EskWeston

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.

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.

Goalkeeper Sam Walker has signed for League Two side Bristol Rovers on loan until January 2. The 20-year-old is eligible to play in tonight's Capital One Cup clash against Ipswich Town. Walker joined Chelsea as a schoolboy from Milwall in 2007 and was a key member of our 2010 FA Youth Cup-winning side. In March 2011 he joined Barnet on loan, making his professional debut against Chesterfield and helping the Bees stay in the Football League. That summer he switched to Northampton, before switching to Yeovil Town in January, making 20 appearances before the end of last season. Source: Chelsea FC

Agree with this, we need top four, but i don't expect us to be able to get to our best this season with our new players.

Yup this is exaclty what i want to see too, I think it would bring out the best in what we have in our squad and produce the best results. Chances of us seeing this happen though are very slim, Mikel and Lampard will be the main men in midfield and one of best players over the last 2 years Ramires will be forced out wide or a bit part role.

This game was another poor turnout from us. There are many concerns raised by pre season and i hope we can work them out as quickly as possible because we are going to have a tough start to the season.

For me formations are not the problem, it is the way we are playing. We need to be able to release the ball quicker and see more movement off the ball. If we continue the way we are at the moment we are way to predictable and far to easy to play against. We need quick insisive passing, better pressing and more movment off the ball. The fact we have not seen this at all in pre season so far is a worry. The best football we played was in the first half against Seattle. For me, if we are going to play a midfield 2 in a 4-2-3-1 then we cannot play any pairing of Mikel, Lampard, Essien and Meireles. We lack the drive and pace in the midfield, we need one of those alongside Ramires, Romeu or McEachran (or that type of player). I would love to see a pairing of Romeu and Ramires behind a 3 of Hazard, Oscar and Mata. It is the same in a midfield 3 of a 4-3-3, we just lack the drive in midfield when played with certain players. More than anything i want to see Ramires brought off the wing and put in the midfield where he can do the most damage and be a bigger influence on the game. My biggest concern is that we are going to sacrifice what could be our best "playing" eleven to accomodate certain players.

As the season draws ever nearer we finally get some clarity on what we can expect at Academy level for Chelsea this season. But before we get to that lets cover the match action that took place this week. Last Saturday the U21’s were in match action at Northampton town, in a tough match that was well fought by both sides Chelsea came out on top eventually, Alex Kiwomya coming off the bench to bag a brace. It was a good win for the boys who will look to build on this with 3 remaining friendlies before their season starts. The U18’s were also in friendly action in Malaysia against a Malaysian select 11. After a tough opening game against the Leo all stars they managed to pick up their level and come away with a 4 – 2 win. Walter Figuera weighed in with 2 goals and George Cole and Isak Ssewankambo got a goal apiece. Ade Viveash was pleased with how his U18’s handled themselves on and off the pitch and they can take a lot of positives away with them. They will now return back to England to continue their pre season. The groups and fixtures for the U16’s, U18’s and U21’s have finally been announced and we can see how the new set up will impact the development of young players in England. Much has been made of the impact of the EPPP (Elite Player Performance Plan) and now we can see the fruits of those changes. All 3 age groups will follow the same paths, all clubs who applied for category 1 status have been put into the same level although not all of those have been granted category 1 status. Those clubs have now been split into 3 further groups: National Group One Arsenal, Blackburn Rovers, Bolton Wanderers, Everton, Norwich City, Reading, West Bromwich Albion, West Ham United National Group Two Aston Villa, Manchester United, Newcastle United, Southampton, Stoke City, Sunderland, Tottenham Hotspur, Watford National Group Three Chelsea, Crystal Palace, Fulham, Liverpool, Manchester City, Middlesbrough, Wolverhampton Wanderers Chelsea will play each team in their group home and away. These fixtures will take us to December and have already been announced and can be seen in the Youth and Reserves section on the forums. So initially there will be 12 games for us to compete in. From that stage the top 3 teams from groups 1 and 2 and the top 2 teams from group 3 will qualify for the “Elite Group” the remaining teams will go into “group tier one” or “group tier two”. We will then play each team in our new group home and away creating another 14 fixtures for us to play. The top 3 teams from the “Elite group” will then move into knockout semi finals to be joined by the winners of a playoff against the winners of development tier one and two. And finally the semi finalist winners will play each other in a final. So there is potentially 28 fixtures for us to play at the 3 academy levels and this is obviously a massive improvement on what we have been seeing particularly at reserve team level. Whilst the number of fixtures played by the teams is of great importance the other aim of the new EPPP was to generate more competition. Now we can see how that is hoped to be accomplished. Chelsea being the type of club that we are will strive to finish in the top 2 of our group to be able to play in the second stage “Elite Group” where will have the best fixtures to test ourselves in the second half of the season. This means that the academy managers will lean far more on winning the game than what they have in the past. That will generate competition in the team because the managers will want to pick the players who will give the best chance of winning, thus creating competition for places which is another stimulant for generating the environment to push young players to better themselves. Another one of the important factors is for teams to play at a stadium and in front of crowds. Chelsea will be playing the majority of their fixtures at Griffin Park and a few games will be played at Stamford Bridge. Despite this seemingly being the “rules” a number of clubs have decided to play their games at their training complexes behind closed doors which goes totally against the spirit of the EPPP. Hopefully in future years this is something that will be enforced more strongly. So there we have it, that is what we have in store at academy level this season and it is an exciting prospect to finally see some real change happening to aid the development of these talented young players. Will the competition be taken as seriously as everyone hopes? Time will tell, but one thing is for sure that it is certainly a big improvement on what we have seen so far. This week the U21’s are once again in friendly action, this time they are at St Albans and will hope to build on what they did last week. The U18’s meanwhile will have a home game against Millwall on Monday before they travel up to Manchester United to play a number of games against Arsenal, Tottenham, Aston Villa and Man United all of these games will take place this week, so once again it is another busy week in the academy. Click here to view the article