In the last month to 2 months, to me, the problem has been the same in every game we play. There is hardly any link from the midfield to our attack. We have seen Lampard been the link for how long and it shows big time when he is not in there. We don't have any other midfielders that can play that link with any creativity. Essien and Ramires are not links. They are box to box guys, not possesion guys. Mikel is a perfect defensive midfielder. I personally feel that Yuri is way to left sided to be a good link. Yossi was supposed to fit into that role but he is out. Josh seems to have that creative ability like lampard, but he is still very young and that is a lot pressure to put on a kid. Same goes for Kakuta, but he is more of a winger. Moving Malouda back into the midfield may work but he has been good on the left wing. Unless we are ready to hand Josh some more chances, we really need to find a "creator," besides Lampard.

This kind of player youre talking about (i'm just gonna assume you mean a no. 10, AM, behind the strikers, whatever type) has been lacking in our squad for ages. We all thought Joe would be sculpted into that player after Jose left. But in the intervening time we have gotten by just fine with various other players performing the task.

The emergence of Malouda and the continuing brilliance of Frank really masked any kind of a problem there. But now that Flo's form is waning and Frank is out, we are seeing that gap open in the squad. And seeing as they are 32 and 30 respectively, its a problem we are going to have to address soon enough.

Ramires is not it, Benayoun is it, but it nothing but a stopgap. A player like Sneijder, Silva, VDV, Modric, or Gourcuff (pretty much all impossible, i know) whose bread and butter is in sitting behind the forwards and opening up the defense, would be ideal.

There was and still is talk about a santos player that we should sign but we need to focus on "the other" santos player. Hanson is the guy we need to sign. He is a great midfielder and he would fit that file perfectly.

Sorry, my mobile is fixing words automatically for my above post. Hanson should have been Ganso. File should be fit. Ha ha.

From all accounts that Ganso kid is a very special player. Only 21 as well. Just watched some highlights of his on youtube and some of his skills are quite breathtaking, not to mention he knows how to find the net.

This happens all the time, yes i know it was Liverpool but let's just see how the weeks play out instead of recommending someone to sign. We've had injuries and when Essien/Lamps come back im confident we will be fine.

Doesn't Dzagoev want to come? If so, then we might as well try to get him.

Dzagoev is a good player but Ganso is better. He has a better ability to create and score.

It's so frustrating to see people post about who we need and why we were rubbish when we lose, we are still top of the league and we are through to the next round of the champions league. We slipped up a couple of times last year but we still came back and came out on top, have faith in what we have and we have injuries to deal with at the moment.

Chelsea without Lampard/Essien is like Liverpool without Gerrard. I know it's frustrating to lose to Liverpool but they wanted it more and it was obvious, with all thats going on with their club it was bound to happen sooner or later to one of the top 4 and sadly it was us.

Edited November 8, 201015 yr by Sheva

This kind of player youre talking about (i'm just gonna assume you mean a no. 10, AM, behind the strikers, whatever type) has been lacking in our squad for ages. We all thought Joe would be sculpted into that player after Jose left. But in the intervening time we have gotten by just fine with various other players performing the task.

The emergence of Malouda and the continuing brilliance of Frank really masked any kind of a problem there. But now that Flo's form is waning and Frank is out, we are seeing that gap open in the squad. And seeing as they are 32 and 30 respectively, its a problem we are going to have to address soon enough.

Ramires is not it, Benayoun is it, but it nothing but a stopgap. A player like Sneijder, Silva, VDV, Modric, or Gourcuff (pretty much all impossible, i know) whose bread and butter is in sitting behind the forwards and opening up the defense, would be ideal.

http://www.soccerway.com/news/2010/November/06/kak-will-return-to-his-best-ancelotti/

Listen, im all for Kaka becoming the player he once was but it's a major risk i doubt we're willing to take. People wanted youth players coming through and when we get them people are still not happy. We have injuries at the moment, every club challenging for the title at the moment are having various setbacks but the difference is we're beating the so called weaker teams and utd/arsenal/city and even spurs are losing against them.

We had setbacks last season when we had injuries and we came out on top, when we lose next i guarentee a post similar to this topic will be made.

im not 1 to lose all sanity because of 1 defeat, I think we lacked drive and creativety in midfield yesterday. if lampard and essien had played then i think we'd have won comfortably.

i do think however, that we should have signed another midfielder, people have mentioned ganso, but with the negativety about signing neymar would we be happy signing him for a similar fee? I would have them both tbh.We missed a trick in the summer with not going all out for ozil, and to an extent vdv.

I think we need 3 players to dominate europe for the next five years. lukaku, neymar/hazard, and any 1 from gourcuff/hamsik/ganso. We'd all love drog n lamps to play for another 5 seasons but the sooner we bring replacements in the more they can learn from our aging duo.

