Chelsea 2-2 West Ham: Guus Hiddink gets it WRONG again!
I challenge any Chelsea fan to say that when they saw the Chelsea team announced an hour before kick-off, that they were happy. What happ...
https://www.chelseadaft.org/2016/03/chelsea-2-2-west-ham-guus-hiddink-gets.html
I challenge any Chelsea fan to say that when they saw the Chelsea team announced an hour before kick-off, that they were happy. What happened to freshening things up? What happened to giving others a chance?
Make no mistake here, West Ham deserved the win and we were lucky to come away with a point. They were the better side with a purpose about their play whereas Chelsea looked unbalanced and at times, all over the place!
Thank god we had Cesc Fabregas to take a fantastic free kick to then send the Goalkeeper the wrong way to level things up late in both halves of the game. However, the Cesc Fabregas debate will rumble on. Can he play as a holding midfielder?
On the evidence of yesterday the answer is NO. He gets beaten for pace and he cannot tackle, far too many times in the game, the gap between him and Mikel in our midfield was staggering and West Ham exposed it on numerous occasions. It was all far too easy for their attacking midfield to pick the ball up in space and run at our back four, that's where their goals came from!
Can someone tell me why Loic Remy was given the start when it's obvious to all of us that he isn't good enough? It was clear that the club was prepared to let him leave back in January transfer window. But for high winds that prevented the Leicester owners Helicopter from flying to London to collect him, he would be on their books. Why wasn't Bertrand Traore given the start or better still, someone will a passion for the game and to prove himself in Alexandre Pato? I cannot understand Hiddinks thinking.
It's also clear that Willian could do with a rest. He has been fantastic for us all season but we are beginning to see mistakes creeping into his game. He gave the ball away for their first goal and also gave the ball away on other occasions which is unlike him.
In addition, please someone else take our corners. How many corners did we get and how many times did Willian fail to beat the first defender? It's been like it all season long. Get someone else to bloody take them!
Why did Ruben Loftus-Cheek not start the game? We need someone to make those runs from deep who has pace about them to get up and support the striker. His burst into the box for the penalty is a clear demonstration of the point.
Our season is virtually over now anyway. Everyone is talking about the fact that we have nothing to play for but the players futures. This is really, really bugging me now that we continue to play the same players over and over again. We need three or four changes to freshen things up, to keep people on their toes or to even replace those who have no intention of being here without European competition next season.
As I looked down the pitch from the Matthew Harding Lower on Saturday, I asked the question "Who is playing as our number ten? I asked because it wasn't clear to me. Kenedy was deployed as I believe it to be as our left winger with Oscar as number ten and Willian out wide right. Our shape was all over the place and Oscar and Willian found themselves out of position on numerous occasions. This made it easy for West Ham to break on the counter-attack against us.
Lanzini hit a world class strike that Thibaut Courtois couldn't get near and Andy Carroll scored past the big Belgian Goalkeeper at his near post which is disappointing. We should have done far, far better in dealing with their build up but were caught out twice on the counter.
In my opinion, Guus Hiddink didn't react quick enough to being behind. With 20 minutes to go, I was calling for a change to be made, for Pato to come on or Loftus-Cheek but he waited and waited until it was almost too late. We should have taken the initiative in the game and really looked to attack West Ham to put them on the back foot.
That's three games running that Hiddink has got things wrong and it's about time that we all stop blowing smoke up his arse for what he did here before. We have drawn far too many games under him with this being one of them. Think of the points dropped and where they could have taken us in the League table. We are NOT going to achieve a European place so why not give players that are likely to remain here important game time?
Credit Slaven Bilic and his West Ham team. They came here looking like a balanced team, confident and looked to attack Chelsea at every opportunity.
As for Chelsea? Crap!!