Closed MLS All-Stars Vs Chelsea

[The Rising Sun 709]

Just finshed the game....

Here are my views:

- Lukaku needs to go out on loan, as everyone can see he has potential to become unbeatable, however ATM his touch and movement are really bad.... god knows what he learnt in the last 12 months of training.

- Ramires can simply not be considered to play as RW next season. We need a natural winger with technical ability and an eye for the right pass.

- Marin should learn to pass when he is around the box. He does most things right, then tries to go solo, and even if he decides to pass, he is too late as then he is surrounded by players. Maybe playing him on the right would allow him to cut outwards and send in quality crosses? something RDM should try out.

- Lampard-Marin one-twos and combos were looking good today. Something for the future.

- Didnt see anything special or standout from Hazard today. Its the first match of his ive seen. He didnt make much of an effort and that is NOT OK. I hope RDM lets him know he isnt at a 5 star resort. If he does usually make more of an effort and this was a bogey match then thats fine.

- Cole is still one of the best LB in the world.

- Benayoun does not fit into our team

- Terry Cahill looked good.

Overall, even for Pre-season, and the fact that we were playing against an All star team that are in Peak Fitness....... Our play was not structured and did not have a direction or indication of what we were trying. If there was something specific RDM was trying, i couldnt see it. Our game was too messy and looked like alot of Individuals thrown together, which is ironic , as the All star team should have looked like that, but instead we looked a bit lost.

Looking Forward to see us in competetive action and see what we actually are like next season. I am worried but also quitely confident.

[Melanicus 5,208]

Marin is so fucking predictable. He runs down the wing then goes in box, dribbles, places box on his right foot and shots.

[termninja 5,290]

Just watched the game...caused too much boredom in me right now to write my impressions...

Slow, clumsy, predictable...a true preseason game. I hope we improve against Milan. We worked the ball well, but when we came close to the box, what we tried either failed or wasnt the best option. MLS looked much sharper, but they are in much better phyisical shape anyway...

Oh and we should've had a penalty that would've won us the game, instead we lost it.

[Muzchap 8,966]

Chill - its a pre-season friendly...

Adding players does not immediately equate to success - this is REAL life - not FIFA or FM.

They will need to learn to 'gell' and understand what runs their team-mates are making, where tey want the ball etc.

It might take us 'lots' of games to hit our true potential, but this is definitely our squad for the future....

[Hutcho 8,443]

Whatever mate, call me a troll but at least i can produce a good fucking argument. Never seen you produce one, i couldn't breathe in your England debate i had with you during the EURO's, some of the stuff you where saying, you could've killed me.

But please do ignore me, it would mean a lot to me.

your arguments are all without evidence and you think trying to be aggressive is the way to win everything, i.e. your various statements on the mls. and your statements on kalou. i saw every game last season and there were plenty of times when kalou didn't seem to be trying and plenty more when he didn't play well. anyway there must be a reason why i am not the only one on here who finds you annoying as it is the reason you changed your name.

[Muzchap 8,966]

Marin is so fucking predictable. He runs down the wing then goes in box, dribbles, places box on his right foot and shots.

Show me footage of somebody running into space for him to pass to?

Lamps did early in 2nd half and he played him in really well. He tried a few 1-2's with Lukaku and never got the ball back.

He is literally our best player so far, so lay off the negativity...

So quick to hate on these boards!!!!

[royg 96]

There wer signs of midfiled pressure during the earlybpart of the 2nd half, closing down spaces and pressuring opponents to backpass. Uping the tempo with marin bringing the ball and movements from malouda and ramires on the wings did work and we got some early shots on goal. Looks like we will be doing same AVB strategy with not so high defensive line. Looks like fitness is the key and we surely dont have that atm.

[TorontoChelsea 4,064]

Jesus...calm down people. This is a meaningless pre-season match. Pre-season is about building fitness and familiarity with other players. People expect way too much and are therefore disappointed over complete nonsense.

[Justin_3d 1,140]

hmmmmm nothing impressing.

Next game.

[dan12393 0]

We have not changed our style of play at all to fit it the new players we have bought these technical small players and are still pumping it long into the box.

[KonohasOrangeFlash 2,607]

I know it's just preseason but I hope RDM gets the boys playing some high tempo attacking football.

[Strike 7,272]

I know it's just preseason but I hope RDM gets the boys playing some high tempo attacking football.

i refute my claim. our attacking won't improve by just adding faster players. we need a change in the system

[KonohasOrangeFlash 2,607]

Time will tell. I'll give RDM the benefit of the doubt as there are quite a few new players and its preseason but if he doesn't get them playing attacking football several games into the season...

[Strike 7,272]

Jesus...calm down people. This is a meaningless pre-season match. Pre-season is about building fitness and familiarity with other players. People expect way too much and are therefore disappointed over complete nonsense.

i think the "over-reaction" is based on the slow tempo we played in the game. the same old mistakes kept cropping up. we should be having more passing sequences between Marin - Lampard - Lukaku rather than Ivanovic - Cahill - JT.

At one moment, the ball went from Ramires on the right wing all the way back to Hilario. i think we need a rethink on the system we are playing

[Strike 7,272]

Time will tell. I'll give RDM the benefit of the doubt as there are quite a few new players and its preseason but if he doesn't get them playing attacking football several games into the season...

i think we needed this jolt to wake the squad up. now hopefuly rdm will change the system a bit and get more bodies supplementing marin, hazard and ramires. we are way too rigid with the system and thus attacks are faltering away with no penetration.

tbf hazard, marin, mata, oscar, torres would improve us greatly but the limitations of this system will stop us from becoming a beast of a team i feel

[gary gordon 1,777]

No Mata, Torres or Sturridge. Playing without an experienced Striker, Combination changes, new players, no Drogba, turnbull and hilarious in goal. What do you all expect?? Take it as it is.. A training match..

[TrippingStep 336]

i think the "over-reaction" is based on the slow tempo we played in the game. the same old mistakes kept cropping up. we should be having more passing sequences between Marin - Lampard - Lukaku rather than Ivanovic - Cahill - JT.

At one moment, the ball went from Ramires on the right wing all the way back to Hilario. i think we need a rethink on the system we are playing

You're right but you are missing the lukaku factor. He's very bad at linking up with other midfielders. He stays way too much in the middle waiting, and his runs are mostly straight forward to the goal. He doesn't mess with the defenders with fake direction of running, moving to give space to other players.

One another thing is that sometimes, there are too many players sitting in the box. It would be better if there is run towards in the box but when it does'nt come, they replace back to move the ball to move the ball or being there to make deviations to a player running in some space if the defenders move with them.

[Hutcho 8,443]

Tbh, the first half saw us be pretty solid at the back, (they got a bit of luck for the goal, though he made a good run), but our midfield didn't have a lot to link up to as Lukaku struggled at times, and was dropping deaper to get the ball. We are clearly missing a striker... And whilst many may say torres hasn't been scoring many goals, he knows how to be a striker, which gives our midfield options, which we had little of, resulting in us often lumping the ball up field. Also, mata who has been our best creative player is also missing and he is the only settled player in that front 4 we have been playing (ramires being the exception), everyone needs time, and we should give them that time. Everyone is playing in different positions they may not be used to in a system they are getting used to with players they never have played with before, we made 10 changes yesterday, we are still experimenting... Man city in the community shield will probably be the first time we will see a team, that is fairly representative of our first team, and we can see how the players are doing with each other.