axman2526

Oscar has been impressive so far, as has Cesar. Mata really struggling to get in to the game.

Well if Rafa spotted what is wrong with us then I guess it was Cahill, as the Brana Luiz pairing is the only new thing. This will be an interesting few hours.

I mourn for the way Robbie has been treated in all this, for what he gave us as a player, and as a manager. He is the one and only deliverer of the "holy grail" for us. I am left disappointed in Romans actions, and support those that wanting to sing Robbie's name on Sunday and there after. He deserve that sign of respect from us, just as Jose did. But to use that, and other methods, as a stick to beat the owner who saved us from administration, who gave us the funds to bring in greats like Cech, Maka, Cole, Drogba etc etc and has shown at games his passion for our club is ludicrous. As the poster said we should act with class. We may not like Romans actions but we should not lower ourselves because of it. Turning on our club is lowering ourselves. Through thick and thin we should support our club. To do else wise would just justify all the bile that the other club fans throw in their anti-chelsea hate songs, chants, tweets and posts.

Emotions running very high on here of late, understandable. Moos was right in that Juve had more tactical awareness and organization than we did. Also right if we had that we would be improved and would have bettered Juve last night imo. As for the remark well again emotions are running high. Yes we did not win our league without defeat last year. Arsenal have done so over here before, and they have mostly been in the toilet since. Winning the league with one defeat felt amazing, as did winning the CL last season. Moos got to be lucky last season, got both his sides offering a feeling of great victory in May.

Cech Cesar Brana Cahill Cole Mikel/Romeu (Either one sit and protect) Luiz Mata Hazard Ramires Torres Chances Rafa will pick this side? Unlikely but what the heck, what is the worst that can happen?

So many threads have spawned off this story, not a surprise really. Lot to respond to overall and I will just do so in general here. For one I am not happy Roman decided to sack Robbie, and while I expected it come the end of the season how soon it has come has been a big surprise. But I will add I was against the sacking of AVB, and of Carlo. I am happy to afford a manager more time because I do not see a crisis if we fail to deliver silverware for a season or two to get things right and build a solid base to move forward on. Also believe people deserve a decent amount of time to achieve that. On the protest side of things against Roman and/or Rafa did us singing Jose's name rally make that big a difference? Roman does what he wants, when he wants. It is his club at the end of the day, the price we paid for him saving us from administration and maybe being down there with Leeds right now, not to mention the great football and multiple trophy wins we have seen in that time. Do I agree with what he does all of the time? No certainly not, but accept it is his choice and he is doing it for, what he feels is, the best interest of the club. Just as we have the best interests of the club in our heart. Mourn Jose, Mourn Robbie. But they are only one man, as is Roman. We are all Chelsea FC and we all support Chelsea FC, who will (hopefully) be here long after any of us. Far as Raf goes I get it, most on here hate Liverpool. I don't, never have done. I have a lot of respect for them and for Rafa. Has he said some things against Chelsea in the past? Yes indeed, so have a lot of people. His job is a simple one, by the looks of it. Win the last CL game. Win the Club World Cup. Make sure we get the top 4 so Pep walks in to a CL side next year. Do that Rafa restores his reputation a little, leaves with a big fat cheque and likely another more long term job. I did not want him as manager, but respect his achievements and, like Big Phil, Avram Grant, and various derided players in my many years of supporting the blues; he has my full support for the time he is in charge of the team.

No matter who the new manager is they will have my support. Just think this shows the difference between a manager that Roman wants and Roman does not want. The last one of those was big Phil. Kenyon wanted him, got Roman to give him as much time as he could before he snapped. We wanted Robbie, Roman did not, he was a stop gap meant to get us in to the top 4 when Roman believe Pep would leave Barca and walk right in to our hot seat. Well Robbie did so much more and Pep said no, so Roman decided to listen to the fans, but the length of the contract showed it was only ever a short term thing. Now Roman has decided he should have gone with his instinct in the summer and get someone other than Robbie in the job until Pep wants to take over.

This is a complete shock, or rather the timing of it is. I do not have the time to read through the 20 odd pages of this thread this morning before work, but from the few I have seen most of us seem to feel the same way. While the length of Robbie's comment suggested he was only keeping the seat warm for Pep to sack him now is disgraceful. Maybe Roman believes we are already out of the CL, maybe he believe that, as we are, we may fail to win the club world cup in December, maybe Pep is ready to take over now? I guess Robbies team selection really was the last act of a desperate man, and not licking Torres and us losing cost him his job. Most of us could understand why AVB was given the boot, but to give Robbie such little time after what he had done for us this year. Well, it just justified all the mud the other teams fans throws at us. If it is Rafa or anyone else coming in, why not appoint them in the summer, let Robbie leave on a massive high he deserved that.

It is well publisised that Hazard had a change of mind on his future based on our victory in Munich. A top player leaving a decent (not as good as Atletico but still good) side for his biggest, to date, career move, much as Falcao is already thinking about as multiple quotes from him have shown. Big picture wise Hazard saw a side on the up, finally achieving the biggest prize they had been searching for for many years and decided that is where he wants to be. Do we appear to be that same side now? Not really, from our showing so far in Europe anyway. Like Hazard there will be competition for Falcao because he is a top player. The night in Munich changed the course of Hazards career, maybe if we are knocked out of the CL in the group stage it is seen as a sign of us going backwards and enough to convince Falcao a move to one of his other options seems a better career move. Is that so implausible? Is it possible an early exit could see some of our players wanting to leave? That depends on what happens next, if we bounce back from it or continue to fall down the hill. If we do not and were to say end up in the same position as last season, fighting for a top 4 birth and miss out on CL through the league; could we see some of the players leaving? Yes, I believe so. The CL is that important to a lot of players.

