2/8/03 Matchday XXVII: Birmingham v. Chelsea [R]

[GPK]

Chelsea 12-9-5 45 PTS, 4th Place (-11)
Birmingham 6-8-12 38 PTS, 16th Place (-30)

3:00PM Kickoff
10:00AM EST

Live on Big Blue (http://www.chelseafc.co.uk/StatPage.asp?id=big_blue_radio)

CFC Official Web (http://www.chelseafc.co.uk/Next_Match.asp)

News on Soccernet (http://www.soccernet.com/england/clubs/chelsea/index.html)

TEAMtalk-Chelsea (http://www.teamtalk.com/teamtalk/Team_News/0,1562,14,00.html)

BBC-Chelsea (http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/c/chelsea/default.stm)

[Clan]

Babayaro is out injured-could we see a return of Stanic to the left full spot or perhaps (more likely) GLS will drop back to give way to ?????? on the left side of midfield.

Should Terry play?
Gallas and Desailly were the main pairings in our 11 game unbeaten run in to the christmas period and we let in ************ all goals as well.Terry got a look in and Ranieri has been trying his best to accomodate all three at the back ever since.I don't think it's a coincidence that this has also co-incided with an alarming drop off of clean sheets or the back line.

Lets go back to the tried and tested..

Melchiot----Gallas----Desailly----(GLS?)

This is a match where the loss of any points is simply not good enough.Defeat is out of the question and a draw must be looked at as a bad result.
We simply can't afford anything but a win here.

[BridgeMonkee]

We gotta get the 3 points and its gonna be tough, if you look at it from their veiw point they got thrashed by arsenal and then they had to play Man U and they got beat, but they held it together and only went down 1-0 - so they will be in the mood - we should have enough to beat them.

Melchiot-Desailly-Gallas-Le Sox gets my vote
Terry had a great season last year and has had some great games when he has played this year - He is very much part of the Chelsea future and Time is on his side - but for the now I think he has to make way. I also hope Desailly is with us next season and we are faced with the same dilema of having 3 great centre halves

[Dr_Intoxicated]

I agree it has to be:
Melchiot-Desailly-Gallas-Le Sox

Galas is a great natural footballer, but he lacks experience at FB and can get caught out, admitidly his natural skill and athletic ability help him out when this does happen. Howerver we also miss his pace in the centre of defence with Desailly/Terry.

While it is true we have 3 great centre backs I do not think they can work as effectively in all combinations .

Last year it was shown that Galas/Desailly or Galas/Terry works well.

However I do not think Terry/Desailly is as good.

[mst77]

after our last few performances. Melchiot, Gallas, Dessa, Le Saux for me. I think the real question is who plays LW with Soxy at LB. Zenden, Morris, Zola, Stanic, De Lucas, ???

I doubt CR will risk starting Zenden and Gronks together again. Soxy has looked a bit suspect when he has played at LB this season so I'd be tempted to put Morris at LW to slow them down a bit, or Stanic (if he is fit) is always good for a few shirt pulls and mistimed tackles to mess with the oppo's head.

I think we have to play 4-4-2, so I would go with this lineup if all are fit:

----------------------------Carlo-----------------
Melchiot--------Gallas-------Desailly------Le Saux
Gronks----------Lampard-------Petit-------Stanic
----------------------Gudjohnsen--------JFH-----

Subs: EDG, Terry, Zola, Cole, Zenden/Morris

[mst77]

Squad is:

Carlo
De Goey
Melchiot
Gallas
Desailly
Terry
Le Saux
Gronkjaer
Lampard
Petit
Gudjohnsen
JFH
Zola
Cole
Morris
De Lucas
Huth

17 listed so lots of ways CR could go with this. He could put Huth at LB and keep GLS on the LW. He could put Petit at LB, GLS at LW, Morris at CM. He could put Terry at CB and Gallas at LB. I would prefer to see Petit and Morris with one at CM and the other at LW/LM.


Heard the news that Billy Gallas will be wearing glasses a la Edgar Davids tomorrow. Apparently he has an eye infection and his docs won't let him wear contacts for 10 days.

[Clan]

Zenden out injured-again eh?
What a waste of money this fella is turning out to be.
Yes he plays quite well when he plays.Is an inspiration at times down the wings and can cross the ball to such a level that Gronkjaer can only salivate about.
The problem is that he gives about 6 of these performances during the course of a whole season.
Not good enough.

I wonder what his form at Barca was, his history there?
He was on the bench a lot wasn't he, and that is how we came to get him in the end.He snubed us the year before too didn't he, prefering to go to Spain.Anyways, i think Barca got the better of the deal--and we still owe money on the lad to boot.

I have said it before and i'll say it again-off load both him and Gronks and get one decent every day winger.

Back to the matter at hand then...
Middle of the field is gonna be tough to win against the Brum and Savage will turn in a Mills type of performace to be sure.
My middle would be...

Gronkjaer---Petit----Lampard---Morris.

