Naked Mole Rat

I thought Ben Haim played for Portsmouth? Why did he...?

It would've been much better if it wasn't for the dark patch around the collar.

I want Drogba to stay for a couple reasons. First of all, I really don't think too much change over a short period of time will help the team. Assuming that Anelka and Malouda will leave, if we let Drogba go as well, then we'll have three new (or fairly new) faces up front, and that's no good, especially since pre-season starts in less than a week, and we don't even know whom we'll sign or if we will sign anyone at all. Secondly, I am still uncertain about Torres like everyone else here. He still has a lot to prove, and there is too much risk involved in going with Torres only. Besides, Torres is highly prone to injury, so you never know. So, I think we should keep Drogba for one more season, and preferably, he'll leave next summer. I think that's the best decision for the team and hopefully for Drogba as well. But if we're going to keep him, we'll have to play him often. He's not gonna be happy if he sits out most of the time, and the last thing we need is an angry Drogs. So ideally, we should find a way to play both of them together. Drogba worked it out with Anelka, so I don't see why he can't do the same with Torres. If it doesn't work, however, we should focus on Torres. No matter what people think of him, the club won't let go of him that easily even if he's going downhill from here. He cost Roman £50m, and that should tell you that we're stuck with him whether we like him or not. So yeah, keep both of them, and we'll gradually work towards building the team around Torres.

Really? Where did he go?

Well, the only ones that we still have are Rajkovic, Gordon, and Woods. Great players, though.

If we're looking for a Lampard replacement it has to be Nasri out of these three. But with Essien out injured, we may also need someone to provide the link between the defense and the offense of the team. Just by looking at some of the stats like 'Duel,' it looks like Modric is the right guy. But if we sign Modric, McEachran's place in the team will be threatened because their roles overlap. Hmmmm... I'll go with Nasri. Btw, can I ask you where you got this?

Mikel-McEachran.. Now THAT's really defensive. If we play both at the same time, they'll slow down the game, and neither of them is good offensively. Anyways, about McEachran, I'm not quite sure where he can play in our three-man midfield. Maybe if we played 4-4-2 diamond or Milan's 4-3-1-2, we might be able to play McEachran like Pirlo. But in the 4-3-3 system, I don't really know because McEachran lacks offensive calibre, which means we'll need someone like Lampard alongside him, but at the same time, he's also slow and weak, which means that we'll need someone like Essien or Ramires. If he played DM, we'll still need someone to help him because he's not very good defensively and is weak.

Hater, no doubt. You don't even try to build constructive arguments. You just like to insult Mikel and make a fool out of yourself.

We should probably look for someone else. After reading that article someone posted, I'm not convinced that Modric is the right man.

Maybe you're right. But I don't think Essien contributes to the 'defensiveness'. (I don't like how 'negative' sounds) Essien is a box-to-box midfielder who contributes both offensively and defensively. He's a formidable defender but at the same time, he likes to get forward. I think the problem is that Mikel doesn't quite get how to play world class. When he first started to play in the DM position, Mikel had a lot to work on. First off, he had to restrain himself from going forward. That was important because back then, Mikel lacked many things. For one thing, he couldn't tackle for shit, which had to do with his getting sent off way often. So, he really couldn't afford to get forward and develop as a DM at the same time. But, right now, he is defensively capable, he can read the game better, and he is physically stronger, which means that he can now afford to get more involved offensively. But, what I think happened is that now that he's been playing a defensive role for years, he doesn't know how to contribute offensively. To bring about his offensive potential, in my opinion, was one of the big challenges Ancelotti had with Mikel, and it is going to be pretty tough for Villas-Boas as well. Now, I might be wrong. Maybe it was a tactical flaw as you pointed out. Nonetheless, I'm really looking forward to what AVB will do with Mikel.

I hope Rajkovic will become our new Alex.

