West Brom beat Chelsea today. Still don't trust Di Matteo as a manager. Team plays some really nice stuff going forward this season but they don't look anywhere near solid enough defensively.
Not sure that Di Matteo can be blamed for the defensive problems. It seems any defence featuring David Luiz will probably concede goals. I like Luiz, he's a great person and can do some good things on the pitch but the reality is you need a very good partner for him back there or goals will be leaked.
Looking back it's amazing to think Chelsea had Luiz playing 120 minutes of a Champions League Final and only conceded once!
Usual November doldrums. It's these runs of form that make it easier for Abramovich to continue his revolving door coaching policy.
RDM needs to turn it around soon or he will be next. There's rarely a shortage of candidates to take the Chelsea coaching position, unbelievably!
I think Luiz gets too much criticism. Some of it is warranted but a lot of it isn't. Luiz makes some absolute howlers defensively and those mistakes stick out in one's memory the most but overall he has been playing very well. I think Luiz been having a very good season. He has been cutting down on those horrible mistakes and is becoming more consistent all the time. His overall play is very good even with those schoolboy errors.
I think the main problem with Chelsea defensively is the lack of coverage from midfield. Mikel, Ramires and Lampard aren't doing nearly enough to protect their back-line. Plus, there is a lack of cover from the advanced midfielders whose forward advances leave Chelsea too stretched out and vulnerable on the counter.
They are leaving them exposed time and time again. And the defense isn't nearly as strong as it used to be - for a variety of reasons (1) Terry has declined hugely (2) Cahill isn't a top class defender (3) Luiz egregious mistakes (4) lack of leadership / organization when Terry is unavailable. None of the others really boss the backline and keep everyone organized / disciplined / focused (5) Cech has never recovered from his head injury and hasn't been a world class keeper since then.
Hardly any criticism is landing on the midfield though. So many are just focusing on the defense rather than where the initial errors occurred that put them on the back foot + from there, Luiz is the easy target because of the calamitous mistakes he makes from time to time. So when the defenders get blamed, everyone targets Luiz and overlooks the rest of the CBs bad plays.
And I think that is solely because of how ridiculously awful Luiz' mistakes are and how much they stick out in everyone's mind. He's the first guy you think of because of that. But there are problems all over that defense/midfield ... but Luiz continues to get blamed for way more than he is truly responsible for.
I want to see them sign a top class center half to replace Terry + I think Courtois should return and replace Cech.