Matchday 9 - October 7, 2007 - Bolton Wanderers v. Chelsea FC [R]

[GPK]

http://www.podbean.com/wp-content/blogs/2428/uploads/logo_bolton.gif http://www.foerstl.net/Chelsea-Logo.jpg

3:00 PM GMT
10:00 AM EDT

US TV: Live Setanta
UK TV: Chelsea TV from Monday 10PM
CN TV: None

League Position

Chelsea FC 3-3-2, 12 PTS, 8th Place (-7)
Bolton 1-2-5, 5 PTS, 19th Place (-14)

Live on Big Blue (http://tv.chelseafc.com/)

Official Chelsea FC Website (http://www.chelseafc.com/page/LandingPage/0,,10268~1031634,00.html)

News on Soccernet (http://soccernet.espn.go.com/team?id=363&cc=5901)

Team Talk Chelsea (http://www.teamtalk.com/football/news/0,16370,1773,00.html)

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

Latest Chelsea News From Google (http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&edition=us&ie=UTF-8&q=Chelsea+)

Other Fixtures US TV

Saturday, October 6, 2007

07:45 ET Man Utd v Wigan Live Setanta
10:00 ET Aston Villa v West Live Setanta

Sunday, October 7, 2007

07:00 ET Arsenal v Sunderland Live Setanta
09:00 ET Reading v Derby
10:00 ET Blackburn v Birmingham SDD 11PM FSC
10:00 ET Liverpool v Tottenham Live FSC
10:00 ET Man City v Middlesbrough SDD 10PM Setanta
10:00 ET Newcastle v Everton Live Setanta Xtra
11:10 ET Fulham v Portsmouth SDD 5PM FSC

[alexthewolfe]

Hopefully we can keep riding high after the win in the CL. Just need that defense to step up and have Drogs and JCole keep playing strong.

[yasik19]

Hopefully we can keep riding high after the win in the CL. Just need that defense to step up and have Drogs and JCole keep playing strong.

Drogba won't play due to his suspension. Hopefully Kalou can find his shooting boots and Sheva just finds his boots, period.

[OneHolding]

Bridge, Drogba, Mikel all suspended.

Ballack and SWP still injured although SWP may make the squad. Lampard looks likely to be back.
Essien may miss out with a calf injury.

[L.G.S]

Hopefully Kalou starts and Sheva doesn't get a look in. He's used up his chances. I for one would like to see Sinclair get some playing time as well, anything's better than our current options right now.

[yasik19]

depending on who is fit, my line-up is this:

--------------------------The Helmet
Belletti-----------Ricky-------------The Mask-----------ACole
----------------------------Maka
----------------Sidwell----------------Malouda
-----------------------------Cole
------------------Pizarro-------------Sheva

bench: Carlo, Alex, Sinclair, Kalou, PF

Not having Lampard, Essien, Mikel, Ballack, SWP and Drogba really screws up the line-up.

[Blue Celery]

depending on who is fit, my line-up is this:

--------------------------The Helmet
Belletti-----------Ricky-------------The Mask-----------ACole
----------------------------Maka
----------------Sidwell----------------Malouda
-----------------------------Cole
------------------Pizarro-------------Sheva

bench: Carlo, Alex, Sinclair, Kalou, PF

Not having Lampard, Essien, Mikel, Ballack, SWP and Drogba really screws up the line-up.


How do you start Sidwell over Kalou? Or...over anyone really? Like Sinclair.

Wait...wow!!!! Sheva too?! I thought we all agreed that he was done? Why am I asking so many questions?

[yasik19]

How do you start Sidwell over Kalou? Or...over anyone really? Like Sinclair.

:confused:B/c we need a central midfielder and Kalou and Sinclair are not it. Who else will play there? Have you been keeping up with our injuries and suspensions?

Wait...wow!!!! Sheva too?! I thought we all agreed that he was done?

We did? I didn't realize we had a poll. And again, neither Sheva nor Pizzaro can play as lonely forwards, hence you have to play them both.

Why am I asking so many questions?

you got me there.

[Blue Celery]

:confused:B/c we need a central midfielder and Kalou and Sinclair are not it. Who else will play there? Have you been keeping up with our injuries and suspensions?

Come on. Of course I know our injuries. If we start Makelele like you said, and put J. Cole in the middle who can play there as well we will be fine. Besides, why start the off form Sidwell when we will probably sub him off late in the game for..:eek:..another winger! Im sorry but if Sidwell plays and plays on the wing like you suggested, it would be a waste of time.

I am sick of sucking the first half and having to sub on attacking players at the last minute. I say we start out with those wingers. Forward march!!!



We did? I didn't realize we had a poll. And again, neither Sheva nor Pizzaro can play as lonely forwards, hence you have to play them both.

I never said we had a poll smarty Yasik :). I was just referring to the fact that Grant didnt play him, and that Abramovich sure looked pissed and frustrated watching Sheva suck at Fulham. Your statement is correct that Pizarro cannot play alone, so the simple solution would be to insert either Kalou or Sinclair.

you got me there.

oh.

[yasik19]

Come on. Of course I know our injuries. If we start Makelele like you said, and put J. Cole in the middle who can play there as well we will be fine. Besides, why start the off form Sidwell when we will probably sub him off late in the game for..:eek:..another winger! Im sorry but if Sidwell plays and plays on the wing like you suggested, it would be a waste of time.

I didn't intend for my formation to have Sidwell as a winger. Think of it as mostly 2 players in the middle, Sidwell and Malouda. Putting Joey there is just too deep to play him there. He needs to be right behind the forwards.

