₦airaland Forum

Griffon:
The lines in green are for airmak, who thinks collective responsibility is harming us. Like I told you yesterday, it's a group morality thing. When the team is playing not to complement eachother, then we're in trouble.

The lines in red are for Chelseafan1 who thinks outscoring our opponents is the way to go. Hombre it doesn't work that way. When you're in a position like this, going defensive and grinding out results is your best bet. I'm sure Ibime told you that yesterday.

The whole article is for my homie Nihilist who thinks attacking is our biggest problem. Just like myself, Ibime and now Jason whom I'm sure isn't registered on NL would have it, failure to maintain a good defensive shape has been our biggest undoing, a defensive shape that starts from how the pivot are faring.

I hope Jason doesn't get accused of being bitten on the neck by Vampire Ibime

Actually Jason was contradicting himself a few times. I listened to him on the Alan Brazil show yesterday morning and last night on the Sports Bar with Andy Goldstein.

Jason on one hand says we stopped hunting in packs but just Nihilist, forgot we stopped doing that midway during the season and started grinding results out till the end of the season. It happened right after the Spurs game.

Although he is right on both issues, he is wrong on the timing of the occurrence. We didn't stop hunting in packs this season.

How Nihilist forgot this beats my imagination. When I said this problem never started this season, he disagreed vehemently and consistently, pointing only to the league win, conveniently forgetting what led up to the win.

I remember in the summer, many times whilst drawing a transfer list, I came up with options that excluded Fabregas totally from the midfield. I went Koke, Vidal and one more I cannot remember. I quite recall you Lacer saying that will not happen and asking what happens to Fab. But your comments then are besides the point. That said, I do remember you also, like me, calling Fab a passenger. This was the main reason behind the desire to buy players that totally excluded Fab from the team.

Ibime pointed to not being in the mood for Vidal citing 'having no time for another ninja who doesn't ninja who doesn't put the ball to ground'

Many times after games last season, I cited a faulty attacking unit referring to our method of attack as very poor and only designed to go through Hazard. I brought up the point in Pre-season again and pointed out that the problems still exist.

My point is, my view, Ibime's one, Lacer's one, heck even BlueDiva all alinged with a long standing problem. A problem of midfield that did not just begin this season.

Why do folks think we were saying all this last season? Because there were problems.

I remember Ibime stating at some point last season, that JM may have over-achieved with this bunch. Some of us may have disagreed with that point but our collective view was born out of what we saw.

And contrary to what Nihilist and the rest think now, NO we did not finish on a high last season. We ground out results until the end. Just like Jason Cundy said, we were called 'boring boring' many times. Because the Fab Matic pivot caused huge problems early on and Fab was removed from it and pushed forward.

So no, don't just point to the league win. Remember the issues. This midfield problem did not start today and certainly not this season.

Yes there other mental issues and off-field wahala but the structure on the pitch to play ourselves out of it is absent.

While I don't disagree that shoring up will make is defend better, I also.believe fortifying the midfield will enable us carry play to the opposition which makes us more dangerous with Willian, Hazard and Pedro. (This is why I have stayed out of the Hazard arguments. Cos I can see why dude is not playing well).

So yes, when 'Kurt phocking Zouma' has been drafted to midfield for an extended period of time, unless you are on a mission to prove something else, you should know you have a major phocking MIDFIELD CRISIS.

Nihilist:
Hazard was easily the worst player today. That would have been visible to Stevie Wonder. This argument ensued when certain posters are trying to deflect from Hazard's disgusting form by blaming the 'midfield' as the primary culprits in today's defeat. Lucas had been out of the team for 2 years and was about to be sold. Can has been playing at Right Back for club and country for the last year. Yet these guys are 'midfielders' and ours are not, despite statistical and visual evidence that those guys were not better than Mikel and Ramires today....

Naaaah.

I can't get jiggy with that. Hazard was the most culpable of all our players today.

