positive/negative

I found yesterday excruciatingly embarrassing yet entirely predictable.

The first goal was a typical one for us to concede. Maybe the lad was offside but attempt to defend the loose ball was woeful. The second one was also woeful and Caldwell worries the life out of me. He got the wrong side and the red card was correct, in my view. To say it didn’t change the game is wrong because had we stayed with 11 men we may have only shipped 3 or 4, not 8.

What worries me more is that after the sending off, I never expected anything less than a drubbing and was therefore not at all surprised when it came. I think that given a 2-0 goal start and a one man advantage, Chelsea would probably have battered anyone yesterday. The fact that it was nailed on that they would beat us, rather than just probable, is symptomatic of our inability to defend properly, refrain from giving away the ball too easily, do anything remotely creative in the final third and seemingly having no pride or backbone.

I am not having that this system of play doesn’t work. It has worked at times for us this season. There just seems to be a general malaise in the team that when they go behind or are struggling to break teams down we have no idea how to do fix it. Personally, I believe this is due to the players we have not being good enough. I think this would also be the case if we played 4-4-2 as some advocate. We could desperately do with some proper leaders and fighters on that pitch. Diame did well yesterday, I thought, but Watson and McCarthy were anonymous and Mario’s days as wing-back must be well behind him. Not scape-goating Watson and McCarthy, by the way, but we simply can’t have people hiding/being totally ineffective in any game, let alone one like yesterday.

Is Roberto still the man for the job? That all depends on Whelan’s plans and vision for the club, to be honest. If it is to continue to tighten belts, which I presume it is, then we can expect to see Leon Britton, Angel Rangel and their ilk next season and enjoy/endure much the same season as this last one, probably. That would be a little disappointing but unless Whelan decides to go completely out of character and invest most of his £190million fortune then that’s where we are likely to be. The chances of a more experienced manager – and players – joining the cause under those financial constraints are slim to remote anyway.

The positive bit? My five-year old – who has shown no real interest in football thus far – declared himself to be a Chelsea fan following their 7-1 win over Villa a few weeks ago. He was very pleased that they had gone one better yesterday. He also went to bed early with no supper.