steve5221

Is it true that he also wanted to ban the pensioners unless they bought thier tickets at full value?

His treatment of Matthew Harding (before and after) his death was very bad though. That is of course if the reports were correct.

I think AVB has realised this now and Mierlies has to play further forward. He footballing brain is to quick to be playing that deep, he is far more effective in the final third (as was proved at Liverpool). If lampard is not prepared to play this role we should look to offload him in January(100% sure Redknapp would want him). Ruthless and cruel maybe, but the fact remains that he is a passenger in the team now. The other reason is his huge wage, that is hurting us with the new financial rules...Mata and Mierlies combined do not earn as much as Lampard if reports are true...

I dont think he has the pace to play that role either. Holding midfielder's either need to be quick or have good postional awareness. The thing that got me thinking was where Henry says "the quarterback role". Lampard is the ultimate professional and he can pick a pass (the problem is he needs 2/3 seconds longer than Mata to think about it). He is also very strong....

This is an interesting article re: Lampard. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/chelsea/8775400/Henry-Winter-time-for-Frank-Lampard-to-reinvent-himself-as-Chelsea-anchorman.html

Let lampard captain the side in this game and drop him at the weekend. Sturridge, Anelka, Malouda as the front 3.

I bet AVB will play Ferreria left back ahead of Bertrand v Fulham..

Spot on, mata is our key man - lose him for a long time and AVB will have to rethink his whole gameplan - he is that important to us. What we should do is give players a go in the Mata role who have good ability and could develop into it as a backup (Anelka, Mierlies and Mcearcharan). Think it is importnant not to make to many changes for this but need to get the balance right for the weekend. I would go: Cech, Bosingwa, Bertrand, Alex, Luiz, Mikel, Lampard, Mcearchan, Malouda, Anelka, Sturridge...

Thats spot on about mata - if he gets injured we are in big trouble, because the whole thing will fall down...Mierlies and Anelka can do that role as a fill in but Mata is our most important player by far - we do have another though who could do the job if given a chance - Mcearchan......

Dont forget he also played for Chelsea for a while....

What helps AVB on the sacking front is that; 1. Roman paid 15million for him in the first place, surely he will give him more time than the others. 2. With financial fair play rules coming into effect this season, we simply could not afford to sack AVB, Di Matteo, Holland, The scout guy and the fitness guy. 3. Most importantly - AVB plays the type of football Roman has craved since the beginning and no one (including Mourinho) has been able to bring - attacking, attractive football played the right way. I'll admit I was against AVB's appointment at the beggining, but he had definatley won me over. I don;t think we will win the league or champs league this season - but with the squad he has created I know I am going to be entertained - I actually look forward now to watching Chelsea play.

Hansen is an ex centre half who played in an era where defenders ruled....the back pass had not even come into effect when he played!!. He is obviously gonna be biased towards defensive football over attacking....If we can give AVB 3 years - imagine what type of players he can bring into the club...

Agree with the above, AVB is the man. Just worry that we do not have enough players to play the type of football he wants. Mata gets injured and we are fucked....Mierlies, Anelka, Romeu and Mceachran can do a job but our season success all depends on Mata.

You got to remember that both the sun and the mirror are written for the reading ability of 10-11 year olds. Thier target market are the majority of british people - retards. They have to write about Torres in this way because the majority of said retards will only remember Torres miss. The journos who wrote those stories won't feel that way as they are intelligent.

This is my first post regarding the game - I would imagine that alot of what I am going to say has been disccused by now - but I think the following points are relevant for the remainder of the season. 1. AVB is the man - he is the only manager we have had in the Ambramovich era that is capable of delivering the type of football Roman wants. Indeed I have been watching Chelsea for 25 years and I cant remember a manager who plays as attacking as him. We will lose games this season but we will win alot and we will be thoroughly entertained along the way. 2. AVB must be gven 3 years - can you imagine what our team we be like is he is given money and allowed to buy the players he wants. If we stick with him for that amount of time our squad could rival Barca's. 3. Lampard is gone - I am not baseing this on one game and he is not a bad player but he simply is to slow to fit into our new style of football. His midfield position means that Mierlies is being wasted further back. He wont even be able to play holding midfield due to his lack of pace, he is however still 100% committed and strong on the tackle. 4. Our whole season depends on Mata - we should pick and chose this boys games wisely because our success this yr purely depends on him. When he plays just off the striker he is amazing. The problem is we have no other like him. 5. Lakuka will be a bad buy for us - harsh compared to his game time but all his attributes and strengths are not based on our new style of football. If we are gonna mix our style up dependant on personnel then fine but this signing does not make sense to me(I think it was a Roman buy). 6. Torres is back - yes he missed one of the sitters of all time but he created that chance by rounding the keeper. once he got his goal his confidence rose and he was back to beating defenders and getting shots off. I think if Mata stays fit he will score alot of goals this year. Anyone agree/disagree with the above??

The way he spoke in today's press conference I dont think he will...mentioned that usually these games always turn out very tight negative affairs and thought this one would be entertaining...

He is a fantastic player but fact remains he is not currently good enough defensively to play against the very top sides - espcially away from home...80% of our games yes but not the very elite..

Spot on, if Luiz plays at centre back for this game we will concede at least 2 goals.....Don't think we will score more than 2 as the ref is bound to be on thier side and we may have Torres up front!. Need to keep this game tight for 60 mins - put Luiz on the bench, we could introduce him at some stage...his problem is he just can't resist not standing the attacker up, he dives in 80% of the time...

If you are comparing him to his Liverpool days he had more strength and pace then...the main problem with him has been his touch and shooting, simply woeful at times.

Thats difficult, give us a clue....

I to think lampard should play this game at the expense of Mikel......I base this purely on the fact that it is at old Trafford. if you look at previous seasons of our games up there, the ref always gives fouls against Mikel that would not be given at the bridge....this inevitabely leads to yellow and red cards for him... I think a midfeild 3 of Mierlies, Ramires and Lampard is good for this game...Ramires does the job of 2 players purely on his running and offers options both going forward and in the tackle. Mierlies should start in the holding role, starting attacks with his range of passing, he can come into the game later on - like he did providing the pass for Sturidges goal v Sunderland. Lampard has good experience of these games and he is physical and will ensure we wont be muscled out in midfield in Mikels absense, he also has good shooting ability and the eye for a pass..Although he slows the tempo of our play down he is required for this game.

Not sure why Vidic keeps getting mentioned, lets not waste our energy on that wanker.....No one is saying he is not a great player and we are thankful and lucky to have him at Chelsea....A good discussion point however is Centre back or not????

Im not basing him, he is a fantastic player. He will be fine as a CB in most PL games and europe but against Man U and Man City I think he will be a liability as CB......We have a great player on our hands no doubt about it but I would like to see him in midfield with protection behind him when he charges up field

He can't play as a centre back in the PL against the best sides - his concentration is not good enough over 90 mins and he is too reckless.... Look at last year agianst Man U, yes he did score in the home game but was lucky to still be on the field at that point. In the away fixture he was at fault for the first goal... For those reasons I dont think AVB will not play him on Sunday.....

He is a very good player but the problem is he is not a centre back. He will cost us to many goals in that position. He should be used as a holding midfielder...