CHOULO19

He'll become a good player, but just like Cork, not here.

Of course they shouldn't be in the team just because we won the CL, but you can't say we can't win a trophy with them in the team when they've already helped us win the biggest one. It's basic logic really. The pivot has been mostly terrible for many reasons. One of them is the fact that we don't have someone to partner Mikel there. Another is the type of players we have in our front four. The most important, imo, is in the 4-2-3-1 and the pivot itself that is yet convince me as the best formation we can use. We've had many problems this season, and naturally everybody starts looking for scapegoats, but that does not mean that we should get rid of Mikel who has been crucial in every trophy we won the past 4 years.

What's your point? The claims were we cannot win trophies with Mikel and Rami which is not true since we already won trophies with them being integral players in the squad. Kalou and Bosingwa were not crucial players in us winning the CL. They weren't even starters last season.

You did not but other people were. My original comment was aimed at them.

Why bother? For the same reason we bothered against Napoli, Barcelona and Munich last season..

I don't think we're favorites to beat utd either, but my original point is that we should not just forfeit the match!

You win one or two games by luck but not 2 cups. Every team that has ever won the CL has had some luck but that does not take from the players' effort. Although his best performance was probably Munich, Mikel was exceptionally good throught the last 3 months. The FA cup final is another brilliant performance by him and we were, for 70 mins, dominating Liverpool and pressing high up the pitch. I would agree on Lamps if you mean this season but last season Frank was excellent in the pivot. He was very disciplined and defended surprisingly well. I never knew he was such a good tackler before last season! But that came at the price of him scoring goals. I think he didn't score a single goal under RDM last season except from set pieces. This season he is not willing to pay that price because of the record. Point is, the notion that Mikel, and even Ramires, cannot be in the team if you want to win trophies is ridiculous since we already won the biggest trophy out there with them being crucial players in the team.

How about the FA cup and CL last season? Everyone seem to have forgotten that the pivot of him and Lamps was one of the main reasons for last year's triumphs.

And that equates to us having to lose against Boro because we have no chance against utd?!

I feel it also has to do with the manager. Movement up front is something you practice in training and we've been suffering from it all season and not just for long balls. Ball distribution against teams that press has been one of the major issues for us, imo.

Well that should insure she never signs in here again.. Welcome Lynn. Please ignore the childish jokes and stick around If you need any help, feel free to contact me or any other Mod/Admin.

Lukaku should only return next season if the next manager sees that having only him and Ba as strikers is enough for the team (if we continue to play with a lone striker). Other wise he won't be getting any time here just like last season.

No, that's your opinion. I believe Mikel is very good. But I never claim that to be a fact.

The pub - Home of perverted Chelsea fans

That is an absolute myth. Mikel's range of passing is much better than people give him credit for but a pass takes two players: the passes and the receiver. Go back to 09-10 when we actually had proper movement among the forwards, Mikel played the most long balls on a regular basis. He certainly has the ability. Just look at the Sparta game for example; Mikel completed and astounding 12/13 long balls, at least twice as much as any outfield player.

No he doesn't. The manager picks the team. He is given that job because he is better at that than fans or else all teams would hire fans instead of managers. Would be much cheaper at least..

Can we please stop the pessimistic nonsense. We played utd twice this season and dominated them in both games. We won one and got robbed in the other by the most absurd refereeing you'll see. Besides, we should really focus on Boro first, don't you think?

This obviously isn't going anywhere. Let's just agree to disagree on Mikel. Exactly! That is exactly the problem: People want Mikel to be either a box-to-box midfielder (Essien) or an attacking midfielder (Ballack). And both those players come once every few decades. If you want to judge people by standards that high, you'd probably only leave Cech and Mata in your team. Thankfully all of our managers can see that Mikel does his job very well.

We've played united twice so far this season. We dominated both matches. We beat them in one game and were robbed by some absurd refereeing in the second. Have some faith!

What Mikel offers is the most vital thing in both scoring goals and not conceding goals: The ability to keep possession. Mikel has ball retention skills that are second to none. He offers a constant outlet for teammates under pressure and then he has the skill to keep the ball and find a teammate with 90% accuracy. Without a holding midfielder, all it takes is a little pressure on the the CBs and they are either forced to play long balls that we are unlikely to win or worse lose the ball. This is most evident in our home game against Swansea, but it has been a major concern in almost every match Mikel has missed. On the defense, Mikel's discipline allows players to go forward and have more freedom be it Frank, Ramires or even Luiz when he plays at the back. His job is not to tackle and be aggressive which would leave spaces behind him, but rather to close down the channels and angles of passing and force the opponent to take the difficult pass. He does this extremely well.

