francozola

Better performance. Let's not forget that Bolton were shambolic at times. But a more spirited display for sure I take back what i said about Drogba before the match. He was really good and played with a lot of energy. Great goal by Luiz. Love the guy. Good header by Drogs as well. Lamps with a good finish. Can't wait for the newspaper headlines tomorrow: "LAMPARD SAVES AVB'S JOB" blah blah lol he was completely average and yet despite scoring a goal - a good one - he will somehow be viewed as a saviour of this team. An improved performance but not getting carried away.

um has he been given a proper chance?? also, would he honestly be worse than how Cole has performed lately? and lets not kid ourselves, Cole has been abysmal. Just as bad as Bosingwa but it gets overlooked.

No, I agree. I would have liked us to try different things though. Sturridge at CF maybe, but especially giving Bertrand a run-out in a relatively easy game. I mean jesus - ashley has been awful for such a long time now, and Bertrand doesn't even get a start at home against Bolton?!?! The Sturridge one I can understand. I'm mainly irritated about Cole over Bertrand.

Drogba over Torres was a given. A real change would be to play Sturridge there. Drogba is just as bad as Torres (watch as he scores a hattrick now!) Bosingwa is out because he's injured. lol I agree my post was harsh, calling it "shit" but I'm pissed that Cole starts again and it's the 4-3-3 again that lineup is still rubbish but we'll probably win because Bolton are in a terrible state

Team v #BWFC: Cech, Ivanovic, David Luiz, Cahill, Cole; Ramires, Essien, Lamps ©; Sturridge, Drogba, Mata. Same ol' shit

Yeah I guess Meireles does make sense for this game. Bolton are rubbish I don't think they'll attack us the way teams like Sunderland i.e. teams with confidence would do. I just want to see AVB try something different FFS!!!! Whether it be any of the following: 1) Sturridge as CF and Ramires at RW 2) Lukaku starting 3) Bertrand at LB I would be delighted if even one of those actually happens. What's the point in doing the same thing over and over again?!?! I think we've established by now that Torres & Drogba are both shit and that Cole has also played very poorly indeed in the last few months. If he was genuinely played further forward (not having defensive duties) he would be good. He was excellent for Liverpool when played in an attacking role. And he would provide more than Lampard or Essien imo (if and only if played further forward)

I wonder whether it is only at Chelsea or all across the youth/reserves level in England???

To show my support for AVB! Don't worry I will change it back in a while. I don't really like this one that much anyway!

That's a very good point - but I wouldn't mind keeping him for one year at 80k provided that most of the following: Drogba, Torres, Malouda, Ferriera, Hilario, Benayoun leave. He is decent & experienced backup and if we really are going to have this overhaul in the summer, it would be good to save the money on a 'backup' player for a year since we'll be spending loads on players for the more important positions. We've got ourselves into this pay-every-single-player-atleast-70k-and-deal-with-the-consequences-later hole so it'll take a new cycle of players to get that wage level down because none of the current players from the 2004-2010 seasons would accept a lower deal. Of course, these contract negotiations have been going on for quite some time. His agent made a comment a few months back that Kalou was looking for the promise of more playing time by AVB which I guess is what has stalled the talks.

That's not why he was dropped. He really was dropped. He's sick but he's still in contention to play a part tomorrow so it wasn't serious.

Well hopefully it will spur him on to prove people wrong but we've all been saying that for 12 months now and it hasn't worked

He was good in the FAYC match a couple of days ago but it's obvious he still needs A LOT of refinement. The reserves league is very poor and due to the irregular scheduling of matches, I don't think players can develop at the very best of their abilities. We should try and send him on loan next season to a Championship side or a "small" European team where he would get some consistent playing time. Or do people think he needs another season of development at the youth/reserves level before getting that loan move? I'm curious to know what regular youth football watchers like Esk think would be the best move for him.

If Anzhi offer 15m we should bite their hand off.

