Strike

Or Ballotelli

Ah. good idea Hutcho i am hoping that the Oscar deal doesn't Happen. I want Chelsea to sign a winger who can stretch play wide not play through the middle. We have got Mata and KDB at the CAM position with Lampard and Benayoun as backups if needed. Benayoun is still a good player. he was our best player last pre-season and it was a shock to see him go on loan to arsenal and do a good job for them. hopefully we'll have him back because he is a very good link-up player. With the CAM position locked up, i think Oscar would be nothing more than a luxury Personally, I want us to play a 4-3-3 or the existing 4-2-3-1 with the double pivot and the wingers positioned higher up. Torres Hazard Mata Hulk/Marin Ramires Lampard Ramires should be tried out in the CM role if we do buy a winger in the window. He has all the attributes needed to be a Yaya Toure and gives us that added dynamism in attack that we lacked last season. Also, i feel Lampard will be picked consistently whether we like it or not

Last week - Victor Moses, yesterday - Andre Schurrle, today Oscar. I think the board is looking at other alternatives. As you said, the problem with Oscar is that we will have no real width to stretch opponents wide. Ramires is hardly an out and out winger while Malouda doesn't have the pace to cut it in the wings anymore. Not really sure we need Oscar when we have got Mata and KDB for the CAM role with both Lampard and Benayoun able to give backup

SeB! Now that i have your attention, it doesn't necessarily mean that we have to divide roles between conserved passers and ambitious passers. we have to be dynamic in our approach - eg - Alex Song for Arsenal consistently pops up with a delicate chipped ball to van Persie even though they do have Arteta and co. Song is purely defense minded but he doesn't restrict his passing. Maybe it is the manager's orders to Mikel to control his passing but I don't think that's the case. Mikel has to look at all the options, not just backwards and sideways

time to take this conversation away from the Hulk thread. watch out for my reply in the pre-season thread since i cant find an appropriate thread for this

yes. agreed. i merely said he is no "Pirlo" to expose the opposition defence. he is rather a middle man to dig us out of trouble. my only criticism of mikel is that he should propel the attack forward more. he seems to take the safer option more than the other midfielders. lampard and mata are quite ambitious with their passing,

yeah. don't see mikel givin us that box to box option. maybe ramires alongside lampard where ramires becomes a "yaya toure" would give us dynamism in midfield. a bit more going forward and another player for mata to pick out

yep. with Hulk on the right and Hazard on the left we have to push forward more. something like Germany's system although it will be hard to emulate

i would go as far as giving them raul meireles or essien + 30 mil for Hulk

my problem with the current 4-2-3-1 is that we are sitting too deep even against the likes of wigan. otherwise this could be a good attacking tactic but the double pivot should be further up the field, not in front of the back four

Cheers Mate. Welcome Aboard

The kettle calls the Pot Black anyway, Back to Hulk, at one stage, newspapers like the guardian were reporting that it was close to being sealed but now even the Daily Fail is not touching the Hulk story.

di matteo was spot on in using the Deep 4-2-3-1 tactics last season but I really hope he changes it for this campaign. other wise we will be drawing way too many games just like liverpoop last year

Well done mate. Hiding behind a single stat to press your argument. You should be proud. I thought i was in a rational debate here. well, here's some stat for you. Under di matteo we had only 1 game(CL) where we had more possession (4-1 napoli) AND we had lesser possession in the 5-1 win over Spurs as well (according to BBC). Your argument doesn't really hold when our possession stat is helped by home games against Genk and Leverkusen back in September/October edit: Breakdown -All we did in the first half was sit deep and block the Spurs attacks until that Drogba special. -vs Wigan - invited pressure by sitting deep - vs Fulham - likewise vs Benfica - sat deep and got the away goal and then Sat deep at home letting Benfica play around us. vs Spurs - Premier League - in a must win game in the Premier League, back when we were in contention for the top 4 AND AT HOME - we had only 45% possession in that drab game and our attacking threat - Zip, Zilch, Nada.

yeah but Mikel and Lampard are too deep atm. Gettin modric or moutinho in will freshen up our team and use Ramires, Hazard's pace effectively

Even in the 5-1 demolition of Spurs, we had lesser Possession. So, NO, i am not basing this on just 2-3 games. i am basing this on 1. Wigan - home 2. Fulham - away 3. Spurs - home 4. Spurs - neutral 5. Benfica Home 7. Benfica Away in addition to the Big games - i.e Barca x 2, Bayern, Arsenal, Newcastle etc. that's more than 10 But yeah, i am optimistic now after reading some of kof's posts but not entirely convinced

Are u blind mate? we played deep against Tottenham, Arsenal, Wigan Athletic(look at the way Diame scored), Fulham, Benfica - both HOME and AWAY - plus ALL THE BIG GAMES (Barca, Bayern, City). i wonder what YOU were watching last season when we were actually toiling against all the teams i mentioned above - Under di matteo. Apart from the Napoli and QPR games we barely came in with attacking intent mate. I don't know what u have been watching . And here's a Stat for you - AT HOME to Benfica we had only 40% possession. that's not attacking mate. we maybe better than England but not MUCH better. i only took England as a rough example because of the pace they have on the wings.

disagree. the hallmark of an excellent midfielder is making defence-splitting passes not delaying an attack by passing to his own defenders. mikel does well in his CDM role but hailing his passing ability is like saying that Kalou dribbles well (couldn't resist )

that's mainly because he passes the ball straight back to the defenders

but in that system they do the same thing. mikel does the dirty business and so does parker. lampard and gerrard are almost equal. gerrard was pretty good in the euros tbh. agree with ramires and hazard better than young and walcott but i was just doin a rough comparison of pacy players

agree on the better possession players but i think we played the same way as england. really deep and counter. whatever the case, the best option is to change the strategy and opt for a more attacking one

you seem confident that our overall play will be very effective next season. well, even i was until i saw england at the euros. they played the same system as Chelsea but with pacy players in attack but still got owned by pretty much all the teams they played. Welbeck Young Rooney Walcott/Milner Gerrard Parker is comparable to Torres Hazard Mata Marin/Ramires Lampard Mikel if we continue with the same system, i fear we will be chasing the ball even against swansea, everton etc...

sweet article. i think bertrand, lukaku and de bruyne will have big roles this season. don't really see many opportunities for the others. and btw, you have left out Todd Kane.... On the off chance that we fail to sign a Rightback, todd kane may get a few Captial Cup games atleast

the new additions look neat. the site looks snappier

players groomed into the same system will see us do the same thing as last season. the thing is we tried to move the ball along quickly - too quickly actually as many of the attacks tethered out early and put us under pressure. basically what i am saying is that we need a "Pirlo" or someone who directs the attacks precisely. havin hulk and hazard on the wings is of little use without the proper passes there and the only genuine passers we have got are Mata and Lampard(sometimes). we basically need a schemer in the middle. priority number one