TorontoChelsea

What an awful game by Gerrard

Two excellent crosses into the box from Sturridge from the left.

Sturridge coming on...

China is the 79th ranked team in the world, one spot below Iraq. They didn't make it out of round 3 in Asian qualifying finishing 3rd in their group of Iraq, Jordan, and Singapore. They are not anywhere near "a very good team".

Bath in Canada means bath. Shower means shower. You Aussies!

Actually, a douche in French is a shower.

I don't get it. I assume it would be at defensive midfield but Chelsea have Mikel and Romeu there anyway. Anyway, positioning is perhaps the single most important thing for a defensive midfielder and probably Luiz's worst attribute.Also, I think putting him in the midfield is the worst possible message to give him. He's easily at his best when he plays a simple defensive game. When he fancies himself a midfielder, he makes awful choices. I just want our coaches to sit him down and say "you are a defender. You're not a free kick specialist, you're not a midfielder, you're not a forward. Stay back, defend, and make simple passes". When he does that, he's great, when he doesn't, I want to yell at him.

This is exactly it. In the real world, you don't yank players in and out of the lineup because of a bad match or two. You need to know that you have to play well in order to keep your job, but you also have to know that a few bad games are not going to cost you your job. Ivanovic hasn't played well so far this season, but he's been a solid RB for years it's only 3 games into the season, we are 3-0-0 and he has 2 goals. Are you really going to drop him for someone who has never played a game in the Premier league? Managing is not just managing the tactics, it's about managing people as well.

I get why they like Ramires there. He played his best football there last season. Hazard and Mata are poor defensively and Ramires is good so he balances that out and Ivanovic loves to get forward so you need someone who can cover on that side so he balances that out as well but...he's off too a poor start and he really doesn't belong there. I won't go crazy if he starts the next few games (I think people generally massively overreact to a couple of poor performances) but I would like to see Moses worked in and then run away with the job. The problem is, there really is nowhere else for Ramires to play in this formation. The most interesting thing to me in this interview is the fact that they are going to keep the 4-2-3-1. I thought they would, but with jettisoning Meireles and Essien, a move to 4-3-3 was possible.

Just happy that it isn't Chris Foy.

I agree. You need strong English skills to be a top captain. Doesn't mean you have to be a native English speaker, but you have to be fluent. English will be the the general language of the squad as well as the communication method with the referee.

Look where he's played so far this season. In all 3 games, he played behind the striker. (Check out soccernet's excellent "average position" in "tactical formation" in gamecast for proof of this). In fact, against ManU, he played as far forward as Jelavic. Had a look at some games from last year as well, and I wasn't really a defensive midfielder then either. Rodwell played that roll. He was more of a box to box central midfielder (IMO, what he's best suited for). Good player, just doesn't fit Chelsea.

I think Fellaini is a good player, but where does he fit?. He's not a deep-lying midfielder and he's not a defensive midfielder so Chelsea get him and then what? So far this season, he's been playing a very attacking role, sort of like a #10 which is absolutely the last thing Chelsea need. You can't just keep buying players just because they're good.

I like to think that I would, but honestly, I don't know.

Look at this very page. Someone compared him to Makalele. I have seen many many people write things like "Romeu looked fabulous last season". I've seen people praise every aspect of his game. I'm not making up or exaggerating what many people are saying about him. You can also see multiple mentions of us hiding him from Barcelona. Not making that up either.

First of all, apparently the add is a fake http://www.snopes.com/photos/medical/klaner.asp It doesn't really matter in terms of this discussion though. Doctors have the duty to save anyone regardless of the situation. I think that's a good thing. You don't want doctors picking and choosing who they want to save. Also, two things about prejudice 1) It is learned. People are racist because they were raised racist and are kept unaware of the reality of "the other" who are also dehumanized. 2) Because it is generally a matter of education, it can be undone. This is why there are many people who are ex-Nazis, Ex-KKK, etc...and you don't know if the dying person is going to be the person who reforms (and a traumatic incident like that can definitely make someone think about things differently)

