Taipan

Well, here is the official statement from Liverpool. It doesn't say much, but doesn't deny anything: link No doubt now that something happened. But the details will probably take a while to surface. The funny thing is that even with the fight between a couple of teammates, the Barcelona squad is looking even more at war with itself than Liverpool.

Lampard is a cog in Chelsea's midfield machine. But Gerrard is the Liverpool midfield machine by himself. (At least, he used to be when he used to play in central midfielder for them.) Liverpool fans look at that and see that as proof of Gerrard's superiority. They see Gerrard doing everything. Sometimes that includes doing things that Lampard doesn't do, or more accuratley things that Lampard rarely does. I look at the same game and see the same things Gerrard is doing all over the place and I see it as a flaw. Sure Gerrard can do everything, but wouldn't his team be better off if he let his teammates play as well? That is where Lampard is better than Gerrard IMO. But it isn't really a valid comparison anymore. Most of my criticism of Gerrard as a midfielder comes from things he was doing a year or more ago. Gerrard is no longer a central midfielder for his club, but rather more an attacking right sided midfielder. Even when Sissoko got injured Gerrard continued to play wide right and it was that renown midfield maestro Bolo Zenden who came into the centre of midfield instead. It was only when Zenden was injured as well that third choice Steve got a run in the middle of the park. Not content with the impending return of Sissoko and Zenden, Liverpool chose to further strengthen their existing contingent of midfielders by signing Mascherano. Given their complete lack of anybody else of any quality who can play wide that says a lot about where they see Gerrard's future. If they saw him as a central midfielder then surely they would have tried to use those resources to get a quality winger instead. This thread really should be comparing Joe Cole and Steven Gerrard. Both used to be central midfielders, but who now play more attacking roles out wide - where they have more freedom to display their natural talents, and if they fcuk up it doesn't hurt their team as much.

Cech - 8. Save us a few times in the second half, but was indecisive a couple of times in coming for high balls. Once in each half the ball came in and the nearest defender (Ballack in the 1st half, Essien in the second) were expecting him to come for it. Diarra - 5. Did some good work with the ball, but a lot of his crosses were wayward. Defensively was suspect, with his main problem being frequent fouling. For the last half hour he was virtually a lame-duck defender, knowing that one more foul would get him sent off. I was suprised Jose didn't sub him out. Essien - 7. Had remarkably little to do in the first half. Had to actually play in the second, which he did pretty well. Carvalho 7.5. Tower of strength. Bridge 9 and MOTM. Did everything. Great in attack, putting in a lot of excellent crosses - I hope Cashley was watching. Also excellent defensively. Makelele 6. Loses a mark for letting Faye through on goal. Other than that a typical Makelele performance. Mikel 7. Not an eye-catching performance, but I thought he did his job. Lampard 8. Ran the show in the first half, and another goal. Perhaps went missing in the second for a period of time when Charlton got some momentum. Ballack 7.5. I thought he had a good all round game. Shevchenko 5. After putting together some good performances against lesser opposition recently I thought his performance was down again. He did have a good shot well saved, a header that he probably should have scored, and some half chances, but I thought he was lazy at times. In particular I don't think he attacked the ball in the box. I saw lampard busting a gut to get on the end of a Drogba cross from midfield (and almost make it) while Sheva was a lot closer but he stood still at the far post having a rest, and didn't start to move until it was too late. He did that a few times IMO. Drogba 7. He has got pretty high sttandards these days. I think this was a middle of the road performance for him. None of the subs had much time, but SWP actually looked dangerous and played well in his time.

From the link in Chippy's thread: Chelsea squad: Hilario, Cech, Cudicini, Ferreira, Geremi, Carvalho, Essien, Bridge, A Cole, Lampard, Drogba, Diarra, Mikel, Shevchenko, Wright-Phillips, Kalou, Woods, Ballack, Morais. Blackburn squad: Friedel, Henchoz, Khizanishvili, Emerton, Warnock, Bentley, Pedersen, Mokoena, Tugay, Nelsen, Derbyshire, McCarthy, Nonda, Samba, Brown, Berner, Gallagher, Peter. Blackburn seem to have some issues of their own. They've lost Savage and Ooijer to broken legs, and Lucas Neil to West Ham. So they have lost three regulars in the space of a couple of weeks. Maybe a debut for Warnock, their signing from Liverpool.

