Yea...how would a squad with Hazard, Oscar, Schürrle, Torres, Ramires, Willian, Lampard play an offensive style? No way it would work...huh? Chelsea bought all these guys to implement a new exciting playing style for their team and now Mourinho does this disgusting 10 players defending sh** again. It's a disgrace to football and the fans, I'd be embarassed advancing like that. Hate how Mourinho is labelled as a brilliant mastermind, all he does in crucial games is park the bus and wait for counterattacks. Even sh!tty teams like ManU look good doing that. But it's still a disgusting way of playing and a middlefinger to the fans.
Hazard is injured. Torres is hot garbage. Eto'o is injured. Oscar is decent attacking but not great, Ramires is also not a great offensive player and was used correctly last night. Lampard is past his prime and not a consistent threat anymore (it was a travesty that he didn't take both of those David Luis set kicks, though), Schurrle is decent but has generally failed as a go to guy up top, and Willian is a great player but more of a pace/facilitator/combo guy. He can not do it alone. I do think they had to play it conservative in light of all of the above but I think they took it too far. Even with previous failings of the false 9 with Schurrle up top I still probably would have used him in place of Torres and thrown Oscar in there in place of Lampard. Mikel stays holding, Ramires and Willian try to track back as much as possible, and then Schurrle and Oscar stay decently high. Still not great but potentially prettier. It absolutely is Chelsea's fault, though, for not bringing in the right player or two.
Hazard and Eto'o have been their best scorers this season and they were both injured. Oscar struggles against physical opponents, Schurrle and Willian are just ok, Ramires and Lampard (at this stage of his career) are more adept in defensive assignments, Torres is laughable. Chelsea would get wrecked if they played an attacking style last night.
Lol, Mou played the same way while at Madrid, that's when the criticism started. Please don't tell me Madrid didn't/doesn't have a superb attack.
Yep, it's idiotic how much people defend him and blame it on players. This guy had some of the world's finest players during his coaching tenures and always pulled the same sh**.
Mou is a disgrace to football - a coward, a sore loser, a whiner, an excuse maker etc. A billion pound squad, most ever spent in EPL history and you go out and line up with 10 defenders. Don't think it's just Mou. The club Chelsea in itself has some sort of negative park the bus in them in big competitions. That final against Bayern was a joke to neutrals. Chelsea pretty much played 10 in their own half with Drogba assigned defensive duties. Zero entertainment whatsoever. Even though United got stuck with Moyes (who is gone now), I am glad we didn't go in for Mou.
It's called strategy bro, and if it's so easy to do what Mourinho does why don't more managers do it and proceed to win as much as Mourinho has throughout his career?
It's only natural to tighten up the defense in knockout games. I also don't think Ancelotti will go in with guns blazing tonight, so don't expect much. Nobody wants to open up and risk everything in the first leg of the semifinals.
Bro, I'm talking about when going against the top clubs. Not against your Osasunas, Levantes, Almerias, etc.. of the world. Other teams don't do it because to a neutral spectator or even worse to a person who doesn't watch soccer, this type of play will be effing boring. Soccer is a big business now, all about marketing. Reminds of the Pistons team that won back in 04.
I was raised watching Italian football so I don't have a problem with low-scoring affairs and catenaccio. It's a legitimate tactic, many people consider it boring, but the whole point is not to concede a goal. Mourinho accomplished what he wanted and that's it. rox1 wants to watch attractive football, but these guys are paid to win and Mou put them in the best position to do so. His Pistons analogy is on point, I personally commend them for winning the title without an All-Star, while others might criticize their style of play. To each his own.
