SeB

I left the other points but those 3 shocked me: Can you name me any team in the world, any defensive animation in the world where the defensive minded player is responsible to come out and instigate pressing ? You wont ever find that. In the double pivot that's Lampard's role to instigate the pressing, like Khedira with Germany. Not Mikel or Schweinsteiger for god's sake ! I think you have to watch again the 3-1 lost to Manure last season: Meireles in front of the defense, Rooney had all the space in the world. Mikel came on in the last 20mn, we barely see Rooney. Despite him scoring hands of goals before and after this game In the double pivot, Mikel's first task is to cover Lampard, not the defense like in 4-3-3. Due to the lack of defensive contribution from Mata, Hazard etc... we're overcrowed in midfield zones and Mikel cannot mark/cover more than one space (I start to think that if Mikel manages to mark 3 players at the same time, maybe he'll get some consideration). Mikel often faces situations where he knows that every positionning choice he'll make won't prevent the dangerous situation to go on I don't deny Mikel's game was weird yesterday but that's not his own fact when we face an atypic team like Wigan. Same system than City last week but Mikel wasn't under pressure. The most of the covering work was expected to be Hazard and Bertrand's even if Mikel had a bit to do as well. He had 2 tackles and 2 interceptions, that's decent considering he wasn't pivotal in the opposition's mind (who didn't aimed specifically on him)

Hasard means random, chance in French

That's the way to say it

What's the point playing the game then ? Should we be winners because of our Champions of Europe status ? Come on hat's not how football works, today that's game plan against game plan and tactical choices to try to win the games from both sides.

Because they're lazy defensively. You can use it on PES (I do sometimes lol) but in real life you virtually need two midfielders there and not Mataesque players

I do think Newcastle fans would slap some of us if they read that we don't think that's relevant to block Wigan's wing backs. They pressed through the axis and let the wing backs asking the ball quite up, that's briefly how they conceided 4 in less than one hour

Boyce is a wing back, Moses makes great runs. It would be dumb to play Sturridhe who's as effective defensively on his wing as Luis Suarez in front of goal to be fair

In fact they caused us problems everytime. They kicked our asses when we lost 3-1, they're the first team (rather Manager) who understood that blocking the wings and put under pressure Mikel was the key to dominate us tactically. For two years, almost every team uses a similar game plan against us

Because we're playing a shite Wigan team lucky to be playing in Premier League and not Sunday League and who cannot make 3 passes in the row and be 10 man and the referee behind the ball and blablabla

Yes, I'm delighted to be right Seriously I'm happy to see that Robbie learned from the City game !

I don't give too much respect to Wigan, I just try to be careful. They're a team which caused many tactical problems at several occasions in the past. Yes, we're Chesea but some of our current weaknesses are laughable for a football team and can be counter by wise tactical choices. My point isn't to be always 10 behind the ball... Wigan is certainly not going to park the bus either, they're organised and incredibly explosive in counter attacks. On the left wing, that's not Boyce's quality, that's his role and his positionning that has to be monitored. If he's not tracked, he can ask the ball way upper than a full back would and then it creates a 2vs1 against the left back. I don't think we were particulary "fine" against city, I did watch the 1st half and ont of the most noticeable thing we could remark is that they had more passing choices we could handle. So then the players were rather focused to monitor the players coming in their zones rather than searching to come out for the ball, or use it wisely when we had it (especially because Mata didn't behave as a 5th MF). We were always in numerical inferiority, on tle left Hazard left a boulevard for Milner who made a lot of runs during 30mn. (Ramires was more disciplined and Kolarov is mediocre on the other flank) When Milner got tired, he stopped making runs. Then it freed a bit Cole who could get forward, precisely when we scored the goal. With two off-centered leaving their positions players on the wings, our full backs will face the wing backs. Not a matter of threat due to their quality, just a positionning from them which would prevent Cole to come forward

Just because we play against the same 3-4-3 which caused us troubles against City last week

I don't think Robbie will pick anything else than his current wobbly 4-2-3-1. Wigan is likely to play in his classic 3-4-3. We really need some hard worning players on the wing. I would like to see Bertrand and Ramires against Boyce and Beauséjour. Oscar may be a wise choice in the hole considering he could orientate the play as we wouldn't have Hazard and Mata leaving their positions. The risk would be him being closed down by McCarthy and McArthur. But I think Martinez will play Jordi Gomez who is more offensive minded and hasn't the same defensive discipline than the Scot.

