The Big Drog

This is the biggest European game we have played in years (probably since our semi final second leg against Barcelona). Valencia are a very good side, they rested some of their key players at the weekend and do pose a very serious threat. The worry is that with their attacking nature and the amount of talent they have in their team, combined with our defensive instability, you can't help but see Valencia score at least once. I just can't see this ending 0-0 and a score draw means we are out. We have to be at our absolute best to beat this Valencia team. Cech Ivanovic, Luiz, Terry, Cole Ramires, Romeu, Meireles Sturridge, Drogba, Mata Luckily our front 3 are in good form, Romeu hopefully will get the nod ahead of Mikel and Meireles or Lampard will be a tough call but its important that when we get possession of the ball we keep it and Meireles does that better than Lampard. I will be optimistic and say 2-1 but I do have a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach that this could be one of those nightmare European nights.

The main thing is to either get a quality starting left winger which would allow us to move Mata into a central position or buy a CAM with Mata staying in his current position. A centre back is also pretty important. Though we have to remember it is January, the heavy duty squad rebuilding should be done in the Summer. I would be more than content with just a winger/CAM and a centre back.

Mikel, Hilario and Malouda and maybe Ferreira too and suddenly things wont look so bad.

Pretty impressive display all in all. Still needs a bit of polishing but 3-0 away at Newcastle is a great result in anyone's books. Terry, Cole, Romeu, Sturridge, Drogba and Mata all the star performers. Just a few notes. Cech looked much better than he has recently and made a couple of crucial saves. Imagine how dangerous we would be if we had a right back who could cross the ball. Romeu is what we have been missing, given his age, price tag and limited top level experience I really didn't expect him to play much of a role this season, maybe something akin to McEachran (the odd game or sub appearance here and there) but he is quickly establishing himself as the first choice holding midfielder. I genuinely believe he is the most natural holding midfield player we have had since Makelele, he is wonderful in possession, he is very strong in the tackle and very mobile, AVB should get a lot of credit for finding, buying and playing this lad. I think that was Sturridge's most complete performance in a Chelsea shirt. A constant danger, very confident, very skilful and very quick and what I liked most about the performance was that usually he checks back inside on his left foot and full backs know its coming but several times he went on the outside with his less favoured right foot, it really gave Taylor a big problem, hopefully he continues with that because it gives him a whole other dimension. Mata is terrific, but you already know that. Sometimes I go to bed and I thank God for Didier Drogba, probably past his prime but even a Drogba past his prime is better than most other strikers on the planet. Incredible, vintage Drogba header for the goal, a fantastic focal point throughout and a never ending danger to the Newcastle defence. AVB made the right call in picking the great man. While Drogba's performance oozed confidence and class, Torres came on and looks depleted. A prime Torres would have easily raced past the defenders and side footed it into the far corner, our Torres ran as fas as he could after the ball, clumsily checked back and almost lost the ball but had a bit of luck in keeping possession and played the pass sideways, even though it was an assist it was still an indication of just how far he is from what he used to be.

Does that matter? He scored a somewhat lucky goal after coming on as a sub. His general play has never been good enough for the standard we require and his ability to frustrate is legendary. Good riddance, we can do much better.

I stuck to voting players I've seen play in my lifetime. Petrescu for right back, Carvalho for centre back and Cole for left back. I really miss Riccy, I've never seen a better defender than Carvalho when he was in his prime.

Excuse me, I forgot that stats are the be all and end all of football. Luckily I have eyes, I've seen each of them play this season and anyone with eyes will be able to tell you that Drogba in his last 3 games has been better than anything Torres has mustered this season but you can't measure that gulf in class purely by stats.

I guess that's the end of both. Shame about Nico, always liked him and the way he plays but it is probably the right thing with the future of the squad in mind, Alex has been dreadful and isn't a great loss, however I don;t rate Gary Cahill at all, surely we can do better than a generic English style centre back.

Yes he has. His performance against Liverpool was good and he was amongst the best of a bad lot. His performance against Leverkusen was close to vintage Drogba, he was easily our best player on the night and his performance against Wolves was understated but impressive. Check the Leverkusen game, still nobody makes a ball stick up front quite like Drogba does, at any given time we can play it long, let Didier hold it up and bring others into play and build the attack from there. Luckily Didier has (and has always had) a lot more to his game than goals, unfortunately Torres doesn't. Also luckily his integrity and professional attitude is exemplary, he is a leader on the pitch and judging by his performances so far, his future hasn't had any kind of impact on his performance. No, nobody needs to see Kalou again.

