Official Chelsea FC Thread

[5DOM]

we should get a good look at the forgotten players in the midweek cup game

i have a pretty good feeling we will see this team + a striker. which striker should get the run midweek? i could see cases made for all 3 of them. maybe give eto'o another chance to get his first goal with the team and hopefully get him going.

----------------schwarzer
azpi-----cahill--------luiz-----bertrand
---------essien-------van ginkel
---debruyne-----mata-----willian
--------------------eto'o

bench: cech, ivan, ram, lamps, hazard, schurrle, torres

is kalas still out? any other youth that should be in the bench instead?

I think Kalas has been back to full training for some time now. I would like to see Christensen make an appearance instead though. He's been outstanding for the youth teams. I'd say him, Ake, Brown*, Baker, RLC and Feruz are probably the best bets although I can't see more than 1 of them making the bench on Tuesday.

* Thank you West Brom

[J-Mezzy]

Our squad is so deep that we can throw the likes of Mata, Willian, Ba, De Bruyne out there for early cup games. I wish we had this kind of depth last season when we were playing so many damn games.

[kakaman]

Damn, completely forgot about Ba. How could I?

Would you guys be open to swapping Mata + 10 million for Falcao? That would be an ideal scenario for us since Mata is now on the bench and we are still having striker issues.

I'm not sure Mata would want to go from winning titles to just picking up a paycheck. I think PSG is probably the most realistic location for him, although United is the most ideal, but it will not happen.

You never know. Mata doesn't seem like a greedy guy, but money makes a big difference to some players. Besides, he will keep winning titles on the national team. I do agree with you though, PSG seems like a logical destination for him.

He's already making 100k/wk, so it's not chump change. If he goes to Monaco, he will probably play less for Spain than he does now at Chelsea.

His situation is pretty much the same as Ozil's was at Madrid, except Perez was willing to sell Ozil to Arsenal. Mata's destinations are so much more limited.

[5DOM]

I think he's supposed to be making 60-70k a week which is only twice as much as Chalobah. He's still on the contract he signed when he first got here.

Our squad is so deep that we can throw the likes of Mata, Willian, Ba, De Bruyne out there for early cup games. I wish we had this kind of depth last season when we were playing so many damn games.

My only concern is that we might have too much depth right now. We actually have a pretty damn good youth academy that always does well in all competitions, but none of the youngsters will get the chances that similar talents at other clubs would.

[J-Mezzy]

Mata could make up to 10 million a year at Monaco. I doubt anyone else is going to pay him that much.

[kakaman]

^ PSG maybe

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DjBtGID37g[/youtube]

[fatlever]

where would mata fit along with the other attacking threats at psg - pastore, moura, lavezzi, cavanni, ibrahimovic? if they play 4-3-3 then mata is not in his preferred position. if they play with a number 10, then one of the two superstar strikers gets benched in big games. then again, according to chelsea, you can never have enough attacking mids.

[J-Mezzy]

where would mata fit along with the other attacking threats at psg - pastore, moura, lavezzi, cavanni, ibrahimovic? if they play 4-3-3 then mata is not in his preferred position. if they play with a number 10, then one of the two superstar strikers gets benched in big games. then again, according to chelsea, you can never have enough attacking mids.

He may not fit, but PSG seems to like to spend big money for no reason. Cavani is one hell of a player, but there was really no need for him since they already had Ibra. They bought him anyways. If Mata is on the market, I expect PSG to at least inquire.

[J-Mezzy]

Are we done shopping for this season? Any chance that we go after a striker in Janurary? Would you guys be interested in Ibra if the Ibra/Cavani experiment fails? I brought this up jokingly on the Arsenal thread, but maybe it wouldn't be such as a bad idea seeing as our strikers can't find the net to save their lives. He has played for Mou before, don't remember any issues there.

[treiz]

I would be interested in Ibra, but I also think guys need to be given a chance. I wouldn't fully blame the strikers for not scoring as the trio behind them and our midfield in general apart from Oscar hasn't performed up to their usual standards. Mata has consistently given the ball away every time he's played and just looks off the pace a bit, maybe his injury after returning and not having a pre season affected him more than first feared, Hazard has had some good moments (Hull for example) but is really lacking a certain bite. Seems a bit more conservative due to Mourinho wanting his wingers to track back, De Bruyne has looked promising, Schurrle and Willian too with their movements and link up play but overall the trio behind the strikers has been below par.

Although with Eto'o he needs to stay up front more. I tend to see him go wide quite frequently

Our double pivot midfielders as well, Ramires hasn't been great with his distribution but certainly seems better compare to last year, whilst the others have been meh to pretty bad (MvG)

[5DOM]

I don't think Zlatan will leave PSG (especially midseason), but I don't want him either way. Survive this season with the strikers we have, then re-assess Lukaku next season. If Jose's still not convinced by then, sell him for big money and re-invest on a young striker.

