Eggy McMuffin

I'm not sure if your and dkw's post is aimed at what I wrote, but I'll try and answer anyway. I'd agree with the first paragraph, and disagree with the second. It's never nice to lose, nor go out of any competition, and it's something I definitely don't like to see, and even worse is people saying that they're glad to be out, which reeks of bitterness to me. On the second, what I saw as losing the game for us was Zhirkov. Now I'm not even saying it was his fault, I would possibly even blame Carlo for it. He was out of position and just couldn't cope. Which meant we had no real presence in the centre alongside Benayoun and Ramires, now if Essien, Mikel, Lampard (if fit), Malouda, or with hindsight, even McEachran were in there, we would probably have won the game after going a goal up. We just failed to control the game, and of course you can't without a central midfield capable of playing the position. You're right about the bench, I too would have preferred to see a stronger one as I said before, but there's nothing we can do about that. Your logic on McEachran is quite strange too... Forgive me if I'm wrong, and please do correct me, but you're saying that by not playing McEachran, we'd see him more? When? If we're not playing him, when would we see him?

I didn't say play all young uns, I said to limit it to about 4 or so, which we did, so I'm guessing I come into this group. I don't think it's a good result, because we lost, but are you saying that it was all down to the youngsters that we lost, rather than anyone else? So you don't think it was Zhirkov and Benayoun's lack of presence in the centre, where they were out of position and pretty clueless? You don't think it was down to a generally poor performance... remember that we have lost cup games where we haven't played youngsters, too. For example being knocked out of the Carling Cup to Burnley with this side... Cudicini; Ferreira, Alex, Ivanovic, Bridge; Mineiro; Kalou, Belletti (Lampard 25), Deco (Mikel h-t), Malouda; Drogba (Di Santo 68). - Granted, Scolari was in charge... I would much rather be knocked out by a side when we're giving our youngsters a good go, and valuable experience of a tough game, than get knocked out playing a team full of our better players, which no one really gains much from it (other than Mineiro of course!). Sometimes things just don't go our way, but I for one am glad that we were willing to give it a go, and glad that Carlo showed faith in our youngsters. I was disappointed by the lack of strength on our bench, but then again, we may not have seen McEachran play so beautifully if we had a stronger bench. There are positives, which you don't really have to look too hard to find, with the real negative being that we're out of a cup. It's unfortunate as the Carling Cup has been good to us, and none of us here want to see Chelsea lose any game, ever, but when else would we give our youngsters that kind of baptism of fire as it were. We couldn't risk it in the Champions League, the League nor the FA Cup, so why the f**k not?

Personally, I'd rather have Ferreira on the bench than Van Aanholt, and that is nothing to do with how well they played against Newcastle. It's two things, one, if Ivan gets injured who would play right back, so having two players able to play left back on the bench would be redundant. Two, in this kind of game, I'd trust Ferreira more defensively... only just, mind you, only just. Other than that, those are our options, although thinking on it Bossingwa did get a run out for the reserves, so he might be fit enough for a place on the bench as a better option than Ferreira.

Let's also add that the world is about to end, we're all gonna die, and no one really loves us.

Which one?

That.

Zhirkov just doesn't work in the centre. I'd say take him off for Woods to give us a bit more steel in the centre, even if I would prefer to see McEachran. He's probably the best option, unless you put Alex on and push Bruma up to Ramires' role and push Ramires up to Zhirkov's role, but that would be too much disruption for me.

I think that will depend on the amount of youngsters played, but I do see your point. I think 4/5 youngsters is the maximum we should play. The main problem though, is where. Two defenders and we could be vulnerable at the back, two midfielders and we could lack presence, and two up top and we could lack potency. So maybe we should just play 3 in total, but would that be Kakuta or Sturridge up top, Kakuta or McEachran in midfield, Bruma or Van Aanholt in defence. It's a bit of a tough decision for Carlo to make.

There's actually a formula for working it all out. It's the same one as on FM09, although it's out of 5 stars instead of 7. Here it is.

Blackpool seem to have remembered that they're involved in this game too...

I'm more concerned about a lack of creativity centrally, but I think that might be why Anelka is rested. Anelka thrives on the creativity of other players and without as much in the centre, he could get frustrated and come searching for the ball and go miles out of position again. Could be interesting, tactically.

