Carling Cup Quarter Final: November 29, 2011 - Chelsea FC v. Liverpool FC [R]

You werent far off:

@BluesChronicle
Dan Levene
AVB on the performance of his team following 0-2 home defeat to Liverpool: "No good today."

 

I really hope this is true. But who knows how Roman thinks???

AVB is a step in the right direction, if we can get Chelsea clicking like Barca, it would make for compelling watching, right now, we are in a rut and AVB needs time to get rid of the old crap and introduce players who can play in his vision.

 

Yes, but who should we have in defense?

 

chelseafc
Chelsea FC
AVB after tonight's defeat: "In the 2nd half Liverpool were very strong and managed to cause us problems." #CFC (SL)

@BluesChronicle
Dan Levene
AVB on youngsters: "Ryan (Bertrand) has shown he is a good player you can count on & Oriol (Romeu) the same. Josh (McEachran) was unlucky."

chelseafc
Chelsea FC
AVB: " This standard of performance won't be enough against Valencia in the CL" #CFC (SL)

chelseafc
Chelsea FC
AVB: "Away from home we have been more solid, at the moment at home we haven't been good enough" #CFC (SL)

BluesChronicle
Dan Levene
AVB: "I'm not a wizard. You don't know what is going to happen in March & April. But playing these top teams (will have impact on season)."

 

That assumes we have the right manager for that job. On the strength of our tactics and performances, I'm not convinced that's the case.

 

Apart from Lamps, Cech and JT it seems clear to me that our entire contingent of 30 year old+ players do not want to play for a 35 year old manager, our youngsters are all playing extremely well for him and the old guard just is giving even less of a rats ass then they have the past few seasons.


For me it's clear we need to sell Torres or just shove him on the reserves, he is useless for us, absolutely useless, and I fear his loser low confidence failure attitude is spreading throughout the rest of the team.

However his wages must be huge I doubt anyone would be willing to take them on.


AVB needs to rebuild the team, he has a system which I know will work he just needs the players for it, the players he bought Mata and Romeu are working extremely well in the system which leads me to believe he knows what he's doing. And sturridge can be a lone striker, that's how he got 8 goals for Bolton in the second half of last season. Too bad about McEachran, kid needs a nutritionist and to bulk up, probably the only reason he hasn't had more first team chances is because his slight frame and tiny size.

 

This is getting frustrating

 

I would agree only for the fact DS23 has been doing this and been in form on the RW and not in the middle (yes I know he is a striker but he seems to have adapted very well to the right hand side, the other worry is that if we did put him into the middle it would surely mean playing Anelka and we don't even want to start about him.

Think we need to start with the out with the old as I though Romeu and JMc looked okay today, before JMc went off, it was Lamps that slowed them two down in the middle to be honest, I do also think the observation that Luiz isn't a CB is a given I think he would be a fantastic CDM. I didn't see the 2nd goal so can't comment but I also think that Bertrand did well at LB and seeing as Ashley isn' in his best form whats to say we don't give Bertrand a chance. I think we should go for a 4-2-3-1 formation as well. Just a thought

Cech
brana, alex, JT, cole/Bertrand
------romeu, jmc/luiz
DS23, jmc(if luiz is cdm), mata
drogba/torres

We need a fresh start for the attack, we also need a re-think on the defence and this foramtion would mean we get the defensive qualities of both romeu and luiz but also the attacking qualities of luiz who could join up with what is essentially a front 4, this is very similar to the Real Madrid formation Jose is playing with Alonso and then khedira or another DM there too

 

I agree, but just have to press on and keep the faith. The feeling parallels what we've seen so far with Klinsmann and the USMNT.

 

Not at all the same for me.

 

How has he adapted well to the right hand side by scoring goals in center forward positions? Or, to put it another way, if his biggest success on the right has been scoring goals in the box, why not put him in a position where he can be in the box more often and where his selfish streak is a benefit rather than a drag?
I'm sure someone will pop up and claim I'm slagging Sturridge or hate him, but that misses the point; he's scoring goals - let's put him in a position where he can score more of them!

 

Except that Klinsmann has lost a bunch of meaningless friendlies. We've just lost two home games in a row to Liverpool in real competitions.

