Chelsea this Thursday

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if we play the God awful 4411 or vdV/Modric on the flanks we WILL lose on Thursday night.

We must play with 2 strikers against Chelsea. If you don't you're allowing both their full backs to push on which in turn with our lack of width will result in plenty of 2-on-1's against our full backs. Sturridge in particular will have a field day.

Chelsea definitely hate pace and in wide areas in particular so losing Bale and Lennon are probably our two worse positions for this game. I'd be more confident without Modric and vdV. So, the trick to this game will be getting pace and width on the flanks which I'm not sure how we'll do but personally I'd bring Danny Rose into the team to play on the left. This should help push Sturridge and Bosingwa back and if not it'll give us plenty of pace to punish any gaps left by them when attacking.

The right is a little trickier but there's potential to push Walker up but it's not something I'd do. I think it'd be best to give vdV this job but inform him he's got to be disciplined even if it's only for one game. He's shown he can do it before and he'll give Cole enough to think about as well as being able to track him. Also if there's anyone who can pick out a pass to set Walker free it'll be vdV.

For me we play 442 with:

[formation=4-4-2 GK=Brad D=Benny Gallas King Walker DM= M=Rose Modric Parker vdV AM= S=Adebayor Pav][/formation]

The only other option is to try and play possession football so our lack of width isn't quite so important and play 4132 which would more than likely give us the edge in the central midfield area which will be key especially if Meireles plays who isn't the best defensively and will probably struggle to track the clever movement the likes of Modric and vdV should produce.

Either way, this is more than a "go out there and kick the ball about" kinda match. Redknapp's gotta get his thinking head on if Bale doesn't make it. Sunday once again showed tactics and formation are equally important as personnel. Pav may be annoyingly shit most of the time but with the 2 strikers we looked a much better team. Had Lennon remained on the pitch and we continued with the frustrating 4411 I don't think we would've got the win yesterday.
 
and I disagree about Lennon staying on the pitch and not getting the win. Pav was useless other than the goal, the amount of times his awful touch allowed the ball to run away from him resulting in losing posesion was pretty poor.
 
Breaking News - Chelsea captain John Terry has picked up an ankle injury in training and could be a doubt for Thursday's Premier League game against Spurs. Terry, who suffered a knee problem in Saturday's draw against against Wigan, was helped off the pitch and is undergoing treatment.

Maybe there is some justice in the world, that or he doesn't fancy the prospect of facing:

:ade: & :defoe2:

#casualracistcunt
 
I can't stand the guy but as I said before the game yesterday we MUST have 2 strikers even if one of them doesn't do an awful lot. It creates so much more space for our other players. We failed against Stoke because of it and the same yesterday. We're constantly shoehorning an exceptional footballer into our team which ultimately lessons it's ability.

As for his performance, you're completely right but it's bigger than that. This is what people don't see with the JD v vdV argument. Of course vdV is the better player, his pass to Pav yesterday was sublime but it's his positioning that results in Adebayor becoming isolated and also allows a flat back four to be fairly comfortable. If we do the same on Thursday, Bosingwa and Cole will push on because they can which will give us loads of trouble.

Over the last few years we've got results against them by playing with width, we've got results against everyone by playing with width. When we don't have width we look fairly poor and are easy to defend against.

Even if Pav just stands there being his normal useless self someone must mark him which at least means 3 of the 4 defenders have to stay back and both centre halfs are occupied. It's not always about the specific players on the pitch, but where they are. If vdV stayed up front more (which I wish he would because he's one of our better finishers if not our best) then we wouldn't have the problem we do when we play 4411.
 
I know what you are saying about the positioning but I think Ade does enough to worry the defenders, the way he pulls off to the left (most of the time) pulls defenders out of position anyway creating plenty of space for Modric to burst forward and put easy chances over the bar.

I think possession will be important and Pav will come off the bench to score at some point.
 
Dru said:
I know what you are saying about the positioning but I think Ade does enough to worry the defenders, the way he pulls off to the left (most of the time) pulls defenders out of position anyway creating plenty of space for Modric to burst forward and put easy chances over the bar.

I think possession will be important and Pav will come off the bench to score at some point.
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dammit, just wrote a long reply and my PC crashed. The general jist was:

You're right about what Adebayor does and he does it well but being only 1 man defenders are comfortable using only 2 of their 4 to mark him at most. This leaves 2 more defenders plus lets say a DM to cover all the other players leaving little space for them to get into.

Our last 2 games should show how bad 4411 is and how as a team, no matter who is partnered with Adebayor, how much better we are with 2 strikers. Stoke contained us very comfortably in the 1st half last week as did Sunderland yesterday (I don't remember a chance or shot on target) but in both games we reverted to 2 strikers and things returned to "almost" our brilliant best (not really but we were better).

Maybe we would've still won yesterday had Lennon not got injured but the fact is as a team we looked much better with 2 strikers even if one of them was Pav. If we only play with 1 again I see no reason to believe the performance will be any different to our last 2 games but this time we'll be up against a team with more quality than most.
 
Not necessarily endorsing this. It might be pretty questionable. But just something to throw out there.

[formation=4-4-1-1 GK=Friedel D=BAE Gallas King Charlie DM= M=Bale/Rose Modric Parker Walker AM=vdV S=Adebayor][/formation]
 
YidoBuckler said:
I don't think Corluka would cope well with Mata/Sturridge.

Those two are our main threat so we will need the pace in the full back area. Stick with BAE and Walker.
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Yeah, I agree Charlie could be a liability back there. I guess I'm just bent on seeing Walker play the wing :harrylick:
 
Sturridge plays on the right though doesnt he?

mata will drift all over the place.

The big call will be what to do if Bale is out - stick Modders there and keep Sandro/Parker in the middle or keep Modders where he is best and risk Rose LW and Rafa right?

Either way, Rafa and Modric really dont like playing on the wings
 
I hope he does play, gives us a chance to give him some real abuse about him, his mother, his father and his cunting life in general. He's the cunt that keeps on giving,
 
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