How did Chelsea concede only 15 goals in 2004/05?

[Dancfc]

Remember all the weird signings they made around that time? Scott Parker, Jiri Jarosik, Alexi Smertin, Del Horno. Then Steve Sidwell & Tal Ben Haim a few years later. What the feck were they thinking?

The league overall was far weaker. The midtable teams of today would batter the midtable teams of 04-05. There was far more cannon fodder back then.

Would they? I would hate to play Big Sam's Bolton, Coleman's Fulham, McLarens Boro (Uefa final a year later) and Hughes's Blackburn a lot more than any current team below the Wolves/Everton/Leicester trio.

The relegation battling sides back then we're pretty rancid though, most would probably get mid teens in this era.

 

[adexkola]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_prem/4277852.stm

They were in poor form

 

[Dancfc]

Carvalho was immensely under rated.

Carvalho's record when Terry was missing was far better than Terry's record when carvalho was missing.

That is absolutely wrong.

When Terry was injured for an extended period in 06/07 our defense that still had Carvalho in totally lost the plot.

 

[SadlerMUFC]

THey also scored 72 goals that year. Only Arsenal scored more. So it's not like they just sat back and defended. They did everything as a unit and had J Cole, Robben and Duff rotating for 2 positions and Drogba in his prime up front. They were dangerous...

 

[Bojan11]

Carvalho is underrated? Everyone seems to rate him highly.

I’d say Gallas is the one who is underrated. As a CB especially in his Chelsea days he was fantastic. Thought he was decent for Arsenal but had a few injuries.

 

[Pierluigi Casiraghi]

I think a lot of people underrate Terry as a defender. That's one of the reasons it's hard to believe. Along with Carvalho it was one hell of a partnership.

Non-United English players are generally underrated on here. Gerrard, Lampard and Terry would have looked shit if it wasn't from Alonso, Makelele and Carvalho according to some.

 

[Isotope]

They also had Damien Duff and Robben on the wings, tied up opponents fullbacks to commit forward.

And Makelele is one of the greatest pure defensive midfielder of all time. His presence allowed Madrid to have him, Figo and Solari as their midfield 3.

 

[Passitlikescholes]

That is absolutely wrong.

When Terry was injured for an extended period in 06/07 our defense that still had Carvalho in totally lost the plot.

I'd rather look at their careers than a one off season's stats.

Carvalho was an integral part of fc Porto, Portugal, and Chelsea. For me he read the game so much better than Terry.

I can't remember where I read it but over the course of their partnership, not one season, I did read that carvalho conceded less overall with his CB partner missing and vice vera

 

[giorno]

They were in poor form

Check the date. It's from a different season

 

[Jaap]

Chelsea conceded only six goals at home: two v Bolton, one v Southampton, Crystal Palace, Birmingham & Fulham.


United only conceded 22 in 2007/2008.
Arsenal, in 98/99, only 17.

 

[Dancfc]

I'd rather look at their careers than a one off season's stats.

Carvalho was an integral part of fc Porto, Portugal, and Chelsea. For me he read the game so much better than Terry.

I can't remember where I read it but over the course of their partnership, not one season, I did read that carvalho conceded less overall with his CB partner missing and vice vera

That's probably true mainly because Carvalho played a lot less without Terry (only really 06/07) whereas Ricky was often rotated with first Gallas then Alex.

I'm not saying Carvalho wasn't top class but this notion he was making Terry look better simply wasn't true.

 

[El Jefe]

Even though their players were absolute top class, they just knew how to close out games and not giving teams a sniff. It was like watching a 90s Serie A team in the PL. They could score in the opening 10-15 mins and you'd think you have a chance to get back in the game but they would just frustrate you throughout.

We had such a terrible record against Jose's Chelsea and that's why we celebrated like crazy when Darren Fletcher scored the winner at OT.

 

[Rasendori]

Chelsea would alternate between a 4-4-2 diamond and a 4-3-3 which gave them numerical superiority in the middle of the park as other sides predominantly utilised a 4-4-2 system. This was a set up Jose was familiar with as his Porto side lined up with:
Derlei Mccarthy
Deco
Maniche Mendes
Costinha

Valente Carvalho Costa Ferreira
Baia

Chelsea would often play with three or four of Smertin/Makelele/Gereni/Lampard/Thiago.

The one and only time Chelsea conceded two goals in a league match was when they played against Arsenal. Arsenal didn't play with a pure #9 as Berkamp was heavily involved in the build up, dropping deep and facilitating play with his invention. Henry could pick up the ball in his own half and immediately put Arsenal on the offensive, Pires was like a midfielder and then they had Flamini, Fabregas, and Reyes. Chelsea could've easily conceded four and certainly should've conceded three with Henry missing an open goal.

 

[Guy Incognito]

Arsenal conceded only 17 goals in 98/99 season. They were ridiculously powerful.

That was ridiculously low too.

Chelsea were watertight in defence from 2004-06. When they went a goal up, they could shut up shop effortlessly.

 

[Dancfc]

Chelsea would alternate between a 4-4-2 diamond and a 4-3-3 which gave them numerical superiority in the middle of the park as other sides predominantly utilised a 4-4-2 system. This was a set up Jose was familiar with as his Porto side lined up with:
Derlei Mccarthy
Deco
Maniche Mendes
Costinha

Valente Carvalho Costa Ferreira
Baia

Chelsea would often play with three or four of Smertin/Makelele/Gereni/Lampard/Thiago.

