₦airaland Forum

coogar: under jose mourinho, how many strikers did chelsea use? i can only remember drogba.....kezman was mostly misfiring or irrelevant and gudjohnsen was peripheral - mourinho built that squad on a strong midfield and brilliant wide players. hazard/oscar have nothing on duff/robben!

spain just won a tournament without a centre forward in the summer - why is this "chelsea have no striker" mantra becoming popular all of a sudden? it begs the question: how many strikers can fit into the 4-2-3-1 system? why wasn't this issue raised when chelsea started the season in a spectacular form?

Because that striker is Torres - the falsest of false 9's!!!!


Jose had Drogba! You said it all.

BTW, dont forget that when Kezman flopped, Jose brought back Crespo from Milan. When Sheva flopped, Jose asked Roman for David Villa or Defoe to complement DD and kicked off a shytestorm that led to his eventual sacking.

How come Torres flopped for two years, yet Emenalo couldnt keep strikers in the squad to step in when he starts to suffer his predictable "emotional crisis"?

Nateevs, I refer you to the original plans of Emenalo that kicked off our debate:

Ibime: https://www.nairaland.com/920248/official-chelsea-fan-thread-champions/31


Under discussion is 4-2-3-1, a bespoke system that will be used purely for the benefit of Fernando Torres.

Chelsea’s £50m striker will be at the top of it and there will be a three-man supply line stationed right behind.

The talk at the training ground is of ‘switch back’, a tactical trap that will be set next season for opposition defences.

They intend to draw the opposition away from their own penalty area, pushing up towards the halfway line before Hazard, Juan Mata or former Werder Bremen winger Marko Marin releases Torres for a one-on-one through on goal.

It is a system that will be borrowed from Liverpool after a study of Torres’s goals revealed that 56 of his 81 strikes for the club were scored in similar circumstances.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2151724/Roman-Abramovich-rebuilding-Chelsea-Pep-Guardiolas-arrival--Neil-Ashton.html#ixzz2CyYUPcTQ

This was in May when Emenalo was making plans before hiring any manager.


Please help me fill in the 4-2-3-1 formation with the players Emenalo had in mind, lets see whether it was not EXACTLY THE SAME PLAYERS EMPLOYED DURING THE LAST 2 MONTHS.

Also, how about the second thing Emenalo got wrong - no decent striker! Explain that!

Emenalo is a failure. I will celebrate the day he is sent back to Tucson Academy Under-12 girls team. A bloody interloper who had his slimy hands all over the ex-communication of beloved club legends like Ray Wilkins, RDM and Eddie Newton and the catastrophic signing of £100m black-hole Fernando Torres.

nateevs: Okay Ibime, I am completely lost on the focus of your argument. Let me get this straight. You claim the squad is unbalanced and that it is the fault of Emenalo. What if Benitez find a formula for balance in this squad and wins games without buying a new player? Would that be seen as a indictment of the tactical and managerial approach of RDM and therefore an exoneration of Emenalo?

The only conclusions I can reach from your posts is that you are :-

1. Claiming that Emenalo left RDM with an unbalanced squad.
2. Therefore RDM's hands were tight and cannot be blamed.
3. Quoting an article that supports your point of view but at the same time,
4. Is providing solutions for this "unbalanced squad" at the same time - all solutions from within the squad.


It is impossible to hold these same views all at the same time. The only outcome that can give credit to your point of view is for Rafa to run into the exact same kind of problems that RDM had. If Rafa finds a solution, then all your argument sublimes. Do you agree with this?

I believe in intellectual honesty unlike some people who get proved totally wrong and start new arguments. Before you open new argument ie "Ibime's claim of tactical inbalance is wrong and Benitez will prove this". . .<---- I spell it out for you because Im accountable to my arguments unlike those who run away and start new arguments instead of closing previous arguments.


FIRST. . .

Come and accept that you have been so utterly wrong on all our key arguments this season.

When you can accept that with intellectual honesty, then I will humour your new distortions. Afterall you claimed that Mikel and Ramires would completely provide the balance. Lemme spell it for you - YOU WERE WRONG!!!

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Now lets clarify your new attempt to muddy the waters:

nateevs: 2. Therefore RDM's hands were tight and cannot be blamed.

The only outcome that can give credit to your point of view is for Rafa to run into the exact same kind of problems that RDM had.

Blamed for what? Last week you said "It is working". Your words not mine.

Oh. . . I see. . . you mean, if Rafa can beat Juve and Shakhtar away! That is the only way we can judge cos RDM has played all the big dogs and is still near the top of the table. So Rafa cannot prove anything in the fixtures coming, although we can have a look at Man City if you wish.

The only caveat offered to you from the article is:

"As far as tactical acumen goes, the only upgrade I'm seeing on Roberto di Matteo is that the new manager will have more leeway to play pragmatic, balanced football rather than constantly being pushed into a suicidal attacking game."

To do this, what would have to happen?. . . MaZaCar will be de-optimised, shackled in their own half. . . or dropped to the bench. . . which means. . . once again. . .that Emenalo's set-piece transfer policy has FAILED!!!

Sure. . . Rafa could balance the team. . . by playing low blocks, counterattacking footie and/or dropping MaZaCar for Bertrand type players etc. If RDM had taken that approach to the season, he wont have survived the first month of the season for playing "boring footie" and wasting Emenalo's summer expenditure. You would be the first to scream. . . infact. . . YOU DID!!!

Lemme help you by paraphrasing Zidane's comment. . . Emenalo bought a Ferrari, but he forgot to buy/keep the engine (Midfielders) and the accelerator (Striker)

nateevs: 3. Quoting an article that supports your point of view but at the same time,
4. Is providing solutions for this "unbalanced squad" at the same time - all solutions from within the squad.

Could you please quote the part of the article that gives the solution?

Lemme help you. . .


"The most sensible tactical tweak Benitez could make is to break up the Oscar-Mata-Hazard axis in an attempt to restore some balance to the team. I've been arguing for some time that Chelsea would be best-served playing with a midfield trio in a 4-3-3 or 4-3-2-1, bringing Oscar deeper and allowing for a better link between the midfielders and the forwards."


