For a while now I have thought that the Premiership title is out of reach for Chelsea this season and the Stoke game really proved the point. If we had been United we would have got an extra time winner off of someones backside and walked away unashamedly with all of the three points! But Stoke did very much deserved their point and arguably more from the game.
The best Chelsea can realistically hope for this term is to chase Arsenal down for second place which will be a feat in itself. In my opinion Ancelotti made a huge mistake taking Ramires and Nicolas Anelka off which totally changed the teams performance during the second half. I understand the logic of wanting to rest players ahead of Wednesday night but with a bit more imagination from Carlo we could have made a couple of substitutions that would not have taken the game away from us when we were in the ascendancy. There is nothing like a win to generate fresh legs for our European night next week.
If Rudolph [Sir Alex Ferguson] in the stands at West Ham can bring Javier Hernandez on and then move Ryan Giggs to left back at half time why can’t Carlo be as imaginative?
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David Luiz made a couple of errors which cost us Stoke’s goal in the first half. If Jose Bosingwa had gone off and Michael Essien drafted into the right-back slot we could have moved Luiz into midfield (who won’t be playing Weds anyway) and bought Branislav Ivanovic on to partner John Terry in the middle. Fernando Torres could have come on for the ineffectual Florent Malouda.
I’m sure with Ramires, Luiz and Frank Lampard bombing forward to support Torres, Didier Drogba and Anelka we would have kept the pressure up and ‘could’ have scored that elusive second goal. As it is Chelsea are in real danger of falling between two stools with Carlo’s insistence that we must use the ‘whole’ squad during the month of April. Players like Salomon Kalou, Jon Obi Mikel and Malouda are bringing very little to the table at the moment and so we MUST continue to play the likes of Ramires and Anelka during this busy and very important part of the season.
I don’t go along with this ‘players get tired’ nonsense. Ramires will run all day and every day with a fantastic engine as will Lamps and Essien. These players would rather play competitive games than train, so give them an extra day off from training whilst they are playing all of the games. In fact, both Essien and Lamps will have only completed roughly 50% of the season come May due to their injuries this term.
If Carlo really must rotate certain players what the hell is wrong in using young Josh McEachran in midfield? I don’t believe he will rotate the bulk of this team as I cannot see him leaving Petr Cech, JT, Ashley Cole, Lamps or Essien out of any of the games.
I do not believe we have good enough back up in the form of Kalou, Mikel or Malouda let us hope that Roman Abramovich sells them in the summer and brings some more REAL talent and depth into the squad. Players like Alexis Sanchez and Sergio Aguero would do nicely and would help see off what I’d argue is very average United team and also make sure that we don’t experience another November and December tragedy as we suffered during the winter months of the current.
As for our European adventure, I hope it doesn’t come down to the luckiest or most imaginative manager otherwise we may as well concentrate on that second place Premiership finish now. We need the players to up their game for United but more than that we need Carlo to up HIS game for the rest of the season!
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Abramovic sud sack anceloti @ d end of d season bcos Anceloti is a failure is not up to d job.He can not manage team like chelsea
Fernando Shevchenco!
Fernando Shevchenco!
Moping along, not scoring at all.
Living in a chavvy plastic land.
Ance can’t even identify dat malouda was hell in the game 4 the team
I am Chelsea fan from Africa. I liek Chelsea because of Drogba, Kalou, and Essien. If Drogba leave I dont like Chelsea anymore.
I’m a Chelsea FC fan, I like Chelsea because they’re my club and I love them…if Drogba leave, I don’t care.
No one is bigger than the club and no fan who isn’t 100% behind the Chelsea cause won’t be missed. Go support United.
I did support United like all my friends until Roman buy Chelsea then we all support Chelsea.
are you fkin serious Gunga?
is it all about money? i might just be 17, but the second i could understand football i supported chelsea, and so did my father before me, your not a true supporter if you switch teams like that,
What makes you certain that the likes of Aguero or Sanchez will hit the ground running if they were to be signed?
