BLionheart

We do agree then , the only difference is that I think having a top class striker like Henry , Torres , Drogba , Eto , Rooney , etc. is vital to win the EPL or UCL ... many have stressed this season on how we would benefit if we had a Van persie like striker doing what he is going in Arsenal. I wouldn't like our main man and supposedly biggest threat to be just above average , i want him to be on the same level as those mentioned players whom existence was vital to make their teams along the best in the world.

Well , you got it right about that aerial threat argument but his heading was tested in long balls and in some other rare occasions and he can't win an aerial battle against any strong CB , and when he does his heading is not good . Henry , Torres , Eto are definitely stronger than sturridge , and more importantly they have better balance , they can hold off opponents and protect their ball but sturridge's balance isn't that impressive and i have certainly watched him on several occasions going easily to the ground due to the slightest of pushes or contact from opponents. Sturridge's all round game is nowhere near those you mentioned , his link up play is awful and he can't play with his back to goal , he is not a clinical finisher as well. and while his pace , agility and dribbling is his best attributes , they won't be best utilized in the lone striker role as he will easily get crowded in the center of the defense . I know a lot here will disagree with me and they might think that sturridge can be a top class striker but unfortunately i can't see it happening for him .

If sturridge doesn't make it to the top as a winger , then he will never make it !! he will never be a great striker , it's that simple. he doesn't have the attributes for a great ST , his finishing isn't the best and his heading is awful , he is weak physically and his best attribute (pace) won't be best utilized as striker. Sturridge should be our 1st choice substitute next year for the forward line , i hope we can have two new wingers and sturridge can be rotated with them . while mata off-course will be deployed as a CAM behind them . I know it's really sickening to watch Torres lead our forward line , but sturridge will be just an average player there . a new CF to lead the line should be 2nd priority next year after a winger .

I have lost any bit of faith or hope that Torres can be a decent striker , his movement is bad , he is as slow as hell nowadays even Ferdinand had more pace than him today . We should sell him for anything more than 15 millions . Had high hopes for him but now he is in no more use than Kalou or Malouda .

A great 1st half result and a decent overall performance compared to expectations . Some of the posts here are not reasonable for me , Howard Webb is in fact not that bad he made a couple of mistakes that they and us have benefited from , so far i can hold nothing against him . Luiz is our best defender , Iva and Cahill looks shaky for me ... in fact i like how Bos is dealing with valencia defensively than what Iva is doing with young , Our midfield needs to pass better and keep possession , our forwards need to be always looking for Mata , that should be our game ... get the ball search for mata and let him do the creative stuff you will never be able to do . Ramires will be deeply missed in the 2nd half , and If only we had anyone to replace Malouda i would have known we are going to score again in the 2nd half . Expectations : i think there will be at least 2 more goals in this game but who is gonna score them is the more important question ?! , i hope we will at least get one .

Awesome !!

Well , i hope it's Mata as a CAM and Malouda on the wing , not the other way around .

A better , less risky option than Willian . and i don't think he is cup tied in the UCL. I've watched him a couple of times , and he is certainly a talented player who wouldn't cost more than his true value (15-22 millions).

4 years ago , If a Barca fan started showing off saying that they had Ronaldinho , Eto , Deco , Puyol or United fan said that they Had Ferdinand , Rooney , Ronaldo , Tevez , i would have gladly jumped into that comparison with our world-class players and referred to Cech , Terry , Carvahlo , Makelel , Essien , Lampard , Drogba , Robben as an overall better team and players . Now i would do anything to hide away from a comparison between us and the best teams around the world , as i know we will always come out as the worse team. Any great European team that threatens for one of the biggest European league has much better crop of stars than us. I hope AVB and the board will accept the fact that we need much better players , even better than our current best (Ramires - Sturridge - Mata)

Bale was overrated but this season he has absolutely proved why he is one of the best wingers in the business , anyway i was just proving that if there is a top 10 forward list then Mata won't belong there. You know that strikers are forwards , don't you ? My exact words were that Mata shouldn't be the man to lead our front line as he doesn't belong the top 10 forwards in the world , you said name 10 and there you have 15 better forwards than Mata , so even if you managed to claim that Mata is better than 5 players out of those 15 , he will still not make the top 10. Anyway if you believe Mata is one of the top 10 forwards in the world then good for you , i just don't agree with you .

The fans keep praising Ramires and Sturridge waiting for them make the spine of the team while they shouldn't be there !! we need a better spine and i am hoping that AVB won't let Ramires and Sturridge be the main men in our starting 11 , i am not saying they are not good enough to be here but they should be rotated or in the starting 11 but not as the stars of chelsea FC. Unnecessary !! That is the whole point of the thread !!! ohh i am sorry that's bold , is it hurting your eyes ?!

