Rafa Watch

[danperkins]

It's nothing got to do with the fans lads, Abramovich couldn't give a **** what the fans or the public think .. he just wants to win at all costs. Lampard is having a fantastic season and is a vital component in Chelsea winning games.

Jaysis, if Abramovich was so concerned about what Chelsea fans think why would he sack a fan favourite after winning the treble & then appoint a man whom the fans clearly despise.

[Norbs]

Pretty sure Roman told AVB that he wanted the old guard gone. Speculation is that Roman is pretty annoyed at how well AVB is now doing at Spurs. Apparently, he was very reluctant to sack AVB but told the old guard that he had no choice because of their antics, but now thinks he made the wrong choice and the likes of Lampard, Terry were at fault.

Hearsay overdrive

[PTP]

be funny if after all this - lampard turns round and says **** you, and ****s off to PSG for £200k a week

[Baracus]

...

[Shaggy]

Ian Wright @IanWright0
All rubbish about Chelsea offering Frank a new deal! #dontbelieveallyouread.

[Sarb]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/foo...il-Ashton.html

[Vermilion]

Wow, just said that Chelski have something like 20 players out on loan.

[Chazza]

REVEALED: Wigan's defence is awful, Caldwell is very slow and Scharner ball watches... how Benitez's dossier worked a treat
By NEIL ASHTON


Judging by Chelsea’s official scouting report on Wigan, everything went to plan for Rafa Benitez at Stamford Bridge on Saturday.
In a detailed document handed to Sportsmail, Chelsea’s interim coach assesses the strengths and weaknesses of Roberto Martinez’s team ahead of their Barclays Premier League clash.
With remarkable accuracy, the report identifies Wigan’s vulnerabilities and urges Chelsea’s players to take full advantage of their anxiety.


All went to plan: Chelsea beat Wigan on Saturday with the help of a comprehensive dossier (left)

Among the key messages in the document, given to each member of the first- team squad and coaching staff, Chelsea players were repeatedly told that the marking in Wigan’s defence is ‘awful’.
These defensive frailties were then brutally exposed, with Ramires, Eden Hazard, Frank Lampard and substitute Marko Marin netting in the 4-1 win at Stamford Bridge — their first victory since January 20.
Each opposition player was also assessed and some of the comments made grim reading for Martinez’s squad as they struggle at the foot of the table.
Skipper Gary Caldwell is ‘a ball watcher’, ‘rash in the tackle’ and Chelsea’s players were encouraged to ‘run at him!’ because he is ‘slow to turn’.
Central defensive partner Paul Scharner is also highlighted, for being a ‘ball watcher’ and ‘uncertain’ after returning to Wigan on loan from Hamburg last month.
Wigan had conceded 47 goals in 25 Barclays Premier League games before the trip to Stamford Bridge and fell behind after just 23 minutes.



According to the dossier, Wigan ‘have lapses in concentration in defence’, they are ‘unbalanced’, ‘lack quality defenders’, ‘lack pace’ and despite five defenders, the opposition can ‘kill them’.
The analysis proved spot on when David Luiz and Fernando Torres combined midway through the first half to put Ramires through on goal.
Scharner and Caldwell were too slow to react and the Brazilian midfielder picked up Torres’s angled ball to score his fourth Premier League goal of the season.
The analysis of Wigan’s tactics was put together by Benitez’s first-team opposition analyst Xavi Valero ahead of a team meeting on Friday.
Valero, 39, who worked with Benitez when he was manager of Liverpool, is one of the leading figures in the game in performance analysis.
The former Mallorca keeper has a masters in sports psychology and gained his goalkeeping badges from the Spanish Football Federation. Benitez went through Valero’s document line by line with the players on Friday afternoon and used video analysis to help illustrate key tactical points.
With the exception of Arouna Kone, who has only just returned from the Africa Cup of Nations with the Ivory Coast, Valero predicted 10 of Wigan’s starters in a 3-5-2 formation.



