dayokanu:

When Ivanovic was making last ditch tackles to block goals you and Nateevs said you are already seeing Benitez handiwork and the determination and grit the players put in the game defensively

So why would you exonerate Rafa from the loss now

When David Luiz was making backpass to the opponent and making regular brainfarts earlier in the season this same Debosky blamed RdM

Tell them.
I will say it again, Rafa aint no better than RdM. FACT!

mithel: why we bother with these man utd,arsenal fans on this thread beats me,like say dem want better thing for us before mscheew

yeah, I think its really about time we stop all the yeye crazy talk.
heck, I promised myself not to get into this anymore but last night's match was just #@&#@!

chamotex: What does Rafa write down on his note pad though?
He's always scribbling.

Rafa's Note

LFC...checked
Inter...checked
Chelsea....checking


From soccernet.

http://www.goal.com/en-gb/news/2920/league-cup/2013/01/10/3661220/ba-and-michu-put-torres-to-shame-as-benitez-feels-the-heat?source=breakingnews&ICID=HP_BN_14


[size=14pt]Ba and Michu put Torres to shame as Benitez feels the heat again[/size]


A shock home defeat saw months of pent up anger, frustration and disillusionment among Blues fans finally spill over into something resembling the beginnings of open mutiny

The only thing more intriguing than Torres' remarkable decline over the past three years - and in truth it has become something of a tired topic - is how he has mastered the trick of avoiding getting chances. He didn't score, didn't really do anything and, worse still, he never looked likely to.

The mood was tense from the moment the teams were announced. Bruce Buck, club chairman and the public voice of Roman Abramovich, was booed when he ventured onto the pitch.

Demba Ba, dropped in favour of Fernando Torres despite scoring two debut goals against Southampton on Saturday, was given a pointedly rapturous reception from all four corners of Stamford Bridge, while the loudest pre-match cheer of all was reserved for Frank Lampard, also benched.

Even as the Blues made a confident start to the match, with reunited trio Juan Mata, Eden Hazard and Oscar buzzing dangerously around the final third, every move was set to the tune of ‘Super Frankie Lampard’ or ‘Sign him up’. As the success of Swansea’s defensive gameplan became more evident, the exasperated crowd focused ever more intently on their absent stars.

In midfield, every error made by the unusually poor Ramires was interpreted as another reason to bay for Lampard’s introduction. With 71 minutes gone and the home side already trailing, Rafa Benitez finally granted the Blue masses their wish.

But he gave Torres another 10 minutes to become the full focus of their ire, before finally removing him to a very audible – if not quite all-encompassing – chorus of boos.

The only surprise about the Spaniard’s fall from favour is that it has taken this long to complete - this was his 100th appearance for the club, albeit no cause for celebration.

With Torres, Chelsea fans have shown exceptional patience and understanding, mainly borne out of a desperate desire to see the man become something more than the most expensive flop in the history of English football.

For a while, they believed the excuses – that Didier Drogba was too intimidating, that their team played too slowly, or that it was simply a crisis of confidence. But this season Torres has run out of credit, and sympathy has turned to anger with the realisation that the brutal sacking of Roberto Di Matteo and the loathsome imposition of Benitez will yield no more than the same old listless performances.

Torres has been dismissed in many quarters as having declined into mediocrity in every department, but this is not the case. For there is no striker in England, and quite possibly in Europe, who is so adept at disappearing completely from a match.

In 81 minutes he touched the ball just 19 times, and mustered only one shot – a half-hearted curler on the half-turn from outside the area which drew appreciation from only the most one-eyed Chelsea fans. His team were effectively playing with 10 men.

This unique ability to be so consistently inconsequential is almost impressive in a side bursting with pace and creativity. But hiding is not a quality which is valued at any level of football, let alone at a club which won the Champions League only seven months ago.

Michu was almost as anonymous for Swansea. But he worked selflessly for his team, hassled the Chelsea defence and, when his chance came, he took it with the dead-eyed cool of a seasoned gunslinger. He scores when he wants. Torres rarely shows any such desire.

