Mauricio Pochettino leaves Chelsea by mutual consent

[ROTG]

1 hour ago, Michael Tucker said:

I'm obviously wasting my time here. Enjoy yourself.

Whatever MT

[kev61]

15 minutes ago, ROTG said:

you are only as good as the tools you are given

you are obviously not a fan of crosswords, my old china

Stop it.Give us your opinions on the pitch?  and not this nonsense that is open to interpretation that a fool can't understand.

[xceleryx]

1 hour ago, kev61 said:

Please tell us why Poch is not the problem.

• 4th best defensive record (5 goals conceded)
• 5th most big chances created (15)
• 1st most big chances missed (15)
• Three way tie for most times woodwork hit (4)
• 1st for possession had (69.8%)
• 2nd for accurate passes
• 4th for accurate long balls
• 5th for accurate crosses
• 5th for average shots per game (16.2)
• 11th for shots on target (4.8)
• 5th for successful dribbles per game (11)
• 5th for corners per game (6.6)
• Tied with 5 sides for most clean sheets (2)

So, taking all the above in you can see where the biggest problem lies.

We're doing more than enough under Poch currently to be better placed than we are, the underlying issue holding us back is that we simply aren't converting our chances into goals when we need. Had we done so, we'd be in the top half of the table and likely sitting at least within the top 6. 

Could Poch do a few things differently, sure. He's hardly our biggest problem though. 

[Max Fowler]

18 minutes ago, xceleryx said:

• 4th best defensive record (5 goals conceded)
• 5th most big chances created (15)
• 1st most big chances missed (15)
• Three way tie for most times woodwork hit (4)
• 1st for possession had (69.8%)
• 2nd for accurate passes
• 4th for accurate long balls
• 5th for accurate crosses
• 5th for average shots per game (16.2)
• 11th for shots on target (4.8)
• 5th for successful dribbles per game (11)
• 5th for corners per game (6.6)
• Tied with 5 sides for most clean sheets (2)

So, taking all the above in you can see where the biggest problem lies.

We're doing more than enough under Poch currently to be better placed than we are, the underlying issue holding us back is that we simply aren't converting our chances into goals when we need. Had we done so, we'd be in the top half of the table and likely sitting at least within the top 6. 

Could Poch do a few things differently, sure. He's hardly our biggest problem though. 

Bear in mind this is over the easiest run of fixtures across any team in the league so far.

[kev61]

18 minutes ago, xceleryx said:

• 4th best defensive record (5 goals conceded)
• 5th most big chances created (15)
• 1st most big chances missed (15)
• Three way tie for most times woodwork hit (4)
• 1st for possession had (69.8%)
• 2nd for accurate passes
• 4th for accurate long balls
• 5th for accurate crosses
• 5th for average shots per game (16.2)
• 11th for shots on target (4.8)
• 5th for successful dribbles per game (11)
• 5th for corners per game (6.6)
• Tied with 5 sides for most clean sheets (2)

So, taking all the above in you can see where the biggest problem lies.

We're doing more than enough under Poch currently to be better placed than we are, the underlying issue holding us back is that we simply aren't converting our chances into goals when we need. Had we done so, we'd be in the top half of the table and likely sitting at least within the top 6. 

Could Poch do a few things differently, sure. He's hardly our biggest problem though. 

It must of taken a while to come up with this nonsense.Sòrry folks.

[xceleryx]

47 minutes ago, Max Fowler said:

Bear in mind this is over the easiest run of fixtures across any team in the league so far.

Based on rather rudimentary criteria.  

[xceleryx]

45 minutes ago, kev61 said:

It must of taken a while to come up with this nonsense.Sòrry folks.

With a basic grasp of fundamental reading and writing skills, plus the ability to type with more than just a singular finger, no, not really.

Certainly no more time than it takes for you to incoherently waffle and provide your usual retorts anyway. 

[kev61]

10 minutes ago, xceleryx said:

With a basic grasp of fundamental reading and writing skills, plus the ability to type with more than just a singular finger, no, not really.

Certainly no more time than it takes for you to incoherently waffle and provide your usual retorts anyway. 

I'm mortally wounded.I hope you'r happy with what you have done.

 

[Thiago97]

3 hours ago, xceleryx said:

• 4th best defensive record (5 goals conceded)
• 5th most big chances created (15)
• 1st most big chances missed (15)
• Three way tie for most times woodwork hit (4)
• 1st for possession had (69.8%)
• 2nd for accurate passes
• 4th for accurate long balls
• 5th for accurate crosses
• 5th for average shots per game (16.2)
• 11th for shots on target (4.8)
• 5th for successful dribbles per game (11)
• 5th for corners per game (6.6)
• Tied with 5 sides for most clean sheets (2)

So, taking all the above in you can see where the biggest problem lies.

