The Big Drog

lol very good mate.

Big test tomorrow for the lads. Torres in particular has to step up and show that he deserves to be a Chelsea player, this series of games without Drogba will prove to be the real litmus test to see if he can succeed as Chelsea's main man or will it be necessary to but a striker in the Summer. I hope it goes well because if he gets off to a poor start tomorrow then it could be difficult times ahead.

Though he isn't actually apart of the squad anymore, Nic Anelka deserves an honourable mention, such a naturally gifted player with a lovely, effortless style of dribbling.

I cant see it happening, I doubt he will move in January and wouldn't be surprised if one of the big Spanish clubs come calling for him in the Summer, and once that happens there is only one destination that he will end up in.

Im assuming the people who are voting for Torres mean Torres in his Liverpool pomp, our version of Torres must be one of the worst dribblers of the ball I've ever seen play in a top league. He receives the ball, sometimes his touch is awful and he loses possession, sometimes its very good and he is able to get on the move. Then when he does move it seems to be in slow motion (particularly compared to his previous blistering speed), his direction and stepovers must be the most obvious regular occurrence in football, any decent defender can predict where and when he will arrive with the ball even if that defender had his eyes closed, if Chelsea Torres is the best dribbler at the club then it is possible that his teammates each only have 1 leg.

Sturridge looks threatening dribbling the ball at pace at defenders. Ramires has unbelievable speed so when he gets going he is a threat, Luiz is very good at carrying the ball out of the defence, Id still say Mata or Sturridge are the best of the lot.

Neymar's goal was sensational, a deserving winner.

If you don't watch it then why are you commenting on it? Also this and last years squad is quite different from their 2002 squad so what is the point of bringing that into it? Madrid are streets ahead of any club in England, the only club close to the two Spanish giants are probably Bayern Munich.

Luckily, anyone with a pair of semi functioning eyes and a brain in decent condition, who also bother to watch Real Madrid play on a regular basis will know full well that Real Madrid are the closest team out there to Barcelona at the moment, infact Pep Guardiola says that right now Real Madrid are better than Barcelona, it would be tough to disagree with him considering Real Madrid currently lead the way in La Liga by 5 points. In Mourinho's first season they managed a Champions League semi final and won the Copa Del Rey, this season I expect them to achieve even more, they have looked much better this season than last (as Mourinho predicted) and almost managed a few clever signings. Statistics or no statistics, Real Madrid and Barcelona are the two finest teams in the world, I don't know which of them will win La Liga and Id be fairly confident in saying this seasons Champions League winner will be from Spain, as it stands, Madrid are the only team capable of competing with Barcelona, you don't need stats to tell you that, just watch them play. Also, the team of individuals thing might have been relevant last year, check out the way they have been playing this year,a lot more emphasis on the team rather than the individual and the implementation of a Barcelona style hunting down in packs system.

The complaints about the amount of Barcelona/Real Madrid players in the team of the year is ridiculous. Of course there will be lots of Barcelona/Real Madrid players because they are the two best teams in the world by a considerable distance.

Played very well for Athletico Madrid last night, got off the exactly the start he would have wanted to under new manager Diego Simeone. Two wonderful saves, the second in particular was stunning by any standard.

Sky sources apparently say that this story is true. If we mess this up then I will find it very hard to forgive the club, we had the chance a couple of years ago to sell Kalou to Arsenal, we fluffed our lines that time but here and now we have a second chance, redemption at last! Sell Kalou to Arsenal. It gets rid of a God awful player, it frees up some money and squad space and at the same time we will be cursing one of our closest rivals with Salomon Kalou, they wont know what hit them. If this deal goes through, it will be the biggest transfer our club has been involved in for years.

If Mata is on 60k a week then he needs a new agent, I volunteer me or the agent of Fernando Torres.

I don't expect the youngsters to play. Cech Bosingwa, Luiz, Terry, Cole Ramires, Romeu, Lampard Sturridge, Lukaku, Malouda And Im probably being a bit optimistic with the Lukaku inclusion, wouldn't be surprised if it's Torres.

Is this game being shown on any television station?

