A tournament we all felt was ours to win as the favorites and better side ended in disappointed as a lacklustre and unpassionate Chelsea fell 1-0 to a well-disciplined Corinthians squad. It’s what I expected from Corinthians, but nowhere near to what was expected from the Blues. A difficult and disappointing day for sure.
Scorers :
Guerrero (68′)
What We Learned :
1. Hazard continues his good run of form.
2. Fernando Torres as inconsistent as ever.
3. Benitez is not a fan of “Mazacar”.
4. Moses is not a starter.
5. Transfer window can’t come soon enough.
1. Hazard continues his good run of form : After very impressive performances against Sunderland and Monterrey, Eden Hazard was brilliant in the first half with great vision, lovely touches and movement which was good to see from our summer signing. It was far from a complete performance from Hazard, but as the 2nd half came – no Chelsea player was close to complete performance. However, he did have one of the better performances of the Chelsea players.
2. Fernando Torres as inconsistent as ever : Just a few days ago, we were saying that Torres was back, and Benitez had unlocked the striker’s true potential. Well, that all came to an end today as Torres showed his Chelsea form, by scoring 5 in 3 games and then missing a sitter and playing horribly. Torres was inconsistent and anonymous against organised and motivated opposition in Corinthians. Came into this game on a run of five goals in three matches against poor opposition, but it seems he has become a flat-track bully. His late miss capped off a lacklustre Chelsea performance from Torres and the squad.
3. Benitez is not a fan of “Mazascar” : Rafa Benitez played Victor Moses over Oscar, once again and it, for me, was a horrendous decision. He never deserved a start today, nor the 70 minutes he played. Had a decent shot saved from Cassio, but he faded out of the game before he could make any other impact. Once Oscar came on, Mata and Hazard began to click a bit better and felt more comfortable as they had another playmaker next to them, who they are accustomed to playing with. Benitez seems to prefer the work rate and physicallity of Moses over Oscar’s creativity, composure and powerful shot. I’m not a fan of this move by Benitez as it’s changing a working formula.
4. Moses is not a starter : As I said earlier, Moses didn’t deserve this start nor the 70 minute he played. His playing style can hold us back when we need a cutting pass in the final third. He just can’t supply those passes and it takes away from our good attacking play, at times. Although, his speed and pace are well appreciated and certainly come in handy – his style is not what’s needed from the start. I would suggest starting Marin or Oscar over him, in order to get the creativity going from the get-go and give us a quick start that ultimately, will help us succeed. He did have a well taken effort, saved brilliantly by Cassio. Moses is a fantastic player, but until he’s ripe and able to supply that match-defining pass, I do not believe it is his turn to start.
5. Transfer Window can’t come soon enough : As January begins to get closer and closer, Chelsea must act smart in this upcoming transfer window. We need to cover the striker, defensive and defensive midfield positions in the window and spend smartely. I would suggest Domenico Criscito (Zenit) as left-back, Falcao/Huntelaar/Lukaku (Atl. Madrid, Schalke, Chelsea – loanee to West Brom) as striker possibilities and De Rossi/Asier Illarramendi/João Moutinho (AS Roma, Real Sociedad, Porto) as holding midfield options. The lack of depth in those positions is heavily felt as injuries, contract issues and bans continue to be a reoccurrence and heavy burden on those players that play those positions. I expect Roman to supply Rafa Benitez a good sum of money and Benitez to look into quality or youth talent when he buys.
Other Points :
1. Mikel’s presence in midfield will be missed during his suspension.
2. Lampard’s time to go has come.
3. Where is Marko Marin?!
lamps shld hv started in the second half..it was an awful dis
play from chelssea
Transfer window can’t come soon enough. Torres is a shadow of his former self, and its sad, that the coach would play Moses over Oscar in a final when Oscar only scores his goals in Matches like this. Lampard should have started on the bench, or should have come off in the second half. I’m just heartbroken, and I hope this isn’t gonna be a Trophyless season?
What we learn is that 1. no drogba no cup for us, cos he has won us all the cup, from carling cup to fa cup to the charity shield and the champion league. We need a show man 2. U can’t use under 20s to win any tin, ask wenger. 3. Lampard is not a starter anymore 4. U don’t rip want u dint sore.
I really loved this article coz it explained everything that happened today.
1.Mikel should have started instead of Lampard today.
2.MAZARCAR should have started instead of Moses.
3.Torres’s form of 5goals in 3 matches is just a film trick.
Ktbffh!
Key Notes
1.Chelsea’s defensive midfield role is nothing without Mikel.
2.Oscar should have started the game.
3.What’s Lampard doing on the field for 90mins?
4.Torres form of 5 goals in 3 matches is just a fluke.
