I want to open this post up to you, the Chelsea fan, reading this post this afternoon. What is going wrong with our second half performances at home of late? Why it is we have come out all guns blazing, playing some fantastic football in the first half of games and then see a shadow of the same team in the second?
Do you think Rafa Benitez’s team talks have something to do with it? Let’s face it – against QPR, Swansea, Southampton and Arsenal, our second half has been disappointing to say the least!
At the end of the day, we keep hearing people say that Benitez likes to keep things tight and organised at the back. So do you think he focuses on the negative side of the situation and it has an effect on the players?
For example, Rafa said after the Southampton draw:
“We should have won. On Tuesday, I said we have to be more clinical. We didn’t take our chances. We gave them hope they could score, and they did. At half-time I said we needed a third goal, that we couldn’t afford to make mistakes and let them have a goal. All we had to do was manage the game. But we didn’t do that.
Why on earth would we need to worry about Southampton at half time and state to the players that we need a third goal in order to feel comfortable? It only places doubt in the players minds at that moment and they take those doubts onto the pitch! As we all saw, it obviously affected the players!
It’s surely cannot be just a coincidence four games running at home, can it?
Before anyone says it, I understand that at some stage in the second half you would expect the opposition to put pressure on us to get back into the game. But for four games running and barring “The Arsenal”, we should be putting the likes of QPR, Swansea and Southampton to the sword!