Madmax

I'm past the stage of caring about what's wrong with him. Just get rid.

Lmao, how predictable for this thread to a flurry of activity after last night while Terry's thread has next to nothing, despite him being culpable in both of Juve's goals and being put to shame when compared to his Italian equivalent in Chiellini.

More questions than answers at this stage, if anything. I actually thought he started with a great setup yesterday, putting someone on Pirlo was exactly what was needed and it's no coincidence we hardly saw anything substantial from the great man. Having said that, the alarm bells should have rung when Marchisio beat the offside trap only to fluff his one on one. There was no pressure on their backline and they had all day to play those passes. Taking Ramires of (who was having a decent game, even on the wing) to bring on Bertrand is something I cannot get my head around. Not only did it take away our 'out-ball' on the right, it exposed Ivanovic to even more of a threat with Hazard the one ahead of him now; the Belgian himself was then marked out of the game by Chiellini and couldn't make his talent count when we were chasing a winner. A 3rd sub never arrived and the point was driven home when the away side brought on a striker in the last few minutes to nick a winner while we continued with what we had, huffing and puffing with meaningless long balls the Italians would swat away in their sleep. There's still no clear identity to our style of play, nothing to suggest how he's going to use all those ball players effectively while maintaining a balance between the two facets of the game. Indeed at the moment it looks like little has changed from last season and the only difference is we're seeing better players than Kalou and Malouda trying to play the old way. Perhaps what is most worrying though is the (lack of) cohesion at the back, among players who've played with each other for years now. Terry didn't know when to step up, Ivanovic didn't know who to mark, etc. I will never blame Robbie for the backs-to-the-wall mentality we showed last season; and my understanding of his methods is not borne out of the subsequent and ultimate success of those methods, more out of the realization that he had no choice but to go about it that way with the squad at our disposal at that time.Circumstances are vastly different now, though. 3 times out of 3 that we've faced a good side this season without winning, sort it out.

I don't like being a moaner but there's little to be happy about squandering a two goal lead like that; it's difficult to try and put a positive spin on things after a game that leaves such a sour taste in the mouth, Oscar's outstanding performance notwithstanding. Definitely a case of dropping two points, not gaining one.

^ Brilliant. One thing that worries me about this ''OMG LET'S HAVE FALCAO IN JANUARY!!!" hoopla is he's not going to uproot trees with the way we're playing currently. The difference between him and Torres will be that he's likely to put away half chances more regularly but that shouldn't detract from the huge problem area in our midfield if we're indeed looking at signing him.

Not too much. Only really started getting into football towards the fag end of his time with us.

Well that's great for us in theory but he's simply too awesome a player to not switch it on when it matters. Juve will always have a spare man in midfield with their numerical advantage in that band, Robbie would do well to go 4-3-3 or failing that, instruct his attacking midfielders to drop back when out of possession and take off some of the defensive burden from Lampard and Mikel.

Half of this thread is about some shit to and fro between kono and Juve fans.

Everton will be a popular 'second team' till they win something. Similar to us before we started winning things. Everyone loves a gallant loser.

^ He then went on to say he thinks Marcelo is the best left back in the world. Not sure if serious ..

4 months ago on this day, lads.

Frank Lampard. Made a Chelsea fan out of me.

Sadly Essien's case demonstrates how much damage injuries can do when your game is primarily based on strength and drive. ACL is absolutely the worst type of injury that could have happened to him.

There's a distinction between the position and the role/mentality though. The bit about Malouda, Lampard and Ballack advancing together is wide of the mark. If there's one thing we learned about Ancelotti in that season, it was that he preferred structure at the back and individual brilliance up front, always keeping the base similar but varying the front 6 throughout the season in terms of positions, roles and freedoms. Starting out with the diamond, then the Mourinho Chelsea 4-3-3 around the time it started going wrong (December - Jan) and ultimately the 4-3-2-1 that saw those 7 goal scorelines. Bally didn't play much a lot till the Inter defeat but after that Mikel was marginalised by Carlo and Ballack shined in his absence. Obviously nowhere close to the rigid 'water-carrier' role Mikel has had here through the years but certainly the most defensive out of the other midfield operators alongside him in Lampard and Malouda/Deco.

