Strike

who says we need 2 defense-minded midfielders? 2 in the pivot need not necessarily drop deep and shield the back four. we have done well with only Essien as our DM not so long ago 2 CDM's maybe necessary for the current team, but when things are not working out, change is needed. go back to Carlo's 4-4-2

wide diamond with Hazard on the left and Oscar on the right. don't think we can leak more goals than we already are. also, playing 2 strikers doesn't mean, we are gonna get ripped apart in defence. Our problem with protecting leads is that we go deeper and deeper late in the game when Hazard or Oscar would've been subbed for Ryan 'Winger' Bertrand. 2 strikers can keep the pressure on opposition. Don't see why we can't make 4-4-2 work. No harm in trying when we've been pathetic of late.

Cech Azpilicueta Ivanovic Terry Cole Ramires Oscar Hazard Mata Torres Ba Bench: Turnbull Cahill Luiz Bertrand Lampard Benayoun Marin Diamond 4-4-2. Convert to 4-2-3-1 with Oscar in pivot and Torres on the wing if we need to consolidate. Torres can't do worse than Marin on the wing

Even if we scrape 4th, i don't think Falcao or Cavani would leave their teams to join our circus Imo, we should dig deep in the market. Go past Falcao/Cavani and have a serious look at the likes of Lewandowski or even Luis Suarez for that matter

i think they terminated Harry Kane's loan deal at Norwich.

@, Although, he's mostly rambling about Rafa or about getting KDB back these days or Only Place To Be

Cech Azpili Ivanovic Terry Cole Lampard Ramires Oscar Mata Torres Ba

Nothing seems to go right for Chelsea. Wins over Arsenal and Stoke aside, we've been pathetic this year. And to think everyone were so happy back on boxing day weekend when Lamps stirred us to a 2-1 win at Goodison.

slightly better imo. yes, he's shaky but he had a Good game in the FA Cup semi-finals last season against rivals Everton. can't imagine Turnbull pulling a blinder....ever

but Lampard at DM alone means we could get caught out often. Ramires more mobile

it may offset our system but in essence, what it does is that the opposition defenders will have to deal with both Ba and Torres. Ofcourse, for this to work, the supply from midfield must be good and we should have a certain degree of control over the game

We have really good prospects to get in and expand the squad next season. Tomas Kalas in defence, de Bruyne in midfield and Lukaku in attack are almost ready for the step up. Hope the new manager coming in is made aware of this

I would start Ba and Torres up front here. No better time to try this. if we lead and need to consolidate, move Torres to the left wing. Can't do worse than Marin can he? Cech Azpilicueta Ivanovic Terry Cole Ramires Oscar Mata Lampard Ba Torres

would love to have had a stop-gap winger. a loan or something. looks like Rafa won't sign anyone to be frank, this team is good enough to get 3rd comfortably. would be allright with top 4 finish even if we win nothing this season

Watched him play recently and when faced with a deep defence, Blackpool would give Ince the ball a lot but he was not very open-minded about passing it around. tried running at the defenders once or twice but failed. not really strong as well. i wouldn't want him here

I made this point in another thread. Without a stable manager and a proper project, we are never going to improve. yes, we may have been able to buy success by changing managers all these years, but over the years, we have blooded ZERO youngsters into the first-eleven. We either sign a definite starter (Oscar, Mata, Hazard, Luiz) or a young guy who gets loaned out to various clubs before leaving (Stoch, Sinclair, Borini, di Santo, Matic) or guys like Zhirkov, Romeu, Sturridge who are not given the chance at the club. Other clubs continously blood talent giving them more and more action every season before eventually becoming first-team material. Welbeck is a great example for this. so is Wilshere, Caulker etc Imo, we need stability. As much as trophies are important, we are not going to improve without stability

Brilliant. I don't care if other forums have more members cause this is bloody brilliant..Quality>Quantity