The one and only time Chelsea conceded two goals in a league match was when they played against Arsenal. Arsenal didn't play with a pure #9 as Berkamp was heavily involved in the build up, dropping deep and facilitating play with his invention. Henry could pick up the ball in his own half and immediately put Arsenal on the offensive, Pires was like a midfielder and then they had Flamini, Fabregas, and Reyes. Chelsea could've easily conceded four and certainly should've conceded three with Henry missing an open goal.

Bolton aswell.

We didn't really use the diamond that much tbh. We did for the first nine in 04/05 games but changed to 443 after only scoring 8 goals falling 5 points behind Arsenal and reverted back to it the following season in the last few games after 2 months of average form which opened up danger of United catching us.

 

[FootballHQ]

Was the league that weak ? Liverpool won the CL in 2005 Arsenal got to the final in 2006. Relatively speaking you could argue English football was the strongest league in Europe during that time.

Liverpool were very weak in 04-05 in the league, had guys like Antonio Nunez and Sinama Pongolle regularly involved. Was a truly miracle CL run.

Man. United still rebuilding with Rooney and Ronaldo very young.

Arsenal seem to have lost some motivation after the Invincibles season.

Premier league was stacked with quality between 2006-09, that period was the strongest since it was rebranded imo.

 

[giorno]

Liverpool were very weak in 04-05 in the league, had guys like Antonio Nunez and Sinama Pongolle regularly involved. Was a truly miracle CL run.

Because Benitez had a hard-on for rotations. Their best XI was good. Still yeah, their entire CL run was a literal Act of the Gods

 

[ZolaWasMagic]

Because our team then gets overlooked sometimes for how good it actually was in these "best EPL side ever" debates. As many have said we had defensive players in their prime/best periods of their careers, Mourinho when he was incredible (which is why imo we had his best years, just ahead of Inter) a world class GK, 2 good productive wingers and a good striker.

It's also commonly overlooked that during that period we lost 1 league game in that same season we conceded just 15 league goals, and went 4 yrs unbeaten at home under Jose overall in the league

 

[Irwin99]

That was ridiculously low too.

Chelsea were watertight in defence from 2004-06. When they went a goal up, they could shut up shop effortlessly.

Yep. As I said in another post it was so depressing when they scored first as you just knew they wouldn’t mess up. Arsenal invincibles on the other could concede three against Middlesbrough and 2 against Liverpool yet they still come roaring back to win. United the same. They/we were charitable enough to give the oppo a chance at least

Chelsea definitely kicked the league up a notch. They were also the closest to ever complete a quadruple I think in 06/07. In hindsight we did brilliantly to surpass them without getting anywhere near their spending.

 

[Relevated]

Only Chelsea thread I could find but lampard has surprised me as a manager

 

[roykeane19]

I remember thinking, shit were never going to catch Chelsea up. They were unbelievable, as impressive as invincible arsenal were this Chelsea team was much scarier.

Thats what made SAF so great, in his last 10 years, after the glazer takeover, we were no longer the biggest spending club, that was chelsea and eventually city. But he still managed to rebuild and evntually claw our way back into PL winners, with at times far inferior teams, just look at that team of ours in his last season, ageing defence, non existent midfield, loads of injuries, attack wasnt great, our football was terrible at times.

But what made SAF great was he was the last type of manager that still had absolute power, and players actually listened and were scared of him, and he instilled that mentality, that you have to win, and he could amplify players potentials alot more than most managers could dream of.

Ah how I miss the big man, what a manager.

 

[Dancfc]

Yep. As I said in another post it was so depressing when they scored first as you just knew they wouldn’t mess up. Arsenal invincibles on the other could concede three against Middlesbrough and 2 against Liverpool yet they still come roaring back to win. United the same. They/we were charitable enough to give the oppo a chance at least

Chelsea definitely kicked the league up a notch. They were also the closest to ever complete a quadruple I think in 06/07. In hindsight we did brilliantly to surpass them without getting anywhere near their spending.

Tbh i thought you were a bit fortunate taking it off us in 06/07, you handed the title to us on a plate losing to Pompey and drawing to Boro and we handed it back not winning our final 5 games.

07/08 was a different beast though, in my opinion Fergie's best ever side and we done unbelievably well to hang on your coat tails.

 

[Dancfc]

Thats what made SAF so great, in his last 10 years, after the glazer takeover, we were no longer the biggest spending club, that was chelsea and eventually city. But he still managed to rebuild and evntually claw our way back into PL winners, with at times far inferior teams, just look at that team of ours in his last season, ageing defence, non existent midfield, loads of injuries, attack wasnt great, our football was terrible at times.

But what made SAF great was he was the last type of manager that still had absolute power, and players actually listened and were scared of him, and he instilled that mentality, that you have to win, and he could amplify players potentials alot more than most managers could dream of.

Ah how I miss the big man, what a manager.

I don't really think it was the squad really fearing him, the boot up the backside type of management was dying as early as the early 00's. I think it was more the fact he got with the times everytime he had too, whereas the likes of Jose and Wenger can't/won't.

 

[Sandikan]

Back in those days, you knew Chelsea wouldn't concede, let alone drop points.
They were an absolute animal that it seemed impossible to ever get ahead of again.

But things moved on, and it didn't take too long.
A bit of hope with the current position we're in versus City n Pool!

 

[totaalvoetbal]

At that point, most teams in the English Premier League played a flat 442 from what I remember. Jose Mourinho played a 433 and always had a 'spare man' in Makelele who was in between the lines when he was defending so they could squeeze attackers. Looking back at the Premier League back then, tactically it was embarrassing to watch how for almost 2 seasons, certainly in the first one, only maybe two teams adjusted to this.

 

[haram]

Might be more impressive than scoring 100 goals.