No matter how this issue is fixed -- if it gets fixed, even -- if Chelsea stay in a 4-2-3-1, Benitez will be doing nothing more than plastering over the cracks until reinforcements arrive in January (a midfielder and a centre forward are required at this point).


(1.) There is your solution. We could maybe try Oscar deeper, "but it will be nothing more than plastering over the cracks until reinforcements arrive in January". So no, the article is NOT "providing solutions from within the squad"


AND


(2.) "The most sensible tactical tweak Benitez could make is to break up the Oscar-Mata-Hazard axis"


Both (1.) and (2.) are your evidence. . . once again. . . that Emenalo has FAILED!!!


How do you buy a £32m and two £25m assets who are supposed to be the key players of your new revolution, and have to drop or de-optimise them because you didnt buy/keep a decent engine behind them? Nigel De Jong was sold for £5m FFS, Neustadter moved for free.

Mind you, RDM was getting ready to break the MaZaCar axis when he was sacked. He stated thus in many interviews in the last week, and by the game in Shakhtar Donetsk, he had already pushed Ramires back to the wing, except that Lampard got injured after 15 minutes.


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Nateevs, you are intellectually dishonest. You want to hold me to task over an article's "solutions" which recommend exactly the same thing you have excoriated me over this season and which I argued for. First you need to admit you have been a goof and been so utterly wrong before I humour you with any new argument.

[quote author=A-40]I'm committed to educating him. Somebody's gotta do it [/quote]You can't educate someone who's deliberately dishonest. Even when he knows he's been found out, he resorts to verbal gymnastics aka lies.

Leighton Baines is ma biggest regret this season. I tied a lot of capital down in that boy and couldn't afford the players I wanted on certain gameweek. Before this season, I had a policy of no Everton or Arsenal defenders. Time to rectify things!

^^^Debosky is not only obnoxious, he's dishonest in his arguments.

debosky: Stop being duplicitous - what Rafa said is clear enough to see:

You are intentionally being an eediot. Quit trolling. Rafa made it very clear!!

Michael Emenalo strikes again. . . later they would say the manager calls the shots. . .


Lampard and Cole can leave, says Rafa leaving Chelsea old guard in tatters




Chelsea legends Frank Lampard and Ashley Cole are to leave at the end of the season after Rafa Benitez confirmed the break-up of the Champions League-winning team.

Both players are out of contract next summer and Chelsea’s new coach admitted they are unlikely to stay at Stamford Bridge beyond the end of the season.

Asked directly if it was the end of a glorious era for the pair at Chelsea, Benitez said: ‘I think so, that is the case at the moment.

‘I am only here for seven months. If it is for two or three years then maybe I would have an influence.

‘Sometimes you are in a difficult position as manager because there’s too much to decide on, so it’s better to have a technical director sometimes.’

Benitez has been put in the picture by technical director Michael Emenalo and met owner Roman Abramovich for dinner on Thursday evening as Chelsea take a new direction.



Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2237633/Frank-Lampard-Ashley-Cole-leave-says-Rafa-Benitez.html#ixzz2D8vTphPs


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He wanted Rafa Benitez in February, Chelsea fans protested, and RDM was given the job. . . but he found a way to get his man in the end.

Now he has made up his mind to get rid of Ashley Cole (un-understandable) and Lampard (more understandable, but ill-advised).

These days, the communication in the team is so poor. No leadership on the pitch (except for Cech), yet Emenalo has decided to get rid of all the leaders, communicators and best winners.

We are watching!!

This young man is a great man.

Speaking nothing but truth regardless of the regime. It was Sahara Reporters that told us Yara was dead and Turai's kitchen cabinet was trying to block out GEJ. Back then all the retardeen followers used to love Sahara Reporters. Now tory don change because GEJ regime is on the wrong side of the TRUTH which Sahara Reporters never compromise on.

CARRY GO SOWORE!!! Illiterates continue to dey yarn nonsense!

http://www.weaintgotnohistory.com/2012/11/23/3679748/rafa-benitez-tactics-chelsea

[size=14pt]
How might Rafa Benitez fix an out-of-balance Chelsea?[/size]

New manager Rafa Benitez inherits a team with obvious tactical problems but no clear solutions. Where have Chelsea gone wrong this season and how can their issues be addressed?

I have not been shy in complaining about the system Roberto di Matteo's been employing in recent matches. The move to a more uniformly attacking band of three, combined with Ramires in the double pivot, has left the defence hopelessly exposed, and blaming the subsequent defensive collapse on John Terry's absence is, at best simplistic. Chelsea are a team with genuine tactical problems at the moment, and Rafael Benitez has an interesting task on his hands in solving them*.

*Originally, the above paragraph was going to end with 'must solve them', but frankly that's not true. Even with the issues as they stand, Chelsea are almost certainly one of the best three sides in England, and their progression in the Champions League has, from this point forwards, essentially zero to do with our own tactics and everything to do with Juventus.

What shape will he use? Instead of just assuming he'll carry on with the 4-2-3-1, let's get the answer from the man himself, who sat down with ChelseaFC.com for a quick questions and answers session:

Before I have used 4-4-2, 4-3-3, 5-3-2, but because this is the shape Chelsea have been using until now, I think at this moment this is the best shape for the team. You cannot change too many things, we have to do the things they were doing well, carry on with these things and then change the other little things.

The question then becomes how Benitez will fix Chelsea without changing the basic structure of the team. When you look beyond the trivial -- Fernando Torres isn't working, the defence is conceding lots of goals -- and give the team a thorough tactical survey, the fatal flaw should become very clear. Roberto di Matteo's Chelsea 2.0 were a broken side, with a midfield unable to glue together a back four which showed its steel in the latter portion of last season with an exciting, free-wheeling attacking band.

The players recognised it. There are hints that the manager did as well. Chelsea have spent the season drifting ever-further from true tactical balance, and it wasn't because of any lack of tactical acumen on di Matteo's part. The team that started against Wigan Athletic, Reading and Newcastle United had many of the hallmarks of a balanced Benitez side.

