robsblubot

True, that'd take Corinthians out of their confort zone. Regardless, the key is that they are used to playing Brazilian sides. They are the anti-brazilian side, similar to what Scolari himself did with Gremio in the 90's. So, if Chelsea ups the tempo, that might cause problems for Corinthians defending. That's what Benitez said prior to the semi, and I suspect he will ask the players to do the same.

If Chelsea can up the tempo even more they will win without much trouble IMO. That's the trick though and I liked that Benitez said just that prior to the semi. Brazilian football is much slower, due to officiating and weather; both of which will be very different for them against Chelsea. They are a good defensive side though, so Chelsea must be committed if they want to win this.

I can relate as I don't like the way the football federations use and abuse players and their clubs, in the name of their respective countries (it's really about money though). However, like I said, if Luiz isn't OK with the change, and the change is of the permanent kind, he may just hand in his transfer request. Many thought he would be fine as a right-back and he pretty much said 'no' and that was the end of it. The reason he said no was because Brazil had Dani Alves and Maicon for right-back. The writeup also points out one of the key limitations of our current DMs, something we've missed on the Mickel thread: long balls. madmax, yes, David has been a starter for Brazil and doing a great job as a defender playing alongside Thiago Silva. Thiago is more composed and David aggressive, which makes them an interesting pair (akin to David Terry IMO). Scolari has not yet called up the players, but it is to be expected David and Silva pairing will be maintained.

Good writeup, but people are mostly missing one important variable here: Brazil. If David ends up playing regularly in the middle for Chelsea he'd very likely lose his starting stop for Brazil. In other words, he might hand in his transfer request if this is done one-sided: by chelsea alone. The way to go about this, if the intent is to *move* david into a DM role, is to include both David and Scolari in the decision making. If the idea is to have him as a DM cover, then it's all good as the flexibility would be very welcome by Scolari as well. I know Chelsea wouldn't care about what Brazil want or need, but they could lose the player in teh process, especially with the WC coming in 2 years time and in Brazilian soil. BTW, long ball passing is underrated around here. These passes naturally stretch the opponent, because it keeps their defense line in check at all times.

not a prob, forgot to mention HSV. It was a very low profile crazy game. HSV had to travel to southern Brazil between budesliga matches to attend this friendly. They were invited because Gremio and HSV played the WCC final back in the 80s (it was a single match then). The stadium wasn't that finished either.

I'm talking about Jeffrey Bruma who plays for Hamburg SV. He played as right back in the match I mentioned.

He played against Gremio (3rd in the Brasileiro) in Brazil last Saturday night. The game was streamed for free everywhere because it was the inauguration of the new Gremio Arena stadium (until they sell the naming rights). He faced off against Anderson Pico a left-back I don't rate very highly and did not do too well. He did not beat Anderson a single time. Though I don't remember seeing him get beaten by Anderson many a times either. Bruma was certainly better defensively than attacking. Anderson Pico is a short, stocky, either footed left-back (can play on the right too) who had loads of potential once. He then had issues with professionalism and gained weight, which he never fully lost. He was the third option left-back for gremio, but ended up playing because both Fabio Aurelho (former liverpool) and his sub picked up long term injuries. So, I expected bruma to do well against Pico, at least physically. Was disappointed. Should have posted the link for the streaming here, but the game was chaotic and I didn't know about it until late.

thought Paulinho was a carbon copy of Ramires (as player characteristics go). Isn't that the case?

agreed, but the discussion is (or I thought it was) of all rounders vs specialists. United seem to employ all rounders, so they can pressure more easily, even when away from home (like they did against us and City more recently). They also do not need a holding mid, because they defend well with 2 lines with RVP being the only one not very committed to defending. I do agree that right now we cannot do that even if we wanted to, but in the long run who knows?!

Good point, but if we play with the likes of Hazard, Mata, Moses/Oscar, and a striker up front then we sure do need a DM. If Hazard, Mata, and Oscar develop the defensive side of their game, then we could potentially change and not even employ a DM, but I'd not do that right now.

Oscar has played many times a center mid and does well in that position. For the BPL he'd be still too lightweight, but if he can improve physically (aka bulk up a bit) he may yet become an amazing CM. He will always be a more attacking minded, possession type of player, but he could very well be the long-term replacement for Lampard IMO. yeah, great initial post btw!

