communicate

We are supposed to build a team for the future and i don't want Benitez to be that person

Ozil was in his last year of his contract that's why he came in cheap and when you are real madrid ,one the biggest if not the biggest club in the world, it's difficult for anybody to say no (Ronaldo,Sahin,Kaka are league winner in their previous club but when real madrid is calling, they all said yes). I don't really want to debate about mourinho, for me he is arguably the best manager in the world, however AVB was chosen because chelsea want to move away from power + effective system (ala mourinho) into more expansive system. It is true that our players struggle heavily in this system but I think once we have the players that fit in this new system, we will start playing winning and beautiful football.

I think what semia meant is that SAF buy players not only to win now but also for the long term (smalling, da silva brother, cleverly). When they were bought by SAF, they are not ready to play at PL. Mourinho on the other hand, his transfer policy has always been to win now. It's true that Mourinho bought young player, but buying young player such as di maria, ozil does not count because not only they does not come cheap but also they are already international level player. It is very difficult to sustain long term success in this way unless you have plenty of capital (ex: Real Madrid)

Fantastic game by robben, this the type of winger that we need. Danny played ok but I really want him to learn to cut inside slightly better and faster, like in chelsea when he received the ball he hold the ball too long which lead into double team in the wing.

I think drogba costed us around 24 m pound in 2004 that will be at least 35-40 m in current transfer market. Mourinho best skill is not transfer at all, he bought plenty of good players but they were expensive signing, with ffp coming up Chelsea simply cannot do that. I think he spent around 30 m euro for coentrao, and AVB could not even afford to get perreira. Again, AVB had one transfer window (you cannot count january transfer) and Mourinho is not known for his youth policy either, I really doubt sturridge will ever get a chance to get into the first team if not for AVB. IMO AVB biggest mistake is that early in the season he assessed his squad wrongly , he came from Porto to PL runner up, you would think that malouda,kalou,lampard,terry, bosingwa,etc , all of them are in the national team, should be better than his porto squad but they are not. Like I said before, Mourinho is arguably the best manager in the world right now, not only he is great in term getting the best of his players but his system is very effective system. But I thought we want to move away from that system into a more expansive and beautiful system. This is probably my biggest reason why I don't want mourinho back at chelsea

No Mourinho is a great manager, imo arguably the best manager in the world right now But I really want to see how avb system really works if he has the player that he need at his diposal (high pressure + high line -> the two things that we cannot do with our current squad)

That is just awful, personally I don't really care whether we get to quarter final or not, our team is just not good enough. All I care is the 4th place, if he can do that , I am satisfied with this season

#AVB: "We conceded a lot of goals from the left. That's one of the reasons why we brought Mata to the middle." #Chelsea #CFC - It shows that mata does not offer much defensively and cole is not 25 anymore, we need a new left back #AVB: "On the other hand, we still haven't find a player to replace Mata properly at the left wing." #Chelsea #CFC #AVB: "As an explosive winger, Hulk would fit well in our team. Hulk and other players we've been looking at." #CFC #Chelse -- - Explosive one on one winger is definitely one of our biggest need #AVB: "There's an exact formula to be successful in PL.And that's what City is doing right now: attacking efficiency above all" #Chelsea CFC #AVB "City is a very organised, efficient, well-balanced team. All they want right now is to be champions" #Chelsea #CFC #AVB: "If I saw City playing in Italy, I would say that's where they actually belong." #Chelsea #CFC - It remind me of a certain team that was coached by another italian for 2 years, We did not really play pretty football but we played an efficient football with athletic player =))

I think Gerard is much better than Lampard, he is better defensively, have much better skill with the ball, have really2 good passing accuracy and range. Lampard is probabaly slightly better in term of off the ball movement

We are really struggling offensively in pl, so my prediction 1-0 Cahill

I like neymar but braziillian does not really thrive in pl, so paying 40 m is too big of a gamble. I think gotze is too expensive for everybody right now. I think we can get Hazard fo 25-30m, so I'll go with hazard

.............Cech............... Bran...Cahill...Luiz..Cole. .....Ramires..Essien....... Danny...Mata....Kalou..... ...........Torres.............. Malouda played okay against Napoli but we need more pace on the wing. Let's try kalou on the left.

I agree with your assessment. our offense really really lack of penetration to penalty box. We either need a winger who can take on player one on one or fullbacks who like to attack the box (cole used to do this for us)

-------------------Hart----------------------- Richards - Ferdinand - Jones - Cole------ -------Parker - Wilshere/Scholes---------- Walcott-------Gerard--------Young--------- ---------Welbeck/Bent/Defoe-------------- Once Rooney is back just move Gerard to DM and put rooney in gerard place.

Good post, it's not just about his signing. If you have watched barca for the past 3 years, he always try to make his team better - Moving messi from right to center so that he can be more influential - Against team that try to press them like Madrid, he put alexis to play as poacher so that Barca has more direct option in attack - In the second-half against madrid, he moved puyol to the right and alves to winger and Barca made a comeback It's true barca has a fantastic squad but guardiola is a very good manager

Bielsa is a great manager but like AVB he like pressing football and as you saw early in the season our players for some reason cannot press properly

I will not count corners and the ball was behind drogba and there was no way drogba will convert that. So we had only 2 good chances.

AVB mentioned that we created plenty of chances, did we really do that ? I saw only 2(Mata goal and ramires shot)

---------Cech--------- Ivan-Cahill-Luiz-Cole ---Ramires-Essien--- Kalou---Mata---Malouda --------Drogba----- How about dropping sturridge for one game

I slightly disagree with you. In MU nobody is bigger than sir alex (he sold beck and stam, because he did not like them) imagine if AVB come to Chelsea and sell lampard,terry and drogba in his first summer. So it is easier for him to motivate the player moreover since the first time I watched MU (yorke/cole/beck) era, MU always play 4-4-2 tactic based on their two great wingers and so for sir alex it's just a matter finding a player that fit into that system.

We all keep blaming our defense+midfielder and deservedly so but our offensive 4 who were supposed to be our main threat have to carry the blame as well. Napoli was poor in defend, and we could only create 2 chances (mata goal - defensive mistake and ramires shot - good play by ramires) - On the left we have malouda who has lost his pace,bad at crossing,and cannot take on player one on one - On the right we have a striker/ winger/top scorer who is pacy,selfish,dribble too much, and cannot take on player one on one - On the center we have mata who roam around and our only main source of creativity, he looked out of idea in the end - On the front, I have no idea what drogba contributed for the whole 90 minutes and his link-up play was just bad

Great post. Danny has been fantastic for us this season in term of goal scoring but he does not offer anything else. He does not penetrate to the box very well when he does, his decision or delivery is just bad.

I heard cole was around 90 % and other that one save, he actually played poorly Essien and Lampard are slow player and Napoli played fast, we will be even worse defensively with those two in midfield. Our major problem was actually is creating chances, the only player who can do that is mata and maybe iva.

I have to agree cole was very poor, maggio keep bombing from the right. to be fair, he saved us one goal. btw we always buy player who score against us : I certainly will not complain if we get cavani and lavezzi. Cavani was outstanding, I don't think luiz and cahill have idea how to handle him

Maybe, but Napoli look the better side. Cavani is more dangerous than drogba and lavezii is better than danny