Rant Box: Norwich City v. Chelsea

Lot of talk regarding a lack of so-called hunger from our players today. I felt the need to touch on that quickly seeing as I find that to be pretty disrespectful to the players themselves. They deserve criticism, but not for that.

So what some are saying is that our players did not set out to the win this match. They were uninterested in competing. This is, frankly, ridiculous (no disrespect). 

Was there a monopoly in possession? Were sufficient chances created? Was there a general dominance of the second half? Was only one team really going to win the match? Yes, on all accounts. 

The problem is not with hunger but with our individual personnel. Bosingwa can't cross for the life of him. Cole is suffering the worst run of form of his Chelsea tenure. Torres is suffering the worst run of form in his career. Lampard and Meireles cancel each other out, leaving Ramires to do pretty much everything. Juan Mata is exhausted. Daniel Sturridge is not fully fit. Our defense has been insanely fragile, thus putting even more pressure on the rest of the side. You couple all these individual issues together, and you have a mountain in which to overcome to succeed.

This lethal mix results in what we saw today, a performance in which we did pretty well everywhere except in the final third. We were devoid of ideas. And confidence.

Add to this the fact that Norwich are playing really well, and this game was always going to be a very difficult one. Ask yourself this: Had we sneaked a 1-0 win, would you have questioned the players' professionalism?

Here's to hoping this short vacay will do wonders for the side.

Get Willian! Willian is not featured in today's Shanktar's league game. Maybe we are close. 

we need to start using player in proper positions so we can get the best out of them. Look at Mata, we brought him to add some creativity to our games but we mostly use him on sides ... chelsea needs to change formation as a transition ... it is not just about players ...no matter who we bring in, if we do not use them properly, it will be same story all day long
We need to ask this question ? Why torres was the best goal scorer for Liverpool ,  because they were playing 4-4-2 and players such as Gerrard and Xavi Alonso fed him ....
Change it to 4-4-2 with
Ramires------Mata----Lampard----Malouda
----------Torres----Daniel--------------------

Or put some good passer behind him
-----------Meireles---Lampard-------
---Daniel---Mata-----Malouda-----
-----------Torres---------------------

In both formation, we are using Mata in center as well.....

I think you are exactly right...there's talent on this team, it just isn't being utilized properly.

So slow and ponderous passing the ball from side to side.  Why doesn't this manager get this lot playing a bit quicker and moving the ball forward with tempo?  Maybe then they would be more exciting to watch and results might then improve.  Would rather see them lose but play a more exciting game to be honest. This sort of performance is dire.  Of a very bad day for all concerned only David Luiz showed any drive and Torres should never have been substituted.  Sturridge should have gone instead and as for Bosingwa, he needs to leave for good.... 

Cant even beat Norwich...such a shameful performance....

i know essien needs minutes, but not sure what he really brings at this moment. very sluggish and passing is mediocre just because he hasn't played for so long. would've taken off a defender, probably bosingwa, for lukaku instead. 

Essien barely had time to make an impact. Lukaku was impressive. If anyone needed to be pulled it was Mata, who is clearly exhausted these days.

I agree on Mata

I can see that ... Meireles ran a lot, AVB wanted to bring in fresh legs so it might help ... the worst sub was Torres ... He did not play well after his miss , but in a game that we must win, we should have added Lakuku to Torres ...

am sick of this shit playing we cant even show the desire to win a fucking match. seriously we need a striker and a midfielder who can distribute the ball and lets get rid of malouda i would volunteer to help him pack his stuff and whose bright idea was to sell Anelka instead of malouda dammit buy players before we start playing in the champions league. I dont care if its team rebuilding this is utter crap and absurd from a team like chelsea

Malouda was one of our better performers. Just because he slashed a shot wide in the final minutes people want to slag him off. 

Miles better than Sturridge today.

Malouda did not play that bad ... If Mata concentrated more, Malouda's assist should have provided a goal for us.

We simply do not deserve the win anything this year, no matter how City, United or Tottenham play, we are not good enough.
As I said it was obvious we are not hungry enough. dropping point here means end of hope and then we bring out torres , keep trorres in damn it , bring in another striker

Obvious we weren't hungry? Nonsense for me.

Don't agree...they look uninterested and definitely have no killer instinct...no confidence and very tentative.  Like they are playing not to lose.

We don't agree, great.

I agree we don't agree...;p

No we were not. for such games, when we need to win, when we are playing again recently promoted club (no matter they are in good form or not) , you should bomb that team, you should create opportunities every 10 minutes .... you should bring in attacking options, not replacing your striker with another striker ...
The fact that we play so bravely against City and Tottenham and then agian Norwich we wake up 5 minutes to the end of game and we realizes we need to win, this shows we were not hungry ... This was a must win game for us ...

Come the hell on.

Lakuku for Torres , are u serious ?

Man Luis has been an absolute WALL

Torres lost all his confidence after that miss.

What the hell. Just what the hell.

Need to throw on the Lukaku.

bosingwa gotta learn how to spray balls like luiz. 

we need to bring Mata in the game, AV should send malouda wide and bring Mata to center .. we should use his magic more than this.

it was a very dynamic fist half. i think there wasnt even a foul or an offside, even lampards sub was very quick, hope this has worn them down and ramires can take advantage of thatin the second half.

Danny hasnt had his best day so far
Bosingwa cant cross to save his life.

Not sure what to think. Good enough at times, but so very predictable. Bring on the Lukaku, eventually that is.

considering the fact that big clubs have game against each other and there is a possibility they drop points, we should play better than this, we should be hungrier than this.

We're plenty hungry, just devoid of ideas in the attacking third.

not enough, in my opinion

Looks like Lampard's day is finished. Is it his calf?

This is just a well-contested game. 

That was more like it. Great play all around.

incredible effort by torres

ball in the final third still lacking. torres continues his reborn role as the creator, but passes back to him just don't get to him

Which channel are you watching the game from?

espn

guys, can you send me a link of online place you are watching the game, I just get the audio version Thanks

Watching on the tube man.

This tempo is absurdly high. Almost frantic.

someone should tell meireles hes playing a football game

AVB insists on the Meireles-Lampard axis. I trust the kid, but this baffles me.

guys it is all Audio only?

Up the Chels.

These "oportunity" games always scare me, we always find a way to shoot ourselves in the knee when we can actually close point gaps. hope this is not the case

Teams added. No place for Cahill at all. AVB continues with Meireles and Lampard in midfield, to my bemusement.