Guz

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A few of our players are sharp across the ground - Pennant, Bellamy, Gonzalez, Gerrard, Riise, Agger, Reina but not necesarilly with the ball at their feet (not an issue for Agger or Pepe of course). It's all well and good being able to out run players, it's an important asset and both Pennant and Speedy out paced Clichy and Eboue (two of the quickest in the league) against Arsenal but neither of them this season have shown enough with the ball at their feet I think and our side is desperately lacking someone who moves with the ball at pace. We cant keep knocking the ball 15 yards and chasing after it, thats what Cisse kept doing last season.

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Like almost every forward thinking player in the squad, Gerrard has had a mediocre season IMO

Was it Diego milito or Gabriel that was supposed to sign for Real Madrid but failed a medical or something?

It's about balance from both wings. Pennant's crossing needs to be earlier or much later after commiting a defender. The problem is this exists on both wings and too often we let the defender stand off us and we knock a high ball into the box when the strikers are often well marked by the defenders. I think this links in with our attacking play being too slow sometimes. Also think Pennant needs to get involved centrally a lot more when the ball is on theother wing. We either need to improve Pennant onto the next level or fill the gaps in his play on the other wing. I think the latter is more likely but that doesnt mean Pennant doesn't have a big role to play in the squad.

It's why i'd like to see something along the lines of the subs extended to a maximum of 7 with atleast 2 of those having to be under 21.

I'd say Drogba has been absolutely essential to the way Chelsea have played under Mourinho. He does so much work outside the box, holding the ball up, winning headers, bringing others into play etc. Without Robben and Cole for a lot of this season ( basically no wide men and Shevchenko having a mare) he's been forced to take on a lot of the goalscoring responsibility and done it damn well. Annoying c*** but a very very good player.

It's a good point but harder to do nowadays I think, especially with a bigger and better first team. Say we're challenging for the league every year for the next 2-4 years (when these lot will try to establish themselves), it's gonna take a lot of injuries and a huge amount of belief and conviction from the manager for players to get a look into the side on a regular basis. Carragher started slowly but under Houllier established himself in the defence even though he came under a fair bit of stick I think there'll be a trend for those who aren't "special" (in the class of Owen, Rooney etc) to go out on loan for at least a season or two to show a bit of potential and then come back into the squad. Bit like Warnock. They're just not going to get the match time in the first team squad. Mancs are the same - Fletcher and O'Shea seem to be the only recent exceptions.

at the Gerrard and Fabregas nominations. Scholes, Drogba and Ronaldo have been the best players by a long way this season. Danny Agger deserves to be in that list though (unless he's a year too old?). You dont go replacing Sami Hyypia in the first team without being a little bit special

Agree totally. Arsenal in the fa cup is another game that springs to mind where we had a lot of posession but little clear chances on goals. The point about the mancs flooding the box is totally correct. Their game away to Fulham a few weeks ago is a prime example. They played s*** and were under pressure from Fulham for large parts of the game but in the final 15-20 minutes they were playing on the break with Scholes, Ronaldo, Rooney, Giggs, Larsson and Saha who were all busting a gut to get into the box and never lost their movement. I'm not saying we should go gung-ho but more often we need to back our own ability a bit more and hold less fear of what the opposition is going to do to us.

But Villareal had the best defence in the world. Ever. Fact.

How about Boro away? Or Blackburn and Pompey at home? First half United and Arsenal away, everton home and away, United at home? It's hardly the first time this season where we've not been troubled, had posession but done nothing with it. I agree on the winger and striker though. We also need to start getting more men into the box though, and at pace.

Heard an interesting stat the other day that in Cech's first two seasons at Chelsea he kept 21 and then 17 clean sheets in the league. Pepe kept 20 last season and is so far on 17 this season. In terms of people who think Reina is s**** (peple in the media and some opposition fans) - why is it that Cech, who has played for the best team in the country, never gets the old "playing behind a great defnce" party line yet Reina does? Are we lead to believe that Carra, Agger/Sami, Finnan and Riise are SO amazingly talented that they continually make up for a goalkeeper who is supposedly a libaility and makes many mistakes?? While there's definite room for improvement, I do think Reina's contribution to our play is greatly under played and that he contributes more to our set pieces than many give him credit for.

