LDN Blue

My biggest problem with Roy Hodgson at the moment is, he seems to going through an identity crisis of just how he wants England to play. He cant decide on the approach he wants us to actually take and so he's trying to fit his system around the players he's got instead of the other way round. He's got a good array of talent available to him (as good as can be..) but he needs to decide how he's going to use them. He needs to decide if his emphasis is on speed, direct play, long ball, wing play etc. Because if he's going for speed, then he needs be using a midfield that's capable of being quick enough to keep up with the likes of Walcott and Sturridge. He can't decide on his midfield or strike-force and that's showing because these players don't know what they're supposed to be doing. Walcott's unsure if he's meant to be on the wings, trying to cross it, or cutting inside and going for goal himself. Rooney is unsure as to whether he's supplying Defoe, or he's supposed to be the pinnacle of the attack. The problem is, we can't hope to do well in the Euro's and World Cup if there aren't friendlies for national coaches to find out. The back 4 is a huge problem, because again Roy's got an identity crisis. If everyone's fit he has the choice of; Walker, Johnson Cahill, Smalling, Jones, Jagielka, Lescott, Cole, Baines & Caulker. He doesn't know where to play Phil Jones or Smalling in the first place so as it stands we're looking at Walker - Jagielka - Cahill - Cole Though, personally, I think if he gets the positioning of the players right we'd be better with; Walker - Jones - Cahill - Cole I'd love for him to try a 3-4-2-1, using the center back trio of Cahill, Jones & Smalling. Using Baines and Walker as wing-backs because Walker is a defensive mess truth be told. Baines has the speed, agility and intelligence enough to play that role as well. My ideal England XI would definitely be; Hart Jones - Cahill - Smalling Walker ------- Carrick - Wilshere(/Gerrard)----------- Baines Walcott --------------------- Rooney Defoe

Alex, is it too late to enter a category for "Most 'wtf' thread of the year"? I think we have an outright winner -- That being said.. Woodkid - Iron is one of my favourite music composition

Thankfully the Spanish season concludes this weekend and Mourinho will be released from his contract

At the end of the day Pellegrini is still a gamble for Manchester City. Considering his successes have only been in Spain, thus far, he has a lot to prove if he can adapt his style to suit the Premier League. Whereas we're getting a coach that knows exactly how to coach in England.

you're assuming Pellgrini will walk in and make them a force. There's still a lot of ego within that team and it's yet to actually become a 'team'. Pellgrini will face a battle in his first season trying to make them gel together, which isn't going to happen instantly.

What we've got to remember is, de Bruyne's made his name in the German league. It would only make sense that a team like Dortmund would be looking to sign him and we'd be willing to sell for the right price.

Player of the season : Bale Young player of the season : Pogba Best transfer of the season : van Persie Worst transfer of the season : Bosingwa to QPR Best managerial appointment of the season : Laundrup Worst managerial appointment of the season : Redknapp Goal of the season : Messi v. AC Milan Overachieving team of the season : West Ham Underachieving club of the season : Inter Milan Best match of the season : Dortmund 4-0 Real Madrid Best moment of the season : QPR Relegation Complaint of the season : FA's unwillingness to help Chelsea with our intense fixture list

I feel, with this debate, we must recall Styles' earlier point in the forum. The fact of the matter is, our youth development is bias as too the price we pay for such youngsters. We've got quality players at youth level that do show mass potential, which could flourish once their time comes to be promoted - but it's the ones that will get that promotion that has this issue. McEachran & C Clifford had a massive bag of potential in 2009 but they've been forgotten ahead of the international youth signings we've made in Piazon & Ake. Not to discredit the level of ability that Piazon and Aké have, but I think there will be a greater emphasis on them coming through than the likes of Billy Clifford, Chalobah etc. There's also the issue of where these players will be allowed to be deployed. Let's face it here, we're not going give a kid a chance to play centre forward (so, rule out Feruz right now), attacking midfield the 'no 10' position (so, Piazon), that problem we have in the middle of the pitch (so bye bye McEachran & Chalobah). It's easier, perhaps, with central defence because you've got 2 players there. Therefore you can accomodate trying out one youth player next to someone with experience. As occurred when Ranieri let Terry play alongside Desailly. Now sometimes it's understandable why we let talent go. Stoch supposedly wanted more playing time - which we couldn't guarantee.de Bryune we're going to make a lot of money off. Whether we like it or not, the club's finances will dictate those actions. Borini's agent pissed off our board.Other times, we've suffered because of the lack of risks managers are inclined to take on talent. Ancelotti couldn't use Sturridge in the centre, because he simply was under too much pressure with having Torres, Drogba & Kalou ahead of him. Di Matteo & AVB lost their jobs as soon as they did drop Torres ffs

Someone ban this man for using a Drake gif! D=

Lmao!! I swear he isn't even allowed on the touchline either?!

This man is violating freedom of speech, crucify him! -- Just kidding , get used it Amels!

