francozola

Dont want to go overboard because he's still our best player by a country mile, but he needs to improve his fitness. Now we can see why he was constantly substituted at the 70th min mark, even when we were losing/drawing. AVB got so much hate for that but it's obvious now it wasn't some tactical decision, mata simply can't play 90mins twice a week. He struggles with 90mins once a week sometimes. That's not his fault, la liga is not as physical and intense as the prem. Im sure he'll work on it in the summer. If he doesn't burn out from the Olympics and Euros, that is.

I agree. Badboy can you please stop saying such things.

Sorry for the overreaction after the match. I really should stay away from the forums, I tend to go crazy sometimes lol. It was only a few mistakes but those mistakes were very costly. His set up yesterday was awful. But my point was that I don't see how he is that much better than AVB. Basically what he has done is he has sucked up to the old guard, told them they will play in most games. That got him through the Napoli game. The good results he's had so far and will have for the rest of the season will not be down to him, but rather his "communication skills" off the pitch to the old guard. I'm not hating on the man for no reason. I love Robbie. But it's really pathetic when the same people who criticized AVB so much for his mistakes are suddenly showing reverence to RDM as if he is the mastermind of some amazing turnaround. Yeah the Napoli result was wonderful but he had nothing much to do with that at all.

Di Matteo has made some awful decisions in these last two games Sorry, but it was laughable to see people suddenly claiming what an amazing manager he is after the 4 back to back wins and he should get the job permanently, etc.I didn't want to comment because it would seem rude and I would be accused of being a pessimist, etc but it's so obvious that he's nowhere near ready for this job. And even worse when it's by the same people who said AVB was out of his depth Please don't claim that I'm saying this just because of two bad results. I've thought this from the start. And I'm not some crazy AVB supporter who will defend everything he did during his time here. Anyway the players were shite but most of them shouldn't even be in this team/starting 11 so the blame goes entirely to roman and the board for being brainless fucks

Um what is the use of this point???

Not sure if this was posted but I don't remember seeing it here. I re-discovered it in my 'favourites' list on twitter :lol:

okay, I agree with that. We have that here right now, with Ivanovic and Bosingwa: one defense-minded and one attack-minded. But Bosingwa has become a useless player after his injury in 2009

well, yes but would a top class RB agree to come here only to rotate at that spot with Ivanovic? The problem with most full-backs nowadays is that they are good going forward (pacy, can dribble, etc) but defensively they are horrible. In that sense, I don't mind Ivanovic because even though he may not be a superstar going forward, he is still pretty solid at the back, although like you said he does struggle against pacy players.

^ lol that music. I thought he did alright yesterday. Nothing 'great', but not the shit-Torres that we've seen for majority of his Chelsea days. He was extremely isolated up front since Sturridge wasn't playing but tracked back a lot which was important for this game. The only real chance he had (when Ramires put in the low cross) he went for it and if it wasn't for a great clearance, he woulda scored. Up til now he was always shying away from those kind of chances, preferring to wait for the ball to feet in the penalty box. Touch & control was poor overall but he did okayish Yeah the mistake was to stick with the same tactic throughout the game. Either start with a slightly more attacking formation as you suggest and then become defensive in the 2nd half OR start with the 4-5-1 like what happened and change it later. After the goal, everyone knew what was coming but we didn't change anything at all. Took off some legs in Meireles and brought on a tired/past-it Essien, took off energetic Torres. RDM was perhaps making a statement with the Sturridge snub. I hope he starts against Spurs. He'll have learnt a lot in this last week. He got a lot of criticism from the fans on Sunday (groans every time he didn't pass) and RDM surely had a word with him after that game. yes I am female. and single :eyebrows:

Personally, I am a little uncomfortable by this Meireles hate right now. Apart from giving the ball away a lot, he did ok yesterday imo. Yes he's an extremely average player but some of the people who boo him/lambast him are convinced that Lampard is still a midfield maestro, can do no wrong, etc etc. I know that Lamps is a Chels legend unlike Meireles, but I don't see much difference in their performances this season. Both have their strengths and weaknesses. Also I thought Ramires was as bad as Meireles yesterday (in different ways, but if I had to rate their performances I'd give Ramires an equal or worse rating than Meireles)

