Thomas Williams

I agree, with a good CDM who has the vision and discipline to effectively cover Luiz whever he makes his bursts forward, that's when I see Luiz most deadly and effective---I think in that case he's even more dangerous offensively than he is as a CDM, because the defense doesn't know what to do with him. That's why choosing our CDM(s?) this summer is p̶r̶o̶b̶a̶b̶l̶y̶ the most essential thing we do over the summer if we want to succeed next season.

Looking back now, as disappointing as our UCL performance was this year, it looks a bit more understandable now that we see the quality of the group we were in. It contained Juventus, who are well and away the best team in Italy, and only got knocked out by Bayern (in a much more respectable way than the infamous Barcelona did). Shakhtar is obviously the best in the Ukraine but also were only knocked out by what is a verryy good Dortmund team (who they managed to tie in one leg). That factored in with the fact that Chelsea was within 2 points of Juve and only lost out on away goals to Shaktar meant that Chelsea only narrowly managed to slip out of that very stacked group. Put us in any other group (except probably dortmunds) and I'm sure we would have advanced and could have definitely beat a celtic/galatasaray, etc. type team. Obviously this is very speculative and no excuse for the fact that we should have done better in our group, but I think now it seems even sillier that Roman so hastily sacked RDM. (To again reiterate, I wasn't impressed with Chelsea's performance, just think it wasn't quite as dreadful as it seemed at the time.) Makes me wonder how differently the season would have played out had we just closed out that first Juventus game (advanced in UCL, RDM not sacked.....)

Don't get me wrong fellows, I don't like the FSW nor am I glad we hired him to be our interim manager. But he has come a long way in how he has managed our squad and has improved a lot of the glaringly dumb things he used to do. Again, he is VERY far from perfect but I think we can all admit he is improving how he deals with the squad, and if he were somehow our manager next season (thank goodness he won't) I believe we would be more successful than we were under him this year. If we finish top four (especially top 3) and win the Europa he will have managed to redeem his abysmal start into some kind of mediocre but salvageable season. What I'm trying to say is when he leaves, I think it's fine for us all to dislike him, but considering how bad he started and how awfully our fans treated him for months,the fact that he has managed to improve to the point he has tells me that we shouldn't hate him. He could have done worse and I always want to be fair when fairness is deserved. Hoping and praying for Mou next season, but I'm glad Rafa didn't crash our season as bad I thought he was going to.

You sure? Garay starts for the Argentinian national team and has been very strongly linked with United and other big clubs, he will be a top 10 CB in the world some day IMO (he's only 25 or 26 I think?) Their fullbacks are much weaker in my opinion, Their left back in particular, I forget his name, but although he looked very pacy and decent in attack, is only 23 and didn't seem the best at defending from what I've seen (not much.)

I wish we would have subbed him out earlier, I want him to be in full form when he plays United! I feel like a lot of times it is Luiz's form that makes or breaks our team, do you guys ever get that feeling as well?

Don't worry, I don't think Rafa cares too much for old Frank, anyway, Frank played all game today. It will be almost certainly mikel and Ramires in the pivot.

I couldn't agree more, it's a shame though. I'm sadly almost certain that between this and the whole Swansea debacle that it's undeservedly cost him the chance to ever play in our starting 11. Hope I'm wrong though.

What excites me most about him is that his technique on the ball and passing seems to get better with every passing game. Such improvement is incredible, he is one of those players that REALLY needs game minutes as they help him so much. That's a main reason as to why I almost don't want him to come if we sign a big name striker this summer, because even if we could give him a good bit of minutes here or there, I feel like it couldn't compare to the improvement he'd get from being the the full time striker of a lower end of the table squad. If chelsea do choose to not loan him out next year, I hope they make certain to play him a TON or they'll have to live with themselves knowing they stifled the growth of one of the potential world beater strikers. I believe in general we need to try to emulate United more and incorporate our younger players into the squad. I don't think Cleverly is any better than a bunch of the talent we have out on loan or playing in the U21s and yet United find plenty of minutes for him and they almost beat the points record this year. In general Ferguson isn't afraid to throw a young player to the wolves so to speak and see if he can perform at the top.

