The Big Drog

There are lots of options but I don't think that finding a main striker should be the priority this Summer. What will be the point in having a main striker if we cant create anything for the striker to feed off of? Priority number one must be a creative midfielder. What is the point in having a main striker if, at the other end, we are leaking goals by the bucket load, a rejig in the defence, be it a new right back or a new centre back, must be priority number two. Then a new striker is priority number three, I also wouldn't say no to another winger.

He's been at the club for years, he has never contributed to aiding our defensive problems as much as you would expect a first choice holding midfielder at a club with Chelsea's ambitions to.

Don't care, honestly I don't care. He is bad, right in league with the likes of Malouda, Kalou and Torres. This seems like the perfect chance to get rid of him, there haven't been many high points this season, selling Mikel out of the blue like this would certainly be one of them.

In a season which has brought about such depression this would simply be the icing on the cake.

I expect. Cech Ivanovic, Cahill, Luiz, Cole Ramires, Mikel, Lampard Sturridge, Drogba, Mata Not many changes, simply because he doesn't have many viable options to choose from.

I don't care, they are both shit.

That's exactly what we need,a quicker but less powerful Kalou.

Well said.

Aside from the obvious, one of the most depressing things about yesterday was that our 50 million pound star striker was sat on the bench and there was next to no fuss about it, over the course of the last 12 months we have come to expect him not to start in big games like this (the kind of games he was bought for). It has become entirely acceptable for him to play second fiddle. Surely he will go down in history as the biggest waste of money ever in football.

I feel like I missed an important chapter of a story. Where exactly is Romeu? I saw pics of the team training and Romeu seemed to be in one of the pics. So I assume that he was fit enough to travel to Italy and train? Yet he wasn't on the bench. Granted he was poor when he cam on against Man Utd, though at that stage of the game all of our players were poor, but he is clearly a very talented defensively midfielder who knows how to do a shielding job and also is quite good on the ball. I just don't understand why he has been completely erased from the first team setup.

He must be wondering "wtf?" Id say when he signed he thought he was signing for a top European club that would be right up there competing for the Premier League and Champions League, instead he is at a club in crisis that is on the verge of going out of the Champions League in the last 16 and currently sit 5th in the Premier League. Not only that but he also plays in a team that plays dull football, at least at Valencia they play some nice stuff that accentuated his positives. He seems like a good character, I think he will stick around to see if we can make serious adjustments and improvements next season.

If some people are actually touting Mikel as the solution then you know things are bad.

If you only start one of them it means Mata is stuck out on the left wing again and you don;t get half as much out of him from a wide position as you do when he plays through the centre. Im not saying that Sturridge wouldn't make an excellent striker, maybe he would, but we don;t have the quality in the quad to try it right now.

Ye it's bad, sometimes even very bad but Malouda and Kalou both starting on a regular basis? That's some apocalypse shit.

Tbf Didier had a few moments tonight and played his part in our goal, the simple problem was that we didn't get the ball to him enough. The problem with playing Sturridge through the middle is that it means either Malouda or Kalou must start, if Mata is to play behind the striker then it would mean having Kalou and Malouda both start, a doomsday scenario.

On a night when big performances were required, far too many were found wanting. Credit to AVB, his team selection was brave, clearly the battle lines between him and certain players have been drawn, I hope its AVB who wins this war, not the players. We started slowly, Napoli had the better of the first 20 minutes, we got a lucky break for Mata's goal, played far better after that and controlled the game until Lavezzi's equaliser completely changed the game, more bad defending via Ivanovic allowed Cavani in for their second. I just cant wrap my head around how we are leading and playing well only to throw it all away in the space of 7 minutes, this caving in has become a far too regular occurrence at Chelsea. Second half we tried, we had a period of good play but a mad Luiz mistake and Napoli get the third. We then fail to find the class to break them down to score an important second away goal. I'll start with the positives. AVB's team selection showed bravery. Juan Mata was excellent, the only outfield player who performed anywhere near expectations (Cech did well in goal). Then the negatives. The defence is a shambles, remember the Terry/Carvalho/Makelele triangle? What the hell has happened since then? Cahill was all over the place, Luiz wasn't much better alongside him, Ivanovic had a shocker, Cole was decent and in front of them Ramires and Meireles combined to create the least effective shielding midfield performance I've ever seen at this level of football. Ramires has been excellent for us this season but this was easily his worst game this season, he looked entirely uncomfortable playing as part of a sitting 2 man midfield. Meireles meanwhile looked lost, his attempts at "defending" would have been laughable except they made me want to cry more than laugh. It was an open game, Napoli are no great shakes, 6th in Serie A, their defence was almost as bad as ours, the difference was that they had the quality to capitalise on our frailties, we didn't have the quality to capiltalise on theirs. Mata played very well, Drogba had a few good moments but simply didn't get the ball enough, Sturridge struggled to influence the game much and Malouda was practically invisible. I get why AVB wanted to play a 4-2-3-1, the problem is that it means that we have to play Malouda out wide and he just isn't good enough. Defensively it was awful. Creatively it was poor. So what exactly do we do well? I still think that AVB is the right man for the job, I've stuck by him this whole time because I know that the squad he is working with is both not good enough and some are not responsive to his philosophies. Given the chance, I believe that he can change that structure and philosophy of the club. However that still doesn't stop me from being bitterly disappointed with tonight. 1-0 up, away at Napoli and we end up losing 3-1? It is just so un-Chelsea like. We aren't out of the tie yet, we still have a slim chance but I don't think we will be able to break them down to score twice while not conceding at the other end. Bad result, bad performance which pretty much summed up the season so far, depressing.

