Who’d be in your Chelsea XI for tonight’s make-or-break game?
The former Porto boss says that he will not change his tactics going into the game:
“We won’t change our strategy. We don’t play counter-attack or long balls, we want good quality possession.”
I reckon we’ll need to go for it in this one as we’re asking for trouble if we aim for a goalless draw, which is the bare minimum, but I don’t see us keeping a clean-sheet and reckon we’ll have to score more than one goal to go through.
The team I’d start would be…
P. Cech
B. Ivanovic – D. Luiz – J. Terry – A. Cole
Ramires – O. Romeu – R. Meireles
D. Sturridge – F. Torres – J. Mata
For the sake of consistency I wouldn’t make many changes to the team that started against Newcastle on Saturday, so I wouldn’t wholly object if Villas-Boas decided to start exactly the same XI.
However, I thought Frank Lampard looked way off the pace during the game at the weekend and his style isn’t in keeping with the quick passing game that the manager wants us to play, so I’d leave him out in favour of Meireles, who is a better passer of the ball for my money and does a lot more work defensively.
Didier Drogba took his goal well against the Magpies and always defends the box well with his aerial ability, but does little else these days. The Ivorian has lost a lot of his drive in my opinion and doesn’t seek to create chances for himself as he used to, which is why I’d play Fernando Torres as he’s a little better at linking up with the likes of Daniel Sturridge and Juan Mata perhaps. But you could toss a coin between the two as neither are playing well.