BigIzz

The problem is Carlo can't make a lot of changes as we lack the depth to do it. What other senior players can he put in the team? An out of form Boswinga? A struggling Ramires? A striker who doesn't score in Sturridge? Drogba to the bench? Didn't work against Spurs. Give a 17 year old a starting spot? The other young players (Kakuta mainly) don't look much like they will turn it around. Firing Carlo isn't the answer either. What has he really done wrong? As I understand it he doesn't have control of the personel decisions. Plus the general thought was Carlo was brought in to win the CL where we steamrolled through the group stage. He has a proven track record there and deserves a chance to see that through. For me this poor run of form goes back to the Blackpool match on September 19th.. If you recall that match the squad played incredible football in the first half. Played as good a half as I've ever seen. But when the team came back out for the second half it wasn't the same Chelsea. We were out played by Blackpool in that half. No reason to panic at the time but look at the results since. A loss to Newcastle, loss to Man City, were somewhat fortunate to beat Arsenal, draw to Villa, unimpressive win against Wolves, outplayed by Blackburn, loss at Liverpool, unimpressive win against Fulham, pounded by Sunderland, loss to Birmingham, three draws in a row and now the loss to Arsenal. We had a few decent CL results in that stretch but we haven't seen anything approaching our top gear since the first half against Blackpool.

Saying we handed the title away is wrong. Man U could look at their results and think they should have it wrapped up now too. So could Arsenal, so could City, so could Spurs. This title race is far from being decided. If anyone thinks any of the top five are just going to run the table then they haven't been paying attention. Every team in the PL has significant weaknesses and it's hardly beyond imagination that any of e top five could be on top at the end.

Zonal Marking did a decent write up of our tactics from last season... http://www.zonalmarking.net/2010/05/10/chelsea-premiership-champions-2009-10/

Yes, this is a favorable draw as Copenhagen are the least accomplished side however that doesn't mean this will be an easy tie. From what I've seen they are unbeaten in their league this season and gave Barca a difficult time in the group phase. There is no easy matchup in the knockout rounds (well, except for Barca)

Thats a very negative view of things. Champions League is a bit of a crap shoot anyhow, the best team isn't sure to win. If we don't get good results against Man U and Arsenal it might be smarter for us to forget the league and focus on the CL, no? (which I obviously don't mean literally) We are in poor form now but we might be lighting it up when the CL resume again. As for my preferred draw I really don't have much preference. We are better then all of those teams and none seem especially stronger then the others. I suppose you'd like to avoid Milan. Inter, Roma and Valencia wouldn't be a cake walk though.

Terry. May have had some culpability on Spurs goal but other then that he was fantastic.

We hadveplayed more of a 4-4-2 in some matches recently. It hasn't helped much. A 3-5-2 would be every interesting and if everyone were healthy we'd have the personel to play it with Cole and Boswinga but I don't know how well our centre backs would adapt to playing in a three man defense. We could try more of a Christmas tree with two of Anelka/Malouda/Kalou/Sturridge tucked in behind Drogba and a three man midfield with Ramires and Essien playing out wide and Mikel in format of the defense. You could even play it so it was off center. Ramires could play wide to the right in order to support Ferriera and match up with Bale. Mikel and Essien could play as central midfielders with Essien further left but not out too wide. He can stay tucked in to allow Cole room on the flank. ...PF......Ivan......JT.....Cole... ..Ramires..Mikel...Essien....... ........Anelka.....Malouda......... .................Drogba...................

I agree which is why I said we shouldn't have even bothered to play it. Think Platini would have been mad?

I really see nothing positive to take out of that match. We can't say that we found any good form, we can't say that we attacked well, we can't say that we ground out a difficult result, we can't say that we kept a clean sheet. Of course it doesn't matter but...blah. The team shouldn't have even bothered to travel to Marsillse. This feels like a bad dream. When will we wake up?

Our response to their goal couldn't have been more pathetic.

We were pretty fortunate to have that goal disallowed. What was Cech screaming about before the shot?

Malouda was tackled in the box and the ref immediately pointed to the spot. He then conferred with the linesman and gave a corner, which it pretty clearly wasn't.t it was either a penalty or a goal kick for me (I thought it should have been a penalty)

Typical Kalou. Does brilliantly to make room for a shot but fires it horribly wide.

Enough criticism of the team selection. Can everyone at least agree that our kits are awful?

I'd like to see PVA too but I'll trust Carlo with this one. It's pretty obvious he wants a result and to be 100% with the lineup he is fielding.

Even if he is, how could he make more then a cameo appearance? If he were ready to return on Sunday you figure he'd be fit enough to play against Marseilles which would be the perfect opportunity to get him so meaningless game time but he didn't even make the trip.