I personally believe that it's the way that music is presented on the radio. In America, everything is compartmentalised into genres, you get one radio station playing one kind of music and not deviating from it. Over here, Radio 1 will play rock, pop, dance, drum and bass, anything... well... within reason. This sort of gives you exposure to a greater variety of music and not so much allows you to experience other kinds of music, but forces you into it. It may cause you to turn off the radio every now and then, but more often than not it broadens your horizons to a new genre. Unfortunately this is getting less prevalent, and we're hearing more bullsh*t hip-pop, or what they often - wrongly in my view - dub r'n'b. If it's not that, it's artists and bands doing a Pendulum and playing the same f**king setting on the same f**king synth for three motherf**king albums running and claiming it's new c**ting sh*t. I'm personally disenfranchised to the point where I can no longer willingly listen to the radio, even to shows I used to like, due to the plastic feel it all has, and the way that artists are afraid to deviate from the style which brought them success because their 'demographic' may not like it. Wow, that turned into a rant faster than it should have... anyway, I don't think it does always trump US stuff though, in fact some of my favourite artists are American. I mean Bon Iver's For Emma, Forever Ago was ridiculously good. I listen to it often, and I enjoy it far more than one rightly should, but trust me it's good. The problem is that you often have to dig for music, even when it's that good. English music may be more accessible to you, or may even be managed better by the record labels involved. Far more likely than either of those however would be that where the music scene in England is right now, is simply more attuned to your own tastes. I used to be a real audiophile, but I have since stopped spending as much time listening to and looking for new music, and also, my amazing speakers broke. So I had to buy some cheap replacements, but I guess this counts as my view on the difference between American and English music.

That's why Jediism failed. We only really have May the fourth be with you. As a legally ordained Jedi Priest, I may have to add some.

I have, and he is very depressed.

It actually made me think of this...

I'm going to sound like a right boring c**t, practically repeating what I said before the Zilina game, but I'd play Benayoun instead of either Essien or Ramires. Not just because he played very well against Zilina, but also because we could do with his creativity in the side, and also his pace catching what is a very attacking Blackpool side on the break. Him Essien and Mikel should be way too strong for Blackpool to cope with, but would give us more of an attacking threat than playing Essien and Ramires together. I'm definitely not saying that we should take it easy against Blackpool or underestimate what a side with a point to prove can do, but I'd rather see Yossi attacking from the centre. I'm sure this is what we bought him for... covering Lampard, adding creativity and pace (especially against weaker sides), and picking out the killer passes.

I'm not saying be complacent, and if that's what you think I mean when I say we should play Benayoun rather than Essien, you're missing my point. Against smaller sides, brute force isn't always the way to go. Benayoun is our Deco/Cole replacement, right? Without Frank in our side, we could do with that kind of player, particularly against a smaller side who would be very happy with a draw. I'm saying rest Essien because that's the position he was playing in our last game, and Ramires could do with a couple of games to get used to our system. In my view it's the perfect game for Essien to sit on the bench. With Essien, Ramires and Mikel in the centre, we're very strong defensively and have a lot of power going forward too, which is great, but sometimes you need a bit of guile and creativity, and with Frank out, Benayoun is the player we have who could deliver that from the centre... We could play Malouda there, but he's more comfortable on the wing, and why take away from what is our best player right now. With Kalou and Anelka up front, with Malouda, we won't be able to launch long balls up there as we won't have Drogba to hold it up, so we need more intricate passing... you know, like Benayoun might offer. I would be happy having Zhirkov instead of Essien, moving Malouda inside, but I'd be concerned it would take away from Malouda like I've already said. We just need to watch out that we don't just try to fit too much power into our midfield in these games, when it could well be wasted against a side unwilling to attack as much as the spammers were. In no way would this make our team half 'assed' as Ethical put it. It would just make our side more suited to beating the opposition we're facing... at least in my view, anyway. I'm not talking about starting Kakuta, Borini, Van Aanholt, McEachran or whichever other youngster. We bought Benayoun for a reason, and I'm of the opinion that this type of game is that reason.

I would not be against seeing Essien rested and a midfield three of Mikel Ramires and Benayoun... Benayoun would just give us a touch more creativity in the middle, which is something you need against a smaller side.

His competition is Barry....

Bruma.

I've heard it a lot of times about Mikel, too.

Another brilliant article on Zonal Marking, this one about the importance of players like Mikel, Carrick, Busquets and the like. http://www.zonalmarking.net/2010/07/30/central-midfield-role/ It's very interesting to see if this is a trend which continues and where it leads to... it also brings to mind how Lampard has played for England.

I'm 21... and yes. :D

:D More likely though, it's that there were two of us saying it, rather than just one person. If more people joined me in feeling that Muse are overrated, I might start winning people over (other than those who I've spoken to in person).