Man United 2-1 Chelsea

[BLionheart 516]

That is a great line up, however i think Kalou is under a bit of pressure with the Ivory Coast civil war, and his dad missing in it. Don't know if he can be played, still Kalou and Ramires could be great, since Kalou would drop back with Ramires, Benayoun behind Torres, and useful on that wing, really that's a very good line up, the only thing we have to prayer for is the fact that Essien and Lampard will play well. Still though that's a good line up, though i Kalou can't play, then shot Drogba on, he could probably do even better to be honest, Drogba kicks out good crosses.

we have all seen how can we expose the 4-4-2 formation by having a Shadow striker , who can link between midfield and forward line , kalou is unfortunately our only player who is capable of falling deep and still play direct football , the other one is anelka but his decision making is so slow and he is not direct at all . rooney has done that with perfection for united and i hope carlo has noticed .

that's why Drogba must not start and kalou should , and Drogba will be a great addition come the 60 min. mark .

[BLionheart 516]

Chelsea will score at least 1 goal on tuesday but will united ??

we have all seen that their defense isn't exactly what you would call a brick wall , so we can score but i have a bad feeling about them scoring so it's either 1-1 or 1-2 for me with no extra time anyway.

[Term-X 7,891]

No chance.

I remember the day we drew United, everyone said the away advantage wouldn't matter. Countless members on here were in denial about that.

[LDN Blue 7,903]

Thing is, with the their single away goal, we could easily bring it back to us with an early goal. Anything after that is winner will take all.

[HRiver 1,512]

we have all seen how can we expose the 4-4-2 formation by having a Shadow striker , who can link between midfield and forward line , kalou is unfortunately our only player who is capable of falling deep and still play direct football , the other one is anelka but his decision making is so slow and he is not direct at all . rooney has done that with perfection for united and i hope carlo has noticed .

that's why Drogba must not start and kalou should , and Drogba will be a great addition come the 60 min. mark .

Do you realize that this is a Champions League quarter-final, at Old Trafford, against Manchester United to whom we lost 1-0 at our own ground?

I don't think that Kalou should start. It's not time for jokes. On Tuesday, it's time for either Didier Drogba or Fernando Torres to prove that they're Chelsea heroes.

[Madmax 9,219]

^We saw how great those 'heroes' were in the 1st leg. Kalou isn't a great player and it doesn't take a genius to figure that out, but I agree with BLionheart when he talks about Kalou as a second striker.

[HRiver 1,512]

^We saw how great those 'heroes' were in the 1st leg. Kalou isn't a great player and it doesn't take a genius to figure that out, but I agree with BLionheart when he talks about Kalou as a second striker.

I think that they both performed quite well actually. One of them hit the post, Drogba had a great real chance one versus one with Van der Sar, Torres' header was saved too, it could have easily been three.

If they had no chances at all then I'd be worried. But Torres must bloody take the opportunities he gets on Tuesday, so must every other player. Don't bloody hesitate to shoot.

[BLionheart 516]

Do you realize that this is a Champions League quarter-final, at Old Trafford, against Manchester United to whom we lost 1-0 at our own ground?

I don't think that Kalou should start. It's not time for jokes. On Tuesday, it's time for either Didier Drogba or Fernando Torres to prove that they're Chelsea heroes.

we lost 1-0 at our own ground with Drogba and torres both starting and both had good games according to their recent form but still we failed to score , that was mainly because we lacked this second striker who will fall back at times and play in the hole between the defense and midfield in the 4-4-2 , that is exactly what rooney did for united .

to sum it up , Drogba and torres playing their best match together failed to score . so even if kalou is not a good player but he is our best option as a SS .

[Bir_CFC 3,455]

4-2-3-1 anyone?

--Ivan----------Alex----------Terry---------Cole--

----------Essien/Mikel---------Lampard-------------

-----Ramires------Benayoun-------Malouda-------

-----------------------Torres------------------------

[Waterfall 893]

Need to score at least two goals to advance (unless we win on penalties), but it's hard to imagine us scoring 2 goals in a single game these days. Hopefully I am wrong

[BlueJewel 56]

I would not start Torres against Man Utd, this game looks like the perfect match for Drogba, the last time we won at Old Trafford, Drogba was very decisive. Here is my line up.

Cech

Ivanovic - Alex - Terry - Cole

Essien

Ramires-Lampard

Anelka Drogba Malouda

[eldo 868]

we lost 1-0 at our own ground with Drogba and torres both starting and both had good games according to their recent form but still we failed to score , that was mainly because we lacked this second striker who will fall back at times and play in the hole between the defense and midfield in the 4-4-2 , that is exactly what rooney did for united .

to sum it up , Drogba and torres playing their best match together failed to score . so even if kalou is not a good player but he is our best option as a SS .

