BLionheart

Judging from the comments and posts of most of the chelsea fans , most of them are very surprised with our defeat today , well tbh i wasn't .. at all , although i was surprised by the manner by which we gave the game away . Right now CFC are in the middle of something , i don't what it is ... it feels like a transition period for me but it doesn't look like one because in transition periods you are supposed to get rid of the fuckin dead wood and replace it with fresh players , right ? but that ain't happening ! We will be shitting ourselves if we believed we have a chance to win the premiership with that squad , so why don't we use this year to build for the future while still fighting for the Champions league ! We have a lot of dead wood that needs to fuck off , Drogba - Anelka - Kalou - Malouda for instance are four players who are supposed to be our reliable replacements for the front line , but the truth is they are not reliable they are barely average for me and they are just denying this space from real replacements . Too many above average players will only get you to an above average position , the likes of (Miereles - Ramires - Malouda - Bosingwa - Alex -Sturridge - Ivanovic - Lampard"now" - Mikel - Drogba"now" - Anelka"now") unfortunately are all just above average players. Compared to real title contenders we lack the most important weapon in a winning team nowadays which is creativity , you need very creative attacking unit with a mix of pace , trickery and killer passes if you are looking to be a champion. so while united have that in Nani - Young - Rooney - Valencia , and city have that in Silva - Nasri - Aguero - Johnsen .... we have only one creative player Juan Mata !! unless you consider Kalou - Malouda - Anelka as creative players. So with a mix of Excellent players (Cech - Luiz - Terry - Cole - Mata) and some above average players we have what can be considered as a decent starting 11 but not one of the best , and while most big teams use the bench to insert forwards and attacking players who can change a game , we have some very good subs defensively but in attack our substitutes are more miserable than our starting forwards. Big changes have been waiting to happen for a long time , and there is no better timing for them to take place than this year and under the vision of AVB.

Suddenly AVB is not good anymore !!! some people are pathetic and so are some of our players !! IMO we lost this game because of 2 reasons : 1- Our subs are so poor that none of them will ever be able to change a game for us and that is including (drogba - anelka) 2- David Luiz had to start this game , some people think he is reckless , i don't care !! ... we are way better defensively and as a unit with him in the team . Anyway we would have been shitting ourselves if we thought we can win the league this year we should keep the 3rd place and fight for the UCL but more importantly build for the future .

Slow , Heavy and certainly not sharp yet .... Certainly not in any sort of form.

Why the fuck is every-one blaming luiz again ??!!! watch the goal again and you will notice that any of Terry , Iva or Alex wouldn't have been able to even put a foot there , Cahill won a header from Alex to put Saha through and Turnbull got it all wrong when he tried to close Saha down and it's only luiz again to blame !! He should have done better but he is not the one to blame here for me , and he had a superb game btw .

Cech's assured display and very impressive ball distribution was one of the main factors , we were able to kinda overcome the 2 man difference , Lamps close 2nd for me.

Cech was superb but i will go with Oriol , we will be really fucked up if Barca activated his buy-back clause ... during his 3 starts so far he has been nothing short of magnificent .

we are so bad in handling bad referees and their decision , once we get a Foy like referee , instead of playing it safe , harsh tackles are flying everywhere and we start complaining. After the soft penalty on luiz was given to QPR we should have played it safe , and watched our tackles but IMO we are too naive in that area always giving referees opportunities to fuck us up . Drogba should leave IMO he doesn't belong here anymore , i hope they won't reach an agreement for a new contract . after the dismissal of Drogba and Bosingwa , and starting from the very 1st minute of the 2nd half i was very happy , proud and after the end of the game i actually was not worried at all about this team under AVB what an amazing 2nd half . Lampard and Cech for were the best players on the pitch today , Lamps was fuckin everywhere distributing balls , making tackles , and never stopped running and Petr Cech wasn't only magnificen in goal and gave his defense so much needed assurance but surprisingly his passing game is simply better than many of our player ... he has helped a lot to overcome he extra 2 men factor . David Luiz simply gave his critics every opportunity to get on his back , he is still IMO a 1s choice next to JT but all he needs to do is be careful around the penalty box .

