Torres, who has seen chances limited thanks to the resurgence of Didier Drogba.

One goal in 8 league games and two all season = resurgence? Interesting

Chelsea should really be looking to sort out that position, problem is there aren't many good strikers around these days.

Anelka is the one player i felt could have been the answer but he was sidelined by Villass-Boass.

I think Drogba is already too old and should be phased out but when the "ripe striker" called Torres is now in sixes and sevens, You have no choice but to go back to the Old rickety Drogba

Does anyone here still blame Terry? Terry is MOTM for me

There was no Lampard today, How did the midfield hold up?

And the shekpe keeper? What more needs to be said

Paulo Ferreira needs to hold tutorial with EPL right-backs to teach them how to silence Gareth Bale.

Honestly, PF marked him better than any other RB this season. He used good body positioning to usher him inside all the time before nicking the ball off him.

He has actually earned his wages this week. . . . for the first time in 4 years.

Mr Ibime,in as much i hate to disagree wit u on pf performance today,I neva want to see him step on d pitch as a chelsea player again.aspecially on d rite side,we lacked confidence goin 4ward cos,d granpa of em pensioners was on d pitch.

dayokanu:

I think Drogba is already too old and should be phased out but when the "ripe striker" called Torres is now in sixes and sevens, You have no choice but to go back to the Old rickety Drogba

dayokanu:

Does anyone here still blame Terry? Terry is MOTM for me

There was no Lampard today, How did the midfield hold up?

And the shekpe keeper? What more needs to be said

Phew

Ibime:

Paulo Ferreira needs to hold tutorial with EPL right-backs to teach them how to silence Gareth Bale.

Honestly, PF marked him better than any other RB this season. He used good body positioning to usher him inside all the time before nicking the ball off him.

He has actually earned his wages this week. . . . for the first time in 4 years.

ROTFL

Terry was Fantastic, not all defenders has got such IQ to do that , brilliant!

Ramirez arrggghh! but well done

Romeu good game

Merieles i don't understand his role , can someone enlighten me on this?

If Lampard had played that match, Chelsea would have won. Lampard would have scored those two goals missed by Ramires. Lampard should play ahead of Ramires.

Andre Uweh:

If Lampard had played that match, Chelsea would have won. Lampard would have scored those two goals missed by Ramires. Lampard should play ahead of Ramires.

Yeah right. how many games has Lampard played this season that e won? Those were very terrible misses by Ramires but do you honestly think Lampard could step up to the pace of that game. In a game where guys were matching Danny and Ramires' pace inch for inch. Lampard would not have found himself in the position for the first Ramires miss. Only Bale and Ramires can make up that much ground in a few seconds. Lampard would not have found himself in position for the second miss either cos he would have been taking the free kick in the first place. It was a draw - a well deserved draw.

Lampard hence-forth will only play in games with slower tempo.

There are many ways to skin a cat. Whether Lampard does not arrive at the same speed as Ramires, he will still arrive just as many times. Am sure Lampard scored in our last win against Tottenham just few months ago. One would wonder whether the same Lampard has not played in winning games against Spurs all this while.

My point is this. Any manager can paint you any which way when he controls the parameters. The manager always wins. Even SAF would have you believing Welbeck is better than Berbatov. . . cos its SAF's call to do so.

Just few weeks ago, AVB was playing a way that made Terry look like the worst defender in the world. Now people are praising Terry to high heavens again.

AVB played a losing sytem with Lampard in it, dropped Lamps just as he changed the system, then one unfocussed team performance against Wigan later, and folks said "let's return to what works".  . Before this the coach had played Lamps in a disjointed, disbalanced 2nd team against Liverpool in Carling Cup with no wingers (Malouda and Romeu on the wings behind Lukaku and Torres). You get the point. . . . a pattern is starting to be established i.e the team loses when Lampard plays.

