hjperdeath

Haha yes, I can confess to that. I prefer doing that.

ONLY ONE MARK SCHWARZER ! <3 :blue scalf:

didn't see the match but I saw the replays of Lamemla's goal. That's some sad-ass way to concede one tbh.

Why not just try that with Torres?

Daniele de Rossi has long been speculated with a move to Chelsea. The AS Roma player is primarily employed in the defensive midfielder role, which happens to be a position that has come under question for the Blues. However, many have forgotten that there is another transfer target in Jose Mourinho’s mind - the vastly underrated Sami Khedira. The German international burst into the international scene after playing an integral role in Germany’s run to the semi-final in the 2010 World Cup. He was bought by Real Madrid in 2010 for an undisclosed fee from Vfb Stuttgart. Since then, he has often been deployed alongside Xabi Alonso forming an effective midfield duo on the field; it allows Alonso being the more attack-minded midfielder while Khedira is the enforcer dominating the middle of the pitch with his physical build. Daniele de Rossi is seen as the perfect player for Chelsea’s pivot but I would like to see Khedira been given a shot too. If we talk about age, then Khedira wins as he is only 26 years old now while de Rossi is already 30. Bringing in the latter would equal to purchasing a player who is at his peak or almost past it but has a lot of experience while getting in the former would provide us an energetic player who is just about entering his peak. Khedira’s importance to the current Real Madrid squad has been vastly under-rated. Carlo Ancelotti doesn’t seem to have the German in his plans, to which the fans of Los Blancos have no problem with as for them, his departure is nothing to be worried or bothered about. Moreover, many will prefer new signing - Asier Illarramendi - who is much more suited to the passing style of play Ancelotti is trying to implement at Madrid. Khedira has often been described as a team player with German national team manager - Joachim Low - himself saying that Khedira would put others before himself, which makes him a key player in the middle of the park. A prime example of his influence was in the Champions League group stage against last season’s finalist Borussia Dortmund at Signal Iduna Park. He was taken off injured in the 20th minute which resulted in his side losing control of the game as they were unable to hold onto the ball and create chance. Madrid eventually went on to lose 2-1. The role of a defensive midfielder is often underrated and I don’t really want to spark that debate now but the important thing is, Khedira will easily enter into a list of top 10 defensive midfielders in the world. For Chelsea, we need someone who will fit into the pivot and act as a holding midfielder. We need someone who can play an active role in ensuring a smooth transition from defence to attack while his partner can join the attack. Prime example between Mikel and Khedira is that. The German doesn’t slow the play down, which has been a constant problem about Mikel. Moreover, Khedira provides an attacking threat too as he loves to get forward and have a pop at goal. Now, let’s look at the statistics. I have chosen 7 players who can play in the pivot for Chelsea, from which 5 are already in the team and the other two are Khedira and de Rossi. If we look at the goals scored, then Lampard obviously stands out for simple reasons. He is probably the most attack minded pivot player on the planet. When we look at number of appearances, Ramires has been used the most and he did have quite a good season last season in the Premier League. Moving on to passing accuracy, we can clearly see Mikel blasts away any kind of opposition. With a passing accuracy of 89%, very defensive midfielders would come close in comparison to him. Khedira has about 81% while de Rossi’s is only slightly better with 84% Now let’s move on to the stats that people would like to compare for midfielders. Khedira gets forward a lot and this is largely due to the outstanding relationship he has with Alonso, with both players knowing when the other gets forward and the other stays back. He has an average shot of 59% for a reason and it comes as a bigger surprise to see Lampard come in second with 58% while de Rossi comes in at only 17%. Let’s also try to ignore the that Mikel has an accuracy of 0% as you actually need to take a shot to even be considered. The total chances created bring even more surprises. The Premier League might be a very physical and fast paced league but the Bundesliga is not far behind and this is illustrated with Kevin de Bruyne created 85 chances for Werder Bremen last season. The average duels won is a sum of fouls committed, successful take-ons and success in aerial battle. Lampard wins the aspect with 62%, mostly due to his smart thinking on the pitch with de Rossi having a 58% success rate which has helped AS Roma in having a firm control of midfield and Ramires stands at 59% because of his pace and the fact that he is constantly brought down by opponents. Now play time is over and we can be honest here. Statistics will always give only half of the story. Javier Hernandez has more international goals than Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi but that does not mean that one is better than the other. It does, however, expand one’s knowledge. Getting back to the main point, I will be more in favour of bringing in Khedira as this gives an option for the future including providing the Chelsea midfield with a much needed depth. However if the question arises asking whether do we need another defensive midfielder, then the answer is an outright no! Having Essien, Ramires, Lampard, de Bruyne, Mikel and van Ginkel are enough to be honest. I would rather like to see one of the youth players being promoted rather than bringing in another midfielder. NOTE : I have left out van Ginkel from the statistics because his exploits in the Dutch league could not be found clearly.

And hopefully an improved version of Gundogan.

True his assists are quite good. A lot like Alonso with those gorgeous long balls. He's developing at a rapid and scary rate. Horrific for others ofcourse.

He has played a total of 130 career games , in which he has scored 26 times and picked up an assist 20 times. Out of those, 18 goals and 16 assists have come from 93 games in the Eredivisie.

