re: 12/28

it was awful

Rooney said sorry during the post match interview

Well that was about as terrible as one would have imagined. We suck so much donkey balls.

We can't even execute simple passes. I swear I could step into our team and wouldn't even look out of place right now.

It's almost like we actively try not to score or threaten for about 99% of the match even when we stumble and find ourselves in a possible position to do so.

Matic can diaf after his donkey handball Saturday and that 1v1 effort today.

Sell everyone on the team except the center backs and Azpi and I guess Willian can stay too because he at least tries and might hit a free kick from time to time.

Everyone else out, Hiddink out, I'm out.

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it was awful

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Question, what do you United and Chelsea fans attribute the lack of form to? Is it more on the players or the managers at this point? Or is it just a toxic combination of both?

Crazy what's going between the two.

i basically like everyone on our team we just suck. we play pretty damn boring recently other than today and we still can't score.

i dunno if it's the terribleness of the players or if it's LvG or if it's combo.

we're just poop. albeit slightly better poop today.

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i basically like everyone on our team we just suck.

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Same.

DDG is world class, but a great goalkeeper can only win you points if you actually score on the other end.

Martial has incredible potential and has individual moments of brilliance, but he's young and inconsistent.

Rooney has fallen so far off the wagon it's unbelievable.

Child please I was the first to see this coming, though admittedly not to this degree. I thought we would struggle for top 4 not be fighting a relegation battle.

This is going to be long, but will hopefully highlight some of Chelsea's problems to fans of other clubs.

There are so many things that have gone wrong. It started last season. We saw that this team had weaknesses and really need more depth/competition in the squad. When everyone was strengthening this summer, we all started to get worried complacency would be a killer. I, like Randy said, figured it would be a battle for the top four, but I didn't see this coming.

The postseason tour is what started it all. After a long, grueling campaign it was a dumb idea. Our squad was hardly ever rotated and our players should have gone on holiday immediately. Playing the postseason tour set the players holiday back which meant Chelsea started preseason late. Players didn't ever get a chance to find their feet and find form. Arsenal got at us in the Community Shield and then Swansea did the same. Teams' early success against the Blues removed the fear factor associated with Chelsea last season.

Opposing teams started pressing high up the pitch, something nobody really did last year, and our players, completely out of form, looked uncomfortable and downright scared on the ball. Starting the season in poor form was something that we couldn't seem to shake because the players haven't been as mentally tough as they should, and Mourinho mismanaged things. I love Mourinho and think he's a great manager, but he has never had to deal with a team that is REALLY struggling and that was evident.

He took the scapegoating (Eva, throwing players under the bus, criticizing referees) to another level. Pulling moves like bringing Matic on at halftime and subbing him out 20 minutes later meant he slowly lost the locker room. When he lost the locker room, it was over.

Cesc and Diego had already suffered huge dips in form at the end of the season and never have really regained it. Age is making it harder for Terry to keep his level of play at a high-level. I've never really liked Cahill or thought he was great (He will back off someone until he's in the net). Zouma is still young and needs more time to be a consistent rock. Ivanovic has always been susceptible to pace, he can't cross and he's worthless if he's not scoring. He stopped scoring in the second half of last season. Matic has been poor, but he's really looked worse than he's played because of the rest of the team. He's dragged into wide positions frequently to bail out Ivanovic. On the other side, he has to help Dave because Hazard doesn't track back. He stayed central much more frequently last season. We all wanted a CAM to challenge Oscar because he's injury prone and inconsistent. Hazard seems to have checked out. He looks done with the physicality of the Premier League and a move away from England seems evident. Willian, Dave, and whomever is in goal have been okay.

We were all clamoring for Pogba, Griezmann, Isco, Schneiderlin and Stones during the summer. We had roughly 160 mil to spend and didn't. Now there's little chance of attracting top players and we're in major trouble.

TL DR: Late preseason meant players were out of form when season started. Confidence was lost. Fear-factor non-existent. Mourinho mismanaged things. Many players not as good as people thought. No competition or depth in the squad. Now nobody wants to come to Chelsea and the outlook is not good

Part of the fear factor was also lost when y'all lost to Red Bulls II, aka their USL team + some youth players.

Hasn't Willian been their best player this year?