Just wanna know what the other members of this forum think about the formation.

My toughts are the next:

We dont have the players to play the 4-3-3 in this model.Our centre forward is unreachble,Mata and sturridge always have to go up and down so the kind of attack they give is not that great.

So mostly we have 1 guy (Torres or Drogba) in the attack with the whole defence of our opponent around them.

I think if we can play with minimum 2 real attackers,doesn't matter who(Im just talking about the formation) that our attack level will get a huge boost.torres,sturridge for example.

And in that scenario we have mata that can be place in his real role at the top of the diamond,straight behind tha attackers.

In that case we had enough choice for the 2 CM's (lampard,essien,meirelles,oriol) even malouda as emegency plan.

We also have choices for the DM , (Oriol,essien,Mikel)

I also think that the RB and LB get more out of their play!

And if we can buy 1 or 2 players to increase a position , I think we are back what we were.

We've played our best football this season using a 4-2-3-1 formation with Mata in the hole behind the striker where he can really do some damage and is not isolated on the left hand side.

We've played our best football this season using a 4-2-3-1 formation with Mata in the hole behind the striker where he can really do some damage and is not isolated on the left hand side.

I agree. I still don't understand how AVB or anyone has realised this. Everyone seems to be talking about playing Mata in the middle to get the best out of Torres, yet he's not doing it. It will work better than the 4-3-3

After the first-half sub yesterday I was under the impression we were playing this:

----------------------------------Cech

Bosingwa------------Luiz---------------Terry-----------Cole

----------------------Ramires----------Meireles

-------Sturridge-------------Malouda------------Mata

---------------------------------Torres

After the first-half sub yesterday I was under the impression we were playing this:

----------------------------------Cech

Bosingwa------------Luiz---------------Terry-----------Cole

----------------------Ramires----------Meireles

-------Sturridge-------------Malouda------------Mata

---------------------------------Torres

That's what I thought I saw as well. I was hoping it was just my imagination.

Did AVB want Malouda in the middle because he's more likely to shoot than cross when he gets the ball and a shot is more likely to go in from the centre than out wide? I dunno, I'm going to have a think on this one. It's interesting.

I may be wrong, but I think Malouda was deeper and moving to the left from the center, and Mata was drifting in from the left wing.

Throwing ideas out:

A return to the diamond (at least as a plan B) might not be the worst idea in the world considering our full-backs. We could try something like this:

-------------------------------Cech

------------------Luiz-----------------------Terry

Bosingwa------------------Romeu----------------------Cole

-------------------Ramires-----------Malouda

-------------------------------Mata

--------------------Torres------------Lukaku or Sturridge

Malouda and Ramires both naturally drift wide sometimes, which will help us both defensively and offensively. Overloading the midfield will help us retain possession and Mata gets to play in the hole behind the strikers which allows him a free role and lessens his defensive duties.

I'm sure you'll all be able to think of a great deal of issues with that lineup, but one that strikes me immediately is that there isn't really a passer in the midfield.

The diamond is useless without fullbacks who can actually cross.

The diamond is useless without fullbacks who can actually cross.

I think once we play a diamond ,I think our fullbacks automaticly will be more usefull.Ok bosingwa's crosses are a shame.But we have Ivanovic,I remember a lot of super rushes and crosses from him!

Yup Ivanovic's crossing is great. Cole isn't bad either to be honest.

No, Cole's crosses have been decent this year. A handful of crappy ones, but some brilliant ones too. Sadly, those brilliant crosses are the only reason I'd say he's had a better season than Bosingwa. Both have become major liabilities on defense. Teams run right at our fullbacks and more often than not go around them with ease.

It'd be nice if Ivan could get healthy, and Luiz could learn LB again. (I know, never going to happen). Ivan--Cahill--Terry--Luiz is a stout defensive wall.

I am perplexed as to why not Ashley is dropped or given rest and Ryan Bertrand played often. Ashley is aging needs rest and most importantly Bertrand is more stable in his play and needs gametime.

I am perplexed as to why not Ashley is dropped or given rest and Ryan Bertrand played often. Ashley is aging needs rest and most importantly Bertrand is more stable in his play and needs gametime.

