TorontoChelsea

They see so much more that we do...they see their own long term plans, they see their budget, they see scouting videos of other players, not just youtube compilations they see and study game tape and are able to analyze player performance much better than we can, they see dossiers of information on our own players and our opposition. The internet is a fantastic source for information but it's also a fantastic source for bullshit and everyone thinks they are an expert.I reserve the right to criticize management moves and player deployment I don't like, we all do, but thinking that we generally know more than the board or RDM is ridiculous.

Even if we lost at Juventus, we still have a decent chance to go through although I hate leaving our fate up to others. (assuming we beat Nordsjaelland at home and if we can't, we don't deserve to go through). If Juventus wins both games, they'll be at 12 points and we'll qualify. If Shakhtar wins both games, they'll be at 13 points and we'll still qualify. If either team drop points next game, we'll qualify. If Juventus and Shakhtar win next match day and then draw on the final day, we'd be out. It will be interesting to see how RDM plays it because we gave Juventus too much room in the centre of midfield at the Bridge and were guilty of doing the same today. If we can't mark the trailing man in the box, we'll get beaten. Something we need to work on in training.

Carvalho too although we sold him a year before he started to break down. I think we should be open to selling anybody if we got great value, but the point is that we don't have to. If Oscar or anyone is doing well at Chelsea and is happy, we'll keep them. I don't understand the worry about losing players we just bought a few months ago. I wish people would stop worrying about who we might buy and who might sell and would just enjoy watching the team we have, which apart from a couple of periods here and there, has been fantastic to watch for about 15 years or so.

If Oscar gets moved into the pivot, then Walcott could be perfect. He could rotate in with the attacking midfielders and act as a third striker. If Oscar is going to stay up front, there's no real room for him. I can't see signing Walcott to be as purely a striker.

Well, if you have to be the victim, I probably wouldn't chose Oscar...maybe more along these lines-http://forum.talkchelsea.net/topic/12849-sexiest-women-thread-v2/page__fromsearch__1

Ramires drove me crazy today. He keeps trying to steal the ball off the attacker. His being aggressive is sometimes great, but he also lets players get by him today. Our central midfield should have done better on both the goals against us. Yes, Bertrand was exposed, but we let their attackers go unmarked in the area. Liking Oscar might make you a pedophile. He really looks like a kid.

Exactly. This is what's incredibly annoying about too many (especially newer) Chelsea fans. It's not possible for a player to have even one bad game without the "we need to go buy this player" coming as a response. Players have bad games. Bertrand might not be the answer, but that will not be determined on the merit of one poor performance.

I feel the same way about Bertrand I did before the game. The people who thought that he could easily take over from Cole were always being ridiculous. He's played what, 5 or 6 games at a high level at LB in his life? He needs time. It's possible he'll turn out to be an excellent LB and it's possible he will never be good enough to start regularly for us.

Great game and great win. We were excellent in attack and poor defensively. Bertrand had an off game obviously. I want Luiz benched. Not because I think he's useless, but because I think someone needs to get through to him and talking doesn't seem to be working. He's getting paid like a world-class defender and he is playing like a kid in a playground right now. He is capable of playing conservatively, but he just isn't right now. I don't know what else would work.

This game is so messy for us right now. If we keep playing like this, we're going to lose.

Damn, our defence looks soft. Ramires has to stop trying to chase the ball and instead play the man especially deep in our own zone.

Great start!

Great to see Mata back in. I understand why JT would be rested against a team that's built on speedy counters. Unfortunately, Cahill and Luiz aren't in the best form right now but hopefully that changes. Definitely need three points.

I used to think that, but the 2000 American election changed my mind, Al Gore would have been flawed but would also have been so so so much better than Bush. There is no way that Gore would have invaded Iraq. Gore would have brought up the environment regularly and tried to do something, anything, Gore wouldn't have given that insane tax cut to the super rich which screwed the US too. Even this election is similar. I don't think Romney himself is all that conservative, but his White House would have cut taxes to the rich further, increased military spending enormously,try to cut back on peoples' rights, cut basic social programs, and used "we're number 1" as his foreign policy. Obama will raise taxes on the rich, decrease (not enough) military spending, and is much more conservative (with a small C) in foreign policy. That's not to say that he's going to do a great job anywhere, just that there is a huge difference between a mediocre president and a disastrous one.

And elected the first openly gay senator as well. It's funny for us Canadians to see conservatives in the US go ballistic about things like Marijuana and gay marriage. We've had gay marriage for a while, I think we have marijuana laws, but they are not enforced (beyond busting big dealers.) and society hasn't crumbled into some sort of drugged-out gay orgy like Republicans say would happen. The war on drugs is an absolute disaster. It has no accomplished anything and has led to arresting, prosecuting, and jailing millions of people for minor offenses, costing the state billions and people their entire lives. I'm not saying everything should be legalized, that goes to far, but for Marijuana, it should just be like alcohol. (I was in L.A. recently and there it is everywhere. There are pot stores all over the place. You just need a "doctor's note" and a California driver's licence. BTW Kieran, instead of leaving the US, I would suggest just going to a liberal city. I travel to the US fairly frequently and always feel at home in New York and L.A. and places like that. (And like I'm in a different world in Republican sort of places). International cities often have more in common with themselves than with their own countries. (Centres of culture, multicultural, tolerant, etc...)

