End of term school report

[geezer]

As the season draws to a close there will no doubt, and already has been several postings over players going and players coming in. Just for once I'd like us to think how we can improve the squad with NO movement in or out. I'm not saying we should or shouldn't have player movement I just want people to have a think about what some of our existing squad can do to improve during the pre season assuming they are still with us. As it's my idea I'll have a stab at it and see where this thread leads if indeed it leads anywhere at all. So in the style of a school report:-

Petr Cech - Area for improvement? Distribution.

Since the appaling injury Petr had I've noticed a distinct change in the waywardness of his kicking distribution. I can seldom recall him kicking a ball into touch before his injury but since he's come back I can easily recall 5 or 6 such instances. I've also watched him getting more and more frustrated during team warm ups as some of his kicks go astray.

Paolo Ferreira - Two areas for improvement - Crossing and defensive duties.

Work harder at getting forward and learn to cross a decent ball. Defensively I want you to work at getting your confidence back to where it was two seasons ago where you were very difficult to get past. From what I recall back then you tended to be much closer to the player you were marking. Recently you seem to have been giving them too much room.

Ashley Cole - Two areas to improve relating to your crossing.

1) Stop crossing from so deep. You seem to want to get the ball to DD far too early.

2) On those rare occasions where you have got behind the defence you've pulled the ball back behind our forward players effectively allowing the opposition to hit us on the break with several of our key players now out of position.

Bottom line? Learn to cross effectively for maximum impact

John Terry - Areas for improvement? Long ball distribution and dealing with referees

1) JT your long ball distribution has really gone down the pan over the past couple of seasons. Earlier in your career you were far more effective with this distribution which you appeared to learn from Frank the Beef. Since then this area has declined season by season. You really need to work at getting this back again because the forward players have been making some excellent runs but just aren't getting picked out.

2) Stop getting in the faces of the referees. You never used to do this and it's not doing you or the team any good, in actual fact it appears to be having an adverse effect. By all means feel free to have a constructive 'chat' but you must stop going at them in the aggressive action you are currently showing.

Frank Lampard - Corners and free kicks.

Why do you feel the need to take all of the free kicks and corners? Are you trying to emulate David Beckham? Both areas have become extremely predictable and the distribution in the last third of the season has been very unproductive. Let's mix these areas up amongst the players to provide variety, especially with the free kicks and let's try and be more original in our ideas.

Salomon Kalou - Passing and shooting

1) You must learn to lift your head when running with the ball. You tend to go head down and be totally unaware of what is going on around you and you clearly are not seeing options open to you. This has resulted in you giving the ball away far too often and cheaply.

2) Must work harder at shooting. You seem to find it hard to keep the ball down and as much as 95% of your shots go over the bar.

Sweep - Dribbling and crossing

1) You've tended to run into blind alleys far to often this season although there has been a marked improvement towards the end of the term. You seemed to prosper by drifting in from the wing a bit more and definitely prospered by swapping wings from time to time. You need to do more of this to prevent yourself from becoming too predictable which is what was happening in the earlier part of the season.

2) When you cross well, you cross very well. Unfortunately these only relate to around 5% of your crosses. You must work harder in this area.

Andriy Shevchenko - Dribbling and positional play

1) You really must stop trying to run at defences with the ball. You do not have the speed or the muscle for this and you tend to drift too deep to be effective for the team

2) You need to work on positioning yourself better nearer the front line rather than drifting deep. Even if the ball isn't coming to you, by taking these positions you are occupying defenders which has allowed DD to score more goals. It is very noticeable that DD's goals have dried up since you started to drift deeper and deeper.

Didier Drogba - Referee's, diving and getting caught offside

1) Stop running 30 - 40m yards to argue a point with a referee. It's not doing you or the team any favours.

2) During your best spells this season you never resorted to diving. As the goals started to dry up so the element of diving returned to your game. This part of your game pees everyone off and on the occasions where play goes on and we have the ball your tendency to stay on the ground feigning injury to try and justify the dive often means the team lose out whilst we have the ball in an advantageous area of the pitch.

3) You are wise enough not to get caught offside so often. To constantly be getting caught offside from a long ball from Petr Cech is tantamount to being unforgiveable.

Michael Ballack - Interest

At least try and look as though you are interested in playing.

Arjen Robben - Diving.

Nothing more to add. Stop it.

I could go on and mention others however the above points are the ones which have stood out for me most this season. I believe that If all of the above players are with us next season and look to improve the areas I have mentioned then we can definitely go up another notch no matter what happens in the transfer market.