Hazard - Neymar - Gotze - Silva - Aguero - Sanchez - Ibrahimovic - Messi - Ronaldo - Rooney - Cavani - Di Maria - Bale - Gomez - Hulk But gotta love the Messi and Ronaldo excluded bit , now it's time for you to argue that you would rather have Mata than any of those players .

Although i don't agree with you but at least I can understand your claims regarding the Helpless Mata and David Luiz , but to claim that sturridge is better than Nasri !! and on the same level as Balotelli then you are either blinded by your love for the blue shirt or you don't watch Man city games often enough. Balotelli is an extremely good player who is definitely better than sturridge , he more gifted , skillful , better technically and stronger than our daniel , better in the air and is a natural goalscorer .

Forwards are more rated than midfielders so a great forward should easily claim a place in the top 20 players but midfielders are more under-rated so there are actually many great midfielders who might not feature in the top 20 list. The point is you can hardly name 10 players that you would rather have in midfield than Modric , But i can name at least 10 forwards who i would rather have than Mata not because Mata is bad but he is certainly not the man to lead our front line to glory a la (Messi-Ronaldo-Robben).

A great world-class forward = one of the best 20 players in the world. (that is why Mata ain't one). A great world class midfielder not necessarily = one of the best 20 players in the world. (Modric is definitely one of the best midfielders in this world) .

Ramires shouldn't be one of the stars of the team , he is hardly an above average midfielder and his additions of pace and workrate don't make up for his abysmal touch , mis-passes , bad control , lack of strength , lack of consistency and bad positioning . Juan Mata is the best player we have now but then again i don't think he is one of the best 20 players in the world , i would like one of those players or someone who has the potential to be between them to lead our front line . like Hazard , i know he is not upthere in the best 20 yet but he certainly has the potential to be there . So i would like our spine to look more like this Cech/Courtious, Luiz, New midfielder(in the mold of modric) , New winger (like Hazard)

My point is , those players who have contributed the most and became our best players week in week out , are in-consistent , and don't have the required class to be the best players of a leading European team. So basically we need new best players , world-cass players and then our current best contributes will be good players to count on but not our best players.

Who would have sturridge started instead in man city ? Aguero , Balotelli , Dzeko , Silva , Nasri ?! Mancini is either bluffing their , playing mind games before our match or he is a worse manager than Grant. Mata is a great player but he is still not as good as those players who consistently make the difference and win games for their teams .

A question must have entered your mind this season , are we really that bad ?! why does our defense look like shit while we have a supposedly outstanding back four ?! Our midfield looks clueless but Ramires and Romeu are supposedly two very good players while Miereles and Lamps ain't that bad that they destroy the goods or Romeu and Ramires , and what about our magnificent front three of Mata , Sturridge and Torres/Drogba . According to the posts i read most of you seem to agree that we have one player in each line that is a liability , Bosingwa in defence , Miereles/Lamps in midfield , and Drogba/Torres in the front line, also most of the blame for any bad result falls on them . But looking at other teams you are allowed to have three average players in your team , as long as they are not as bad as kalou then you should be fine if the rest of the team is good as claimed to be. This is gonna be a long read as i need to analyze many things and aspects of our gameplay and our players , Here are some points that should be cleared : If Mata and Sturridge are as good as claimed to be then we should be scoring much more goals and have much more creativity , Sturridge is still very raw and has a lot to learn before starting for a team that is aiming for the EPL and European glory . While mata on the other hand is an excellent player but his best position is real enigma as he is clearly not a winger nor his defensive abilities and weak physique will suit a midfielder in the EPL , One other thing i would like to add on Mata is that while he is a great player but he is not brilliant , he is a very good team player but not the one that should be the star of your team because that one should be someone in the statue of messi , ronaldo , rooney , aguero , silva , xavi , iniesta , etc.. Mata is just below them in ranking IMO. A lot of our fans have been glorifying the efforts of Ramires and Romeu if that is deserved then we should have a much better outcome in terms of ball distribution , creativity , passing from our midfield . IMO Ramires is very useful player but for teams who are looking to play on the counter and defend deep , his technical ability is abysmal and his passing game is worse than kalou , i know a lot of the fans love him but he is not the right man for the job .Romeu on the other hand is actually a very good holding midfielder who I rate highly but there is still much room for improvement so again a decent player but not world-class player. Our defense while regarded by many as our main problem is actually our best line , When Iva-Luiz-Terry-Cole are all playing the back four is actually very good and the goals conceded is mainly because of the midfielders and forwards failure to keep possession or score applying more pressure on us , i am not worried about that line because i am 100% sure that once/if our midfield started clicking with our forwards and bosingwa got kicked out of the team then this IMO should be the best back four in the league. I know terry and cole are not the same players anymore but still two of the best in their positions and David Luiz is really fantastic fuck all the media crap , but he is a superb player who is not helped by the current circumstances. So mainly we have two big problems : We have no world-class players except may be Luiz (yes, I rate him that high) and that is why we are not a world-class team we are turning into a liverpool . If we divided the team into a defensive group of five (Terry-Luiz-Iva-Cole-Romeu) and a front five of (Miereles-Ramires-Mata-Sturridge-Torres) It will highlight how bad our offense is !! as apart from Mata i don't think any of the other four should be there starting for CFC dayin day out. Our best players this season in the eyes of many are Mata , Sturridge , Ramires . That is for me some very bad news because when Ramires and Sturridge are the best players of the team then we really lack the desired quality , as both of them has failed to find consistency in form and during matches as they go through phases in and out of the game , both more suited to counter attacking football not our game-style , both lacks a lot of technical abilities and skills to play for us ... and I can name at least 10 players who are better than each in his position. Currently the team has too much average and below average players with no superb ones to hold the team right on their shoulders . IF CFC IS EVER TO GET BACK TO IT'S GLORY DAYS THEN STURRIDGE AND RAMIRES SHOULD BE THE WORST PLAYERS IN OUR STARTING ELEVEN NOT THE BEST AND JUAN MATA SHOULDN'T BE THE STAR OF THE TEAM. I hope i have managed to get my thoughts clear as this reflects how much trouble we are in , this theory of evolution rather than revolution is never gonna work with the current squad .

