eldakar

On youtube there is now a cesc compilation for the Aston Villa match and i've got to say i was highly impressed.
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jl583e_TPeM
 
I remember thinking during the match how good his passing was and seeing it again really made me see what Chelsea have been missing all these years.
 
First half was immense, second half was a bit more sloppy but there are two things that i just wanted to highlight.
 
Firstly, the long right-centre to left touchline balls to Azpilicueta (1:55) Hazard twice (2:23 and 2:33) and the beautiful ball to costa on the left corner of the box (5:36).  These are on-a-dime passes that manage to cut out their entire team and generally leave our player 1v1 which i think is one of our main weapons (Hazard).  Probably in the past only Lampard could do this but cesc does it even better and more often.
 
Secondly (1:21), and this one is my favourite, is a ball in the first half to Ivanovic from the centre to the right inviting the serb to push up.  Now many people will look at this pass and say that it isn't that special but i think nowadays it's these kind of balls that can be the difference.  
 
What happens is that there are two villa players ready to block the ball to the right.  Now 99% of players would play the easy ball into Ivanovic's feet but Cesc sees the space and the momentum it can cause and plays the much more difficult lofted pass perfectly so that Ivanovic can run onto it.  There is no control needed, no adjustment and no valuable time wasted.  Where most people pass into feet, cesc will read the game and see where to place the ball to take advantage of space and not lose momentum.  
 
Many teams will park the bus against Chelsea this year and so Chelsea really do need to take advantage of any counter attack situations or any situation where a defence isn't fully settled and this is a perfect illustration.
 
He then repeats this (4:30).  
 
Cesc will misplace passes and he will probably never have the highest pass completion rate.  But it's because he's so good and confident in his passing that he is willing to try passes, long, short and first time that others wouldn't dare and it's these passes that can make a difference in a game.
 
Defensively he is still not fully up to speed and can still improve.  I think this has actually affected Matic's production (although i feel he's been better than many people think).
 
Anyway i'm just so happy with what i'm seeing from Fabregas and as a result Chelsea.  The football has been good, fast paced, fluid and precise, it's just a shame that people (not Chelsea fans) are so blinkered with the whole "Mourinho teams play boring football" that they can't actually appreciate what in my opinion has been some of the best football played this decade.

I don't think Fabregas should be getting ANY of the blame. It seems like he can't win with some. He can't constantly do both tracking back and creating, it's just unrealistic to expect that from someone.

Got to say, I was one of those that thought Torres would be shown the door as soon as Jose arrived.
 
I know it's early days and I know we've been here before but I'm beginning to think Torres might have a decent season. He's never going to be the Torres of old nor is he going to compete with the RVPs and Sergio Agueros of this world, but he could prove an asset and he could vindicate Jose's decision to let Lukaku go.
 
I think his performance on Tuesday was overstated. I think he got lucky on the second goal because his touch was awful and he was very fortunate that it bypassed the keeper. I also think his run for Hazard's goal was made to look a lot better by Hazard's adept piece of skill and finish. If Torres were more confident in front of goal he would have carried on running straight, given Hazard the easy option, and finished on his left, but we all know he has no left foot to speak of.
 
However, his performances in his last three games have definitely been encouraging, he has scored 4 goals in those 3 games, and he has shown a far better mentality. Although he deserves credit I can't help thinking the reason I'm more optimistic than usual is because of the manager. Jose has handled Torres incredibly well thus far and shown what a great manager he truly is. He's got inside Nando's mind, clearly. He's got Nando playing for him, and he's released that bit of devil, and as a result it looks like Torres has got his appetite back and is actually enjoying playing. In short, he's being braver. Torres in his pomp, as well as being a great striker was also a warrior. He looks to be getting that back.
 
People worrying whether he will be dropped on Sunday, really ought to chill out. Isn't it clear Jose knows what he's doing? Isn't it clear Jose knows more than all of us put together? I always felt Eto'o would be a good signing and the goals would come, because I trust Jose. 
 
Looking at the way Torres is performing, it's clear we really ought to trust Jose more than ever. He really is a fantastic manager. I'm actually enjoying watching Torres at the moment, which is almost a first, and while I still feel he has an awful long way to go, I have a hunch Jose's just going to pull this one out of the bag, which I would never have foreseen before the season started, and I'm one of Jose's biggest fans.
 
For me, the best thing about Jose Mourinho, is that when it comes to the big calls, on who should partner Terry for example, or who should partner Rambo in the middle, or who should go on loan or who should play up front, I trust in his judgement far more than any other manager out there.
 
I have said it all along since he arrived and people started fretting about his decisions, chill out folks he knows what he is doing.
 
I would have shown Torres the door, sent him on loan, anything. I couldn't believe he survived the summer under Jose. Now we're seeing precisely why he was kept on. I keep thinking of Diego Milito under Jose. Torres is not a dissimilar player. I'm not saying Torres will achieve similar heights under Jose but I bet Jose sees a little bit of Milito in him, and I bet he's hoping for similar results.
 
