A quick blog before the pre-match thingy for the Sunday cracker. Chelsea legend Ray Wilkins is the new first team coach after our beloved Clarke preferred to move on. I liked Clarke very much. He was highly respected by Jose Mourinho, which meant that Clarke had to be very good. Also, lots of players liked him and loved working with him. More than anything, I believe he was the key man in holding the team together and had to play the role of a first team manager, when Avram Grant was busy scratching his head. Ok, I’ll leave AG alone. He’s a poor old guy and he’s gone. All good things have to come to an end. Any doubts if I’m referring to Steve Clarke here?
Ray had a long illustrious playing career spanning 24 years and a managerial career of about 14 years so far. He is certainly a very equipped guy for this role. One thing where he could be better than Clarke is his communication and personality. He talks rather well. He knows to choose his words. One of his responsibilites is also to deal with media. In press conferences, Scolari says what he wants to but does not really come out on top. May be, with an interpreter, Scolari could be a great speaker. In English though, he needs some support, to talk to the media and to the players.
Not just that, Ray could be taking care of the details under the framework devised by Scolari. He could be the one fine-tuning the way we defend the corners, arrange the walls, take those quick free kicks and also studying the opponents for their strengths and weaknesses.
I was on the pitch a lot more as a coach when I was with Luca. I think I will probably be helping Felipe more with background work, preparing team talks, preparing videos, or should I say DVDs these days. So I will be preparing those on set-pieces, how the opposition play, that type of thing.
I’ll deal with a little bit of media as well because it is amazing how tired you can get when you are learning a new language. I can remember that many years ago when I was in Italy, I was trying to speak the language at the club and would go home mentally exhausted. And when you are manager of a big club like Chelsea, it is hard enough getting the team in the right shape, let alone dealing with everything outside of it. So whatever he wants me to do, I will be happy to do it.
When JM was around, one of his biggest pluses was supposed to be his ability to study and assess the opponents’ strengths and weaknesses. That made the job easy many a times. We might find our players doing the right thing every time but there was a lot of back ground work behind it. Ray, with his wide experience as a player and in management, could fill that gap created by the absence of JM and Clarke. In the absence of Clarke, Scolari’s back room staff lack the experience in English league and English football in general. Ray Wilkins would be just what the doctor ordered. Will wait and see. You can read his interview in the club website.
Chelsea’s performance has been best of the first round of champions league football. That has caused a roar in the press, creating some euphoria about Chelsea being the best in Europe and the firm favourites for the champions league. I know how champions league is won and lost. I would care less at this stage. It was so pleasing to see Man Utd and Arsenal draw their respective fixtures while even the others did not have it easy. Admit it with some modesty, we are the best in Europe and we are the firm favourites. Isn’t that what the press is also saying now?
Frank Lampard wants Ronaldo to play so that we can beat them when they’re strong.
We’re good enough to deal with United at their strongest – we shouldn’t want them weak. If they are strong, we still want to beat them.
That’s the spirit. I like that.
It’s been a while since we had a poll. Here you go. On the Chelsea vs Man Utd match. What do you say?
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Agree with u BC . And Lamps ur a blue champion baby, cos if u want to be stronger u have too beat stronger oponents, and that eventually will make u stronger. See what hapened with Villa So Real aparently their where weak opponent
Scolari specifically asked for Ray Wilkins to fill the void left by Clarke …..i have to admit , i knew very little about Wilkins background , all i knew is, he was an ex-chelsea captain and most of all his analysis of football on sky sports…I had to dig deep and seeing his credentials nobody can question his appointment . This guy certainly has a lot of experience (assistant coach under Gianluca Vialli and stints with Fulham and Millwall) . He will certainly be a link between the players and Scolari , plus his ability to be press savvy and his player management skills will certainly be of help.
And as far as the game is concerned , it would be hard fought with most of the battle taking place in the midfield.I would go for a 1-0 victory.But if Man U defence reads like this :Neville-Ferdinand-Evans-Evra , i would certainly go for a 2-0 victory or more…
No nonsense. Play to your strength. Cleansheet victory. Job done.
I think the key will be our superb wing backs’ performance. The reason why I cited this is that our midfield is very solid at the moment and the only way in would be through long/direct ball to the crossing zone and if we can cut them out, then it will be a confident 2-0 victory. Blue is ALWAYS the colour!!!!
Don’t you think it’s a little premature for the “Best in Europe” tag??? Where are the Euro-CL trophies to prove them? We’re not the best until we win in my opinion. That aside i’m looking forward to this match. Prediction is 1-0 in favor of Chelsea, simply because MAN POO has lady luck on their side recently. They should have been beat by Villarreal but came out with a draw.
Good luck boys
chelsea 2-0 manure.come on Boys we want clean sheet.
Hey BC,
i think the appointment of Ray Wilkins is pretty good considering that he already has experienced the chelsea atmosphere, fans demands, etc (although it must be said that that has changed quite alot since his playing days to the abromovich era). I think Steve Clarke will def. be missed and i hope that hes happy at West Ham serving our beloved Zola !
If you guys remember that horrible night in moscow, fergie very slyly placed ronaldo on the left wing so he can face essien and Not ashley cole (who on ANY day, owns him) so he cud penetrate more easily. Now that we’ve got cole on one side, and bosingwa on the other, ronaldo will def. be kept at bay altho it’ll be interesting to see how ronaldo and berba function together. All in all, i think we’ll beat them comfortably, 2-0 or more i say, lets beat their 80+ game streak of not losing a game by more than one goal at our very own stamford bridge ! Go Blues !!
