The only place to be

Having had a chance to reflect on the game, I'm actually finding bright spots to pick up on. Yes it was a bad result, but the two goals we conceded came from mistakes from a player who doesn't usually make them. That's just the way it goes sometimes. They weren't a result of the system, they weren't even a result of Swansea pressure. They were individual errors that won't happen in the next 100 games. It's also refreshing to point out that it was only the Coca Cola Cup. We shouldn't be taking this cup seriously in the first place, but we did so what did we learn? Torres is shit. Sounds obvious, but he makes our team so much worse that it's actually becoming funny. We saw the improvement with Ba on Saturday and we saw it tonight in the last 10 minutes. He had four half-chances that he created through sheer force of will that Torres wouldn't ever have got near. When the ball flashed across the box in the second half, Torres was stuck behind Ivanovic - Ba would have at least been in the right place. All this suggests to me that with Ba in the team, we're actually not that bad. Now we're almost certainly not going to win the Europa League with Torres in the team, but we will have Ba in the league games. I think we're going to have to look at losing Ramires in the summer too. If Luiz or Mikel (or whoever) plays that DM role, I don't know what Rami adds to the team. Great engine but not brilliant on the ball, no penetration, no incisiveness. Luiz had a good game, but he needs to have a game at DM against a good team who put pressure on him rather than sitting back like Villa, QPR and Swansea did for large parts.

Benat's is about 79% this season too. Capoue's is 81%. You're not taking into account the position he's playing in and what he's asked to do. Fouls come with the territory. In fact his disciplinary record this season is pretty good. As for Mikel not being mistake prone, Juventus and Liverpool come to mind straight away. You and I just disagree over what would be just for Chelsea and you rely way too much on stats in my opinion. I also think you misrepresent a lot of things to suit your agenda. And that'll have to be my last say on the matter as I have to get off to the game.

Why would Chelsea not secure any player with potential value to a long-term contract?

They offer different things in that role, like Mikel and Lampard or Luiz and Lampard. Modric would be a good option if we went with Mikel, but that doesn't seem to be the plan if we're continuing our pursuit of Fellaini. I have no problem with people questioning whether he would fit in. It's simply not being aware of where he would probably fit in that draws my ire somewhat. I apologise if you thought I was rude but I feel like I'm repeating the same points over and over.

I think you're completely wrong about what his best position is. His passing is fine, especially for someone who plays in an advanced position and lays the ball off a lot either with his head or with a lot of pressure on him. He's no more mistake prone than Mikel is. In fact I don't think he's made enough mistakes to be called mistake prone. Defensive midfielders foul. Makelele fouled a lot. Wisey fouled a lot. Fellaini's disciplinary record is not any different from other players in his position. You're simply regurgitating common misconceptions about him.

Busquets would be at least £30 million, Makelele cost about £17 million when he was 30. It's amazing that a midfielder who helped us finish 6th and produced 'that performance' against Juventus in this year's Champions League is 'good enough for me'. He ain't good enough for me. I've spent the last 15 years watching players like Wisey, Deschamps and Makelele play for my club. Mikel isn't fit to lick their boots. It's an impressive feat to take an article that praises a young player (because he was young) for finally coming of age and dominating top opposition, and try and twist some words to fit your agenda. It's a reference to the fact that they're completely different players who do completely different things. Suggesting we could buy Modric is like suggesting we could buy a keeper. Or 30 million Mars bars. Or the world's biggest, shiniest gold dildo. It's got fuck all to do with the conversation. :banghead: :banghead: Dear mods, I fear I might be in serious danger of breaking this particular emoticon.

