Raul Meireles

[Blue Armour 4,168]

I think you are missing the point of squad depth, For Meirleles, Essien(add him to the list) Malouda, and Kalou to provide depth they need to be useful and contributes to a good result.

How did they do against Newcastle, Arsneal, and Liverpool when the likes of Mata,Mikel, Lampard, and Drogba were rested for FA and CL games?

poor result in all of those games, the point is to give good results when the better players are rested. That is squad depth and that is what what we need for next season.

In an ideal situation you wouldn't have to rest all your key players for a PL game. Priorities were different last season.

[Joker10 946]

So you're saying that our squad players should be good enough to beat the Arsenal and Newcastle's starting XI?? That's never going to happen. The situation that happened last year is very rare. We were going all out for two cups and had basically given up on the league. Normally, squad players are worked into the starting XI. Most teams don't have XI players they start every single week, they'll have about 15 players that they start regularly. You look at Man City, the team with the most depth in the Premier League last season, and they started 9 players for more than 30 games and and 6 for more than 20. ManU started 8 for 30 games and 5 more started more than 20 games.

You are not going to have world-class backups because A) they will be miserable being squad players nobody can afford that. Instead, you need a group of 15-20 players who can play regularly and cover all the positions. Chelsea, right now have Cech, Cole, Bertrand, Terry, Luiz, Cahill, Ivanovic, Mikel, Romeu, Lampard, Ramires, Meireles, Hazard, Mata, Malouda, Benayoun, Marin, Sturridge, Torres which is more than enough in terms of actual players who are of a decent quality. We don't have any proper cover for RB which is obviously a need.

Yes i expect to beat Arsenal when they were on poor form and beat Newcastle at home, while we were on top form.

We didn't give up on finishing in the top four, we prioritized FA and CL more but no way we gave up on the PL.

Very rare?

08/09 we were in the FA Cup final and CL semi-finals

09/10 Fighting for PL title in tough games and competing in the FA cup final.

Not rare at all, it is Roman and the club ambition to have a squad capable wining in every competition and be in that position.

4-5 years ago we had an amazing squad, where our 2nd tier were capable and looked like our first team. We have not had that in a while. We realized this and that is why we signed Hazard and most likely Hulk and possibly others.

The bolded part: I don't know what you are getting at and what is your point. You should look at the fact Johnson and Tevez are two of those players with less then 20 starts, and those players would easily walk into our starting squad(Hazard and our new signings are excluded). If Tevez was available mentally one of Balo or Dzeko would not start 20 games.

Depth is not about quantity, its about quality.

btw there is little chance yossi will be with the squad next season.

In an ideal situation you wouldn't have to rest all your key players for a PL game. Priorities were different last season.

Not every situation in the Pl is ideal, and all clubs face this. injuries and suspension are the causes.

My point is Essien, Malouda, and Kalou are not useful. Meireles is borderline.

[Blue Armour 4,168]

Not every situation in the Pl is ideal, and all clubs face this. injuries and suspension are the causes.

My point is Essien, Malouda, and Kalou are not useful. Meireles is borderline.

My point is, in a normal season no manager would group together so many out-of-form players in the starting 11. It applies to every squad.

Take 09-10 for example. Nearly every member of that squad was injured/unavailable at some point during the season. But when someone like Belletti had to come in, he had no problem getting into the groove because all the other players around him were in good form and playing at a high tempo. Carlo rarely had to rest more than 3 key players of his squad at a time.

This situation where you have Team A and Team B both playing at the same tempo, never occurs. And certainly no top team will field their weakest possible eleven in a league game unless they have suffered from a horrible bout of injuries. In THAT scenario, expect the worst

[TorontoChelsea 4,064]

Yes i expect to beat Arsenal when they were on poor form and beat Newcastle at home, while we were on top form.

We didn't give up on finishing in the top four, we prioritized FA and CL more but no way we gave up on the PL.

Very rare?

08/09 we were in the FA Cup final and CL semi-finals

09/10 Fighting for PL title in tough games and competing in the FA cup final.

Not rare at all, it is Roman and the club ambition to have a squad capable wining in every competition and be in that position.

4-5 years ago we had an amazing squad, where our 2nd tier were capable and looked like our first team. We have not had that in a while. We realized this and that is why we signed Hazard and most likely Hulk and possibly others.

The bolded part: I don't know what you are getting at and what is your point. You should look at the fact Johnson and Tevez are two of those players with less then 20 starts, and those players would easily walk into our starting squad(Hazard and our new signings are excluded). If Tevez was available mentally one of Balo or Dzeko would not start 20 games.

Depth is not about quantity, its about quality.

