Strike

Its too early to think about the second half of the season. By December 1. At the very least, we have to be in the top 4 2. Through the Champions League Group Stage as group winners 3. A settled line-up 4. Win the Club World Cup

sell meireles and essien sign cabaye or moutinho and play him alongside Oscar in mid. sign azpi or debuchy sign lewandowski or dembele or dzeko or any bargain to give us back up in attack. then we'll be ready to challenge for the title

edit : haven't watched the whole game but as cundy mentioned, hazard is playing infield to get involved with the play giving us no real width to stretch the opponents.

that made me laugh . Great article, mate i agree with most of your views. the squad is not balanced. the centre midfield and striker positions especially. We have too many defensive midfielders and all of them average at best. Maybe di Matteo will realise this as the season begins and play Oscar in a deeper midfield position but i fear the damage maybe done by then. We need to upgrade the midfield from Meireles to Moutinho, in a manner of speaking. As Tomo mentioned, we need more players at the 24-39 age bracket as well. As for the striker role, I don't see how signing Moses will make much of a difference seeing as he will be a back-up and will most likely be used on the wings when brought on. We need to sign a top striker. Banking on Torres to fire this season is walking a tight rope and a top club like Chelsea should know better. Daniel Sturridge is an interesting option. He has obviously got the skills and I think he will do good in a "Rooney" position (when he plays just behind Welbeck) but that will make Mata obsolete at CAM.

can't watch this game, unfortunately but i would like to see us try a different formation as others mentioned 4-3-3 , 4-4-1-1-, 4-4-2 even if we are desperate

no offense btw

Manpe's avatar is hideous Ryan Davidson is Scottish Duppy Conqueror has "Duppy" in his name dont think Henrique really cares about Member of the Month that leaves Hutcho. good poster . i i'll vote him i think that's a fair assessment

i'll write a few when i find time

yep. as good as the posters mentioned were last month, it has to be Jim

cech Ivan cahill terry Cole marin lampard Oscar hazard ------------Mata -----------torres ultra attacking though. only against weaker teams

exactly like Tiote and Cabaye at Newcastle except Tiote is much more mobile. that's the problem with Mikel, his strength is good but his mobility to break up attacks is not essien or tiote or yaya toure-like.

yep. the concern is that we have players of 30+ age and 25- age but not many in between. we need more players who are in or entering their prime years. we can start with a striker/winger and a right back who are established.

i dont think the board will even consider him, let alone for over 10million. there are better alternatives for Much less. i'll pass

good article as always. malouda's experience complements the youth revolution taking place now. no reason to let him go just yet. we are short of wingers anyway

that's true. he has got ball skills and control along with a good left foot. would prefer him over Moses actually although i want us to try the main targets first

the keeper doesn't have to be home-grown as well. just sell hilario and sign a proper backup with ross as 3rd choice so that the Home-grown quota isn't disturbed. and also, there's no need to splash the cash. gk's generally don't cost a lot and something like a "Lindergaard" or a "Kusczczak" signing will do. Arsenal signed Szczesny when Almunia and Fabianski were ahead of him for the GK slot. Aston Villa got Brad Guzan who was MLS goalkeeper of the year and he was second-choice to Friedel. Bolton - Bogdan , City signed Pantilimon in similar fashion - nicking him from an inferior league. we can sign better quality back-ups ,who will have no qualms about sitting on the bench, from an inferior league. it's time we rectified this situation because as of now, if cech gets injured for even 1 game, we are well and truly screwed

again with the mould of creative players we are signing would he fit in?

even if the first choice gk's are not world class, those are keepers who "accepted" back up roles. i agree that cech will play majority of the games but i feel we can easily get in a better backup from other leagues

Striker order of Preference 1. Edinson Cavani 2. Radamel Falcao (both for less than 30m only) 3. Robert Lewandowski ---------------------------------------------- 4. Hulk 5. Andre Schurrle ( both wing and ST) --------------------------------------------- 6.Leandro Damiao 7. Demba Ba 8. Moussa Dembele ---------------------------------------------- 9. Emmanuel Adebayor (big, strong and proven - although i probably couldn't overlook the fact that he played for Arsenal AND Spurs) 10. Edin Dzeko - atleast he'll be second-choice at Chelsea. a step up I guess and yeah, Victor Moses

yes. affirmative.

out benayoun mceachran loan lukaku loan in Lewandowski 25 azpi or debuchy 7m

but demba Ba's clause expires tomorrow . i think we'll end up with Moses

sadly that's not happening with us. the opposition lines up with 7-8 defenders and our 4 little attackers run into a brick-wall. midfield needs to support the 4 attackers. plus yeah, we are not WINNING the ball back in mid. we are actually letting it go past the mid easily

edit: reason for thinking that he is not worth a spot - (that's what you wanted clarified wasn't it?) if we sign azpilicueta we will have a defence with adequate backup and instead of putting Sam in the squad, we can do with the likes of Chalobah and Kane. As much as i have a soft spot for Sam, he is not a great player and since he is not under-21, i feel that we should pick our senior players first ahead of him

i thought i did. "Hutchinson is in with a shout unless we sign" i think hutchinson will be in the squad at this rate because JM looks set to leave on loan and Hutchinson will have to be in the squad as you pointed out. better choice than fereira though