Fellaini did not look anything like a £15m player against Manchester City. He looked worth more as the young giant's transformation continued, helped by finally being played in the position Moyes bought him for. He ruled Goodison Park from his favoured midfield anchor role on Saturday, giving a near flawless display that he capped with a Zinedine Zidane-style dragback that left Craig Bellamy chasing thin air and was afforded the accolade of a spontaneous and deafening standing ovation. Bellamy was gracious enough to congratulate Fellaini on embarrassing him as the Belgianflourished once more away from the spot behind the striker that he occupied with mixed results last season. Fellaini was assured in possession, instrumental at seeing and dealing with any City danger and posed a goal threat, particularly in the air as shown by one late header that was clawed on to the woodwork by Shay Given. Gone was the player who could at times look a lost and lonely soul in games, replaced by a confident and dominating presence that helped Everton give City a going over that is not reflected in the scoreline. http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/philmcnulty/2010/01/david_moyes_demonstrated_a_sur.html Here's the problem I'm finding with a lot of the discussion on Fellaini - nobody seems to have a fucking clue about him before 2012 (and I'm being generous here. I honestly think some people don't have a fucking clue about him besides what they saw last night on FIFA). Some people don't realise we've had a long association with this guy, that we've been scouting him for a long time and that we were in for him 5 years ago. Everton beat us to the punch. We fucked up. We now need a quality DM. The discussion about Mikel after over 200 games suggests there's something wrong. I don't remember having the same discussion about Makelele so it's got fuck all to do with some astute minds in the game seeing something the others don't. Fellaini has shown an ability to produce top quality performances over a consistent period in the anchor role. The problem is that it was a couple of years ago and a 14 year old hasn't cobbled together clips of it and added some fucking Coldplay to it so how on Earth are people supposed to have knowledge of it?? Capoue has youtube montages flowing out of every orifice, each more sparkly than the last so clearly he's the player we need.

Romeu can't walk at the moment. Granted that wouldn't stop him being much worse than Mikel, but still I think he'd probably have some long-term problems if we played him in the next 6 months. Mikel simply isn't good enough. Never has been, never will be. And then there's unproven flavour of the month number one, all aboard the shiny bandwagon number 2.... Lampard isn't a deep lying playmaker. He's deep lying but he doesn't make enough plays. It's why we tried to replace him with Modric. Unfortunately we couldn't get him so we went for Oscar instead. Plus we have McEachran and De Bruyne. I'd rather try one of them in that role first, and admit we fucked up by not signing Fellaini 5 years ago. He's one of very few players who has the ability to do what he does. He's also done it in the Premier League too and buying him has the added benefit of weakening a rival.

You're saying that Oscar doesn't have a 'good defensive workrate/awareness'? That would be the guy who man-marked arguably the greatest playmaker in European football out of a game in his first start? As for Mikel, I think he's better than Mikel. I think he's better in the air, I think he's better defensively, I think he works harder, I think he has a much better attitude to the game and I think he has a bit of aggression/steel that's lacking from Mikel's game. I also think he offers a goal threat which is a nice bonus. You don't simply forget how to play a position just because you don't play it for a while. He's said he sees himself playing as a DM and I agree. I think we were slow off the mark to sign him from Liege despite De Visser being ahead of the curve when it came to the rise of young Belgian footballers, and we're paying the price now. We didn't sign him in 2008 because the price was a little too high for us and we had changed formations slightly under Scolari. Instead we bough Deco and Bosingwa. It's fair to say that us missing out on Fellaini was one of a number of daft moves that year. I fail to see how moving him to a position where he could be effective for us would be stupid. Putting him in goal I can understand being silly. Putting a player who was outstanding in the DM role back in the DM role after a brief sojourn forwards seems like a savvy move.

When we first became interested in Fellaini, it was as a defensive midfielder. At Everton, he started in that role and did well but they've moved him forward because it's what works best for them. We actually need a DM. Why do people think we would be interested in him for any position other than Defensive Midfield? Suggesting we could get Modric for a similar price is like saying we could get Jack Butland for a third of the price.

I want a top four finish and for Benitez to leave. That's all. The Coca Cola Cup is one of those things it's nice to win if you're on the way to winning other things. I prefer to think of it as the cup you use to blood youngsters, and seeing up play some of our most important players for up to 120 minutes against United's reserve teams was one of the most absurd moments I've ever seen at the Bridge. The 1-1 draw to Swansea a few days later was the punchline to that particular joke.

I see him as the new DM. That's what we saw him as when we were first interested (both at Liege and Everton) and that's where we have a need now. If we're actually looking to use him as an attacking midfielder then the club are exhibiting levels of daftness that I didn't think they were capable of. He could be our Busquets/Khedira depending on what formation we use going forward.

Because Mata can seem tired sometimes. He needs to be at the best he can be in every league game. It's a tin pot club in which there's a very real chance that Bradford fucking City could be a finalist. Yes it's a final, but in the grand scheme of things it's utterly meaningless. We only pretend it's a big deal so that we can take the piss out of Arsenal fans for losing to Birmingham. But it's just the Coca Cola Cup. Out of our next four games, this is the most meaningless.

Yay...let's run our most important player into the ground in fucking cup games. :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead:

It all comes down to what we plan to do with Oscar. We're letting Lamps go in the summer and still playing him in midfield. We're shifting Oscar from one wing to the middle, when we have Mata to play there (massively effectively I might add) and it looks like we're playing a strong team in the Coca Cola Cup when we've got three massively important league games in 8 days. It's sometimes hard to see what the long-term plan is.

