Xabi Alonso and other thoughts...

[dww]

I actually think that it is the partnership between Makelele and Lampard that is key to Chelsea. You need them both. Lampard always gives an option to Makelele, which means that they can start attacks quickly.

Currently, particularly away from home Gerrard is coming into the centre or left, noone is moving into the space he leaves and so we have narrowed down the options and restricted it to half the pitch.

I think the solution has to be either a more rigid 4 with Gerrard in the middle and the two wide players forced to be restrained to their wings and told to think about keeping the ball unless they are in the final third when they should consider the option of taking on their man Or option 2 - play someone on the left who is intelligent and willing to swap flanks when Stevie moves out of position. Garcia has done this really well at times this season (mostly at home).

It's easy to forget but we have actually been pretty effective this season at home. It's not quite as bleak as it can look, but we do need to make some changes, particularly now we have lost Momo.

[Tee]

I think it would be very interesting to see the stats on Alonso in terms of how much ground he covers in comparison with other CMs.

I find it very frustrating that when our wide players have the ball there are never any CMs (gerrard apart of course) bursting into the box, and this for me is Alonsos weakness - he has Sissoko covering and should get around or into the box much more often.

[dww]

I don't really think that Alonso should be doing that. Ideally he should be deep lying so he can see the game better. The attacking 4 players should provide more than enough targets in the box. It would also help if our fullbacks overlaped their midfielder on occasion.

[Ron_Mexico]

alonso excels at passing, the movement is so abysmal and non existant there is no one to pass to. better movement and options and you will see the best of xabi

[einar]

alonso excels at passing, the movement is so abysmal and non existant there is no one to pass to. better movement and options and you will see the best of xabi

I agree, Xabi is the kind of player who needs the team to be moving around him for him to look good.

Also his job is not to run forward, he is our most defencive midfielder. It is momos job to come forward and make runs. ( sometimes they trade places though)

[Redspin]

Sorry but I completely disagree - because Arsenal is the role model for our club not Chelsea or Manure. The football they play - pass and move is (was) our trademark, the youth system and the way the club has moved ahead of us.

Didn't see much pass and move when they were banging their head against a brick wall in their clueless games against Villa, Everton, Boro etc. Plenty of aimless balls hoping to get a knockdown in the box though.

Youth system?? Unless I had an hallucination we are the current FA Youth Cup holders

Plenty of knee-jerk repsonses like this on here very time we have a setback

[Redspin]

Makele is a rock, Xabi isn't, Makele will drive a team forward by the others knowing he is a rock to be depended on, like Didi perhaps.

Cemantics aside, I agree with what you are saying, and at the moment, by persisting in playing Xabi, we are lost and rudderless, but have no other options to remedy that, Rafa really needs to assess and address the way forward in the middle of m/f, he has limited options despite his liking for options, sadly.

I doubt any of us here has the answer, without gazzilions of dosh I suppose

Makele and Alonso play entirely different roles, so comparisons are meaningless. The chav plays in the Sissoko role for them and he couldn't pass the ball in a straight line more than 10 yards if his life depended on it. He's there to break up play and give it to the nearest player who can pass. Alonso is the one who receives such balls for us and tries to set up attacking play

[Depth_Charge]

The fact they don't have one british player in their starting XI most of the time is worrying imo.

Well - if you want to play attractive football there's no point in employing cloggers to implement your plan.

The level of technical ability displayed by the majority of English/British players is very poor - generally the first touch is dire and the second touch is a header. Europeans and South Americans are so much better technically, even at lower league clubs they know how to use a football - the British physical approach may win out in many cases, but it's rarely pretty to watch, so why fill a team full of Brits - I mean look at England FFS - absolute ****e.