Chelsea were knocked out of the Champions League last night after losing 2-1 (3-1 on aggregate) to Manchester United at Old Trafford last night.
Blues manager Carlo Ancelotti opted for a ‘Christmas Tree’ formation to adopt struggling forward Fernando Torres, who failed to make a mark on the game and was substituted at half time for Didier Drogba.
The Ivorian forward gave Chelsea some hope after they went a goal down, as well as a man down, to their opponents when he levelled the scoring late on in the night, but those hopes were soon dashed when Ji-Sung Park netted just moments later and left the west Londoners with too big a mountain to climb.
What did we learn from last night’s game?
Carlo Ancelotti’s in the firing line:
Rightly or wrongly the Italian manager is expected to be shown the exit door after his side’s performance over the current season, which he’s not entirely to blame for but the buck often stops with the manager.
The squad is in transition and you will get seasons where you won’t perform as well as you hoped, but is Ancelotti the right man to oversee a rebuild and does he possess the right character to make brave calls?
We didn’t take our chances:
I’m not just talking about goal scoring opportunities, like the one Frank Lampard had in the first half after being put in by Florent Malouda, but we were playing against two fullbacks who were on yellow cards for a fairly large proportion of the game and did not put any pressure on them. We do not seem to possess much threat in the wider areas and this is something that must be addressed this summer, in my opinion.
Also, how long was Rio Ferdinand hobbling around for yesterday? You’d think making a few runs at him would have been a good idea but we hardly worked the crocked defender at all.
The formation:
Ancelotti abandoned his 4-4-2 formation and decided to opt for a 4-3-2-1 system in order to fit Torres in, but it was probably the wrong way to go as many argue that he should have started Drogba and stuck with the old guard in order to win the game.
Putting the Drogba v Torres debate to one side, was this really a formation/selection which would benefit the Spaniard?
I don’t think it is and it showed as the player become isolated as the midfield failed to get the ball forward quickly enough and if Ancelotti really wanted to help Torres then why didn’t Yossi Benayoun (who had an impressive cameo at the weekend against Wigan) feature at all? It would have been a risk as he’s been out for a long time and it may not have paid off, but when you have a problem creating decent goal scoring opportunities it’s arguably a chance worth taking.
What are your thoughts on Manchester United v Chelsea yesterday? – Have your say in the comment section below
Even about this backing some Chelsea fans give to Torres..he was S**t again and when he came off and DROGBA came in i already knew we’d score a goal,even with Ramires conceding a red.if Abramovic is afraid that his 50million are gone bad on TOrres,that doesnt mean to play him all the time.DROGBA STAY FOREVER HERE…YOU ARE A GREAT STRIKER NOT THE OTHER GIRL..i was always telling that to Loserpool fans and they said that Torres is better than Drogba,faster,better dribble…B**SH*T..DROGBA IS THE BEST.SELL THE C**T TORRES THAN DIDIER..CFC 4 EVER
I don’t think it was the right formation or team selection, but none of our strikers are in form and although Torres has been poor, I refuse to join in with the media witch-hunt and melodrama.
The guy has only been at the club a few months. We know how good he is. He’s our player, so let’s build him up and not destroy him further.
Torres is womanly. It must be terrible for a man like Drogba, to be cast aside for such a drag artist.
Haha
Although, with that hair, the menstrual hissy fits and the way he rolls around like a pansy, Didier is a bit of a woman…just an ugly one, lol.
all is bad carlo must be sacked so another manager should take over, so dat chelsea can win a champions league.
We now know Nani takes his diving lessons from Ronaldo. And Carlo, for sh** sake, please tell your players to attack! We sat back and hoped we could muster something as United flowed freely in an aggressive form we refused to play.
With the Drogba point in mind, there was a lot of talk about how Carlo should have gone with the ‘old guard’, which just shows how much the club needs to change.
Carlo has shouldered a lot of the blame, but some of these lads are standing in the way of progress.
Drogba, Malouda and Lampard – slow, slow, slower.
Either our players were not good enough to beat Manchester United or our manager was not good enough to beat Manchester United – and I’m referring to the whole season. Roman will answer that question. My opinion is that both Carlos and a whole bunch of players will be shipped out including Drogba, Malouda, Anelka, Ferreira, Bosingwa, Mikel – they’ve all become “cruisers” which is not good enough for the EPL. Expect to see Terry, Lampard, Cole getting reduced playing time as new youngsters are eased into their roles.