Mikel is a special player. He is arguably one of the best DM in the world, and I don't think anybody can do his job better than him. He's composed, disciplined, strong, intelligent and defensively capable. To me, Mikel is almost world class. There are a couple things that prevent him from reaching that level: influence and low offensive contribution. Right now, as well as Mikel gets his job done, he is pretty much invisible. The DM role is obviously one of the most subtle duties in football, but Mikel needs to step up. He needs to build his presence and try to be the leader. He needs to be able to dictate the game. Also, he needs to start directly contribute to the team's offence. Currently, he indirectly contributes to attacking by staying back and letting the defenders get forward. But if he is to achieve that world class status, he'll need to make more forward passes and take more shots on goal. I know he is capable of doing these things, he just doesn't do them very often. His passing especially is superb. As far as techniques go, he's maybe even better than Lampard. If Mikel can get these things out of his way this season, he will definitely flourish. But I really hate to think that Essien had anything to do with Mikel's development.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/chelsea/8130025/John-Obi-Mikel-reborn-as-Chelseas-undisputed-pass-master.html ^That's for the "terrible passes" part. About the "bad ball control" thing, I can't really find an article on it, but from what I've seen, Mikel is one of the best in the league in keeping the ball. He has the technique to first knock the ball down into his feet, then he cleverly turns his back towards an approaching defender and he shields the ball using his strength. And Mikel doesn't make that many stupid mistakes.. anymore. He now knows how to tackle whereas a few seasons ago he didn't because he never had to play a defensive duty. (It's even in that article.) So, now he doesn't get sent off for some dumb reason. Also compared to, let's say, two seasons ago, he makes way few pass misses, and honestly, he was less error-prone than Lampard this season, although Lampard was sub par. It's true he still sometimes finds himself in a hole, but that doesn't make him SHIT. I know you'll hate Mikel until he starts scoring 5 goals every game, but to me, the only two things that prevent Mikel from nearing the world-class status are: 1) Influence on the pitch, and 2) Offensive capability. But he is improving on these things. And, of course, Mikel plays one of the most important roles in the team: he is the reason why our defenders can get forward and score goals. If you recall, many of the dramatic goals were scored by Terry, Luiz and Ivanovic last season, and this was partly because Mikel stayed back to cover for them. =========== Sorry about the off-topic post.

PL 1. Chelsea 2. Man U 3. Liverpool 4. Man City 5. Arsanal 6. Sunderland -- 18. Swansea 19. Wolves 20. Norwich FA - Liverpool LC - Tottenham CL - Chelsea Shield - City

Fair enough. I would have liked to see someone more experienced like Hiddink would take the job, but at least Emenalo knows the team well. Congrats.

Is this the same knee he hurt last time? If so, this could be really really serious. I just hope he'll get well soon and be alright afterwards.

I never thought Richards was a great player but he's strong and young, so I guess he won't be such a bad option. And we really don't need a superstar in that position anyway since we already have Bosingwa and Ivanovic. BTW, does this mean Richards will be available for no fee, except maybe the compensation, like when we signed Sturridge?

Barcelona - Xavi and Cruyff should shut the fuck up about other teams, and their fans are generally retarded as well. Man U - Most of their 'fans' I met are bandwagoners. I always challenge them to United-players-naming competition and I always win. Shame on them. Arsanal - WHINERS Wolverhampton - I hate Hunt and their shitty pitch and was never a big fan of McCarthy. Man City - My friend is a fan. He hates Chelsea so I decided to hate City. Also their players have fucked up attitudes, especially the ones from Arsanal. Liverpool - eh.. actually I just feel sorry for them now. That 21-year suckage really drove those people insane. Other teams I don't really like are Fulham, West Ham, Milan, Sunderland, and Real Madrid.

It's too early to conclude that Chelsea won't get these players. Modric is starting to get annoyed that Redknapp isn't letting him go, and Tottenham may have to let him go in the end. But I want Hamsik more than these two.

Kind of off-topic but why are they calling Luiz a "Benfica" man? Anyways, Dann could be a good option but £10m? We shouldn't be paying that much to a Championship side.

I'm kind of surprised Di Matteo decided to become AVB's assistant coach even though he has the experience as a PL manager. Oh well, I guess that just shows how much he loves the team. Really happy about this. I'm happy for Holland as well. His work finally paid off. Too bad Clement had to go though.. BTW, does anyone know what roles Di Matteo and Holland will be doing as assistants? It's certainly not going to be like the Clement-Emenalo combo, is it?

Having seen how they sacked Wilkins in the middle of last season, I can't really say the board isn't stupid enough to sell Sturridge and Bertrand for £10m, but I don't think that's likely to happen.

I heard the players are not even coming to practices any more.

------------------------Drogba--------------------- Torres----------------------------------------Hulk ---------------Modric----------Ramires--------- ------------------------Essien--------------------- Cole----------Terry----------Ivanovic----van der Wiel -------------------------Cech----------------------- Bench: Hilario, Delac; Luiz, Alex, Bertrand, van Aanholt, Bosingwa; Lampard, Mikel, Benayoun, Kakuta, McEachran; Sturridge, Kalou OUT: Turnbull, Ferreira, Anelka, Malouda, Zhirkov - Luiz as defensive allrounder (CB//LB/RB/DM) - Lampard/Modric rotation. - Torres can compete for FC spot with Drogba and Sturridge will be our #3 winger after Hulk and Torres (not that I like the idea of playing Torres on the wing).