Blue Armour

Well they could probably do away with the "friendlies" and just have the qualifiers during mid-week. However, there's little chance of that happening as coaches use these friendlies to test team chemistry, formations, etc..plus you can have clashes you don't see often like Spain vs Brazil, etc...

@, yeah..he was pretty much useless during the bad "moment"..he was never the one to step up when the going got tough...

Yeah, I agree with you and Kojo on the fact that a lot of the other players did pick up form towards the end of the season. Maybe my memory is failing me here, but I believe Malouda also picked up some form during some of those games, scoring a couple of goals, which is why I said he wasn't the worst (even if he was pretty bad) player. In any case I suppose it doesn't matter as everything went downhill after the title decider against Utd.

Believe me, I wished I had.

He wasn't "constantly" shit. He had a few good games at the start and towards the end of the season when we caught up with Utd in the table. I'm just saying its impossible to single out one player for the blame when the team as a whole doesn't do to well in the campaign.

I'm pretty sure he will get his chance once he's fit. For now I can say I'm at least happy, if not satisfied, with Torres' performance this season. The only thing that bothers me is Danny's contract situation. Hopefully it will get sorted out before the end of the season.

Sorry to disagree, but he could dribble pretty well, and his strength was his ability to cross the ball early from wide positions. Admittedly he lost of lot of pace in his last couple of seasons, which made it more difficult for him to get past players. That's why he was moved into a more central position. Probably irrelevant at this point, but he was hardly our worst player. Its just that after his spectacular finish to the 09-10 season, there were a lot of expectations on him especially when the rest of the team started to fail. The fact is Malouda is not a player like Drogba or Zidane, and can't consistently influence games on his own. He thrives when the rest of the team is doing well. This is evidenced when he came onto score against QPR and Tottenham last season, when we were winning both games by good margins.

Yeah Moses missed a couple of chances to linkup well with Cole. Oscar also needs to get into the build-up play a little more. Hope he isn't getting too tired, pressing and attacking with a lot of effort. Probably bring on Marin to give rest to either him or Mata.

Well, most of the attention was on Terry today..when he's in the spotlight, everything else tends to take a backseat.

RDM definitely presenting a strong case here. The team is getting into good form and players seems to be gelling, and if this keeps up...could be real exciting times ahead.

Honestly, I don't think Torres on the whole has been as poor as most people would believe this season. We can mention the lack of profligacy when it comes to the number of goals scored so far, but he has been more involved with the build-up play and passing. I just feel our style of play just doesn't do him any favors, and for that we'll be much better of with a striker, like Sturridge/Drogba/Anelka, who likes to drop deep, take the ball and distribute it.

Love how he tracks back to defend...Unlike most attackers, the way he marks and closes down his opponent makes him look as if he's surely going to win the ball. Definitely should start a game soon

Great result, but i'll find it funny if people start thinking the Mikel-Ramires pivot is the way forward. It worked today against a team that was happy to sit back (and still counter well btw,).There will be games in which we will need to someone to distribute the ball well from the center. Torres, despite failing again in front of goal, played pretty decent and was a good outlet for his team-mates. I'm still waiting for Sturridge to be given a start though. Hopefully Moses and Marin will become our solution to our problems out wide. They both seem well capable of doing that.

Even if Sturridge is (and always has been) my preferred CF for us this season, I think the critcism aimed at Torres for his performances this season so far, is a bit OTT. I take it most of you are disappointed with apparent lack of productivity against Juventus. But the fact is he was up against 3 CB's that are part of one of the best defensive lineups out there. Any world class striker would struggle. Plus its not as if he was totally uninvolved. He did try his best to help with the attacking play (even though its obviously not his strength)

If Sturridge is fit, I hope he get's a start. Its been a long time coming...

I hope selling Meireles and loaning out Essien, means a certain Marouane coming in Jan..!

He was injured. Hopefully he'll start against Stoke.

Today both Terry and Mikel were at fault for the second... But whereas Terry made a mistake, Mikel just casually gave away the ball and hardly made an attempt to stop the attack which it led to. Sloppy from him.

Yeah, our result was no less than we deserved. Shame about their equalizer. Mikel needs to be rotated with Oriol..Its impossible to expect him to perform without mistakes against quality opposition.

Robbie will be making a mistake if he relies on Mikel for all remaining matches. He WILL have off-days like this again. Time to give Romeu more playing time.

I just hope we don't set up to defend..not at home..not just to get a result.

Or it could be because they realize we have a real gem on our hands and that we wouldn't give him up so easily!

Torres has a decent record against the Italians, as seen from the Euros. As much as I prefer Sturridge to start (because of his ability to drop deep and set up attacks), I'd like to see how the Spaniard fares against the Italian champions. Hopefully he can get some kind of service though...

Also I'd like to think what Lampard could have done against Pirlo during the Euro's, instead of Parker and Gerrard. Another battle to look forward to in midfield.

I don't really care about the tactics...Just really excited about this game. If I'm correct, we're the last team they faced in the last champion's league they played. Torres had a good outing against the Italian defence (although a man down) during the Euro's, and hopefully we'll see more of the same. Hopefully Sturridge also gets to play a part tomorrow.