We're doing more than enough under Poch currently to be better placed than we are, the underlying issue holding us back is that we simply aren't converting our chances into goals when we need. Had we done so, we'd be in the top half of the table and likely sitting at least within the top 6. 

Could Poch do a few things differently, sure. He's hardly our biggest problem though. 

The other thing to add here are the margins are so fine in nearly every game we play. Which comes back to that inability to convert not just the chances, but also to convert something more positive and meaningful from good situations on the pitch. We seen this again yesterday during the game, at least 3-4 times we had positive situations, including a player overload in our favour, that should lead to an effort on goal. We didn't get to having an effort on goal due to poor decision making and technical passes in those scenarios.

It's clear and obvious this is the main issue here. It is also up to Poch to address and improve this over time, but its a problem that has existed for a number of seasons and managers now.

Every game we are involved hangs in such a tight balance with our opponents, because we cannot score enough goals, and because we very rarely get ourselves ahead to enable us to try and control a match. Our opponents are very much still in every match we play, which gives them something to really fight for, and often means they don't need to change to much tactically during a game, so the pattern of the whole game often does not change. That's when the fine margins kill us because many of our opponents are simply more clinical than we are, then we find ourselves chasing the game and it ends up a mess.

It's not rocket science to see this..........but it appears to be some sort of rocket science required to change it, as it has now impacted Lampard, Tuchel, Potter and Poch so far.

 

[Mark Kelly]

18 minutes ago, Thiago97 said:

The other thing to add here are the margins are so fine in nearly every game we play. Which comes back to that inability to convert not just the chances, but also to convert something more positive and meaningful from good situations on the pitch. We seen this again yesterday during the game, at least 3-4 times we had positive situations, including a player overload in our favour, that should lead to an effort on goal. We didn't get to having an effort on goal due to poor decision making and technical passes in those scenarios.

It's clear and obvious this is the main issue here. It is also up to Poch to address and improve this over time, but its a problem that has existed for a number of seasons and managers now.

Every game we are involved hangs in such a tight balance with our opponents, because we cannot score enough goals, and because we very rarely get ourselves ahead to enable us to try and control a match. Our opponents are very much still in every match we play, which gives them something to really fight for, and often means they don't need to change to much tactically during a game, so the pattern of the whole game often does not change. That's when the fine margins kill us because many of our opponents are simply more clinical than we are, then we find ourselves chasing the game and it ends up a mess.

It's not rocket science to see this..........but it appears to be some sort of rocket science required to change it, as it has now impacted Lampard, Tuchel, Potter and Poch so far.

 

We keep hearing about the chances we make , but every single team who plays against us has better quality chances than we engineer for ourselves , every chance we have is a half chance a snatched effort , I can't remember the last time we had a one on one goal opportunity for our striker to slot home , everything is difficult , everybody else's chances are a breeze. 

[Thiago97]

35 minutes ago, Mark Kelly said:

We keep hearing about the chances we make , but every single team who plays against us has better quality chances than we engineer for ourselves , every chance we have is a half chance a snatched effort , I can't remember the last time we had a one on one goal opportunity for our striker to slot home , everything is difficult , everybody else's chances are a breeze. 

I don't disagree Mark. As my post refers and I have probably bored anyone who has taken any notice of my posts in the last year.  We are terrible decision makers on the pitch, so quite often the chance does not materialise when it should. The same thing happened yesterday. Palmer (who looked quite bright) played a poor pass to Sterling I think it was, the momentum of the move was lost. Gallagher / Jackson messed up a good chance between them, I have only seen it once and it looked like a terrible technical pass from Gallagher on first view, commentator said it was bad touch by Jackson. 

It does not really matter whose fault it was though, as so many players have been guilty of this on a regular basis in the last 2 years. 

Clearly, we have talented players who are technically good in most areas of their game. So not sure if it is a mental barrier that we seem to mess up and get it wrong with the choice or action in attacking areas, but something goes to pot at key moments in attacking areas. 

[Dwmh]

37 minutes ago, Mark Kelly said:

We keep hearing about the chances we make , but every single team who plays against us has better quality chances than we engineer for ourselves , every chance we have is a half chance a snatched effort , I can't remember the last time we had a one on one goal opportunity for our striker to slot home , everything is difficult , everybody else's chances are a breeze. 

We have xG of 10.64 (3rd highest in the PL) and actual goals of 5.  So it does seem fair to say we are creating chances.
But the players certainly don't look confident when they get those chance (nor am I).
Last night I saw a game where the home team  had an xG of 1.73 plus an unearnt 1st minute pen and won 7-0.  Hit the bar too.
Every shot they had looked like they expected it to go in.
Manager by the name of Jose Mourinho, just saying.

