Jonty

You mean to tell me Torres hasn't been playing well since he came to Chelsea? Well i'm sure glad i opened this thread because this is the first I've heard about it.

I feel like, and watching him in this game in that position affirmed my fears, that by playing further up the field he would feel under no pressure to hold any sort of position and run around the pitch as he pleases, making runs off the ball every 5 seconds and ending up next to Torres in every attack. If he does get more time as a DM his positioning and role in the team has to be really clearly outlined to him or hes just going to go mental.

I'm assuming theres a good chance JT will be leaving at the end of next season when his contract expires and he'll be close to 34. That will leave us with two proper centre backs, and Iva who is usually deployed as an RB who can obviously also be used at CB, but that would then leave us with only one right back (assumeing Ferreira will also be gone by the end of next season). So yes, I think we should have more than 2 top centre backs. Look at United and City, they have at least 4 CB's each that they can rely on to start, and Luiz and Cahill have both already picked up their share of injuries since moving here. Not to mention the fact that many people still don't trust Luiz at CB, and Rafa has already showed that hes contemplating giving him gametime further up the field. I rate Fellaini and no doubt he'd be a great signing for us, I feel like we have been missing that element of power and drive in our squad this season, and really have been lacking it in the midfield since Ballack left and Essien became a shadow of his former self. That being said if he was to fit into the team, surely it would be at the expense of Mikel, as I don't see him pushing our trio out of the team, nor ramires. But the problem with that is that both Ramires and Fellaini will want to be getting up the field on and off the ball, we need a proper holding player if we're playing the 4-2-3-1, particularly if Ash and Azpi are getting up the field, or we'll be horribly exposed. That is why I think he's not the player we need, but hey since when have we bought players we actually need. And I agree the striker doesn't have to be the best in the world, I said Falcao because the OP recommended him, and he's been recommended with us a lot in the last year or so. Theres plenty of options we could probably get for half the price, the likes of Ba, Higuain, Llorente and Pato come to mind, but considering money isn't really an obstacle for our club I don't see why RA would be particularly bothered about saving 15-20 million if it means purchasing a striker head and shoulders above anyone else in the world right now.

I'm the same, started getting really into football & chelsea around the end of de goey's days and then when carlo came in. It's sad he wasn't able to play more first team football during his career because he was a fantastic keeper, but I won't ever forget the contributions he's made to our success.

Falcao and Hummels would be good buys, not sure if Fellaini is exactly the player we need, he's been used in a far more attacking role than the one he'd be expected to play. The rest I wouldn't even consider, either we don't need players in their position or there are many better options available. ...as tempting as Neymar is, I feel like he'd never live up to the ridiculous expectations laid on him. edit: Seen some pretty ridiculous suggestions of people who should come/leave on this topic. Marin out Walcott in? is this real life?

How is it that all the teams in the unseeded pot are teams that you wouldn't be surprised to see in CL knockout rounds, and all the teams in the seeded pot are from eastern block countries with names you can't even pronounce. Either eastern europe is the new football capital of the world, or no-one is taking this competition seriously anymore.

I love this man, my dream is that one day Jose will come back to manage the club and make Drogs his assistant and eventual successor. A lad can only dream...

I thought Romeu was one of the stand out players in the first few months of AVB's reign, dunno why his form has taken a dive since then

great post, echoes my thoughts exactly and yes any one of us would have traded a win last season and a group stage exit this season, for another two semi-final exits (or inevitable round of 16 exits like united and arsenal are about to suffer)

First time opening this thread so i'm a bit behind, but from memory wasn't it Cahill that was given the run around by Long, not Luiz?

Just read the first 100 or so pages of this, brings back so many memories! Unfortunately i live all the way in Brisbane, Australia, the match was on at about 5.30am so not much chance of me going out anywhere to get plastered and watch the game with hundreds of screaming fans, but i stayed up all night (no chance of sleeping), went up to my sofa wrapped in my blanket with a big bowl of cereal and suffered the most nerve racking 2 and a half hours of my life, but also the best. On the verge of tears before we got that corner, when Drogba headed it in i nearly kicked my tv off the stand and i proceeded to jump around my room and attack pretty much everything in there, fair to say i ended up with a lot of bruises on my hands and feet, and woke up everyone in the house. Had to go to work a few hours afterwards and i was still buzzin so much i could barely focus on what i was doing. Legends forever, every single one of them.

i agree, doesn't get much more scummier or run down than liverpool

I'm looking forward to the opportunity to win pretty much the last trophy we haven't won already, and play against some clubs i've not seen in a long time in the process. That being said, top 4 finish has to take priority, and especially in the first few games i expect we'll be rotating a lot of players. Not that our 2nd string team would even be bad, we have 2 RB's to rotate, 4 CB's, 2 LB's, 3 DM's, 6 AM's and 2 Strikers to rotate, provided we don't have an injury crisis we should be fielding a strong team in every competition with our depth.

Ramires? Rest? does not compute

If we end up with Pep while United or City end up with Jose, i'm going to be extremely pessimistic. And if Pep actually did end up getting the better of him again, then i'd probably feel bad.

