Maverick

And Carlo still prefers to hold back the likes of Sturridge/ Kakuta and let them in for the last 10 mins. Tactical brilliance/ ignorance? I believe its the latter.

Disagree with you on a couple of counts - Sturridge is not competing only with Anelka but also with Kalou for a starting spot. There is nothing to suggest that Kalou has done enough to hold on to a starting spot, in fact he has frustrated me to the extend that I may go bald ! As far as Kalou is concerned I still dont believe he is good enough to be starting for us. The role that best suits him is one of am impact sub who comes on later in a game and probes the opposition defence. On the other hand Sturridge has generally fared well when rewarded with a starting spot. Its a little premature to suggest that Sturridge cannot support Drogba given that the two have hardly played more than 30 mins together.

The sensible thing would be give the kids a run for the rest of the season and gauge the ones that are upto the mark and the ones that wont make it and therefore look at areas that need reinforcement. It makes no sense to splash the cash on a couple of "average" players who may not break into our starting 11 on merit. If we do decide to spend it may take a couple more windows to indeed refresh this squad given most of our key players are into their early 30's. Its purely Roman's call and there is no one who can play a part in this. That would be foolish given we are some way off the pace and we are bound to drop points on the way. The chances of retaining the league remains bleak but the focus should now be on staying in the top 4. I don't see us beating the likes of Barca, Real or even Bayern irrespective of the amount of cash we inject into this side. Its not just a matter of confidence , we also seem to lack any tactical vibrancy to compete in a competition like CL. This is by far the best opportunity to give the youngsters a chance though I have my reservations about Carlo sticking his neck out and giving the likes of Kakuta/ Sturridge a starting place ahead of the embarrassing Kalou. But I would definitely like to test our youth in the league and FA Cup games . I may risk portraying myself as a critique of Ancelotti but I must say the man lacks any innovation when it comes to tactics. We seem to struggle chasing games and I don't recall us winning a game after coming from a goal down (in 2010). Squad depth or not, inuries or not you are expected to "change" or tweak your tactics to make your opponents think. Sadly the changes that he has made (generally taking Mikel off for a striker) has back fired by putting the team under further pressure.

Needless to say a big game for us and its great to see #8 on the starting lineup again after what seems to be a very long absence. We should win this one if we play anywhere close to our best, Arsenal may be tempted to play Van Persie ahead of Arshavin but that would be a gamble which could play into our hands given he hasn't played much since his return from injury. Ferreira should start this one as we'd need the legs against Bolton at home. Also it would be nice to keep a clean sheet away from home for a change.

If we are to buy someone from Serie A it would have to be Edison Cavani from Napoli. Looks good enough to make the transition to Premier league, wont be cup tied and is in Hot form.

A couple of bad results and as you are aware the hoopla is history. Will we continue to see the likes of Bruma, Aanholt and Kakuta get game time post January? Tough one to answer but if we do buy experience you can safely assume that an easy FA Cup tie is their only hope.

Cant shoot for nuts and by looks of it has a poor Ariel ability while attacking the ball, unless he does a maradona (hand of god) I don't see him scoring in a game of any significant magnitude for us. Yaya Toure is a far more accomplished player and has an attacking side to his game that Mikel does currently. Not to forget Yaya is easily quicker of the two though he is the older one. The ones that advocate him as an attacking option sound very daft to me unless they reckon he could be a creative force that creates tons of goals for us.

Good news, its now upto the lad to prove his worth and push for a first team place.

Absolutely mate and we can continue this debate later (after we see how he approaches the FA Cup) but for now lets just hope for the 3 points !!

Thats an interesting point and our recent performances have indicated that the "pure" DM role is more of a drawback while chasing a game. Which is also probably a reason Mikel is being subbed very often these days. If the DM role is scrapped I'd be very surprised if Mikel still made it to the starting 11 (with everyone fit).

Its not just two players that we are talking about here Tim. Carlo has indicated that he prefers experience over youth in most scenarios even if it means playing an experienced player out of position. Ferreira was preferred over Bruma as CB against Sunderland and I am sure in hindsight Carlo does regret that decision. Against Marseille a game of lesser significance (so we thought) Carlo puts Ferreira again ahead of Van Aanholt at LB. I believe those two are prime examples of Carlo preferring experience over youth. As I have said earlier that undoubtedly Josh is the best prospect we have currently and he has been lucky to see the game time that he has due to the injuries/ suspensions. He has grabbed his opportunities and I give it to the lad for that. But it would be interesting to see the chances he gets when we have Lampard and Yuri fit.

Humour is good but this is a long shot from that.

He dint exactly give a fair chance to a highly rated french midfielder who had a great season at Arsenal. Flamini surely struggled to make it to the team under Ancelotti as compared to today where he is a pretty regular feature in the Milan side. That should be an ample proof that he does not always back youth if options are available to him. The case with Josh is that he is the only midfield option we had available with the injury to Lampard and Zhirkov and it isn't like he has thrown the kid in a big game yet and shown the faith that many tend to believe that he has. But if your suggesting that our other youth products (Van Aanholt, Bruma, Kakuta, Sturridge) are a long shot from first team then I would agree with your point.

This is probably one of those rare occasions where one could question the club's approach/ attitude towards a young international player. Last year we showed a lot of confidence in him and he was at par with many of our youngsters in the pecking order. Its more disheartening to see Borini treated in this manner whereas on the other hand we continue to play Kakuta who is in a similar scenario. I have no issues with us bargaining hard while handling contracts but this saga really stinks and I hope the lad goes on to have a brilliant career (either with us or elsewhere).

Why restrict them to a club when they can buy the entire federation (Fifa 11) !! :icon_biggrin:

That's some good news on the management front but Carlo needs to sort things on the pitch and if need be ring some changes in the starting 11. It was evident against Marseille that we lack bite in our attack and it seems this side has completely stalled in the absence of Lampard.

He's been poor for a few games now and as much as I love him he dint look his normal self against Marseille. Emotions apart you expect a lot more from one of the leaders in the team and its very disappointing to say that he dint put his best foot forward and I hope he realizes it. Would love to see him rip Spurs apart but on current form it looks unlikely.

I agree. We now have only three injuries and one of which is very short term, so technically we have our whole squad to choose from so selection should not be an issue. The issue that we face currently is lack of confidence and most of it is visible in the way we are playing off late. We lack confidence and the only way you regain it is by winning, also the fact that we would have won all our group stage games will be a much needed moral boost.

If that was the case he wouldn't start in the first place. These are just baseless talks backed with no fact or comment that indicates it to be true. What is true is Kakuta has been pretty average in the two starts that he has made in the CL.

I agree and it looks like its not going to change in the near future with limited options on the bench. We aren't willing to gamble with youngsters and the established ones are either injured or struggling for form.

Firstly Welcome to the Shed End. The way we're playing currently we would need a couple more signings to get back into the title race. Though Pjanic is undoubtedly a great player but his transfer fee maybe the biggest hindrance to a potential move.

Good news to start the day.

Russia is not much of a problem for the Europeans as compared to Australia in terms of "time zone". I hope its clear now.

With Essien and JT back in the starting 11 it maybe a good idea to play Malouda up front with Drogba and Anelka. Don't think we'll get many chances in this game and Kalou is a luxury that we cannot afford at the moment.

What ?!!