Magic Lamps

Yes, Mourinho always made sure he had the best requirements at his new working place. He is no god, that's for sure. What happened in the summer transfer periods of 2006 and 2007 cost him his job and condemned us to the search of a new identity. He never achieved to transform a team. the signings of Ballack and Shevchenko were forced on him but we he made the best out of that and won two minor cups, only lost the league because of JTs and Robbens lengthy injuries and some bad luck. But then he blew it. We still had an epic squad entering the 2007/8 season, but we sold Robben and his replacement, Malouda did not really got familiar to the EPL soon enough, nonetheless he should have strengthened our strikeforce with some solid, proven epl class and width we were lacking then already. but he only bought squad player in Sidwell, Ben-haim and some other guys who all turned out to be shit, Claudio Pizarro who did not fit either and Juliano Beletti as a squad player instead of a proper replacement for Paulo Ferreira. Here he should have incented the transformation, he never really recognised anyone from the youth nor bought successors to Lampard or Drogba. At Inter he just tinkered a bit with the class players he had, got the best out of them and set them perfectly up for that kind of astonishing defensive displays. At Real Madrid he again got one of the best squads ever and made them play successfull. Mourinho is brillant tactical wise and great with the players but transfers are not exactly his major strength and i do not know if he is the man to make our transition if Roman wants us to play Barca style. Personally I would love him to return and make us the remake of our 2004-2006 team, but you do not get players like Makelele, Lampard and Drogba again, football has changed and so players have. The manager only can make the players fulfill their potential and catalyze that to success but when the board signs the players, it is more important they get their ideas started out and sign players that we need and that fit our system and the football we play.

I mentioned beofre, a deep lying playmaker who can spread the ball and incent the counter + a direct out-and-out winger with real pace, who can cross and shoot like Bale or Sanchez would make us a force, because we could easily shift. the difference between Hazard and Bale is that Hazrd might be better technically and also is a better passer, but Bale has such a high capacity of running, he can defend without that impeding his offensive contribution. Hazard gets tired while defending and hence is not able to burst out of defence for the break as we have seen several times today. Mata, Oscar, Moses, Bertrand are all fast, but lack that lightning pace a world-class winger has over any distance. Even into space they slow themselves down, taking too many touches, looking for the pass all the tiem instead of just kicking the ball into space and sprinting after it. I think sturridge is our only attacker who can rally do that + outsprint everyone, but he is no winger. As for DLPM I got no idea who is out there, but i see any of our midifelders except Romeu and the loan boys josh and Kevin (but they are still young, ahve to develop) as a fit for a double pivot. Real madrid is probably the team with the best double pivot. Khedira + Xabi alonso. Both can defend and distribute and have a wide range of movement with khedira occupying rather a "destroyer" part and alonso is the playmaker from deep. at the no. 10 they got özil, who spares the playmaking duties with xabi alonso and that's it. Neither Ronaldo, nor di maria are playmakers. Both are lightning fast and strong dribblers, have a wicked shot and then you just need a good striker up front. But we opted against playing this way, playing posession football. IMO a 4-3-3 like spain and Barca play is better in this case, cos when you got you playmakers in a deeper position (xavi and/or iniesta always find themselves in the middle of the pitch) they got the play in front of them and do not have to dribble around all the time to find space. they do not need to create space as there are lightning wingers like pedro, sanchez and messi who do. Xavi + Iniesta are actually very good defenders. Barca spare themselves energy cos they get the ball back soon due to their great pressing and movement. Mata, Oscar can't do that so we play them further up front. As a consequence of our double pivot not being able to either build-up play or ball retention, they have to be all over the place resulting in early fatigue. If you had the playmaking duties delayed into the centre and some genuine wingers, who simply cover their flank but not have to be all over the pitch you can solve this. With the players and the system we have now we will never win a big title. I don't know what was the idea or the concept behind buying AMs to overkill instead of deciding on the football, then on the system and then on the players. but we have either have to axe one of the three maestros or dragging one of them, preferably oscar behind + shift back to 4-3-3, cos our 4-2-3-1 is not how it should work with the players we have.

yeah and i really expect them to win, but all their qualities are on a level way below us, so if we are clever enough we can thrash them. If we were still the physical side we were one or two years ago, i would be already sure we would have this in our bag as neither Asians nor south Americans are of recognisable size, now we are no different, we have to win this on a technical level. But when we maintain pace and concentration and Rafa prepares us well for these rather unknown opponents, they will not be a match for a -hopefully- kick-started Torres + mazacar + Lamps.

