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dodojojo

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Everything posted by dodojojo

  1. I wished Torres had joined last summer too. Win win for everyone...except for Liverpool perhaps. I would have been spared watching Torres playing striker for Hodgson. Torres would have had time to bed in with Chelsea. Sigh. Oh well. Onwards with 2011-12. Hopefully Ancelotti will be very right about Torres being successful for Chelsea.
  2. That's no way to talk about Chelsea's #9. For shame.
  3. Maybe it's the start of a beautiful relationship where Cesc "assists" Nando.
  4. Prediction? As 2nd is still in question, same 4-3-3 as last week with maybe Alex and Torres in place of Luiz and Kalou. That's it. Zhirkov won't be starting. Yossi won't be starting. Bertrand won't be starting. Come on...
  5. If my post came off as a personal attack on Lampard, it wasn't meant to be. It's more about the constraints of playing certain players for certain formations. Simply it's an issue of having too many players going forward but offering little creative play. If you add in a creative player, something and someone has to give. And that's why Ancelotti doesn't play Yossi or Josh with Lampard. Lampard can contribute next season but I'd consider HOW and WHEN he does. At 33/34 he's not going to turn into or return to being a creative midfield maestro for 40-50 games a season even if he remains injury-free. If he does, I'll be more than happy to admit I'm wrong because it would mean wonderful things will happen next season.
  6. I may be stoned for this...everyone asks why doesn't Carlo play Yossi more...perhaps the reason is because that would mean dropping Lampard? Perhaps Carlo won't play a creative midfielder like Yossi because that would expose Chelsea too much and further burden the holding midfielder. And that's because Lampard goes forward and then you have the creative MF going forward. If you have 4-3-3 and both MFs are going forward and you have players like Malouda and Kalou who aren't so keen on tracking back, you have a huge problem. Ideally, Lampard would be that creative MF but he hasn't done that this year at all. And if the best he can offer is to get in the box and score, then what's the front 3 supposed to be doing? Or better yet, let's switch Lampard up to poacher because he sure isn't bossing the midfield. That would open up a MF spot for someone who can create and orchestrate the charge by passing and dribbling.
  7. I disagreed with that last part--Torres' last season was marred by injury after injury and he still managed 22 goals in 32 games. That rate is only slightly lower than Drogba's strike rate last season. Pretty impressive for an injury-riddled player on a Liverpool team that finished 7th compared to a player having a career season for a doubles-winning team.
  8. Hernandez is pure poacher and has been fantastic. Look at Inzaghi, pure poacher, the guy barely looked like he had any football skills. But what a great career. Torres is much more skilled and more than a poacher but at the end of the day he's a center forward and he is dependent on service. He's not a 2nd striker type, he will very rarely bring the ball up from deep, go on a mazy run and score. That's Robby Baggio, not Fernando Torres. At his best, Torres is very good at close control in the box and scoring some great short run goals. Haven't really seen that in a long time unfortunately. I think as he gets older he'll have to rely more on positioning and becoming more like a poacher. For whatever reason his finishing this year has been very poor. But we all know that he can be a wonderful finisher. Like I wrote earlier, if Hernandez and Torres had switched teams on Sunday, Man U would have still won. You think Hernandez would score 19 with the way Chelsea services its strikers?
  9. Less about building around Torres exclusively and more about Chelsea not being built around Lampard and Drogba anymore. Build a team that can play quick, creative football. Torres will play an important role as the lead finisher but it'll really be about what's going on behind him.
  10. Why is everyone so interested in Van Basten? The Netherlands lost in the round of 16 of the 2006 World Cup. They lost in the quarterfinals of the Euro 2008. So he never managed to win a game after the first round in tournament play. He lasted exactly one season at Ajax where his team lost 8 league games in the 32 he managed. They didn't qualify for the CL. This is the Dutch league and Ajax we're talking about. He's been unemployed for 2 seasons. How is he better than Ancelotti? It boggles the mind that his name is being thrown around as a possibility.
  11. That's why I think 2 or 3 key players will do the trick. Perhaps one or two big signings and one or two mid-level signings. Bring back the young loanees, have some of the kids at least make up the squad and train with the first teamers. But it's imperative Chelsea buy at least 1, ideally 2 players who can move the ball forward--quickly, incisively and creatively.