Going to say it again, there is no more season where one side will go "invincible" anymore you have to realize that. I expect all the title contenders to loose at least 5-6 times this season and 2 losses in the league after 11 games is not horrible, certainly not as horrible as some of you think it is.

Get a grip, we had this discussion last season as well when everyone thought it went tits up after the Man C defeat at home.

Edited November 8, 201015 yr by AndyCFC

It's so frustrating to see people post about who we need and why we were rubbish when we lose, we are still top of the league and we are through to the next round of the champions league. We slipped up a couple of times last year but we still came back and came out on top, have faith in what we have and we have injuries to deal with at the moment.

Chelsea without Lampard/Essien is like Liverpool without Gerrard. I know it's frustrating to lose to Liverpool but they wanted it more and it was obvious, with all thats going on with their club it was bound to happen sooner or later to one of the top 4 and sadly it was us.

I'll go with that.

It's so frustrating to see people post about who we need and why we were rubbish when we lose, we are still top of the league and we are through to the next round of the champions league. We slipped up a couple of times last year but we still came back and came out on top, have faith in what we have and we have injuries to deal with at the moment.

Chelsea without Lampard/Essien is like Liverpool without Gerrard. I know it's frustrating to lose to Liverpool but they wanted it more and it was obvious, with all thats going on with their club it was bound to happen sooner or later to one of the top 4 and sadly it was us.

This

I do think we need a player who can fill that role when Frank isn't playable, i'm not hitting the panic button too soon but think its an area which we need some more backup.

I do think we need a player who can fill that role when Frank isn't playable, i'm not hitting the panic button too soon but think its an area which we need some more backup.

We had backup - Benayoun. Unfortunately both players are injured now. A team shouldn't have to have a backup for the backup.

Actually, I kinda expected Zhirkov to be able to step up.

We had backup - Benayoun. Unfortunately both players are injured now. A team shouldn't have to have a backup for the backup.

Actually, I kinda expected Zhirkov to be able to step up.

Although I rate Benayoun I don't think he will even be able to fill the role that Lampard plays, anyways forget the doom and gloom we're still top of the league and can see a vast improvement in the next few weeks.

Actually, I kinda expected Zhirkov to be able to step up.

He did step up, on quite a few occasions. Just because we lost one game doesn't mean he was a failure and there were other players on the pitch who did even worse on the day.

Many of you are saying we shouldn't overreact after one loss and that we would have won if Lamp and Essien were in there. You are right, we would have won if they were there, BUT there is a problem in that thinking. They won't be there forever. Lamps is getting up there in age. We don't have anybody that can fill that role after Lampard. Josh is way too young to put that pressure on him. We need to find another player like him that is young. That should be our first priority.

Many of you are saying we shouldn't overreact after one loss and that we would have won if Lamp and Essien were in there. You are right, we would have won if they were there, BUT there is a problem in that thinking. They won't be there forever. Lamps is getting up there in age. We don't have anybody that can fill that role after Lampard. Josh is way too young to put that pressure on him. We need to find another player like him that is young. That should be our first priority.

So you believe Lampard's career is over right now?

He has a minimum of two seasons left in my view, which should be enough for McEachran, or for a non-panicked replacement to be purchased.

The point about Lamps and Essien being missing having a huge impact on the way we played is true but doesn't mean we couldn't have won without them, the second half proved that had we gone out from the off with a bit of fire in the belly the result could have been very different.

Obviously without those two and without Drogba on the field and the fairly inexperienced premier league duo of Ramires and Zhirkov we were lacking a bit in confidence but those players must have gained some confidence by the second half performance..ok they were not brilliant but the whole team played good enough to win the game in the second half and had they played like that for the full 90 minutes then surely they would have got a result.

I also think it was sods law to have Essien and Lampard out at the same time and believe either one would have made the difference, that and the fact that Benayoun was also an experienced player that could have helped made that just a bad day at the office against a fired up team that have had a bit of good news and a few good results with undoubtably a far better squad then their league position suggests and who will likely be a very hard opponent for our main challengers on their home turf.

I think the second half was pretty good and had we had more runners into the box we would have scored, Ramires was the worst player first half but could have scored with a header once he started trying to get in the box second half and he picked out some decent passes, Zhirkov improved and Mikel was decent both halves, I think the three of them could have learned a bit from the game and should they have to be the three we play with again (which shouldn't happen too often) I feel sure they will perform better.

If you watched UTD or Arsenals games over the Weekend, on their performances do you think they would have faired better at anfield? I think they both would have struggled and not just without three of their most important players.

So you believe Lampard's career is over right now?

He has a minimum of two seasons left in my view, which should be enough for McEachran, or for a non-panicked replacement to be purchased.

Where did I say I thought Lampard career was over? I agree he has two seasons left. But why not buy a player now and let him play a little bit and learn from the best.