Dean Smith - Confirmed

[sickbeggar]

1 win in 4 and 4 points of 12 is not a good start for me. Still early days can change and not suggesting a change. However if we have aspirations of improvement and europe things need to improve quickly or we will be playjng catchup.

Havent overly been impressed with the defending this year. Dont know if terry leaving is one of the reasons but it needs to get alot better. All i know is 3at the back is a disaster for us. We look terrible defenively in that formation

Don't agree really. We weren't carved open by Chelsea every time they attacked. Steer didn't spend the game pulling off one save after another as the defence buckled. The ability to pass it back to your 'keeper properly is pretty important to any formation. As is a centre half's ability not to give an attacker a free shot on goal by actually marking/making a challenge.

[Clampy]

I thought we were pretty decent in the first half despite being behind. The second goal killed it sadly though. I'm not sure why McGinn was taking all the set pieces though.

[Percy McCarthy]

I thought we were pretty decent in the first half despite being behind. The second goal killed it sadly though. I'm not sure why McGinn was taking all the set pieces though.

Because we wouldn’t stump up for probably the world’s best set-piece taker when we had the chance.

[Demitri_C]

1 win in 4 and 4 points of 12 is not a good start for me. Still early days can change and not suggesting a change. However if we have aspirations of improvement and europe things need to improve quickly or we will be playjng catchup.

Havent overly been impressed with the defending this year. Dont know if terry leaving is one of the reasons but it needs to get alot better. All i know is 3at the back is a disaster for us. We look terrible defenively in that formation

Don't agree really. We weren't carved open by Chelsea every time they attacked. Steer didn't spend the game pulling off one save after another as the defence buckled. The ability to pass it back to your 'keeper properly is pretty important to any formation. As is a centre half's ability not to give an attacker a free shot on goal by actually marking/making a challenge.

I disagree 1st and 3rd goals we were all over the shop

I definitely agree about your mings point though. Shocking and abysmal from him

[Ads]

Was Watkins miss shocking and abysmal?

[Ian.]

This is my thoughts. Mings gets bombed every time he makes a mistake because it sometimes lets in a goal. When make mistakes which result in us not scoring it’s the same thing. Both of these prevent us from winning matches. We’re happy to praise the good parts of Ollie’s game and not so quick to praise the positive aspects of Ming’s game.

[Risso]

This is my thoughts. Mings gets bombed every time he makes a mistake because it sometimes lets in a goal. When make mistakes which result in us not scoring it’s the same thing. Both of these prevent us from winning matches. We’re happy to praise the good parts of Ollie’s game and not so quick to praise the positive aspects of Ming’s game.

It's not the same thing though. You've always got a chance to score another goal, but you can't undo a goal you've conceded. His first one was just pure Mings, under no real pressure and just does something really daft that handed them a goal on a plate. Second wasn't much better, although it was just plain bad defending rather than a mistake.

[Ian.]

I’ve watched matches when we’ve only had one chance. Against the best it’s even more important to concentrate at both ends. I’m not denying Mings made an error which lead to a goal.

[Ads]

It was a maddening error at a maddening time. But it should have been the equaliser or the goal that brought Chelsea back to within 1.

A very costly error, but no more costly than the misses in tje first half.

What we need to do though is bottle up that energy and endeavour to hit the box and create and sprinkle it everywhere we go. If we'd played like that against Watford and had the players available against Brentford, we'd have run all over the pair of them.

[brontebilly]

Was Watkins miss shocking and abysmal?

It was terrible?

[Monty]

I have to say, beyond the antipathy to the system which last won us a trophy, I'm not sure about the criticism of Dean for yesterday. I mean, I've criticised him a lot when he's got things wrong, but I thought his tactics worked out pretty much perfectly yesterday. A manager can only set things up, and as far as the set-up went he outfoxed Tuchel for the first half yesterday, as pretty much every single neutral report attests to.

The 3 defenders played relatively high when we didn't have the ball, squeezing the space between them and the midfield which gave the Chelsea front 3 little to work with. Then we matched them out wide, and overcrowded them in the midfield, which was clearly the plan - let them have the ball in their defence and midfield, wait for the moment, slam into them, win the ball high and attack fast. We did it time and time again in the first half, and that was Dean's tactics working out exactly as he meant them.

Unfortunately, as SamTheMouse said on the match thread, we've just sold a £100m player and they've just signed one, and that's before you throw in a defensive error so basic it must make a manager wonder what the point of it all is. Plenty of teams will lose 3-0 to Chelsea; what's encouraging is that few of those will be as hard done by the scoreline as we were yesterday.

[Sexual Ealing]

I agree with that Monty, apart from the five at the back, which seems to have worked well and didn't see us sitting back so I guess I'm wrong. I therefore agree with it all.

[Ads]

Was Watkins miss shocking and abysmal?

It was terrible?

It was a poor miss and he should have done better. It cost us. I don't want Ollie poured with scorn though, but wonder why he's not copping as much flak as Tyrone. Both do their jobs, crikey, we probably win the game.

[Ads]

System and tactics were spot on. We got turned over by individuals; Lukaku and Jorginho and Mings/Watkins.

[Ian.]

Was Watkins miss shocking and abysmal?

It was terrible?

It was a poor miss and he should have done better. It cost us. I don't want Ollie poured with scorn though, but wonder why he's not copping as much flak as Tyrone. Both do their jobs, crikey, we probably win the game.

Completely agree Ads. It was terrible, but like Mings, they both do so much for us and are essential cogs to our team.  I don’t want either condemned and lambasted. I’m sure Smith has had a pop and Ming’s and Ollie will be very critical of themselves too.