Wonderful Copa Del Rey game last night between Real Madrid and Malaga. I missed the first half but caught the second half, I can honestly say it was one of the best half's of football I've seen this season. Malaga took a 2-0 lead in the first half, Mourinho dramatically made 3 substitutions at half time, all of them paid off with Khedira and Benzema each grabbing a goal and Mesut Ozil putting in a virtuoso performance. The third goal in particular was vintage Madrid, football at its very best. Malaga played well for their part, got the 2 goal lead, defended well early on in the second half and always looked a threat on the counter, but there are few sides who could possibly keep Madrid out once they got going in the second half. After the dull, bland and unimaginative Man City vs Liverpool game, this one was a breath of fresh air.

When The Sun is your source then you know its time to up sticks and leave. But the vilification of AVB in the media has been a lesson in creating a, near subliminal hate campaign against someone. They clearly don't like him because A. he doesn't treat them with the respect they feel they warrant (they don't) and B. he is Chelsea manager.

Still problems. Jose Bosingwa's defending for the Wolves goal was comical, still not enough of a cutting edge and its a sad indictment of the squad that our replacement winger for Sturridge is central midfielder Ramires. Still though the negatives aside it was a hard fought and crucially important win. It was fantastic to see the lads celebrate with AVB and the backroom staff, clearly they believe in what AVB is trying to accomplish at the club, give him the time and the financial backing and I think we will be a genuine superpower again. Some good performances all round. Cech made an incredible last minute save. Terry and Luiz both played well at the back, Cole defended very well and got the assist for the winner with a vintage Ashley Cole cross, Romeu shielded the back four well and distributed the ball as well as we have come to expect, Lampard scored a typical Frank Lampard goal, Ramires is quite breathtaking to watch, the sheer energy he provides, whether it be out wide or in the middle is so crucial to the side, Mata was far better today than against Villa, drifted inside, created, linked up the play, it was a polished display from the Spaniard. But my pick for MOTM is Fernando Torres. I haven't been his biggest fan, his displays have often left me downright depressed but today he was excellent. Dropped deep, drifted out wide, ran the channels, ok he probably isn't the goal threat that we expected but his general play was far better tody than he is usually given credit for, his passing was slick and clever, his movement very good, his ideas quite creative, his ball through to Cole set up the winner and he was rightly applauded for that by his teammates, his work rate was top notch and like the Torres during his Liverpool prime, got about the pitch and made his presence felt. It is probably too soon to say that "now Torres is back" but it is an encouraging display. Something that I did think in the game though was, if we got 2 wide men who offered genuine penetration and pace down the flanks and actually stayed out wide and we got a creative player in the middle of the pitch, it would stretch back four's giving Torres more space to run into between full back and centre back and if we had a creative player behind him (Mata) he would be able to slip the passes into Torres and there would be no need for him to drop as deep and play as the creative player. But until we sign the quality players required, that is just a dream. Anyway important, and in some respects, encouraging win.

Torres' every touch is greeted with gasps, cheers and clapping by some people on here.

Has anyone considered the possibility that we might be trying to break the world record for most holding midfielders on the pitch at one time.

Sometimes, like yesterday, he simply doesn't get the ball enough to have as big an impact on the game as he could.

I think you and I have vastly different views on football. Drogba had 1 absolutely world class game, which qualified us for the next round of the Champions League, and has had some other very good games. You remind me of one of these people who says, Gareth Bale only ever played well against Inter Milan when in reality he has been excellent this season and had some other very good performances last season.

Far from it. Imagine for a second if Drogba were exiled from the squad, ala Anelka and Alex, chances are we would be out of the Champions League right now and, given how awful the current other options are for the striking spot, we would probably struggle more than we already are for a top four spot. So next season, no Champions League, making it tougher to sign top players, meaning it significantly slows down any transition. Far from stopping the transition, Drogba is a very important and helpful stopgap.

A lack of creativity did hinder us in that game, but Mourinho knew it would, Mourinho also knew that practically everything good we did went through Drogba so he had him man marked very well by a world class Lucio and a world class Samuel.

No but with a buyout clause of 80 million and the talent of the man they would certainly hold out for at least 35-40