That's not an organisation, that's a funnel. I think we'd be pleased to have 15% of ball possession with those players !

That's the local paper, they are more precise on their local teams but aren't credible at all reaching a certain stage where they speak about things outside the region. In fact there's several reports, on La Provence there's 3 articles from 3 successive days, considering all medias copy each other you've the same information mixed even not at the same time. The conclusion is that our offer isn't enough, according to today's paper (generally you barely have the articles of the day on the web, you've to wait some days)

Every player has his role and his utility. Modric defends a lot and can accelerate the play with his passing but Ramires has the ability to lead the counter attack just taken from Lampard. He handles this role perfectly from a central position, and no I wouldn't swap him for anyone at the moment. He maintains a high level of play for more than one year, he's always present in big games, scores important goals (great players' trademark). Not meaning Sahin or Modric are bad players or aren't needed at Chelsea. I don't think that we have to fantasm about technical players at the moment. We need density and link between the lines, players able to produce something out of closed games or situations. For me that's Ramires. We have another worries than questionning Ramires' starter role. Questionning his wing role yes but never ever his place in the squad at the moment

No it's not for me, that's why I ask you to explain a little bit. I wouldn't be surprised to see your point is based on the "cannot make a single pass" myth, two years after he signed for the club I don't get the "Ramires' not a technical player" as well. I though vertical runs with the ball included ball control ability etc... According to figures he's our best dribbler last season and he's a key player in a side who aims to win trophies because he's typically a player who'll gets his playing level as high as the games gets importance.

I don't get your point here...

Agreed. He's suited for counter attack and long runs, long balls... certainly not what Roman wants now

Reports in the french press aren't as encouraging, several papers (probably the same source though) seems to mean there has been one or several offers not reaching Marseille's expectations. But to be honest their infos aren't based on facts or quotes, just pieces of information in short news...

He's an excellent target man considering he has virtually a GPS in the head to always find himlself on ball trajectories. But beside that if he has a good passing through space, he's really rash with the ball. I really doubt that he could manage to find his place in a more complete offensive animation. But it's a make or break summer for him, he managed the impressive performance to improve every figure significantly season after season for 4 years now He would have been interesting if he was better technically and more able to be an on ground target man. But he isn't. And anyway I think he would be one of the last Premier League players to sign for Chelsea if he could.

According to La Provence, Chelsea's first offer is 4m€ with bonuses to reach 7m€. £3.14m to £5.4m What a bunch of twats if that's true, pays Salomon Kalou £4m a year for several seasons running and cannot offer more than three and a half peanut for each player... Otherwise RMC announced the agreement would be made today for a 9.5m€ fee with bonuses (£7,46m). Considering Marseille signed Azpi for 7m€ (£5.4m) IIRW

