Chelsea away - Pre match discussion

[Le Havre Oswald]

Where did this rumour about demichelis being slow as fuck come from? Hes not rag Bolt but he not 'slow as fuck'

 

[Ric]

Unlike you to down tools Ric?

I think Pellers may have something up his sleeve tomorrow

Not downing tools as such, but realistically I can't see us winning tomorrow. Would love to be proved wrong.

There's no doubt that JM will send his team out like a pack of rabid dogs, if we can ride the initial wave and then settle in to our game plan we'll have every chance.

I hope you're right, but who do you think we'll play at centre half tomorrow? And just to clarify, not who you would play, but who you think Pellegrini will play?

 

[Rammy Blue]

Not downing tools as such, but realistically I can't see us winning tomorrow. Would love to be proved wrong.

There's no doubt that JM will send his team out like a pack of rabid dogs, if we can ride the initial wave and then settle in to our game plan we'll have every chance.

I hope you're right, but who do you think we'll play at centre half tomorrow? And just to clarify, not who you would play, but who you think Pellegrini will play?

I think he will go with Demichelis.

 

[gordondaviesmoustache]

There's no doubt that JM will send his team out like a pack of rabid dogs, if we can ride the initial wave and then settle in to our game plan we'll have every chance.

I hope you're right, but who do you think we'll play at centre half tomorrow? And just to clarify, not who you would play, but who you think Pellegrini will play?

I think he will go with Demichelis.

Or Dzeko

 

[Danamy]

Not downing tools as such, but realistically I can't see us winning tomorrow. Would love to be proved wrong.

There's no doubt that JM will send his team out like a pack of rabid dogs, if we can ride the initial wave and then settle in to our game plan we'll have every chance.

I hope you're right, but who do you think we'll play at centre half tomorrow? And just to clarify, not who you would play, but who you think Pellegrini will play?

--Zabba----Richards----Nasty-----Clichy--

 

[JoeMercer'sWay]

I think we should play Garcia in the Lahm role.

------------------------Hart-------------------------------

--Zaba-----Micah------Nasty-----Clichy-------------

----------------------Garcia--------------------------

---------------Fern--------Yaya----------------------

---------Silva-------------------Kun-------------------

---------------------Negredo-----------------------

The reason I think this is because it solves a few issues. One, Micah is quick and can deal with balls over the top, he's also an aerial threat and I think will be stronger there than Javi. This then allows Javi to monitor and do his stuff without the focus being on him, without it being all about him and if he fucks up it's fatal. He will be able to put his passing stats to good use by laying the ball into Fern and Yaya to counter with, he can mop up from Nastasic who's also an excellent passer, and when we are defending he can form a 3 man defense and cover Micah when Micah has a positional lapse, but as it won't be Garcia and the attacker from the start and he'll just be covering it puts less onus on him at the start of the issue, it also gives him a head start on his lack of pace.

That leaves us with Fern able to box to box a bit more, freeing him up which is more akin to his Shakhtar days and will benefit us. It allows in attack five to push on, with Aguero moving to make 2 up top at times with Silva slotting into the hole where he's very effective. In defense Silva and Kun can cover back and Negredo can put himself about.

I'd go with that tomorrow, I think it's the best balance we have between attack and defense unless Demichelis is fit.

It allows us to absorb Chelsea pressing, whilst being a threat going forward but leaving cover for the counter attacks that Jose will employ.

 

[Wretched Vengeance]

I hope you're right, but who do you think we'll play at centre half tomorrow? And just to clarify, not who you would play, but who you think Pellegrini will play?

I think he will go with Demichelis.

Or Dzeko

hehe. I saw that post too :)

 

[jollylescott]

There's no doubt that JM will send his team out like a pack of rabid dogs, if we can ride the initial wave and then settle in to our game plan we'll have every chance.

I hope you're right, but who do you think we'll play at centre half tomorrow? And just to clarify, not who you would play, but who you think Pellegrini will play?

I think he will go with Demichelis.

Can't agree Rammy. In such a big game I don't think he would risk Demichelis. I think he will either stick with Garcia or use Micah. Given the trickery and agility of their attacking midfielders it would be flirting with extreme danger to play Javi. So I think it may be Micah.

 

[cleavers]

I think we should play Garcia in the Lahm role.