Lampard–Mikel—Ballack
J.Cole—Drogba—Anelka
Chelsea 2-1 Man Und
Drogba,Lampard : Tevez
3-1 to the blues!
No clean sheet..
3-1 to the blues!
No clean sheet..
looks like a scored defeat to me… but i wish to be wrong. the wishful thinking is that i want our home record which has forced many draws on us to go off early in the season before scholari comes under its pressure.
up the chels
i was of the impression it would be a hard ground out 1-0 win for us
but upon finding out which players are available, i’d say it could go 2-1
all of man utd’s strikers are off form
if he plays berbatov, fergie will be doing us a favour, fergie should probably start ronaldo, this is an important match, an away game against the main threat. It is important for morale and that these games ultimately determine who finshes top of the table.
fergie is going to be looking to hit us on the counter, i would expect him to play his regular 4-4-2 as his midfield isn’t stable enough to play a 4-3-3 or 4-5-1. he’s going to need as much speed as he can get so i would expect fergie to play rooney and tevez up front, ronaldo on the left side of midfield, hargreaves and scholes in central midfield, nani on the right, evra, ferdinand, brown and neville at the back.
not a strong line up in my opinion. our full backs are going to have nani and ronaldo under tabs, so evra is going to have to make ridiculous amounts of effort to keep foward which should allow joe cole more space on the right.
id start with kalou on the left as he likes to work his way inwards and with plenty of pace, neville won’t be comfortable. with deco and lampard going foward and mikel holding the counters down, we should have a very controlled game
EVANS is a young defender .with drogba we can count on his mistakes.
i wish drogba and ballack start the game.
guys i have just heard that kalou might be on his way out in January, does anyone know more about this…??? we cant afford to loose this young play!! I believe he is much better than J. Cole in his consistence and tricks!! Scolari should not allow this to happen to chelsea…. he is the closest thing we have to Robhino!
i already said that, no-one ever listens to me
although i don’t rate him quite that highly
Guys I think it will not be a clean sheet win. We just cannot under estimate Manure although they will be under heavy pressure from both the media and fans. The positive thing for us is Vidic’s absence. We should note that all our attacks come from our wing backs/full backs and if this is nullified/countered properly we will be under pressure, remember the Wigan match, also this is crybaby SAF we are dealing. We can expect Manure to use defensive and counter attack tactics with Ronaldo, Rooney and Tevez pressing into our half and we should note that their quick counter attack is the main threat. With Rooney, Tevez and the scumbag gelboy (ronaldo) we should accept that they are the best in counter-attack. What worries me is our dependence on Ashley Cole and Bosingwa, I feel Scolari is over using them. We should note that our team was unchanged for the PL and CL games and our important players have not been rested. This woud be good atm but in the long run it would hit us very badly if any of our full backs are injured and I feel Ivanovic deserves some chances and he was good during the friendlies. Ofcourse LFS would know better but this is my opinion. Frankly, our team is stronger than theirs. I believe our full back wont be as attacking minded as they have been in the previous matches because of the counter attack threat. I think Anelka will start this match and Drogba would be subbed in the second half, as he’s not fully fit. Our full backs and wingers are enough to scare them and make them sit deep and defend, also we have the home advantage. I pedict a 3-1 for Chelsea.
No worries, guys.
US Treasury to repair Essien’s damaged knee, expected to play Sunday, Paulson says.
I dare to dream with Chelsea current form and ManUtd current form…. Chelsea win 4-0. I bet United are trying to create and play something different in their tactics which is a TOTAL failure this coming Sunday.
SAF starts war of the words again. he down chelsea level against arsenal and want to beat us very easily.
chelsea have to beat them hard,with this victory we gain a complete spirit for whole of the season.
I’m not sure it’ll be a walk in the park. Don’t underestimate the heart of a champion. They’re the defending champions in the two competitions we most want…
I think we’ll repeat the score from last year’s epic match, 2-1. I’d love to see this formation:
——–Cech———
Bosingwa-Carvalho-Terry-Cole
——-Mikel——-
Deco—Ballack—Lampard
—–Joey———–
———-Drogba—-
I don’t want us to rely so heavily on Bosingwa and Ashley, as much as on the midfield trio of Lamps, Ballack, and Deco.
They’re creativity and toughness will be our best bet.
Chelsea 2-1.
Lampard, Deco, Hargreaves to score.
kalou going? i hope not, once he gets the instinct he could become a great foward.
17. spyder made a good point that has been troubling me. when we played man utd last time in the league, cole stayed back as essien was drifting further upfield. we boast two of the fastest fullbacks in the world but we don’t want them running up and down too much. I hope ballack is available, w shouldn’t use deco unless he is playing with lampard and drogba, those three would cause alot of problems
drogba can more than easily beat ferdinand, it is vidic that gave him the most trouble in the past, and if drogba wins us dangerous free kicks, hopefully deco would convert which is a tactic i am sad to say, we may see towards the end of the match which is why i would put money on a 2-1 win, i’d expect the scorers to be joe cole, then deco and man utd would probably mount a late comeback through tevez
Lamps says he WANTS Ronaldo to play so they can beat ManU at their best. I like that kind of attitude – “Bring your best to the Bridge and we will still send you packing”!
My bet is Chels win 2-1 ~ (One spot kick put in by Deco and a pen placed in by Lamps caused by Evans).
since we need a striker, why not go for Amr Zaki ? 4 games 4 goals a legend in afric and he is only 25.
i hope this new guy is as good as clarke..i dont know anything about him but i think from what i have heard..he’s good….2-0…chelsea wins….85 games unbeaten at the BRIDGE and still counting