Blue Charm

He seems to enjoy playing against Buffon

Can't wait to see him play for us.

With the squad as it is right now, my lineup would be: ....................... Cech............................ Ivan...........Luiz..........Terry...........Cole .......................Romeu................. ............Ramires.......Lampard....... Hazard......................................Mata ......................Torres................... Hazard/Mata would be allowed to roam freely, behind Torres. In attack Ramires can run up the right side, from deep, allowing Hazard to tuck in behind Torres. Then the formation looks like the one picked by timetowaste. I can imagine something like this being implemented (more likely with Mikel than Romeu). The shape of the team would be fairly rigid in defence but very fluid in attack.

I totally agree, losing posession happens all the time in football. I'm not at all dwelling on it, I just remembered it and wanted to add that to the posts above.

I may be wrong but I recall Josh losing possesion against Villa last season, allowing Reo-Coker to go one on one against Cech. He thankfully didn't score.

Great post Nibs. I was thinking along the same lines when watching Chelsea vs Newcastle, during Mourinhos first season, on ChelseaTV. I hadn't seen matches from that time for a while and I could see a huge difference in the sides then and now. As you point out with the ages of the players available to Jose and Andre it has mostly to do with players now being over their best. I didn't really think that the football was any better passing wise back then but the more youthfull players during Jose's time would cover a lot more ground, were more explosive and could thus battle harder and cover when mistakes were made. Now there is a general lack of pace and energy in our team. In Jose's time even if the team was playing bad it could just fight harder than the opponent and get the win that way but now it seems that too many teams put in more effort than we do and that is sad to see. Another obvious thing that a lot of posters have mentioned is that the team back then had a proper ballanc to it. Players weren't playing out of position and the width was created by two great wingers not ageing fullbacks.

Meireles showing us some great passing/crossing and shooting ability in todays match. :)

Totally agree. I think ws6blue's lineup with Benayoun, Boss and Torres might be a bit too lightweight against Stoke. Though I wouldn't mind that team playing the coming game against WBA. I also not sure about how effective Torres would be against Stoke with them parking the bus.