O.K. i usually don't feel offended when people disagree and start calling me an arrogant or ignorant or insane but don't you ever liken me to Kalou again !!

We are in a good phase and i am not surprised that most of you think that Mikel , Ramires , Miereles and Lampard are good enough options to make a world-class midfield .. i am not saying they are bad either but they will never give you an advantage against an opponents midfield . And btw Man utd are the only big team that has a worse midfield than us and they make up for that by having two very good Left and right midfielders in Young and Nani , also rooney dropping back as a no. 10 helps a lot but that doesn't save them all the time as if you watch any of man utd's big games you will notice how they are never able to penetrate through midfield and they mainly have one strategy of getting the ball through the wings to Nani or Young . But Barca , Real , Man City , even tottenham have more creative midfielders than us , and McEacheran can hardly count btw . One other thing i would like to clarify is that by legendary i was refering to an earlier post that called Xavi and iniesta legendary by that i meant a legend in his prime like Lampard but 3 or 4 years ago , an i am not hoping for a barca esque midfield but more of our old days of : (Makalele - Essien - Lamps or Essien - Ballack - Lamps ) as this midfield is more solid , with more urgency and much more creativity IMO

That is absolutely true , in a strong 3 man midfield you don't need 3 exceptional / legendary players ... you need at least one legendary player , one world class player and a decent third one . can you please tell me how do lampard , Miereles , mikel and ramires fit through this formula ??!! My point is we can live with only one "decent" midfielder but with three "decent" midfielders our 3 man midfield will never look half decent IMO .

Love how criticism to our players is always rubbished and criticizer is always described as an ignorant person who will learn in the future Whether you like it or not Mikel and Ramires are two very average midfielders and my point will be proved when essien is back from injury as Essien even at his worst is better than both at their best. But that doesn't neglect the fact that i still appreciate ramires's contributions so far .

He can / will never be described as a world-class midfielder and the same can be said about mikel , because each of them are good at things , average at others and poor at some while they excel at nothing !!! Ramires was all his electrifying pace and drive , isn't a super solid tackler nor an interceptor , his passing game is poor ( i know most won't admit it but it's poor ) , his touch is heavy and his shot is hardly a hit and miss ..... none of this is a world class quality . More importantly both Ramires and Mikel lack the intelligence to make it to the level of lamps , xavi , scholes , essien , vierra , etc..

I love his work rate and overall game but that doesn't neglect the fact that he should be a sub for a more technically gifted player ( Modric - Gotze ) .

A very good player but he is very overrated by our fans !! may be that's because the lack of any decent options in midfield . I know he has been our best midfielder so far but i will never be able to make peace with a midfielder with that kind of a poor touch.

We really like to think that United and Barca's success is partially because of luck and bad refereeing ! tbh i can't help but notice that if you play with enough urgency and apply loads of pressure on the opponents back-line with good crosses raining from every angle , then the opponents are more likely to make a mistake and may be score an own goal (a la Man Utd). When you try enough to dribble inside the opponents box you are more likely to win a penalty. I am not saying all their calls were right and they deserved every decision and goal they had but so do we, But they know how to make the most out of their luck But chelsea don't a great reference is the 3-3 draw with astonvilla last year.

Mikel - Ramires - lampard again !! you gotta feel sorry for torres !!

will miss the excitement luiz brings , don't know how he isn't starting week in week out !!! ... also the midfield will look bad i don't like mikel and ramires together in any midfield .

Regardless what they should be called , having any 2 out of ( mikel - essien - ramires) in the same midfield will block the fluency and quick passing game we are looking for . we should use this kind of midfield aiming for a more defensive , counter attacking strategy but not possession game .

