kellzfresh

There will always be criticism no matter how we handled the situation. First case: Chelsea fans booed no one on Sunday. Reaction: "You passionless plastics. A club legend is chucked out on his arse and you just sit there and clap politely. You're nothing but a billionaire's playthings. Pathetic." Second case: Chelsea fans booed Benitez on Sunday. Reaction: "You classless mugs, booing your own manager. Of course you'll never question the guy who brought him in - go grovel at Roman's feet like you always do, you utter jokes. Pathetic." Third case: Chelsea fans booed Abramovich on Sunday. Reaction: "You ungrateful spoilt brats. You'd be nowhere without this guy and now you're throwing your toys out of the pram. I hope Roman ditches you and your classless club goes bankrupt. Pathetic." Like it wasn't already obvious...haters gonna hate.

Meireles was a big mistake. But we never really experimented our options there. It was always "trying to find a partner for mikel" and not trying to find the combinations in the pivot. I know both ramires and lampard move foward, but against the bottom half of the table teams, that is what we need to totally dominate them when they are sitting deep. Ramires greatest strength is his recovery on the counter and we are not using it well. Ramires sits the deepest for brazil so I think he will recognise his position as the most defensive beside lampard.

Meireles was a big mistake. But we never really experimented our options there. It was always "trying to find a partner for mikel" and not trying to find the combinations in the pivot. I know both ramires and lampard move foward, but against the bottom half of the table teams, that is what we need to totally dominate them when they are sitting deep. Ramires greatest strength is his recovery on the counter and we are not using it well. Ramires sits the deepest for brazil so I think he will recognise his position as the most defensive beside lampard.

You're right. The real problem is if ramires pushes foward. But against smaller teams, I have no problems with a more attacking pivot. We don't have any creative player in the cm role (unless oscar can chip in there,) so that's why lampard can be an option there against bottom half teams that don't attack. For brasil, I think ramires stays the deepest since lucas isn't there. But maybe because of mikel, he goes foward.

The 27 year old shaktar donesk defensive midfielder is a good passer of the ball, with 90% pass completed and scored once in the champions league this season. Has a good shot from range, good tackler and a long range passer of the ball. His stats are as good as xabi alonso in the champions league. Wants to play in the premier league and could come for cheap.

15 goals in 16 matches, very good strike rate for napoli. Wish we could get him.

Anything from liverpool is a terrible signing

No problems with rotation, this is benitez we are talking about. He rotates everytime.

Congratulations our your FIFA 11 nomination super frankie lampard. Truly a legend. :cfc: :cfc: :cfc: #teamofchampions

Congratulations on your FIFA 11 nomination hazard :cfc: :cfc: :cfc: #teamofchampions

they rarely give him space now. And he has no balance so he easily loses possesion under pressure. He needs silva's strength on the ball

You again??

Yea I'm sure scoring 4 champions league goals in 5 games is not enough...

Yea I'm sure scoring more goals than benzema, higuain, ibrahimovic while playing for athletico is not good enough. Even scoring in back to back europa league finals and against realmadrid last season is rubbish too... And iniesta acknowledging his talents is probably just a misunderstanding..

Sandro is a far better tackler than mikel. I can count the number of times I saw mikel make a sliding challenge, that's how few he even attempts that. Anytime we take off mikel, we are better attacking. I'm not sure of defending but we are far better pressing opposition like manutd does, and they don't even have a chance to attack us. With mikel on, the attack is reduce and so we soak pressure instead. I just wish he was more imposing of himself in possesion.

I think benitez is too addicted to playin 4-2-3-1 and won't play that. But we need plan b during matches, so 4-3-3 tinkering could be vital too.

