Chelsea Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread 2012/2013

Crann na Beatha

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justshane

kev1.3s wrote: »

Great result today, I think we may give raffa a break now even my 5 year old turned to me and said that he thinks raffas a good manager today, well done raffa but did anybody else notice that the real rout only started once Torres went off? After that we really looked like barca in blue there was no hesitancy in our play and confidence of movement maybe this was as a result of a run ragged villa defence or a combination of both I don't know just an observation.

This is due to the Villa players head's dropping and fatigue hits alot harder when your losing and chasing the ball for most of the game, and not as a direct result of F.T going off.

MUSEIST

Torres actually attacking a cross is such a rarity and for once he is showing some confidence

I would be happy to see lukaku back in January. It will be interesting to see what we do because we need at least one striker when sturridge goes and we probably don't need another midfielder if we start including sideshow as one. Great result today but a couple of tough away games coming up where I would take scrappy 0-1's in right now.

edit: just thinking about the sturidege/lukaku thing. It seems the danny to pool thing will go through very quickly with his already doing a medical so maybe lukaku will be called back immediately at the 1st of jan.

gnfnrhead

I really hope Lukaku flops for you lot but it's not looking likely if he is given game time. I wanted Arsenal to sign him for years so was sick when he signed for Chelsea. Now I'm left hoping he doesnt turn out as good as he looks.

Want to swap for Walcott? :pac:

Also, do you reckon their is any chance of Rafa staying on after the summer? Say he wins everything he can, would Roman keep him on or is his mind already made up? As RDM showed, if Roman doesnt want someone, he wont keep them.

Lukker-

justshane wrote: »

This is due to the Villa players head's dropping and fatigue hits alot harder when your losing and chasing the ball for most of the game, and not as a direct result of F.T going off.

Have to agree with that. Chelsea's confidence also grew as the game went on. I thought Torres had a good game overall. Got a great header and got into some good positions and got past his marker a good few times. He's not hitting the spectacular heights he did at Liverpool and he has had to alter his game a bit but at least he is showing some consistency and overall determination.

Lennonist

So I guess we wont be seeing any protests in Stamford Bridge and elsewhere from Chelsea fans about the Benitez appointment from here on. Footie fans can be a fickle bunch.

The protests about Benitez rang particularly hollow, because the protest never included any criticism of Abramovic, the man who sacked DiMatteo and installed Benitez.

GavRedKing

All the damage today came from wide psoitions. Villas 3 CBs couldnt cope with the 4 attacking players going forward and their wingbacks offered no help or protection.

We were dangerous in spells, the play percentage said 25% ourfinal third and 26% villas,just showed how well we use the ball when we have it.

Caveman1

So now we know that Sturridge is gone, who do we think we'll bring in ?

GavRedKing

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2012/dec/23/chelsea-david-luiz-socrates

Chelsea will be fortunate to find many other Premier League teams as prone to capitulation as a callow and embarrassingly limp Aston Villa proved in last knockings of this pre-Christmas romp at Stamford Bridge. In the face of a fluent, high-tempo attacking performance – inspired initially by a gloriously unencumbered midfield display by the redeployed David Luiz – Paul Lambert's youthful team were brutally outclassed.

There are those who have questioned what exactly Rafa Benítez, right, can hope to achieve in his interim tenure at Chelsea but it is tribute to his enduring tactical acuity that the most notable aspects of a fluid performance came not from what he was bequeathed by his predecessors but from his own galvanising innovations. Most notably there was David Luiz. Employed here for the first time in the Premier League as a central midfielder, the Brazilian produced a vibrant display, all knock-kneed pedigree nonchalance on the ball, decorated with a brilliant goal direct from a free-kick. It was, if not perhaps the complete midfield display – that would require a tangible opposition – then an utterly entertaining one from this most magnetic of players, reinvented here as a kind of Fulham Road Sócrates.

Already it seems clear that Benítez's gifts to Chelsea may extend beyond his ability to find Fernando Torres's on-switch. Torres scored again here, with a header of great power and placement for the first goal and providing an instant gold star for Benítez's upping of the tempo of Chelsea's play in the final third, the emphasis on looking first for a quick pass into the centre-forward. David Luiz, like Torres, has also carried a sense of unfulfilled riches, a player of outstanding athleticism and technical facility who remains, for all his pedigree, an enduring frustration, his brittler moments liable to be harshly punished in central defence.

Even before the encouraging midfield debut against Monterrey in the Club World Cup it had been noted that David Luiz had played as a midfielder at junior levels and Glenn Hoddle has separately suggested the Brazilian would make a brilliant right-back. Midfield, though, is the more ambitious option, a chance to harness David Luiz's energy and drive in an area where, persevering with Mikel John Obi, Chelsea have at times lacked presence.

