Jase

That midfield will get overrun with only Mikel in there. Oscar and Mata are both essentially attacking players and won't help out much defensively.

That would mean shifting Mata out wide, which we all know is not a good move. The 4-2-3-1, 4-3-3, 4-3-2-1 and maybe even 4-diamond-2 are all options for us next season.

You might want to wear something different then.

Oooh Hazard, Marin and De Bruyne are gonna have a time meeting Luiz. De Bruyne apparently said Ivanovic is a bit crazy yesterday. Might soon change it when he encounters Luiz.

Don't tell me you can't see 'it'?

That could be crucial with the second Clasico in Madrid.

Oh my...

Don't be a fool. We all know you are a proud Englishman from South London.

Who said anything about putting your name in a French flag?!

Congrats Seb. A deserved victory...noott! And thanks for the votes too guys. Appreciate it. Nice!

I think this talk about strikers are not supposed to defend is pure BS. Strikers these days are not just scoring goals, even if that is main job. You have to play as a team, help out the team, even defensively such defending from the front. One only have to look at the work Drogba and Torres did last season when being played upfront. They helped out defensively from the front by pressing the opposition and trying to win the ball back, which Torres did pretty well in that aspect. Is Sturridge doing any of those right now? No. It's all 'Me Me Me' in his head. Another prime example of a striker adapting and become much more versatile is David Villa at Barcelona. He's primarily a striker who plays upfront but being pushed out wide by Guardiola to accomodate Messi in the 'False 9' role. Despite that, he adapts himself to be familiar in the wider role and even once said he looked and learned from Pedro on what is required and needed to play in that position. Is Sturridge learning to do that? Again, no. Yeah...I wonder why... No. We are not a better team now with Hazard. We all know that Hazard has the ability and quality to impove our team but one player doesn't suddenly make our better(unless it's Ronaldo or Messi maybe). Takes more than one player to do that and we're still lacking in other areas.

A total joke to give a manager, with so much quality in the squad last season, a 5-year contract who won the title on GD after blowing an 8-point lead at the top and only got back into it because of United's collapse. City's results in the cup competitions last season were very average too. Don't think Mancini is gonna last too long there.

Just goes to show that every team or maybe in Chelsea's case that us fans need a scapegoat everytime.

Even if he is found innocent, the English media will probably still find some way to call him a racist...

Not sure why people are making it a fuss or concern regarding Hazard in training. As Bir_CFC already said...

Seriously hope he is given a chance in the first team next season especially in the Carling Cup. It will be criminal if we don't do that. Would like to see the likes of Bamford, Chalobah, Feruz etc all getting a chance too.

My goodness Steve. Still not awake?!

Think that's a bit harsh. Dempsey is certainly a much better player than Adam. Has already proved himself in the Premier League for years while Adam was only a one-season wonder at Blackpool and everyone overhyped him.

Would prefer 2 years with the possibility of extending by 1 more year later on.

No. He only scored 1 goal against Swansea, which was the first goal of that game and we won 4-1 in the end.

My mom is a Liverpool but she doesn't watch or really follow too much of football. My sister and dad are both Man United fans since the 90s IIRC. The only one supporting Chelsea in my family.

Different level of expectations and pressure playing for Chelsea and for Bolton. And yes, while he scored lots of goals as a RW last season, what other thing has he done there? He wasn't working hard enough defensively, was too selfish in his play and prone to make the wrong decisions in the final third. To play as a striker upfront these days or any player for that matter, you need to show adaptibility and ability to play and work hard for the team. Takes more than just scoring goals to be a top player and getting into the team.

Would happily have him over Torres. Much more all rounder striker than Torres is. And don't think we're underestimating Sturridge, just that he is still pretty much unproven particularly as the main striker.

No, although some may consider his goal against Barcelona as one as it effectively kills off Barca despite us having the advantage on away goals back then. However, on the other hand, don't think we can downplay too much of his other goals. Him scoring the first goal of a game, or a goal that doubles our lead etc all gave us the platform to victory in the context of those matches.