The Chelsea Thread

[Subtle]

Is it me, or does Courtois deliberately pull his hand back so Benzema(?) can't fall over it? Looks like Benzema just ran into his chest and fell over tbh.

 

[Alcaraz]

Solid win for us vs Wolves... Mata and Sturridge were the stars again but a more pressing concern for me is that even or top 4 prospects look dire with Tottenham good run of form, Arsenal's resurgence and Liverpool's constant presence and I am not even talking about the Manc Clubs who are more or less guarnteed spots in the top 4.... even if we dont intent on competing for the title, we need to buy in January in any case if we want to hold a top 4 place

Lets hope we can improve our results against the big teams next year...

 

[Jamie.]

People used to say the same things about Lucio when he was a young defender, that he can't defend and is rash in the tackle. He developed into a more restrained defender and if you watch back the game vs Valencia Luiz was superb defensively. He makes a lot of unnecessary challenges on the half way line getting tight to people, that's a fairly minor thing to coach out of him. The penalties he concedes are rash but he doesn't go out there to concede them he just mistimes his challenge.

If we're saying give Torres time we surely have to give Luiz time? The DM calls are premature, Essien will make a better DM than Luiz when he's back and Luiz will most likely become a better CB in the future than Ivanovic/Alex.

Long term if you suddenly throw Luiz to the wayside as a CB, who is going to come in? Nathan Ake? Chalobah? They're far too young, John Terry will probably last to the end of next season as a regular CB and neither of those 2 will be ready in my opinion. So then the situation comes in where you have Luiz/Essien competing for the DM spot and Alex will be long gone, so you then have to splash out money for 2 new CB's...

I don't think it's a viable project to make Luiz a DM personally, I'd stick with him because I do believe he will be a better version of Lucio.

 

[Alcaraz]

I think the main problem with Luiz is that he lacks concentrations and as a result rash challenges... the first of which may be because aggravated because of our high defensive line, not the smallest of flaws but no doubt there are things that could be improved upon, AVB called David Luiz a 'amazing player' and said he felt 'angry when people criticized him' and certainly it means that AVB has faith in Luiz's ability and talent, its quite possibly because is so many other aspects Luiz is the perfect central defender for the system AVB has implemented at Chelsea... if you want your Centre-Back to bring the ball out of defence then their is possibly no player in world football better at doing that than Luiz barring maybe Lucio, an exceptional athlete and extremely comfortable on the ball which are ideal qualities for a central defender playing in our 4-3-3 tactic

If Luiz can start to perform on a more consistent basis and not be so prone to lack of concentration then we can certainly see some marked improvement in the near future... his poor positioning from time to time and his tendency to make rash challenges will also be eliminated if he improves his concentration

 

[Alcaraz]

Chelsea Reserves 2-2 Fulham Reserves


It was a good comeback by us after we were 2-0 down, I watched the highlights on Chelsea TV and read the report on the Chelsea Website so for anyone too lazy to do either of them... Orlando Sa scored the first Fulham Goal in 12 minutes after he was left unmarked in the box and he had to power a simple header from a flighted cross past Jamal Blackman. Tom Donegan scored Fulhams second on 27th minute after some sloppy defending by Rohan Ince.

Todd Kane was our best player in the half with some great runs and good crosses to finish them off, one cross which nearly brought us within the game however Piazon's shot was well-saved by the Fulham Goalkeeper

In the second half we came out looking the much better side, Nathaniel Chalobah caused the Fulham all sorts of problems with his surging runs through the middle of the park and it was his cross that found Lalkovic who volleyed it past the Fulham Goalkeeper. Chalobah then got on the scoresheet himself after connecting with Billy Clifford's corner to head it into goal. Piazon caused the defence all manner of problems with his creativity and passing and it was he who was tripped in the box to hand Chelsea a penalty in the 87th minute. Unfortunately, Lalkovic blasted it over ensuring the game was a draw.

 

[CJACKO11]

McEachran, Oriol, Torres, Bertrand and Lukaku to all start.

 

[cfc12345]

#Chelsea XI v Liverpool: Turnbull; Bosingwa Alex Luiz Bertrand; McEachran Romeu Lampard, Malouda Lukaku Torres. #CFC

Wondering if Torres will be on the wing?

