ethicalstrategy

not for you though apparently!

And what`s wrong with Geremi? apart from the fact that he is crap defensively and can't cross the ball for sh*t? absolutely nothing! I was awaiting this kind of a answer.... But I think right now he`s better than Ferreira and Diarra is a dangerous and unexpirienced away match option. So sing the praise song for Geremi with me...... Geremi!! GEremi!!! P.S. Bridge will make crosses and Geremi plays short passes.....!? Yes I would agree that Geremi would be better than ferreira if we play the diamond in midfield. But I think Diarra already looks better going forward and certainly no worse defensively than geremi.

I was under the impression that we needed to stay unbeaten at home until the end of the season to equal that record. Last I heard we were on 56 games.

If JT is fit then Essien will take Mikel's place I think. Diarra should definitely stay at right back. Whilst he is a little suseptible to being caught out of position he gives us a lot more going forward than either Ferreira or Geremi. Playing with a diamond we really do need both full backs to bomb forward and put in some telling crosses and Bridge and Diarra are most likely to give us that out of all the options we have, fit or otherwise.

And what`s wrong with Geremi? apart from the fact that he is crap defensively and can't cross the ball for sh*t? absolutely nothing!

Blackburn posed a good test for us. They have some excellent players up front with McCarthy, Bentley and Pederson. But they did not have the chance to score 5 goals in the first half. Yes, they did look dangerous and yes, they might have scored, but 5? not in a million years. Sheva had an excellent game. I know he didn't score, but in the main it was down to good keeping from Freidel. If he plays like that for the rest of the season he will score plenty of goals. Overall I was really encouraged. Diarra was excellent and Loz is right about Drogba, he really is tremendous. He is worth his place on his work rate and commitment alone - so 24 goals is quite a bonus!

A third point to consider.... we are currently 12 points down on the same stage last season. So it's hardly a case of Liverpool improving. Unfortunately, we have got worse. and still you are 5 points behind us! That must be pretty demoralising. Still, at least UEFA have come to your aid by bending the rules especially for you!

Hmm. If Maka is not available then I would go with: ---------------------Cech Ferreira -----Essien------Carvalho-----Bridge ---------------------Diarra ---------Mikel-----------------Lamapard -------------------Ballack -----------Sheva--------------Drogba Otherwise I would play Diarra at right back.

Have to agree - Campbell looked absolute class!

Name a player that has; Won the Champions League - Zinadine Zidane Played in the UEFA Cup - Stewart Downing Played in all four English Divisions - Eric Nixon Played in a World Cup & Currently plays in the Premiership? - Thierry Henry Not so difficult!!

You are all pessimists!! Chelsea 88 Man U 87 and that includes us losing to Arsenal - which we won't!

...glen johnson should be our right back will be instructed to watch his performance against man u yesterday. he really was the weak link in the portsmouth defence. poor positionally, bad decision making & general sloppy play. he looks a million miles away from the player we need.

I'm not sure that Huth is any better than Boulahrouz. It's pretty hard to make much of a judgement about him at centre half as he has only played there about 4 times for us. First time he was alongside Terry and was fine. The other times he was alongside Carvalho and his decision making was terrible against Everton. Clearly he is a back up for Terry and Carvalho and as such I would think he is fine.

Would generally agree with Butch's ratings with a few tweaks. 1. CECH - His biggest contribution was talking to his back four. He was constantly on at them to not come too deep and gave most of them a bollocking at one time or another during the match for something or other. Anything that was up in the air in the box he just came and claimed easily. The result was we looked a lot more composed 2. DIARRA - Did have a good game. I think he deserves to get a run in that position if we are going to play the diamond. Looked comfortable and handled the aerial pressure well too. Only downside was that he gave away a few cheap freekick near to the box. 3. A.COLE - Looked very uncertain in possession. He had the run of the left side for the first 30 mins and managed one good ball in the first minute where Sheva should have scored. After that he was very poor going forward. 4. CARVALHO - Made a huge difference to the defence. He was organising the others, something that has been missing without him. consequently we looked a lot more solid and their aerial bombardment came to nothing. 5. ESSIEN - Played well, but is wasted in defence. He was like a caged tiger desperate to get forward and on three or four occassions challanged for the ball in defence, won it and drove forward. 6. MAKALELE - Was almost penalised out of the game. Everytime he went near a Wycombe player the ref gave a foul. 8. LAMPARD - As a big fan of Frank I have to say this was one of his poorest games for us. I know he scored two goals and the first in particular he took very well, but his choice of pass was woeful. 9. DROGBA - I thought Drogba looked pretty pissed off for most of the match. He worked hard as usual and created some opportunities for others but lacked composure when through on goal and spent a lot of time complaining about being fouled. I think we need to stick with this line up now (maybe Bridge for Cole if I was choosing) and look to build up some pressure on Utd. Looking at the next few fixtures they will almost certainly win them all and so we have to do the same and hang in there. After that there are a few games where they may drop points and we have to take advantage of that.

