Saaladin

"...happy to keep him.." is not to convincing to me. Sounds like they just want to get their price for him.

He didn't play with a strike partner at Newcastle. He was a lone striker. When Cisse came in he was moved to the wing and lost productivity.

Yes but how many times has he had the chance to put a game away and beyond reach and he missed? Eto'o has been underwhelming. Torres is doing good things to create opportunities for himself but can't finish. Ba is not even getting a look which I think he would actually score goals for us if he was given a run of games. We will struggle it seems to finish off opponents as long as we can't get goals from our striker.

Mourinho just said "100% sure no striker coming in January" Torres and Eto it is. http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/25589117

Mata can really do nothing to change his current situation at Chelsea. Mata is simply not as explosive athletically as the others in the squad like Willian, Oscar and Hazard, not to mention Schurrle, Moses and Ramires. I can see Mata is trying to work harder defensively, his effort has increased significantly in that area, however he can't reproduce what the others are doing because he simply doesn't have the ability to do it. He is easily maneuvered around, doesn't have track back speed and his change of direction while defending is slow to say the least. He also lacks tackling power. Mourinho is known for doing things like putting Pepe in midfield just to increase tackles and interceptions in the middle of the park so its no surprise that he needs that from all his mids. Mata needs to go because I like him and like watching him play. Mata paired with a top striker in another club would make for a devastating attack. He hasn't had that since he's been here. PSG would be a great fit with Cavani and/or Ibra in front of him.

Sounds good to me. Having him as an option means he at least will have the chance to win his spot back at some point. Not that he ever lost it.

I highly doubt Mata would make an appearance in a 2-1 game in our favor, not with Mourinho anyway. Maybe if we were losing 2-1.

I think the season so far has been better than expected. Our main problems at this time for me are: 1) Continuity: Mourinho is still trying to figure out his top 11. He needs to come up with a team that he would play in a CL final for example and stick to that team more or less while making some changes here and there depending on the competition we are in and who we are playing. Players should get comfortable playing one position with certain players next to them the can grow with. Wanna see more from Schurrle. He has more to offer... 2) Finishing -- Obvious problem, for all the intricacy and danger of our possession game it's often all for nothing. Whether it's a striker problem or a striker supply problem it needs to be solved or we will continue losing and drawing games we shouldn't. What I do know is that every time Suarez was on the ball yesterday it seems danger followed. He was also hard to dispossess. A striker that fits the mold of our midfield is needed. We also need to improve on our final pass. We seem to do everything right and then panic on our final ball. 3) Our deep midfielders need to improve. Lampard is what he is and I'm happy to get what we are getting from him at this point. Ramires has great qualities but passing isn't one of them. He hurts our attack in a lot of ways and only adds to it on occasions when he makes a burst forward using his speed through the middle which only happens occasionally. Of course we benefit greatly from his defensive energy. Hard to take him off the field, so we will need a midfielder next to him that is very strong in keeping possession and distribution. Matic is that player as his Alonso but he is too old for this group. David Luiz provided that yesterday but Mourinho has said he is strictly a CB. Also Luiz is terrible at defending players in possession of the ball, he needs to work on moving his feet so I don't think he would excel there on a permanent basis. What he did for us yesterday was on the attack mainly, distributing and finding key passes. Solution; get a deep central mid that can make us more dominant in the middle. Wish Mikel would be given more of a chance because he is a much better player than what we see. 4) I'd like to see better attacking play from our RB and LB. Cole is almost gone and Azpi is limited on the left. Luke Shaw would be a massive buy for Chelsea and would make us a better team instantly, at least from an attacking perspective. Azpi goes to the right side and competes with Ivan. 5) We have been terrible defending set plays. I'm not sure what the problem is when you have Terry, Ivan and Cahill who are all dominant in the air. Is Cech not being aggressive enough? Needs to be solved... 6) Just throwing this out there, but is it possible that Hazard should be played in the #10 position? His skill and quickness would be even more magnified in that spot and being in a free role would make him so much harder to account for. Hazard may never reach his max potential so long as he is at Chelsea and is used as a winger. We all know Oscar is going anywhere anytime soon. Lots of good things of course, we are dominating possession much more than I thought a Mourinho team would, Terry is in great form (stupid England FA) Lampard is about as good as you could expect, Willian, Oscar, Hazard are in great form and we have tightened up our defense as of late. If we can buy a striker, midfielder and Shaw in January this squad can win multiple trophies. Either way, future looks bright.

Willian is the type of player that thrives on confidence so I think if he was more relied upon like he was at Shakhtar he would be even better. As of now, he has shown a willingness to buy into Mourinho's work rate requirements and shows good technique in defense. He has been very difficult to dispossess and gets out of tight spaces well. He also has an eye for the whole field. His best position is probably central though. I think he will only get better from here. He finally was more aggressive attacking defenders against Liverpool. I thought he has been timid in that area of his game whereas in the past he was more confident in 1v1 situations. Yesterday though he beat 2 Liverpool players in succession and looked dangerous. Willian will be getting more time on the field for Mourinho and we'll see his true potential.

