The Big Drog

Honestly the "This time Torres will do it!" phrases is becoming almost as cliched as Liverpool's "This is our year."

Even against Wigan he still looked more menacing than Torres has in about 80% of his Chelsea appearances.

It doesn't ensure it but it definitely increases the likelihood of getting the 3 points because he has the ability to actual remain involved, present and visible for the best part of 90 minutes, a mad ability for a multi million pound striker.

Actually I didn't mean Torres in particular and I actually thought he had a fairly good first half until he donned the invisibility cloak once again in the second half. Either way, Id much rather see Drogba start against Villa because, you know, we could do with 3 points.

lol forget Roberto and Montoya, they wouldn't give us Cuenca for Torres.

Oh God....here....comes......BOSINGWA!

AVB has flirted at times with a 4-2-3-1 and I think that would work well if we had A. A quality left winger (Mata would obviously move into the CAM position), the problem is that when we do go to a 4-2-3-1 atm the options for the left wing role are either Malouda or Kalou, not good enough. B. A striker, obviously we have Drogba and Drogba is great but looking ahead to the future, a longterm top class centre forward would be nice.

Cech Ivanovic, Luiz, Terry, Cole Ramires, Romeu, Meireles Sturridge, Drogba, Mata Surely it can't be as bad as it was against Fulham.

Thing is though that playing a midfield 2 instead of 3 would actually limit the amount of full backs could go forward and without Juan Mata drifting infield from the left flank and with less runs forward from our central midfielders it means there is a huge gap between our midfield and our strikers and neither Drogba or Torres play deep. Some teams are made for a 4-4-2, we don't have the players for it, particularly when the two strikers in question have played the vast majority of their careers as lone strikers and who, whenever they have played together, always seem to take up eachothers spaces, Drogba in particular has always looked a bit lost on where to run whenever he has played as part of a front 2.

I saw them this morning against Santos, it was football from a different planet. The movement, the sheer dedication to play for the greater good of the team rather than to appease your own ego. You watch English football and you see a player hit a 40 yard pass and the crowd gasps and claps and the player thinks he is the king but standing 5 yards beside him is a teammate who he can pass to and they can work a move from there, instead he has given it 40 yards to the winger who has no support and loses the ball. Barcelona are all about the team ethic, spotting the pass early and making it, for the most part the passes they make are simple and short, they don't have to be anything else and then when they get closer to goal their incisive movement comes into play and the runners off the ball offer different angles for the man on the ball to make the killer pass. Off the ball they work as one to get the ball back, chasing in packs. It is a wonderful brand of football that everyone should aspire to. That being said, I also watched Real Madrid last night, as good as Barcelona were this morning, Madrid were very bit as good last night, beating a good Sevilla side 6-2. Their principles might not have the team interest as high a priority as Barcelona but they are the closest team in the world to matching Barcelona and they continue to get closer.

But do we really want to see a 2 vs 2 in midfield when Spurs have arguably the best two man central midfield in the league this season in Parker and Modric? Also they can always create the 3 with Van Der Vaart dropping deep, we don't want to be outnumbered in midfield against Spurs at WHL. Sturridge and Mata have done very well playing in a front 3, asking them to play in a 4-4-2 means both would have to drop deeper and thus lessen their goal threat and usually a basic 4-4-2 (as this would be as neither Drogba or Torres naturally drop into the hole) mean that the wingers end up playing in a straight line (like Man Utd's widemen) and that is most certainly not Juan Mata's game and I doubt Sturridge would much enjoy being limited in his movement either. It would also mean that our defensive set up would have to be altered, key to stopping Spurs is stopping Gareth Bale, we saw last season that our approach of doing this involves the right back (Ivanovic Im assuming) and Ramires coming across to double up on him, Ramires is key here as he has got genuine pace to match Bale and is very disciplined in his defending, playing a 4-4-2 means that he wont double up on Bale and Sturridge would have to assist Ivanovic in dealing with the Welsh winger and defending isn't Daniel's strongpoint (as we have seen this season). All of that and the obvious problem being that when VDV drops into the hole, we wouldn't have a marker to track him unless you want one of our centre backs to follow him and create space for Spurs quick players to exploit. A 4-4-2 has not really worked for us ever since Mourinho, now isn't the time for a 4-4-2.