Torres is an overrated palooka!
What happened to Torres being back? Looks like he’s gone again, lol.
Since i have been on this website, the bloggers always are wrong: Torres scores last 3 matches because we play against WEAK team. I suspect that he will score against Leeds but it doesnt mean Torres is a player!.
They say one man doesn’t make a team….but Drogba MADE A DIFFERENCE and since his departure Chelsea is just an average side i’m afraid. As for Torres don’t get me started on this overrated palooka. (from Tacher).
If we started with the squad that beat Monterrey and Ramires paired Mikel in the holding midfield role,it would have been a different story for us today but Benitez used sentiment to drop Mikel and we paid the price.
Even in this case, we can still win if Torres was a player. So, we have Lampard and Torres and we expect to win a game like that?
Once you think he’s back, he’s gone again. That’s what we have to expect from him. Might as well just sell him.
Ds Chelsea team lack consistency, zeal & a leader(striker) to convert our chances to success. I strongly believe Moses is still a better started but probably he had cold feet being his first final but this is no excuse. The bottom line is that Lampard should have played from the bench coz drawing comparison from the previous match immediately Lampard came in the midfield was nothing to talk about & with this he’s exit from CFC isn’t far fetch. Torres doesn’t have the front man leadership strength to lead coz he lacks the mental will, pace & stamina. I still blame RDM coz during our pre season tour RDM never learnt anything & failed to strengthen our new blues blood on spirit & determination but rather he was more concerned about his position as couch & didn’t know the magnitude of tasks he inherited. RDM is the root cause of what the team is experiencing now. this game also made me understand that mata isn’t a good starter when it involves serious games of this magnitude apparently he wasn’t in game and benitez is fond of using him based on sentiment even when he flaws. I just above confidence that this trophy was ours but I’m very devastated right now….I just downtrodden with what I saw in this match. What really happened to the spirited,undaunted & gallant Chelsea? Op its asleep & ain’t dead…
Things to take:
1. Lampard and Torres must go. Sell them for whatever we can get.
2. Marko Marin deserves a chance.
3. David Luiz is naturally a midfielder.
4. Mazacar is our best combination.
5. De Bruyne, Essien and Lukaku must be recalled.
6. We need to strengthen in January. My targets would be Coentrao, Fàbregas, Falcao, Walcott, Fellaini and Jovetic. In an ideal world we’d get Coentrao, Fàbregas, Falcao and Jovetic.
Juan Mata was avg.. Our def was poor for the game.. I dint even see Ramires in d game.??? How come blame went only to Torres?? Agreed he missed a sitter.. But what did the other team mates do?? We dint create clear cut chances.. Simple as that.. One single player does not lose us a game..Moses had one bad game and we want him to be dropped??? Maybe Mazacar should have started but Moses earned his place.. The only mistake we made was to start lamps..
Sorry.. Our def was decent but poor for d goal
Lampard is very useless..90 min in the field he just can be a spectacular only??What a waste….RB should use Oscar as a midfield combine with ramires at least…..torres absolutely wasteful…….great chance but he can’t score??
Torres only scores against lesser teams. Flop of the year Torres so painful to loose without a striker’s presence. We need strikers in january benitez
Irokotola
the problem start with the kind of club ownership personality and management personalities. the policy of 30yrs and above players shuld leave is really hurting the team as u normally blend youthfulness with experience, an example is our squad last season. you cannot achieve all ur target in one season especially if u’r changing ur style of play with new players who are new to the arena. also the inconsistency in the policy of chelsea fc where u kick out defensive style of play and welcome sexy football which is not achievable in one season. imposition of players is another problem area bcos dis set of chelsea players are not benitez’s plan so he will only struggle with result as the players we have presently are use to the sexy style of play which only required correction as u discover loopholes in it. introduction of falcao now may not b d solution but culd hav had a great difference while still under RDM bcos his pattern was basically attacking football oriented. the only realistic trophy now is d carling cup but with the inconsistency and confusion between coach and players currently, it may b difficult to come up with anything meaningful except if benitez kind of players are bought in january.
All the leverage reniams on our side, and even though it’s Barrett it’s still worth noting that Alonso has given the press nothing. (Remember too that he’s been on honeymoon the past couple weeks.)Short of a written transfer request, which I don’t believe Alonso will resort to, we can keep the price as high as we like and wait for Real to meet it. I can’t see Xabi’s performances suffering from discontent as he will be desperate to keep his place in Spain’s extremely competitive midfield for the World Cup.If he did tell Benitez he wants out–and I likewise have no reason to doubt Barrett–I would fully expect Rafa to ask him to see out this one more year, and then he can make a grand return to Spain draped with medals around his neck from both the Premiership and World Cup.