Next game against either Monterrey from Mexico or Hyundai in Toyota (sounds strange but the team is called Hyundai Ulsan and the city is Toyota) in 5 days, 19:30 local time, i guess that's about 10:30 in England so I'll have to watch it during my last accounting class before the mid-term exam, I'll take my laptop with me . I expect us to take that hurdle with ease. the final in Yokohama will be a little tougher against Corinithians probably. They got a decent player in paulinho, but the rest is rather average our overall team value is around 8 times theirs and brazilian coaches tend to be tactically inferior to european top coaches so hopefully Rafa does us no shame. Hope jetlag will be no factor cos we are the last team to arrive.

btw is there a gif or video of torres first goal i somehow missed it and 101greatgoals is down

Really? Oscar was okay getting himself out of difficult situations when having the ball, but neither did he contribute greatly to our build up play nor had he anything to offer defensive wise. Our defence lacked shield without a real dm on the field and we lost control of the match for vast parts of it. Don't see oscar as a deep-lying pm, still no idea if signing him was really necessary.

mata also not been that great but still assist and goal for him. he is just not as sharp and fouling much atm

The ref is doing a good job. How often do we see the ref being eager to make make calls overcorrectly as a booking a player for playing on hence disrupting the run of play entirely. I like refs who just do the "normal" thing and make the right decision even if it is not accurate.

HE IS BACK

why do we always try to break when we don't really have the space right now? we have all time in the world, when he have the ball, just pass it back and roll it around

yes, that's also why Drogba only scored a crazy number of goals in 2 seasons, he could have scored so much more if he had put in the extra effort. Ivanovic too. sloppy defending from him after our 3rd. We should give it some concentration now

This is shit right now. We were well in control and still are but now we let this become a frenzy encoutner. we are 2 goals up. We should calm the play and pass the ball around not try to force the 4th. Lampard will know what to do.

now that is a game out of the textbook. Close to no chances for Sunderland. Torres has a good day, hope he is able to hold that 3-1 unnecessary goal to concede, could easily have prohibited that. Btw why does a player like johnson only play for a club like sunderland this guy is class. should throw in marin and lamps now. double pivot of ramires and oscar is shit oops wrong thread but hey, what about Adam Johnson as acquisition

Person A accuses Person B of a crime. The FA decide who they like better. Take the case this is person B. Then instead of investigating the case, they decide to punish Person A even though there was no charge against him and search for some evidence to ground that. Then they announce that verdict, no matter if it has anything to do with the case. Get that now. That's how justice works in English football. When the judicial site interacts with the indictment and the defense side directly. Saves time and money. Great stuff, guys.

