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Chelsea's slide

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Cruyff14

Cruyff14

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I figure it would be best to keep everything about their downfall in here.

Obviously, it is a culmination of things. Mourinho, loyalty to certain players, stubbornness, lack of rotation. The constant berating of referees I think does not help either. His ego is through the roof and I don't think that rubs off well on the players when things are going wrong.

I think not strengthening in the off season has hurt them too.

Not too late to turn things around, but they are facing an uphill battle to finish in the top four. 11 points from 10 games is not pretty reading, however. 11 off the top and nine outside the top four. It's not an insurmountable task and you think they would do it, given the squad and manager they have. But the way they're going currently, it'd be worrying being a Chelsea fan. But as we know, anything can happen in football, and teams near the top will drop points in games they're not expected to - but whether Chelsea capitalise when this happens is another story.

What needs to happen for things to improve? The quality is obviously there, the manager is obviously great, but what needs to change?

How long is it before they're really in crisis?
 
Cruyff14 said:
I figure it would be best to keep everything about their downfall in here.

Obviously, it is a culmination of things. Mourinho, loyalty to certain players, stubbornness, lack of rotation. The constant berating of referees I think does not help either. His ego is through the roof and I don't think that rubs off well on the players when things are going wrong.

I think not strengthening in the off season has hurt them too.

Not too late to turn things around, but they are facing an uphill battle to finish in the top four. 11 points from 10 games is not pretty reading, however. 11 off the top and nine outside the top four. It's not an insurmountable task and you think they would do it, given the squad and manager they have. But the way they're going currently, it'd be worrying being a Chelsea fan. But as we know, anything can happen in football, and teams near the top will drop points in games they're not expected to - but whether Chelsea capitalise when this happens is another story.

What needs to happen for things to improve? The quality is obviously there, the manager is obviously great, but what needs to change?

How long is it before they're really in crisis?
Click to expand...

I think this weekends game is a massive moment for both clubs. In Chelsea's case it could be a massive moment in terms of their side going forward (player/coaching personnel) and for Liverpool if we lose I'd say top 4 is out of the equation.

Chelsea just look old and slow at the moment, it's hard to point to an exact aspect of what is wrong but it just seems like things have become stagnant at the club.

Out of interest what is the average age of the starting XI?
 

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Cruyff14 said:
I figure it would be best to keep everything about their downfall in here.

Obviously, it is a culmination of things. Mourinho, loyalty to certain players, stubbornness, lack of rotation. The constant berating of referees I think does not help either. His ego is through the roof and I don't think that rubs off well on the players when things are going wrong.

I think not strengthening in the off season has hurt them too.

Not too late to turn things around, but they are facing an uphill battle to finish in the top four. 11 points from 10 games is not pretty reading, however. 11 off the top and nine outside the top four. It's not an insurmountable task and you think they would do it, given the squad and manager they have. But the way they're going currently, it'd be worrying being a Chelsea fan. But as we know, anything can happen in football, and teams near the top will drop points in games they're not expected to - but whether Chelsea capitalise when this happens is another story.

What needs to happen for things to improve? The quality is obviously there, the manager is obviously great, but what needs to change?

How long is it before they're really in crisis?
Click to expand...

It wouldn't be insurmountable if they only needed 1 side to have a form slump, but they'll need all 3 of United, City & Arsenal to collapse at some stage while Chelsea simultaneously go on 1-2 month long winning streak to have a chance of getting back into the title race. The top 2-3 places are off the table, and they're going to have to turn things around bloody quickly and hope a lot of factors fall in their favour to stand a chance of claiming that last CL place.

History is against them on that front - they were saying after the Southampton loss that the highest a side has finished from Chelsea's position/points after 8 games was 6th. Since then they have beaten Villa (who are 1-1-8 for the season and just sacked their manager) and lost to West Ham, so I doubt their chances have improved much relative to that assessment. The league is more even and competitive now than ever, and Chelsea can't bank on having a run of easy games to build up some momentum/go on a winning streak because quite frankly, there are no easy games in this league and even if there were:
a) Chelsea don't look even remotely capable of capitalising on them and
b) There are 7-8 sides ahead of them who are just as, if not more likely to go on such a winning streak.

6th or 7th with a cup run or 2 is my prediction.
 
Chants of "you're going down with the Chelsea" at Dean Court were pretty audible and hilarious in our game. Long may it continue!

I still think they'll get top 4 tbh but the longer it goes on something's gotta give. Will the Russian sack Jose? If so who comes in? Do they spend big in Jan with or without Jose? Those 3 questions shape not only Chelsea's but a few other sides like Spurs, Liverpool & West Ham/Palace's top 4 ambitions big time
 
Wouldn't surprise me if we end up finishing like 8th and win the Champions League. 2011/12 all over.
 
