EskWeston

To develop yes, and to also grow into the team. These type of players have a lot to offer to the team with their abilities and we are not using them enough.

For me it is obvious that 4-3-3 is the way for us to go, and for that to work we need either Deco or J.Cole behind the forward and 2 wingers out of Malouda, J.Cole and Kalou with either Drogba or Anelka upfront alone. Playing Ballack or Lampard in behind the forward won't work and neither will playing Anelka out wide. For the Manc game it just HAS to be Drogba, you can't drop him for this massive game. Yes we got 2 big wins without Drogba but it is the "formation" and playing the most suitable players that worked rather than a simple choice of not playing Drogba..

Well he has to start somewhere doesn't he? Very talented keeper by the looks of things and hopefully after a couple of years can really start to push Cech...

Summed up very nicely there, and Frank will go down in Chelsea history as one of the all time greats and that is more than deserved. As is usually the case the appreciation of Lampard will rise even higher once he is no longer playing for us....

He has sounded for a while now like a top prospect and seems to be continuing in that vein. At 18 i am not sure what level the club will deploy him at, if he will go straight in as back up for first team or if he will play Reserve or even youth football. All well and good bringing these talented youngsters into the club but we have to give them the right environment to devlop for us, imo Matic hasn't been given enough time and neither has sturridge.

Croatian goalkeeper Matej Delac, who will be joining Chelsea in the summer, has expressed his excitement at the move. It was announced back in September that we had the option to sign the 17-year-old, who has emerged through the ranks at top flight side Inter Zapresic, and he will arrive at Stamford Bridge when he turns 18 in August. 'It's every player's dream to sign for such a big club and to play in the strongest league in the world, and I will be achieving that already at my age,' said the 6ft 3in youngster, who spent a fortnight training with the first team squad at Cobham in December. 'You watch those players on TV and the next thing you know you are with them on the pitch. It's a really huge thing to practice with such big stars,' he continued. 'I was mostly talking with the goalkeepers. Petr Cech complimented me on a few occasions. It was huge stuff for me. I tried to learn from him and I was copying his moves. Now I am following his regime and I hope I will be as good as him one day.' Delac was the youngest ever debutant in Croatia's top division, saving a penalty on his debut as a 16-year-old last season, eventually making 15 league appearances before being instated as Zapresic's number one this season. He has received a full call up to the Croatia squad 10 days after his 17th birthday, and has represented his country at Under 16, 17 and 19 levels. When asked about Delac back in September, manager Carlo Ancelotti said: 'He is very young but he is having very good experience in his country and we think that he can be a very good goalkeeper in the future. Now he will stay in Croatia to play before he comes to play with us.' Source: Chelsea FC

I agree with that. We also played much better against Pompey with just Drogba, so for me we have to play 1 or the other for the rest of the season.

I don't think we will be seeing teams like that put out next season in the Carling Cup. We know that at Chelsea we like to field a strong team, so unless some of these youngsters have done enough to be semi-regular for the first team anyway i think we will see only 1 or 2 of them getting games against lower league opposition.

Excellent to see another academy youngster get his debut, thats 4 for the season now..... PVA is a quality left back and i would be happy for him to get plenty more minutes, will be interesting in the summer with Bertrand back as well where we go with the left back position.

It's a pain that we have another injury in a defensive position, but Terry and Alex should be first choice anyway and to have Bruma and Hutchinson as backup is fine with me.

Best formation for us in my opinion and what i was talking about in a couple of other posts refering to the youth team. If we can upgrade on Deco in that position and improve the wingers then we will be a very formidable team if you ask me.

Much better to see us actually line up in a proper 4-3-3, and even playing Deco in the free role had it's advantages. Hopefully we can carry this over to the weekend and more importantly into the Man U game. Was very pleased to see Van Aanholt get a good 20 minutes on the pitch, important also considering the lack of full back options we have at the moment, thought he did good too once he got over some early nerves...

The question is now with him, what is going to be better for the club? If he can turn things around quickly then all will be well, but we don't want to be carrying anyone next season and we are carrying too many players at the moment...

Yes i think you are right, but i would like to see us drop Anelka and go with 4-3-3 with Kalou and J.Cole as the wingers....

Well Carlo didn't know the squad to well when he joined so it wasn't that unusual to do limited transfers, this summer will be the more interesting. How much will Roman back Carlo?

It is going to be a nail biting run in thats for sure....... can we pull it together to win the league?? I certainly hope so.

It is going to be a very interesting run-in thats for sure, no telling which way it could go. But we need to pull ourselves together if we are to have a chance, which we have a very good chance. Man U going to Bolton, Blackburn and City will be very tricky fixtures for them...

Yes at times in the reserves he has under-performed. But most of the first team at the moment are under-performing. The key point for me is that Kakuta can do things that no one else in the first team can do!! Sturridge should get a chance to start, scored goals in the FA Cup and looked very lively, not been given many other chances though.

Well one thing is for sure and that is we can forget about Kakuta being involved as he played 90 mins for the reserves last night. Sturridge and Matic both absent from the game so they will be involved tonight, from the bench though i am sure. Still puzzles me the fact Kakuta is not getting any minutes, when he has had his chances he has showed more creativity than anyone who is getting first team minutes.

:goodpost:

BIG BIG game this one, will be difficult with Ferreira our only full back! Won't be able to watch this one live as it's on my daughters first birthday and we will be at the zoo....

Carlo inherited an old squad and only brought in Zhirkov, Sturridge and Matic. We absolute HAVE to allow him to look at the squad in the summer and re-organise it how he sees fit. This is not a Scolari situation where it is clear things are not going to improve. We have had a good season until we suffered injuries and the lack of depth in our squad was found out. But leave it to the fans to react badly and blame everyone from Roman to the kit man for the fact we have been going through a rough patch...

Losing away to Liverpool? I think we will beat them, puts us top

Yes i agree, certainly not easy at all. But we are all assuming that Man U and Arsenal are going to win ALL of their remaining games. Is that very likely?

So you are blaming Abramovic and Terry for Drogba not winning the CL, and not becomming a footballing great? Doesn't John Terry deserve just as much to win a CL and considered a great? Especially as he has done more for Chelsea than Drogba has in my opinion. Drogba has sealed his place in Chelsea history with the number of goals he has scored and the performances he has put in. Lets face it, Chelsea players very rarely get the recognition they deserve anyway.