18 Sep 2015 10:18:35
Well now the dust has settled and the shock of Luke Shaws injury has worn off I'd like to discuss what I made of the game.

First off the negatives. Excluding Shaws injury the biggest disapointment for me was Matas performance. He was give a chance in the No.10 role and showed why LvG is so reluctant to play him there. He doesn't run beyond the striker and unless he has lots of runners making runs all around him he is pretty ineffective. He is defensively poor and relys on others players making off the ball runs for him to have an effect.

Defensively we made silly mistakes which lead to two goals being conceded. Darmian had his first poor performance, and Rojo totally lost his man twice which lead to easy goals. I think it would maybe make more sense to keep Blind at CB and play Rojo at LB.

The last issue I have have is the fact that a lot of our players have appeard to be out of steam by 75 mins. This is a worry for me as we have in most of our games dominated possession so it should be our opponents who tire from chasing the ball more than oursleves from having it. Maybe the training needs to be less about fitness and more about attacking plays and ball work.

The positives for me was that we held possession well and looked more dangerous going forward and certianly played with more attacking intent even if ultimately we lacked in finishing and final ball.

Memphis again played well in Europe, I don't know if its because he gets more space, or because the way we set up in Europe which in the games so far has seemed a slightly more offensive set up.

And even though he didn't score I thought Martial had a very good game upfront. He led the line well, held up the ball, linked well with his new team mates and offered a threat in behind which forced PSV to sit ten yards deepers giving more space to our players.

Going forward I think the team play looks good, but the set up needs tweaking to get the best out of our players. I think we should move away from 4231 and look to play more 433.
I'd like to see a midfield three of Schneiderlin sitting deepest to shield the back four with Schweinsteiger to his left and Herrera to his right I'd then play a front three of Memphis left, Martial up top and Rooney right. The back four should be Darmian, Smalling, Blind, Rojo with DDG in goal.

1.) 18 Sep 2015
18 Sep 2015 10:31:45
Agree with everything including that our set up needs tweaking but I would want us to try the traditional 4/4/2. midfield 4 of lw depay, basti and morgan in the middle and young rw. with Rooney and Marial up front.

2.) 18 Sep 2015
18 Sep 2015 10:36:36
Carrick has to play for me over morgan or bastian. If i remember correctly every game he's started we've won so far this season. Obviously he has to be managed at his age but for me he's the first name on the team sheet whether that's part of a double pivot or as a singular holding midfielder. He brings that calmness on the ball and his defensive positioning is second to none which means he's the ideal shield for our back 4.

Maybe starting him every game for an hour and bring on either bastian or morgan to close the game out or chase the win as the situation dictates

3.) 18 Sep 2015
18 Sep 2015 11:39:00
I'd prefer to see us play 4-4-2 with Martial and Rooney up top. Memphis and Young wide and Carrick playing with Schneiderlin in the middle.

How would you feel about that Shappy?

4.) 18 Sep 2015
18 Sep 2015 15:02:32
Bang on that Shappy; nice and thoughtful as always.

How is it Mata scored so many goals at Chelsea? What did they do differently?

5.) 18 Sep 2015
18 Sep 2015 15:24:58
DSG,last year everyone was crying out for new midfielders now you don't want em to play, time to give mogan more game time as I think he could be our main man for the next ten years or so

6.) 18 Sep 2015
18 Sep 2015 15:55:55
Mata played as the number 10 and Mourinho gave him quite a bit of freedom.

7.) 18 Sep 2015
18 Sep 2015 15:56:31
I think we did play 4-4-2 we would only be a new right winger to replace Young to be being a very good team. Maybe a move for Felipe Anderson in January and we would be in fantastic shape (barring a centre back).

8.) 18 Sep 2015
18 Sep 2015 18:51:17
Mourinho never gave Mata any freedom, he stuck him out wide and decided he couldn't offer the counter attacking outlet he wanted from his wide players nor the defensive work rate so he sold him. Benitez gave Mata the No.10 role and the freedom, amd Mata did very well bagging himself plenty of goals. Chelsea on the other hand finished 6th due to a lack of balance between attack and defence.

As for playing 442 against a team that plays 433/4231 I think that would be very foolish, we would lose the midfield battle. We don't have the wingers nor the strikers to play 442. I think we should play either 433 or 4141. It gives us a strong midfield and a good balance between attack and defence.