Chelsea Without drogba seem to play more freely and with more character..

The ball doesnt have to end up for one specific player to score but as we see a wide range of players feel they can express themselves.

We didnt really miss him when the ACN came.. im not saying dont play drogba. Hes the first name on the teamsheet against the top 4 but i think in some games u'd be better off going for a 4-3-3 Anelka and two wingers..

Its hard to say wether or not if drogba played agaisnt villa would the outcome have been different?? Maybe, maybe not anelka played a great supporting role running off defends which in turn made space for lamps and everyone else drogba would have stayed pretty central and held paly up would that have helped or not im not sure im starting to prefer anelka now beacuse drogbas diving and palyacting and mindless sending offs(re man utd / inter) he is a bad loser which is good sometimes depending how the player reacts, but against utd i would still prefer to have him that to have to worry about him :unsure:

Edited April 3, 201016 yr by bluewilky

It's a brave post to suggest that we play better without Didier, all the goals he's scored this year in particular make it bloody hard to see how he isn't first on the team sheet. Especially in the big games (notably against Arsenal), because he has a habit of popping up with a goal when you need one.

That said I actually agree with you to a large degree. I've been thinking for a long time that the only way to really to change our style of play is to actually sell Didier. All of these problems about a lack of width etc. etc etc. stem from Drogba having to be in the team. With the purchase of Shevchenko and then Anelka, we've had to try and accomodate another big name striker where there isn't always room. Thus we've had to experiment with other formations and different tactics to try and fit the other striker in, which have been to the detriment of other areas of the pitch.

This isn't always a bad thing, because I feel Didier has always scored more goals when someone else plays up alongside him, 2006-07 and this year are both examples of that, but I do sometimes think we are tactically inflexible with him always having to be there all the time. Furthermore, we haven't exactly struggled for goals without him, especially when you consider both our 7 goal hauls came when he wasn't playing.

I think Jesper's right. I've been discussing this very issue with the head of human performance at Sydney FC, Dr Craig Duncan.

He was telling me about an analysis done on Ronaldo's role with Brazil at WC 06. He noticed that Brazil passed the ball almost by default to Ronaldo hoping he would do something with it, even though he was clearly past his best. It reminded me of an interview with Bixente Lizarazu post Euro 2004, in which he admitted no matter the coach's game plan France's real tactic was to pass it to Zidane as quickly as possible.

Ever since people accused Liverpool of being a 'one-man team', Liverpool fans were quick to show a series of statistics that actually suggested they won more often without Steven Gerrard. Rather than completely contradicting the one-man-team argument it actually strengthens it. If we look at a team in terms of three factors-

On average:

1) The team plays well (perhaps best) when Player X plays well

2) The team plays well when Player X is absent

3) The team plays poorly when Player X is present, but plays poorly

The last one is most relevant. What happens when Drogba is present and we go behind? Then he starts missing chances...we get more desperate...we pass to him more often. Drogba tries to take responsiblity and fails, and it creates a snowball effect where the team begins to lose its belief. I think this is firmly observable, when Drogba has a bad game it seems our attackers feel they cannot have a good game. When last have you seen one of our attackers take the game by the scruff of the neck IN Drogba's presence? Perhaps Anelka at the start of the season, but he wasn't scoring, and you could argue he was the more important of the two strikers at season's beginning.

I reckon this is where Essien makes a HUGE difference to our team. I don't think he gives a flying f**k if he's playing with Jonathan Greening or Johann Cruyff, he's going to play his best regardless of his teammates. He doesn't care if no one passes him the ball, he'll chop some opposition legs down while he waits for it. I would say only Ivanovic, Alex, Terry, Carvalho and Ashley Cole have shown this kind of mentality- and they are all defenders.

The other way we can combat this is early subbing. Grant, Scolari, Ancelotti and Hiddink all don't embrace the concept. Mourinho virtually ALWAYS used his three subs, and made changes around the 60-70 min mark a matter of course. Basically, if you were the most ineffective for ~70min, you were going to get hooked, and if you got hooked earlier it was a proper embarassment.

I'm willing to bet that if Ancelotti were to make his subs earlier he would suddenly remind the players of their responsibility. It doesn't necessarily have to be Drogba to be replaced, but our central mids in particular seem to be untouchable so they just keep on passing on their responsibility.

