EskWeston

I would say as time went on his best position was midfield. He is able to influence the game better there and he can be a big influence. I would keep him in that position now, he is a big talent and all he needs now is to mature more and this loan and any future loans will do just that.

So Ramires and Romeu would be awful for that position and should not play there, but Lampard played well last season and for the past decade, been man of the match for 2 England games so SHOULD play there, even though he does not have the discipline to play the role. I am not slagging off Frank because he is one of our best ever players. But there is no getting away from the fact that he is not suitable for the role. Personally i think Romeu and Ramires would be better suited to the role. With 2 proper holding midfielders i see no reason why we cannot play a fluid 3 ahead of them. I see many opinions of what the role should be, it seems that the only player to fit the profile is Pirlo which is silly, to my mid the club and RDM clearly wanted to play with 3 attacking midfielders which is why we have spent so much money buying them, behind them we need players to make the play tick, move the ball around and link up to the 3 attacking mids. The article at the start of this thread explains perfectly what is gong wrong. RDM has PLENTY of options. Tons of them, but we have not seen any attempt to try anything other than switching to 4-3-3 on Saturday which worked much better in the end. The problem is (and it is something Chelsea do frustratingly often) is putting square pegs in round holes. We have so many attacking midfield options there is NO reason to play a left back or a central midfielder in those roles. To my mind there are 2 basic options, stick with the formation and take Lampard out the midfeild 2, or switch to a 4-3-3 to accomodate him.

Yes, as both you and Kellzfresh have said Frank is an attacking midfielder and should be played there. The problem there is that Hazard, Mata and Oscar are ALL better options that him now. What we are doing (or more importantly what RDM is doing) is desperately trying to find a way to shoehorn Frank into the starting 11. I am sorry but i don't care who you are or what you have done, times move on and the best TEAM should always be sent out. We could very easily play in a team with Hazard, Mata and Oscar behind Torres in a similar way to the teams Kellzfresh posted above do, but we have to have right 2 midfielders behind them otherwise it is pointless. We are now taking away an attacking option to allow Lamps to play every game. Just once would like to see Ramires or Romeu alongside Mikel and 3 proper attacking midfielders behind Torres.

When playing 3 attacking midfielders that is exactly what you DO want. Obviously they are involved in the movement of the ball in attacking play but there is no way one of them should be in advance of the 3 attacking midfielders. We are having to play a defensive option (Bertrand or Ramires) in an AM slot to counteract the fact that Lampard bombs forward. This to me seems pointless and completely knocks the balance of the team. Ramires is a top player but in the centre of the park. Bertrand is a top player at left back, he is pretty ineffective as an attacking option. We are completely out of balance at the moment.

Whats the point in spending a fortune on players to play in a 4-2-3-1 and then not playing them and playing people out of position. With 2 proper holding midfielders we give greater freedom to 3 proper attacking midfielders to cause damage.

Either RDM needs to play the players to work the system or change the system. What we are doing now is madness. If we are playing 4-2-3-1 then the 2 need to be defensively disciplined and not get forward. To my mind i would like to see Mikel and Romeu given a go together or drop Ramires back in there who i thought was much better when played in the middle eventually on Saturday.. With 3 attacking midfielders ahead we need them to make sure they make the game tick but then move the ball to the attacking players. At the moment we are having the striker, 3 attacking midfielders, 1 of the defensive midfielders (who seems to get ahead of the attacking midfielders on a regular basis) and 2 full backs all in advanced positions and then we wonder why we get caught on the break. I know it is blasphemy to knock Lampard, but the man cannot play this system. We need to allow our 3 attacking midfielders to do their job but he wants to be up there too. RDM either needs to change the personnel (personally i can't see him dropping Frank) or we change the system.

All of the games were supposed to be live on Chelsea TV. The CSKA game tonight isn't but hopefully the rest will be.

The club have gone back on most they have said with regards to this competition. NextGen games were supposed to be played at Staines Town, now they are all at Cobham behind closed doors. They were all supposed to be televised live on Chelsea TV and the first game against CSKA is not on Chelsea TV now. Pretty poor by the club to all of a sudden not take this competition seriously, it is a great competition...

