Styles

Xavi would be a 10 for any other team in the world except Barca. He has the vision and the playmaking ability to play the role it's just Barca have Messi and Iniesta as well.

Yeah but their style is so fluid and players are encouraged to move and find space. I think playig in DM at least gave McEachran minutes on the field so that is a massive plus even if he wasn't given as much freedom as we all would want.

This is why getting AVB is so imprtant for his development. Boas is very much influenced by Barcelona's style so I'm sure he will encourage him further forward up the field as opposed to Carlo who wanted him as a quarter-back. And we have to be very happy that Mata has arrived and we might get Modric, these players will encourage McEachran's playmaking abilities a lot.

That's exactly what they spoke about because they said Ancelotti wanted to turn him into a Pirlo but they said he can do a lot more further up the field.

They started speaking about McEachran towards the end and said he is the perfect 10 in the making!!! If you go to about 1hr and 18 mins you can hear them speak about him for about 3-4 minutes.

Very interesting, I recommend it. You can listen to it here - http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b014l41y This a more detailed read - http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/14708094.stm

Maybe they aren't ignoring him but are just incapable of doing what he wants. The truth is most of the players we have just don't suit his style. If you look at his reactions during the game he just seems unhappy most of the time.

Exatly. They're trying to do about 3 or 4 years work in one summer. If anybody who thought Arnesen did a good job then you're seeing just how wrong you are.

Has he ever captained any of the youth teams for club or country? Cech or Ivanovic for me.

We keep signing young players for loans but don't have many 20-25 year old first team players. It seems to be a lot of old players and a lot of very young players, the middle group supposed to bridge the gap is nonexistent.

If we sign Meireles then I give up all hope on anything ever again.

If AVB wants him then there has to be a plan. I think I'm one of the very few people that is starting to think Ashley Cole is on the way down. He seems to have lost 2 yards of pace, can't cross and is very weak physically. Who says Pereira has to play LW? Considering Ashley's current form Pereira could be first choice LB.

I could do better than Torres and I haven't played football in a few months.

AVB is clearly intelligent. He knows like everybody else that our midfield is laughable now. He isn't going to say "yeah, they're all shit mate. I envy Ferguson and Mancini" when asked about the team.

Jeez. Watched the Spurs-City and Utd-Arsenal games and they both looked scary. None of our midfield players would make their teams which says it all.

People just have their favourites and will just criticise Mikel no matter what. The movement of our players is so rubbish. Look at the goal from yesterday, look at how all of them except Mata are just standing around doing nothing - http://www.soccerclips.net/videos/chelsea-3-1-norwich-city-mata

One criticism that people always have about Mikel is that he doesn't move the ball quick enough. But what about the players who are supposed to make themselves available for a pass? Mata came on yesterday and was moving nonstop looking for space and making angles to recieve the pass. Why doesn't Lampard do that? Why doesn't Malouda? Why doesn't Ramires? They just stand there being marked and then people complain about Mikel not moving the ball quick enough. He has no options 80% of the time! What do people want him to do? Give the ball away quickly? Strangely I think that would satisfy some people.

Of course it's true. Any sane man can tell you we're not winning anything with the current squad. This is a transition period, as long as we don't drop put of the top 4 and bring through younger players AVB is doing his job as far as I'm concerned.

I agree but the sad thing is there is no player to bridge the gap between Lampard and McEachran. Lampard is just painful to watch now, he adds nothing unless there is a set-piece to take. Just wandering around slowly knocking the ball sideways. Even in todays chaos you wanted somebody to just get the ball and hold it and dictate the tempo for a bit but he was nowhere.

I had a fear that we got the right manager at the wrong time and August has more or less convinced me that belief is correct.

I have to say I feel a little sorry for the new manager. He has come to a club with far more negatives than there are positives. We have established players (Terry, Lampard, Drogba) and recent big-money recruits (Ramires, Torres) that simply do not suit what he wants to do. Terry is never going to be part of a defence that plays a high-line. He's slow and it won't work. But he's the captain and has more influence at the club than probably the manager does. Lampard is old and is arguably our biggest problem. But he's a club legend and won't tolerate being dropped. Drogba is 33 and simply incapable of producing his absolute best all the time. Torres is frankly rubbish and cost 50m. What the hell can you do with him? Ramires is a great athlete but a pretty rubbish footballer. What the hell do you do with him? AVB has one hell of a job on his hands and I wish him well but he is really going to struggle.

Good start and then tailed off badly. Just keep giving the ball away cheaply and putting us under pressure for the counter. Malouda, Lampard, Torres and Drogba should be putting this type of team to the sword but nothing. Here's the goal for anybody who hasn't seen it - http://www.soccerclips.net/videos/chelsea-1-0-norwich-city-bosingwa

AVB personally mentioned him today when talking about our opponents Genk in the group stage. Genk played Porto last year in the Europa so AVB obviously knows about this guy and must rate him. Hope we sign him before the window closes!

Enough said.