If it wasnt for Dids wed be looking for a win today to get ourselves into 4th,ask any centre half in the prem who makes them earn their money for 90 mins and im sure one name will be right up there............LA LA LA LA .........LA

If it wasnt for Dids wed be looking for a win today to get ourselves into 4th

That's not strictly true - The point that people seem to be making here is that when Drogba doesn't play, the goals still come but from somewhere else. I think there's something to be said for it as an idea, and people are making a good case for trying the team with out him - but it would take a very brave man to leave him out of the United game, let alone sell him as has been suggested here.

I'm not entirely sure what I think is the best strategy with regards playing him, but I can't imagine anyone brave enough to drop him all the while he's able to score 25 goals a season

I think a swedish football "expert" talked about this not long ago (in fact I think it was last weekend). He said that when we don't play with Drogba we are more fluid and really use the whole team. When we have Drogba we tend to use him as a target man most of the time and play every ball on his chest and build from there.

If the opponents manage to close him down then they ruin most than half of our plays.

Drogba is a great player, but perhaps we need to play like we had Anelka instead of him sometimes. Don't use him as a target man, but as a striker.

I think a swedish football "expert" talked about this not long ago (in fact I think it was last weekend). He said that when we don't play with Drogba we are more fluid and really use the whole team. When we have Drogba we tend to use him as a target man most of the time and play every ball on his chest and build from there.

If the opponents manage to close him down then they ruin most than half of our plays.

Drogba is a great player, but perhaps we need to play like we had Anelka instead of him sometimes. Don't use him as a target man, but as a striker.

i dont want to blow my own trumpet but i said exactly that ages ago. I think Drogba is more useful against better opponents as we dont have as much space or as many chances, and he can score from nothing. against so called lesser opponents who allow us room to play then Anelka up front seems to work better.

Ive had thoughts of this but i still cant bring myself to say yeah ok lets leave out our top scorer.

without a doubt different players bring in different things

but i cant for a minute say id swap drogba's power pace finishing free kicks ( just look at all 4 of his goals against aresenal this season we would of lost the home game against them without him) theres no way im swapping that and hoping for a good anelka/lampard/malouda day at the office

not so much malouda because hes playing immensly with or without drogs

His still our player of the season..........

(or at worst second behind Ivanovich)

A similar thing happened when Lampard got injured a couple of seasons ago. We had a great run of form (we actually beat Man Utd), and as a result of us not putting everything through Lampard, it meant Ballack was used to his full potential and ran riot against teams.

We're about to find out how good we are without him because he's apparently on the bench tonight

We're about to find out how good we are without him because he's apparently on the bench tonight

Yeah he's on the bench for the United match.

Chelsea Without drogba seem to play more freely and with more character..

The ball doesnt have to end up for one specific player to score but as we see a wide range of players feel they can express themselves.

We didnt really miss him when the ACN came.. im not saying dont play drogba. Hes the first name on the teamsheet against the top 4 but i think in some games u'd be better off going for a 4-3-3 Anelka and two wingers..

I hate wide ranging expressive freely characters. They're all pants.

I like Drogba and the way he always ruins our team.

Just like he did today.

Let me start by saying in no way is this a criticism of the great Didier Drogba.

Fact is we do play better football without Drogs and I would actually contemplate letting him go this summer (it won't happen).

WHAT? I hear you cry. Look I love him to bits and I'm grateful for what he's done so far in his time for us and truly hope he can help us bring home the title this season but I do feel some players are restricted in their own game when he is on the pitch. Would we be where we are without his 30+ goals? Fact is we'll never know for sure though we won every league game without him from what I can recall.

Last week before the game there were people around me despondent when the team news revealed Drogs wasn't playing. Me? I was very confident though I did not expect such an emphatic result and I said then pretty much what I've said here and cited the games we played in January as being the best football we've played consistently throughout the season.

Drogs has been a colossus for us and will continue to be so until he finally leaves and he will leave with my very best wishes whenever that may be. A new hero will soon appear.

Today we saw how well and badly we can play with Anelka up front. We also saw that when we are playing badly Anelka is marginalised and offers nothing.

We then saw Drogba come on and prove them even when the team is on the back foot he is a monster that scares defenders.

Long may it last!!

i dont want to blow my own trumpet but i said exactly that ages ago. I think Drogba is more useful against better opponents as we dont have as much space or as many chances, and he can score from nothing. against so called lesser opponents who allow us room to play then Anelka up front seems to work better.

