Closed Swansea v Chelsea

[xPetrCechx 13,563]

i know i'm in the minority, but i would go with this

Lampard to only play 1 half

Ba to only play 1 hour, after that Feruz comes in

You want to lose again?!

[TorontoChelsea 4,064]

People, Piazon is loaned out! I think we need to rotate players to keep them fresh (I'd sit Lampard and Mata) but we can still field a strong team without playing scrubs, League matters most though.

[BleedsBlue 1,549]

i know i'm in the minority, but i would go with this

Lampard to only play 1 half

Ba to only play 1 hour, after that Feruz comes in

Piazon?Why not add KDB also?

[Hutcho 8,443]

i know i'm in the minority, but i would go with this

Lampard to only play 1 half

Ba to only play 1 hour, after that Feruz comes in

I don't understand... You obviously want to play the reserves to rest the first team, as from your selections... JT needs match fitness so i get that... Lamps i suppose due to the thin squad we have in midfield, but if you were gonna go with the reserve idea, why play BA? Surely play torres, then BA gets a nice long rest for the prem.

[edetarod 2,155]

i forgot Piazon was loaned out, my bad

as for Ba, well i would've started him against Arsenal and Torres for this

[CHOULO19 24,332]

make no mistakes guys, we ARE out of this competition

For some reason, I have a "Napoli" feeling about this match..

[Rmpr 8,977]

i know i'm in the minority, but i would go with this

Lampard to only play 1 half

Ba to only play 1 hour, after that Feruz comes in

I think we should play Courtois and Lukaku also!

[NishC300 1,865]

I saw this thing on Troll Football about Swansea.........

Kit like Real Madrid.....play like Barcelona....

really since when did Barca start parking the bus?

Don't u get crucified for even thinking about defending?

[The only place to be 11,313]

Your forgetting the crucial point, that we are a club who try to win cups. We have for years and years always played strong teams in this cup and the fa cup. Arsenal haven't won this cup because they are not good enough... Yes they haven't always played their best team but they got beaten by bradford. We should try to win this because a cup is still a cup... And it is not about winning it with benitez or whatever, this is about the team winning it and the players, especially our younger ones getting their first taste of victory. Rafa winning the league cup isn't gonna change his chances of keeping the job or not, as we know all to well from past experience. Bottom line, we are a club who want to win things, like to win things, and ultimately (this season perhaps excluded do win things and i would still consider it important...

For years and years, we've had the squad depth to have a go at different things. We've also been a very pragmatic club and right now we have to be realistic and plan accordingly. Also, not all cups are equal. This is very much a tin pot cup nowadays and we should've used it purely to give young players experience, not gassing them against United's reserves before a long trip to Swansea.

A cup where the final four are us, Swansea, Villa and Bradford is not a top competition anymore.

[NishC300 1,865]

i know i'm in the minority, but i would go with this

Lampard to only play 1 half

Ba to only play 1 hour, after that Feruz comes in

Piazon is on loan.

[Rmpr 8,977]

Is there any chance for this game to end in HT?

[Hutcho 8,443]

For years and years, we've had the squad depth to have a go at different things. We've also been a very pragmatic club and right now we have to be realistic and plan accordingly. Also, not all cups are equal. This is very much a tin pot cup nowadays and we should've used it purely to give young players experience, not gassing them against United's reserves before a long trip to Swansea.

A cup where the final four are us, Swansea, Villa and Bradford is not a top competition anymore.

I am not saying this should be our top priority by any means. And who is left in doesn't make a difference. Everyone was in it at the start and we knocked out a "big team" and they all knocked out the other big teams to get here. Surely the fact that there is only swansea, villa and bradford left is a bigger reason for taking it seriously as we have a great chance of adding another trophy. Also, what is the point of playing a good team in the earlier rounds to get to this stage and not bother with it. If we look at it realistically, as you say we have lost an awful lot of cups this year that we should of could of etc etc. And the benefit to winning this would surely be more beneficial than the cost of it... As everyone knows our squad is not very deep, but that has been the case all season, and if that was something we were going to do we should have done it from the start. And on the giving young players experience front. Yes that sounds good, but looking at it objectively the majority of the "youngsters" in our first team squad will not make it, as our best ones are off on loan, the likes of josh, KDB, Lukaku, Chalobah, Piazon etc arn't here. The fact is the majority of our youth products will end up going elsewhere because we are a buying club, who will pay to replace players as opposed to look at the talent we have coming through... I hope we can start giving a chance to more of our youth products, but it doesn't seem very likely atm.

