If you were in AVB position, who would you play?

He can't win... we are expected to beat the championship team easily.. so pressure on chelsea.

If he plays old guard, and we are beaten he will be blamed.... if risks younger and newer players AND we are beaten .. the old guard will win, starting .. "should have used experience" .. does he pick Torres? Drogba? lampard.. ... is big test.. If we win, no glory for him, as expected to win a struggling club

So for AVB it is just chance to buy time?

4-2-3-1 - Clear to see Mata operates much better behind the striker rather than out on the wing. Not sure how AVB will be able to motivate them though and you're right, he'll get blamed no matter who he picks!

Cech

Ivan (with hutchinson on at some point)

Cahill

Luiz

Bertrand

Romeu (is he injured?)

Ramires

Sturridge

Mata

Kalou

Torres

4231

Cech

Ivanovic

Luiz

Cahill

Bertrand

Romeu

Essien

Ramires (Think he works well on the right)

Mata

Sturridge

Torres

This game now is big for everyone i mean everone

4231

Cech

Ivanovic

Luiz

Cahill

Bertrand

Romeu

Essien

Ramires (Think he works well on the right)

Mata

Sturridge

Torres

with this team at least you can say that these players will try to win,

This game now is big for everyone i mean everone

There might be a surge for a game or two after the manager gets fired. Not uncommon in team sports.

I fear for Chelsea's results after that, though. This is a fundamentally weak squad. And I have no confidence in Di Matteo as a manager.

For some reason I feel we will win this game and prove a point

I think given our antics (not us literally but the club) just about everybody in the UK bar Villa (and maybe Wolves) fans will be hoping for a Birmingham win.

I'm looking quite forward to this game, hopefully we can grab a win.

I'd go as far and saying this is bigger than any game we have coming up. Lose this game than we go trophyless and negativity surrounds the club.

The players owe it not only to RA, the fans, but more importantly... themselves to play well for the rest of the season.

After todays antics,I suspect the reaction from the players may be as flat as an myopic hedgehog crossing the M25 at rushhour.

Inspite of what fans feelings on the matter are,I honestly think the vast majority of the squad wished (& have for some time),that things had gone differently.

That's all in the past however.

This is not the time to be pointing fingers at each other,hopefully the team will all pull togther & be professional and put in a performance thats worthy of us supporters,(& themselves).

It will be interesting to see what team Robbie D puts out. I'm honestly not sure how the team will respond to AVB's sacking. They may be as divided as we are on this forum.

It will be interesting to see how hard players fight to win the ball. A good number of them didn't think it was worth the effort against West Brom.

Need a win more than ever at the moment, just to act as a catalyst that could as a bare minimum provide that 'new man in charge' boost fo a few games and then hopefully morale could pick up and we can kick on from there. Stoke home after this is a game we must win and it would be prefererable to advance on to that game from a win as opposed to a loss which would just heap the doom and gloom that surrounds the club at the moment on even more.

No idea as to what team he might put out. I think most would agree that the team AVB sent out against West Brom was pretty much the stongest available but we were just dog sh*te on the day so not sure how much more Di Matteo can do.

JT can't come back quick enough now though. Hopefully between him and Di Matteo we can at least steady the ship and get a happy camp going.

Interesting dynamic for this one.

Not sure who the lineup will be, maybe some youngsters, maybe RDM will wield the axe after some of the performances on the weekend.

I don't see the team being dramatically different. We were playing pretty much our strongest team in the last couple of games.

What I hope will be different is the organisation and belief.

We may have a squad which needs surgery but it is perfectly good enough to beat Birmingham and to carry us in to the top four in the league.

Transition will have to wait until the summer. For now we just have to win games and play to our best.

I think you're right ethical. A bit of the pass and move and recieve and pass again in the final third wouldn't go astray. I'd love to see us get behind a defensive line once this season.

.................Cech.....................

..Ivanovic..Cahil..Luiz..Cole..

..Ramirez..Mata..Lampard..

...............Torres..................

......Lukaku.........Drogba.....

.................Cech.....................

..Ivanovic..Cahil..Luiz..Cole..

..Ramirez..Mata..Lampard..

...............Torres..................

......Lukaku.........Drogba.....

What is that?

For some reason I feel we will win this game and prove a point

If that happens, then big questions will have to be asked. Sure it may vindicate the decision to get rid of AVB, but if certain players massively up their game tomorrow I'm going to be pissed.

What is that?

Im not sure about that either

I think it's an interesting approach - Lukaku has always looked well up for it recently, and Torres showed once again on Saturday that he has a lot to offer the team even if he isn't scoring goals, and was probably the best player on the pitch (though that's not saying a lot) when he came on.

^{Lets be honest here, it tells us nothing if we win at Birmingham...the first game we were dire and they were up for it like a cup final, they will be again no doubt but usually when a premier league club is held they go and sort it out in the replay, the 'easy game' attitude being blown out the window by the almost upset,}

^{The Bolton game was much better and I think that was a bit of a response, I don't believe for a minute Birmingham are a lot better than Bolton.}

^{The WBA game the players looked so flat and lak lustre that Bolton would likely have beaten them on that day and thats been part of the problem in trying to get a regular starting eleven, reliablility has gone, a good game for these boys has meant a start next game but they just haven't played good many times in a row.}

^{Worse still, at WBA they were not just up for it, they were coming into the game on va very good run and really had the bit between their teeth from the off, once we missed a couple of easy chances with the deflated attitude in the camp, its easy to imagine the feeling of impending doom, Credit to West Brom as with our players in that mood they were not the team you'd want to meet.}

^{If they don't win at Birmingham, I'll be amazed, as I would whoever was Managing, if it gos well, it won't be a pointer to the reaction of getting rid of AVB and if it gos tits up, it won't be a reaction to RDM.}

Edited March 5, 201214 yr by Chippy

What is that?

Unable to keep a clean sheet , try to score a goal more .

lol

Why not Torres as the play maker,he is strong enough,quick enough,and as good a passer of the ball as Mata,(its a spanish thing),it actually looks a good shout.

Think we will see the same old rubbish here because di matteo won't want to upset anyone. Drogba will play and the usual suspects!