So when do we rest Mata? Stoke? Southampton? Arsenal??

So we're simply going to discard players like Oscar and De Bruyne before they've had a chance? What about McEachran? Capoue might be half the price, but he's untested. That's what I like about Fellaini - he's suited to the prem. He has the physicality, the technique and the tactical discipline to play that DM position. People seem to simply latch on to the flavour of the month as the solution to our problems when this is a guy we've been scouting for over 3 years, who has done well in the league and seems to be a significant upgrade over what we have.

Agreed. I think we should add an addendum to the over-30s contract rule. One-year extensions for players over the age of 30 UNLESS you are the best player in the world in your opinion (any poll involving Platini or Blatter is invalid).

That's a valid point, but if you look at that game as a whole we didn't play particularly well. Everton were nowhere near their strongest side yet they overran us in the first 30 minutes. Now if you're saying that's a good example of what we could do with Lampard going forward, then I don't know if it's such a good point. We lost the midfield and struggled for a lot of the match and it wasn't until Mata started playing well that we started to assert ourselves. That isn't totally down to Frank, but I think the goals masked a lot of things that weren't so good about his performance. Let's also not forget that the game after was QPR and he had about as bad a game as I can remember for Chelsea. That to me came down to one player missing - Mata. He's our most important player now and he's taken the role that Frank fulfilled for us.

Mikel, Romeu, Fellaini - 'destroyer' Oscar, McEachran, KDB - playmaker Ramires - floater. I think Fellaini could be our Busquets. The guy who just picks the ball up from the keeper or centre-half, brings it forward and lays it off to Oscar or Mata. He'd be the out ball, but in games where we're dominating (like QPR) he'd be an excellent presence in the opposition box. He'd be another target at set-pieces and he also offers a threat from long-range (unlike Mikel).

This is the weird thing about him. People say he's 'not creative', yet he creates opportunities for other players because of his presence. It's this weird mental block people have where players can only be deemed creative if they are like Mata or Pirlo, putting the perfect pass in. Yes that's one way players create opportunities for others but it's not the only way. My opinion is that if he comes to Chelsea, he plays a much simpler game where he's not asked to find a pass in the final third but looks to lay the ball off around the halfway line, laying it off to defenders and simply pulling the opposition around the pitch. It might not be the final ball but it creates opportunities for that ball to be made. And I think we have players who can play alongside him and make those passes. One option is Oscar. Next season we might look at McEachran or De Bruyne. We have options to try n that position, whereas we don't have a 'destroyer-type' of Fellaini's calibre.

I think Fellani suffers from 'tall man syndrome' where he looks a lot more sloppy than he actually is. You can make excuses for Benat's % being low, but Fellaini plays in a more advanced, congested position and the pass completion % seems to be higher the further back you go as there's less pressure on the ball. I'd also be interested to see if headed passes are included as well because he wins a lot of knock-ons. So in essence, I think you're completely wrong about him technically. I think you'd be hard pushed to find a current Belgian player who isn't technically sound. I think having alongside Mikel would be strong, but creatively lacking something. That's why I'd love for him to play alongside someone like Oscar or McEachran. He'd essentially be the enforcer, the third central defender and the point around which the team plays. That pass percentage would leap about 10 points if he was asked to do what Mikel does, but you just benefit from everything else he brings to the team.

We've been scouting Fellaini for over 3 years now. He's proven himself in this league. I also think his passing skills are tremendously overrated. But having looked at the statistics I do see your point. Fellaini the terrible passer has a completion rate of 78.1% Benat (with the 'great long passing skills') has a completion rate of 79.3%. But to his credit that extra 1.2% of passes that actually reach their target have created an extra 2 assists. Plus Fellaini's oft-criticised aggression is a black mark against his name.....except Benat does seem to have DOUBLE the yellow cards against his name (10). Now I'm the first to point to the flaws in statistics, but come on.

Are you going to be one of those people who moans that we should buy Benat (AKA Flavour of the Month) instead?

Torres won't play as much now, and that might make him better. Personally I don't care that Sturridge left in the slightest. He became a bit of a joke to be honest, and then all of a sudden took on magical properties whilst he was out of the team. The truth is that he's a decent young player with bags of talent but a reputation as a selfish player. That's why the only club who came in for him was Liverpool.