Broken question right from the start. It is dependent on the players in hand. So looking at our league position straight answer to the question is NO.

It might work with different players or it might not...

AVB likes the way Wenger and Guardiola set up their teams. I think he is a big fan of both managers. He tried to implement the style right away starting from game one and it worked for a while. Then teams started to knowledge that and take advantage of it. We weren't ready. After that we have totally changed the game back to what it was with all our previous managers. I think it wont work as long as we have the old Jose guard still as our spine. These guys are used to winning regardless of style.

Ashley's started fifty consecutive league games for us now or something ridiculous. His footballing brain is as good as ever, but it's no wonder he's looking a bit ragged, getting outpaced sometimes and having lapses in concentration when we're asking him to tax his body as much as he does. That's without considering the fact that he gets taunted and jeered by the crowd solidly for 90 minutes for at least half of those games.

I have no immediate fears about Ashley's ability, but it does seem baffling to me that a 22-year-old English youngster who has looked nothing but solid and dependable whenever I've seen him (and who is very capable of whipping in a top-quality cross) isn't even getting a sniff of a chance.

yes we've got over the 'high-line' problems we were having - good

yes more of a settled pattern of 433, and we can keep the ball - good (sort of)

yes few injuries - good

but lets be honest, the slow slow build up from the back, left to right and right to left, then back again is so tedious. Teams have plenty time to funnel back, reposition and re-align and go again - shuffle across one way to the other - even QPR managed to prevent us getting shots on goal

result is fewer goals scored, some pretty dull 1-1 draws and no sign of dynamic or progressive play which is what we thought AVB would bring

maybe he is still experimenting but the way we play is also important, not just results

right now we aren't get either

onto Swansea..............

Well, Chelsea fans got sick of AVB's "revolution" so they demanded that he revert to type- which he did. He traded our short-term problems for the long-term problems of the last 5 years.

In perfect hindsight, it was the right thing to do in light of the stronger competition this year.

The phrase "be careful what you wish for" would've been appropriate around October.

That said you're absolutely correct about the tactics, but whether Chelsea fans have the patience to give the manager time remains to be seen. As much as we like to blame the board and Roman for being "trigger-happy", the past few weeks with fans calling for AVB's head and worse, a desperate SOS to Jose like a "jilted lover" (Liam, 2007), shows our fan base to be very hypocritical.

Edited January 30, 201214 yr by SydneyChelsea

Are we still undefeated in 2012?

My problem with the so called 'revolution' SC, and I've been one of AVB's biggest critics, is that it wasn't particularly revolutionary. It still had no real width, and was heavily reliant on the fullbacks to provide the man over.

We'd seen this under Scolari where we have fullbacks who are pushed too far up, leaving us open to be exposed to attack on the counter, which we regularly were. So the revolution didn't get us more goals it simply made us concede more.

A real revolution would have been to base us more around stretching the pitch and quality movement in the final third. We talk a lot about provoking the opponent with the ball, but very rarely did we see the full width of the pitch used to draw out players and get us in behind with nice interplay as we used to see regularly from Cole and Malouda during our last title winning season.

We're winning nicely right now and top four should be secured if we continue to scrap 1-0's against the lower teams, but there is no doubt in my mind that the AVB revolution hasn't been the right one for England and he will have to modify it in order to gain long term success here.

Since we have no one besides Mata to create in the middle we heavily rely on wide players to stretch the defenses. Both Ashley and Bosingwa have been average to poor this season and the slow build up complicates things even more so we continue to struggle upfront.

Tactics are working fine. We've been instructed not to concede goals so even if it means keeping the ball in your own half and slowly passing it around like you're trying to wind down the clock right from the start of the game then so be it.

We started the season with AVB's system. It worked for awhile. We started losing and changed back to the old. Why? Players started to question the system and AVB changed it back to the system the players are used to. Is it good? Yes and no. We are still the Jose team playing the Jose system but at least we are gathering points.

At this point the system is not the fault. We simply don't have players for AVB's initial system. Ramires and Sturridge are the types we need to make the system work; fast and straightforward with a great work ethic. Mata can play any system.

thanks all for voting,now I know what the rest is thinking of this!!!