As last week’s Academy review was a little late there is no game action to cover in this season review. There has been some new loan action to report on however. Firstly a big move in that Josh McEachran has gone on loan again, this time to Championship club Middlesbrough. Josh has already played a game for them and impressed in his first performance, he was started on the right side of midfield but made his way inside on many occasions. For Josh this is a very important loan, his loan to Swansea was very unsuccessful but now he needs to play games and moving down to the Championship was surely the right way to get that. With a season of regular games Josh will in a much better position to maybe have a go at a loan to a premiership club or even to make an impact with Chelsea. In addition to Josh we have seen young defender Archange Nkumu go on loan to Yeovil town. Yeovil is where Rohan Ince is on loan but Rohan has suffered an injury and so far has been unable to play. This loan may likely be purely for cover for Ince until he comes back but it will surely be good experience for the young man. It has taken a little while but Chelsea have finally confirmed all their fixtures for the NextGen series games. Those fixtures have been confirmed as follows: Tuesday 28 August, CSKA Moscow (H) 6pm Wednesday 3 October, CSKA Moscow (A) Wednesday 31 October, Molde (A) Wednesday 7 or Thursday 8 November, Molde (H) 1pm Thursday 29 November, Ajax (A) Wednesday 12 December, Ajax (H) 1pm The games finally get underway this coming Tuesday with a home game against CSKA Moscow, the game will be played at Cobham and behind closed doors but it will be a good testing fixture and Chelsea will of course want to get underway with a win. There is no U18’s or U21’s action this week, however the U21’s did have a friendly game against Watford U21’s to make up for that fixture so it could well be likely that the U18’s will also have a friendly fixture this weekend. Click here to view the article

Well it is about time this was confirmed. I am thrilled at the depth we have now in the attacking roles, quality skilfull players like Mata, Hazard and Oscar and pure wide men like Marin and Moses. So many options and possibilities for Robbie. Another top signing by the club this summer.

Have to really say our transfer dealings this summer have been hugely impressive. Looking forward to seeing Azpilicueta in action as i know nothing about him so it will be good to see what he is about. It is going to be an incredibly interesting season.

Possibly the best series of books ever! Loved every single one of them and cannot wait for the next one...... At the moment i am reading Xenocide by Orson Scott Card - book 3 in the Ender Wiggin Saga - excellent read.

If we just to continue as we have i am sure we will be fine, our attacking play is getting better and better and we can deal with them at the back. I would think we will see a line up pretty similar to yesterdays. Personally i would like to see Ramires play in the midfield 2 and influence the game there, and how soon will we see Oscar, Mata and Hazard start together. I think Sturridge also is worth a shout as he performed well and showed what he can offer. Plenty of options which is only good.

What a game that was last night. Yes there were mistakes and things we need to sort out, but given the huge change in playing style we are adopting i think we have to expect that. What is great is that we really look a threat going forward now, i was confident in the ability of our forward players to get us back in the game, that is something i have not felt for a very long time at Chelsea. Eden Hazard is amazing, he is a sensational signing for us. His link up with Mata is great to see and with Oscar as well we just have so many players who can make things happen in attacking positions. The more they play the better they will get and that is frightening. Options as well, if we are starting with Oscar, Hazard and Mata then we are able (if fit) to call upon the likes of Marin and Sturridge, who had a great impact when he came on, was really pleased to see that from him. Personally i am just looking at all the positives because we will take time to settle in a new style and things will go wrong at times.

Having had a week off last week there is plenty to catch up on at the Chelsea FC academy. There has been plenty of game action to catch up on. At U21 level there has been 4 games, 3 friendly games and the first league game ever as an U21 team. The first friendly was away at St Albans, it was a good performance from the boys who have kept improving during pre season and came away from this game with a 3 – 0 win, Patrick Bamford, Adam Coombes and John Swift got on the score sheet. This was followed up with another 2 games firstly against Kingstonian and then against Dundalk both finishing with the blues winning 1 – 0. So for the U21’s pre season finished and overall it was pretty successful, good results, plenty of players used and a lot to look forward to. All that preparation led to Friday evening. The official start of the new Premier U21’s League. Manchester City were to be our first opponents, not an easy fixture at all and it finished with a 0 – 0 draw. It was good to see Chelsea youth football back at Griffin Park, the players enjoy playing in front of crowds and there were clearly plenty of young people who cannot afford to go to Stamford Bridge down there to cheer on the young blues. The team selected was also very interesting to see, the bulk of the team was the FA Youth cup winning team. Considering that team was a pretty young U18’s side last season it shows that they are an even younger U21’s side. But this is a very talented group of young players and they deserve to be pushed forward to this level to progress and become better players. The game was very good, Chelsea were dominant throughout, definitely deserved to win the game and were very unlucky not to. It was a first look at new arrival Thorgan Hazard, it is clear that the young man has a lot of ability and he showed in this game what he can do with some good skill and neat crucial passes. It will be interesting to see how he continues because he and Piazon on the flanks could be a very potent force indeed. The U18’s finished their pre season with a mini tournament at Old Trafford playing some top opposition of the likes of Arsenal, Tottenham, Aston Villa and Manchester United. It would have been a very good test for them and set them up nicely for their start of the season, which came against Manchester City. As always with the U18’s playing at home the setting was Cobham training ground on Saturday morning, nice weather but no one could have expected the result that came. Chelsea demolished their City counterparts with a 6 – 1 win, Mitchell, Houghton, Loftus-Ceek, Boga, Colkett and Dabo scored the goals on the day in what was a very impressive win. Goalkeeper Beeney certainly played his part pulling off a number of impressive saves. In addition to the game action there has been a number of loan moves at Chelsea. Romelu Lukaku has moved to West Brom for the season and will look to establish himself as a premier league striker getting himself his fair share of goals. Connor Clifford has joined struggling Portsmouth on an initial month’s loan which will surely be extended, he also will be looking for game time that he has been missing recently. Finally, Sam Hutchinson has made his first move away from the club with a season long loan move to Nottingham Forest, for Sam it is a big test to see how his body copes with the regular football, more so than him improving himself with game time. Hopefully he will be able to hold out and come back in a position to fight for a place in Chelsea’s first team squad. So as far as the academy is concerned it has been a very good start to the season, the U18’s have shown what a force they can be and the U21’s have shown they are a very talented group and if they can bring the last bits together are going to be a very difficult team to overcome. Click here to view the article

