shurlock

Why is it counterintuitive that we picked Mane and Davis? Again, it's pretty simple as Saint Charlie points out. Mané tended to play off the right wing in many games but was given considerable licence to roam and Davis and Victor and Morgan behind him plugged the gaps Mané left.

IIRC, many on here had him down as MOTM when we beat them 3-0 in December and that was without either Morgan or Vic, though we also went 5-3-2/3-5-2 that day.

Call them what you like; in the real world, people focus on the skills/qualities they bring to the side -and what they say about the balance between defence and attack. You're coming perilously close to a FM jibe

Choice or necessity? Koeman's been a bit sniffy about Reed's distribution. Decent player with room to grow - never let us down when he's been asked to fill in. Loan would be a good idea at a club that's strong on youth development.

Spot on. Think the lopsided shape you describe is as good as it's going to get for the time being, albeit with Mané drifting off the right. If we stuck with Davis and to a lesser extent JWP in that position when Morgan was around, can't see us now upsetting the apple-cart with Romeu who, on paper, is a downgrade. The question then becomes whether our defence is still strong enough to keep us in games given we're unlikely to be scoring bucketloads of goals. It was an issue last season (and our defense was stronger), though that might have been more attributable to the fact that didn't mix and match enough depending on the opposition. The other opsn question is whether Clasie could do a Davis-job further up the pitch, bringing greater creativity, though the Dutch boys on here expressed some doubts (bit different pinging balls about from deep than your opposition's crowded final third). Ideally we would address the position -as you say, it doesn't require a tricky, flair player as such; more a powerful box-to-box CM who can drive at defences and create space for those coming off the flanks.

If true, Stones isn't a very Chelsea signing. He may be relatively polished but he's not physically imposing.

The debate -as always- is pretty simple. If we play two DMs, do we play Davis or is the side solid enough to support a more creative/attacking player at ACM. And does that balance change depending on the opposition - for instance, at home against a side that comes to park the bus? Not rocket-science.

I know Davis started. But we're simply talking about the composition of the four. It's very simple but you try your damn hardest to complicate and obfuscate.

You mean like Baines and Coleman.

It did happen up at Newcastle. Jrod started, did he not? In turn, Jrod was replaced by Long on Saturday. Point stands that there's a fundamentally different balance to the side when Davis is one of the four (assuming two DMs) - and it's even more imbalanced still when we play four attack-minded players (Tadic, Mané, Pelle and Jrod/Long) and the defensively weaker Davis partners Wanyama in CM. Not sure we can blame Yoshida for this one

Yep. The9 is chatting the brown stuff. Big difference between having Davis, Mané, Pelle and Long/Tadic in your side and Tadic, Mané, Pelle and Jrod/Long. We've rarely gone with four forward-minded players like that. Poch dropped it as early as the United/Wigan game when he took over (basically his second or third game) when he preferred the more conservative and versatile Davis over Ramirez and never looked back. Never mind that setup always relied on Wanyama and Morgan at the heart of DM. It's all the more odd that the season we lose our two man defensive screen, we go with four primarily attacking players; when even with it, we only tended to go with three.

Because it's been tried so extensively in the league to make such sweeping conclusions. It's worked well for us - the only problems have been personnel.

Actually, if you're counting games that don't matter, he was caught of position numerous times against RB Salzburg.

He was all over the shop against an out of position Obertan

What does Cody Cropper say?

Interesting that Neville and others have been slating Fabregas (who's hardly a gung-ho CM) for not doing enough defensively, even though Chelsea probably have the best DM in the league.

FFP is a complete red herring - we weren't anywhere near its limits last summer; I suspect we'll be even further away from them this summer. We have one of the lowest player wage bills in the division. And please never mention paying for deals we did last summer without also mentioning the money we're still receiving for the players we sold. It's moronic.

Deffo. A finer grain of sophistry

Depends. If it's an argument about how much the club has spent, then it's perfectly fair to leave them out. They're not our players, full stop. If it's an argument about the short-term strength of the squad, then count them in, though, by the same token, take out Forster and Gardos. My guess is the poster is referring to the first point as some kind of proxy of the club's ambition; and by that I don't think he means Trousers utter strawman horses**t about 'blank chequebooks' and 'buying success', though you'd have to ask him.

You do realise that when he's been played out one side, he's still been given a lot of licence to roam. Many of his good games since the turn of the year have come from a nominally right side position.

So we own Caulker and Steklenberg? That played out fantastically well with Toby, didn't it?

Perhaps we go Koulibaly and VVD? And switch more permanently to 5-3-2/3-5-2? It would have several advantages: it would take some of the pressure off filling the "Morgan-sized hole" in midfield (we deployed the same formation with decent effect last Xmas when he was out); it would free up the likes of Cedric and to a lesser extent VVD to do what they do best and get forward; and it would allow Mané to play in a central position off Pelle. Above all, it stays close to Koeman's basic defensive philosophy which has served us so well to date.

His poor form predated his injury - anyway let's see how he does this season. He's fully fit and has a season of experience under his belt, so should be able to kick on.

Agree. Thought they were pretty average - Steklenberg hardly made a save of note. Apart from when we laid ourselves open to the counter, their buildup play was slow and methodical and never really troubled us. Had we pressed more cohesively, we'd have made it more difficult for them to play out from the back, esp Coleman. When we began to do it in the second half, they more often than not went long and Lukaku cut an isolated figure.

Didn't do 'charmin' marlon (king) much good.