Styles

Ramires playing as a defensive winger in the 2014-2015 season is depressing.

Yesterday's performance shows that in the big games that 1) Costa is going to be isolated 2) Fabregas is going to sit deep and play a disciplined role 3) Ramires will play as a defensive winger. Meanwhile Hazard has to carry the ball, be our biggest offensive threat, run the entire length of the field with the ball to relieve pressure...oh and don't forget to cover the fullback (who gives him virtually no support when going forward) when out of possession, thanks.

We need a right-sided AM player that is as good or potentially as good as Hazard. There is a massive gap in quality between Hazard and the likes of Schurrle, Willian, Oscar and Salah and it is apparent in games against elite European teams;the other 4 are basically role players just there to do a job and anything they give us offensively is a bonus. People complaining about Hazard after yesterday make me laugh. We had 40% of the ball and were camped inside our own half for most of the game and yet he still created danger with his dribbling, won free-kicks in dangerous positions and got the assist for our goal with a brilliant pass (his first pass in the build-up to the goal was outstanding too). Another season and most of our attacking threat is carried by Hazard. Without him we'd be nowhere.

Disagree. How can a team with 10 men force their will on you? We accepted their dominance like we did for most of the game and let them dominate the ball in our half. They were more likely to win the game in the end than we were, let that sink in for a moment.

Yep, it's why he struggled so much against Benitez who was one of the few managers to play him at his own game; the games were reduced to nothing with both teams afraid to commit more than 2 players to attack. I still have nightmares about our peformance away to Atletico last season.

That was pretty embarrassing to be honest. At least we never lost.

My biggest moan is that if we're going to play a counter-attacking style then at least go out and press the opposition and force them into mistakes. We let Man City amble into the final third and were still doing it even after they were down to 10 men. And in order to counter from that position the players would need to run the ENTIRE length of the field. Why do we defend so fucking deep? Most of the top teams are proactive when they don't have possession; their players press and push up to squeeze the opposition; we drop back into a wall and let the opponents pass the ball around our defensive third and wait for them to make a mistake or force a bad pass/shot. But now we know how we're going to play in the big games and it ain't gonna be pretty. Oh well.

We barely even pressed, we let them get to the final third pretty easily and allowed them to have comfortable possession. Really hope we show more ambition than that in future.

It's embarrassing that we let them create meanginful chances and score a goal when they were a man down; that was really bad game-management and it cost us what would have been a massive victory.

Sorry, that's the only video I was aware of. If I find it again I'll let you know.

Disagree. Willian in Fabregas' position would help dominate and provide that extra energy in the midfield - something he did brilliantly in the 1-0 win last season. Where to hide play Fabregas in the big games is going to be the biggest tactical headache of the season.

But but but Bale! WAH WAH WAH!

Thibault Ivanovic - Cahill - Terry - Azpilicueta Matic Ramires Fabregas Willian Hazard Costa

Father and son.

Maybe he believes that many of the top strikers we've had in our history could have done all that and been more prolific. Maybe, maybe not; who knows? However I'd rather just appreciate the guy who did do all that instead of disparaging his overall contribution as not enough, which is what it kinda feels like if I'm honest.

Whilst I don't agree with TorontoChelsea's larger point you can't dispute the numbers; Drogba wasn't a prolific goalscorer (although his goals to games ratio isn't bad by any means). I just felt that he was a brilliant focal point for the team to play around, he contributed a lot to our general play and provided plenty of assists, and had a lot of intangibles that made him a unique player. There were games he wouldn't get on the scoresheet but was integral to us winning. I absolutely think he is an all-time Chelsea great and one of the best Premier League forwards. Hasselbaink was brilliant by the way and I wish he had stayed for just one more year and picked up a Premier League winners medal.

Perhaps the Benatia links were real.

Willian is better than Oscar at a lot of things and would be a better option for this game in my opinion. Willian and Ramires are a must for this game, especially if we're going to play *cough* Fabregas *cough*.

What's funny about it is that Cahill is nowhere near world-class. He is distinctly average, he excels at nothing and and is repeatedly shown up in one-on-one situations. I still haven't forgotten Kenny fucking Miller embarrassing him in a friendly last year. Even if that were true (it's not) it would only mean that there is a real dearth of quality CBs if Cahill is considered one of the best around. Terry was easily better than Cahill last season. Luiz is never a 50m defender in real value so that's a moot point. If somebody was mad enough to bid even 20m for Cahill he'd be sent packing immediately.

Cahill? World-class?

I'm expecting Cahill to end up in the crowd one of these days. The definition of average.

Perhaps it was just too soon for Remy (who hasn't really played much) to start a game and is being eased into his role as #2. Drogba had a full pre-season.

He was very good. I think that's the last time Drogba starts ahead of Remy. It should be anyway.

That means absolutely NOTHING. A vice-captain for a rubbish national team; if anything the fact that Cahill is vice-captain for England says it all about how bad they are right now.

Terry and Cahill made ONE tackle between them. They're afraid to get beaten for pace so back off until players either shoot or pass, it's pathetic. I though Luis was good, he won the ball several times and delivered some quality crosses; really impressive debut in my opinion.