Madmax

Why? It's all nice when he's quiet but as soon as he says something (which in fact is true) in a long long time, he should lose respect?

He does play better than others on occasions. But as usual some people can't appreciate it

Not Premier League quality and certainly not Chelsea quality. He showed that at Wigan last year.

Bosingwa is only good at running in a straight line. Can't defend, can't cross much. He'd be a gold medalist if they ever held a footballer's 100 metres dash.

Still shit though.

Too slow with his decision making from what I saw of him. But Fulham were guilty of not getting him on the ball often enough.

Anelka-Torres is the best forward partnership at our club IMO.

Kalou did very well against City when he started the game alongside Torres and played in his natural position as the second striker. I thought he was easily our best player of the first half. And yes Mikel should start over Essien. If it was upto me I'd go with - Cech Ivanovic Alex Terry Cole Ramires Mikel Lampard Benayoun Drogba Kalou

Why oh why do we still listen to what l'Arse gaffer has to say?

I said that on the assumption that the last game would have taught Carlo a few things re the Torres-Drogba partnership in the sense that they're quite similar players in several aspects of their game and more often than not, pairing two similar forwards upfront results in them getting in each other's way rather than complementing their gameplay. Also, I meant that we would get an idea about who is likely to start against United once we see the Wigan team sheets. I think Kalou will play tomorrow (let's face it he has no chance to start up north), possibly alongside Drogba. Or a 4-3-3 with Kalou-Drogba-Anelka may be on the cards.That'd leave Torres fresh for United, where Carlo might be banking upon his psychological edge over Vidic & co.

The forward/s Carlo picks for this one will give us an idea on what to expect for the return leg at the theatre of shite.

I'm glad I don't have to listen to that twat.

He's a very good player, much better than any of our 'wingers'. I'd have him in a heartbeat, though I doubt City would want to sell him to an English rival.

Can't view the smilies and some pictures in posts. A 'resized to infinity' ribbon appears for every posted smiley. But it's a problem only when I'm logged in because when viewing as a guest, everything works fine.

You had respect for Rooney? You should be banned

Bosingwa, Zhirkov, Malouda, Drogba, Anelka. Not counting fringe players like Turnbull, Ferreira, Kalou. The most important thing is to get replacements though.

Absolutely. The time has come to take hard decisions where necessary. We're falling behind the pack domestically and in Europe.

Why Malouda has to be dropped? Because he's a twat. I'm not ashamed to say that he's the first Chelsea player I've actually hated. (And that's got to do with his mentality, not form, before someone jumps at me with the 'you're a fickle fan' line )

To say that our squad is full of world class players is gross overestimation. Except Cech and maybe Ivanovic I doubt any of our players would get into a world XI. On pitch play is a problem obviously but I think most of us are ignoring he fact that there are huge problems in our mentality / psychological condition. The players are too timid. They're not really focused and there seems to be no resilience or desire to take the game to the opponent. We've essentially turned into flat track bullies - awesome when the situations are to our liking but awful when people get in our faces and don't allow us to play the way we want. It's a shocking change and something very uncharacteristic of the Chelsea I knew over the years.

For the umpteenth time - we need creators not finishers.

Essien's athleticism is on the wane. The number of times he's been slow to react to situations is worrying. He gets caught in possession, mistimes tackles and can't pick a pass. Lampard is a problem too but I'd keep him in the side simply because there's no better option available. It's a sad state of affairs really. Lampard can be assigned a pure attacking role in a 433 courtesy of having the machine like Ramires alongside and Mikel to sweep any loose balls behind him.

Our 442 is ineffective. It's not conducive to a centre midfield pairing of Lampard-Essien. Switch to 443 with Zhirkov and Anelka on the wing and keep Essien out of midfield. Cech Ivan Luiz Terry Cole Mikel Ramires Lampard Anelka Torres/Drogba Zhirkov

Wouldn't believe it unless it's on TOCFCW

The contract is for 5.5 years, not 5.5 months. Keep the faith.