In Ashley Cole and Branislav Ivanovic Chelsea had a pair of defensively competent attacking fullbacks. Ramires and Ryan Bertrand were both happy to operate as defensive wingers, although the former provided a great counterattacking outlet as well. Juan Mata and Eden Hazard provided the flair at the top, allowing Torres to get onto the ball in good positions. Frank Lampard even did a (poor) impression of Xabi Alonso, sitting deep and linking play.

Since then, with the introduction of the all-flair attacking triumvirate of Oscar, Mata and Hazard and the replacement of Lampard with Ramires in the centre, Chelsea have looked a terrifying force when on the ball but completely incompetent without. Many are tempted to blame this on the absence of John Terry and his ability to organise the back line, but there's only so much organising the centre backs can do when your major flaw is the whole team being caught out of position when it loses the ball. That's what a 'fluid attack' does.

Excluding the second leg of the Napoli tie, Chelsea won the Champions League last year in classic underdog style. They defended brilliantly and then sprung the trap, beating Benfica and Barcelona before grabbing a draw against Bayern Munich in the Allianz Arena and then winning the penalty shootout.

But winning the European Cup failed to correspond with the style of football that Roman Abramovich wants Chelsea to be playing, and according to Sam Wallace of the Independant, there requirement was to drastically change the style of play this year. The manager started off cautiously before allowing the team to develop a major imbalance, and the 'Mazacar' eventually veered out of control and off the road -- something I warned of a month ago.

The Independent article, which you should read in full for further background, lists several teams from which Chelsea might draw inspiration:

The objective had been laid out to Di Matteo in simple terms during the summer. He was charged with creating a team with a distinctive, confident approach. The obvious example was Barcelona, but there are other coaches and teams who are admired at Stamford Bridge and regarded as a template for Chelsea.

One is Jurgen Klopp and his young Borussia Dortmund team. Roberto Martinez is well regarded for his determination that Wigan Athletic play bold, attacking football whoever the opponent. Juventus, who were also impressive when they got a 2-2 draw at Stamford Bridge in September, are held up as an example of the kind of team Chelsea should be.

The most interesting of the bunch is Borussia Dortmund, who generally play a defensive sound yet incredibly dangerous 4-2-3-1. When I spoke with Jonny of lankyguyblog, he compared Rafael Benitez's preferred playing style with that of BVB:

His main ideas are to have control of the space, to stay compact, both vertically and horizontally, to press aggressively as a unit and to try and pass the ball on the ground yet move it quickly. If you were looking at a team at the moment that plays like he wants to play, it would be Borussia Dortmund - the movements both defensively and in possession are very similar to what he used at Liverpool. Benitez does not want robots on the pitch but he wants a tactically aware group who know what to do in every given situation and who keep up their intensity regardless of the situation during the game.


That's a good sign, of course. Dortmund are one of the most impressive teams around (although they've been rather thoroughly unseated as 'best team in Germany' by Bayern Munich this year), and they're a real joy to watch. If Benitez can get Chelsea playing like Jurgen Klopp has BVB, we're in for a treat. Can he? That's an important question.

Here's Jonny again with more specifics:

The season they came second (2008/09) despite having poor depth in the squad was again a great example of how he wants to play - a high line, full backs going forward, two holding players to act as reference points, to shut off space between the lines and also to entice the opposition's midfield to press, leaving space for the front four to provide width and depth and take advantage with quick movements, especially between the lines.

One thing that may be a problem at Chelsea is the lack of balance between the qualities of the front players and the qualities of the defenders. Because the Chelsea back four have problems playing higher up and are not very mobile, this means they tend to drop deep which, with the mobile technical front four staying high, means that they aren't compact enough. That may cause a problem for Benitez and he'd have to be pragmatic about it because the Chelsea team is not as balanced and together tactically as it should be.

I take some issue with the characterisation of the back line as completely immobile, but on the whole he's correct about the way Chelsea play. The attack and defence drift apart, and the midfield isn't good enough on the ball to provide an effective link between the two.

This has two knock-on effects. The pivot has to play much higher than it should in order to support an attack, and the fullbacks are asked to be much more aggressive than they should be. When Chelsea lose the ball with both shielding elements out of position, the defence -- whether it's David Luiz, Gary Cahill or John Terry in the centre -- is horrendously exposed.

The most sensible tactical tweak Benitez could make is to break up the Oscar-Mata-Hazard axis in an attempt to restore some balance to the team. I've been arguing for some time that Chelsea would be best-served playing with a midfield trio in a 4-3-3 or 4-3-2-1, bringing Oscar deeper and allowing for a better link between the midfielders and the forwards. But if Benitez sticks with the pivot, he's got an interesting dilemma to solve.

Curbing the voracious attacking tendencies of the third band may or may not be possible considering that this will be played out with Abramovich's wants looming in the background. But even if Benitez can do so, he still faces a problem -- even without the front four pulling away from the pivot, the combination of Mikel and Ramires still don't possess the quality (or, in Ramires' case, the tactical awareness) to effectively link up play.

The pivot is at the heart of the 4-2-3-1. The two plays have to screen the defence, move the ball quickly and accurately upfield and support the attack without risking the team's overall shape should the ball be lost. And right now it's doing none of those things.

Let's go back to Klopp's Dortmund as a reference point. Their standard pivot uses Sven Bender as a defensively-minded box-to-box midfielder and Ilkay Gundogan as a more dedicated passing player. If one squints very closely, Mikel might start morphing into Bender, but there's very clearly no Gundogan (or, if we want to go back to Liverpool, Xabi Alonso) in this Chelsea squad.

My injection - Grosskeutz/Perisic offer Dortmund great defensive balance on left flank, and even Gotze/Reus are more robust defensively than Mata/Hazard, so Bender and Gundogan alone do not carry all the work.