Go ahead, blow your trumpet or else I will... :D

didy is a great player but he can also be bad if hed played last week we wont of got 7 but today anelka was largely ineffective as he needs players around him which u can't always have

Where did this myth come from?

We travelled to pompey and put 5 past James with Drogba spearheading the attack and getting 2 goals despite our relatively poor away form all season then a few days later we dont need him?. I also recall putting 6 past City a couple of seasons ago with Drogba again center stage.

So why all of a sudden is there some wild theory that we cant score goals without Drogba or play it on the ground?

We've shipped 4 past Liverpool a couple of times with Didier, 3 past Arsenal, 5 past Blackburn this season, but because we put 7 goals past villa and sunderland we should rely on a striker who hasnt scored in months and has played very poorly in most those games?

How many goals has Drogba got so far this season? and you still want to get rid of him? Why would you want to hand another team the greatest striker in the world?

Will Anelka provide an ariel threat in the box? Will he defend from set pieces? Who is our best free kick taker?

They are two different strikers that provide us with different options. We need both but drogba is a big game player, a leader and in a different league to Anelka. Lets not kid ourselves because of 2 results, the only thing those scorelines proved is we need to play 443 and use width when teams try to park the bus!

Where did this myth come from?

We travelled to pompey and put 5 past James with Drogba spearheading the attack and getting 2 goals despite our relatively poor away form all season then a few days later we dont need him?. I also recall putting 6 past City a couple of seasons ago with Drogba again center stage.

So why all of a sudden is there some wild theory that we cant score goals without Drogba or play it on the ground?

We've shipped 4 past Liverpool a couple of times with Didier, 3 past Arsenal, 5 past Blackburn this season, but because we put 7 goals past villa and sunderland we should rely on a striker who hasnt scored in months and has played very poorly in most those games?

How many goals has Drogba got so far this season? and you still want to get rid of him? Why would you want to hand another team the greatest striker in the world?

Will Anelka provide an ariel threat in the box? Will he defend from set pieces? Who is our best free kick taker?

They are two different strikers that provide us with different options. We need both but drogba is a big game player, a leader and in a different league to Anelka. Lets not kid ourselves because of 2 results, the only thing those scorelines proved is we need to play 443 and use width when teams try to park the bus!

I think you've missed the entire point of the thread. This isn't an attack on Didier, we all love the guy and last night was a perfect example of what he can do for us.

What people are saying is that the rest of the team tends to play better when Anelka leads the line than when Didier does and furthermore that when we struggle then we become too focused on just Drogs, shipping balls up to him waiting for him to do something rather than other parts of the team lifting as well.

I personally think Carlo used them both perfectly last night. Anelka's movement off the ball in the first half was fantastic. He was so key to why we looked so good. He moved around the central defenders creating space for Joe Cole and Malouda to work in to, giving us a very fluid structure that was a big part of our dominace. These are the things that people who slag him because he hasn't scored fail to notice. In the second half when United started to get a bit of ball and close down the space he was much less effective, so Carlo to his credit brought Didier on and his strength in holding up the ball and providing a target for us to clear to was critical to us holding on. That and the goal of course...

Personally I really think that It's going to be difficult to fit them both in during the rest of the season. I really liked the way they complemented each other in the diamond system, but to allow Nico that free role to drift into space both sides rather than just on the right, we really need a strong right back capable of covering that right side. Paulo has done well over there as has Ivan, but neither have the guile that Bosingwa has to essentially play as the right winger as well as right back on that side. So for me this is a problem (a good one given) going into the next few fixtures.

Edited April 4, 201016 yr by Spiller86

I think it's not a question of Drogba, but the line-up. 4-3-3 is the best formation for Chelsea.

Very true Mikstaw, very true. Itseems to be the formation the players react to best. There will be times when we need to switch to 442 but we seem to be at our best when we play this squad with the 433 formation. My sense is though that Carlo will look to build his own team using a formation he prefers but can't use fully at the moment because he hasn't got the players who best fit his long term plan.

Its not just the formation that works. I think it has to be 4 3 3 with 2 wingers not a striker as a makeshift winger. Things don't seem to run as smoothly defensivly then

What is often overlooked is the number of assists he contributes in a season. He's not just a hit man.

Drogs has 10 assists in addition to his 25 goals (Premiership only) this season