Maybe there could be a sub-section for "up and coming players" or something like that? Young/unknown players that we aren't linked with but at least people can have some form of discussion about them. And there's a thread in the Matthew Harding Stand - Official Transfer Wishlist - which could also be used in certain cases. There seem to be a lot of threads being created lately, lol. Majority of them are great for discussion and warrant their own threads but there are also plenty which could be posted in the official AVB thread, Formations thread, etc. The "Articles" sub-forum should also be used more often by people that are posting their own thoughts because many of these points have actually been repeated over and over again in other threads - but if the OP has quite a few ideas/opinions then I guess it makes sense to create a new thread to get some specific feedback on their post. It just clutters up the main Matthew Harding Stand forum sometimes. I know you mods are busy and like ulsterchelsea mentioned you're all already doing a superb job but maybe if someone posted an announcement or some kind of 'notice' message that people get when they click on Start New Topic I think it would help declutter the forum! Just some feedback

I think AVB said that he is still in contention to play I would love if Sturridge was given a go at CF. Both Drogba and Torres are useless.

Romeu is more suited to our team in most games. In certain games, for example the Utd game a couple of weeks back when Romeu came on and was a disaster, Mikel is the better option. Playing both at the same time would be too defensive and in most games it isn't needed especially since most teams park the bus and we need some kind of attacking movement to penetrate. HOWEVER, it's not like any of our other midfielders offer any creativity anyway. Lampard and Meireles offer NOTHING going forward. Essien as well. Ramires is the only one who makes things happen but it's simply due to his energy not actual ball-playing abilities. Against the "lesser" teams who park the bus, the Boltons, Fulhams etc I don't think possession is a problem for us so I don't see why we need to play both. We need somebody to slice defences open and we've sent the only two players in our squad capable of doing that from midfield out on loan. Sigh

Didn't AVB say in a press conference about 4 months ago that the club were negotiating a deal with his agent?? Two situations: 1) It's to prevent him from leaving on a free because he still has a good market value. We should be able to get 10 million for him considering the likes of Ngog went for 5 I believe 2) It's to keep him as a backup which I am not totally against. If we are getting rid of Drogba, Malouda and co. all in one transfer window, we might not be able to sign "squad players" I just hope that it isn't offering him ridiculous wages considering his contributions and isn't more than a 2 year deal.

did you even watch the match? he was one of our best players, along with Cech. He is 32 years old, though.... Also, does this really warrant a new thread? It could have been posted in the napoli post-match thread. There are like a hundred new threads every day now.

Malouda was one of our better players. He did well.

A few of them should have been sold a few years ago. I hope we have learnt from our mistakes and never repeat this again. Players should be bought when they are in the 20-25 age range and sold when they're 30/31 UNLESS they are prepared to accept a smaller role at LOWER WAGES. And even then they should only be offered 2-year contracts Now we're stuck with Lampard, Cole, Drogba and co. all earning 150k++ a week even though their contributions do not match that at all.

His frustration would only be justified if he was actually performing well. Right now the difference between what Meireles brings to the team and what frank brings is not a whole hell of a lot. Raul may be shit but so is frank. Perhaps he should be starting over Raul in certain games but it's not as if there's a huge difference. Both hardly provide anything. All lamps is good for now is his runs into the box. Meireles brings something different. The fact is Meireles is being totally wasted at that DM position. Hes useless there. He should be played higher up with Romeu or Essien at DM. I think he'd be much better if played there and would provide much more than lamps.

Well it's worth giving it a go I guess. Maybe try it out for a half hour against Bolton or something? If it doesn't work then simply switch Luiz and Ivanovic back to CB and RB respectively

Wasn't he supposedly very poor at left-back??

a couple of those are just guesses based on google searches of their autographs

lol can't figure out most of them Ramires - top left under the "S" Lampard - 3rd one under the "M" Anelka - 2nd one under "G" Bosingwa - below Anelka Ivanovic - below Bosingwa Drogba - Below Ivanovic Alex - left of Bosingwa the two squiggly lines