Based on what evidence? I mean I agree that the relationship looks frosty but is that purely down to Jose?

the quote from Kenyon was: "I think it is fair to say with John and Frank we are well down the line with new contracts that will keep them at the club for substantially longer and I think that would be a big boost for everyone." http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/footbal ... 284127.stm

We have three. that is madness I agree.

you have got to admit thought that feigned or otherwise it doesn't seem to take much to put him out of action for long periods. to be fair he broke his foot on two occasions in his first season due to awful tackles...yes he seems prone to hamstring strains etc which is frustrating but on saturday he landed badly and turned his ankle over...he has been rather unlucky...but if the fans and jose are frustrated, imagine how he feels I agree in the first season there wasn't much to be done but he's half way through his third season now and it seems to me that he has been missing injured an awful lot over that period. I know there is not much can be done about it but you do have to question whether we are ever going to see him get a decent run of games to show us what a great player he can be.

the injuries don't show how unbalanced the squad is. the injuries make the squad unbalanced because they have been focused in two positions - goalkeeper and centre half. not many teams could cope with losing two goalies and two centre halves.

I agree that he always looks like he is trying, but the story is that he isn't putting the effort in in training. Whether that's true or not I don't know. and yes, it will all end in tears

can't agree with that. lampards agent said it. specifically to counterwhat kenyon had said. it might be part of the negotiating ploy but if i were in frank's shoes i would be considering all my options in light of what's going on at the moment.

you have got to admit thought that feigned or otherwise it doesn't seem to take much to put him out of action for long periods.

I think that there is a big chance that Frank will leave if Jose does, not so sure about JT. I agree that nothing is likely to be sorted before the end of the season. I definitely wouldn't be blaming Kenyon on this. I am sure he would want to tie this up asap.

Is the squad unbalanced? I don't think it is terribly unbalanced in terms of where we started the season. We could have done with an extra central defender and another striker but otherwise it looks ok. Goalkeepers: Petr Cech Carlo Cudicini Hilario Defense: Ashley Cole Wayne Bridge Ricardo Carvalho Khalid Boulahrouz John Terry Paulo Ferreira Geremi Midfield Claude Makelele Lassana Diarra Michael Essien Frank Lampard John Obi Mikel Michael Ballack Wingers/Wide Midfield Arjen Robben Joe Cole Salomon Kalou Shaun Wright-Phillips Strikers Andrei Shevchenko Didier Drogba However, if we look at where we are now then a combination of injury and poor form changes the picture quite dramatically: Current squad - excluding those unfit: (those dreadfully out of form in brackets) Goalkeepers: Petr Cech Hilario Hedman Cudicini Defense: Ashley Cole Ricardo Carvalho Paulo Ferreira Geremi Midfield Claude Makelele Lassana Diarra Michael Essien Frank Lampard John Obi Mikel (Michael Ballack) Wingers/Wide Midfield (Salomon Kalou) (Shaun Wright-Phillips) Strikers (Andrei Shevchenko) Didier Drogba Now we defeinitely have a problem. With the players we have then we have to play 4-4-2 -------------------------Cech Ferreira--------Carvalho-----Essien------Cole -----------------------Makelele ----------Ballack---------------------Lampard -----------------------Mikel ------------Sheva----------------Drogba

Exactly. It's not as if Ballack hasn't played there before. I do not think one has to be able to make 1287428742 tackles and run like a headless chicken for the entire match (aka Scott Parker) to be a good Defending midfielder therefore simultaneously a "beginer", someone to make the transitions with a decent pass. Yeah, he could play the Carrick role to perfection!