For Lampard's case , now it's 100 % clear that he is becoming more of a liability but one point i would like to highlight is that a midfield of Mikel - Ramires - Miereles will suffer badly !! unfortunately we don't have many good options in midfield as for each player there is at least one very big weakness in his game : Mikel : lacks any kind of drive and pace , also slows down our much needed quick tempo . Ramires : the opposite of mikel but lacks any kind of technical ability , his passing game is abysmal , he costs us possession at critical moments . McEacheran : A huge risk ( the risk is not his inexperience but risking him at such young age could block his development ) Lamps : discussed already Miereles : good at a lot of things but very good at nothing Essien : Injury prone , during last seasons he raised many questions about whether he will be able to cope with injuries maintaining his level . 3 of them are described as defensive midfielders as they contribute way more defensively than offensively ( Mikel - Essien - Ramires) any midfield we use should only contain one of those if we are to play attacking football . so unfortunately due to lack of options we better get used to the fact that lampard with all his lost abilities , should be a starter untill we get a new CM or unless we are willing to risk McEacheran .

I am flattered I was actually going to have a real analysis for our start of the season and AVB approach mainly focusing on the Man utd game ... but i ended up writing an incredibly huge article , and i feared it might be boring for some so i wrote only the conclusions.

Here is some analysis to some points that i think need clarification : 1- AVB : A great manager by all great means , can only imagine his half time talk today , how he challenged his players who were trailing by 3 goals to get in the 2nd half and give it their best shot , while most teams would have had a disappointing more insulting 2nd half we have actually been very impressive , him subbing lamps was a superb move which proved what kind of a manager he is . He IMO outsmarted Ferguson as Man utd on paper had a much better and an in-form team but we were the better side , i can only criticize him for two things : Not starting Luiz who was much needed today and Malouda (unfortunately) should have came instead of lukaku . 2- Lampard : I am one of his greatest admirers and his biggest fan but as mush as it hurts has obviously lost it and he certainly shouldn't be starting as i don't think he adds anything to the team right now but he should only be replaced by a play-maker or McEacheran. 3- Torres : you can talk about his miss all day long but the man is getting back to his former self game by game , give him the time and service he needs and by december you have yourself one of the best strikers in the world , The man actually lead the team to what could have been a historic come back. 4- Defence : high defensive line or any defense should include David luiz in it , our defense without him looks more of an individuals that of a unit , Iva , Terry and Alex have the same strength and weaknesses and they are not much of a pair but Luiz complements Terry and Iva better than they suit each other , with all his controversial tackles he should be in the starting XI next to JT , with Iva on the right in big games. 5-Ramires : he adds an enormous amount of drive and pace to our midfield but his lack of technical ability and ball control is one on the main reasons our midfield looks that bad , he has moments where he just disappears as he losses possession in critical moments of the game and can lose you your control of the field very easily . McEacheran and/or another CM is much needed and untill AVB fix our midfield enigma , we will lose some midfield battles . Mata and Sturridge : only a great future awaits ahead

For a moment there i was like can he still do that when he ghosted past De Gea but i guess he is full of surprises ! He created a great scoring opportunity for ramires and his link up play was amazing , he scored an El-nino class goal and he should ve had a brace ... i will only wait for a very good striker to lead the chelsea line from now on and that man will be Fernando Torres because he is finally back to his best .

Really ?! I think carlo would have named the starting XI

Gotta love David Luiz , MOTM for me , may be he is a little harsh sometimes but if anyone had won us this game it's him . A very good performance with some individual errors but a lot improved pace !! Mata ,Cech, Iva , Sturridge ,cole, Torres and Miereles had a good match as well , Bosingwa against Young or Nani won't go with out troubles .

Sturridge was superb by Malouda and Kalou standards but by regular ones he looked pretty average for me . As you said " he faded in and out and had too many periods in which he didn't get the ball " and that is exactly why i think his positioning needs a lot of improvement , also when he got the ball there were times that he made good use of it like his very good cross to Terry but there were a lot of times where he put himself into trouble , keeping the ball too long and getting himself surrounded by 2 or 3 oppositions. You gotta love his pace and explosiveness but his speed of thought needs tuning .