Tomo

Great news, really happy for Frank.

I 2nd that his cameo was 1 huge positive i can take out of this game i thought he was assured, calm, collective and even offfered something going forward aswell, can also take the ball out of defence and start an attack (without doubt another Carvalho). Cant wait to see him settle into Chelsea life

Thats a point, Ramires was surely injured or ill theres no way Carlo would have kept him out in favour of Sala, surely?

a back up keeper if (which is looking likely) Hilario leaves, hopefully Delac can be that man. People are saying wingers, why not give Lalkovic a go? If Bosingwa goes a right back to compete with Brana, Srna? or we could put Bruma as 2nd RB and 4th CB. Maybe a Centre Mid aswell. Lukaku or Neymar maybe both

Fair play

Im more than prepared to give Carlo a chance. He won the double and when his teams click the football is un-stoppable and out of this world. He delievered the double during his 1st season and conducts himself with more class than the rest of the premierleague managers put together. There is all this why doesnt he paly the youngster? well if Bruma made a horror mistake (like Malouda at the Emirates for Example) he would get lampbusted and might take years to re-cover. Given them some expierence in the 1st half of the season and loaning them out in the 2nd half is genius from King Carlo (PVA and Sturridge are becoming key players for their loan clubs and im sure it wont be long before Kakuta follows suit). Yes we have had a bit of a bad time this season but in previous season's Roman has pressed the panic button and got rid by now so he obviously realises that Carlo is infact the right man for the job.

Title just about says all you need to know. As most of you are aware the replay at Stamford Bridge against Everton is on the weekend of the 5th round, should we beat the Mersysiders our 5th round game against Reading will be midweek of March 1st when the 5th round re-plays will be on (the day were suppose to be playing our already once prosponed match against Man.Utd). What about if the Reading match (should we make it through) goes to a re-play? This is not mentioning our match at home to Birmingham is getting put back due to their participation in the carling cup final, by the time we get to April if the fixture list could be made to look un-bearable. It could end up giving us a dis-advantage in the champions league latter stages (should we get there). Given all that the sensible thing would be to move our match against Spurs at Stamford Bridge (orginally due at the end of April) to the carling cup final weekend (Spurs were meant to be playing Arsenal that weekend), given our potential fixture pile-up at the buisness end if the FA can get 1 fixture out of the way now surely they should?

Everton are turning into something off a bogey team for us of late as we havent beat them in the league since 2006. What i dont get is why cant they do the replay this week instead of pointless internatinals? If we beat Everton the game against Reading goes when we were suppose to play Man.Utd and then if the Reading game goes to a replay god knows when there play that, that's not mentioning the Utd game and the game against Brum that will get prosponed due to them being in the carling cup final. The fixture list could become unbearable come April.

Absolutely brilliant post When you look at the form side to it we aint that bad, usually form is judged on 6 or 7 games so lets look at our last 7 games. P7 W5 D1 L1 F18 A4 Thats still preety good form despite today, if we drew 1 and lost 5 then won a scrappy 1-0 that wont be deemed as out of a crisis so why should a should 5 wins and a draw out of 6 followed by a scrappy 1-0 loss be considered entering a crisis?

Brana - Branislav Ivanovic

For crying out loud. He delivered the double on his 1st season playing some brilliant football in the process, i never thought ill see us ever score 7/8 in a match let alone do it 5 times in a year. Its the players that aint performing and we also lost to a rejuvinated side who nabbed a goal and played 2 banks of defence all game. The problem is Jose raised the bar by coming in and winning back to back titles with ease, evreybody expects the same when any manager comes in and Jose is a 1 off. How do you know Hiddink would have done much better? he flopped when he was at Real and despite the good result's we werent invincible, we nearly blew a 4 GOAL LEAD at HOME to Bolton (Deco last minute clearance off the line saved that from happening) we nearly blew a healthy 3-1 lead from the Anfield game at Stamford Bridge, theres no guarentee Hiddink would have done any better. Before today we won 4 games out of 5 scoring 18 in the process, we aint back in a crisis just yet because we have lost one.