A sub player from Liverpool will never be better than this , in fact i think he sometimes exceeded expectations but then again he is above average at his best. As someone has said before he can make a useful squad player but shouldn't be a starter in any team that is looking for champions league football.

Man City (the best attack in the EPL now) struggled to break Sunderland's nine man defense , Hope we are gonna have better luck but i can only expect a boring match that ends 1-1. And what's wrong with you guys ? where is all the shit about " Torres gonna score , no he won't" stuff ?? that was some good shit .

Best dribbler at chelsea !!! well , when was the last time we actually saw one of our players dribble (Not outrun) past an opponent or two ?! We have no quality dribblers , Ramires is fast but he lacks the the technical ability to be considered a dribbler so is sturridge and Torres , bosingwa shouldn't be up there at all , while mata can out smart his opponent but he lacks the pace and the explosiveness of a dribbler. A dribbler is someone that has pace , explosiveness , technical ability and can outsmart his opponents e.g. Ronaldo , Messi , Di Maria , KaKA , Robben , Nani , Ribery , Aguero , Sanchez , Neymar , Hazard , etc... The truth is the closest thing we have to a dribbler is our CB Luiz , but the others should not be counted as dribblers.

I know a lot will be satisfied today after our win against wolves but i am certainly not , even though before the match i would have taken any result that gives us the 3 points but the truth is we only got the 3 points because we were luckier and not better. A big question must have been going through your mind while watching our team this season , what do we exactly excel at and what do we lack to have that edge of world-class teams. Well i know a lot of you are not gonna love this but sadly we excel at NOTHING but lack A LOT of things , we used to be the most physical and powerful team in this universe , but now we hardly show any physical power during games .... We used to have one of the best defenses all over the world , but now our defensive organization is just abysmal . We used to win midfield battles but now we lose them against the likes of aston-villa and wigan So there is nothing really that we still excel at !! While we lack creativity, pace and clinical finishing as well. That brings us to the most common question of who do we need to buy to be our savior !!! Well this is not gonna sound good as well but IMO there will never be an answer to that question as there will never be a savior , the real question is which problem should be addressed first ? We can solidify our defense which really needs 2 new FBs atm , we can add to our midfield which really struggles because even our best midfielder(Ramires) shouldn't be a starter for a big club that challenges for UCL and EPL or we can add some wingers to add some dimension that is absent since the days of Robben which is trickery. Addressing only one problem won't make us great again but it will certainly be an improvement , so if / when there are signs of improvement we should be patient because no one should judge AVB with this kind of squad in the first place . One positive from today's game apart from Torres performance ( I really wasn't that surprised and i always thought he is not that bad ) , AVB opted to choose Ramires as a right winger instead of going for Malouda or Kalou and that shows he doesn't think those players are good enough to be in our team and is ready to make changes. We are in a very bad situation right now with those players and will be like that for some time , and i really won't like to be in AVB's seat but let's hope we can get out of this ASAP with the least possible losses .

David Luiz is one of the best things that has happened to this club since Mourinho , IMO The partnership between him and Terry is the best in the league but their teammates are letting them down.

Because we tend to direct most of our shots to the middle of the goal