Sports Card Blogs

Why this Sarri mess is a perfect (sh*t)storm for Chelsea

We have a selection of your lovely Mails. If you want to contribute, you know what to do: Mail us at [email protected]

Perfect storm for Chelsea
Firstly, well played to Solskjaer and Man Utd.  They came with a plan and carried it out perfectly.  I don’t think it was coincidence that the first 15/20 minutes were quite intense and evenly matched before we seemingly got the upper hand.  It was probably a ploy to draw us on to them and we fell for it.

This is a perfect (sh*t)storm for Chelsea now.  First, we have the board who must have known Maurizio Sarri was very rigid in his philosophy and team selection.  Knowing this, they should have backed him in the summer to help him achieve his vision.  Next we have Sarri himself who is not helping himself with his predictability.  The uninspiring lineups, the lack of ideas, the predictable in-game management and subs, that is not good enough in a top-level manager.  Finally, we have the team who are simply not good enough for the system Sarri is trying to implement.  Our entire backline is under-performing with full backs most culpable.  Azpilicueta has been an incredible player but he’s either burned out or declining, either way he is rapidly becoming a liability.  The midfield don’t appear sure of what’s required of them, watch them all swarm towards Pogba before he crossed for Herrera, there is still no collective strategy they’re all buying into.

Where do we go from here?  A lot of our fans are #SarriOut and I can’t blame them for that.  My own opinion on the matter changes on an hourly basis at the minute but I’m currently of the opinion of keeping hold of him.  Give him a summer and pre-season and see where it takes us.  But that’s a pipe dream, I don’t think the board will financially back him in that way and, famously, Sarri himself said he wasn’t that type of manager.  So, if the backing won’t be available to the level we need we should probably hit the reset button.  But then who would come in if the backing isn’t there?  What a mess.
BlueLuke, CFC, Zappa for Azpi had to have been a message to the board, right?…Right?

Sarri or Hudson-Odoi?
Who is going to be at Stamford Bridge longer Sarri or Callum Hudson-Odoi? Surely Hudson-Odoi is already purchasing a Bavarian cottage and has purchased his German Oxford dictionary. Quite ridiculous that he is behind Willian who is offering nothing these days.

Huge night for my beloved Liverpool but I’m missing the game due to GAA training.
Liverpool Irish fan

Pogba’s Dogma
In response to Jimmy, our LFC correspondent in Spain, I agree Pogba had a quiet/poor first half an hour last night. I also agree about Herrera, who would have been my choice for MotM, and I note WhoScored gave both him and Pogba a 9. However, I think using dispossession and passing stats as a stick to beat him with misses a key aspect of why he is a great player for us – risk.

Pogba operates high up the pitch, especially when he has the ball, and is more likely to be dispossessed as his game is about driving at the other team to try to make things happen. Or if he is passing, it is usually a forward probing pass through the lines to the attackers. Take Salah for instance; according to WhoScored he has a pass success percentage for the season of 76.5%, compared to Pogba’s 83.8%, and is dispossessed 3.2 times a game (Pogba 2.7) which is the highest in the PL. Does that make Salah any less of a player? Of course not. He takes players on, he tries through balls for his team mates and is a fantastic exciting player. It’s the same with Pogba.

As regards the PSG match, thanks for bringing that up BTW, he was marked out of the game by the excellent Marquinhos (the no-name Brazilian eh Dave). My criticism of him that night was that he didn’t do enough to shift his marker about the pitch and create space for others, instead trying to play his normal game and not using his brain enough to change things up. But he still has a bit of learning to do and I am sure he will over the next couple of years (which could see him end up near you in Spain Jimmy but that’s football).

One of the main issues with our team since Fergie left (especially under LVG but also under Mourinho) was the lack of risk and quality in the final third. Pogba takes risks and, by doing so, makes things happen in the final third, as he did with his contribution for the goals last night. The majority of our attacking play goes through him and we are not as good when he doesn’t play. Here’s hoping for another Pogba no-show like that on Sunday.
Garey Vance, MUFC

Hey Jimmy (I like my ‘best midfielders in the world’, to actually be that) Spain, I understand that some stats for Pogba are not great but I think you’re missing the point completely. Data will tell you whatever you want it to if you interrogate it enough.

However, you need to use the right stats for the right job the player is asked to do. You wouldn’t judge an attacker on their ability to block shots, you wouldn’t judge a goalkeeper on their amount of successful dribbles and likewise you should consider what Pogba is in the team to do. I would imagine that under Jose, Pogba’s passing stats were better than they are now, but then the emphasis was on retaining the ball (as well as boring the fans and the opposition to death) and now the emphasis is on fast counter attacking play that requires one touch quick passing that is high-risk high-reward.