I knew about this forum since a long time, but was too lazy to register. One of my friends kept reminding about this little home for Chelsea fans around the world. Finally found time to register and here I am.

See him play for Vitesse and the Netherlands U-21. your opinion will change buddy.

Can't help but agree. we should actually try that out.

Don't really think it is happening though. If it does, we have more depth and there is no complaints, atleast on our side. A surprise after the game would be nice but.

Chelsea Football Club is delighted to announce that Nathan Ake has today (Friday) signed a new five-year contract. http://www.chelseafc.com/news-article/article/3342358/title/new-deal-for-ake :cfc:

Express reports - http://www.express.co.uk/sport/football/420606/Chelsea-Arsenal-and-Manchester-City-target-Victor-Andrade-confirms-English-interest

Haha thanks. I knew I had missed something out. thanks anyways bud !

I call rubbish on that. I never said he wasn't good. He was world class, yes. but he entered a different class after joining Chelsea and playing the role he played under Mourinho. Perez under-rated him, got rid of him, other players were angry. Chelsea won back to back titles, while Madrid went trophy less for quite a while. Everyone knows the history, isn't that hard.

He was was good , but not as good as he was when he joined Chelsea.

Can anyone tell me the implications of this pre-season game?

Plus stats always say only half the story.

Exactly. It isn't solely a striker problem. I bet that even after getting him we'll have problems in the start. Jose needs to work on the link up play, if he does, then maybe.

And its time for us to rejoice !

The question is, would he have looked good in blue?

save the sarcasm. It was in relation to the Rooney-advertising post.

EA were pretty sure that Bale is staying.

€40-60 million is the range that the tabloids have predicted for Barcelona to shell out on our own David Luiz - The Geezer who was responsible for the smiles in our most direst of times - and gone are the days when center-backs can hide behind the gigantic transfer fee's of world-class attackers. The world of football is such that every tiny little rumor regarding transfers are beaten around the bush while the people in question do not openly come out and say anything resulting in a lot has been made out of this small yet irritating rumor. Lets reminisce for a second. Chelsea's defense was leaky, so leaky that no amount of duct tape could stop the balls creeping into Cech's net. Rafael Benitez's arrival, *cough* menu please *cough*, strengthened the defense due to simple reasons. He told Luiz to get his act right and quit trying to take risks while helping Cahill out on his reading ability. We all remember the phenomenal game Cahill had against Manchester City in the Premier League. Luiz's performance did improve, with notable performances in the Europa League and against Manchester United in the FA Cup. The point is that the reason we would want to sell Luiz should never be based on the fact that he makes mistakes at his age. That's equivalent to selling Mata cause he couldn't provide accurate through balls in a few games. Luiz has had his share of good moments as well, though it's a lot more on Mata's side. Yes he's eccentric and at times over the top with everything he does, but when he has set his mind right, there are hardly any defenders who could be compared to him. Mind you, when we talk about comparing defenders, I'm not just talking about attributes but also of certain values. Luiz is passionate and this stems from his Brazilian roots. Moreover he is passionate about Chelsea, the club, the fans and the jersey. Selling this for anything around 60 million and expecting to get it back is stupid, as the value of such characteristics are priceless. Chelsea will never be out-muscled when it comes to money, thanks to the Russian rubles. The only way a move could be forced through is if the defender himself forces a move through and I do not really see him as the type of player who would hand in a transfer request. Now let's for a moment say that we do sell Luiz. Then what? We are obviously expected to go into the market for another world-class center-back. Finding a center-back like that would be a rarity but not impossible. Chelsea would probably use the same amount of money to get somebody else. Luiz is just about to enter his prime and getting someone who is young and in-experienced would be stupid. So that narrows it down to defenders who are experienced, at their peaks and well capable to fit into the squad. I'm sorry, but I wouldn't really appreciate the idea of bringing in a 30 year old at a time when the club is aiming for stability and a future with a solid foundation. Let's say that Chelsea go for a top center-back. We can form a comparison between arguably the best center-backs in the world(in common opinion) . This includes Luiz who is 26 years of age, Hummels (24) , Subotic (24) , Vidic(31), Silva (28), Ferdinand (34) , Pique (26) and Kompany (27). As can be seen, only Subotic or Hummels could be seen as realistic transfers from this list. Though we aren't comparing other targets, we can clearly see how Luiz doesn't fare that bad. Keep in mind that Luiz has played more games last season, totaling 47 as compared to that of others who have played 38, 36, 20, 39, 29, 39 and 32 games. His tackles per game were 7th best while interceptions per game were second best. He had committed 1.4 fouls per game last time around, the highest among the rest. What I'm trying to convey is that, Luiz still has time to become something phenomenal. Carvalho, Drogba, Makelele erupted into world-class players under the guidance of Mourinho. There isn't a better manager at this time to show a young player the right path. Mourinho has reitereated how Luiz is integral to the squad, and there is very little reason why you would disagree with him. Luiz also has been lucky to have two mentors on his side, namely John Terry and Thiago Silva. Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, and David Luiz took the one less traveled by cause of two senior players blocking the other road, the land more fertile on the road less traveled by and the sun a little brighter without the shade. Think about it. Click here to view article