Courtois

Ivan

Djilobodji/Cahill

Zouma

Azpi

Loftus Cheek/Mikel

Willian

Hazard

Fabregas/Kenedy

Costa

Remy

I'd like to see two up front, maybe Loftus Cheek or Mikel come in for Matic, Cahill back in for Terry, or even Djilibodji given a chance, if not there's a club in Holland he can go to, I don't want see Fab played deep ever again, but I don't want to see Oscar either, when he plays he may as well be a statue, maybe Kenedy can play. What I expect is the same system with nearly the exact same players, because Jose refuses to try and change things, unless he try's a false 9 which was useless.

Terrible time for this game. A game against Chelsea is usually the game in which Sunderland decide to give their annual above average performance, and with Sam Allardyce at the helm against a side that can barely score a goal, we're in for a dire draw or Sunderland nicking it

Costa 10km away from line up.

If we play at our very best we might sneak 1-0, lol

A huge win will do us the world of good.....time for some self reflection.

What I'd like to see:

Courtois

Zouma

Terry

Azpi

Matic

Fabregas

RLC

Willian

Hazard

Remy

Traore/Kenedy

Felt we did well enough when we changed to this shape last night to warrant trying it from the start against Sunderland.

Not that this will actually happen though.

A good performance and a win please.Show some pride lads.....UP THE CHELS!

If we play like we did second half at Leicester we should be OK, as I said before in my opinion if the boys wern't playing for the manager it would be heads down towards the end of the game and not a dear in the headlights start and improvement late on.

 

Sunderland will be as up for this as Leicester so goals will be hard to come by but I doubt they'll break with the same cutting edge, if we can get an early goal I think they'll open up and we'll score again, if not this will be another must whine game for most on here.

 

 

Hopefully Jose wil explain to the lads that his betrayal speech has been (surprise surprise) taken a bit out of context by the media and that he meant more along the lines of them betraying their abilities on the training field once a real match gets underway, must be confusing watching things looking good in training and then the nervy mistakes coming in in the game.

Edited December 15, 201510 yr by Chippy

In terms of what we can expect from Sunderland:

 

Since his appointment as Sunderland boss, Fat Sam has steadfastly stuck with a three-man defence, usually a combination of Coates, O'Shea and Kaboul, due to a combination of what he perceived to be defensive frailties, as well as it providing the opportunity to play two up front (Fletcher and Defoe) without the sacrifice of shape which you quite often get from a 4-4-2. What also facilitates this strategy is that Sunderland have two gung-ho wing-backs at their disposal: DeAndré Yedlin (you might remember him as the USA's young right-back from the World Cup) and our own Patrick Van Aanholt.

 

Oddly in the last couple of games Sunderland have played something more akin to a 3-4-3, with Fletcher up front alone, flanked by Borini and the promising youngster Duncan Watmore, a remarkably intelligent player for his age. The midfield is anchored by the incredibly aggressive M'Vila and the more reserved (and slightly odd) Toivonen, although prior to their respective injuries, Allardyce had preferred the duo of Seb Larsson and Lee Cattermole alongside M'Vila; Cattermole is apparently due back this weekend although it's hard to say whether or not he'll be risked.

 

It's not particularly easy to predict exactly how Sunderland will line up considering they have kept the likes of Lens, Johnson, and Defoe on the bench for the past couple of games (including a, from Sunderland's perspective, similar match away to Arsenal). That said, Allardyce seems a little too cautious to attempt to exploit our current weakness, especially considering that he will have seen how effectively a team who are willing to concede possession (e.g. Bournemouth, Leicester, Stoke, etc.) can take us down, and also how easily our attack can be nullified as soon as an opposing side presses us in their own half.

 

Considering how poorly our league campaign is going, I see little reason not to experiment with our lineup and formation. That translates to giving an opportunity to a couple of youngsters, and perhaps attempting something akin to that bizarre formation we played in the last half hour against Leicester. If we lose again it will hardly be a deeper humiliation than what we've already suffered, and we'll also have given some of then valuable first-team experience to our younger players which José promised as soon as the top four was out of reach.

 

While playing two up front makes sense in terms of our poor finishing of late, I don't think it is a good idea to introduce it against a three-man defence who will have a natural one-man advantage. I would go for an incredibly mobile, energetic front three (Willian and Pedro for sure, probably Rémy up top) who can use their movement to create space for chances to be created. (I wanted to play Fabregas behind this front three but irritatingly ran out of players.)

