CHOULO19

Inside joke. Ask @.

Right...but can you be an iPad wanker like @SeB?

He trained with the first team today. And Steve Holland said that one youth player will be with the team tomorrow. So I think it is likely that he will be on the bench tomorrow. Whether or not he actually plays is another story.

I honestly don't disagree with any of that (except the bolded part). But you do see how that differs from a whole footballing philosophy that Jose is trying to build, right? I'm not saying that Jose is better, because there can't be a comparison between Jose and Rafa here because the two situations cannot be compared. But I guess the point of discussion here is that I believe that we could not have continued with the same Benitez "tactics" we had last season because they did not define the club or the way we wanted to play (and because it was too reliant on individual players). What we need, and what the the club obviously wants is a new philosophy like the one we installed back in 2004 and that has stayed with the club for 8 years despite all the players that have come and go. As for the bolded part, I wholeheartedly disagree. The movement of the front three was not better last season but the players found more players for a couple of reasons. First, the reason I already touched on, and that is that teams did not play as defensive against us last season as they are now. Just look at how Basel played against us last season as compared to last Wednesday. The other is that part of the philosophy that Jose is trying to implement is playing possession football high up the pitch which means that the opposition will be condensed in the their third making spaces for harder to find without proper movement, movement that we have yet to perfect. While last season most of the possession we had was in our own half and with the back four which meant that the opposition players were spread out over two thirds of the pitch instead of one; meaning there was bound to be more space.

Not sure he'll actually play, though. Jose would want to give playing to all of Essien, MVG and Frank in the two pivot places. So his inclusion might just be to recognize his progress by having him on the bench and not to actually play him.

Great job, although longer than usual. Someone feels threatened by SeB's article What exactly are you trying to compensate for with this big article?

Well Baker has certainly earned this chance if he is the one with the first team tomorrow.

Sometimes it doesn't work and other times it's late. @LDN Blue, You either highlight a part of the text and click "Mention" when the button appears: Or do it manually by writing [ member='member's name' ] without the spaces, of course.

No he said it before and after the Fulham game on Saturday.

@Strike, yes.

Was a bit surprised with this since they have rather been struggling in League One. Could probably mean that they defend well at home.

We always have the assistant do the PCs for the first couple of rounds of the league cup. It's a tradition. The lineup for the U21 game against Everton today should give us an idea about who that youngster who will join the team tomorrow might be.

Match Preview Here by @Strike

That was always going to be the case since he doesn't have a lisence to play in England and he can't be loaned out outside it before Jan.

Good job, mate. Hope you don't mind I added a couple of things

I'm not belittling Benitez, I was one of very few people defending him last season and I even wrote an article explaining how he had done a good job regardless if we won the EL or made top 4 (and got crucified for it). I'm not disagree with any of what you are saying, but all those were a quick-fix for certain areas and certain situations but not an overall system. And even those enhancements were based on individual player skills. For example, our entire plan to get the ball from defense to attack when the other team is not in transition was based on Azpi's ability on the ball. If he was not playing, or the opposition decide to mark him, we had to rely on Luiz's under 10% accuracy long balls. Even in the defense, Rafa improved some aspects like you said by having the wingers track back and we actually started defending in midfield rather than on the edge of our own box like we did under RDM. But it was all still depending on individual player ability to defend in certain situations and we did not have a clear tactical system in our defending. Did we look to press high and overrun the opposition in midfield? Did we look to retrieve the ball by forcing the opposition to the flanks? Did we look pack the box and win the ball deep? I personally didn't see any of that. I'm not blaming Benitez for any of that. He was asked for immediate success and he delivered. Plus he had no time on the training ground to implement a new system. Instead, he tried to improve certain aspects, and he also worked on improving the players individually which was beneficial not for last season alone but will certainly help us this season and the ones to come. But the point I was making that what Jose is trying to do now is more complicated and if it took Rafa two months to implement have his mark on the team, Jose should get the same at the very least. Whether or not Rafa would have done well this season is a completely different debate and a hypothetical one that I honestly see no point in going into at the moment since we have more than enough real problems to discuss Thank you, for that valuable contribution to the discussion

@chelseayouth Steve Atkins says Chelsea are confident of signing Bertrand Traore to a professional deal but it may be January before things are sorted.