This might not be Kenyon's fault. To me, the possibility of Frank stalling on his contract for the remainder of the season and then a move to Barcelona is a very real possibility.

I had been unimpressed by his performances in his previous games, but I thought he was outstanding against Liverpool. He was in the Makelele role, and as such didn't have the opportunity to do anything really eyecatching. But I thought he tackled very well. Suprisingly so given his previous suspect tackling performances. He held his feet and won the ball cleanly every time. I can't recall him conceeding a free kick. Liverpool didn't create anything through his part of the pitch. All their dangerous attack went over his head or around the edges. He also held possession really well. Often under a lot of pressure from their players he calmly kept the ball and found a teammate. There were no brilliant slide rule passes releasing an attacker through on goal, but there was a pass completion rate that would not be too far off being 100%. I think he did everything asked of him, and he did it really well. He has really gone up in my estimation after that game.

I used to work in the sports science laboratory at the Australian Institute of Sport, and I did a major in sports science in my degree. Though biomechanics is more my thing rather than physiology or sports medicine. :-)

I'm not offended in the least at the term Chelski. Honestly, half the world call us that, or CSKA London. There are worse names out there for us, just as there are worse names for our visiting fans as well. Big deal. (by the way, calling United 'ManU' did become a banning offence on Redcafe for a while, but it had been in common use for years...)

Sand dunes to simulate altitude? I don't think so. That is just silly. The benefit of training at altitude is less oxygen in the air. That stimulates the body's natural producction of EPO. That helps the body circulate oxygen through the blood and so helps with an athlete's endurance. Altitude training = better endurance. Altitude helps recover from injuries? I don't think so. There is less oxygen in the air at altitude, so slightly less oxygen in the blood, so the blood has a [slightly] reduced ability to repair injuries. Altitude training = [slightly] longer recovery time. If you want to recover from injury fast you would do the exact opposite of altitude training: Some athletes use decompression chambers similar to those used to treat scuba divers for 'the bends'. The chamber simulates the effect of being for example 50 meters below sea level. Under that pressure there is more oxygen in the blood and so the body can better heal itself. I expect that training in sand would just be to improve strength.

Apparently Gonzales' injury isn't too bad and he should be back in a few weeks. Garcia looks like he has picked up a case of 'Michael Owen knee' and is probably gone for a year. Sad for him if true. But back to the important business of gloating: Meanwhile in other news ambulance crews were called to the Nou Camp stadium in Barcelona when it was feared that the entire Barcelona first team had suffered serious food poisoning. However, those fears were soon proved unfounded when it was discovered that the players had in fact been watching the English Carling Cup quarter final and were merely hysterical with laughter.

Our Anthony Grant is currently on loan at Wycombe. I looked up their last six games or so and see that he has played every game (in one of those he came on as a sub after 60 minutes). Can he play against us? I'm pretty sure that he couldn't if it was a premier league game, but I'm not sure if it would be the same in the league cup. I hope he can play, but if not then I guess they'll be weakned by his absence.

Who'll blink first is right. One of Star's updates on the situation was: If we take that as the current state of play then all parties are set for the deal, with the only sticking point being Cole's additional payout. Chelsea, Arsenal, and Cole all have a lot to lose if the deal doesn't happen. Personally I think we've got the least to lose. Worst case for us is that we don't sign Cole, and we start a difficult Champions League campaign with Bridge as our left back and look to sign someone in January. I will not lose any sleep over that. Del Horno out, Bridge in. We're still better off than we were last season. We also don't give one of our main rivals a huge amount of cash, and Arsenal are stuck paying a very disruptive players wages. Arsenal stand to lose out on a world record fee for a left back. Our apparent 18.5 million offer is almost double the previous world record fee for a left back (which I think is Zambrotta's 9.5m). They would then have to continue to pay in the region of 60k-70k per week for a player who has been very disruptive for them. If he doesn't leave them this summer he'll go next, and his value will be plumeting by the week. Cole also has a lot to lose if the deal doesn't happen. He's pretty much burned his bridges at Arsenal. Their fans despise him. He may decide to drop his demands for the additional cash settlement to make sure the deal happens. Given all parties want the deal to happen and it will only take one of them to back down for the deal go through. I still think it will probably happen. I just hope it isn't us who blink.