Reserves vs Chelsea part II

PS18

Full Member
Joined
Jun 19, 2004
Messages
2,394
Location
Ruud ftw
1. Ben Amos
2. Rafael da Silva
3. Fábio da Silva
4. James Chester
5. Richard Eckersley
6. Darron Gibson
7. Sam Hewson
8. Daniel Drinkwater
9. Danny Welbeck
10. Tom Cleverley
11. David Gray (c)

Subs:
12. Corry Evans
13. Ron-Robert Zieler
14. Federico Macheda
15. Magnus Eikrem
16. Cameron Stewart
17. Jimmy Derbyshire


Just kicked off ten minutes ago. Chelsea hit the post within the first minute apparently. It's on ChelseaTV so I'm told, not sure if that comes with any Setanta/Sky packages for those who have them.
 
Welbeck off with an eye injury already, Macheda on for him as you'd expect.
 
Chelsea's team btw:

Chelsea Hilario, Carl Magnay, Jeffrey Bruma, Michael Mancienne, Patrick van Aanholt, Liam Bridcutt (c) Scott Sinclair, Jacob Mellis, Franco Di Santo, Sergio Tejera, Miroslav Stoch

Subs: Rhys Taylor, Thomas Taiwo, Michael Woods, Ricardo Fernandes, Fabio Ferreira, Morten Nielsen.


Lot stronger than last week.
 
PS18 said:
Chelsea's team btw:

Chelsea Hilario, Carl Magnay, Jeffrey Bruma, Michael Mancienne, Patrick van Aanholt, Liam Bridcutt (c) Scott Sinclair, Jacob Mellis, Franco Di Santo, Sergio Tejera, Miroslav Stoch

Subs: Rhys Taylor, Thomas Taiwo, Michael Woods, Ricardo Fernandes, Fabio Ferreira, Morten Nielsen.


Lot stronger than last week.
Click to expand...

That's a seriously foreign reserve team.
 
According to my Chelsea-supporting mate at the game, it's very even but we're just not offering anything going forward, with the midfield far too deep, the full-backs having to provide all the width and Macheda not getting any support. Rafael's having a blinder though apparently.

Guess it's lack of numbers, but I think the fact we've got Gray and Hewson/Cleverley on the wings while Chelsea have two lightning quick, out-and-out wingers out there is a big advantage for them.
 
Hmm... is nothing going on... or is it going so badly that no one is reporting on the game?
 
I assume no-one's able to watch it - it's behind closed doors and as far as I can tell ChelseaTV is specific subscription only. The updates I'm getting are from a friend who's there but he's there to report on the game and take pictures for his site so he can't spend too much time texting me details.

Although funnily enough, as I'm typing this he's just texted saying "Fábio's just c*nted one into the top corner from miles out", which I assume means it's now 2-1.
 
PS18 said:
I assume no-one's able to watch it - it's behind closed doors and as far as I can tell ChelseaTV is specific subscription only. The updates I'm getting are from a friend who's there but he's there to report on the game and take pictures for his site so he can't spend too much time texting me details.

Although funnily enough, as I'm typing this he's just texted saying "Fábio's just c*nted one into the top corner from miles out", which I assume means it's now 2-1.
Click to expand...

Great.
Good to see there is no one supporting both sites with subscriptions!
 
He's definitely gone off injured, my mate couldn't see how serious it was.
 
Gibson has just scored a penalty in the 93rd minute to make it 2-2.

FT: 2-2
 
Darron Gibson levels it at 2-2 with a penalty at the death, full-time.
 
Watched the last 30 mins, we were the only team out there. Fabio looked superb, Macheda strong and commited, Drinkwater and Gibson played well. Ole still unbeaten as a coach, nice one.
 
Thanks for the updates guys - sounds like Rafael and Fabio just keeps on impressing.
 
Needless to say anyone who finds the fabio goal or highlights will be thanked.
Hope to hell rafael is o.k aswell.
 
Don't think I have ever seen the phrase 'c*nted one into the top corner'

:lol:

Seem's like Ole's never say die attitude is rubbing off already, nice.
 
PS18 said:
I assume no-one's able to watch it - it's behind closed doors and as far as I can tell ChelseaTV is specific subscription only
Click to expand...

Nowegian Viasat Sport 2 show both MUTV and Chelsea TV.
 
Wow!

What a bizarre game!

United arrived for a 'behind closed doors friendly' to find about 200 Chelsea fans and 6 United supporters.

The teams lined up as in the original post and Chelsea murdered us in the first half. They hit the post in the first few minutes, consistently put us under pressure throughout. We got completely overrun in midfield during the opening stages as we played Gray, on the right wing, Cleverley on the left and Gibson in the middle of a five man central unit.

Danny Welbeck made a welcome return to action playing alone up front.

However after 12 minutes he suffered a knock to the head and after a couple of minutes confusion was replaced by Macheda.

Chelsea continued to play the better football with both Rafael and Fabio getting caught out of position on numerous occasions. A natural tendency to attack, a lack of communication to their team mates to cover and then a lack of urgency to get back......caused numerous problems for our defence. As the first half wore on, Fabio, who had already shown a complete lack of defensive awareness on at least three occasions, failed to clear a Gray header out of defence and as the ball was played back in Chelsea took the lead.

It was a well deserved opener as we looked to have no ideas. Then on the stoke of half time, Chelsea scored a second with a powerful header at the far post from the right wing exposing Fabio once again.

Half-time 0-2.

The second half started much more evenly, and a switch was made moving Gray to right back and pushing Rafael forward. Macheda had a couple of half chances but it was fairly even for the first 20 minutes or so. Then United started to get a grip and created numeropus chances. Macheda missed a handful of opportunities to score and Cleverley wasted a one-on-one with the keeper as United started to pile on the pressure. On 74 minutes Eikrem replaced Hewson and Stewart replaced Rafael, and three minutes later, Fabio hit a great strike from outside the box that beat the keeper no end and gave United a deserved response.

United were now on top and started to dictate play. Gibson who had been the most disappointing player on the pitch now started to play and spread some balls about. Fabio made a couple of good covering tackles as United pushed forward for an equaliser. Then with seconds remaining, and the game already deep into injury time, Cleverley was fouled just on the edge of the box. It looked outside to me......but the referee pointed to the spot and Gibson cooly beat the Chelsea keeper.

Seconds later the final whistle blew and United had scraped a point.

In all honesty we did not deserve anything out of this game as we only really played for twenty-five minutes.

Gibson was out of touch and for a player of his experience should have imposed his authority on the game.

Eckersley and Chester were solid but exposed by the fullbacks.

Rafael and Fabio particularly went missing defensively on numerous occasions. Going forward they are a joy to watch. Fast, direct, skilful, but they showed limited ability to defend at set pieces and were often out of position. Once both of them were playing centre-forward at the same time as Chelsea broke away.

Our midfield failed to click with Hewson also out of form.

Welbeck hardly got a touch.....while Macheda must learn to look up and pass the ball. He could have scored 3 goals at least but only tested the keeper once.

Overall a very poor team performance.

As a side note, Chelsea's Academy is clearly the most impressive I have ever seen!
 
Thanks for that summary. Caught some of the 1st half on ChelseaTV (sic), the twins looked a bit all over the place defensively. What surprised me most was how respectful the Chelsea commentators were towards our lads, almost came across as neutrals.
 
Considering it was a bad team performance, a 2-2 draw away against one of the strongest teams is not bad at all.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.