₦airaland Forum

Newcastle defenders want fork me up. They better concede jor.

Make una leave story. What we are hearing now is that Torres cant score unless you give him come-chop. Even me would plunder 30 goals a season if you put me through one-on-one.

Rubbish. . . since his injury, Chelsea defending has improved two-fold. . . We've kept 4 clean sheets in the last 6 matches. . . Mikel has only played in 2 games where we kept clean sheet this season (Blackburn and Stoke) whilst Romeu has played in 10 (Valencia, Genk, Newcastle, Wolves, Norwich, Sunderland, Portsmouth (FA), Fulham (LC), QPR (last week) and Leverkusen). . . .  when was the last time Chelsea conceded more than one goal. . . or do you like dragging opinions out ya arse?

Mikel who has been an abject failure at Chelsea for 6 seasons suddenly turned to the reason we are not rolling over teams? Wake up nigga!

coogar:
the most intelligent sentence on the chelsea thread in 2012.

however, people put mikel down because he doesn't score and assist goals.
they forget that his short, backward passes help the team retain possession, provides a balance and it gives the attacking players the freedom to cause havoc.
if it's down to goals/assists - guardiola wouldn't need busquets, fergie wouldn't need carrick and liverpool fans won't be missing lucas leivia.

Possession is not our problem currently, certainly not slow possession. Chelsea are 2nd in the table on possession stats. The problem is what it has been for the last few seasons. . . speedy transition on the wings. . . Anelka was one of the few that could provide a remote semblance of that in recent seasons but he's off to China.

So if we hadnt signed Torres last year, we could have broken even?

Was Ramires not playing the last few weeks?

The only thing we miss about Ramires is pace, and thats only cos the wingers are not providing it. Ramires simply compensates for lack of wingers. . . but on a normal day, Ramires cant get into any top midfield.

This is the shell of a team we have been carrying for sometime now, yet some peeps always quick to blame Lamps for stagnant performances. . . when Lamps is the only one providing threat. Some peops thought Lamps should carry the team even with no wingers but even their favourite Spanish trequartista cant manage it.

Anyway, methinks Torres has had his chances now. When will Lukaku get a game?

How come I had to be playing the only guy with Modric in his team this week?

Which successful signing did Ancelotti make? Not a single one.

Ancelotti did not interfere with "club policy" in the slightest.

Dope!

De Bruyne has good delivery but is not a dribbler and is not particularly pacy. In other words, he can play well in a system (much like Malouda) but he doesn't provide an outlet. Our fundamental tactical problem would be cured by having someone on the wings that can travel with the ball.

We need to go sign an out-and-out winger ASAP.

The closest we had to that was Anelka.

Pricepaid:
you people should stop talking trash,this is simply a story without a solid base,the source of this news is not reliable so i have no reason to join in the crucifixion of GEJ,i did not vote for GEJ so i'm not one of his fans but to join campaigning against him i need a solid and reliable reason to do that.People just come to NAIRALAND to post rubbish in other to condemn a particular person.

What we do know is that these expenditures are true. They were widely reported during the campaigns. Whether the reporter has pulled a fast one and linked them to fuel subsidy is anyones guess, however the questions remains - where did GEJ get all these funds?

The same billionaires who all pledged billions of Naira to his campaign are the same ones who overclaimed on subsidy.

According to Daily Mail, Fernando Torres is scoring a lot of goals in training.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2092924/Chelsea-striker-Fernando-Torres-looking-50m-last.html

Nateevs abeg which site you give me last time for footie matches. I want watch QPR match later.

When will RA, Bruce Buck, Ron Gourlay and Emenalo stop buying players and leave the professionals to it?

TBH with you, De Bruyne is not a man we need right now. He wont make a jot of difference to Chelsea. Shevchenko, Torres, Lukaku, Courtois, you name it - the club specialise in going over the managers head.


[size=14pt]
Chelsea's Kevin de Bruyne interest is club policy, admits Andre Villas-Boas[/size]

The 20-year-old Genk winger is set to complete a move to Stamford Bridge, although the Portuguese concedes the player is 'not within his immediate projects'

Andre Villas-Boas has revealed Chelsea's interest in Genk winger Kevin de Bruyne has nothing to do with him.

The 20-year-old, who has been linked with Chelsea before the arrival of Villas-Boas, is set to complete a move to Stamford Bridge before the January transfer window shuts, but could be loaned straight back out to the Belgian club as part of the deal.