If he does half as well as Milito I think he'll have more than doubled most of our expectations, and I think it will be one of Jose's finest accomplishments. Jose seemingly really understands how to best utilise Torres, he understands his strengths and weaknesses, and as usual his man-management is coming to the fore.
 
Be interesting to see who he plumps for on Sunday, Torres or Eto'o, and whichever one of them is playing, it will interesting to see how they fare. We may not be as short up front as we initially feared, particularly after Jose's failed attempt to buy Rooney.

Come in No9
You have only to look at Robin van Persie's finishing this week to see what Chelsea are missing. Saturday's draw at Swansea, a difficult game in which they were without key men and did not play particularly well, was precisely the kind of predicament from which they are entitled to expect Fernando Torres to rescue them. Quite simply it no longer matters how good his movement is meant to be or how hard we are told he works or the space he is deemed to create for others: strikers who do not strike are on the exceptionally useless side of useless. The majority of teams who win titles do so with one striker scoring at least 20 league goals – in the period since Sky invented football, the lowest top-scorer in any such side is Eric Cantona with 14 for Manchester United in 1995-96 –
. Given the state of Chelsea's defence and defensive midfield, that is hardly going to happen to them, so it is time for a rethink. Either Daniel Sturridge must be given the chance to prove he is as good as he absolutely knows he is, or Eden Hazard, , needs to move inside. Neither option is the remotest solution but, if Roberto Di Matteo waits until January to find one, given Chelsea's fixtures in the meantime he might find that the season has already departed.

i do want him to succeed. im just not naive. i didnt hold out hope for boswinga or kaloui to turn into top players, i dont expect torres to.
end of the day its chelsea i want to do well. i think the team would be far betteroff without him. simple really. and i know everyone else here is the same because say torres plays like this and remains our striker forthe next 5 years, more people will speak out against it. i just draw the line earlier

Mikel's problem is that he that the job he does for the club is unglamorous but its a job her does well. I really rated his performances in the CL this year. Why replace him? Why spend 20m on M'vila or Tiote when we have Mikel and Romeu as back up? And people moan that we're throwing money away on Hulk!

Loved watching this:
[media=]
[/media]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xHWPsdG7f0

Apart fro the Barca games we have been playing 4-2-3-1 pretty consistently. That lets the two wide players in the 3 to drop back and help the full backs and also frees Mata to play behind the striker.
It worked pretty well against Spurs and I see quite a few similarities between them and Bayern. Two speedy wide players, a clever player on the ball behind a big striker.
My team would be
Cech
Bosingwa Cahill Luiz Cole
Lampard Mikel
Torres Mata Kalou
Drogba

Interesting option. He would add variety. Might be one to pursue if we miss the CL. If we make it, my preferred free option in a similar role would be Farfan from Schalke.

I can see everyone's worries about playing Bayern on their patch, but it's not as if it's going to be a select 3,000 fans to cheer us on against 60,000 Munich fans, it's surely going to be a fair allocation to both sides, 17,500 each, and then the rest corporate, like the FA Cup Final. People are making a huge deal out of it being in the Allianz that I'm not sure I understand.

Ok, I agree, but then we need to build the team around him. I'm still for Jovetic who's just as good as Hazard. We would probably need a good central midtfielder with great passing ability as well, Lampard simply doesn't do anymore 40+ games a season. In Liverscum Mascherano tackled and won the ball (like Essien). He would then give the ball to Alonso who passed up to Gerrard. Gerrard (for us, Mata) would play the through ball to Torres. Torres would score. If we can get one good winger and play Bertrand more (much faster than Cole these days), we would get good crosses as well.
But, I didn't say that Torres NEEDS to drop deep. He, a man who's played top football for 10 years knows when it's best. This year, I have a feeling that he's been dropping deep since the other team mates are incapable of whats needed. If we want the goalscoring machine back, we need to give him his favorite position. Torres has now become a Rooney. Not the fat ugly one, but a sexy one. Tackles, heads and run more in one game than he did in three seasons at Scumpool. We can't expect hard as hell-working AND goalscoring every match. It's about give and take. He can't fix the ball loss of Meireles and at the same time beat the keeper, he has no clone.
So, my "in-and-out" is:
In:
Jovetic
Good passer midfield with engine and power to run and win balls as well (Fellaini?)
Right back backup (not to expensive)
Out:
Malouda (wages, too old, too lazy)
Drogba (wants to move on, wages, lazy in 9/10 matches)
Bosingwa (double crap, treble crap, zillion times crap)
Meireles (average, simply just average. We can still get good money for him)
(Kalou) (maybe, personally I don't think he's good enough, also gotten greedy)
Then we have a pretty good squad with a mix of young players from our academy (Bamford, Josh, Kakuta, Bertrand etc etc) and some star players in Terry, Jovetic-ish, Torres, Mata etc etc.