ChelseasMessiah

I'm glad many people agree with me on the Lampard playing in the pivot issue, especially against technical, strong and fast players, we were lucky not to concede in the first half yesterday, they were all over our centre of the park, let's hope it doen't happen against City as they are a lot more clinical than Schalke. I'd say 70% of the posters so far in this thread agree with me

Ah, that explains it then.

The Guardian are reporting the same. It's unfair to call him flavour of the month given how well he played out wide last season supporting Falcao. He's the complete striker, strong, two footed, lighting quick..

The Guardian are reporting a strong interest in Diego Costa, they say Mourinho is keen to sign him in January.

That sentence proves perspective is indeed everything in life. Unlike the assistant coach cited above, Mourinho's job is to do what is best for Chelsea and not Belgium. He sees Kevin everyday in training, the same way he sees the other five he competes with. There's no agenda here like the Belgian implies, the only agenda is on his part as - if I'm not mistaken - we have won six out of our last seven matches and our attacking midfield is the least of our problems, in fact it's not a problem at all.

Thinking about our last match against them, I remember when we were chasing the result in the FA Cup, Oscar was dropped to the CM role for the last 30 minutes or so and he did pretty well and we were unlucky not to equalise. I know it's not ideal to try that from the start, but I think if we happen to be a goal or two down, it could be an option as we could throw in another striker or an attacking midfielder.

The best squads in the country going head to head. My only worry is their midfield duo. Fernandinho and Toure are up there with the world's best. The former has finally settled and the later is a monster of a player. Fernandinho's through ball to Aguero's first goal against West Ham was world-class, they are both quick, mobile, strong and aggressive whilst being technically excellent. It's gonna be a great game, hopefully our little wizards punish their defense and pin them back. I see Torres starting and Eto'o coming on for him in the second half.

I thought he was great defensively yesterday as well, our attacking players worked really well as a unit in the second half.

Aspi did pretty well, it took him about 10 minutes to get up to speed but after that he was flying, shame for Ryan though, Jose has got a question mark for our game on the weekend unless Ash is back.

Great pass for Hazard's goal.

Fair point. I just thought he stood out tonight. Bagged a brace in the process.

I mentioned Torres earlier, but it's only fair to say that Cech was also sublime, saved us a few times tonight - yes, the pun is childishly intended.

He did more than that, his pressing off the ball, the interceptions and runs he made, the little one twos, I thought he was fantastic. He's got that evil look on his face now, he's also got his acceleration back, something I think has to be close to a miracle, he's going past players and all.

Being the main cog for Belgium isn't pertinent to the discussion when it comes to Chelsea FC. Mourinho may be dicking around in other positions where we lack personnel but not in the three behind the striker. At the moment Kevin is sixth choice, it's a meritocracy that's divided in two aspects; intrinsic innate talent and level of performance. Kevin is a great player, but not greater than the other five. And yes, as I've said before, KDB would walk into any starting 11 in the PL bar ours, and Citys or maybe Spurs, he's that good.

Our midfield cannot compete with any club that presses high, that first half was an absolute nightmare. Ramires deserves a better partner next to him, urgently.

He earned his salt tonight, from start to finish he was the one player who performed. He's worthy of a Chelsea mantle now.

We had 10 below par performers tonight, Torres being the exception, but there is no denying moments of brilliance from Hazard and Oscar. Oscar's pace and acceleration, strength and vision to serve it on a plate to Fernando was top notch,

He was very poor again tonight, he left our midfield wide open like an empty and inviting avenue whilst Ramires as always did everything he could to cover the continental gaps Lampard didn't cover, on top of his own work load of course. We, Torres aside, were generally poor also, we got bossed by a young Schalke side, especially in the first half, before they had to change their game plan to "desperation mode".

Given the nod again, let's see how he performs.

2 attacking mid places on the bench, Willian and Mata are an absolute mountain for him to climb.

I wanted Jose to try it after the way he played on the left for us, but that must be a blow for Ryan though, who didn't do too bad a job covering Cole.

I hope the attack and Ramires are in tune, there will be a lot of extra covering to be done...

Contrary to what people said, I don't think that's Jose. He had black Adidas trainers and a black track suit top on yesterday during training.

True, but you get the point.. And long may that continue, I can't stand the c***s.

My take on it: The less I see of Cahill in a Chelsea shirt the better It's too big a step up for KDB, from being sixth choice to starting in a crucial Champions League game, we'll have Schurrle as our Bundesliga expert, that should suffice. Any of Hazard, Willian or Mata should start for their quality and CL experience.