It's as if you want every sub to be a star and it's simply not going to happen. Malouda had a poor year but he's a regular for one of the best international sides in the world. He won player of the year in the French league in 2007.He led Chelsea in goals a season ago.And he was one of our worst platers. Kalou is very useful as a sub as he can score, play some defence, and has a great work rate. Meireles can play a number of positions and do a little of everything.2 years ago, he was starting for Portugal ahead of Moutinho. These players are all internationals and are all useful. They are all underrated because everyone watches a couple of games of another player or even worse a youtube compilation and falls in love with some player or other and thinks they are great and that if they came to Chelsea, they'd play like Messi or something . It doesn't work like that. Players are all flawed and they all have poor games. Mata was our player of the season this year and was pretty bad the last couple of months. He was basically useless against Barca. Peoples' expectations of constant dominance are just never going to be met by anyone.

Also, the seasons you mentioned were very different. This season was the only time we had given up on the league. Normally, players would be rotated in and out of the lineup but RDM chose to go all-or-nothing which led to weak lineups in league games. Yes, we did completely give up on the league after the Spurs game.We played 8 more matches. Mata started 3 of them. Cole started 2 of them. Lampard started 3 of them. Drogba started 1 of them. Yes, we need more talent to move forward and Chelsea are going in that direction, but people have to be realistic. You have to spend money wisely upgrading where it will make a big difference, not spending 25M pounds to get a better player who will start 15 games.

[Joker10 946]

It's as if you want every sub to be a star and it's simply not going to happen. Malouda had a poor year but he's a regular for one of the best international sides in the world. He won player of the year in the French league in 2007.He led Chelsea in goals a season ago.And he was one of our worst players.

I don't care what Malouda has done in the past, especially five years ago lol. I am rating the current player, he is not good enough and not useful. Most Chelsea fans realize this, and i don't see how it can be argued.

As him being a regular for France, that also means nothing. One he plays better for France and has quite done well for them as a CM, second France are not really loaded with attacking midfielders.

International selections are not always deserved. Malouda like others are living off past accomplishment and that he plays for Chelsea. He is not even the most shocking choice for France, how Evra is the starter for France is bewildering.

Cabaye only had 1-2 appearances for France before coming to the EPL and to Newcastle. Now he is a regular for them, he didn't become world class over a few short months. He isn't any better then he was playing for Lille, but certainly is getting more recognition playing in a better hyped league.

Kalou is very useful as a sub as he can score, play some defence, and has a great work rate. Meireles can play a number of positions and do a little of everything.2 years ago, he was starting for Portugal ahead of Moutinho.

Kalou is not the worst player neither is Malouda, but the point is they are not good enough for Chelsea standard. That is why Kalou is being let go, and if a club is stupid enough to take on Malouda wages then he is also off.

Meireles was ahead of Moutinho two years ago in Portougal setup. But that was two years ago, and the same time Moutinho completed a transfer for around 6m to Porto, now he is worth four times as much.

Was Meireles really that better then Moutinho two years ago? i don't think so, the fact Meireles played for Porto and more experienced helped his case. Moutinho was playing for a underachieving Sporting Lisbon.

I studied abroad at Lisbon when Moutinho was still there, watched him live on a number of occasions he was fantastic. He would have been a class signing two years ago. I have rated him for a while and wasn't surprised by the acclaim he got in his first year at Porto. He is much better then Meireles and ever was.

They are all underrated because everyone watches a couple of games of another player or even worse a youtube compilation and falls in love with some player or other and thinks they are great and that if they came to Chelsea, they'd play like Messi or something .It doesn't work like that. Players are all flawed and they all have poor games.

poor statement and complete untrue generalization. Never rated a player based on youtube, and many don't.

Also, the seasons you mentioned were very different. This season was the only time we had given up on the league. Normally, players would be rotated in and out of the lineup but RDM chose to go all-or-nothing which led to weak lineups in league games. Yes, we did completely give up on the league after the Spurs game.We played 8 more matches. Mata started 3 of them. Cole started 2 of them. Lampard started 3 of them. Drogba started 1 of them.

We didn't go all or nothing, we favored the FA and CL.

Mata, Drogba and Lampard were rested for our big games.

Torres actually made a good case to start, especially after his game against QPR.

Bertrand was quality enough and good enough to play and rest Cole. RDM has a lot of faith in him, and which is why he started in the CL final.

We didn't give up, still played some of our important players.

You have to spend money wisely upgrading where it will make a big difference, not spending 25M pounds to get a better player who will start 15 games.

no one has suggested that though.

I have to be honest you are one of the worst posters i have dealt with. Completely all over the place with your argument. Some of your argument and logic is really baffling. Like in the Hulk thread how you tried to point out how poor the Portugal league is because of the lack of International Goalkeepers.