Its impossible to call. Napoli were excellent in the group stage of the Champions League but have had an ordinary league campaign, We stuttered through the entire season. Drogba's back and that is a big plus but the possible absences of Terry and Cole are a concern. If everyone is fit Id like to see this team. Cech Ivanovic, Luiz, Terry, Cole Ramires, Essien, Lampard Sturridge, Drogba, Mata For the prediction I will put on my optimism hat and say a Drogba inspired 1-0 victory.

It wasn't good enough last season either. Now the players are a year older. This was supposed to be Torres' season, except we all know how that has worked out. It's easy tp blame the manager but we were awful last season, we are even worse this season, the deadweight in the squad is the problem, there are far too many players in the squad who simply aren't up to the standard required.

The first half was shocking, absolutely shocking, compounded by chants of "Jose Mourinho" from our own fans and then booing the team off at half time. If we never see Fernando Torres play for Chelsea again I wont be sorry. What a miserable excuse for a performance that was, Im not exaggerating when I say that I think you could pluck any semi-fit guy off the street and he could match that same performance that Torres gave in the first half, to describe it as piss poor would be doing it a compliment. Didier came on second half and at least seemed to have energy, he fired the team up, he provided a physical presence up front, he pushed people, he made runs, he had a few clever flicks, it wasn't a great performance from Drogba but for a 33 year old, only back a day after an energy and emotionally draining ACON, it was a decent performance and a far better one than Torres. At 33 years old, the great man can't be relied on to drag the team out of a tight spot forever. However he should absolutely, 100% start against Napoli. Mikel is shit. Meireles is average and shouldn't be a starter for a club with our ambition. I don't understand why anyone lets Frank Lampard hit freekicks, I thought, with that freekick late on, with the range it was at, with the position being right in the centre of the goal, it was ideal for Drogba to strike but up stepped Frank with his ridiculously bad freekicks that always seem to either hit the wall (the majority) or fly a long way over the crossbar. On the positives, Ramires did very well having missed a few games with injury, Luiz continues his excellent form at the back and, once we got the ball to him in the second half, Sturridge did very well, a constant threat and a worthy goalscorer. Bad result, pretty bad performance but at least we aren't out, it will have to be far better against Napoli.

This is ridiculous. How alarming is it to hear our manager say that not all the players back him or believe in the project he is trying to achieve. Its disgraceful, any player that doesn't back him should be sold in the Summer, no matter who it is.

Id love Lukaku to get a start and someone new to add a bit of life to an otherwise lfieless team. But given that this is the tournament we have our best chance of winning something in this season, Im guessing this will be the team. Cech Bosingwa, Ivanovic, Terry, Cole Meireles, Essien, Lampard Sturridge, Torres, Mata

Thibaut has all of the potential to be a truly top class keeper, he has everything you need. This hasn't been Cech's best season but pushing the panic button isn't the right thing in the long term for Thibaut. Let him have another season in Spain and then a loan move in England and then let him be the number one at Chelsea.

Also Mata over VDV, but ye I get your point.

lol I love how you've put this in the "announcement, feedback and support" section as if this were an official policy released by Chelsea, good on you.

Shocking. Depressing. I watched the majority of the Spurs vs Newcastle game afterwards and I couldn't help but wonder when did they pass us out, what was the defining moment where their side overtook ours? Afterall we have won 3 Premier League titles, FA Cup's, Carling Cup's, Champions League final and a handful of Champions League semi final's, when did Spurs pass us out? Watching their game against Newcastle I couldn't help but notice the differences. Their play is so quick, their build up so fluid, their movement so intelligent, in stark contrast to our slow, plodding, snail like build up with literally no movement. They have genuine penetration out wide and through the middle, we have no penetration at all. Their defence is reasonably solid, ours is a bad joke. What the hell happened to us? Jose Bosingwa is the shits. We have a thrown in, in our own half of the pitch, he inexplicably throws the ball to a Spurs player, 10 seconds later Pienaar is in on goal and Bosingwa isn't making the slightest attempt to recover his earlier mistake, granted Essien and Ivanovic don't cover themselves in glory here either but we concede from a throw in in our own half after only 4 minutes? Jose Bosingwa is the shits. I also don't like Ivanovic at centre back, I've never been a big fan of him at centre back, he is a good right back and when he plays there it usually means Bosingwa doesn't play. What is wrong with our midfield. There is no other top European side that have a midfield that move the ball as slowly as ours. Unless the masterplan is to bore the opposition into submission I just don't get how this has been a problem for so long now (this season, last season, parts of the season before that). Modric was the perfect signing, for the position he plays and the way he plays, unfortunately we missed out on him and had no plan B (Meireles isn't a plan I know many have already said this but I'll add my voice to the chorus, Torres is crap, just unbelievably bad. Drogba isn't the long term answer but in the short term (finishing in the top four this season) then Drogba is the man to rely on, the sooner he gets back the better.