Folks gonna tell me that an upswing in results over three games precipitated by a change in tactics is "what works" whilst what has been working for 10 years suddenly "doesnt work"?

Ramires has been 18 months at Chelsea. Im yet to see "what works" about him. Last season, he played whole season losing points till Chelsea was almost 14 points behind United. Lampard came back end of December and we managed to chase United down to the last 2 games of the season. The dude scored 13 goals from January to May and Chelsea scored the most points in the Prem from when he returned, whilst Ramires had lost his place by season end. Thats "what works", not these flash in the pan statistics.

Despite this, some peeps castigated him last season, yet whilst he was in the team, we won the most points in the Prem. Of course, when you are chasing a massive lead, every game counts so whenever we fail to cop three points, people would say "this Lampard". Even when our formation was skewed by Torres arrival and we lost couple of games due to poor team balance, they still said "this Lampard". Yet the numbers dont lie. Chelsea woulda won the league if it started on the day he returned from injury. This is "what works".

20 goals for the calendar year definitely works.

He doesnt fit in with the managers blueprint of 2 fast ninjas in central midfield to do the donkey work of 3 free forwards (see Porto). Fair enough, but dont paint the player into what he is not.


The other day, AVB tried to say that the reason he dropped Lampard is because Lampard plays too many long balls and he prefers to play with Meireles and Ramires who keep the ball on the ground. I could not believe my eyes.  Ramires keep the ball on the ground? Since when? Ramires will not even agree to receive a pass unless there is no one within 5 yards of him.   

And I quote:

"He is one of the greatest players in the world but this choice was three players in midfield because of their technical ability to keep possession and keep it on the ground without a lot of long balls."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/16062817.stm


FFS, even Meireles cannot match Lamps' ground-ball possession. Volume and Accuracy of passes puts Lampard miles ahead of Meireles (who is miles ahead of Ramires), and of course, if most of your passes are long balls, you cannot achieve the accuracy stats that better Meireles and Ramires.

So what exactly is AVB getting at here? Is he exhibiting stereotypical bias because Lampard is English and "English players play long ball"?

diggz:

Mr Ibime,in as much i hate to disagree wit u on pf performance today,I neva want to see him step on d pitch as a chelsea player again.aspecially on d rite side,we lacked confidence goin 4ward cos,d granpa of em pensioners was on d pitch.

Actually bros, I strongly disagree with you. PF played a lot better at right-back than Bosingwa. Conversely, Bosingwa played a lot better at centre-back than he does at right-back. Infact, Bosingwa plays a lot better at left-back than right-back.

Bosingwa has a glitch in his cognitive function which means he is not very good on his left-side. If a winger drops shoulder and cuts inside, Bosingwa would always let him go unchallenged. Meanwhile, I have seen Bosingwa mark Messi out the game when playing at left-back because when Messi cut inside from the left-wing, Bosingwa always reads his play as he is cutting in to Bosingwas right-foot.

Ibime:

Paulo Ferreira needs to hold tutorial with EPL right-backs to teach them how to silence Gareth Bale.

Honestly, PF marked him better than any other RB this season. He used good body positioning to usher him inside all the time before nicking the ball off him.

He has actually earned his wages this week. . . . for the first time in 4 years. 

ibime must be a troglodyte.
where was paulo ferreira when bale blew past him in as many fixtures against chelsea?

ferreira should hold tutorial with epl right-backs when united's da silva twins have already sodomized gareth bale in as many games?
i am cocksure you watch your football upside down.

paulo ferreira:
“If I have to play against Gareth Bale again, I will be ready. I will try to give everything. He did very well against me last April [Bale scored as Tottenham beat Chelsea 2-1 at White Hart Lane] but let's see what he will do this time. “He is in great shape and it will be difficult to mark him but Spurs are not just about Bale. They have a good team as well. He is a very quick player and it is hard to keep up with him. Even Maicon struggled against him earlier in the season for Inter and he is one of the best right-backs in the world but I will do everything to stop him.”

