Whilst an attacking midfield band of three of Lucas Moura, Mata and Sturridge is enough to make anyone salivate at the prospect, I can't help thinking that you need a little more balance and a little more work rate in it to make it work well. Mata's not a slouch defensively, but Lucas (in true stereotypical Brazilian attacker style) is, and Sturridge is hardly Ji-Sung Park. It just seems to me that you need someone who would work hard and offer something in defence as well as attack.
The Chelsea Thread
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The problem with that GC is where is this hardworker going to slot in? It seems pointless to put him in the middle because you already have a hardworking pivot right behind him, the issue is really with the 2 wide men tracking back properly. You can feel for Mata because his role is to play both on the wing and in the hole atm, so it's quite hard for him to put in a defensive shift as well (although he's definitely trying which is nice to see) but Sturridge is so very much a striker deployed on the wing. Part of the reason we've been getting overrun on the right hand side this season (apart from the obvious Bosingwa factor) is because Sturridge is very lax in his defensive duties. You might have noticed that there seems to be a consistent gap between him and Bosingwa where the opposition normally bungs their winger. Bosingwa normally pushes up to cover, gets played around suddenly we're in ****. It's been pretty noticeable recently how much trouble the opposition has caused us by getting in behind Bosingwa (and sometimes Cole tbf) and putting in a low hard cross. (Interesting to note that Bosingwa has 0 tackles, 0 interceptions in his 76 minutes vs Villa)
If we get a new AM and start playing 4-2-3-1, I'd expect to see Mata in a slightly less fluid role (I'll imagine he'll still roam a lot but he won't have to bear the burden of being the side's chief creator; it's rather hard to do your defensive work when you're the player that's needed to receive the ball when it's won back) and with that midfield duo of Ramires/Meireles + Romeu/Mikel/Essien(?) the playmaker shouldn't need to cover that much in the middle. Really, it's up to Sturridge to adapt his game and realise that's he's playing a different role because that's the most realistic position for him to fill if he wants to stay in the first team after we rebuild. (I cant see him being a central striker at this level, he's been so effective this year imo because he's been out wide where he can use his pace and awareness to get into a good position, and where he can exploit the fact that the opposition's Fullbacks are supporting the attack high up the pitch a lot these days. Half of his goals this season would never have been scored against a pair of good centrebacks.)
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This is exactly the reason why I'm not a fan of Sturridge out wide on the right. We need to take into account three factors: One, how Ashley Cole influences your formation. Two, the 'Bosingwa Factor' you mentioned. And three, Juan Mata's versatility.
Firstly, I think we can take it as a given that Ashley Cole's a far superior full-back, both offensively and defensively, to Bosingwa, and therefore needs less protection from his winger. That's not to say he doesn't need ANY protection, merely that the left side of your team is more stable than your right. Cole also puts in a massive shift offensively, using the space an inside forward on the left gives him (such as Juan Mata) to get high up the pitch. Against Villa, his average position was level with Sturridge, which says a lot. Therefore, we can more or less take it for granted that Chelsea need a LWer that will cut inside in order to get the best from him.
So, with Bosingwa arguably the weak point of your entire team, it would seem obvious that you need someone to help him out. Sturridge, whilst good, doesn't do that. I therefore think that moving Sturridge to the left, as he's reasonably two-footed, and moving Mata into the centre would free up a space for the hard working winger to play in the area he's needed most, protecting Bosingwa. Seems to me like the best use of your resources in this situation.
I still hold that Chelsea should play a 4-2-3-1 - as, indeed, I have for quite some time now - and Juan Mata should be moved into the centre. He's intelligent enough in his movement to escape tight marking, and important enough creatively to warrant a place where he can influence the game the most. As such, another (starting) attacking central midfielder just seems like a waste considering that it doesn't solve any of the problems you have, rather just attempts to keep slotting the square peg of Sturridge into the round hole of a hard-working winger. Not to mention the fact that, unlike now, if Mata drifted in from the left of a 4-2-3-1 he would end up playing in the same space as the attacking midfielder, and whilst fluidity is to be desired, in these situations the two playmakers often end up getting in each other's way and occupying each other's space rather than switching seamlessly.
EDIT: I reckon Sturridge could make it as a striker at this level. He's **** quick, has a good touch and control and has time to sharpen up his finishing. Still, guess that's a discussion for another time.
A midfield duo of Romeu and Ramires would be tasty. Balanced, and complementary. Exactly why I wouldn't field Essien alongside someone like Ramires, they're too similar.
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Jack Fulham
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Dirk Kuyt!!!!
He's exactly what I was thinking of when I said balance, actually.
ROMAN GET UR CHEQUEBOOK OUT NAO
Irish Scouse
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Errrrr hands off guys. Dirk is ours.
Lucas Moura tends to gravitate to the right though mostly but as you said, he is not hard-working in the slightest sense...
First of all we should get a better RB than Bosingwa which will no doubt help to shore up that area, we are being linked with that RB from Marseille whose name i cant pronounce, let alone spell
I would play Sturridge on the left and rely on Ashley Cole to get up and down the pitch fast enough and not leave a hole in the defence but that is a very taxing role and i doubt Cole has the legs to do it week in and out thats why we should go for Perreira to rotate with Cole in the LB position and work hard up and down the wing....