 

[GodCubed]

More likely Lukaku, he's been played there for Chelsea before. Very interesting team though, very interesting indeed.

 

[cfc12345]

Why on earth AVB likes to put Lukaku on the wing I do not know :S Just looking at the size of him tells you he should be playing down the middle.

 

[CJACKO11]

#Chelsea XI v Liverpool: Turnbull; Bosingwa Alex Luiz Bertrand; McEachran Romeu Lampard, Malouda Lukaku Torres. #CFC

Wondering if Torres will be on the wing?

More likely Lukaku, he's been played there for Chelsea before. Very interesting team though, very interesting indeed.

I see a very narrow 4-diamond-2 with McEachran playing the advanved role behind Torres and Lukaku.

 

[GodCubed]

I see a very narrow 4-diamond-2 with McEachran playing the advanved role behind Torres and Lukaku.

Not a fan of the diamond, particularly with that personnel. Malouda, Lampard far too attacking (and the former too positionally indisciplined) to play the midfield two, not to mention their relative lack of stamina.

 

[Burkie7]

Any streams lads want to have this match on and the Arsenal game on the TV

 

[BlueHeart]

such a bad touch from Lukaku..

 

[cfc12345]

Torres has been queit which is not suprising. Lukaku hasnt looked that bad. Also Andy Carroll missing the pen put a huge smile on my face and amde it even ebtter that it was him.

 

[CJACKO11]

Every touch Torres has had he has been trebled up on and lost the ball!!!! We need to take him out the light for 10-20mins keep giving other players the ball so they forget about Torres for abit. Great peno save from Turnbull and ark at Henderson getting rallied up as if he will do anything to Lukaku lol, the man is a beast and will squash him!!!!

 

[CJACKO11]

Not a fan of the diamond, particularly with that personnel. Malouda, Lampard far too attacking (and the former too positionally indisciplined) to play the midfield two, not to mention their relative lack of stamina.

Its not bad when we have Romeu in there, nothing has got passed him today.

 

[BlueHeart]

okay, now im starting to hate all of that bullshit playing.

 

[CJACKO11]

Players seem un-motivated and to slow, the game passed Lampard, Malouda, Alex and Bosingwa by. And Torres, wow he should never play against Liverpool if this performance is anything to go by. A few good single performances notable mentions go to Romeu (again), Turnbull and David Luiz was very good for the 3rd game in a row. Just to add why do all the knobs of footballers play so well against us??? Tevez!!!!!Bellamy!!!!!!Rooney!!!!!! GIVE US A BREAK!!!!! Win or lose, up the blues!!!!

 

[Jamie.]

Liverpool need the League Cup more than Chelsea, I'm not going to moan or dwell on a League Cup game. Got big games coming up in the Premier League and the Champions League, Alex/Malouda hopefully wont be playing in them...

Another decent display by Romeu, would have liked Lukaku to get off the mark tonight but against a well drilled Liverpool team that's unlikely.

The tempo, still, is just so flat with the older players. Torres didn't stand a chance with the service he got tonight, tempo of the game was awful. Not entirely sure about the system either, didn't work at all.

 

[Alcaraz]

sigh.... its hard to pin-point the problem really, we seem to be working as a cohesive unit but the lack of creativity in the final third is quit apparent without Mata on the field, we really need to invest in some attacking talent in January and AVB needs to have a serious look at his tactics because it obviously is not suiting our current crop of players as big teams are finding it easy to tear us apart and exploit even a single defensive mistake, its all well and good against the weaker teams .... Malouda was bullshit throughout the game, he does not understand the art of passing the ball quickly and moving, Torres looked good on occassions but nothing from him either, Lukaku got into excellent positions but never capitalised, Betrand was very good and he made some excellent surging runs down the side, Romeu was very good

Special mention to Luiz who had Andy Caroll in his pocket throughout the game although he was partly to blame for the first goal as he played Liverpool onside something due to his lack of concentration

If we are to have any hope of surviving against Manchester City then we have to play a different formation altogether because this one is clearly not working well against the big teams... and for the love of god, if we want to outscore the opposition then we cannot put faith in players like Malouda and Anelka to form our front 3, get some quality players in and then maybe we dont have to worry about the goals we concede... as of now we seem ineffective in attack and poor in defence