Malouda was our award winning player last term, this term dump him… Mikel was raved about not so long ago; now dump him… Kalou is often more effective than any of the other strikers in our midst, but you suggest dump him too!
Imho, you were close to the core of our difficulties when you speak of tactics. Having said that both teams yesterday perhaps should’ve won, but lady luck was at the Boleyn supporting a team from the north west!
The season isn’t over… no doubt if we stun our doubters and put the title on a knife edge in the coming weeks – and that still could happen; your and fellow blue fans’ opinions fed by passionate emotions will again change.
The way Malouda has been playing for the second half of this season does NOT warrant a starting place and he therefore offers no alternative from the bench. The same can be said of Kalou and Mikel. As these guys are ALL on excellent salaries and taking up squad places my argument for the team to move forward next term is to get rid and bring in better than what we have. Whether Sanchez or Aguero hit the ground running or not they could hardly be any less effective than the aforementioned. I dare say because of their immense talent that they would do a damn site better job than either Malouda or Kalou (which wouldn’t be too hard). As for the season not being over and ‘on a knife edge’ that is the whole point of the article! Carlo needs to shape up because playing the likes of Malouda, Kalou and Mikel at the expense of players like Anelka, Drogba, Ramires or Essien will soon see us out of the Champions league and just being happy to scrape a top 4 spot. Not good enough for Chelsea, Roman Abramovich or Chelsea fans end of!
Carlo got it wrong; Again! He decided to engage in a physical battle with one of the most physical teams in the league. Guess what happened? We came out short. Instead had we incorporated pace & quick passing & using players like Zhirkov, Kalou & Torres who make runs all game long we could have hit them in their Achilles heel. Remember being big has its disadvantages one of which is making you slower to maneuver. We did not utilize this in our benefit at all. Wrong selection was our other problem. Not starting Torres was a mistake & one I can not understand. He should play every minute of every game until he scores bucket loads or he dies! Period. we didn’t spend 50 mills to once again watch Drogba’s ridiculous antics. & then Carlo got it wrong again by subbing out our only edge in midfield, Ramirez and after that it was pretty much one way traffic. Result doesn’t concern me as I made up my mind about this season a while back but our inability to read the opponent & adjust accordingly and our obvious lack of game changing strategies worries me a lot specially with champions league upon us. #KTBFFH
Spot on Nimz!
I couldn’t agree with you more, Playing david Luiz as defensive Midfielder he is better than center back and moving Essien back to right back will improve our defending a whole lot more.
SO here’s how Chelsea Should line up.
4-3-3
Essien-Ivanovic-Terry-Cole
Ramires-Luiz-McEachran
Anelka-Torres-Malouda
This formation will give Luiz the freedom of attacking. As well us stoppting other midfielders from going through him. Essien will also provide that width from right back and defend too. And get rid of Bosingwa, Ferreira,Mikel.And make Kaloud part exchange for Aguero plus 15m or something.
Cech
Essien Ivanovich Terry Cole
Ramires Luiz Lampard
Anelka Torres Kalou
Malouda is playing like a little kid
Luiz started his career in midfield, but was woeful there apparently. I think he’s a better centre back than anything, so should stay there, especially when Essien is so economic with the ball.
Malouda has been awful for months, so I’d like to see Zhirkov given a chance to work his way into form.
BTW you said left back for Essien I think you meant right back. Ashley cole plays left back.
I did actually say right back in the article Chelseaphan…..
hi,
If its chelsea….we dont need fickle supporters who love chelsea cos there are couple of players…we love chelsea what they were, what they are and what they will be….Nobody asked you to like chelsea….we got better supporters than you”Gunga Din”!!!!
How dare you say that. Watching blues play is best part of my week. Roman made us a big club and with that you get more fans U shud be happy.
Nothing wrong with attracting new fans, but once you have picked a club you stick with them through both good and bad times…it’s like marriage, but more rewarding 😛
you didnt know chelsea existed before Roman came along
I think chelsea is dead.I mean they will be not like previous decade’s chelsea.Also their long dominance is over.They will be out of top flight sooner.