In other news, Baker will most likely be involved tomorrow. Well deserved.

[fatlever]

i dont know much about lewis baker other than recognizing his name from the youth/nextgen teams of last year... doing some research.

attacking mid
english
captain of both youth and next gen teams last year
14 goals in all comps last year
plays for u-19 england team
under contract thru 2016

video
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ikc-yEhwwY0[/youtube]

seems to have nice control, finesse to his game.

what else can you tell me 5dom (or anyone else)?

[5DOM]

He's not as eye-catching as the more hyped prospects like McEachran, Chalobah, Loftus-Cheek and Ake, but he's been the most consistent and perhaps the most important player for the youth teams. He does everything well and is impressively two-footed. I don't think he has the ceiling of someone like Loftus-Cheek who has much a more impressive physical attributes, but I'd be surprised if he doesn't have a good career.

He's more of an all-around CM than a creative #10 btw, and that works in his favor because guys like McEachran, Boga and Musonda will find it difficult to steal minutes from the 6-7 top class attacking midfielders in the first team.

[fatlever]

ive always hoped that mceachran is able to develop into a deeper playmaking CM and able to eventually play in the pivot. thats probably his only real chance to break into the first team. that will be tough for him to do in the PL at his size though. but if he could become a poor mans modric, i'd be happy.

regardless, i am dying to see a few of our hyped youth start making an impact with the first team. its been forever since one broke through.

just saw that piazon scored two goals over the weekend and i got excited, for a second, before i thought about how little of a chance he has of ever displacing the guys ahead of him (at least in the next few years.)

anyway, i love these early cup games when we get a look at all the players who are either on the bench or playing with the youth teams.

[lukekarts]

I still can't quite fathom what we do to strikers. With the exception of Drogba, we've had what, a dozen high profile strikers come in and out in the past decade, and yet none are as good as the pre-Abramovich trio of Hasselbaink, Gudjohnsen and Zola.

Mutu (who broke himself) was one of the early ones; Crespo was never quite as clinical for us as he was in Italy; Kezman was a joke, we totally killed off Kalou's potential; Shevchenko was another joke, Pizarro was just a bizarre additiona anyhow; Anelka was nothing special for us, Sturridge just makes me angry. Torres was a joke; Lukaku plays well for other teams yet we don't seem to be giving him a chance. We killed off Demba Ba's good form, and now we've somehow killed off Eto'o's natural finishing ability.

How to we break so many strikers?

[J-Mezzy]

I think the reason why we keep loaning Lukaku is to avoid ruining his career by putting a lot of presure on his young shoulders. They are hoping to bring him in once he is a more polished and mature player IMO.

In regards to all the other strikers, we seem to have horrible luck. Eto'o, Crespo, Anelka, Shevchenko, and Torres were past their primes due to either age or injury. All of those guys were in their late 20s when they joined the team and stayed on the team into their early 30s. Argentinian players often shine in Italy due to the similar culture and football, but fail in England so it doesn't surprise me that Crespo was a failed experiment.

Ba's success may have been just that, good form and nothing to really expect out of him on a continuos basis. Players go through stretches like that where people get all excited about them only to remind us later that they are who we thought they were. I am still not convinced that Sturridge can be the leading striker for a team either. He is enjoying good form at the moment, but I will wait and see before I make my judgement on him.

[5DOM]

van Ginkel could miss the entire season apparently. The injury looked really bad at first, then less serious after he came back on the pitch for a brief moment, now this....

[fatlever]

i just finished the game. what on earth was our staff thinking letting van ginkel come back on the field after that injury. his knee went sideways. knees arent supposed to go sideways. that really sucks for him. hopefully essien can help him thru the rehap. and speaking of essien, i guess this is the crack in the door he needed to get more time.

finishing and final passes today were really disappointing, especially from bertrand and willian.

i though torres was great, minus the one or two flubbed shots.

how nice is it to have a keeper like schwarzer on the bench?

[treiz]

Torres looked mighty impressive, should play against Tottenham

Shame about Van Ginkel, doesn't help that Ramires went down too, pleased with the play of the whole team seemed in control throughout despite a couple of hairy moments

[fatlever]

any word on mata starting this weekend? did he do enough in the eyes of jose to get back in the starting lineup? i'd like to see jose give mata a chance this weekend to play next to oscar and hazard. bring back mazacar and lets see what happens.

also, i am ready for azpi to start getting PL starts again, but it can wait another week.

my lineup for the game.

--------------cech
ivan----luiz-------terry-----cole
--------mikel------lamps
mata------oscar---------hazard
-------------torres

guessing that jose picks cahill over luiz, but i will always have luiz in my back 4 for big games, until he is sold.
torres deserves the start

bench: schwarzer, azpi, cahill, ram, schurrle, kdb, eto'o

william, ba, bertrand and essien odd men out