francozola

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

Feeling rather blank atm. Was pissed off after the game, but have cooled off now. I didnt expect us to win anyway, but its still disappointing to lose because of an individual mistake. Liverpools result has helped a great deal. I hate them so bloody much! Am at a revision class now (it lasts 7hours!!!!) and I haven't slept all night but after a few cups of coffee I'm not sleepy. I'll probably collapse on my bed when I reach home though

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

I don't mean comfortable as in we were bossing the game. We clearly weren't. But city were very obviously struggling to create anything at all. Everytime they went forward, we cleared it and they had to come at us again.

I know city were the better side. The difference in quality is huge. But that doesn't mean a thing! They were losing confidence every minute. They kept giving balls away, misplacing passes, etc. we were comfortable! It was going to be a classic snatch and grab but for that moment of stupidity.

I know city were the better side. The difference in quality is huge. But that doesn't mean a thing! They were losing confidence every minute. They kept giving balls away, misplacing passes, etc. we were comfortable! It was going to be a classic snatch and grab but for that moment of stupidity.

Essien you twat. Why can't these fucking players keep their hands down. I'm so mad right now. We were on our way to 3 precious points before that fucked up handball. I don't even care that city were dominating before the pen. They had ZERO penetration and were losing confidence every second Fuck this shit ugh. I hate it when individual mistakes like this RUIN games. It was a superb defensive performance up til the pen. And Essiens mistake just negated all of that. Also bringing Drogba on turned out to be a mistake. Torres wasnt doing much in an attacking sense but he was tracking back and helping out a lot. Drogbas legs are gone and with city dominating so much, there was no point in bringing him on. Really stupid call by di matteo I'm so pissed off. We should have won that.

Hmm agree with that. Don't know what to think about Essien after that shocking 1st half against Napoli. He got better after the 2nd half but it was still a horrific 45mins