Crystal Palace 1-4 Chelsea - Saturday 10th April, 2021

[Bluewolf]

Pulisic... looked painful getting that one in

[Bluewolf]

Harvertz is the same as Werner when in front of goal.... he could have had 4 today and most of them from point blank range

[Bluewolf]

How did Ziyech miss that.. 

[Cicero]

We scored 4 but the main issues are still there. Poor decision making in the final third and chance conversion. We genuinely should of hit double digits. Reckon this will take the longest for Tuchel to sort out but nonetheless another disciplined performance. 

[Stan]

50 minutes ago, Cicero said:

We scored 4 but the main issues are still there. Poor decision making in the final third and chance conversion. We genuinely should of hit double digits. Reckon this will take the longest for Tuchel to sort out but nonetheless another disciplined performance. 

This makes Palace look absolutely terrible  

[Cicero]

1 minute ago, Stan said:

This makes Palace look absolutely terrible  

Oh yeah they were awful. As Luke alluded to, you don't press our CMs, you've lost the game. Roy still hasn't learned from the reverse fixture so it looks even more poor. 

[Dave]

2 hours ago, Cicero said:

Oh yeah they were awful. As Luke alluded to, you don't press our CMs, you've lost the game. Roy still hasn't learned from the reverse fixture so it looks even more poor. 

I remember playing your lot after Sarri lost his first game. Chelsea had lost because Jorginho got pressed and lost composure under pressure. We then preceeded to allow Jorginho more time than anybody the following game.

We saw what West Brom did well, we have players that can play that role, yet we panicked about a potential backlash and invited pressure on ourselves. 

It's frustrating, we had a good record against Chelsea prior to Hodgson and I don't think it's because of anything different Chelsea have done to make that change.

[carefreeluke]

It makes me wonder what managers and scouting setups do before games, I remember Barnsley pressing high for good periods of the game and we looked clueless, we had to even change shape. You've got to execute it well of course and doing well against us isn't just dependent on that, there are other factors involved but it definitely makes life difficult and it complicates our build-up and the safety nets a lot of our players have. In fairness, Jorginho and Kovacic can play relatively well under pressure, it's our defenders that will struggle. What Jorginho will struggle with though is speed and if you put him under pressure, he's very comfortable on the ball but I think the speed in this league catches him off guard at times and his recovery runs aren't great either. I'm saying for example, if someone loses a ball around him, his recovery run to cover his teammate, his defensive ability and his attempt to win the ball back often won't be great as he lacks sometimes the mobility to do that well enough. The same perhaps for Kovacic.

Even Big Sam pressed high for periods last week but I think we lost that game more because we had an off day and the Silva sending off changed everything.

I remember under Conte after a while teams would put pressing traps on Cahill and he would shit a brick. The same can happen to Azpilicueta who's dreadful on the ball. 

I think I remember Southgate saying that one of the reasons he switched to 3 at the back with England is because it gives the team a better foundation, not only defensively but in terms of build-up play. You look at the photo below (which was about the Porto game), for the back 8, there's always someone available for the ball which allows us to gain momentum and confidence with build-up play. It allows us to control the game and the number of passes that go through the same avenues is staggering.

What happens when the opposition press high is that it disrupts heavily that build-up and foundation and it makes our players think more as they have to play under pressure and the usual routes are cut-off. For me, a lot of our players back there live in a comfort bubble and so far there's been little disruption or disturbance to those bubbles.

As for us, we need to get better at being more progressive with the ball, playing quicker when needed, having better movement and getting our forward players more on the ball in good areas. We did that well today but Palace were on the beach most of the game.

[God is Haaland]

15 hours ago, Bluewolf said:

How did Ziyech miss that.. 

Maybe it's a Chelsea problem after all. 

[Cicero]

Literally the first thing I said after he scored was that was practically identical to last seasons

 

[Dave]

Thomas Tuchel was clearly made aware that when Chelsea press Roy Hodgson's Crystal Palace in the first fifthteen minutes we capitulate. Fair play to him for altering his approach as that could have finished 8 - 0 by half time.

For us, everything criticism that fans have combined in the first half for a complete shit show.

- Relying on 4-4-2 and not trying new formations. 

- Midfield being overran. 

- No cover for ageing defence.

- Inability to defend aerial balls. Guaita made some good saves but he should be coming out for Zoumas goal.

- Van Aanholt can defend.

- Joel Ward left overstretched.

- Luka misplacing several simple passes.

- Jordan Ayew not contributing enough further forwards.

- Zaha sulking all game as if he wants to be on the other team.

- Playing like a team that's just got promoted.

- Playing like Eze as a make shift left wing back. This one really irritates me so I'll expand further. Does he need to improve his defensive game? Clearly. But there's a time and a place. Everybody knows Wan-Bissaka needs to improve going forwards but when he came through we didn't play him upfront. So why is Eze playing left wing back? QPR fans would tell you not to put him on the left of 4-4-2. It's OK to do it against a Wolves or a Sheff Utd as he could do damage, but against Chelsea play Schlupp on the left and Eze where Ayew is as Ayew offers nothing going forwards at the minute.

I'm not expecting us to out football teams like Chelsea, but I expect us to be athletic and match them physically to give us a chance of winning. The way we set up never gave us a chance of doing that.