Greenlizard0 Weekend Football Thread ** spoilers ** [16th - 20th August 2014]-LvGOUT!
- Thread starter Cosimo
- Start date
Caporegime
And those players get 40 goals a season by running at the defence and scoring? I don't think so.
Man of Honour
If Burnley park the bus it will be interesting to see if Chelsea have learned anything from last season as they really struggled against teams who do that.
Hopefully the addition of Costa and Fabregas will have the desired effect.
Man of Honour
Soldato
Indeed - will be an interesting test.
I think the presence of Costa in the box will free up Hazard quite a bit as well - teams won't be able to afford to put three men on him the way they did last season, due to the lack of threat from Torres.
That being said I think Salah will start today, with Hazard on the bench. Not sure how the wingers will work out either - apart from Salah, every one of Chelsea's wingers has been back for less than two weeks (Hazard, Schurrle, Willian). Ramires is suspended as well, so we might see Van Ginkel starting next to Matic, with Fabregas in the #10 position.
Soldato
Battle of the bus parkers, can't wait!
Heh
Contrary to popular belief, Chelsea only "park the bus" against teams that want to attack - it just happens that these are the games most non-Chelsea fans are likely to watch. Against a defensive set up we actually play quite attacking football (... or at least try). We just weren't very good at it last season, for obvious reasons (chiefly named Fernando).
Caporegime
Not necessarily at the same time but yes they can all run at defenders, score goals, create goals and have end product.
Soldato
LFC's best strikers after 50 games, Suarez what a waster.
Yeh, but he was banned for 40 of those 50 games!
Man of Honour
I don't think Salah will start, he's the sort of player who needs space behind a defence to be effective and I can't see Burnley allowing much of that at 0-0.
As for Chelsea parking the bus, if I'm not mistaken they had the most attempts on goal away from home last season and the 2nd most at home which is hardly defensive football, it's just that we were **** at actually converting those attempts and as you say, people only take the negatives from teams they don't support
Soldato
^^ So what line-up do you think we'll have on the wings? Hazard on the left?
I'd love to see that, but I think Jose will be reluctant to play the Germans, Belgians and Brazilians (Courtois aside).
I'd love to see that, but I think Jose will be reluctant to play the Germans, Belgians and Brazilians (Courtois aside).
Soldato
The strongest starting 11 for the rest of the season should be:
----------Courtois
Azpilicueta - Terry - Cahill - Luis
------- Matic - Fabregas
Willian/Schurrle - Oscar - Hazard
-------------Costa
With Willian playing more minutes in the big games where defensive duties are required, and Schurrle playing where we need to attack.
... But as I said, I don't think Jose will want to play the Belgian, German or Brazilian players for 90 mins this week. Which leaves us weak on the wings.
I'm 100% sure that the starting fullbacks will be Luis and Azpilicueta though, with Ivanovic acting as first-cover for CB and RB.
----------Courtois
Azpilicueta - Terry - Cahill - Luis
------- Matic - Fabregas
Willian/Schurrle - Oscar - Hazard
-------------Costa
With Willian playing more minutes in the big games where defensive duties are required, and Schurrle playing where we need to attack.
... But as I said, I don't think Jose will want to play the Belgian, German or Brazilian players for 90 mins this week. Which leaves us weak on the wings.
I'm 100% sure that the starting fullbacks will be Luis and Azpilicueta though, with Ivanovic acting as first-cover for CB and RB.
Soldato
I feel sorry for any Chelsea fans having to spend time in this town
I don't watch football, but I'll be keeping a bemused eye on the Burnley matches, simply because I find it hilarious that they're playing against 'big money' teams.
I don't watch football, but I'll be keeping a bemused eye on the Burnley matches, simply because I find it hilarious that they're playing against 'big money' teams.
That's a hell of a good starting eleven. Would like some more cover up front though, the quicker we get rid of Torres and get someone else the better.
Soldato
Absolutely... if we could replace Torres with someone like (say) Wilfried Bony then we'd have good quality cover all the way through. As it is, if Costa is injured, we're back to using Torres and we all know how that worked out! Drogba will work as an impact sub, but he's not going to manage 90mins week in and week out.
In an ideal world I'd replace Ramires with Pogba, and replace Mikel with a better defensive midfield option (Carvalho? Khedira?) but frankly that's just being greedy
SSN reporting that Courtois to start in goal tonight.
Soldato
He's played both roles in preseason - the traditional #10 role, and a free role next to Matic in the pivot. He's generally been more effective in the deeper role, controlling play from behind. I think he'll play as a #10 role tonight though, in place of Oscar.