Guess which player ran the furthest

[The Brit]

Spanish tv flash up stats of how far a player has run during the game and it revealed a Chelsea player had covered the most ground out of the two teams...so who was it? Diarra, up and down the right flank? Ashley Cole - up and down the left flank? Drogba - leading the line? No step forward Michael Ballack who ran almost 13km in that 90 minutes...still to run that far and do so little is a question for our most intelligent academics

[The Moos]

Interesting facts. Looks strange, yes, but maybe it's not. How often do we really look at players running to make things happen for other players? Ballack is experienced and I wouldn't be surprised if he often runs were there's no ball just to get an opponent with him so that his teammate gets some extra space.

Might be the reason why he gets to play every game. JM isn't stupid enough to play someone who doesn't do any good.

Do you know how far Sheva ran? I get the feeling that he runs quite alot too.

[Nibs]

I'd rather he did a lot less running and did something where we actually benefit from it. He was better than Lamps early on but I can honestly say I didn't notice him in the last 25 minutes or so. I suppose he was running off camara.

[loz]

Ballack was a far better performer than Lamps tonight - 1st half he was, for me, 2nd best Chelsea player on the pitch after Sheva. 2nd half not as good as the 1st but still a lot better than Lamps.

[The Moos]

Ballack was a far better performer than Lamps tonight - 1st half he was, for me, 2nd best Chelsea player on the pitch after Sheva. 2nd half not as good as the 1st but still a lot better than Lamps.

I though Lamps got better in the 2nd half though I would have liked to see him go on the attack a bit more.

[abramovich]

Lampard had a poor game, nothing from an open play, nothing from set pieces.

Ballack was solid throughout.

[The Brit]

to be fair ballack did play well in the first half but he does have a tendency to fade out of games whether playing well or not...as for lamps he got better as it went on but seemed too eager to score than set up a team=mate and I think that's cos of being dropped by england...he looked at times to want to prove a point rather than pick out the best option...no stats on sheva distance, they only show the top 3 from each side..lamps was 1km behind ballack and Ashley cole was third...their best runner was David Villa coming in at 12.2km..

spanish tv also had a mad camera angle, unless sky had it too, where they were right over jose's shoulder filming him fill out his tactics sheets...in fact they were so fascinated they showed that more than the game at times...it was also a challenge to listen to jose post match in spanish and trying to figure out what he was saying...I'm sure I detected him complaining about not getting a pen and that the second leg will be difficult but it will be difficul for them too

[ethicalstrategy]

Spanish tv flash up stats of how far a player has run during the game and it revealed a Chelsea player had covered the most ground out of the two teams...so who was it? Diarra, up and down the right flank? Ashley Cole - up and down the left flank? Drogba - leading the line? No step forward Michael Ballack who ran almost 13km in that 90 minutes...still to run that far and do so little is a question for our most intelligent academics

surely the question is how u can say that if u were actually watching the match! ballack had a good game tonight. he was good on the ball & worked hard. the stats u quote dont surprise me at all.

[loz]

spanish tv also had a mad camera angle, unless sky had it too, where they were right over jose's shoulder filming him fill out his tactics sheets

They showed that on the stream I watched which I am sure was Sky however clearly not as much as the PSanish TV - I think it was only shown once or twice.

[mad_mac]

I think he puts in a lot mroe work than we maybe give him credit for. His runs can drag opposing players away from their positions, and tonight he played som exceptional balls into areas that people didn't actually seem to recognize were available.

Scott

[SydneyChelsea]

Was impressed by Ashley Cole tonight. Really looked up for it. It was unfortunate that he had to play with a decidedly disinterested Lampard, who looked like he's caught the Ballack Bug. Lampard's distribution was extremely poor all night. We seriously need to get some width back. Only Kalou had any inclination to run behind the defenses. Valencia were playing a reasonably high line (7 offsides to 0!) and a high offside count is a perennial problem in all our matches.

As for free kicks Lampard is and always has been sh*t at them. I can't stand him taking set-pieces. However the next best options would be Ballack, Drogba and Shevchenko and all three are needed in the box.

[TomP]

I'm actually quite surprised that no-one seems to have rated Lamp's performance. I thought he did really well.

He was very tightly marked by Albelda and Abidol - one of them was basically sitting on him for the entire match - and as such, he wasn't ever really in a good scoring position.

With Frank, you have to remember that he is first and foremost a midfielder (any goals he scores are a bonus) - and he did all his midfield tasks pretty well. He played a lot of short and simple passes (he has a tendancy to over-play passes when he is not playing well), and in the abscence of Maka, it was Frank who was always there provinding a short option for players to pass to.

In the second half, I thought that he and Mikel really took control of the midfield. It was Ballack who was the weak link for me. He obviously did a lot of running (according to the stats), but as far as I could tell, it must have been in the other direction from the rest of the team.

I agree about the situation with Lamps's free-kicks though. Absolutely awful, and have been for quite a while now. If you ask me, Drogba should be taking the direct shots from free-kicks, and Ballack taking the crosses, and maybe even the corners.