The statistical evidence proved nothing. As we said, you could have 95 percentage pass completion rate with sideways passes. Images of heatmaps and average positions of both players is the ultimate determinant in the proof of their contribution in attack.

Whether Hazard was bad today or not is inconsequential in the grand scheme of things. The evidence of that is in the continuation of the lack of bytes in attack and the inability to create chances when Hazard was subbed and also when he was dropped.

And this is why it the likes of me are having absolutely nothing to do with the 'Hazard is rubbish' talk.

When teams go through a psychological dip, they need to play themselves out of it.

The problem we have is that we are not being set-up to do so. I for one have mentioned even more than the midfield. The full backs situation. With Willian on the right instead of in the middle, you have a totally disfunctional right wing (with Zouma as RB).

I have nothing but praise for Willian this season after the massive criticism I gave him last season, but we all know his style is with immense tendency to drift to the middle. You therfore cannot stretch play on the wings. How many crosses came from open play on the right wing in 90mins?

Unfortunately, we can't do the same on the left with a permanently stationed, seldomly overlapping RB playing on the left. Then you make matters worse by playing Oscar in front of him. Isn't it funny that the only goal we scored came from a cross? However, after then, nothing happened on the left because the team was technically incapable of sustaining attack after attack.

This is the same with the midfield. It's a complete defensive set-up.

A culmination of these many issues is the complete isolation of the attack from the rest of the departments of play. So we are unable to take play to the opposition and in turn we need to defend deep because of the wave of attack we invite as a result of this.

So how do we play ourselves out of this mess? Yes we have mental problem and there are off-field things but without the right on-field set-up, we will never play ourselves out of this mess.

Debroslink:
Neymar is bearing the burden of Barcelona since Messi's injury. Ronaldo has been bearing Real Madrid s burden for the past 5 years.

But Hazard is better than both Ronaldo and Neymar (according to Chelsea fans and coach). That's the point or moment Chelsea's burden become his.

It's Chelsea fans that placed the burden on him. So let him bear the cross graciously.

0 goals in 16 games... PATHETIC!

Mate I am not one of those fools you tango with. You either have a full understanding of my opinions altogether or don't quote me at all.

Do you think Neymar will carry Barcelona with a Ramires Mikel midfield? Do you think Neymar will carry Barcelona with a non overlapping right back playing as a left back or a zero-technique centre back playing as a right back? Do you think Neymar will carry the team if the whole team is set up to defend first and attack later?

Until you have Neymar carrying your team in similar circumstances, don't contribute to the topic please.

FBS:
Anyways, all na megefegede. Let's change the entire team+ manager just to fit in a single player. SMH.

From my point of view this is a mental issue so its time for EVERYONE to sit up and man up to their responsibilities instead of blaming Robert Mugabe and the ball boys, nothing ain't gonna change.

I do believe though that come May things will be better.

We are Chelsea and will be back.

Goodnight.

In one argument, it is mental. In another, Hazard is 5hit. And talking about everyone manning up to their responsibilities, why are the others not being blame as much as Hazard is?

At what point did it become Hazard's responsibility to shoulder the team? Isn't this the root problem I have been talking about? Everything going through Hazard?

FBS:
Simply because thats what you guys make of him. To be a WPOTY contender you MUST be the super-player in your team which clearly he is not. A player with zero input and output?

You are evading. I don't hide my position on Hazard. You take on the challenge and show me what Messi did for Argentina.

nitlad:
I already said Can and Lucas did not do most of these things better than Mikel and Ramires in this game

Intelligence for positional defending = Interception, shebi?

Can and Lucas - 3 Interceptions

Mikel and Ramires - 3 interceptions.

Can and Lucas - 7/8 tackles won

Mikel alone - 7/8 tackles won

Can and Lucas - %83 pass accuracy

Mikel and Ramires - %84 pass accuracy

Which simple tasks did the Liverpool duo perform better in today's game?

Don't you see that those stats actually justify my point of view than it does yours?

Stats without analysis of them do nothing.

