The Chelsea Thread
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Agreed mate. Oscar is such a fantastic player. Great work-rate as well and a real team player.
Also Mata looks a different player after his siesta. The best ever #10 in the Premiere League is finally back!
I disagree mate.
Firstly it is well-known AVB tried to promote change aggressively at Chelsea a fact which he agrees to. He wanted to project an image of being a ruthless manager and wanted to let the players know who was in charge. That's why he dropped Lampard partly as a symbolic gesture.
Now RDM has dropped Lampard and why has none of the previous problems come to fore? Well firstly it because RDM communicated the situation properly and respectfully to Lampard. I am sure SAF did not start to bench Scholes/Giggs all of a sudden but communicated the situation properly to them as well. Something which RDM has done and AVB has not.
You suggest that since RDM is a Chelsea Legend and AVB is not, Lampard created a fuss during the AVB reign because he felt he would easily have most of the fans/players on his side yet with RDM he does not feel that way. Plausible theory however Lampard does not strike me as the kind of guy who will go out of his way to create chaos and disorder in the team simply because he is dropped.
He has said it himself that he knows that being 34, he will not play every game like he used to however the recurring them in many of his interviews is the same, he needs to be communicated properly of the situation which AVB did not do. I don't think its unfair to say AVB had communication problems as well as poor man-management skills. Even players like Ramires and Mata have spoken of having lacked confidence under his reign. His best players mind.
Just to make it clear, I am not justifying what Lampard did. In my opinion, he should never have been so blatant and open about his disregard for the manager and should be smart enough to realize on his own that he is done for as a player. However, AVB must also take some blame for not communicating the situation properly to Lampard something which RDM has done judging by his interviews
Actually he did. Its not well known. AVB said that he would to be rotated, so actually he has been forewarned. Also that isnt even true it was about being tough. That came with Anelka and Alex, Lampard had been benched long before that.You have assumed, based on the press who went after him immediately, that is was a symbolic gesture, even though Lampard was actually playing pretty badly.
Actually SAF benches players all the time, he doesn't mollycoddle them, he would not have cradled Lampard's ego, and do you really think Lampard would have dared to open his mouth in the same way? You say that Lampard wouldn't go out of his way to chaos, so why was he publicly airing it then? That is causing chaos, because it did. Doesn't add up at all sorry. You also keep talking about respecting Lampard, you have got the player management relationship the wrong way round. The player is entitled to not be happy, but he shows respect to the manager, not publicly goes off in a huff.
You seem to have taken Lampard's interviews as gospel, despite the fact that AVB isn't allowed to talk about it, hence my initial point about you showing bias.
There are plenty of things AVB did wrong, but to say he dropped Lampard in a different manner to RDM isn't true. Lampard just saw an opportunity.
Here's an example of what I mean, and I've had this kind of discussion with Subtle. AVB got huge flak, from fans and media, and near mutiny from certain players for playing Meireles over Lampard...
The Meireles who was actually doing the job AVB required, and the player fairly large swathes of Chelsea fans now wish the club hadn't let go...
Chelsea as a club have their favourites, and they find it far too easy to turn a blind eye to their failings, and attack others. Just ask Mikel.
The Meireles who was actually doing the job AVB required, and the player fairly large swathes of Chelsea fans now wish the club hadn't let go...
Chelsea as a club have their favourites, and they find it far too easy to turn a blind eye to their failings, and attack others. Just ask Mikel.
Excellent article on WAGNH about the midfield last night. (Tim Palmer is really ****** impressive I have to say. Really makes me want to raise my game as a writer)
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Chelsea kept a clean sheet but on a different day Petr Cech might not have been around to make a miraculous save from Joshua John. The curling shot from the on-loan winger was the last in a series of dangerous attacks from the Danish champions, with Chelsea's defensive efforts compromised by the space afforded to Nordsjaelland between the lines.
Chelsea's plan in defence is for the wide players to track back and form a second bank of four in front of the four defenders, and to narrow the pitch and soak up opposing pressure. As we've discussed before, it's a fairly basic approach that's served a number of sides well over the years. The problem doesn't lie in the theory, but rather in the application. Communication between the two lines needs to be paramount as to prevent giving opposition attackers the time and space to pass through the defence. This was a major problem with Andre Villas-Boas'sgame plan last year, but that particular issue was largely concentrated on Chelsea's hilariously poor attempts at a high pressing game. The midfield didn't have the legs nor the intelligence to properly hound players out of possession higher up the pitch, and they were far more suited to Di Matteo's focus on shape and organisation.
Against Nordsjaelland, Chelsea paired Frank Lampard and Ramires in a double pivot for the first time, and the two are not the type of players that naturally fit into a system demanding clever positional awareness. Think of Ramires and Lampard and you think of storming forward runs, quick intercepts and great attacking intent. Chelsea don't always need a disciplined holding midfielder in the form of John Obi Mikel or Oriol Romeu, but when they don't have one, the midfield and defence need to ensure the gap between the lines is minimised. The Brazilian is an excellent presser and the best suited of Chelsea's midfielders to Villas-Boas' tactics, which is why he was the nominal tactical leader of last year's side, often breaking away from the midfield triangle to press high up the pitch alongside the central striker, morphing Chelsea's shape into a 4-1-3-2. Ramires is good at defending in one-on-one situations, whereas a central position requires more of an emphasis on smart positioning. Lampard's best skill is his ability to time his runs forward and an inability to curb this intent has curtailed Chelsea's
midfield structure.
