Closed Chelsea v Manchester United

[didierforever 7,349]

I'll happily watch sturridge become a better player in non or less important games, but you want him to start with unknown form in a must win or at least draw match? jesus.

sturridge's unknown form is a better gamble than torres' known "form"(if that is what u ll call it).

[Azpinator 2,325]

I don't think we should be so pessimistic about it, this time we don't have to be worried about players like Bosingwa or Malouda, we have only Torres but he could do something valuable despite being shit and all.. I hope Marin plays in the 2nd half if we were winning... Would love to see some of this again:

[TheCount 146]

sturridge's unknown form is a better gamble than torres' known "form"(if that is what u ll call it).

Long answer short, no.

[dejavuetall 1]

United hav'nt played the new chelsea yet. Spurs have tasted our magic. I think our defence can manage United, but can their's hold up our sensations? Hazard_oscar_mata.

[LucasRiver 31]

Come on Blues, i can expect 2-0 for chelsea.

This Sunday i have two very important games, Chelsea - Manchenster and River Plate - Boca Juniors. Two derbys, i can't wait to see them

[Strike 7,217]

What the hell is wrong with people, so defending means 11 behind the ball? cant just defend well and attack well anymore? has to be one or other ? i really dont know anymore can a team not be good at everything anymore? instead of just being attacking or defending? yanno before these "barca days" where if you dont play tika taka teams never have the ball on the ground and defending is a dirty word, teams did a bit of everything and were more balanced.

Regardless of if Torres is "good" at defensive headers and attacking or not, he's better then sturridge in the air thats for sure, so he should be picked. Tomorrow is not the day to take a chance on if sturridge should play or not.

Read above, mate. i didn't say that defending is 11 men behind the ball and you are actually making the same point i made in a previous post. tomorrow is not the day to start sturridge in attack

[Henrique 9,133]

I would be happy with a draw.

[Henrique 9,133]

We won a CL final with Cahil-Luiz....

yeah, defending with 11 players.

[TheCount 146]

yeah, defending with 11 players.

Rather win it defending with 11 then loose attacking with 10.....

We won it fair and square, Cahill and Luiz need time to gel anyway, tho i think everyone would rather Terry on the field tomorrow.

[Henrique 9,133]

My worry is the centre half's. Both Cahill and Luiz are fine with Terry, but im really not convinced on those two as a partnership.

Same here. Cahill is an avarage CB, despite his goals, for me he is a good squad player and no more than that, I dont know how some people even say he should be our next captain.

Cahill sucks when he ´plays outside the box, and if we play with MHO in the mid, and think we have a lot to be worried about, spcially with a team with great attacking players. I dont trust in Cahill + Luiz at all.

I'm almost sure RDM wont start the 3 guys in the mid.

[Henrique 9,133]

Rather win it defending with 11 then loose attacking with 11.....

FFS, what's the point of your post? What it has to do with the original subject?

[Strike 7,217]

Same here. Cahill is an avarage CB, despite his goals, for me he is a good squad player and no more than that, I dont know how some people even say he should be our next captain.

Cahill sucks when he ´plays outside the box, and if we play with MHO in the mid, and think we have a lot to be worried about, spcially with a team with great attacking players. I dont trust in Cahill + Luiz at all.

I'm almost sure RDM wont start the 3 guys in the mid.

not sure i agree. Cahill is definitely not average. in fact among Cahill, Terry and Luiz i would say Cahill is the better defender,

Luiz makes a ton of mistakes. forget the tottenham game, that was an excusable situation - he got blindsided by lennon's cross/shot but luiz hasn't been great so far this season. gervinho equaliser? maybe it was both terry and luiz but lunge on Walters, playing his way out of trouble and losing the ball against Newcastle. He always has this tendency to commit fouls. Admittedly he has matured and become much better now because in his first season at the club he gave away a fair few cheap penalties but still he's not great yet.

Terry - where do i even begin. he has been shockingly bad this season. gervinho equaliser - he was way too deep then and even in the Norwich game for the Holt equaliser. terible against Shakhtar, Juve. He has had his troubles with quick little forwards but he was very good against physical forwards up until last season but Struggled against Holt physically earlier this year.

among the 3, cahill is the more reliable centre-back. he is not a beast but he is certainly not average. keeps line and rarely loses his head. i can only remember the pogrebnyak header where he lost his man but that was so far out and it was a brilliant header by that giant.