This. Cheap, proven EPL-performers, in their best years. They are cheap because they are not big names or there is a hype around them. often these hypes are not really based on the results of thorough scouting. I think with Fellaini it has been more about his hair and height at first and then he caught some eyes with his goals, but is that really what we need? Bayern Munich bought Javier martinez for 40 fucking million €, which are more than 30 m pounds. Is he worth it? Of course not. One could have got a player as good and versatile as him for 10m if one would go after performance only. But he is spanish and had some good performances in the Euro league and the fans demanded a star signing in the DM position as they thought the only position they had no really big name in was the no.6. So they bought a player who they already have in Tymosthschuk and Gustavo. The really important signings were Mandzukic and Dante, which were - guess - bargains, best age, proven performers in that league but no big names. Now they have ripped everything to shreds (which isn not only because all their opponents have been . Another example. We bought Cahill for 8m, Luiz for 24m, either in January, either when we needed a good defender for instant impact. has Luiz really been 3 times as good? How much did we paid too much cos of his big Hair and skillset? Well we needed a Defender not a technically brillant joker. You sometimes need big names. They sell merchandise products and add something special. But at the moment we do not need that. It is not moment for spending big as we did in summer. We set the direction of football we were aiming to play, now we have to adress the new and old issues that are left and just have been created by that decision. We got enough potential and flair in the team, we also got enough big names or at least great prospects, which we opted to purchase instead of finished superstars. we should look at what we need now, which is some steel, build up and passing abilities in midfield and a decent striker. No idea if Diame and Ba are exactly the men for this, but i think we should be scouting exactly guys as these. They can still develope here but are already mature enough and used to the football to make immediate impact. They might not solve all our problems but also most big money purchases don't guarantee that.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2244597/Juan-Mata-Chelsea-eat-sausages-bacon-beans-breakfast.html lol Mata reporting, our players get a traditional english breakfast. First that no individual sprint training stuff and now this. If we really are that unprofessional in terms of training and nutrition this could badly impede the team's performances, I mean every ambitious amateur athlete knows protein, no fat and unprocessed carbs should be consumed before the game not english breakfast. Even though there is nothing too bad about english breakfast, professional athletes should whose performances are worth millions should eat perfectly to perform and i bet most do.

I know Demba ba from his days in germany, not Bundesliga days, but he was with hoffenheim even when they were playing 4th division. So he is not actually the most talented and technically sound striker in the world, but he is a natural goalscorer, tall and stronger than he looks, decent in the air. Not convinced by his link-up play, but he is surely better than torres (and yes, fanboys i know he scored twice today, but my cat would have scored at least as much in that game). No one for the future and no one to rely on but clearly s.o. who can help us at the moment to make up the numbers . No quite sure if he is a fit characterwise. Although he is a nice guy and close to the fans he is rather egocentric and has the reputation of a mercenary in Germany. If Sturridge leaves us in Winter this move would be ok, bt I think bony would cost the same money and help us more.

Its far more than that. Footballing wise, he is better at distributing than all the other CMs and more importantly he is a leader, nothing to do with experience, Mikel, ferreira or cole are vastly experienced but no leaders, Comparison between the team playing with to the playing without him shows there is a difference. AS for guys such as Drogs, Lamps, Terry. Players, esp younger players need s.o. to look to in difficult situations. You always can get on the back foot, but I can't remember one time we have got ourselves out of such a situation in a crucial game without having at least one of them on the pitch. A team needs players that take the game by the scruff of its neck. We got talent, flair, skills in abundance, who shall Oscar, Hazard turn to? Only leader on the pitch is Cech, so he won't have much influence. 6 months ago our team was worse, we neither had genuine wingers, mata was so tired he could hardly run, we had to use guys as Bosingwa and Kalou as starters in big games, but we got out of this, cos we had a spine of natural leaders on the pitch. This spin kept us so robust for almost a decade, everything changed here, the manager, most of the other players but we were cool as at least two out of Drogs, Lamps, Terry played every big match. It's no coincidence, we have won every single major cup final, Lamps has captained us in.In all these years we never had a run as bad as this one.

Well,does not matter, he will improve. But whiel he shows professionalism on the pitch putting in mature displays, this could be a problem http://www.spiegel.d...l-a-860001.html german journal "spiegel" reporting him complaining about the language and the lack of "warmth" and "atmosphere" in Germany, where people do not laugh a lot and only seriously discuss. LOL if we wouldn't be serious about tactics,we wouldn't be proper Germans, haha. He goes that far, indicating he would be unhappy, cos he does not like this. Should be more professional about this. Well, i understand fans have not been glad about his statements. He has apologised for that knee-jerk reaction already, but he is not too wrong. In Northern Germany, people are very reserved towards strangers and rather stick with one's kind, whereas in Western and esp Southern Germany, where I live, people are really friendly, open and cheerful.