Ole said prior to coming to Utd that his solution for Utds woes would be to build a team around Pogba and that is what he has done. He has recognised that his best qualities are not being a holding midfielder, that job is covered admirably by Matic and Herrera. Pogba is in the team to be our main creator so the stats we should look at for him are assists, key passes, completed passes in the attacking third (or whatever the nerds are looking at now). However, just by looking at his sheer numbers of assists and goals you can clearly see he is over-achieving what you could realistically expect an attacking midfielder to do. Attacking wise, he is currently performing at the level of players like Hazard, Sterling & Salah who are players you don’t judge on their defensive abilities.

I’d also say that the false notion of him being a box-to-box midfielder gives this impression that he is not as good as he should be in the stats you mention. However, a true box-to-box midfielder is one that is capable of doing just as good a job at the back as they are going forwards, they tend not to focus on one duty over the other. Pogba is not this, he is clearly better going forward than he is at defending and Ole has recognised this. As Pogba gets more experience he may well improve at defensive duties but until then we should praise a manager who is getting the best out of him going forwards and realistic with his expectations of his defensive duties, a balancing act Jose got completely wrong.
Jon, Cape Town (Sanchez however is the first player ever to lose the ball more times than he has it, as statistically proven by OptaJoe, whoscored, Martin Tyler and FootyNerds.com)

Jimmy (I like my ‘best midfielders in the world’, to actually be that) Spain. Jimmy, no Liverpool fan would recognise a decent midfielder if he popped out of a cake reading “29 years and still waiting”. These are group of fans who try and justify Jordan Henderson is a world class midfielder.

You should be well versed in watching a charlatan in midfield. After all you’ve been graced by the most overrated one of all time in Gerrard.

Since Ole has come in, Pogba has had an impact in every game bar the PSG one. The whole team were poor that night and were well beaten. One goal and one assist in a game were we win 2-0 is the only stat I came about.

Let’s see on Sunday how the £62 million Kieta handles him. Or the worst captain in your history Mr Henderson does? Not well I’d assume.
Bryan

Why is Kroenke to blame?
“can someone explain how this is Stan Kroenke’s fault please?”

Arsenal went into the January transfer window needing cover for Rob Holding (out for the season), possible reinforcements up front with Welbeck (being out for the season), and just before the closing of the transfer window they lost Bellerin (out for the season). Ozil, the highest earner at the club, does not feature in this side, so they need to replace him. Ramsey is off at the end of the season, so they need to replace him. That’s five first team players. Do I really have to spell it out?

Meanwhile Stan Kroenke now has full control of the club and has no interest in spending money on players. There is no doubt in my mind he has used Arsenal as leverage in building his $2 billion stadium in the US for the LA Rams. Arsenal will probably be handed down to his son, as his own little toy to play with.

The man is a parasite who has no love of football, or Arsenal. So yeah, Kroenke out. Emery has his hands tied. And everyone thinking we need ‘three transer windows’. Well, we just went through one, and have a non playing utility player, on loan. That’s it.
I don’t expect Emery to be given the support he needs.

So Malcolm, Kroenke out. Do you understand?
Kireca

Cost of football is too high
Loved reading the articles by Jonny Nic, but, if you do a little research & are prepared to put in a little effort, you can do what I’ve done. Buy a genuine subscription from an overseas based TV Provider & never miss a game. No crappy IPTV stuff that buffers, no blank screens when the EPL block the illegal stream, just every Premier League Game, Champions League game & Europa League game. Costs me roughly £9 a month. Sure, I should be watching down under instead of here in Blighty, but my conscience is fairly clear that I’m not simply paying some random guy to pirate Sky/BTs channels.
Terry

Three conclusions
Hello F635,

Having watched the Utd-Chelsea game last night I am left with three overriding conclusions:

1. For the first time in my life and before I snap out of it I should say I feel the pain of Chelsea fans. Sarri is to Chelsea as Van Gaal was to Utd – inflexible, unimaginative, stubborn and with no plan B. The fact I have read elsewhere here that he has now swapped Barkley-Kovacic 20 times this season usually at the stroke of 70 mins is absolutely peak LvG;

2. Sanchez is the new Falcao. Once-wonderful player, now busted flush. I have been desperate to see him come back to his best but as with Falcao I accept now it isn’t going to happen. We’re stuck with him though as nobody will take on his £4m a week wages; and

3. Solskjaer has well and truly earned the full time job at United. Aside from the ‘knows the club’ and the hailing him as a liberator with the proper football arguments, I thought last night was by far his most important and impressive result. Once again demonstrating he is tactically astute. After being thoroughly done by a better PSG side the wheels could easily come off with this squad who aren’t quite up to it and are very streaky on confidence. Yet he lifted them again to an excellent performance and result. Now Tottenham, Arsenal, Chelsea all beaten away. Give that man the job and the money to sort the playing squad out once and for all!

10 men behind the ball to ensure Liverpool drop points is acceptable.
Tom Heath (MUFC)

I hate VAR
I’m not even talking about how it’s detaching the sport even further from the playground.

