The Chelsea F.C. Thread IV

Original post by Cable

I'd hate to be in JM's position right now, concerning the best XI for Chelsea. What do you think is your best team right now?

Entirely dependant on what type of game we're playing, counter-attacking or possession. We have players for both now.
Also no one has seen what the team can do yet and there's plenty of different line-ups to try to see who clicks the best.

For me, I'm not saying it's the best, But I'd really love to see a formation such as the following.

Cech - Cole, Ivan, Luiz, Azpi - MVG (B2B), KDB/Oscar (DLP) - Schurrle, Mata/Willian, Hazard - Lukaku/Eto'o.

Hazard and Schurrle where immense on the wings tonight, and they both tracked back well. Their defensive work rate was brilliant.

Oscar and KDB have both played a deeper role, and I'm hoping one of them will be moulded there to replace lamps and to free up room upfront. Oscar would be my preferred choice as his tackling and marking has really came on.

I think Ivan and Luiz would only work if we pressed a lot, such as tonight, and the midfield could control a game. They're both attack minded and if we didn't close down as a team it would be a disaster pairing, but personally I think they're the two best CB's.

MVG is self explanatory, Good defensively and will work hard to retain the ball. Better passing than Ramires.

Not sure on how good Eto'o is still, but he looks like he still has it, just wasn't motivated at Anzi. Lukaku should progress further this season.

Think Willian has been under rated by a lot of people. Will speed up the play more than Mata, but then again Mata is Mata. The only problem with Mata is he's a bit like Ozil. Poor defensively and tires late in game. But he's still world-class until he gets fatigued.

The entire team would be dependant on the Pivot, they'd control the game but whether they'd hold up defensively I don't know.

Reply 5883

Original post by The Assassin

Think we played 6 matches last season and didn't beat them in one :redface:

City are always difficult for us. Ruined our unbeaten season under Mourinho, ah well.

Reply 5884

The Assassin

18

Original post by Tweek

City are always difficult for us. Ruined our unbeaten season under Mourinho, ah well.

Yeah. By a penalty as well! (Superb team that was, though. Not the most attractive but so damn efficient! :moon:

)

Wb btw - haven't seen you post here in a while.

Reply 5885

Original post by The Assassin

Yeah. By a penalty as well! (Superb team that was, though. Not the most attractive but so damn efficient! :moon:

)

Wb btw - haven't seen you post here in a while.

Thank-you. I wasn't intending to return. However I needed some info for uni and ended dragging myself in here. Couldn't help it. Needed to discuss football with someone.

On an alternative note I hate international breaks. Two weeks until the next match, sigh.

Reply 5886

OP

Original post by Tweek

Thank-you. I wasn't intending to return. However I needed some info for uni and ended dragging myself in here. Couldn't help it. Needed to discuss football with someone.

On an alternative note I hate international breaks. Two weeks until the next match, sigh.

Yeah I'm going to stop going here when uni starts.

International breaks just destroy football sometimes, I guess the advantage is that you get a midweek game and a weekend game, so for the most part you get more football. Oh and CL starts the week after international break.

Reply 5887

King Leonidas

21

Original post by jam277

Going hyperdefensive works most effectively when you have an outlet to relieve pressure. He got that tactic wrong, especially with our immobile midfield with lamps and mikel there was literally nobody to drive, I guess his reasoning was that lukaku would do a role like that, but most of the time he was playing as a defensive winger on the right side. A real shame ramires got sent off too as he'd have been the perfect man to help us in this situation.

But I think we'll be ready by the next time we face bayern, so I'm not worried here.

I agree 100% that the 'pressure reliever' was missing in extra time however, it must have been difficult for Jose to compose a set of tactics to cater for the Ramires sending off as well the inevitable waves of attack from Bayern Munich. At the end of the day the tactics were working until the last second of extra time, conceding the goal was more down to luck rather than tactics.

Reply 5888

Original post by jam277

Yeah I'm going to stop going here when uni starts.

International breaks just destroy football sometimes, I guess the advantage is that you get a midweek game and a weekend game, so for the most part you get more football. Oh and CL starts the week after international break.

No idea how people have time to go on here at Uni. I know I won't.

Not particularly looking forward to CL, well the group stages. Only thing is watching Draxler, other than that, pretty boring games for us. Just hope we get to see some mixed line-ups.

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 5889

OP

Original post by Tweek

No idea how people have time to go on here at Uni. I know I won't.

Not particularly looking forward to CL, well the group stages. Only thing is watching Draxler, other than that, pretty boring games for us. Just hope we get to see some mixed line-ups.

I guess I'm happy we got a good group this year, we usually get a hard group, similar to united's group this year but with a minnow there.

Reply 5890

The Assassin

18

Mourinho sounded well pissed off at the end.

And lol: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/23877992

As usual on the comment section there are lot of the usual WUMs, as well as saying that Chelsea apparently played really bad. Sheesh. I was expecting some positivity but nothing! :lol:

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 5891

Isometrix

11

Original post by Tweek

No idea how people have time to go on here at Uni. I know I won't.

TSR mobile dude. Whether you're on a bus, or if it's during lunch time, or you're bored in a lecture (mainly this), you have no excuse to not be able to find a few minutes to check this thread :tongue:

Reply 5892

Isometrix

11

Original post by Cable

Hope not. But the good thing is that it will get Mata to play at his best because there's now lots of competition for his position.

What do you think is your best starting XI atm, considering the signing of Eto'o and Willian as well?

