The build up - Chelsea 1st Aug 2009

[Ian Royal]

Another view from Chelsea:

Federici is very good

Looks like his performance today is a controversial one.

What he did was largely very good (if not exclusively). It's what he didn't do that was worrying.

It's easy to be impressed by diving saves, but it takes a bit of brain to look beyond that, which is something I doubt a lot of Chelsea fans can manage. A lot of Reading ones can't and most Chelsea fans I've met have been knuckle dragging morons.

[Southbank Old Boy]

Any keeper that pulls of saves will get a bit of praise

I have to admit I watched the game on the net and from watching replays you get a better view of saves than you do live at the ground. Feds saves would have looked pretty good at the ground, but watching them on the telly you could see them for what they are. If he had conceeded any of them (apart from the late goal mouth scramble) you would have to be very disappointed

[Handsome Man]

Fed - 7
Rosenior - 5
Bertrand - 7
Pearce - 7
Cisse - 7
HRK - 7
Kebe - 7
Davies - 8
Tabb - 6
Gunnarsson - 5
Long - 7

Rodgers - 5

Rosenior was a bit hoofy still and Gunnarson is probably shot for the season now, but the young players look quite good.
None of the subs looked any good really, especially Hunt.
The formation looked a bit championship manager.

[winchester_royal]

Fed - 7
Rosenior - 5
Bertrand - 7
Pearce - 7
Cisse - 7
HRK - 7
Kebe - 7
Davies - 8
Tabb - 6
Gunnarsson - 5
Long - 7

Rodgers - 5

Rosenior was a bit hoofy still and Gunnarson is probably shot for the season now, but the young players look quite good.
None of the subs looked any good really, especially Hunt.
The formation looked a bit championship manager.

Whereas Coppell's rigid 4-4-2 was what?

[Royal Rother]

If Federici had let in a free kick in the manner that Cech did I could understand the stick.

As it was, he was a little shaky and definitely needs to settle down a bit - from the little I've seen of (and a lot I've heard about) Hamer it seems reasonable to think Fed will need to improve a bit if he is to keep the position.

[Ark Royal]

Managed to watch the second half live on the web and my impressions were:

1. The passing game needs a lot of work
2. Because of that, teams that press high up the park will get a lot of joy - just like Chelski did today and also because...
3. ...Bikey is an accident waiting to happen.

[Barry the bird boggler]

Typical Reading, threw it all away with 5 minutes to go. Rodgers out...

[Franchise FC]

Fed - 7
Rosenior - 5
Bertrand - 7
Pearce - 7
Cisse - 7
HRK - 7
Kebe - 7
Davies - 8
Tabb - 6
Gunnarsson - 5
Long - 7

Rodgers - 5

Rosenior was a bit hoofy still and Gunnarson is probably shot for the season now, but the young players look quite good.
None of the subs looked any good really, especially Hunt.
The formation looked a bit championship manager.

Good job I caught up with my sleep during the game - I had a great dream though.
I dreamt that we played OK, were under the cosh a lot but managed to get a two goal lead.
Played OK in the second half and were a bit unlucky to lose the lead so late.

Now the bit where my dream was considerably different. I was joking with my two sons that Rosey should be nicknamed Catherine Tate because I wanted him to look upfield, and all he did was turn left.

Feel much better for the kip, but those seats at the MadHouse are not that comfortable. Maybe they can install some of those Virgin Atlantic sleeper seats.

[Royal Rother]

Managed to watch the second half live on the web and my impressions were:

1. The passing game needs a lot of work

The passing game worked a lot better in the 1st half when we did look very comfortable with the ball against, let's face it, one of the best club sides in the world who were, unlike us, not playing some home-grown youngsters who had hardly played a game for the club before.

A friendly is a friendly but this one was played at not far off full pace and commitment, and I thought it was a very promising display. The substitutions took away our rhythm and flow but nobody should be too concerned about that.

I'd be perfectly content if the team that started the game started next Saturday.

[From Despair To Where?]

I never said federici was the answer, you are right on that man utd game, he was crap.

