Chelsea Thread

[merf]

You know when you are desperate to buy a new game and despite your head telling you it will be crap you do it anyway, then you put it on and instantly regret it. You know it won't bankrupt you but you're still a bit narked at wasting the money and plan to trade it back in ASAP against something better to cut your losses.

Do you reckon that's how Abramovich feels about Torres right now, god he looks pony.

[abigsmurf]

Goal doesn't really change anything, looked offside to me and wasn't amazingly deserved but meh. Chelsea huffing and puffing and not scoring, Man U not doing much and getting goals sums up a large portion of this season.

Malouda definately needs to come off and I wouldn't object to Drogba coming on for Torres.

[abigsmurf]

We were poor and now we're probably going to go through another manager.

Nani and little piss are diving gits. All the moaning about Torres in the first leg, how many times were those two told to get up with no cards for diving produced? Dives in head first into Terry's arms then rolls on the ground like he's been shot getting him a stupid yellow.

[glazza]

Cant see for the life of me Smurfy why Torres or Anelka would ever be first choice over Drogba and the irony is Drogba looks like he will be the one leaving the Bridge in the summer which is a shame for your lot and the English League.

[vanpeebles]

We were poor and now we're probably going to go through another manager.

Nani and little piss are diving gits. All the moaning about Torres in the first leg, how many times were those two told to get up with no cards for diving produced? Dives in head first into Terry's arms then rolls on the ground like he's been shot getting him a stupid yellow.

You might of had a point if Chelsea wasn't full of cheating divers. The right team won for me, Sir Alex has built an empire over decades on rock solid foundations, Chelsea think they can buy one over night. Everyone outside of Liverpool could see Torres was a form player out of form, even his own country had him as a late in the game sub. To spend ?50 million in this climate was just appalling.

[toythatkills]

I say, chaps, I dare say that Fernando Torres would find it difficult if not impossible to score in an establishment of ill repute!

[abigsmurf]

You might of had a point if Chelsea wasn't full of cheating divers. The right team won for me, Sir Alex has built an empire over decades on rock solid foundations, Chelsea think they can buy one over night. Everyone outside of Liverpool could see Torres was a form player out of form, even his own country had him as a late in the game sub. To spend ?50 million in this climate was just appalling.

The difference is not only that Man U get away with it, they get goals and yellow card for the other sides as a result. Nani is getting close to Ronaldo's complete lack of sportsmanship and it's looking like Hernandez will follow in kind.

Anyway playing English sides in the Champions League always robs me of enthusiam for the competition, the result depresses me but I'll get over it. Just got to focus on getting 3rd or fourth. It should be straight forward (especially given Spurs and City play each other) but with our form... Meh.

Ancelotti if he survives, needs to shake up the squad next season. I think Lampard has lost his automatic place now and Malouda, who a year ago looked set to become one of the best players in the world and now hasn't played well for months needs time on the bench. Torres shouldn't start until he gets form and fitness, Anelka needs to get some sharpness or leave (the way he couldn't even be bothered to turn after Van Der Saar committed himself sums up how he's playing).

Sturridge needs to come back and play the full 90 minutes, McCaechron needs to be eased into the squad more (he's easily the best youth prospect we've got) and we need to look at who can fill Lampard's role.

[hudson]

BREAKING NEWS: David Blaine's 40 day world record for doing nothing in a box has been broken by Fernando Torres.

What has happened to Chelsea? They have been pretty poor of late. I remember the start of the season when I was thinking that the league was theirs again. From one extreme to another.

I've no doubt Torres will start bagging goals galore again, but not this season, but I'm not sure if it will be for Chelsea at this rate.

[abigsmurf]

Ancelotti simply isn't a manager who is good at changing things.

He found a winning formula towards the end of last season and the start of this season and stuck with it. We looked like world beaters. Then we get a few key, long term injuries and Ancelotti didn't know what to do and we had our longest run of poor perfomances for a long time. He still doesn't quite know what to do. We get huge amounts of possession but can't make clear cut chances. We had the strongest defence in the league, now every attack against us is cause for alarm.

Key annoyances:

Not dropping underperforming players when they play awfully for several games.
Not starting Drogba yesterday (he always ups his game for Champions League)
Not really knowing what to do with Torres.
Sturridge put in some good performances when he had a chance to play, he was never rewarded with a start for them. He goes on loan to Bolton and he's become a massive source of goals for them.
Only bringing on subs past 70 minutes
He just sits there on the bench, every other manager talks endlessly with the coaching staff or screams at the players on the pitch. He sits there showing no emotion, showing no signs he's trying to change things or drive players on.

[vanpeebles]

The trouble with Chelsea and also Man City is that you are never sure what was down to the manager(who has to carry the can) or the owner(who buys these big ego players but doesn't have to work with them). I dare say Torres was not his purchase and he probably could of spent the 50 mil on improvements through the whole squad.

[abigsmurf]

We were having problems long long before Torres arrived though, can't really shift the blame to him. To his credit, he does seem to be driven and he's added a lot of movement to Chelsea, he just can't get the knack of shooting. He's either hopelessly offtarget or takes 1 or 2 touches more than he should.

He's not exactly the only player not scoring when he should.

[vanpeebles]

I know but the 50 million would of gone on correcting those faults. Chelsea came roaring out of the blocks but I think the pace quickly caught up with some of the players.

[nakamura]

The trouble with Chelsea and also Man City is that you are never sure what was down to the manager(who has to carry the can) or the owner(who buys these big ego players but doesn't have to work with them). I dare say Torres was not his purchase and he probably could of spent the 50 mil on improvements through the whole squad.

I think this is exactly the right point. Torres for me screams panic buy. Don't get me wrong he has bags of talent but he was way out of form and very injury prone.
For me the blues need a rebuild now, and one that is fully controlled by a manager and no one else.

[abigsmurf]

We're actually well on the way to a rebuild. Luiz is a great signing, Ramieres has improved hugely and we've two great youth prospects in Sturridge and McCaechron.

The player that needs a replacement is Lampard. other than that, I think the squad's reasonable with aging players having replacements lined up.

[abigsmurf]

New Chelsea kit. Bit too much white on the shoulders but otherwise it's ok.