English Freak

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I don't blame Mata's slight drop in performance over the course of this season. He's been told to do all the creative work while the rest of our midfield do nothing. Our lack of real wingers is a problem that must be addressed as soon as possible. If only Malouda put in 100% effort on the pitch, our LW problems would be solved temporarily and maybe that would allow Mata a bit of rest. And anyway, if our entire midfield don't put in a good shift, then how do you expect Mata to provide chances for the likes of Torres, Sturridge, DD, Lamps.

I wouldn't mind if Torres doesn't score goals, as long as he puts in 100% effort and provides some assists for the rest of the season. And anyway, with the lack of service, lack of creativity from our midfield, even the likes of RvP, Rooney, Ba..etc would struggle to score goals for us.

Don't see how Blanc will be any better than AvB was. I'd stick with Robbie & Eddie, unless we can somehow persuade Moyes to join our shipwreck.

High scoring draw or sneaking a victory would be an awesome result. But, I wouldn't be surprised if Benfica win the match.

Totally agree. Unless something miraculous happens sooner rather than later!

Totally agree. Whats the point of having a good academy, solid reserve team if you're never going to give these kids a chance? Sure we have to take into account that they are raw, they are young..and there is a gap between reserve team football & EPL level football, BUT with players like McEachran, Lukaku, Bertrand..they should be given the odd game against weaker opponents, i mean they couldn't do much worse than the current players in their respective positions.

I wouldn't be surprised if Napoli sell Lavezzi/Cavani and bring in Rossi as a replacement because Rossi has said that he prefers a move back to Italy.

Out of the 8 games left, we got Villa; Arsenal; Fulham & Liverpool away...and on current form, I don't see us picking up more than 6 points from those 4 games.

Agree with that. Hope Kakuta keeps up the hardwork at Dijon and he should be able to push for a first team place at Chelsea from next season! He's still raw but he's got the ability, would be pretty useful at LW.

He's an average midfielder. He'll do fairly well in the Championship, might get the chance to play in the EPL later on his career. Don't think he'll ever become world-class. In recent times, the only youth we've sold/let go who might become close to world-class is Fabio Borini. As for Sinclair, Stoch..who knows, maybe they could of patched up our problems out wide.

How do you know that he'll "never be a team player"? He's only 22, still developing, don't think we'll see the best of Sturridge for another 2-3 seasons. And anyway, I think we should persist with him, give him the chance at CF. Putting his selfishness to one side; We're gonna need goals to win matches and this kid can score goals. As for the Nani comparison. I never knew Nani was a CF being told to play as a winger. Always thought he was an average winger.

He's not overrated. He's a good young player. Definitely has the ability to become a solid, goal-scoring CF in the future. Just needs to mature. Even if he doesn't get the chance to be a CF at Chelsea, i'm sure most of the EPL sides would sign him up and give him the chance at CF.

We should sign Willian + Dzagoev instead of wasting all that money on Hulk.

I think it'll end in a draw but you never know, maybe Sturridge can score the winning goal against his former club!

Good draw. We should be able to progress with a strong home leg and hopefully concentrate more of our energy on our chances of knocking off Arsenal/Spurs for the 4th Spot in the EPL table.

We should just start the game with Lukaku as the CF instead of Torres. The kid deserves a chance. Would be awesome to see Hutchinson at RB, but I doubt that'll happen.

He's our 60k a week translator

We might win the match but I just got the feeling that we'll lose on aggregate.

Yep, he was having problems with the old guard. I don't recall any of the younger players (the players that will lead CFC into the future) bad mouthing AvB and complaining to the media. It was Chelsea's fault for hiring AvB, i'm sure there were other more experienced options out there after Carlo got the sack. He was too inexperienced to deal with big egos such as Lampard, Drogba, Malouda, Terry at the same time.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/723189-uefa-financial-fair-play-how-will-it-effect-the-champions-league Good summary article.

Don't need any more defenders at the moment. RB: Ivanovic, Hutchinson, some of the promising youths CB: Terry, Cahill, Luiz...with Bruma, Kalas on-loan. LB: Cole, Bertrand, possibly Van Aanholt.

Yeh, let's spend big again. Pull off another flop purchase like Torres for 50 million. All we need is 2-3 decent players and phasing out of the old guard.

That's true...I guess it all depends on how versatile the player is. As for Dani Alves...he's basically a RW player for Barcelona anyway, he's got so much freedom to keep on charging down that right flank.