After missing the match against Manchester City at the weekend after falling ill, Gary Cahill could be available for action and make a return to the Chelsea defence for Fulham’s visit to Stamford Bridge.
England trio Daniel Sturridge, John Terry and Frank Lampard are still sidelined through injury.
The team I’d pick for the Fulham match:
P. Cech
C. Azpilicueta – B. Ivanovic – G. Cahill – A. Cole
J. Mikel – Oscar
V. Moses – E. Hazard – J. Mata
F. Torres
Our defence earned their first league clean sheet since the Stoke game in September and looked more disciplined. David Luiz only made the one daft run and was better than his usual self, but I’d still like to see how it will work with Cahill and Branislav Ivanovic paired at the back, like I wanted for the City game before we learned that he wasn’t well enough to play.
Oscar barely touched the ball in the second half against City and seemed to fade from what was an ok first half. I believe his long-term position will be in the centre of midfield, where he can help dictate the game with his passing range and we’ve previously seen that he’s not afraid to get stuck in when he needs to.
As Eden Hazard and Juan Mata prefer to do most of their business in the central areas, it may be wise to select Victor Moses to provide a wide option to help stretch defences and perhaps create more space for one of the aforementioned in the middle. An alternative could be trying Ramires in this role again, although it didn’t work so well earlier in the season when Ivanovic was playing at right-back.
Fernando Torres to start again, unfortunately. I’ve heard enough of how hard his working and how his team-mates need to help him, but around 19 goals in 89 games isn’t good enough. It’s unfortunate that there’s no real alternative at the moment, I’d love to start blooding the diminutive Islam Feruz in the first team and see no reason why this shouldn’t happen, especially for the trip to Japan and the League Cup match against Leeds.
Torres is joint leader in our scoring this season. Back the team and quit carping.
Torres isn’t the team, Chelsea are the team.
Chelsea’s win percentage since Torres joined is 44% when he plays and 63% when he’s absent, so if you’re interested in what’s good for Chelsea then he isn’t it.
Rest Mikel and Hazard. Moses and Romeu.
God bless you ,that is the best thing to do.
David l and ramires as holdin midfilders
rest ramires n ivanovic.the play cahil n luiz then play mikel oscar mata hazard marin n torres.
Cech
Dave – Luiz – Cahill – Cole –
Mikel – Oscar
Moses – Marin – Mata
Torres
Bench:
Ivanovic
Ramires
Hazard
Turnbull
Bertrand
Romeu
i know this will never happen but i would find this to be an interesting lineup
———————Cech———————
——–Ivanovich—-Cahill—-Luiz————-
Azpilicueta–Ramires——-Romeu—-Mata——
——–Moses—————-Marin——–
——————Torres——————-
or actually
——————Cech———————-
Azpilicueta—- Ivanovich—– Cahill—— Cole
—————–Luiz———————
———Ramires ——-Mata—————
Moses———– Torres ————–Marin
both theses lineups seem very unlikely, but would be a nice fresh matter of thinking
Really? Drop Ramires – the guy with endless energy and the best work rate ? and actually keep MIKEL- the laziest waste of space on the team!?
4-3-3/4-1-4-1
_____________________Cech______________________
Azpilicueta_Ivanovic_____Luiz___________Cole___
____________________Ramires____________________
_____________Mata____________Oscar_____________
Moses____________________________________Hazard
_____________________Torres_____________________
Ramires as the quick energetic midfield enforcer cleaning up in front of defense letting Oscar and Mata share the playmaker role, both dealing with the distribution and keeping of possesion – People who can actually play the ball properly through the middle, from the back going forward (the obvious link between defense and attack that Chelsea has been missing). Hazard and Moses to provide width and direct running at opponents since they are the best wingers, ergo the best to stretch the opposition and hold the ball out wide so the central and other attacking players can take up good positions. Mikel has absolutely none of these qualities that would make necessary in the line-up.
It not al about droping mikel dat matas o.Den i tink d defendas wil b exposed more if mikel is droped.
cech…ivanovic…cahill…luiz…cole;mikel…romeu…marin…oscar…mata;torres
I still believe Benitez will improve our playing pattern. Chelsea than under Di matteo were so lazy in making tackles especially our DM who are suppose to be regarded as a no nonsense area became the weakest and worst area so far that Mike’s stroll in empty spaces allowing opposition pressure on the defence. I believe there are a lot of options in the DM position even those which never featured there, so Mikel should be ready to mount his presence on the DM or relegated to feeders team. having said that Benitez is known for developing players in the DM position to be as hard as Nail, you could see Alonso and Mascherano who have all moved on the the two biggest clubs in Spain. Mikel, Ramirez, Oscar, Romeo should be ready to follow such trend else the hammer could fall on any of them.