Positives & Negatives v Chelsea (a) - one each please

[1964white]

Positives.......

Negatives.....

[HarryofOz]

Positive: Lost to a very good team who were the better team on the day (which was always going to happen this season).

Negative: Defending corners

[mothbanquet]

+ Good goal and superb assist from Paddy and Kalvin respectively
+ Meslier is immense

- Schoolboy defending for the goals
- Lack of fight and physicality during the second half

[SG90]

Positive: Bamford has now scored v Liverpool and Chelsea, proving he can do against the top clubs.
Negative: We can't afford to keep a player as good as Rodrigo on the bench.

[Bally]

Positive - Meslier

Negatiuve - Harrison was anonymous

[Lorimer46]

Positive- Good first half, nice goal from Bamford , made plenty chances , hopefully a few " easier " games to come

Negative - Fell away badly in the second half. Got caught out at the back especially at LB to many times

[Finnatic]

Positive - decent first half.

Negative - awful at defending corners.

[Smudge3920]

Pos...Decent 1st half, stuck to the game plan

Neg... Defending set pieces/Corners

[Irish Ian]

Positive. We only have four more trips to London.
Negative. We have four more trips to London.

[weasel]

Positive: Some of our play was breath-taking, even in defeat no team gets an easy win.

Negative: A lot of sloppy passes at the back, we looked jittery. The sooner we get a settled defence the better.

[60sUnited]

Positives...Laurente looks a very good player given some game time.

Negatives...We will never be comfortable defending corners, and Poveda is too lightweight.

[Velotrax]

Pos ..We played well, but our lack of a plan B cost us
Neg...We lost , when a draw would have been a fairer result, Poveda getting a pen, which it was cost us a deserved draw

[Boo Radley]

Positive - everything about Bamford’s goal and the unflappable Meslier

Negative - defending set pieces, especially corners, and not getting the best out of Raphinha and Rodrigo yet.

[CHAPELALLMAN]

Positive - Bielsa has hopefully realised now that Rodrigo needs to start and will start him from now on. We need his quality in the final third.

Negative - we are quite hopeless at defending set pieces, especially corners. Remember when Jansson used to be such a commanding aerial presence and Bielsa named him as our best player ? We have struggled in the air ever since we sold him. What gets me a bit is that we have all these complex tactics, complex interchanging of player's positions and Bielsa's hyper attention to detail, yet we don't seem to understand some of the nuts and bolts basics of defensive play - for example being first to the ball from a set piece, and defending the near post from a corner. Maybe we need to bring in a defensive coach ? We look like conceding every time the ball comes in to the box in the air.

[Leeds1000]

Positives.......Early Goal by Bamford

Negatives.....Men against boys second half

[andrewjohnsmith]

You didnt say one of each. So -

Pos:

Llorente got a full game

That goal was just so sublime, from the flick on to Kalvin being out of position and putting in such a sublime pass and Bamford with an exquisite finish. Could be goal of the season.

Negs:

Koch getting injured

We looked like a Championship side tonight, Couldnt string 3 passes together. Lost every defensive corner AND very offensive corner. Gotta do something on the set pieces

[Velotrax]

Positive - everything about Bamford’s goal and the unflappable Meslier

Negative - defending set pieces, especially corners, and not getting the best out of Raphinha and Rodrigo yet.

[danhirons]

Interesting how people can have such different opinions!

Personally I thought Llorente had a poor game. Kept dallying on the ball too long and most of his passes seemed to be misplaced unless they were 5 metres to Cooper!

Positive was the first half performance

Negative would be our ineffective second half where we struggled to get the ball from back tk front and looked very vulnerable from corners the whole game

[weasel]

Personally I thought Llorente had a poor game. Kept dallying on the ball too long and most of his passes seemed to be misplaced unless they were 5 metres to Cooper!

It shows why Bielsa likes to integrate players properly before introducing them into the line-up. The key to the quick passing is almost in being able to play passes without having to look to see where players are, you play the ball into the area where another player is automatically moving into. If you have to look up to see where the player is to pass to then in that second or two the other players will have run through the place where they should be and suddenly the easy pass has gone. Elsewhere every other player that was automatically moving as per Bielsa's system have also moved through their 'receiving' area and are now out of position to receive the ball in space. Llorente has probably hardly trained with us due to his injury so won't have the same knowledge of the system that the other players have. He did show though that he is cool and composed on the ball and able to give himself time on the ball. Once he gets used to the team he could be excellent.

[1964white]

Many have pointed our defending at corners which is also my major concern.

Positive.......Bamford's well-taken goal

Negative.....the London bug continues