Aesthetic Relic

He's been struggling to recapture his form after his injury, he may have been trying too hard to get back to his best, but now he's beginning to get to the form which made him such a joy to watch we can sit back and admire the genius that is.... Joe Coleinho

I think that Jose had shown JC that theres a time and place to show boat. When he plays football naturally he can pull all the tricks out without thinking about it, before he would have done it for the sake of it, you dont see him do much of that now.

He hit his peak about 5 years ago, I just want him to find a bit of form

still wasnt that impressed tbh. He took his second goal well, but his first was due to an error by Cuellar who misjudged the flight of the ball leaving him 1 on 1 with McGregor.Each to their own

I'm watching the Rangers match myself......Tbh, neither have really done that much to make them stand out. One player I do like is Alan Hutton. (RB). Loves to get forward and is getting loads of attention recently due to his performances for Rangers and Scotland

We should be concentrating on what we have atm. Sheva cannot play a lone strikers role and needs a partner alongside him. Over the coming weeks we will have to change our style of play to adjust to the loss of Drogba. If that means playing a 4-3-1-2 the I'd be all for it..Belletti.....Alex........Terry......A.Cole..SWP.............Makalele.......Lampard.........................J.Cole....................................Sheva........Pizarro.............Joe could fill in the left side when we dont have possession and revert back behind the strikers when we are attacking.Grant out Tri-Blue in

Defo....I think under Jose he had him playing with his head when on the pitch, but now he seems to be playing with his natural ability and just doing whatever he sees right at the time. Dont get me wrong I'm not knocking Joses treatment of him, but it seemed to restrict him at times by having him tracking back when we lost the ball. He's the closest thing we have to Zola atm in terms of ability and we desperately need that zip put back into the team.Is Joe Cole the answer ?.............I would say yes.

I've been saying this for a long time about the quality that Joe Cole posesses. His original position at West Ham was in the middle of the pitch in a playmaker type of role, only when he came to Chelsea did Jose use him on the left side of midfield and turned a potentially good player into a fantastic player. In doing that he made the left sided problem England had for so many years non existent.There were times last night watching him when I was open mouthed. He had 3-4 Valencia players around him and he tricked his way passed them before getting fouled. If he was Brazilian, Argentinian, Spanish or whatever, he would be hailed as a world class player. We should utilise his skills and save ourselves the problem of getting another player in who will need to find his feet in the Premiership.He's really getting back to top form and he has a hunger within him that I havent seen for a while. Fucking class player

I agree

Is this why were looking for that elusive playmaker ???I felt that when Joe Cole was played in Lamps position when he came on against Valencia he looked sharp and would be more than capable of feeding Sheva those types of balls to get him scoring again. OK, we do have width in SWP, but when Cole plays on the left he cuts inside to get onto his right foot. I dont think we need a playmaker, but a left winger.Move Joe Cole in behind the strikers, giving us more in the middle of the pitch creatively. If you have 2 wingers who will get to the bye line and whip those balls into the box ie...SWP and AN Other, add that too the eye of a needle passes in JC's locker and Sheva would be feasting on service. I have no doubt about that.

Dont we all

I'll go with that. His movement was top notch, and he looked hungry which is good to see. He could have done with a full game with the Goners coming up at the weekend. Maybe he was taken off with that match in mind...

We did everything but score tonight. Valencia were pish tbh, and any other night we would have had this game in the bag long before the final whistle. I too thought Pizarro had a decent game considering he doesnt get much time on the pitch. SWP and Bridge also had good games. Joe Cole defo looked determined to make something happen when he came on and certainly seemed to love playing in the middle for a while when he came on for Lamps......And comedy moment of the night....JT screaming in the face of the Valencia skipper who crashed to the ground like a big girls blouse

We didnt loan out Mikel when we bought him..... http://forum.talkchelsea.net/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/unsure.png

I have moved on, I just cant stand Grant. He gets under my skin

I think a 0-0 win

Arsenal have been playing their last few games without the influence of Fabregas and Hleb, both are still doubtful for the game with us, RVP is also a doubt. ATM teams are getting to them, and while their on their blip we should turn the screw.

Ferreira always does a solid job imo, and is decent enough back up to have. What about Joe Cole and SWP. We also have Sahar and Sinclair coming back from loan for January. If we are gonna be missing Drogba then we will have to change our formation. Sheva I feel cannot play the Drogba role and would need a partner alonside him, so if we go 4-4-2 with Sheva and Pizarro up front. A midfield of Lampard, Makalele, Joe Cole and SWP we should do ok.

Once we get out of reverse.... When I see Grant he makes me cringe like the sound of your gear stick grinding into the gearbox

A few of my mates are going over to the game should be a good game all the same wether we play a weakened side or not, It'll be good to give Sheva and Pizarro a start to see how they play with each other...( doesnt sound good )...they'll need as many games as they can together to get an understanding going asap2-0

*cough*...ROONEY...*cough*

I've seen him play a few times in C/L matches against Rangers. Tbh he didnt jump out at you and make you think..."Wow...this guy is class"...He was ok, nothing special. There are far better strikers out there.Plus, with RA having strong connections to CSKA, a bit of a coincidence that he's caught Grants eye

You dont need much more of a "stay away" message than that

True, but how many players do you hear are the next Ronaldinho, the next Maradona, The next Cruyff, the next Kaka, etc....Its a thing thats thrown around too much imo. If he's as good as reports say then its good that we are showing an interest, but time and time again we end up losing out on top young talent to the other big euorpean teams. Its about time we started making ourselves more appealing to the next generation of world superstars

The latest rumors are that he could go out on loan with Inter heading the queue. Suupose we would end up paying his wages as well as we done with Crespo