Interesting to see who will go up the front in this one.
Zola has knocked in a few of late, albeit against inferior opposition on one occasion.However i think it is now a matter of who will partner Gudjohnsen in attack as opposed to Zola.This time i will give it to Hasselbaink.He needs playing time and the bloke can, quite simply put, create and score a goal out of nothing.The only player on the team that is capable of doing that really.

So..

Gudjohnsen---------Hasselbaink

CTV said tonight that Gallas will not be wearing the Glasses ala Davids, but they would travel with the team anyways so that that ********ing disgrace of a ref Halsey (yes, incredible as it may be he was given this game :rolleyes: ) could see what the hell was going on.

Prediction.
Brum 1-3 Chelseahttp://chelsea2.chelseafc.co.uk/images/anim_players/no_line/4.gif

[Clan]

Red scouse only manage a draw at home to the Boro..good start to the day.We must capitalise.

Houllier to move "upstairs" at the end of the season to make room for a new manager?(he he he)

[mst77]

let's hope big blue is more reliable than last week.

CR is playing Billy at LB again, wonder how that is going over with him. Probably not too well I would guess.

Here's how we'll lineup:

-----------------------------Cudicini-------------
Melchiot-------Terry--------Desailly---------Gallas
Gronkjaer-------Lampard-------Petit-------Le Saux
----------------------Zola-----Guddy------------

Subs: EDG, JFH, Cole, Morris, De Lucas

No defensive players on the bench.

Do you think we may be going 3-5-2 with Melchiot and GLS as wingbacks?

[Clan]

Strange one here today...making room for Terry again.

3-5-2 would seem to be the thing to guess from that.
Gallas out of position yet again to make room forthe 3 central defenders in the team.
Can't say i favour it really-hope i'm wrong and it works

[mst77]

I'd rather see Billy and Marcel at the heart. Think this might have been brought on by the absence of a solid LM option this week, so he moved GLS to shore up the wing. CR just doesn't seem willing to play Zenden and Gronks together, which seems to be smart considering how crap we've played with them on the pitch together.

[Clan]

We must not concede another early goal to the opposition.Keep it tight for the opening 15 then i hope we will impose ourselves in the middle.I don't expect Zola to remain on for more than 55 to 60 mins.
Wonder if he'll put on Cole or Hasselbaink.

Fantastic away support from the audio sound.

The whole squad selection is geared for attacking and trying to take all three points.Ranieri has been very Italian in the last few games i must say.
I wonder if Bates and Birch have been whispering in his ear about how financially importent qualification for the champions league really is to the future well being of the club.

An early goal from us would be just great to set the tempo and keep them back a little.
I really doubt we will keep them scoreless on their own gaff and we'll need to score at least twice i think to take all three.

[Clan]

Great comment from big Blue...ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
Laughing my arse off at that one.

Brummies obviously think the hammers are playing them with chants like that, flipin hilarious.Thick as bricks that lot.

Leeds 1-0 Hammers....:)

[Clan]

Brum are playing on the counter-strange tactics from the home team.Their long ball is causing some problems as is usual when Terry is in the middle of the defense.

We seem to have stamped our control on the middle of the park okay, but their 9-0-1 formation is stifling the attack in the last third of the field.No doubt exactly the way Bruce wants it.
Last few mins Brum on top though and we're the ones playing long ball.

Need to start passing it around some, make them work and run.We don't seem to have any patience here and are playing route 1 football which is not our game.

[Clan]

Everton and Saints both losing.
Typical Chelsea of old would lose also.

Will our new "steel" come through?

[Clan]

Momentum has definitely gone to the Brum.We seem totally devoid of ideas here so far and are being closed down quite quickly and i must say effectively.
Three players booked for us...Petit-Terry-Desailly.

Brum have been the better team for the past 15 no doubt about it.We are still playing route 1..********ing worthless tactic from this team with Zola up the front and Gudjohnsen seeming to have gone AWOL.

Carlo has kept us in it so far with at least 2 great saves.

However...
Shades of the Mancs at maine road here where we were under constand pressure for great period and ran out 3-0 winners.

First corner after 40 mins...thats bad.So is the corner kich as it goes right out for a goal kick..sheesh.Zola limping...great :rolleyes:

Hasselbaink warming up-guess that answers an earlier question.

Lampard gone un-noticed so far, we need him to get involved.

[spectra]

Our boys need to settle down, we'll eventually beat that 9 man defence.

Zola out with a hamstring injury, Jimmy warming up.

[spectra]

ZOLA!

[Clan]

Excellent passing move......just like i said we had to do...............about 8 according to Big Blue.Gronks makes the goal with a burst of speed and Zola slams the ball into the net from the edge of the box.Zola couldn't run in celebration due to his pulled hammy.....................great stuff.real sickner fro them as we score at the death in the first half.All chelsea now...plenty of passing....wonder if Ranieri heard me bitching about his route 1 tactics :)

[spectra]

A volley while hobbling around on the pitch asking to come off? A true hero.