Here he started in the deeper holding position, roaming aristocratically alongside Frank Lampard and providing support for the attacking midfield tripod of Victor Moses, Eden Hazard and Juan Mata. There was the odd difficult moment as David Luiz was, despite the scoreline, given a moderate early examination. Villa had been cautiously on the rise since the 3-2 home defeat by Manchester United and even threatened briefly to compete here before the progressive collapse of the final hour.

At times David Luiz was badgered in possession by the mobile Andreas Weimann in a manner that might be unfamiliar to a man who generally has the play in front of him. But even before half time this was becoming something close to a carefree romp for the most eye-catching player on the pitch. With 20 minutes gone a perfectly weighted pass almost put Mata in on goal, the kind of soft touch in a tight area that is the specialist skill of the central midfielder. And on 29 minutes David Luiz's headline moment arrived.

The free-kick that brought Chelsea's second goal and David Luiz's first in the Premier League this season was perfectly positioned for his right foot. Waving Lampard away, David Luiz addressed the ball with the top and side of his foot – Drogba-style – extracting prodigious dip as it ducked over the wall. Brad Guzan had no chance.

If it was David Luiz's energy as much as his daintier moments that helped set up the annihilating superiority of the final 20 minutes, afterwards Benítez was pointedly vague on his prospects of continuing in midfield. "We will analyse carefully," the Spaniard said, keeping his tactical cards, as ever, close to his chest. "Maybe he can rest, he can relax and he can play more games in this position. Maybe he will have more opportunities in this position but, if he has to play as a centre-back, he can do it very well too, so he gives us many options."

It is to be hoped that such opportunities will be quick in coming, if only for the prospect of a repeat of the wonderfully sui generis performance served up here. Long before Villa had wilted there were party-trick quadruple stepovers and the occasional sense, not least when playing the ball one side of Barry Bannan and running round the other, of a man thrillingly confident of his own ball-playing gifts.

It will be noted that David Luiz was freed of any responsibility to affect the game's momentum, which was always heading one way. He was also largely untested in the tricker aspects – positioning, timing – of what is a highly technical role and on another day there might be the corollary that Chelsea will lose his most obvious skill as a defender, the ability to carry the ball forward effortlessly from the back. But this was a day simply to luxuriate in a display of regal touch and athleticism from Chelsea's midfield ingénu, testimony as much to David Luiz's own gifts as to the tactical bravery of his interim manager.

GavRedKing

We've a big game away to Norwich and oen we should be approaching full of confidence.

I wonder will Rafa make changes, Moses & Hazard both completed the full 90 so I'd expected at least Moses to be rested although he played well agaisnt Villa IMO.

What I'd like to see against Norwich :

Cech
Azp Ivan Cahill Cole
Luiz Lamps
Oscar Mata Marin
Torres

Essien

GavRedKing wrote: »

We've a big game away to Norwich and oen we should be approaching full of confidence.

I wonder will Rafa make changes, Moses & Hazard both completed the full 90 so I'd expected at least Moses to be rested although he played well agaisnt Villa IMO.

What I'd like to see against Norwich :

Cech
Azp Ivan Cahill Cole
Luiz Lamps
Oscar Mata Marin
Torres

He'll make changes alright, I might add Lampard for Ramires to that. I'd like to see Piazon get another run for 30 mins or so, he showed some flashes of real class.

Re the transfers: I'd be happy to just bring back Lukaku. We might be left a little short on depth but I'd rather leave signings until the summer unless we desperately need them.

Duck Soup

Can't figure out how far this journalist's tongue is in cheek. Luiz: the Fulham Road Socrates.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2012/dec/23/chelsea-david-luiz-socrates

Duck Soup

If Falcao wants to see the season out at Atlético, then why not sign him in January, get him under contract and leave him out on loan until the summer?

bullpost

If you think a win against a struggling inexperienced young side at the wrong end of the table represents a change in attitude you'd be mistaken.

Jury still out.

Lennonist wrote: »

So I guess we wont be seeing any protests in Stamford Bridge and elsewhere from Chelsea fans about the Benitez appointment from here on. Footie fans can be a fickle bunch.

The protests about Benitez rang particularly hollow, because the protest never included any criticism of Abramovic, the man who sacked DiMatteo and installed Benitez.

GavRedKing

bullpost wrote: »

If you think a win against a struggling inexperienced young side at the wrong end of the table represents a change in attitude you'd be mistaken.

Jury still out.

True we were rarely troubled but alot of that was down to the fact we kept the ball well and punished them at will really.

