Chelsea Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread 2015/16

Lukker-

I thought he had a fine game when he came on for Fabregas against Liverpool.

Honestly though, there is a reason. It's primarily down to the system we play. 4-2-3-1 doesn't get the best out of him. He's not a DM nor is he a right winger.

He played his best football for us in a 4-3-3, he's a box to box midfielder, one who doesn't really fit into our new style of play. He doesn't get to make runs from deep into the box anymore and he doesn't have the tactical nous or passing range to play the double pivot. He's effectively just there to close opponents down and do the donkey running.

ShoulderChip

I must say I would like to still have the option of David Luiz playing Centre Midfield beside Matic for big games over Mikel/Ramires.
I am in now way saying I am dissapointed we sold him, it was fantastic business but we definitely need to get someone better (in the case of Rambo - more suited) than those two in those position.

Lukker-

Or we could just give Ruben Loftus-Cheek a shot before we go signing anyone!

He's been playing the Chelsea system for years now with the academy so the transition shouldn't be too hard.

It's time we looked inwards to address the problem, not outwards.

McDave

I enjoyed the various barnies with Luiz. Could have done without Ivan's booking though. PSG obviously tried (and failed) to push us around. The boot will be on the other foot at the Bridge.

Sheepy99

Lapin wrote: »

Pushing a black lad off the train.

Classy Chelsea fans.

At least he stayed on his own two feet - if it was Drogba he'd be rolling around on the platform floor.

Back in your bosca, wherever you lurked from..

greendom

McDave wrote: »

I enjoyed the various barnies with Luiz. Could have done without Ivan's booking though. PSG obviously tried (and failed) to push us around. The boot will be on the other foot at the Bridge.

I thought that fouls wise the match was pretty much 50 50 and the stats back that up too.

20 fouls a piece and 2 yellow cards each.

Lukker-

greendom wrote: »

I thought that fouls wise the match was pretty much 50 50 and the stats back that up too.

20 fouls a piece and 2 yellow cards each.

Thought it was pretty even myself, which isn't bad considering you'd usually expect the away side to concede more fouls.

I'd say Veratti must account for about half PSG's fouls, how he wasn't booked before that shocking challenge is beyond me.

MaroonAndGreen

If we progress to the Quarter and Semi-Finals we are sure to be without Ivanovic and Fabregas for a game someway along the line as they are one booking away from a suspension. Can't see them staying clean in these huge tough games...

Lukker-

We're well equipped to deal with suspensions. The only players I'd worry about getting banned are Matic, Terry, Costa or Hazard.

There's no way Hazard will pick up 2 cards. I'd say Terry won't either. Matic is generally safe enough and doesn't get booked too often but you never know in his position. Costa would worry me.

greendom

Lukker- wrote: »

Thought it was pretty even myself, which isn't bad considering you'd usually expect the away side to concede more fouls.

I'd say Veratti must account for about half PSG's fouls, how he wasn't booked before that shocking challenge is beyond me.

He received as much if not more than he got imo. The ref was very lenient throughout and to both sides.

hullaballoo

greendom wrote: »

He received as much if not more than he got imo. The ref was very lenient throughout and to both sides.

I presume you mean he gave as much as he got and not he got as much as he got. Even still, it's not true, Veratti was and generally is a terrier and will go in full-blooded into a challenge. He's an asset to PSG in that regard because he chases everything and everyone.

That said, he got away with quite a lot. Obviously the ref had a plan to manage the game with minimal interference. Veratti didn't stop doing what he does because he had no reason to - the ref wasn't punishing him. He could have had a few yellows before he was eventually booked. The challenge he was booked for could have been a red if looked at in isolation but that's not how the ref was dealing with the game. In context of the whole game, a red for him would have been a shock. Same with Ivan pulling Ibra back. Could have been a red in isolation but not in the context of the match.

Personally, I like to see a ref take a view and make it clear from the outset whether they're going to be slapping everyone with yellows or letting as much go as they can legitimately do. I understand that there's an argument that the inconsistency as between refs means players end up banned under the cumulation system while other players who have committed similar fouls are not banned.

