Boring, boring Chelsea

[zolayes 14,489]

When we were dominating and winning well ,,it was due to our midfield supremacy..that has vanished ,,Essien still has energy but his distribution is

woeful ,,Frank seems to have lost both energy and touch . It is too much to ask of Ramires to carry the whole of midfield . This is the area where

I feel we are losing the battles we previously won . As a result the service to the strikers is poor.

[zolayes 14,489]

When we were dominating and winning well ,,it was due to our midfield supremacy..that has vanished ,,Essien still has energy but his distribution is

woeful ,,Frank seems to have lost both energy and touch . It is too much to ask of Ramires to carry the whole of midfield . This is the area where

I feel we are losing the battles we previously won . As a result the service to the strikers is poor.

[Krypt 241]

i must say rammy has impressed me lately he really is a great prospect for the future he just seems to run forever i think he made one mistake yesterday and if it wansnt for luiz he would be my man of the match.

We could really do with ballack deco and joe cole (type) back ups for when our main players arent performing.

[pachman40 357]

Boring football is part of what I was thinking watching yesterday but more accurately I think is predictable football. It seems we've been figured out and Fulham were properly prepared for us and we just didn't have that talisman, that creative spark, that imagination required to break down an organized team. We were passing sideways and looking for another player to figure it out... except for some new guy that nobody could predict (overhead kick as a cross?).

[Kostas 1,468]

The football we played between Ipswich and Sunderland away was actually very good.

Agreed but the most obvious difference is that it was mostly a different set of players against Ipswitch and Sunderland let us reach the end of their box without challenging our players.

[BlueLion. 21,491]

When we were dominating and winning well ,,it was due to our midfield supremacy..that has vanished ,,Essien still has energy but his distribution is

woeful ,,Frank seems to have lost both energy and touch . It is too much to ask of Ramires to carry the whole of midfield . This is the area where

I feel we are losing the battles we previously won . As a result the service to the strikers is poor.

Absolutely agreed. The likes of Fulham and Liverpool were bogging down the midfield, and unlike in the past, we've not been able to re-establish superiority in the middle of the park.

Agreed but the most obvious difference is that it was mostly a different set of players against Ipswitch and Sunderland let us reach the end of their box without challenging our players.

Granted, but nevertheless, we've played better against superior teams than Fulham this season as far as I'm concerned.

[Swoopz 183]

First everyone is crying for firepower, aguero and Torres have more posts then everyone else combined. We finally get one of the best strikers on this planet, and now the problem is our midfield? When we get our midfielder, cech will be out of form we're going to have to get a new keeper. The problem lies deeper then our starting lineup. It lies within the mechanics and chemistry of our team. There is no passion in our play, no drive, only sloppy desperate energy. Were burnt out for a reason.

[steve5221 91]

Certainly we are very slow in our buildup play, which is allowing teams to defend deep against us. How about putting Luiz and Ramires in the centre of mid - they are very quick and sharp...

[HRiver 1,512]

I think that Luiz is fine as CB. We need more confidence in defense.

[Laylabelle 9,539]

Boring flat frustraing annoying performance but fucking hell what an end! That was just mental and thank fuck for Cech! Made it less bleh this game is shit and more 'omfg what is going on?!!?'

[Luke 60]

Am I the only one that thinks we could really do with Benayoun in our midfield right now!?

[LDN Blue 7,903]

Am I the only one that thinks we could really do with Benayoun in our midfield right now!?

Well I did. Then I remembered how we said the same thing about Lampard & Essien. Then I just lost hope

[Luke 60]

I feel he is more attack mined than Essien, he will get into the box more and look for that killer pass. We need either him or Zhirkov in there to breathe a bit of life into our attacking play because Malouda/Essien/Lampard just havent realy shown me anything in the last 5 games or so.

[Shane 2,275]

Let Drogba go in the summer, and start Sturridge and Torres with a creative midfielder behind them.

Both of there movement, pace and finishing with good service would be unstoppable.

[HRiver 1,512]

Benayoun and Ramires could really work together methinks.

[steve5221 91]

Yossi is underated a good little player. He's knackered his achilies though and players are sometimes never the same after that.

[chrismada9 1,948]

There's only one reason for our vulnerability this season. Because we haven't freshened up the squad enough.....

"pipe down dude... we've just bought Torres and Luiz"

Yeah we have, but Torres has been the first "world class" player we've signed since Shevchenko in 2006, and to me, that's appauling. You think that with Roman's money, he would be urging to bring in at least a couple of good names to freshen up the squad. But no!! We've always kept reasonably quiet, because we have so much players in our squad that we don't need to. But these players "age" and after a while, their years will catch up with them.

