Zeta

I don't know any more. It seems harsh to sack him since we did so well last year, but tbh I never really warmed to him, I was disappointed with his appointment and still don't really care for him. He just doesn't seem to show any real passion or make it look as if he cares. If he does go though we need a young manager who can stay with us and build over a period of 5-10 years. We need to stop this endless manager merrygoround.

I would say it is the team who need to adapt their style of play to his really. He's not a target man like Drogba, but that is how they play, sending long balls up to him on his own, with his back to goal.

No.

Yes, Drogba is a good player, but I believe I made my reasoning for this opinion quite clear.

Like I said, they would be the young players who get a few chances in the cup competitions and such. Not first team starters. Do read things in future.

Ribery? Forlan? I hope not.. And just because i've posted this now instead of posting the exact same thing in a month doesn't change the opinions in it at all, so does it really matter for goodness sake.

Drogba and Ramires were the only ones who came out of it with a good performance. But since Ramires got himself sent off i went for Drogba

To reply toa couple of people who were questioning the criticsim of the sub. It's not the Alex going off that was ridiculous, it was the Ferreira coming on when he could have brought on someone like Zhirkov, who is much more attacking. Bringing on another defender when you need to score 2 goals quickly is just not going to work.

Was going to leave this round up of my thoughts until the season had officially finished, but it's over now bar the qualification for 4th place which in theory we should be able to hold onto. Firstly, some awards: BlueSkies' Player of the Season: Ramires - I was critical of him when he first joined as he was quite poor for the first few months, but recently he's been our best player by far. He is the only one with any drive or determination to actually pick up the ball and run at people, bursting into space. And he's not afraid to get back and hassle the opposition for the ball either. Made a mistake in the sending off tonight, but he's still young and he will learn from that. BlueSkies' Flop of the Season: Lampard - It's a harsh one to give it to Frank, since he was out with injuries for several months and is getting on so he's not going to be able to recover as quickly nowadays. And maybe it's because he's been so wonderful for the past 4-5 seasons that this season it has been so noticeable when he's not been playing well. If you think it's too harsh to give to Frankie though, the runner up for this one was Malouda. BlueSkies' Goal of the Season: Ramires vs Man City http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VW_KasBEllI BlueSkies' Most Improved Player this Season: I was considering Ramires again, but I think it should go to someone who was with us last season who has improved this season, rather than improvement over a period of a few months. So in the end I went for McEachran. I racked my brain to see who from the first team has actually played consistantly well this year, and the results of this were few and far between, so I decided to go for young Josh. He was obviously with us last season, playing in the youth and reserve team, and in the few first team appearances he's made this term has shown what a really class act he is and I expect big things from him. BlueSkies' Worst Decision of the Season: A few are up there, such as selling off 4-5 players and not really replacing them, starting the season with youth players and then loaning them all out, and various strange subsitutions such as waiting until the 80th minute to bring on Sturridge when we're chasing a game. But, with tonight still fresh in the mind, I'm handing it to Ferreira on for Alex, needing to score 2 goals. Now, onto my analysis of this season. I'll break down the key points into bullet point form and then expand on them a little. - Squad is too old - We probably have one of the oldest squads in the league this season, though i haven't checked for official stats to confirm this, we have a number of players 30+ such as Ferreira, Cole, Terry, Lampard, Drogba, Anelka, Malouda. Basically the spine of last season's squad. I know we moved out some older players like Ballack, Deco and Belletti in the summer, which was a step in the right direction, but a bigger clearout is going to be required in the summer. - Something is missing or broken - By this I mean that something just doesn't seem right when you watch a Chelsea display recently. The players just don't look up for the match half the time, even hugely important ones. Either something is wrong in the coaching or the motivating of the players, or they need a serious kick up the arse because they earn more in a week than most of the fans in 5 years. The departure of Ray Wilkins was highlighted many times as a possible factor in this, maybe he had a big role in the motivation and preperation for matches, who knows. But it just doesn't sit right with me at the moment. - Carlo has no idea what formation to play - Whether its 4-4-2, 4-5-1, 4-3-3 or any other variation, with Anelka up front, or Anelka and Drogba, or Torres, or Torres and Drogba, etc... he just doesn't know and it is not exactly helping our situation when every single game the players are having to adapt to a different line up, with different players who play in different ways. - Drogba needs to go - Now before you jump on my back, I still like Drogba, he is a good player and tonight he came on and did very well, but the problem here isn't Drogba himself, it's how the team play with Drogba in the side. For years now we've been relying mostly on big long balls up to Drogba to control on the chest or in the air and muscle his way past the defenders. But he is the only striker in our squad who plays like this. Torres, Anelka, Kalou, Sturridge...they are all smaller, pacey players who play on the shoulder of the defenders and rely on through balls and decent service from the wings. But because the squad is so used to playing this way, these other strikers (Anelka aside who plays more deep anyway) do not get the service they need. Torres tonight was a perfect example. The first half he was just getting balls up to him to control with his back to goal and try and feed other plays in. This is not how Torres plays. He needs the midfielders to be sending balls through or over the top for him to run onto. He was totally isolated tonight and what did Carlo really expect him to be able to do? Control the ball on his chest, barge his way powerfully past Vidic and Ferdinand and smash it in? So the reason I say that Drogba has to go is so that we can get a fresh start and play with a more free flowing system, that plays the ball along the ground and plays to the strengths of the majority of our strikers instead of the minority. - We need at least 4-5 new players in the summer - Before I get to who we need, I will quickly address who I think should leave: Hilario - Old and not exactly the best backup keeper we could have. I would rather promote a youngster to fill the 3rd choice spot. Ferreira - Old, not particularly good, although he is a good crosser. No more than a squad player anyway. Malouda - Has done okay in glimpses this year, but he is getting on as well and I can't see him having any major improvement next year really. Drogba - See previous paragraph. Kalou - Too wasteful and inconsistant. Never going to be a first choice here. Now, who do we need to replace these players? Well, we need firstly to bring back the youngster we loaned out, I think players like Sturridge, PVA, Bruma and Borini have a decent shot at making it, plus McEachran of course to be given a bigger role than this year. The main area that we need to strengthen is the wings, we have Malouda and Zhirkov at the moment. One who is inconsistent and selfish, the other who is okay and injury prone. If we look back at our title winning squad a few years ago we had Robben, Duff and Joey Cole (+ SWP later). Those are 2 fast, tricky wingers for both sides of the pitch. This is what we need to be aiming for again. My first addition (if Man City would sell to us) would be Adam Johnson as a replacement for Malouda. He's young, fast, got a great left foot and could freshen up our attack. For the right side..in all honesty I'm not sure. There are youngsters we have been linked with like De Bruyne (who I think could do well, though he tends to play on the left more I believe) and Hazard, etc... But we could also look at players in the premiership now, like we did with Duff, Cole and SWP. Obviously the top sides aren't going to want to sell to us without offering Torres-esque amounts of money, but someone proven in the league would certainly be an advantage. Defensively I think we should bring in Seamus Coleman from Everton to fill the RB slot. Another young, promising player. Other than that, I would be fairly happy if our squad next year looked something like: Cech, Turnbull, Walker Cole, PVA Terry, Alex, Bruma Luiz, Ivanovic Coleman, Bosingwa, Clifford Ramires, Mikel, Clifford Essien, Benayoun, Mellis Lampard, McEachran Johnson, Zhirkov, Kakuta De Bruyne, (???) Torres, Anelka, Lalkovic Sturrige, Borini That gives us 2 senior players for each position, with a 3rd promising youngster for several of the positions, which is how I believe a squad should be set up, especially when you have the resources that we have. It would be a much younger, fresher, faster and more creative squad than we have now and I think we could start to push for the title again with a squad like this and a decent system of play that allows our attackers to play to their strengths. So, those are my end of season thoughts. I could have rambled on for even longer, but I have coursework to do now so I'd better stop. I just hope we see the changes in the summer that we desperately need, if we have to go into another campaign with the same aging squad I am going to be very disappointed.