Despite Wigan’s desperate league position, Chelsea’s players were told that they are ‘spurred on by Martinez’s motivation’ and look to play ‘fast’. Benitez, who spent an hour with Chelsea’s players talking through the summary ahead of the game, expected Wigan to ‘push men forward’.
The report added: ‘Team (Wigan) won’t turn up and look to give us the initiative and play 10 men behind the ball; they’ll turn up believing they can get a good result.’
Valero noted that Wigan like to play their way out of trouble and keeper Ali Al-Habsi will only resort to a long ball if there are no alternatives.
True to his word, Al-Habsi regularly passed to full backs Ronnie Stam (‘likes to get in crosses’) and Manny Figueroa (‘weak on right foot, rash tackles’).
When Al-Habsi went long for the first time, Franco Di Santo won his first aerial challenge with a neat cushioned touch despite Valero’s confidence that he will ‘almost every time lose the header’.

Chelsea scored again when Cesar Azpilicueta bounded down the right wing beyond Figueroa (‘exposes his defence’) and Hazard provided the finishing touch.
Di Santo, who is ‘capable of genius’, was forced out wide to look for the ball when he was isolated, but even then he couldn’t get a touch.
The former Chelsea striker ‘lacks goal-scoring ability’ and his record of just 13 goals in 79 appearances for Wigan is far from impressive.
Instead, Wigan’s attacking threat is from the central midfield pairing of James McArthur and James McCarthy, a combination Benitez warned his players about ahead of the game.

The report claimed that McCarthy ‘lacks ability in the final third’ but McArthur has ‘good build-up play and gets forward more’. It was McArthur that provided the ammunition for Wigan's goal, scored by Shaun Maloney.
The Scot, playing just off Di Santo, was identified as Wigan’s main attacking threat.
The pre-match report said: (Maloney) ‘terrorised us in 4-4 match on Boxing Day’ (when Maloney scored twice for previous club Aston Villa back in 2007).
Despite warnings that he ‘epitomises what Wigan is about — energy and fight’, Chelsea still allowed him to strike in the second-half.

Wigan tired towards the end just as Valero predicted. Lampard scored his 198th goal for Chelsea when ‘one darting run kills them’ with a tidy finish from the edge of the area.
Roger Espinoza, who is not ‘100 per cent ready for pace of the Premier League’, was replaced by Kone to provide Wigan’s ‘main attacking threat’.
By then it was too late and Marin finished the job with a header.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2276641/Chelsea-scouting-report-Wigan-match-revealed.html#axzz2KZqfcxpR

[Vermilion]

Yossi playing for Rafa again.

[Pablo]

"David Jones however is 1000% match fit"

Impressive, very impressive

[baitman]

Quote:
"David Jones however is 1000% match fit"

Impressive, very impressive

its the creatine effect, dont you know

[Liverpel]

Florent Malouda has spent the season training with the under-21 team at Chelsea
11 FEBRUARY 2013

Florent Malouda has described his exile at Chelsea as "petty".


The 32-year-old France international, who moved to Stamford Bridge in the summer of 2007 and is in the final year of his contract, was excluded from the Blues' 25-man first-team squad and has spent the season training with the under-21 team.

"The details I'll explain when I'm free, but the strategy they use is to make me look like a player seeking substantial compensation," Malouda told France-Guyane. "It's petty but more than anything else it makes me smile because it shows how these people regard me."

He added: "If you are excluded for one year, it is very, very long. You must be armed mentally.

"All this is done to break me mentally, but in reality it motivates me enormously."

Malouda, who has been linked with a move to Anzhi Makhachkala, with the Russian transfer window open until the end of this month, declined to reveal more due to "confidentiality", but may do so on his anticipated release this summer.

http://www.independent.ie/sport/soccer/malouda-chelsea-situation-is-petty-29064140.html

[Lee]

Apparently Rafa isn't even allowed to speak with Malouda.

Roman copped the dog because he wouldn't move in the summer and now he's a complete outcast.

Interesting to see Yossi play at the weekend.

[Gibbo]

Fans going mad because he's sent Benayoun on instead of Oscar.

[danperkins]

Fans going mad because he's sent Benayoun on instead of Oscar.

Turns out they were right though