:goodpost: What frustates me though is the lack of urgency shown after Merelies goal, we should have been pepering there box and their goal but we were coasting like we were 5-0 up.

Youve beat us twice but still 6 points behind us having played a game more :champions:

I think its time to put Drogs on the bench, he has done next to nothing lately, make him fight for his place back. Also Drop Bosingwa, he is so frustrating for words. This is the team we should play at Fullham. -------------------------Cech--------------------------- Ivanovic--------Luiz------------Terry----------Cole -----------Essien----Ramires------Lampard---- -----------Anelka-----Torres--------Malouda----- Subs Hilario Bosingwa Bruma Mikel McEachran Kalou Drogba

:goodpost:

Come on Josh is 17, how many players are important regualars at 17? Iniesta didnt make his Barca debut till he was 18 and didnt get in the side regually till he was 20.

Its easy to say now but it didnt suprise me in the slightest he struggled, he had the world watching him and his ex players know his game inside out. Fernando is the right player to play as the main man for us with Drogba getting on and on his day he is without doubt the best stricker in the buisness and if we can get them out of him we will be un-stopabble.

Could not disagree more. He delivered the double in his 1st season not only that but producing some of the best free flowing football ive ever seen us play. We have had a poor few months in general but we aint the 1st big team to lose at home to Liverpool (it would not suprise me in the slightest if they win at the Emirates with Dalglish incharge), but in the long term i think Carlo is more than the right man for the job. The end of last season and start of this proved that when Ancelotti teams click there frightening.and can produce all sorts of numbers of goals. Its not King Carlo thats the problem its the multi-million players that cant be fucked.

Player ratings. Petr Cech 5 Very nervous Jose Bosingwa 5 So frustrating at times, doesnt have the best of records in big games IMO we should have started Luiz. Liverpool had endless joy from that flank. Branislav Ivanovic 5 To say he has had better games is an massive misguided understatement. John Terry 6 Reasonably solid without being spectaclar. Ashely Cole 7 One of the better players today, while not being spectacular did a good job on that side. John Obi Mikel 5 Liverpool is slowly becoming a bogey team for him personally. Micheal Essien 5 im starting to get worried about him, he aint looking his usual self at-all (this was his 1st deafeat at Stamford Bridge in all comps). Frank Lampard 5 Too quiet, he took to long to shot at the free kick Drogba passed to him and lost it. Nicolas Anelka 6 a few nice touches but no-where near as effective as at Sundeland. Didier Drogba 5 Not getting better he needs to pick up form quick or spend time on the bench. Fernando Torres 6 Showed a couple of glimpses but it was always going to be hard against players that know him inside out, give him time. SUBS Florent Malouda 4 was he even on the pitch? Soloman Kalou 5 a couple of neet touches but no-where near enough. David Luiz 6 IMO a decent cameo from the young man, one positive to take.

The fact we lost to Liverpool is bad enough but 1 shot on target in 90 minutes? come on, there was no sense of urgency in the last 20 minutes, sloppy balls, taking to much time we should have been pepering there box putting them under un-bearable pressure but there was nothing. I lost count on the amount of times we had potenitially good attacks but fucked it up by making a wrong pass or taking to much time. I like Bosingwa but Bossy playing in big games = trouble, there was so much room on his side it was ridicolous, Luiz did ok for me we should have started with himat CB and Brana at RB, that was the formula (Ricky/Alex instead of Luiz) of picking numerous big game points up last season, you cant believe it's a coinsidence that the big game score's are so contrasting when Bosingwa plays and when he dont. I would have took going down fighting and beaten by the better team but there was no urgency and is any-one was going to score again it would have been Liverpool. A couple of positives (im really clutching here) promosing cameo from Luiz and Stevie ME didnt score (1 in 31 against Chelsea for the "world class" player now). Lets hope we can bounce back at Fullham.

Liverpool fans going on about history, how predictable

Welcome

TBH it makes the Torres deal look like a mega bargain.

I might be reading a bit much into this put the scoring positions McCarthy found himself in today kinda reminds me of Frank Lampard (obviously a long way to go before he gets near him but if he can be half as good ).

Not to mention when he spitted at Ballack