What should be our defence against Manchester City?

[robdog 2,084]

Everyone knows it will be Bosingwa - Ivanovic - Terry - Cole, why are we even discussing it?

Cause Tomo started it

[Wilson 358]

Ivan Luiz Terry Cole. Simple. Just don't play Mikel, we will be fine.

[Sheva. 5,373]

Ivan Luiz Terry Cole. Simple. Just don't play Mikel, we will be fine.

Luiz is suspended, that's the point of the thread lol.

[teignman 441]

Prayer, or if you're not into that, positive thinking.

[tnchelsea 79]

I'm going to try and be different and implement a 3 man defence.

With Romeu playing deep to protect the back three, with Cole and Bosingwa able to track back when needed.

[5354 204]

Bosingwa will be fine if he stops attacking on the right flank. He should just sit deep and hold the defensive line.

[Hysteria 159]

Ivanovic - Alex - Terry - Cole maybe? I dont know, i dont want see Bos...

[Stamford Heart 16]

I would rather Paulo Ferreira start's instead of Bossy if it came down to it.

If the last couple of years are anything to go by Paulo will either have a stormer and help win us the match (Old Trafford April 2010) or have a complete shocker (White Hart Lane April 2010, Emirates December 2010) but atleast we could have a great match from Paulo with Bossy we wont.

Bosingwa is an idiot , we all know that , a Chelsea fan who sets on his seat is doing better than him .

I say playing with 10 players its gonna work more than with 11 icluding Bosingwa .

So I mean if its gonna be Paulo thats great , if its gonna be bosingwa !! plzz AVB play without an RB .

[YouNameIt 1,511]

I'm going to try and be different and implement a 3 man defence.

With Romeu playing deep to protect the back three, with Cole and Bosingwa able to track back when needed.

3man defense? against city? HAHAH are u absolutley NUTS? They will tear us down

Hm, did Cole ever try a CB position? Maybe;:

bertrand - Cole - Terry - iva ?

[Kojo 4,676]

Ivanovic-Luiz-Terry-Cole

This should be our line up.

To be honest this is going to be the most scary game of the season, i fear for the worst. Unfortuantely i can see a really hard beating, City are just invincible and we still have problems defensivly, Boas like in the newcastle mtach, quit this highdefence line, and keep it like that, we played like it in the Newcastle match and were no where near as bad as we have been defensivly in past games.

[St Abramovich 175]

3man defense? against city? HAHAH are u absolutley NUTS? They will tear us down Hm, did Cole ever try a CB position? Maybe;: bertrand - Cole - Terry - iva ?

Cole will get dominated aerially, Balotelli, Dzeko, Toure. It would be a nightmare.

[Naked Mole Rat 437]

-------------Drogba-----Sturridge

----

Malouda-Lampard---Meireles---Ramires

----

Cole------Terry---------Ivanovic---Bosingwa

---------------------Cech

We should get our wingers to help out the full backs for this match.

[didierforever 7,349]

iva - alex - terry - cole

nothin absolutely except for these 4. and luiz bein suspended is nothin short of a boon. he would definitely have been red carded against city.

[Madmax 9,219]

It's more a case of philosophy than personnel. Liverpool showed us the blueprint of how to cope with City's threats.

1. Absolute focus on hurrying the man in possession by constant closing down, to force them into making mistakes in their passing and upsetting the circulation of the ball.

2. Defending as a unit. The thing with pressing is that the enitre team needs to be synchronised and unified in effort, it's no good for one or two players to apply pressure on the ball while the others neglect their duty.

3. Defending from the front. The forwards need to be the first ones to initiate closing down. Often we see that our strikeforce don't close down too much and opposing fullbacks can slot cross field passes over and in behind the high defence.

4. Pace on the counter. Extremely important to play Sturridge, Meireles and Ramires in this one. Think Lampard should sit out.

[5354 204]

If we are going to constantly press, than Drogba/Lampard have to sit out since they don't have the speed to press.

Its gonna be so tough on Ramires especially I think he started for almost every game of Chelsea?

[CHOULO19 24,332]

Ivanovic-Luiz-Terry-Cole

This should be our line up.

To be honest this is going to be the most scary game of the season, i fear for the worst. Unfortuantely i can see a really hard beating, City are just invincible and we still have problems defensivly, Boas like in the newcastle mtach, quit this highdefence line, and keep it like that, we played like it in the Newcastle match and were no where near as bad as we have been defensivly in past games.

Luiz is suspended, which is most worrying. I'd just swap him with Alex for this one game because I feel we need consistency at the back. But I have a feeling AVB is going to pull some unexpected formation or team selection. 5-3-2 does not look too bad against city.

[CHOULO19 24,332]

This does not seem too hazardous:

Of course Bos and mata will have to track back. I used mikel because I think we need to slow down the tempo in this game, we could also use his long balls as well.

[LDN Blue 7,903]

This does not seem too hazardous:

Of course Bos and mata will have to track back. I used mikel because I think we need to slow down the tempo in this game, we could also use his long balls as well.

Going with the Napoli set up?

Could work, if we had someone as gifted as Maggio.