Villas-Boas, however, claims the decision to target the midfielder comes from 'the club'.

“You have to speak to the people from the club about that. It's not within my immediate projects,” he told reporters.

“He's a player the club has scouted for some time. I'm a manager who respects club policy.”

Villas-Boas conceded De Bruyne looks a talented prospect but hinted the prospective signing is not likely to be part of his integral plans this campaign.

“A club has to look to the future, whether it's with this manager or another. He's a good bet for the future,” said Villas-Boas.

Last season, De Bruyne scored five goals and recorded 16 assists to help Genk win the league.

“The expectation is that [the transfer of De Bruyne] will be finished this week,” a club spokesman said on Friday afternoon.

Jeffrey Bruma has been so poor at Hamburg and previously at Leicester, I wonder what all the hype was about. No wonder Lotti preferred to play Ferreira in centre-defence ahead of him.

Dude has shown no awareness, poor positioning and surprisingly, a lack of pace during his time with Hamburg.

coogar:
he's a team player. . . .
the only quality service he got against norwich was the one that produced a fine save from the norwich goalkeeper.
that has only happened 4 times since he moved to stamford bridge.

See your mouth. . . he had a clear run on goal. He took two dreadful touches and had not the pace to get to the ball in time to get his shot off, so he meekly and unsuccessfully tried to square to Sturridge.

3 years ago he woulda finished that.

coogar:
this boy is a mumu. . . .

the question is does he get quality passes like that from your midfield? yes or no.
knowing torres loves to stay on the shoulder of the last man. . . .have chelsea played to that strength of his?

just answer abeg!

75% of them goals were in similar positions to the position he was in against Norwich where he tried to square the ball to Sturridge.

coogar:
[flash=425,400]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BDf8reWdeA?version=3&feature=player_detailpage"[/flash]

An epilogue for a fallen striker.

Even the music from Abba sounds like something you play at a funeral.

Anybody watching that would tell you that was a player with real pace.

See that first goal? Fernando has been in that situation 50 times since he joined Chelsea but had not the legs to accelerate away from the defender.

Nigga went from Usain Bolt to Sunday Bada.

Nope. Possession percentage is City, Chelsea, Swansea. Simples.

This is definitely wrong because the 3 top possession teams in Prem this season are City, Chelsea, Swansea in that order. Arsenal should not be in that list.

Ibime:
Since his arrival, Chelsea have scored an average of 2.5 goals per match when the Spaniard has not featured, but only 1.68 per game when he has. The difference is startling and a clear sign that the Blues rely on a centre-forward to drive not only the scoring but the creation of their goals.

Shape keeping at its finest.

[size=14pt]A year of frustration: Are Chelsea paying the price for persisting with struggling £50m man Fernando Torres?[/size]


Nearly a year on from his high-profile transfer to Stamford Bridge, the Spaniard boasts some depressing statistics - can the club afford to wait for an upturn in his form?

Fifteen minutes into the second half and it seemed that Norwich City’s resistance was finally broken. Chelsea had not been at their best but were dominating possession and turning the screw after the restart. Jose Bosingwa stormed down the right and delivered into the box. This was it – the end of the drought.

Then Fernando Torres missed.

As the one-year anniversary approaches of the day when Chelsea broke the record for a transfer fee paid by a British club by throwing Liverpool £50 million, the Spanish striker is still in what you might generously term his settling-in period.

Three hundred and fifty-five days into Torres’ time in blue and the statistics aren’t good. Five goals in 42 appearances. £10m per goal. Since his last league strike against Swansea on September 24, 181 other players have etched their names on the Premier League scoresheet.

Saturday’s miss, a lame toe-poke from close range when it would have been easier to score, and the 0-0 result to which it contributed, extended his goalless run to 11 consecutive league games, his worst ever period.

“What a waste of money,” the Norwich fans gleefully sang – but is it time for Chelsea to cut their losses and admit as much? Can Torres ever overcome his Stamford Bridge malaise?

There are reasons to say no, that there is hope yet in persisting with the misfiring marksman. The simplest is the adage that form is temporary and class is permanent – before his 12 months as a Blue, Torres racked up 172 goals in 384 matches for first Atletico Madrid and then Liverpool, a fearsome record.

You cannot, of course, simply ignore what has been a humiliating nosedive of a year for the striker, but you can point to evidence that players can overcome barren spells of this kind.