Below is the NextGen Series fixtures, results and highlights for the season 2012/2013. Also below is the goalscorers for the season: July 2012: August 2012: Tuesday 28th August 2012: v CSKA Moscow (H) Lost 1 - 2 Highlights: http://bit.ly/T7vlPe September 2012: October 2012: Wednesday 3rd October 2012: v CSKA Moscow (A) Won 1 - 0 Wednesday 31st October 2012: v Molde (A) Draw 1 - 1 November 2012: Wednesday 7th November 2012: v Molde (H) Won 6 - 0 Highlights: http://bit.ly/Zs5Tpg Thursday 29th November 2012: v Ajax (A) Draw 0 - 0 Highlights: http://bit.ly/11kMOt8 December 2012: January 2013: Tuesday 29th January 2013: v Ajax (H) Draw 3- 3 February 2013: Wednesday 20th February 2013: v Barcelona (A) Won 2- 0 Highlights: http://bit.ly/115BoFq March 2013: Sunday 17th March 2013: v Juventus (H) Won 4 - 1 Highlights: http://bit.ly/14mVZcR Friday 29th March 2013: v Arsenal (N) Won 4 - 3 Highlights: http://bit.ly/14J48Z7 April 2013: Monday 1st April 2013: v Aston Villa (N) Lost 0 - 2 Highlights: http://bit.ly/11pXBw8 May 2013: Top Scorers: Islam Feruz = 7 Lewis Baker = 4 Alex Kiwomya = 3 Jeremie Boga = 3 Patrick Bamford = 1 Isak Ssewankambo = 1 Reece Mitchell = 1 Lucas Piazon = 1 George Saville = 1 *Goals in brackets indicates goals scored in friendly games Key: A = Game Played away from Home H = Game Played at Home N = Game played at a Neutral venue F = Friendly Game Games played = 10 Appearances: A.Davey = 10, L.Baker = 10, I.Feruz = 9(1), J.Boga = 8(1), A.Nditi = 8, M.Beeney = 7, R.Loftus-Cheek = 7, A.Christensen = 6, A.Kiwomya = 5(2), F.Dabo = 4, N.Ake = 4, D.Pappoe = 4, J.Swift = 3(2), K.Wright = 3(2), P.Bamford = 3, G.Saville = 3, J.Blackman = 3, C.Hunte = 2(5), D.Conroy = 2(2), L.Piazon = 2, T.Kane = 2, R.Mitchell = 1(5), J.Houghton = 1(2), N.Chalobah = 1, T.Hazard = 1, T.Musonda = 1(1), I.Ssewankambo = 0(3), C.Colkett = 0(5), A.Gnahore = 0(1), J.Starkey = 0(1) *Figures in brackets indicates substitute appearances

CTV said he would be available for selection again in a week. Marin is a very talented player but no one expects him to be one of our main starters, when he is available for us he will be a great option. Like Robben, great player with injuries but when he is available you get a lot out of him.

I think Hulk will join. It is important i think to have someone with more experience in our forward line apart from Torres, all others are very young - Sturridge, Mata, Hazard, Oscar, Marin, Piazon. And obviosuly it is important for us to have a player that can play a centre forward role if needed.

Given their problems at least he will get games which is the most important thing for him now.

Not to mention a certain John Terry.....

I am pretty sure we will see the same side that started against Man City, not too sure on the injury situation of Marin though so he could play. I would be amazed if Oscar played.

Sam i am sure will do very well there. The only question is how his knee will hold up with more playing time, but sooner or later this test had to be put upon him to know how far he can go. Should he stay fit i have a lot of confidence in his ability to grow and come back a better player, one able to take on a bigger role at Chelsea.

Any young player has to eventually earn their spot in the team, if we have 4 right backs jostling for position then the 2 best will be kept around and the other 2 will be moved on. Todd Kane is some way off breaking into a first team squad place. Captain of the U21's this season and then a possible loan for next season and beyond.

Hutchinson fairly likely to go on loan, Kane not ready yet!

I must admit i know little about Azpilicueta, what his strenghts are and what he could bring to us. But i do know we need a right back. Hopefully he will be the right signing for us.