super_frank8

100% agree with everything you have said there - apart from the last part. The whole beauty of this system is that we can have players like Oscar & Lamps linking up together - which is deadly in terms of shooting opportunites being created since they can both finish from anywhere within 35 yards of the goal. Have you seen how many times Oscar has dribbled around on the left of the box & cut inside, obviously looking for a shot to open up, but then once he realises players closing him down like mad dogs & offloads it to the man outside the D - it unfortunately falls to either Mikel or Ramires - who inevitably attempt an unsuccessful shot or lobbed ball & lose possession, or just play it to a wing back & the chance for a shot from range is gone. With the way the team is set up in attack, there is almost always an enormous amount of space between the opposition defence & our central midfielders on the edge of the box because they are well aware of & mostly focused on the constant Mazcar threat in & around the box - & evidently not too worried about Mikel potentially shooting from range. This is the area that Lampard works in best, where he can create something out of almost nothing, or simply rifle it into the back of the net himself. It's all theoretical of course...but from what I know & believe - we would at least be putting away more chances than we currently are - & that can only be a good thing.

Have Lampard & Ramires suddenly lost their ability to tackle??? They make just as many as Mikel does during a game when in a deeper position & give away a less fouls too. Ramires is an absolute beast at chasing back when he wants to, so with more discipline he can easily play in tandem with Lampard. If one pushes forward, the other sits back to cover - simple as that. It gives us far more options on the attack because they are both genuinely good with the ball, & doesn't really leave us any more vulnerable as long as they communicate properly & get back when they need to - which they are both pretty responsible with doing. & have you actually watched Mikel throughout an entire game? More often than not - when he gets the ball, he is almost always hesitant unless there is an immediately obvious pass available for him, & far too many times he has rushed to move the ball on too quickly when it is unnecessary to do so & therefore picks the wrong pass - & this often results in surrendering possession either straight away through an easy interception or having put a teammate in a difficult position only to get tackled by the opposition. He's simply not intelligent, intuitive & effective enough on the ball to be the primary distributor from the middle of the park - nor is he skillful enough to actually carry the ball through the midfield himself. That is part of the point of a having a deeper lying midfielder, to keep the ball once he has received it & allow the right runs to be made, & then actually execute the pass itself once the play has unfolded. The problem with Mikel is that he doesn't see many of the runs being made around him - you have no idea how many times this season I have screamed at my TV out of utter desperation for him to spot Hazard or Oscar or Mata or Torres or Cole making a move in between the lines - but he inevitably never does & frustratingly instead, ironic to what you have said, slows down the play too much - & then the opportunity is already lost. If you had Lampard in the same position, sure he might hold onto the ball for a while - but more often than not he is going to see the pass & execute it to near perfection, that's just what he does. & at least you know he's not going to give it away cheaply - which Mikel does far too often for me to ignore. & yes he is similar to Busquets in that he opts for a simple pass more often than not..but that holds up the play too much as well since you make that point. Lampard has variety to his passing, the key is that he smart enough to be able to pick out the not-so-obvious pass & good enough to carry the ball with him until it has opened up - which Mikel seems incapable of doing. & to be honest I don't really regard Busquets that highly as a player... He works in Barcas system because of the team around him, but we are not Barcelona & are never going to be unless Roman gives them the moon for Messi. They only have one deeper lying midfielder to break up play - the Makelele role if you like, which is the way that we used to play a few seasons ago when there was a clear segregation between the attacking midfielders/forwards & the holding midfielder/defenders. But now we are playing a 4-2-3-1 & therefore the two players in the middle of the park really need to work in tandem with each other & be able to both attack & track back in order to be more effective - otherwise you're just wasting a place in the starting 11 with someone who doesn't provide any kind of threat going forward & barely prevents goals coming from the other way - which is the current case with Mikel. Look at Real Madrid as the model example - they have Alonso as the primary distributor, alongside any one of Modric/Khedira/Essien. All of these players can pass the ball, win the ball back decently enough & also push forward to score goals - just like Lampard & Ramires. As long as they remain disciplined, this allows the rest of the players in front of them freedom - as well as giving each of these central midfielders the opportunity to