I thought Martin Atkinson had a good game tbh.

It would be if we had two out and out wingers (ala Bale and Lennon) and two strikers who enjoy playing in a front two and who have showed sings of forming a lethal partnership, however that isn't the case, neither Drogba or Torres have ever been at their best playing as part of a front two, both are naturally lone strikers and when we have had the "joy" of seeing them play together it hasn't exactly been a masterclass of striking partnerships.

A key game for us and Spurs. We have to finish in the top four and Spurs will be one of our main rivals in that race. Key for Spurs because, it would seem, they actually might have slim aspirations of winning the league but, more realistically, also want to finish top four. Spurs are playing very well, they play an attractive style of football that is very quick and in Modric and Parker they have a quality midfield duo with penetration from Lennon and (more expertly) via Bale, they have also added a really talented striker this year in Adebayor, they are a very real threat. There should be more space to exploit for us in this game than there was against Wigan so some of our flair players will probably enjoy this one more than the Wigan game, still though we have to play a whole lot better on Thursday than we did at the DW. I would go for (assuming these players are fit) Cech Ivanovic, Luiz, Terry, Cole Ramires, Romeu, Meireles Sturridge, Drogba, Mata In terms of predictions? Im not confident, maybe we might get a draw, hopefully we can grab a win but we will have to be at our best to do that.

Mate AVB has been playing the 4-3-3 since Porto and when he arrived at Chelsea, that is his system of choice and has been from day one. What has changed is that we don't press as high and as a result the line is a lot deeper than it was at the start of the season but that hasn't dictated a change in the actual formation.

Drogba, Malouda and Kalou. Who else is there to play? He started with Mata and Sturridge but Christmas is a busy period and you can't expect them to play every minute of every game, so if he does have to give those players a rest, who can he call on? Who else is there? Anelka is on his way out. Lukaku isn't ready and isn't a winger. Who else can he sub on except Malouda and Kalou? Those are his only options, that isn't his fault, that is the boards fault for not allowing any of our previous managers make significant and needed improvements to the squad and to be completely honest, with trigger happy fans like some of those on this topic who could blame the board when fans like ours are as disgruntled as they are. Im not in the locker room listening in on the team talk but Im guessing AVB's team talk for Man City was "Hey guys, lets help Man Utd tonight and then when we play Wigan we will shoot ourselves in the foot." That is just an assumption however.

It is pathetic and is it any wonder the media have a laugh when our own bloody fans call for the managers head after only a few months in charge while we are undergoing a transitional period at the club.

But Mata isn't as defensively responsible as Meireles (a player who has played DM for Portugal) or Lampard (a player who has played the vast majority of his career in a 4-3-3)

Why? Cos after we scored Wigan had a couple of attempts on our goal and looked threatening and neither Meireles or Lampard are that defensively secure so the decision to bring on Mikel was a logical one.

If you think so mate but given the service Drogba got (even when there was 4 defenders) and Torres's new found ability to fade into the background, I don't think it would have made a positive impact, imo.

You are forgetting that beneath Petr's helmet there is an aerial which picks up on signals sent via a a controller which Andre Villas-Boas works on the sidelines.

5 defenders, playing deep, and the least creative Chelsea performance of the season, I feel pretty safe saying it wouldn't have been pretty.

Im assuming the reasoning behind that is that Romeu is naturally a holding midfield player and perhaps AVN felt he wouldn't have been as comfortable playing in a midfield 2 which would have played higher up the pitch than he is used to, also taking off Romeu meant it was an easier and more natural switch once we went 1-0 up to bring on Mikel and create the midfield 3 again, whereas had Romeu stayed on then it likely would have been McEachran (our only other recognised central midfielder on the bench) to come on.

I don't think Didier did nothing, he was up against 3 centre backs on his own and some of his link up play was very clever and we did see one trademark Drogba move and header which narrowly missed. Obviously AVB wants to stick with him, and Torres will get his chance to justify himself as a Chelsea player come the ACON.

Sorry mate, we can do better.