Still don't see why the club persists with Turmoil as the backup goalkeeper. Premier League back-up keepers compared to Ross Turnbull Arsenal - Vito Mannone - Cleansheets against Stoke, Liverpool and QPR this season Villa - Shay Given - Enough said Everton - Jan Mucha - Has barely played for Everton - not sure Fulham - David Stockdale - Done well when called up recently. Kept his team in the game against West Brom away Liverpool - Brad Jones - Played 5 games this season and kept 2 cleansheets. Bit shaky but better than Turnbull. Did well in Cup semis v Everton last season ManCity - Pantilimon - Laughably better ManUnited - Lindergaard - Better Newcastle United - Steve Harper - Better Norwich City - Both Declan Rudd and Mark Bunn - Better QPR - Green - Let's call this even Reading - McCarthy - Worse.. Soton - Kelvin Davies - Worse Stoke - Sorensen - Better Sunderland - Westwood - Not sure Swansea - Tremmel - easily better Spurs - Friedel - Gomes Even Cudicini is better West Brom - Myhill - better West Ham - Henderson - Unsure Wigan - Pollitt - Definitely Worse So, imo, Turnbull is better than 3 backup goalies while i'm not sure about Henderson, Westwood and Mucha. Call him even with Rob Green and you still have 12 teams with better cover for GK than us. Yes, the whole Thibaut Courtois situation maybe stopping the club from signing a better back-up but seriously, if Cech is injured, we are well and truly screwed because well, Ross Turnbull is just shite. He can't save, he can't sweep, he can't even kick ffs

Jose Mourinho is the best available option out there. There is simply no one better. Imagine Mourinho in the Press Conference after the Hazard ball-boy nonsense. He wouldn't have buckled like Rafa did. He would've fired back saying - "Why was the ball-boy on the ball in the first place?". Completely hypothetical ofcourse, because under Jose, you wouldn't see Chelsea losing 2-0 at home Also, Joachim Loew? Manuel Pellegrini? David Moyes? How long would they last? For Roman to be patient, the manager who takes over should have some pedigree. He was patient with Ancelotti - yes..he gave him the whole season in 2010-11 but not with di Matteo or Scolari or the others. I can think of only 2 managers who can command the respect of Abramovich right now. One of them has joined Bayern Munich and the other is under enormous pressure at Real Madrid Another thing about getting Mourinho in is that suddenly we'll go from being the 3rd best team in England to be considered alongside the Manchester clubs. Plus, he has unfinished business to win the Champions League with an English club. Makes perfect sense from our point of view if Mourinho's interested.

He will stay with the German team till atleast the 2014 WC. Unfinished business there

Mourinho in an interview Reporter : "Do you want to go back and manage in England? Yes or No?" JM: "Yes. For sure. I want to win the Champions League again with an English club" Unfinished business at Chelsea - Win the Champions League

tbf, benitez isn't helped by all the pressure on him. goes to show what a poor appointment it was. with a competent manager and a bit of stability at the club, we would have incorporated a few youth players yesterday but the situation at Chelsea has been so toxic that the only youngster who has come through this season has been Piazon - league cup games and one 8-0 plonking. Nathan Ake's 90th minute substitution hardly counts Look at Manchester United - Wooton, Keane, Nick Powell, Tunniclife, Vermijl. When the club is in a situation like ours, we tend to concentrate only on the immediate future. yes, we may have signed lukaku, de bruyne etc etc but it's either first-choice challenging for the first-eleven spot like Oscar, Hazard etc or sent out on loan..no blooding of youngsters

who is there in the academy now? george saville? feruz? ake? bamford? don't think any of them are ready yet. all our young prospects are out on loan and that is problematic considering our busy schedule

that was my opinion on what should be done. hadn't considered Courtois side of the story. he would prefer to stay with Atletico i presume and we would be looking to keep it as a 'loan' for as long as possible. he has belgian friends here and has expressed interest in becoming Chelsea #1 in the future. the club should look to move Cech on and get Courtois in between the sticks by the start of the 2014-15 season

The first thing to do before we jump to the conclusion of Courtois replacing Cech is to send him on loan to a Premier League club next season. We can't have another de Gea situation here. let him cope in the PL for a year and then he will be ready as for the decision between keeping cech or keeping courtois - the answer is simple. judge courtois on a season in the PL. if he is good, sell cech and keep courtois as he will cement the GK spot for the next decade if courtois struggles, then keep cech and move courtois on if it's in between keep both cech and courtois for a year before taking the decision