TorontoChelsea

I agree that our defensive problems are more systemic than talent-based. Here are what I think are the issues. 1) Our lack of width. Problem 1) If the opposition has any width, they will always outnumber us on the wings, leaving Cole or Ivanovic in odd-man situations Problem 2). Because we have no width in attack, Cole and Ivanovich have to get up the field to attack. This leaves us incredibly vulnerable to counter-attacks 2) Our attackers don't track back enough. 3) What style do we play defensively? Are we a pressing team? We have some players that press and others that play positional defense. Oscar and Ramires seem to be pressing all the time but they also get beaten more than any of our other players (because they are so aggressive, they also tackle more than any of our players) and some of that is because you need to press as a team to creature pressure on their ball-handlers.Otherwise, you get dribbled past too often (in the last 4 games, we;ve been outdribbled in every one for a total of 43-28). To press effectively, you can't just have one or two players pressing. 4) A defensive general. Even though Terry is not an elite defender anymore, he provides vocal leadership that the back line seems to need. He is always communicating with the other defenders. Without Terry, there have been a number of plays where Chelsea defenders don't communicate properly. 5) Mental mistakes. Made a lot of these recently. As for the double-pivot, I disagree. It's not that I think that Ramires and Mikel aren't playing well at all. It's just that we're not getting what we should be getting out of the double pivot. Ramires is a very good player, he's not the right kind of player for that position. We need someone who will be able to open up play with incisive passes. Who will be able to switch play from side to side. What Oscar did tonight when he came on, setting up attacks with long passes, with through-balls , with vision, while being solid defensively, that is what a pivot should do. Ramires either gets the ball and he makes a short pass to Oscar or Mata who then set up the play or he runs the ball up to an attacking player and hands it off. He's never going to be able to control the temp of the game. He's never going to hit the long ball over the top or the perfect sideline pass. That's just something we need long-term either from Oscar or from a central midfielder we buy..

Yeah, we were really dangerous once we went to this formation. I actually would like this lineip as a regular thing with Mikel instead of Ramires (Ramires then becomes a possible sub at every position), and I think long-term Oscar in the double pivot makes some sense.

Honestly, I'd rather that, then unwarranted sending offs. To be fair, the ref had a lot of pressure in him because of Sunday's game and the fact that he decided to go really conservative was understandable.

No chance. Marin has played 20 minutes so far this season. He'll need a couple of sub appearances at least, before he's ready to start.

For sure and we need him for Shaktar. Moses certainly showed that he can be effective on the right and I think a front-line of Hazard-Oscar-Moses is definitely good enough..

Exactly. You have to give players a run of games in order to see their quality. Sturridge had a couple of really stupid plays and a couple more chances he should have done better on, but he also did a lot of things right. His positioning was very good and he made some very good runs. He generally pressed their defence well and he wasn't afraid to shoot. He also made a few beautiful passes. I was really impressed at how well Danny and Moses worked together. He needs work, but he needs games to improve.

I agree. I think he just offers a different dimension. What the other three lack (physicality and width) he brings. I can see a 4 man rotation for those three spots.

Amazing win. We were obviously a better class, but we played much of the game with most of our starters so should have won. I think we'll need to sit some players on Saturday. Worried about lack of depth on our squad. Still not sure why we sold Meireles. Romeu was terrible. Sturridge was this mix of tremendous and awful. He kept getting himself into great positions, he set up Moses a few times with great passes, but he still made some baffling decisions and seemed nervous at the outset. Still, you can't start someone once a year and judge their abilities on that one performance. Awareness comes with playing time. Moses was our best player in the first half and I thought this was Oscar's best game in a while too.. Our attack in the second half of the match was just fantastic. Luiz is having a really poor patch.

And Ramires kisses the badge,What quality from Hazard!

And then Sturridge makes a fantastic pass to Moses...that's the thing about Danny. He can pass. He just needs more awareness.

Sturridge! He missed a bunch of chances, but he kept getting into good areas and finally, he scored.

Really really didn't want extra time. This means no break for Oscar or Hazard and a game and a third for Mata. We really need more depth.

Wow.This is seriously one of the most exciting games I've seen in a while. Extra time!

Third. Spurs, Manu, Manu. Will be nice to get him back. Terry is a general at the back and we do need that sometimes.

