Closed Chelsea v Man City

[KonohasOrangeFlash 2,607]

To lose? Is my English that poor that you have to make up even poorer things?

Benitez will receive what each of them deserves.

I assume that statement means you want him to be sacked?

[badenblue 21]

4-2-3-1 in attack, 4-4-1-1 in defense.

At Valencia & Liverfool he played 4-2-3-1 set up more defensive than what we have been playing, could see Luiz playing along side Ramires, & Moses come in for Oscar.

Cech

Cesar - Ivan - Cahill - Cole

Ramires - Luiz

Moses - Mata - Hazard

Torres

2 - 1 Chelsea Mata & Torres.

[Amblève. 4,995]

I assume that statement means you want him to be sacked?

Yeah, because he haven't sacked enough managers in the last few years...

Actually I was talking about chants.

[Hutcho 8,443]

At Valencia & Liverfool he played 4-2-3-1 set up more defensive than what we have been playing, could see Luiz playing along side Ramires, & Moses come in for Oscar.

Cech

Cesar - Ivan - Cahill - Cole

Ramires - Luiz

Moses - Mata - Hazard

Torres

2 - 1 Chelsea Mata & Torres.

Thats hardly more defensive tbh. Moses in for oscar means we have a different kind of threat and someone for cech to kick balls up to, and luiz holding doesn't really make us more defensive as if you give him more license he will for sure take it.

IMO, it would be madness to take out mikel who has performed solidly for us in there for ages to replace him with a defender who (to put it lightly) has struggles with his defensive responsibilities at times.

[Hutcho 8,443]

Really can't wait to see the team he goes with, it will be fascinating to see, even though he has been there 3 whole days.

[badenblue 21]

Rafa loves to play 4-4-1-1 in liverpool last time...Most likely we will not see hazard and mata to be playing so often in a same game...mata most likely to play behind torres.

Can not recall him having played it, certain it was not played often, he prefered 4-2-3-1

[badenblue 21]

I assume that statement means you want him to be sacked?

Well he has only an initial 6mth contract, so he will not be at the bridge to long.

[DYC. 7,542]

Thats hardly more defensive tbh. Moses in for oscar means we have a different kind of threat and someone for cech to kick balls up to, and luiz holding doesn't really make us more defensive as if you give him more license he will for sure take it.

IMO, it would be madness to take out mikel who has performed solidly for us in there for ages to replace him with a defender who (to put it lightly) has struggles with his defensive responsibilities at times.

You realize Moses is shorter than Oscar right? He's like 5 ft 10.

[badenblue 21]

Thats hardly more defensive tbh. Moses in for oscar means we have a different kind of threat and someone for cech to kick balls up to, and luiz holding doesn't really make us more defensive as if you give him more license he will for sure take it.

IMO, it would be madness to take out mikel who has performed solidly for us in there for ages to replace him with a defender who (to put it lightly) has struggles with his defensive responsibilities at times.

Luiz will hold, he will not have licence to roam, he has good distribution which will hopefully used to good effect, agree about Mikel, just feel he will be bench, in light of his future apperance with the FA.

[laeth 527]

I don't think Luiz doing massive long balls and surging runs was something he did off his own back; I think it was something RDM wanted him to do.

As we don't have a ball playing holding player, RDM was moving some of that onto Luiz. He never does that for Brazil.

[manpe 10,861]

We will perform well and probably win comfortably because of honeymoon period

[Ollie 4,400]

Rafa did play 4-4-1-1 because he always played Gerrard behind Torres which worked so well and was why Robbie Keane never got a game. It's basically a 4-5-1 really and i do believe we have the players to play it. He was always so hesitant to play 2 up top so expect something pretty similar to what we've been using anyway.

[manpe 10,861]

Rafa did play 4-4-1-1 because he always played Gerrard behind Torres which worked so well and was why Robbie Keane never got a game. It's basically a 4-5-1 really and i do believe we have the players to play it. He was always so hesitant to play 2 up top so expect something pretty similar to what we've been using anyway.

What's the difference between 4-4-1-1 and 4-2-3-1? I understand in 4-4-1-1 wingers play deeper? Who do we have to play deeper? There are no Beckhams anymore. No matter what numbers we use to describe the formation it won't make a difference if we continue using 2 deep midfielders, it will be the same shape. I'm more interested to see what roles players will be given, i.e will our front 3 be more restricted etc. I hope he will make use of our potential width hazard (ZING!) more than we've been doing so up until now.

[Hutcho 8,443]

You realize Moses is shorter than Oscar right? He's like 5 ft 10.

Yes I know and tbh that's like apples and oranges. Height isn't everything. For one thing moses is a lot stronger and has a great leap. I. E. When Cech was lobbing long balls up to hazard last week the West Brom defenders were easily out muscling him and cheating it down. That wouldn't happen with moses.

For example Tim cahill is also 5 ft 10 and he is a beast in the air.

[Hutcho 8,443]

Luiz will hold, he will not have licence to roam, he has good distribution which will hopefully used to good effect, agree about Mikel, just feel he will be bench, in light of his future apperance with the FA.

Yeah i accept that for sure it is an option and with defenders behind his style would be perhaps more suited to it, though it's not like he suddenly becomes an amazing holding player (he could) but these things take time. Also he doesn't (shouldn't) have a license to roam at cb but he still does.

Though perhaps with the Spanish connection we will se. More of Romeu in there. Especially as we will need him in when the African cup of nations is here.

[Hutcho 8,443]

Rafa did play 4-4-1-1 because he always played Gerrard behind Torres which worked so well and was why Robbie Keane never got a game. It's basically a 4-5-1 really and i do believe we have the players to play it. He was always so hesitant to play 2 up top so expect something pretty similar to what we've been using anyway.

I think our squad dictates the types of formations he can use anyway, the number of AM's and extreme shortage of strikers mean it has to be a packed midfield with one up top. I am sure we are all expecting that man to be torres.

It will be interesting how he sets it up though and whether he decides to keep our trio which can be at times a bit narrow or decide to add more width with the likes of moses and marin. Due to our heavy schedule we will probably see both but I think the changes we see may be more in terms of personnel and general tactics than the actual formation..

Time will tell though.

[Tomo 21,736]

What we needed this week was for Terry, Lampard or even Mata to go public pleading with the fans not to protest against Benitez. Doubt it would have stopped every one but im sure would have significantly reduced the numbers.

[Sheva. 5,373]

I hope Moses plays a significant amount of minutes in this game, i really like how he tries to get to the by-line and get the ball into the box, we need more players doing that.

And It's a shame Sturridge is not fit, hopefully Torres at least tries because of Rafa...