Mata is one of my favorite players if not my favorite but at this point its not fair to him to stay. Mourinho probably has 3 players he prefers to Mata in the 10 position. Oscar, Willian and Hazard, not to mention Lampard who played there against Arsenal. Mata's WC chances are fading with about 5 or 6 players ahead of him potentially in the Spanish midfield (Xavi, Iniesta, Silva, Isco, Alonso, Cazorla). So he is probably quite uneasy about that at this point. If he can be sold for a large sum or traded for a top striker or midfielder it might be best for everyone involved.

I have no scouting report business... that was a joke. But I did think watching Willian he had some great vision and long pass accuracy. Again, we'll see if that's the case or not.

No I wanted Fernandinho here also. Kid is a bull dog. But Willian in that game against us was working through the middle also...

You reading my scouting reports? I guess we'll find out soon enough if I was off base or not. I can't claim ive seen a lot of him but from what I did see he has some similar traits. We'll see....

From what I remember of the Shakhtar games he was playing quite deep. Behind their attacking mid which I believe was another brazilian. He was coming very deep collecting the ball and distributing. He was also quite active defensively. I think he is perfect for us.

---------------------Ramires --------------------------- ----------Willian------- ---------------(Mikel)(Essien-------------------------------------(Van Ginkel)--- Mata (De Bruyne)-----------------Oscar (Lampard)----------- Hazard (Schurrle) -----------------------------------Lukaku/Ba/Torres/Rooney?-------------------- I think Mikel will be sold or loaned and of course Rumor of Moses being loaned although I think he had a great preseason and is an underrated player.

Willian! Bout time....!

Jovetic is a winger not a striker.

Jackson Martinez -- 26 goals for Porto

If we were to get Ronaldo I would play him as a central striker. Hazard plays the same side as Ronaldo on the left for one. Second, I think Ronaldo is being wasted on the wing... Yes he scores 60 goals per season but he can do more in the middle. He is by far the most dangerous aerial threat in the game today in terms of forwards, he has loads of pace, and getting him in a more central position will allow him to get more shots on goal. He doesn't need many shots on goal as it is to score, imagine if he was getting the ball played into him more often. Lastly, his speed would give Mata such an easy target to play through passes to. Therefore I would go with: -------------Ronaldo------------- Hazard--------Mata----------Ramires ------Lampard(Oscar)-----Luiz

Congratulations to Chelsea. I also want to congratulate Rafael Benitez on the job he has done for Chelsea keeping us in the CL and adding another trophy to the cabinet. Not to mention the exciting brand of football. Also congrats to Torres for scoring a big goal in what might be his final season as a Blue. Good for him. Respect to Chelsea Captain Lampard for leading the squad and playing a great game. He earned his new contract several times over.

This is exactly right. Our mids do not combine well with the kind of strikers we have currently. Ba wants a direct ball, he doesn't necessarily want to combine and work his way to goal, neither does Torres, neither does Cavani (although I haven't seen enough of him or Falcao to judge their style exactly) Ironically, the best striker for our midfield setup is Suarez (Ivan would love that). We need to be looking for a striker that is quick and mobile and combines well, not big burly traditional #9s. I like Reus and maybe even Lewandowski would be a good fit. Even a guy like Higuain would work. Aguero would be even more ideal than Suarez in fact. BTW, I don't want Suarez, just an example.

I definitely think we need to add another CB or even 2. Cahill for me should go to a mid level EPL team like Liverpool or Everton. He is certainly dangerous in the opposing penalty area as a set-piece threat but he is also very questionable in his own third. He gets lost and is also easily beaten. That being said, with a dominant CB partner he is serviceable. Still would rather replace him. Terry is great but obviously aging. I would buy a fast young CB and pair him with Terry. Ivanovic for me is a complimentary CB, not a dominant one. He needs someone else with him that is a bit more calculating. Luiz is a midfielder. He can be effective in the back but why lose what he gives you in midfield? Therefore, I would sell Cahill, buy Hummels, Marquinos or Mamadou Sakho and have a rotation of Terry, Signign, Ivan and Luiz if needed.

The problem I have is that Sturridge would have been happy to be the second choice striker here had we given him the chance but he was either out of position on the wing or on the bench. The reason I like Sturridge is he provides a very different dimension than most strikers and is a good change of pace striker if your #1 isn't performing on the day. His speed and vision to switch the field is pretty impressive and of course he has that shot that is also a threat. Should have been kept on behind Cavani/Lewan/Falcao.

Perfect CM for Chelsea is Luiz. Bring in a new CB to play with Ivan and Terry.

You can't play with three across the middle against Tottenham. You always have to have a wide player to stop the progression of Bale. If he picks up speed down the line you can't stop him. Therefore Benitez had to maintain the original 4-2-3-1 shape. Torres going on the right would not have been a good defensive change. Going 5 across the back also does not work because you give up the touchline near the half. That is dangerous again because you can't allow Bale the space to pick up the ball and run, there has to be an opposing winger to meet him once he possesses. Ramires would have been a good idea wide but you have to take into account how much running he already did in the game and asking him to go out wide at that point against Bale might have backfired. If we had other options I would not have liked the Benayoun change but with what we had its just a neutral move for me.