Carlo and his 4-4-2 diamond

[Mart 29]

He seems to be absolutely stuck in his mind on a 4-4-2 diamond for every occasion, with no/little room for flexibility. Who here really thinks the 4-4-2 diamond is the right system for us to play this season?

It seems to me to not really suit a lot of our players at all. Yes, it manages to cram Anelka and Drogba into the same team, but some of our great players are at there best in a quick and direct system (Essien for instance so far seems largely wasted in a 4-4-2 diamond). I can see it working with brilliant elegance away, especially away against poor teams, but will it fail at the Bridge in the same way Scolari's tactics did time and time again?

Will Carlo's heavy rotation policy be the final solution? For instance he might rotate to see the likes of J.Cole, Kalou, A.Cole, Bosingwa, Zhirkov, and Malouda play a bigger role at home to break the opposition defense down through running with the ball at feet rather than hoping to unlock the team always with passes. I certainly hope so.

[warnie_666 1,081]

As long as he has a Plan B and with that I mean playing in a formation with wingers, I am fine with Diamond.

[ZanSnake 1,211]

Same here!

If he has a formation like 3-3-4 for like dying minutes of a 1-1 draw, would be okay with me.

Zirkhov Drogba Anelka/Sturridge Malouda/Cole

Lampard

Essien Mikel

Cole Terry Bosingwa

Cech

Wouldn't mind that (if no signings come in)

[gary gordon 1,777]

The Diamond is Rubbish! bring back the normal 4-1-3-2 formation.

[Clevemayer 764]

back to the roots....

4-3-3

Jesus Navas and Robben at the Wings

[Mart 29]

Frankly I think we should play the 4-4-2 diamond in matches where the opposition is going to come out and attack us and 4-3-3 when we can expect to need a lot of dribbling and width to unlock a bus parking Stoke-bobble-esque team.

Cech

Ivanovic Terry Carvalho A.Cole

Mikel

Essien Malouda

Lampard

Anelka Drogba

Cech

Bosingwa Alex Terry A.Cole

Essien

J.Cole Ballack

Kalou Drogba Zhirkov

Gives a lot of our players game time. That's just my opinion anyhow.

Edited August 4, 2009 by Mart

[kent-blue 0]

the diamond is rubbish doesnt give us width,we need to use the wings and we cant with this formation,based on the reading game it isnt going to work against english teams carlo so we need ta revert back to the old formations!.

[BlueLion. 21,491]

You can't base a statement like that on one match. We could play Hull with a 4-4-2 and demolish them.

[Matterz 67]

Somehow I find it hard to believe that a man who has won two cham,pios league titles as manager of a massive club doesnt have a plan B or even C, or that he doesnt know what he is doing with the diamond formation. Just because Scolari was an idiot doesnt mean Ancelotti is.

[gary gordon 1,777]

Somehow I find it hard to believe that a man who has won two cham,pios league titles as manager of a massive club doesnt have a plan B or even C, or that he doesnt know what he is doing with the diamond formation. Just because Scolari was an idiot doesnt mean Ancelotti is.

Well actually it does. There is more than 1 idiot in the world and knowing Chelsea's luck, we've probably landed both.

[Rubber bullets 1,183]

Well actually it does. There is more than 1 idiot in the world and knowing Chelsea's luck, we've probably landed both.

Ah Grumpy Gorden is back . I think he represents what is wrong with some Chelsea fans. As soon as we start not winning a few games in a row, or don't win to a 'crap' team, then they call for the manager or players head.

[Term-X 7,891]

man-utd is our first real big game of the season so i shall judge carlos tactics from that game alone.

cause scolari won all his pre-season games and look what happened

Edited August 5, 2009 by Terminator X

[gary gordon 1,777]

Ah Grumpy Gorden is back . I think he represents what is wrong with some Chelsea fans. As soon as we start not winning a few games in a row, or don't win to a 'crap' team, then they call for the manager or players head.

No, actually i represent the realist's among us. Not everybody who believes that when something is not going to work is wrong. I just believe that when push comes to shove, Ansell won't have a clue how to fix it. Tactically, he isn't a great coach. He had an array of stars at Milan over the years and only managed one Scudetta. We need somebody with the skill of Hiddink. He will forever be my favourite Chelsea Coach. More so than the arrogant Mourinho (Even though he was damn good!) I do like Grumpy Gordon though. It has a nice ring to it....

[Rambo 1,729]

man-utd is our first real big game of the season so i shall judge carlos tactics from that game alone.

cause scolari won all his pre-season games and look what happened

agreed.

[BlueLion. 21,491]

Pre-season games are about fitness, not results. Carlo's probably just played his 4-1-2-1-2 because he knows it best, and wants to see if it works with the squad. I wouldn't actually be surprised if we saw a change in formation either on Sunday or against Hull.

[EskWeston 696]

Blimey a draw against Reading and things have gone wrong. We beat 4 teams in the states using the diamond including AC and Inter Milan! Plus i very much doubt that Carlo is only planning using the Diamond. The reason he has been using it now is because the players do not know it as well as the 4-3-3 so they need the practice in using it, and what better time than pre season....

As BlueLion said, don't be suprised to see us use a different formation against the Mancs...

[Shane 2,275]

We'll see how his tactics fare out against United. I'd like to see us going 1 down to see what can he do from there.

[NattyBlue 44]

I think it's ok as long as we play with Wingers like Malouda, Joe cole and so on

like with the first half vs reading it wasn't working AT ALL with no width and 3 cmf's in attack then it was changed up and it went ok, I'm happy we've changed formation and that Kalou (lots don't rate him at all, but I do, excited to see him in CF more...unless he goes to arse) up front as a CF, nice to have two up front and lampard with the free role, I think the formation may change for some games and we may use 2 dmf's etc.

I don't think Drogba and Anelka will work yet though because anelka kept on dropping deep too much but hopefully he changes that