OneMoSalah

It gets rid of the 'myth' that Mikel isn't able to pass a ball more than 10 yards doesn' it? Or the 'myth' he isn't able to be creative. I've seen people on here complain because he never plays long verticle passes or never has in however many years or how hes never had assists etc. I was arguing with an Irish guy who tried to tell me that Mikel always played backwards and sideways passes in another thread and that stats would prove that.......which they didn't....... this season and even sometimes last season under AVB he started playing more verticle passes, even in 2009-10 he was playing more verticle passes but still people said 'hes shit, not creative enough, always playing it backwards/sideways.' I mean you can measure him up against Makelele but you'd just be stupid. Makelele was probably the finest in that role. I mean it would be hard for anyone to live up to that.

Aye Mikels passing range is shit, watch 23 seconds in to 33 seconds. Fuck all the song bits, guy claims to have made a Mikel vs Song video even though Song is in it for about 8 hours. The bastard. Also hes not capable of being creative? GET THE FUCK OUT Watch that too...

and breaking news that Falcao is coming to Chelsea in return for Torres ... or any striker in return for Torres... or Torres is leaving....

Its a wee joke haha, just because Scottish people drink plenty scotch and well Spike mentions it a lot too. Tbh would hate to be one of those underage guys who gets smashed every week and ends up a junkie (like a lot of young Scots sadly). Would hate myself if I turned into one of those bellends.

Leave me alone, its because of the scotch. Its affecting both my braincells so I'm getting players names wrong.

No Leif no!!!!! Zidane > Lampard. Zidane > Messi. Zidane is in my eyes in the top 3 players that ever lived, behind Maradonna and Pele, Messi is fourth imo. Zidane was just...... words cannot describe..... he was such a genius on the pitch, even in his older years he managed to carry France by himself to the WC 2006 final. If he hadn't been sent off France would have won the World Cup imo. Things like that seperate Maradonna, Pele and Zidane from the likes of Messi and Ronaldo. Even though Brazil had an amazing team when Pele played, he was undoubtably the star player, goal record speaks for itself, won 3 world cups. Maradonna was Argentina's star man, the world cups he helped them win with his incredible talent, the teams he carried to the top, BOTH GOALS VS ENGLAND ( ).. incredible... sure the drugs and life crisis he suffered put a dampner on that but still an incredible player. Then Zidane, France's most technically gifted player when he was in the side by a mile, winner of a WC and European championship where he played a key role in winning both. Won multiple trophies at club level too where he was a key part of the team. Lampard doesn't even get close to Zidane. I mean sure Lampard is a legend here but Zidane is a legend of the game.

Heard we are going to offer Atletico Madrid Fernando Torres plus 50 million smarties for Falcao. Rumors are that Atleti's president is a bit of a fatty. Real Madrid and PSG have only offered 40 million smarties, seems likely both will pull out of negotiations and try to sign Edison Cavani, along with Arsenal who are interested but Wenger has used all his smarties because he has signed at least 50-100 10 year old children with them. [NOTSKYSPORTSOURCES] Getting bored of this saga, more interested in when we sell Torres rather than when we sign Falcao.

Pmsl. You should go back to RAWK. You are an idiot. You smoke too much pot.

Does that mean Barca are pish because all their players pass the ball 8-10 yards horozontially? Honestley just shut up, I watch every game, Mikel doesn't just play backwards 10 yards passes. Are you ready for this? Average pass length = 17 meters. 604 forward passes (65.7%) 314 backward passes (34.3%) 90% passing accuracy. BITCH PLEASE

If Mikel is too slow and isn't as good a passer why has he been a regular since 2007-08. I know what a DM does but you said Mikel isn't a good enough passer, which he is. Before his suspension and injuries he had completed the most passes in our team, with the highest accuracy. Also your argument about Mikel not finding Mata and that, thats either because they are marked or standing still. You can't just assume, oh there not moving or coming for the ball so its Mikels fault honestly. Also if Busquets isn't Barca's DM and is their playmaker, who is their DM? Messi?

Lets be honest, I don't see why Henrique is being attacked by saying Oscar is overrated. Based on a few goals he has been billed up as what he is currently. Tbh I remember one game where he was outstanding. The Juve game for his 2 goals and job defensively on Pirlo. Hes been hot and cold since, I know its his first season and all but recently I've expected more from him, as I did with Hazard a few months ago the only difference being Hazard has stepped it up a bit where as Oscar hasn't. I think playing him as a #10 is best for him right now, he still needs to grow as a player before even talking about moving him back a seat to play as a deeper midfielder. He was much better at the Olympics than what he has been for the last 4-5 months or so. I'm not agreeing with Henrique completey and saying Oscar is going to be a failure, far from it but still he is being billed up slightly as a better player than what he is.

Since when was it a defensive midfielders job to unlock defences?????????????????????????

Because Soton were played a 4-3-3 I think and going 4-4-2 gives them an extra man in midfield, even if they were playing 4-2-3-1 it gives them an extra man if their AM drops. 4-4-2 is also better suited to a more direct approach which we were only trying at like the 89th minute.

Bullshit. Mikel is a class DM, he does everything you'd want, now hes gets a chance to play verticle passes because there is much more movement in the midfield unlike before. Capoue isn't even as good as Mikel.

