Chelsea 2-1 West Brom

[toddandrewblue 19]

The way the squad looks, it needs to be around 50% different for the remainder of the season to have a good year. Sturridge starting when he's off suspension, Luiz starting when he's back, Ivanovic starting, Josh starting, Yossi starting, Torres to consistently get a full 90, and Lampard firmly on the bench to play an important role late in games. Any other new additions we make need to PLAY not watch or go out on loan. Perennial starters need to earn their minutes, and the youngsters need to prove their worth. We couldn't have looked any worse with our young players in today than we did most of the game today. I feel like Roman is pulling the game-day strings, not AVB and his staff. This can't lead to success, just more mediocre play and continued malaise among the squad.

[warnie_666 1,081]

Götze is not a winger but a central attacking midfielder and he is not "explosive", Neymar plays the Messi position (second striker, not a pure winger).

Bit Ironic when you said that I have no clue about football.

Neymar plays on the left wing and cuts inside, while Messi plays on the Right wing and cut inside and has license to move around. Barcelona dont play 4-4-2 or 4-4-1-1 for Messi to play as second striker. Same with Santos.

Gotze plays on the Right of the front three. He played there for Germany when he scored the goal few days back. He also can play centrally as an attacking midfielder just like Malouda can play centrally as No.8 and so can Mata and Nasri., Stop referring to Wiki...

[manpe 10,861]

Bit Ironic when you said that I have no clue about football.

Neymar plays on the left win and cuts inside, while Messi plays on the Right wing and cut inside and has license to move around. Barcelona dont play 4-4-2 or 4-1-1 for Messi to play as second striker. Same with Santos.

Gotze plays on the Right of the front three. He played there for Germany when he scored the goal few days back. He also can play centrally as an attacking midfielder just like Malouda can play centrally as No.8 and so can Mata., Stop referring to Wiki...

I actually have watched a few games with them and I don't consider them pure wingers. Yes Neymar plays on the left fairly similarly to as how Messi plays on the right and Götze has license to move pretty much anywhere in attacking third. I agree with the other names you mentioned, I'm just not as sure with those 2... despite that both of them would benefit us greatly even if they are or are not PURE wingers. It's a question on how limited or how free their instructions are... Messi starts his play on the right but will very often move in central position, that's why I consider him an all-round forward just like Neymar. But we clearly aren't getting any of those players so it's a pointless discussion lol I do feel Mata would fit in our team perfectly, whenever I've seen him play I've never had the feeling that he's a snail-paced wanker (a sub-position of a winger ) like certain members of our current team

[warnie_666 1,081]

I actually have watched a few games with them and I don't consider them pure wingers. Yes Neymar plays on the left fairly similarly to as how Messi plays on the right and Götze has license to move pretty much anywhere in attacking third. I agree with the other names you mentioned, I'm just not as sure with those 2... despite that both of them would benefit us greatly even if they are or are not PURE wingers. It's a question on how limited or how free their instructions are... Messi starts his play on the right but will very often move in central position, that's why I consider him an all-round forward just like Neymar. But we clearly aren't getting any of those players so it's a pointless discussion lol I do feel Mata would fit in our team perfectly, whenever I've seen him play I've never had the feeling that he's a snail-paced wanker (a sub-position of a winger ) like certain members of our current team

Hence I gave you the two types of Wingers,

The likes, of Robben, Messi, Neymar, Ronaldo, Hazard, Turan, Gotze, Sturridge, Nani they all start on the wings. but then cut in. Why? cus they are direct and can take on the defenders. Malouda, Mata, Valencia, Downing, Young are pure wingers, their game is not suited to cut in cus they are not direct. They rely more on passes and link up play. Hence I said, we need a similar player like Sturridge who can take on a defender from the left wing and cut in side. Mata is not the type who will dribble past that defender, his style is similar to Malouda's

[manpe 10,861]

Hence I gave you the two types of Wingers,

The likes, of Robben, Messi, Neymar, Ronaldo, Hazard, Turan, Gotze, Sturridge, Nani they all start on the wings. but then cut in. Why? cus they are direct and can take on the defenders. Malouda, Mata, Valencia, Downing, Young are pure wingers, their game is not suited to cut in cus they are not direct. They rely more on passes and link up play. Hence I said, we need a similar player like Sturridge who can take on a defender from the left wing and cut in side. Mata is not the type who will dribble past that defender, his style is similar to Malouda's

Ok, fair enough... it's because he's a left-footed left winger, these type of wingers don't look to cut inside but rather cross and make play happen for others from their side. I feel that having an inside-cutting winger in form of Sturridge and a pure winger in form of Mata will give the team more dimensions on flanks, than rather just cutting inside or beating a man and crossing with a weaker foot. Malouda type of player isn't bad in itself, but he's just past his peak and slowly diminishing in pace and skill...

[Rambo 1,729]

I am not sure I would give DD-7

Sorry, even with my Drogba bias he deserved no more than a 5. Didn't get much touches on the ball but he looked slow today. AVB needs to give him 90 minutes for match fitness, but with the way Torres is looking these days I don't blame him.

[Ray. 217]

Ok it wasn't the best of the matches for us, but was there really any need for booing at half time? Shame on anyone that did

Pluses from the match were obviously the goals from Nico and Flo. I thought after I had heard yesterday that Cech would be out for 2 to 4 weeks I was concerned first of all. Shit what are we going to do, no Cech? In the short term seeing Hilario in action today and bearing in mind his performance during pre-season, and looking at the opposition leading up to our trip to Old Trafford I'm not too concerned. Hopefully Petr will be fully back in action by te time we make that visit.