@ coogar, haba! Wetin happen bros!? Pf no start d match na.

Merry Christmas peeps.
Hope Mr Tinker-man doesn't tinker too much and lose all his games this Christmas season.

@Ibime

Jeez man! Can't a fella have an opinion about Lamps? For pete's sake this was the statement I responded to.

Andre Uweh:

If Lampard had played that match, Chelsea would have won. Lampard would have scored those two goals missed by Ramires. Lampard should play ahead of Ramires.

Point presented as though if Lampard had played ahead of Ramires, he would have been in those exact spots at those times and would have converted those chances and clearly that's not true. Especially if you consider the events leading up to Ramires' presence in the box
at those times.

I only then went ahead to express my opinion about why Lamps did not play in that game because of the pace at which Spurs play. I have not said Lamps is useless, neither have I said he cannot and will not score. I only said Lamps cannot step up to the pace "anymore" . . .


Just get off Lamps' pola will ya? Jeez!


Meanwhile Merry Christmas to you and what do you think about Milos Krasic?

Hey man, Im just belatedly responding to your "lets return to what works" statement after the Wigan game.

You know if we wanna calibrate "what works", we gonna have to look at statistics mehn.

Merry Christmas to you and yours.

Merry Christmas Chelseans

lalaboi:

Merry Christmas Chelseans

Same to you, victory is ours.

Torres Luiz and Lamps all start.

Torres starts and everything suddenly looks drab and uninspiring

Goal Mata after Torres struggled and struggled to control a simple ball

Goal Mata.

dayokanu:

Goal Mata after Torres struggled and struggled to control a simple ball

Even though it was a Torres assist and he had his back to goal with 2 defenders on him and Mata was facing goal and had all the right to take a shot. There's nothing wrong is having an opinion but just be objective.

nateevs:

Even though it was a Torres assist and he had his back to goal with 2 defenders on him and Mata was facing goal and had all the right to take a shot. There's nothing wrong is having an opinion but just be objective.

A Torres assist would be what the stats tell us but actually watching the game would show us that he struggled to control the ball and it bounced off him fortunately to the path of Mata who did justice to it.

Watching the game does a lot more good than depending on stats sheet.

Fulham back in it

1-1

Ruiz turns Cole inside out and Dempsey beats Ruiz to the touch

Torres offside still blows it wide

dayokanu:

A Torres assist would be what the stats tell us but actually watching the game would show us that he struggled to control the ball and it bounced off him fortunately to the path of Mata who did justice to it.

Watching the game does a lot more good than depending on stats sheet.

He did struggle to control the ball - which by the way is not a Torres invention - but not "struggle and struggle" as you put it.
The premise of your post was derogation not objectivity. Name me one footballer who has never struggled to control a simple ball.

Lampard out . . Malouda in.
Mata will withdraw into central midfield.

nateevs:

He did struggle to control the ball - which by the way is not a Torres invention - but not "struggle and struggle" as you put it.
The premise of your post was derogation not objectivity. Name me one footballer who has never struggled to control a simple ball.

Who said struggling was a Torres invention? Only that he seemed to have perfected the art.

Missing goals, sulking, and generally being crap are not his inventions either

As we speak, Torres pass to the opponent in an attacking position (Not his invention too)

Why Sturridge instead of the ineffective Torres ?

dayokanu:

Who said struggling was a Torres invention? Only that he seemed to have perfected the art.

Missing goals, sulking, and generally being crap are not his inventions either

As we speak, Torres pass to the opponent in an attacking position (Not his invention too)

That's exactly what I mean. Of what use is stating that a footballer passes to an opponent in an attacking position?
Unless you are stating it's the first of it's kind, what is the use?

I have watched Torres for 70mins so far and his ball control has been nothing short of top notch and very far away from someone who's suffering from confidence or "perfected the art" as you put it.

That pal, is not objectivity.