Ancelotti worried by Chelsea form

[JDY]

Right, okay. I'll give you Yossi, fair enough. But Ramires? Hardly a creative, thoughtful attacking player. He's more of a dynamic box-to-boxer, something which admittedly Lampard is accomplished at, but Ramires fails on two counts. One, Lampard is Chelsea's main attacking outlet: much of their play flows through him. Ramires has neither the passing nor the vision to perform like this. Two, he's far more defensively minded than Lampard, more of an Essien.

As I said, you need like-for-likes to fill gaps. You rightly mentioned Benayoun, and I will admit I had forgotten about him. However, my point still stands: your replacement for your vitally important 32 year old central midfielder, a 30 year old, is crocked. With Arsenal, this'd be fine: Nasri, Wilshere, Ramsey, Rosicky, Arshavin all fill this role with ease. Manchester United have Scholes, Anderson, Carrick; ****, even Park, Giggs and Gibson.

Also, your point about Zhirkov is rather illustrating my point. When you're resorting to playing a left back/winger in central midfield, things are badly wrong. What I expect Chelsea to do is buy a decent backup. Someone of decent stock, fairly young and with good potential, someone of the Renato Augusto mould, perhaps?

I also forgot about Yossi until a few weeks back when someone mentioned him. Notice how I said if we get an injury in the centre of the park those two players could come in for us. I didn't say they both would come in for just Lampard in particular. As you said, Ramires is more similar to Essien and doesn't offer anything going forward really.

Agreed that we lack depth compared to the other top teams in the league. Last year we had Deco, Ballack, and an injured J.Cole as backup, they all were decent going forward and could fill in for Lampard. We've replaced those with Yossi who is out, and Ramires. So effectively (excluding Yossi and J.Cole) we have sold two decent attacking midfielders and signed one defensive minded player in Ramires. We also had Belletti who could play in the midfield, and he even does more going forward than Ramires even though he is naturally a defender.

Ancelotti said he would look to youth more this season but we should have atleast a few more players with experience to fill the bench if the worse comes to worst. Regarding your suggestion to sign Renato Augusto. I haven't seen him play in real life but I've heard good things. We coud also recall Nemanja Matic from his loan spell in Holland if things get worse.

 

[GodCubed]

I also forgot about Yossi until a few weeks back when someone mentioned him. Notice how I said if we get an injury in the centre of the park those two players could come in for us. I didn't say they both would come in for just Lampard in particular. As you said, Ramires is more similar to Essien and doesn't offer anything going forward really.

No, indeed, I was just illustrating my point to CJACKO. If Lampard is out and there's no viable backup and you're not in the middle of an injury crisis, then something is very wrong indeed.

Agreed that we lack depth compared to the other top teams in the league. Last year we had Deco, Ballack, and an injured J.Cole as backup, they all were decent going forward and could fill in for Lampard. We've replaced those with Yossi who is out, and Ramires. So effectively (excluding Yossi and J.Cole) we have sold two decent attacking midfielders and signed one defensive minded player in Ramires. We also had Belletti who could play in the midfield, and he even does more going forward than Ramires even though he is naturally a defender.

Ancelotti signing new people in January perhaps? It's midfield where you need them the most. Probably not defensively, mind, with Obi Mikel improved and Essien more than capable there himself, but attacking-wise, definitely.

Ancelotti said he would look to youth more this season but we should have atleast a few more players with experience to fill the bench if the worse comes to worst. Regarding your suggestion to sign Renato Augusto. I haven't seen him play in real life but I've heard good things. We coud also recall Nemanja Matic from his loan spell in Holland if things get worse.

It wasn't really a suggestion to sign Renato Augusto (though I've seen him play on occasion, and he is a very good player), more someone of his mould, a creative force. Matic is meant to be good, but I thought he played deeper, essentially the "passer" of the destroyer-passer-creator triangle.

 

[Alex]

Any team no matter what back-up players you have would miss a player as Lampard. I posted a week or so ago how many goals him and Drogba have assisted for each other in the last 5 years and its staggering. When you are used to having somthing so frequently year after year its much more difficult when you do actually lose that man.

---------- Post added at 01:16 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:15 AM ----------



If you never had Stevie G you could very well be in League 1 lol.

No Gerrard/Torres/Carragher...

Liverpool 3-0 Aston Villa

No Lampard...

Chelsea 1-1 Everton

 

[Ride The Walrus]

No Gerrard/Torres/Carragher...

Liverpool 3-0 Aston Villa

No Lampard...

Chelsea 1-1 Everton

True, we perform better (normally) without Gerrard, because we don't feel the need to have to play through him, every time.
But this isn't 'bout 'Pool.
Chelsea, we have far more problems than you.

 

[CJACKO11]

Our squad depth is ok, we have decided as a club we want to start being able to make money and this means bleeding through the youngsters insted of going out and buying a solution. And their is no better feeling that watching one of your own come through the squad. We bought Benayoun in the summer and unfortunatly he has picked up a long term injury and we bought in Ramires who is only 23 and will take him time to adapt to the PL. I could see Carlo signing a centre back because he said he might let Bruma go on loan for the back end of the season but i don't see him signing a midfielder or a striker.

Borini will leave Chelsea in the summer as his contract is up in July and i don't think we are going to re-new it so he is out of the question. But i do think Kalou is an ok player but much better from the bench and Sturridge is only 21 and does look pretty frightning at times. He has alot of chances so that tells me he is getting in the right places which is always a possitive.

Matic was and still could be a long term replacement for Ballack, he is out getting alot of games at the moment so touch wood somthing good comes ov that.

My point about Lampard was simply when he plays he helps Chelsea keep hold of the ball so essentually we create more chances and give less chances away which means 9 times out of 10 we will win the game.