I think i will take a break from this forum for a while.

[Tomo 21,681]

@Joker10 we practically changed our whole team in the Arsenal and Newcastle matches, Meireles didn't even play the Arsenal match because he was being rested for Barca. United struggle when they change their entire starting Xl around, case in point the CL group stage exit and their defeat to Palace.

Squad players like Meireles are crucial, one's that won't complain being on the bench and will do the job when called upon.

[Kieran. 6,317]

We sign Modric instead of Meireles and I'm pretty sure we don't win the Champions League.

Of course Modric is 100x the player Meireles is and we would have been playing much better football. Even AVB might still be around. But, if we had reached the semifinals and played Barca, do you think Modric could have done what Meireles did? Doubt it.

All speculative, but thank God Levy's a cunt! Thanks, Daniel!

[DYC. 7,542]

Raul's having good tournament, keep it up.

[nadavTKL 1,787]

great game from him! created all of Portugal's big chances except the goal.

[Kojo 4,676]

Wtf, this "Raul should leave and Josh should get his place" thing is so fucking stupid.

People want to see RDM use Josh, who struggled for game time at SWANSEA and is no where near ready to play, instead of a fully established Portuguese international who turned in some good performances for us, proven in the Portuguese and English league and has plenty of experience? What have you lot been smoking.

See if Josh was ready, he would of played. Look at Sturridge, he went to Bolton, showed he was ready to offer something to the team, came back and PLAYED. Rant over.

Your logic is ignorant on so many levels. Josh can still play a few games of football just like Raul will play if he stays here. Josh didn't get a game at Swansea because physically he wasn't up for it, where at Chelsea he wont have to worry about getting pushed off the ball as much as there's so many quality players around him. He still has a childs body but he can play the amount of games Meireles can play next season and i bet he can do it even better.

[Jase 43,479]

Quite impressed with Meireles today. Had a good game. Made quite a number of lovely passes into the attacking third and he created 4 chances today, more than any other players on the field.

[BlueLion. 21,491]

Same old Raul as far as I'm concerned - some brilliant, incisive passing at the same time as some ridiculously sloppy ones! But he is an entertaining player to watch when in an advanced role.

[CHOULO19 24,332]

Same old Raul as far as I'm concerned - some brilliant, incisive passing at the same time as some ridiculously sloppy ones! But he is an entertaining player to watch when in an advanced role.

Could it be that he lacks concentration at times? I mean the man has showed that he has excellent passing skills yet often makes passes that make me wonder why he is on the pitch. Perhaps that's why he was so excellent against Barca, because he was obviously concentrated for the whole 180 mins.

[The Big Drog 1,110]

Could it be that he lacks concentration at times? I mean the man has showed that he has excellent passing skills yet often makes passes that make me wonder why he is on the pitch. Perhaps that's why he was so excellent against Barca, because he was obviously concentrated for the whole 180 mins.

I think the Barcelona game just played to his strengths, hard work and defensive positioning. He barely had the ball over the two legs so his sometimes head scratching passes never became an issue.

[CHOULO19 24,332]

I think the Barcelona game just played to his strengths, hard work and defensive positioning. He barely had the ball over the two legs so his sometimes head scratching passes never became an issue.

True, but if I remember correctly, he had the most successful passes among our boys which was something like 20 over the two legs

[The Big Drog 1,110]

True, but if I remember correctly, he had the most successful passes among our boys which was something like 20 over the two legs

Ye I think he did have the most successful passes over two legs, though ass you say, 20 passes isn't a real tester of his passing ability. He played brilliantly against Barcelona, he occupied the space well, he never broke ranks and he hustled and harried their midfielders when he needed to. He is a real grafter and he gives it his all, you cant fault his effort, Im not his biggest fan and I dont think he should be a starter but he is a very useful squad player.

[CHOULO19 24,332]

Here is an article from Carefree Chronicles about his performance yesterday that I found was excellent (as usual):

http://www.carefreechronicles.com/2012/06/snap-shots-of-raul-meireles-vs-czech.html

[Gary Reid 25]

I have to agree with the previous posters about his work rate and effort, he does put a hell of a shift in. I'd also have to agree with the criticism of alot of his passing and what appears to be a lack of concentration.

I don't want to love the guy but somehow I do. It's probably because none of us has ever shouted at him to shoot from a decent position outside of the box, we already know he will, same with Essien. Do you know what I mean? If you can imagine a scenario when Torres or Kalou cut the ball back onto thier other foot in a good shooting position and the chance goes begging and you say "he should have squeezed of a shot there"......we've never had the opportunity to say it about Meireles. Usually because the ball is sailing 10 feet over the bar by the time we've thought of the whole sentence, but still he never thinks twice about taking a shooting opportunity on.