And unpaid internships are horribly unfair as well. (and should be illegal) Companies get free work instead of paying someone a fair wage to do it. All they do is allow rich kids whose parents can afford to pay their rent better opportunities. (as if they needed that extra boost anyway). As for the schools paying players being unfair, the system is already unfair. The big schools already always win. Every team that won the National Championship in the past 20 years except one were in the top 25 teams in spending (the one that missed was ranked 26th) The system is already unfair so there is no need to try to create a system that creates a balance. http://www.bizjournals.com/memphis/news/2012/08/29/in-college-football-money-buys-champions.html

This is what the system has created. The idea that paying people for doing work would somehow ruin the atmosphere or the purity of the sport. Yes, over 60 players get scholarships, some full, some partial but it's nothing. These programs are making tens of millions of dollars each year. Student athletes in universities are asked to do what nobody else in the world is asked to do-be the attraction and make billions for your employers and get nothing in return. The university can sell your shirt and makes money off it. If you try to sell your own shirt, you'll get fined ans suspended. It's insane.

This is exactly it. I am not a Ronaldo hater by any means. I think he's the second best player on the planet, but the criticism of him has nothing to do with his personal life.

The most claustrophobic book I've read. Made me want to shower all the time. Great book though.

I am having the same worry that you are-that RDM's instructions are too aggressive. I also have seen how the front 3 being static has allowed the counterattack to overwhelm us in the central midfield, but I think the biggest problem has been just lack of proper shape. We really have a whole bunch of central attacking midfielders and wherever we put them on the field, they want to revert to their original position. Mata and Hazard especially are both playing the same position on the field which means that we have no shape for attack or counterattack. RDM needs to instruct Mata to spend more time on the left and use Moses/Marin on the right to get the proper shape. We also have had Ivanovic bombing forward with no cover on the right which leaves us exposed. RDM definitely has some work to do. I'm not quite sure what direction RDM wants to take the squad right now. ( Meireles being sold doesn't help that.)

I agree that he hasn't quite played enough and is still too young to make final decisions about, but I get what Cap and others are saying. People act like there's some sort of conspiracy theory as to why Romeu isn't playing or something rather than just the fact that Mikel is better than he is. I watched pretty much every game last year and Romeu was good but he was hardly outstanding and people are acting like he was brilliant and he simply wasn't. (BTW It's a general rule of thumb on internet boards though-young players get overrated about 200% and older players underrated by the same margin. People are always in love with theoretical potential and watch games to prove it.) @thebigDrog-Barcelona couldn't have rated Romeu too highly if they were willing to let him go for only 4M pounds.

Some cool photos. The Challenger didn't explode though, it broke apart. Whenever someone asks me about the worst way to die, I think of the people on board the Challenger. The part of the shuttle where the crew were housed survived the separation and remained intact for almost 3 minutes afterwards. In fact, the speed from lift-off was so great that it kept going upwards for another 30 seconds. They then fell helplessly to their deaths from 65, 000 feet for over 2 minutes. The whole story of the Challenger is fascinating-from the incompetence and shortsightedness of parts of NASA to the brilliance of Richard Feynman.

Of course they help out defensively. Everyone is supposed to help out defensively. However, the deep-lying playmaker is not primarily a defensive position. The defensive midfielder is primarily a defensive position.

There many ways to say the same thing. He is clearly, very clearly explaining why he doesn't go forward more. In the 4-2-3-1, the defensive midfielder just doesn't go forward. He is clearly not blaming Lampard for him not being allowed to make runs. (For starters, Mikel has played 160 league games with Chelsea and only about 5-10 with Lampard so saying that he doesn't get forward because of Lampard would be idiotic). I don't know why you think "double pivot" is one position. It isn't. There is a defensive midfielder and then a deep lying midfielder. They have different responsibilities. Lampard and Mikel are not playing the same position Lampard's job is to create and Mikel's job is to cover for defenders and to stop attacks. Busquets and Iniesta don't have the same responsibilities.