It's entirely unclear what to do about that. Oscar could be dropped deeper into the pivot, with Ramires pushed wide. If Benitez wanted to get really crazy, David Luiz could be deployed as a central midfielder. Lampard might be reinstated when fit, as he's the player most suited to the role at present, but relying on a fragile, elderly player for your system to work is a sign that your system is kind of broken.


My only slightly-educated guess is that it will probably be the first option, with Oscar in the pivot and Ramires wide right:

That's not ideal for several reasons, notably Ashley Cole requiring more cover than Ivanovic, Oscar being shoved into an unfamiliar position, and Ramires' bizarre struggles with wide play this season, but it's better than what we've been doing recently.

No matter how this issue is fixed -- if it gets fixed, even -- if Chelsea stay in a 4-2-3-1, Benitez will be doing nothing more than plastering over the cracks until reinforcements arrive in January (a midfielder and a centre forward are required at this point).

As far as tactical acumen goes, the only upgrade I'm seeing on Roberto di Matteo is that the new manager will have more leeway to play pragmatic, balanced football rather than constantly being pushed into a suicidal attacking game.

Sunday against Manchester City will give us a strong indication of how Benitez wants to play this. The tactical flaws in the old setup were obvious, but given the personnel on hand, fixing them will be far from straightforward.

[quote author=A-40]Really yall should give Ibime credit. When the team was flying earlier he was more or less consistently pointing out the evident flaws in the team (playing style,personnel) which we are seeing now[/quote]They've all gone quiet. They'd rather bring up new arguments. Typical lack of accountability everytime their brain farts get exposed.

Who can forget our infamous argument on why Ramires doesnt fit in central midfield, and why he was being played wide to balance the team. Its a shame Lampards been virtually injured for the last 2 months otherwise I expected him to be redrafted once the Ramires and Mikel partnership had been proved to be no improvement (it was actually worse cos it disrupted the team by pushing Mata out wide, making two flanks down which opponents could choose to attack). The problem all along was that Emenalo had left a very bare lack of options in central midfield, and Lamps/Mikel altough a poor combination was better than Mikel/Ramires and even Lamps/Ramires. My consistent argument all along is that a mobile yet technical DM (ideally two) must be bought in January.

Infact, the last time Lampard was fit, RDM had already reverted to pushing Ramires outwide and Lamps back in the middle against Shakhtar, but unfortunately Lamps only lasted 15 minutes before being injured again (watch for another argument on how come Romeu wasnt used instead of owning up to our original argument). I am used to them creating new arguments instead of first owning up to the original argument.

Former Chelsea player George Burley

"They keep telling me he's coming in to get the best out of Torres. I've never heard no much nonsense in my life. He's a manager. . . not a magician!!! Have you watched Torres in recent weeks? He's so far off the pace, it's unbelievable."

debosky: It is very easy and convenient for RDM apologists to claim that Emenalo messed everything up - thank goodness we have over a month of footie before January to see what Rafa can do with the existing playing squad. When all is good, congratulate RDM, when it goes bad, blame Emenalo.

You keep trumpeting this nonsense line. What went bad?. . . and what can Benitez do between now and January? RDM has already played all the top dogs and is still in a healthy position in the league. Only Man City can test him of all the teams left, maybe Everton, so we will not be judging Benitez on any result against Nordsjaelland, Kashima Antlers or Fulham.

coogar: marcotti is an idïot......
what effort did di matteo make to correct the situation he found himself? 2 strikers in the squad and di matteo still sent lukaku on loan or was it someone at the top that made the lukaku move?

i have heard of mancini's moans when the people at the top are acting too slow! i never heard of di matteo moaning about the shortage of personnel in certain areas of his squad. he was comfortable with the situation - when chelsea were playing great, he lapped up the accolades(no one credited the people at the top) - now that things are ugly, marcotti wants us to blame the people at the top?

some people were born foolish!

So we are getting somewhere. . . now you are admitting Emenalo forked up. . "but RDM didnt challenge him". .

Thats a debate you know nothing about and you have no access to information. RDM is a nobody in the obnoxious world of the technical director and executives at Chelsea who make footballing decisions for the professionals.

It should be obvious to anyone watching that the Mafia at the top treated RDM as an unwanted problem, an eediot who isnt even worth consulting. Thats why it took them 1 month to offer the job to him. Thats why they agreed deal with Benitez after the Liverpool game TWO WEEKS AGO!!! These eediots never wanted RDM around in the first place.

Remember, when AVB was sacked they offered Benitez the job but Chelsea fans protested and they were left with no option but to hire RDM.

Dont worry. . . slowly, slowly, we are starting to know of Emenalo's incompetence. When he's done messing up at Chelsea, I hope he will not return to Tucson Academy Girl's Under-12 team from whence he came. His last chance saloon is to rectify his midfield and striking options in January.

How come Spanish guys know more about Chelsea midfield than El-Guapo and Nateevs combined, even whilst speaking broken English?

http://futbolisticametrica..com.es/2012/11/translated-by-google-original-spanish_21.html

Gabriele Marcotti's take:


http://soccernet.espn.go.com/blog/_/name/espnfcunited/id/1789?cc=5739#

Unless, of course, we are to believe that Di Matteo was sacked because Chelsea did not get the result they needed at Juventus. In which case it would be a simply idiotic decision. Because the implication is that, had Chelsea drawn the game, then -- presto! -- Di Matteo would still be good enough to be Chelsea boss.

The reason Chelsea is in this situation isn't hard to discern. It was folly to go into a season with Torres and Daniel Sturridge masquerading as the Blues' entire strike force. That was not Di Matteo's decision; somebody further up the food chain needs to take ownership of that.

Thinking that four central midfielders -- one of them somewhat limited (John Obi Mikel), one of them a recycled wide player (Ramires), one of them 34 (Frank Lampard) and one of them just turned 21 with little experience (Oriol Romeu) -- could be enough to see you through the campaign was equally silly. And equally not down to Di Matteo.