 

In terms of the back three, Zouma and Azpilicueta are obviously shoo-ins, but I would also stick with Ivanovic. That said, if we went with JT instead I would have no particular qualms with it. Rahman is a natural fit at left wing-back, and I would go with Ramires on the right. This gives us pace and energy, and also gives us more balance on the left than if Rahman is deployed as a conventional left-back.

 

That leaves us with: (bear in mind I have never recommended playing a back three in my life - other than the pre-Pearson 3-4-1-2 I used as Leicester on FM06 - and may have no idea what I'm talking about):

 

 

-----------------------Courtois

 

-------Ivanovic-------Zouma-------Azpi

 

Ramires---------Matic-------RLC--------Rahman

 

-----------Willian-----------------Pedro

 

------------------------Rémy

I'd like to see us try 3 at the back but in all honesty I don't care what the formation is, who plays, or who's in charge, as long as we pick up 3 points.

Once and for all can we give this sh*tty 4-2-3-1 a rest and try 4-4-2?

 

Courtois

 

Baba

Cahill

Zouma

Azpilicueta

 

Hazard

Matic

Willian

Fabregas

 

Costa

Remy

What i really want to see is a system change and Remy in starting line up! 

surely Jose knows he has to shake it up and go with something different.

 

that comment about Hazard - "He made the decision to come off. So it must be a serious injury," - suggests to me that Jose suspects it wasn't really serious and there have been a few signs in recent weeks that Jose's relationship with Hazard is not that great. I could see Kenedy getting a start in place of Hazard due to "the injury".

 

I'd love him to start Kenedy and Remy but he still seems to be keen to give Diego yet another chance

Hopefully Own Goal will turn up. He's the only one trying.

 

Chelsea 1-2 Sunderland

 

I think he's the manager at MU these days.

After his accusation last night, Jose would make an ass of himself if he still picks the vast majority of the 11 , and will probably end with similar results. Hopefully it will be something like this on Saturday:

GK

Azpi Zouma Papi Rahman

Mikel RLC

Kennedy Willian Pedro

Remy

 

We may still lose, but at least we will see more commitment from the fringe and young players. There's no point playing Costa, he will spend the whole 90 arguing and fighting with Cattermole and forget his main job. You could always trust Mikel put in a 6/10 performance, nothing fancy, just don't lose the ball and pass it short to attackers

Same bull sh*t lineup, same useless tactics, same damn results

 

0-1 (Ivanovic own goal 86th minute)

-----------------------Cortious-----------------------

----Azpi-------Zouma-----Terry-------Baba-------

-------------------------Matic-------------------------

----------------RLC----------Fabregas-------------

---Willian------------------------Hazard/Kenedy--

----------------------Remy---------------------------

Drop the entire first XI minus Tibo and Zouma.

 

Start youth players.

Tibo, Zouma, Remy, Pedro, Willian and the youth team...  

Looks like D-Day today. Abramovic and the board are meeting to decide Mourinho's fate. Something has to give. Either we have a clear out in January of players (difficult) or we sack Mourinho and get in a caretaker for the rest of the season.Not too sure we can even beat Sunderland as things stand. 0-1 to Sunderland. We will find out Mourinho's fate in the coming weeks I reckon.The season from Hell continues.

For the first time in a few league games, I am confident of a win. Sunderland are utter dross.

3-1 Chelsea. 2 set pieces and a breakaway goal late on after Sunderland pull a goal back.

Drop the entire first XI minus Tibo and Zouma.

 

Start youth players.

 

You should wash your mouth out with soap!....The words 'Youngsters' and 'Youth' are in not in Jose's Coaching Manual, so please forget these two words, they don't exist beyond the Academy gates.   

Looks like D-Day today. Abramovic and the board are meeting to decide Mourinho's fate. Something has to give. Either we have a clear out in January of players (difficult) or we sack Mourinho and get in a caretaker for the rest of the season.Not too sure we can even beat Sunderland as things stand. 0-1 to Sunderland. We will find out Mourinho's fate in the coming weeks I reckon.The season from Hell continues.

 

What source do you have for the board meeting?

 

Jose has to leave for the sake of the club now.

3-0 to Chelsea. F**k em.

If we start this game slow then i am going to be effing furious. I'm sick and tired of us waiting for something to happen in games, take the game to the opposition. After what we seen against Leicester, i think it's very obvious we have to start fast. We cannot give Sunderland the time to settle. Once a team managed by Sam Allardyce settle's they will be incredibly hard to break down. We must start fast and pressure them as much as possible or it's going to be the same story. 0-0 for a while and then Sunderland gain a bit of confidence and nick a 1-0 win, we cannot allow that to happen again.