Liverpool sustained more atacking moments than Chelsea the entire game yet our midfielder were intercepting the oppo at about the same level as they did us. That's lopsided and you then don't need to be told why they won the game.

On the flip side, the percentage completion of passes show nothing until you show us the heat map of where those passes were made.

FBS:
Loosely applied only from your own point of view. It is possible for Barca to be off form yet Messi carries the team on his shoulders. Give him the ball and you are certain something is about to happen. Same cannot be said of Hazard. He is rubbish so far. EOD.

In one argument, you claim Hazard is not even worth of WPOTY comparisons; in another, you comparr his exploits to what Messi would have done.

Why don't you show us where Messi has consistently carried his team on his shoulders?

What was he doing with the ball when he received it from Argentinian teammates? Why didn't he do something with the ball and win the world cup?

FBS:
Its funny that Ivanovic suffered abuse from nearly everyone here yet, Hazard is above reproach.

If a player is off form , why not just say as it is. Some will blame everyone and everything except the player. Why worship a player blindly?

Ivanovic suffered abuse because he is a shit right back and has always been. He's been that way for many seasons. Some have just been blinded by the goals he scores. This season, he has been found out.

In contrast, Hazard was last season's player of the year and made WPOTY short list. EOS.

When Hazard ONLY is off form, then we will come out and say yes he is. But when Hazard is 'off form' and Fab is and Costa is and Matic is and JT is, then Off-form starts to become a loosely applied excuse for a more fundamental problem left unsolved.

nitlad:
What are these simple midfield tasks that Can and Lucas performed better that Mikel and Ramires today?

Should we even be having a discussion about losing a match to the strength of Can and Lucas' midfield play?


When will you start holding Hazard accountable?

It's the simple tasks of finding a 5 yard pass and moving into space. Receiving the ball with your back to goal, under pressure yet still finding a team mate with a good pass. It's knowing when to press, when to speed the game up and essentially when not to run.

Having the energy to track back and the intelligence for positional defending. They help the attack and the defence at the same time.

Contrast that to when we attack and there is neither Ramires nor Mikel within 5 yards of Hazard to receive the ball and run into forward space.

Then you wonder at the same why Can and Lucas had little to do. Do you think Continho how was trying to attack all by himself?

Nihilist:
Matic and Fab won a double last season. The same Matic you are helping to look for a partner has been one of our worst players this season and can't even make the first team!

Does this not tell you, that this is not about midfield but something different?

But how are able to say it is a mental problem yet join the pack of those who single out one player for blame?

Don't get me wrong, I agree with the mental disruption perpesctive. I just believe it is only one part of the many problems.

Ibime:
Can and Lucas bring the basic requirements of a standard midfielder, energy and physical strength plus can trap a ball. They are 6/10 in everything, not great but acceptable. They also had Milner with them who is 6/10 in everything.

Mikel and Ramires do not bring the basics.

Mikels ball retention is 10/10. His energy is 1/10 and speed of passing is 1/10.

Ramires energy is 10/10. His strength on the ball is 1/10, his control and passing is 1/10.

You cannot put both of them together and expect them to compensate for each other. Mikel wants to slow the game, Ramires wants to speed it up. If Ramires runs forward, you just counterattack Mikel easily. If you catch Ramires 1 on 1 and shove him off the ball like Charlie Adam, Mikel will not make up the ground to cover him.

It is a HORRIBLE combination.

Any standard average midfield will better them all other things being equal.

There is a reason David Luiz and Kurt Zouma have been drafted substantially into midfield in the last 3 years.

nateevs:
It is not so much the quality of the players in the middle but the balance. You look at Lucas and Can as unknowns but they execut the simple midfield tasks rightly.
So Ibime is not talking about WPOTY class in the middle to make a difference. Instead, he is saying even a Dembele and Mcarthy midfield will give us infinitely better chances of sustaining attacks that a Ramires Mikel one.

Nuff said.

nitlad:
But they had Can and Lucas in their pivot?