Take the example of Inter’s Diego Milito. The Argentine hitman struck twice in the Champions League final in May 2010 to cap off a treble-winning season in which he scored 30 goals and confirmed his reputation as one of Europe’s finest strikers.

But he too endured a horrific calendar year in 2011. The 32-year-old netted just seven times in that period and was awarded by Italian fans the little-coveted Bidone d’Oro award (‘the Golden Bin’) as the worst player in Serie A. Yet, two games into 2012, Milito already has three goals and looks back to his best – and this is a player older than Torres.

It is not a direct comparison - Milito did not have a £50m price tag weighing on his shoulders, for one thing - but it offers hope to the Blues’ No. 9 that there is always a way back if you keep putting in the effort.

The more convincing case, though, is that it might be better for everyone if both Chelsea and Torres were to call it quits.

The 27-year-old’s problem is hard to address as it seems an acute mental one. There have been signs, for example, that his all-round game is coming back, particularly against Sunderland a week ago but also at Carrow Road.

Torres was energetic, particularly in the first half, finding some promising positions and even bursting into life to conjure a chance before the break, only stopped from assisting Daniel Sturridge by an alert Anthony Pilkington.

But, close in to goal, when all he had to do was tap into the poacher’s most natural instinct, he could not pull the trigger. It looks like a classic case of what golfers call ‘the yips’ – a mental barrier that is only exacerbated by spending time dwelling on it.

Overcoming this would be an easier prospect if Chelsea were prolific enough to push through and help him to rediscover his old self free from burden, but they simply are not.

Since his arrival, Chelsea have scored an average of 2.5 goals per match when the Spaniard has not featured, but only 1.68 per game when he has. The difference is startling and a clear sign that the Blues rely on a centre-forward to drive not only the scoring but the creation of their goals.

While Torres flounders in that role he prevents Sturridge, whose average of 0.30 goals per game on the right wing dwarfs the Spaniard's apologetic 0.12 in the middle, from having a chance to flourish in his preferred central position. Young Romelu Lukaku also showed promise with a marauding run after coming on late against Norwich but has few opportunities while faith is kept in the £50m man.

The Blues are a side undergoing rejuvenation. The acquisition of Gary Cahill this month is a continuation of the makeover Villas-Boas began in the summer by buying the likes of Mata, Lukaku and Oriol Romeu.

The ageing Stamford Bridge outfit are set to say goodbye to Didier Drogba at some point in the coming months, with Frank Lampard also slowly being phased out and more likely to follow. But can this fresh start complete itself while the Torres monkey clings firmly to the club’s back?

The No. 9 has become a figure of both comedy and pity at Stamford Bridge, so much so that it is hard to imagine that he will be able to shake the image in the eyes of the nation’s fans. An escape from the Premier League, ideally back to his native Spain, might well be the healthier option for the player.

Torres’ form had already been dipping when Roman Abramovich, seemingly on an impulse, produced the enormous cheque to prise him away from Anfield on deadline day last winter. Maybe now is the time for Chelsea to concede that cutting their losses would be healthier for them as well.

E be like say na only Ipukulu Marines chop this weekend. 

I for chop more sef if I no bench Bale, but no shaking, I still chop 16-20 points on ma main rivals.

Ma target for December was to make top 10. I achieved it one week early.

Ma target for January was to make top 4. I've achieved it one week early.

Its time for Lalaboi, Sauron and Agaba to get nervous cos ma target for February is to make top 1! 

chamotex:
You are joking right?
With only 3 players left to play

Niggas got 10 points between 8 players (including captain)

Bitchboy

Some ninjas captains gonna double 0 points

Well some people have argued for years that Chelsea does not need natural wingers. Its games like this where the stark difference between natural and play-maker wingers is exposed.

If Ashley Cole doesnt make overlaps (which he's stopped doing these days) we are unable to stretch the play. Bosingwa does stretch play but always wastes the final ball.

Finally. . . . you sometimes get results like this when you dont have a striker. The boys are even trying small considering we are the only top 6 team without a striker to speak of.

Lukaku should be given a run. He showed more threat in 15 minutes than Torres did in the previous 75.

Ipukulu Marines breaking into top 4 this weekend. . .

Mubz didnt win any trophy last season either but I put his name there cos he won the league season before. You nincompoops should shut the eff up when trophy winners are speaking. Some people have been trophyless all their lives yet pointing fingers at those who won trophy season before last.

All these trophyless lot making noise on here about who beat who. . .

If you aint Tboogie, MEND FC or Mubz (trophy winners), please shut the eff up!