Official Chelsea FC Thread

[fatlever]

game on dvr while at work. time for soccer blackout until i get home.

[5DOM]

There will be a day when I get the starting striker right

[trwi7]

Dominating Villa early. Almost all the possession and an OG in the 6th minute!

[treiz]

That Villa game was intense, we deserved to win but we had to work for the whole 90 minutes for it.

Didn't feel that Ivanovic deserved a red for his "elbow", heck even the JT "handball" was BS, literally nothing he could do if somebody jumps on his back. Seen it given, but right decision IMO

[Geddy]

It could be the case that Torres is getting starts to up his value and possibly transfer him out. He doesn't seem like a guy that Mou would entertain for too long if he doesn't perform.

Ba and Lukaku up front would be a handful for most defenders but I doubt we'll see them on together too often, and even more rarely if they end up getting Rooney.

[fatlever]

went in to soccer blackout mode at work at 3pm only to get home and find my dvr didnt record the game. ARGH!!!!!!!!

luckily before i caved and checked the score i fould an awesome HD torrent on piratebay. so if anyone wants to watch the game, check for the torrent.

fortunate to get the win today. that last save by cech was so lucky and of course the no call on the terry handball.

how much fun is ivanovic? seriously, i love that guy. i've always wondered how many goals he could score if we deployed him as our main striker. seems he would be good for 15 easy. glad he's on my fantasy squad, although that yellow card didnt help.

ba did nothing for me today and mata has certainly had better games.

if villa keeps this up they will be really solid this year.

[fatlever]

It could be the case that Torres is getting starts to up his value and possibly transfer him out. He doesn't seem like a guy that Mou would entertain for too long if he doesn't perform.

i think we have about a 1% chance of torres leaving this year, even on a free transfer. any team that can afford his wages certainly has a better option at striker. any team that needs him at striker probably cant afford his wages. the only chance is mid table club somewhere getting some new rich owners that want to bring some big names to the team.

[treiz]

In all honesty, that save by Cech is something that he's been doing for the last couple of years now. So I wouldn't really call it fortunate

I think that was a good no call on JT, he obviously got hit from behind (legally) when I believe Benteke tried to win the header and it's one of those things were unless you cut off his hands there's nothing you can do about it you'll always need your arms to jump, and JT was about to jump but Benteke got their first.

Lukaku has certainly been our most promising striker the first 2 games, I'd like to see him start soon

[fatlever]

Sky Sports Chelsea ‏@CFCSKY 1h

Chelsea are in advanced talks to sign Willian from Anzhi Makachkala according to Sky sources. http://dlvr.it/3rQ8st


willian is a great player, but how many creative, attacking mids and wingers can we have on one team? i will chalk this up to silly season.

[fatlever]

something like this is probably closer to the truth with willian

An easier way to explain this is that it's fabricated and leaked by someone in Willian's party. He's pretty close to a move to England, but if talks with Liverpool or Spurs are stalling, leaking rumours that Chelsea are looming might spook one of the teams into getting things hurried up. That's really the only context in which I can make any sense of this.

agents love to use chelsea as a way to help with transfers to other clubs or negotiate pay raises for their players. ho hum.

http://www.weaintgotnohistory.com/2013/ ... rs-willian

[fatlever]

guess i should have looked in the transfer thread... haha... seems you guys have it covered over there. carry on.

[peppersquared]

went in to soccer blackout mode at work at 3pm only to get home and find my dvr didnt record the game. ARGH!!!!!!!!

luckily before i caved and checked the score i fould an awesome HD torrent on piratebay. so if anyone wants to watch the game, check for the torrent.

fortunate to get the win today. that last save by cech was so lucky and of course the no call on the terry handball.

how much fun is ivanovic? seriously, i love that guy. i've always wondered how many goals he could score if we deployed him as our main striker. seems he would be good for 15 easy. glad he's on my fantasy squad, although that yellow card didnt help.

ba did nothing for me today and mata has certainly had better games.

if villa keeps this up they will be really solid this year.