[quote author=A-40]What poor performance? They had a bad stretch but are still only 4 points off the top. Could narrow it to 1 if they beat Man City or at worst 3 should Utd win. Technically they are still in the UCl and would qualify if Shakhtar beat Juve (sic) still in the CC so what poor performance?[/quote]No mind the guy. He is so eager to label "poor performances" and "failure". I fully expected Chelsea to start rolling again when Lampard and Terry returned from their injuries.

Only Roman Abramovic saw an irritation and turned it into a crisis, then turned a crisis into a disaster. We have played all the big teams bar Man City so the only way was up from here.

The team had some foibles, not of RDM's making, that were exposed against two UCL teams who have only lost 3 games combined in over a calendar year. Ask them what midfield they would have played against Shakhtar and Juve, they cannot give you straight answer. They might even start telling you of Malouda and Ferreira.

nateevs: Under the right management, he can be anything he wants to be.
I just cannot believe that a little kid like that has ego the size of the world.
Did you hear him 2 weeks ago saying he sees only Messi and Ronaldo as better players than he is?

I almost fell off my chair.

You need that kind of ego to be successful. I read that interview in Evening Standard on ma way home and I could tell the journalist used enough creative licence. . .

hehehe. . . Soccernet make me laugh. . .

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story/_/id/1234593/premier-league-spotlight:-chelsea,-di-matteo,-abramovich,-avb?cc=5739

One could argue that Di Matteo took an unnecessary gamble with his selection in a game that was not the right time for experimentation, but who could have blamed him for trying Eden Hazard as a 'false nine' having endured the falsest of nines in the shape of £50 million Fernando Torres?

nateevs: Jeez! City have paid £15m for Zaha.

Is that good or bad news? They should take him.

Until he learns to pass the ball, I would not be scared of him going to our rivals.

debosky: The question is, if we believe Ibime, after Emenalo spent all that money, how come he isn't being held accountable by Roman?

Or has Ahamefula concocted some strong Okija juju that has blinded Abramovich to these alleged failings?

You gave the example of Liverpool - they fired Commoli not long after for his terrible transfer market dealings. Why is Emenalo immune?

Because Emenalo is Roman's ideas brought to life.

Some Chelsea fans have short memories. Where was Chelsea on the league (1st) when Roman sent Gourlay and Emenalo to query Ancelottis tactics. Ray Wilson told em to mind their business and got sacked for it. Emenalo was then "demoted" from Head Scout to Assistant Manager to spy for Roman in the dressing room, meanwhile Ancelotti gave him cold shoulder. Bloody girls' scout manager trying to influence tactics and tell experienced heads what to do.

Emenalo is a schmoozer who tells Roman what he wants to hear. Slimeballs usually get discovered eventually. The last slimeball Arnesen who was telling Roman what he wanted to hear about Shevchenko whilst denigrating JM's decisions eventually outlived his usefulness.

4llerbuntu: The way i see it is:
last time i checked, football is a team game. in fact, the team is emphasized to be a unit that must work well in order to have a good football side.

SHOULD THE FOCUS BE ON ADAPTING/COMPELLING THE PRESENT SQUAD TO HELP TORRES SCORE GOALS?
remember that it is agreed that a problem with this team is that they are not suited for some aspects of the game like defending. planting MAZACAR behind the halfway line to release passes is NOT going to make them mark or tackle!

EFFECTIVELY WE WILL STILL HAVE AT LEAST 4/5 PLAYERS WITH LITTLE OR NO DEFENSIVE INPUT OTHER THAN MERE BODY PRESENCE (and they are midgets sef)





or SHOULD THE FOCUS BE ON CHANGING THE PERSONNEL TO GIVE THE TEAM BALANCE
thereby dropping 1 or two of the famed 75 million trio, acquiring some new players, denting some egos, and causing possible disaffection amongst the prima donnas?

the team will also take some hefty losses in the interim (not a problem for baba olowo) AND THIS IS NOT GUARANTEED TO SOLVE THE TORRES CONUNDRUM as there is no guarantee the changes will bed in on time and the team will adopt the switchback/switchfront bullshyte





or, SHOULD THE TEAM ADDRESS SOME OF ITS FAILINGS BY SWITCHING TACTICS FROM THE 2 MAN MIDFIELD, ACQUIRE STRIKERS WHO CAN PLAY IN SYSTEMS OTHER THAN SWITCH FRONT/SWITCH BACK/ 1v1 AWOOF GOAL ONLY SCENARIOS?

obviously this would also mean dropping or ditching SIR SWITCHBACK FREE-GOAL TORRES, realigning the MAZACAR thingy or also dropping one of them




either way you slice it, this is not a job for the faint-hearted and i do think anybody with sense who is not dead broke and jobless would avoid the chelsea job at this point like a plague!!!!!

You've never made more sense in your years on Nairaland. This analysis is spot-on!!!

How can someone spend £80m this season and £70m last season and still come up with such conundrum which you painted, and which by your admission is "not a job for the faint hearted"? Such person should be held accountable.

Emenalo should be praised for buying Hazard and Oscar?

Shiiiii. My niece could buy them in her sleep.

If you want to talk about who Emenalo should be praised for, you should be talking of Thorgen Hazard, Kevin de Bruyne and the Athletico keeper.

Unfortunately these promising players cannot win any title for us and would not get their chance for two years or so. They are also players bought in positions we have already covered for the next 5 years.

Emenalo's job as the technical director is to produce a team that will win trophies this year whilst also looking to the future. What's the point of buying Lukaku for megabucks only to park him for 3 years whilst DD, Torres and Sturridge hold his position meanwhile leaving a gaping hole in central midfield that proves debilitating to our chance of trophies. As I have said previously Emenalo is a scout not a technical director. He has no business planning a squad, his only job is to recommend good players. A technical director should have a manager's mindset and strengthen weak areas.

One of his major flaws is misplaced belief in Ramires. Ramires was his personal recommendation to RA. There's nothing wrong with Ramires. He is a difference maker but he lacks the technique for central midfield. He is to be used at the managers discretion to plug tactical gaps mostly on the wing or to the right of a 3 man midfield to cover an attacking fullback or overload a wing. He can even be a brilliant right-back. Yet Emenalo has moulded his squad with Ramires in mind as a central midfielder. Last month some of una laugh when I said Ramires cannot be effective in a midfield two. I think I have been vindicated on that point.

