Chelsea Legend 11

Are you watching it?

Is the press conference gonna be broadcasted? if so where can it be viewed?

Ya that's how I feel too. If Oscar can ever adapt to a deeper role it would solve a lot of problems

not very good.

Its gonna be interesting to see what XI Jose decides to go with. We have people who haven't played for a few games who need match fitness(Mata, Torres, Cole, Schurrle) but at the same time you don't want to disrupt a winning formula particularly in a champions league fixture. I really love Oscar, I really do, I think he is a better player than Mata overall but I really can't handle seeing Juan on the bench... he deserves to play, the question is where? 4-3-3 looked fantastic on the weekend! I feel like that formation will be used more to free up the defensive responsibilities of our wide men. If I'm correct then playing Mata wide left could work. For this game I'd like to see: ---------------- Cech Ivanovic - Cahill - Terry - Azpilicueta ---------------- Mikel -------- Ramires ---- Lampard Schurrle ---------------------- Mata ----------------- Torres What I think will happen is this though ----------------- Cech Ivanovic - Cahill - Terry - Azpilicueta ----------- Mikel ---- Ramires Schurrle ------- Oscar --------- Hazard ---------------- Torres

quit your whining. We are adapting to yet another coach(our 5th in 3 years) we have young players learning how the manager wants to play. Its gonna take more than 3-4 months before we get the right balance of attack, possession and defense... BTW I really don't care how we win games sexy or ugly, the most sexy thing you can have at the end of the year is trophies! That's sexy to me!

they go about their business differently but fulfill the same role at their respective clubs.

He had a 3rd party deal in place that's why he went to monaco, they basically bought him out of it.

Essien isn't in the CL squad... Oscar doesn't play in the CM position at all. I would like to see him tried there but at current he's never been played there under Jose. I doubt a CL fixture is the place Jose will experiment.

So given that clearly none are available we shouldn't add a match winner? makes no sense to wait until we get DLP before we sign a true clinical match winner when the only thing available on the market is a striker. We do need one of those too, don't we?

Okay lets try it this way... Who are the deep lying playmakers that will unlock the defense for us? Are they available?

Cabaye is a decent shout. So with Cabaye you think we have a squad capable of unlocking defenses to the level where Torres, Eto'o and Ba will score tap ins? If you were to ask me we need two buys, CM someone who provides steel in the centre of the pitch and a match winner. This talk of a deep lying playmaker being the answer is just what people say because they know we haven't invested much money there (VanGinkel and Ramires really) but to me that's not the key because PLENTY of teams are getting by without one, very few teams are getting by without a match winner.

Good, but not great. I don't see where he will make us that much better going forward, he's more a ball winner than anything.

So name me the player who plays DLP who will make it all good.

So who is this stud CM you speak of, the type that will make everything work?

Well if it were CAM's we have a collection of them Mata, Hazard, Oscar, Willian, DeBruyne... If the reason we aren't scoring goals is CAM then I don't know what else can be done to address it. Falcao is a match winner. We need to grab a clinical WORLD CLASS striker.

Hamsik is an AM not a DLP.... I ASSURE you Zlatan is a striker! That's my point! who is the deep lying playmaker who gets their strikers to score? Bottom line is a match winner or a world class striker knows how to impact a game with minimal chances.

I have no doubt we need a CM to accompany Ramires but I would bet a pretty penny if we had a World Class striker leading the line we would be better off. Tell me something, who is the CM who unlocks defenses for Zlatan and Cavani to score? Who was that person in Napoli? At Man Utd for Rooney then RVP? Whoever the guy is at Atletico needs to be considered the best of all time with what he's done with Costa and Falcao.

I'd say all those signings have maintained or increased their transfer value. That's a sensible policy because they're young guys who are worth more today than when we bought them. Look, I just don't think he's the right guy. A few years ago when he left Porto was the time to get him but now we need to spend in other areas. Well that's where the difference lies. Depending on the fee I think a guy who's scored 102 goals since 2009 is exactly the right buy. We've been too wrapped up in buying every young midfielder we've ignored prime time players and that is now the reason we aren't as good as we should be. Too many players past their prime and too many still approaching their best. Falcao would be amazing. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk - now Free

It's very easy to commit us to around £100 million of spending when it's not your money. Sure we could go that route again but I'd prefer to see us buy sensibly, use the resources we already have and build something that might take a bit more time, but could be sustainable over a longer period of time. Ya, buy sensibly like when we bought willian, mata, atsu, schurrle, mata, hazard, debruyne, Moses, Oscar... The past 3yrs. Anyway I never said anything about buying without selling. I strongly feel that in order to buy a real match winner and a midfielder we're going to have to sell, it's inevitable and also necessary. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk - now Free

You may disagree but I've seen us win titles where our main striker scored about a dozen league goals. I reckon if we had a world-class midfielder then it would make us a better team. I think the attacking players would benefit massively and we wouldn't be shipping goals at home to West Brom. Falcao's a good player but I think we've got to look for value in the market and he doesn't offer that. It's reminiscent of the short-termist thinking that got us into a mess a couple of seasons back. You sound as if this squad has the same characteristics as the team that won with few contributions from strikers. Not the case at all this squad, like the 2010 team, needs a match winner AND a midfielder. And a player like Falcao is certainly good value when you consider the fact he scores boatloads of important goals. That's the difference. Not the volume but the types of teams he scores against can decide cups and titles. We need a match winner and there aren't that many around that will be counted as a bargain. Torres, Ba, Eto'o are adequate but not exactly ideal. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk - now Free

We're leaving loads of points on the table because we're not a great team and that stems from a lack of strength in midfield to control the game. Sticking another chimney on the roof means fuck all if the foundations are rotten. I disagree. To me a match winner of the highest order is as important as a great holding mid. It just so happens Falcao may be available and for that reason we take a look at acquiring him. If we acquired say... Pogba would it negate the need for a match winner? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk - now Free

That's spot on, Eto'o for example has the best movement out of all our current strikers but it's still not quite at the level needed. Torres tends to end up in positions where he basically doesn't affect play while Ba is immobile for large portion of matches. This is illustrated by the amount of shots our strikers are able to take: Eto'o with his superior movement has averaged 2.7 in the League and 2.8 in the CL - which illustrates he is able to get into a position to shoot at a pretty respectable rate Torres with his movement usually ends up on the wing or outside the box averages 1.7 in the League and 2.0 in the CL Demba Ba is the worst in this regard but he has played the least and as I've said in the past the thing I don't like about Ba is how immobile he seems for large parts of the match so it's no suprise he averages 1.7 shots per game. I think it's safe to say teams play us very differently. They sit and wait for us to make a mistake and our opportunities to score are scarce. We need someone who is clinical to capitalize on the few chances we get to score early. That will force teams to come out and allow us to utilize our strengths best. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk - now Free

Isn't that exactly what we have in Hazard, Oscar, Mata, Willian? The problem isn't the players behind the striker its the movement of the striker and his ability to convert opportunities as they are presented.

So am I to believe we are actually scoring enough goals to win titles? I don't buy it... we're leaving loads of points on the table due to the lack of a clinical striker.