I never said we had a poll smarty Yasik :). I was just referring to the fact that Grant didnt play him, and that Abramovich sure looked pissed and frustrated watching Sheva suck at Fulham. Your statement is correct that Pizarro cannot play alone, so the simple solution would be to insert either Kalou or Sinclair.

I would love to play with two wingers, but that only works in a 4-3-3 and we don't have Lampard or Essein or Ballack to be the middle anchor and we don't have Drogba to be the dominant central striker, so we can't use that formation.

We can try the following, but I don't know how well it will work. Either way, you have to have Sidwell in there.

-----------------Cech
Belletti-------RC--------JT---------AC
-----------------Maka
Kalou------------Sidwell-----------Sinclair
------------------Cole--------------(roaming)
----------------------Pizzarro/Sheva

[eriol]

depending on who is fit, my line-up is this:

--------------------------The Helmet
Belletti-----------Ricky-------------The Mask-----------ACole
----------------------------Maka
----------------Sidwell----------------Malouda
-----------------------------Cole
------------------Pizarro-------------Sheva

bench: Carlo, Alex, Sinclair, Kalou, PF

Not having Lampard, Essien, Mikel, Ballack, SWP and Drogba really screws up the line-up.

Sure like the looks of that back four, with Cech behind and Maka in front. Does bring up a question though - what's the latest re: Wayne Bridge?

[JoshDB]

Bolton are awful. This should be at least 2-0.

[Kazuma]

I heard Anelka is on form but I'm not too worried about the back with JT and Carvalho back there.

[yasik19]

Bolton are awful. This should be at least 2-0.

we said the same thing about Rosenborg and Fulham.

[The_ChelseaSupporter]

http://www.chelseafc.com/xxchelsea180706/index.html#/page/NewsHomePage/list_2209129_0

It would be great if he could play. As we've seen, we're rubbish without him. Three cheers for the best scoring midfielder in the world!

[2Slick]

As said before Lampard looks to have shaken off his injury in time for the game so gives us the extra threat we've missed.

I'd go with Pizarro at the head of a 4-3-3 with Malouda & Joe Cole as wing forwards... I can't stand to watch Shevchenko fluff every ball that bounces off his bumbum while he trips over his boot lace so I'm hoping he's stuck on the bench!

If we need any extra support up front or any changes I'd rather just bring on Kalou.

I'm still going for a 3-0 if Lampard is back with the man himself to get on the score sheet.

[The_ChelseaSupporter]

Cech
Belletti-Carvalho-Terry-A. Cole
Maka
Essien-Lampard
Kalou----------Malouda
Pizarro

Subs: Cudicini, Alex, Sidwell, Sinclair, Shevchenko

our ideal lineup imso

[Walter3000]

Pizarro shows a tendency to drop deep and he is really slow, IMO, if we're playing anyone but Drogba, one striker up top is not going to work.

[newyorkerr]

As said before Lampard looks to have shaken off his injury in time for the game so gives us the extra threat we've missed.

I'd go with Pizarro at the head of a 4-3-3 with Malouda & Joe Cole as wing forwards... I can't stand to watch Shevchenko fluff every ball that bounces off his bumbum while he trips over his boot lace so I'm hoping he's stuck on the bench!

If we need any extra support up front or any changes I'd rather just bring on Kalou.

I'm still going for a 3-0 if Lampard is back with the man himself to get on the score sheet.

Its ********ing disgrace to read this piece of craftsmanship, blatantly using the same lines from the likes of The Guardian, who will drop their morning tea just to write some garbidge about Shevchenko. And while I'm in agreement that he can't perform for that team for various reasons, I will strongly oppose you bashing him just for the sake of it. Like two commentators in the Fulham game decided to be very lenient about Drogba errors, at the same time burying Sheva alive for every small mistake/misstep/lose ball.

Apparently this brainwashing works well as you repeat pretty much the same thing, without giving it a thought. While I won't dispute Kalou, who is young and potentially good player, who the ******** is Pizzaro? The only difference is that he is coming out and tries to accommodate team's needs, and vice versa like in Shevchenko's case, because there is no dispute here: Nor JM nor AG didn't make this team to play to his strength, but to his weaknesses.

Example: Against Rosenborg he scored a header, while playing basically alone. Later on JM put Terry in CF position in order to play high balls into the box. Leaving Sheva alongside Terry would have been a better option, mathematically doubling the treat plus drawing defender's attention to each other. But Shevchenko was pulled all the way into center midfield where he did precious little for the rest of the game.

ManU game. Was playing as a lone forward against Rio and Vidic with little help in attack from midfield. Chelsea did pretty well in the first 30 minutes until red card, couldn't complain about his performance even if i wanted.

Fulham: interestingly enough Grant changed tactics and balls started flying forward towards DD, instead of carefully built attacks like in the previous game. This game though all team was bad...and Shevchenko was the worst (of course).

I would like to see him getting some passes into open spaces toward goal and not in field. Only if he will start missing like Kalou I will know that the king is dead. Up until now I see a diamond catter used as a kitchen knife. If Grant was brought to revive Sheva's career, what was he thinking about sitting there behind Jose's back?

I saw almost every Chelsea game, this and last season. Maybe I am a little pro-Sheva (:D), but I m trying to be fair in my opinions, and this situation was far from fair.

[L.G.S]

Ummmm hello?

Like two commentators in the Fulham game decided to be very lenient about Drogba errors

Drogba scored over 30 goals last season, that at least gives him a little leeway and he was also coming off of an injury. What did Shevchenko get last season to warrent him excuses for playing poor over a period of 9 months?