We still could easily win this game. Two bad mistakes led to two goals. We are having problems in our double pivot which were entirely foreseeable. Neither Mikel or Romeu get forward enough or can link up play well enough. I don't think Ramires is even good enough at ball distribution, but at least he gets forward. What is happening is Mata is having to drop too deep to collect the ball which leaves Moses and Sturridge up front alone against 4 defenders (because Piazon has been invisible). I wouldn't make any changes yet, but if things stay the same, I'd bring on Ramires for Romeu at the 60th minute or so. Romeu has been having a shocker of a game. As I said earlier, I love the extra dimension Moses brings to the side. Just gives us so many other options offensively and tightens us up defensively as well.

I love what Moses brings to the side. The natural width which spread the defense and allows the RB to stay deeper, the crosses into the box. It just gives our team a different dimension. Hope he starts to get into some games in the league. (Which would also allow us to rotate and rest Mata, Oscar, and Hazard.)

The good news is that Moses and Sturridge have hooked up twice with beautiful passes to create opportunities.

Sounds like a great atmosphere at the bridge. Constant singing.

You're right. My mistake. I mis-remembered.

I thought Mata was the one who was definitely going to sit since 1) he's our most important player 2) He, unlike Oscar or Hazard played 90 minutes on Sunday. I think this means Mata rests on Saturday because to have him play Saturday and Wednesday would be 4 games in 10 days and we need to beat Shakhtar.

It won't happen because it doesn't exist. Clattenburg last year sent of Evans against City in the match City won 6-1. If Clattenburg wanted ManU to win, he would have just sent off Torres for his tackle and given a penalty for Luiz's hand-ball. Both decisions would have been reasonable and ManU would have won. As for the last time United finished with the most goals scored and the fewest goals conceded? That was 2007-2008 and before last season, it was the last time any team did it. This are Manu's rankings in goals scored/conceded over the past five years. 11/12-2nd/2nd 10/11-1st/3rd 09/10-2nd/1st 08/0902nd/ 1st 07/08-1st/1st Yeah, just awful. They're a very good team with incredible attacking depth and Ferguson is a very good coach. The referee made an awful call. That doesn't mean there is some massive conspiracy. @bluesmaster-tell that to Germany!

The "Sell him, he's a waste of money" posts are always an absurd overreaction that doesn't understand the nature of the sport. 1) The vast majority of players go through ups and downs. How many people were saying "sell Cech, sell Lampard, sell Cole, sell Drogba, etc.." after their relatively poor starts last year? Having a bad few games doesn't mean your a bad player.. 2) Football is a team game. Take Ivanovic. If Chelsea had more width, he'd be able to stay back more and inevitably be in better defensive positions. So, yes, his poor defensive positioning is somewhat his fault, but it's also down to the system we play. Luiz is frustrating because he fails when he he either seems to zone out and make some basic mistake or when he tries to do too much.He needs to stop those long balls up the field. He needs to stay in better positions. Like in acting or in sex, sometimes doing less is gets better results.

Doesn't look like it will be on TV here which sucks.I mostly want us to win because this competition is a good place to get some of our younger players some game time.

I think if Chelsea do buy a striker in January, we'll go for someone like Remy and even though I don't think he's a world-class striker, I think it's still the best option. Winter is a bad time to buy players in general, and I think the last thing Chelsea need is to spend enormous amounts of money on a big name striker who doesn't fit into a system we play. Especially when we are top of the league as is. I think RDM has to develop our team some more and Chelsea can re-evaluate team needs and which players would best fit our squad after the season.

Lot of good posters but I'll go with Kezza this month because he's a really good poster who has had a tough month and deserves something good.(Also, always like SeB but he doesn't post enough!!, Spike, Zolayes, joker10, are a few of my non-moderator favourites) Just also wanted to mention that I was looking in another Chelsea forum last week and I couldn't believe how top-down it was. There are narratives that are accepted and if anybody ventures to believe anything else, they get swarmed.I saw someone post a valid perspective that disagreed with the mainstream of the board and within 2 minutes, he was attacked by about half a dozen different posters. The effect is a board that is completely devoid of any interesting discussion or any variety of perspective. It's just the same 20 people posting variations on the same narrative. It made me appreciate this site even more. I think it's fair to say that I probably don't share the exact same opinions on players as any other poster, but the discussions with posters I disagree with (if their opinions are reasonable and put forth in a reasonable and respectful manner) are some of the best discussions. There are posters that I almost never agree with but still enjoy reading and enjoy responding to because their perspective is different. This is, far and away, the best Chelsea forum on the net.