midfield. Dunn's injury gave us a chance to watch another youngster, Jason Lowe. Happy with what i saw, energetic and looks to get into the action. It's a shame his "mentor" in the middle of midfield is Pedersen.

Slowest footballer in the world after David Dunn. Does Pedersen has a second gear? Thoroughly exposed as a player if there aren't any freekicks or corners.

Santa Cruz looks a much stronger player than Kalinic and holds up the ball well better.

And oh, we really need centre midfielders in this transfer window, at least 2.

[chocky]

Under Sam, you knew they'd score everytime they went up. Even at three nil we used to invite pressure on us.

We are playing better football all round. It will take time to build a team.

[brian_gallagher85]

Under Sam, you knew they'd score everytime they went up. Even at three nil we used to invite pressure on us.

Exactly, we used to always set out our stall to try and stop the other team play, but against the big guns away from home never looked like trying to get back into it and simply retreated further back.

[magicalmortensleftpeg]

Weak defending and no attacking threat was probably one of the reasons Allardyce was sacked.

Kean is trying to mould the team into playing a more passing style, which isn’t going to happen overnight, and probably isn’t possible with the current crop on the books.

If memory serves me correctly we got hammered at Chelsea last season, today was hardly a hammering, and I thought again we looked promising in spells.

The difference from Allardyce to Kean is, I wouldn’t have taken time to watch an Allardyce side at Chelsea, but today I wanted to watch, from home granted, but I wanted to watch.

Onwards and upwards.

Ps - Roque hasn't played for a while, give the lad a chance.

You're using logic and rational thinking to argue against JimMk2 here. Like Jimmy Anderson trying to get an edge from an aussie tail ender, its wasted energy. Just go hard and straight: The guy talks rubbish.

[sambo]

Jim = the most pathetic poster on this board.

We got tubbed 5-0 there under your mate Big Sam, losing 2-0 is hardly a disgrace.

Get your head out of your arse please

[brian_gallagher85]

Jamie Carragher makes Merson look like a top class pundit

[Gav]

You're using logic and rational thinking to argue against JimMk2 here. its wasted energy. Just go hard and straight: The guy talks rubbish.

Its his opinion and he's in the right place to air it, I have no problem whatsoever with that, and he certainly doesn’t talk rubbish, well not much

[DP]

WBA is a big test of the new regime. So far it's been a very mixed bag from the good (Liverpool, west brom) to the bad (stoke, Sunderland) to the indifferent ( west ham, QPR, Chelsea)

Nobody could say it's all better or all worse than under Sam as it's too early to say. I will say I much prefer our approach to games now and last Wednesday was as enjoyable as any game in recent memory.

Having said that we need to beat teams like West Brom at home if we are to stay in this league.

I just wish Kean could have a clean slate and have everyone behind him instead of people poised ready to basque in the glory of every negative.

Absolutely spot on.

I'm still pretty optimistic but we really need that extra man in midfield because at the moment we're playing with defenders, strikers and wingers. We just need a boring no nonsense centre midfield man. Let's get this German lad in and where the hell is Nzonzi?..... something clearly wrong there.

[sambo]

Its his opinion and he's in the right place to air it, I have no problem whatsoever with that, and he certainly doesn’t talk rubbish, well not much

Are you sure about that?

He pretty much contradicts everything you say re Big Sam, and all he does is berate Kean, before doing a disappearing act when we play well.

He is the new Waggy, as in he's dull, predictable and offers little in the way of meaningful debate.

[dr_awol]

Lowe had a good Pl debut, but he was a bit too keen to give the simple ball to MGP, which is tantamount to giving it away. I think every one of MGP's blind first-time dinks forward resulted in a dangerous Chelsea counter-attack. Not a centre-mid, not a good winger, not long for the 1st team IMO.

dont like making negative post, but we have so many average/poor/unfit centre-mid players theres to-many to list.

Chelsea coped well with everything we did today, easy win, but with effort we put in kept the score low with more CM battling and more creation who knows what might have been.

arte et labore, well where half way there*

*in my view

[yellowsubmarine]

Second goal no great blame to lay on anyone (except Samba gave away the corner with some awful football)

Under Sam, we could have avoided this as Samba would have hacked the ball way up the field. But we are still learning to play football, not hoofball. I guess we will learn from this.

[Blue n White Rover]

Absolutely spot on.

I'm still pretty optimistic but we really need that extra man in midfield because at the moment we're playing with defenders, strikers and wingers. We just need a boring no nonsense centre midfield man. Let's get this German lad in and where the hell is Nzonzi?..... something clearly wrong there.

Kean did say he is back training at his Press Conference on Friday. Hopefully, he will return within the next 2-3 weeks. I think he has been a massive miss for us this season. Although he wasn't the best attacking wise, he broke the play up well and did give that extra protection to the back 4.