Closed Stoke v Chelsea

[stroey 2,525]

Chelsea FC ‏@ChelseaFC 3 min

Today's subs: Amelia, Cahill, Mikel, Fabregas, Oscar, Kenedy, Remy. #CFC

No Ivanovic, no Falcao, (no RLC)

[Hybrid Angel 2,130]

No Ivanovic? No Fabregas? Azpi and Baba?

Today has been a good day.

[Thendo 1,088]

Great to see Baba start again , altough certain people here were so convinced he wasnt going to... Otherwise very attacking oriented team, will be interesting to see what Pedro-Hazard-Willian can do.

[Blue-in-me-Veins 4,067]

Thank You Mou!

Thank You for not messing about with the lineup.

[didierforever 7,349]

Perfect line up.. can't compain one bit...

[Special Juan 27,429]

Really happy with that, hope Pedro proves himself today.

[LAM09 6,751]

Some consistency at last. Oscar deservedly dropped

[DYC. 7,542]

I don't have a good feeling about this game. Thinking a draw. Hope I'm wrong though. Maybe the set-piece god still has Chelsea on his mind.

Surprised by Baba's' inclusion and Oscar and Cesc on the bench.

[Pizy 18,368]

Personally would've started Oscar for his physicality and aggression instead of Pedro for this one.

You know these thugs will kick the shit out of our smaller guys.

[Parky 739]

Bang on line up. Although RLC should have at least made the bench.

[kellzfresh 7,229]

This is a perfect line-up if we knew how to use wingplay and intensity.

[MichaelDance 552]

Great line up come on we can win this our best team roll on!

[Last Sicarius 610]

All is good but what about RLC :/

[Blue-in-me-Veins 4,067]

This is a perfect line-up if we knew how to use wingplay and intensity.

I still don't understand our misguided intensity.

The Top 4 attackers will press.

The back 6 will simply stay at home and watch them.

It's so infuriating to watch.

[Chelsea Buzz 487]

Love this starting XI! Now, I am ready to love the result too!

Come on you Chelsea!!

[Melanicus 5,208]

Perfect line-up, even though Ivanovic fit he's not even on the bench. Great defence, great midfield duo and great attacking players. Hope Costa plays good. Missing RLC on the bench tho.

[kellzfresh 7,229]

I still don't understand our misguided intensity.

The Top 4 attackers will press.

The back 6 will simply stay at home and watch them.

It's so infuriating to watch.

Exactly, we should attack, defend and press together as a team.

[The Chels 2,502]

I still don't understand our misguided intensity.

The Top 4 attackers will press.

The back 6 will simply stay at home and watch them.

It's so infuriating to watch.

It does seem quite a strange tactic because the opposition tend to play past it very easily. It's nothing new for a Mourinho side, though, and it has sometimes proved successful in the past. Here's an extract of some analysis of Real's 2-1 win away to Barca in 2012:

"Mourinho is seemingly happy with the way Real often use a ‘broken press’ – the front four close down, but then the two holding midfielders stand off and make sure they stay close to the defence. This has been obvious in the past couple of months and particularly at Bayern in midweek, and though it looks far from ideal, it’s happened so often that Mourinho must endorse it. It’s at odds with his usual insistence on being compact, and it can give Barca’s deep midfielders time on the ball, but it did result in a couple of Barca errors when passing out of the back." http://www.zonalmarking.net/2012/04/22/barcelona-1-2-real-madrid-real-on-brink-of-title/