quickpassnmove

this is awful. either keep the ball moving or pack it in and go home.

they should have had a penalty by now and David Luiz is horrible in CM.

what is David Luiz doing?

you're missing this entirely. forget it.

good thing about Costa from my view is that he's not gifted with a great physique, nor speed, but he's a handful, he's a team player and he seems like he could be one of those elusive players in and around the box who slams them in onion bag no matter how much the opponent tries to to stop him. I would like to think Costa could have a career and reputation as lethal as someone like Raul or Inzaghi. If Chelsea were to finally land a striker who could be this kind of player and he stays healthy, Chelsea will have one of the best strikers in football. Hope Costa can become so good if Chelsea get him. who knows? the only sure thing is that the market for a top striker (and other positions) is very inflated and there's nothing we can say nor do about that as fans. Costa has enough ability and he is willful, has a strong mind. I don't see mental fortitude in Benzema at all. And Balotelli is a mental disaster unless Prandelli has him on a holy crusade mindset for Italia.

They have played most of the season without a good left back and they started with Kolo Toure a number of times while not having Leiva healthy. Hard to say who they might buy for a center back this summer, but I know that center back, left back and strength+depth in center mid will be a priority. Leiva hasn't stayed healthy for a while, so Henderson and Gerrard are the only two decent center midfielders. They might have too much to buy in the summer to have success with the fixtures they will take on next season. Buying two defenders and a CM will greatly help LFC for next season. They will be playing more matches and they don't have the depth they need. Meanwhile at Chelsea, after spending far too much on Torres, Chelsea have two known starting CMs in Ramires and Matic and one unknown new guy in vanGinkel--and that's all.

...which is the reason I mentioned buying two top defenders in my post above. gives them stability they've lacked, relieves pressure on the forwards during a season. The context of the discussion is: Chelsea have given Liverpool money and a top player, which has given Liverpool a way back into the top four. LFC have taken advantage this year and only need four quality players to keep them going and push on for greater things in the CL--contingent upon Suarez staying of course. I don't think we would be talking about LFC today if we were the ones that bought the rising star from Ajax. Meanwhile, Chelsea are still recovering from bad decisions January 2011 and with all the money spent, still don't have a top striker nor depth in center midfield. We'll see if Jose and CFC can fix this soon.

Except that Chelsea and ManUtd don't already have the top scorers nor the fluency of passing the Liverpool have shown all season.

IDK, seems to me that if they get one star centre back, a good left back, some depth in center midfield and maybe one more player (like a good wing player) this summer, they could maintain their form). But, it's hard competing with PSG, Monaco, Madrid, Barca, Juve, Bayern, ManCity and Chelsea in the marketplace.

I really like Josh's vision and ability. But, he hasn't gotten any bigger/stronger it seems in 3 years or so. I don't see him 'making it' at Chelsea with his lack of physical strength. He has such talent that I have to wonder whether anyone tried to get him to bulk-up or make changes to his lifestyle. If I were trying to engineer him, I would have sent him to Spain for better food, a spot on a Spanish club along a lifestyle coach.

...and none of that waste matters because: Suarez became one of the best strikers in the world, Rodgers and Sturridge went to Merseyside, Liverpool are getting CL football again next season. It all started with Chelsea giving Liverpool the money for Suarez. Personally, I blame Chelsea for LFC returning to a top 3 or top 4 club as much as crediting Brenden. January 2011 will live on for an eternity. Big mistake. Huge. Should have been just Chelsea and ManCity for the top of the Premier League in years to come. Since Jan. 2011, I've had a really difficult time enjoying CFC. Thankfully Drogba was still with us long enough (for CL title) and we've finally gotten a top center midfielder in Matić which was long overdue since Ballack and not the end of the story for long-deficient Chelsea center midfield. Buying Suarez and a new CM in Jan. 2011 and spending 1 million p on a nutritionist and lifestyle coach for Josh McEachren would have been far better than El Niño roto.

Does this forum have league on the official PL site? reply with info, pls.

I don't think that the fullback for the future has been chosen yet. Does anyone see the 'next D. Alaba' who Chelsea should target immediately? I don't, but I'm also not watching as much football nowadays.

on the topic of Costa, hopefully some of you have seen this video that shows what a d'bag he has been.