 

That formation of yours just put some crazy ideas in my head. I like this one:

---------Cech

Bos---Ivan---JT----Ashley

------Romeu-Luiz

Ramires--Mata--Lamps

--------Danny


With romeu and mikel each getting their chances, Luiz playing in the midfield which would allow him to be as creative as he wants to be without affecting our backline (Romeu/Mikel would cover for him anyways), Danny boy upfront being supported by Mata playing an CAM position where I think he would excel.

Other possible changes:
Bos out with Ivan at RB; Alex starting at CB.
Meireles in for Lamps or Ramires in those midfielder spots.
Danny could be switched by Torres (as long as he grows a pair soon enough).


Of course, this seems more Mourinho than AVB, but I think it would do wonders for our defense because Luiz wouldn't penalize it like he has recently.

 

The 30+ players apart from Lamps and Terry aren't playing well because most of them know they're gone come summer. Cech isn't 30 yet btw.

Not a lot of managers get the green light to rebuild 50%+ of the team just so that they get the players they need to play their exact tactical system, so I doubt that AVB will, especially if we crash out of CL soon. Why are you so sure AVBs system will work so well anyway? Sure we might get better offensively with a couple more mega signings in offense, but the defense has been failing badly this year, with largely the same guys playing there as last year when we were quite good defensively. I do think the defensive problems is at least as much a tactical problem as a player problem.

 

We can't play this in the current footballing world - we'd be overrun on the wings.

 

You guys can forget about Luiz playing DM, its not going to happen. He's a cb and will stay there

But Lampard and Terry havent been playing well.

Except we weren't

 

Because he went undefeated with Porto and won Europa league with that system and the players to implement it.

 

I really wonder what is going on behind the scenes. Last year it was the same story and we were all worried we wouldn't make top 4.

The Torres thing is baffling. I felt like this thing was starting to take off before his foolish red card. I feel sometimes it's our tactics more than anything. Torres is an easy target, but notice it doesn't seem to matter who we play at CF in this 4-3-3...they do not seem to produce. Our play and buildup is so freaking slow and predictable. Most of the time when our CF gets the ball he has about 5 defenders right on top of him. Drogba, Anelka, Torres, all of them same result. Sturridge even had a game up there and it was the same. I think if you put Torres on a much quicker team you would see him scoring a lot, which just goes back and makes you wonder why we ever bought him for this bunch anyway. It's maddening how little we pressure the keeper

I like AVB and I hope he is here 10 years and not just 10 more days, but he seems to keep trying to fit a square peg in a round hole

I'd like to see this with a defensive mentality and look to go on the break when it's there. Mata could slip passes to the 2 fwds. This combo seemed to work great when Torres had his little run. I don't see why we can't try something like this. If we trot out the same lineup newcastle with Drogba up front in a 4-3-3 and expect him to breakdown a defense like he is 25, we will come home without a result.

I don't see why we can't try something like this.
Ivan-Luiz-Terry-Cole
------Romeu-------
Ram-----------Lampard
-------Mata----------
---Stur------Torres

 

i like it, now if we could just get AVB to implement this....

 

Too bad we're trying to win the Premier League and the CL not the Superliga and the Europa Cup. With all due respect to Porto, winning there and at Chelsea aren't remotely the same thing.

 

Kinda cute to read the pathetic posts of joy on the Liverpool forum. Endless hilarity 'this is our year' etc etc. You would have thought they had won the double. Careless cup? Your first trophy in how many years? If they get past City/United that is.

 

Soulless, no movement, no shape, no motivation. Awful performance. Here's an interesting analysis:

http://www.whoscored.com/Blog/aktvt...ruth-Behind-Chelseas-Demise-Blame-the-Players

 

Football is football, undefeated in Europa league and Portugal is a big accomplishment, all of his tactics and knowledge won't suddenly magically disappear because he is managing a team in England now.

 

Interesting - so it is NOT the high back line that is the problem - as many have thought (including me). I don't necessarily feel it is the defensive players either - whereas the Man City players have attacking wingers/decent midfield players to release the ball to, the Chelsea defenders do not have that option.

Another piss poor result. Very depressing. We need to sign those wingers/attacking mids in the January window. Until then we have to change that high back line.