Yet Chelsea's success last season stemmed from Frank Lampard's extraordinary defensive discipline in Chelsea's midfield, and the simple explanation is that Chelsea simply don't need to resort to defending on the edge of their own penalty area this year. With the attacking flair imbued by the new signings, the logical shift for Chelsea is to be more proactive and start pressing higher up the pitch. Against Nordsjaelland, Di Matteo's side often shifted between the two stratgies, and while this isn't necessarily a bad thing, the lack of consistency saw the back four found distanced too far from the front six. The skill of defending well is to make the pitch as compact as possible. Too often Nordsjaelland's inverted wingers John and Lorentzen were able to slip into that zone and look for the shot, but both were equally happy to pass the ball laterally, ensuring flowing moves which Chelsea struggled to contain.
However, let's not wallow in worries about Chelsea's midfield for any longer, though. Instead, let's adore the blossoming romance between David Luiz and Oscar.
-----
Chelsea kept a clean sheet but on a different day Petr Cech might not have been around to make a miraculous save from Joshua John. The curling shot from the on-loan winger was the last in a series of dangerous attacks from the Danish champions, with Chelsea's defensive efforts compromised by the space afforded to Nordsjaelland between the lines.
Chelsea's plan in defence is for the wide players to track back and form a second bank of four in front of the four defenders, and to narrow the pitch and soak up opposing pressure. As we've discussed before, it's a fairly basic approach that's served a number of sides well over the years. The problem doesn't lie in the theory, but rather in the application. Communication between the two lines needs to be paramount as to prevent giving opposition attackers the time and space to pass through the defence. This was a major problem with Andre Villas-Boas'sgame plan last year, but that particular issue was largely concentrated on Chelsea's hilariously poor attempts at a high pressing game. The midfield didn't have the legs nor the intelligence to properly hound players out of possession higher up the pitch, and they were far more suited to Di Matteo's focus on shape and organisation.
Against Nordsjaelland, Chelsea paired Frank Lampard and Ramires in a double pivot for the first time, and the two are not the type of players that naturally fit into a system demanding clever positional awareness. Think of Ramires and Lampard and you think of storming forward runs, quick intercepts and great attacking intent. Chelsea don't always need a disciplined holding midfielder in the form of John Obi Mikel or Oriol Romeu, but when they don't have one, the midfield and defence need to ensure the gap between the lines is minimised. The Brazilian is an excellent presser and the best suited of Chelsea's midfielders to Villas-Boas' tactics, which is why he was the nominal tactical leader of last year's side, often breaking away from the midfield triangle to press high up the pitch alongside the central striker, morphing Chelsea's shape into a 4-1-3-2. Ramires is good at defending in one-on-one situations, whereas a central position requires more of an emphasis on smart positioning. Lampard's best skill is his ability to time his runs forward and an inability to curb this intent has curtailed Chelsea's
midfield structure.
Yet Chelsea's success last season stemmed from Frank Lampard's extraordinary defensive discipline in Chelsea's midfield, and the simple explanation is that Chelsea simply don't need to resort to defending on the edge of their own penalty area this year. With the attacking flair imbued by the new signings, the logical shift for Chelsea is to be more proactive and start pressing higher up the pitch. Against Nordsjaelland, Di Matteo's side often shifted between the two stratgies, and while this isn't necessarily a bad thing, the lack of consistency saw the back four found distanced too far from the front six. The skill of defending well is to make the pitch as compact as possible. Too often Nordsjaelland's inverted wingers John and Lorentzen were able to slip into that zone and look for the shot, but both were equally happy to pass the ball laterally, ensuring flowing moves which Chelsea struggled to contain.
However, let's not wallow in worries about Chelsea's midfield for any longer, though. Instead, let's adore the blossoming romance between David Luiz and Oscar.
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can't wait for Saturday now.Nick Chelsea
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[video=youtube;Lh_CFaN33T0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lh_CFaN33T0[/video]
Looks like Ashley Cole is taking the written reasons well:
https://twitter.com/TheRealAC3/status/254187043968651264
https://twitter.com/TheRealAC3/status/254187043968651264
TheRealMourinho
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**** he deleted it! What did it say?
Nick Chelsea
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#goonash #bunchoftwats
Just called the FA a bunch of twats... Will probably get a fine
Seems the FA had more that one piece of evidence available to them, that wasnt in the court case. Chelsea fans should have a read of the full report, seems they did a better job than the criminal case, Terry may have got lucky in the courts.
On a football related note, here's an extract from a general roundup I wrote. It just quickly looks at how Ramires did vs Arsenal
In terms of passing hewas solid, making 49 passes with a 92% success rate. One of the bigconcerns about Ramires is that he can be rather lax in possession soit was good to see him make an accurate contribution to Chelsea'spassing game. He was dispossessed 4 times, which is a very worryingstat for any player in the pivot as precision and ball retention arekey to the position.
