Champions League, Matches - Written by BlueChampion on Tuesday, September 30, 2008 21:53 | 973 Views | 22 Comments | Add Comment
CFR Cluj vs Chelsea | 01-Oct-08 @ 19:45 UK
If you think CFR Cluj are some push overs, I’ll help you understand better. Couple of weeks back, they beat Roma at Stadio Olimpico, coming from behind. They scored two goals there. They had 17 shots of which 8 were on target. And all this with just 36% possession. Good enough reasons to take them seriously?
Chelsea will have no worries despite missing Deco. After this match, we have a home fixture against Aston Villa and the next match would be only on 18th October by which time Deco should be back. The team we might play tomorrow could be a very formidable one even in Deco’s absence. Here is my take:
Cech
Bosingwa Terry Alex Ashley Cole
Mikel
Kalou Ballack Lampard Malouda
Drogba
The team picks itself again. I don’t think if anyone come up with a better starting line up for this match. May be we can play a 4-3-3 instead of 4-1-4-1. We don’t actually need authentic 4-3-3 nowadays because oue wing backs are busy bombing crosses and that means the we can have the midfielders crowd inside or just outside the box, or support the wing backs in the attacks.
Felipao talks about our opponents and why we should respect them.
Every game is very difficult and tomorrow this team are more confident than before because they beat Roma in Rome. There are not big surprises, because all teams know all teams, all players. If you ask Petr Cech about the players from Cluj he knows the players, there is no surprise in the world, no small teams. They they arrive in this competition because they have good players, something different from the other teams in Romania, and they are champions. They need respect. We win many games in England now because we respect our opponents and tomorrow is the same, we respect Cluj and we had today a DVD about Cluj, many set plays to show to the players. If they win tomorrow it is because they are better than us on the pitch, but not a surprise.
Sounds quite similar to what I had written in the last blog about Chelsea never underestimating their opponents, isn’t it?
I want two things to happen in this match. Drogba should score and Malouda should score or assist. Drogba needs to get on the score sheet as soon as possible. In his department, he hardly has any competition for his place. Anelka is never going to replace Drogba, Kalou is always an understudy and there is no Shevchenko and the rest don’t even worth a mention as of now. So practically, Drogba’s place is unchallenged. So that also means he can play as awfully as he can and still find his name on the starting eleven for the next match.
That’s sad. I’m not saying he’s been so awful since his return, but he has been very rusty. But he has now played enough matches to get out of his rustiness. If he still shows his rustiness on Wednesday night, the adjectives would change. He needs show that the 30-goal season was not an one-off. Last season he was bogged down by injuries, among many other things. Now this season, he can’t have any excuses. I don’t mind if he doesn’t score but he should at least make a very good contribution to the team. But as JM once said, strikers live by scoring goals. That’s the only thing that makes and keeps them happy. No matter how many assists they provide, they need to score goals themselves. I hope he resumes doing that from this match.
Malouda’s form has been constantly on the rise. He needs to score some very convincing strikes to take him to that next level of confidence. With increasing confidence, he’s become more pacy, more skillful and heck, even more creative. Unlike Drogba, Joe Cole has a serious competition for his place and that should continue that way. Malouda and Kalou should play so well that Joe Cole should be waiting for his opportunity and when he does get it, he would know he can squander it.
Tonight Zenit gave a scare to Madrid and Bate almost shocked Juve. Zenit were particularly impressive. They don’t play like first-timers and they treated Real Madrid just like any other opponent. In fact, at times, they humbled and ridiculed them.They had 60% possession and 18 shots, against Real Madrid!!
Upsets are no longer as rare as they used to be. May be we would stop calling these results as ‘upsets’. All this in mind, a decent win would do. We need to progress, so we need to win. Then, we have these sub plots of Drogba’s goal scoring, Malouda’s continuin form, Bosingwa’s surge to ‘player of the season’, Alex’s fine performance, Lampard’s unbelievable consistency etc. But the main plot is, three points.
22 Comments
1. trueplatinum
2. patty trublue
i totally agree with the line up there BC. I think kalou on the right is a good move. I was just watching a classic premier league game that featured a younger nicolas anelka playing for man city against bolton and he played awesomely and i thought to myself, “Why can’t he do that for us?” He’s good on his day but this season he played mediocre. What do you guys think?
3. ravi
More than tomorrow match, I am worried about the weekend clash with Villa. They are just a point behind us and have been our nemesis for the past two seasons. Even though we top the EPL, we have drawn two home games, which concerns me .
It is important that Man U plays the chasing game. In Dec, they go to Japan and may miss a couple or three games and then playing every match knowing you got to win will have its own pressure.
I would like to try out 4-4-2, with Drogba and Anelka and Anelka playing behind Drogba.
4. Lissette Evil Blue
Cant wait for the match. An about the “Upsets” I totally agree with U and Scolari. Thats one of the things that I apreciate the most about our coach. NEVER understimate ur opponents. If U don’t want them to shoke u like BATE shoked Juve. An let me tell u that I love when that happens. Because that means that U should swallow Ur ego and play like u should be playing, like a big club (if u are). May the better team win, may that better team be my blues. Bring those 3 points home. GO BLUES.