When I first read about this my only reaction was to laugh. Yes sure hes not a bad player, he can tackle and pass and against weak opposition he is fairly solid, especially when ramires is next to him to do all the leg work and make his job easier. But for a club thats supposed to be one of the best in the world, is this a joke that this is now the longest contract anyone at the club has? Since hes come to the club, Romeu has been his long term successor for me, he passes the ball better, has better vision and can probably actually score a few goals here and there. I wouldn't consider myself a Mikel hater, and if he does one day score a goal my celebration will probably be 2nd only to Drogba's equalizer in Munich. But if we're playing two DM's, Ramires being our box to box midfielder, then the other has to be able to defend solidly against all class of opponent, has to always have good positioning (which has been his biggest fault this season, although tbf this could also be attributed to our full backs playing so high that he has to cover for them at times), and should be able to pick out good passes and get moves going. In essence, another Makelele. Theres players out there that can fill this role, looking just at our CL group, Vidal and Fernandinho both made our CM's look like children and both would be great options. Pretty depressing if our midfield is going to be built around someone who has never scored a goal and passes the ball sideways or backwards more often than forwards. He's not the sort of player you're often going to be able to blame for losing matches, but he's the sort of player that will always be part of the reason why we don't win matches. Not because he has bad games, just because he isn't sharp or intelligent enough with his ball distribution.

Wouldn't it be funny if we got drawn against Napoli and then against Benfica, again. Personally i'd love nothing more than to make it to a final against Liverpool and make some more history of our own.

If they're missing Fletcher they really have close to no attacking options, so I hope we really come at them and pile on the pressure with a direct game like we did yesterday in the CL. I'll be interested to see if he chooses to bench Oscar again who has been left out the last 2 games in a row for Moses, or whether he chooses to play all 3 of mazacar, or whether he chooses to rest Hazard who played the full 90 yesterday. Team i'd choose: Cech Cesar Terry Cahill Cole Mikel Ramires Moses Mata Oscar Torres Lamps/Hazard/Sturridge as impact subs if things go pear shaped.

Honestly there are a lot of positives to this. 1) Do I think we had much of a chance at winning the Champions League this season? no. We won it last season because of the determination of the players, especially the older ones, to win the competition before their time was up. We would have been lacking in that department this year, especially with Rafa in charge. We don't have Drogba and Torres isn't going to put goals past top quality opposition (unless its put on a plate for him like at the Nou Camp), and our attacking trio have been facing some serious issues lately with providing the goals. All in all I wouldn't have been surprised to see us go out the first quality team we came up against, and it would have hurt more going out in that manner than going out on the back of a 6-1 win having been the top scorers in the group stages. 2) This gives us an advantage over United (and Arsenal) who will be competing on more fronts than us, CL knockout rounds take a lot out of players and I feel like this year was always going to be about the league more than the CL anyway, after last seasons abysmal standing. 3) It gives us a more realistic chance at more European glory, theres still some quality teams in the Europa (Atletico, Napoli, Inter, Lyon, Lazio, Leverkusen, Spurs, Ajax, Zenit, Benfica), so don't get too overconfident about it, but certainly we'll be one of the competition favorites. There won't be any big pressure on us to win it which will be good for a team thats lacked leadership this year too. well, 3 isn't exactly a lot but I don't feel angry or saddened like I did after going out to United/Barca/Inter in recent years so i guess thats another positive.

Not a flawless performance, but it was great to see Hazard running at players, sometimes as many as 2 or 3 at a time and usually coming away with the ball, thats more what i thought we were getting with him and i hope he'll start being more consistent. For that i'll give him my vote, despite that piss poor penalty. It reminded me a lot of Mata's in the CL final. Clearly with our penalty takers we've gotta go with power over those who are more skillful, stick with Lamps and Luiz. After Hazard i'd say Moses had a great game, Luiz and Mata also had good games. Torres had a good game by his low standards but again he was pushed around far too easily numerous times and had a poor first touch losing the ball on numerous occasions. He's gotta stop going over every time he gets a shove and start giving it back, because refs aren't going for it.

Could the Special One really break our hearts like that by going to United? If he did I don't think I could ever forgive him, but for the love of god RA bring him back to us!

Is this a joke lol, Ancelotti and Hiddink aren't top managers? RDM didn't spend any money, the managers don't decide who is bought, and saying that that is the bare minimum is a bit much, i'm sure with a in form striker we could sweep anyone in the league.

If he was available for around the 20m mark then i'd say thats a good deal, but for the same price as falcao? no chance.

He's not a bad player, but I heard he has a tendency to choke in the big matches. Especially Champions League finals :D all jokes aside, i think Gomez would be a massive flop, for the love of god just buy Falcao.

While I also think JT as a player-manager would work in a motivational and tactical sense, what happens if things go pear shaped and he gets sacked as manager. If you think there were problems in the dressing room under AVB, can you imagine a new manager coming in after JT had been sacked, and is now expected to take orders from someone else? Especially if hes not playing every game? mfw.