I said it yesterday, the play was broken down to 26% their final third, 49% in the middle and 25% in our final third.

We showed some desire to press the ball all over the pitch and forced them into mistakes and a show of no confidence from all of their players.

Remember Villa have performed very well against Utd at Old Trafford and beat Liverpool at Anfield, I thought it would be a closer game but we bullied them right from the of and didnt let up, even though at times we ahve in the last few weeks, it was good to see us going for the kill and punishing them, hopefully we can do the same to Norwich althoguh I'll take a 1-0 and 3 points right now.

bullpost

Yep we were good but my god the amount of space they gave us was mind-boggling.
Watched the analysis on Match of the day last night and you could have taken your dog for a walk in the Villa half of the pitch for most of the match and not interfered with play

GavRedKing wrote: »

True we were rarely troubled but alot of that was down to the fact we kept the ball well and punished them at will really.

I said it yesterday, the play was broken down to 26% their final third, 49% in the middle and 25% in our final third.

We showed some desire to press the ball all over the pitch and forced them into mistakes and a show of no confidence from all of their players.

Remember Villa have performed very well against Utd at Old Trafford and beat Liverpool at Anfield, I thought it would be a closer game but we bullied them right from the of and didnt let up, even though at times we ahve in the last few weeks, it was good to see us going for the kill and punishing them, hopefully we can do the same to Norwich althoguh I'll take a 1-0 and 3 points right now.

GavRedKing

bullpost wrote: »

Yep we were good but my god the amount of space they gave us was mind-boggling.
Watched the analysis on Match of the day last night and you could have taken your dog for a walk in the Villa half of the pitch for most of the match and not interfered with play

I actually thought they're 3-5-2 would cause us problems with been over-run in CM but they never really built up enough pressure and time on the ball to do any real damage.

But ya I agree, our players were really gifted the freedom of the park against Villa. I cant remember who said it yesterday but someone mentioned Clark been a fine defender, I'd disagree, think the lad is ok but nothing spectacular and playing as the the maincentral defender and captain he should have organised from the back better, not that I'm complaining.

Holman, and Weimann are handy little players.

Crann na Beatha

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GavRedKing

Phoenix wrote: »

Felt gutted for Piazon though,fair play to Hazard for giving him the opportunity to take the penalty,hope his confidence wont take too much of a hit,he looks like a good prospect!

I doubt he'll worry to much, the whole team celebrated with him for his assist to Ramires, the missed penalty was unfortunate already though, has there ever been 7 different scores from the one team in an EPL game before, 8 would have been unreal.

GavRedKing

Of Torres's 7 EPL goals this season hes opened the scoring on 3 occasions and scored 6 of his 7 in the 1st half.

I suppose they dont matter either do they?

Sgt Pepper 64

Aways been a big fan of Danny, so i hope this rumour isnt true.
He will get a 1.5 million pay off from chelsea, as otherwise he was happy to let his contract run down and leave for nothing.
Be interesting to see if he ever fulfills his potential and what Chelsea will do, buy or recall? Ideally we need 3 strikers

Crann na Beatha

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Sgt Pepper 64

Phoenix wrote: »

If we do go for someone in the January transfer window who do ya think we will actually get?I cant see Falcao coming then

Nor me. I think it will a young upcoming striker, a No2, like Bony, Ba or Remy.
Cheap - in other words!

Duck Soup

Sgt Pepper 64 wrote: »

Nor me. I think it will a young upcoming striker, a No2, like Bony, Ba or Remy.
Cheap - in other words!

I'd rather we got Falcao under contract in January and left him out on loan until the summer than get another €10/15m striker like Sturridge or Kalou, who we use intermittently and sell after a couple of years. In the meantime, bring Lukaku back from West Brom in Jan whether he likes it or not.

MUSEIST

Sgt Pepper 64 wrote: »

Nor me. I think it will a young upcoming striker, a No2, like Bony, Ba or Remy.
Cheap - in other words!

I would rather lukaku to any of them, no point in buying a player in january unless they have a long term future with us.

bullpost

I would be inclined to leave Lukaku where he is until next season.
Hes progressing very nicely under Steve and he would maybe not get as much game time with us, not to mention the general uncertainty around the Bridge at the moment.

MUSEIST wrote: »

I would rather lukaku to any of them, no point in buying a player in january unless they have a long term future with us.

Sgt Pepper 64

MUSEIST wrote: »

I would rather lukaku to any of them, no point in buying a player in january unless they have a long term future with us.

Oh so do I, but we need more than 2 strikers going forward.
Torres will be with us for the rest of this season at least, and we could do another 1, as the youth ones are still too young.
Ideally we should have 4.
Ideally I'd like Robert Lewandowski, but thats not going to happen this season if at all.