It is not so much the quality of the players in the middle but the balance. You look at Lucas and Can as unknowns but they execut the simple midfield tasks rightly.

So Ibime is not talking about WPOTY class in the middle to make a difference. Instead, he is saying even a Dembele and Mcarthy midfield will give us infinitely better chances of sustaining attacks that a Ramires Mikel one.

Nihilist:
But this argument doesn't really make any sense because there's no causation.

Hazard was not attacking OR defending and was rightly taken off.

What you need to ask yourself is if our attack looks better with Kennedy in and Hazard out. The answer is an obvious yes

But what had the attack done? You are looking at it all wrong. What JM did with that sub is modify the shape. Oscar into the middle for a more conventional winger on the left. A point I quite rightly made in the first half.

The shape was fault.y Is still faulty. Fabregas and Ramires in midfield and you complain Fab has lost form.

It's easy to blame Hazard. Very easy.

FBS:
No one is asking about his defensive duties. What was his output with the ball?
Coutinho scores outta nothing.

You are talking about Hazard's attack or the team's attack? You keep praising Coutinho's 'out-of-nothing' efforts but failing to see how they get the ball to that position as an attacking unit.

You think Coutinho will thrive in this Chelsea structure?

Oya Nihilist and FBS. Hazard is off and we are keeping things simple. We have conceded again and on the verge of another defeat.

Whose fault is it now?

Nihilist:
Hazard, Fab and Costa are our main attackers.

Neither is in form. That's why right now only one is on the pitch.

Jose has to keep things simple.

This is how I see it bro. We have a faulty defensive unit. If we don't attack and only keep things simple, we will invite wave after wave of attack.

And there is only so much this faulty defensive unit can sustain.

I think what you and I disagree on is the root cause of this 'lack of form'.

I believe this lack of form is manifestation of our poor set-up. What do you think?

Ibime:
You can't support attacking players with midfield of Mikel and Ramires.

I've been bleating myself hoarss over this issue for 4 years. Now I just siddon look and laugh them

Simple as ABC. Say this a million times, some will still prefer to blame players.

FBS:
Long story about nothing.
Its was pure Coutinho magic. He simply removed the obstacles right in front of him. Why can't Hazard copy that or is that too much for him?
Cook up another excuse please.

Bros you are only here to blame Hazard. If you cannot see how playing Zouma and Azpili as full backs at the same time is a problem or playing Oscar instead of a conventional winger is a problem then there is no need to continue this discussion.

Oya Hazard is out. Let's see the magic happen.

Nihilist:
So you want us to go attacking when there's a crisis of confidence in the team?

Yes. Because it is the only thing we have not tried.
Are you suggesting we have been playing attacking football season long?

So why continue to stick with it and then expect top players to create magic?

sinizia:
Oga mi, there's no magic Hazard can create in this match with Moaninghoe playing a defense-minded football right on his home turf. Who will Hazard give passes to overlap? Who will bring up ball for Hazard to make his mark? Hazard is fùcked in this match!!

Thank you very much sirrr! Finally someone saying it as it should be. Not just blaming a player for the sake of it but looking critically at the tactical set-up and judging how this improves or hinders attacking and defensive flows.

Thank goodness you are not even a Chelsea fan.

FBS:
On days when we are bad it is the duty of the top players to do their magic but Hazard the main culprit is on maternity leave. He has done ZERO WITH AND WITHOUT the ball. A complete waste of space.

Abi you no see Coutinho? He recieved a simple pass then did his magic. Another excuse please.

Why do you analyse football like this?

Watch when Countinho does his magic and see how many Liverpool players are within 5 yards of him and how many are within 5 yards of one another.

This is a structure of attacking football. They all move forward as a unit and defend as a unit, making simple passes very easy to make and therefore Coutinho able to create magic.

On the contrary watch what happens when Hazard receives the ball and how many players are within 5 yards of him. 90 percent of the time, only Willian is. Both players are overloaded. What do you want from Hazard? To dribble everyone from 60 yards? Or Willian and Hazard to keep doing one-twos until they reach the edge of the box and hope they don't lose the ball?