Mikel would only work in a deep midfield. Infact he could be excellent in that position. As a defensive midfielder in a team that plays high up, he is an utter liability. Infact that doesn't begin to describe him. Same prolly applies to Romeu.

Emenalo built a squad which is slanted toward playing high up to get the best out of MaZaCar. Mikel does not fit as an anchor for such team.

This is why Emenalo is not a technical director. He's a glorified scout. He has no thought for team shape, he only spots talent.

Second flaw is his preponderance to Torres. He has always been a mole for Abramovic in the dressing room, and he is trying to do his masters bidding vis a vis Torres. No technical director would ever mould a squad with only two strikers, one who has been out of form for two years, and the other a youngster unproven at the very top level. I can understand his position in trying to satisfy the clueless Russians crazy whims but he's just a desperate sucker trying to keep a job, not do what's right for the club.

Sorry I have no sympathy for the guy. He is a lackey whose job is to justify the infantile footballing decisions of a Russian billionaire who knows nothing about football and he will never get any respect from me anymore than Ron Gourlay and Frank Arnesen, two other lackeys who Roman used to impose his infantile and morose football ideas on the club. For Arnesen, read RA interference with Mourinho. For Gourlay and Emenalo, read RAs tactical intrusions on both Ancelotti and RDM. . .to the point that Ray Wilkins was sacked and our season derailed when Gourlay tried to impose RAs tactical instructions on Ancelotti and Emenalo was employed as Assistant Manager and Romans spy in the dressing room.

If you want to know how highly Emenalos inane tactical knowledge is regarded, picture the cold shoulder that Ancelotti gave him, preferring to ignore him totally whilst using Paul Clement as his defacto assistant. Some of our Naija brothers even branded Ancelotti racist!!

Emenalo is a slimeball who Avram Grant brought to the club from coaching girls teams in the US and only survives by being Romans political attack dog. And he knows nothing about balancing a squad, but I give to him - he's a decent scout. Full stop!

debosky: I almost missed this

Andre Santos - scored vital goals in wins against Chelski and West Brom in only 15 appearances, scored goal to help Arsenal qualify for knockout phase of CL = secured third place finish. CL group stage

Jose Enrique = finished 8th, Europa League third qualifying round.

Thank God he only played 15 games. Maybe Arsenal would have swapped places with Liverpool if he played the full season.

debosky: When Benitez succeeds with this same team, I will use this same comment to browbeat your phat head till I knock the stoopid out of you.

I'm sure you would soon be upholding Chelseas upcoming victory against Kashima Antlers in the Club World Cup as evidence of this success.

Keep giving us more evidence of Emenalos foolishness. The 60 million worth of talent that according to you "should be dropped to bolster the non existent midfield " perhaps with Malouda or Ferreira. Get your calculator out son, lets find out how much money is on the pitch now we've dropped some of the 60 million talent for free transfers like Bertrand or Malouda.

Let's keep calculating son. Add the 50 million tooth fairy upfront lets calculate how much was spent to produce this mish mash of rubbish.

Yeah we lost 2 games and were overpowered in midfield by two sides who have lost a combined 3 games in the last calendar year whilst Giggs and Carrick got knocked out by Basel and Galatasaray last year.

Last year Emenalo spent 70 million and produced the worst Chelsea squad in the Abramovic era. RDM saved the season. This year he spent 80 million and couldn't put a midfield or strikeforce together. Keep feeding us more evidence of his incompetence.

Ibime said in July this team cannot succeed so Ibime sees no failure in losing away to Shakhtar and Juventus. 85% of poll respondents see no failure in RDM but debosky is chatting shyte with 15% mandate.

Wenger failed to get the best of Chamhakh. FACT!

Nigga yarning shyte

Ask Wenger to carry Chamhakh in his team every game lets see how far he gets. Relegation perhaps.

debosky: Lukaku left because he didn't trust RDM to play him. Simples. He spoke to him and asked to be sent on loan, you can't blame your fall guy Emenalo for that as well.

RDM failed to get the best out of Torres. FACT

RDM got sacked for his mistakes, one of which was failing to get the best out of Torres. FACT

RDM was given over £60m of new talent (whether bought by Emenalo or by the tooth fairy) and he was unable to use that talent effectively to the point they are on the verge of CL elimination. FACT

In the real world, managers work with what they have to produce the results required. Excusing a manager's failure based on 'Emenalo this, Emenalo that' is tomfoolery.

We've heard these vacuous arguments before - the same squad AVB couldn't get the best out of was the one that won the CL and FA cup. The same squad Scolari could not get the best out of won the FA Cup and pushed hard for the title.

As for my comment about what does Torres have to do with RDM's sacking, it is wholly consistent with everything else I've said. Only phat farts like Ibime will see a dissonance projected from their own confuzzled ideas. This was my first post, in response to a rubbish post claiming RDM was fired because of Torres.



The fact is, if Chelski were going forward to qualify for the CL round of 16, then he wouldn't be sacked. Torres didn't concede 3 goals y'day, so keep blaming Torres.

First of all why does Lukaku want to go on loan? Definitely not because Torres is better. A manager just got sacked because some tooth fairies like RA and Emenalo refuse to accept Torres is finished. You want Lukaku to hang around like he did during Nations Cup whilst the politicians keep Torres in the team for two months with zero goals and atrocious play?

60 million worth of talent and no defensive midfield or strikeforce. The 60 million worth of talent that this Mr Calculator said should have been dropped to "balance the non-existent defensive midfield" which some eediot mocked Ibime for few weeks back. But of course "debosky is not RDM". He's totally unaccountable for previous brain farts. How do we know the nonsense he's chatting now is not a "future brain fart "

Don't forget to tabulate the 50 million worth of outstanding striking talent purchased by the tooth fairy also. Mr calculator

debosky: All this megedefegede Ibime is yarning is nonsense!

