Mascherano..hmmmmm

[loz]

This isn't even a rumour, just me speculating.

If Lamps does leave at the end of the season then I think it leaves us with a few options.

1. Replace him with a more out and out creative midfielder, let Sidwell go and stick with the rest of our central players

2. Don’t replace him at all and go into the new season with Essien, Ballack, Mikel and Maka with Sidwell as back up

3. Bring in a long term replacement for Maka and push Mikel into a more advanced role and let Ballack take over the job of running the midfield.

Option 1 or 3 are both acceptable for me, the second option not so attractive.

If we were to go for option 3 I think a fine choice would be to bring in Mascherano, possibly the only player I can think of who would be entirely capable of carrying on the Makelele role in the same way that Maka plays it.

[valim]

most hate player is it we don't need him..

we have mikel he need more experience and he will be good player

essien we have to many player

[Guest]

I would like him, unfortunately I think that the opportunity to sign him has now passed.

[Liam]

If we got him, and held on to Lamps and Maka we could have a midfield 5 of Mikel, Lampard, Makalele, Essien and Mascherano. Ethicalstrategy would cream himself!

He would be perfect as a replacement for Makalele. I'd love it if we got him.

[ducavis]

you guys are missing the point.

how do you define creativity? we have got 2 players in Mikel & Essien who are ideally suited to the Maka role.

Mikel is not creative in anyway, go & watch the African nations Cup, he is meant to be creative in the Okocha role but he is PANTS.

his main strengths are passing and tackling (short passes!), how do you create when you cant either run/and give long passes/and shoot!!!!

[Tim]

If by tackling you mean putting in badly timed tackles and getting sent off, then yes tackling is one of his strengths.....

I'd say its much more ball retention and knowing when to keep it simple....

[blizeH]

Mikel's brilliant at man marking though, if he's set to a player he'll rarely let them have any time on the ball, and like Tim said he's great at knowing when to keep it simple (although this is possibly because he can't do anything extravagant, but at least he knows his limits)

[TomP]

I think that the long term future of our midfield (if we stick with Grant's 3-man midfield) is Mikel and Essien with a 3rd truely creative player.

I think we are actually already seeing evidence of this - since Lamps has been out, we have seen Grant play with either SWP or Joe Cole centrally as the creative player.

I bet if Jose was still here, neither of them would get a look in centrally. With Lamps plus the African boys missing, it would be a nailed on midfield of Ballack-Maka-Sidwell. With Jose, it was all about midfield dominance - leaving the creative stuff up to the forwards.

I think Mascherano is a very good player, but if we signed him, it would be to the detriment of Mikel - who might just be an absolute giant of the game in 5 years or so.

[Y_dizzie]

I heard that Van der Vart and Mascherano are linked with Juventus.

[snitrbt25]

I read a quote from Ranieri ruling out any move for Van Der Vaart. Also heard they were looking at Diego instead actually (someone who I'd hoped we'd be looking at)

[mad_mac]

If we were to go for another midfielder, I think we should go for a creative midfielder in the van der Vaart style. I think the defensive style of mascherano we have more than enough cover for; whether that be Mikel, Essien, Maka, even Ballack and seemingly Ivanovic!

[Guest]

I am not so sure Essien is really appropriate for a DM slot really, ditto Ballack. Mikel is the most natural replacement we have for Makelele at this point in time.

Lampard has traditionally played as the most advanced of our midfield 3, it would be interesting to see if that changes next season, but my feelings are that its not central midfield that we are lacking creativity, its on the wings/wide positions of the 4-3-3. I think there is a real tendency in the current Chelsea tactics/line up away from having the "wingers" hugging the touch line and providing width to coming more central and providing that link up between midfield and the team's CF.

[Killbill]

This isn't even a rumour, just me speculating.

If Lamps does leave at the end of the season then I think it leaves us with a few options.

1. Replace him with a more out and out creative midfielder, let Sidwell go and stick with the rest of our central players

2. Don’t replace him at all and go into the new season with Essien, Ballack, Mikel and Maka with Sidwell as back up

3. Bring in a long term replacement for Maka and push Mikel into a more advanced role and let Ballack take over the job of running the midfield.

Option 1 or 3 are both acceptable for me, the second option not so attractive.

If we were to go for option 3 I think a fine choice would be to bring in Mascherano, possibly the only player I can think of who would be entirely capable of carrying on the Makelele role in the same way that Maka plays it.

I think replacing Makelele is more important than replacing Lampard since we have Ballack (I also think that Lampard won't leave). Mascherano is the best option, we should buy him and buy him now before he spends too much time at Liverpool and starts going on about history and atmosphere.