I distinctly remember watching a Genk game when he was on loan there from us where he played at central midfield. I think he can play at central midfield if needed, but I don't think we need to have this discussion because I believe Jose wants him to play the number ten role as Oscar's rotation option.

I don't think it;s laziness. Iva doesn't close down crosses simply because he's a CB playing at RB. It does not come instinctively for him to close down crosses.

Not really fair to judge on Jose on last year because Madrid had issues that had nothing to do with tactics. The dressing room politics were getting in the way of the football. What Benitez did was a quick-fix. He did a very good job at it but it was never going to be a long-term thing. It was very simplistic because he had no time on the training ground to come up with a new system and he knew he would be gone by the end of the season. What he did was switch to 4-4-1-1, with two banks of 4 and a deep block when defending. He made the wingers play deeper with only Azpi going forward and Cole staying deep while freeing Mata and the striker of almost all defensive duties. On the offense all he did was try to get the ball out of defense with a Azpi-pivot-RW triangle and rely on the speed of Hazard, Torres and Ramires on the counter. But other than that we had no clear offensive system. He rode the incredible form of Mata (tbf, he also contributed to it) and relied on the individual brilliance of Mata, Hazard and Oscar to create something. That's why that could never have lasted. But even that took a couple of months to implement. Up until early Jan we were terrible under Benitez and even in the closing months of the season were we got the job done, we were often inconsistent. What Jose is trying to do on the other hand is create a philosophy for the , club a new identity. He remodeled our defensive system, solved the issue of the gap between the pivot and back four and the issue of getting the ball out of defense with the role he created for the number ten. He's trying to create an offensive system that is based on player movement and plays that he draws up instead of the randomness of individual brilliance. That's what a footballing philosophy means, a comprehensive system of play that team can implement regardless of the players that come and go to the club. A philosophy is something that carries the team for years. The philosophy that Jose created back in 2004 has lived with the club till 2012 and saw a lot of success. But it will take time, especially that the squad we currently have is made up of young players that will need time to adapt and time to become consistent. You're also forgetting that last season, Chelsea were a Europa League level club. Yes we made third place, but we were not much better than Everton, Liverpool and the likes. Teams fancied their chances against us especially that we were very inconsistent and can go from beating united to losing to QPR. This season it is different, we are tittle contenders (and our team has been hyped to the extent that it can actually hurt us) and almost every team sets up against us for a goal-less draw. That's what you get when every pundit in the country jumps on the bandwagon and says you're going to win the league. Which is why I said that if anything good came out of our "crisis" is that it lowers the expectations and "hype" around our team and maybe some teams will be more encouraged to attack against us.

Thank goodness he knows that Josh is a sitting midfielder. Mowbray played him on the wing

Which time? We "agreed personal terms" with Falcao at least 2-3 times.

The game has changed immensely since Jose's first stint here. Not Chelsea's game, but all of football, especially the concept of defending. Jose himself has had an immense influence on how teams around the world defend, actually. It's not fair to say that his teams struggle against defensive teams because Madrid dealt well with tight defenses and always managed to create spaces. His Inter were also head and shoulders above everyone else in the most defensive and tactically toughest league in the world. The philosophy is different than 2004, we're not trying to play a low block and give the opposition the ball, we don't have the players to do that. We're trying to play possession football, like Jose has said several times. But our attacking midfielders has played without a proper tactical system for 2-3 seasons now, they will need time to adapt to the new philosophy Jose is trying to implement. It needs work and time. Whoever expected that we start the season on top form and that we put in consistent performances with the players we currently have was being unrealistically optimistic.

Well you don't have to, but it's not like we have Van Busten and Pele as the other options and Jose is the one that sees them most in training. On any account, he did say on Saturday that he still doesn't know who his best striker is so he is giving everyone chances to prove themselves.

No one is much better than Torres, atm, but it seems Jose believes Eto'o ca become better if he is given a run of run of games. We didn't sell mata because Jose thinks he can adapt to a new role on the wing and be vital for the team. Jose wants to play Oscar and Mata together if Mata can prove that is possible. Jose has explained what he wants publically and in more detail than we would have imagined. No that's really NOT what I'm saying. What I'm saying is that you can't start Mata in our current system just because he was our best player in our old system last season. What Jose wants from that number ten role Oscar is doing way much better and thus is rightfully starting. When Mata shows he is capable of doing the job in our current system on the wing or in the center better than the other players he will start. Simple as.