Firstly, when RDM was doing well with these same players that Emenalo is culpable for buying, RDM was a hero. The second things go wrong, it's all Emenalo's fault and no fault belongs to RDM. What other way do you recognise a biased, foolishly unrealistic phat fart?

I know you must find something to say just because it's ibime.

Check the date ibime was criticizing Emenalo. Back in May before RDM was appointed. Biased indeed.

I know an incompetent schmoozer when I see one. Emenalo was the one planning switchback and nodding head like Agama lizard instead of being honest about Torres.

The one who sent all the strikers away to clear road for dud

The one who earmarked Mikel and Ramires as the central midfielders for a world class team.

Of course he is inculpable just like Damien Comoli at Liverpool shebi.

He's failed at his job, you are here yearning dust.

See this t.wat called Ibime blaming Torres for Lukaku's troubles - how many times did RDM play him last season? Instead that wasteman preferred Kalou whose days at Chelski were numbered. Yet Torres should be blamed for that!

When ignorance is displayed you can spot from mile away. Big on words, small on knowledge. Since when does Kalou play same position as Lukaku. RDM brought Kalou unto the wing and the ninja played pivotal part in our UCL and achieved in 100 days what you eediot manager whose every decision you defend hasn't done in 30 years.

Why is Lukaku out on loan if not because of Torres. Same Lukaku is doing well while Torres is flopping. Two months with no goal during ACN last year whilst Lukaku was on the bench. Of course Torres has no effect on Lukaku. Ode!

I can't believe an eediot who asked "what does Torres have to do with RDM sacking " turned round one hour later to state "RDM failed in his brief to get the best out of Torres " after reading "guff daily mail article " . I thought Torres had nothing to do with it.

Ninjas who talk nonsense then turn around later and make contrarian points with no shame. They would even spin into new argument like "yeah I got it wrong but RDM is not debosky. He should have got it right " . Shameless cretins. Show me one single article on the web where anyone said RDM failed yet some obnoxious self absorbed twart aarguing with Ibime to score points on RDMs "failures ".

RDM, great success. Delivered the ultimate prize. Torres, two years of constant failure yet some eediot is calling RDM failure and Torres a great. Was he in grammar lesson when God was handing out common sense?

coogar: hazard and oscar should be made to work harder or stop playing the 3 of them in one swoop. sturridge and moses must be used to protecting the full-back.

I thought you said Sturridge is the reason why Torres flops?

FBS: Is this the end of tiki taka for Chelsea or what precisely is going on?
Now I hear talk of counter attacking stunts and what not.. , has RA changed his mind?
Hazard is no Alonso and Mata is no Gerrard, well except Rafa is looking to remould them.
Sunday can't come soon enough!

Everybody want what they want. . . till they get it. . . then they dont want it no more. . .

I thought the job was to maximise MaZaCar but now Im hearing the job is to maximise Torres with "switchback".

RA want Guardiola, yet he dont want tiki-taka.

Arsenal fans liked tiki-taka when Wenger brought it in, now they dont want it no more.

Two weeks ago, Nateevs arguing the superiority of tiki-taka, now hes asking why RDM did not defend his own half and launch counterattacks.



Please make una help count the opportunity cost of Torres asides the £100m black hole in transfers and wages

(1.) Club legend RDM gone, hated rival Benitez in. . . as well as that kebab-eater Zenden who collected £40k (big money then) every week from Chelsea for three year just to eat kebabs. Lets not talk of all the compensation pay for coaches and assistants.
(2.) AVB gone. . . partly to do with when DD went to ACN and attack was left in Torres hand for 2 months with no single goal
(3.) Ancelotti gone for failing to incorporate Torres
(4.) Loss of team morale, sotay players are quibbling if he should be in the team. Tired of playing behind a dud to no avail.
(5.) Loss of Daniels Sturridge's Chelsea career. Just when his chance has come, Torres is reinstalled. He ain't signing new contract. £12m player gone because of Torres.
(6.) Loss of Lukaku's Chelsea career. For the next three years that Torres contract is on, Lukaku is a wasted investment till RA sees sense
(7.) Loss of another effective striker, probably Falcao that woulda been bought
(8.) Lower output in all competitions. Surely we would be top of the league now with a striker befitting the investment.
(9.) Now they are telling us we have to de-optimise MaZaCar's influence for Torres to shine.


Yet some fellow blues keep supporting this cancer in the club. Hasn't he cost enough already?

Benitez keep mentioning Emenalo in every sentence in his press conference. I hope the heat wont turn on Emenalo next if Torres fail to fire. Infact, I hope it does!

coogar: launching a counter-attack does not mean MAZACAR must wait in their own half to do it....jeeez, are you this idiotic? how much defending did gerrard and alonso did in those days at anfield.

the defensive liability of MAZACAR is the sole reason chelsea are conceding like they do.

jonathan wilson has said it all here....

Trying to find the old Torres


Maybe a more cautious side overall will benefit Torres – with Chelsea's wingers likely to be stationed in deeper positions, this may draw opposition full-backs up the pitch and give him more space to work in.

Firstly, Alonso, Gerrard and Kuyt were always in their own half before "springing". But lets leave that aside. . .

Good! Thank you! We agree totally!

First lemme assume (I dey laugh) that this would get Torres firing (na lie o!)

Now we know that Emenalo bought MaZaCar to be "stationed in deeper positions to draw the opposition fullbacks up the pitch", like Gerrard and Kuyt.

In other words, defending in their own half, waiting for counterattack.

OK!

So coogar, whats your take on Emenalo's hand in this?

In May, Ibime posted this:

https://www.nairaland.com/920248/official-chelsea-fan-thread-champions/31

Ibime: Under discussion is 4-2-3-1, a bespoke system that will be used purely for the benefit of Fernando Torres.

Chelsea’s £50m striker will be at the top of it and there will be a three-man supply line stationed right behind.

The talk at the training ground is of ‘switch back’, a tactical trap that will be set next season for opposition defences.

They intend to draw the opposition away from their own penalty area, pushing up towards the halfway line before Hazard, Juan Mata or former Werder Bremen winger Marko Marin releases Torres for a one-on-one through on goal.