Taking one of the worlds best strikers and last years golden boot winner and making him a make shift cetreback is a panic move and would never, ever happen. Sadly, Spurs are better than us coming into this match. Spurs do have one real significant weakness which is they concede a lot of goals but I wonder if given our current form we are able to take advantage of that. We have quite a mountain to climb but that doesn't mean it can't be done. We need a big match from JT. We can't afford to concede more than one goal, if that many. In terms of our lineup, we only have two options at centre back so JT and Ivan start there along with Cole. At right back our options are Boswinga and Ferreira and considering they are gonna match up with Bale this isn't much of a decision either (can you imagine Bale knocking the ball 20 yards ahead and him and racing against Ferreira go get the ball?) In terms of midfield, I like the idea of starting Ramires. This match seems much better for him then Man City when he really struggled. He won't have to deal with a De Jong or Toure but with Lennon, Bale, Modric, etc. This is a much better matchup for his pace and energy then most Premier League midfields and he will provide good cover against either Bale or Lennon. Obviously Mikel and Essien get the other two spots. Up format, i think it has to be Drogba or Anelka but not both. I'd think Carlo would go with Drogba because he seems a better bet to terrorize Spurs defense but let's remember at Man U when he went to the bench an Anelka started up top. Anelka drops much deeper and could help us find our rhythm and movement better. Malouda starts and then either Kalou or Sturridge. I'd personally pick Kalou because Sturridge hasn't shown me much but could go either way. We should wait to see what happens against Marseilles. I'd hate to say it but a draw wouldn't be a bad result here in the larger picture. It wouldn't do anything to get us out of this current funk but this is a very difficult match. Unfortunately we aren't just competing with Spurs for the title but for a top four place now.

For better or worse we are going to answer a lot of questions about this squad and the fate of the season before the transfer window evens opens.

We need to look at the very difficult position that Ancelotti is in here in terms of squad construction and use. It's clear that he and upper management aren't on the same page. Management clearly wanted a cheaper, more sustainable squad. The reason why is irrelevant but they cut the amount of veteran players and their hefty wage bills (Ballack and Cole the two best examples). Carlo may want to develop youth but be fair: he can't. He really has no choice but to play his best lineup every week as evidenced by the existence of his thread. He is under tremendous pressure to get a result every week and despite winning the double a year ago he could lose his job after a bad 7 or 8 match run. So yeah, maybe one of the kids will shine and turn in a brilliant performance but there is a chance they will be in over their head and play a dreadful match. So what does he do? He turns to the veteran whose upside may not be nearly as high but he can be reasonably confident about what he will get. Sure, a few struggling matches might help the youngster develop but Carlo can't be concerned with that. If he turns in a few struggling matches he won't have a job.

It's just BS speculation. For all we know this is true but none of this is backed up with facts. Journalists really have no way of knowing what is in Romans head and what his plans are so they ought to just shut up. Let us remember that a few weeks ago, Roman went to watch the Blackburn match with a bunch of supporters at a bar in New York on a Saturday morning. Does that at all sound like someone who isn't passionate? The man is a billionaire and literally could have done anything he wanted in the biggest city in the world but he chose to watch Chelsea play a lower table opponent with a bunch of strangers at a bar. Not to mention it would be pretty short sighted to walk away from a 9-figure investment because of a few bad weeks.

Drogba almost needs to be on the pitch for his free kick ability alone. He is always a threat to score. Not to mention what he contributes in defensive set pieces. Sturridge doesn't replace either of those two areas at all.

I agree with this totally. Going into this match Real had to have been thought of as at least the second best team in Europe. I hadn't seen a lot of them in the league but did watch both Champions League matches against Milan and they looked great. Rock solid defense, dynamic attacking from Ronaldo, Marcelo looked like a dangerous attacking full back. Today? Forget it. Was Ronaldo even on the pitch in the second half? Riccy, who has been playing so well reportedly, looked awful. Marcello was an embarrassment. Ramos couldn't get forward at all. Ozil was totally invisible. Did anyone ever think a team managed by Jose would lose a match 5-0? Barca on the other hand were amazing. The passing, the movement - it really is a beautiful thing to watch. To have such great players lay together for so long, develop such chemistry and understanding and be allowed to play such an open attacking brand of football is special. Normally watching teams maintain possession with a large lead is boring but to see Barca kill the clock in the sexing half was something else. Madrid could barely get a touch on the ball. I doubt any collection of any eleven footballers could have beaten Barca today. And this result just makes the opposite fixture that much more intriguing. No one is better at making adjustments then Jose and you can be sure he won't let this happen again.

Is it? How much say does Carlo have over the squad makeup? It's apparent now that this squad lacked depth so would playing substandard players when he had better options available had been a good idea?

Kalou misses more easy chances then any player I've ever seen

If you thought that this list was long and full of undistinguished players, imagine the list of players that won more than Gerrard did! Anyway, my XI Casillas Puyol (I'll cheat and use him as a Right Back) Lucio Piqué Cole Schweinsteiger Xavi Sneijder Messi Forlan Ronaldo Subs: Cesar, Maicon, Silva, Iniesta, Ozil, Eto'o, Drogba