Have chelsea lost a game since they lost 2-0 at anfield? They've had a couple of draws and late goals but cant recall them actually losing a game, maybe someone will clarify.

To make it different I think we need a slightly different attitude away from home. Lets back our own ability instead of being scared of mediocre players.

I highly doubt Rafa's team talk and preparation for the game would've involved talking about not getting injuried and being careful for the Chelsea games. If he thought the game was as much as a waste of time as it turned out to be then why bring back the 4 players rested against PSV and not just play the same team or even give some youngsters a go? A thoroughly nothing performance from both sides. You can see why City hardly score at home and why our away form can be very flat at times. Not as bad as the Villa game but not that far off. We'll be up for the chelsea game, no doubt, but I'd like to at least see a bit of determination for a win (or a goal) from the players. If we want to keep players wrapped in cotton wool for more important games then leave them at home or on the bench and play someone with something to prove. In what way? The only difference I could imagne is Gerrard wide right and Crouch partnering Kuyt upfront. It was a f***ing strong team and once again at home not about team selection but team attitude. Everytime we play s*** away from home (not that rare this season) we see the same old meaningless posession in deep areas, not enough pace in our attacks, not enough men geting forward, not enough wide play high up the pitch. It's not as if the city game was the first and it's a problem with our play that has held us back this season. It's not the end of the world, I still want Rafa's babies, still think he's boss etc. but it's more than a little frustrating to see us play well recently (Barca, PSV, Arsenal) but also turn in 2 crap performances to Villa and City. Ah well, suppose in the grand scheme of things it's not that important and will quickly be forgotten.

Waste of time for the supporters, as was the case with the Villa game a few weeks ago. No harm in proving we're not a totally gutless side even if 3rd/4th is all we have to play for in the league but it's beyond our big game charlies. Least it's a point and not a loss and we have no new injuries Thats part of the problem isn't it? We seem to be able to turn it on and off. On in the big games and too often off against some mid table s****. I've no doubt we'll give it 100% against Chelsea and put them to the sword but I'd like a little bit of encouragement that we're capable of doing it in the league aswell on a regular basis

Thats a hopeless argument that I hope none of our players use for turning out a s***house performance at Old Trafford and Arsenal 2nd half, for example. You can't seriously think, for example, that Carra looked like a divison 1 player earlier in the season because the fixture list was not kind to us? We were poor away from home at the start of the season, there's no two ways about it. Tough fixtures or not. It's not as if we've fared much better playing away to United, Arsenal, Chelsea and Bolton before. We weren't as bad as some suggested at Chelsea or Everton but the manner of those results just seemed to shoot our confidence totally.

I think when people mean a 20 goal striker they mean the league Drogba has topped 30 this season, 18 in the league so far with 5 games to play so will probably get 20. He's been brilliant this season, no idea about the rest of europe.

Crouch is a huge positive from this season for me. Ok, he has his deficiencies as a footballer but in his prima-dona age and when footballers think they are god's gift to earth it's so refreshing to see an honest and hard working professional go from national ridicule to joint CL top scorer and our most effective striker this year. Well in

I think the way we play against Chelsea will show the mentality of our squad. If they can only perform on the big stage under the guise of being underdogs as we have done almost exclusively under Rafa then it'll be very dissapointing. If however, we can show we've got some b******s and we have a desire to succeed then there won't be one ounce of fear in our players. Hopefully the latter

The 7-1 against Roma was also the manc's first significant victory in Europe for a few years, probably since the 4-3 against R.Madrid and even then they needed 2 more goals to qualify. For the most part, goals haven't flown in for them in Europe with Roma being the exception. Both semis are really tight

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One of the reports I read this morning is that he's done his Medial collateral ligament in his right knee and will have a scan today. Hopefully a case of 1-2 weeks rather than several weeks