is this seasons squad better than the last ?

[Tommy Power]

we have brought in pizarro, ben haim and sidwell soon to be malouda

it seems to be that the after the injuries to key players last season the jose is making some very shrewd backup signings and i have a feeling robben might well be on the way out with malouda being a straight swap

4-3-3 might well be the formation that he will revert back to with essien in the defensive midfield role and ballack and lamps in the centre, sidwell and mikel and maka the players to miss out. kalou, joey cole, malouda and swp the 4 wingers, i think that SWP improved form at the end of the season shows that he might well be starting to find his feet at chelsea, hopefully

upfront we have drogba, sheva, pizarro and the two young u'ns in sinclair and sahar however thinking about im sure at least one of them is on loan

in defence we have paulo and i feel dani alves coming in, that is far from definite but if he does not come in we will have paulo who i still rate to be a top class player and would like jose to show a bit more faith in, and dont forget about GJ after his loan at portsmouth

in central defence we have JT and riccy with benhaim and alex as cover, people see to be worried about alex after his lack lustre performances for brazil but if you look at his performances in the eredevsie and Cl he is without doubt a top player and ben haim is defiantly not a bad player i wouldnt be worried if through injuries or suspension he would come into the team he is a qaulity player who has cut it in the premiership, the best leauge in the world

i am we still have a top top team, man united are for the first time in a long time starting to get me worried they are making some bloody good signings and winning the league this year will have to see chelsea back playing their best football and the IMO the 4-3-3 formation

i think that the football we played in jose's first season what we need and jose is no mug, surely he wil realise that

any signings that you would like from jose ? or is the team good enough with players hopefully settling in this year after a tough first season in england

[mad_mac]

I think if we do sign Malouda, then he will be our only "big money" signing of the summer. We ahve got in some great palyers on frees as back ups. As you have said Alex is still not 100% ours, but if we do get him we are getting a great player there, and cheap (although we may have paid for him in the past)

Ben Haim, is great back up, and as much as Jose loves to mess about with CB's playing out wide in some games, I could see Alex (if we get him) to play out there too. Johno I feel may be loaned again, but I feel Paulo is a great player too so we are pretty covered there. LB we ahve two of the best fighting for position there.

If Malouda comes, I feel either Sweepy or Robben would be on the way. If I were to guess I would say we will cash in on Robben who would cover the cost of Malouda thus meaning we have spent nothing this summer.

Now, if we do go for Alves I think that would mean the end of either Johno or Paulo. But Alves is an exciting player, and if we play the diamond formation then he will give attacking options down the wing (just as Bridge and Cashley do on the left.) I also think johno offers more a an attacking defender than Paulo, but Paulo offers more defensively. Therefore, signing Alves is not necessary.

Midfiled, we have a wealth of talent, and I think sidwell's signing to be baffling. Diarra, Mikel, Maka are all way infront of him in my mind. And I think Mikel is better in an attacking role

Pizzaro, and Sheva upfront during the ACN to me means we will play a 4-3-3 during that time rotating either of these strikers. With Malouda/ Robben on one side, and SWP/ J COle on th other side.

Anyway, are we better than last season? I certainly think we have better coverage in all areas

Scott

[MHedges]

I agree with most of your post mac, but I do understand and agree with the signing of Sidwell. He adds some good depth to our squad, and during the ACN we are losing Essien and Mikel, he may be playing then. Think about if we have some injuries, we would be in some mighty trouble if something drastic occured.

[Guest]

Is the this season's squad better than last seasons?

I'd say yes, it is.

We appear to have more depth this time around and players like Mikel, Ballack and Sheva will be better from last years experience.

[loz]

The squad is clearly stronger purely on the grounds that we have brought in a number of squad players to provide cover which was lacking last season and nobody who played a significant part in last season has left.

Assuming the Malouda deal is as inevitable as it is being portrayed to be then the only position where we are lacking strength is on the right wing. I am still to understand why we are targetting another left winger when we have two already (unless Robben is to be sold) and we are short on the right flank.

Other than that we are well covered.

Sorted for keeprs (barring another freak occurrence), sorted right across the back line, sorted for defensive midfielders and central midfielders (I suppose you could argue we still lack a creative attacking midfielder but such a player doesn't figure in a Jose plan anyway) and we now have four strikers plus young back up (assuming you qualify Kalou as a striker).