Since I had nothing better to do after work today I looked up some player stats from recent years and made some calculations. I did this to try to gauge player performance this season compared with previous ones. I thought it might be interesting see whether my perceptions, from watching Chelsea play and reading the views on countless forums, would match the stats. I’m a firm believer that a solid defence is the foundation you need to get through the tough “moments†on the way to a league title. In his first season Ancelotti brought us more goals than I could wish for but in a way the amount of goals masked our defensive frailties. (The stats below are for the Premier League only) Attacking efficiency: The table below shows goals + assists for every 90 minutes played for a few selected players. The 2006-2008 stats for Anelka are mainly from his time with Bolton. ........... 2010/11 2009/10 2008/09 2007/08 2006/07 Average Drogba ... 0,87 ..... 1,36 .... 0,52 .... 0,83 ..... 0,73 .... 0,90 Lampard . 0,62 ..... 1,09 .... 0,61 .... 0,92 ..... 0,64 .... 0,78 Malouda .. 0,58 ..... 0,82 .... 0,58 .... 0,19 ................. 0,58 Anelka .... 0,46 ..... 0,67 .... 0,74 .... 0,66 ..... 0,57 .... 0,62 Kalou ...... 0,86 ..... 0,85 .... 0,66 .... 0,76 ..... 0,56 .... 0,72 Essien ..... 0,16 ..... 0,23 .... 0,12 .... 0,43 ..... 0,15 .... 0,22 It’s quite clear that Drogba’s last two seasons have been sensational but wonder how long that will last with him aging. Despite his injuries this season you can always rely on Lampard to give you goals. He may be slowing down with age and doesn’t seem to cover as much ground anymore, but his footballing brain is the thing that makes him so good (the timing of runs and finishing). His passing has been a bit off of late; this applies to many other players as well. In three of the last five seasons he has played over 3200 minutes which is about 1200 more than in the 2010/11 season. If he had been fit for those 1200 minutes one could expect him to provide at least 8 goals. Could this have be the difference between coming 2nd or 1st in the league? When anybody mentions the Bison I probably start thinking of the powerhouse from the 07/08 season (when Lampard only played around 1900 minutes). But this season he reminded me more of a tame dairy cow. I am of the opinion that Chelsea should sell Anelka and keep Kalou. The stats show that Anelka’s productivity has been very poor while Kalou is coming into his prime. Kalou’s offensive production is second only to Drogba. For those of you that want to get rid of Kalou: would you rather have him coming off the bench or Bendtner/Owen? I think it’s been obvious for a long time that we’ve needed a right winger/forward to create some width instead of using Anelka out of position. As our main striker option Anelka has been decent; under Scolari and in the CL while Drogba was banned. Someone like Sanchez/Adam Johnson would probably do a better job on the right. I’m on the fence when it comes to Malouda. The stats seem to indicate that he’s been solid but watching him this past season has been a bit of a rollercoaster; one week I think he’s brilliant the next I’m complaining he’s too slow and looks like he’s bulked up a bit too much. I know that many fans are of the opinion that he is too selfish and should stop congesting the middle. Perhaps solving the RW problem might free up some space for Malouda. Defence: Below is a table showing goals conceded for every 90 minutes played. ............. 2010/11 2009/10 2008/09 2007/08 2006/07 Average A.Cole ...... 0,85 .... 0,71 .... 0,73 .... 0,82 .... 0,73 .... 0,78 Terry ........ 0,82 .... 0,83 .... 0,61 .... 0,62 .... 0,52 .... 0,69 Alex ......... 0,73 ..... 0,71 .... 0,46 .... 0,65 .... ..... ..... 0,62 Ivanovic .... 0,86 .... 0,80 .... 0,74 .... .... ........ .... ..... 0,82 Ferreira ..... 1,21 .... 0,66 .... 0,00 .... 0,98 .... 0,63 ..... 0,82 Bosingwa ... 0,78 .... 0,98 .... 0,59 .... .... .... .... .... .... 0,69 Zhirkov ..... 0,74 .... 1,13 .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... ... 0,98 Luiz .......... 0,76 .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... ..... 0,76 Cech ......... 0,87 .... 0,77 .... 0,69 .... 0,66 .... 0,47 ..... 0,72 It is quite evident that Ferreira was a liability last season, especially playing CB, and mainly played during the bad slump when there were few other options. Ivanovic’s defensive record seems to have taken a beeting during that period. To me the upward trend in goals conceded in recent seasons evident in Cech’s stats is worrying. This is something I believe a new manager needs to focus on. See also Terry’s stats from the last two season compared to the previous (approx 0,2 goal/game worse off with Ancelotti). According to the stats Alex has been solid as a rock. Perhaps a surprising thing is that the stats show Bosingwa, contrary to his reputation, sharing the second best defensive record with Terry. Though I believe Ashley Cole to be a better defender than Bossman the stats seem to indicate the opposite. The stats could easily skewed perhaps because Bosingwa was mostly playing against the weaker teams in the league with Ivanovic stepping in against the big sides. But is this just me being biased? Mikel vs Essien (vs Ramires): In the last five seasons on average my stats give that: Player/ goals+assist per game / goals conceded per game Essien/ 0.22 / 0.78 Mikel/ 0.07 / 0.72 (Ramires/ 0.09 / 0.84 ) Comparing Ramires to the other two is not very fair since it’s his first season as well as fact that our defence wasn’t very strong under Ancelotti. From these stats our best defence might be: Bosingwa – Alex – Terry – A.Cole/Luiz with Mikel protecting the back four. The worst: Ferreira – Benayoun – Ivanovic – Zhirkov Though Yuri hasn’t been playing much at left back.

3 goals in his first 3 with Bolton. Great start for the lad.

Dare I say it? I think we missed Ramires today. Mikel has been even slower than usual since coming back from an injury and Essien's passing is neither accurate nor creative. Think Luiz looked very lively and will be very solid alongside Terry/Alex.

Although I think Pienaar could prove to be a decent squad player I would be completely disillusioned with the directors of Chelsea if they signed him up. As most of you will know he is ofcourse eligible to play in the African Cup. So if we signed him he would be one of about five players flying south mid winter next year. Wiki"fact": "As of 2013, the tournament will switch to being held in odd-numbered years so that it does not clash with the FIFA World Cup." With the reduction in squad size shouldn't the board avoid buying African players?