I know ramires is not a good passer, but he makes up for this with his energy to stop opposition counters. Trust me, ramires has stopped a lot of counters for us and that is a massive thing to lose. I can't say this for mikel, so is his role just to sit in front of the defence and pass to the full backs?? I don't see that as a good enough contribution when we attack. He should step up his overhead passing game, he is too poor at that. He is too poor at shooting from distance too. Pivot is always one box to box and one creative midfielder. Our box to box = ramires Our creative = ??? All the opponent do now is to hassle hazard and mata and we can't do any thing while in possesion. I am watching our matches and when we are in possesion I know nothing will come of it because mazacar are closely marked so we mainly create from the counter. Some times the pivot is free for a shot and can't shoot on target. But if we have someone that can shoot too, defending opponents will be fewer on mata and that will leave space for mata. Ramires is doing his box to box role well but the role mikel is playing is just not enough in my opinion. He needs more influence on the possesion side of our game(long through balls or shooting) he should have one. I can tell you that RB will realise this very soon when he tinkers the squad..

I get you, but I'm in no way blaming mikel. I just see ramires as the more important partner in the pivot right now. If you remember the cup game against manutd, in the first half mikel and romeu played together. And the pivot was damn poor, manutd dominated those periods with more chances and romeu played badly. But in the 2nd half ramires came on for mikel and all of a sudden we were by far better with romeu-ramires in the pivot. Another game was against westbrom, he was taken off and we dominated them till the end. All our central pivot players play bad with mikel but are good with ramires that's what I've noticed. Lampard makes foward runs, but with ramires behind him, he can recover and make game saving tackles. So this will make us more attacking assured that we hav a better tackler in midfield. Sometimes we need more bodies foward to push opposition back and pressure from the top. If we have a counter attackin stopper like ramires we could try that sometimes so that we can have a genuine GOAL THREAT from cm that we have lacked since ballack.

Our pivot is okay but coud be helpful if they offer threat when we are in possesion. So that when mata and hazard are man marked, we still look dangerous and offer goal threat from deep. This pivot offers nothing in attack during possesion. 1. They both can't give overhead passes 2. They both can't thread through balls to the striker 3. They can't shoot on target(vidal, lampard, yaya) 4. Mata and oscar have to come very deep to take possesion and it makes them tired. The temporary solution could be in our own team Our best chelsea peformance this season was against norwich(who beat arsenal and manutd). In that game, we played lampard in the pivot. Why haven't we tried lampard-ramires combo more?? Lampard foward runs can be covered by ramires speed to recover and tackle when we lose the ball. Our Pivot Ramires negative is his poor passing, but he 1. Is one of the best at stoping counters, like makekele 2. Is effective when we are on the counter 3. Is a better tackler than mikel Mikel just sits in front of the defence and is strong on the ball, nothing more. 1. He has no energy to run and stop counters, too slow. 2. He can't pass long balls which lampard is far better at. Ramires provides energy so what is he providing an extra body?? 3. He can't shoot on target even if his life depended on it. 4. He offers no threat when we are in possesion. Question Lampard and romeu look bad playin beside mikel, what if its because of mikel rather than lamps?? Why don't we try "ramires-lampard" more often. Everytime mikel is taken off, our domination of the game seems to improve. And any counters are handled briliantly by ramires. I have realised that ramires actually makes mikel look good and not the other way around. Our best pivot for now before we get a regista or KDB comes back could be LAMPARD-RAMIRES. Lampard 1. Is a better passer 2. Can give long passes, (remember the one on one for torres against norwich) 3. Shoots on target and scores from deep 4. Is better with a faster partner like ramires 5. He is intelligent in making late runs into the box. 6. He makes tackles too, remember the champs league final, and against messi, and then the through pass after for ramires goal?? Mikel would have passed back. The lampard-ramires pivot will not be the best in the world but I think its really the best we have now especially against smaller opposition. What do you think?

I think rami makes mikel look better in the pivot. His energy is good, he is even the far better tackler in the midfield. Yesterday he tried some long balls to the flanks. Was impressed with his peformance again.

He can't rely dribble dangerously again. Is not playing up to his potential. It feels like he's too scared to lose the ball when takin on players so he passes instead. Not the same confident guy in the begining of season for sure.

Better 2nd half

Tevez in on... Fuck

I'm faster than fernando torres... No joke

Mata is having a terrible game