What should be our defence against Manchester City?

[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.

[CHOULO19 24,332]

Going with the Napoli set up?

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

Well it worked for them But I think we'll need a Cavani as well!

[Amblève. 4,995]

Bosingwa - Ivanovic - Terry - Cole

Ramires is going to play very defensively to cover Bos' position every time Bos is going forward... imo that's the only way not to get raped by Shitty's offense

[Kojo 4,676]

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.

Bastard!, it's going to be a very difficult game then.

[Ollie 4,400]

It can only really be Bosingwa - Ivanovic - Terry - Cole tbh.

[Bosnian Blue 2,471]

It's important to mark the opponents tightly especially in midfield, we mustn't allow them to have a lot of space and everybody in our team will have to work hard. Also our finishing has to be clinical. Every chance we get we need to score. :blue scalf:

[Fulham Broadway 17,306]

As tight as a nuns snatch