5. Den
for me i want to see Anelka playing off Drogba because he would shine. Im going 4-1-3-2 and this is the perferct game to try it out.
—————Cech——————
–Bosingwa–Terry–Carvalho–A.cole
————-Mikel——————-
—Lampard–Ballack–Malouda—–
——-Anelka—-Drogba————
Subs: Cudicini, Ivanovic, Belletti, Bridge, Kalou, di Santo, Sinclair
6. Adonis
To tell you the truth, I don’t mind Anelka the sub. I don’t mind him when he’s attacking fullbacks and passing when he needs to and taking shots when he needs to. I don’t mind him when he’s playing in the center of the field, NOT on the left.
Now would you please accomplish these things with any sort of consistency??
I mean, his decision making is what’s most horrendous this year, even worse than his finishing… He’s been frustrating.
But as a sub, if he’s energetic, he’s not useless. I still haven’t given up hope. I still think we shouldn’t offload him in January.
We’ll see. Maybe a trade for our Drogba replacement.
7. Adonis
(i.e. trade him for a player to replace Drogba…)
8. owonatty
My lineup will the same as you BC, Kalou has to start in order to create many chances for drogba and himself.
9. vovka
I would not expect Drogba to play at his best after several months of recovery. It is fair to expect this at the end of October, no sooner.
10. denver
@ BC (good article) as someone said one this its really worrying ….about our performance at home, we have only won 1 out of 3 that’s (3 points out of a possible nine). I think we are poor at home right now… but still strong.
I like anelka… I personally dont think he is the worst striker in the world and i believe he will play a good part this season, but i do think it makes good business sense to get a replacement for drogba and i think it should be ADRIANO of Inter ( skill, power, accurate, young …etc). also i think we need a smaller quicker striker (honestly hoping it would or should be KALOU) but it seems scolari will still use him out wide. soemone like villa who has GREAT off the ball movement would be good.
I would like to go to the Zenit match, when Advocat saw that his big front man was useless, so he brought on two smaller quicker strikers…. which pushed Madrid back.
I believe that if we start using KALOU in that role we would be more effective (kalou’s strike accuracy is not helping his cause however) thus my suggestion to get a Villa type(as the tricky out and out striker or second striker who players off say a drogba)……. any comments…..let me know what you guys think…!!
11. Pensioner
Good Luck Chelsea. Go out there and get us three points.
Cheers
12. BuildChelsea
@10. denver ……….you’re right , we need a quicker striker : young , energetic with a high work rate…. we should have signed any 1 of the following players from the EPL itself……Gabby Agbonlahor , Daniel Sturridge ,Victor Anichebe …..sure they don’t have much experience but would definitely be something for the future…..Benzema and Sergio Agüero are good options but we have to get into a huge bidding war with other clubs to sign them……and that is certainly not going to happen….
13. Arun CFC
chelsea team news
Cech, Bosingwa, Terry, Alex, Bridge, Lampard, Mikel, Ballack, Malouda, Kalou, Drogba.
Subs: Hilario, Ivanovic, Di Santo, Ferreira, Belletti, Anelka, Stoch.
14. Arun CFC
Ashley Cole is missing
15. denver
@12. BuildChelsea thanks for your views man ….. you always have some good points!!!
enjoy the match!!!
16. Lissette Evil Blue
As I spected, a draw. Now I understand why uncle Phil isn’t happy with 4-0. It wat a mess. And he was right. We didn’t win because we didn’t play well.
17. gordon
some reports said that drogba will be out for 3 months.
18. Adonis
Aguero scores again. He’s such a gem.
I haven’t seen the match, so nothing to comment on. It’s horrible to hear of Drogba’s injury. Perhaps we’ll be needing reinforcement up front during the January window.
I’m curious to hear how Di Santo played in his 20 or so minutes.
19. explorish
di santo had a great chance 10 seconds after he stepped on the pitch. he missed. moved well otherwise.
very bad luck for drogba. crowd applauded in respect.
am curious what you think of CFR. no wonder, being from romania.
cheers, good luck with roma. please beat them, ok? thanks 
20. Ravi
It is good result for us . In CL, with 12 points also , we can top the group. But the bad thing to take is two more injuries - Ashley and Drogba.
With Villa, up and Liverpool to follow soon, we have problem up front considering that Anelka converts only 15 - 20 % of his chances.
21. Ravi
Looks like Terry and Alex also have taken knocks.
22. bluez!!
claudio pizarro zcore again !! againzt joze mourinho
i like the line up but we would be better off bringing in kalou on around 60 minutes, id like us to try belletti on the right wing and then bring in kalou, when cluj is worn down abit, his pace and dribbling would serve him better
| Quote This Comment | Add Comment | Go To Top | Back To Home | Gravatar | BC Shout | BBC Radio | Refresh |