Strike

i am saying it in terms of chelsea. without a schemer, we would play like the dutch national team. 2 CDM's who almost never get forward. that way, the 4 attackers are left to do the job of attacking. even if the 4 are van persie, sneijder, robben, afellay, they are finding it tough to unlock defenses because denmark, etc will have numbers behind defending. lampard doesnt have the legs to attack anymore and mikel doesn't cross the halfway line., mata will be forced to drop deeper if we play mikel and lampard leaving only 3 genuine attackers. this will make us run out of ideas in the final third. that's why we need a schemer in the middle. as for continuing with the 4-2-3-1, i am not against it in big games but i hope we change our system vs the wigans and the west broms

Boateng is a bit too forward thinking imo. We have to play the creative midfielder in the double pivot so that mata doesn't have to drop deep to spread the ball. now we will have the option of using both wingers to spread the play wide (i didn't consider kalou a winger last season)

adding dzagoev will be a cheap luxury atm

would take him over any other right back in europe atm

disagree. fellaini, essien, mikel, meireles and romeu will all be CDM's. that means its just lamps (and josh) in the creative CM position. the schemer in the mid was our main problem last season. look at how pirlo's passes helped italy counter against spain. we do need a schemer in mid and if we don't get one, we will all be regretting it by december. options - 1. Yohan Cabaye - history with hazard, deep lying, creative, good right foot, prem league experience 2. joao moutinho - portuguese modric although no experience in the prem league 3. nuri sahin ( as ss mentioned) - if added, he should be given time to develop and must be nothin more than a squad player

the tactic may not be retained but i am pretty sure that we will cave back into our half against the reasonably big teams (everton and above)

Malouda - first choice for France

if drogba gets a statue, so should some of terry, lampard, cech, di matteo, zola, harris, bonetti,wise,hollins, clarke, mourinho. henry was a class apart from the rest at arsenal and that's why he got his statue outside emirates along with adams and chapman. arsenal were condemned for leaving out wright, so imagine if drogba gets a statue and zola doesn't

QPR Home although i am pretty sure our opening weekend luck will run out this year (birmingham, pompey, hull, westbrom, stoke). i am expecting everton away

i smell conspiracy

he's the perfect fit. creative and deep lying with a stinging right foot

Have fun

its true. pepsi advert

Long overdue but

u didnt get the memo?

agree with your hypothesis. but keep in mind that robbie played deep and tried to launch quick counters at the end of the season. it didn't work out with kalouda on the wings but i think the tactic will be tried out again with hazard and hulk atleast against a big team when we have to soak up pressure. that way, torres' runs will be useful but he has to improve his finishing. he should go for the kill rather than try looping buffon or going around buffon. he expected torres to take it round the out side on that one occasion

u didn't get a permanent ban. you got banned for a week to cool off now before u start typing a racist response,note that i did not insult you in anyway

he had a pretty poor season. europe may overrate him but the dutch know exactly how good he is and they are not impressed. would love to see us ignore vdw tbh

"Robbie has been offered the one year deal at chelsea and has taken it" - Jason Cundy #CFC #Chelsea

the dynamism of the new chelsea side will be built around our new signings. personally i would have preferred hulk Or hazard and moutinho or cabaye but given that we are signing both, i think the gameplay has to be tweaked to their strengths. now, assuming we dont sign a deep creative midfielder, mata operating at CAM will be the one pulling the strings. given that he is one of our 4 attackers (hulk hazard and the striker being the others), he will end up with just 3 options in front of him. i think we should play ramires alongside Lampard to give us more bodies in attack without compromising the defence.

for now i would be okay with adding a backup CB rather than a first-choice CB. i think the club sees luiz and cahill as our first choice central pairing down the line with bruma and kalas as backups to them. also, chalobah as the 5th choice. dont think we need CB's given kalas has been immense at vitesse and if bruma comes good next season. maybe a stop-gap backup for this season would be needed if there is an injury crisis but i am fine with adding an RB so that ivanovic can move to CB if necessary

as mentioned already, it depends on the person. an english fan may probably not think too much of the euros but ireland is buzzing about the euros right now. maybe if england were a bit more successful in the past, things would be different

i'm an indian. so i would put a world cup win over a CL win for the sheer comedy of it

i feel that by december we will be wishing that we had signed a creative midfielder in the summer

Lampard may have been CAM in the christmas tree/diamond formation that ancelotti had employed but ever since the sunderland(?) game i think in january 2010 he has played in a deeper role at CM. he continued making forward runs until this season when he converted into a deeper midfield role the point is with juan mata - CAM since december 2011, lampard, benayoun, kdb, hazard - cam for belgium and for lille often enough - all capable of playing CAM we dont need another CAM let alone a foreign converted one. you have an opinion - voice it, mate. don't get worked up about every post