Flooding the center of the park

[AndersonBLUE 819]

Every game I watch we tend to want to play through the middle all the time. Cole and Ivanovich are the only ones providing the width at the moment. You think we should keep playing like this? Against Norwich we had like 7/8 players around their box, all in the center and in close proximity to each other.

Maybe it's to try win fouls for set play, but I don't think we should be trying to walk the ball in the net every time (ala Arsenal).

[edetarod 2,155]

i like the way we're playing at the moment, and i don't want to see it changed

[zolayes 14,489]

i like the way we're playing at the moment, and i don't want to see it changed

so do I ,,,nothing is EVER perfect but for me it is wonderful to watch us play :blue scalf: at the moment

[Hutcho 8,443]

I think the simple point is:

Why change a winning formula?

[diskoviolente 425]

No one in the mixer to win the ball for us since Drogba and Anelka aren´t with us anymore.

[YouNameIt 1,511]

I think we are playing the way we should now, and when needed i think Hazard is sometimes offering width and we will get more of that with Moses aswell.

Its all good.

[AndersonBLUE 819]

I wasn't suggesting changing it I just wanted to know everyone else's opinion. I just hope we won't be caught out in possesion too much in future games.

[SeB 1,281]

I wasn't suggesting changing it I just wanted to know everyone else's opinion. I just hope we won't be caught out in possesion too much in future games.

It depends of the opposition to be fair, I basically tend to agree with you when this becomes inefficient, stereotyped and even dangerous to feature too much players in front of the ball. But to be fair Norwich isn't a team who likes to counter attack, they can't defend (they use to keep the ball instead) because they haven't any proper DM or non-clumsy defender.

That was the right approach, we could play that up with several attacking players in front of the ball and both full backs providing width because there was barely any threat from them in fast break. Of course we couldn't do that every game

[Jamie Norton 0]

I think it's a good way to play with the new attacking players we have, great to watch and it forces the defensive team to get compact to stop the little balls between defenders. Leaving ash and branna in loads of space out wide.

[TorontoChelsea 4,064]

Agree with you that this could become an issue in the future. Right now, not sure. We won against Stoke and Arsenal but weren't really able to create scoring opportunities from open play. The last two matches, we've been able to. Whether this is because they were weaker sides or because our front three are working better together, time will tell.

[Kieran. 6,317]

Could be a big problem. I think we have to take it match by match. We could start Marin + Moses with one of the 3 maestros as the #10 when we need width in certain fixtures.

[meetdoscar 335]

My opinion: This is a Non-issue as we are playing to our strength which is the midfield. Width means aerial crosses from the wings as bosingwa used to do so carelessly, but for who? No drogba anymore. We've adapted to torres who is a good combination player so time to move on and centrally too.

[Jase 43,479]

Could be a big problem. I think we have to take it match by match. We could start Marin + Moses with one of the 3 maestros as the #10 when we need width in certain fixtures.

Agree with that. We would come unstuck playing narrow in games here and there but least we have proper wingers now in Marin and Moses to stretch the play and gives us different options if needed.

[TorontoChelsea 4,064]

My opinion: This is a Non-issue as we are playing to our strength which is the midfield. Width means aerial crosses from the wings as bosingwa used to do so carelessly, but for who? No drogba anymore. We've adapted to torres who is a good combination player so time to move on and centrally too.

The importance of width is not only about being able to cross the ball in. Width does not= Boswingwa. You need width to create space in the middle of the pitch. Otherwise, defences become almost impossible to break down. It's very difficult to get past decent defences no matter what, but if you are telling them "we won't attack wide", defending becomes too easy. We've seen this so far this season. We scored against Stoke only once we brought Moses on. We scored both goals against Juventus on individual plays and we scored both goals against Arsenal on set pieces. In those games, we passed beautifully, we were generally excellent to watch, but we couldn't create scoring opportunities at all. Even Barcelona who play one of the most narrow games around, use Alexis or Pedro for natural width. I don't think it's possible to have long-term success with no width. Now, this is possible in a couple of different ways. Either someone like Moses or Marin steps up or we move one of our attacking midfield 3 in a wider position. we can beat poorer squads with virtually any system because the gap in talent is so enormous, but our lack of width is absolutely something to watch out for.

[communicate 2,703]

Like everyone said, there is nothing to worry about. We can use marin/moses anytime we need width.

[Muzchap 8,966]

JOKE (well kinda)

I propose we flood the wings, high chance of Lennon needing armbands and might slow Bale down...

[meetdoscar 335]

@TorontoChelsea

I agree with wat you said concerning width since you don't mean it in the strict sense of having a player playing permanently wide but one that can drag players wide to provide space but isn't that what Hazard is supposed to be doing? Our manager has commented before that hazard was not incisive enough on the wings in the first two games but I've seen oscar trying to create on the wings (vs stoke cutting in from the wing to take a short, vs wolves where he assisted moses goal, vs nordsjaelland where he assisted ramires goal, vs norwich where he beat his man on the wings to send a cross for Ivanovic's goal, he also beat two norwich players on the wings to feed in torres vs norwich) much more than hazard which may be worrying. Anyway I've watched Marin a bit and I think he is the best at providing such width even more than moses and may be hazard because Marin is very incisive with his dribbles and passes from the wings cutting into the 18 yard box or going wide but the problem is marin cannot provide as much energy to the team as Hazard does, moses can provide width and energy but is even less incisive than hazard although moses did well vs Qpr(but not so well vs nordsjaelland). So could the solution be Neymar??? I know I'd luv him in the squad(Incisive, skillfull,has energy and width)

[kellzfresh 7,229]

Its a worrying thing. That is what happened to barcelona at the 2nd leg against us. They were only attacking through the middle and that made us just to sit back in the center and defend easy.

The width in our style of play is actually supposed to be provided by ivanovic and ashely cole. Much like mancity, kolarov and zabaleta provide their width since silva and nasri are more central.

This is how their attack looks.

Tevez Aguero

Kolarov Nasri Silva Zabaleta

Rodwel toure

Lescott. Kompany

But with chelsea ashely cole provides us with width but ivanovic rather comes into the center a lot in my oppinion.

Torres

Hazard oscar mata

Cole. Ivanovic

The cross for torres goal was perfectly where he should be, the widest person on the right.

But you notice more often that he comes into the penalty box a lot in torres position, even fallin for a penalty against stoke.

He attacks but, I wish he could stay wider more often like ashely cole. That will help us stretch teams more like city do.

Barca use the same srategy but they replace the central striker(torres) with another player at the flanks(alexis) and it helps them a lot.

I think we need to practice shooting from distance cos it will help a lot if we can chip in goals from range (vs juventus)