[My Blood Is Blue]

58 minutes ago, Mark Kelly said:

We keep hearing about the chances we make , but every single team who plays against us has better quality chances than we engineer for ourselves , every chance we have is a half chance a snatched effort , I can't remember the last time we had a one on one goal opportunity for our striker to slot home , everything is difficult , everybody else's chances are a breeze. 

Yep, exactly this. I said to my brother during the Bournemouth match, that whenever they attack us it looks like they will score and yet when we attack, it looks the exact opposite and it's the same in pretty much every game we play. We offer barely any threat at all unless Sterling has decided to have one of his rare good days.

We are quite honestly in a massive hole at the moment and looking at the squad we've assembled, I see no easy way out of it for quite a while.

Poch is not helping himself with some of the decisions he's making, but honestly, I'm not sure changing the manager would make much difference at this point, although (and I am going to get shot down for this!), I would honestly be tempted to try and bring Jose back along with a few experienced players and get him to make us nasty and horrible to play against, so we at least have some building blocks to start with. Currently, we have foundations made up of sand and nothing else.

[Mark Kelly]

Just now, My Blood Is Blue said:

Yep, exactly this. I said to my brother during the Bournemouth match, that whenever they attack us it looks like they will score and yet when we attack, it looks the exact opposite and it's the same in pretty much every game we play. We offer barely any threat at all unless Sterling has decided to have one of his rare good days.

We are quite honestly in a massive hole at the moment and looking at the squad we've assembled, I see no easy way out of it for quite a while.

Poch is not helping himself with some of the decisions he's making, but honestly, I'm not sure changing the manager would make much difference at this point, although (and I am going to get shot down for this!), I would honestly be tempted to try and bring Jose back along with a few experienced players and get him to make us nasty and horrible to play against, so we at least have some building blocks to start with. Currently, we have foundations made up of sand and nothing else.

It's one of the things I'm more disappointed with from Poch , we're too easy to play against , at least we did see some effort to give cheap free kicks away on the halfway line , the trouble is that the referees see everything we do as a bookable offence and everything the opposition do as a coming together , even yesterday Gallagher got a two handed shove in the back , went down the ref played on whilst two minutes later we won the ball back cleanly the Bournemouth player went down and the ref blew up.

I'd have Jose back in a heartbeat , I expect the players would shit themselves though . 

[Thiago97]

I just had a very quick look through a number of our league games. In the last 15 league games across end of last season and this season. I think this is correct, but I did do it very quickly. In our last 15 league games we have taken the lead on only 3 occasions. In those three games we won two (Bournemouth away, Luton Home) and drew one (Everton Home)

The first goal is and always has been a massive factor in football. 

[Bert19]

15 minutes ago, Thiago97 said:

I just had a very quick look through a number of our league games. In the last 15 league games across end of last season and this season. I think this is correct, but I did do it very quickly. In our last 15 league games we have taken the lead on only 3 occasions. In those three games we won two (Bournemouth away, Luton Home) and drew one (Everton Home)

The first goal is and always has been a massive factor in football. 

Yep, and we've had a lot of good opportunities to get it in games this season and failed. 

I felt a bit for Poch yesterday - we were depleted, that International break came at a bad time for us and whatever you do on the training pitch to prepare, it's not on the Coach if players do what ours did in the final third and oppo box yesterday. 

How many chances did Gallagher, Jackson, Mudryk etc have to either pass, shoot, lay it off or anything useful and just dither so long that they ended up doing nothing at all? 

The players have got to start taking responsibility by being decisive.  Goals win games, not prettiness.  We have to be more aggressive about shooting at the opposition goal.  The fact that an entirely new group are making the same poor decisions in attacking areas that the previous lot have for 4-5 years is a bit concerning really. 

[Mark Kelly]

@Bert19

"The fact that an entirely new group are making the same poor decisions in attacking areas that the previous lot have for 4-5 years is a bit concerning really." 

And an entirely new coaching team too . WTAF?

Edited September 18, 2023 by Mark Kelly

[flllerywhereru2]

43 minutes ago, Mark Kelly said:

It's one of the things I'm more disappointed with from Poch , we're too easy to play against , at least we did see some effort to give cheap free kicks away on the halfway line , the trouble is that the referees see everything we do as a bookable offence and everything the opposition do as a coming together , even yesterday Gallagher got a two handed shove in the back , went down the ref played on whilst two minutes later we won the ball back cleanly the Bournemouth player went down and the ref blew up.

I'd have Jose back in a heartbeat , I expect the players would shit themselves though . 