My dislike for David Luiz has nothing at all to do with "current form;" David has played well for Brazil recently and at times for Chelsea. He's still capable of having some superb performances at center back for Brazil in the World Cup, I'm sure. But for this player to be in a starting XI every week, he needs to play one position well enough and I don't think he has proven to be reliable at any position. off the topic completely: anyone thinking that he looked good in the Arsenal match should be considering that he had the latitude to do almost anything with Matic next to him and Arsenal down to 10.

thanks for posting this.

I agree with you, Barbara. Willian does look like an overpriced backup player. Schuerrle always looked great on counterattacks for Germany and sometimes for his clubs in Germany. Salah is an excellent all-around attacking player, just needs to adapt to the Premier League under Jose (here's to hoping he does). So, I would say that Torres, perhaps David Luiz, Willian, Marin, Moses were all poor signings. Luiz might turn it around, Willian might turn it around, but at this moment, I would not choose any of them for their transfer fees (blatantly obvious on Torres and Marin the exact moment I heard of the transaction). Hopefully the striker, center midfield and fullbacks positions are filled by quality players, Torres leaves and we can just forget all these mistakes for the future.

I don't know if David Luiz will be staying, but my thoughts on center midfield A. do not involve David Luiz, B. consider a 4-3-3 formation being used regularly in the future and C. account for failure of one or two younger players in center midfield. How it should look, IMO: 5 players, including Matic, vGinkel, Ramires, player X, player Y, Oscar as a sixth backup option -OR- a player from the reserves who is capable as a sixth option. So, yes, Chelsea could avoid buying a 3rd CM if Oscar were used or a reserves player were good enough. I don't know what is going on with David Luiz and Barca, but I know he was thinking about the move last summer during the pre-season tour (from someone who talked with him face-to-face). On the other hand, my opinion of a player is not static. Even though I am ambivalent on David Luiz and don't like his play much, it may be possible to mold him into a good center midfielder. Who in the Chelsea coaching staff is capable of doing this though?

If Aguero were healthy for the rest of the season, I would still be betting on ManCity. Hard to say what will happen.

Get Torres to take a pay cut, send him there for free, buy Costa for the asking price, offer Courtois for one or two more seasons. Just about anything is worth having Burger Van Torres off the payroll.

I'm glad someone can watch Inter Milan and give us an opinion. Every time I've tried to watch Inter, I've been impressed by one defender and/or let-down by the team's overall performance. change the channel.. I do know that they have good players; problem is, the team has rarely impressed me on the pitch. total snoozers. At this moment, I do not have recommendations for center midfielders. K.Strootman was one of my top recommendations previously (we know he went to AS Roma). discussed many superstars and squad players on another online forum; after Chelsea have failed to sign strong CMs for years now, I'm just tired of it. Every window for the past 3.5 years went by and no one really good came to Chelsea until Matic returned. Now Matic is the best center midfielder Chelsea have. Want to run him into the ground? Get some depth and quality, please. My only thought for this summer, for Chelsea is to try for one superstar CM and one strong squad player CM for depth. Right now, we're looking at about 3 players for the CM pair: Matic, Ramires, and vanGinkel. Cannot count Lampard IMO--either leaving or just too slow (never was a strong center midfielder IMO) and Mikel is surely leaving (I can hope). That leaves us with 2 known quality CMs in Ramires and Matic for next season and one unknown quantity in vanGinkel. So, if no one is ready to come up from the reserves and play well enough, Chelsea should probably be buying 3 center midfielders. If one player will come up from reserves: buy two CMs.

I am still dumbfounded by January 2011. Was no one at CFC watching Suarez for Ajax and Uruguay? Did they not see that Torres was not moving as well as in the past? then, send Matic to Benfica for nothing while CFC have nothing in center midfield. As much as Chelsea certainly need a striker (and I'm still not much of a Lukaku fan), I am still equally concerned about center midfield.

very nice. I was more excited for the 1st two goals when it was 11 v 11. On another matchday, I would have loved to see an even-strength 3-0 or 4-0 win. I guess if Eto'o weren't injured, the goals may have continued even with 11 v 11. congrats to Chelsea for getting a clean sheet. Rosicky was their most dangerous player and a couple of decent cracks. I agree with the voting as it is on the 3 stars of the match for Chelsea. but I picked Matić.

Matić.

you mean, you think I'm a master scout for watching England v. Ukraine, Ukraine-Sweden a couple years ago or some S. American international matches? do I get a badge for seeing an international player whose name you can't pronounce play more than 3 matches?