I long to hear the CL anthem again.

^ That's pretty strange because I seem to remember his performances in the holding role in the second part of the Double winning season under Carlo were a huge part of our recovery and subsequent victorious climax.

^ Roberto is too diplomatic to comment about this in public, the journalist should have phoned Eddie if he wanted a candid reply. The real impact of the Spaniard's action on Roberto (if any) would have to be gauged from his lineups from now on.

Made his debut yesterday and was reportedly the best player on the pitch. Highlights : (he's wearing the number 8) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10P-28Sbbqw

Him not making the best use of the personnel at his disposal is a worry if I'm being honest.

Mourinho losing it.

Just Tony Gale mumbling some shit as usual.

Right, now that I've slept on it and calmed down a bit, thoughts : RDM Clearly guilty of overestimating QPR's attacking threat. There's no way both Bertrand and Ramires should have started yesterday and enough has been said about that so won't dwell on that anymore. Too little, too late with the subs again. Criminal to not use Oscar at all and Sturridge/Moses this late on. Much preferred his approach against Reading where he went all out and brought Meireles on once the 3 points had been secured. Ramires looked much better once he moved inside and Moses shifted wide right but it's such an obvious thing to see so it's puzzling why the manager persists with him on the wing. Overall, not his best game but we move on. Lampard Shocker of a performance. A pass accuracy of 69% says it all. Too laboured, ponderous in possession and slowed the game down. Opponents have figured out a way to stop Chelsea - give them no time on the ball and force mistakes and sadly Lampard's continued selection plays into their hands in this regard. Of course he's not the only player guilty of this but his position on the pitch makes any mistake more costly. The referee 2 definite penalties in my mind (Nelsen - Terry, boot in Cole's face). Also, what's with blowing up for a foul instead of playing the advantage when Hazard was bearing down on goal with QPR outnumbered at the back? A bad performance from the official but considering we were on the fortunate end against Reading with the offside winner, it would be hypocritical to bemoan our luck. Torres Two words : Fuck off. The away support Tremendous. Very vocal as always and heartening support for the two guys who came in for much derision from the home crowd. The 'John Terry, Ashley Cole!' and 'We know what we are - Champions of Europe, we know what we are!' brought me to my feet. Anton Ferdinand Is a massive cunt. I will not hold snubbing Terry (rightly or wrongly) against him but what's with the classless behaviour towards Cole? Cunt. If you watch the game again you'll find two instances of him trying to kick our attackers from behind while they broke forward in the second half. Mediocre player playing for a bunch of nobodies - he knows what he is. Misc. David Luiz gave a mature performance and was MOTM in my eyes The Loftus Road crowd cheering when JT pulled up with a tweak showed them for what they are. It was en masse and not isolated behaviour from a few individuals. I think I can safely say I won't miss them when they go down this season. Hazard really should have put away one, if not both, of his chances yesterday. Overall, a point is not ideal but probably fair considering out profilgacy and generally substandard play. There were a few bright spots but much work is to be done and a bit of a kick up the backside was needed to keep things moving in the right direction. Finally, 6 points better off than the collection from these fixtures last year - that's not too shabby.

This man is a phenomenal performer. Could anyone get past him yesterday? Could they shit! Granted Ryan gives him a bit more cover than Mata/Hazard but to perform the way he does week in week out at his age is nothing short of spectacular. We're very lucky to have him.

RDM may or may not be the man to 'take Chelsea forward' ... but you are definitely NOT the man to ask for a balanced reaction just after a game.

He can fuck right off. It's one thing playing poor as fuck, another altogether to react the way he did. You can fuck off, Torres. Fuck right off!