Archive FTBL/0002/REC/HPOO

I thought it was Lassana Diarra being groomed for Makelele's role? Even when Makelele quits he might still be present for the club in other forms to help train other players may be. It might be worth using Makelele in bigger games and subbing/resting for smaller games in the future to prolong his playing career at Chelsea.

I havn't seen much of Diarra tbh

Mourinho did say at the weekend that Makelele looked the youngest player in training lol.

ba ba is correct, I don't think Carragher and Terry (or two similar players) would work, you need someone like Ferdinand (well, someone with the qualities he is supposed to have) in there. However, Ferdinand seems to have the concentration equivalent to that of a fish and I dont think I've ever seen a more over rated player in my life. To say his positional sense is better than Carragher's is comical at best and makes your post lose all credibility. The only thing Ferdinand has over Carragher is his distribution of the ball.

I've watched Carragher closely ever since he made his debut for Liverpool. He was a limited footballer back then, his tackling and positional sense has always been brilliant but there were limitations in his game, particularly his ball distribution. This had improved massively. For me he is the best defender in the league right now and the only thing Terry has over him is his ability to score goals, which to be fair is quite exceptional. How can one mention Juve not being very creative as a criticism of Carra? His performance in Turin was heroic, he was simply outstanding and is one of the best performances I have ever seen from a central defender.

I could probably name the bad games Carra has had in the last 2 years on one hand, the main ones that come to mind are Southampton away last year, the first half against AC Milan and the game at Highbury this season. Also Fulham away this season.

His is simply breathtaking and the longer he stays away from the England set up, as far as I'm concerned, the better for Liverpool.

An away goal and a clean sheet, the perfect result for Barca and considering they didn't play good, that's a sign of a great team. Ronni was poor in the first half but change the game with one magical pass, again sign of a great player.

AC were missing Inzaghi and it showed, especially when they brought in Ambrosini who should've scored. That's football, you don't put away your chances, you get punished.

It's hardly going to get better for AC next week since Eto'o was none existence last night since the ball was hardly in the final third of the pitch because of the cautiousness of the game.

I think they have enough quality to be in the position they are now. Their defence was good last night considering that they were playing against a good attacking team.

I dont the fact that they are playing away means they have less chance of scoring. They just need abit of luck, like barca had last night. I thought a draw would have been a fair result last night. But i have confidence in the milan team and i think its not over just yet.

An away goal and a clean sheet, the perfect result for Barca and considering they didn't play good, that's a sign of a great team. Ronni was poor in the first half but change the game with one magical pass, again sign of a great player.

AC were missing Inzaghi and it showed, especially when they brought in Ambrosini who should've scored. That's football, you don't put away your chances, you get punished.

It's hardly going to get better for AC next week since Eto'o was none existence last night since the ball was hardly in the final third of the pitch because of the cautiousness of the game.

As the commentator said, last night WAS the final

As Liam The Eagle said, Essien will be groomed for the 'Makelele role' over the next couple of years. As for money it's not the players making the deals, they don't choose to have 24m quid spent on them. Money is there because people choose to watch football (chelsea an exceptional case ) and i'd rather it was pumped into the game then kept as profits for chairmen and shareholders.

EDIT: Word has it that SWP may go to Arse in a straight swap for A Cole.

Exactly. I have noticed this irony of comdemnation over diving when thuggery is ignored. Another thing which peeves me off is people try to imply that diving is new by the way they are talking about it.

I think A.Cole is rated higher than SWP... so i think Chelsea would need to give more

I didn't think Inzaghi was 1st choice anyway these days, Gillardino has been preffered as far as i know

Gilardino has been poor since the turn of the year, and the fact that he has yet to score in Europe means Inzaghi usually gets the nod for the big games. I thought Gilardino was unlucky not to score last night - he created the first chance all by himself and hit the post, and for the second chance, he was put under pressure fromt the defender behind him which put him off balance, and it coould have been a penalty.