It is a system that will be borrowed from Liverpool after a study of Torres’s goals revealed that 56 of his 81 strikes for the club were scored in similar circumstances.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2151724/Roman-Abramovich-rebuilding-Chelsea-Pep-Guardiolas-arrival--Neil-Ashton.html#ixzz2CyYUPcTQ

then wrote:

Ibime: So he bought Hazard, Marin and Mata to "defend on the halfway line whilst waiting for opportunity to put Torres clear through"?

I hope the defensively weak Mata, Hazard and Marin will not concede three goals whilst waiting for such opportunity to materialise. grin

Emenalo should continue plotting the graph (c) FBS, all I know is that Hazard, Mata, Marin and such are gonna play their footie in the opposition half, not "switchback"

Nateevs said:

nateevs: Why do you believe the story anyway?
You need to stop this glorifying these idiots that assume everything and just write to sell stories.
You cannot just swallow hook, line and sinker.
It's the flipping Daily Mail for pete's sake.


The writer is talking a tactic he heard about in Chelsea now "empty" training ground.
A tactic that intends to integrate the likes of "Hazard" whose only affiliation to Chelsea at this moment is via a single sentence on Twitter and "Marin" who is yet to be unveiled by the club as a signing.

Then you go on and abuse your own people. Exactly what they want you to do.
Emenalo may not be a high profile technical instructor/analyst, he may not look and talk the part, he also may not be as silly as you always make him out to be.

There's a reason why he heads the Chelsea world-wide scouting network.

FBS chipped in. . .

FBS: Na wa o. Wetin person no go read on NL ..."switch back", "swing front, "shape keeping "
What about "shadow chasing"?
OK, I confess to knowing zero about football but isn't it acutely dangerous to base your tactics around one single player? What if he does not deliver ?
nna wahala dey ooo. OK sha them homies still dey plot graph. ..norin do us.

And now, nateevs has changed tack and is claiming it:

https://i45.tinypic.com/2eaphkn.jpg


Lets get this straight. . . check the date. . . May 2012. . . we have now established that Emenalo bought Mata, Hazard, Oscar and Marin to sit behind halfway line and "spring opposition defences" or "switchback". Its ridiculous enough to buy players to revive a dud. . . but Emenalo even bought the wrong kind of players!

Lets establish that fact, so from now on, we know where ma criticism of Emenalo has been based long before RDM was appointed.

Also establish the fact of how Nateevs has changed tack. The switchback now "pretty much expresses what we pro-Torres fellas have been talking about" although he dismissed it as first, yet Emenalo takes no blame for the fact that - according to his bolded quote - "At Chelsea, players like Juan Mata, Frank Lampard, Ramires and John Mikel Obi — together with new arrivals Oscar and Eden Hazard – preferred to pass their way through the opposition"

Who bought the players in bold to play a system alien to them? But Emenalo takes no blame. We are watching!

nateevs: It's a good thing this was found out by RDM himself. Which begs he question, when RDM knew this, why did he not formulate a system to get the best out of his "only striker"? Why couldn't he mandate his players to play a system that prevents the sack?

I thought you couldnt go any lower. . . but alas. . .

Yeah, lets sit MaZaCar in their half waiting to feed Torres on counter. Why did Emenalo buy those players if that was his intention?

Is it better to de-optimize Torres (already a waste) or de-optimize MaZaCar?

Since 2010, Torres has been playing at Liverpool and Chelsea in teams who sit back and spring counterattack. What has he achieved?

Inshort, I dont have time for this barrel scraping toad introducing duplicitous arguments. I leave it with FBS:

FBS: Benitez promises to bring the best out of Torres! Good.
[size=16pt]Are we playing for Fernando or playing to win? [/size]

We've been across this bridge before. This is the 10th time Torres (and Nateevs corresponding arguments) has failed. And RDM is to blame for not fashioning an imaginary "success" that would get Torres firing if he plays an "imaginary formation". Oh by the way, its the same "SWITCHBACK" formation he was ridiculing when I told him that is what Emenalo is planning for Torres. God help us!!

Ask this eediot Nateevs what the formation is that RDM should have played, he would start telling stories. He doesn't want to admit that the players bought by Emenalo do not fit the "springing opposition defences" style of counterattack.

Last season it was "get Torres with Mata and Sturridge and I anticipate it would go well."

Couple months ago the eediot said "MaZaCar would do it."

The shameless goat has now pulled another "imaginary style" that would get the best out of him. The fool Nateevs who disowned Torres two days ago has now found another argument.

OK. . . we wait for the next about-turn. . . lets give it 4 games!!!



To cap it all off, the eediot reverts to type. He read this from the DailyMail:

FBS: At Chelsea, players like Juan Mata, Frank Lampard, Ramires and John Mikel Obi — together with new arrivals Oscar and Eden Hazard – preferred to pass their way through the opposition.

and wrote this:

Nateevs: It's also a good thing to know that RDM agrees with Nateevs that Lampard is not exactly the kind of midfielder to play behind Torres. When I stated this, they said I was an eediot. I bet RDM is an eediot too.

Oh by the way, how many goals has Anelka and Ramires scored from Lampard through-pass on counterattack?



In the last two days alone, this nincompoop has reverted every argument he has made this season. (1.) he disowned Torres two days ago (now he's reowned him again on faint hope of Benitez), (2.) he's admitted that he was wrong about playing Bertrand and Rambo on the wing (3.) He's admitted Ramires is substandard in central midfield (4.) He's admitted Mikel Obi is poor DM in our system (5.) He's admitted the tantrum he was throwing about Lampard leaking goals was unfounded.



After so many gaffes, Rafa Benitez HAS GIVEN HIM HOPE!!! Nateevs can still salvage something from shekpekeeper this season!


OK. . . let me humour him. . . I give him one more chance on Torres. . . after which. . . BAN!!!!


Seriously, the nigga deserves a LIFETIME BAN from CHELSEA THREAD if this goes wrong for him AGAIN!!!