I just hate how you can make such a convoluted hash of something that is essentially an instant replay. Why do we need millions of pounds of investment for 18 ultra high-def 360° cameras for EACH pitch it will be used on, along with Andy Townsend’s tactics truck out the back kitted out like it’s 24’s Counter Terrorism Unit, when a phone in your hand with the match stream on would do? 99% of cases are sorted by watching the INSTANT replay once from the broadcaster.

Instead we have to wait four minutes for the refereeing panel to watch the incident back ten times, in 0.25x speed, 0.5x speed, 150% magnification etc. only to decide “aye, that two footed challenge to the back of his knees WAS a red card”. Sometimes I stick the match on as I’m walking down the street in a different country and I know minutes before the referee that it was a penalty.

What about those other 1% of cases though you ask? Well considering VAR was brought in as a LAST RESORT to eradicate these errors, I find it amazing that there is still so much controversy over incidents. Almost every other game there is some controversy. They talk about teething problems as if consulting a video replay is trying to strike up a trade deal for leaving the EU.

The arbitrary choice of incidents that VAR can only be consulted for is frustrating – the World Cup final was ruined because France’s first two goals were from a penalty for a ‘handball’ by Vida that looked only intentional when played back at 10% speed, and a free kick that Griezmann dived to win (but hey, VAR can’t consult free kick incidents because free kicks aren’t important – except when they lead to world cup final deciding goals)

Ashley Young probably should have had a second yellow last night, but VAR can’t check that. Sorry. David Luiz also could have been red carded for a reckless two-footed challenge on Marcus Rashford – but it wasn’t deemed worthy enough of a foul. Therein lies the issue – the debate over when VAR is consulted is the new debate over whether or not a refereeing decision was correct. Hardly all-encompassing technology.

There are so many other problems with VAR that are swept under the rug. A complex goal -line technology system was introduced at a premium only five years ago as a method of avoiding missed goals without the need to resort to VAR. It has been brilliant. Can we just do away with that now? We don’t need it anymore.

Everyone talks about what happens when a player scores a goal that was offside. I raised the opposite question yesterday – what happens if a striker goes through on goal only to be ruled offside by the assistant referee, and play stops, only for the replay to show the offside call was wrong? A friend remarked that assistant referees have been told not to flag until late on the off chance it’s overturned. But that’s a bit wishy-washy. Why don’t we just get rid of linesmen altogether?

For what it’s worth, it should be foolproof. Not the self-checkout of the footballing world. If you’re going to have it at all, give them a Samsung Galaxy with BT Sport on it for a fiver a month – there’s the Champions League sorted.
Gerard, Belfast

Is your Kepa any good?
Question for Chelsea fans – is your Kepa any good? I’ll admit I’ve not watched many of your games this year, but the ones I have (mostly the high profile ones) he seems to fill me with doubt. He’s not necessarily made any clangers or performed particularly poorly, but I’ve seen quite a few goals go in that you’d either be expecting him to save and/or do better with. Case in point, Pogba’s header last night. I think Herrera’s was well placed, but Pogba’s was basically straight at him. I know it had a lot of power on it, and at first glance I thought “What a header”, but on watching replays he looked a bit weak-handed which I don’t feel is the first time this season.

I also had in my mind the 6-0 last weekend but then I went back and watched the highlights and actually, he couldn’t have done much better with those. A quick glance of like-for-like tables from last year compared to this year shows you’ve conceded 6 more goals in 26 PL games. So yeah, can any Chelsea fans shed light? Given he cost £70 million, is he performing enough? Has his price been inflated (the fault for which probably has something to do with us and Alisson..)? Is it the Chelsea defence making him look bad? He kinda reminds me of David De Gea in his first couple of seasons at United.

Answers on a Postcard please!
Lee (twitchy about tonight), LFC

Couple of gripes
Reading Paul Murphy’s complaint this am about Matic being penalised for a perfectly clean tackle, it reminded me of a couple of gripes I also had when watching last night’s game.

David Luiz steps up to hit one of his thunderbastard free kicks around 30mins in. Naturally, he skies it. However, just as he makes connection, Gonzalo Higuain clearly shoves Ander Herrera out of the wall. The ball wasn’t necessarily going to hit him but surely that’s a foul?! You can’t just push people off the ball for no reason and especially not in that circumstance.

For the rest of the game I watched whenever either team had a free kick. I don’t think United had one that was of equivalence but Chelsea had two or three and each time the same thing happened. Someone pushes the man at the end of the wall out the way and the free kick taker aims at that player.

Does anyone know why this isn’t just a straight foul against the attacking team?
Alex, (The other one was about VAR and why it can’t overturn a wrong decision (like the Matic one) when a foul has been given, but I don’t think anyone really wants to get in to that debate again.) Ayr