That is an issue with the system, though. If the organisers were willing to examine match incidents and treat them on their own merits after the fact, you wouldn't have people missing important matches for taking their jersey off in the first leg of the SF and kicking a ball away in the second.

GavRedKing

Lukker- wrote: »

Or we could just give Ruben Loftus-Cheek a shot before we go signing anyone!

He's been playing the Chelsea system for years now with the academy so the transition shouldn't be too hard.

It's time we looked inwards to address the problem, not outwards.

Thats a nice thought but we wont do that IMO.

For CM that could play next to Matic and offer a decent defensive inout as well as attacking threat we've got 2 at the club already in RLC and Chalobah.

Another guy whos impressed me this year is Jay DaSilva at LB.

That guy is proper attacking FB, hopefully he can make it at the level required too.

GavRedKing

So jumping the gun, who do we want in the QF's?

I'd like an easier tie, maybe the winner of the Porto v Basel game would be the easiest on paper, failing that, an English team.

mobby

Lads heading over sat morning for the Burnely game, long time since been to the Bridge any advice on travel, things to do before, good bars etc. in and out on the Saturday so would like to enjoy the day.and hopefully a good win :-)

GavRedKing

Make sure you avoid all the anti-Irish brigade over :pac:

Nah, you should head to Brogans or the Broadway bar & grill, theyre a few steps away from Fulham Broadway on the right.

Killinator

I would so love if we signed Varane, he's pure quality!

GavRedKing

Killinator wrote: »

I would so love if we signed Varane, he's pure quality!

Everyone in Europe will be after him if Real decide that another Galactico is needed and a CB isnt a high priority.

I cant see him leaving Real TBH but I'm hoping Joses connection and his buttering him up in the media could nudge any deal in our favour but it would be down to Varane, as I said everyone with money will want him.

kev1.3s

mobby wrote: »

Lads heading over sat morning for the Burnely game, long time since been to the Bridge any advice on travel, things to do before, good bars etc. in and out on the Saturday so would like to enjoy the day.and hopefully a good win :-)

Heading over myself but as usual have the little man with me so unfortunately no heavy boozing for me. Hope you enjoy the game!

phobia2011

where is the best plaace to get tickets lads? want to bring the auld fella over for a game?

GavRedKing

phobia2011 wrote: »

where is the best plaace to get tickets lads? want to bring the auld fella over for a game?

Very hard to get them this year, same with last year.

You'll need two memberships if ya want official tickets from the club at cost price but the time to register for memberships are gone this year.

So you'll rely on people here, twitter, touts outside the ground of those sport travel agent sites that charge mental money for tickets.

MaroonAndGreen

We have been below our early season standard now for some time it has to be said... only the Swansea away 0-5 has been a really good performance in 2015... but we are winning games!

I think that if we raise our standards again to our early season form then we can go on a nice winning run that would wrap up the title.

But it's slightly worrying that since the Southampton game (and including that game) we've played 12 times. In my opinion we have had 2 terrible performances since then (Spurs & Bradford) and had 1 very good performance (Swansea). Everything else has been average to poor compared to our August-October form.

I know we are good at grinding out results playing poorly, but we can't continue to get away with it... I fear we may get a shock again soon and I hope its not versus PSG or Spurs... performance levels need to be sorted out before then, every single player has been culpable too IMO.

MaroonAndGreen

On our form in the last 3 months, nobody should fear us. We are carrying the fear factor from our early season form.

GavRedKing

We should still have enough to beat Burnley over the 90mins at the weekend.

I hope we get it out of the way and get into the final after beating Burnley.

kev1.3s

Tiredness is beginning to show with our small squad, really our only reliable attacking threat is hazard when Oscar and Cesc are below par.
Whilst I'm a fan of Willians his final product is sorely lacking, it's somewhat telling when our goal last night was fully crafted by our defenders.
Schurle offered a decent threat last season but for whatever reason this season his form deminished possibly due to a lack of confidence from what I see as Jose's obvious lack of faith in him, I don't think there was any coming back for him after Jose's comments in the post city presser.

GavRedKing

Willian has serious conpetition now with Cuadrado so one of them has to start and if one can produce goals and assists reguarly we'll be sorted as Hazard will get 10-15 league goals a year and Oscar will get 5-10.

