Peace.

What I am talking about ? I am talking about a fact. Yes, if Torres is a lost soul walking on a pitch for one year it is because of benitez. Yes, Torres was scoring a lot with Benitez as a coach. But those two facts are not contradictories. Torres has undergone two knee surgeries in a short period of time, and Benitez never gave him a rest because playing Torres was the only way for Benitez to compete with the rest of the Big Four (Us, Manu and Arsenal). So Torres never could recover proprely.

Benitez is the man who destroyed Torres.

My team.. : Cech Ivanovic - Luiz - Terry - Bertrand Mikel Essien - Lampard Kalou - Drogba - Malouda We are in a good dynamic at the moment, so I think it's very important to keep it. Hence i would play with the same team which has won against West Brom and Birmingham, with just a single change, Bertrand for Cole. It seems that the latter was subbed wednesday because he picked up an injury, so I wouldn't risk him. Beside, Bertrand showed very good abilities, and I think he is very capable to start this game. In the second half, I would give 30 minutes of playing time to Benayoun and then more or less 20 minutes to Torres. Finally, depending on the score, I would give 20 minutes to McEachran. ps : if Benayoun doesn't play, we better let Torres on the bench, it seems that he is the only player able to play with Torres. And for Jesus sake, don't play Anelka Mr. Ancelotti.

Welcome

Cech - 6 Ferreira - 6,5 Luiz - 5 Terry - 6 Cole - 6 Mikel - 6 Essien - 6 Lampard - 6 Malouda - 7 Kalou - 6,5 Drogba - 8 Bertrand - 7 Anelka - 3 Torres - 3

Would you stop with that ? Thanks.

The first half was pretty good actually. Finally we seem able to play 'Football'. The passing was fluid, we played as a team, not as 11 individuality (like we did during our 'bad moment'), the shots were good. I noticed that our player have re-started to shift their position (Essien with Lampard, Kalou and Malouda, Drogba and Malouda), it worked quite well. Drogba plays good when he is on the wing, he is a good crosser. At the contrary, the second half was awful... Or I should say, we played in an awful way as Torres and Anelka made their entry. The thing I didn't understand is why Anelka ? When he plays games with big issues, he doesn't give a fuck, so let alone when he plays match for nothing... He was very poor, I was aghast by his passing game... Benayoun should have play instead of him. Thought on Torres : as BlueLion said, if play Torres means to play in 4-4-2, I'd rather him to be benched to be honest. Had paid just £10m for him, he would play with the reserve, the man is really poor at the moment... But the satisfaction in this second half was Bertrand. For of all, I didn't see that coming. He was really good, we didn't miss Ashley at all. He provided some good crosses (by the way, two of our goal came from a cross provided by a full back, that's a miracle lol). I hope to see him again. And we gotta give credit to Ancelotti there... ps : Drogba was a joy to watch.

The fact we are second just proves how weak the other teams are. In my honest opinion, it's unthinkable to be second with the bad run we had.

@ Special One : I wouldn't give too much attention at that. He is certainly talking about the offer(s) we made last summer.

Piqué plays as a striker

Wow, a youth coming in ? :mellow:

This is the first time I'm happy with the lineup (since the debut of our 'bad moment' I mean). In the last game we have finaly seen a team which play what we can call football. So I'm happy to see the same team.

This isn't just one player, it is 3. And yes, he's a Righ Back.

Fixed it for you

Welcome

^ This is why I think that he shouldn't be our manager next season. Or if he stays, I hope Roman will continue to buy the players himself.

What it is said on Neymar ?

That's crazy, our board has no confidence at all in our youngsters...

Anelka is a holding midfielder. I think you are overrating Ivanovic. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that he is poor or stuff, he has been a really good right back for us this year and the last year. But you sound like he is unrivaled at the right back spot and that nobody can top him. And I think it is way too much adamant to say that the new righ back will just be the 2nd choice. This season highlighted another thing, is that we absolutely need competition for each position. I believe it would be dumb to do not have someone whom has a very good potential so that Ivanovic keeps performing. So, to me, this is unthinkable to have just a center back for the right back spot. Here's another reason why I think we need to buy a right back : The problem is that Ivanovic isn't a right back. We can't have a team without a right back... You've just witnessed what happen when you don't have wingers, haven't you ? Furthermore, we need diversity, even if Ivanovic is doing a terrific job, he doesn't add to the team what a righ back would add. At some point we will need pace, speed and technic at this spot. And we got to keep in mind that Terry won't get any younger, and at some point he will be benched. I honestly think his successor should be Ivanovic. So at that moment, the right back X (the one we will buy this summer) will take this position...

Yep, exactly. I can't understand that. I guess many people don't see what he adds to the team when he plays. He is the better passer we have, plus he is one of the few players who are in the 'middle' age, ie 22-26.

I'm strongly disagree here. If Bosingwa and Paulo are sold, we need to buy someone to fill the gap. Okay, Billy is doing well with the Academy, but what if Ivanovic is injured for 6 months ? Does he is good enough to be a titular in this situation ? Maybe, maybe not. I do not think we can put our hope in a player who has yet to play a professional game. And Ivanovic isn't a right back, therefor I think we need to have a proper real (and good) right back in our team. Though I'm agree on the fact that we should give Clifford a chance to see what he is made of. Yes we need to buy a creative midfielder. And yes McEachran has the potential to be our futur playmaker/creative midfielder. But he is too young to play all kind of games. I do believe he is able to start the games against the like of Wigan, West Brom, West Ham et al. But against the likes of ManUtd, ManCity, etc... with their dirties cunts, he will be kill by Scholl, Fletcher, De Jong... And what when he will be injured, will we play without creativity ? We saw what we achieved without creativity. My final word : I think you expect too much from our youngsters. They still have a long way to play with the first team. And I think that this is too dangerous to don't buy new players because we have some good prospects. And we can buy new players who are 22-23 years old without forget to give playing time to the players coming from the academy.

With the red card he has got yesterday, Albiol is out for that final... I guess Pepe will move back and thus the game, maybe, should be more 'open'...?

Cech - 6 Ivanovic - 6 Luiz - 6 Terry - 6,5 Cole - 8 Mikel - 8 Essien - 7 Lampard - 6 Malouda - 6,5 Drogba - 9 Kalou - 6

Yep, I do not think either. Before thet Sunderland game, we had already signs of this slump : we did a very poor game against Aston Villa, we were very lucky to win against Blackburn, and of course, we were ridiculous at Liverpool. Beside, i do believe that the starting point of this slump isn't the Sunderland defeat, but the Liverpool one... Though his departure is certainly one of the causes of our slump, but not the only one... I think the cause is that we had all the problems that a team could have throughout a season at once.