It's only week 2 of the season, KTF

[Badboy 1,526]

Mata can see a pass though and that is what we need but then we play a 4-3-3 so were will he play because he cant play in the middle. We are crying out for Modric, then we need someone with direct dribbling and electric pace. I think we should also sign Elia from hamburg he is a fantastic dribbler and he has ultra pace down the wing, he is similar to Marc Overmars.

[Blue Armour 4,300]

ugh...watching the city and utd fans clap each other on the back,in another forum claiming a manchester top 2 this season is disgusting...like a gay porn movie or something

[magic weeds 446]

I agree. If it was a tactical sub I would understand, like replacing a DM for a striker, but it wasnt. Actually I think VB is a little lost in this first games. Replacing Torres for Didier also did not made any sense, and did not see the point of replacing Alex for Ivanovic.

HI Henrique, its been a while havent seen you around.

I think bringing ON Ivanovic brought some much needed urgency to the game than whn Alex is playing. He is a solid defender but sometimes he's just too slow. I was reading somewhere that according to AVB, there should be a defender that has to take the initiative to bring the ball out of the defence and move it to the mid. Alex rarely did that. he either passed it to Terry or the Hilario. You can see Iva's ball to DD. Anyway thats just my thought.

[Tortilla9 390]

It is official, hell has frozen over.

@johncrossmirror Torres subbed but thought he had decent game. There. I said it. #CFC's best quality right now is their spirit. WBA unlucky to be pointless.

[tnchelsea 79]

My impression of the game.

First Half:

Chelsea started really slow in terms of attacking. The midfielders in Lampard, Ramires, and Mikel were not feeding strikers the ball. Kalou had a terrible game, no interaction with anyone except for a couple of creative passes, other than that, useless. Alex, I must admit did not have a great game, however he slightly picked it up after the second half. Torres had an Okay game, the midfielders in Lampard and Ramires did not feed him the ball as often, no through balls, no nothing, really dissapointed in our midfielders.

Second Half:

Second Half Chelsea picked it up and built up the momentum they didn't have in the first half. Bosingwa in my opinion was Chelsea's Man of the Match, he played like a winger, feeding the ball where possible and dribbled well. However, some of his passes were to no man's land. Now at the 66th minute, I felt that AVB should have subbed in Benayoun for Ramires or Lampard instead of subbing in Ivanovic for Alex. At this point it was 1-1, I felt that we needed the creativeness of Benayoun to play and hold the ball and feed the strikers.

All in all I felt that Chelsea played below par, we were lucky to get a win.

[diskoviolente 425]

Our manager is a young lad and just has his first run outs in the premier league with a team that isn´t known for making it easy on themselves or the supporters.

It is not AVBs team and it is not what it used to be.

Two games in, obviously a nervy start but still not the worst of starts.

Have a look at Arsenal.

I think AVB will gather a lot of experience of todays game and hopefully adjust the squad (drop Lampard e.g.)

[tnchelsea 79]

Our manager is a young lad and just has his first run outs in the premier league with a team that isn´t known for making it easy on themselves or the supporters.

It is not AVBs team and it is not what it used to be.

Two games in, obviously a nervy start but still not the worst of starts.

Have a look at Arsenal.

I think AVB will gather a lot of experience of todays game and hopefully adjust the squad (drop Lampard e.g.)

I honestly think Lampard should not be in the starting XI, he is indeed a legend of Chelsea, however he needs to make room for McEachran etc.

[dodojojo 510]

Said it during the game and still feel the same way, AVB made his own troubles today with his starting line-up. Give him credit, he managed to right the situation by the end of it but the team selection for the first two games has been disappointing.

Everyone saw how awful Kalou was last week and he starts again? And he managed to be even worse this game than last. How is that possible? But because the early subbing of him, it screwed up the subbing plan for the rest of the game and hence Drogba on for Torres when the #9 was actually performing better than some out there.

[LDN Blue 7,903]

Said it during the game and still feel the same way, AVB made his own troubles today with his starting line-up. Give him credit, he managed to right the situation by the end of it but the team selection for the first two games has been disappointing.

Everyone saw how awful Kalou was last week and he starts again? And he managed to be even worse this game than last. How is that possible? But because the early subbing of him, it screwed up the subbing plan for the rest of the game and hence Drogba on for Torres when the #9 was actually performing better than some out there.

100% agree.

Torres deserved 90minutes today, was really looking hungry and could've scored. I just hope Villas-Boas knows now!

[Tortilla9 390]

I love Fernando Torres and I'll defend him to the bitter end whatever that is because I don't think he turned to sh*t overnight or just because he joined Chelsea. He knows that he is measured by goals, bottom line, and he wants to score. I want him to score and I think everybody else does too except maybe DF. That's why it makes me shake my head watching him play wide or play deep to get involved when he is a striker. Not saying he should never do those things but somebody, anybody look for one of his runs and feed him the damn ball early once a half. Is that too much to ask?

[dodojojo 510]

but somebody, anybody look for one of his runs and feed him the damn ball early once a half. Is that too much to ask?

Judging by the first two games? Yes.

Stop asking for so much.

My favorites are the ones where he's living dangerously on the offside line, waiting, waiting, waiting for the pass, all tension ready to make a run...looking at his teammate, giving every hint possible he would like the ball and 19 seconds later the pass is made and all I can think of is why doesn't XYZ just make the pass earlier? Because the delay totally negates Torres' ability get behind the ball. Instead he's quickly surrounded and hence the dribbling.