Chelsea F.C. III: The Age of Antonio

[saint.nick]

That would've been a sick day out. Good win.

 

[Haffa]

Love it. My favourite part of the game is the certain knowledge that Mourinho would have wanted united to play exactly like Chelsea did

 

[DC80]

Mourinho is demented. He’s been gradually losing it over the past three years and is becoming even more sour.

His teams boring style of play is unwatchable for me. Park the bus, everyone get back and defend, he kills creativity...Sanchez going to Man U was s mistake (besides the 500k per week).

On the game itself, Hazard is a different class. Stupid tackle by Jones for the penalty. Hazard is probably the best player in the league at maintaining possession so it was silly to dive in on him like that.

 

[Jimbo]

Not-too bad Chelsea 1, average Man United 0 then

Scoring first was obviously the key, and some great work by Tiboo to hold them out

Getting our cup back is a nice way to end an otherwise forgettable season

 

[saint.nick]

Mourinho is demented. He’s been gradually losing it over the past three years and is becoming even more sour.

His teams boring style of play is unwatchable for me. Park the bus, everyone get back and defend, he kills creativity...Sanchez going to Man U was s mistake (besides the 500k per week).

On the game itself, Hazard is a different class. Stupid tackle by Jones for the penalty. Hazard is probably the best player in the league at maintaining possession so it was silly to dive in on him like that.

To be fair to Jones, he had no choice. If Hazard was allowed one more step he probably rifles it into the back of the net. All Jones could do was try his best to stop Hazard, and he knew he wouldn't be sent off because it was a legitimate attempt to win the ball.

Mourinho has indeed lost the plot though. He's got an obsession with buses - he likes parking them and he likes throwing his players under them. It was all Lukaku's fault this time. Or something like that.

Hazard is a different class but only on his day. Those days have been a little too few and far between IMO.

 

[saint.nick]

Wow. This snapchat Willian did is just embarrassing. A great day for his club and he tries to tarnish it like that. What a flog.

Who the f**k does that?!

 

[Jimbo]

Wow. This snapchat Willian did is just embarrassing. A great day for his club and he tries to tarnish it like that. What a flog.

Who the f**k does that?!

Skill and professionalism are not always found together

Shut up and dribble

 

[saint.nick]

Skill and professionalism are not always found together

Shut up and dribble

Willian has the maturity level of a dribbler.

 

[Haffa]

Yep, crazy unprofessional. Dipped into the Diego Costa well of handling grievances through social media. I hope the club fine him for it and then refuse to sell him to United.

 

[saint.nick]

Crazy how one could be such a diligent performer on the field and be such an unprofessional melt off the field

 

[Haffa]

.

 

[DC80]

To be fair to Jones, he had no choice. If Hazard was allowed one more step he probably rifles it into the back of the net. All Jones could do was try his best to stop Hazard, and he knew he wouldn't be sent off because it was a legitimate attempt to win the ball.

Mourinho has indeed lost the plot though. He's got an obsession with buses - he likes parking them and he likes throwing his players under them. It was all Lukaku's fault this time. Or something like that.

Hazard is a different class but only on his day. Those days have been a little too few and far between IMO.

It was terrible defending whatever way you look at it. If Hazard was about to get a clear strike at goal as you say, and he quite possibly was, it was poor play by Jones to allow him to get into that position. The lunge was the second error.

Mourinho has turned very sour. Think the spark has gone, left him after he was fired by Chelsea that second time. See him lasting next season and then out the door at Man U.

Hazard does turn it on when he feels like it, which is the one thing preventing him from winning personal accolades to match his immense talent. In terms of close ball control, I’d only rank Messi as being better.

 

[Haffa]

It was terrible defending whatever way you look at it. If Hazard was about to get a clear strike at goal as you say, and he quite possibly was, it was poor play by Jones to allow him to get into that position. The lunge was the second error.

Mourinho has turned very sour. Think the spark has gone, left him after he was fired by Chelsea that second time. See him lasting next season and then out the door at Man U.

Hazard does turn it on when he feels like it, which is the one thing preventing him from winning personal accolades to match his immense talent. In terms of close ball control, I’d only rank Messi as being better.

Joses spark was gone when he left Inter. He’s been a miserable prick since then.

