Chelsea (Away) Monday 8 March

[London Blue]

It was a good turn, a good bit of skill and a collective fuck up, with Iwobi, Mason, Gomes and the back 3 all at fault.

If the back line had stepped up to keep a straight back line, or Iwobi remembered how to defend it would have been sorted.

[Bailey]

5 hours ago, pete0 said:

Holgate? He's slow getting back but the other three should have stepped forward.

Gomes is the appalling one.

I do agree that the others in the back four should have stepped up but the Gomes thing is well off.

2 hours ago, pete0 said:

Gomes doesn't stay goal side. He stupidly tries to cut off a pass across field and is left for dead. Gomes not staying goal side is the whole issue.

Holgate is getting back but he can't predict how shite Gomes is gonna be at defending. He's also not helped by the backline not pushing up.

Gomes wasn't goal side to start with. He doesn't try to cut off the pass, CHO shimmies to go that way and then goes the other. I wouldn't call it brilliant defending but if that is your bar there will be hundreds of examples per game. 

Holgate should either be sprinting back in, or cutting the angle to CHO while Iwobi stays tight. That is on Iwobi and also on Keane for not keeping Iwobi tight. 

In my opinion this goal comes more as a result of players generally not being sure about their position and then failing to communicate effectively with each other. Even if Gomes sat on his arse on the halfway line this goal could and should have been avoided. 

[Palfy]

The screen shots say a lot to me about our defending in particular the top screen shot. 
We are playing a back 3 with wing backs, Holgate has stepped out the back line to press the ball he is now 20 yards in front of Keane and Godfrey, there can only be 2 trains of thought in my opinion. 
1) He shouldn’t have made the press and held the deep line with Keane and Godfrey. 
2) He was right to make the press and the others should have stepped up and set the line higher working as a team when the press was on. 
For me it’s the latter Keane is watching what is happening but holds his position when he should have pushed up and giving Godfrey the command to do the same, for me that made it easy for Chelsea to play in the space left by Holgate when he doesn’t win the ball, with no chance of being offside because Keane and Godfrey stayed to deep, poor defending all round imo. 
 

[pete0]

12 hours ago, Bailey said:

 

Gomes wasn't goal side to start with. He doesn't try to cut off the pass, CHO shimmies to go that way and then goes the other. I wouldn't call it brilliant defending but if that is your bar there will be hundreds of examples per game. 

 

My fault I didn't put every frame to show it.

Gomes gets goal side initially (which allows Holgate to retreat). However he then steps up and across to cut off CHO from going inside, but CHO goes the other way leaving Gomes running in a circle. If he holds his position and stays goal side he stops us from being exposed.

 

 

 

[Bailey]

8 hours ago, pete0 said:

My fault I didn't put every frame to show it.

Gomes gets goal side initially (which allows Holgate to retreat). However he then steps up and across to cut off CHO from going inside, but CHO goes the other way leaving Gomes running in a circle. If he holds his position and stays goal side he stops us from being exposed.

 

 

 

Maybe he does, maybe he doesn't. CHO against Gomes isn't a race Gomes will win that often.

Based on your comments, I assume that you think the goal was undefendable once CHO got free from Gomes?

[Bailey]

14 hours ago, Palfy said:

The screen shots say a lot to me about our defending in particular the top screen shot. 
We are playing a back 3 with wing backs, Holgate has stepped out the back line to press the ball he is now 20 yards in front of Keane and Godfrey, there can only be 2 trains of thought in my opinion. 
1) He shouldn’t have made the press and held the deep line with Keane and Godfrey. 
2) He was right to make the press and the others should have stepped up and set the line higher working as a team when the press was on. 
For me it’s the latter Keane is watching what is happening but holds his position when he should have pushed up and giving Godfrey the command to do the same, for me that made it easy for Chelsea to play in the space left by Holgate when he doesn’t win the ball, with no chance of being offside because Keane and Godfrey stayed to deep, poor defending all round imo. 
 

If I am honest, I am not sure from our tactics as to what Ancellotti was intending. We knew Chelsea would play with a central striker and two number 10's either side of him. In the game those 10's had so much space to do as they pleased because there wasn't a cohesive strategy about how to deal with them. Did we want to press high, close the space and risk Werner getting in behind or did we want to drop deep and create 10 yards of space between our defenders and midfield.

In the first goal, one presses (Holgate) but the rest don't push up. Once CHO gets free they have to drop again because you can't hold your line when there is no pressure on the ball.

The very next chance we get done by Christensen (there best ball playing defender) having all the time in the world to pick a ball out over the top to Alonso. With our split strikers, no-one was able to stop the pass. You can't see the back line but they look to be pressing up and with some poor defending down that right hand side and a well times ball they are in again.

It just smacks of players not being entirely sure what to do and some poor communication by the lot of them. We desperately need someone in that back line to organise the side because Keane is a mouse and Godfrey doesn't strike me as that type of player.

[pete0]

23 minutes ago, Bailey said:

Maybe he does, maybe he doesn't. CHO against Gomes isn't a race Gomes will win that often.

Based on your comments, I assume that you think the goal was undefendable once CHO got free from Gomes?

Don't see how you can only say maybe. Gomes has moved forward two yards as CHO goes to the wing. 

Had the back 3 stepped forward they'd have been more of a chance. Without them stepping up Iwobi has an impossible job of cutting it off and Holgate is never gonna be able to get back quick enough. 

[Romey 1878]

Mina back, no James and Gylfi to have a late test today.

[Bailey]

23 hours ago, pete0 said:

Don't see how you can only say maybe. Gomes has moved forward two yards as CHO goes to the wing. 

Had the back 3 stepped forward they'd have been more of a chance. Without them stepping up Iwobi has an impossible job of cutting it off and Holgate is never gonna be able to get back quick enough. 

Because there is still a good chance Gomes will be beaten by CHO. He is one of the most dribbled past players in the league so its hardly a given!

Iwobi does not have an "impossible job". That is a an absolute crock of shite. All he has to do is tuck inside but instead he worries himself with the run of CHO and gets in to a really terrible position.  I also agree that Holgate would probably struggle to get back in but properly but it doesn't stop him sprinting to do so on the chance that it might affect what follows.

This is my last post on the subject.

[pete0]

23 minutes ago, Bailey said:

Because there is still a good chance Gomes will be beaten by CHO. He is one of the most dribbled past players in the league so its hardly a given!

Iwobi does not have an "impossible job". That is a an absolute crock of shite. All he has to do is tuck inside but instead he worries himself with the run of CHO and gets in to a really terrible position.  I also agree that Holgate would probably struggle to get back in but properly but it doesn't stop him sprinting to do so on the chance that it might affect what follows.

This is my last post on the subject.

It's not a race though. Gomes is already goalside. All he has to do is stay goalside. He might eventually get beaten but by then the other players will be better positioned.

He's too deep (thanks to the three wombles at the back) to just tuck inside. He's playing piggy in the middle with 20 yards of space to cover. He's not got a chance. If the back three were further up the pitch he'd have more of a chance but there's just far too much space for Chelsea to use.