Guus Hiddink put a positive spin on the 90 soulless minutes just witnessed at Old Trafford in his post-match interview. I suppose that's part of his job, to try to rebuild and maintain morale and confidence in the squad. There was, after all, about a three-minute period at the start of the second half when we did in fact play well. Maybe we can build on that!
"The team is now showing ambition to get us out of this relegation zone. That's what the team desperately wants. That's what we want. The team shows ambition and we hope the players will soon be recovered. Then, we must go up."
"On one hand I'm happy with a point because we had a difficult game. On the other hand, we also had two big options to make it three points. We have to take into consideration that we are lacking some attacking players and that's why we had to adapt a bit, but in general I'm happy with this point."
-Guus Hiddink; source: Get West London
All three senior strikers were either suspended or injured, and the one young striker we had, Bertrand Traoré, who scored 17 goals for Vitesse last season in the Eredivisie, we apparently don't trust beyond warming the bench. Which he did for 90 minutes, as the attacking players, many of whom were playing their second full 90 in 3 days, waddled on. So far, Guus Hiddink is royally failing his supposed "mandate" to play the youth. Or to get better results, though he seems happy enough with the 2 points from his 2 matches in charge.
"We were dropping back automatically but we were also forced to drop back sometimes. I don't like when a team is going back that far because it creates too much space for the opponent. We corrected that a bit at half-time."
"I think Chelsea was in a difficult situation but in the last three games the boys have shown a lot of ambition to get out of this as soon as possible."
-Guus Hiddink; source: ESPN
In fairness, our play did improve a bit in the second half, though one could argue that the only way was up after the first 45.
"The players have experienced a very bad half year. They have to lift it up and that's what we have talked about in the locker room. Everyone is convinced we couldn't go on on the same path and we have shown that in the last three games."
"It's normal to see the character and desire of the players but they have shown a lot ambition in the last three games. That's what we are asking and automatically when everyone is on board hopefully then we can use the quality of the players as well."
"I would have been more worried if there was a lack of confidence or ambition but I don't see that at the moment in this team."
-Guus Hiddink; source: Chelsea FC
Next up for Chelsea will be Crystal Palace, away at Selhurst Park. Massive improvement will be needed.