As long as the hapless Spaniard was the only striker at Stamford Bridge, supporters had no choice but to back him. But now the club have actually signed someone who scores goals, they see no reason to persist with this folly. Only when Ba came on did Chelsea look like they had teeth.

Benitez refused to criticise his ‘star striker’ after the game. In fact, he was careful not to mention his name once, or that of Ba. “I’m happy with the way the team was working,” he told reporters. “I don’t think we can talk about one player.”

His optimism will provoke further anger among Chelsea fans, but not surprise. Benitez knows he cannot speak ill of Torres without torpedoing the sole reason he was brought to Stamford Bridge. As long as Abramovich regards his ‘gift’ as someone worth persisting with, Ba will not start key games, despite what fans, journalists or even statistics say.

The boos at the final whistle were about more than one result. Whether it be the enforced departure of Drogba, the hiring of Benitez, the shabby treatment of Lampard or the corrupt pre-eminence of Torres, Chelsea supporters see all around them evidence of a club which not only ignores them, but is discarding everything they hold dear.

Benitez and Torres are the current focus of their fury, and it is hard to see how either man can survive at Stamford Bridge for much longer. But if Abramovich and his advisors do not take care, Wednesday night showed they too may soon feel the full force of discontent.

Loving it. . . . Everyone to a man on all the blogs are counting the cost of Torres and blaming him (and rightly so) for everything we have lost this season from the EPL to UCL to CWC to Capital One Cup. To blaming him for wasted talents being kept on the bench, money being wasted, his teammates being demotivated by his corrupt inclusion, favoured managers being sacked and hated Benitez being imposed.

Like I told these shekpe lovers, Torres day of reckoning is coming. . . it has now arrived. Everyone can see that Torres is the CANCER eating Chelsea from the inside, as I rightly described him all this while.

the scapegoating of torres continues.....

2 individual mistakes from ivanovic and torres/benitez are the scapegoats.....i am so exasperated with the way some of the chelsea fans on this forum reason with the soles of their feet. this arena should be the best nigerian football discussion site but the quality of the posts particularly on this thread has been depressing.......

anyone who takes the opinion of goal.com as the gospel truth is a lunatic. it's by far the most useless sports site on the world wide web. the only reason they still exist is because of the human right's freedom of speech. so michu who was anonymous throughout except for ivanovic's brainfart shamed torres? if torres was presented the same offer, would he have missed?

chelsea's problem run deeper than torres. MAZACAR for all their hype have been disappointing. like i have noted months ago, the triumvirate of joe cole, robben and duff were better than the overhyped MAZACAR. they created nothing all night.

mata had his worst game in a blue shirt. oscar - too many touches spoil the broth and hazard has lost that edge that made him a monster in august/september......however, let's blame torres for the loss, let's blame him for ibime's lack of common sense and let's blame him for the poverty of IQ among NL's chelsea fans.

but me i dont understand sha. was it not just recently that we were told Torres is back?

how long ago was it that he scored 2 or was it ha trick sef, where has he gone again?

how many times will he be back sef?




hmmn, if the team created 23 chances or even 10, since no one seems to agree on how many chances were created, abeg who were they creating it for?

how come the striker was always missing? is there a conspiracy by a fellow Spaniard and two Brazilians to deny Torres passes or its Torres that hides on a pitch.

questions for the gods.

coogar, shebi its because of the useless-nessity of the chelsea team that they did not pass a tap in to Torres?

mcheew, rubbish team. they kept on passing the ball to the back for the defenders to score. they were just avoiding Torres and refusing to pass to him... abi no be so coogar?

coogar: the scapegoating of torres continues.....

2 individual mistakes from ivanovic and torres/benitez are the scapegoats.....i am so exasperated with the way some of the chelsea fans on this forum reason with the soles of their feet. this arena should be the best nigerian football discussion site but the quality of the posts particularly on this thread has been depressing.......

anyone who takes the opinion of goal.com as the gospel truth is a lunatic. it's by far the most useless sports site on the world wide web. the only reason they still exist is because of the human right's freedom of speech. so michu who was anonymous throughout except for ivanovic's brainfart shamed torres? if torres was presented the same offer, would he have missed?

chelsea's problem run deeper than torres. MAZACAR for all their hype have been disappointing. like i have noted months ago, the triumvirate of joe cole, robben and duff were better than the overhyped MAZACAR. they created nothing all night.

mata had his worst game in a blue shirt. oscar - too many touches spoil the broth and hazard has lost that edge that made him a monster in august/september......however, let's blame torres for the loss, let's blame him for ibime's lack of common sense and let's blame him for the poverty of IQ among NL's chelsea fans.

he wouldn't even be there.
they said we created 23 chances. By whom and for who?

