so the defence then.

[PhilM]

Jags and Distin have been far from perfect but watching Chelsea stroll around our 18 yard box was definitely down to a lack of protection from McCarthy and Barry.

McCarthy and Barry obviously contributed to our defensive frailties yesterday (that's me attempting to be positive) through their ball watching and failure to tackle or close down, almost as if they were in awe of Chelsea.

However, I personally still tend to believe the majority of blame must lie with Jags and Distin. They appeared to have the same faults as highlighted above with Gareth and James, combined with the positioning of someone with dyspraxia and the composure of a someone who'd been out on the pop the night before and told their wife had left them. It resembled a frantic 5-a-side performance.

Eto'o made me happy though.

 

[jackyboy]

Just watched all six goals again on MotD. Not only was he personally at fault for a couple of the goals but you could also see as the game progressed that Jags crumbled mentally. When Costa gets his yellow for sniding Coleman, it's McCarthy and Distin who are there backing Coleman up; When Howard went for Costa after the Hazard/Coleman goal, Jags is nowhere to be seen. McCarthy and Coleman are there like a shot trying to bring Howard away and, in a metaphor for the entire game, Distin gets there before Jags does despite starting from further away. For their fourth goal, where they just played it sideways across the edge of the box and Barry fails to move any faster than a walk, it's Howard and Distin who try to gee people up after it goes in. Jags is hands on hips, head down, looking defeated.

Costa absolutely destroyed Jags for pace today - Howard's left-foot save from Costa was an opportunity caused by a Jags mistake and for me he went to ground far tooight early after the Besic backheel too. But his biggest failure was in leadership - he provided none. After the Eto'o goal, Naismith and Eto'o are well up for it, grabbing the ball and sprinting back to the centre circle: leading by example. There was no such defiance from our captain at any point.

For me, Jags goes on the bench for the next game and Distin gets the captaincy. I would also like to see us shift Alcaraz and bring in two of Nastasic, Van Dijk and Micah Richards.

Absolutely right, spineless was the word I would use for that performance. Should have known what to expect from Costa and instead he went hiding.

 

[EFC Si]

Jagielka looks the weak link to me, but Distin's age has started to slowly catch up with him. Centre backs need replacing tbh. Today was shambolic...utterly disgraceful

 

[mrb85]

alot of talk over Jags and Distin (which i totally agree with!) but for me Baines last season and this season has been poor more than being good.

Baines is playing too far forward. More like a left winger than a FB most of the time. Coleman is always on the front foot as well but he starts from a traditional RB position. Baines is not playing as a traditional LB. We're basically playing 3 at the back, with Distin doubling up as the LB. No wonder we're conceding loads.

 

[Tree13]

Baines is playing too far forward. More like a left winger than a FB most of the time. Coleman is always on the front foot as well but he starts from a traditional RB position. Baines is not playing as a traditional LB. We're basically playing 3 at the back, with Distin doubling up as the LB. No wonder we're conceding loads.

It looks like we have three at the back (Jags, Barry and Distin) when we have the ball and are going forward. We saw that a lot last season. When we lose possession Coleman and Baines drop back to orthodox RB and LB positions, and Barry is supposed to move forward and form a barrier in front of our CBs with McCarthy. Yesterday, Costa kept running into the central space as Barry vacated it, and Jags was too slow to stay with him. Every single time.

I could almost understand it if we were getting beaten in the areas where our fullbacks should be defending, because with our attacking shape as it is we do risk leaving space in those areas - Baines and Coleman are across halfway at every single opportunity and we will inevitably get caught out once in a while. But the fact only one of Chelsea's goals yesterday came from a wide position - the Hazard / Coleman one. And 9 times out of 10, Coleman's effort yesterday is enough to put that ball wide.

Jags and Barry were bad yesterday. Very, very bad. And they made others around them look bad too.