MUSEIST

bullpost wrote: »

I would be inclined to leave Lukaku where he is until next season.
Hes progressing very nicely under Steve and he would maybe not get as much game time with us, not to mention the general uncertainty around the Bridge at the moment.

If we had just torres and lukaku until the end of the season then lukaku would play plenty of games. When he first came to chelsea until AVB we had Drogba, torres, anelka and sturridge all ahead of him (he had no chance).

Sgt Pepper 64

A Merry Xmas to all you Blues fans.
May your stockings be full and the opponents net keep bulging with Chelsea goals

GavRedKing

Merry Christmas to all Chelsea fans on Boards, and extended Merry Christmas to all opposition fans that post here also, with you this place would just be circle jerking.

Hope 2013 is another debate ridden fest of fun and banter, it was a good 2012.

Merry Christmas, hope you and your's have a good one.

Panthro

Merry Christmas Blues fans, have a good 'un!

Crann na Beatha

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ShoulderChip

I don't suppose the game tomorrow is on tv anywhere?

GavRedKing

ShoulderChip wrote: »

I don't suppose the game tomorrow is on tv anywhere?

Havent seen it advertised anywhere, may have to find other means to watch it.

I think it will be a tricky test for us too.

kev1.3s

My master stroke was to get the young fella into chelsea, she who must be obayed thinks harder of having a go at him than me! All I have to do now is whisper kick off time in his sweet little ear and I've bought myself a couple of hours:-) happy xmas boys looking forward to 3 points tomorrow.

the_doctor199

Merry Xmas y'all!

Might be my memory playing games but we often struggle on Boxing Day games, fancy tomorrow could be another 1 pointer for us.

justshane

Hope everyone has a blue christmas enjoy friends

Panthro

JT and Lampard enjoying themselves!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2253004/Frank-Lampard-John-Terry-post-Christmas-present-picture-Chelsea-players-record-video-messages.html

the_doctor199

Panthro wrote: »

JT and Lampard enjoying themselves!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2253004/Frank-Lampard-John-Terry-post-Christmas-present-picture-Chelsea-players-record-video-messages.html

Just noticed on the side of that article, Chelsea looking at Villa loan till end of the season:http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2253057/David-Villa-Chelsea-loan-target.html

GavRedKing

We'll beat Norwich. 3-2 i reckon.

Jelle1880

I know it's The Sun *spit* but wtf:

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/football/4713251/Frank-Lampard-Chelsea-This-is-no-way-to-end-his-career.html

I hope that journalist had one too many Christmas drinks, because if this is true Abramovic is well on his way of turning the entire support against him, given how DiMatteo was treated.

Essien

Jelle1880 wrote: »

I know it's The Sun *spit* but wtf:

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/football/4713251/Frank-Lampard-Chelsea-This-is-no-way-to-end-his-career.html

I hope that journalist had one too many Christmas drinks, because if this is true Abramovic is well on his way of turning the entire support against him, given how DiMatteo was treated.

There's nothing in there to suggest Lampard is being mistreated by the club in any way. If he leaves at the end of the season then fair enough, we'll obviously be gutted to see him go but that's football.

The "journalist" has taken what's probably a fictional quote from a "close friend" and put their own sensationalist spin on it. Even if true, there's little more in it than the implication that Lampards time at Chelsea is coming to an end, which, while sad, is perfectly reasonable.

MaroonAndGreen

Frank surely is well worth another year anyway..

RichT

MaroonAndGreen wrote: »

Frank surely is well worth another year anyway..

Agreed, but unless I have this wrong (which wouldn't be the first time) isn't the ball in Franks court? Won't he be offered a one year contract inline with the Chelsea 'over 30' policy?

GavRedKing

Another 3pointd today and hope one of the Manchester teams slip up would be a nice xmas pressie.

Caveman1

I know Frank has been a great servant to us, but realistically he wont be able to hold a place down in our team when everyone's fit, especially now that Luiz is also getting a run in the middle.

I would love for him to see out his career with us, but I wouldn't be bothered if he decided on moving on for one last big pay day to China/America etc.

RichT

Norwich v Chelsea

Sideshow stays in midfield

Lamps benched for Mikel :mad:

Cech, Azpilicueta, Cahill, Ivanovic, Cole, Mikel, David Luiz, Moses, Oscar, Mata, Torres

Subs: Turnbull, Ake, Ferreira, Lamps, Marin, Hazard, Piazon.

GavRedKing

Luiz to boss CM again. In Rafa we trust. :pac:

Bateman

Any decent streams lads?

Sgt Pepper 64

Mikel is woeful, we play so much better when he doesn't