Closed Chelsea v Schalke

[RoyalBlues 4,050]

i heard half their team is injured.

Sounds de ja vu as last year. Their medical certainly not the best in the world.

[robdog 2,084]

Sounds de ja vu as last year. Their medical certainly not the best in the world.

I am sure Schalke 04 is not worry about Chelsea FC

[Mustafa 885]

This is Schalke, not Brentford!

I really think people are underrating Schalke. There is no room for complacency. This is a much tougher match than Swansea, although I could see Jose resting a player or two for Man City at the weekend, but that's about it.

Exactly! You don't have to look far to see us under-performing and fucking up... Remember Basel last season?

If we're thinking about resting players we can also do that by looking to put the game out of their reach early on (with our best players on the pitch). So then the likes of Cesc and Hazard can just walk around the pitch without tiring themselves too much. I'd much rather that than playing Mikel, Salah etc. and a repeat of Basel last season

[Jype 6,398]

Remy

Schürrle - Oscar - Willian

Matic - Ramires

Luis - Terry - Cahill - Ivanovic

Courtois

Schalke are definitely not a bad team and it might bite us in the ass if we rest too many key players but topping the group shouldn't be that hard even if we were to draw here so IMO it's better to keep the most important players in top condition for the game at the Etihad next weekend. And it's not like players such as Remy, Schürrle, Ramires and Luis aren't good enough to beat an average Schalke side ravaged with injuries.

[TheOneChan95 225]

Priority for rotation would be Costa and Hazard imo. We need them fresh for City and they did pick up injuries recently. Remy and Schurrle should be able to do the job. I believe this should be the perfect time for Luis to come in as well. Can't see too many others getting changed. If we manage to cruise early then it would be good to put the brakes on and introduce Mikel for Cesc or something similar.

[LAM09 7,069]

They won't be pushovers, but they are weaker than last season. We should win by a few goals, and give some of our star players a rest later on in the match.

[Myself 793]

Cech

Ivanovic - Zouma - Terry - Filipe Luis

Matic - Ramires

Willian - Oscar - Hazard

Remy

with baker coming on later

[The Chels 2,502]

Cech

Ivanovic - Zouma - Terry - Filipe Luis

Matic - Ramires

Willian - Oscar - Hazard

Remy

with baker coming on later

Zouma and Baker will definitely not play.

[MrBlueGuy 1,552]

Would be funny if all this talk of resting Hazard, Costa...etc and Schalke is 2-0 up by half time. We will then send them on and suddenly make ourselves working harder than we should. This is CL people, please keep that in mind. This Schalke starting 11 will have the likes of Boateng, Draxler, Max Meyer, Huntelaar, Howedes...etc

[Stats 7,156]

Cech

Ivanovic - Zouma - Terry - Filipe Luis

Matic - Ramires

Willian - Oscar - Hazard

Remy

with baker coming on later

Is this a Carling cup game or a Champions League one? Think some people are getting the two confused

[Myself 793]

Is this a Carling cup game or a Champions League one? Think some people are getting the two confused

Is Zouma really not capable of playing in the Champions League? He played teams their level all the time in Ligue 1.

[Stats 7,156]

Is Zouma really not capable of playing in the Champions League? He played teams their level all the time in Ligue 1.

Yes but the difference is he is playing for Chelsea. Much bigger step up and we have Terry and Cahill. This is not our last group game, it is our first so why would we change Terry or Cahill for Zouma? That is being way too complacent to make a defensive change like that. Yes we should win and they have not started the season too well but this is a UCL game. Ease Zouma in and give him his first start against Bolton. This is a serious game. Basel are an inferior side to Schalke yet we lost 2-1 at our own ground last season. We should play pretty much our best team. Maybe couple changes at best but the last thing we want is to be complacent and it ends up backfiring.

[DavidEU 2,023]

Jose will want to get off to a really strong start, so I don't see any changes apart from Filipe Luis and possibly Ramires coming in. Other than that, Hazard, Matic, Fabregas and Costa will all start I expect. These are fit Premier League footballers, they don't need a rest after 4 weeks. Most will get one vs Bolton anyway.

We made the group more difficult than it should of been last season by losing the first game to Basel. No repeat of that this time round.

[Myself 793]

Yes but the difference is he is playing for Chelsea. Much bigger step up and we have Terry and Cahill. This is not our last group game, it is our first so why would we change Terry or Cahill for Zouma? That is being way too complacent to make a defensive change like that. Yes we should win and they have not started the season too well but this is a UCL game. Ease Zouma in and give him his first start against Bolton. This is a serious game. Basel are an inferior side to Schalke yet we lost 2-1 at our own ground last season. We should play pretty much our best team. Maybe couple changes at best but the last thing we want is to be complacent and it end up backfiring.

If he can handle PSG (he basically stopped their attack on his own) I'm sure he can handle Schalke. With Terry / Branna partering him he'll have someone to guide him through the game. Schalke aren't exactly in top form, nor is their attack great. Games like this don't get much better for young defenders

[zolayes 14,489]

REALLY looking forward to this game ... Im sure the Manure children will be looking forward

to early bed times this year

[Stats 7,156]

If he can handle PSG (he basically stopped their attack on his own) I'm sure he can handle Schalke. With Terry / Branna partering him he'll have someone to guide him through the game. Schalke aren't exactly in top form, nor is their attack great. Games like this don't get much better for young defenders

But why would we drop Terry or Cahill? City is obviously a tougher game but they are 2 important games and after the Schalke game is finished we have 4 days to recover anyway. Zouma can get his start in the COC in just over a week. Zouma had his good games last season like the one you mentioned but he also was very raw as well and shortly after he agreed to join us he was dropped a few times. Not that it means anything but I am just pointing out it is not just that simple where you bring in a 19 year old kid to replace your two top CB. There is no reason to do that right now. If Terry and Cahill are fit they must play. Tbh even if Terry or Cahill was likely to take a rest I think Ivanovic would come in at CB with Azpilicueta at RB. I don't think Mourinho will throw Zouma in for our first UCL game. Bolton will and should be his first start hopefully.

[y10edn 185]

Always play your best team, Costa is not a player that craves rest, JM had to convince him to be replaced after his hat trick against Swansea. You can drop Shurlle for not being up to scratch for William but resting a striker on song is not the best. Imagine what will be running through Pellegini's mind if Costa bags another hat trick on Wednesday (he definately wouldnt start Lampard in that case)

[Whiskey 173]

Thibaout

Azpi - Cahill - Terry - Luis

Ramires - Matic

Salah - Fabregas - Hazard

Remy

I think we can and should win against Schalke no matter what starting 11 we go with.

[TorontoChelsea 4,064]

Schalke is getting slaughtered in the Bundesliga. They are an utter mess. While having a super easy group for the second year in a row is good, I actually miss having a challenge. Not a group of death or anything but one difficult team to at least get two marquee group games to really look forward to. The only way Chelsea will not finish first in this group is a screwup of historical proportions.

[The_Flash 1,144]

I want a good strong performance, few goals for us and a good win, good start to the campaign. I still

can't get over how far we got last year with no strikers.!