Should be a wonderful tournament. Understandably we will be the underdogs in our group but that's fine and I think there is a chance (though a very slim one) we might surprise a few people. That being said, Spain, Croatia and Italy are all far superior football sides to us, our only chance against them is negative football and hope we catch them on an off day. Elsewhere group B is the group of death, Portugal and Denmark are both very good sides but Germany and the Netherlands are on a different level to both and both should qualify, I expect Germany to top the group (and win the tournament) having torn the Netherlands apart in a friendly not so long ago. Group D is a tough one to call. France are a bit inconsistent but Id expect their class to shine through against England and for them to qualify top, England probably second. Group A is weak, Russia should qualify and its a toss up between the other 3 for 2nd place.

It's not as if we haven't tried playing him, we have, it hasn't worked. Do we know that the potential is there? How long has this dip in form been going on? At what stage do we accept that this isn't a dip in form and that he is past his prime? Drogba is probably past his prime too but a past his prime Drogba is still a hell of a lot better than Torres, Drogba's performance against Leverkusen was better than any Torres has played in a Chelsea jersey. No we spent that money expecting him to be first choice, its a testament to how bad Torres has been that Drogba has gotten this run of games and fair play to Didier, he has played well enough to retain his place and I expect him to do so again tomorrow.

Good idea Martin, now just jump into your time travel machine and skip to a time when Mourinho was our manager and Terry, Lampard and Drogba were all in their primes, all hail Martin Lipton, saviour of Chelsea!

Incredible young talent, the latest off the German production line but definitely a player I see ending up in Spain and rightly so, he has the talent to play for either Real Madrid or Barcelona.

The man was hired because he isn't a trouble maker in public of behind the scenes (basically a yes man), because he had previous experience working under a similar owner to ours and because he got the best out of an old Milan side, he was hired to get the best out of an old Chelsea side. The man was the very definition of status quo.

It's not as if we haven't tried it. We have, we have tried them both up front in a diamond, we established that the diamond doesn't work. We have tried it in a 4-4-2, that didn't work and it would mean playing Mata deeper and wider and Sturridge deeper too (which he doesn't like) and Lampard doesn't operate well in a 2 man midfield. We have tried it with 1 of them playing out on the wing, that didn't work either. On paper it's great, it was a fantasy strike partnership that we found out the hard way doesn't work in reality, a shame but that is just being realistic, leave Mata and Sturridge where they are, we don't have the midfielders to play a 2 man midfield so don't, just play Didier as the lone striker and lets try to win the game.

Sorry lads but in a crucial week like this, during these next 3 games (all of which are key) now isn't the time to try the Torres/Drogba partnership again.

Really? You could win a treble at Porto? Really? Nevermind the tough obstacles AVB had to overcome having never been a professional player, or the sterling work he did under Mourinho, or how he he did well at Academia to earn the right to manage Porto, to be the manager of Porto at his age with his non existent past as a pro player warrants a lot of respect, to have won 4 trophies in his first season deserves a lot more.

I don't agree Tomo, even with Iniesta, Silva and Xavi supplying him he hasn't done the business for Spain either. It's looking more and more like the injuries have taken their toll and he his prime already. It's a really bizzare situation, when we signed him I thought we were getting Drogba's long term replacement and only a year later there are calls from us for him to be sold. I don't think the club will sell him because of how much we paid for him, because he is only a year in, because they will hope that once AVB gets his structure in place it will benefit Torres and they will hope against hope that he comes good. I think the club need to make a tough decision, whether to stick with him, start him once Drogba is sold and build the team around him and pray it works or cut our losses as soon as possible and sell him, the longer we hold off selling him the less money he will be worth, it's as simple as that.

Im realistically hoping for. Cech Ivanovic, Luiz, Terry, Cole Ramires, Romeu, Meireles Sturridge, Drogba, Mata It's a tough game to call, Newcastle will be confident having gotten a draw at OT and our form is pretty awful lately, Im hoping for a win, wouldn't be too surprised with a draw.

I agree, her comments are disgraceful and hopefully the law deals with her. However when you say "poor kid" you should consider that not only is it possible but rather it is probable that she herself as a kid would have been thought such racist morals by her parents and she would have been thought of as a "poor kid" today's "poor kids" are tomorrows "stupid racist whore"

I dunno Phil, I think you might be on the wrong forum.