No one reason for me.

-Lack of hunger and focus
-Ivanovic, Hazard, Matic, Costa, Oscar and Fab all being out of form at the same time
-Mou losing his shit over ridiculous things numerous times
-The Eva crap
-The loss of leadership of two of the greatest players/leaders Chelsea has seen(Drogba and Cech)
-Sitting on our hands in the transfer window, leads to complacency and lack of competition for spots
-Maybe the players have reached the point where the message isn't getting through anymore, big decision is do we back the manager and have a clean out or bring in Pep/Carlo?
-ect

I'm not worried though(disappointed yep), but it's been a while since we've been in a position like this and I'm pretty interested in seeing how we fight through it. It will be the making and ending of a few players in our squad. Top 4 is still there for the taking(but thats as high as he could go) and we're still alive in 3 cups so it's not all doom and gloom just yet. I am surprised that Roman hasn't pulled the trigger too.
 
No one has put in a decent title defence for a while. We've had a couple of 2nds but were garbage both years.

United 7th but the whole Fergie leaving thing had an impact.

So you'd expect a bit of a drop off but this has been baffling.

I'm reluctant to write them off as I know what they're capable of. But it's getting closer.
 

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chef said:
No one reason for me.

-Lack of hunger and focus
-Ivanovic, Hazard, Matic, Costa, Oscar and Fab all being out of form at the same time
-Mou losing his shit over ridiculous things numerous times
-The Eva crap
-The loss of leadership of two of the greatest players/leaders Chelsea has seen(Drogba and Cech)
-Sitting on our hands in the transfer window, leads to complacency and lack of competition for spots
-Maybe the players have reached the point where the message isn't getting through anymore, big decision is do we back the manager and have a clean out or bring in Pep/Carlo?
-ect

I'm not worried though(disappointed yep), but it's been a while since we've been in a position like this and I'm pretty interested in seeing how we fight through it. It will be the making and ending of a few players in our squad. Top 4 is still there for the taking(but thats as high as he could go) and we're still alive in 3 cups so it's not all doom and gloom just yet. I am surprised that Roman hasn't pulled the trigger too.
Click to expand...
I think the Eva thing was the beginning of it all.
 

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Loonerty said:
Hasn't he been injured?
Has looked fine when playing but I think he keeps getting 2-3 week injuries.
Click to expand...

He's been sitting unused on the bench the last couple of games (and not even taken to away CL games) hasn't he?

I've been disappointed with him when he's been on the park.
 
Cruyff14 said:
I think the Eva thing was the beginning of it all.
Click to expand...

For me that was more a symptom rather than the trigger for Jose losing the plot.

Mourinho is generally considered to be a guy that loves to have absolute control over every aspect of the football department, but from an outsider's perspective it appears that over the last few months he's lost control of the club on a number of levels, and that he wasn't expecting it.

Lashing out at his medical team was just a very inappropriate manifestation of his attempts to regain control. It happened to be in a part of the club that he has no right to interfere with, the whole world calls him out on it, and all of a sudden his issues are front & centre, the public begin to focus more of their attention on Mourinho's role in Chelsea's slide. By losing his head he made his task of re-asserting control over the playing group that much more difficult.

I'm with moomba that you do typically see a dip after a title win as it's difficult to re-motivate the squad, but not to this extent.

However, I don't buy this idea that the centre of the problem is transfer inactivity & Abramovich not sanctioning over £100m for Pogba & Stones to "rejuvenate the squad". Let's get this straight. This is a squad that hasn't lost a single star player to another club in years, isn't struggling with any long term injuries to key players, won the league in a canter last year, and had 6 players named in the PFA Team of the Season 6 months ago. I understand that back to back titles is a big ask, but this squad has more than enough quality to qualify for the Champions League this year.

There are other factors at play sure, but for a squad with this much quality to be so far off the pace is inexcusable, and for me the vast majority of the blame for that has to sit with Mourinho.
 
I was worried about this year after the pre-season, not due to the results but due to the travel. We looked knackered at the end of last season but while other teams were taking a break what were we doing - travelling to the other side of the world to play in a pointless exhibition friendlies in Thailand and Australia. No player would want to do that a week after the league wrapped up. Then a few weeks later the team was travelling all over America.

Then there is Jose who has lost it. He totally mishandled the physio situation and it wouldn't surprise me if some players lost respect for him after that. The most frustrating part is that he hasn't taken simple steps to rectify the problem. Underperforming players are still being picked and the same unsuccessful tactics are being applied.

I remember Fergie saying that no matter how good the team was the previous season he would always try and bring in two or three top players so that players always had competition and that no one ever felt comfortable. Seeing as Mourinho has his favourites it's something we are lacking, especially with some key leaders gone.
 
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