He's a very good keeper, yes, Not quite in the league of the very best in the world, though. His reflex and shot stopping are top notch; his positioning and abilities in the air not quite. He also has serious trouble saving low shots. Would be an excellent back-up, but I very much doubt he will leave Inter.

Delightfully insightful and excellently done, thank you Christopher! He makes some excellent points. The bit about Josh is particularly interesting. Many Chelsea fans have written him off this season but have forgotten that he has played almost exclusively out of position.

I have some excellent opposition views for you for this match : Opposition Views Here

Boro fan and youth players expert, Christopher Powlay, was kind enough to answer a few questions ahead of our match on Wednesday. Here is what he had to say: -Let’s start with how long have you been a Boro fan? Probably only about a decade, when i was younger my dad always worked on a weekend so didnt really go to any games. Instead i played football on the school field pretending to be Zico, Norman Whiteside, Jesper Olsen etc. I started attending Boro games regularly in 2002, and got a 8 game season ticket initially before taking the plunge the following season. But i was more a football fan than a Boro fan back then. It was a good option to see the worlds best playing for the opposition. I always had a soft spot for Man Utd growing up, but over time and through attending games week in week out i changed. Thats pretty naughty isnt it in footballing terms? haha -Your season started very well and you even briefly occupied second place, but 2013 has been absolute disaster for you. What has went wrong for you in the past couple of months? And where do you feel you need to improve? Injuries, injuries and injuries. Story of our last few seasons really. The club lose key players through injury, players group together, dig in and over come.Add to that a lack of team consistency, Forget Chelsea's 'tinkerman' we have the real deal. The line up changes from week to week. Be it from injuries, players needing rest due to small knocks of some random forseen change. A major miss (and some Boro fans might not agree) for me is Justin Hoyte, last season despised by many, this season he has been consistently a top player for the club. Offers balance to Friend, offers pace and at full back thats a huge thing in todays game. Where do Boro need to improve? Everywhere apart from in goal? We as a club lack creativity, which is a little funny because we have on loan young Chelsea starlet Josh McEachran, who seems to see passes no one else does and can move the ball really well keeping possession and putting the opposition under pressure. But he always seems to be used in positions that dont really suit him. Wide left, wide right, in front of the back 4 or up front with no one near to him! -You are a young side that likes to play a passing game as opposed to lumping the ball forward. How does that affect your chances of promotion this season in your opinion? We do lump the ball forward, we do it more than people think. When Lukas Jutkiewicz plays the ball seems to be in the air an awful lot. Not just from the usual goal kick kinda plays, but back to front out of defense. We do also play a passing game, we have players who are comfortable with the ball at their feet. Rhys Williams bombscare Bikey and Woodgate can all bring the ball forward from the back, Friend loves to get down the wing with the ball at his feet, Josh, Leadbitter and Bailey in midfield are all very happy with the ball moving it around and making space and of course Ledesma. The problem is creating chances, we often hold the ball a long time and are not threatening enough, often a single pass causes a whole defence to shift leaving holes for players to run into. We just seem to lack THAT pass right now. -Your defense has been leaky this season, do you think you should have did more to strengthen it in the January market? I think every side wants to strengthen in the January window, at the very least sides dont want to become weaker. But wanting and needing are two different things. The club has Woodgate, Bikey, Williams and Seb Hines who are all centre backs, George Friend can cover there as well. Stephen McManus has returned from his loan spell at Bristol and has come back in as well. Another centre back would have made the side very heavy in that position. Add to all that, the club really probably doesnt have the money, they brought in Dyer on a pay as you play deal. But the manager said any incoming loans would have to be covered by an outgoing one. The chairman has pulled the purse strings very tight. And i cannot blame him, he invests £1m a month to keep the club going. He invested heavily when Strachan was here, bringing in Kris Boyd, Kevin Thomson, Nicky Bailey, Scott McDonald etc etc all on above average championship wages. Bailey, McDonald and McManus still remain, so that investment is still being paid for. -Let’s talk about Josh McEachran who is on loan from Chelsea and has been