[g3.7]

he had a quality first half alongside sheva, however in the second half he stood out less, possibly due to an improvement in all the players around him, though he still showed nice touches. I was pleased to see him get on the ball higher up, played some very dangerous non percentage balls, and most of them perfectly accurate.

his peformance enthused me, and I'd hope give some encouragement to the doubters.

sydney, kalou rarely ran behind defences. he took the ball and ran at them, but didn't run beyond. sheva did, and drogba did (hence the offsides). we missed that from lampard though, he didn't get past the strikers. (though to be fair drogba didn't hold the ball up well today, he looked to dribble a little bit too much).

[SydneyChelsea]

Sorry, by behind I mean towards the byline. Only Kalou was doing that whereas Valencia were looking to do that as much as possible.

[g3.7]

well, they had two wingers.

but, trust me, with kalou and diarra, and to a lesser extent cashley, we had sufficient width.

[Makelele]

Obi Mikel and Diarra are going to be STARS...Mikel is unbelievable, I now dont feel so bad about Chelsea spending so much loot on him...Diarra is the next Maka -- plain and simple.

[Butch]

What has been made abundantly clear from the second leg against Porto and this first leg against Valencia, where their keepers have been nothing if not dodgy, is that we definitely lack quality crosses going into the box, whether it be from corners, set pieces or open play. With the size of the players we have and our superior heading ability, we should be worrying defenses much more than we currently are. Lampard, Robben, SWP - you name them and I will tell you that the quality of balls into the box is absolutely atrocious.

Valencia were much more threatening than I thought they would be, with Silva being an especially important thorn in our side throughout (and what a goal), but we were poor in attack. Our decision making was poor - shots when we should have passed. It's been a problem all season long.

Our biggest threat was Drogba when we turned to the direct balls over the top to our big hitman. Valencia were struggling to cope. But the passes were not consistently accurate and the support was not there (Valencia's midfield defended well), meaning we couldn't make better use of Didier's physique.

But how on earth did the ref let play go on when Sheva was clotheslined inside their penalty area in that first half?! I couldn't believe it!

Cheers,

Butch

[sergeyMS]

What has been made abundantly clear from the second leg against Porto and this first leg against Valencia, where their keepers have been nothing if not dodgy, is that we definitely lack quality crosses going into the box, whether it be from corners, set pieces or open play. With the size of the players we have and our superior heading ability, we should be worrying defenses much more than we currently are. Lampard, Robben, SWP - you name them and I will tell you that the quality of balls into the box is absolutely atrocious.

Valencia were much more threatening than I thought they would be, with Silva being an especially important thorn in our side throughout (and what a goal), but we were poor in attack. Our decision making was poor - shots when we should have passed. It's been a problem all season long.

Our biggest threat was Drogba when we turned to the direct balls over the top to our big hitman. Valencia were struggling to cope. But the passes were not consistently accurate and the support was not there (Valencia's midfield defended well), meaning we couldn't make better use of Didier's physique.

But how on earth did the ref let play go on when Sheva was clotheslined inside their penalty area in that first half?! I couldn't believe it!

Cheers,

Butch

That`s what I want to say - I agree about our poor delivery.

For example, A.Cole showed some nice perfomance yesterday(+ making assist)... but what have I thought about??

His main task is to deliver balls in penalty area...... he doesn`t makes runs with ball, he doesn`t dribbles, he doesn`t shoot from long range, so, in creative part, all his task is to make crosses.....

I was really dissapointed when on first minutes he made an interception (didn`t he??) and then he missed simple cross on Drogba.... it is his trade, I think he must do it with "closed eyes"...... and what a frustration...... the score could be 1-0 at the very beginning ..... Kalou was hitting the bar and it wasn`t a frustration, but this...........

[Elliott]

Credit where it is due; Ballack had a very good game last night. Looked very sharp esp in the first half.

Lampard was largely ineffective.

(good pass back though).

[Tim W]

Spanish tv flash up stats of how far a player has run during the game and it revealed a Chelsea player had covered the most ground out of the two teams...so who was it? Diarra, up and down the right flank? Ashley Cole - up and down the left flank? Drogba - leading the line? No step forward Michael Ballack who ran almost 13km in that 90 minutes...still to run that far and do so little is a question for our most intelligent academics

What about the cardboard cut-out of Essien?

[loz]

(good pass back though).

What do folk reckon on that? By the letter of the law I guess that was a pass back and therefore should have been an indirect free kick as there is no doubt Lamps deliberately played it back toward Cech. However, for me, something like that is very different from a simple pass back in a low risk situation. i think the ref should be allowed the discretion to be able to distinguish between a piece of quality defending like last night and a pass back where the defender had other, just as simple, options.

I don't think last night the ref didn't give a free kick because he was distinguishing, I jst think he didn't think it was a deliberate pass back.

[ethicalstrategy]

Surely, if you make a tackle and the ball breaks to the keeper then that would not be deemed a deliberate back pass. This is what happened last night from what I could see.