We lost because we Essien and Lampard were playing in the middle, not because Drogba and Torres were on the pitch together. And you still want Essien and Lampard to play but it obviously didn't work last time.

We need to sort out our midfield not front line.

[Madmax 9,219]

I'm going to stick my neck out here and say that I'd love to see Torres-Anelka start. Anelka behind Torres in the second striker's role. Benayoun out wide on the right and Zhirkov on the left. They're soft in their wider areas at the back and Yossi and Yuri's trickery could create chances. Zhirkov has to stay wide and behave like a winger though. Too many times his natural game has been curbed by sticking him inside the channel. Centre midfield though is the most crucial piece of the jigsaw as we saw in the first leg. Ramires picks himself and Essien rules himself out (if his performances are to go by). Lampard over Mikel is an obvious choice, considering goals is what we need and Mikel isn't one to look up to in that regard. It's a solid midfield if you look at it. Ramires' pace and energy compliments Lampard's game. Defence picks itself with Alex now available. So -

---------------------Torres-------------------------

-------------------------Anelka---------------------

Zhirkov---------------------------------------------

-----------Lampard--------------------Benayoun

--------------------------Ramires-------------------

Cole-------Terry-------------Alex-------Ivanovic--

Drogba and Kalou on the bench to provide a more direct route to goal if things don't work out.

But that's fantasy. Probably won't happen. Oh well.

Don't think the first goal matters too much. We're going to have to score 2 anyway. But the timing of the first goal matters a lot. Get one early and this is as open as a barn door. Also, don't forget - if scores are 1-1 after normal time, we get an extra 30 minutes to score an away goal. Playing the second leg away is an advantage, regardless of what pundits would like you to believe.

[BlueLion. 21,491]

Time to get some payback, via the away goals rule.

[Madmax 9,219]

The state of mind the team is in for this one is possibly the most important thing. The season hinges on these 90 minutes now and how we cope psychologically with this fact is going to be very interesting to observe. I made the point in some earlier thread about how uncharacteristically fragile we've been this season in the heart and soul department. How the likes of Terry, Lampard, Drogba, Anelka react to being faced with perhaps their last chance of grabbing the one trophy that has alluded them so cruelly over the last few years will go a long way in determining the result. It only takes a couple of shoulders to droop and people to feel sorry for themselves and before you know it everyone on the pitch feels like that. Everything is against us at the moment and they've got to harness that pain and sense of injustice and channelise it to send out a strong message. The big boys like the Terrys and Lampards and Drogbas will have to step up and win this and earn the millions they are paid.

[Fulham Broadway 17,367]

An early goal would be good-however 0-0 at half time wont be a bad result either.

In a way going to that shithole 0-1 down can be better than 1-1. We just need to carry on where we left off -press and harass, and keep posession.

[DYC. 7,542]

Sadly Benayoun can't play the full 90 min so that changes my personal line-up.

So right now I'd go with something like this:

Cech

Ivanovic Alex Terry Cole

Mikel

Ramires Lamps

Kalou Drogba Malouda

or

Same story at the back

Ramires Mikel Lamps Malouda

Drogba Kalou

And if things aren't going our way by half-time, bring on Zhirkov (Malouda), Benayoun (Kalou) after the break (or a risky triple sub with Torres coming on too or just bring on Torres after 55-60 min). Play like this and (counter)attack the sh*t out of them:

Same story at the back

Mikel Lamps

Ramires Benayoun Zhirkov

Drogba (Torres)

About the game, of course we can win. But the question is, will we win? Personally, I have no idea. Don't have the feeling we'll loose but also don't have the feeling we'll win. All I know is that we'll need some performance. We don't have the ability to outplay them so it all comes down to how much the players want it (and good tactics from the coach). If they give it their all and luck is on our side, we should win this.

[Peace. 4,352]

I can't see us go through. Why ? Because lately there's only one player (I do not take Cech into account) who has shown a desire to win. That's Drogba. And when you want to win against ManUtd, furthermore at Old Trafford, you gotta have a killer spirit, you gotta have the desire to beat them, you gotta want to walk on Ronney's head. And our team doesn't show that. Plus, we all know that we tend to let our opponents score first... And unfortunatly we need to score first...

How the likes of Terry, Lampard, Drogba, Anelka react to being faced with perhaps their last chance of grabbing the one trophy

Anelka already has won the Champions, with Madrid. So I guess his motivation won't be as high as Terry's and Lampard's.

[Krypt 241]

I think Torres will start , thats why he was sub on Saturday...

[TomCFC 357]

Not confident at all, but the winner will have a relatively easy semi against Schalke, with the second leg at home. Hope we can go to Wembley, and an early goal will be important. I'd love a controversial last minute winner from Torres, as he goes mad in front of the United fans singing "que sera sera"...