Eggy McMuffin

This I'm not so sure on. I think a central midfielder is what's missing from so much of our game and Luiz kind of showed that with his performance, imagine what an actual midfielder could do. When it comes to our pressing, neither Mikel nor Lampard can keep up. With an injection of pace like Luiz gave us into our passing and the pressing, we just need the ability to slow things down when we need to and we will be so much stronger. I think a midfielder is more important than a striker for that reason.

David Luiz was great today and really showed what we're lacking in central midfield. That being said, I don't think he should play there long term. He lacks awareness and positional sense as he's not used to the position and my main gripe is that he has one pace, it's all go all game. Sometimes you need to take the sting out of the game. We need to sign a proper midfielder, but it's great that he can come in and do a job like he did today when suspensions and injuries call for it. I still feel his future is at centre back.

cech ivan Cahill Terry Dave Mikel Lampard Oscar Willian__________________Hazard Torres Fairly standard with Oscar a bit deeper than normal to help the midfield.

It's not just against better sides, even against worse sides, his driving runs through midfield help whenever there's a transition. If he was alongside someone who can provide a better link to the attacking trio, more incisive passes etc. We'd have no issue at all there, but then we'd struggle if we get broken on. I agree that he'd be better in a 4-3-3, but whether that'd suit the rest of our side is up for debate and no doubt Mourinho has considered it and decided that we suit 4-2-3-1 more. I agree others may suit us more, but he's comfortably our best now and until that changes he has to play. Pogba is my dream, anyway.

Wow, I thought I was one of the bigger critics of Ramires. Ramires may be limited technically, but that doesn't stop him from being extremely effective. There are better players out there for sure and he isn't the best fit for our formation in a few ways (not strong enough defensively to stay back more, not technical enough to provide a link to the attacking trio), but the way he drives us on in games is invaluable, especially when the rest of our options struggle to offer that. I would love a midfield of Pogba and Guarin with Chalobah, Ramires and MvG as our central options next year. Admittedly that's dream land cost wise.

I'd rather we spend £50mm on Pogba, but then again I'm just greedy. I'm happy with The idea of Guarin. If we sign him, I'd like to think it would work out.

I like your reasoning here, but it would have Willian instead of schurrle. I think he offers more and is really starting to live up to his price tag.

It only crept under the radar if you don't know any West Brom fans. They've been calling for this for months now. Not knee jerk at all. It's just that it hasn't been publicised.

Literally?

His ability to find space is rivaled by Mata. I dunno, I think Hazard offers more starting wide and coming inside to find space.

I think that's probably fair and I'd suggest Willian is probably the third choice for the centre spot as he's more suited to it, then De Bruyne. I feel Hazard likes to run at players more than control the tempo of the game, so is less good there than on the left.

I think our best 3 are Mata, Oscar and Hazard until proven otherwise. Competition is going to be incredibly fierce, but it means we have so many options to change the game. I have a feeling that Moses may be on the way out, but obviously have nothing to back this up, he's just the weakest of the seven and two players for each position is more ideal. Everyone can come off the bench and change the game and I'd trust Mourinho more than any other to pick the right player at the right moment.

If we sign Eto'o (and honestly I hope we don't as I never even rated him at Barca). It's with a view to one season while Lukaku is still developing, an upgrade on Ba essentially. We aren't in a position to say what Mourinho and Emenalo are discussing and why they sign certain players, but there has to be a reason.

Defensive midfield isn't really a position we even use in its purest form right now, but for that central duo we have 5 players. Ramires, Mikel, Essien, Van Ginkel and Lampard is a good level of competition for those places. Personally I'm a fan of playing Oscar there as well, but that's my own view and no manager on earth would likely agree with me (other than ones who'd play Mikel at centre back). As long as Mourinho can get Ramires to stay disciplined in that defensive role, we have a good line up there. We have 3 strikers in Lukaku, Torres and Ba and are looking to sign Eto'o or Rooney as well. Others have already covered how our defence is covered and I think that Bertrand although not spectacular is extremely solid, which is what you want from a backup. He's always going to be reliable. Once Cole does leave, then we can think about replacing him. Now isn't that time. Our squad is extremely strong, deep and young. I'm extremely excited, not just for this season, but for seasons to come. How good Oscar has looked in his first few games. De Bruyne, Hazard, Lukaku, Van Ginkel, Dave are all young and going to be top drawer if they aren't already. That isn't even mentioning Mata, David Luiz, Ramires, even Courtois and now Willian. We have an incredibly exciting future here.

There's discussion and there's the consistent complaining we seem to be having here. If it's not moaning about signing a £30m player, it's moaning about selling a player who wasn't performing for us. It's incredibly frustrating to read.

Yep and now it's your turn. Stop bitching and let us see what actually happens before you have your moaning session.

If our style doesn't need an out and out winger, why buy one? If our style needs attacking midfielders who can fluidly change positions and create as well as score, then we should probably sign players like that. If we want to change things up and be more direct, we have Schurrle and Hazard can play that more direct style.

The way of Chelsea fans - Moan, moan, moan. Despite being lucky enough to be a Chelsea fan in our most successful era, with our most successful ever manager back at the club. SpadeFX above hinted at the workload our players will be under, but we also need to consider the type of players we have in that attacking band and the type we need. Frankly I don't think Moses fits in and I think Schurrle was a direct and more versatile upgrade on him. I like Moses and think he's a good option to have, but our squad is pushing on. There are areas I'd rather we'd spent that money on, but that doesn't make it an unwise investment, nor does it mean that our best player is leaving. In that attacking midfield trio we can start with Hazard, Oscar and Mata and bring on Schurrle, Willian and De Bruyne. That's a squad to be wary of. Any one of our second choices have the ability to change a game and it's not much of a drop in quality to bring any of them on. Bring on the season I say.

I love Kale.

It's not that his first touch isn't brilliant at times, it's that his touch is inconsistent.

You're right, Mata doesn't play for Italy much.

To go back to the earlier thing. If Mata is to play on the right, surely Oscar would be the more likely candidate in the centre than De Bruyne, at least to start with? Personally, I prefer Mata in the middle, though I think it plays to his strengths more in terms of playing in tight spaces.

It was more that I went on youtube and searched Mikel, I didn't pick it for any other reason. I think that video shows excellent play, but I guess we prefer different things in players, but yeah, too many threads have been derailed by me and my pro Mikel stance.

Whether you care about his performances for Nigeria or not, it does show that he's capable of such things, which of course raises questions like whether it's a mental thing (i.e. big fish little pond type thing) or if it's what he's instructed to do. But since you asked nicely (you didn't, but lets pretend), here's a Mikel compilation for Chelsea.

If we're going to wait a year, why not wait for Chalobah/Ake? I'm not convinced that Song would be an upgrade on Mikel. Definitely not defensively for me.