Kostas

Great to have Alex back in the middle but I think we're playing too many half-fit players in Drogba, Alex, Malouda and Ash. Our midfield will function (slightly) better with Malouda but from what Carlo said it sounded like he'd have played Zhirkov had he been available, can't be happy about that. Surely it's the other way around?

Doubt he'll make much of a difference. That position has always seemed over-appreciated to me. Nevertheless I wish him good luck and I hope his appointment is nothing like Grant's appointment a few years back. I'd like to link you to Dan Levene's article only a day after Ray's sacking @ fulhamchronicle.co.uk

The knee-jerking is unbearable. I bet once Josh inevitably gets a few things wrong, some will look for a new overhyped teenager.

No, just no. I rarely see such bigging up even from opposition supporters The only club that I'm willing to give credit for handling youth is ManUtd, even then they have had the same policy for over 20 years and Fergie can take risks without having to pay for them. Bebe hasn't shown half of what Sturridge has and you're already saying that he's probably going to be a big, Hernandez has shown good positioning and speed but if Borini played like he did against Villa people here would be calling him shit and claim that he doesn't deserve a contract, Welbeck ripped a defence that was begging to be ripped and he may end up being the next David Jones. Arsenal have achieved nothing with their so called academy products, Song, Nasri and Fabregas aside they are full of mediocre players that were once prospects but would never get into ours or ManUtd's first 11, Ramsey and Wilshere are promising but that's all they are. Livepool would have never played N'Gog if they had a suitable backup for Torres, they certainly haven't blooded any academy kid for years and end up selling most players who can't get a game (El Zhar,Nemeth and probably Pacheco). Chelsea's current academy is relatively new and with the way we've been changing managers for the past 5 years it's no wonder we've had no-one established.

Thank you.

Get me some actual stats and prove me wrong.

And what a Drogba-esque goal it was.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzALQlUCh1g

I doubt he has played over 30 minutes in more than 5 games for this season, not enough time to judge any player, especially a kid. Get real.

Apparently Bruma's groin problem is not completely gone. onsoranje

Yeah and David Silva preferred us and we all know what happened... Neymar is still the player to get but we've got other things to deal with before thinking about signing attackers.

He's getting on my nerves.. But can he play CB?

Ivory Coast can afford to play without Drogba and we can't ?!

At the moment Mikel is our only capable experienced midfielder, I'd rather play Drogba at CB than Mikel.

This season looks like a major fuck-up from our football board to me. The youth are neither getting starts nor stepping up, and our thin squad depth is getting exploited. ATM I'll be happy if we are still top 4 in January. The only thing I don't worry about is RA's willingness to sort this mess.

Ramires starts tomorrow? What are the odds of him getting injured?

So we effectively have one (1) fit central defender? And we're still in November? Time to panic? Sure starting the season with 3 of them was a great idea.

Yeah I've been thinking about how we could tweak our formation since the Liverpool game. On paper it looks better than the current 4-Mikel-2-3 with the players that are left but we will have to radically change the way we attack to get some goals. Under CA our front 3 draw the defenders wide to create space for our midfielders and our fullbacks constantly look for spaces and create triangles with the wingers. Swithing to a 4-4-2 may not suit Malouda as he needs to be closer to the box, on the other hand I think Anelka may love a 4-4-1-1 formation as he'll get to play his favourite "creative striker" role. Mikel has been playing deeper than most midfielders for a while now and I don't think a flat midfield will suit his style of play. Basically it's up to CA to think of something but I doubt he would want such big changes.

I see a lot saying Malouda should play as a midfielder but I think they're ignoring a few things. The last time Malouda played in the midfield we were cruising games and had teams shitting themselves upon our sight, we usually scored an early goal which forced damage control over our opposition. We also had 2 experienced midfielders who could defend against counter attacks and could maintain possession letting Malouda be creative in his role. At the moment Malouda is either half fit or carrying a knock, Ancelotti can't rest him and substituted unusually early against Sunderland. IMO Malouda for Zhirkov won't be that much of an improvement.

Carlo had the ability to adapt our system to our available players, hope he can do it again and do something about our bloody midfield. I'm more worried about how our midfield will protect the CBs than who will actually partner Ivanovic. Not to mention that we've failed to score in 4 games this season whereas last year we failed only once. Our attackers need badly rest and they won't get some as long as our next best option is Kalou. Once we have our midfield back we won't rely only on the front three to create chances.

Wtf?

This is where we disagree. I would love this to be just one bad day at the office. IMO the problem is deeper.

Damn I thought I wrote a "non-top4 side"

I am the only one not getting the "we're still top argument" ? Will you start knee-jerking if we drop to 2nd or 3rd for a short period? There are obviously some big problems, ignoring them just cause we're still first helps as much as asking for the head of Carlo/Ramires/Zhirkov/Kalou/Roman etc.

No comment Every player gets better with experience, what's your point? Actions speak louder than words.

Actually our last home defeat of that margin against a non-top4 side was back in 1995 against Leeds.. So yeah this is probably the worst scoreline I have witnessed.