Official Chelsea FC Thread

[5DOM]

Torres misses a sitter lol. Ball was maybe too quick for him.

[TheAdmiral]

[fatlever]

hopefully atletico wasnt watching that torres miss.

[treiz]

How was the game? Couldn't watch it due to work

at Torres, he's really trying to stay at Chelsea

[fatlever]

i didnt see the game today, but it sounds like cesc started in the pivot next to matic in the 4-2-3-1. at half, we switched to a 4-3-3 with cesc (i am assuming) in one of the two advanced midfield spots and matic at the base. and course, there is always the option of using cesc in the #10 spot of the 4-2-3-1, in between hazard and one of the other attacking mids.

what do you guys see as the ideal spot for him in the team?

[5DOM]

It was a sloppy game against a very physical side. Fabregas played well in the deeper role, and his long range passing was outstanding. I think he'll play next to Matic against smaller sides like he did today, but maybe in a more advanced role when we need Ramires. It will also depend on injuries/suspensions, but he's versatile enough that he can play in either position without problems.

It looks like the 3-4 U21 players Jose talked about are Ake, Boga and Brown. Brown did not have a great game unfortunately with his error leading to the goal. Romeu and van Ginkel are looking good this preseason and that could hurt Baker's chances a bit. I think he needs to go out on loan anyway.

edit: http://www.chelseafc.com/news/latest-ne ... eeded.html

Christensen and Ake to join the first team; Boga, Brown and Solanke to play U21 football and train with the first team. Others ready for full time senior football (like Bamford, Chalobah and Swift) will go out on loan

[treiz]

i didnt see the game today, but it sounds like cesc started in the pivot next to matic in the 4-2-3-1. at half, we switched to a 4-3-3 with cesc (i am assuming) in one of the two advanced midfield spots and matic at the base. and course, there is always the option of using cesc in the #10 spot of the 4-2-3-1, in between hazard and one of the other attacking mids.

what do you guys see as the ideal spot for him in the team?

He's a very versatile player, so any of those spots would be ideal really, could argue even that we can play him at front sometimes. As long as he's on the pitch is the main thing, don't think we can leave his quality on the bench.

But personally, I'd play him in a 4-3-3 with him and Oscar at the advanced positions and Matic at the base. Just relentless energy and pressing from that midfield alone, plus top quality technical players in the midfield area too, something that can't be said about Ramires or Mikel.

EDIT: Awesome, thanks for the response 5DOM. Glad that we went up against a physical team, sort of helps push along the purpose of a pre season.

Really hope that Romeu gets some extra chances this season, I like his skill set and think it can be really useful for us, as for the youngsters I like the moves but I also wanted Ake to go out on loan, but since there's no back-up LB now that PVA is gone and Bertrand is set to be leaving it's understandable.

Sad that not long ago, PVA and Bertrand were considered the future of our left side

[fatlever]

@treiz

i really like the idea of the 4-3-3 this season since we have the strikers to pull it off and it suits our midfield perfectly.

-----------------------Matic (Mikel, Romeu)

----Oscar (Ramires)-----------Fabregas (Van Ginkel)

Willian (Salah)------------------------Hazard (Schurrle)

-----------------------Costa (Lukaku, Drogba)

[fatlever]

Chelsea Rumours ‏@ChelseaRumours 23m

It would appear that Romelu Lukaku is heading to Everton on a permanent deal. An unbelievable shame that he's unwilling to fight for a spot.

i guess you can scratch lukaku from my depth chart and re-add torres

what a waste.

[treiz]

Really like the look of that fatlever, having a fluid and flexible 4-3-3/4-2-3-1 should be a joy to watch.

It's a massive shame that Lukaku doesn't want to fight for a place, sort of makes sense though considering his ego. Oh well, wish him good luck at Everton

[GMgoran]

Really like the look of that fatlever, having a fluid and flexible 4-3-3/4-2-3-1 should be a joy to watch.

It's a massive shame that Lukaku doesn't want to fight for a place, sort of makes sense though considering his ego. Oh well, wish him good luck at Everton

With Mourinho's defensive style of play, it will always be the 4-2-3-1 ... As for Lukaku, he would be mad to stay at Chelsea, now that Mourinho has got Diego Costa and Drogba, a couple of perfect strikers for his counter-attacking hoof-ball ... As long as Mourinho is your manager, you will be an ugly team to watch ...