Depressing. That first goal that we conceded really worries me, look at the amount of time and space Henderson has to pick his pass to Bellamy, if we are going to play a high line (as was the case for the goal) then there must be pressure on the ball at all times, Henderson has the freedom of Stamford Bridge to make his pass and from there its an elementary goal, it all comes from a lack of pressure on the ball. Also really seem to struggle to defend those whipped in free kicks that the second goal game from, surely someone should have pinpointed that by now and worked on it. Can every past, present and future Chelsea manager accept that the diamond doesn't work for us. Tonight was another example of the deadweight in the squad, Malouda was anonymous, Alex was a mistake waiting to happen (and it did) and Nic Anelka has lost total conviction in 1 on 1 situations. Shame that Josh picked up an injury but it doesn't matter because the Carling Cup is over so he wouldn't be playing anyway. Worst of all was Torres. This will surely rank as one of his worst Chelsea performances, next to anonymous. At the other end, the other mega money January deal, Andy Carroll, might have missed a penalty (a really poor penalty at that) but his general play was very good, he led the line well and was always a threat and a focal point for his teammates to play off of, in complete contrast our more expensive centre forward exhibited all of the threat of a rather lost looking puppy dog, alongside him Lukaku didn't seem on top of his game either but he looked significantly better than Torres. Had we not recently bought him for 50 million I would have included him in the deadweight section, this was the most depressing aspect of the game. Looking for positives, Romeu was easily our best player on the night, Ramires looked lively when he came on and my hatred of Phil Dowd continues to rise.

That is and always has been the key difference between the two players. Torres needs service, Drogba can create something for himself from nothing. I've always rated Drogba higher and even at 33 he still looks like a better player than Torres.

I was more than ready to accept Torres as the main man at Chelsea, I was over the moon when we signed him, my comments on here at the time were typed while I was almost hysteric with joy. However it hasn't happened, tonight's performance was one of his worst ever in a Chelsea jersey, after taking a few steps forward this season it looks like he is going backwards again in the last few games he has played in. Drogba is my all time favourite player but that doesn't make me blind to what we need, we need a new main striker because at 33 (and in the final year of his contract) we can't keep relying on Didier, chances are this will be the last rut Drogba will get us out of before leaving this Summer, I hope we sign an adequate replacement.

I don't like to cascade other Chelsea fans but I genuinely found that post to be rather disgusting and that isn't something I've ever said about any post I've ever seen on this forum. Yes it is Torres' poor form that has allowed Drogba to get a chance to reclaim the main striker role but credit to Drogba for taking that chance. Drogba has shown us nothing but respect during his time at the club. Let's not forget that Didier was the hottest young (well somewhat) striker in Europe at the time he joined Chelsea, he has had ample opportunity to move to other big clubs but he has remained at our club, all of the while showing nothing but appreciation to our fans, he has been the focal point of the greatest team in our club's history, world class performance after world class performance and he will rightly be remembered as one of our all time greatest players, does he boss other players around? Damn right he does and he has earned the right to do that as one of the senior players in the squad, does he have his controversial moments, sure he does but then all great players do and make no mistake about it, Didier Drogba has been a truly great player for Chelsea. What more do they want? At 33 (?) he is still the bloody main striker at Chelsea, ahead of the shiny new 50 million pound megastar, he played well against Liverpool and his performance against Leverkusen was close to a one man show, he was one of the few Chelsea players who could walk off the pitch that night with his head held high and he followed that up with another very good performance against Wolves, I would say its complaining for complaining's sake but that isn't true it's simply that you would rather see Torres start ahead of him. I also don't think Didier was as below average as you would think in his first two seasons and that difference between Drogba then and Torres now are quite different. Honestly the way some people talk it's as if Torres has only started a handful of games at the club, that isn't the case, we have played him, we will keep giving him chances but its getting beyond a bit ridiculous, he hasn't done it for us, we need wins, we have a crucial game against Valencia on the way and we are trying to stay in the top 4 in the league, we need to win games and that is why Drogba is being picked ahead of Torres, because AVB feels we have a better chance of winning games with Drogba leading the line ahead of Torres. Honestly I find it sad at just how quickly people forget a legend like Drogba's contribution to our team when a bright new thing arrives, very sad indeed.