a regular starter for Boro: What have you made of young Josh? Strengths? Weaknesses? And do you think he is able to make at Chelsea in the future? I'm quite a 'Josh' fanboy. Ive been aware of him for a long long time (being a youth football follower his name was out there from a young age) and when we signed him on loan i was very pleased. I thought he would be a little lightweight for this league but he has shown he can cut it physically. Strengths, give him the ball and its easy to see the kid can pass. He can see passes that others cannot, he doesnt always get the ball through but you see him trying things that others wont do. It might work a few times a game but that opens the game up and in turn creates chances. Weaknesses? He dwells on the ball at times and it can cost, he did it vs Charlton earlier this season lost the ball in the middle of the field and it cost a goal. But thats part of learning at a reasonable level. He has played more games this season than so far in his club career altogether. He will make mistakes, he had a spell of poor form but seemed to get over it.Putting the ball in the net? Yet to score for the club despite a dance in the box where he went past one, taxi'ed another and then fell over himself! He adds goals to his game and he really will be a superb all around ball playing midfielder. -Who has been your best player this season and who could be a threat to us on Wednseday? Jason Steele. Outstanding goal keeper, mental to think fans were calling him awful and wanting him sold a season or so ago. He really is an outstanding prospect and a superbly talented keeper to boot. Shot stopping this season has been awesome, kept the side in the game so many times. Yes he has made a few mistakes, what young keeper doesnt? But has become the best keeper in the league in my opinion this season, and that has not gone un noticed by the bigger boys in the PL. Chelsea were rumoured to have made an approach about 18 months back, and he has been watched by PL sides this season near enough week in week out. Who could be a threat? Hard to say which Boro will turn up, the one who goes out and attacks, shows drive and a will to win, or the one that shoots itsself in the foot, sets up the opposition time and time again and looks as defensivley strong as a sheet of wet newspaper! Curtis Main has been brilliant since returning from injury, he is a young player the club aquired after his release from Darlington, he is a physical powerful player who has scored a few recently. Muzzy Carayol (maybe off the bench?) is an exciting direct player who has pace to burn. I think it shows how our season has been that no attacker really has stood out and will be a threat. -If you could have one player from Chelsea at Boro (other than Josh, that is) who would it be and why? Frank Lampard, midfield goals are so important. And Frank year after year after year has got double figures (not only double figures but nearly averaging 20 per season!) and thats massive. Yes some are penalties, but plenty are not. He isnt just all about goals, he can move the ball about, he can play deeper and set up plays. To me he has to be the 2nd best English midfielder over the last decade behind the ginger assassin at man utd. -The FA cup is the dream of every English team, but is it a top priority at Boro or will the manager have the league game in mind when setting up the team? It probably wont be our top priority, but it will be taken very seriously. No side wants to get a good whooping and because of that you will see a full strength side. -Chelsea go into the tie as favorites but our inconsistency under Rafa makes an upset very much on the cards. How do you rate your chances in this tie? Do you think you can take advantage of Chelsea’s form? Football is brilliant because on any given day in the cup something can happen. Chelsea will beat Boro more times than not if they play week in week out. But its a one off game. Chelsea huge favorites to win. No one can deny that, but as a fan of a smaller club you always have hope. -What lineup and formation is Mowbray likely to put out on Wednseday? To be honest you probably have as much clue as i do, each game we see some sort of change. I suspect it will a 4-3-3 that really is a 4-5-1. Steele will start in goal (injurys permitting) and the back 4 will probably be made up of Friend at left back, Bailey filling in at right back and a central pairing from Bikey, Woodgate, McManus, Williams or Hines.If Josh doesnt play (which he hasnt in any cup games so far!) then you may see someone like Haroun come in. a Hard working physical player. Leadbitter, maybe Williams (if not at centre back) possilby. Up front could be anyone who is fit! Miller is carrying a knock, Jutkiewicz is out, McDonald returned from injury as a sub this weekend past. Leaving Main and possibly Ledesma, Dyer or Carayool as wide players. Expect a totally different side with 5 battling midfielder then just to make me look bad! -Finally, please predict the final result. Chelsea win. Click here to view the article