------------------------Hart-------------------------------

--Zaba-----Micah------Nasty-----Clichy-------------

----------------------Garcia--------------------------

---------------Fern--------Yaya----------------------

---------Silva-------------------Kun-------------------

---------------------Negredo-----------------------

The reason I think this is because it solves a few issues. One, Micah is quick and can deal with balls over the top, he's also an aerial threat and I think will be stronger there than Javi. This then allows Javi to monitor and do his stuff without the focus being on him, without it being all about him and if he fucks up it's fatal. He will be able to put his passing stats to good use by laying the ball into Fern and Yaya to counter with, he can mop up from Nastasic who's also an excellent passer, and when we are defending he can form a 3 man defense and cover Micah when Micah has a positional lapse, but as it won't be Garcia and the attacker from the start and he'll just be covering it puts less onus on him at the start of the issue, it also gives him a head start on his lack of pace.

That leaves us with Fern able to box to box a bit more, freeing him up which is more akin to his Shakhtar days and will benefit us. It allows in attack five to push on, with Aguero moving to make 2 up top at times with Silva slotting into the hole where he's very effective. In defense Silva and Kun can cover back and Negredo can put himself about.

I'd go with that tomorrow, I think it's the best balance we have between attack and defense unless Demichelis is fit.

It allows us to absorb Chelsea pressing, whilst being a threat going forward but leaving cover for the counter attacks that Jose will employ.

I quite like that idea, but I don't think he'll change the way we'll play, just the names.

 

[JoeMercer'sWay]

I think we should play Garcia in the Lahm role.

------------------------Hart-------------------------------

--Zaba-----Micah------Nasty-----Clichy-------------

----------------------Garcia--------------------------

---------------Fern--------Yaya----------------------

---------Silva-------------------Kun-------------------

---------------------Negredo-----------------------

The reason I think this is because it solves a few issues. One, Micah is quick and can deal with balls over the top, he's also an aerial threat and I think will be stronger there than Javi. This then allows Javi to monitor and do his stuff without the focus being on him, without it being all about him and if he fucks up it's fatal. He will be able to put his passing stats to good use by laying the ball into Fern and Yaya to counter with, he can mop up from Nastasic who's also an excellent passer, and when we are defending he can form a 3 man defense and cover Micah when Micah has a positional lapse, but as it won't be Garcia and the attacker from the start and he'll just be covering it puts less onus on him at the start of the issue, it also gives him a head start on his lack of pace.

That leaves us with Fern able to box to box a bit more, freeing him up which is more akin to his Shakhtar days and will benefit us. It allows in attack five to push on, with Aguero moving to make 2 up top at times with Silva slotting into the hole where he's very effective. In defense Silva and Kun can cover back and Negredo can put himself about.

I'd go with that tomorrow, I think it's the best balance we have between attack and defense unless Demichelis is fit.

It allows us to absorb Chelsea pressing, whilst being a threat going forward but leaving cover for the counter attacks that Jose will employ.

I quite like that idea, but I don't think he'll change the way we'll play, just the names.

I hope he learnt from Bayern. Chelsea will by no means be the same but the result could end up the same way. Chelsea have an event split pretty much of attacking possession across the 3 main areas of the pitch (left, centre, right), however when it comes to shots 62% of their shots this season have come from the central area of the half (if you imagine splitting the opposition's half into three from the goal line to the half way line. That puts them only 15th in the table for shots from a central area, however they come top with shots from the left hand third, which signifies the importance of Hazard, not just from when he shoots but what he creates for the likes of Lampard etc. to have a go from those angles.

Almost half of their shots come from outside the area, that only puts them 10th in the table for that stat but more relevantly puts them 2nd behind Spurs of the Top 6 teams, we by comparison come bottom with only a third of our shots coming from outside the area, so it shows the importance of closing down high up the pitch to stop the shots. They admittedly also come 3rd with shots in the 6 yard box, but that's only 10% of total shots and is only marginally higher than most other teams so there's less to glean from that. We come top with 58% in the 18 yard box category, Chelsea are 14th with 42%, more importantly though that drops to 35% in home games for them, their outside the box goes up to 52% and their 6 yard box goes up to 12%. Our stats change negligibly between home/away.

So it shows that they struggle a bit more to play the ball into the box and for it to stick, what they are good at is coming from out to in, laying it off outside the box to fire shots at goal, or pounce on rebounds and poor clearances. This shows that you have to defend high, and be quick out from the edge of the area to swamp the follow up shots and deny shooting opportunities. Chelsea have had the most shots per game this season, but only get a third on target. That reflects the other stats because that's what you'd expect from a team peppering shots from outside the box, more inaccuracy. Our on target rate is 42%, just behind Arsenal, but we get the most shots on target per game, albeit only by 0.2 ;).