He managed a single keypass, which is rather average and does highlight his limitation whenplayed as part of a midfield pair. He did complete 4 out of 5 longpasses though, which was a somewhat redeeming factor. Overall, hefelt a little lacking with the ball at his feet and Chelsea's morecreative attacking midfielders were still forced to come deep tocreate.
Defensively though, hewas head and shoulders above Frank Lampard's recent contributions andmuch more like what Mikel needed beside him. He made an impressive 5tackles and 2 interceptions during the game, joint top for his teamin both categories, which undoubtledly helped Chelsea to edge Arsenalwhen it came to midfield control. His ceaseless running and pressingadded much needed energy and helped to pressure Arsenal throughoutthe match.
Something the statsdon't show however, is that during Arsenal's best chance of the game,Giroud's shot near the final whistle, Ramires did something that hetends to do a lot: he left his man to tackle someone else. Now, weall love the little Brazilian for his energy and his commitment butthis was the wrong defensive decision. He was attempting to cover forMikel, who had failed to stop the run of Oxlaide Chamberlain, but indoing so he left Santi Cazorla completely unmarked and in acres ofspace. After all their hardwork shutting the Spaniard down throughoutthe game, Chelsea gifted him a golden opportunity to make somethinghappen. After a crisp exchange with Oxlaide Chamberlain, he almostdid and it was a sign that although the Mikel-Ramires pivot lookedimpressive, the two players still need to develop more of anunderstanding and Ramires must learn to be a little more disciplinedin his play.
Nevertheless, it was avery good performance from Ramires. He proved that he can work in adouble pivot and his balance of attacking intent and defensive effortcontained a very impressive Arsenal midfield. Chelsea still need torecruit a regista to play beside Mikel to break down the bestdefences and to provide a dedicated midfield metronome, but Ramireshas proven that he is not just a stand in until such a player arrivesand that his presence can give Chelsea the solid basis they will needto compete against potent midfield threats.
In terms of passing hewas solid, making 49 passes with a 92% success rate. One of the bigconcerns about Ramires is that he can be rather lax in possession soit was good to see him make an accurate contribution to Chelsea'spassing game. He was dispossessed 4 times, which is a very worryingstat for any player in the pivot as precision and ball retention arekey to the position.
He managed a single keypass, which is rather average and does highlight his limitation whenplayed as part of a midfield pair. He did complete 4 out of 5 longpasses though, which was a somewhat redeeming factor. Overall, hefelt a little lacking with the ball at his feet and Chelsea's morecreative attacking midfielders were still forced to come deep tocreate.
Defensively though, hewas head and shoulders above Frank Lampard's recent contributions andmuch more like what Mikel needed beside him. He made an impressive 5tackles and 2 interceptions during the game, joint top for his teamin both categories, which undoubtledly helped Chelsea to edge Arsenalwhen it came to midfield control. His ceaseless running and pressingadded much needed energy and helped to pressure Arsenal throughoutthe match.
Something the statsdon't show however, is that during Arsenal's best chance of the game,Giroud's shot near the final whistle, Ramires did something that hetends to do a lot: he left his man to tackle someone else. Now, weall love the little Brazilian for his energy and his commitment butthis was the wrong defensive decision. He was attempting to cover forMikel, who had failed to stop the run of Oxlaide Chamberlain, but indoing so he left Santi Cazorla completely unmarked and in acres ofspace. After all their hardwork shutting the Spaniard down throughoutthe game, Chelsea gifted him a golden opportunity to make somethinghappen. After a crisp exchange with Oxlaide Chamberlain, he almostdid and it was a sign that although the Mikel-Ramires pivot lookedimpressive, the two players still need to develop more of anunderstanding and Ramires must learn to be a little more disciplinedin his play.
Nevertheless, it was avery good performance from Ramires. He proved that he can work in adouble pivot and his balance of attacking intent and defensive effortcontained a very impressive Arsenal midfield. Chelsea still need torecruit a regista to play beside Mikel to break down the bestdefences and to provide a dedicated midfield metronome, but Ramireshas proven that he is not just a stand in until such a player arrivesand that his presence can give Chelsea the solid basis they will needto compete against potent midfield threats.
Actually the circumstances were different, Lampard was being dropped for Meireles who was playing worse than Lampard was playing. That is different.
Absolute fair play to him for saying what we all know/think but in the position he is in he can't be doing things like that. Saying that the FA are basically calling him a liar and with him tweeting things like it shows this has effected him.
Meierles was actually playing the role required better than Lampard, i.e. not leaving the spaces behind, in the same way he is doing now.
Also re Cole. you should be aware that he retrospectively changed his statement. This was not made known to the courts.
That's your opinion really, when Lamps played we got better results.
But he wasn't doing the AVB required of him in terms of keeping the shape and style. You got results under Di Matteo last season and now with him, but it still doesn't mean he wasn't allowed to be dropped because he doesn't fit the system wanted.
Nick Chelsea
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SUUUUPER SUPER FRANK!