I agree on Torres lacking some quick service. But in my opinion if the DM can be expected to search him vertically, it has to be punctually. The role really intends to be the AM's one. I would like Hazard or Mata to show they're able to behave as a 3rd midfielder rather than a mobile attacking player. They don't ask the ball deep enough (Mainly Hazard) and they're not able to hold the ball and dictate the tempo (Mata, his ball protection is poor, reason why he accelerates the play and frees the ball just before being closed down) Torres' style of play has always been to ask the ball, he's not a natural goalscorer though that was the use that was made from him at Liverpool. Even if I would prefer it to be the AM's main game, if Torres leaves his position, I don't see a problem if there's presence in the box. But that hard to conceive in a 4-2-3-1 in my opinion. Though I agree with you about Lampard who doesn't seem to adapt to the role to provide the line in front of him, he still keeps running in the bow with late runs. But we cannot reproach him considering he manages to be as decisive as ever (less times in the box than 4-3-3 but still 16 goals last term). But he isn't able to make good returns anymore even if the intention put in the pressing is good (the current issue is the lack of synchronicity in pressing phasis) I've always used to rate a player's form on his shooting, I think that's a really impressive scale: a player out of form will shoot like Torres at St Andrews in February whereas a player in good form will manage to have a floating shoot. I clearly see an amelioration on Frank's shooting considering that in the recent past he rather used to kill pigeons. He may have a second youth The problem is that his stock on trade is to make late runs in the box, he's still decisive. But that's not suited for 4-2-3-1. I don't agree on your Mikel's view. I've always wondered (I dont aim at you) where comes from all the criticisms on players seeming slow but in the only aim to make the wisest choice. It's the same about defending players, especially DMs. Yes, English Football fans likes dirty tackles and sludge on shorts... But we don't judge a player on the amount of times he's asses on the ground. Especially defending players. A player ass on ground is a man down for the rest of the action In Mikel's case, he barely tackles but he still manages to get one of the highest ratios with 83.33%. A good defender is a defender standing. Xabi Alonso said that he didn't consider tackling as an attribute but rather as a last solution where you cannot regain the ball with an other way. That doesn't mean you don't have to tackle but rather that when you tackle, it has to be punctually and you have to keep the ball under control. Not seeing Mikel's ability to keep the ball on control à la Vieira when he slides is bad faith. He had his bad games like everyone. But I don't get the regular targeted criticisms on some players. That's stupid but we don't face the same teams every week... Of course, sometimes players has their wrongs but we cannot deny the influence of the opposition. We have to remind that since Carlo's second season, our whole tactical organisation is a wide joke. Mikel is an easy target because he's completely exposed and without many passing choices. The Anti Mikel plans are virtually weekly for two years. I did watch the first half of the Community Shield yesterday, not only City's 3-4-3 managed to overcrown us in every zone but it also allowed more passing choices than out organisation. Plus, Mikel was targeted by Nasri (or Aguero) in his zone, with Yaya (mainly) coming out on him at times. One of the advantages to coach on Saturdays is to miss a lot of games live to download them later. I can pause and watch them knowing the result. I noticed many times that Mikel's positionning is often perfect (distances with the players, that's a bit like Ballack, that's a matter of yards). The main point is that his zone is crowded and that he cannot hold or cover everything without help. The example I tried to highlight with the Milan goal is a classic situation where with 2 or 3 different positionning, he has to chose the less worse knowing it won't prevent a situation with extra attackers and then often, a goal. Passing is a matter of role, Busquets has 3 passing choices everytime he has the ball. We haven't the habit to dominate the play on some phasis, on others we clearly lack that 5th midfielder. There's no point attempting clueless diagonals, of course that's not how you win games but if you keep the ball (even being redundant) at least you don't conceide goals. The "plays backward" point isn't relevant in my eyes. A player can be regarded as "playing backward" if he plays backward on a situation he clearly can plays forward. To be honest that's what you see on Sunday League Football... not in Premier League at the highest level. When you loose the ball in your own 30 yard at the high level you're very lucky not to conceide a goal less than 10 seconds later. In Premier League 95% of time you will see a player without solutions passing backward or sideways. 5% of times will be a Brazilian's first month in England's coldest and rainiest place... lol If Mikel was unable to play a more than 25 yard pass like Fellaini, he would have given all those punctual excellent deliveries forward (check CarefreeChronicles.com's "Mikel sideways passes" animated gifs). On a personal plan I'd like to see Mikel in a more advanced role due to his wise ball utilsation, his ball retention or even his potential threat on set pieces (at least to fix defenders). But at the moment he's our only proper DM. Considering our offensive full backs gets forward, the axis has to be covered. Thus Mikel stays deep, hasn't many passing choices and cannot start to be creative. All he can do is to search punctually in the vericality in rupture play. Bue he just cannot gets forward due to his covering duties Even if Oscar is a footballing brain, I don't see him elsewhere than on the right flank at the moment. I don't think he'll have a central role until November. He's different to Ramires, but when we remind his debuts in England Fhotball, if we can avoid Oscar the slaughterhouse it may be cool too lol

Here it is: If you're too lazy to read the bio, scroll down to the second and third parts with the figures tables. At the very end there's a comparison with Sturridge, Marin, Hazard and Mata Enjoy http://mypremierleague.wordpress.com/2012/08/18/lets-discover-victor-moses/

I'm fascinated by how taklshite managed to mean that the deal is a matter of hours whereas the quote really seems to mean the player has a bright future I wrote some stuff about Moses, I'll publish it tomorrow. I did put a little bio and a detailled and commented statistical analysis with a comparison with Chelsea's attackers