That's why we are not league contenders and out of the CL. And also the reason that our once pretty solid defense has suddenly become weak and questionable, but we always choose to question the defenders when we concede and the forwarders when we don't score, as if football was that simple. Thanks for the useless stats. So, you provide stats that do not disprove any of ours points concerning sturridge's game and at the same time come up with anecdotal evidence that you "have not heard a single person..." My point earlier is that I do trust Chelsea's coaches to know a bit better than us, myself included.

Agreed. Besides being a team player isn't so much as just passing the football, which he does not do very often, but tracking back, moving into channels, defend and tackle to win the ball back (not just for show). These coaches see more than we do; they also keep actual data not only from matches, but also practice. Agreed on the stats too. Stats mean very little when taken out of context. The worst and most overused stat IMO is pass accuracy, which would lead anyone to conclude that Gareth Barry is better than Messi. We are in the age of the glorified side-passer though. The problem is that he thinks he a lot better than he actually is.

Corinthians are a very defensive side. their challenge would have been to score the winning goal, which they did. If Chelsea do not break any records (first European side not making to the final) then they are going to face a very tough side to crack.

he's pretty good on fm2012 (don't know about fm2013 yet)...

Agreed. Someone like Mascherano for example. High work rate and pace though not so strong in the air.

Is Mascherano a realistic target right now? He's part of rotation at Barca, so perhaps offering a staring position would entice him to return to the BPL. Plus his buddy Benitez is the manager now, at least for a while.

Let's agr Let's agree to completely disagree then. BTW, spain bore me to death... had Robben not been a complete and utter flop in big matches and the Dutch team would've been world champions now.

I think people here don't give enough international credit... do you know how difficult it is to start for Brazil? Certainly more difficult than to pick an England spot. I'm not dissing England, but it's just the sheer number of players that Brazil have at their disposal. Many of which play at top sides, like Chelsea. It's actually quite sad because it's a continental country with a single sport: football. Granted, we have many young players now; even Luiz and Ramires are a bit green, esp concerning top level football. But that's how you improve your squad without breaking the bank. You cannot buy the final product every time; it's just too expensive even for Roman, not to mention the other guys may not want to sell their best players. BTW, moments of brilliance like the one Ramires had against Barca is what makes a player special in my book. Ramires was also MOTM for Brazil in the last world cup and was Suspended for the Holland game. Chelsea are short in the middle, no argument there. They need cover too.

I happen to think that, right now, DM is a position Chelsea could improve on. Now, this improvement may come from Mikel and Romeo, or perhaps different players. Without having the fitness levels data, that Chelsea coaches certainly do have access to, it's difficult to know how they are progressing physically and tactically. The fact they've let Essien go and bet on Mikel speaks volumes. I think Mikel has gained some pace lately, but sometimes he seems a bit off as of lacking dynamism. His work rate could be improved on. You could make a case for most of Chelsea squad that they'd be top 10 in the world in their respective positions (personal preferences aside), but Mikel would be a difficult sell for a top 10 spot. Essien at his best was easily top 10. Ironically we've won the CL without him... It's always the team. It's all relative to the team and the system; the manager would be very welcome to find a system in which Mikel excels.

Well by the time I wrote my post that was the case. The team has been improving, but we like to talk about individual players instead; it's way more fun.

Why stop there?! United are in dire need of a top keeper like Cech... I'm SAF would welcome him with open arms. Seriously, I could certainly imagine accepting a bib for Petr, considering Courtois is already playing at a very high level, but NOT 10 mil! It's gotta be a an absurd amount of money for a GK. Pter has another 5 years at top level easy.

Torres making good runs!!! Bertrand isn't good enough to play on the wing... Lampard is back keep possession!

we are not keeping possession which is also part of defending... We remain very aggressive when in possession... that needs fixing. Great header by Luiz!

I sudo do! Barca have huge problems playing against counter-attacking teams. They are also very weak in the air and need to always get behind the opponent's defense line. Messi is key here, because of his dribbling. They've struggled against Inter and Chelsea a few times. This is not about quality whatsoever since they can usually beat United without problems. Other possession sides haven't had Barca's luck btw. People talk about Barca, which have prob the best players in the world. Do you really think Barca would be that much weaker if playing in a vastly different way? Or would Messi, Iniesta, Xavi, still provide an edge that any style and side can benefit from? Things are cyclical; soon enough a more pragmatic team will become very successful and others will attempt to do the same.