And then what happens? Ballack, Carvalho, Joe Cole, Deco and Belletti all leave, and they don't get replaced. In the summer, I understood what we were trying to do. Mix some youth with a couple of decent signings (Ramires and Benayoun) But it hasn't worked.

In previous summers, players like Zhirkov were signed improve competition, but Zhirkov has never played enough games for us. He is second choice to Malouda and Cole, and whenever he does play, he doesn't look very decent at all. It just shows you that if you're not getting enough opportunities in the squad, it means that you're not working hard enough in training. Zhirkov should work harder in training if he wants Carlo to pick him.

There's one player I will give credit to however, and that's David Luiz. He has come to this club and has got on with it like a proper sweeper would! He was excellent against Fulham, I don't care if he did give away a last-minute penalty! One incident doesn't sum up a whole player's performance.

[BlueLion. 21,491]

There's only one reason for our vulnerability this season. Because we haven't freshened up the squad enough.....

"pipe down dude... we've just bought Torres and Luiz"

Yeah we have, but Torres has been the first "world class" player we've signed since Shevchenko in 2006, and to me, that's appauling¹. You think that with Roman's money, he would be urging to bring in at least a couple of good names to freshen up the squad. But no!! We've always kept reasonably quiet, because we have so much players in our squad that we don't need to². But these players "age" and after a while, their years will catch up with them.

And then what happens? Ballack, Carvalho, Joe Cole, Deco and Belletti all leave, and they don't get replaced³. In the summer, I understood what we were trying to do. Mix some youth with a couple of decent signings (Ramires and Benayoun) But it hasn't worked⁴.

In previous summers, players like Zhirkov were signed improve competition, but Zhirkov has never played enough games for us. He is second choice to Malouda and Cole, and whenever he does play, he doesn't look very decent at all⁵. It just shows you that if you're not getting enough opportunities in the squad, it means that you're not working hard enough in training. Zhirkov should work harder in training if he wants Carlo to pick him.

There's one player I will give credit to however, and that's David Luiz. He has come to this club and has got on with it like a proper sweeper would! He was excellent against Fulham, I don't care if he did give away a last-minute penalty! One incident doesn't sum up a whole player's performance.

I want to pick up on the points you made which I have emboldened.

1 - it may be appalling to you, but until now, there has been no need to make world-class signings. The squad we had last season was one of the strongest in the history of Chelsea Football Club, and whilst we did let a lot of quality but ageing players leave, the squad that started this season with back-to-back 6-0 wins and won 11 of their first 14 Premier League matches is the same squad as the one that has picked up just four wins in the last ten.

2 - you've acknowledged the exact reason why we haven't gone out and spent countless millions on talent...

3 - no-one was calling for them to be replaced in the summer. It was the perfect chance to bring the youth through that moreorless everyone was calling for. (Now I've said that, I expect at least a dozen people reading this to say "Erm, no; I didn't," but my point is the general consensus was it was an opportunity for the youth to be introduced to the first team.

4 - its easy to say that now, but I repeat a point I've already made - the squad has only improved since August-time.

5 -

A lot of you are being really harsh on Yuri. He has never been giving a solid run of games in the first team to become the superstar that use want. He has come into a completely different league and has hardly been given a chance to prove himself. I remember when Ivan played a couple of games for us and everyone was getting onto his back about how he would get taken out of the game so easily. Ivan was then given a run of games and look at him now, he is one of the best defenders in the world. There is a reason why he was signed up and until he is given a run of 10-15 games in the first team i will not mark judgement on him because to be fair he has never really done anything wrong besides give the ball away a few times.

Yuri has 29 appearances for Chelsea and most of them are from the bench, the only time he has been given a fair run in the first team was when Ash was injured. So give the guy a break, Yes he has had his fair share of injuries but most players do.

Absolutely agree with you, Steve,

Yury offers a lot to this team... we can see from the Blackburn away game in particular his pace and creativity is actually a massive asset, and people certainly weren't criticising the man who was our most consistent performer towards the back end of last season when Cole was injured.

Can play anywhere along the left hand side and did a very very good job last season. How many times did he storm into the box, He won us a few penaltys aswell. 2 in one game if I remember correctly. When he had a good run last season he was excellent, and that goal against Spartak Moscow this year, Wow!

^ this.