DYC.

Not true, his technical skills are his weak points. That's the first thing he has to work very, very hard on.

Yup, hope that's the new policy.

We desperately need a new left-winger.. *cough* Juan Mata *cough*

No worries, we have Anelka for the DM spot.

Because Silva isn't a winger, Milner on the wings isn't of top 4 level and SWP is at most a squad player.. If anything, they need wingers more then we do (Balotelli has been playing on the sides for example). Many people keep saying City have a huge squad and they do but their squad is (a bit) unbalanced.

So happy the whole 'experience over quality' policy seems to be gone.

True but there's a reason why such stories don't happen very often. Let's hope the same happens to Lamps.

I was just commenting on KieranVogel's comment on Anelka's pre-season. When he plays to his strengths and in the centre, he's still quality (but inconsistent and disappears in big games) but he's highly frustrating out on the wings.

Yeah I loved Anelka's performance yesterday. He was like the old confident Anelka combined with the composure and improved link-up play he got from playing on the wings. Anelka and Torres are pretty similar as strikers but Anelka played the role a lot better, hope Fernando took a good look at him.

:unsure:

Shay Given . The man's just too good.

Thanks all. Good to hear Josh is finally playing in an attacking role. Will have to download the first half later then. Anelka's been playing as the main striker and has been doing well I hear on SkySports. Is AVB making him see the light? I hope so as I've always said he's still a quality player.

Can't believe I forgot what time this game started . Sounds like I've missed a good first half. Where's Josh playing?

I hope AVB plays with the same 4-2-3-1-ish shape, with Frank in the same role and either Josh or Yossi behind the striker (either Drogba or Torres). Would like to see how we play in that formation against stronger opposition.

Good performance yesterday, saw a lot of things I liked. Won't name all of them but I liked how played the ball around (very) quickly and found the wings quickly. Stretched their defence which created space for Benayoun and Lamps to move into. The fact that we played in a very attacking formation had a lot to do with it though. Zhirkov and Lampard were both CMs and we won't see something like that when it gets serious. Lampard played in the role I thought/hoped he would play in this stage of his career, he played like a true CM. It was obvious to see Lamps can't handle a attackng role behind the the striker in a possession-based style. The deeper role gave him more time and space to do his thing and he performed well and played like I hoped we would. Now I can just hope he accepts the less attacking role and gets used to it as it will make him last longer. Benayoun played very well as well but that was obvious for everybody to see so I won't say more about him. But there's one thing which causes me to not get excited about our performance and that thing is the fact that we played against a poor, poor side. It was like they weren't even on the pitch.. The match vs Villa will give us a much clearer picture on how far we actually are.

You keep saying excuses.. I hope you're not implying I'm coming up with excuses as that's not true. I'll say it again, his poor form is up to him. But the fact that the we play in a way, slow build-up (sometimes too slow which brings us into trouble), which doesn't suit him doesn't help. Torres was bought to be our new main goal scorer and he cost a lot of money so you better do what you can let him shine for those two reasons (It's like Stoke buying Zidane and expecting him to shine in the their long ball style of play). Just like we've played in a way which suits Drogba best all these years. A line-up which suits Torres? Not much needs to be changed but it's obvious we need new wingers and a creative player in midfield. Maybe something like this: Cech Ivanovic Luiz/Alex Terry Cole Lampard Mikel Pastore(?) A. Johnson(?) Torres Mata(?) But it's not even about line-ups though, it's about the mind-set. Look to go forward and attack whenever you have the ball and look to play Torres on early and quickly (that way there's actually space for him to run into). Wingers providing width so Torres can run into the spaces left between the fullbacks and the centrebacks and others also looking to make runs behind the opposition defence. Obviously you won't always have the chance to do so but the players should be looking for it. But I think it's best we stop here as I don't think we're going anywhere with this discussion .

But what is 'our' style? The way we played under Mourinho, under Scolari or the way we played under Ancelotti? And his poor form is down to him, but what's wrong with playing in a way which suits the player who was bought for 50 mil best? And there's nothing he can do about losing pace btw, nobody wants to lose pace but it happens.

Yeah 'Euro 2008 Spain' were a better and more attractive side than the one in the World Cup. Villa didn't start? Forgot all about that. Audacious move by Aragones. EDIT: Just read in your post below mine he was injured.

It's not like we've had a certain style of play all these years under Abramovich though. Every ('permanent') manager came with their own style. Let me add that I'm not saying Torres' poor form is because of the way we play. That's all on him. But playing in the way which brings the best out of him, would of course help him a lot.

There's a difference between direct football and counter-attacking football. Utd play direct football, '09/10 Inter' played counter-attacking football.

Yeah that's what I said, doesn't mean Pastore is that player though. You thinking he can be that player doesn't change that but I hope you're right if he joins.

Possibly, hopefully. Even though I don't rate him as highly as a player as many do, Sneijder would probably be the perfect guy to play behind Torres as that's the thing he's absolutely great at. He loves to play balls behind the defence very quickly and is absolutely class at doing so. Though now that I'm thinking about it, Fabregas would be even better. Can't think of a player who's better than him in playing the killer pass, at a very high frequency, in European football.

I've kept quiet until now on the whole Torres issue, because I find it an annoying topic, but for me it's very simple. The only way he'll succeed at Chelsea is by changing the way we play. Torres needs space to run into so slow build-up needs to be replaced by (very) direct play. We need a player(s), preferably playing right behind him, who's great at playing the ball quickly behind the opposition defence. I don't see him succeeding in another style of play. If that happens, he'll score at least 20 goals in all competitions. Torres is a pure goal scorer, you don't lose that. The old Torres would for sure be a certainty for more goals but that Torres is gone (well that's what I think).

:tophat: