A quick summary of the midfield

There seems to be some confusion about Rauls position at the club so I thought I would clear it up. I will go through every midfielders place in the team and how this will affect their amounts of game time.

First off the bat is Mikel. He will remain first choice DM and a back up CM although I doubt he will ever play CM as he is our best DM. No change here.

Secondly we have Romeu is our back up DM, probably second choice for any team except top teams. Will get game time throughout jan and whenever Mikel is injured.

Thirdly there is Ramires WHO WILL REMAIN FIRST CHOICE CM. His form is too good to drop at the moment, remember that run that won us the penalty on the weekend? He will be third choice DM and second choice DM for top teams. I don't expect him to play DM very often if at all.

Fourth there is Josh who will most likely sit on the bench and be a super sub which he did so well last season. I imagine he will be second choice CM and will be super sub cover for all other positions. Raul does affect the amount of game time he will get but not by much which I will get to in a second. I expect Josh to start a few games when needed and be a sub for most( I think he would have played against Norwich had Drogba not gone down.)

Fifth there is Lampard who will remain starting AM but most likely rotate with Raul. He isn't the same player he once was so he needed the cover, AVB did well to get cover.

Ths brings me to Raul Meireles, who will be Lampards Cover, NOT DM OR CM COVER. He is a poor defender and therefore will need to be played next to a Ramires type player, someone who is more defencive which could be any of our other midfielders. This means he will be an AM with the exception of him playing alongside Lampard when we need a goal. He will sit on the bench when not rotating with Lampard (Most likely with Josh) he will be a last chance CM or DM cover but due to his weakness of defending I believe Josh will play over him in these positions.

The dark horse is Essien who will be back in Jan or Feb, he will either be sold off or will affect the amount of game time Josh will get, I hope we sell him.

A quick word on Yossi, with his deal only a Loan deal means he will be likely to return next year, this will mean Kalou and Anelka are not going to be here next year, otherwise Yossi would have been sold.


I hope this clears things up.

McEachran was nowhere near a super-sub last season. More like a player just added for depth. Also so far he hasn't played a single minute yet.

We will see how Villas-Boas uses Meireles.

kick mars wrote:There seems to be some confusion about Rauls position at the club so I thought I would clear it up. I will go through every midfielders place in the team and how this will affect their amounts of game time.

First off the bat is Mikel. He will remain first choice DM and a back up CM although I doubt he will ever play CM as he is our best DM. No change here.

Secondly we have Romeu is our back up DM, probably second choice for any team except top teams. Will get game time throughout jan and whenever Mikel is injured.

Thirdly there is Ramires WHO WILL REMAIN FIRST CHOICE CM. His form is too good to drop at the moment, remember that run that won us the penalty on the weekend? He will be third choice DM and second choice DM for top teams. I don't expect him to play DM very often if at all.

Fourth there is Josh who will most likely sit on the bench and be a super sub which he did so well last season. I imagine he will be second choice CM and will be super sub cover for all other positions. Raul does affect the amount of game time he will get but not by much which I will get to in a second. I expect Josh to start a few games when needed and be a sub for most( I think he would have played against Norwich had Drogba not gone down.)

Fifth there is Lampard who will remain starting AM but most likely rotate with Raul. He isn't the same player he once was so he needed the cover, AVB did well to get cover.

Ths brings me to Raul Meireles, who will be Lampards Cover, NOT DM OR CM COVER. He is a poor defender and therefore will need to be played next to a Ramires type player, someone who is more defencive which could be any of our other midfielders. This means he will be an AM with the exception of him playing alongside Lampard when we need a goal. He will sit on the bench when not rotating with Lampard (Most likely with Josh) he will be a last chance CM or DM cover but due to his weakness of defending I believe Josh will play over him in these positions.

The dark horse is Essien who will be back in Jan or Feb, he will either be sold off or will affect the amount of game time Josh will get, I hope we sell him.

A quick word on Yossi, with his deal only a Loan deal means he will be likely to return next year, this will mean Kalou and Anelka are not going to be here next year, otherwise Yossi would have been sold.


I hope this clears things up.

Why sell essien his the best mid we have, and romeu or JM need to be loaned out they have know chance with Raul here

Essien is a shadow of his former self, he is still a great player but Ramires is better so no major loss. We would all love Essien pre 09 back but it isn't happening so we should do what liverpool did with Meireles and sell to a club who needs him while he is worth something. The only downside to him is his injury problems but I'm sure there will be a club that wants him.

As for Josh and Romeu, if we so that our only sub for midfield is Meireles, it would be idiotic to loan them out. We could end up with a midfield of
If we hit an injury crisis, but with Josh and Romeu that isn't so bad.

Lol I wish Josh was supersub that way he'd actually get more then 5-10mins of game time when he comes on.

You guys make Mikel and Ramires as untouchables, i don't see it that way. I personally believe one of them should be dropped. Lampard has become the fall guy for our woeful midfield. But tbh its not his fault that Ramires and Mikel are less creative then a cone. Ramires has his strengths but he is a limited player, his passing is very poor. Raul is a better passer, and i hope to see a midfield of Lampard-Raul-Mikel in our next game.

What about Luiz as a DM? He's got the pace and dribbling abilities of a midfielder and can defend, I've a feeling he would do better than Mikel at DM, Mikel is not a natural DM and it shows every time he plays in that role, he's a much better CM. Again. Chelsea is well covered at the back Ivanovic, Alex and Terry are all starting materials.


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Looks better in my opinion.

I highly doubt that Raul will take up Lampards position.. its Ramires's position which he is good at.

About Luiz as DM.. we already lack pace at the back. The Norwich defenders were beating Iva n Terry with pace most of the time.. so we need Luiz at back.

Essien needs to be sold cos he is injury prone.. its not fair for him or the club.

Raul cannot defend well so putting him in Ramires role will add more pressure to Mikel who, On his day is untouchable. Right now Ramires is our best midfielder, can't you guys see that? His passing is poor but his running, defending and attacking are excellent. Put him next to a passer in Raul and we've got a good combo. Mikel remains the destroyer because when on form he is very good at it.

No to Luiz in DM because he is needed in CB.

True about the defending part, but I honestly dont think that Raul can do the Lampard role.. lets see.. And yeah agree with the Ramires comment, thats why I said earlier somewhere that Raul will be a bench player.

He doesn't have to do the Lampard role, it is not required for our game to work.

He can do the Meireles role, if you know what I am saying.

He willl be a bench/rotational player, rememeber AVB said he wants to rotate his squad?

Lets see.. Have to watch a match properly before coming to any conclusions.. its too hard to predict with too many new faces

I know we can't make any conclusions but this is the most logical answer, I would not be surprised for what I stated to happen.

hmm interesting comments from you guys

I can make it a bit more simpler for u guys just compare our midfield to the top 5 and most would agree if we hadn't have signed Mata we have the worse midfield by far (be realistic) we have no flair or creativity and that is a midfield's essence.. I have to say 'Mikel' lacks the strength and quality of a 'Makele' so Mikel is not invincible plus this new kid if given the chance and if has a Barcelona head on him could be a great asset.. as for 'Josh' he could have a decent run and season if 'AVB' looks at this season as a rebuilding job and rumours say 'ABRA' has given him this chance.

Moving on to the new signing Meireles well i guess he could play anywhere in middle but only AVB will know why he signed him when hes the manager who sold him to Liverpool :?: As for the January Transfer window anything can happen if we lose players to injury and where we stand in the table plus how the players respond to AVB but he needs to get them playing quick football at least and i cannot wait to see AVB vs A.F/A.W/ and silly Mancini lol

I agree with Blue on Mikel I don't think hes untouchable but unfortunately he is the best DMF we have atm which is a shame, hes pretty good but will never be right up there IMO.