Courtois Saves!

By Gary Watton
January 5 2016

The signs are not exactly good in the early days of the second incarnation of the Hiddink era, as Chelsea simply played out a backs-to-the-wall defensive display against a misfiring Manchester United, whose form of recent weeks has been even worse than ours. Why oh why did we let them off the hook by retreating into our own half and seemingly playing for a nil-nil draw? Is that what we are reduced to now? Of course, apologists of our horrible strategy will point out that we were simply soaking up pressure and hitting our opponents on the break. Well, it is all very well playing counter-attacking football, but when was the last time that our muppets actually scored from a counter attack? Yes indeed, we are flops at counter-attacking football, in spite of the experts and commentators saying watch out for the pace of Chelsea on the break! Pace is good, but if pace leads to misplaced passes and botched efforts on goal, then having a fast counter attack is neither here nor there, because it invariably amounts to nothing, as demonstrated yet again at Old Trafford.

Chelsea, I'm afraid, are liable to butcher a four against one advantage on the counter attack, so all this nonsense about hitting teams on the break is simply hot air. Of course we could have mugged the Mancs, but dear old Matic fluffed his lines when clean through on goal. There are times, I would swear, where players seem too scared and nervous to score, and Matic's big moment of madness was one such occasion. Having feebly conceded a penalty the other day against Watford with a needless handball, the big Serb is fast becoming a liability. Is there anybody left within the ranks of the team that we can rely upon? Certainly not the youth, it seems, as Hiddink once again overlooked the talent we have, preferring instead to insult Loftus-Cheek with a sixty-second cameo deep in added on time. Oh well, at least big Courtois distinguished himself in the second half with a save from Herrera that earned us another measly point. However, two points from the last two matches is scarcely cosmic stuff. 

Two games into the latest Hiddink phase and poor Chelsea appear to be going nowhere slowly. Can we improve on our visit to Crystal Palace? Well, the omens are not exactly good.

Manchester United 0 CHELSEA 0; half time: 0-0.

CHELSEA team: Courtois; Azpilicueta; Ivanovic; Zouma; Terry; Matic; Pedro; Mikel; Hazard; Willian; Oscar. Used substitutes: Ramires; Loftus-Cheek.

CHELSEA LEADING SCORERS:

Willian seven goals

Costa six goals

Oscar four goals

Pedro three goals

Ramires three goals

Remy three goals

Cahill two goals

Zouma two goals

Another Dull Effort In Manchester

Discussion started by Chelsea FC (IP Logged), 05/01/2016 14:13

Chelsea FC
05/01/2016 14:13

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