[wj818 25]

How many matches did Bertrand start before the CL final?

If he is fit enough he should start simple as that - because he offers more than Torres. Like I've said Torres's link up play is nothing special he has 71% passing accuracy which is nothing spectacular when over 70% of his passes are sideways or backwards, when we have Mata; Hazard and Oscar always moving into channels.

Torres will be picked because he is a bigger name, Sturridge trains with the same players and within the same system as Torres; he knows most of our players for a longer time than Fernando - Sturridge is not some striker we bought this summer who is still adapting to the EPL and our team.

Torres - Height, 1.83 m (6 ft 0 in)

Sturridge - Height, 1.88 m (6 ft 2 in)

Yeah Torres is much more of an aerial threat than Sturridge in winning long balls or helping the defenders due to his height and Sturridge being a MIDGET!

You think stretching the back line by moving to the wing is something that exemplifies Torres from criticism about him never making runs in the box trying to beat his markers?

Fact is that any half decent forward can stretch the defense for such skillful players that require very little space to operate like Hazard; Mata and Oscar.

We shall find out, Torres looked nakered when he came off

Bertrand might have made his debut but it can't be compared to Sturridge situation. Ryan had a very specific/ disciplined role, cover A.cole  in the left wing and try attacking if opportunity arises. Sturridge on the other hand will be playing as our no.9 so his role is much more vital than Bertrand's cl final role and can affect the whole game if he fails to perform.( and quite frankly, though he was wonderful in Bolton, but he still needs to prove here and also I can't recollect him playing a Cf role in this club.) 

Lol, Im dumbfounded to learn Sturridge  is taller than Torres, are you kidding me? But he looks so small  So is he any good in air?? Cause I've never seen him. Anyway though Sturridge might be taller, I guess his physique won't let him win aerial challenge, so basically eventhough you made a fool out of 

me (lol, still finding it hard to swallow)  the facts remains that Torres is still better in air than him. And according to posts I came across in this very thread, Torres has won the most aerial duals, even more than our center halves this season. (posted by tricky) Which if true, perfectly supports my view. 

Sturridge has been here for a while and would Obvsly train with the team, but he hasnt got any proper real matches under his belt atleast this season. 

Gonna end this by saying, 

Even I wanna see Sturridge play, and challenge Torres for the no9 position. I do believe he will bring something to the table, but having said that, sadly not this match!!! 

KTBFFH!!

[Jase 43,479]

I think we can afford to draw this one, but we must not lose.

Agree. Would like us to win this considering that we are at home but it won't be a disaster if we draw on Sunday though that would mean City closing the gap on us to 2 points as they are likely to beat Swansea at home. Would have taken 4 points from the Spurs and this United game prior to last weekend.

I can't wrap my head around this. I have massive respect for Sir Alex for what he has done at Man U. However, this is just being delusional. How can you claim this when you were gifted 2 goddamn penalties and a world class save from De Gea to walk away with a point..

I'm sure he forgot about the CL game were Evra went through Ramires and the referee thought it was a fair challenge. Anyway, his pre match tactics are pathetic and I can't wait for the game.

Did you expect anything new from Fergie? Most managers are often biased towards their own side but some of them can still be at least objective and impartial at times. Not Fergie though. He has complained about the Drogba's offside goal at Old Trafford from 3 seasons ago but conveniently turned a blind eye on Macheda's handball goal in the same game. Hypocrisy at its best!

[Chelsea? 892]

No way Danny is 6'2

[Naked Mole Rat 437]

Sturridge isn't that tall. Drogba's 189 cm.

[Strike 7,217]

No way Danny is 6'2

yeah. unbelievable but its listed 6'2''

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Sturridge

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/player/_/id/85291/daniel-sturridge?cc=4716

http://www.goal.com/en/people/england/15696/daniel-sturridge

[wj818 25]

If you were Fergie, would you play a diamond formation and try to stop our attacking MAZACAR ( I hope i said it correctly ) , keeping in mind that by doing so it would free our fullbacks?? Or would you play the usual 4-4-2 and attack from the wings, leaving some space for our MAZACAR???

IMO Fergie wouldnt dare to give our attackers free space, so as he shudders by the very thought of MAZACAR running lose, he would choose the diamond formation.

Your thoughts???