I could easily see him getting a decade's worth, he isn't even at his peak yet! It's great to talent, and I think Chelsea has some of the best in the world at the moment.

I think if David had been placed as a CDM from his early career he would be an absolute star at the position by now. I genuinely think that's his true position, and he would have among the best in world at that position. However, that wasn't the case, and instead he is a CB and he will make a very fine CB no doubt. I just feel it's a bit of a waste with his shooting, passing, and dribbling potential, but I don't think it would work for us to try to convert him now.

Well, at least we can't complain that our tail end of the season will be boring! Will anyone else actually be happy/content with our season if we finish 3rd, Lampard breaks the record, and we win Europa? Still an underachieving year, but a decent end considering all of our managerial troubles.

This is close to a perfect formation for me, I like having lampard as a CAM to help ensure he can fire away at their keeper. I have no problems subbing Hazard in at around the 60 something minute, he can handle a lot of playing time would make a big impact late in the game to help get us a goal. If we get down a goal, I would switch Oscar to the pivot for mikel, and put hazard in till we level, then maybe waste a sub on marin to take Hazard back out (as dumb as that sounds, lol).

The fact that he was so successful in the UCL makes me want him less tbh, he's now the epitome of the "flavor of the month" and will likely lose the cheapness that make him so desirable. If he would cost us close to Hazard price or more than I would rather do without him, even though I've always really admired him as a player.

Have you guys noticed when he snakes around or dribblings horizontally across the pitch he is almost impossible to tackle? I wish he would do it more often when is he far down the flanks, if he dribbles horizontally in the box it always seems like to A) set up a good pass, set up a good shot for him, or C) result in him gettting fouled in the box.

I kind of have a good feeling that Arsenal and Tottenham are going to choke here in the final few games, and Chelsea will take third easily. Let's hope I'm right (I definitely can't see Tottenham edging us out). On the other hand, they should better rested, as they don't have this Europa nonsense to worry about.

yes, but it was worth it to have THAT in our trophy cabinet

Do any of you guys want some more experienced players coming in? I love all the young talent, and we're going to have some super stars on our hands, but I wouldn't mind a late 20's finished/closed to finished product on the pitch sometime. I feel like we have no players in their prime besides maybe ramires and mikel (who are some of our most average players IMO)

One of the problems here is that the values on that site are from January (and even then not that accurate). The numbers will be a lot more realistic when they update this summer. Ok mine; In: Messi: 105m Ronaldo: 88m Out: Torres: 24m Hazard: 35m Mata: 37m ramires: 24m Cech: 22m And look 19m left over! Formation would look like this: ----------Turnbull------- ----------------------------- ----------------------------- --Messi-----Ronaldo--

You don't want Hazard in there?

Nice prank lad, almost had me fooled!

They were mostly joking, and he had found some kind of form, even if only his lowly standards. And it was fun to cheer him on with the mask.

Yeah, I keep forgetting how young he was when they were first hyping him.

If Bale qualifies for "young" then Hazard has that award for sure when he gets to Bale's age

Definitely don't love this signing, but it could be worse. We needed some quality depth in the winger department (only hazard and moses play well there). I was really hoping to get de bruyne back this season, I had visions of a 4-3-3 with ramires-oscar-de bruyne and mata-lukaku-hazard. Like that would ever happen anyway... But even with our 4-2-3-1, I think the team would be a lot better with de bruyne to cover all the AM (he could play on the left, right, or centre with no trouble) and then use the 22 million to put towards a really quality pivot player, like vidal quality or something close, or a towards CB or striker. I'm sure everyone else has said the same thing pretty much or at least thought it.

Don't you have work/school? I hate mid week games because I usually have to miss them for my labs, although I follow the live updates on my phone.