From my seat: Chelsea (A)

I remember back to 1983 when the knives were out for Howard Kendall and his team could not score a goal. Gradually, things started to turn... young players like Trevor Steven and Graeme Sharp suddenly found their feet... and the rest is history.

This current side has got potential but this will not be realised whilst we have six starters aged 30 or more. We are crying out for a scorer but, apart from that, we have outplayed Chelsea, Spurs, Arsenal and Man Utd on their own grounds and conceded only 3 goals. The rest will come – just give Roberto a bit more than half a season to do it!

These are the teams we have managed to beat since August 2009 in the PL on their grounds:

Aston Villa x 2
Birmingham CIty
Blackburn Rovers x 2
Bolton Wanderers
Fulham
Manchester City x 2
Manchester United
Newcastle Unitedx 2
Portsmouth
Swansea City x 3
West Bromwich Albion x 2
West Ham Unitedx 3
Wigan Athletic
Wolverhampton Wanderers

I was very underwhelmed by Barkley's performance. I can handle him making mistakes, he's still a young lad. He also has all the talent in the world, and can be as good as he wants. But he just looks so nonchalant, and UNFIT! He was trotting around the pitch without a care in the world. He should be tearing all over the place at 18 years of age, playing in the Prem...

I wonder if he would benefit from a kick up the arse, rather than an endless stream of praise about how good he is.

I was impressed at how we stood up to the physical intimidation that seems to be overlooked. Chelsea are a big side and try hard to bully teams. They always leaving a boot in or shoulder. The lads stood up to them today. Shame we had incompetent officials.
Tim should have rolled around in agony and made out terry had made contact... but then, we are not Liverpool, are we?

It's a game of fine margins, and yesterday epitomised it for me more than most. Watching in my hotel room on BeIN Sports, we had Andy Gray and Richard Keys as the hosts. Along with Gianfranco Zola and Alex McLeish, who I am convinced had been on piss before - his speech seemed slurred, and he was talking absolute shite (although that could be just pundits disease).

After the game they showed that Osman chance from several angles, the one low to Cech's left. You realise what a good save it was from behind the goal. Mirallas seemed to get a touch on it, and seemed to be already wheeling away, arm aloft, to celebrate "his" goal.

Then the Ramires free kick. No doubt some of our own will be in the "he was touched therefore entitled to go down" camp that pundits often revert to. I must've missed the directive that decreed football to be a non-contact sport. It was never a foul, not at all. And Probert was a twat for getting suckered into giving it - especially given the "form" Ramires has for such behaviour. Andy Gray went as far to say it was Ramires and not Jagielka who should've seen yellow for it.

I know there are those who still say there's points to be won which mean 4th is still there. It's not. It's gone. If it didn't go during that home defeat on Boxing Day, it went during the January transfer window - again - when despite the Martinez Missive we ended up weaker at the end than at the start.

I see some people on the live forum or in some posts are asking "where's the Blue Union?" in all of this? Why? What's changed from last time when they were campaigning? It was never about reacting to short-term troughs in performances, or about the manager. It was about the underlying issues we face under the current ownership. Nothing has changed. Nothing will either.

I can see Traore being another Kroldrup to be honest, one or two glimpses before he leaves, now he has hurt his hamstring again and God knows how long it will be before he is ok.

The summer time is a big moment for Martinez.
To get a team more capable of challenging, and sustaining a top 4 bid we need to replace the players who are past their best days now, its not the business for sentiment.

It wont happen overnight but its what we must start to do this summer.

We offer nothing as an attacking force, thats the 8th game we failed to score in this season, I am not sure we had failed to score in that many this time last season?

Its obvious where the problems are , the things that are clearly holding us back, too much of the ball where it does little harm to our opponents, no striker in the penalty box, no midfielder arriving late in the box.

Watching Hull on Match of the Day and seeing two strikers, working together in tandem, Jelavic and Long, its something Jelavic never got the chance to do much at Everton.

Makes me wonder whether we will ever try something different than the 4-5-1 formation ever again?

Naismith contributed well yesterday, but the final 15 minutes were crying out for pace, as Chelsea gave away incredible pace. Mirallas should have been upfront. He struggles as a striker when opposition defends deep, but that was not the case here.

Not to worried by Jelavic leaving, but criminal to play 65 minutes at Anfield, plus away to Spurs and Chelsea without a striker. Martinez needs to sort it in the summer, or he will face his own glass ceiling.

Finally, I wish the manager would stop talking about harsh results. Start talking about how to exploit the good foundations put in place to win games.

A lot of approach play is brilliant. Chances are created but then it becomes a question of awareness and correct decision-making... This is where we are weak.

Chelsea’s goal was scored by a centre-back. He was aware and reacted first.

Nail, head.

Chelsea did to us what we did to Swansea, Villa, West Ham; they used pressure to get themselves a good free-kick. Good delivery plus determination to get to the ball first won the game for them. When did we last look like that on a set-piece?

As I said on a previous thread, the conundrum for Martinez is keeping the defensive solidity while injecting some pace and conviction in the final third.

This gives some additional context to Paul Tran's observation that the dilemma for Martinez is 'keeping the defensive solidity while injecting some pace and conviction in the final third'. The result is that recently such subs have drastically changed the shape of the team and not necessarily for the better.

I know it is almost an article of faith for some on the Live Forum to call for these subs from about the 5th minute, but as a number of posters on various threads have noted, once Osman went off, we suffered (and he was a more potent goal threat than anyone else... though that's not saying much).

Transition season. I’ll take what we’ve got, where we are. But the next 6 months are going to be enormously revealing for me. That final third - no consistent / strong strike power, no feed to same. We aint going to see big-name, expensive signings. We might get one or two relatively cheap signings that Roberto can mould into something really good, we might have a couple of really good loanees, and we might see a few academy players starting to raise a hand to knock on the door, albeit not there yet.

I don’t expect anything more than that. And I don’t expect Roberto to waver (this season or future seasons) from his possession / passing philosophy, his Plan A1 being tweaked to Plan A2 but not so much a Plan B.

I’ll be realistically content if this season we end up 6/7th and a good FA Cup run. Beyond that I’m bracing myself for what might be some great football but some really frustrating results, for 6/7th again, but hoping, hoping that somewhere along the way Roberto finds those cheap gems and those impact loanees, brings on those Academy players, and considers a Plan B as necessary.

Dave 700, makes a very valid point about the age of our squad; we are

going have to do some serious and expensive rebuilding over the next few years to even tread water: Howard 35; Distin 36; Jagielka 32; Barry 33 (if he stays); Osman 33; Pienaar 32; Alcaraz 32; Kone 31.

Looking at it optimistically, Robles for Howard, Stones for Distin, Gibson to return and stay injury free (says laughingly) for Osman, Oviedo maybe for Pienaar. That aside, we need a top class striker, a creative midfielder and a central defender at the very least pronto.

It looks to me like we are going have to show patience for a year or two more unless RM is indeed a miracle maker!

I also agree that having a GOOD striker is no use if the ball is not played to him in a position from which he can score.

Osman subbed on 60 minutes is what 90% on here always say (that is if he starts) and Barkley should play from the start. On this and the last couple of showings, if he did we would be 3-0 down at half-time as it would be like playing with 10 men.

I am no expert but, as most say, we need a striker (or two) that can create and take a chance, be supported with faster balls played through with better finishing from the rest of the forward runners. (Coleman excepted.)