Closed Brighton Vs Chelsea

[We Hate Scouse 10,286]

Champions League trophy will be paraded around the pitch before kick off

[capriccioso 2,545]

We should smash them.

[Pacquiao 1,834]

i expect a 1-0 or 2-1 win anyone thinking that we are going to destroy them 5 or 6 nil ect need to calm down! no way are we going to batter them.

[1chelsea 864]

we are smarter n better team so all is expected

[Django 83]

Brighton will be up for this, and our players will be looking at it as a warm-up game. Anyone expecting a thrashing will probably be disappointed.

[Jase 43,479]

No disrespect to the opinions here but those expecting a thrashing here is just pathetic. Brighton may be a lower division side but they are nowhere pushovers either. They are still a decent side and can hurt us if we don't turn up on Saturday. Seriously have no idea with the obsession of winning by 3-4 goals here. Couldn't care by how many goals we win here as long as we do and more importantly, put in a convincing performance from back to front. That is what matters!

[amir nezam 2]

we will win so easily maybe 4-0

[Kinol 337]

Chelsea XI

4 - 0 to Chelsea for this match.

Hazard on the right wing is pointless. And if we would play like this i think the passing in the midfield would be to slow.

[Hutcho 8,443]

I think the big thing is brighton, will be up for this game, and probably in many ways want to win this more than us to gain more publicity and to beat the european champions... As i have said before, i expect a win, but providing we put in a good performance which shows some progression from the previous games then i am happy with that...

[LeonDavis23 371]

anyone know if mata and romeu be back for community shield

[Ryan Fong 2,776]

I expect Bridge gets skinned by Hazard and Marin.

[wj818 25]

Hazard on the right wing is pointless. And if we would play like this i think the passing in the midfield would be to slow.

What if we put oscar instead of lampard (for futures sake) , and let him dictate the play, while Ramires becomes our box to box midfielder and then mikel does the defending, our midfield might be faster. And although Hazard and Mata might start on the wing, I bet RDM would give them the freedom to interchange and drift in the middle too.

[EskWeston 696]

It will be interesting to see how RDM sets up for this game. This game there will be many more players getting 90 mins, Torres will look to get about 60. So we can see what sort of team he is planing, obviously minus the olympics players. As it is Brighton you expect us to be able to play much better than we have in previous pre season games, but for me i am looking to see HOW we play, i would like to see a much better pressing game and quicker on the break.

[Pacquiao 1,834]

is it true Brighton will give us a guard of honor?

[KonohasOrangeFlash 2,607]

Bridge and JT on the same Pitch again....

[wj818 25]

at last we can come to the coclusion lampard and mikel do not fit the bouble pivot. neither wants to deffend and neither moves the ball quick enough. we may have bought players for our attacking thid but the crucial part of the midfield is still lacking, and as such our deffending hasnt been great. I wish Robbie would use Mceachran and Romeu (ala Swiensteiger and Gustavo)as our new double pivot. Its no wonder our best performance so far ( Seattle) came with him in midfield both dictating and controlling the game. And we know Romeu is quicker in his passing and deffencive qualities. While lampard still gets forward and neglets his deffencive responsibilities, while Mikel even though 25 has not learned that when one goes up the other stays home, or ( Like last year)when Luiz goes up drop in to cover.

Pweople will say its only preseason but this was our fouth match while AC Milan this is their third. Plus arguably in our whole line up ( first half) we had players all fimiliar to each other over the year(s) with the exception of Hazard.

We are trying to move in a new direction yet we are stopping at the half way house ( aka Lampard, Mikel Essien Etc... ) As our slow labored play still constrives us to the past. As we all saw the new players and young once were the brightest and imaginative of them all.

And why are we playing Ramires on the wing? Were we playing Barcalona or was it AC Milan I saw. Love the guy but he is limited, and only works for a strategic required gameplan. Not the Wigans of the world. People need to put their sentimentalism on one side and remember its a squad game not my favorate eleven squad.