Jeez, look at forking Ramires in midfield and look as snail as Mikel in midfield. How do you sustain an attacking moment when your midfield is shit?

You don't analyse players like this bros. Plus Hazard is not only what is wrong with this team. I mentioned at least 4 different tactical errors.

FBS:
You missed the point why Mikel is on the pitch.
Mikel= slow but simple passes.
Matic= fast but too many touches and risky passes.

Slow but simple passes is actually the wrong approach against a side that presses aggressively in midfield. This is why he has not even been able to make those simple passes.

Plus slow and simple against an univentive Ramires in midfield, is isolating the attackers and nullifying Hazard's potential influence in the middle.

Add Oscar playing on the left instead of a conventional winger and two full backs who cannot overlap, then you wonder why we struggle to create chances.

I just hate this defensive football.

So JM suddenly sees that my Hazard needs to play through the middle to get the best from him. After 2 seasons.

Gooaaallllll

Abeg make una free Bimfo jor. He was only being very optimistic and positive about his team.

My gripe was where the optimism came from.

When the likes of Nateevs was screaming last season that we were stumbling along and just barely reaching the finish line, many thought I was looking for wahala where there existed none.

I cannot remember how many times I referred to our 'method of attack' and our increasing sole dependence on the brilliance of Hazard. I criticized JM many times for being too defence-centric in his approach to games.

I brought this up again in pre-season, highlighting how nothing had changed and how we may struggle this season. So it baffles me when I see such optimism being displayed.

And the reason I kept talking about this was simple. If you don't build a side that wins games on the back of the sheer amount of attacking chances created as a unit (not from the same individual time after time), when you need to score goals to get you out of big mess, it won't magically happen.

While many are complaining about how we are shipping goals, what about what we are creating in attack? Over 80 percent of our goals so far this season have come from either set-pieces or unforgivable errors by the opposition. We just cannot create enough clear-cut chances to score goals.

But the interesting thing is, it didn't start this season. For so long, it's been a problem. Since JM returned. Too many times we struggled to open up teams that were resolute at the back.

The philosophy has always remained questionable. If your first approach to winning a game is preventing the opposition from scoring, then some day, when the defensive unit is faulty, you will struggle to score goals. Because the 'method of attack' has always been weak.

JM cannot fix this. It is beyond him. Because the very solution to the problem is fundamentally in contrast to his philosophy of the game.

It's time for a change. This is an operational/tactical blunder allowed to carry on for so long, the effects are now manifesting in manner of an insurmountable mental uphill.

It's time to make a change. Because although it sounds implausible right now to many, we could very well be in a relegation battle very soon. There is bad blood and total disrespect for JM's approach from everyone - players, team medics, FA, referees and the media.

I heard phuckall has changed since I left.

Ibime:
Hahahahaha.

The fans screaming for Jose to take off Fabregas.

To prove his stubbornness, he takes off Matic to a cacophany of boos after only 28 minutes.

Lemme guess, Fabregas is now the only central midfielder on the pitch.

Jose may get sacked tonight, I swear.

He's gone bro. It's bye bye. He's kept Fabregas on and Matic off after 24 mins.

He's lost the team. He cannot repair this anymore.

Bye bye Jose.

Ibime:
Diego Simeone after 4-1 victory over Chelsea in 2012:

"All you have to do to beat Chelsea is let Mikel have the ball as he slows the game down. Also isolate Ivanovic and attack him as he is not agile enough to keep up with tricky wingers."


Turan Arda already showed us this in 2012.

Ordinary Pardew confirms this. We targetted Chelsea's right hand midfield and right back.

5hit! JM has lost it finally.

See our right back. Concedes 2 dangerous chances inside 60 seconds.

Southampton have made an attacking change. God help us.

Meanwhile JM has seen his madness in thinking Ramires Fabregas midfield makes sense in either attack or defence is just that . . . Madness!