However I agree with you that Mata and Lucas will probably get into each others way unless one or the other can adapt his game... our main problem is still a lack of creativity and a slow tempo which will only be solved by getting in young players, some like De Bruyne would be great except he wont slot into our first-team as soon as he arrives considering his inexerience and still relative lack of ability to do so but he seems like a hard worker when he played against us in the Champions League
Is this Perreira even that great? Only times ive heard of him are when Porto where in our CL group few years ago and in the summer when we wanted him. If he will just be like another Zhirkov I dont want to see him in a Chelsea shirt tbh.
well Perreira is used to playing in AVB's system and won 4 trophies with him playing in that system so he cant be that bad... i admit i have not watched him for an extended period of time but we need cover for LB anyways as Bertrand is still very raw
Replacing Bosingwa is certainly top priority. Ivanovic, to his credit, performs relatively well at right-back, but he offers little in an attacking sense. Bosingwa on the other hand has the positional sense of a lost goldfish. If you're referring to Azpilicueta, he was a very solid player before he went to Marseille and got injured. I haven't kept track of him since then.
Cole's got the legs for it for the rest of this season, I'd wager. If not, you've got Ryan Bertrand as a reasonably capable understudy if something goes wrong.
I think the thing Chelsea need is a deep-lying playmaker, someone who can spread it wide and spray passes around. For reasons I'm not going into here because I'm utterly knackered today and I find myself writing paragraphs about it if I start, I reckon a deep-lying playmaker is one of the most important players for a top side nowadays. It speaks volumes that Juventus, in the middle of revamping their squad, went out and got one of the best in the business in Andrea Pirlo right off the bat. Likewise United with Carrick, Arsenal with Arteta, Spurs with Modric, Madrid with Alonso, Barca with Xavi, Valencia with Banega... the list goes on. City, perhaps, don't, but they're blessed with one of the most creative and dangerous forward lines in the world that can create for itself from a multitude of places. Anyway, I think Chelsea might need a deeper playmaker, but that opens up a whole can of worms regarding where Ramires and Meireles go, I suppose...
He's solid. He's got way more experience on the top stages than Zhirkov did when he arrived, as well. I think he'd be a useful addition. Not necessarily a world beater, but one of those handy squad players that are so critical in the run-in.
JohnTerry26
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Shame as i would liked to have seen him on Sunday but never mind, lets just get the deal done.
good stuff, i honestly feel he is being brought in as a replacement for Alex more than anything else and will play second fiddle to John Terry as right now, with Alex gone we dont have anyone in the dominative defender mould who can play alongside someone like David Luiz
Agreed from a purely theoretical point of view, probably disagree when itcomes to finding the space to put him in.
I'm pretty sure we'd all love to hear your thoughts on it (I definitely would ^^)) but is it perhaps something to do with any of these?
-Possession retention: It's easier to keep hold of the ball if A) oneof your primary creative outlets isn't playing fairly deep in youropponent's half B) one of your two Cms/DMs is a good passer of theball (we seemed develop this terrible tendency in the early part ofthe season to do some sort of weird chip/punt/thing that wouldinevitably give the ball away, though I think that was in part due tothe lack of a transition player in AM)
-The fact that everyone seems to play a DM now (there's a nice articlesomewhere on this board about it somewhere. Edit: here it is http://www.fm-base.co.uk/forum/football-manager-2011-tactics-training/57796-[amateur]-tacticians-chalkboard-football-manager-2011-a-63.html#post1256133
- Takes a lot of the pressure off of the wingers. The thing we've been talking about in regards to Hulk is that he's not really a creative player. If you're going to play a 4-2-3-1 with a proper DM and a box to box shuttler, you can't rely solely on the AM to create. Of course you're still expecting the wingers to contribute to build up play, but it opens the role up much more to someone like Sturridge who is essentially a striker because the responsibility of providing an alternative outlet has shifted from out wide to a more withdrawn position.
-Everyone loves Pirlo!
Yeah.We could arguably stick with a 4-3-3 and play Romeu+Meireles/Ramires+DLP but then we're back to the problem of Torres having acres ofspace behind him.
That's interesting I hadn't considered switching Sturridge to the left. We'dhave to see if he can cut in quite so effectively there but it'sdefinitely an option. That covers his laziness but I'm not sure thatwe need to solve the Bosingwa issue as I hope that we're going tomove for a more well rounded RB in the near future. Bos is such aliability in defence and he's actually not that great going forwardsso I can't see him keeping his place.
Iagree in theory but if we accept that Chelsea are unlikely to buy aDLP, we need another source of creativity. Sturridge is not thatsolution so we have two options:[/quote]
1)Move Mata in the middle and leave ourselves with one creative outlet
2)Get another creative player
1) has some serious problems with it, whilst 2) both gives uscover should Mata get injured and stops the game boiling down to “ifyou double up on Mata, Chelsea are half beaten”.
2)also allows us the option of buying either a rightsided player(assuming sturridge is shifted to the left) or a central one.
It's other way round really as you've kind of already asserted. Sturridgesuits a partnership with Cole so let's move him to the right. If weget the creative force I think we should the right will be unbalancedagain but whose fault is that? Well the problem's not inherent in theposition (otherwise moving Sturridge to partner Cole wouldn't work)so the problem lies in Bosingwa. Rather than restricting ourselvescreatively, it seems to make much more sense to take the player thancauses the imbalance out of the equation.
That's definitely a potential problem but it's one that can also bealleviated by the AM dropping back or pulling wide when Mata comesin. I know that obviously doesn't always work out like that but weneed some other form of creativity in that squad and I don't see manyother options apart from buying a hardworking, creative right wingerand I can't imagine we'd get one of those for anything other than anabsolute bomb (and we'd still have problems with bos)
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Gary Cahill will not feature in Boltons fa cup tie
Good, we will need him at Wembley.