 

[Mong]

Yep

And the fa cup final was a f**king dreadful game to watch. I wasn’t unhappy to see Jose lose

 

[DC80]

Yep

And the fa cup final was a f**king dreadful game to watch. I wasn’t unhappy to see Jose lose

Mourinho is an entertainment killer. He sets out to kill a game, spoil it, that’s his modus operandi, and he does so by tactics (ultra defensive 10 men behind the ball, ie. park the bus), and the dark arts (time waste, players going down feigning injury, slow throw ins, slow goal kicks, employing yard dog players like “watch out for his elbows” Fellaini roughing players up, having the players leaving their foot in and following through in the tackle...example, Ander Herrera, previously a clean player, became a niggling little runt after Mourinho got in his ear).

When he plans for a game, his first mission is not to lose. He focuses heavily on the opposition and negating them, rather than focusing on his own team and setting out to win the game. He’s a results based manager not a performance based manager, ie. while other managers say “we perform well the result will take care of itself”, he doesn’t give a rats about the performance, solely the scorline. Defend in numbers, frustrate and demoralise the opposition, pinch the game as they make an inevitable error. It’s very effective but crap to watch, the main reason Barca would never hire him.

His teams are instantly forgettable. His press conferences are more entertaining.

 

[Jimbo]

Pretty good summary DC

Foz made the point before the game that Jose doesn't care if his teams are 'entertaining' or not. His job is to win, and that's entertaining enough for his club and fans

 

[DC80]

Not enough for a growing number of Man U fans now Jimbo. They are tolerating him as the previous three years were the disastrous Moyes and Van Gaal, so at the moment they want to win regardless of how, but many United fans are growing restless. When he doesn’t win there’s nothing to fall back on. Fans feel cheated. I don’t see them challenging next season so I see him gone at the end of it. He’s a three year manager anway as players get sick of him. After just five months Alexi Sanchez looks fed up.

To be fair to mr anti football, the Robben, Duff, Lampard team was reasonably entertaining...but even then that team had an emphasis on defending. Duff talks about how regimented he was, you didn’t track back and defend you were out of the team. His teams have got progressively more duller since then.

Mr total football Cruyff is on one end of the entertainment scale, Mourinho is on the opposite.

 

[saint.nick]

It was terrible defending whatever way you look at it. If Hazard was about to get a clear strike at goal as you say, and he quite possibly was, it was poor play by Jones to allow him to get into that position. The lunge was the second error.

Mourinho has turned very sour. Think the spark has gone, left him after he was fired by Chelsea that second time. See him lasting next season and then out the door at Man U.

Hazard does turn it on when he feels like it, which is the one thing preventing him from winning personal accolades to match his immense talent. In terms of close ball control, I’d only rank Messi as being better.

I agree that it was terrible positional defending to allow Hazard into that huge open space. My point is that Jones' only chance of redeeming that f**k up was to desperately lunge and risk fouling Hazard. It's something I would never praise though. Too many people will see a defender be hopelessly caught out of position but then praise his 'brilliant last ditch defending' if he is able to recover back and win the ball, when in actual fact all he did was let himself and the team off the hook. It's like someone being praised for sweeping up the glass they just dropped on the floor before a kid stepped on it.

 

[saint.nick]

The standards of many United fans have dropped and they don't even realise it. The pro Mourinho brigade believe he is doing a good job because 'progress' has been made due to coming second and winning 2 trophies last season. Such bollocks. He has not been given over half a billion pounds (and counting) to achieve negligible progress milestones. When considering all of his resources, and the expectations and standards of the club and (reasonable) fans, if he is not winning major trophies and at least being competitive in the league then what the hell is he good for?

 

[thorson1987]

I agree that it was terrible positional defending to allow Hazard into that huge open space. My point is that Jones' only chance of redeeming that f**k up was to desperately lunge and risk fouling Hazard. It's something I would never praise though. Too many people will see a defender be hopelessly caught out of position but then praise his 'brilliant last ditch defending' if he is able to recover back and win the ball, when in actual fact all he did was let himself and the team off the hook. It's like someone being praised for sweeping up the glass they just dropped on the floor before a kid stepped on it.

The Alberto Moreno method of defending.