join the attack whenever they can whilst the other covers the gaps for him. Mikel is equivalent to none of those players - he is atrociously indecisive & wasteful on the front foot - & honestly considering it is meant to be his actual specialised strong suit - just not consistent enough in the tackle & caught out of position far too often. The real problem is that this system encourages him to go forward now with so much space opening up thanks to the threat of Mazcar - but when he does get the ball in the final third, he seems to just suddenly freeze & ends up making the wrong choice, or simply skying or scuffing a shot that he never looked comfortable in taking, despite a genuine opportunity to put a strike on target from a potentially dangerous position. This is where we are missing Lampard's finishing & vision so much, because in those same positions that Mikel has inadvertently found himself in time & time again this season, Lamps would at least hit the target or have the guile & composure to draw out a blocker & spot the movement of a forward & play him in or spray it out to someone in space on the wings. We are really lacking the ability to change the dynamic of the play with pin-point long balls at the moment when it gets too congested, & there is no one better at doing that from midfield than Frank. Ramires is a great physical presence in being ridiculously fast as well as possessing strength & balance that makes him hard to knock off the ball even in full flight, along with a massively valuable ability to chase breaking opposition down, & therefore provides the perfect complimentary contrast to Lampard's playmaking abilities. Defensively, I wouldn't say he is much worse than Mikel when it comes to marking & tackling effectively - pretty sure he gives away less fouls for the most part too. His real weaknesses are his shooting & passing from range, & that is why Lampard is needed in that partnership rather than Mikel - because it really is a bit silly to have two central midfielders who squander chance after chance to test the keeper when they're around the edge of the box, or simply hesitate & make an anxious decision due to being reluctant to take it on at all. I guess none of us will ever know unless it is actually implemented for a continued period of time...but I believe that what we need is the playmaker in the middle of the park who can actually distribute the ball to all areas of the pitch, rather than just moving it along to the next guy - & more importantly - provide the goal scoring threat we have obviously been lacking this season.

I disagree with that entirely. Of course Lampard isn't the same player he was 7 years ago, I'm not fool enough to believe that - but the fact remains that he is still one of the best goal-scoring midfielders in the world. & the cold hard reality many do not seem to recognise in their pursuit of this 'fountain of youth', is that we have missed him severely this season. Since JT got banned & Lamps got injured, we have managed to simultaneously self-implode & have capitulated in a truly shocking manner; to the point where we now find ourselves on the brink of frankly embarassing elimination in Europe, with an overgrown Spanish sewer rat for a manager. & if you can't admit that to yourself, then you clearly aren't watching the same games I have been. Sure, you might say Lamps has lost some of his legs, I can admit that to an extent - but he's never been about pace - & he still undeniably has the same ability in just about every other aspect of his game. & sure he can't make the late 30 yard runs into the box every single attack the way that he used to, but in the current team he really doesn't need to, not when we are playing possession football & have so much movement provided by Mazcar to open up space. Where we really do miss him, where we really do need him, is in the middle of the park - dictating the play, conceiving the attack - he's the one who has always picked up the pieces for us time & time again & transformed defence into attack at the swipe or flick of a boot. The player who has the actual control & compsoure on the ball to wait until the perfect moment to release it, instead of instantly killing off a potential attacking opportunity with an overzealous misplaced pass as Mikel & Ramires have done far too many times of late. This is what we are missing the most right now, the link between our defenders & attackers - the true box-to-box playmaker that can pick out a pass from anywhere on the pitch & make a shooting opportunity count when it matters most. In that respect, there really are few others who can perform at Lampards level. & if we are to truly implement this new style of attractive possession-based football successfully, then he is the key to providing the solidarity (as well as potency) in midfield that we simply do not get with Mikel & Ramires. Honestly, I'm perplexed at how you can believe he doesn't fit into this team, because we currently have a genuine passenger in Mikel, a player, who whilst decent defensively - provides absolutely nothing in an offensive sense such are the limitations of his ability & his mind-boggling proclivity to make extremely poor decisions at key moments of possession. & okay, yes he's not supposed to be particularly effective on the front foot as a defensive midfielder by trade, but for a player who is in a position that requires you to be a proverbial 'rock' if you do lack