[The only place to be 11,313]

I am not saying this should be our top priority by any means. And who is left in doesn't make a difference. Everyone was in it at the start and we knocked out a "big team" and they all knocked out the other big teams to get here. Surely the fact that there is only swansea, villa and bradford left is a bigger reason for taking it seriously as we have a great chance of adding another trophy. Also, what is the point of playing a good team in the earlier rounds to get to this stage and not bother with it. If we look at it realistically, as you say we have lost an awful lot of cups this year that we should of could of etc etc. And the benefit to winning this would surely be more beneficial than the cost of it... As everyone knows our squad is not very deep, but that has been the case all season, and if that was something we were going to do we should have done it from the start. And on the giving young players experience front. Yes that sounds good, but looking at it objectively the majority of the "youngsters" in our first team squad will not make it, as our best ones are off on loan, the likes of josh, KDB, Lukaku, Chalobah, Piazon etc arn't here. The fact is the majority of our youth products will end up going elsewhere because we are a buying club, who will pay to replace players as opposed to look at the talent we have coming through... I hope we can start giving a chance to more of our youth products, but it doesn't seem very likely atm.

The big team we knocked out had their reserves up against us whilst we knackered our most important players. It might've been a case of Robbie showing his inexperience or him simply putting out what was available, but our strategy in this cup has been flawed all season.

Personally I'm finding it very hard to give a shit about tomorrow.

[didierforever 7,349]

The big team we knocked out had their reserves up against us whilst we knackered our most important players. It might've been a case of Robbie showing his inexperience or him simply putting out what was available, but our strategy in this cup has been flawed all season.

Personally I'm finding it very hard to give a shit about tomorrow.

thats a little harsh... the manu game was a revenge game... 2 consecutive home losses to united would have been bad... most of the chelsea fans in the world would have wanted us to start with a strong team but we still gave starts to piazon, azpi, moses (both of them were not in the 1st team players then), romeu and bertrand... plus caliing the united team "reserves" is an understatement... except for their cbs (keane and wooton) the rest are in and out of the team continously. i mean calling chicha, welbeck flanked with giggs and nani with fletcher and anderson in the mid is barely a team to be called "'reserves""...

[The only place to be 11,313]

thats a little harsh... the manu game was a revenge game... 2 consecutive home losses to united would have been bad... most of the chelsea fans in the world would have wanted us to start with a strong team but we still gave starts to piazon, azpi, moses (both of them were not in the 1st team players then), romeu and bertrand... plus caliing the united team "reserves" is an understatement... except for their cbs (keane and wooton) the rest are in and out of the team continously. i mean calling chicha, welbeck flanked with giggs and nani with fletcher and anderson in the mid is barely a team to be called "'reserves""...

It's not unfair to call that team reserves. Apart from Rafael and maybe Welbeck, not a single player was what you'd call a first-teamer. They then brought on 3 youngsters whilst we brought on Oscar, Hazard and Ramires. It was a bit of a fuck-up if we're being honest.

[didierforever 7,349]

It's not unfair to call that team reserves. Apart from Rafael and maybe Welbeck, not a single player was what you'd call a first-teamer. They then brought on 3 youngsters whilst we brought on Oscar, Hazard and Ramires. It was a bit of a fuck-up if we're being honest.

in the long run, maybe... but how many of us would have accepted 2 home losses in 3 days to united specially after the whole united match fiasco at the bridge... sometimes decisions have to be made for the people and the fans or just have to be made by the heart rather than the head... rdm did what was needed at that moment...

btw it is unfair to call them "reserves"'... there is one hell of a difference between reserves and ""squad players""... hernandez, welbeck, rafael, lindegaard, fletcher, nani (until last season) are far more than just reserves....

[bloody 209]

cech

ferreira - cahill - terry - bertrand

mikel - ramires

marin - lampard - oscar

ba

[Jase 43,479]

i know i'm in the minority, but i would go with this

Lampard to only play 1 half

Ba to only play 1 hour, after that Feruz comes in

No disrespect but if we are gonna put that team out, we might as well just wave the white flag now and don't bother playing this game.