Yet again, blue is the colour!

Thanks to everyone who voted for me! It's a real honour to get this nod on a forum with so many quality posters. Congrats to other nominees-all quality, I'm sure your month will come.

Generally agree with you with a few exceptions. 1) i think we will definitely bring in a striker. If it's someone like Remy, Torres might stay. If it's someone like Falcao or Cavani, Torres will get sold. I think Lukaku might be our backup striker next season if he shows enough this year. If not, Chelsea might have to get a couple of strikers. . 2) I think Josh will go back out on loan, maybe to a Premiership side this time. Chalobah will certainly go out on loan, probably for another few years. 3) Not sure what Chelsea will do with Courtois. Cech is still an elite keeper and deserves to be playing all the time. Do we want to bring back Courtois to play in a few cup games? 4) Not so sure about Cole. If Chelsea won't give him more than a year, I think someone else will.I'd say he's about 50/50 to leave and Lampard is about 75/25 5) You, of all people, forgot to mention Ramires.

Yes, if we keep with the 4-2-3-1, I think that is perhaps our best bet going forward. In that case,next year, we would only need to add a striker. We could nee other players depending if Cole stays or not, a LB and depending if Marin shows anything or not and if Lampard takes a one year deal or not, another attacking midfielder/winger and if Sturridge leaves and if Torres got sold, possibly a second or third striker. If we decide to keep Oscar as an attacking midfielder which is absolutely a fine decision, we will need to buy a central midfielder as well. (The 4-3-3 would be appealing to our central midfield because a rotation of Mikel, Ramires, Oscar, De Bruyne, and Lampard could be very good but it doesn't work for our attack because if you play the 4-3-3, you need to have real wingers which means that Mata and Hazard would have their games curtailed.)

They don't cross because crossing means you have to play on the wing and our midfielder play much more centrally.

It depends what Chelsea are going to do with Oscar. If they're going to move him into the centre, then we don't need another central midfielder. if they want to keep him up front, then we do. Lampard probably won't be here next year and Chelsea don't just hand jobs to players coming back from loan. I know you and I disagree about this, but I think Ramires is also a far from ideal fit in that spot. He just doesn't have the ability to control the tempo of the game and to distribute for his teammates. He's OK there as a stop-gap, but not long-term. We don't need a defensive midfielder though.

I actually don't really want either of them right now.Chelsea have to sort out a system and then find a striker who fits that system. Right now, we are still finding our way and are having trouble creating opportunities against decent squads. We have to figure out-are we a team that plays through balls to our striker? Are we a team that crosses into the box? Are we a team that uses our striker to hold the ball up for the midfield? Do we want a powerful striker to win headers? Right now, we're playing in a system that no striker would flourish in. Eventually, RDM will figure it out and then we should buy a big-name striker but to spend 40-50M on a striker that might not be right for our system is insane. However, if we were to buy a striker, Cavani would be a much better bet than Falcao. Falcao is a top-class finisher, but he's never going to be a fit for whatever style Chelsea are building. The entire Athletico Madrid attack is geared towards setting up Falcao. Falcao has double the shots that any other teammate has. On the other hand, Cavani doesn't even have the most shots on his team. Whoscored.com analyses how teams play. Here are their descriptions of how Chelsea play: Attack through the middle Take long shots Control the game in the opposition's half Short passes Very accurate. And their description of how Atletico Madrid play Attacking down the left Atempt crosses often Take a lot of shots Control the game in the opposition's half A very different style. They use width and they cross the ball all the time into Falcao. It's the perfect system for him. The way we play is just not suited to him. We tend to get the ball to our striker is fairly static positions in the middle or on the wing. Falcao is not someone who is going to create their own chance very often and his crossing is extremely limited. Napoli play a through-ball sort of game which is very likely the direction we are going in but as I said earlier, I don't see a system that Cavani wouldn't excel in.

I'd say the exact opposite. Cavani is a well-rounded player who would, I think, succeed in any system. Falcao is a system #9. He's a fantastic finisher, but that's all he does. He doesn't contribute defensively, he doesn't pass well, he doesn't dribble past players. He has a nose for the net and he gets service and he finishes well with his head and his feet. Cavani can pass the ball long, he is very good defensively, he's great at holding the ball up, he can beat his man 1 on 1, and he has a very flexible game. And it's not like he's not a fantastic finisher either. He'd be a much better fit for Chelsea than Falcao.

He had a good game, but his defensive positioning isn't great overall and that is usually even a bigger problem at CB than RB. Still, it's fabulous to have someone who can step in and start at RB or CB and play at a high level at both It gives the squad real flexibility and gives RDM options.. .

He was also asked to play in the Ramires/Lampard role in the midfield which he is simply not cut out for. Can't blame him for that.