Not sure if serious? hmm

[fatlever]

re: ivan as a striker - kinda half serious. dont get me wrong. i am not suggesting chelsea move ivan to striker. he isnt better than the guys we have and hes a pretty damn good defender.

but hypothetically speaking... torres, ba and lukaku all tear their ACLs in the 1st week of september after the transfer window closes. mou decides he doesnt want to use a false 9. instead he decides to stick ivan up top until a new striker can be brought.

you could do a lot worse for a striker than ivan. he's big enough to hold up the ball and compete with center halfs. he is a great finisher in front of the goal and he is a beast on set pieces. and if he drifts out wide he is a decent crosser of the ball (although certainly not his strength).

he scored 8 goals last year, mostly on set pieces. he has 20 goals in his hast ~150 appearances. he could get 7-8 goals on set pieces alone. he wouldnt be that big of a stretch to think he could add another 7-8 with the likes of mata, hazard, de bruyne and oscar feeding him the ball all game.

if ivan decided he never wanted to play defense again, im pretty sure he could land on a mid-table team or in a lower league somewhere as a striker and be as good as many of his peers.

or if you prefer mou can stick luiz at striker. even cahill could work in a pinch. just lob the ball up 40 times a game and let him go for headers.

hell, im pretty sure you could stick just about anyone on the team in front of chelsea's attacking band and they could score double digit goals. (except torres)

man you guys are too serious. have some fun.

[fatlever]

now that we have had a chance to sleep on it, has anyone been able to make sense of the willian signing yet?

[treiz]

Nope, still confused as heck about it especially for £30 million. I honestly think this is the end of Moses, which is a shame since he performed quite well in pre season

[Slava]

Fwiw Rene Mulensteen had been badgering united to buy Willian ever since the whole thing went tits up at Anzhi, so may be really is too good to pass up and he has some Brazilian mates to help settle at Chelsea.

[treiz]

That could be the case, but I doubt it

Considering what we have and the 3 spots available for his position I'm not really sure about that. I hope I'm wrong but we'll see

[fatlever]

lets assume that it is moses who is off on loan and nobody else from the attacking band.

how would you rate the remaining six? maybe?
1a hazard
1b mata
3 oscar
4 ?
5 ?
6 ?

hard to really separate willian, schurrle and kdb since none have done it in the epl yet.

how would you rate each player 1-10 in each of the following?

passing, playmaking from classic #10?

crossing?

traditional winger?

dribbling, attacking defenders w/ ball?

defense, work rate?

taking set pieces?

finishing?

playing deeper role?

false 9?

i havent seen much of willian outside of the games he played vs chelsea and juventus last year in CL, but i remember he pretty much kicked chelsea's ass in those CL games. i'll leave him out of my opinions though, so here is my thoughts on the the above categories

playmaking, passing - mata and oscar
crossing - de bruyne
dribbling, attacking w/ ball - hazard, seems to be a strength of willian
traditional winger - schurrle (would have said moses), mata, oscar and hazard like to cut inside too much to provide width from that position.
defense, work rate - meh... ask me after a few tough games. definitely not mata, seems willian has a good reputation for his work rate (would have said moses here as well)
taking set pieces - i really like what i have seen from de bruyne, mata and hazard are good. willian has a reputation for taking good set pieces.
finishing - oscar
playing deeper - oscar, de bruyne
false 9 - probably schurrle, maybe hazard

whatever the game calls for from the attacking band, we should have more than enough options to address the need.

most teams in the world would cream their pants to have an attacking band of willian, de bruyne and schurrle, let alone as bench depth.

still seems like a ton of money just to improve over a player who probably wasnt going to get a lot of minutes anyway, especially when we have bigger needs at striker and central midfield.

[treiz]

I'd list it as

1a) Hazard
1b) Mata
3) Oscar
4) Willian - yes he hasn't done it in the EPL, but he's done it in the CL
5a) Schurrle - Not an international player for Germany for nothing
5b) KdB - Impressive against Hull but I think he's got the most to prove out of this bunch, maybe more so Willian but that's more because of his price tag

It's hard to rate everybody else apart from three amigos, same goes for the roles and what they thrive in. It'll be difficult to judge since I haven't seen Schurrle, KdB and Willian a ton to see how they compare to Oscar, Mata and Hazard but I'd give it a go

Passing, playmaking from a number 10?
Mata, Hazard and Oscar

Crossing?
Hazard, Mata, KdB

Traditional winger?
Shurrle is the only candidate

Dribbling, attacking w/ the ball?
I think it's safe to say everyone one of them are pretty good dribblers, Hazard/Willian/Oscar are probably the best ones

Defense, work rate?
Mata showed during the CL run that he's willing to track back and work, but last year Rafa licensed him to stay forward. Hazard was terrible at first last year at defending, but he's really progressed throughout the year. Oscar's work rate is unquestionable. The other 3 I can't really comment

Set pieces?
Mata and Hazard for me. Depending on which side

Finishing?
Mata, scoring 20 goals last year should put him up here. I'd probably put Shurrle up there too, since he's been known to lead the line too

Playing deeper?
Oscar and KdB are the best candidates for me

False 9?
Shurrle and Hazard

[J-Mezzy]

What is going on with all this Mata transfer talk? Why would we sell our best player?