offensive prowess - I have certainly never heard of him being described as just that. He is definitely no Essien - let alone a Toure or Makelele. Even Ramires seems twice the defender he is at times... So what exactly is his place in a side that wants to attack freely & not give away the ball cheaply? Because although he admittedly had a decent season last year when we were a far more defensive side, he doesn't really bring anything to the table in this new team - as far as I can tell, all he really does for the entire game is make a few good tackles & mostly arbitrary passes while strolling around in front of the back four; hesitant & inconsistent in possession, ignoring numerous runs from players ahead of him due to lack of vision/passing ability - & ultimately giving the ball away in the middle of the park where it is most dangerous to do so in his position. Even more distressing is his constant need to leave his foot hanging in tackles & give away cheap & potentially punishing free kicks outside the box. & then when he does venture forward, & even finds a scoring/creating opportunity, as he has done numerous times this season already - he ends up wasting it horribly & makes any kind of supposedly impressive progress he might have made entirely redundant. It really just doesn't work when you need someone who can actually find the feet of a player with a through ball, or at least get a shot on target & take adavantage when such a threatening position presents itself - & we all know Frank can do that at will. That is why Lampard is essential to the team at the moment. Sure he can't play forever, I know that - but for now, in our current situation of dire circumstances & disrepute throughout the club, when we need solidarity & resolve as well as consistency & efficacy - the fact is that we need him more than ever. Lampard's place is not on the bench, it is in the heart of the midfield - that is where he belongs. I mean seriously, do you not consider the potency of a Lampard-Ramires-Mata-Hazard-Oscar line up to be potentially one of the finest & most complete ever created, regardless of our misfiring striker? When you have a proven finisher who can make things happen even when our flair players are struggling to carve out clear cut opportunites & most importantly actually put them in the back of the net, it means that we at least have the ability to change things during the game when they aren't all going our way. & I don't think many have considered this, but there really is no one in the team, besides maybe Oscar, who can accurately & consistently play that long-range defence-splitting pass from a deeper position that Torres apparently requires to actually score a fucking goal. As far as I can tell - Lampard is the solution - not the problem. & as for Cole, he is still the best left back in the world in my eyes. It is rare to find him out of his depth in any situation & I can't even count just how many times he has made JT-esque last ditch goal line clearances to keep us in the game - an exemplary example of his commitment to the team - whilst Luiz watches from the edge of the box as he jogs back from the half way line. Furthermore, he is only 31 & has not lost his legs by any means. He does more than just 'a job' mate - he would walk into just any other team in the world at left back, almost never has a bad game, & always plays his heart out all the way to the 90th, & beyond. Why is it that everyone seems so obsessed with this misguided notion of 'in with the new out with the old'? When you have just won the Champions League in such a glorious manner, it is not the time for spring cleaning. We really need to take a step back & start looking at the present, rather than solely focusing on the more distant future at the price of ignoring the current dilemmas we have. It's great & all to bring in young players to think ahead & take pre-emptive measures for future sucess - but I want to win trophies now - not be forced to use this pathetic excuse of 'transition' to offset poor results. Do we really want to become an upmarket version of those clowns at the Emirates? Striving for style & finesse - but ultimately failing to employ it effectively. We should use what we have in three of the most outstanding players of the last decade to our advantage NOW, while we are still fortunate enough to have them around. Lampard, JT, Cole - these players are not the obstacles to our 'new style' & the 'youthful future' of the team; they are the ones who have the experience & proven ability to AID the new players in maintaining success & integrating them into the team while we continue to work out the kinks in a revamped system. They are the ones who can actually provide the unwavering performance & solidarity that will allow the magic of the Mazcar trinity the freedom to flourish & keep us winning trophies until we have found genuine successors of true quality for the long-term. Until then, it makes absolutely no sense to uproot the foundations of the greatest team in Chelsea history - all for the sake 'progression' & 'potential' - when the reality is that if we continue down this road we seem to be hellbent on going down - we are going to end up condemning ourselves to baron trophyless seasons that are only going to sink the club into further disrepute & make us the laughing stock of football. Not that we haven't already achieved that title after the complete calamity of the last week...