Instrumental in inventing it? I doubt it, it is just a varied 4-4-1-1, it was about before Rafa was. Anyway, he used it a lot yes. Valencia, Liverpool and Inter during his reigns were all 4-2-3-1 and so is Chelsea. Its his preferred formation obviously. Ideally in the pivot you want a player next to your holding MF who can build and control the game from deep but who can still provide killer passes when chances are there, spray the ball into space in wide areas to move teams about etc. and right now we don't have such a player. If you look at Modric's stats from the season before that summer we wanted him, never really got a lot of assists and goals but was the most important player in that Spurs team because he was dropping deep getting the ball into players in space who then got assists. We need a player similar to him.

We don't have the right players for 4-2-3-1 as we don't have an actual playmaker or DM at the moment (Romeu injured, Mikel ACON). 4-3-3 is a better system for keeping possession and its much more balanced than the 4-2-3-1. A 4-3-3 with an inverted MF 3 might work but still effectively a 4-2-3-1 really. Rami---------Mikel ----------------------- --------Mata--------

Said hes a Chelsea fan on twitter. Don't think hes as good as everyone makes out, overhyped like most young English players, he had a good game against us so another thread... might as well sign Ricky Lambert too then...

Only Scotch would save QPR, or at least they'd think they were safe.

Wilshere plays far to high up for the pivot imo. Arsenal usually play Arteta - Wilshere - Cazorla and they get overrun in games because of Cazorla and Wilsheres tendancies to play further up the pitch. That could be worked on tbh. Anyway he could be a future signing as well surely if Arsenal keep fucking up.

Guardiola is impossible to get now, hes waiting for United, why do you think he went to Bayern? We blew our chance sacking AVB despite saying he had 3 years to do what he wanted, mould the squad into something similar to Barcelona/AVB's Porto (which was a good model tbh, good philosophy and similar to Barca in a way). Pep is Pep yes, Barca's most successful manager but what happens when he hits a stumbling block because the current squad wasn't as good/suited for that philosophy. You remember that with Peps genius, he also had a fine set of tools, which were all trained to be used the way Cruyff wanted, who was Peps biggest influence on his playing career and probably his managerial career. I'm not saying Pep had it easy, no, he had to sell big players which was a risk, Ronaldinho, Deco, Eto'o, Henry, Beletti, etc were all CL winners and replaced them with young talented but still risky players as they were inexperienced and largely untested at CL and La Liga level. Would he have gotten such a chance to do that at Chelsea? NO. So he never will I imagine.

No he isn't some Harry Potter character. Hes not untouchable. Hes a legend but being a legend doesn't make him invincible to not having his contract renewed. Cole is needed more than Lampard at the moment, deny that and your nuts. I'd sacrifice Lamps for Cole right now, even though I hate to say such a thing, both would be great as long as you tell Lampard he won't be starting 40 games a season now but he feels he can play every game still so maybe its better he goes. This has been stated many times, AVB was turfed out because of him whinging about playing 150 mins over 3 games. I don't care who you install as manager, would Lamps accept that? Probably not.

Also criticizing fans who don't go to games is ridiculous. They are as much Chelsea fans as anyone else, Chelsea is a global brand, so what if people who live outside of England don't go to games, they are every bit as much a Chelsea fan as an English fan who goes to a game every week or whatever. If they watch games on TV, support the team through moments like this and cheer them on from home what gives anyone the right to say they aren't as important as fans at games? This is getting out of hand though, we fucked up. Beating Arsenal next weekend will make up for this.

Yes many fans were there before Roman and Jose but still, would you years ago have ever seen Chelsea fans boo a manager every fucking week and being most active and positive on the 16th minute of games? We have a bad reputation as a club due to how it is run from the top and it looks like people will think our fans are mugs if they keep this up I wouldn't be surprised if other managers start criticizing supporters for the treatment of Rafa etc. Rememeber criticizing the board for sacking Jose/Carlo/AVB/Rafa etc, they have every right to be criticizing certain fans right now for booing the team and coach most games. I know football is nothing without the fans but still I think its fair enough for a coach to be given some sort of respect and support from the clubs fans.

<p>Have to be honest, wish the fans would stop signing on the 16th minute EVERY WEEK and actually cheer/try to make the players feel like they are at home for the full 90 minutes of the game rather than just sit booing constantly. Support the team or don't go to games. Seems like some of the so called 'fans' just go to games to remind Roman about sacking Roman then just boo the fuck out of Rafa. </p> <p> </p> <p>Sure Robbie was a nice guy, legend at the club as a player and first CL winning manager for us which makes him a legend in another sense but theres no Jose, Carlo, Scolari, Hiddink or AVB tributes on certain minutes. We're clearly losing points at home because of this booing bullshit, its kind of rubbing off on the players and they are playing poorly.</p> <p> </p> <p>Out of the first XI, how many players do you reckon actually felt like they were at an away game at times? I'd imagine a lot of them. Not saying this to anyone in particular on here but sometimes its embarrasing to hear such a hostile atmosphere at the Bridge. Especially all these new players adapting to the culture, I wonder how they feel.</p>

: We need to sign Kalou again. Physical presence, well he could be.... plus his strike rate of one goal off the bench when we needed it was fairly good so yeah sign him up