Cesc is slowing down but we're back at full strength now so i think we'll be ok after a good performance or two.

Hopefully beat Burnley and Spurs, that would be nice.

kev1.3s

Caudrado seems to run into trouble with the ball a bit too often but he has to be given some bedding in time, as I've said I'm a fan of Willian and I don really think you can really appreciate his role watching him on tv.
It would just be great if he could work on his final ball.

MaroonAndGreen

Need to beat Burnley this weekend first anyway, I'd expect Zouma, Oscar and Cuadrado to come back into the side. With them probably being the only changes.

MaroonAndGreen

I suspect City are going to hit a bit of league form too, they have to really, can't give up their title without a fight... and we will drop points if we progress in the Champions League...

I can see the title being decided by 1-3 points either way if we continue to play as we currently are for the rest of the season. As I said earlier, step it up again and its ours 2-3 games before the season's end, but it's difficult to see us raising our levels significantly in the league at the moment with Champions League involvement taking centre stage now...

It ain't over guys.

GavRedKing

MaroonAndGreen wrote: »

Need to beat Burnley this weekend first anyway, I'd expect Zouma, Oscar and Cuadrado to come back into the side. With them probably being the only changes.

I dont know about Cuadrado starting. I suppose we should best burnley so resting willian is posssible.

Im all for Zouma playing and playing against spurs too , kane has mugged cahill off in the last few games but id say jose will go with jt and cahill for the final for experience even though i reckon zouma has a better chance of marshalling kane than jt or cahill.

GavRedKing

MaroonAndGreen wrote: »

I suspect City are going to hit a bit of league form too, they have to really, can't give up their title without a fight... and we will drop points if we progress in the Champions League...

I can see the title being decided by 1-3 points either way if we continue to play as we currently are for the rest of the season. As I said earlier, step it up again and its ours 2-3 games before the season's end, but it's difficult to see us raising our levels significantly in the league at the moment with Champions League involvement taking centre stage now...

It ain't over guys.

Its far from over. Anyone thinking any different needs a reality check.

The players havent been complacent yet IMO and we need jose ramming it doen thir throats that any mistake and City are right on top of us again.

It would be nice to kick on and win 5 or 6 on the bounce in the league and see what city are made of as it means feck all if we're top now and in May we miss out after a big City run of wins.

grumpymunster

Not sure if there is an international break coming up soon but over the next few weeks we have a reasonably light schedule. Burnley at home Saturday, Spurs at Wembley Sunday week, Happy Hammers the following Wednesday, Wednesday after that PSG at home then Saints at home. For me tiredness cannot be used as a factor we have not been over worked since the Christmas period and we have a really good upcoming schedule.

Also is it just me or is Cuadrado the image if Dwayne Dibley alter ego of the cat in Red Dwarf?

grumpymunster

Killinator wrote: »

I would so love if we signed Varane, he's pure quality!

GavRedKing wrote: »

Everyone in Europe will be after him if Real decide that another Galactico is needed and a CB isnt a high priority.

I cant see him leaving Real TBH but I'm hoping Joses connection and his buttering him up in the media could nudge any deal in our favour but it would be down to Varane, as I said everyone with money will want him.

Yea everyone would want him but would say only 5 teams be in with a decent shout of getting him Man United (desperate need for a high quality CB guaranteed to start), Chelsea (JT getting old would get a lot of starts next season with him and Zouma becoming the established pairing towarded the end of the season), Munich - hard to say with starts Pep does not really do defending, PSG having spent so much on Luiz cant see them going high for another CB just yet, Man City would do well there but FFP seems to be biting a bit there.

Can't see Madrid selling but if they do would guess it would be a straight shoot out between ourselves and United and they have an awful lot of money but we have a manager so very even really.

duploelabs

The only reason why he'd want to go is because he's not getting game time, he's young and impressionable so enough of his agent whispering in his ear could mean he'll force a move

hullaballoo

Apparently Anelka has been bending Pogba's ear to encourage a move to Chelsea. #PogbaWatch

GavRedKing

So Pogba, Varane and Zouma. :pac:

If we spend our bo**ocks on the back of the new TV deal share we'll get fro, next year we could manage it.

