TrippingStep

Oh great Neymar is suffering from Anemia. http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/sports/2013-08/04/c_132600360.htm He will now have treatment to higher his red blood cells lol. Hopefully for him, it's just boosting performance practice and not allergic reaction to epo that can cause the same effect that the product normally would be good for (people with low red cells). http://www.epogen.com/ Doping in football is so taboo, while it's as common in cyclism, in all the big clubs I think.

Dembele Chadli in midfield I hate our midfield in our national team. So slow, no creativeness. no incisive passes between the lines. Against Croatia, only when De Bruyne and Hazard were more central we created chances. Our offense only consist of De Bruyne crosses to the big guys in the box, Benteke quite good back to goal play and Hazard burst of pace on some actions.

It's chaos at Zulte. Last year, Berrier and Leye were fighting. Leye saying he would'nt play again at the club if Berrier was staying. Malanda didn't train with Zulte and now will play there on loan after he agreed a deal with wolfsburg. And now this after the match against PSV. Zulte is a very small club and with the success they had last year, many players want a better contract as they are not very well paid. I wouldn't be surprised if many players will leave before the merctato's end.

I think him and Hazard can form an excellent duo. Since the match against Shaktar where the only threat were coming when they were working together (in a poor organisation), I always thought with a pre-season and good organisation, they could form a very lethal duo.

I don't actually really like what he said. Ok Ronaldo is a goal scoring machine at Madrid but he has become very one dimensional in his game, Ozil plays better with Germany. At Inter, he had forwards and great defensive players in midfield or fullback with Zanetti who could play good at both, Motta, Cambiasso. That reinforces my mind that KDB and Schurrle will have the best stats this year like I said earlier. They fit better his direct style in attack. For me Hazard is at his best like Benitez used him the last three four months. More involved in the build-up, driving from deeper positions. More like a Iniesta playing in the wing with a bit more pace. I'm not sure we have the midfield to play the game that Mourinho likes, eventhough we will have more options that last year. Even if Eden will have better stats than last year, I'm sure it would have been the case if we would have started the season with the same philosophy than the last months under Benitez and with an improved midfield as well.

Yes sometimes. But on this pre-season, I think it's due to the sore muscles after heavy training. Look how stiff he was on the pitch.

http://www.chelseafc.com/pre-season-article/article/3325752 On the far sight of the picture, is it Hazard sitting on the box with a bag of ice?

Yes, but it's a minor surgery. One week rest, one week of working with the physios and it should be ok. And if it's even less serious, the better.

Shit match. always seem stiff in pre-season as his body seems to doesn't react well with heavy training.

Great, it's just the meniscus apparently. It shouldn't be a great problem. Perhaps just removing a bit of cartilage in his knee I think. I hope it will not affect his knees during the season. If I remember, last year he had fluid in his left knee after overworking. Maybe working more with the physio as he has an habit of picking injuries after bad landing. In Belgium, he had already an injury after an akward landing like today.

I understand the fears some have. But it's not only Mata. Mata, Oscar, Hazard (perhaps a little less) could struggle depending on the system we will play. It would never have been the case, but if Benitez was still coach, with some midfield improvements, a new striker, I'm sure Hazard would have a gigantic season. I'm not sure anymore. I think Schürlle and KDB will have the best stats next year. Schürlle is the counter-attack runner with pace that thrives on Mourinho system.

What you say, is also true for the entire defensive players of the team. I thought that where the defensive midfielder were playing, the central defenders could have played there. I didn't understand why they were sitting so deep while the other team was just sitting in their 35 meters. It's not like the other team were pressing. Too many long balls to my taste while the other team were into their box, would have liked more intricate movements. It was a formation, and play to counter-attack. The wing players had also not many help in the offense, the only option being often passing backwards or crossing into the box. But it was just the first match of pre-season with many players playing for the first time together.

I don't think we can make accurate analysis after a match like this. The players that played in the confed cup weren't there, we put mixed teams in either half. The ball bouncing a lot on this pitch, heavy legs, hard to play fast moves in small spaces to tear apart this team sitting very deep eventhough they were bad at defending. And I think that on training, we have worked a lot on quick transitions from defence to attack, the blueprint of Mourinho's team, but the opposition never really attacked. During the us tour, we will have a better idea. I just hope that against team that sits deep, we will be good to watch. The Real matches against Manchester that were sitting deep disappointed me by the lack of very good attacking moves. And it's not like Manchester were that good in defence.

