Man of the Match Vs United

[ZanSnake 1,211]

Cole would have made all the difference. Oh well, move on....

Yeah, even though Ash is a attacking minded LB, he has the pace to get back and defend. But having Zhirkov playing left midfeilder and then Malouda as left winger, surely, Zhirkov would be in the way? I think it's better that we used that position as a second attacking midfeilder. Lampard the scorer on the right, and someone of the left as the playmaker or another player who can exploit the defence ie Kakuta or Kalou, and the centre playing back as a defensive to help the defence. That way we would have a system which would be hard to counter attack on when all the pieces are all together.

[Manuf 1,448]

IMO playing such an offensive left flank wouldn't be so great. I'd rather play something like this:

Cech

Ivanovic Alex Terry Cole

Mikel Essien

Lampard

Cole Malouda

Drogba

In that case we would have such a great control over mid-field, while Cole and Malouda would rock the left flank. I think Zhirkov is a great sub and we didn't see much from him on mid-field so I don't know if he wouldn't get in the way with FloMo or Ash. I think Yuri is player that Mourinho could praise for "having possibility to play Yuri or Ash on left back, Yuri or Malouda on wing or Yuri/Lampard/Deco/etc. in mid-field".

[ZanSnake 1,211]

My ideal formation would be:

Cech

Ivanovic Alex Terry Cole

Mikel/Essien

Lampard Essien/Deco/Ballack

J.Cole Malouda

Drogba

With Cole over-running Malouda in attack, but Malouda deep back incase the attack didn't work, so he would be in the LB position only momentarily whilst Ash retreats, same as J. Cole on the right hand side. With having Lampard and Ballack helping the sides if needed we still have the defensive midfeilder to help break the attack before they can even have a go at the defence.

[BlueLion. 21,491]

I was only suggesting how we could filter them all into the same team. And it would work for when we are chasing the game. That was my point. In my ideal team Zhirkov wouldn't even be on the pitch.