Roman would have to pony up about 100million to get those two though and I'd probably prefer if it was Varane over Pogba even though some as young and good as Pogba in our CM would be exceptional.

TBH we should have thrown the bank at him when he left for Juventus for feck all as we were linked with him at the time.

peteeeed

GavRedKing wrote: »

So Pogba, Varane and Zouma. :pac:

If we spend our bo**ocks on the back of the new TV deal share we'll get fro, next year we could manage it.

Roman would have to pony up about 100million to get those two though and I'd probably prefer if it was Varane over Pogba even though some as young and good as Pogba in our CM would be exceptional.

TBH we should have thrown the bank at him when he left for Juventus for feck all as we were linked with him at the time.

and messi

GavRedKing

peteeeed wrote: »

and messi

I suppose it could work.

Courtois
Ivan Zouma Varane Azp
Cesc Matic Pogba
Messi Costa Hazard

Win all the trophies. :pac:

the_monkey

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/feb/19/chelsea-fan-in-paris-metro-video-posed-in-picture-with-nigel-farage

So was this guy actually chanting the racist chant ?

Are any fans that were on the carriage guilty by just being there ?

greendom

the_monkey wrote: »

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/feb/19/chelsea-fan-in-paris-metro-video-posed-in-picture-with-nigel-farage

So was this guy actually chanting the racist chant ?

Are any fans that were on the carriage guilty by just being there ?

can't be sure, but the signs are good....

the_monkey

ah ffs ... this is all we need ...

the_monkey

I mean as if we arent hated enough in europe .... We will go out no matter what now, even if we play like legends refs will be against us ... the scandal of 2009 will be nothing compared to this .... all in for EPL ..

greendom

It's only a tiny minority and if Chelsea act quickly and decisively the club could even benefit from the situation from a pr perspective.

GavRedKing

JT wants a new deal.

http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/31530447

TBH, on this years performance he deserves it, hes been miles better than Cahill, for instance.

MaroonAndGreen

Costa has played 20 times since November 1st. Scored 8 goals.

Before that he scored 9 goals in his 9 games.

He has certainly slowed down from the start of the season

GavRedKing

MaroonAndGreen wrote: »

Costa has played 20 times since November 1st. Scored 8 goals.

Before that he scored 9 goals in his 9 games.

He has certainly slowed down from the start of the season

Oh hes slowed down of course but we're still top of the league, slight advantage in the UCL R16 and in a League Cup final.

Couple that with his 17 league goals already, we're doing ok :pac:

I think he'll find the net against Burnley anyway like he did away at Turf Moor.

MaroonAndGreen

GavRedKing wrote:

Couple that with his 17 league goals already, we're doing ok 

Yeah actually to be fair to him in the league in that period he hit 8 goals in 12 games.. It's in the other competitions he's not been scoring!

MaroonAndGreen

GavRedKing wrote:

Oh hes slowed down of course but we're still top of the league, slight advantage in the UCL R16 and in a League Cup final.

I feel like the League Cup Final is huge for us, if we win it I think we'll push on well like in Jose's first season.

GavRedKing

Nobody likes the DM but this is a decent read on big bad Branna.

Branislav-Ivanovic-takes-no-prisoners-leaves-no-one-leader-men-Chelsea-saviour

GavRedKing

MaroonAndGreen wrote: »

Yeah actually to be fair to him in the league in that period he hit 8 goals in 12 games.. It's in the other competitions he's not been scoring!

Thats where it counts for me, if he finishes at 20 + league goals I'll be delighted, he'll have fired us to the title or very close to it.

MaroonAndGreen wrote: »

I feel like the League Cup Final is huge for us, if we win it I think we'll push on well like in Jose's first season.

Ya, I think the guys whove won nothing with this team will get a taste for it and even the guys like Oscar and Hazard who have a EL title will feel domestic success and could have a major prize in hand in, 10weeks after the League Cup Final so a win is good all round.

grumpymunster

Bamford scores again last night for 10 man 'Boro against Brum so pop quiz where for our Patrick next season?

Personally think the Drog has reached the end of the road would love to see him given a shot with us.