has played, winger, cm in double pivot and mid three as well as false nine and no. 10., which he has predominantly played for Bremen lately, but is at his best when he can distribute the ball from deep and break through the midfield with his over-average acceleration. Reminds me of some chelsea legend, when he was young. Most notable is that he has emerged a central figure to Werders revival this season and has blossomed with so much responsibility on his shoulders at that young age, becoming one of the best midfielders in the Bundesliga. If he puts some brawn on he can absolutely rule the midfields in the EPL, too

Well, I actually don't care about why and how analysts or whatever guys rate or nominate players and that is not relevant either. I care about what a player delivers on the pitch. Fact is Lamps has delivered. He has never failed us in crucial times, he has risen to the occasion and was at his best when it counted most. That is what i make of the facts: I put my trust in him and I think any Chelsea fan should do. Call that insulting or orgasm or whatever you want. Maybe you can ask your analysts who to trust better. I think Mata who won the Player of the year last february. Yeah, relying on the guy who won the one should rather call it "award for the most consistent player in the first half of the season with the big games yet to come" has served us well this season. Yeah, maybe he will win that award again, get 10/10 rated performances and even get nominated for Ballon d'or. Yes that really helps the club, we should all hope for this.

Just seen some old vids of him, what a beast he was, he could do anything, score from any range and ankle, with either foot or head, run 10 miles each game at full steam with or without ball. Celebrating his goal against ottenham in 2008, Mikel and Kalou jumped on either shoulder in celebration and the bison simply walked on as if he had not even noticed that he carried about 160kg on his shoulders. Yeah, maybe that Darren Campbell guy can make him regain his pace so he will still be more useful. ------------------Cech-------------- Ferreira--Carvalho-Terry--Cole -------------Makelele------------ -------Essien--------Lampard-- Cole------------------------Robben --------------Drogba------------- best team we ever had together, even though they never had their best career form at the same time (which is why the 2009/10 team comes close, the players were not as classy but all were in great form). How deep we have fallen from a side that had power, pace, strength, skill and vigour to the bunch of weakish kids without guts and fighting spirit we call our team nowadays....well at least not as deep as Liverpool or Le Arse.

Lampard performing never ahd anything to do with the managers, eh performed under Ranieri, Mou, Grant, Scolari, Hiddink, Carlo and Robbie in all sorts of roles and formations. And surely no one shaped the play only for him but for the players we had, even saved AVB's ass with shitloads of winning goals, Without him, aVB would have been fired months earlier but without him we would also not have won the Champions League months later. When fans are putting their faith in him its fuckin because he is the only hope we have, he is a guy who clearly has some qualities, we lack at the moment, its because he has paid back that faith more often than not, its because this man has been the clubs mainstay for 10 years. which player has been written off and proved all his doubters wrong that often? Everyone has his way of analysing our current situation and looking for a way out of it, but trying to diminish his merits to ground your pessimism is a very disrespectful way. Plus Lamps is all we have atm. Hazard, Oscar, Mata, Torres and 4-2-3-1 have failed over and over again hence proven they are not that a big deal yet now shut the fuck up and let the boss do the job as every year and save the season or do you think we will win anything with the players and the play we are tortured with atm? yeah cool, lets play de Rossi against norsjealland, we are such fools, why hasn't Rafa had the same idea. I am sure us lacking his strength in defensive play has exactly been the reason for us only scoring one goal in four games. His qualities will make us banging in the goals all over. And yes, Lamps was so crap in our double pivot, I mean if we had not played him there in in the big games against Napoli,Tottenham, Liverpool, Barcelona, Bayern we actually might have won these games and taken the Fa Cup and the Champions League home. Screw him for not being able to cope with last season's formations. That's probably why we did not win any title.

Well, it won't get easier, with the games coming in 3 days rhythm. Rafa is probably right for blaming our lack of squad depth and rotation as a big problem, cos our slump very much started under RDM. Of course it hasn't helped that we replaced a decent manager with an average one. With Lamps and Terry unlikely to return for this game it will be a tough game, but I think we got a chance to win this. Don't think Juventus will win in Donezk, but I do not think they will lose either, so the result won't even matter. Should have finished the job just after it began, but surrendering a 2- goal lead will always get punished.