We have to remember how Cech made his break in a Chelsea jersey. When he first came to the club we had Carlo Cudicini as our #1 and we didn't think he'd be replaced any time soon. I used to love watching Cudicini keep, he wasn't the tallest but he made up for it with class reflexes and brilliant footwork. Back then, he was untouchable, we didn't think this random Czech signing would be displacing our favorite Italian any time soon, did we? Then what happens? Cudicini picks up and injury pre-season, Mourinho gives Cech his opportunity and almost 9 years on, we haven't looked back. Though Ranieri signed Cech, it was Mourinho who gave Cech and inch and the Czech took his opportunity and ran a mile with it. Who's to say the same won't happen this time. There's been paper talk about Mourinho wanting to bring Courtois back with him, which makes sense because Mou would've kept a close eye on the Athletico keeper. For all we know, Mourinho might decide to 'do a Cech' with Courtois and 'a Cudicini' with Cech.

Don't think it really comes to anyone's surprise?

Manchester United in4 a central midfield player? You know it's a rubbish source when you hear that

I wouldn't blame him to be fair.. He's won everything he can at Chelsea, if he wants a fresh challenge now would be the time? But not till we sign an adequate replacement.

ESPN makes it seem as if it's a done deal, what's that old meme? "Well.. ..That escalated quickly."

That's not really true.. Spurs struggled because they didn't have a proper striker when they needed it. I think they found a great signing in Dembele, the guy is an absolute tank in midfield and with Bale growing more and more, the need for Modric kind of nullified once they changed their way of playing. If the Adebayor that we saw play us, was the same Adebayor they had all season, they would have easily secured 3rd. Just my opinion. I'm not discrediting Modric. If Spurs kept the same system then yes, he would've been missed. But AVB put more emphasis on Bale which then meant Sandro, eventually Holtby, with Demebele managed to hold a good partnership.

The problem regarding 'building' your team around a certain player or a group of players is the breakdown you have when the player(s) in question are out of the side. Be it through injury, suspension or rotation, you're never going to have them available for every game. We've seen this problem manifest in Liverpool. When you take out the errors of Liverpool in the transfer window, you find that their team is built around Luis Suarez. Once he was taken out, via suspension, the system broke down. This was during his racism ban, not the Ivanovic bite. We've seen it happen to Barcelona as well. This was arguably one of Messi's best seasons in a Barcelona shirt, on personal merit. However as we saw, once he was nullified in the European format, there was no way for them to come back. In the first leg v. Bayern, they did well to dominate and mark Messi, but everyone knows the little Argentine wasn't 100%. That showed in the second leg when he failed to make the pitch. Manchester United have been successful because they don't build, in the long term around a single player or group. They do this in the short term (a la, Ronaldo/Rooney/Van Persie) but Ferguson knew that should that single player then come off form he would be in trouble. Hence his plan was to build his team around a system. A system that wasn't dependent on an individual player. It was a system where you could take any player in his arsenal and slot them into that system which continued to show results. Now you could argue we've had a long term "core" of Terry, Lampard & Drogba. I would disagree, to a certain extent. Yes, they've been pertinent into our squad for their ability to be the big occasion players and leaders (though I seldom use 'leader' with Drogba in Chelsea colours), but we always had a system which they were important, but not relied upon. For example, when Anelka was drafted in for Drogba, he ended up winning the Golden Boot in 2008. When Lampard was unavailable we had Ballack and so on. I find teams that rely on their one player will show weakness. Aston Villa are case & point; once they lost Benteke against us, we capitalized. You need important players, no doubt. Players of character, leadership, ability. Guys who you could say inherit the values of the club and are role models for incoming players. But I think building a team around those characters is risky business, and teams should be built around a specific system.

Perhaps he's taking opposite roles now; he'll kick players, as a steward!

The thing is, everyone looks at how Wenger runs Arsenal and how Ferguson ran United etc, but they're only able to do this because when they first came in they were expected to control those aspects. At present, no manager in the world has that level of control in their club. Moyes won't have power of contracts at United. He'll tell them the type of player he wants and they will go out and find it. He might approve the final decision once they bring him the player, but youth signings won't be made by him. The level of power Mourinho should have is 100% of his squad. No-one tells him who/who not to play (so players like Malouda shouldn't be unavailable if they're at the club). He should have a say on transfer targets, but not their contracts. With renewals.. He should be allowed to say who should/shouldn't get a renewal, but he should also accept that the finances should be able to match up to those decisions. I believe this is where the biggest problem will be. This coming season, it will be the last year of Terry, Lampard & Cole's contracts & if Mourinho has a different approach to them than the board, we could have a problem.

That's a good point. However with Torres' wages, age and general form, I don't think anyone's going to take a punt on him.. Which forces him to be the 2nd choice striker. Not to mention, Demba Ba isn't going anywhere, not 6 months after we signed him.

Hm. The skeptic in me feels Lukaku will want to leave if Cavani comes in.. Be it on loan or permanent transfer.

This is the point & Mourinho will understand this concept more than anyone.. No player is bigger than the club and if the right offer was made, one which wouldn't happen otherwise, we'd bite their hands off. That's what top clubs do. AC Milan; Kaka, Thiago Silva & Ibrahimovic Man United; Ronaldo, Van Nistelrooy, Beckham Real Madrid; Robben, Snejider & many, many more...

You're assuming we'd play 4-4-2 for that lol. Mourinho's a one-man striker, much like our system's been for the last 10-11 years

Co-sign!