I've just seen the last 25 minutes. A little disappointed we used so often long balls from midfield.

Exactly. And at least, we are answering fast to bullshit. Moyes comment about Rooney and their defeat in the first match is true however We have a great stack, Manchester not with their bad play. So we can play, bluff, respond as we want.

Manchester United pr team at work. They are the media darling, don't forget that.

I agree. At least this year, if we start a game without Hazard and Mata, it will not be hopeless as we have many more options in midfield. De Bruyne, Schürrle, Oscar, Mata, Hazard will all have plenty of game time. we can rotate the players between the league, champion's league and different cup matches.

If you add De Rossi (I really think we will sign him) and possibly Rooney. We will have a very flexible squad to switch between 4-2-3-1, 4-3-3, 4-4-2 in diamond shape. And with De Rossi, we could even play a back 3 if we need to push the fullback higher when needed. Rooney up front for intricate play upfront. Lukaku, Torres for counter-attack. Ba as targetman, playing back to goal. Rooney and Schurrle can also play as second striker. . Except De Rossi as a defensive midfielder, we would have two players for each positon that could do a good job. (Mikel is not a good defensive midfielder for me and contrary to many here, it's not for his passing, it's for the way he defends) So many options.

Maybe not 90 minutes. He could play 65-70 minutes.

Do you understand that it can be teached and that Oscar has the ability to learn that. And I don't understand why you say that Hazard could not be played on the wing in a 4-3-3. Hazard is not great at winning the ball, but is not bad on cutting some passing angles, channeling the opponent to a zone where we can trap zone and counter-attack them after a team-mate has won the ball. And it can be more effective with tree man midfield moving left and right, to cut the spaces. In a 4-3-3, it's the front three who must cut the passing angles, the two more advanced players in midfield are there to press, help in a trapping zone, covering a lot of meters in width, moving from left to right, one helping in a side, one centrally, the other winger coming back in the midfield. The dm moving to fix holes in the defence or just in front.

I disagree. His main asset is his movements and engine that enable a good flow to the team in possesion and he's very good coming from behind into the spaces that the more offensive players have created. At least that was what I was seeing when he was the boss of his team in the young brazilian team in the olympics. He was the guy linking the play between the wingbacks and midfield with very interesting late runs in the box.

"Benítez was strong and a very good influence in what was a very difficult season. To manage and control the situation with the fans every time going raw, raw, raw, was fantastic. Benítez stayed very calm. A few managers might have said: 'OK, at the end of the season, I will leave, so …' But this guy stayed after training with three or four players to explain details for 10 or 15 minutes a lot of times a week, with the young players or Frank Lampard and David Luiz, all the time with details and things became more consistent. Lollichon quote. http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2013/jul/08/chelsea-goalkeeping-coach-petr-cech

Abitlity on the ball is not only the passes. Josh has shown he has an eye for a pass. But running with the ball, protecting it from defenders, little tricks to give himself some space, I'm not sure he has shown that.

I disagree. Eden was much better in the last three months of the season. He offered more in the build-up, defensively and bossed some games. In the second leg agaisnt Steau, he bossed the game on the left, fouled on the free-kick that resulted in the Terry goal, good movements on the Torres goal, a penalty in the end of the game and toying during this game with the steau players even when there were two three around him. With Benitez, he improved in attacking the ball, positioning himself better and better timing to attack the defenders. Even if it was not perfect, there were some patterns, a game plan while with Di Matteo, I didn't see it. Don't forget that Chelsea have some holes in their squad. Last year the champion's league win was a miracle, like all stars aligning themself for our club. In the premier league, with AVB and Di Matteo, we were defending very very badly on many matches. I also think the physical work with the players were better with Benitez staff. Don't forget that we played nearly every three days this season. Luiz liked working with him. Eden improved a lot even if you say the opposite. He's not perfect, the greatest coach the world has even seen but He's a good coach. I admit that I liked seeing his liverpool team in the champion's league for their defensive and pressing display, it was often quite impressive and not the job a bad coach could do.

I agree partially, Azpi is very dynamic but he had also a very dynamic midfield in Ramires towards this zone. On the left, there was less dynamic players. The reason Mikel was not featured that much was because he lacked this dynamism and why Luiz would be chosen. And you can add that Mata was often drifting to the right.