Chelsea working on deal for Guingamp midfielder Giannelli Imbula - Metro

4llerbuntu: but me i dont understand sha. was it not just recently that we were told Torres is back? how long ago was it that he scored 2 or was it ha trick sef, where has he gone again? how many times will he be back sef?

blame the inconsistency of the midfield. look at chelsea's stats in the last 6 games at the bridge. they have scored 0, 0, 6, 8, 0, 0. what do you make of that?

hmmn, if the team created 23 chances or even 10, since no one seems to agree on how many chances were created, abeg who were they creating it for?

they were creating those chances for themselves - chances like david luiz's freekick, mata skying the ball over the bar when he should be passing. lampard shooting timidly from 25 yards when he should be delivering a through-pass. they created 23 chances but none of them was a clear-cut chance(sitter). none!!!!

how come the striker was always missing? is there a conspiracy by a fellow Spaniard and two Brazilians to deny Torres passes or its Torres that hides on a pitch.
questions for the gods. coogar, shebi its because of the useless-nessity of the chelsea team that they did not pass a tap in to Torres?

this is why i like the team i support - if a striker is not scoring, it is his fault because man utd midfielders would give you enough clear-cut chances it would be difficult to blame them for lack of creativity. van persie's goal against west ham, one on one with the last defender and goal! i am yet to see such brand of pass from MAZACAR to torres in 5 months and oooops, torres should be scoring from 1/4 chances. yams?

mcheew, rubbish team. they kept on passing the ball to the back for the defenders to score. they were just avoiding Torres and refusing to pass to him... abi no be so coogar?

they lacked creativity. 23 chances created, no sitter! it's that bad. swansea created less than 6 chances and they had 2 sitters that got them the goals.

FBS:
he wouldn't even be there.
they said we created 23 chances. By whom and for who?

they created it for themselves - certainly not for torres. i cannot remember any clear cut chance handed to torres in 80 mins. swansea sat deep and chelsea lacked the craft to break them down. even when swansea broke forward, chelsea's counter attacks were too slow to trouble swansea. the team's mentality is useless.....they do not play to the strengths of the striker they have. even the so called 3 chances demba ba had were goalmouth scramble. he ran into a goalie and dived......he was caught offside and one header he copped from a long ball.

coogar:

they created it for themselves - certainly not for torres. i cannot remember any clear cut chance handed to torres in 80 mins. swansea sat deep and chelsea lacked the craft to break them down. even when swansea broke forward, chelsea's counter attacks were too slow to trouble swansea. the team's mentality is useless.....they do not play to the strengths of the striker they have. even the so called 3 chances demba ba had were goalmouth scramble. he ran into a goalie and dived......he was caught offside and one header he copped from a long ball.

so at least they created something. right?
damn, them boys are racists for not creating for Torres but did for Ba. Pure injustice.

Where was your man for 81 minutes? We heard that he touched the ball 19 times. Where might that be? By the corner flag or drinking water on the touch line or the center circle or in the box? What was his contribution for 81 minutes?

Ride on my guy.

FBS:
so at least they created something. right?
damn, them boys are racists for not creating for Torres but did for Ba. Pure injustice.
Ride on my guy.

created what? shooting from 25 yards is creativity? no wonder your team is where they are currently or maybe you should watch the league leaders playing and see how they put it on the plate for their strikers. i can understand the criticism if torres is getting these clear cut chances n missing them - but to not create nada and expect a striker to score from scraps is depressingly desperate from football fans. nobody has laid a single blame on the doorstep of mata n ramirez for the chances they missed in the first half but a £50m striker becomes the scapegoat when he had nothing to feed off from.

FBS:
Where was your man for 81 minutes? We heard that he touched the ball 19 times. Where might that be? By the corner flag or drinking water on the touch line or the center circle or in the box? What was his contribution for 81 minutes?
Ride on my guy.

where was mata for 90 mins? oscar and hazard? are they not attacking players - what was their contribution in 90 mins? the task of putting the ball at the back of the net does not fall squarely only on torres' shoulders. what did MAZACAR contribute in 90 mins?

coogar:

created what? shooting from 25 yards is creativity? no wonder your team is where they are currently or maybe you should watch the league leaders playing and see how they put it on the plate for their strikers. i can understand the criticism if torres is getting these clear cut chances n missing them - but to not create nada and expect a striker to score from scraps is depressingly desperate from football fans. nobody has laid a single blame on the doorstep of mata n ramirez for the chances they missed in the first half but a £50m striker becomes the scapegoat when he had nothing to feed off from.

heck you just said they created it for themselves or didn't they?
Personally, I made mention that Mata should have done better but messed up. nonetheless, he has scored important goals and he is so far our BEST player this season so we go easy on him. This is normal.
Besides, they had to shoot from distance because well, mr Torres was absent. Even a month old baby understands this simple fact.

What was FT's contribution for 81 mins?

coogar:

where was mata for 90 mins? oscar and hazard? are they not attacking players - what was their contribution in 90 mins? the task of putting the ball at the back of the net does not fall squarely only on torres' shoulders. what did MAZACAR contribute in 90 mins?

where was torres? whose primary function is it to score? Benitez or the ball boy?

FBS:
heck you just said they created it for themselves or didn't they?
Read through my post - I made mention that Mata should have done better but messed up. nonetheless, he has scored important goals and he is so far our BEST player this season so we go easy on him. This is normal.

What was FT's contribution for 81 mins?

you go easy on mata cos he has scored important goals for chelsea? ok.... what about oscar and hazard? we go easy on them too cos they have scored important goals for chelsea. can you not see the obvious bias in your missive? if we go easy on the triumvirate behind torres for their shower of shyte display, how then do you expect torres to score when you have admitted the support behind him did not play well?

FBS:
where was torres? whose primary function is it to score? Benitez or the ball boy?

this is what nateevs and i have been saying for the past 12 months....
torres' primarily role is to score if he gets the service. there's no striker out there that can score all by himself. i should quote van persie here to see how he persistently gives thanks to his team mates for the massive support he gets.

even when the midfielders have a bad day, our full backs(evra and rafael) provide the wing support. last night, azupeculiar or whatever his name is and ashley cole had stinkers. now that's 5 attacking outlets with below average performance and we expect torres to score? from where?

van persie:

"This is a special team, everybody wants to help each other. Everybody's keen for everyone to score. Defenders are working their socks off for the midfielders, the midfielders are working for the strikers. Everybody wants to run and everybody has one target in their mind."

Dem done start to turn am into argument again?

Please just let the boos tell the story. No need for argument. Nateevs done run. He was the only one worth engaging on Torres issue. Coogar is a mad man. Just ignore him as always.

Ibime: Dem done start to turn am into argument again?
Please just let the boos tell the story. No need for argument. Nateevs done run. He was the only one worth engaging on Torres issue. Coogar is a mad man. Just ignore him as always.

there was a time lampard was booed too in this country. rooney was booed, berbatov was booed....ronaldo was booed. what has boos gotta do with it. rafa benitez was booed in his first few games at the bridge - who cares? in the coming weeks demba ba would be booed if chelsea do not get their acts right! the opinion of you fans count for nothing when it comes to roman - this is the 2nd or 3rd time he has done something the fans did not want and you did the square-root of fück all about it.

FBS: @debosky
23 chances? hmmm, maybe 10 at best created (though some folks said we didnt create at all ) and we could have won that game easily. Question - who created those chances and for whom?

24 shots, 8 on target, 6 corners according to the BBC. It's not too important who created the chances, the fact is that Chelski didn't score and it's not just down to Torres.

Not only that, what was Fernando's contribution for 81 mins? NONE!!!

He had 3 shots, tried to bring others into play - not a good performance I admit, but the over the top focus on Torres is distorting the true state of things.

Most sports websites (if not all) will tell you that he had one of his worst performance ever. Now, are you saying that you know more that the thousands of fans who booed him off the pitch? When was the last time a striker got booed off the pitch by his very own fans? Certainly something must have happened! Did you even watch the match?

I watched the match. The thing about the Torres critique in this case is that it is just too convenient. Chelski concede two goals from abysmal defensive errors and you blame Torres, who wasn't even on the pitch when the second goal was scored.

That right there is the definition of a lazy argument. People like Ibime are even taking it to preposterous levels by saying Torres is responsible for the poor performance of other players.

If you follow what the crowd says blindly, you will likely end up with the wrong conclusions. I am not even disputing that Torres was poor, even abysmal on the day, but that cannot explain the poor performance of the entire Chelski team - unable to score against a second choice GK of Swansea despite having 64% possession.

If we follow this crowd mentality, we can criticize Even the Demba Ba that folk are blowing their load over. How much is he earning and how much is Danny Graham earning? Yet DG came on later than him and scored, can we now conclude Ba is useless because Graham cost less than half Ba's transfer fee?

There is a lot more wrong with this team than just Torres - that's all I'm trying to say.

The reason why Chelsea lost was not only because Swansea scored 2 goals. but because we didn't score 5-6 goals!!! Now whose job is it to score goals? Even Benitez can confirm this.

It was - if Ivanovic didn't make those mistakes, y'all would've drawn, which is not a bad result in a 2 legged semi-final tie. Let's not forget, the aim is to get to the final.

far majority of the chelsea fans here have no tactical nous......
demba ba did nothing for the 10 mins he was on.....apart from diving to win a penalty for chelsea. graham came on and scored! chelsea fans are the only football fans who expect a striker to score all by himself regardless of the service he gets.......read van persie's quotes again and see the reason he is topping the scorer's charts!!'

Ibime: http://soccernet.espn.go.com/blog/_/name/espnfcunited/id/2651?cc=5739


Universal appreciation for Lampard long overdue


There has always been something about Frank Lampard. Few footballers can divide opinion like him. For all his medals, goals and achievements, he has still spent a career being compared unfavourably to others.

Few could have predicted when Frank Lampard arrived at Chelsea that he would establish himself as one of their greatest ever players

The 1996 video that ESPNFC podcast presenter Dan Mason released to the world last week revealed that for one night only, he was considered not as good as Scott Canham, the learned opinion of one well-lubricated West Ham punter. Back then, it was Rio Ferdinand who was the "new Bobby Moore". Lampard meanwhile had 'Junior' added to his name.

His place in West Ham's team was seen as nepotism on the part of his uncle, Harry Redknapp, whose assistant happened to be brother-in-law Frank Lampard Sr, an Upton Park legend with 660 appearances for the club. The floppy-fringed attacking midfielder could do little right in the eyes of some Hammers fans, even when showing off an ability to score goals from midfield, and running his chubby legs off for the cause.

"Right to the very top," is what Uncle Harry predicted while a clearly embarrassed Lampard Jr looked on and an unconvinced audience murmured. After all, Joe Cole, three years younger, was always going to be better than him. And cousin Jamie, of Liverpool fame, had been and done it already.

Uncle Harry was nearly bang on too. In 2005, Frank Lampard, with Dad now having to put with being called "Senior", was voted the second-best player in both the Ballon d'Or and FIFA World Player of the Year. Only a high-peak Ronaldinho could talk down to him.

However, back in third in the Ballon d'Or, there was someone else. Steven Gerrard embodied everything that an English midfielder should be. He made driving runs, scored vital goals, led by example, exerted boundless energy, and had the majesty of winning in Istanbul to his name. Lampard could not match that flourish. He never scored goals quite like Stevie did.

Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard provoked a decade of debate about their ability to play together for England

Someone at Chelsea seemed to agree, even if Jose Mourinho always spoke of Frank in the highest terms. They spent two summers trying to sign Gerrard. He was but a last-minute change of heart away from making the King's Road his footballing home. Had he done so, Lampard would surely have been the player forced to make adjustments to accommodate the new star.

By that time, one of English football's longest running and most ultimately futile debates had begun in earnest. Could Gerrard and Lampard play together for England? And if not, why not and then who must be dropped? The answer to that almost always leaned towards Lampard. Gerrard was the special one, the passion player who would drive England to glory.

Lampard's presence had already offended another camp. At Euro 2004, Sven Goran Eriksson had decided that to shoe-horn the Gerrard/Lampard axis he would play Paul Scholes on the left wing.

Even nine years ago, Scholes was no-one's idea of a fleet-footed runner of channels. Lampard the arriviste had supplanted the most singular English midfield talent of the last 20 years. Scholes took his leave of international football with Lampard handed blame, even though it was Eriksson's cowardice of selection that caused the problem.

What is it about Lampard that invited such suspicion? Why was he not cherished by those outside Stamford Bridge? Well, Lampard is a curiosity in English football. He is not the street footballer that Gerrard, Scholes, Cole or Wayne Rooney all represent, reason being that he has probably rarely played street football. Frank Sr sent him to an Essex public school, an educational world away from most of his footballing peers; none of his team-mates are likely to have an A* GCSE in Latin. Lampard is also blessed with a 150-plus IQ, in the top 0.1% of anyone, let alone footballers, which may rule out his being on the wavelength of Ashley Cole, though John Terry was said to be in the top three of the Chelsea players measured when they were tested in 2009.

Lampard's intelligence, both learned and innate, is reflected in his play, and therein lay more reasons for his not being taken to purists' hearts. English football trusts natural ability above all else. Self-made players who worked on their game to reach the top like Kevin Keegan were always regarded as lesser mortals to George Best, even if the latter's gifts were drained in the same manner he regularly demolished goblets of white wine.

When Chelsea won the Champions League, they did so through a grit and tactical intelligence that was embodied by none other than Lampard. As his previous triathlete energy levels were diminishing, he redrew his play. He retained an effectiveness to so far escape Gerrard, who until recently looked rather lost amid Brendan Rodgers' philosophies. When England exited Euro 2012 in their usual manner, passed to death by Andrea Pirlo, it was apparent that the new Lampard - missing through injury - might have been the player they missed most.

It is only in england mediocre/average players are praised/HYPED to the high heavens-lamps,becks,ronnie,etc
how do u XPECT him to be universally appreciated/accepted when all he does is position himself 4 what? outside shot.
Nobody in Football world (xcept those pretenders) respect lamps jus lyk average becks xcept hmmm maybe in CF or EPL.
Lamps should learn 4rm scholes (since it will be hard to learn 4rm zidane,laudrup,pirlo,ronaldinho,) how a midfielder should operate.

coogar:

you go easy on mata cos he has scored important goals for chelsea? ok.... what about oscar and hazard? we go easy on them too cos they have scored important goals for chelsea. can you not see the obvious bias in your missive? if we go easy on the triumvirate behind torres for their shower of shyte display, how then do you expect torres to score when you have admitted the support behind him did not play well?



this is what nateevs and i have been saying for the past 12 months....
torres' primarily role is to score if he gets the service. there's no striker out there that can score all by himself. i should quote van persie here to see how he persistently gives thanks to his team mates for the massive support he gets.

even when the midfielders have a bad day, our full backs(evra and rafael) provide the wing support. last night, azupeculiar or whatever his name is and ashley cole had stinkers. now that's 5 attacking outlets with below average performance and we expect torres to score? from where?

van persie:

"This is a special team, everybody wants to help each other. Everybody's keen for everyone to score. Defenders are working their socks off for the midfielders, the midfielders are working for the strikers. Everybody wants to run and everybody has one target in their mind."

in that case he should sit on the bench and maybe Mata will send him a text saying "come on now, we are going to create a chance for you" and once the chance goes away (10 times out of 9) he should return back to the sidelines and wait for the next chance to come since he ain't on the pitch anyway. Is that what you expect of the team?
Football is a team sport and some members of that team aint pulling their weights including Torres. The major difference (aside the terrible performance) is that RA paid 50 milla for him and earns 175k. To whom more is given, MUCH MORE is expected.

coogar: far majority of the chelsea fans here have no tactical nous......
demba ba did nothing for the 10 mins he was on.....apart from diving to win a penalty for chelsea. graham came on and scored! chelsea fans are the only football fans who expect a striker to score all by himself regardless of the service he gets.......read van persie's quotes again and see the reason he is topping the scorer's charts!!'

so we ask again, what did Torres do for 81 mins? Nothing. A player touched the ball 19 times and did NOTHING with it. How useless can a player be?

And if you call that diving by Ba, I guess SAF must be the president of USA.

Alaba_Slim:
It is only in england mediocre/average players are praised/HYPED to the high heavens-lamps,becks,ronnie,etc
how do u XPECT him to be universally appreciated/accepted when all he does is position himself 4 what? outside shot.
Nobody in Football world (xcept those pretenders) respect lamps jus lyk average becks xcept hmmm maybe in CF or EPL.
Lamps should learn 4rm scholes (since it will be hard to learn 4rm zidane,laudrup,pirlo,ronaldinho,) how a midfielder should operate.

Lamps is quality! Forget sentiments! Maybe he lacks the flair and razzle dazzle but he brings consistency,fundamentally sound and methodical sorta like Tim Duncan in basketball

Ba came on in ten minutes and scored though whistled for offside it was ridiculously close a less vigilant linesman could have missed it. Torres on the other hand barely forced a save in 81 mins! No serious minded coach would insist on starting such a wasteman even at the expense of his job! Its a lose-lose! Damned with him and damned without him

debosky:
24 shots, 8 on target, 6 corners according to the BBC. It's not too important who created the chances, the fact is that Chelski didn't score and it's not just down to Torres.

At first they said no chances were created by Mata and Co. Now its "its not important who created them?"
How many times will you guys shift the goalposts?

debosky:
He had 3 shots, tried to bring others into play - not a good performance I admit, but the over the top focus on Torres is distorting the true state of things.

Thanks for admitting and there is nothing over the top here. Why was he booed off?

debosky:
I watched the match. The thing about the Torres critique in this case is that it is just too convenient. Chelski concede two goals from abysmal defensive errors and you blame Torres, who wasn't even on the pitch when the second goal was scored.

The name of the this game is to score goals. The more you score, the more of chances of winning. Chelsea did NOT score. Now whose primary responsibility is it for scoring goals in the team? Mercy (abi na Pius sef) Ikide (copyright DK)

debosky: That right there is the definition of a lazy argument. People like Ibime are even taking it to preposterous levels by saying Torres is responsible for the poor performance of other players.

I'm though not totally, but slightly amazed you made this statement. A single player can wreck a whole team. You should know better than that.

debosky: If you follow what the crowd says blindly, you will likely end up with the wrong conclusions. I am not even disputing that Torres was poor, even abysmal on the day, but that cannot explain the poor performance of the entire Chelski team - unable to score against a second choice GK of Swansea despite having 64% possession.

This is essentially what we are saying. He was poor and you admit. So what is this argument all about?

debosky: If we follow this crowd mentality, we can criticize Even the Demba Ba that folk are blowing their load over. How much is he earning and how much is Danny Graham earning? Yet DG came on later than him and scored, can we now conclude Ba is useless because Graham cost less than half Ba's transfer fee?

1. There is no following the crowd mentality here. I watched the match and can easily make my own conclusions.
2. thousands of fans out there sure had a reason to boo him. Maybe we should question their loyalty?
3. 50 milla is no 7.5 milla.

debosky: There is a lot more wrong with this team than just Torres - that's all I'm trying to say.

Most certainly. The manager, lamps, RA, DD and the ball boys. WHo else did I miss out?
Of course, something is wrong with the team and Torres is one of them.

debosky: It was - if Ivanovic didn't make those mistakes, y'all would've drawn, which is not a bad result in a 2 legged semi-final tie. Let's not forget, the aim is to get to the final.

Even Benitez did not blame the defence. He said and I quote "blame the attack" .
That said, I personally immediately after the match said Ivanovic should be benched for 4 matches without pay. He made 2 terrible mistakes but folks will not get on his back too much because we know he can deliver. He plays his heart out for the team. This is something no one can say about Torres. And that my friend is the major difference.

FBS:
in that case he should sit on the bench and maybe Mata will send him a text saying "come on now, we are going to create a chance for you" and once the chance goes away (10 times out of 9) he should return back to the sidelines and wait for the next chance to come since he ain't on the pitch anyway. Is that what you expect of the team?

i expect a bunch of professionals to support their lead striker. a striker is useless without a supporting cast! do you guys watch football at all or you are just concerned with the player that puts the ball at the back of the net? until you show me a striker that took the ball from his goalkeeper and dribbled round 11 players to score then your comments cannot be taken seriously....

Football is a team sport and some members of that team aint pulling their weights including Torres. The major difference (aside the terrible performance) is that RA paid 50 milla for him and earns 175k. To whom more is given, MUCH MORE is expected.

why bother at all then? torres cost more than the entire swansea team put together so let's leave him alone against 11 men. he's a £50m striker and he should be able to beat swansea singlehandedly without the help of the other 10 players. when will you guys learn that there's no superman striker without his midfield?

coogar: i expect a bunch of professionals to support their lead striker. a striker is useless without a supporting cast! do you guys watch football at all or you are just concerned with the player that puts the ball at the back of the net? until you show me a striker that took the ball from his goalkeeper and dribbled round 11 players to score then your comments cannot be taken seriously....

how? you mean they are not doing enough? heck they brought in a manager in specifically for a single player? How many times and how often have you seen that in the history for football.

A player who cannot even hold on to the ball?

coogar: why bother at all then? torres cost more than the entire swansea team put together so let's leave him alone against 11 men. he's a £50m striker and he should be able to beat swansea singlehandedly without the help of the other 10 players. when will you guys learn that there's no superman striker without his midfield?

Got a better idea. Sell every single player out there except Torres and ship in new ones till he gets it right.
Surely that should work.

Self denial at its best.

Like Yogi Bera said - "Half of this game is 90% mental". Me thinks Torres need a mental job. The confidence is all but gone.Whatever happened to this guy? The speed and all? Anyway, we can't be dwelling on that.

Second leg still dey. Score 3 goals and Wembley here we come.

The two foolish musketeers are still digging depper holes for themselves instead of making a clean breakaway like Nateevs.

Dont worry. . . within one month, we will BOO Torres into oblivion, transfer or retirement.

FBS:
how? you mean they are not doing enough? heck they brought in a manager in specifically for a single player? How many times and how often have you seen that in the history for football. A player who cannot even hold on to the ball?

they are doing enough - see how they scored 10 goals against swansea last night! i cannot blame ivanovic, mata, hazard and oscar because they have delivered in the past....what has the past gotta do with last night's loss. a seasoned defender lost his balls twice and gifted swansea 2 goals and you pathetic lots are blaming torres. without those mistakes, the match would have ended 0-0. it's a 2-legged tie.....0-0 result is not too bad. torres did not cause the loss, ivanovic did!

Got a better idea. Sell every single player out there except Torres and ship in new ones till he gets it right. Surely that should work.
Self denial at its best.

buncha prima donnas who cannot punch through a wet paper bag. you have a £50m talent and yet they cannot play to his strengths. team mentality is zero. come up north to united and see how they make use of every of their striker in the last 4 seasons. they even made berbatov a golden boot winner. now, that's a team!

Ibime: The two foolish musketeers are still digging depper holes for themselves instead of making a clean breakaway like Nateevs.

shut up your mouth already.......
stop acting queer, nateevs who is busy with his day to day activities has now made a clean breakaway according to ibime. what an odious tool! when nateevs come back now to attack your brainless claims you would run back to the crevice you slithered out from.

Dont worry. . . within one month, we will BOO Torres into oblivion, transfer or retirement.

keep booing - torres is there to stay!
when he scores the next goal, fans would calm down. no be una?

We still dey on this Torres Mata?

I saw it eons ago that Torres was a scam. A fluke just like Santacruz.

Its always coincidental that whenever he is on the field everyone conspires to deny him chances and whenever Demba Ba enters Chances that were hidden before suddenly comes up

Torres' day of reckoning. . . .