Rowan_Osborn

Where has all this talk of Ronaldo come from? I thought he was well settled at Madrid. It would take a hell of a lot to get him even if he did want to leave as well and I'm not sure where he would play for us, we would have to change our system to suit him.

Haha Romeu must have done something. Or maybe we just don't want Barca to activate his release clause so we are acting like he can't make our first team.

A 4-2-1-3 could work for us. Oscar plays this way for Brazil. We could have Mata left and Hazard right, with them interchanging with Oscar and switching wings when they wish. I reckon this would create good fluidity, I'm not sure how it would work in defence, but if we have two decent CMs that will sit back like Sandro does for Brazil it should work.

Our whole team couldn't cope with their counter attacks, can't expect the defence to cope when they are outnumbered by attackers as they often were. they are good players, Friday night was a blip.

Both make mistakes, but players do in games its just highlighted more in defence as it usually results in a goal. I reckon we should cut Luiz and Cahill some slack, they were both immense in Munich.

You mean we shouldn't call for the club to get rid of RDM and several of the players if we don't manage to win?

Maybe the 4-2-1-3 could work for chelsea, Hazard on the right, Mata left and Oscar in the free role as he does internationally. They could also interchange which would create good fluidity.

I would put oscar where sturridge is, then bring on sturridge later for either moses or torres

Azpiculeta should get some game time, his main issue with joining us was whether it would effect his international career, he wants to play.

Lampard doesn't suit our current style of play and we have basically forced him into a position just so he can be on the team sheet. Its pretty clear that Frank would rather play in a CAM role; I'm not sure if he has the discipline to play his current role.

I doubt Chelsea would allow it now considering we have sent Essien on loan this season.

Haha, he would be like an even more flamboyant Paolo Di Canio, he is hilarious at Swindon. Can you imagine him in a post match interview if we got a bad decision.

I dunno, what can he do for us that he hasn't already. We are trying to play a new system and he could prevent our progress in this.

I dunno if i would want Didier back. He can't do anymore than he has already done for us. Bringing him back would only effect Torres as well, as he would want some game time.

Yes i accept it will take a while to develop into a quick passing team, its just i don't think we can do this still playing Lampard and therefore he should be used as an impact sub. I thought we would of brought in a CM to suit our new style this window, it would of made sense.

Yes they worked in the FA cup and Champions League, but we basically sat back and defended in both and counter attacked. Lampard was good last year because we played in a way that suited him. However when we are trying to play quick passing football, him and Mikel slow down the play allowing other teams to fall back and defend. Im not writing him off due to a bad game, just saying he needs to improve his distribution and to learn to sit back a bit more, as we are getting exposed at the back and he does not have the pace to get back.. He faced the same criticism when we tried to play attacking football last year and was only good when we played in a counter-attacking style. Yes they have 6 points from 2 games, but they were not hard games and we were often exposed in defence.

I dunno i reckon he could do a job there, I'm just trying to think of a way of putting all these creative talents to work, got to think that we will also have Piazon to fit in in a couple of years time, as well as maybe Thorgan Hazard. The future looks good attack wise. Hopefully Chalobah will progress well this year and he can take up the DM role. I wasn't thinking of Oscar as a CDM more of a role like Modric had at Spurs. We turned Mikel into a DM as well, he used to be attack minded

I disagree that Lampard and Mikel can work together well. They are good as individual players but as a partnership they just don't work. RDM definitely needs to try another pair to try and find our best pairing as we cannot progress with these two as our starters.

Azpicuelta should of definitely played last night. As for Ivan, when I've seen him play at CB he has been very poor, I wouldn't replace Cahill or Luiz with him to be honest. Thats a good shout about Ramires playing to compensate Ramires, he is clearly a better CM than a RW so theres no other reason to play him there, especially when our CMs haven't been up to scratch. Oscar did well last night, I reckon he could do well at the holding CM role. Ivan has popped up with some good goals for us, but his attacking play is otherwise quite poor and he does make mistakes quite often in defence, the city game was a good example, he always shows good determination though.

We can't defend against pace, as our defence is very slow. We need a faster CM in either Lampard or Mikel's position to help us counteract this.

Ivan was the best RB in the league a couple of seasons ago. He is a better RB than he is a CB. Being a player down clearly effected our ability to defend. I agree Tevez shouldn't of been given that much space. He run across the whole edge of the box and not one player put in a challenge. No DMs helped but the defence should of been able to cope. We will take a while to settle in defence as our new AMS offer little cover and we played last year with a lot of cover in these positions, this is why Ivan is getting exposed. We play better with Bertrand because our fullbacks are used to the cover. When we gel as a team we will be able to defend more effectively. I still think we need a quick CM to play alongside a more defence minded one, Ramires would be perfect for this, as this would prevent us being exposed by speed.

It depends how we set up and the tactics we intend to use. Against Bayern and Barca we set out to defend and counter attack. All four of our games this season we have expected to be on the front foot and score first then defend, last night it didn't work. Against Man City we were unlucky with Ivan's sending off as it restricted our ability to defend and gave City space to play with. We will develop balance, this is still a new, young side and we can't expect it to be perfect from the outset.

Sturridge is clearly a better right winger than Ramires and playing him there would allow Ramires to play in his natural CM role.

I reckon it was BS too. A loan would of been pointless as he can leave for free next summer. We need to play him as a CF to show that the club rates him and hopefully he will sign a new deal. He has potential to be a great player.

We would of been in the dog house if we hadn't bought Cahill in January last year.