Strike

it's not fair to criticise the board in the comfort of our armchairs. they have done exceptionally well to rebuild the team around the summer. we've to credit them for that. but i agree with the points you've put up. there are still problems existing in the side but the season is going according to plan atm. at the start of the season, we weren't really in the title picture and now we are talkin abt a title challenge. we are on the right track to negotiating a tough CL group (after last night) and the team has played good football. i've got no complaints

Among the 2 Central defenders, Cahill is clearly much more Reliable than Luiz. that's 3 solid performances from Cahill now. no point saying Luiz is better when he keeps getting turned and makes rash challenges every game

good going forward but exposed at the back.

the thing that's holding us back is this moral obligation to give di matteo a chance. he's been doing well so far and i think if di matteo can keep this up he should be kept in charge but imo, guardiola is the better Long-term plan.

Nothing radical needed. this season is going according to plan. anything more than a 3rd place finish would be a bonus because at the start of the season we weren't actually prominent in the title picture.

true. we have a direct replacement for Cole (Bertrand), now it's time to start thinking about a replacement for Terry. Still i would like to have Kalas and/or Bruma around because we need to have good backup in defence. if we were hit by a defensive injury crisis like united now, i think we would be well and truly screwed

fair point. both aren't anywhere near the world's best and when they play together, our defence is very distorted. i would have loved to have had depth in the CB department this season, maybe a Kalas or a Bruma but for now, we should get through wiith this. Luiz faces the public hate because of his obvious mistakes but we as chelsea fans should read more into his game. he makes very nifty interceptions and breaks up play. but the fact remains, he has conceded more fouls and made less tackles this year than the other defenders. cahill hasn't exactly been great but he has done well against newcastle (august), united (league cup) and swansea recently. his positioning has been suspect throughout his chelsea career although he was excellent against swansea but i think having Michu for a striker helped a lot there. edit: No point pointing fingers at each other. luiz and cahill both aren't World class and that is an inconvenient fact

i thought the defence bar Ashley Cole was excellent. although i would have loved to see us win the ball back rather than line up behind the ball and hope for a misplaced pass

poor performance as expected. cant afford to let this snowball into a bad run of games that usually ruins the season

walcott on the bench. not happy

you have to consider all factors. in 2005 there was that diving storm and he was almost anonymous under Scolari. Banned at the end of 3 CL exits. he was unplayable, that's true but not the greatest ever

Drogba single-handedly won us a lot of trophies but is he the greatest Chelsea player Ever? No.

we have 2. but i wish we had one that would score. not that i'm complaining. our defence has more goals than tevez, aguero and balotelli combined

should do the job for us and keeps bodies fresh for that important game against Shakhtar next week

a bit of context might help here. that was for vilifying cahill for his performance yesterday where cahill was solid through out and luiz made mistakes aplenty. cahill gets his positioning wrong and usually backs away from an opponent but yesterday he was steady throughout the game and made few excellent tackles (the one on nani stands out) while luiz gave away a lot of fouls getting a yellow as well and contributed to a united goal

my point is that we can't vilify cahill and defend luiz, especially not after a game where cahill was solid throughout and luiz made quite a few errors

best moment of the game, Oscar getting in Nani's face i bet Nani was stunned about that

i hope rdm tells hazard and mata to track back because swansea is a classic counter-attacking team and will look to exploit our lack of width

nah. i am not saying cahill is very good either. but there is no excuse to criticising cahill AND defending luiz. and just to clarify, decision making is pretty obvious but tackling - my basic criteria is the large number of mistimed tackles by luiz. also, if u looked at the game last night, cahill was excellent in tackling while luiz conceded lot of fouls and got a yellow card as well late on. "Not the first time you try to make your opinion look like a fact" - let's just say its the kettle calling the pot black. anyway, agree to disagree. edit - Fouls this season - Luiz - 10; Cahill - 2 no. of times dribbled by opposing player - Luiz - 5; Cahill - 1 but luiz interceptions are much higher - 16 to cahill's 5. that shows the difference b/w the two Luiz has played 8 games while Cahill has played 6

true. agree abt the positioning part. cahill gets his positioning wrong here and other times in the match but this is just 2 stills in the game. luiz was equally palpable in the weekend defeat. notice luiz's position here for example. he is standing wider than cahill is. and when the midfield is bypassed we are cut open. cahill should have marked rvp no doubt but there is another instance in the game in the weekend AND yesterday where Luiz goes into a very deep "shot-Blocking" position. that is just nonsense imo. we are not in the Nou Camp anymore to make a line and block the shots. sorry, but i find your criticism of Cahill and your defense of Luiz lacking in reason

your argument lacks substance. your criticism of cahill is his positioning and he does nothing "special". ridiculous. cahill was not to blame in the 2nd united goal or any of united's goals yesterday while luiz was clearly to blame for the 2nd and 3rd goals. you accuse us of branding luiz when you do the same to Cahill. you are ignoring the many aspects where cahill is better than Luiz - decision making, tackling etc and focussing on few points and calling luiz a better defender than cahill. makes no sense to me

thank you. was quite surprised by that. hence the skepticism

no way. we had 4 cleansheets but against Wigan (where we were battered for 75 minutes), QPR, Stoke and Newcastle (only performance to take credit for) apart from that we have been shocking but i agree with the other part. its a team-issue. we are not recovering our defensive shape quickly enough. Notice how the fullbacks are rushing to get back to the defensive line and how the midfield is distorted leaving wide empty spaces http://www.carefreec...uiz-og-and.html - credit to carefree chronicles

agree.. he was bashed on twitter as far as i know but i don't think it was deserved criticism. true, he was up against a bunch of schoolboys but fletcher and anderson were basically playing as CB's and he had virtually no support in the first half. held the ball well and spread the play around better than torres. 50/56 passes completed is brilliant (citation needed) and latched onto more than 1 long ball.

while conveniently ignoring the fact that luiz was sidetracked like a headless chicken in the build-up to that goal... yes, cahill has made basic errors too but no excuse to vilify cahill and defend Luiz. Luiz has been MUCH worse than Cahill any way you look at it. "Despite Luiz mistakes" - how many more mistakes can we watch him make? almost 2 years since he signed now. he's regarded as first-choice by RDM. no where near being a top defender