Getting CL football helped us to sign Hazard this summer. Being knocked out of the CL may see us miss out on Falcao, and who knows which players may ask to leave...

Not sure who is to blame for yet another November slump. Which players are the bad eggs this time? We know what roman is like though. I doubt he really wanted Robbie to be here for the long term (hence a one year deal with the option of another deal). Now he will be doing his best to get Pep to agree to join us. Really doubt that would help though.

Pick whatever side you like. For whatever reason team spirit and self belief appear to be nil so it makes no difference. Cannot see any other outcome than City hammering us.

I did say throwing away the game at home to Juve may well have cost us, and so it looks to be. Very disappointing to say the least, but we have two good sides in our group that have taken advantage of us just not being that good. It is like AVB all over again. As a team we just are not a good enough TEAM. Last season the CL saved our season from being disappointing to become magnificent. Now it appears we are out of it, and our season may end up being a rather flat one. I fear for Robbie, no Chelsea manager has ever got us knocked out of the group stage before in Roman's time. If Roman can talk Pep in to joining us in Jan Robbie might feel the axe. Just do not know what has gone wrong with the side, how have this team become so bad over night? I fear the city game, they may do to us what they did to United at OT that one weekend.

Starting Hazard up top seems more like the act of a desperate man. Or one of us mimicking Barca. Not sure how many times Hazard has played as the main man up top or the false number 9, but if the side put forward is true with Cesar in pivot role it really makes you wonder. If I am Danny and Torres gets dropped only for somebody else to take the spot up front and my future move has not already been made up, it would be on leaving now.

15mill? Given his deal is to run down soon and he seems to have his head set on his next move sounds like a good idea.

http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11668/8259194/Roberto-Di-Matteo-could-drop-Fernando-Torres-for-Chelsea-s-trip-to-Juventus Change of shape and personnel maybe.

All comes down to whether Roman is willing to stump the buy out clause cash up or not. If he does then I expect Falcao will be our player.

We can come up with a few different ways to set out that could offer us a better chance than what we have been using recently, but given the nature of the game I could see Robbie going more defensively. Cech, Brana, Cahill, Luiz, Cole, Mikel, Oscar, Ramires, Mata, Bertrand, Torres. Still the same system, Ramires and Ryan to tuck in when needed and offer protection when Juve go wide. Oscar has played deep before, and I wonder if Mikel (or Romeu for that matter) are given instructions just to sit and cover for Luiz going forward how Oscar would do a bit deeper, he could give us the passing at deeper areas that we have lacked. You could also make a point for Ramires in the middle and Mata out wide. Ramires can still get up and down, making a quick 3 with Mikel and Oscar and still allowing Mata to be the main creator. As we have said this is a must not lose game.

We have a good relationship with his club, and if the price is not too high why not we need another option up front. The only issue I would see is what do we then do with lukaku? Him and someone like Falcao rotating as our main forward might be our best way forward.

I did not abuse Jokanovic, I did not abuse Bogarde. So will I start with Torres? No, certainly not. All this glory has not gone to my head. They put on the Chelsea shirt they have my full support at game time. Full stop. Do I think Torres is the right man to lead our line? No. Should we get Falcao or another striker and sell Torres if he cannot offer a new worth to the team with that forward? Yes, yes we should. But still, when he puts on the shirt, like all the lads, he has my full support. As for this game, win win or lose lose for you Moos, either way Juve will win it. While both sides have issues with their forward line I doubt Juve have a defense that could not keep a clean sheet to save their respective behinds like we have. So a win for Juve imo, and us hoping Shakhtar can beat them and we can beat the group whipping boys on game day 6.

Well rather disappointing to log on and find in-fighting. Should have expected defeat, normally when I feel confident in a good performance and result I get neither. Most of us on here wanted rotation for the game, and that is what we got. The squad should be strong enough to do so and beat sides like West Brom. I was happy enough with the picked side, a chance for some guys who do not get much time to impress. Young players like Romeu, Bertrand, Cesar, Sturridge and Moses that should be chopping at the bit to make a big impression (just like Oscar has done since he came here) and force the managers hand in to giving him more game time. The rotation is not the reason why Cahill and Luiz, both not 100% fit yet so magnificent against Bayern; have yet again failed to help us achieve a clean sheet. Either we need a new member of Robbie's coaching staff or someone there needs to remember how to coach a good defense again because the only clean sheets any of us expect to see these days are on laundry day. The issue of our forward line has been well covered many times, and once again has been shown today. Very disappointing as I believed today would be a good day for Torres. Good thing you have a healthy bank balance Roman, the outlay in the summer was not enough to replace the Drog it seems.

For some reason I have confidence ahead of this game, not felt that way since before the first United game, and the two we have won since then have been by the finest of margins. Am thinking a 1-2 win, have a feeling Torres will be on the score sheet.

If these quotes are accurate this does sort of remind me on both Anelka and Cahill in previous winter window periods. Both strongly linked to Chelsea, both saying respectful things about our club while remaining none committal about them. I doubt a swap with Torres and cash would happen for a couple of reasons though, such as Nando's high wages and Atleticos large debt that could be dealt with by the 50mill odd they would get from this deal. Could be interesting to see if Torres and Falcao could work together. Is up to Roman though, is he going to stump up another 50mill for a forward? Could be the super cup game made his mind up.

Have to say I agree with u no it makes sense. Two games, two wins, and bring the club world cup back home. We can deal with our position in the league when we get back. Just make sure we get back with the trophy.

http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11668/8246765/Chelsea-s-approach-questioned-after-police-drop-Mark-Clattenburg-investigation