[fatlever]

we played 4-3-3 at times last season and we will probably do so even more this year.

as for lukaku, had he stayed last year, he would have been given plenty of games. he just didnt want to fight against eto'o, ba and torres - none of which would have eventually kept him from playing. and this year, he would have been #2 behind costa, with or w/out drogba. i love drogba to death, but if lukaku cant beat out a 45 year old drogba, then he probably doesn't deserve to play.

how many strikers lukaku's age are handed a starting spot at a team like chelsea?

[lukekarts]

we played 4-3-3 at times last season and we will probably do so even more this year.

as for lukaku, had he stayed last year, he would have been given plenty of games. he just didnt want to fight against eto'o, ba and torres - none of which would have eventually kept him from playing. and this year, he would have been #2 behind costa, with or w/out drogba. i love drogba to death, but if lukaku cant beat out a 45 year old drogba, then he probably doesn't deserve to play.

how many strikers lukaku's age are handed a starting spot at a team like chelsea?

Exactly.

If he's not prepared to fight for his place, then sadly he's not a player I want to see at Chelsea.

[treiz]

Really like the look of that fatlever, having a fluid and flexible 4-3-3/4-2-3-1 should be a joy to watch.

It's a massive shame that Lukaku doesn't want to fight for a place, sort of makes sense though considering his ego. Oh well, wish him good luck at Everton

With Mourinho's defensive style of play, it will always be the 4-2-3-1 ... As for Lukaku, he would be mad to stay at Chelsea, now that Mourinho has got Diego Costa and Drogba, a couple of perfect strikers for his counter-attacking hoof-ball ... As long as Mourinho is your manager, you will be an ugly team to watch ...

He played 4-3-3 at times last year, but you wouldn't know that. Since the only Chelsea games you watch are the ones against Liverpool. I can safely say that you have no clue what you're talking about and never have.

Costa is actually a striker who's the exact opposite of Drogba, given that he only wins 1 aerial duel per game last year, hardly "perfect for hoofball", to put in into perspective, Suarez averaged 0.7 aerial duels won per game, I suppose he was perfect for hoofball too, Costa is also terrible at holding up the ball. As opposed to Drogba who wins 4-5 per game and is great at holding up the ball.

Despite scoring the 3rd highest goals last year, yeah we are an ugly team to watch. To me it seems like the only Chelsea games you watched was the Slippy G game. Anyway, all of this is talk let's see what happens when the season starts.

As for Lukaku, if last year he didn't want to fight for his place against a useless bunch of strikers then he shouldn't be here. If he's not willing to fight a place against Torres/Ba/Eto'o who combined managed 19 league goals and even this year to fight for that second spot with Drogba who's 36 years old then he simply doesn't deserve to be here. Dude's got a huge ego, and this is what I was talking about regarding our previous engagements about his maturity.

[GMgoran]

As long as Mourinho is the manager of Chelsea, everything is fine ... The real problem for us would be if Abramovich appoints some top class manager like Ancelotti or Guardiola ...

[treiz]

So you have nothing to say to counter my statements? Typical

But he already has appointed Ancelotti before, seems to me you're still stuck in 2004/2005. Besides who needs them when we already have a top manager ourselves, we have arguably the most successful active manager right now.

[GMgoran]

Mourinho is a thing of the past ... His last 2 seasons at Real Madrid and Chelsea have been a disaster, despite having some of the most expensive squads assembled ever ... Like I have said, I absolutely love the fact that he is wasting your money and selling your most talented young players ... Long may it continue ...

[treiz]

Funny how you just essentially described Ancelotti's career, also funny how Rodgers wouldn't even be able to tie Mourinho's shoelace, considering his only accomplishment is winning the Championship play off final

Besides you should be more concerned about Rodgers wasting money, at least when we buy players they're proven commodities against top oppositions, as opposed to Lallana, Lambert (maybe Rodgers is moving towards hoofball?!), Lovren for a grand total or £50 million. How could I forget about Can and Markovic too?!

Selling youngsters to get a much better and more mature player at that position, yeah long may it continue indeed

[fatlever]

good riddance to lukaku.

[MountainDrew]

Sooo... No youth players in Chelsea's lineup against Vitesse... At least Torres is playing so there might be a chance lol