Ferreria on for Alex, that will get us 2 goals

lol, 2-1 (3-1) now. What joke.

Rooney, Hernandez and Nani are just tearing us apart.

Torres was poor, but he's not a target man and we're playing like he's drogba lumping the ball up to him and expecting him to hold off several defenders and power past them.

Started well putting them under pressure and actually looked up for it, but last 20-25 mins it has gone all very slow and sloppy again. We won't turn around a 2-0 deficit, they are totally outclassing us at the moment it's embarrassing to watch. Should probably bring Drogba one for Torres, or for Ivanovic, put Essien at RB and go more up front, but it won't make any bloody difference.

4-4-2 probably. Ramires on the right, Malouda on the left, Anelka and Torres up front.

Did you have to use those 2 as an example..

We have tended to start rather slowly in these big games of late and not really get going until the opposition score, so an early Man Utd goal might actually be good for us. We'd still need to score 2 anyway.

I just hope I can get a decent stream for once, there's no way I am watching this at the pub with all the Man Utd and Liverpool fans.

Seems they still haven't fixed the match making on the online games, i constantly get no matches or "lost connection to opponent".

Wingers are defintely a priority. Look at the signings we made when Roman first came in, it was Joe Cole, Duff and Robben. 3 quality wingers. All we have now is Malouda and Zhirkov, neither of whom are anywhere near the standard of those 3 at their peak. If we had more creativity down the wings, i'm sure we'd be scoring more goals and Torres would probably have netted a few by now as well. Because at the moment we are still mostly playing the long ball up to the front man, because we are so used to playing with Drogba up there and little or no support from the wings.

Might as well go for it... Cech Terry Ivanovic Ramires Essien Lampard Malouda Kalou Drogba Torres Anelka

Hope we go back to the Grey and Orange away kit, that was my favourite.

He strikes me as a kind of Rossi-type player. Like Man Utd had a few years ago who left and went on to do well at some big clubs. I think he's at Villareal now. Like you say, I doubt we'll keep him, but it will be a shame.

It's easy to say who should go, but not quite as easy to say who should come in to replace them. My summer dealings would be something along the lines of: Out: Hilario, Ferreira, Malouda, Kalou, Anelka. In: A better 2nd choice keeper, Seamus Coleman, Adam Johnson, Kevin De Bruyne, Lakuku (+ Calling back Van Aarnholt, Bruma, Sturridge and Borini and giving McEachran a bigger role in the team, possibly interchanging him with Lampard since he's getting on a bit now)

Well if he's going to have a future here we need to hurry up and give him a new contract, it runs out in a few months. I hope we do, he looks a player.