Hahnemanns mistakes in those last two games effectively cost us promotion, although one would argue we lost it months before. Federici might not be the answer, but hahnemann was getting on and at that age keepers reflexes and reactions go, I feel as if burnleys two goals would have been stopped by a younger keeper. Birminghams was just a howler anyone could make.

Have to agree. Hahnemann was in decline in the last couple of seasons. in the pre match warm ups he reminded me more and more of an arthritic , seemed really stiff. my issue with federici though is that whilst he's not a bad keeper, he's not a particularly good one either. the Man Utd game. Yes, he kept us in the game at Old Trafford but was single handedly responsible for us being out of the replay inside 6 minutes. I just feel that overall, if Hahnemann had put in the kind of performances that Federici does week in, week out, people would still be complaining that he wasn't good enough.

[Royal Rother]

the Man Utd game. Yes, he kept us in the game at Old Trafford but was single handedly responsible for us being out of the replay inside 6 minutes.

Nonsense, just nonsense.

[Maguire]

the Man Utd game. Yes, he kept us in the game at Old Trafford but was single handedly responsible for us being out of the replay inside 6 minutes.

Nonsense, just nonsense.

You choosing to ignore the long-range shot from Heinze he let squirm under his body and then being beaten by Saha due to poor positioning?

[From Despair To Where?]

The way i see it, Federici gets excused mistakes that Hahnemann would have got slaughtered for.

[79Royal]

The way i see it, Federici gets excused mistakes that Hahnemann would have got slaughtered for.

'Greed.

Our squad has gone backwards since Coppell left and whilst I think BR will get the best out of what he's got to work with, we need investment if we are going make progress this season. Federici is the perfect example of that. As someone earlier said, he's ok, but not great. A little bit of investment would make that issue disappear.

We're probably 3 or 4 good signings short of having a decent squad.

[rg6royal]

Thought we did well for a large part of the game. Cisse played very well imo and was probably my MOTM. Fed made some good saves and I overheard some Chelsea fans saying what a good keeper he is when waiting for a bus back into town. Thought Long was pretty poor, apart from the run which lead to our second goal. Nhunt is definitely not a winger!

[Ian Royal]

the Man Utd game. Yes, he kept us in the game at Old Trafford but was single handedly responsible for us being out of the replay inside 6 minutes.

Nonsense, just nonsense.

You choosing to ignore the long-range shot from Heinze he let squirm under his body and then being beaten by Saha due to poor positioning?

You choose to ignore that our entire team just let Man United waltz through us to get those shots off.

[Platypuss]

Managed to watch the second half live on the web and my impressions were:

1. The passing game needs a lot of work
2. Because of that, teams that press high up the park will get a lot of joy - just like Chelski did today and also because...
3. ...Bikey is an accident waiting to happen.

I wouldn't like to base any judgemnent on the second half peformance - by that time the "team" was clearly just thown together to give everyone a go and was horribly dysfunctional as a result. PAssing in first half was pretty good.

Not raising anything new, but Fed really hasto come for stuff that is landing on the edge of the six yard box (MoM my arse) and we need a striker who is able to hold and lay-off reliably.

Overall, the first half was promising in terms of passing, but I have to say we do look a bit underdone in terms of preparation if that is going to be our starting eleven against Forest.

[moo]

The reason Feds is getting reactions of 'he played amazing' and then 'he was carp' is because he made the simple saves look over the top, hence he struggled.

Is Hamer going to get a look in? Do we have plans to sign a keeper?

[Ian Royal]

The reason Feds is getting reactions of 'he played amazing' and then 'he was carp' is because he made the simple saves look over the top, hence he struggled.

Is Hamer going to get a look in? Do we have plans to sign a keeper?

Think we're ok on the keeper, front. But expecting Federici to perform as well as Hahnemann across the whole season is going to be overambitious. Hahnemann was a superb keeper for us.

Hamer will do ok for back up and maybe cup games.

I'm less worried about wingers having seen HRK. Although we do seem to have one on the right and 3 on the left. So we could do with shifting Shunt and bringing in a rightsided forward/winger.

We are quite clearly weak with strikers. NHunt, lacking fitness. Long lacking a lot of the necessary attributes and Church being very inexperienced and without a great scoring record.

[Platypuss]

Just seen the highlights for the first time - Kebe looked a tad offside for the first.