HOLY FUCKING SHIT Now we really are well & truly fucked. Makes me question my beliefs in this club for the first time in a long time...letting two of our best & most consistent players, let alone a world class bonafide legend & the best player in the prem for the last decade, just simply walk out the door for nothing? I'm sorry but this is an unconscionable decision, where genuine reason has been shunned in favour of blind logic & naive ideals - this is where Roman has really crossed the line. You can't tell me I'm not supporting 'the club', when the players we owe the most to - the very core, foundations & true blue heart of the team - are being disregarded as if they were just another average disposable squad member who can be easily replaced with a healthy sum of money... The problem is, how the fuck exactly are you supposed to replace the irreplaceable? Darkness has engulfed Stamford Bridge this week...I have certainly become disillusioned by almost everything that has gone on - & whilst I appreciate some of your hopeful optimism - I really just do not & cannot see the light. Not until Rafa moves his fat arse out of the way at least...

So I'm assuming that you're one of those that think John Terry is racist too then eh..? I honestly have nothing against Spaniards considering one of them is one of, if not possibly the most important player at the club at the moment (whilst I continue in my unwavering support of the other that is wallowing in a hole of goalless misery & despair). But I do indeed have significant animosity towards this new excuse for a manager that has been handed the reigns..hence what I would qualify as necessary derogatory language to express this accurately. Pretty sure if I wanted to say all Spanish people are cunts, I could have just gone ahead & done that?

Originally posted this in the Benitez thread...but to be honest I think you all need to hear it - because I'm genuinely pissed & this is an absolute outrage - As my first post on this forum, I just want to salute all of you true blues out there who aren't delusional Benitez advocates. I mean in reality, the only possible good that can come out of this is if Torres somehow rediscovers his ability to score goals...& don't get me wrong, that would be a revelation in itself, but assuming that Benitez is as stubbornly self-righteous as he always has been, is that really worth enduring the atrocious tactics & questionable morals of the fuck up that is this fat spanish cunt? He was lucky to have had Gerrard & Alonso in their prime - otherwise he would have won absolutely nothing. If anyone thought last season was 'unbelievably lucky', you should watch the 04/05 CL semi-final again & tell me how incredulous it was for Liverpool to even make it to the final...(yer remember that 'phantom goal' anyone?) Regardless of the results he produces, he will never be anything more than a sad vile delinquent to me - a man who refuses to be blamed for his grievances & shortcomings, yet guiltlessly marvels in incredible fortune as if it were somehow conceived by his own hands. I was there in the Mourinho days & anyone else who was a fan back then will share my complete & utter disgust in this unconcsionable act of injustice & recognise it as a dire mistake that may have prematurely ended what could have still potenitally been a brilliant season. Have you all forgotten some of the things this ultimate douchebag of douchebags has said in the press about not just our most legendary manager or players, but our actual fans & team as a whole? He is a disgrace to the highest degree & does not deserve a miniscule of the respect so many of you seem to be giving him. I hope all of the true supporters make their feelings known at the match this weekend in the hope that Roman might wake the fuck up & pull us all out of this nightmare before it's too late to salvage things - a genuine baptism of fire is the only way to eradicate this scourge before it corrupts everything we love. Of course you're enitlted to your own opinions, just as I am openly expressing mine here, but it really is truly nauseating for me to stomach that anyone who wears the blue shirt with pride can be supporting this appointment, especially when it has meant sacrificing a manager who achieved what none before him ever have before. & the thing is I can somewhat deal with RDM going, because we have been