  12. It's not just about sulking. It's about moving away from a system where you rely on a striker to be both the goalscorer and the creative force. It's moving away from a system where you have a goal scoring midfielder who no longer creates nor can he control the middle of the pitch. And when those two players can longer to do it over an entire season, the team suffers. It's not just about rebuilding around Torres, though of course he's a key component. It's about rebuilding a team where you have a midfield comfortable with passing and moving and strikers always on the move and who aren't burden with having to do everything in order to score a goal. If Dalglish (and Clarke) can get Maxi Rodriquez and Kuyt to score hat-tricks, surely Chelsea can play a more dynamic game? Bring in 2 or 3 players who don't play the way Chelsea plays right now and it may be as much as revelation as Suarez has been at Liverpool.
  13. Benetiz also led a Spanish side not named Real Madrid or Barcelona to 2 La Liga title. Twice, not a fluke. And of course two CL finals in 3 years. His 2005 win broke my heart since I'm an AC Milan fan. I've never watched a replay or even highlights from that game. Ever. Too painful. 2007 was sweet revenge. I have reservations about Benetiz when it comes to man management and talent assessment but he's very, very good when it comes to football. He may chafe under upper management but he would be very successful if he could control his ego, work with a Director of Football and concentrate on working with players and the game. He has extraordinary and exacting approach to preparation and training. It's the small but significant tweaks he gave to Torres' game that transformed El Nino from a under-performing talent at Atletico to...dare we say it, when he was on form...one of the best strikers in the world. Benetiz doesn't take too much credit, he has always said ultimately it was down to Torres' talent but he obviously tuned it to the finest degree. Think it was true for Gerrard too.
  14. Hope we're not saying the same about Torres in a couple of years...
  15. Yeah, I remember all the "Gomes is truly awful" talk. I thought he was a dud too.
  16. I don't know about Aguero's availability. I'm just saying that renewing his contract doesn't mean he's off the market. It actually may mean the opposite. Apparently, Torres wanted to leave one year earlier from AM. He agreed to stay one extra year if his contract could be reworked to lower the transfer fee making it easier for him to move.
  17. Yeah, I've wanted to post this but didn't because I don't want to imply Torres isn't responsible for his form--he is. But he managed a handful of quality strikes while playing for Hodgson and his pre-historic offense. He played for Dalglish for 3 weeks and managed 3 goals in 4 league matches. Much of this is down to the fact he was Liverpool's only capable striker and played every minute he physically could. Another factor is his teammates looked to feed him the ball, however imperfectly they did it this season as a very poor side during the Hodgson era. But they still did it and really upped it up with Dalglish in charge. So even though his form is his responsibility, playing him in stuttering pattern and in a system where the midfielders who don't/can't pass to him are reasonable extenuating factors for his poor form. In other words, he's been okay and sometimes poor (should be better of course for his quality) but due to circumstances, the patchy form has now become "The worst transfer in the history of football." Tweak the system and play him consistently next season. See what happens. I know it's a risk but when you splash out that kind of money, there should be some intent to nurture that investment. I wouldn't recommend doing this for a 5M journeyman but this isn't the case for Torres is it? It's a risk, it may not pan out but it's better then continuing with the stutter step plan. That's guaranteed to be successful in wasting 50M pounds.
  18. Which lowered his transfer fee. Torres did the same thing in his last year with Atletico. Though according to Ballague, AM really want to keep Aguero and rebuild around him. AM wanted and needed the cash from Torres transfer to rebuild.
  19. Supposedly, Ancelotti wanted Torres. You'd think he had a clue on how to play Torres to maximize his talent and to best help Chelsea. But it sure doesn't look like it right now does it?
  20. No amount of preseason training and game time is going to get Torres and Drogba playing together--at their best. For that to happened, one of them has to (truly) accept that they are not going to be the center forward. Who's going to blink first? Don't care about the starting formation for the next two games. I wouldn't mind seeing a line-up that includes players who can pass and move with Torres alone up top but Ancelotti isn't going to do that so I'm not going to put too much thought into it. What I do care about is if Chelsea are actually going to move forward this summer and add key players who will play with Torres. And if there will be change in the football style at Chelsea.
  21. No, but maybe he shouldn't have said that no movement was needed. Did I expect him to give names and transfer fees? No. How about saying that the issue will be addressed over the summer, just like every team needs to be re-evaluated after a season is done?
  22. Oh dear god. MOVEMENT is exactly what Chelsea needs. Movement of players in and out of the squad. Movement on the pitch. Positive movement of the ball. Staying pat with this team, this style of play isn't the way forward, Ancelotti. Torres was a huge investment and it turns out he can't play with this team. So the solution to this significant matter is to not move on it? No amount of pre-season training is going to change him from being an out and out center forward who likes to run onto low altitude passes and into space. Pairing him up with midfielders who can't pass or create but who run into the box to clog up space doesn't work now and it won't in 2011-12 either.
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