It's really hard to come up with a best lineup for us, as there's just too much choice!

The team needs a solid spine I feel, like how City and Utd have:

Hart, Kompany, Toure, Aguero
DDG, Vidic, Carrick, RVP

Once you have this I think the rest of the team can fall in place. But for us, I'm not sure. It used to be our old guard who were the spine:

Cech, Terry, Lampard, Drogba

But who do you think would fulfil those roles now? Cech is still solid, and I guess Terry is getting back into good form under Jose. Not sure about our FWDs though, and Ramires who is meant to be our team engine is just too inconsistent.

Reply 5893

OP

Just realised, we should use van ginkel instead of ramires by the start of next season, liability. No technical ability, just runs around a lot. I really find it hard to fit him in the first team. I think he's useful and had he just not been an idiot we could have won that match tbh. But if we wanna dominate teams ramires isn't the answer, if he could dribble and pass he'd be the best player on our team as well ffs.

Although I think the best player on our team is hazard, if there's anyone I think will shine this season it'll be eden hazard.

Reply 5894

Soul of Mischief

5

Thought you played really well yesterday. Unlucky. To lead Bayern twice was no minor feat and I guess their onslaught at then end was just a bit too much. Shame Mourinho had to put a negative light on a really brave quality performance by Chelsea with the absolute bull he chatted in his interview though. Ramires's foul was worthy of a yellow so I don't think it was an unfair sending off which is exactly what Mourinho admitted but then he somehow managed to say it was a UEFA conspiracy. Otherwise Chelsea were a credit to England with that performance - and it absolutely kills me to say that!!

Reply 5895

Isometrix

11

Do you guys think Willian will go straight into the starting XI?

Mata-Hazard-Willian looks devastating, but Oscar and Schurrle have had a good few games so I presume selection will be based on form and fitness (as it should be).

Reply 5896

OP

Original post by Soul of Mischief

Thought you played really well yesterday. Unlucky. To lead Bayern twice was no minor feat and I guess their onslaught at then end was just a bit too much. Shame Mourinho had to put a negative light on a really brave quality performance by Chelsea with the absolute bull he chatted in his interview though. Ramires's foul was worthy of a yellow so I don't think it was an unfair sending off which is exactly what Mourinho admitted but then he somehow managed to say it was a UEFA conspiracy. Otherwise Chelsea were a credit to England with that performance - and it absolutely kills me to say that!!

Yeah agree here, fergie did the same thing though, deflecting the pressure from ramires and lukaku and putting the media on himself, don't read too much into it. The fact Mourinho admitted that it was a yellow but then defended ramires shows it.

Tbh bayern were poor, we did well with a pretty shocking midfield duo and countered the hell out of them until martinez came on. I guess they didn't have schweinsteigger though, but he's been playing a different role this season anyway, still been good but he's best as a BBM next to a destroyer, so if he played him in the DLP role I still think it would be the same result.

Reply 5897

9MmBulletz

Original post by jam277

Yeah agree here, fergie did the same thing though, deflecting the pressure from ramires and lukaku and putting the media on himself, don't read too much into it. The fact Mourinho admitted that it was a yellow but then defended ramires shows it.

Tbh bayern were poor, we did well with a pretty shocking midfield duo and countered the hell out of them until martinez came on. I guess they didn't have schweinsteigger though, but he's been playing a different role this season anyway, still been good but he's best as a BBM next to a destroyer, so if he played him in the DLP role I still think it would be the same result.

I wouldn't say Bayern were poor. More they played into our hands. Plus, last year in the final, we had no counter-attacking threat apart from Drogba. We were terrible against Bayern tbh. We created one chance worthy of note in 120 mins. That was when i relaised that we definitely need some pace in forward positions. Now we have much more pace, so inevitably we were going to carry a threat going forward and create better chances. We are far better than the team that beat them in Munich IMO. Our final ball let us down though this game and we could have created 2-3 more clear cut chances had our counter attack passing been on point.

I watched Bayern vs City in pre-season and I saw a similar pattern. Bayern dominated possession, but City should have scored at least 3 times. Negredo had like 4 decent heading opportunities and Nasri should have scored too.

As good as Bayern are, I can't see them winning the Champions League again easily. They look vulnerable to the counter attack and any team with quick forwards are going to cause them problems like Real Madrid or ourselves yesterday. We'd probably be even more threatening with Eto'o and Willian.

While I don't expect us to win the Champions League, I see no reason for us not to get to the semi's, as long as we get a good draw. If Eto'o does well, he could be the difference for us

Reply 5898

Soul of Mischief

5

Original post by jam277

Yeah agree here, fergie did the same thing though, deflecting the pressure from ramires and lukaku and putting the media on himself, don't read too much into it. The fact Mourinho admitted that it was a yellow but then defended ramires shows it.

Tbh bayern were poor, we did well with a pretty shocking midfield duo and countered the hell out of them until martinez came on. I guess they didn't have schweinsteigger though, but he's been playing a different role this season anyway, still been good but he's best as a BBM next to a destroyer, so if he played him in the DLP role I still think it would be the same result.

Maybe but Fergie for all his strengths always came across as completely classless in a lot of post match interviews as does Mourinho. Also he could have deflected the pressure without trying to undermine his opponents achievements. He's the one who made the sub of Terry for Hazard and therefore invited the pressure. That was actually his mistake and fault. It just comes across as petty and unsportsman like and totally mismatched to the really good performance the chelsea players put on.

Reply 5899

OP