I have to say the instruction from the FA to refs to let the game flow has made it very difficult to know hat will be given as a foul and what wont. Same with penalties, it's clear that the kind that were being given where player shoots and it hits a hand were too soft as were some of the softer ones where a player went down too easily (liverpools Jota at Palace springs to mind) but now it is like they are totally against giving a penalty unless it is totally obvious. Yesterday Gusto burst into the box and was kicked due to the challenge being too late and the ref was not even interested. I get the feeling that since the Mike Dean revelations the officials are closing ranks and just not giving anything unless they really have to.  It's left the football with a kind of retro back to the 90s feel about it where strong tackles and a bit of physical is allowed and a long ball behind the defence is more likely as a result (also due to the squeezing of play/pressing). I think it is an extra thing for our young players to cope with, especially away from home where refs are often leaning towards the home team due to crowd pressure.

[Bert19]

17 minutes ago, Mark Kelly said:

@Bert19

"The fact that an entirely new group are making the same poor decisions in attacking areas that the previous lot have for 4-5 years is a bit concerning really." 

And an entirely new coaching team too . WTAF?

Based on how his teams have played before though, I can't imagine Poch is encouraging or even suggesting what we saw yesterday tbh.  There was just some plain awful finishing and decision-making.  

The injuries and refereeing standards aren't helping, but most of this seems to be down to our players just being a bit dumb and ineffective as far as I can see. 

[Mark Kelly]

9 minutes ago, flllerywhereru2 said:

I have to say the instruction from the FA to refs to let the game flow has made it very difficult to know hat will be given as a foul and what wont. Same with penalties, it's clear that the kind that were being given where player shoots and it hits a hand were too soft as were some of the softer ones where a player went down too easily (liverpools Jota at Palace springs to mind) but now it is like they are totally against giving a penalty unless it is totally obvious. Yesterday Gusto burst into the box and was kicked due to the challenge being too late and the ref was not even interested. I get the feeling that since the Mike Dean revelations the officials are closing ranks and just not giving anything unless they really have to.  It's left the football with a kind of retro back to the 90s feel about it where strong tackles and a bit of physical is allowed and a long ball behind the defence is more likely as a result (also due to the squeezing of play/pressing). I think it is an extra thing for our young players to cope with, especially away from home where refs are often leaning towards the home team due to crowd pressure.

We are also seeing the continued situation of ensuring we have the homer ref whenever we get to go to ground where the support is vocal , if they can do us the disservice of ensuring we get the finicky referee too then it's refereeing gold for them a veritable double whammy of engineered ineptitude.

[Thiago97]

22 minutes ago, Mark Kelly said:

We are also seeing the continued situation of ensuring we have the homer ref whenever we get to go to ground where the support is vocal , if they can do us the disservice of ensuring we get the finicky referee too then it's refereeing gold for them a veritable double whammy of engineered ineptitude.

The trouble with many of the refs, as was the case with David Coote yesterday, they still insist on trying to manage games, rather than referee games.

Yesterdays ref didn't really get any big calls wrong. Yet his performance in that 1st half was so frustrating, because he continuously managed situations to prevent them from escalating into something that might end up contentious. The advantage/benefit often favoured the defensive team, because its far easier to give the free kick in that scenario, and start a new passage of play, rather than call it in the favour of the attacking team, who may score from that position.

He did this throughout the first half, unless it was a clear and obvious foul. On the whole, it worked against us throughout this first half. The booking of Sterling in minute three on a very wet and slippy pitch was also just ridiculous.

[ROTG]

1 hour ago, My Blood Is Blue said:

Yep, exactly this. I said to my brother during the Bournemouth match, that whenever they attack us it looks like they will score and yet when we attack, it looks the exact opposite and it's the same in pretty much every game we play. We offer barely any threat at all unless Sterling has decided to have one of his rare good days.

Yep - the team is very one dimensional in all aspects of the game from defending to attacking.

As our main striker is exactly what is written on the label a 30m striker who might get 10 goals this season. The club had a opportunity to get a seasoned striker form Juve who would have cost less than zero first team experience Palmer with the bonus of getting Pillsbury dough boy  off the books permanently.

 

Off to get my tin hat

[Mark Kelly]

They say it's good to have a lucky coach.

All I can say to that is Pochettino is lucky United are dreadful as they're deflecting the focus away from us in the papers. 

[Bones]

Well saying that we are unlucky to win because we have injuries I think demotivates the current lot who ARE playing at the moment.

[Max Fowler]

I think I've landed on a critical messaging error Poch has made so far. He's explicitly made clear that he is aiming for nothing short of us winning the title this season - he's never tempered expectations by saying we should aim for top four or even top six this season, for example, and build from there.

At first I liked this optimistic attitude. Now he is now making excuses for why we are not winning when we are clearly so far off the pace it's untrue. Incredibly hypocritical to say "we don't have time to waste thinking about the future; we need to perform today!" and then now, we can't perform today because our players aren't fit.

Even if we had all our players fit, talking up the title so much seems absolutely deluded in hindsight. Maybe the fans wouldn't be so expectant if he hadn't hyped up our chances so much and given us such false hope.