communicate

Maybe I am wwrong but I thought a Madrid and I think it was reading did not try to press mikel at all

Good post. He is there to give us balance because rdm like to play more defensive. Btw as far as your reply to me regarding mikel, I don't think team try to press mikel

I did not watch the 2nd half so I am not sure but I thought in the 1st half he played ok. I never said that he is a super defender but he is very disciplined in tracking back full back.

I thought he made one good cross to hazard early in the 1st half

Let us compare Chelsea with other team who play with double pivot Manu Scholes and cleverly : one mobile player who go forward and one player who stay back and boss the game Arsenal Diaby and Aretha: one mobile player and one passer who stay back Real Madrid See arsenal and Manu What we have right now is similar to what city and to some extend what Tottenham has. City Yaya and rodwell. Two mobile players, toure bombs forward and rodwell tend to stay back. The season that city can make it works because both of them are mobile players. What we have right now is lampard who was perfect to play yaya role but he is just too old and he is not good enough of a passer or playmaker to play Alonso/Scholes role. Meirelsr I thought played this role really well for us a couple weeks back. He can play well if u ask him to play just as box to box player not as a passer. And we have mikel who is a standard anchorman. Currently we just don't have the perfect combination for double pivot. We can try mikel and ramires there but it all depends on how well ramires can pass the ball

He is there to give cover for iva and to mark opp fullback when the fullback overlap. You cannot expect him to create chances consistently or boss the game for us because that's not his game. As long a he create one chance per game and stop opp fullback, I am happy

Against qpr we really miss Mata because there is nobody that can boss the game for us. The funny thing is we have Brazil no 10 on our bench. I have no problem with ramires on the wing because it giver US balance just not bertrand and ramires

4231 is not meant to be that static. The 2 double pivot has to be flexible. They cannot jjust sit deep, they have to go forward when needed. I have no problem with lampard bombing forward when mikel stay back. One problem with mikel is that his passing is just too slow. For some of you who want us to play 433. It's not going to happen. Let' say we play 433 with Mata on the right wing. Since Mata want to play in the hole he will come inside to the middle and Ramires has to come to the right to cover the right flank. It's back to 4231 again

It's true that only two teams compute for title in La liga but in EPL this season I believe there are only 4 teams that will challenge for title. Two teams with super rich owner (Us+City),Arsenal and MU. So if there is no roman for us and sheik something for city, it's just going to be two horse race in EPL also

I don't want to defend torres but although we signed squad full of playmakers but RDM always play only 1 or maximum 2 playmakers

Our only world class player right now

It's true that solid defend is the key to win a league but we bought so many good and talented winger/am this season, it's a shame if we cannot become more dangerous offensively

Nah way too early, like I said last year I am not sure about rdm but we need to give him a chance because of what he did last year. Result wise,we have been ok this season. Performance wise, hopefully we can improve as the season go along Wigan : 2 goals in 1st half and I thought Wigan dominated 2nd half Reading: we got a lucky/offside goal Newcastle: see Wigan A Madrid: no comment Qpr: flat

The only thing that i am confused about is why Oscar was on the bench. Is he injured ? I thought it's a no brainer to start Oscar when Mata is not playing

The performance was just FLAT, we didn't look dangerous at all. RDM played his typical defensive formation (suprised to see bertrand on the left) + counter (Hazard had one good chance) I will not complain about his formation and tactic because it had been very successfull last yeay

I don't like fifa and uefa but ffp is important. What happen to Malaga and too some degree Portsmouth is a big concern, what happen if mr abramovich suddenly said I want to leave Chelsea or I don't want to pump more money.

I am surprised of all the negative comment. I thought what he said was true. Lampard will miss pass if he is pressured and there is no point of marking mikel. And Iva can be beaten with pace, it happened in Napoli in both legs ( we won the 2nd leg because Napoli did not take their chances)

Nah ramires is there for defensive reason, we can consider all of his offensive contribution to be bonus.

Probably I don't know. But I am pretty sure that cannavaro won FIFA player of the year after italy won world cup.

I think we are going to miss him this season but at the same time I think we need a better cm in the future so it's a good business. Romeu is not mobile so he is a kinda direct replacement for mikel, and I am not sure about playing ramires as double pivot especially with mikel. Ramires is extremely mobile but his passing is not great

Cannavaro won fifa poty a couple years ago

It's true that he is nothing without good service but I thought his movement was really2 good, he worked the channel really well and he got behind defender time and time again.

Van Persie will get all the praise but in that game SAF unleashed his secret weapon (Paul Scholes to boss the game and it change the game

If that happen and then it's a bargain but right now we are talking about 29 years old injury prone world class striker so I think the price is about right

Nah if you are waiting for the old liverpool torres, I am afraid it's not going to happen. It's the way liverpool play that bring the best of torres, high octane offense with lots of movement and Gerard lob through pass