I thought thrugh out this preseason Robbie would show us something diffrent, change of tactics, formations , and his own brand of philosophy but in the end , nothing . I am quite dissapointed and so will Roman.

I totally agree with the double pivot between Mikel and Lampard is par below standard, both of them can neither defend properly and are too slow, nor can they or want to pass the ball forward quickly from a deep position (well Mikel shouldnt even try if you ask me) but rather they seem quite happy to slow down the game (though Lamps does try to fit in the deep lying role,but his occasional long passes aren't accurate enough) , And most of the times, I keep seeing them chasing the game, you can actually feel/see Lamps trying and sadly failing to cope up with the to and fro of the game, once he joins the attack he cant comeback to help in the defense (But he does give his all though and in his defense, he is just not used to defending, i guess), AND I do admit they aren't fully fit, but if You guys saw the 3rd MLS all stars goal, you would be shocked to see how exposed our backline was, and BTW the midfielder who scored, ran all the way from the center field to the box whereas Mr Mikel instead of tracking back, just stood still while the guy next to him ran and scored. As our primary DMF, I don't see any excuses for him not to track back, even though it was the last second,. but this just shows how poor (or lazy not sure) Mikel is in his defensive duties.

Having said that we do need Mikel, since he seems to be the most proven DMF currently and as long as he improves defensively and gets some pace, he seems quite good in possession and he does seem to be improving under RDM. But the player that would challenge Mikel for sure is Romeu and i hope he does but also, I wouldn't mind if Essien fought for that position too and try make his return.

One of the hardest decisions we would have to make, i think, is to put Lamps in the bench, I just cant see him in the double pivot role, I cant see Lamps defending nor can I see him being our deep lying midfielder and opening defenses with quick and accurate passing. And As an Old Chelsea Senior from the Mourinho-era , he dictates the midfield without a sweat but his tendency to slow down the game really breaks up our attacking play and this contrasting style doesn't suit our new players like Hazard/Torres/Marin as they don't receive the ball early enough to release themselves.

We now have Oscar (not sure if he can play there but I think he can)/ Meireles/ Mceachran who can all fight for Lamps place, and FYI all of them have better passing accuracy/technique and tendency to release the ball forward quickly, Specially if Oscar/Mceachran can improve physically, and get a little bit better defensibly. And although Meireles is really underrated, he is nonetheless a versatile box to box midfielder and would be perfect to fill Franky's spot.

The thing with Ramires is, though he is a bundle of energy and he makes those jet pack powered runs, beside that he really doesn't have much to offer, more like an all-rounder utility player that we have been blessed with. Hence when we play 4-2-3-1, even though he plays as a right wing, he basically just balances the team out. But only when we play 4-3-3 , Ramires might get a chance to compete in the midfield, otherwise he has to improve on his defense and maybe start competing for a DMF position because I cant see him playing as deep lying midfielder in the the double pivot midfield, his passing is simply not good enough.

And I think its too early to criticize RDM, and you seriously cant expect him to change us into 'Barcelona/Arsenal' style of attacking, not this soon at least. So first lets see what he does ...

[Ankit 3,176]

Gus Poyet has apparently revealed that Brighton will form a guard of honour for #CFC on Saturday #EuropeanChampions.

https://twitter.com/chelseayouth/status/231100818240180224

[Blue-in-me-Veins 4,067]

pre-season............. lets experiment with 4141. dont see harm in it, 4231 been disaster so far, i like 4141 and i really think could be our savior before RDM has right idea of what he really wants and gets whatever added signings to adjust to EPL.

our other downfall can be with pressing....i mean we have to have clear idea of when (early in match, late in match middle of match) i read AVB got rid of some great workouts that held our players at such greater physical shape than opponents. if we get them back pplus our younger squad dont see why we cant press much more. also against lower teams we have to press much more. i mean vs all stars and with seatle it was non existant. if we dont press then counter attack but if we want to be more posesion orientated than pressing has to be our motto as well.

decisions decisions for RDM, thank God im not him..