Torres' pathetic form has screwed up this season for Lukaku basically. Since Torres is/was so lacking in confidence, he had to be played against stupid teams: Portsmouth, Birmingham & Leicester in the FA Cup, Genk in the CL, and the weaker Prem teams at home. A player of Lukaku's hype/potential + price tag should be played in those games, but thanks to Torres he didn't get a chance

He will be sold off to Vitesse in 18 months Seriously though, he needs a loan to a PL club next season.

I agree with what you're saying, in theory, but I feel like if we had tried to play an attacking style, they would have won easily due to lack of quality on our part. City started out okay, but after 20-30 minutes they started getting frustrated. Those rubbish fans didn't help! They were groaning every few seconds. The players clearly noticed this and started becoming more and more impatient. We were taking the sting out of the game and it was heading for a 0-0 even before cahill's goal. So the initial tactic worked, but we should have changed it after the goal Sturridge's exclusion cost us the points IMO, (along with essien's mistake of course). It may sound stupid to some, especially those who were lambasting him after Sunday, but he would have made all the difference in that game. When it was 1-0, I would have rather bring Sturridge on than Drogba. Take off Meireles and move Ramires to the centre.

THIS IS WHY WE CAN'T JUST STICK WITH THE SAME PERSONNEL AT RB NEXT SEASON. Many people said in other threads that we don't need to sign a RB because Ivanovic can be our permanent RB. NO! What if Ivanovic gets injured? Also, people may be forgetting that JT is going to get a long ban next season. Possibly 10-15 games. That means Luiz & Cahill at CB. If one of them gets injured, Ivanovic will play at CB and Bosingwa will have to play at RB. NO NO NO NO NO GET RID OF THIS JOKE RIGHT NOW

Agree, mistake was completely RDM's to not play Sturridge there (or bring him on after we scored) I know Sturridge is the most selfish player on the planet etc etc but atm we have no better option. Ramires was simply abysmal as a RW yesterday

Due to the energy that he has, Ramires will very rarely get substituted even if he's having a bad game because he can provide more than Lampard and Essien

I dont think that was what we wanted to do. City were extremely dominant with possession. We tried but couldn't hold on to the ball. Painful to see, really, the gulf in class. Their final ball was just poor but they were in completely control of the ball due to 1) they were at home so they had the initiative 2) they were losing and they could not afford to lose the match 3) everytime we tried to counter, someone fucked it up. I.E. our players simply not good enough. This is why not playing Sturridge or even including him as a substitute was such a HUGE mistake. He can run with the ball, he would pin their leftback back, he would relieve some pressure of the defense. Ramires was failing miserably. He might even come up with a moment of magic that we were lacking. Bad call.

If we played more attacking, man city woulda thrashed us. Our attackers are USELESS. Torres, Drogba, lampard, Meireles, Ramires all struggle in one way or another. Every time we went forward yesterday, one of those players fucked a good counter attack up. I thought the initial tactics were spot on by RDM except I would have played Sturridge at RW. Don't agree with his substitutions tho

I agree! He did ok but his passing was so bad! Then again, Ramires was just as bad in terms of end product so let's not make Meireles the scapegoat. Ramires screwed up plenty of moves yesterday as well due to his poor decision making or hopeless ball control

I really hate that. Hope its not the real one

:doh: don't remind me

I agree the grinning irritated the shit out of me. I know Michael is a happy guy and he usually always has a smile on his face, but when a player does something as stupid as that at such an important time in a crucial match when we were winning, at least try and seem pissed off with yourself ffs

Whenever you raise your hands like that, it's a definite penalty. That's why defenders are told to put their hands behind their back, to avoid these reflex moves

We have a similar feature on this site. I wouldn't mind answering some of your questions