CHOULO19

Please tell me you're joking 29 is a bit old, 34 is very old....43 is too old even by Milan standards (and that's saying something!)

It is very sad to see this place lose so many great people and excellent posters

As long as we are playing 4-2-3-1 Rambo should stay away from the central midfield roles. Even if he is played there with a more defensive player, he simply does not have the passing skills and vision to play there. The double pivot role requires, imo, players that are very disciplined defensively and excellent passers offensively (hence why Mikel and Lamps proved to be perfect there). His bursting pace and incredible stamina are best suited for the wings in this formation. If we ever return to 4-3-3, we can use him again in the center.

Yes I remember as well reading it was a couple of days after the Euros finish.

Apparently he went to the hospital last night after the match to get an x-ray after he felt some pain in his shoulder. I hope it's nothing serious.

So he will miss pre-season? Great!

I know what you mean, mine has been crashing every other day for the last month or so. It particularly had a problem with Gmail for some reason.

I've finally had it with Firefox and downloaded Chrome. Anyone got a good Chelsea theme? I can't find any

^^ Mehh, so what? I still got the manager of the round award

Mikel and Essien are two different players even if they play in the same role. Mikel can't do what Essien used to do and Essien could never do what Mikel currently does. Essien was perfect for 4-3-3 while Mikel is more suited for the double pivot role. I really don't understand all the doubt about Mikel. The man is on top of his game, he was our best player towards the end of the season and was by far the best in the league at what he does. If you re-watch the CL final, his performance was the best I've seen by a DM in a long long time. He is excellent at breaking play up, he is unbelievably composed on the ball, and his passing is sublime. So to quote the great SeB: "When will people realize that Mikel is great at what he does and not some random guy we play just because we don't have anyone else?" As for Lamps, I know that he is not getting any younger, but he is yet to show that he can't play at this level anymore. In fact his performances in the double pivot role were not only class but showed a side of his game that we didn't know he had. As some one already said, replacing him just because he's 34 is ridiculous. Modric for 40mil or even 28mil will not add much to our squad. We have more than enough CMs (Lamps, Mikel, Romeu, Raul, De Bruyne, Essien, Josh, Ramires) to rotate players the two CM roles we have in the starting XI; but for me, Lamps and Mikel have to start in the big matches. Not to mention that buying a new CM will make it much harder for the youngsters to be given a proper chance. People say that RDM turned our season around, it's true, but it was also the Mikel-Lamps partnership that was, imo, the key to winning the two cups. I say we keep that for another season.

Welcome Anthony. Stick around, we have a huge group of Australian posters here, you'll fit right in.

His form has suffered greatly ever since the Bremen manager started playing him behind the striker.

On the contrary, a keeper is as good as his defense. If he feels that his defense is shaky and that he can't trust them, his performance will suffer.

On the contrary mate. From what I know from watching Bremen is that Marin likes to play out wide but was forced by the manager to play behind the striker. He is no were near as good in central areas; I'd be very surprised if he plays centrally here at Chelsea.

True there aren't many left but surely we can find someone. Utd and Tottenham have proper wingers and that adds a dimension to their gamer we usually sorely lack especially against tight defenses. We've already signed a natural winger in the form of Marin (let's hope he can prove to be world-class) surely we can find another.

Would be much more value for money than Hulk. But would he leave Dortmund?

^^ Agreed. We've had enough converted wingers over the last few years. But we haven't had a proper natural winger since Robben!

Unfortunately not in the position we need. But looks great.

Oh you're right, but that has rarely been highlighted since our strategy is usually lump the ball forward and DD will win it To be fair to him, under AVB he was extremely over exposed. At the end of the day, even a world-class keeper, is as good as his defense. But that's not to say that he did not make mistakes (the Wigan goal away in the last 5 mins springs to mind) or have a couple of bad performances (Arsenal at home). But he also saved many points for us.

Yes. Petr's injury was potentially fatal. That creates psychological problems when it comes to physical collisions with players. It's only normal. But yes, that's a point against big Pete. Buffon had a decent season, but nothing world-class. His stats were out of this world because of Conte's tactics and the solidity of the Juve defense. Trust me I've watched all his matches this season and he was rarely forced to make spectacular saves. 100% agree. 2004-2006 he was the perfect keeper What do you mean by distribution skills? imo, his his biggest flaw is his domination in the air (after the head injury). As I said above, Buffon had a solid season, but nothing world-class, not that he was tested enough. As for Neuer I think he is absolutely excellent is some occasions and makes some spectacular saves but he is far far from being the best in the world. He lacks consistency in his performances and is too prone to amateur mistakes that are due to lack of experience. He is very likely to be the best in the world in a few years. Petr had, by far, the best season amongst the three which makes him the best keeper in the world currently.

You obviously like Casillas more and that is perhaps affecting your judgement. My point was keepers are not judged by their odd mistakes, because they all have those, but by what they are able to do well. Petr is the best in the world at positioning himself. He's the type of keeper that makes you feel it's all easy. In fact, some of Petr's most brilliant saves often go unnoticed because he makes them look like regular saves. His weakness is he is no longer as commanding in the air after his head injury and he sometimes lacks courage in his one-on-one challenges. Casillas is more "dramatic" in his keeping. He likes to make his saves look like they are in slow-motion while he jumps acrobatically in the air. His reflexes are, imo, second to none in the world, but his positioning is not comparable to Petr. His worst weakness, however, is that his FK keeping is nowhere near world-class. He often messes up the wall and is half of the times positioned poorly for a FK. As for Buffon, he was the perfect keeper in 2006. His skills have suffering with all the injuries and of course with him getting older. He had a bad season last year after he suffered a lengthy injury, he was decent this season but was never really tested much and was never forced to make many world-class performances due to the solidity of the Juve defense. Overall, I'd say that there is no doubt that Petr had the best season out of all of them which makes him the best keeper in the world currently. But the main point is: keeping is not just about making the spectacular save, but more importantly about taking the right steps and closing the angle so that you are not forced to make the spectacular difficult save but an ordinary easy one. That's what I think at least.

Particular cases don't dictate the general rule: Buffon tried to dribble past the striker in the 85th min two games from the end of the season, he lost the ball conceded a goal and almost cost Juve the title. Casillas got him self unnecessarily sent off in the first 10 mins of the match (I think it was vs Levante). Real lost that game and their 5 point lead at the top was reduced which let Barca back in the title race. Every keeper makes silly mistakes, nothing can take away Petr's unbelievable performances this season or the ones he has had since he joined us.

I'd like to see you stand still with a huge defender rushing towards when you've had your skull broken before. And by the way, I'm a Juve fan and take it from me, as much as I love Buffon, he did absolutely nothing specially for the last couple of seasons. Casillas is also very prone to mistakes which often prove costly. He did not, by far, have his best season.

Oh, sorry to hear that. Hope you all get better soon.

You are getting really annoying. This isn't some forum where you can come here, abuse the system, and think you can get away with it. Leave. NOW.