shockingly poor the last few weeks..but what I absolutely refuse to come to terms with is this excuse for a replacement. I mean really? It could have been anyone else on the planet & I would have been first in line to give my albeit tentative but at least hopeful support, but not for this lump of shit that stakes his beliefs in vulnerable zonal defending & pointless obscure overpriced signings. Sure, we may go on to have a great season now...I REALLY REALLY hope we do because our fully fit team has the potential to do so regardless of manager...but that seems to just be wishful thinking in a time of such desperation & disrepute. & even if we do actually somehow manage to win something under his unholy reign - all I know is that I will never sing his name from the stands. I don't mean to be entirely pessimistic...because I do still believe in our players (most of them at least)...but right now - after this beyond disastrous week - we are officially truly undeniably fucked.

As my first post on this forum, I just want to salute all of you true blues out there who aren't delusional Benitez advocates. I mean in reality, the only possible good that can come out of this is if Torres somehow rediscovers his ability to score goals...& don't get me wrong, that would be a revelation in itself, but assuming that Benitez is as stubbornly self-righteous as he always has been, is that really worth enduring the atrocious tactics & questionable morals of the fuck up that is this fat spanish cunt? He was lucky to have had Gerrard & Alonso in their prime - otherwise he would have won absolutely nothing. If anyone thought last season was 'unbelievably lucky', you should watch the 04/05 CL semi-final again & tell me how incredulous it was for Liverpool to even make it to the final...(yer remember that 'phantom goal' anyone?) Regardless of the results he produces, he will never be anything more than a sad vile delinquent to me - a man who refuses to be blamed for his grievances & shortcomings, yet guiltlessly marvels in incredible fortune as if it were somehow conceived by his own hands. I was there in the Mourinho days & anyone else who was a fan back then will share my complete & utter disgust in this unconcsionable act of injustice & recognise it as a dire mistake that may have prematurely ended what could have still potenitally been a brilliant season. Have you all forgotten some of the things this ultimate douchebag of douchebags has said in the press about not just our most legendary manager or players, but our actual fans & team as a whole? He is a disgrace to the highest degree & does not deserve a miniscule of the respect so many of you seem to be giving him. I hope all of the true supporters make their feelings known at the match this weekend in the hope that Roman might wake the fuck up & pull us all out of this nightmare before it's too late to salvage things - a genuine baptism of fire is the only way to eradicate this scourge before it corrupts everything we love. Of course you're enitlted to you own opinions, just as I am openly expressing mine here, but it really is truly nauseating for me to stomach that anyone who wears the blue shirt with pride can be supporting this appointment, especially when it has meant sacrificing a manager who achieved what none before him ever have before. & the thing is I can somewhat deal with RDM going, because we have been shockingly poor the last few weeks..but what I absolutely refuse to come to terms with is this excuse for a replacement. I mean really? It could have been anyone else on the planet & I would have been first in line to give my albeit tentative but at least hopeful support, but not for this lump of shit that stakes his beliefs in vulnerable zonal defending & pointless obscure overpriced signings. Sure, we may go on to have a great season now...I REALLY REALLY hope we do because our fully fit team has the potential to do so regardless of manager...but that seems to just be wishful thinking in a time of such desperation & disrepute. & even if we do actually somehow manage to win something under his unholy reign - all I know is that I will never sing his name from the stands. I don't mean to be entirely pessimistic...because I do still believe in our players (most of them at least)...but right now - after this beyond disastrous week - we are officially truly undeniably fucked.